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Election Day (November 1884)

ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER, 1884
-Walt Whitman

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,
'Twould not be you, Niagara - nor you, ye limitless prairies - nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,
Nor you, Yosemite - nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,
Nor Oregon's white cones - nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes - nor Mississippi's stream:
This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name - the still small voice vibrating -America's choosing day,
(The heart of it not in the chosen - the act itself the main, the quadrennial choosing,)
The stretch of North and South arous'd - sea-board and inland - Texas to Maine - the Prairie States - Vermont, Virginia, California,
The final ballot-shower from East to West - the paradox and conflict,
The countless snow-flakes falling - (a swordless conflict,
Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern Napoleon's): the peaceful choice of all,
Or good or ill humanity - welcoming the darker odds, the dross:
- Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify - while the heart pants, life glows:
These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,
Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails.

Well said, Walt, well said.


photo credit

Truth, Peace and Justice - Challah Bread for Election Day

I've been craving the taste of fresh baked bread. I don't know what it is, but the smell of baking bread just gives me the feeling of fall, even though the rain hasn't totally started yet.

So, when I happened across a recipe for Challah bread (that looked delicious, fairly easy, and beautiful) I thought, "that's the bread for me!" Add to the fact that my husband always raves about the delish challah bread he's had in the past, I thought it might make him happy too!

Anyway, as I was combining recipes to find the perfect challah bread for us, I found some interesting facts about the traditional braided challah. I'm attempting a double stacked three strand braid. (Wish me luck! Perhaps I'll post a picture when it's finished.) Anyway, apparently the strands of the braids have meanings. For example, "Twelve humps from two small or one large braided bread recall the miracle of the 12 loaves for the 12 tribes of Israel." But a simple 3 strand braid? Truth, Peace and Justice.

As we enter into an election day that is going to be extremely polarizing and divisive, I realized that a little challah bread might be the perfect food for our challenging times.

Wordle Art

I'm fascinated by these word clouds that I've been seeing around the "internets" lately. Turns out they can be created using words from old blog posts. That prompted me to pull this old thing (has it really been 2 years?) off the shelf and dust it off. Could this mark the return of "Views from Two"? Only time will tell.

Create your own wordle here.

OMG...It's totally an earthquake...or something.

OK, the wife called me out.

IF you live under a rock (or outside the Portland area), there was a "massive" 3.8 earthquake on August 3rd in an area just outside of Portland. We did not feel it, but others did. It was quite the news story.
Here are some of my favorite user experiences from the KGW blog, with some comments from me:

"Hi. Just thought I'd let you know that the quake tonight was actually the kind that makes noise. I thought something was crashing into the house, like a semi or a train. I live in an old house in Hazel Dell. I don't feel like sleeping now! It hit so fast that I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I mean it. It only seemed to last for about 10 seconds. It actually felt like the house was being shaken in an up & down motion."

OH...It was THAT kind! Screw the Richter scale...we have a new measurement!

"I woke up to the house shaking and thought it was my son and his buddy down stairs messing around. I went down stairs and my son comes out of the bath room and says "Did you fell that. What was that?" "an earth quake?"

UH..."Messing around?" What on earth were THEY doing? Category 11:Brokeback Earthquake

"We woke up to the dogs barking (actually freaking out quite nicely) and a very big rumbling. Our house shook a LOT and the noise was unmistakable! Well actually, we weren't sure if it was an Earthquake or if Mount St. Helens had blown a good one! The coincidence of this is that my sister (in Sonoma, CA) experienced an earthquake just yesterday afternoon!"

Good thing the weren't freaking out badly...I heard that shortly after Mt St Helens was smoking a cigarette...What was you sister doing?

"In Tualatin... I thought my spouse had rolled over... but how did the closet doors bang together??? must have been the quake! I did make note of the clock, too.. 1:40am. Case closed!"

It must be the aliens! CLOSET DOORS! If your spouse "rolling over" causes that kind of rumbling...WOW!

"In Lake Oswego we woke to our bed rocking and rolling and pictures rattling the walls at 1:40am"

Now I think this person is just bragging.

"My husband and I woke up to it. We too had a bunch of kids staying the night in the basement and thought that it had to be them. It just felt like a sudden thud. Shortly after 1 a.m. for us, and we are in the downtown area of Vancouver. Boys left us a note that there had been an earthquake which apparently they read about on My Space."

Then we ate their livers with a nice Chianti....slurp slurp slurp

"We live in Fishers Landing area. Both me and my husband woke up at the same time 1:40 AM because our bed was shaking. I looked at him and looked at me and we both went back to sleep. I couldn't sleep anaymore and was wondering if it was an quake."

Riveting front line news!

"I was awakened this morning at 1:39 am by a shaking of my bed, and my mini blinds in my master bedroom windows rattling against the workwork. I thought I had dreamed it, but it also woke up my son. This morning, I checked on the interet, and there it was posted- the epicenter near Cherry Grove, which is about 2 miles from my house. WOW! I live in BattleGround."

Who knew that is where my house is! AMAZING!

"A few minutes before the earthquake shook the cats and the raccoons were really making a vocal fuss outside, didn't think much of it at the time. Then as the earthquake hit, it sounded like a large gust of wind hitting the side of our house and my bamboo plant moved from east to west (give or take a few degrees)."

What were the cats and racoons doing together to cause a "fuss"? And why do you have your bamboo plotted in degrees?

"I live in Scappoose and felt the quake, it felt like a wave, my dog just happened to be awake and laid flat on the kitchen floor"

Are you sure he was alive?

"I thought someone had ran their car into the side of my house, it shook that hard. Like four really hard,sharp jerking motions. I've lived here all my life, and this was definitely something different! I don't want to do this again! No wonder people leave California..."

I thought it was the overcrowding and housing prices...apparently it's the hard, sharp jerking motions.

"Live here in West Linn and definitely was awoken at 1:40...
Is that possible?"

Philosophers have been asking that question for hundreds of years...

"My husband and I were awakended from sleep by the quake. When checking on our 3 girls, who were also awake, we asked our middle one if she felt it, she replied, "Oh, is that what it was, I thought it was just sissy's hampster hitting the wall again"!"
You there, MIDDLE-ONE...was that an earthquake or have you three been playing racquet-hampster again?!

Oops, I did it again!

Sorry to quote Britney, but I just realized my big plans for getting on a regular blogging schedule have failed. I'm afraid we're chasing away the few readers we have, due to lack of posting. I'm really sorry, I'm trying - but things are really busy. I mean, I come home from work and I have so much TV and computer stuff to catch up on. What am I, Superwoman? I mean I can't do it all!!!!

Wait, that's not a good enough excuse. I know, it's the heat. I practically have heatstroke from these last few weeks of hotness. And on one of the hottest days of the year, Rick dragged me around town to take pictures. That took a whole week of recuperation. You can't expect me to blog after an experience like that can you? (Actually, it was quite fun. You can see some pictures from our day here...)

And hey, since I'm sitting here berating myself for not posting, it just hit me. You know what? The title of this blog is Views from Two. Hmmm, how long has it been since you've heard the views of the other "Two"? I'll tell you, it was way back in April. (To be fair, I've only posted twice since then but still.)

It reminds me of the time Rick said "Hey let's do a puzzle together," as he proceeded to pull a 1,000 piece mosaic Mickey Mouse puzzle off the store shelf. It was all good until the border was put together and the yellow shoes and red shorts were finished. Then suddenly football got more interesting than the puzzle. And the rest of the puzzle, all the blue stuff, yeah, I had to finish that. But I'm not bitter, I just don't like mosaic puzzles anymore.

Post Peep Daze

So over a month has passed since our last post, and I've just awoken from a Peep induced slumber. It didn't help that for my birthday, my sister and her family gave me copious amounts of peeps - just when I thought I had run out. So in an effort to catch you up on our goings on in May, I'll give you a quick run down of the highlights.

Went to Seattle
Saw a play that was lit by my FIL (Father in Law for you non-acronym knowing people. I spend way too much time on post wedding boards! Ack!)
My Birthday - Wow! I'm getting old! (But Rick will always be older! Ha Ha Ha.)
Took a ferry to San Juan Island.
Drove around said island and discussed plans to quit jobs and move to the island and live there forever.
Got drunk at a wine tasting while waiting to take the Ferry back.
Drunkenly laughed at a small child on a bicycle, free-basing pixie-stiks and riding his bike into traffic.
Laughed at the same child on the ferry as his pixie-stik induced sugar high had him running back and forth from one end of the boat to another.
Laughed as the same child fell off the boat.
(Just kidding, we didn't laugh.)
Rick got a new camera and has taken many, many photos. Some of which you can view here.
I'm sure many other exciting things happened in May, but I can't think of any right now. I just wanted to get another post up, so I could stop feeling so darn guilty.
We'll try to get back to a regular posting schedule one of these days!

P.S. The little kid didn't really fall off the boat. But I bet I made you gasp out loud!