working away

I've been working hard while the kids are gone at their grandparents, trying to finish revising my book proposal. Yes, the same darn book proposal I've been working on for over 2 years! The first version was more of a straight narrative nonfiction type book, which I called The Fish Wars: How Evolution and Christianity Can Make Peace. My agent sent it around to publishers but it didn't fly for various reasons - too many competitors that were about to come out, I didn't have enough of a platform (i.e. I'm not a pastor or an academic scientist). But after meeting with my literary agency (the Carol Mann Agency) when I went to New York City in April, I came up with a new idea that we're very excited about.

This version is much more of a memoir, my personal story about how I became a Christian who accepts evolution, and what that means. It's more like Elizabeth Gilbert's eat, pray, love (which I love, by the way) than like one of the stuffy books about theology and religion and evolution. I hope to reach a far broader audience, and I can use my strength which is my writing style. So wish me luck, send good wishes and prayers as I'm getting close to being done with this new revision and then my agent will hopefully soon send it to publishers again!

My latest article is out in TX Parks & Wildlife Magazine's Annual Water Issue. This year's theme: The State of Lakes. As you may or may not know, Texas has only one natural lake, Caddo Lake. I covered the newly emerging concept of offchannel reservoirs in Dams on the Side: Off-channel reservoirs can help meet water needs while causing less environmental impact than dams that halt a river’s flow.

These are the books I want to read, or more correctly listen to (I don't have time to read these days, I just listen to audio-CDs when I run or drive around). Has anyone read any of these? Comments? Poisonwood Bible has been around for a long time but the rest are relatively new.

Freakonomics by Steven Levitt
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Assault on Reason by Al Gore
God After Darwin by John Haught
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

Did I tell you I got Sam a Robo Sapien? I think I blogged a couple Christmases ago about how Sam, Savannah and I just laughed so hard in Radio Shack while playing with a Robo Sapien and Robo Raptor. Well they were God-awful expensive ($200) and I said sorry, no way. But we had fun playing with it in the store. That year, Savannah was the only student in Holy Trinity middle school to get the Superior Achievement Award (which means she got a 95 overall average and never lower than a 90 in any class all year long) and I told Sam, who was about to enter middle school, that if he got that next year then I'd buy him a Robo Sapien! And what do you know, he did! In fact both my kids were the only 2 kids in middle school this year to earn than same award, and I'm very proud of them. Luckily the price has gone down some, and it's only $99.95. There's a V. 2 that has better gripping claws and more programming options. He's a pretty cool little dude. In fact that is what we named him, Dude.

Travels ahead - I'm going to the ASJA East Meets West conference at UC Berkeley Sep 29. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet editors from The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Salon, Wired, and Smithsonian. Other than National Geographic, those are my dream markets!! With a book possibly coming out sometime soon, this is a great networking opp.

I may be going to Nepal in November for a story on red pandas, more details soon, and I also WILL be leading a group either to Panama, Belize or Bolivia in Dec 07 or sometime in 2008. It will be a 10-day/9 night trip with lots of wildlife, rainforest and reef/beach time. If you're interested let me know!

Dreams of My Father

I'm listening to the audio -book of Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. It's very interesting and I'm enjoying it on my evening runs. I like him, he has an honest way of stating the truth of both sides but somehow seeming to bring a genuine peacefulness and understanding between various sides. As a man who had a white mother and a black (Kenyan) father, who better to bridge the divides that still remain in our country with regards to racial issues? But it goes way beyond that, he just really seems to have something genuine in his words and he seems to want to bring people together. It's a rare gift I've only seen in a few people. The book was written before he even ran for Senator.

One thing on the 4th CD, he is talking about his work doing community development in Chicago, which he did before he went to law school at Harvard. He was meeting with various church pastors because he worked with them in his community development work and this was before he became a Christian himself, and he says, "They all mentioned periods of religious doubt, the corruption of the world and their own hearts. The striking bottom and the shattering of pride. And then finally the resurrection of self, a self alloyed to something larger. That was the source of their confidence, they insisted. Their personal fall and subsequent redemption. It was what gave them the authority to preach the good news."

All I can say to that is Amen, brother! Something in the way I heard it or he read it - in a very unaffected way, no fervor, just plain spoken - moved me deeply, because it speaks such truth. That is exactly what the Christian faith means to me. It's not about being righteous and especially not self-righteous or judgmental. It's about recognizing one's failings, falling down and then finding the strength - the redemption that comes from surrender - to rise back up, truly healthier and stronger. I've had two such times when I struck bottom in my life - in high school after the date rape when I didn't have God or religion and I turned to alcohol and self-hatred and other sources of inflicting pain on myself, and then my divorce over 4 years ago when I did have God and although I sunk into a deep depression, I never hated myself and I mourned and grieved and overcame, clinging fiercely to God in the morning in my prayers, during the day in my tears, and at night as I went to bed, alone, hoping only that through this pain something beautiful could be born, or reborn. And it was.

The best things in life

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life. --Robert Louis Stevenson

I like this quote and just thought I'd post this quick and cogent reminder to enjoy the small pleasures of each day, because as I often say on this blog, you never know what day will be your last, or when your life might change dramatically. Enjoy the now, not always putting off joy for tomorrow...

I also wanted to mention a book I heard mentioned on the radio the other day and I just looked it up, and it looks really interesting. Save me from Myself: How I found God, Quit KORN, Kicked drugs, and Lived to Tell My Story by Brian "Head" Welch, the former lead guitarist of the rock band KORN, who got saved by Jesus Christ and kicked his meth addiction. The story is told for the first time here. I am going to have to read this. He has a new solo album called "It's Time to See Religion Die" which is interesting given my own title to the book I'm working on, and the fact that he's a born-again Christian. The music reflects his distrust of organized religion. You can also see more information about him and his music and book at his official website, Head to Christ.

Love and light and peace to you all!

Live Earth!

I am recording coverage of Live Earth, the awesome concert to raise awareness of global warming. I watched a bit earlier and it was really cool. I love music! I saw Al Gore encourage everyone to agree to a 7-point pledge, and I love the Melissa Etheridge song that she wrote for An Inconvenient Truth - I saw her play it live.

I plan to analyze my carbon footprint and offset my lifestyle for this year. I encourage you to also! You can analyze your carbon footprint here. OK I just did it: my ECP score was 353, with a carbon output of 15 tons. That is probably high because although I recycle, save water and electricity as much as possible, I fly a lot for work. It says the average score in the US is 325, but the average carbon output is 20 tons.

I have an article coming out in November for E/The Environmental Magazine on Carbon Neutral cruises (including my trip to the Galapagos) and if you want to offset your carbon footprint take heed: A December 2006 report by the nonprofit group Clean Air, Cool Planet released the first review and analysis of offset providers (you can get a copy of the report online at their website), naming the best 8 of 30 reviewed in terms of quality of their projects and dedication to education about global warming: AgCert/Driving Green, atmosfair, Carbon Neutral Company, Climate Care, Climate Trust, co2balance, NativeEnergy, and Sustainable Travel/MyClimate.

Not all are US-based. Offset providers basically do various things that "offset" your carbon emissions - whether planting trees, investing in green energy, methane capture (a more harmful global warming gas than CO2) or other projects. The costs per ton of CO2 vary, but you also want to look at the overall quality of the offset. People like the idea of tree planting (myself included) but it actually is the least effective method, in part due to the impermanence but also because of the slow growth. Many providers will use a variety of projects, and you can also pick which you prefer.

Here is another calculator: CarbonCounter but I believe most of the above have calculators also. The Live Earth one is pretty simple, and a more detailed one may give a better estimate of your footprint.

Zen Living

Here is a link to a CBS TV spot with Daline and some of the others out at Green Gulch Zen Center.

I haven't been blogging much lately about my deepest thoughts as I used to, I realized. Lately I've had a lot of thoughts and internal struggles and I'm not quite sure why I'm not blogging them as much. Maybe because I know the people I'm thinking about are reading this :)

I'm trying to find time to work on revising my book proposal (yes it has been about 2 years now...), the one formerly known as The Fish Wars (new title is secret!) and yet it is really tough to find time amidst the article assignments and having the kids home with me this summer. I love having the kids around all the time, but it does take away the long stretches of alone time I have during the school year, which I love. I think there is some fear there about completing it also - fear of failure, fear of yet another unfinished project which compels me to put it off even more (go figure). There have also been some family struggles, as I'm coming to grips with a new assessment of certain family members that were formerly - as my marriage therapist used to say - "in the China cabinet."

I really struggle with knowing what the right decision is a lot of time. I believe we have warring parts of our personality - some selfish, some selfless, and some that just want different things, and sometimes it's hard to know what my best option is at any given time.

Finally...newsrooms reach out to help

Well here I was about to applaud CNN (or rather CNN.com) for heralding a new thing on their site that allows people to donate to some of the top causes that help poverty, hunger, animals, etc. They just relaunched their website with a new look, and this full color banner was there linking to "Impact Your World." They have a photo of a child and it says above it "What Would Happen if Everybody Cared?" I thought, wow, this is awesome! Finally a news company has taken responsibility and gone to the step of actually helping make people more aware of steps that they can take to HELP solve some of the world's problems, rather than just reading about them. When I clicked on the link it brings you to another CNN site with links to various world issues, including refugees and homelessness, hunger, animals, natural disasters, poverty, and health and this literally brought tears to my eyes.

But then this morning I went back and the banner is not even on the front page anymore! I was like, what the heck?! Why launch some whole new initiative and only feature it for half a day?! What good is that?! I guess Paris Hilton or celebrity news has suddenly become as important again... I went back again and it's there again, but apparently it is labeled as "advertisement" (even though it's an official CNN initiative and site) so it pops up now and again but is not a permanent link. Why?!

Here is the link.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/

I suspect they will link this to stories that relate to these specific issues, but I think they should have it on the website front page all the time! Also, I found it ironic that they have "animals" but not "environment" because oddly enough newsrooms call the environment a "side" instead of just an issue like poverty. You can be pro-environment and that is supposedly showing a bias. Can you be pro-poverty or anti-poverty? Doesn't everyone in their right mind want no poverty and a clean, healthy environment? Agreeing on the terms of those issues and how to solve them is a whole 'nother can o' worms, but for goodness sake, we should certainly be able to agree that "environment" is as neutral as "poverty" - i.e. it's just a term describing a phenomenon or an issue. I guess the right-wing fundies might get up in arms if anyone considered the environment just another issue that needs listing on their save the world campaign!

photos from the Bay Area

On our very first night at Yosemite National Park, me and the kids did a short walk to Lower Yosemite Falls and scrambled around on the rocks a bit. Not easy in flip flops! I hadn't planned on rock scrambling so did not wear appropriate shoes :) I did have hiking boots with me, I just didn't wear them that first day!

A waterfall in Yosemite Valley.

Sam, Savannah and their niece Kira by the Merced River near Housekeeping Camp where we stayed the first night.

Drop dead gorgeous scenery!

Hiking to Dog Lake, a glacial lake near the Tuolomnne Meadows area of Yosemite National Park. Right is Zofi and Savannah. Left is Lazer giving Kira a piggyback ride, Savi and Zofia.

Dog Lake was so damn cold i could not go in...but it didn't stop the kids!

Playing on a rock in the Merced River, Yosemite N.P. It was icy cold! Took my breath away! On the right, Sam beside the Merced River. He was so enthralled that the river was so clear you could see the trout and he wanted to go fishing so badly!

Believe it or not, this was my kids' first experience with snow! They had seen snow as babies/toddlers in Alaska but this was the first real in the snow playtime. It was a snowpack just outside of Yosemite N.P. at the Tioga Pass entrance. The photo above is my brother Lazer, my niece Kira (in pink) and my kids.

A meadow near the Tuolomne Meadows region of the park, where we stayed the second night.

Savannah at the snowman the day before, and the pathetic anorexic-looking snow-thing the next day. I love this poor little guy!

Daline and I at Muir Woods (left). Coastal redwood (Sequioa) foliage (right).

Me at Bohemian Grove in Muir Woods - must have been named after me!
Lavender at Green Gulch Zen Center Organic Farm. I love these photos. On the left, this is a different variety of lavender, and the orange flowers in the background are California poppies.

Daline in the garden (left). Someone from the Zen center working in the gorgeous flower garden.

Hills of Taumalipas - the trail through Green Gulch to Muir Beach.
Me and the kids and Daline and her sister Jackie inside the zendo, where they do their "sitting" practice. Daline playing on a type of drum (right).

Flowers over San Francisco Bay, and a California Poppy (right) - one of my favorite flowers!

Ghirardelli "chocolate factory" in Ghirardelli Square, SF and an awesome meal at the Melting Pot - we were stuffed!

highlights from Yosemite and San Fran

Got in at 1am last night from an awesome trip. I haven't uploaded the pics yet, but will soon. Just wanted to post some highlights. Also my OnEarth podcast is now live (an interview of me by OnEarth editor Laura Wright), and Alternet picked up my article (30 Days of Consumer Celibacy) and they have a whole discussion forum devoted to it, which is kind of cool. There are people discussing it, mentioning the best points, even calling me lazy and then others defending me. It's great - my own little mini-celebrity forum! I have to laugh because I like to call myself a Q-list celebrity. Ha!

Anyway on to the highlights:

YOSEMITE


• Seeing Zofia, niece Kira and brother Lazer
  
  
• Seeing a black bear rooting up food in a meadow near Crane Flat
  
  
• Hiking to Dog Lake and lying on a rock in the sun
  
  
• Playing in the snow (my kids' first time to ever see snow!) and watching them laugh, make a snowman, throw snowballs, slide down the snowpack.
  
  
• The beautiful crystal clear Merced River. The kids swam with Lazer while Z and I hung out and chatted, though I did go in to the very cold river later. It took my breath away!
  
  
• The short walk to the Lower Yosemite Falls with Sam, Savannah and Kira and climbing over the boulders to get closer. Feeling the spray on our faces.
  
  
• Listening to Kira and Sam laughing in the backseat of the rental car playing Tamigachi (sp) as they would send "poop" in the mail to one another via their electronic game! LOL.
  
  GREEN GULCH ZEN CENTER
  
  
• Spending time getting to know Daline's mom and sister Jackie better, and of course seeing Daline!
  
  
• Showing the kids an alternate way of life, and discussing with them different religions, and Buddhism as a philosophy and the similarities of its teachings to Christianity.
  
  
• Watching my best friend dedicate her life to the 10 precepts, which are very similar to the 10 commandments. The ceremony had me tearing up a couple of times!
  
  
• Getting a tour of the organic garden at the Center, where Daline had worked. They had a gorgeous flower garden. The kids enjoyed this too.
  
  
• Walking down to Muir Beach.
  
  MUIR WOODS/SAN FRAN
  
  
• My 2nd visit to Muir Woods and the kids' first. I love how the vegetation reminds me of my childhood forests in Oregon (though no coastal redwoods there). It's always beautiful and we just did the basic hike down and back to the visitor center.
  
  
• Eating a 4-course meal at the Melting Pot fondue place!! We had cheese fondue, then salad, then you cook your food in bouillon (filet minon, teriyaki beef, chicken, shrimp, ahi tuna, and veggies) and then for the grand finale, chocolate fondue. Yum!
  
  
• Fisherman's Wharf in SF was really cool. I got a couple sweatshirts for the kids, and a few gifts for people. Just walking around was neat!
  
  
• Lunch at the Boudin Bakery - chowder in a bread bowl! I seem to be overcoming my gluten allergy as I'm not reacting like I used to.
  
  
• Seeing the sea lions at Pier 39.
  
  
• I wanted to go to Alcatraz but we didn't have time. Next visit! It was neat to see it offshore though.
  
  
• I'm glad that the kids had such a great time and got to do a lot of cool things and see a lot of neat new places and things. It was a great trip!
  

Pics soon.

Blueberries and Gawad Kalinga

I went blueberry picking this weekend with the kids and some of their friends - it marks our 9th year berry picking and me and the kids got a whopping 16 pounds!!! I need some blueberry recipes... mostly I love to freeze them so I have them throughout the year for smoothies. I paid $24 for the 16 pounds so it's way cheaper than the grocery store. And it was sooo humid I was soaked in sweat! This year we went with some friends from the kids' school. To the right is a photo of Tre'-Anthony and Sam - someone has a mouthfull of blueberries I think!! The pic below is a self-portrait of Susan and I (Tre' and Nick's mom), and Savannah brought her friend who lives across the street. Susan enjoys photography also and so one day soon I will link to her new blog! When she gets one! ;) hint hint Susan!

Saturday night I attended a fundraising gala for the Humble-Kingwood Fil-Am Foundation who are building a sustainable village in the Philippines through the nonprofit organization Gawad Kalinga. I want to write an article about this very awesome project. It's being organized by two professors from Kingwood College where I used to teach, Geology professor Cherith Letargo, who grew up in the Philippines, and Biology prof Brian Shmaefsky. They plan to run an Environmental Geology class in Spring 2008 that will plan and then fly over there to actually help the villagers build the community. Gawad Kalinga has the motto "No More Slums" and it's similar to Habitat for Humanity except that the individuals who get the homes have to help build a neighbor's home first and then they qualify for their own. They don't pay anything but rather use a system of sweat equity. The villages are really nice, and funds are raised to help put in schools and clinics as well as teachuing them about hygiene and other things.

Gawad Kalinga was started in 2001 by Couples for Christ to take care of natural-disaster survivors who often ended up in slums in Manila. One amazing thing about this ministry is that there are Muslims and Christians working side by side. Sponsoring groups from many countries have helped, including France, Australia, Germany and Virginia USA. Now Humble-Kingwood will have a village built! I am so impressed with this ministry and hope I can sell an article on this idea so I can travel over with them next spring break. I'll see if Cherith can let me borrow some pics to put up here. She and Brian went over there last year to scope out the situation.

heading to Cali

Next Thursday I'm heading back to Cali, this time with Sam & Savannah. We fly to San Francisco, and will head up to Yosemite National Park with my adorable niece Kira, her mom Zofia, and my brother Lazer. I have never been to Yosemite so I'm excited about that. Then I head back to the Bay Area to go to Green Gulch Zen Center for a couple days. We're staying in a guesthouse there. It's beautiful - the property goes right down to the ocean.

I still need to upload my photos from my visit to LA and Paige and Hugh's wedding!! I bought a new computer, so it's been 3 weeks of transferring files and all that madness. And THEN I had to take the whole darn thing back to the store 2 days ago because it was having some problems. So if you have read my Compact article, you will realize I am not longer "celibate"... in terms of my buying habits :) So OK I finally did it - here are some photos from my last trip to Cali a few weeks ago!

Hugh and Paige! It was the most unique wedding I've been to. She wore a beautiful gold dress and he wore a Scottish kilt! They honeymooned in Scotland, which is where Hugh's ancestors are from.

This is the whole new blended family :)

The rehearsal. This is the Church of the Angels - a beautiful chapel.

Raleigh getting her nails done the day before the wedding. The girls all got our nails done and Paige and Raleigh and Aria got their hair done also. It was great fun :)

Dana and Tricia. Tricia graciously let me stay with her, and she runs the awesome coffee shop (2 locations in the L.A. area) called swork. Check it out http://swork.com/. Swork stands for the synergy between success and work. Dana is a massage therapist in Santa Monica! We all stayed together at Trish's - I loved these gals!

Judith Stock, a longtime writer friend/colleague and I got together at a great little Italian place. It was so nice to meet her after all the years I've known her!

Wendee-squared! This is my friend Wendee who I met online when she commented on my blog over the years. Cool name she has huh! She runs The Fridge Door blog. We hung out in Old Town Pasadena the day I left. It was great fun! She also posted this pic and even more about our Pasadena adventures - check it out! http://thefridgedoor.blogspot.com/2007/06/lookit-wendees.html

My days of shopping celibacy

I love it! My article on my month-long foray in The Compact - an agreement to shun new purchases in lieu of used ones - has come out in OnEarth. I love the artwork - it cracks me up! Check it out: My 30 Days of Consumer Celibacy. And I also recorded a podcast interview with OnEarth editor Laura Wright that you can listen to here. (NOTE the podcast is not yet online but will be soon).

love to all!

Neches River Rendezvous

I had a great time camping and canoeing this past weekend. A friend and I camped at Mission Tejas State Park for 2 nights. Saturday was the 10-mile Neches River Rendezvous and we took my tandem kayak for a 2.5 hour paddle down the bayou through lush woods. The water level was very high from recent rains. It was a fun paddle. The weather was perfect, which I was so happy about because the forecast the week before looked like it may storm. The man upstairs held out the rains until the next day... yea! We packed up our tents and went to see the land where the Neches National Wildlife Refuge was established, though currently embroiled in a lawsuit. Then the heavens sent down their torrential downpours and thunder and lightning. Luckily we got into the landowner's truck and went on our way, driving through the muddy river bottoms and streams and sloughs. It was very pretty, and I saw passionflower (in photo), Echinacea (purple coneflower), winecups, and many other wildflowers, along with a lush, green forest with oaks and sweetgums and hickories and more.

disappointed

After posting on 4/30 that the Texas Senate had passed a Bill regulating sand mining on the San Jacinto, bad news. The Bill died in the House. I had thought it was pretty much a done deal, but I learned something about politics - it's not over until the bill is signed into law. It was the end of the legislative session and the Bill simply did not make it out of Committee onto the floor to be voted on. I am extremely frustrated with how difficult it is to even find out about what is going on in the legislature. Even though Jennifer Lorenz of Legacy Land Trust had regular contact with the Senator's office that supported the Bill, it was not something the public knew about, and it's like a sleuth hunt trying to figure out when the bill is in Committee or being voted on. All I can say is, maybe next session.

What's ahead: Next weekend I am paddling the 10-mile Neches River Rendezvous through lush bottomland hardwood forest, and then heading up to interview some people about the Neches National Wildlife Refuge, currently embroiled in a lawsuit, basically Dallas wants to build the Fastrill reservoir right over the top of the refuge.

The kids got out of school for the summer and are already bored! Ha ha! I told them I'd give them more chores if they wanted... I'm so proud of my babies - they were the only two kids in the entire school to get "Superior Achievement Award" which means they earned a 95 overall average for the year, with no grade below a 90 in ANY subject - including math, science, literature, history, Spanish, Art and PE - all year! Last year, Savannah was the only student in middle school to get the award and now that Sam is in middle school, he got it too! At the beginning of the year, I told Sam I'd buy him a Robo Sapien if he got the same. And he did! Two Christmases ago, we laughed so hard in Radio Shack over the crazy antics of this large white robot. It costs a small fortune!

camping with 5th graders

Had a great trip camping with Sam's 5th grade class. We stayed at Colorado Bend State Park, and took a day trip to Enchanted Rock State Park. It was a wonderful experience because it challenged so many fears of the kids. The first day we tromped through these spring-fed water holes with slippery rocks, muddy bottoms and algae - but they were beautiful with lots of little waterfalls. Some of the kids did not like the mud and algae but all went through everything anyway.

The next day, hiking up Enchanted Rock was awesome. I'd been there before, in fact I wrote about it in a story called Top of Texas for Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. Sam and another couple of boys were truly terrified they would fall down the rock! It's a steep walk, but it's not rock climbing that we did - just a steep hike up a giant granite batholith. I encouraged Sam and another boy to overcome their fears, and just put one foot in front of the other. They didn't want to look backwards, and they didn't want to go forward at one point, but they did it, and by the end they climbed down just fine. We also clambered through some "caves" made by giant granite boulders and this was a bit scary for me! Several kids were scared at this point too, but we all did it - every single one! They were saying things like they overcame all their fears. ;) It was cute.

That afternoon, we drove back to CO Bend to our camp and "swam" in the Colorado River which had a very swift current but was pretty shallow. I stayed downstream because I was really worried some of the kids would lose their footing and float downstream beyond me or the other parents and Mr W. In fact several kids did lose their footing and I had to grab them, because they would sort of panic and lose their wits. We then went on a night hike and saw a deer and its spotted fawn (only a couple of us saw it) and several armadillos. Later, we looked at the stars. The first night it was partially cloudy but I showed Sam and his friend the stars both nights. I brought my star chart with me! We made Smores the 2nd evening - my favorite!! Here are a few photos.

Overcoming fear... on a steep hike up Enchanted Rock!

A beautiful view on the way.

A brilliant orange prickly pear cactus flower.These little depressions at the top of Enchanted Rock get filled in over many years with dirt, allowing plants to grow. Fairy shrimp live in some of them also.
Mr. W "falling off the rock." The campsite.

Gorman Falls at Colorado Bend State Park. We hiked here the 3rd day, before heading home. Sam sitting by the Colorado River.

koala article... and my first podcast

I traveled down to University of Houston campus to record my first podcast at the KUHF studios. This was a podcast where I was interviewed by OnEarth magazine editor Laura Wright about my article that will appear in their upcoming Autumn issue about The Compact, a movement to stop buying new "stuff" to combat the negative environmental impacts of consumerism. Recording is always fun, and I've definitely gotten more comfortable the more times I do it. The first time I was God-awful! Anyway, I'll link to the podcast when it appears online, probably in a few weeks.

I'm heading to Colorado Bend State Park with Sam and his 5th grade class tomorrow for a 3-day camping trip. Should be fun!

Oh look! My article on koalas "Will Urban Sprawl K.O. the Koala?" is out in the latest National Wildlife magazine. It talks about how they have koala ambulances and a crew of volunteers that rescue koalas hit by cars. Cool beans. I also interviewed Dr. Jon Hanger from Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo's Wildlife Hospital.

City of Angels

I just got back from L.A. where I went to Paige and Hugh's awesome unique wedding, and also met a lot of really cool people! While there I visited with my 2nd cousin Daria, and met up with writer friend Judy Stock (who I've known virtually for probably 10 years but never met) and also fellow blogger and artist Wendee who posts comments here regularly! :) We had a great time. I will post photos soon.

Meanwhile I haven't posted here as much because I've been posting to my Fish Wars blog so take some time and go visit it!

I'm trying to increase visibility so linking to this... Technorati Profile

Ciao and more soon!