spring break

if you hadn't noticed, this blog is taking a couple of weeks off to chillax. see you soon!

feminist club vernal equinox camping '09!

feminist club went cabin camping at the new oregon state park, l.l. "stub" stewart state park. it's only about 45 minutes west of portland, near vernonia. it is a gorgeous new park with great views. the cabins we rented were nearly brand-spankin' new and were luxurious with both heat and electricity. the real highlights (apart from the excellent company, of course) were the sunset and the view of the stars.

portland day with nthn and jkj

after a full day of class for me yesterday, we went out with some of the yoga trainees, our visitors, and some other portland peeps to chopsticks III how can be lounge for karaoke. i forgot my camera, but it is unlikely that those memories (including an intense rendition of 'baby got back' by bryan) will fade anytime soon.

the hours today that were not in the extra class i had were spent with nthn and jkj. we picked them up at the hotel deluxe (the gorgeous sister hotel of the also gorgeous hotel max where jkj works in seattle). we hit vita cafe in the alberta arts district for biscuits and gravy, and nthn ordered all the fake breakfast meat on the menu. after breakfast, we hit a couple of shops, including a gallery with some amazing sculptures. these included a trio entitled "steampunk watches." it was all i could do not to use my credit card and obtain the middle one for lisa k. in light of her relatively recent obsession with all things gothic lolita.

this evening we visited proper eats in st. johns for the excellent veggie reubens and ended the kids' visit at pix patisserie for sweets and digestifs. we had a great visit with the seattle-ites, but, of course, it was way too short.

indian beach with nthn

today i took nthn out to indian beach for some serious battery recharging. on the way, i had my first wheat in 9 weeks, a pb&j waffle from flavour spot. oh good god, did it taste good.

it was a gorgeous spring day, and the ocean had spit out several ugly/beautiful offerings for capturing in photos and sketches. we ended the night at the play/start show, which (as usual) rocked.

nthn in portland!

nthn came into town from seattle a few days ahead of jkj to do some sketching, working, navel-contemplating, etc. he arrived tonight, and we had an impromptu get-together with bryn, leslie m. and leslie c. the pukey gift from the 7-11 to nate was a "hard creamer," which was like a creamsicle malt beverage. blech! luckily, the dal i made was yummy and the company was fantastic!

p.s. yes, that's dave in the background, sporting his new 'stache!

ninja beagle

on more than one occasion, the weasel has referred to leila as 'ninja beagle' because of her stealthy, sneaky antics. living up to this moniker can be challenging for leila at times, but when i found this under the bed (her favorite spot), i knew the n.b. had struck again.

big week

last week was a doozie. i taught both my first yoga class ever (with 8 other teacher trainees) as well as my first yoga class all by myself.

the former was totally planned, and i taught 2 classical sun salutations, the first with a breakdown of bhujagasana (cobra pose) and the second with a breakdown of chaturanga dandasana (four-limbed staff pose). it went well, and i had a blast teaching.

the latter experience was completely unexpected. my instructor and the owner of the studio, joy, was ill this week, as was the other tuesday night instructor. i received an email from joy late monday afternoon which started with, "you'll probably wet your pants when you read this but i wouldn't ask unless i felt you could handle it" and went on to inquire if i could sub for the tuesday all levels class, the class i normally take. i was both deeply honored that joy felt i was ready and profoundly terrified of putting together my first yoga class and teaching it in ~24 hours. i mustered up the courage and took the plunge. i took one of the lesson plans from our trainee classes and modified it a bit to make it more challenging, as that class is usually filled with more intermediate-level students. dave graciously attended (although i'm not sure if that made me more or less nervous). i knew four of the five other students pretty well, and the fifth was a graduate of the program that i'm in now. everyone was so kind and patient with my intermittent stumbling and fumbling. they even laughed at my jokes, which was also nice. it was an ok class, although i couldn't help but go over all of my mistakes over and over in my brain for a couple of days. on friday, joy told me she received really good feedback about it. the most i can say right now is that at least i will never have to teach (and get all worked up about) my first class.

oh, and that i can't wait to do it again.

night out with the weasel

impromptu date night with the weasel tonight, first stop was meredith butner's opening at moshi moshi. the pieces were really lovely, and i especially liked the two with swimming ladies (um, birthday hint?). then it was out to our standby dinner haunt, navarre on NE 28th. they were pretty amazing about accommodating my bizarre (and hopefully temporary) dietary restrictions. and the service was great tonight as well (we'd had a terrible experience the last time we went).

btw - i started lifting said restrictions per the plan, beginning with brewer's yeast. so far so good, except for a little scratchy throat/itchy eyes the mornings after i drink wine (but not beer).