Bunny

Like real bunnies, it's possible there will be multiples. But for now, quite happy the prototype came together in time to give to a friend's baby boy. The final bunny is a little wonkier than my rounder, perfectly-aligned-ears vision ("bowling pin" was one person's assessment of the final shape). However, I am finding the wonky aspects endearing. Pictures of the process:

Another friend was as giddy as I was about the tie. Really, it is the best part.

Pacific City Weekend

Pacific City with friends this last weekend. Worked on projects. Ate good food. Drank good beer at Pelican Pub. Took some naps. Watched Three Amigos (I strongly identified with the singing bush...so many songs to be sung in an incomplete fashion.) A gluttony of good things.

Additional work on the bunny when home again.

Inaugural FRSC

The very first First Responders Supper Club event was at the end of August. The theme was Harvest and I very much wanted a picnic. But this is the Pacific Northwest. The two weeks before the supper were filled with rainy mornings and sometimes evenings. I stepped up my visits to Weather.com. As if my continual check-ins could change the situation.

One reason I wanted a picnic was I found my original limit of six very hard to stick to. Numbers had risen to nine. When you have created your mailing list from people you want around, telling any of them they can't come is quite wrenching. A picnic solved seating difficulties.

Happily, August came through and we had a few days of hot sun to dry out the damp. Below are a few images from a lovely evening and the original launch invite.

August FRSC Invite    

Hello all,

I’m excited to be sending the first First Responders Supper Club email!

Date: August 30, Friday

Time: 6:30 pm / supper at 7:00 pm

Theme: Harvest (start humming Neil Young here)

Details: A last hurrah for all things Summer.The days may still be warm but they are shorter. Everyone’s pushing school supplies and sweaters. The end is nigh. Yikes!

Let’s have a picnic and enjoy the lingering good things of the season. Perhaps review what our summers were like and what we are looking forward to / not looking forward to as autumn approaches.

I’m feeling all Italian countryside about this, so will have a main dish of that nature and wine in those wicker-wrapped bottles. You should bring something that means summer to you (preferably edible, however this Slip’n’Slide would also be acceptable).

Details Email for Attendees

Hello all!

Below are the details for next Friday. Instead of 6-ish we are 10-ish. Luckily, it’s a picnic so there’s room for a few extra!

Date: August 30, Friday

Time: 6:30 pm / supper at 7:00 pm

Place: 6924 N Williams

Theme: Harvest

To answer a question: While the main course is Italian, Italian is not the topic, summer is. Preferably you bring something summery. It's completely fine if we end up with six different salads or five desserts.

An example of what not to bring: Tomatoes from Canadian greenhouses. That would be sad when it’s the best time of year for real tomatoes from right here. But if you brought, say, Twinkies because Twinkies and summer just go together for you (we will demand an explanation) then you have fulfilled the request and all is well.

To answer another question: Yes, of course, you can bring more wine, etc.

I'll see if can find some conversation cards to start us off.

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Into the Woods

I skipped out on the city and Sunday service yesterday and tramped off to Falls Creek Falls. It's October so the whole world looks like a church window.

On another nature note - during the dog days of summer this fellow took to napping in the tulip tree feeder:

To the Inmost Parts

Shot Glass

I'll never forget the day, this beautiful woman
right out in the office said I was "sneaky":

I didn't know I was sneaky: I didn't feel
sneaky: but there are mechanisms below our

mechanisms, so I assume the lady was right:
living with that has not helped my progress

in the world, if there is any such thing,
progress, I mean: also it has hurt my image

of myself: I have used up so much fellow-
feeling on the general --- all of which I have

forgotten specifically about, as have the
fellows --- no offices, no clear images or

demonstrations --- I don't understand why that
one remark holds its place ungivingly in me:

and now to talk about it, admit to the world
(my reading public, as it happens) that I am

scarred by an old, old wound about to heal and
about to bleed: this may do confessional good

but I will no longer appear perfect to others:
conceivably, that could be a good thing:

others may be scarred, too, but who wants to
be like them: one should: perhaps I really

do, because lonely splendor is devastatingly
shiny but basically hard and cold, marble

walls and glistening floors: one comfort,
which I am reluctant to relish, is that the

lady is now dead --- surely, I am sorry about that,
she was a person of intelligence and

discernment, which is one reason she hurt me
so bad --- well, but I mean, she won't hurt

anybody else: she probably did enough good
in her life that the Lord will forgive her:

I am trying to forgive her myself: after all
she left me some room for improvement and

a sense of what to work on...

- A.R. Ammons

And So It Begins

In July, after some hand-wringing and hoping it wasn't too silly, I sent the email below to all the people I'd like to see in my tiny house (820 square feet of it!). If anyone did find it incredibly unappealing, they did not tell me so and are contending with my unappealing emails from time to time. The inconvenience of cyber politeness - yet another message cluttering up the old inbox, getting deleted along with the jokes from relatives you don't see often, the astral update from your uncle, and Grandma's note about the weather being fine.

First Responders Supper Club 

This is an invitation to the newly minted First Responders Supper Club. I was thinking of ways to gather people for dinner/supper on a semi-regular basis and the FRSC is what I came up with. For better or for worse!

I understand ‘supper’ and ‘club’, but what’s up with ‘first responder’? There is an attendee limit of six(-ish) for these suppers. This is due to the fact the house is small, not because I don’t want all of you all at once.

So! It goes like this: Once a month an email will be sent from the FRSC. It will state the date, time and THEME of a supper.

1. You receive the invite.
2. You like the theme.
3. You are free on X date at X time.
4. You are excited to bring your food item, your brilliance, your bad jokes.  
5. You email your confirmation.

Once the attendee limit is reached, FRSC will send a cease-and-desist to the entire group letting them know the window of opportunity is closed. The six-ish first responders will receive more detailed information on what to bring and expect.

(You may be deeply grieved to be left out. You may have been slow on the draw but had an undeniably awesome element to bring to this particular supper. Tell me about it. We’ll see what we can do.)

If the theme is unappealing and, after one week,  there’s not enough interest, that month’s dinner is cancelled. SAD!

Themes? What do you mean by themes? Well, they are going to be all over the board but, hopefully, conducive to your happiness. They won’t necessarily be food-based, though there will never not be food. There will be game nights, there might be cocktail contests, topical conversations could happen. Themes may range so far as to break the barrier of supper and migrate off to square dancing or puddle-jumping. Who can tell what havoc may be wrought? Or, it may just be one of those evenings with good food that you did not have to make and a fire in the fireplace. Nothing bad about that. 

The first FRSC will probably take place at the end of August. Between now and then please do these two things: 1) let me know if you find this incredibly unappealing and I will remove you from the FRSC list. 2) let me know if you have any additional questions/concerns/suggestions and I will do my best to address them. 

FAQs about the FRSC

1. I have a friend who you probably don’t know but they need and deserve to come to X-themed supper. GREAT! Put them in your ‘attending’ response. 

2. I have the best idea for the FRSC - you probably haven’t thought of it because it could only come from my amazing head. GREAT! Tell me all about it! We’ll figure out when we can do it. Or, you can host your own FRSC, just please invite me. 

3. What are the exact dates and times for each FRSC event? It’s early days, my friend, so all is malleable, but the last the Friday of each month is the target. 7pm, probably. 

4. Can my children come? YES! Though, please be aware of the theme - cocktail contests may not be the best venue, or maybe they are - you will have to make that call. \

5. I can’t see who’s on your email list. What if it’s a bunch of weirdos? It is. It absolutely is.

How to Hunt and Gather

People. How to get them together? Everyone's busy. Schedules can be so different. I saw a commercial saying it can all be solved if I buy Chinet paper plates. It seems washing dishes is daunting enough that we can't have parties. The trauma of clean-up will run too deep, shattering families and destroying neighborhoods.

But dishes aren't my dreaded Rubicon. Doing the dishes means the people came, ate, enjoyed. Cleaning up is proof something took place that was worth making a mess for. It's the inviting part that messes me up. Not with big parties. Come-one-come-all is easy and I love it! But after hosting a couple big ones this summer, I found I was wanting smaller gatherings that can happen more frequently. Ones that don't involve Chinet.

The middle-ground, though, that gathering of six to 10 people is a hard one for me to hit. The intention is easily swamped by logistics. Who can come? On what date? How soon should I ask? How often should I ask? How many should I ask? What if they don't really want to come, but feel obligated? I'm stopped before I've begun.

I realized I need people to self-select, invite themselves, if you will. Therefore, I need a standing event that happens on a semi-regular basis with some semi-regular rules.

In July I launched the First Responders Supper Club - the FRSC. I'll be doing some writing on what that is and how its developing. So far it's good, it's really good!