Hilary and Me in D.C.

Hilary Clinton made a surprise visit to the Gear Up conference I attended last week. She is a big supporter of the Gear Up legislation, and has helped get in funded over the last ten years. She was a very enthusiastic speaker, and you could tell she was a big supporter the Gear Up program.
I wasn't a supporter of Hilary's presidential campaign, but she was a very charismatic speaker, and I'm glad she supports Gear Up.
We also heard Nick Cannon, center, and his father, on the right, share at the Gear Up conference. Nick Cannon, for those of you who don't know him, is an entertainer who is also married to Mariah Carey. They shared about being a positive role model for young people, especially African American men in the United States.

Worshiping at the National Cathedral

Sunday was explore day. I didn't have to do anything until about 6 p.m., so I hopped on the trolley that drives you around D.C., and my first stop was the Washington National Cathedral.

It was breathtaking. I had never been to a cathedral before, and it was unbelievable.

When I went inside, the formal Holy Eucharist was just finishing in the nave. The Cathedral is an Episcopal cathedral, but the bulletin says it is a church for national purposes called to embody God's love and to welcome people of all faiths and none.

At 10 a.m., in St. Joseph's Chapel in the lower level or Crypt level of the cathedral, I attended the Contemporary Folk Eucharist. When I arrived, there was a man playing a guitar, and going over the songs that would be sung during the service. From this moment on, I knew I would be blessed.

The service opened up with the Presider saying, Blessed be the one, holy, and living God.

We responded with, Glory to God for ever and ever.

The opening hymn was "We Gather Together", a song my mother likes to sing as we gather together for Thanksgiving dinner.

An Episcopalian service is liturgical, and everything that is said and responded to is written down in a bulletin. The lesson was from Romans 8:12-25. The Reverand Canon Preston Hannibal, who presided over the service that morning, based The Discussion on this passage of scripture, particularly the verses that say:

For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

He share some thoughts on hope, then posed some questions about hope to those of us sitting there in that small chapel, and we listened as people shared about hope to a group of total strangers, but strangers who were part of a family of Believers in Christ.

One lady talked about living in Egypt a few years ago, and found she grew up and her hope and faith in Christ became stronger as she learned to live her Christianity in the mid east.

The man leading songs on the guitar shared about his journey with cancer and one of the ladies he met during his chemo treatments who reached out to other patients with her positive and hopeful outlook.

Another lady shared about her hope was in how Christ tranforms her life each day.

After everyone finished sharing who wanted to share, the Reverend challenged us to go out and share hope with those who have no hope. The homeless person asking for money. The unlovable person. He said it is easy to be a Christian inside the walls of the church, but when we really give hope to others is when we share that hope with those in the world around us.

I think God is really trying to tell me something. Because my pastor shared almost the exact same thing last weekend at our church.

After the message, I joined in taking communion, and it seemed especially moving to recite the Nicene Creed with all those other Christians in that room.

It was a joy to pray for the community, the church and the world with these other Believers. It was a joy to pray for George our President, and the leaders of other nations with these people.

The Communion Hymn seemed very appropriate after the message we heard on hope.

It is called "Breath of Life", and the first verse goes like this:

Breathe on me, Breath of God,

fill me with life anew,

that I may love what thou dost love,

and do what thou wouldst do.

Then we prayed together...

God of abundance, you have fed us with the bread of life and cup of salvation; you have united us with Christ and one another; and you have made us one with all your people in heaven and on earth. Now send us forth in the power of your Spirit, that we may proclaim your redeeming love to the world and continue for ever in the risen life of Christ. Amen

Then we closed with they hymn "Just A Closer Walk With Thee."

I love worshiping with people from other churches, places and faiths. I always get such a bigger picture of God's Kingdom here on earth, and what He is doing throughout the world.

What a blessing.

A side note, Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan are buried near this chapel in the cathedral.

The Dupont Circle Blues

After flying across the country, with an hour delay on the runway in Chicago, I arrived for another summer trip to Washington D.C.



I arrived in a bit of a heatwave here in the Nation's Capital. But I'm surviving. I arrived at my first hotel, the Hilton Embassy Suites, and checked in, and decided to figure out where I was, and where my other hotel is located that I am moving to on Sunday.


Here's the outside of the first hotel I was in on Saturday night. I headed out to find out how far it would be to get to the Washington Hilton Towers, the place I would be the rest of the week, and where my GEAR UP conference is being held.

It was only a couple blocks from Dupont Circle.

Dupont Circle is a cool, (as in hip) area, like a small city park. There is a fountain in the middle, and grassy areas with benches, and tables set up where men are playing chess. It was a cool (as in lower temperatures) place to sit on a warm Saturday evening. The hub threw me off a bit as I tried to navigate my way around the circle, but I eventually figured it out, and walked up the correct Connecticut Ave., and found the other hotel.

Then I came back to Dupont Circle, and sat and did some people watching.

The trouble was, Saturday was my 22nd wedding anniversary, and all I saw walking by were couples. There were young couples, old couples, gay couples, lesbian couples....couples, couples everywhere, and I, unfortunately, was not a couple that evening because my honey was back home in Kellogg. It really made my miss PKR. I so wish he could have been there with me, watching the people there in Dupont Circle.

Instead, it was just me, writing some lyrics to a new song...."The Dupont Circle Blues."

Summer is Keeping Me Hoppin'

I haven't been at my computer much this summer, because I'm busy with many things, and when I finally sit down, I'm too tired to get on the computer.



Right now I am directing and acting in the August production "Phantoms of the Melodrama" at the Sixth Street Melodrama theater in Wallace. We practice every night, Sunday through Thursday. Plus I am in charge of the box office and ticket sales for the July show, "Lookout Mullan", and that involves a lot of time as well.



Last weekend PKR's sister Laurie Roberts put on a concert here in Kellogg singing songs from her new CD. I helped a little bit putting that on, plus our family sang in it as well.



And I am actually getting outside to work in the yard this summer, which I absolutely LOVE!!! I love having fresh greens for my salad, and fresh tomatoes and herbs.



Plus, I leave on Saturday for a trip to Washington D.C. I can't believe I get to go again this summer. I have a conference for work. Some of my plans include going to church Sunday at the National Cathedral, going to the Zoo, and going to see "The Imaginary Invalid" performed at the Shakespeare Theater. This is another play by Moliere, who wrote "The Miser", that our whole family performed in last spring. It looks really good.



I'll have my camera again this summer, and post pictures of my trip.Well, better go shower and get ready to meet with a couple ladies from church, then go grocery shopping so the family has food to eat while I am gone.Just wanted you to know I'm still here.

Welcome To My Garden

This sign welcomes visitors to my lovely garden in my backyard. We have been busy this summer transforming once grass-filled areas into beautiful spots where vegetables, flowers, berries and herbs now grow. Come, join me, and I'll give you a tour.

The hot weather this past week really gave a jump start to the zucchini plants. There is also some radishes growing, and other surprises.

As I told you earlier, PKR transformed the boards from our old deck into beautiful rasied beds to grow vegetables. The tomatoes are looking good. I can't wait until they are rip and red and ready to eat.

Peas and string beans are growing in this box.


This salad bowl box is full of spinach, arugula, mescalin, leaf lettuce and Swiss Chard. There are also some gourd vines growing in there as well.


This fifth box was built after the spring planting, and will be prepared to grow good things next year.
A peony is waiting to bloom.

There are quite a few buds ready to burst forth. These flowers are not only beautiful, but very fragrant.

This is one of the new areas we cleaned up, transplanted flowers to, and added rocks and bark.



The lilies were transplanted from another area, and have already started to bloom.Sadie used to like to come eat all the grass in this flower bed. It is a little harder finding grass now that we have transformed this area.
I can't wait for the raspberries to start producing.
We inherited this baby bed spring with the flower bed when we moved here. These sweet pea flowers come up every year. They were purchased in Ireland, and planted here by my friend CC, the former owner of this house.



We had a lot of fun with this area..................



This is our wagon wheel herb garden we just finished planting.

The bricks came from the chimney of our former house. Each pie shape has different types of herbs in it, such as chives.

Most herbs have a specific meaning, and I'm going to share those meanings with you.

Chives means usefulness.
This section has different kinds of basil.

Basil means best wishes and friendship.

This section has lemon balm and lemon thyme. I hope to add more lemony flavors soon.

Lemon balm means sympathy and regeneration.
Here is an overview of the whole garden.

Lavender, one of my most favorite flowers, is the centerpiece of this garden.

Lavender means silence, recognition and acceptance of love.
The old kitchen sink also found a prominent place in our garden, and is filled with lots of color.

We moved this toilet out of the garage, and filled it with lots of color as well, using cosmos, zinnias and other pretty flowers to make it a useful planter.

This is the remains of the catnip I planted. It was a big, full, beautiful plant when I put it in the ground. It didn't last long with five "trippin'" cats living with us.

Here is marjoram and oregano.

Marjoram means sweet joy and happiness.

Here are two different kinds of sage.

Sage means Wisdom and long life.

Here is a summer savory plant, and some French tarragon.

Savory means Interest, and French Tarragon means lasting involvement.

Thyme fills this area.

Thyme means daring.


This pot holds spearmint. Mint is very invasive, so I plan to use pots placed in this area to grow mint.

Mint means wisdom.

I want to purchase some other varieties of mint to add to this area.

I have a few other herbs I would like to add, such as parsley, cilantro and rosemary. Hopefully I'll find some to add soon.

Here is another view of the flowerbed.

Happy 45th Birthday To Me

It is almost the end of my 45th birthday.

What a wonderful day it has been.

I spent the morning at Kellogg Middle School with 12 6th graders who are attending summer school, and we celebrated my birthday with Key Lime Pie, Lemon Merangue pie, and Chocolate Cream Pie. Then PKR and my mom showed up, and PKR brought his guitar in and sang me a song.

Then I came home and got in a little nap.

I got a call from Raymond Pert.

Inland Empire Girl sent me a card last week with a Starbucks Gift Card, and also sent me a hilarious Hallmark E Card.

Mom came for a bbq, then my friends AM and MP came to wish me a happy birthday.

AM gave me a CD that she she made last year with the blue grass band she was in, called Red Wing. She plays the bass.

MG promised me a jar of rhubarb jam. Yum! Yum!

My mom gave me some old 45 records and 35 LP's and some old sheet music she thought would look great framed and put down in our family room in the basement.

My family gave me an MP3 player, and a $50 ITunes gift card.

My friend SD, who has a wonderful eye for pottery, gave me a beautiful blue pottery bowl.

What a wonderful way to celebrate my 45th birthday.

So, anyone out there have some suggestions of tunes I could purchase with my ITunes card to put on my new MP3 player.

I'd love some suggestions.

Writing Retreat Envy

Yes, I must admit, as I read the posts from my siblings regarding the writing retreat they attended last week in McCall, the ugly green monster of jealousy reared its' ugly head, because I so wish I could be there.

But, a little thing called a summer job got in the way.

With a daughter heading off to college this fall, I needed to make a little money this summer.

I know I would have loved being there, though. I'm glad my sister-in-law LR was able to attend.

I look forward to hearing all about it.

But, until then, I'll continue to sulk here in Kellogg because I didn't get to go...

W-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-h!!!

Computer Down...Off My Game

It has been a week without my laptop. I feel a little off my game. I took it into the shop, and when the words "replace motherboard" came out of the technician's mouth, I knew it wasn't good.

It seems the power source is the problem, and he tried soldering it back, and that didn't work, so I may need to send it away and get a whole new motherboard. UGH!!

What to do...what to do?

So I'm back on the PC which is okay, but I'm a little off because I don't have everything on this computer.

I'll keep you posted....

The Summer of 1975

We received our sibling assignment from Inland Empire Girl this week. Here is the assignment:

What songs take you back to a summer growing up?

Share the song and the memories that are attached to it.

My mom made a purchase in the Summer of 1975 that had a great impact on my life.

She purchased a radio that gave me the ability to tune into an FM station from Spokane.

The station was KHQ-FM.

Before FM, residence in the Silver Valley were limited on their radio station choices because of the fact we lived in the valley, and the signals could not reach us from Spokane. The local station, KWAL, was okay, but I was longing for a little more variety.

The summer of 1975 was big year. I had just finished sixth grade at Sunnyside Elementary, and I was preparing to enter 7th grade at Kellogg Junior High. I'm sure I was filled with excitement and a bit of apprehension as I prepared to enter that huge building and go to all those different classes.

The one song I remember the most from that summer was Captain And Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together". And I seem to remember them playing that song a lot that summer, because it was the number one hit for a while.

I have a particulary vivid memory of me sitting on the front porch at my parents house, with the radio on the front porch, and the sky was getting cloudy, but I sitting outside listening to the radio. Possibly I received better reception outside.

There were others that summer that have stayed with me for over 30 years, such as "The Hustle", Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom", "Listen to What The Man Said", by Wings, "My Eyes Adored You", by The Four Seasons, "Evil Woman", by The Electric Light Orchestra and Billy Joel's "The Entertainer".

If any of these songs come on the the radio today, I can pretty much sing them word for word, because they have a permanent place in my memory from the summer of 1975.

Writing about this post reminded me of the Steely Dan hit "FM". I invite you to enjoy a little Steely Dan.

High School Friend is Romance Writer

I told my friend Lisa I would put a plug in for her new book, a Harlequin American Romance titled Man of the Year. Below is a promo email I received from her, as well as a picture and write up about her. I am so proud of Lisa. We both graduated the same year from Kellogg High School, and were active in drama, choir and French in high school. Her parents live just down the street from me, and, if you are in for a steamy summer romance book, why don't you check this out.

*******************************************************************************


Hello;

I am thrilled to announce the publication of my first book, Man of the Year, by Harlequin American Romance. Man of the Year received four stars out of five from Romantic Times and has had other wonderful reviews, as well. Kay James at www.romancereaderatheart.com loved it and gave it her top rating. A couple of my guy-friends--you know who you are--read it and said: "though I don't read that kind of stuff, I liked it." High praise, indeed. I hope you will buy it, read it and love it, too. Then tell all your friends to do the same!

You can purchase the book at your local supermarket in June (if they carry Harlequin Romance) or online at www.eharlequin.com, www.amazon.com, www.borders.com to list a few. Borders also has it on the shelf this month for a limited time. If you see it, turn it face outward so everyone will be tempted to peruse it and buy! Read my author's page. I will also have a website up and running soon at www.lisaruff.net. Keep checking back for further updates there.

My next book, Baby On Board, comes out in January 2009, also published by Harlequin American Romance. I am working on my third book for them right now. I'll let you know when they are available.

Thanks for your support.
Lisa Ruff

**********************************************************************************

Lisa Ruff was born in Montana and grew up in Idaho. The daughter of a forester, she lived in small lumber towns—some nestled so deep in the mountains that sunlight never touched the valley floor from October to April. She attended the University of Idaho and earned a degree in Interior Design. That training led her to Seattle, where she designed restaurants before starting her own interior design business.

Lisa met the man of her dreams in Seattle. She married Kirk promising to love, honor and edit his rough drafts. His pursuit of writing led Lisa to the craft. A long-time reader of romance, she decided to try to create one herself. The first version of Man of the Year took three months to finish, but her business got in the way of polishing the manuscript. She stuffed it in a drawer where it languished for several years.

In pursuit of time to write and freedom to explore the world, Lisa, Kirk and their cat sailed from Seattle on a thirty-seven-foot boat. They spent five years cruising in Central America and the Caribbean. Lisa wrote romance, but it took a backseat to an adventurous life. She was busy writing travel essays, learning to speak Spanish from taxi drivers and handling a small boat in gale-force winds on the ocean.

When she returned to land-life, Lisa started a marine canvas business. Her summers were filled with patterning, cutting and sewing covers and biminis for boats. One winter, she finally revised Man of the Year and sent it to an agent. Within a year, she had a contract from Harlequin American Romance. That same month, Lisa sold her canvas business in order to pursue her dream of writing full time. She and her husband are cruising on a sailboat again—this one 40 feet long—somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. When not setting sail for another port, she is working on her next Harlequin romance book.

************************************************************************************

I am so proud of Lisa, and can't wait to read this book for myself, and the many more that are in her future!!

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

This week, I gave the sibling assignment, and I am going to get it done on time!!

My assignment for the week is as follows:

Write about a Silver Valley memory where the central focus deals with one of the four Greek classical elements: fire, earth, air or water.

I have very vivid memories from my childhood that deal with water, or specifically rain.

I must have been three or four year old when I was out with my wagon and my doll, and I was walking around the block, and all of a sudden there was a downpour. BH, who lived on the next block over, took me to her house to find shelter from the storm, along with my doll and wagon. I stayed there until the rain storm was over, and I could get home without getting drenched. I think my mom was a little worried about me, but I think BH's mom called her, and let her know I was okay. That incident must have had a great impact on me, because I remember many vivid details from that event.

I was very scared of thunder and lightning rain storms when I was little. Now I love them, but as a child, they were very frightening.

When I was in fourth or fifth grade, we had a lot of flooding here in Kellogg, kind of like this year. The "Lead Creek" or the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River was running very high, and we were out of school because of the flooding. My friend WM called and asked if I could come over. This involved crossing the bridge over the river...the river that was running very high. It didn't really frighten me that much to cross the bridge...but Mom was a bit freaked out.

Rainstorms, Thunder Lightening. Floods. All were a part of growing up in the Silver Valley, and were part of my memories of growing up in this valley in the mountains.

Remembering The Wizard of Oz

"The Wizard of Oz" is one of those shows that was shown annually on television beginning in 1959, except, interestingly enough, the year I was born, 1963.

But I am sure, from the time I could watch tv, I watched it each year it was on, if I could.

I'm not sure what year we had our first color television, but I am sure the impact of the show was even greater when all of sudden Dorothy opened that door, and she was in a world of color.

Dorothy and her story of her journey were the seeds of many skits I wrote and performed over the years.

While in high school, some friends and I were rather obsessed with this particular movie. I'm not sure what fueled this obsession, but, before VCR's and DVD's, my friend JB had his mom tape record the entire movie from the television on a cassette tape. In looking at the Wikipedia site, this would have been the 1981 broadcast on CBS airing Friday, February 27 at 8 p.m.

The following Monday, JB and I, and perhaps LR sat in the Kellogg High School cafeteria in the morning and at lunchtime, listening to this tape recording of "The Wizard of Oz", and saying the dialogue and singing the songs right along with the recording.

My now sister-in-law LR reminds me of this incident every once in a while. She remembers walking through the cafeteria and hearing us singing along to the tape, and I believe she may have even stopped and joined us for a while.

But those are my childhood memories of "The Wizard of Oz". The sibling assignment that Raymond Pert gave us a couple of weeks ago, and that I am now finally getting around to writing was this:

"What do you understand about The Wizard of Oz as an adult that you didn't understand as a child?"

I think I understand more today that often what we want out of life, and don't think we have, we have had all along.

Such as Dorothy. She got mad and wanted to run away from home because she thought no one understood her. But then she realized that home wasn't such a bad place, and that "there's no place like home".

The Scarecrow thought he didn't have a brain, yet he showed his cleverness and smarts all along the yellow brick road as he helped his friends get to the all powerful Wizard of Oz.

The Tinman claimed he didn't have a heart, but he had the most compassion as they traveled the road to the Emerald City.

And the Cowardly Lion, one of my favorite characters in the movie, thought he lacked courage, yet was the bravest of them all.

I think most of us go through a period in our lives when we don't like our home, our family, we want to get away...which part of that is a natural progression of growing up and needing to move away. But then we move away, get some perspective, and realize what a wonderful home we truly have.

And, like the Scarecrow, we often feel pretty stupid. We lack confidence in the things we know, which often keep us from doing things we are able to do, but we think we are too stupid, so we don't even try. But then, we do venture out, our confidence grows, we start realizing the things we are smart at, and we realize we can do some things really well.

Fear often leads us to those times when it seems like we have no heart. We go through a period when we are kind of mean, and we just think about ourselves. But, like the Tinman, we realize we had a heart all along, and that love and compassion for others grows, because we quit focusing on ourself all the time, and start realizing there are people out there who have needs, and need the love of someone else to help them in their lives.

And, like the Cowardly Lion, we think we can't do something because we fear we will fail. But then all of a sudden we are faced with an obstacle, and usually it involves helping someone else we love, and, low and behold, we realize we have

Courage. What makes a King out of a slave? Courage.
What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage.
What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist or the dusky dusk?
What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage.
What makes the Sphinx the 7th Wonder? Courage.
What makes the dawn come up like THUNDER?! Courage.
What makes the Hottentot so hot?
What puts the "ape" in ape-ricot?
Whatta they got that I ain't got?

Dorothy & Friends: Courage!

Cowardly Lion: You can say that again.

But, in the end, the lion was very brave, because he had someone else to look out for besides himself. And that gave him the courage he needed.

As the Wizard so wisely told them all at the end, it was inside of them all of the time.

School's Out For Summer

A-h-h-h-h-h-h. The first week of summer vacation. Well, at least that is what the calendar says. The snow on the hillsides this morning might indicate otherwise.

The last week of school was full of lots of activities for Z2 and Kiki Aru. On Wednesday morning, all of the KMS students got to got to the newly opened indoor water park at Silver Mountain for free. It was really fun.

That afternoon, the annual KMS talent show was held. Kiki Aru was one of the 6th grade contestants, and performed a song called "Pocketful of Sunshine."

Also during the talent show, different awards were presented. The first award was the Frank S. Reasoner Award, presented to a student in each grade level who is the best all around student. Z2 received this award. She was presented with a framed certificate and $100.

On Thursday afternoon, Z2 participated in the 8th grade completion ceremony. Because she is 8th grade class president, she gave the opening address.

Then she received her promotion to 9th grade at Kellogg High School.

That evening, Z2 joined her classmates for the 8th grade class dance.

It was a fun and busy week. I hope this helps explain a little bit about my absence this past week.

Lilac City Memories

Inland Empire Girl gave us this sibling assignment...

Taking in the strong fragrance of lilacs today reminded me of Spokane " The Lilac City". Write about a memorable time from childhood that was spent in Spokane.

Raymond Pert's is here, and Inland Empire Girls will be here.

This is probably one of my earliest memories of being in Spokane. I can't believe I remember so much about this, because I was only four years old.

It was the time I got my tonsils removed.

The proceedure was done at the Paulsen Building in downtown Spokane. Apparently my pediatrician had access to a small hospital facility in the building.

Inland Empire Girl was also having surgery at the same time to remove a tumor in her mouth.

I still remember the black mask coming down over my face, and asking to count back from five.

I remember getting out of bed at some point to try and find my sister in another room.

I remember receiving a stuffed animal, a tiger, from Mom and Dad.

I went to Grandma Woolum's house to recover. I got to eat ice cream because it felt good on my throat.

And, because I was at Grandma's house, I also felt safe, secure and loved.

I'm Proud To Be From Kellogg

I'm a little behind on sibling assignments. Here is one I gave a few weeks ago...

What is it about telling people you were born and raised in Kellogg that gives you a sense of pride? Inland Empire Girls post is here, and Raymond Pert's is here.

For me, it is the people.

I love having connections with people who live here, or who I grew up with in this town.

I love knowing my grandparents moved out here from Kentucky in the early 1900's, and that my dad was born here in Kellogg in 1930.

I think I get a lot of my prideful feelings about Kellogg from my dad. He loved it here. When he had to move to Spokane for a while when he was in high school, he worked out a way to come back and live here so he could attend school in Kellogg.

I love the sense of community here in the Silver Valley. I love it when someone is sick, or their house burned down, or for whatever reason they have fallen on hard times, and the outpouring of help and support for the family is overwhelming.

I love living in this beautiful area, with the tree covered mountains, the rivers, the lakes, the bike trails, the skiing and the four seasons.

But I think one of the things I love most is the connection I have with the people who live here. It doesn't take long to see someone at the store and tell my daughters how I am connected to them. Sometimes they think I went to high school with everyone we see!!

And the history of this area is also very interesting. I loved it when I started reading about this area, and realized this was one of the last places in the U.S. "discovered and tamed" by the white man. And that Noah Kellogg discovered the Bunker Hill Mine is 1885, and, less than 50 years later, my dad was born in Kellogg. The Cataldo Mission, the Gold Rush, the Mining Wars...they all have helped form what is today's Silver Valley.

And I am proud to call this place home.