We celebrated our anniversary in Temecula wine country a bit south of where we live. In addition to just enjoying some time away and alone together, we did some wine tasting. We aren't huge wine connoisseurs, but (or maybe, "so") we bought a lot of wine and even joined two wine clubs. Our favorite was a port from Stuart Cellars. I like Chardonnay a lot, but I definitely liked some of the Chardonnays we tasted less than I enjoy my fairly regular glass of Two-buck Chuck's Chardonnay. At least I'm not the only one who feels that way--Charles Shaw's Chardonnay won a gold medal at the CA state fair this year.
Today marks the end of my first 5 years as Mrs. Joshua Walton. I feel like this is our first real milestone. We've been married long enough now that I have a fleeting notion of what it will probably be like to have been married 15, 25, or even 35 years. After our third and fourth years together, I still felt like I was venturing into unknown territory. There are still a lot of things about Josh that are mysterious to me, but I feel like we've finally hit a nice stride in the last year. I don't mean to say that we didn't get along before that, but in the last 12 months we seem to have had a lot of "aha" moments, when things finally made sense on a deep, sort of intuitive level instead of just a "well, I guess that's just how he works, but I don't really get it" level. That probably means it's time to throw some kids into the mix to bring back some uncertainty. :) (No, Kellee, I am *not* pregnant.) We're really becoming a solid team. The whole process of learning to work as a unit is fascinating and challenging in a way that nothing else is. It can be frustrating, but the pay-off from working through the frustrating stuff together is more than worth it. If a measly five years gets us something this great, I'm really looking forward to seeing what the Walton family looks like in another five years.
I recently started listening to Jack FM because NPR was doing their fundraising. Again. The music is okay. The fact that they don't have stupid DJs or morning shows is better. The best thing about this radio station, though, is a short audio clip they played from a voice mail one of their listeners left: "Two Dollars! I want my two dollars!" If you don't recognize the line, you don't know me as well as you think you do, and there's a movie you really, really, really need to see.
Well, I enjoyed the train ride and the bike ride to and from work. I was practically ecstatic when I arrived at work in the morning. Arriving to work early having done two of my favorite things (reading and riding my bike) before work even starts is a major contrast to my usual frenzied, frantic yelling-in-traffic-because-I'm-almost-late-why-are-there-so-many-accidents mornings. It was a long day, though. There's just something about being in a moving vehicle that saps the energy out of you, even if you're not driving. It didn't help that I extended my day by riding the evening train two stops past my house so I could go to the mall to get my hair cut. Add to that my 2-hour haircut (the guy does a great job, but boy is he slow) and the extra 9 miles I had to ride my bike from the station to the mall and from the mall home, and I was pretty tired by the time it was all over. Too tired, in fact, to get up at 5 am this morning to try it all over again. I did get a 10-trip ticket, however, and I will at least be giving it a few more tries, motivated a little more by my 1-1/2 hour commute home this afternoon in the car.
We held the First Annual Walton Global Warming BBQ this past Sunday, complete with beach/ocean theme (hey, we'll be beach-front when the ocean rises) and carbon offsets for the people who used the most fossil fuels to get to the party. I'm proud of the fact that everyone seemed to have a good time, from 6-month-olds to hard-partying grad students. I even made just the right amount of food for once--there was only enough left to make me confident that everyone had enough to eat. Here's the scorecard from the party:
Hits:
slingshot duck from my Dad that quacks when it hits a wall
plum wings (although I made it with legs)
grilled habanero pork tenderloin(even better with the plum sauce from the wings)
time of day (3 pm)--great for people with little kids and people who might want to go to rowdier events afterward
Alaskan Summer Ale--We bought out the only store in town that carries it. :)
"The Day After Tomorrow" playing in the background
Misses:
time of day--not enough room for everyone inside, and it was dang hot on the porch. maybe we should get an apartment facing East instead of West
table for food outside--see above
floating cow bath toys in the lemon punch--looked more like field run-off than a cow that need to learn to swim because of climate change
grow-in-water mermaid that takes 24 hours to grow
Trying to watch "An Inconvenient Truth" at the end of the party. Okay, I hear some people liked it. I, however, fell asleep during the opening credits.
A long time ago, I toyed with the idea of taking the train to work. Back then, I didn't have a bike, and I would have had to wait for a shuttle to take me to work from the station and back, and the shuttle seemed pretty unreliable (I have to be ready 45 minutes before they are supposed to pick me up? I'm not sure what that means, and I don't think I want to know.) Or, I would need to get a ride from someone else at work. Not a terribly reliable option, either. Given those things on top of a train ride that is already 1.5 hours, I decided not to even bother. Now, things are different. I have a bike that can easily take me the 1 mile to the station from our apartment and the 3 miles from the station to work, and home again. Now, my commute is averaging closer to 1 hour and 15-20 minutes instead of an hour. The idea of sitting on a train reading and getting some extra biking in instead of sitting behind the wheel is making the prospect more and more appealing. So, I will be boarding the Metrolink at the Upland station at 5:20 tomorrow morning. If I like it, I may take the train regularly. Wish me luck. I will need it to get up that early.
I've given up on the triathlon training. Two hours at the gym each night took up nearly all of my spare time, especially once the training schedule starting requiring six days of training a week. I really enjoyed it, but I really enjoy doing other stuff, too. Maybe my life will slow down a little someday, and I will have another chance to try it. Or maybe someone will invent an exercise bike you can use while driving so I can exercise during my 80-mile, 2-hour commute. I'm not sure which is more likely. In the meantime, I took a two-week hiatus from going to the gym altogether, puffed up like a jelly doughnut (who knew how bad getting no exercise whatsoever after weeks of training could be??), came home early quite a few evenings to enjoy the late daylight, and started reading more again. I've decided to limit my gym time to three days a week, although that might change when the days shorten and I start to get a little stir-crazy in the dark again.
Here's what I've been reading lately, with an extremely short review each book:
The Devil in the White City and Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
Both books are great reads, plus the artistry in the writing process just screams for admiration. As a comparativist, I get goosebumps observing how Larson knocks mundane, obscure history up against juicy, real-life murder mysteries and makes both stories richer and more exciting by letting the momentum in one story drive the anticipation for the other. And what a brilliant idea to write non-fiction about events in a time period from which there is copious information available--court documents and letter after telegraph after letter about the most insignificant events--about things no one in our century realized they'd ever care about. Who knew a book about the Chicago World's Fair and some long-forgotten murderer could be so exciting? The sheer volume of documentation that must have been available to Larson (okay, plus a little editorializing) really round out what might otherwise be very dry stories. I can't wait to get my hands on another of his books!
Catherine the Great: Love, Sex, and Power by Virginia Rounding Meh. I couldn’t make it through the whole thing.
The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls Another really good one. Memoir of a woman whose parents just couldn’t seem to cope with the basics of adult life, like feeding and clothing their children. When her brother is molested by his grandmother, Walls’ mother basically tells him to suck it up. Could have been a nasty expose of her family’s (many, many) faults, but, like my mom said, your biggest impression after you read the book is that Walls loves her family deeply in spite of everything. Although I don’t think anyone would want Wall’s childhood, it still makes you think a little harder about what really constitutes a good upbringing. When we have kids, I’m going to make them root in the trash at school for their lunches because apparently it builds character and determination.
On the nightstand right now:
David McCullough’s John Adams I decided it’s time I learned a little more about John Adams. Especially since most of what I know I learned from watching the musical 1776 too many times. You mean to tell me he’s not actually much like Mr. Feeny in Boy Meets World?
My skin is starting to peel from the sunburn I got Saturday. At the REI garage sale. I guess there's more than one way to be outdoorsy.
