A long, long time...

Well, it has been quite some time since the last blog post! Just a month less than a year, and so much has happened. We've moved again, into some really beautiful country south of Santa Fe, the cats and dogs grew up... George got eaten by an owl. :(

At risk of having to write a retrospect of the last year I'm just going to call it closed, put up a couple of highlight pictures, and then try to get back to posting here on some sort of regular basis.

2007 / 2008

Cute New Kitten and Nuclear Warfare

So, it's been a pretty eventful week, and I'm finally getting back into a swing of posting here, so....

Last Wednesday we added yet another kitten to the family, bringing us to three cats and one dog. The new kitten is Princess Zia. She is a bit older than Squeaky George and Nano Buddha, and she is a good older sister. She cleans them and takes care of them and is the only one that can stand up to Alfie so far (he is a bit nuts, dragging them around by their legs...).

On Friday we went up to the hot springs at Jemez Springs. We spent the night a bit north of there, and the next morning went to Los Alamos for breakfast. Now, if you don't know about Los Alamos, in their own words "Los Alamos National Laboratory helps to ensure the safety of the nuclear weapons stockpile and reduce the threat of terrorist attacks on our homeland.". And, there is a town, but it is all about the lab, so you can't really tell the difference. There are guarded gates to get into the town, and nothing going on there at all as far as I can tell. We went to a diner (not the one in the pictures - that was too scary!) that was OK, but the people generally looked old and wrinkled and pretty unhealthy, and there ways a sign next to the door that said "Do You Have Cronic Beryllium Disease? Survivors may qualify for benefits."

I can't really explain how terrifying it is - the other pictures that are posted are only 20 miles south - it is in an amazingly beautiful spot. And yet, we are still plugging away at making sure we can blow up the entire planet and pollute it with waste that is indisposable. The Rio Grande is polluted with radioactive toxins that are a result of Los Alamos. The ground water where we live (which we put into a pond, a garden, and a swimming pool) are contaminated. We live nearly 100 miles away.

There are shirts in Albuquerque that say "Iraq 0, Albuquerque 2000" - that is the count of nuclear weapons in each place. In fact, if every city in the US was a country, Albuquerque would be the third most armed country in the world. I don't mean to rant, I guess I just find it entirely disturbing that the people of our nation let this happen.

So, anyway, life is good, the family is well, we are taking time out of busy lives to visit beautiful and scary places...

Los Alamos

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Settled In Albuquerque

So, again slow to post, we have found a great house that we are renting in Albuquerque and have a couple more new additions to the family. Aflie is growing up super quickly (compare the pictures below to the ones in the previous post!), and two days ago we went to the animal shelter and got Squeaky George and Nano Buddha, our two little black and white kittens.

The house is great, and my next post will be some reasonable pictures of the house and the yard post touch up. For this post, though, I thought it would be fair to show the before, so the after would be more impressive. In proper South Valley style (thats a bit like saying Wikel style) we had a car, a stove, a good bit of trash, and even a large non-working bus (we kept that for studio space) when we moved in. There was an empty plastic shell of a pond, and a chicken coop with a couple of inches of poo, not to mention two dozen eggs that must have been ancient - I threw one and it literally exploded with a bang (no liquid, just gas inside) which alfie helped himself to and our carpet paid the price. I also think they may have caused temporary insanity in him.

What else... The house came with a weight set so both Jo and I are going to be super strong, Alfie's ears went from droopy to straight up (documentation in the new kitties album below), we got a great bed (that was the one bit we were missing - otherwise we got a free couch on the street, and one that came with the house, as well as a coffee table, desk, a couple of chairs, and a banged up old table in the back yard that we are using in the kitchen)...

Here are the pictures of the house. Notice the coyote fence (sticks tied to a chain link fence) - that is our improvement. Also, not pictured are tons of amazing rocks, crystals, and petrified wood pieces that are all over our back yard .. we thought we'd save all the good bits for the next post for contrast, because, this house is awesome!

New House

And here are the pictures of the cutest kitties on the planet...

Brand New Kitties

Hopefully I'll be posting more often now that we are settled in again.

The Whirlwind

So, it has been quite some time since I posted a blog, and things have been crazy (which is why it's been so long since I posted). Since I last wrote, Jo and I drove up to Seattle and back down the Cali coast, going through Yosemite and Big Sur - an amazing drive. When we got back we barely spent a week there before we decided that LA wasn't our place. The cost of living was just too high, and we were falling behind on payments and just not making it, and it didn't seem like the trade off of staying there was worth the stress.

So, we packed up once again and headed back east to New Mexico. We had liked it coming through on the way to California, and the cost of housing here is so much cheaper, and so we are now in the process of looking for a place to stay somewhere between Albuquerque and Taos.

More exciting than the move, though, is that we met a new friend and now are taking care of a six week old, gorgeous puppy named Alphie. We found him in a little art town half way between Albuquerque and Santa Fe called Madrid.

Alphie

Eventually I'll be updating picasa with pictures of all the journeys we made (especially the big sur trip - we have some crazy pictures, like when we saw about 70 seal lions all sleeping in a pile on the beach!), but for now I'll start off with some pictures of the drive between Santa Fe and Toas around sunset. The sky here is simply amazing.

Road to Taos

Free Stuff and Recycled Art

One of the primary things that we've been doing since moving to Venice is...

well...

collecting trash!

Yes, that's right, walking around and collecting other people's discarded stuff and using it to furnish our house and make art on! In the last couple of weeks we've found a couple of couches, a coffee table, a bunch of plants and trees, a desk and office chair, plastic containers for plants and the dirt to fill them, a couple of filing cabinets (one for my files, one for the deck to hold gardening supplies), some pots and pans for the kitchen, and numerous boards to paint for Jo, including four giant framed pieces of veneer. We even got a free boogie board so when we go out surfing (Jo has started to come with me and learn to surf!) we can both have floaty things so one of us doesn't have to swim.

There are a couple things in the pictures that weren't free (the lamps at the top of the bed, and the bike, were bought with money that was given as wedding presents.) but in general we've had outstanding luck getting our whole apartment furnished on little to nothing. We even have a whole bookshelf of books that we got from a bookstore that closed down, and the bookshelf was in a back alley.

So, check out the new apartment, and if you live in a city, learn when trash day is and walk around outside the night before - you might just be astonished at what you can find that way!

Free Stuff

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Time passing and more wedding pictures

Time is really passing very quickly these days, settling into a new home and trying to sort things out. And we've been bad about taking pictures - it makes a lot of sense taking pictures on special trips, but when you are just around home and living life as normal I always forget to take a camera.

Two days ago we went up to visit Freckles in Topanga, and that was fairly sad. I forgot how much I missed her, but it was a good reminder of what a gift she was to me. And then yesterday, we went up into Malibu Canyon, and it is AMAZING up there - I am going to make sure we go back soon and get some pictures, because it is just a stunning place - it reminded me of the Lord of the Rings (and therefore I guess, New Zealand) with huge mountains, beautiful cliffs, and a small river running through it all. We found some white sage growing and brought it back to make a smudge stick for the house.

We did get some pictures from the wedding back, and here are some of them (us doing the hand fasting, exchanging rings, and generally loving each other):

More Wedding Photos

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A Little Update...

So, I haven't been posting too much to this blog recently, and I really haven't been taking too many pictures to put with posts either. We are still getting settled out here (seems to take forever) and then I had my wisdom tooth out (mostly healed now) and we had to process Jo's paperwork (filed, and she gets to stay until they make a final decision, which will hopefully let her stay as long as she wants!).

My cousin Janet visited this last weekend with some friends who came out to see the taping of the Ellen show, and we got to go out to lunch with them, so that was good (she did get some pictures, so if I get my hands on them I'll post them here eventually).

Mostly other than that it's been working, playing music, some surfing, and a little political work.

Todays speciality:

There's a real chance next week to change the course of the catastrophic war in Iraq, and I joined a campaign calling for an end to military operations and a negotiated diplomatic solution to end the war. Check out the email pasted below.

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Dear friends,

The nightmare in Iraq worsens daily. It's make-or-break time -- but next Thursday in Egypt, we could start to turn the tide. Because on May 3rd – for the first time ever - top US and Iraqi leaders will meet with Iran and Syria plus international powers. They can agree on negotiations to end the war -- or escalate their bloody conflict.

Avaaz is launching a major advertising and text-message campaign inside Iraq this week to bring Iraqi voices to this decisive meeting . As citizens around the world, let's join our voices with theirs to end this war -- sign the petition calling for negotiations and a withdrawal of US troops here:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/iraq_new_plan

To make sure we're heard, we'll hand-deliver our petition to the leaders' conference in Sharm El-Sheikh on May 3rd, and project Iraqi text-messages on to a huge wall near the US Capitol building in Washington.

Thousands of Iraqi Avaaz members have supported our N.E.W. plan -- for all-party "Negotiations", "Empowering" international mediators and the responsible "Withdrawal" of US troops. Please read the personal email below from Khalid, an Iraqi Avaaz member. Khalid and our other Iraqi members need a show of global support from the rest of us. The campaign is already supported by over 75,000 people as well as key international experts -- let's gather a massive, united voice of Iraqis and citizens round the world to tell our leaders to do the right thing in Iraq:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/iraq_new_plan

With hundreds of thousands dead and 4 million made refugees, just criticising the US government for this catastrophe is not enough. It's now the responsibility of all of us to help save Iraq, and the only solution is a political solution.

Khalid Jarrar and his mother Faiza Jarrar have been wonderful supporters of Avaaz in Iraq. We asked Khalid to write a message to Avaaz members, here's what he emailed us yesterday:


alright:)
feel free to edit it if its too long.
and just for the record, i am not a drama queen, these were written for real, and tears in my eyes are my witness...

Dear AVAAZ,

I want to introduce myself, and tell you a story, but i don't know how to start, and where to stop.

My name is Khalid, i am an environmental engineering student and i am 24, but this is the least important to know about me, what's really important for me to tell, and for you to know, is that I am Iraqi, and that I have a deep, deep wound in my soul, that has been bleeding for over four years now.

Iraq, my soul, is bleeding. And i had to leave it against my will, because of the incredibly bad security situation that led to me getting kidnapped and my family paying a huge ransom, which made me leave immediately after i was released in fear that i would be kidnapped again. I left Iraq one month before my graduation and had to come to Jordan, which made me lose two years of my university time and life, but even worse, made me lose the company of the Tigris and the Euphrates.

I had to travel, leaving Iraq behind me, to live like a refuge, one of a million other refuges, in a country of less than five millions people, that already has its own financial problems without needing our additional burden to add to it. I am an Iraqi refuge in Jordan.

Since I left in July 2005, things have exponentially deteriorated in every possible aspect, now people hardly get 1 hours of electricity a day, they have water problems, regular lack of gas that its prices multiplied about 20 times since the war. Let alone the main and real problems of the actual presence of an occupation that is leaching on the country and causing the destruction to its people, unity, sovereignty, infrastructure and economy.

Iraq is the loving mother, that gave birth to thinkers and builders, people that enriched humanity with their contributions in all aspects of life, people that their civilization accumulated for over 7000 years till now.

Iraq, the noble wisdom, the land of the two flowing rivers, the land of the mosques and churches, is in crises, and needs your help.

yes. it needs your help.

Iraqis need the support of the world, of every human being that believes in the values of justice and peace, of every person that cares about the judgment of history on what the world did when Iraq needed its support the most. Iraq, needs your voice, to support the voices of its own people, to help remove that injustice, and help it rise up again and stand on its feet.

Help us demand to give Iraq back to Iraqis, and to prove to the future generations once more, that occupations don't last, that occupations are wrong, and that the will of people is invincible. Help us clear to them that our hearts and minds, our values and sense of justice, are stronger than any tank, battleship or rocket. Help us by singing AVAAZ petition that will be presented to the politicians discussing the future of Iraq security, help by asking your friends to do so, let our voices be louder than the roars of weapons and the madness of greeds, help us, sign AVAAZ petition now, let our voice be heard, support Iraq today, and once the last occupying soldier leaves iraq, and once we rebuild our country with out own hands, we will reciever you in Baghdad, and you will see the love and gratitude competed by nothing but Iraqi hospitality. Together we can prove that our brotherhood is strong, together we can prove that our bonds are real, I can see that day coming, really soon.

Khalid

Click below to join Khalid in telling US, Iraqi and international leaders to do the right thing for Iraq:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/iraq_new_plan

With hope,

Ricken, Graziela, Paul, Tom and the whole Avaaz team.

Avaaz.org is a global organization with almost 1million members all over the world. Our goal is to use technology and the internet to make the values and view of the world’s public opinion heard by global decision makers on important world issues.