An Introduction to Botany

That's the sound of me bouncing through the interwebs from address to addres.  You're all used to it by now anyway, right?

Since Vox shows no sign of ever allowing unregistered readers to comment, I'm switching to Wordpress.

http://motet.wordpress.com

The username's in honor of my favorite piece of music, Spem In Alium, Thomas Tallis's 40-part motet.
There's a new post up there, too.

I didn't realize when I signed up for Vox that it doesn't allow comments from unregistered users.  I like everything else about it, butI really, really dislike that one aspect.  I'm thinking about moving over to wordpress.com.  Wordpress is really easy to use as well, and I'm already familiar with it.  I just can't think of a good user name.  I can't keep my nice, tidy blb because wordpress.com usernames have to be four characters or more.  Let me know if you have any ideas.  You can email me at blborkent (*at*) gmail (*dot*) com if you can't comment.

Here are my dear friends Jeff, Rachel and Shae -- they (Jeff and Rachel) got married on New Year's Eve.  Aren't they gorgeous?

They had a small family-only ceremony, which we're still waiting to see pictures from (!!!), but they're throwing a big party in August that is going to be super-fun.  I'm trying to talk them into having a pig roast, among other things.  CP and I are both in the wedding party for that.  I've been having fun looking at pictures of pretty bridesmaids' dresses on the Interweb.  There are some really cool dresses out there these days.

Also, congratulations to the Larsons, who had their baby boy yesterday, and to my friend April, who just got engaged -- in Egypt!

The night before last I had a really vivid dream in which CP and I had two children and adopted two more.  The two we already had were biological siblings who were First Nations -- a boy of about 5 and a girl of about 3, adopted from foster care.  They looked very much alike, and were totally adorable, full of mischief, and devoted to each other.  We went on a trip, and I guess it was to China, because we brought home two Chinese baby girls.  They weren't twins -- they looked very different from each other.  I think one of them had slightly curly hair.  They were about a year old.  Now, obviously you cannot just go to China and pick up some babies as if they were souvenirs, but in my the world of my dream, apparently you can, and we did.  The rest of the dream consisted of the four kids all playing together in a living room.  The older two thought the babies were the coolest things ever, and they all hung out and entertained each other happily while CP and I ate dinner and read our books and watched them play.  Ha!  Not very likely!  Anyway, it was a really happy dream, and I wanted to record it because it was extremely vivid.  In my last extremely vivid dream, Jeff and Rachel got engaged, which they did in real life about a week later. 

(I can probably attribute the Chinese-baby aspect of the dream on reading all about American Family's long-awaited referral that finally arrived this week.  Not sure where the bit with TWO babies came from, though.  There's no chance of us adopting from China unless we fall into a big vat of money or something, unfortunately.)

I haven't really been sure what I want to do with this site -- I initially set it up mostly to encourage my sister in law and friend to start blogging, which they both did.  I don't have the drive to do a what-I-ate-for-lunch type of weblog (been there, done that, still love reading them but don't want to write one).  CP and I have spent a lot of time in the last few weeks discussing changes we want to make in our lives.  We've started implementing most of those changes already, so they're not exactly New Year's resolutions.  Most of them are more like goals.  Nevertheless, I've decided I'd like to basically use this space as a self-improvement journal.  That sounds cheesy to me when I write it out, but fear of sounding or looking cheesy has kept me from being open about, much less accomplishing, many of these goals for a very long time.  It's not a healthy or a productive attitude!  Maybe one of my resolutions should be to not worry about being cheesy. (Edited to add: I came across Erin's great entry on this very subject immediately after I wrote this post!)  There are a lot of things I'm unhappy about in my life right now, and they're all things that can change.  It's not as though I want to grow wings and fly to the rings of Saturn!  So, in spite of my hangups and neuroses, I'm going to give this a go.  I think I'll start by writing a dedicated entry about each resolution.  But first, the resolutions themselves:

Lose 22 pounds. 
Integrate physical fitness into my everyday life.
Go on dedicated, out-of-the-house dates with CP twice a month.
Improve my emotional/mental health.
Procrastinate less and accomplish more.
Submit writing to literary journals or other publications once a month.
Connect often with family and friends.
Improve my financial stewardship.
Simplify and streamline my cooking and eating and my house.
Finish the first draft of my first novel.
Get my goofy but promising new website idea up and running.
Revitalize my spiritual life.
Love myself.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

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Submitted by Anthony

What are your top 5 books of 2006?

Introduction to the Introduction to Wang Wei - Pain Not Bread
Gravity's Plumb Line - Ross Leckie
The Serpent and the Rainbow - Wade Davis
A Generous Orthodoxy - Brian McLaren
The Clarinet Polka - Keith Maillard

(I'm listing my top books read this year, not my top books published this year).

We hiked the Millstream Trail in West Vancouver (6K & about 1.5 hours return, mostly flat and wide).  It ends at a nice viewpoint on Cypress Mountain.  Can you see the brown blanket of smog hanging over the city?  I had no idea that was there!  The woods were beautiful with the light snow.  There weren't many birds around, though, much to CP's disappointment.

Where do you do your online shopping?

I don't do a lot of online shopping -- shipping charges are high and options are more limited in Canada -- but I do use Amazon.ca, Chapters.ca, and etsy.

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Submitted by tOiXc_HoNeY.