Deviations from Ordinary

A Lesson in Self-Acceptance

Kim Toomey — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:14:04 +0000

I’ve just recently realized something about myself, and I thought I would share because it is ridiculous. I sort of like yogurt. I like strawberry yogurt. That is all. However, I have always felt like I should be more diverse in my yogurt flavors and often find myself picking out a variety of yummy sounding flavors at the grocery store. And then I get home and they stare at me from their refrigerator shelf after I’ve eaten all the strawberry ones. I don’t like them. I only like strawberry.

And I think I’m finally ok with my lack of adventure in yogurt flavors. I think from now on I will only buy strawberry yogurt and be happy about that.

Thank you for listening, this has been very cathartic.

The Good Earth

Kim Toomey — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:42:34 +0000

Scratch another book off my pulitzer list – The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. Kind of brought me back to my high school AP English classes, as it’s a historical fiction, but becoming immersed in another culture is always interesting. It puts our own lives into quite a different perspective (like, maybe it’s not as hard as we think it is).

More updates on my big 3-0 list, I am in the process of growing some dhalias and they have sprouted and if this heat ever dies down, they might stay alive. Although 10 days of 90+ degree heat and they are still alive shows that they really aren’t that hard to take care of. Throw them in the dirt, make sure they get some water once in a while and you should be good. I think I’m going to tear everything else out of my yard because everything else I plant dies instantly.

Starsky & Tele

Kim Toomey — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:25:44 +0000

Starsky the Cat

Tele the Dog

Pulitzer List Update

Kim Toomey — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:48:36 +0000

Hello my long neglected blog. How are you? It’s ok, only 3 people have ever tried to read this in the first place.

Dylan recently asked me how my 30 by 30 list was coming along and I do have one thing crossed off the list (Go Zags! NCAA basketball tournament game complete!)

But one of my bigger goals is to read every book that has won a Pulitzer award for fiction. That’s a lot of books. I think I got this hairbrained idea watching Jeopardy and it was a category and I thought that would be cool to have read every one of those books, so I started.

Here’s the one’s I’ve read so far:

2007- The Road
2003 – Middlesex
2001 – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
1993 – A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
1988 – Beloved
1985 – Foreign Affairs
1963 – The Reivers
1961 – To Kill a Mockingbird
1926 – Arrowsmith
1921 – The Age of Innocence

So 10 out of probably 80 some-odd books left to read (good thing I have a few years left to get this all done!) It’s an interesting experiment to see the differences in story and writing that will win you this award. Of course some that I’ve read I enjoyed more than others. And I don’t think I ever finished The Age of Innocence, I had to read it for a college class and despised that book. Sorry. And honestly, I haven’t read anything yet that I’ve been totally in love with. I should probably re-read To Kill a Mockingbird because I read it in 8th grade and probably doesn’t count anymore. Although I will say that I did particularly enjoy the Reivers, but if you are not a Faulkner fan then you might not like it.
I picked up another Pulitzer Prize winning book at Powells before my last vacation and have since discovered that it won for Non-Fiction, so that’s not helping my list any. Sigh. I’m about halfway through with it so I might as well finish it, right? I also need to get a big bookshelf for our house because I have books scattered everywhere and it’s driving me crazy

Life Has Gotten Busy

Kim Toomey — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:42:17 +0000

This is me promising to update this soon! Lacrosse season has started up, the dog demands a lot of attention, the house has seen a lot of work done to it, and we’ve had some visitors (and more coming this weekend!) But that is just the way we roll.

And it’s March Madness

So, enjoy this for now (I did, live and in person!) GO Zags!

Things you may not think about before getting a puppy

Kim Toomey — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:50:31 +0000

Tele is my first dog. There is plenty I don’t know about owning a dog, let alone a puppy. While she is a little ball of love and fun, let me warn you about what a week (this week) may be like with a puppy.

Monday Evening: Took Tele to the dog park after work while still in work clothes. Wasn’t prepared for the park to be a mudhole and seriously messed up expensive boots and got designer jeans covered in mud. Got home, and threw in the laundry pile.
Tuesday: Took Tele to a different dog park after work, dressed prepared for mud – this is Oregon in February after all. Played. Put muddy puppy into car. Car is now covered in mud.
Dog gets inside, immediately jumps on white sofa. Clothes are muddy, couch is muddy, puppy is muddy.
Puppy gets a bath (also had one on Sunday) which she is not a big fan of.
Bathtub is now muddy.
Therefore I must clean the tub.
Do a load of laundry to wash muddy clothes from Monday and Tuesday.
Wednesday: Taking Tele to daycare so she will be extra tired. Drop her off at 6:45. Get home, get ready for work, take all couch cushion covers off to wash and bleach (thank you IKEA).
No other messy dog events as puppy is exhausted from a full day of daycare.
Thursday: Play fetch with Tele in the backyard, not very muddy. Then go for a walk, also stay fairly clean. Come home, decide the house smells like dog so I light some candles and put them on a table where the dog or cat cannot get to. However, this does not mean they won’t chase each other around the table, bumping into it and giving me cause for concern.
Move candle to shelf in living room.
Forget about candle until red wax drips onto freshly bleached white couch.
Awesome.
Now I must figure out how to remove red wax from a white couch and wool blanket (at least the blanket is about the same color). Google “How to remove wax from fabric“. Think I can get this under control with an iron and oxyclean.
Ugh.

A day in the life

Kim Toomey — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:21:11 +0000

I’m sorry that I’m doing this to you all, but for whatever reason I wanted to recap my day despite the fact that it will not be interesting to you at all. But I feel like I’ve been extra busy/crazy today so I needed to share.
Alright, time to go. Realized the puppy was chewing on my power cord for the computer!

Woke up at 6:30 – half hour earlier than normal
Left around 7:30 after the usual morning routine of feeding the dog, throwing her outside multiple times to make sure she actually goes to the bathroom and tries to run around and get some of her puppy energy out.
Went to Starbucks & put gas in my car, drove out to Lake Oswego (totally out of the way of anything in my life right now) to sign papers to coach girls lacrosse again. Apparently they need to make sure you’re not a criminal and aren’t going to abduct children or something.
Hustled into work around 8:30. Did the work thing till noon when I drove home to feed the puppy and let her outside and play fetch for about 20 minutes. Then drove over to Alberta for a lunch meeting with an Anvil client. Headed back to the office around 2, finished up work and left a little after 5.
Came home, another round of puppy feedings. Then I took the little mutt which today turned into Tele taking me for a run which I was only sort of prepared for. I should back up and mention that per Katie’s story I attempted to secure one of my puffy vests around the dog like a jacket because the dog doesn’t like to go for walks in the cold, and I don’t want to buy my puppy that grows like a weed, some $40 dog jacket. This was a very unsuccessful project that just resulted in the puppy thrashing around wildly on the floor. Fortunately, it wasn’t very cold today.
So, now I’m back home and finally relaxing a little bit despite the laundry that needs to be done and dinner that needs to be made. Oh, the things we can cram into one day.

30 Things to do by 30

Kim Toomey — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:17:20 +0000

Well, in the spirit of new years resolutions and overall life achievements I have decided to actually write down 30 things I want to accomplish by the time I’m thirty. I’m giving myself 6 1/2 years become some are pretty ambitious and time consuming, and I’m a pretty busy gal. Here they are.

Read every work of fiction that has won the Pulitzer Prize
Run a marathon
Go to Europe
Pay off student loans
Learn to speak another language – enough to hold a basic conversation with a native speaker
Have a poem published
Drink a REALLY expensive bottle of wine to see if its worth it
“Finish” our house projects (is it ever really done though?)
Plant Dahlias and get them to grow/bloom
Read the bible
Finish a crossword puzzle on my own – on a hard day
Have a well trained dog (please, oh please)
Take a train
Learn to surf
Find my signature drink that makes me look cool/sophisticated/classy
Learn to snowboard
Learn to confidently drive a car with a manual transmission
Splurge on an expensive piece of jewelry for myself
Camp in a yurt
Go to Hawaii
Make a quilt for someone
Grow a vegetable garden
Re-learn how to play the piano
Go to an NCAA basketball tournament game
Make a good profit selling our first house
Own real furniture (as in furniture not from Ikea)
Upgrade to a king size bed (I like my space)
Go to South American (lots of travel, I know)
See a great concert in awesome seats
Host Thanksgiving dinner for all our family

Just a few things to do. I know that if you write all these things down you are 100x more likely to accomplish them, so there we go.

The World’s Most Annoying Dog Toy

Kim Toomey — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:53:05 +0000

Well, our dear puppy is just over 3 months old now and is turning into a great little dog. She is learning some basic commands that she obeys when she feels like it, is getting better at walks and is house trained! We’ve recently been fighting a battle about the pup on the furniture. The problem is, when she is big, I don’t want a 70 lb black dog on my white couch. However, when she is a 20 lb puppy that wants to take a nap on the couch with you, its a little harder to say no to that. But we will continue to fight that battle. She’s been spoiled a few too many times and now sits and whimpers when you won’t let her sit on the couch/chair with you. Oh well.

The point of this post though is Tele’s collection of dog toys. We have quickly learned that stuffed toys typically don’t last much more than a week, so those are now out of the question. We bought her a Kong that you can put treats in, but she is very impatient with that and gives up pretty quickly if food doesn’t just come falling out of it. But her favorite toys are balls that you can chase and play fetch with her with, because she has been excellent at fetch from day 1. Bonus points if the toy squeaks. So despite the fact I told myself no more squeaky toys because she gets them in her mouth and just chomps on them to no end (and after about 30 seconds of that my head starts ringing), I bought her this indestructable bouncy ball that squeaks. And not only does it squeak, I’m pretty sure the neighbors three houses down can here this thing when she gets her little jaws around it. I’ve provided evidence below. Make sure the sound on your computer is not too loud.

Two Notes: I got this awesome Kodak Pocket Video Camera from Christmas which we have been playing with, and used to shoot this film. Most of our video is crap so far, bu hopefully it will get better.

Secondly: If you are a dog lover, go see Marley & Me. It will make you laugh, cry and see the importance a pet can have in a family.

Portland Snow Day

Kim Toomey — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 04:21:42 +0000

I don’t know about this global warming stuff, we had a snow day today, as well as the past 2 years, which is pretty unusual for Portland. At our house we only got a light dusting this morning, but it has been really cold and icy so we’ve enjoyed spending the day snowed in. This morning, we did bring Tele out to explore the snow…and then she was in desperate need of a bath.

FYI Tele was bathed in John Paul Pet shampoo. I found it while I was getting my haircut yesterday and of course needed to indulge our spoiled pup. However, it did make her very soft! I would highly recommend it for your canine friends.