Canoe Trip

Florida is for lovers!

So Nicole and I decided to enjoy some warm weather and sun down in Naples Florida.

The best part was canoeing with the whole family out to this amazing beach.

Playing with the kids and making a mad dash back to the airport.

My arms were burning on the way back.

 

Art and Sierra were the best hosts allowing us to steal their car for a day!

We went down to the everglades and enjoyed an amazing swamp boat tour. 

I was laughing the whole time as we raced toward a wall of bushes and 

would turn at the last moment down a small path just wide enough for the boat. 

The driver would seriously get us as close to branches as possible. Such a blast!

We ate lunch next to a gator pond and they were begging for some yummy PBJs. 

We also took out the Canoe and found a little cove of mangroves. 

The place was teaming with crabs and all kinds of wildlife.

This was the funniest moment ever! We get back to the dock to pull out the canoe and it is super slippery!

Colie gets out and cannot move an inch! I think i can do it so I get out and immediately slide onto my back!

So funny, we were laughing for hours and still are laughing about that moment.

We went out on a dock and watched the sunset with the family.

So fun as we raced back down the dock with the kids. 

Needless to say Colie won. She always does.

And when i am lucky to be with her, I win. 

Lucky Big Apple

I met a girl named Nicole Herway. She is heaven sent and she makes me happy. Our lucky first date and kiss was on the 17th of March, St Patricks' day and I swept her off her feet via a motorcycle tour of Salt Lake. So we decided to go on a few trips. First to New York to visit her brother and to see the Broadway play Mary Poppins. We found a nifty little park dedicated to Irish immigrants on the lower west side overlooking the Hudson because her brother was serving his mission in Jersey at the time, just across the river. We did a lot of walking and talking and even read a bit of the alchemist in central park. I dominated the subway system there and only got us off track once. Each day we had a few key points to see and visit and a few were specifically decided based on food. I found this restaurant online that had great reviews and so if you ever make it to central park in the morning you have to go to Good enough to eat.

 I had yummy egg salsa thing with tortillas mixed in and Nicole had pumpkin pecan french toast with homemade everything on it. She loves her french toast. We spent a day at the MET and picked out all the old furniture we would want to have someday.   On our way out there were tons of people assembled and so we waited a minute to see a parade of black limos cruise by with the president in one of them. 
Kinda cool, depending on your opinion of the president or maybe you affinity towards black limos or we could stretch it and say you enjoy just being in big crowds of people. So Broadway is not really all it is cracked up to be, probably just way cooler. Mary Poppins is practically perfect. Having performed in a number of plays throughout my own childhood I have learned to recognize talented acting and they did really well. 

    And we snuggled and we kissed and we laughed and it was great, I MEAN AMAZING!!!! Luckiest man EVER!!!

Zuni and friends

New Mexico

What a trip! Crazy fun times! Flew down to Albuquerque New Mexico, the land of enchantment!
And boy were we enchanted. Fun hikes with Telia and kids. Yummy dinners and warm nights at the Anderson's Zuni home. A trip of first to visit Grandma packer in Farmington. My first pedicure and waltz dance lessons. Love night drives into the starry skies, looking into starry eyes. The res dogs on long walks. The mini coup top down drive back to Albuquerque was legendary. A few minor delays at the airport and then back to school. I am lucky to have such an accomplished traveler to make such trips fun and exciting. Seriously, never a dull moment! Thank you Colie my love!

Yearning VS Earning

I had a good case of yearning vs earning recently with this guy. Went on a trip to IKEA and it was a total blast. My sole purpose of the trip was to purchase a 10 space bookcase organizer to label Monday through Friday for organizing school books and various needs for the upcoming week. Was ready to purchase it, wrote down the code, enjoyed exploring the rest of the store and then finally making it to the warehouse to realize
and discover they were all out of these in wood or white finish. Well shoot. That was sad, at least they got us to buy some Swedish meatballs for some lucky future evening. So I started thinking about the next trip i would have to make down to Ikea in order to come pick up one of these bad boys and decided that I could probably just buy the lumber and make one myself for cheaper. Ikea is a good hour drive away, where as I could go to Home Depot and get what I want and be back in an hour. So home depot it was. Bought the wood, went home and started putting things together and realized I either had to go get more wood to make it work or better tools and more accurate building environment. I opted out for more wood. Initially purchasing the 1" wood for shelving required accurate cuts to create sturdy and usable shelves. Option B (B is for better) involved 2" wood for shelving that requires less accurate cuts and can more easily be screwed together for durable long lasting usability. Only real setback is the weight. It is best to first find out were your putting it and then just build it in place. And if your crazy enough to have a piece of furniture in your home this heavy and stand it upright, make sure its secured to the wall somehow.

IKEA bookcase - $70.00

Home Depot Lumber - $110.00

Building your own furnature - Priceless

This is my hope and dream in its fullest degree.

The Goodwin Project from Avocados and Coconuts on Vimeo.

Its a wonderful world

I am sorry

So its been a long time and I do apologize from the bottom of my heart the absence i have had from homes and dreams. To better explain the time apart you have to see the other blog i was working on. Well its more like a tumbler. But its just so quick and instant and I did not have to think about anything or share my true feelings or worry about how something was spelled, so I past a few months with her and have felt a small sense of joy in sharing cool pictures and expressing myself through other peoples pictures, but I am back and excited to be writing again and sharing more of myself, a deeper inner part of me that no longer cares about what the reader is getting out of this, more than anything I have decided that hopes and dreams will be a place to just talk and express myselve. Enjoy.

http://buffalomayroam.tumblr.com/

Ear Candy

Have been listening to this about once a day for the last little while. And by last little while I mean more like two months.

Tomato Planter Box

Whelp, usually there is leftover wood lying around the house due to random projects we continue to have. After adding shelves to our downstairs storage room we have a few two by fours and some plywood leftover. Put together with a few leather straps leftover from the wilderness and WHAM!!! Tomato planter box! So i bought four tomato plants to fill it up. And they like the fresh air up on the second story balcony. Here they are freshly planted and this is the beauties after a couple of good sunny summer months. I have spotted about four or five tomatoes starting in. I purchased two generic grocery store plants and the other two I got at an awesome garden shop that sells heirloom tomato plants. Its funny to think that for some reason these ones are from better stock and will probably have some social issues like they were home schooled or something. So that is the idea, pin them up with some locals and hope for the best. The two heirlooms include a green tomato known as the black prince and another called Beef Heart Tomatoes. They sound delicious and that they could be fairly huge in size. We are all excited here at the blue house and cant wait for the harvest. We have been having mock caprese parties warming us up for the day when our basil and tomatoes will meet in a blaze of balsamic vinegar and french bread.

New beginings

So i moved into a new place, which has taking over my everyday actions as far as settling in and making myself at home.

And now that all is said and done I am excited to call it my new home.

Built some stuff for it as well that makes it easier to call home. Work includes magnetizing and chalk boarding the door.

Building my new bed four feet off the ground.

Building out the closet.

Rearranging everything to fit just right.

Star Party

Its wednesday night and you know what that means, physics department opening up its doors for the curious to gaze up at the stars through their telescopes. So far I have seen the moon which much detail, so much so I snapped this shot with my phones camera.

We also looked at the dumbbell nebula, with the light pollution however it looked more like a cloud. A cloud of stars.

And then right before I was thinking of leaving, they move the big telescope and we all were able to gander on Jupiter. Star party.

For some reason

I cant get over the thought and hope that with enough effort I could someday raise a bear cub and have it as a pet for my children to play with.





And I think these would be cool plates to eat off of.

Year of the TIGER!!!

A little late but not so sorry...
As of February 14th the Year of the Tiger began:

Tigers are physically powerful, gracious, independent and brave, they are extremely bold animals. They are friendly and loving but can also selfish and short tempered. Tigers seek attention and power; frequently they are envious in a relation. Tigers live dangerously which often leads to trouble. They are intolerant, take risks and are always searching for excitement. Tigers are also instilled with a good dose of courage.
The Tiger has an overpowering attraction and is very kind and always takes on the character as protector. The Tiger flourishes by power and attention and takes advantage of all circumstances it gets itself into. The Tiger is a natural leader and loves to be the centre of attention. As a rebel it goes up against authority and speaks out about wrongs in society, and willingly puts up objections. Even if you don’t agree with the beliefs of the tiger you admire his way to protest. Just as how their counterparts in the jungle are impulsive, so too are individuals born in the Chinese Year of the Tiger.
When people think of tigers, it is their vigor and power that comes to mind first. But it has also been noted that tigers are known to share and are unselfish animals. The reason people admire the tiger is due to the fact that they are ferocious and domineering on the outside, but they are just as noble and distinguished on the inside. These are the same personality attributes that persons will have who are born in the Year of the Tiger.

So be bold, be brave and be courageous. And do it quick as we only have until February 10th 2011.

Its not so bad

Day two - Master Cleanse

11:40 PM - 200.5 LB

Kind of a cop out not eating today. The food shared at our break the fast was so delicious and I limited myself to living foods. Greens or mostly greens. The tea has not yet produced the effect I was looking or hoping for, maybe with more time. Tomorrow the true cleansing begins.

Seven Years in Tibet

Great Movie, nothing like the book. I hope that the book is seen for its historical content as compared with the movies false personalities and story lines. The book adds a sincere sense of life and death that the group faced within the many months wandering from Indian through Tibeten countryside in winter. Eventually actualizing their dreams of reaching the forbidden city of Lhasa and being granted permission to live there during the war. Greeted constantly by the hospitality of the Tibetan people who gave of precious food supplies to support these two escaped German climbers considered prisoners of the English war efforts. With strict respect for ancient tradition the Tibetan people had effectively kept the outside world from deteriorating their strict love for one another and family and giving to all those in need. Refreshing to come across when compared to the society we currently live in. Granted it was not a perfect place, the upper plateaus of Tibet were littered with bandits who fall upon all they come across with lies and deceptions and tricks to steal all their possessions or murder them. Many of these bandits victims were pilgrims who had been traveling great distances at a serious cost to themselves and their standings. I could continue on and on about the book. Perhaps the primitive nature of their surroundings and customs that is most alluring to the senses longing for a society where all ants and worker bees fulfilled duties with an yearning to support the structure of the nest, hive, community, government, or country.

I love Brad Pitts work in Seven Years in Tibet and his other movies during that time period. But Heinrich Harrer is the true German climber of whom the story is told better in word than motion picture and hopefully someday they will make the movie of his story in Tibet.

The Master Cleanse

The Master Cleanse
Day 1. Research and Deploy

4:51 PM - 204 lbs.
So far my plans have included a last meal and purchasing a laxative tea that I might have just drank to much of. I read the directions after I started drinking it. I have tried this before and have never truly prepared for it properly. I am overcome with resolute commitment to following the cleanse until I purge myself of the physiological need to eat. Lots of reading worshiping the porcelain shrine is in store for my future ten to twelve days. I have noticed discomforts in my abdominal region for some time now and know its time to take over and get back my bowels. Herbal tea should be doing its thing hopefully prior to my soccer game at around 9 o'clock this evening. Its about five and I am not sure if its the workout I just had or the herbal tea causing that rumbling in my tumbler.....

The best running shoe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The best running shoe may be none at all, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

Sports | Health | Lifestyle

Runners who eschew shoes may be less likely to do serious injury to their feet, because they hold their feet differently, Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and colleagues found.

Writing in the journal Nature, they said runners who wear shoes tend to hit the ground with their heels first, whereas barefoot runners put the balls of the feet down first.

"People who don't wear shoes when they run have an astonishingly different strike," Lieberman said in a statement.

"By landing on the middle or front of the foot, barefoot runners have almost no impact collision, much less than most shod runners generate when they heel-strike," Lieberman added.

"Most people today think barefoot running is dangerous and hurts, but actually you can run barefoot on the world's hardest surfaces without the slightest discomfort and pain. All you need is a few calluses to avoid roughing up the skin of the foot."

Lieberman and his colleagues at Harvard, the University of Glasgow, and Kenya's Moi University studied runners who had always run barefoot, those who had always worn shoes and runners who had abandoned shoes.

Barefoot runners had a springier step overall, and used their calf and foot muscles more efficiently, they found.

Demonstrations can be seen here.

People used to running in shoes should not start barefoot trotting right away, Lieberman cautioned. "If you've been a heel-striker all your life, you have to transition slowly to build strength in your calf and foot muscles," he said.

But he noted that evolution is on his side.

"Humans have engaged in endurance running for millions of years, but the modern running shoe was not invented until the 1970s," Lieberman said. Rival German companies Adidas and Puma made running shoes a household item.

Running shoes are big business. Nike Inc had $4.4 billion in revenue in its second quarter.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Book presents

I was been given great books this year. First was Three Cups of Tea-
Alpine climbers lost in the Himalayas stumble upon a village that receives and aids the lost climbers. Climbers promise to return and build schools and have continued to do so to this day throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan and all along the Himalayas. Their efforts have proven concrete evidence of education as a weapon against terrorism, far more effective than terror itself. Awesome.
Second was The Last American Man-
Recounts the events in the life of an outdoor enthusiast who sets out to teach all those he comes in contact with the benefits of living a more primitive lifestyle. Through thick and thin the hero lives his ways and in also sets records for equestrian feats. Eustace Conway is said hero and has his own 1000 acres where he farms in a primitive way and lives off the land as well as holds a camp for teaching future generations the benefits of being a real human. I cried at times and laughed many times, maybe even a mixture of both once or twice.

This is the year of the books. So far so good. Theodore Roosevelt used to read a book each day before breakfast. His biography is next on the list. Its a workout just opening and I hope to be a stronger person after having read it. To little emphasis is put on studying these greats today. Caught up in the rush of technology I feel there is a lot of good stuff falling through the cracks. It feels so good to finish a book. I can actually feel my lexicon growing. And it feels delicious.

The Song of the Earth

I live in memory
But I am not any such thing that you can touch as a pleasure, or lust for spring
Sing the song of the earth and know everything

I am a lazy river forgotten within you
But I am not any such thing you can deny
Sing the song of the earth and you must cry from the waves lapping at your door

We all fawn overreaching beyond humble goals
Thinking that by trying or dying we needn't finish what we started
Sing the song of the earth and millions die
Telling stories backwards

We rumble our feet to no response
Cut down every tree to count the rings
Hallow to the core her supple body
And demand the void to come before us
Sing the song of the earth and know the secret is no seeker after all

We sing the song of the earth as we rest
As the old scenes are worn down with rain
Children are allowed to forget
So we live as memory and they live tomorrow

The song of the earth is never done
So sing it as it must be sung
Into my ear she'll listen
Confessing all

-Billy Corgan

Seven Dwarfes, where is Snow white?

Seven Strong all mining away,
In and out from day to day,
The dishes pile and sparks fly,
Till strong words make dishes dry.

The living room can seat us all,
Such a siting would need a call,
Not made by mere porto phone,
But by tromp of sturdy horn.

With intent of course to band together,
And galliently go out against the weather,
To vanquish foes and trample weeds
And establish some sort of creed,

To be upheld for years to come,
By many a citizen old and young,
But alas the dream awakes,
And we find that each of us takes

Different turns and different strides,
As each desire to band subsides,
For alone we hope for different things,
As taught through different upbringing:

"In this world you can accomplish
Anything you set out to do,
So beware others wishes and wants with you,
For you they will use to catch their fish,

And you'll watch them eat it
and waste some too,
And all you'll be left with,
Is their pile of poo."

So what now of the seven fellows,
Where can we find a common bellow
To shoot in one accord and song,
And become a band of seven strong?

Where than is our great snow white,
And where than is adventures gate.
Hidden well from youthful eyes,
So secretly and quitly it hides.

Twisting through our ways and lives,
Plundering husbands and wifes,
Whispering evil shards of glass,
It lies in wait amongst the grass.

Eating through our pocket books,
Snickering in smoke filled nooks,
trolling the banks of every shore,
Hoping we never hear his roar.

For on this day blindedly so,
We fight with every step we go,
To uphold ourselves as best we can,
And in so doing united stand.

With courage held in blinded band,
Grab fast the heroic masters hand,
With daily thank and words of mouth,
We beg the hero for his help,

For soon the lighted banners fly,
From all across the sunlit sky,
Tears of joy and gladness commence,
The heros come for recompence.

To reign with sword held high in hand,
His faithful who did not disband,
The ones he choose to do his work,
And did so daily without a shirk.

Great tales will be told,
For ages before and after,
Those who were there,
Have given to the air.