HAIR

I just got my hair cut and I'm excited to share a picture with you. Many of you don't know but I don't get my hair cut very often. So when I do, it is an exciting time. The last time I cut my hair was in August, just before Tim and Anna's 2nd Wedding Celebration. You're going to look at the picture and not see much difference. It's practically the same haircut, but believe me, my hair did grow in the last 10 months to just below my shoulders (more than enough for a great pony tail). This was also the first time I've ever cut my hair in California. (we've been here for two years). The woman who cut my hair is a member of my church. She is so fun. The hair cut experience was like spending an hour with a friend and somehow getting a new do in the process. In other news... summer is here! I've been out of school for a week and have been loving this slow paced life we got going. We had an excelent potluck last night in our home with 12 good friends from around Lake Merrit. It's going to turn into the monthly traveling potluck. I'm excited because it's a really fun group. We had laughter, good food, great wine, conversations and some guitar jamming from Grant and Eben. We're all looking forward to the next gathering. Grant and I are in the planning stages for a July hiking trip to Emigrant Wilderness (just north of Yosemite).

Another Quiz

Another one of those quizzes...

I fell into the trap again... taking another online quiz! These results don't surprise me too much (except #1 and #3 -- I guess I really didn't know much about quakers!)

According to http://beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html

1. Liberal Quakers (100%) 2. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%) 3. Orthodox Quaker (97%) 4. Unitarian Universalism (96%) 5. New Age (84%) 6. Neo-Pagan (82%) 7. Theravada Buddhism (74%) 8. Mahayana Buddhism (73%) 9. Reform Judaism (72%) 10. Secular Humanism (70%) 11. Taoism (68%) 12. Hinduism (64%) 13. Scientology (63%) 14. New Thought (62%) 15. Seventh Day Adventist (60%) 16. Bahá'í Faith (59%) 17. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (58%) 18. Jainism (58%) 19. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (57%) 20. Orthodox Judaism (43%) 21. Sikhism (43%) 22. Eastern Orthodox (42%) 23. Roman Catholic (42%) 24. Nontheist (39%) 25. Islam (36%) 26. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (34%) 27. Jehovah's Witness (21%)

I can do it!

My little trip over the weekend served three main purposes. #1 An excuse to get out of the house on Memorial Day Weekend since my lovely husband was out of town at a conference. #2 To check out a new park that I had never been to before for the possibility of taking a small group sometime in the near future (either a group from school or church). #3 To prove to myself that I really do have the skills that I think I have. Thursday Night: I gave a printed itinerary, with tons of phone numbers and contacts, and a map to my good friend Denise (the mother of my God son) in case I didn't return on time. Friday Morning: Lazily roll out of bed around 8am when my husband calls me from Michigan. I took a shower, ate breakfast, checked email, got my food together, packed the pack and finally left the house at about 10:30am. Did some last minute food shopping, got some cash and filled up the tank with biofuel from our favorite place www.biofueloasis.com. I finally left Berkeley/Oakland around 11:30. Friday Afternoon: Driving around the Bay is a mystery to me. You never know when there might be alot of traffic of not. On the way south towards San Jose, traffic was wonderful until I actually got into San Jose, then there was construction. The other mystery is the lack of exit numbers and you never know which street or town might be listed on an exit sign so when you exit the freeway, you really are taking your chances. Unfortunately I guessed incorrectly and got off one exit too late. But I didn't realize it at the time because I thought I had seen the road I was looking for (it actually parallels the freeway for a short time and I got off at the wrong spot). My second mistake was not looking up the word names for the numbered routes I was supposed to take (like who knew Route 35 is the same as Skyline Blvd?) This is where I'm thankful that I enjoy driving my car and I kept trying to remind myself that this is all part of the adventure. When I couldn't get a hold of Grant, I ended up calling my mom for directions. She looked them up on Yahoo and tried to help me, but really all I did was make her worry. I finally made it to the park around 2:30pm and started to make my final preparations to head out onto the trail. Friday Evening: The hike in was beautiful and easy. It was about 2.8 miles to the campground. My pack was under 25 lbs. I felt good. I got into camp around 5pm and checked the place out before making myself dinner. By 8pm I was cold and bored. I had already set up the tent, cooked, cleaned, brushed my teeth, hung my food, and read for awhile. It was starting to get dark and I was cold so I decided to go to bed. Saturday Morning: I woke up a few times during the night because of the wind or being cold or restless because I had been laying down for so long. As soon as the sun hit my tent, I got out and started the day. It was about 6am. I was back to my car by 9am and home by 10:15. (Notice 3 hours to get there, 1:15 to get home-- yikes! What getting lost does to your travel time!) On this trip I learned that I can successfully take care of myself on the trail by myself. I also learned that I am alot colder when I'm by myself and that I get bored easier. I missed my husband greatly. Here are some pics. http://photos.yahoo.com/theaussiepea.

No matter

No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome. Last Weekend on Life’s Journey I am the newest, proudest owner of a comma. (if you don't know what it is, then ask!) Grant and I went to our church's conference's annual meeting this past weekend. (The conference is about 150 UCC churches in northern CA and Nevada). The meeting was held at Asilomar, a state park on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. It is also a conference center. (I think it used to be owned by the YMCA or something and then it was donated to the state of California as a park, so the conference center was already established). The grounds of Asilomar were just beautiful. The coast alternated from rocky outcroppings to sandy beaches. Just inland there were small gently rolling dunes with sparse vegetation. About ¼ mile inland, the trees started and then the larger hills. Although we were there to be delegates from our church to vote whenever needed, I found myself dying through the legislation (this reaction really surprised me because I thought I would be interested in the whole process). At one point I just left to talk a walk and get a snack. Many other times while walking from one building to another we would see deer. They were the “almost but not quite wild” type of deer. They didn’t approach us begging for food, but they didn’t run away either when we were on the path right next to them. I guess they are just used to humans staying on the trail and not bugging them. Although, one doe did interrupt a meeting I attended on Saturday morning. The cottage had windows on all four sides. At first we just saw the doe walking around the building. Then she signaled to her fawns that it was safe. After walking all the way around the building, she stopped in front of a window and started nursing her babies. Needless to say, the meeting stopped and the whole group was surrounding the windows to watch this display. Months from now I won’t remember who was in my group or what we talked about but I’ll remember those deer and how I longed to just sit and watch them. Instead of pay $300 each for lodging and meals, Grant and I opted for camping in a city park about 10 minutes away from Asilomar. Camping doesn’t phase me at all anymore. But I did mind that we were on top of a hill. On Friday night I woke up to the sound of seals barking in the distance in Monterey Bay. There was a diesel engine running somewhere. There was the 101 freeway. And then there was the fog horn. Saturday night was slightly better. But Sunday night back in my own bed was the best. The theme of the conference was covenant. Covenant was the word heard most often from everyone who spoke or led worship. The word is so full of meaning that I’m still not sure all that it means. From the stories that I heard from other people, I feel that my church is really something special where covenant is lived out in the daily life of the church. I’m always amazed at how my church can exist the way it does and attracts the type of people that is does. It is amazing. I really wish all UCC churches could be like ours. Our church really is an exception to the rule. I noticed while at the conference that I couldn’t remember the last time I had been in a large room with so many white people. This made me slightly uncomfortable because I have grown more accustomed to being surrounded by people of all shades and the different energy that creates. This Weekend on Life’s Journey Grant is in Adrian, Michigan at a conference until Sunday. If you are near there, call him to see him. Grant’s parents are staying the weekend in Adrian to visit. I, on the other hand, am going to spend my Memorial Day weekend proving to myself that I can create my own successful solo backpacking trip. I spent this evening packing my pack of everything except food and my camera. The thing is up to 19 pounds now, so I hopeful that with food I’ll be under 25. I’m heading into the Santa Cruz Mountains to Castle Rock State Park. I hear it has climbing. But the climbing is close to the parking lot so maybe I just toss my shoes and harness into the trunk and see what happens. I’ll let ya’ll know how it goes. Two last Tidbits… First: 13 days left of school. I’m so excited. I can’t wait. I’ve never been so ready for summer. Second: I’m so in love with my car and the fact that we are buying little to no petroleum fuel. I love driving it, knowing that I’m not buying into the inflated gas frenzie. Although, I must admit that the car's exhaust has been smelling a little funny lately… like deep fried something…

The Weekend Report

Friday- Drove from Oakland to Sausalito through horrible unexpected traffic. We should have expected it but weren’t thinking about it because we never drive anyway around the bay at 5pm because of traffic! We ended up at our destination at 6:30pm about 30 minutes behind schedule so we really had to hustle to build our kayaks for a 7pm departure from the beach. Fortunately the other paddlers were happily milling around making final preparations and some other stragglers showed up at the last minute. About 7:15pm the Kinney’s were ready and all 18 of us stood in a circle to introduce ourselves and get a run down of the trip. We would cross Richardson Bay, go around Peninsula Point (on the Tiburon Peninsula) and then across Belvedere Cove. The plan was to head to a restaurant as the sun was setting behind us, arrive at the restaurant at dusk, then head back by the light of the full moon. On the way there, I got frustrated with myself because I was the slowest paddler on the trip. We never got lost but eventually everyone passed me. This is partly due to my inexperience and infrequent paddling and partly due to have a very stable boat that tracks well but doesn’t move a quickly as some less stable boats (http://www.folbot.com/kiawah.html (mine is blue) this is Grant’s https://www.folbot.com/cooper.html (in yellow)). But, as apartment dwellers with very limited storage, we don’t have as many choices for kayaks. We’re lucky that we’re crazy enough to enjoy such an expensive hobby. One member of the group got caught in some choppy water and flipped over. A swarm of 5 kayaks helped her get back in and in the process Grant and I caught up to the group. We all headed for a restaurant in a marina in Tiburon. All 18 of us sat in 3 huge booths, complete with wetsuits and paddle jackets. Everyone else in the restaurant was is suits and skirts ordering $20+ seafood dinners. We stood out just a little bit but the wait staff was not phased at all. After chocolate lava cake and a caramel apple crisp, Grant and I were ready to paddle back to Sausalito. We broke up into 3 pods, ours with 8 paddlers. Each boat had at least one light on board and we all shared the moonlight. The wind had died down a bit and the flood had slowed down making a wonderfully easy paddle on the way home. I look forward to going again sometime! http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/theaussiepea/album?.dir=/1b45scd&.src=ph Saturday- Grant finished putting together his newest recumbent and we took it for a ride around Lake Merritt (in downtown Oakland) in the early afternoon. At night we celebrated the 2nd annual Castleview Rooftop Kaboom Fireworks Show with Judith and Steven, our neighbors in Berkeley. KFOG 104.5 is a local radio station that puts on free concert and fireworks show on pier 30 in SF every May for the last 14 years. Last year I listened to the radio and heard the announcement of the fireworks show. We were skeptical that it would be any good but we went up onto the roof anyways. We ran an extension cord from the kitchen to the roof so that we could listen to the simulcast / soundtrack on the radio and make ice cream / banana smoothies. It was so cool. The booms from the fireworks were behind by a good 30 seconds (because SF is like 10 miles away) but we could definitely see the fireworks. This year we planned ahead a little bit. We made arrangements to go have dinner with our old neighbors and a new couple that had moved into the building (not into our apartment). We created the smoothies in the kitchen and poured them into yogurt containers for transport to the roof. We took a portable/battery radio so there was no extension cord and we remembered to bring chairs up with us. The fireworks got off to a late start which made me worried that I had the wrong time. They lasted about 25 minutes and then we just sat on the roof, soaking in the views that we have been missing since moving to Oakland. It was a wonderful night with old friends. Sunday- Super cool church, as always. The sermon was about loving your mom. The weather really warmed up today. Hopefully some time this afternoon Grant and I will take a walk to the rose garden. That’s after we call our moms… Happy mother’s day to you all!

26 school days left to go and we’re out for summer!

Ever since May hit I’ve been battling myself to get my work done. I’ve fallen into the trap of using my 4th period prep to plan for 5th and 6th period geometry. Since we’ve been having a hard time getting substitute teachers lately, relying on my prep period can be risky I never know when I might have to take care of a class unexpectedly. Fortunately for me (my kids would disagree) we’ve just started the CST (California Standards Test) today and I’m loving the change of pace. I have a great group of sophomores for testing and they seemed pretty satisfied today with the puzzles, snacks, and games that I brought for them for when they finished. I love how finally it is the time of the year when I can be more real with my kids, joke around, amaze them with Sodoku puzzles. (we’re starting out easy… http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/sudoku_for_kids.htm) This year has seemed so full but still so empty. Grant just finished his internship at the Wesley Student Center at UC Berkeley. For a whole school year we cooked dinner every Monday night for a group of college students and then Grant led a program. We just had our end of the year graduation celebration and are now in the process of letting go of that group of people and the experience. On Tuesday nights I enjoy my LIFE group. I love the women in the group but I feel isolated at times, the next closest person to me in age is 10 years older. That fastest growing segment of our congregation is single people in their 30’s and Grant and I are really longing for people more our age, dealing with the “just out of college” life changes. Every other Wednesday night I’m taking a progressive theology class at church. The other Wednesdays will be filled with Deacon training for the next 2 months. Thursdays this year have been spent with my God son Aaron. Weekends have been spent everywhere and at home doing all the school work that I have no time to do during the week. So, we see the need for the school year to end! I’m trying to plan a solo backpacking trip to Point Reyes National Seashore for Memorial Day weekend. Grant is really supportive of this and totally trusts my abilities. The women in my LIFE group are freaking out and praying for my safety. I feel like they don’t trust my judgment and skills, but I know that they just don’t understand what I have already done and what I am capable of doing. (I’ve never seen any of them out car camping let alone on a backpacking trip) Plus, it’s only for two nights on one of the busiest weekends of the year in a small park with fire roads and the high likelihood that my cell phone will work! It reminds me of the Lake Tahoe trip last summer. We spent about 130 miles on the trail and nothing happened. We walk through a subdivision between trailheads and I get my hand smashed between the door of a truck and the side mirror of the car parked next to it. We truly are more in danger in civilization! I know some of you will understand. I hope that those of you out there reading this know that I read your blogs as often as you post new entries. I guess I’ve been a blog mooch. I take and take and take but don’t give anything in return. As the summer approaches, I’m going to try to write more updates. Please help to remind me!

lovin the UCC

	My Church And this is why I love it... http://www.stillspeaking.com/resources/ejector.mov Enjoy!

UPDATES Grant and I have been in our new apartment for 1 month now. There is still a pile of boxes and crap in the middle of the bedroom. On Saturday night I broke down and started stuffing things into the closet, randomly. See my disorganization, my husband came over and started organizing things in the closet and putting more stuff away. Finally, I succeded at getting him to do something that I wanted him to do. The pile still takes up the same area, but the volume has decreased. Our church had a retreat this weekend at a B&B about 5 miles away from the church. It was a last minute thing so we didn't go to far away since so many people had conflicts. People came and went through out the whole retreat but Grant and I stayed for the whole thing. It was a tough and challenging retreat. I've been feeling without spirit for a while now and this retreat definately didn't help renew my spirit, however, I have a new motivation to do something about my lack of spirit, starting with reading a book called, "the meaning of jesus" by Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright. Last week at school was among the best weeks I've had in a very long time. By now the students have self-selected if they want to be students or not. So the good students have remained and have been able to bennefit from my full attention. I got a couple kids transferred out of my 5th period horror class and that has made all the difference about my mood after school. I now see the jewels in that class and they've noticed the difference in me too. Next week will be an anxious one. I've spent the last month almost working with my sophomores to get them ready for the California High School Exit Exam (which happens Tuesday and Wednesday). They have to pass this test to graduate from high school. We want them to pass it on the first try. We want them to take it seriously because it means money for our school. They think they have 5 more chances later, why worry now? For the second time in my life, I might be ordained a deacon. But this is a different church and a different denomination so the word Deacon means something completely different. And for this reason, I'm continually amazed and so very proud to be apart of the United Church of Christ. We are a congregational church and our congregation can define Deacon however it sees fit to its community. I'm so excited that I'm able to be a part of this defining process. Being a part of a church revitalization is just so cool. (side note, the first time I was ordained a deacon was when I was a sophomore in high school at 16 years old in the Presbyterian church, I was the youngest one ever at my home church, a pioneer of sorts, b/c now I think they require at the church that a youth sit on the board of deacons and session). This opportunity to be a deacon is scary too. The pastor said today that she believed that we were the type of people who could take on this responsibility. I have doubts, especially recently. I've been noticing that the people I've been hanging around at my church are older and just know so much more. Everyone in my life group has had at least 12 more years than I've had as an adult to read books and gain knowledge about this world. How does one start to catch up? Will my youth hinder my ability to serve in this capacity? Grant has had some revelations about school lately. You'll have to ask him for details if you're interested. Does anyone out there pray for cars? If so, please pray for my venture. We took it in for service last week to fix a coolant leak and it came home with a transmission problem. It shifts really hard in the first few "gears" around 15-20mph, only when accelerating. It's like a tremor that joults the entire car for a quick moment. We're afraid this is the beginning of the end. How much money will it take for us to finally let the friendly white van go? And what could ever replace it? Who knows of a car that is roomy enough to put two bikes it (mostly assembled), two kayaks on top, can fit tons of camping gear, gets awesome gas mileage, has seats for ~4, and is NOT an SUV? Grant things a Jetta wagon can do most of that. Any thoughts on a Jetta? Grant's B-day was on Wednesday, February 8. Birthday wishes for the 24 year old would be welcomed and appreciated. We're going out on Friday night to celebrate and then we'll probably go away for President's Day weekend to continue celebrating with some fun in the snowy mountains... yosemite? tahoe?

One of the best weekends/weeks...

As most employees know, last Monday was a holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Some school districts take advantage of this holiday and allow their staff and students to have a three day weekend (and hence only a four day week). (Side note: I've had three 4-day weeks in a row now. Monday Jan. 2 was a holiday since Jan. 1 was on a Sunday. Monday Jan. 9 I was sick and took a day off, and Monday Jan 16 was MLK day. I'm starting to like this situation! Unfortunately this will not last). Since Grant and I were moving over Christmas break, we didn't get a chance to go away like we had intended. We're both the type of people that need to see the seasons change throughout the year or we go crazy with seasonal depression. So for our long weekend we decided to head up to Yosemite for some great scenery and snow play. In the bay area, traffic is always bad. Most people, if they're going away for the weekend, leave on Friday night. So we decided to not get stuck in traffic and not have our first experience this year driving in the snow be at night by leaving at 7am Saturday morning. Grant did an awesome job packing and preparing so that we actually did get out of the garage by 7:12am. I was impressed. Saturday: Drive to Yosemite, enter park around 11am at the El Portal , put tire chains on and gentle drive down into the valley to see the typical touristy Yosemite sights. Late afternoon we drove up to Badger Pass to do a quick mile of cross country skiing to remind our bodies that we did know how to ski at one point. Then we drove out of the park to our hostel, the Yosemite Bug. Slept well. Sunday: Breakfast, then out by 9am to drive into the park for a full day of skiing. This is where my husband is the best. I always bug him about wanting to take to much with us but this time I was glad he packed the backpack. We skied about 4 miles to this awesome overlook where you can see El Capitain, Half Dome and other Yosemite sites. To fully enjoy the view, we took out a mat to sit on, set up the camp stove and proceeded to make hot chocolate to warm us up. Then Grant made us sandwiches-- the best-- start with a sour dough roll, add slices of tomato, cucumber, avocado, alfalfa sprouts, and some provolone cheese. Yummy. We skied out by a different trail, made it back to the car and then back to the hostel for another good night of sleep. Monday: got up a bit earlier, got all packed and left the hostel by 8am. Drove through the park one more time and ventured out on our skis to see some sequoias. We saw one sequoia that had been in a fire that killed it, then way back, like 100 years ago, some guys chiseled out a tunnel so that wagons could go through it (and then very small cars). And then the long drive home. I'm so glad we got to see the snow again.

The secret is in the sauce

Last April my mom came out to Berkeley to visit us. One day after a trip into the city we decided to go out to eat. There was this sushi restaurant that I’d had an eye on for awhile. It always had a line outside and I had heard fairly good things about it. The best being that it is a vegan sushi restaurant. I loved it. Oh my did this restaurant start a love affair with vegetarian sushi. Although everyone just thinks about the sliced raw fish (sashimi), sushi is actually more about the seasoned rice that could be topped with vegetables, seaweed, raw fish, or fish eggs. We went back to the restaurant about two months later with our downstairs neighbors as they were moving out. In California, we are blessed with the great store, Trader Joe’s. (and as soon as we left Michigan, we heard that a TJ moved into Royal Oak or Farmington?). TJ’s has wonderful prepared sushi and one day during the summer I decided to pick some up. What a great experience again… a delicate roll of seaweed, rice, and vegetables, topped with some sweet pickled ginger and the smallest dollop of wasabi. Yum-Yum. And since then there have been 3 other occasions that I’ve succumbed to the urge to eat another serving: mid-fall on the way from school to a meeting at church, Christmas, and this past weekend when we were on the way to Yosemite. Since moving apartments, we found a great Japanese restaurant about a mile away that has great sushi without the line of the other restaurant. Yeah for us! A friend from church took us there while our apartment was still in boxes. This prompted the request for sushi making tools for Christmas and birthday presents from Grant’s parents. All of the gifts have come in the last week (except the sushi cookbook). We have an electric rice maker. We have dishes to put the sushi on and dishes to hold the dipping sauce. We have the bamboo mat to roll the sushi and now, after biking to the Asian market about a mile away, we have the secret ingredient that makes it all worth it, rice seasoning. (a mixture of rice vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar, and other seasonings) And tonight, we made maki-zushi. Oh so good. Oh such a long time to prepare! What a process! On the outside of a maki-zushi roll is Nori (roasted seaweed) which is the weirdest thing. It’s like seaweed leaves, dried, and pressed into 7x8” squares sold in a bag by the hundred. You use it dry but as soon as the rice touches it, it has enough moisture to be able to roll up. The next layer is rice (kome). You have to buy rice that is specifically made for sushi. It is a white, short grain variety that soaks up the rice vinegar well. First you have to wash the rice, rubbing it between your fingers and rinsing until the water is clean. Second you let the rice soak in the water until it turns a milky color. Third, you actually cook it in the rice cooker. Fourth, you let it sit and steam for 15 minutes. Fifth, and most exciting, you dump the rice into a non-metal baking dish, and start folding in the rice seasoning mix while someone else fans the rice so that the temperature will quickly drop to room temperature. (refrigeration, so the book says, is the worse thing you can do to rice, so it must be fanned). For the “stuffing” we used cucumbers, green onion, tomatoes, mushrooms, cabbage, avocados, and daikon sprouts (a different mix of vegetables for each roll). We made enough rice for 6 rolls and ate two of the tonight (each roll is about 7” long and is usually cut into 6 or 8 pieces, depending on thickness of the roll). The other 4 will be saved for lunch tomorrow as we go wine tasting with Grant’s parents. I’m in heaven. Sushi took a long time to make tonight, but it was great to see and eat my new creation!