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The new Mountaineers climbing wall at Magnusson is extremely cool.

So extremely cool, in fact that it utterly defeated Sam and I.

Oh wells, we had fun goggling at it and chasing the resident crow away from our leftovers until he wickedly spilled both of our sodas in vengeance.. Then I took him(Sam, not the mettlesome corvid) to the Brig(where I teach clay class) and showed him the cool whale sculpture and the pea patch and we ate lots of raspberries and then went on a gelato procuring mission, starting with the kidnapping of BB so that she could come eat gelato and go walkies at Greenlake.

More wall, whale and walkies pics here.

Sam drew these bizarre characters on a gigantic sheet of paper.

(clicketty click to embiggen)

It was so big we had to slice it in half to scan it in.

(click to enlarge)

MWAHAHAHAHAH!!!

My favorite organic cotton socks were getting a bit too threadbare in the heels, so I converted ‘em into fingerless mitts.

Yay! Toasty hands. Just the thing for a chilly sculptor girl.

To celebrate, I walked around Greenlake this morning after dropping Sam off at the bustop, my hands nice and warm, even without my usual hot cup of chai.

As I completed my circuit in the glorious sunshine, I stopped to admire a napping covey of ducks, heads all neatly tucked in under their wings. Except for this one fellow-no napping for him, he was all about the yoga! In the midst of all his lazy companions, this one was standing on one leg, other leg raised horizontal in unison with his extended wing, sun shining off his lovely green head.

Tree pose, mallard style.

My friend Snybod wrote this awesome article on our tanking credit-happy economy.

My favorite quote:

‘Because when we ignore future consequences, we can make lots of money with the lie that giving money to the rich will improve everyone’s life. My little perpetual motion machine works great as long as you guys turn the handle, and you guys drop money in it, and you guys pour in natural resources, and you guys clean up the trail of sludge it leaves behind, and you guys bend the rules to allow it to get bigger, and you guys pocket some blood money, and I take the profits and run. Who in this scenario is guilty of short-term thinking? Every person participating who cares more about money than about the future. We are all guilty.’

Amen, Snybod!

And speaking of amen, did you happen to see his post on Christians worshipping the Golden Bull of Mammon?

Snort!!!

My new friend Maya lured me off to ‘A Night of Transformation’, a Toltec wisdom performance event saturday evening.

The ginormous beehive of the Nexus Hotel near the Northgate mall seemed quite an incongruous location for such an earthy, spiritual event, but it mattered not-it gave us enough space for transformation, enough space for the band to play, for the stories to blossom, for our spirits to rise!

So invigorating to see men of wisdom speak! Tell story, sing, share music and art. Don Jose Ruiz sitting there(smiling this huge smile like the sun shining on every single wildflower in a brilliant mountain meadow) and giving us his blessing through stories. I loved watching Eric painting, his firey artwork taking shape under the spell of the music and magic. The singers and musicians fueling our yearning and encouraging our spirits with their poignant, funny and tender songs.

I love Don Jose’s Abraham Lincoln quote: ‘When you do bad, you feel bad, when you do good, you feel good’. What a simple, easily graspable, explanation of karma! And his recounting of the joyous memory of hundreds of metalheads OMing at an Ozzy Ozborne concert, and the vision of humans, us, ordinary human beings, as angels, fully capable for change, of taking back our world.

Right here, right now, every day, we are the angels, we can take our world back. That makes my heart so happy, so happy.

And Maya, oh miss Maya, marvelous, dancin’, skippin’, tiny, soft, strong, dynamite papaya woman. So glad to welcome you to my tribe! Many thanks to Yoni for bringing you to my nest and to you for lifting my heart, hearing my poems, reveling in snuggles and chocolate, giant leaves and foggy worlds, for purple cauliflower, for giggles and rubbing my feet…

More pics here.

I love it when my family grows.

One of my students, as she was sculpting a clay salamander, asked me if they have ears?

I didn’t know, but the Interwebs revealed all when I got home. They have inner ears, but not middle or outer ears. So their ears are not visible on the outside and they use their lungs to carry vibrations to their inner ears to hear the sounds around them.

Can’t wait to tell Margaret.

Cherie sent me some pics she took at the Sensual Repast.

I flickr’d ‘em along with the original set.

Enjoy!

Ever since tuesday evening, I’ve been floating on the delightful feeling of having a president who is:

1. Intelligent
2. Informed
3. Capable
4. NOT STUPID
5. Open minded
6. Celebrates diversity
7. Did I mention NOT STUPID?
8. Actually gives a shit about people and the planet.
9. Is not a war monger
10. Is not likely to humiliate us every goddamn time he opens his mouth on the world stage.

God, it’s like xmas came early this year! Woohoooooooo! Election night, Sam and I were so happy we celebrated our new president by melting chocolate chips on waffles, drinking kombucha, doin’ the presidential happy dance~

~and generally being on goofy cloud nine.

Cat let out his inner devil and took Sam along for the ride this Halloween. Luckily, our kitchen is round, so I cast a protective circle of chocolate chips to keep them at bay. It worked for Sam anyway-perhaps I should try kibbles next time as well..

Halloween weekend rocked too-Delayne came down and we partied like mad gypsy devils.

First, with Rachael on friday night at the Church of Bass and then with Rita and Ben at the Metaphorest.

AAAAIIEEEEEE! My eyes!!! They really tag teamed the Visual Assault costumes.

More halloweeny pics here.

To add to all the yumminess, Yoni popped up again, with his lovely new friend, Maya. We had the bestest time snuggling our sunday morning away and then bustin’ ass to help my momma move a desk.. Well, mostly Maya and I ‘helped’ by giggling, skipping and scoping out the boys as they moved the desk, but we did carry the top of it in, so I call assbustin’ props.

Then mom read tarot for Yoni and Maya read Yantra cards(her very own tarot deck!) for me.

A weekend of the very finest. Sigh, I have the most deliciousest of friends ever!

XKCD cracks me up-when I’m not in over my not-so-geeky head.

On nihilism, on making the world a weirder place, on google maps, on overanthropomorphizing machinery and of course, for today, the election: