la chaise dans le rouge

(trans. "the chair in red")

i absolutely love and adore this painting. it is the polar opposite of what i wrote my dissertation on (minimalism, donald judd, marfa before the art boom, etc.) but i have to admit that i totally enjoy living with this art. it couldn't be more emotionally-based if it tried--it is french post-impressionism at its best, and this artist displays such a great understanding of matisse and his use of color and line. i love the organic lines of the chair--it looks like it could wiggle off the canvas and make itself at home in my living room. come visit my new awesome painting anytime!

going really green

sophie lounging in her favorite chair

so this is what has been consuming me for the past couple of weeks rather more than usual. we have always been pretty green--recycling whatever we can, donating anything usable that we do not need, buying used rather than new whenever possible, having only one car for the two of us for 12 years (and buying a hybrid when we finally did have to buy a second car), having a greywater system, etc.--but i think we can do better. i really want to install a 3 kW photovoltaic system on my roof and become my own mini-power plant. and i absolutely resent the fact that i had to buy a transformer when i moved in, so i want to sell energy back to PNM and just use them as a backup source. we have more square footage than we need and a giant flat roof that is just begging for PV panels...has anyone else done this?

we have to refinance our mortgage to pay for the f-ing sewer hook-up (don't even ask--i'll post pictures of the violence done to our beautiful, park-like backyard later), so now would be a good time to get money out of the house. we have this dream that 5 years from now i will have an electric car (as most of my trips are 20 miles or less around town) and rich will have a plug-in hybrid, so our transportation will be close to free if we go solar (as well as our household energy costs). our natural gas costs are high as well, but i can't figure out a solution to that.

what else can we do?

we're back...

...after a much-needed yet somehow exhausting trip to texas! gus, sophie and i went last sunday to go visit my parents in houston/washington-on-the-brazos, while rich took a lovely trip to key largo, florida ALL BY HIMSELF. lucky bastard. we had fun in texas--gus got to ride little man, sophie met a bunch of people she never even dreamed existed, and i ate wonderfully delicious chicken fried steak. we were all gone for about a week, but now we are back for what is promising to be a very hot, very bright summer here in new mexico. enjoy the pictures!

DAY 1--(no photos--too exhausted from wrestling a screaming sophie on the plane)


DAY 2--come meet sophie party at my mom's house

sophie warily checking out arms that want to hold her

aunt lindsay and sophie

me with my party face frozen on tight

gus and sophie

sophie, aunt lindsay and jake

mom, gus, and aunt lindsay's backside

look at this beautiful centerpiece!


DAY 3--swimming at aunt lindsay's house

gus and godzilla

zilla and gus

sophie and maddox the dog (who hated her!)

aunt katie swimming with gus and sophie (who couldn't quite wait to get her bathing suit on...)

sophie and aunt katie

such a contented baby!

if gus could curse fluently, i can imagine he would have much to say right now

he did eventually hold the snake


DAY 4--driving to the farm

my mom

gus, being 7, and tyler the dog

a non-screaming sophie and tyler (she's just resting until the next round)


DAY 5--at the farm

gus, finally living the life he was born to live...

...and the apex of it all is that he FINALLY has a TV in his room

did i mention gus can drive now?

gus and little man

and again, on a trail ride

dad, gus and (the other) tom o

and they're off again

"is dinner ready yet?"


DAY 6--aunt katie comes to visit (with barry and aunt ashley)

aunt katie

by this time driving is old hat for gus

as is 4-wheelering

gus and barry (aunt katie's boyfriend) flying a kite in some pretty awesome weather

gus did a great job with the wind!

aunt katie, about two seconds before the kite took a nosedive and smashed into her (she was fine)


ANIMALS

horses...

...pretty, pretty horses

astrid number one meets the newest member of the herd, astrid number two, who is a beautiful little palomino (whose mommy also has dark hair)

sophie looking at the longhorns--the one in the middle, with the pepperoni-pizza styled marking on his forehead is augustusroni

this is a new herd for my dad--black angus with a couple of dutch belted cattle (definitely not a vanity herd)

argiope spiders--also known as zipper spiders, yellow garden spiders, or banana spiders. these guys are everywhere around the farm, are big, and a wee bit aggressive but not poisonous. still, they will freak you out.


DAY 7--on the way home

how sophie saw her brother

gus, with his noise-cancelling headphones on and me about to have a nervous breakdown because someone is screaming, again...but not as much as the first flight

(probably because she got to kick the back of someone's seat for a couple of hours)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICH!

look at this beautiful little boy who became such a wonderful man! rich is off biking the mountains of new mexico today, which is his favorite thing to do. i am so glad we are here and he is able to do that. happy 42nd! we love you!!!

a whole mess of stuff

look at that shiner!

now that sophie is walking her injuries are a bit more profound than before. poor baby. she hit her head on the coffee table in the playroom after trying to walk on some toys.


and activities like this with daddy probably are not helping her odds of staying injury-free...







but she really seems to like it (as does rich).


nature boy!

this is gus on his last day of amphibian camp at the rio grande nature center state park. he wanted to bring home a woodhouse toad but couldn't catch one (he's still trying).


and finally, this was a welcome sight: this is probably the sole survivor of the bunny massacre from a couple of months ago. her name is hops. we still call that part of the backyard mataconejitos.

tomorrow is rich's birthday!