Ks Are Wild

Warning – This is a liberal and provocative post.  I try to title my posts appropriately so that you know what it’s regarding before you dip into it.  Please pass on reading this one if you are sensitive to such candidness.  I refuse to have a whole separate blog site for anything remotely confrontational in nature.  And I refuse to apologize for my opinions.  That’s what it is, simply my opinion based on what I’ve read, heard, seen, and experienced in my life.  I am no political expert but I am not blind either.  Besides, the point of this blog was for you to get to know me.  These are matters I care about and feel strongly about.  I should be able to express my unedited opinion in the safety of my own blog.  At least I don’t go butting in on other people’s blogs (much).  It’s taken me 8 years of Bush to get to this outspoken point where I avoid contentious topics completely because I know some disagree.  What was the movie line?  “I’m mad as hell and I just can’t take it anymore!!!”

I can clearly recall Kham proclaiming that I had no reason to be scared because “There’s no way they can reverse Roe v. Wade.”  But I heartily disagreed and scoffed at his certainty.  He doesn’t feel the angst we women can feel as the pro-lifers have taken more and more prominent decision-making positions in politics.  How can he, as a man?  A man doesn’t have to carry the baby to term!  A man doesn’t have to deliver it through his privates!  He can be sympathetic, but I don’t think he can truly understand the feelings of fear.

Two movies, I emphatically recommend ALL women and young ladies (high school age – it’s racey but there’s critical content) see are If These Walls Could Talk (1996) and If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000).  As a house changes possession and renters, its varying female inhabitants are spotlighted through changing eras 50s, 70s, and 90s.  Driven by the feelings of desperation and inability to make choices about what’s going to happen to their own bodies and personal fate or empowered by feminism and the women’s rights movement, each vignette shows the circumstances of a different woman, how she came to make that choice about abortion, and what its repercussions were.  The assortment of female leads in the vignettes are diverse in race, ethnicity, sexual preference, married or not, age, and span the decades from before and after Roe v. Wade.  To me, these have been precious movies – as a woman, as a feminist.  They remind me of all the sacrifices that were made by women preceding me so that I could have my right to choose today in 2008.  It’s not easy to watch because the emotional turmoil is so distressing.  But that’s like shutting your eyes to the Holocaust.

For myself, I am pro-choice.  Let each woman choose for herself.  Never have I heard or read of a woman who liked getting an abortion like some anti-aborts talk.  It is a very unpleasant and taxing experience on the woman’s body, not to say emotionally, to say the least.  It seems women who choose this route have been villified like they LIKE abortion.  What woman in her right mind likes getting an abortion?!  “Oh, yeah!  Let’s kill me some babies today.  This feels good.  Such an easy birth control method.  So much easier than popping a pill in my mouth.”  I also have friends and family in the educational, social services, and therapy fields and I am aware of the numerous negative repercussions and ramifications of having the child, on the mother, the child, and our society.

I don’t know if I could do it.  But my deciding factors and circumstances are much better than most in such a predicament.  Even with all the money and support and youth in the world, pregnancy can be HARD on a body, and delivery too.  I still contend with physical repercussions from Kosette’s birth on a daily basis.  Where was I going with this?  Oh yeah – Palin.  She’s against ALL abortion even in the instances INCEST and RAPE.  That is as hardcore anti-abortionist stance one can take.

How she terrifies me.  I recently heard a statistic that 1 in 3 VPs actually make the unexpected Presidency.  With McCain’s age, cancer history, and I swear the man looks like he’s had a mild stroke, it seems a very real possibility vs. an outlying chance.  No matter how much I may dislike McCain, I HATE Palin.  Yes, hate.  And I don’t want her anywhere near the most powerful position of our nation.  I’m sure you’ve seen/heard the Palin – Katie Courek interviews and the spoofs on Saturday Night Live.  If not, you should.   I don’t really want to go into all of the reasons why she seems unqualified to do the job.  I don’t base my decisions on candidates solely based on their stance on abortion.  This is just one belief of hers that can effect the progress I feel we made with Roe v. Wade, that I’ve chosen to highlight here.  When she speaks of outlawing abortion, then that means that women are going to go to jail for the crime of choosing the future of their own bodies, and anybody who helps them achieve it.  Her environmental disregard, book banning (education), and homophobia rank right up there.  And don’t even get me started on her foreign relations “thoughts.”

Here’s what I will give her:  I think it’s great to see a woman in powerful positions of leadership.  I think her home life of who is the stay-at-home parent or whether they use outside help like extended family or nannies is her business.  It seems that her husband is behind her.  Figuring out the balance of duties at home is all part of the decisions couples make when one or both parents work.  When a new baby is born we don’t knock the working father down for not staying at home more.  Why should we knock the working mother down?  That’s what feminists worked so hard to achieve right?  The woman’s right to go to work, even after she’s become a mother.  So long as both people in the couple feel like it’s a fair arrangement, who are we to judge?  But just because she’s a woman, and a mother, doesn’t mean that she will look out for women’s interests.  I’m talking about the MAJORITY of the female populace, the majority that got Roe v. Wade into law in the first place.

I am very interested in her upcoming debate where we’ll get to see her more off-the-cuff.  Will she be all a jumble of drilled talking points?  Will she let us see more of her personal beliefs, or their prepared stuff for her?

I’ve decided to try to do something by simple things such as talking with others, this blog, and advertising on my car bumper.  That’s right, my bumper is now filled with my sentiments.  I won’t be keeping all of them on after the election though.  I’m not that nutty.

I leave you with this.  I now love Matt Damon and appreciate his using his celebrityhood to broadcast his outspoken and intelligent thoughts about Palin as a VP candidate.  If our society is so influenced by Hollywood, please say this is one thing that people latch onto and let their votes reflect.  This is a clip of The Young Turks, a liberal radio show on Air America, talking about this incident and showing the Damon clip.  There are far better Damon clips but I enjoyed what the Young Turks had to add:

Young Turks talk about Matt Damon on Palin

Here’s two other “pots” I did.  These are in the front near our door.  I repurposed Kosette’s old rainboots that she outgrew and left outside to crack and fade in the sun.  I drilled a bunch of holes in the soles and stuffed them with potting soil and had at ‘em.  I cut holes in the pink pair and stuffed succulents in the openings.  Because the boots are small and you don’t get much depth or width, they dry out much faster than other pots with a larger diameter so you have to water them more.  THe ones with succulents, naturally, don’t need as much water as the floral one which I did just for Kosette.

Here’s a back window box that I haven’t been very pleased with.  Still trying to figure out the lighting in that area.  But the hummingbirds love the nicotiana.  Contents:  tricolor sweet potato vines, 2 dift. types of fuschia – dark eyes, and another barbie pink/purple that I’m blanking on the name at the moment, nicotiana, bright purple bacopa, heliotrope, and 2 black scallop ajuga/bugleweed.  I thought the fuschia would love that spot but it doesn’t.  Then again, it hasn’t been watered regularly, and I’ve never fed or fertilized it.  Any of my pots, actually.  One of those examples of good on paper but not in reality.  Plant people – do you think the fuschia need more light?  Fertilizer?  Next year I’ll keep the spv but don’t know about the rest.  Please ignore the weeds at the bottom of the picture

For best potted planter – August.  My local nursery haunt, Garlands Nursery, in Corvallis, started having a contest this summer for best planters (that’s pots filled with particularly arranged plants).  They judge photo submissions once a month from Aug. thru October and give a gift certificate to the winner.  I submitted a photo of one of two planters by our back patio.  Here’s the winning shot:

To the left of the planter is a gigantic Golden Hops vine (doesn’t look so golden now but earlier in the season looks a bright yellow/green), beneath it is Sweet Cicely (leaves and seeds edible – taste of anise (black licorice), and to the right is the herb Lovage (strong taste of celery, gigantic leaves, without the hassle of growing the actual vegetable and looks cool too), and Nugget hops to the right of that.

This back area I’ve done lots of lime green and dark contrasts with reds, oranges, and yellows.  Here’s the planter that’s to the left of it, meant to mirror this one, with a slight change (dift. heuchera and dift. scented geranium – Chocolate Mint):

Here’s the full shot with our hops vines climbing up and across cabling we installed.  We have a big purple house and I wanted to break up the dark expanse with the greenery of the hops.  It turned out exactly as I dreamed.  Now how often does that happen?!  I like the look, smell, and taste of the hops.  Maybe this year or next I’ll start brewing.  My neighbor has all the stuff that she’s only used once.  You don’t brew with Golden Hops, or at least shouldn’t.  It’s more for looks.  But I have plenty of brewing types: 8 more to be precise of Nugget, Cascade, Fuggle, Perle.  If you’re interested where I got my rhizomes, I got my golden as a plant from Garlands, but the rest from The Thyme Garden in Alsea, Or.  Those were organically grown.

The new pop/hip hop song “American Boy” by Estelle featuring Kanye West has been stuck in my head for weeks.  Looks like “I Kissed a Girl and I liked It” has been ousted in my brain.  The chorus of this song is catchy and the beat is very cruisable in the car.  Both Kosette are singing and humming it A LOT.  Still hard to explain to her that I can’t repeat a song that’s on the radio or pause live tv (no, we don’t have a DVR.)  Don’t really like the video though.  I just looked it up on YouTube.  The part where she’s dancing and her shadow is doing something different in the background is sort of cool.  For some reason I was picturing this English accented singer (Estelle) as looking like the blonde haired caucasian beauty, Joss Stone.  She has beautiful eyes and lips.  But then again, whose eyes aren’t improved 10 fold by a pair of falsies?

\”American Boy\” by Estelle featuring Kanye West

Tomorrow I take both Kosette and Kellen to her friend Sophie’s birthday party at The Enchanted Forrest near Salem.  For some reason, when I drive by it, I picture Santa’s Village from California with a Disneyland or Knott’s type log-jammer ride as the main attraction.  I’m really dreading it as Kellen is so rebellious right now and Kosette gets so excited when she’s in a group she doesn’t even see or hear me – I’m the only parent yelling.  It’s embarassing because it feels like poor parenting – I’m the one with out of control tantruming kids – you know the ones running wild and proving every non-breeders point?  But I’m nervous too because I don’t like faire rides and many amusement park rides.  I’m just a chicken shit.  Always was, always will be.  Some people like the sensation of a dropping stomach.  Some people intensely loathe it.  I am the latter.  But I can’t go, bring the kids, and then NOT go on anything.  Kosette loves fast and spinning.  Kellen will want to do everything that she does.  But what’s a mom to do – Kham has to work and we can’t hire a babysitter all day or intrude on somebody we know for that long?!  Looks like mommy has to suck it up and fake it.  I foresee, a big, fat marguerita in my future….  And a guilt story to throw in Kosette’s face like birth when she grows up .

Following is a recipe for a delectable salad dressing that I’ve been mixing together this summer and its history and evolution.

I love to make my own salad dressing.  The key to that is quality, simple ingredients.  When I’m in a hurry or in someone else’s kitchen, I’ll often utilize an existing dressing as my base but then tamper with it by adding vinegars, herbs, mustard, Gorgonzola cheese, yogurt even blending multiple dressings together.  Well, I happened upon a combination that I’m completely addicted to.  I mean, I went out and bought several bottles of the things just to make an entire bottle of my blend good!  I had it every day for weeks and then took a break so I wouldn’t burn myself out.  It’s sounding good again.  I almost don’t want to share this with you – it could’ve been my secret weapon at potlucks!

Kari’s Asian Twist Salad Dressing:

• 1 part Ponzu sauce (Like a citrus flavored soy sauce.  Pronounced “Pon (like pond) + zoo)  I use a brand sold at Safeway  “Marukan” sold in the Asian goods section tucked in with the soy sauces and stuff)
• 1 part Girard’s LIGHT Champagne dressing (those triangular glass bottles.)

Whip together and that’s it!  I have added some sesame seed oil or lyang lyang oil for heat, or make it more ponzuey for a more Asian taste before but I otherwise love the combo just as it is.

My favorite salad to toss with this is very basic: a quality leafy lettuce (I prefer the dark reds and purples), sliced cucumbers, and superfine shaving of Parmesan cheese.  Sometimes, I’ve been known to throw some sesame seeds or some cilantro in as well.

It also makes a nice dipping sauce.  And I was going to make a strictly cucumber salad with it as a marinade but my cucumbers never made it this year.  Danged cats and thinking every little patch of earth is their personal litter box.

If you make it, let me know what you and other eaters thought will you?

I love alliteration; can you tell?

I have a problem.  My name is Kari, and I am a Flower Floozy.  Take me away and throw me into a Gardener’s Anonymous group.  And gardening catalogs, especially Swan Island Dahlias, Heirloom Roses, Schreiner’s Iris, and Annie’s Annuals are my bathroom porn.  I drool, I lust, I dream, I yearn, I covet, I obsess.  I’ve been known to cull cardboard from curbside trash for weed suppression, dumpster dived (literally crawling into) Starbucks’  for boxes, and begged them and other coffee shops in town for grounds and newspapers.  I’ve knocked on doors of people who have tremendous amounts of a perennial that might need dividing and wouldn’t mind sharing.    And this post is all about plants and Dahlias, so after the first paragraph or so, if that’s not your gig, you’ll want to skip this post.

I finally strong-armed my friend, and neighbor, Herma, to come to the famous Dahlia Festival at Swan Island Dahlias in Canby, Oregon (about 1 hr. 20 mins. NE of here).  (SID is a well-known national dahlia grower and hybridizer?  Evidently, WA and OR are pretty ideal for their cultural needs.)  She is a dahlia appreciateur as well and we went in on an order together this past spring to save on shipping and get more freebie tubers so it’s not like she didn’t want to go.  It’s just getting this ICU nurse and mom of 3 active kids and a healthy social life of her own with the craziest schedule in the world to commit, and get it, and keep it on her calendar.  So after two years or trying and then missing it for one reason or another, we FINALLY made it.  And boy, was it worthwhile!  We went Labor Day weekend and her teenager, Laura, graced us with her presence (when she wasn’t sleeping in the backseat   Evidently, what was simply a day out of the house and Corvallis no matter what she was doing, turned into a nice memory for her.  Now she has a favorite flower and perhaps, she’ll always associate dahlias with her mom and me and our trip together.  I know I will.

Here’s a rare photo of me.  As you can see, I take my dahlia perusing quite seriously.  With limited space, one must choose the “perfect” one.:

We chatted non-stop to and from, wandered the display gardens, growing fields, and cutting arrangements taking a shitload of pictures and making a gigantic list of wants and must-haves.  I found it extremely helpful seeing them and comparing them in their various contexts: from catalog to indoor cutting arrangement, to ideal display garden, to rows and rows of them growing in the fields.  Having drooled over their gorgeous color catalog for years (you MUST call and order one for $5!) and lusted after many a tuber (tulips grow from teardrop shaped “bulbs”, these grow from rough cylindricallish “tubers,” and bearded iris grow from smoothish, cylindicrallish, fresh-ginger like rhizomes for those who don’t know and maybe want to.) and making many a prioritized list, it helped me make up my mind between some.  For instance, maybe I didn’t like their bush shape, or the “red” looked more soft red/fuschia in the sun, or ones that looked blah in the catalog were quite striking in person but just have difficult coloring to photograph true to hue (as is the case with a lot of reds and purples).

Knowing that Herma liked dahlias but had none, I started her on our mutual addiction by ordering her a handful for Christmas (SID also does gift certificates).  It’s our unspoken agreement that we share our cuttings with each other since she has a house that goes so well with the bold yellows/oranges/reds and mine goes well with all the whites and pastels, pinks, and purples.  I still have to have a red bed whether the reds clash with each other or the house I don’t care, I just love red.

One corner of my backyard garden, I’m dedicating to Kosette and her current love of pinks and purples.  It’s my hot bed and a lot of fun with the girliest of color combination.  Not much in there at the moment (it sounds like a lot more than it looks) just the black stemmed joe pye weed, Royal Purple Smokebush, viburnum, muskmallow (lavatera), Raspberry Wine Bee Balm (Monarda) , purple aster, Blue Girl rose, Color Magic rose, Awakening climbing rose (a better form of the old New Dawn rose to be put on a rebar pillar soon)  (more roses to be determined), lavender, some hydrangeas (Blue Bird, Tokyo delight, and Mme. Emile ___), some hot pink and purple gladiolas, firewitch dianthus , and catmint.  I might also plant that dark purple leaved and “flowered” amaranthus, Lauren’s Grape poppy (the coolest, most stunning poppy especially if backlit , moving two Dallas Blues switchgrasses to there , hollyhocks , Nora Barlow columbine , Blue Springs Penstemon and rose campion , and of course, DAHLIAS!!!

Here’s just a few I’m considering:  (L-R: Dark Magic, Junkyard Dog, Fuzzy Wuzzy, Jennifer’s Wedding, Raspberry Punch, Ryan C, Sayonara, Hugs N’ Kisses, Taboo, Show Off):

Anyhow, Herma dallies with photography and here is what she has cleaned up for viewing pleasure:

http://picasaweb.google.com/hermaornes/DahliaS#