growing food even...

...at the white house!the white house will have an edible garden! it will provide food for use by the white house chef as well as local food banks.
better food policy could beneficially affect health care, the environment, peak oil, and the economy. and it will help farmers markets! including ours in provo! read about food democracy here. and the food declaration here. who's putting this movement together? michael pollan, alice waters, etc. all the food greats!

reposted from Sunday, December 02, 2007

When it comes to attending a lecture by someone fantastic (Michael Pollan). who wrote a few books i really like (The Botany of Desire, The Omnivores Dilemma). about a topic that the O'lover is obsessed with (FOOD)...i make it my duty to scooch my chair up..and lean forward...and stick my leg out. So there's no mistaking that I am indeed the CLOSEST audience member.
me and Michael...ahhhh...Many thanks to my grandma-in-law Lillian. Besides being a constant inspiration (she is a very strong woman and environmental activist) she is the matriarch of the family I so luckily married into. Oh! And she also provides the hot item tickets to the author series up at Sundance.

signed,
star struck and clutching my autographed copy

state of the household

the crescendo of suspense. holy moses! part the curtains on the construction already, right?
soon.

meanwhile everyone is still being watered and fed. the ladies are happy and warm in the greenhouse. in fact, i'm not sure they know its winter. bridget was trying to escape between my legs when i took this pic.


also, it's sinking in that i need more carpentry skillz. i keep coming to stopping points until oliver can coach me over the phone or until he comes home and takes over.

it's also sinking in that we have a new prez.

reposted from feb 7, 2008

it turns out i'm

a respecter of persons
AND,
even worse,
a stalker.

this is right before michelle obama shakes my hand.

after her inspiring speech in slc last monday.

her hand is very soft and thin.
my hand was clammy and in awe.
while in chicago last november i visited THEIR house. on their street there's an LDS chapel, then my friend kimmy's house, then a couple houses, then my favorite presidential candidate's house, then a jewish synagogue.

signed,
yes there were secret service agents watching me take this pic.

still rolling with it

HEY! guess what! construction is nearing completion. knock on wood (a familiar sound around here.)

meanwhile....

reposted from Sept. 17, 2007-
The One Who Cracked My Code

I’m currently looking forward to entering the stage of the enchantress. No, really it’s a stage. And it doesn’t mean that I will be sociable. Quite the opposite, it means that I will be a witch, in my shell, collecting my thoughts and HIDING… so as not to curse or bless you. Cackle.

And then there’s the crone. When for a week I’m eighty years old and have wisdom to spare and feel a bit less inhibited…because there is no time like the present, and then you die.

The seven days of virgin are among my favorite (not so for the O’lover). This is when my finger burns from the weight of my wedding ring. When I constantly forget that I share O’lover’s name. Mind you, I don’t like hurting O’s feelings when I take off without disclosing my destination but a virgin has untamable wonder and an unbroken stride (and little interest in men).

But really my absolute favorite stage is that of the mother. It’s when I’m clinging, and caring, when I nest and massage, and coo and pet. But 1% of the time it’s also when I over react and imagine offences. When the Mother Bear gets ticked off…heaven help you, my heart rate, and Ollie who has to mediate.

Before O’lover cracked my code my mysterious alternations between piety and caprice were a hairy rollercoaster ride I didn’t know I was on. And then the LIGHT. And we’re having fun.

Thanks Oliver.
--------

Ollie told me that this is a broadly applicable cycle. I just looked it up; read more about archetypes here.

Provo's Inaugural Ball

all grandiose plans to knit myself an Inaugural ballgown were abandoned. sniff. i would have preferred something less "funeral" and more patriotic.

three generations of Callis women went to the ball. do you recognize my mum-in-law? she teaches art at wasatch elementary.

the red carpet!

hey we're early! why is it already packed? see obama peeking over andi's shoulder?

and then my camera died and little alarms started going off in my head reminding me of the construction urgency at home. so i skated and slid in my slippery boots all the way back to the cottage to continue the endless build fest in the attic.

see many more pics here.

a breathing matter

we have the worst air in the nation. for those of you readers who don't live along the wasatch front just know that the air in our valley is sometimes soupy and gunky and....hard to breathe for weeks in the winter.

every time i curse the small particulates ("CURSE you PM 2.5!") Ollie reminds me why inversions are a blessing.

HUH? a blessing?

excerpt from a letter Oliver wrote to our officials:

Our inversions ought to be considered a blessing, reminding us that we are responsible for what we put into our air, a call to behave ethically. As a community, we need to be dis-incentivising pollution, and rewarding those who choose not to waste. There is no accountability for those who pollute indiscriminately and affect adversely the well-being of all of us along the Wasatch Front. The young among us suffer disproportionately, and because their suffering manifests itself slowly, they and their families are left with the burden and cost of treating it, often without help. This needs to change, and you can do something about it. Do not leave office without changing our course towards a future with clear skies.

holding one of the signs my best friend sus made for a recent very packed hearing with the department of air quality.

Please join these awesome super moms in taking a proactive stand for clean air.

signed,
keep breathing... even if you do visit their website and find out the dreadful air quality data.

woolly excursion - Part II

thank goodness for a little help from my friend.it took three days to sort out sticks, grass, and dirt. and to emulsify and degrease ten pounds of fleece. (very little child labor was involved! =) we did leave a bit of lanolin in the wool so that O'lover's sweaters will be sort of waterproof.
to be continued...

our woolly excursion- Part 1

my best pal AJ and i visited a very lovely flock of rambouillet (see them baaa-hind us?)
and baaa-hind rancher Tom Boyer?
Here Tom's explaining the different parts of the wool fleece. it's soft! it's curly!

we came home with loads.

*****

hey ollllllllie??

yeah?

can you please think of some sheep puns for my post?

a moment later...

you can say that it takes shear perseverance to wash the wool...

a moment later....

or say how you break all the wools (say it out loud, come on)

a moment later....

or how you've been felt up....

Ollie! That's so dooce of you!

*****
well, dear reader, (can i call you my lamb?) i'm feeling sheepish about the pun fun but tell me, could ewe resist?

Be still my bleating heart...

...but i love knitting with every fiber of my being.

farmer joined me in a celebratory dance when i finished knitting my legwarmers (one of which is pictured).

full circle

if you're in the provo area you're welcome to attend the official un-official inaugural ball.

martin luther king day + a glam ball celebrating Obama's inauguration = the perfect event for recognizing how far the country's come. thank you andi for putting it all together!

and to quote andi: "There will be dancing and a cash Mormon-Bar. Maybe they should name the bar The Surely-Temple. I hope you all come ... even if you voted for the other guy!"

the snow has piled up outside

and plaster dust has been falling inside.


i'm taking a tiny break from construction and ordering a year's supply of high quality heirloom seeds from the company of sound reputation.

pondering how to plant our bit of earth...

we're loyal to the delicious constellations of the "moon & stars" watermelons

and there are so many new-to-us plants to try!

such as this lakota sioux winter squash.

what will you be planting this spring?