Random Acts of Christmas Kindness

I was invited to a facebook group today that was dedicated to random acts of Christmas kindness. The group was based on  this blog and I really liked the idea. I wanted to replicated the intentions without the religious aspects.

I found this organization that seemed to fit the bill. I liked the idea of striving for random kindness year round. In the spirit of the original though I am going to approach the month of December in an especially random kindness kind of way.

I've made a list of some of the random activities I would like to attempt this month. A number of these ideas were borrowed for the original blog, and a few are though up by me, and others are inspired from random sources. I will add to the list as the month goes on as I think of other random acts of kindness I can include.


*Grocery shopping for the sole purpose of putting it in the “Food for Families” box in the entryway of the store
*Taping quarters to vending and toy machines around town
*Pay past due library fees for 5 people
 *Shop for toys to donate to the girl scouts Christmas tree in the mall
*Donate pet food to the Newport Aquarium on their night of lights
*Give money to the salvation army bell ringers
*All December I am going to say "Yes" when store clerks ask me if I want to round up to the even dollar to donate to whatever they are raising money for




I won't be able to do one for every day in December, but I will keep my eye out for additional opportunities all month.

Thanksgiving came and went, and I was only able to make it to 20, on my list of things I am thankful for. I did spend my three days off in a general mood of thankfulness. (Mostly thankful for three days off.) It was also good to spend time with the family, and neighbors and eat a ton of good food.

I started my day off with peppermint flavored coffee with peppermint flavered whip cream and peppermint flavoted  pink marshmallows on top. This was a very decadent morning drink, made even more wonderful when I added peppermint schnapps! 

 My Tofurky roast before I cooked it. I though it looked very pretty, although I was uncertain about how it would taste at this point. 

As the Tofurky was cooking I made fruit kebabs, sliced apples and dip, The dip was a mix of marshmallow puff mix and cream cheese, and is delicious! The fruit kebab/marshmallow mix is quickly becoming one of my favorite dished to make and contribute to a get together or pot luck. 

This is the chocolate cake that came with the Tofurky dinner; I just added some powdered sugar over the top and sliced it in to little pieces. 

Once my Tofurky was cooked I sliced it and added the gravy. At this point I couldn't resist trying some, and found it to be tasty. It sure looked good, and even the meet eaters in the group tried a bit and agreed. 

This was our Thanksgiving spread, minus the quiche I made because I forgot it in the stove. The turkey potato salad were made by my mother, and our neighbor brought us the home grown carrots, homemade pickles, and home smoked locally caught salmon. We also had cooked winter squash and hummus. 

 We also got to try the Rogue Brewery bacon maple ale and a pumpkin spiced ale, and enjoyed them both quite a bit. I loved the pink bottle that the bacon maple ale came in. 

(No, its not a vegetarian friendly drink I recognized that it might not be the beer of choice for most people avoiding meat.) 

Storm Day

Yesterday and today were pretty story days on the central Oregon coast. We experienced sustaind winds of 40-50 miles per hour, and gusts up to 80 mph. I was woken up a lot during the night by wind and rain, and was able to watch a lot of the storm from my beach house window. This morning I wend out for coffee and drove down to the south jetty to check out the storm waves. I found the seagull staging area. There were hundreds of birds setting in the parking lot riding out the storm. Most of the birds were seagulls but a number of them were pelicans. Just as I was taking some pictures someone pulled up and let their dog out of the car. The dog went hog wild chasing the seagulls around, and I got some more great bird pictures. 

In the afternoon I met up with a friend and we deiced to explore the Oregon Coast Aquarium. I love this aquarium and have visited many times over the years. It's a pretty good opportunity to get some fun pictures if you have the patents and the critters will hold kind of still. These are the three I took that I really liked. 

Rock fish in a reef

Pacific Sea Nettle Jelly Fish 

Pacific Giant Octopus 

I was especially excited to get a semi clear picture of that octopus. The octopus doesn't come out of his hole very often, and he was moving around the cage pretty fast, I took maybe 10 pictures, and this was the only one that you could even tell what was in it. 

Wall Art

This is a little piece of art that is hanging on the wall of the the beach house I'm staying at. I find it very intriguing. It has an old fishing village feel that reminds me of growing up in a small coastal town. Its very comforting. 

Beach House

I'm renting a beach house for this week before Thanksgiving. I wanted a place to relax a little before all the family stress that comes with this holiday. I love beach houses! I like the psychology of having a place to retreat to.

I've noticed a lot of aspects of this kind of place that really appeals to me. I like how they are minimalist. Beach houses don't get cluttered with expensive useless junk. Usually they are just functional places with an atmosphere that is the opposite of pretentious. I like how they can get dirty, floors can get sandy, you can put your feet on the couches, you can leave beer cans on the porch.

The beach house I am renting has a personality. The sink will flood if you don't leave the spray nozzle hanging down. The door sticks and one fireplace can't be used. I'm exceedingly glad to be here! :-)

Thanksgiving Blog #2

11. To live somewhere so close to the ocean
12. To live somewhere with a mild climate
13. To live in a country that still has places that are truly “wild”
14. The way the world smells after it rains
15. New socks
16. Unlimited possibilities
17. Knowing myself
18. Having direction
19. Technology
20. Free e-books

I'm starting to loose steam on the things I am thankful for. I'll need to put some real effort in to it if I want to get anywhere near 100.

Cenosillocaphobia ...

Cenosillocaphobia - The fear of an empty glass.
Tonight's word brought to you by the Fat Tire Amber Ale I am drinking as I marathon watch the second season of Glee.

Beer is a 6,000 year old beverage, that an impressive amount of staying power for a human invention. That puts beer right up there with the wheel in  my book.  I am a fan.

Prompt: Name something you lost or gave away that can never be replaced.

My farther was out of town working during my 16th birthday. He called to wish me a happy birthday and got our answering machine. He left the following message singing: "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Katherine, Your daddy loves you." He sang it to the tune of Happy Birthday. I made a recording of it and kept it for years. At one point the cassette  got mixed up with a bunch of blank ones and I copied over it on accident. I still regret loosing that.

Thanksgiving Blog #1

For Thanksgiving week, I want to challenge myself to come up with 100 things I am thankful for. Today I came up with my first ten.

1. My health
2. Being physically capable
3. My educational opportunities
4. Having a job that I love
5. Feeling inspired by my research
6. The diversity of my family
7. Having roots
8. Real friends
9. Anna
10. My year of extensive travels with no car troubles

Paper Lanterns

I plan to make paper lanterns for the winter solstice, it seems like a good way to celebrate the darkest night of the year.

The link to the directions are here: Paper Lanterns

I hope they are a successes and I can get some of my own pictures.

10 Best Guilty Pleasures

My 10 favorite guiltily pleasures:
1. Visiting the spa
2. Driving down the coast for fun
3. True solitude
4. Large glasses of red wine
5. Extended hikes
6. Weekend vacations
7. Clothes shopping
8. Hulu/Netflix
9. Trashy paperbacks
10. Facebook

The Lazy Post (70 Question Meme)

First, my thoughts on meme. I love them, sometimes I think they are so incredibly stupid its hard to believe they got to meme status, but I guess you could say that about their biological counterpart, the gene, as well. The words "meme" is modeled after the word "gene" and derives from the Greek word "mimeme" which means "something imitated". In short at meme is "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." (Wikipedia)

I like the idea of a cultural "gene".

So here goes the 70 questions. (Some questions are missing, they were deleted by the person who took this before me. I really wonder what was there!)

1. Are your parents married or divorced? Divorced. Just two months ago actually, but my mom has been living with me for a year.


2. Are you a vegetarian? Yes? Pescetarian actually, I still eat fish and seafood.


3. Do you believe in Heaven? No, only on earth.


4. Have you ever come close to dying? Yes; I could of died easily in one of two four-wheeling accidents I've been in. I fell right and broke a collarbone instead of a neck. I don't ride four-wheelers anymore either.


5. What jewelery do you wear 24/7? I have a ring I wear on my right had pretty much every day. No reason, I just never take it off, and I like have a little jewelry on. I also wear a meteorite necklace most days. I like having the constant reminder of the vastness of the universe and eons of time past and future. It helps me remember I am just a very small blip, and my challenges are not as overwhelming as I let them feel at times. This is a very comforting thought to me. When I'm reminded how fleeting existence is here on earth, I make it a priority to live in the moment, and strive for substance and joy in my life.


6. Favorite time of day? Pre-Dawn; especially in the summer.


7. Do you eat the stems of broccoli? Yes, most of them, usually with home made peanut sauce.


8. Do you wear makeup? Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, and usually none.


9. Ever have plastic surgery? No.


11. What do you wear to bed? Given the privacy, noda.


12. Have you ever done anything illegal? I once went 8 miles over the speed limit! Thank god I didn't get caught at that!


13. Can you roll your tongue? No....


14. Do you tweeze your eyebrows? Yes. And wax on occasion. It helps me look pretty!


15. What kind of sneakers? The kind with laces?


16.Do you believe in Abortions? Yes. I believe people should do everything in their power to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place. Including free birth control of any kind to anyone, man or woman. I am very pro-choice.


17. What is your Hair color? Brown.


18. Future child’s name? I'm not really planning on having any, so I picking out names is beyond silly.


19. Do you snore? Sometimes.


20. If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be? In this world!? That's such a limited scope, but I guess I will say.... New Zealand.


21. Do you sleep with stuffed animals? No. But I do still have some very special one that live on my dresser. And hopefully not in a childish, never-going-to-grow-up kind of way.


22. If you won the lottery, what would you do first? Start a long term investing plan, and buy a house. Absolutely first though, I would probably buy a six-pack.


23. Gold or silver? Wood....


24. Hamburger or hot dog? Veggie Burger


25. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Sushi


26. City, beach or country? Country


27. What was the last thing you touched? Keyboard, mouse, cellphone.


28. Where did you eat last? Door room table.


29. When’s the last time you cried? Teared up a few days ago, just for the hell of it. A good cry every non and then is very relaxing.


30. Do you read blogs? I have some favorites.


31. Would you ever go out dressed like the opposite sex? What like, sneakers, tees, and loose fitting jeans.... that's pretty easy to say yes to.


32. Ever been involved with the police? I've been first upon the seen of an accident multiple times. So yes.


33. What’s your favourite shampoo conditioner and soap? Umm, the bulk kind from Cosco.


34. Do you talk in your sleep? Not that I've ever known of.


35. Ocean or pool? Ocean.


36. So, who has the original missing questions? I don't understand this question.


37. Who would you take on a ménage à trois for a dirty weekend? I don't understand this question either. You are assuming we want a menage a trois, I'd rather not have the extra witness for my dirty weekends.


38. Window seat or aisle? Window hands down. I love to watch the ground/clouds go past. Landing is my FAVORITE part.


39. Ever met anyone famous? Not that I know of.


40. Do you feel that you’ve had a truly successful life?Yes, and its going to get better.


41. Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it? I rarely eat spaghetti.


42. Ricki Lake or Oprah Winfrey?....


43. Basketball or Football? ....


44. How long do your showers last? About 15 minutes


45. Automatic or do you drive a stick? Both. My car is an automatic, my field pickup is a stick.


46. Cake or ice cream? Ice Cream


47. Are you self-conscious? Yes, a lot, but I've learned to ignore it.


48. Have you ever drank so much you threw up? Yes, one word. Margaritas.


49. Have you ever given money to a beggar? No, I like to keep my money.


50. Have you been in love? Not the head-over-heals-forever kind. The deep lasting friendship kind, yes.


51. Where do you wish you were? Vacations, anywhere.


52. Are you wearing socks? Yes.


53. Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? No.


54. Can you tango? No.


55. Last gift you received? Awesome colored candles.


56. Last sport you played? Frisbee golf


57. Things you spend a lot of money on? Food, and gas (I drive way more than is healthy for me or the environment.)


58. Where do you live? The West Coast.


59. Where were you born? The West Coast..


60. Last wedding attended? My best friends from college!


63. Most hated food(s)? Meat I guess. Bacon, they try to sneak that in to everything!


65. Can you sing? Not at all


66. Last person you instant messaged? TeeJay


67. Last place you went on holiday? New Mexico


68. Favourite regular drink? Hot tea


69. Current Song? Silence

Small Reflections

I’m one year into my graduate program in Fisheries and I’ve come to the conclusion that I kind of suck at writing. At least I suck at the kind of writing I’m supposed to be doing. I also suffer from an incredible lack of motivation. I just don’t feel as involved with my scientific writing as I use to with my creative writing. Maybe the lack of emotional involvement with my science papers is part of my lethargy. Or maybe I just don’t have the time to sit and write something with the focus that is required to perform technical writing. Experts in the field suggest finding large blacks of time to set aside for writing (full days or weeks in some cases). I have been working 7 days a week, exhaustion and stress about school and work often make it hard to focus enough to get words down on paper. On good day, I get an hour or two of free time between classes and work. It can take me a good half an hour to get situated and in the mindset to write. This just doesn’t seem be sufficient, and so I skip the process entirely.  I’d honestly rather just take a nap.

I know that I need to find time to practice and improve my writing. Until then, I hope this blog can be something I create in those few hours I do have, and that it will function as an exercise that will help stimulate and inspire the writer in me. 

Back to Blogging

I use to blog a lot and I liked it. I find that I've missed the self reflection I gained by setting down and processing life events. I'm going to try this again. I think my life could gain more clarity by an increase in self reflection regardless of the subject.