Circumambulating the world, one blog at a time

The Chives

2012-02-03T13:14:00.001-08:00

chives.
dredge the chives
for our whole lives we have made the chives.
And now its time to dredge.
The chives are full of treasures untol'
So dredge, o young man dredge

There are many foolish and stupid chaps
Who delight in saving disk space
when a new month rolls around perhaps
Their old mail they erase

But we, the keepers of the chives
have kept the chives for our whole lives
and now we dredge the chives most exuberantly
and find our old tresures most abundantly
For us, there is no need for creativity
For we can dredge the chives
So dredge, o round man, dredge.

Joshua Burgner

Missing Pieces

2011-03-08T21:25:00.000-08:00

An essay I wrote in 2001.

Missing Pieces
by David L. Miller
Copyright 2001

I loved this winter in California, the leaves changed colors,
it was cloudy and cool, rained a lot, windy and cold some days.
It was like being back on the UW campus, walking to class,
looking up through the huge trees at the clouds racing by,
looking east at the snowy Cascades, west at the snowy Olympics,
water all around shimmering,

Rainier dominating my southern view, a monument to solidarity and strength.

Sailboats, rowing teams, ferries, and thousands of people running, walking, and bicycling everywhere.
Green grass, green trees, green bushes.
People playing frisbee, flying kites, canoeing.
Skateboarders and street rats asking for spare change on University Ave.

The space needle looking like its floating in the clouds, or possibly a flying saucer inspecting the city.

The cold air in the morning coming in off the Puget Sound, its 40 degrees out; then your hit with this blast that’s 10-20 degrees colder.....*Bam* right in the face, your skin tightens, goose bumps appear on your arms, the clouds move a little faster overhead, like they are trying desperately to reach some warmer climate.
You wish them well and notice how alive you feel, cold, but alive.

All your senses are in use now, the wind, the air, the rain, the cold.
People, buses, bikes, cars racing by.
Nature all around, in constant motion, never a dull moment.

You smell some diesel exhaust, some fresh cut grass, a hint of salt from the ocean air.
The sound of a car horn in the distance, the trees swish and sway,
a seagull cries as it alights from one body of water to the next.

It's hilly in the Northwest, you must work to get anywhere.
Your legs are pumping, your heart is pumping, your backpack with books
and projects strains at your shoulders as you climb another hill or flight of stairs.
Everything around you tells you that you are.
Every sense is keyed, everything that can happen happens.
This is what I miss of the Northwest.

This is why, even though SoCal may grow on me and I may be comfortable and happy;
it can’t make me feel like I did in the Northwest.
It doesn’t have the ability to entertain all my sense at the same time in such a pleasant and even comforting way.
It can never make me feel so......alive.

I want it to rain, I want a 520 car wash, I want my umbrella to occasionally turn inside out. I want to watch clouds pass overhead at upwards of 100 mph, I want to see those pesky Canadian Geese flying and pooping everywhere. I want to see people biking to work in weather that reminds you of a special you saw on Indonesian Typhoons. I want to wear boots, and jeans, and a big jacket, and a hat, every-stinking-day. I want it to rain every day for 93 days straight. I want to look out the window where I used to work in Redmond and be able to see the Salmon going to Lake Sammamish. I could see Salmon migrating from where I worked!

Only in the Northwest, only there.

Professional Photographer

2009-11-02T16:39:00.000-08:00

Our friend, Gina Emerson took these photos while we were in Portland Oregon in September visiting family. We went to the Rose Gardens late in the day to take advantage of the soft light. These are just a few of the shots I "stole" from Gina's blog for your viewing pleasure. Thanks Gina!

Happy Birthday Aelis!

2009-10-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

Aelis at 6 Months

2009-04-04T21:40:00.001-07:00

She is now sitting up!

Oregon Fan

2009-04-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

Trip to Bellingham

2009-04-04T20:29:00.001-07:00

I'm adding these photos a few months after the trip but better late than never! We went to Bellingham, Washington in January to visit the Washington/Miller clan. Aelis loved meeting her grandparents, aunts and uncles.

More Photos of Aelis at 5 Months

2009-04-04T20:22:00.000-07:00

I took these in our backyard. Aelis was tired but still happy. :)

Trip to Georgia

2009-02-27T11:39:00.001-08:00

Recently, Aelis and I (Laura) traveled to Georgia to visit my grandmother, Leone Johnston. Aelis enjoyed meeting her great-grandma and Leone loved spending time with her newest great-granddaughter. I also did some digging into some old family photo albums and found photos of my grandparents as children and other relatives I never knew about. It gave me the desire to look into our geneology (with Aunt Shirley's help) and find out more about my family history. Overall, we had a good trip and Aelis did remarkably well.

Aelis at (almost) 5 months

2009-02-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

Our little one is almost 5 months! She is rolling over, laughing (especially when daddy gives her kisses) and is drooling like crazy! No teeth yet but she gnaws on everything in sight.

After the rains

2009-02-07T17:01:00.000-08:00

Innersting Wurds of Degration

2009-02-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

I've started another Blog, one where I can list all of the funny words and sayings I've heard and will hear. Innersting instead of interesting and degration instead of degradation are two that led to the title of this new blog. Check it out, its funny, and I appreciate if ya'll submit anything you hear to me so I can add it to the blog.

http://www.innersting.blogspot.com

2009-01-29T22:11:00.000-08:00

Jackie and Aelis

Aunt Shirley and Aelis

Uncle Dean and Aunt Shirley chillin' with their newest niece

Great Grandpa Bob and Aelis commiserate

Uncle Joel and Aelis chatting it up

2009-01-29T20:53:00.000-08:00

Uncle Joel visited us for a weekend in January and got to hang with Aelis quite a bit, here is one of their conversations, cracks me up every time.

2009-01-29T20:52:00.000-08:00

This post is left blank for unintentional purposes.

Baby loves bath time

2009-01-29T20:50:00.000-08:00

This little munchkin

loves to get

her bath on

2009-01-29T20:45:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't noticed, I have a fat happy baby. My little double chinned thunder thighed monster.

2009-01-29T20:42:00.000-08:00

Great Grandpa Bob and Great Grandma Jackie meeting Aelis for the first time in early January. Bob and Aelis are 96 years apart.

Aelis, Month 3

2009-01-25T16:37:00.001-08:00

Aelis - month 2

2008-11-24T21:05:00.001-08:00

Aelis at 4 weeks

2008-11-13T21:51:00.000-08:00

More photos at the park

2008-10-08T17:22:00.000-07:00

A few more Anne Geddes style shots

Frist trip to the park

2008-10-08T16:48:00.000-07:00

We need a good photo for an announcement card so off to the park we went, we liked these but ultimately chose another for the card. I did play with the sheet and leaves a little Anne Geddes style.

Finding the perfect photo

2008-10-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

We started taking photos to try to get a good one for an announcement card. These one's didn't make the cut!

Boppy, Jackets, Car Shows

2008-10-08T16:31:00.000-07:00

Sleeping on the boppy

Yawning on the boppy, she really likes to sleep and dislikes waking up

This jacket doesn't quite fit yet but we couldn't resist putting it on anyways

Aelis' first classic car show in downtown Fullerton, next to a Chevy Coupe like her Great Uncle Deans

First car ride, first bath, first doctor

2008-10-08T16:25:00.000-07:00

Coming home from the hospital

After her first sponge bath

At her first doctors appointment

You can tell she enjoyed the doctors very much, this has "take me home and feed me" all over it.

From whence this name came

2008-09-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

Laura found a Gaelic name, Ailis, online. We liked the pronunciation "A-lis", but later found out in Gaelic its pronounced "Eye-Leash", which is fine, just not for our baby girl. So we looked n' looked, and got lots of suggestions, and thought about family names, and pretentious baby names, and read books, and searched online, and searched the scriptures. In the end we still liked Ailis the best, so we decided to change the spelling a little to get the pronunciation how we liked it, hence "Aelis".

A Google search revealed that Aelis is a French form of Alice used mostly in the 13th-15th centuries, which means Noble or Exalted. The Hebrew origin for Ailis means "consecrated to God" and is the same origin for Elizabeth, which is Great-grandma's middle name, Grandma's middle name, and mom's middle name (all on mom's side). Our first nurse in the mother-baby unit was Greek and told us in Greek Aelis means transparent or transcendent. So in the end, we've got a beautiful baby girl with a beautiful name with so much meaning its exhausting! Jewel is the name of my Grandmother who passed away last year. She was very close to me and a dear sister in the Lord. It is an honor to give her name to my daughter.

As a follow-up, my first post on this blog was "Baby name dropping". Laura and I both ran the name Aelis by two friends who we knew would give us their honest opinion. Both found it feminine, pretty, simple, and easy to pronounce. We thank them and henceforth copywright the "baby name drop" process so we can pay for Aelis to go to college.

More baby photos!

2008-09-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

Proud Grandmother Joan

Our little Nanuk baby

In the bassinett, sucking on a finger
Sleeping well. So far, Aelis is a great eater but her sleeping schedule is well, not. She mostly just wants to eat all the time, then when she does go to sleep she wants to sleep for 6 straight hours! But she needs to eat every 2 or 3, so, deliberations are in progress, concessions will be made, bi-partisanship will prevail.

Bloggin' with a Baby in the lap

2008-09-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, my baby is on my knees and I'm reaching to type on the keyboard, definite first time for this!
Laura and Aelis in our private recovery room 2hrs after the birth.

Amazingly this wasn't posed, I simply caught a moment between mother and baby.

The view from our room

Now the fun begins

Our First Baby Blog

2008-09-30T18:48:00.000-07:00

Support staff during early labor.

Mother and baby right after the birth.

Daddy finally gets to hold the baby!

A Friend Passes

2008-05-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

My older brother's dog Khaya (kai-yuh) passed away last night. She was a beautiful dog I always loved seeing, even though those times were too few and too far between. This dog was muscular, fast, and full of energy, a very happy dog. But what I like about her most was her calmness, her calming effect even. For all her energy, she loved to snuggle. She was no poodle, no lap dog, yet she'd climb right up in your lap and lay down and go to sleep, happy to lay there if it made you happy, which for me, it always did. This was a 60 something pound wiry dog mind you, but she was always comfortable.

I loved to lay down on the floor up against her, in her element, in her doggy world, sprawl out with her in the middle of the floor and watch the humans biped around, busy busy humans. Its amazing how dogs can fill a special niche in our lives, fill up a special compartment of our hearts, fit in a special place in the family. So now when I snuggle with some other random dog I meet, I'll think of Khaya, and the memories will fill those same places, and I'll smile.

Okay, an actual "blog" - Baby Names

2008-05-21T22:47:00.000-07:00

Before I let everyone know I have a blog, I figured there should be something on my blog, besides a two line poem about not blogging yet and a Youtube video insert (no matter how cool it is) - see below. So here goes.

Baby names. Did I just say that? Yeah, um, if you didn't know, and I'm sure you do, my wife Laura is pregnant, 5 months, its a girl. She was kicking like crazy last night keeping Laura awake for all hours and through Laura's discomfit, me awake for all hours, the joy begins:) Of course, the first question is 'boy/girl'? The second question "do you have a name?". The real answer? We think we do. Are we sharing it? Nope, at least not yet. The reasons.

Well, people, like you, have opinions. This creates two problems. First, you may offer your opinion which may annoy us, insult us, or otherwise cause us to question our choice. Or, you may offer your opinion, however false it may be, in support, thereby strengthening what could turn out to be a mistake. Like say we choose something like Amethyst (we're not) and you say "omagosh! I just LOVE that name!" when really you despise it and have 7.2 reasons for doing so, none of which you share with us, and we, based on your fauxpinion, do in fact name our daughter Amethyst and ruin her life (just an example people, if you or your children or anyone you know is named Amethyst chill). The second problem is, we're just not sure we care about your opinion in the first place, and, if this is the case, what is the point of telling you in advance of the birth? Before the birth you can offer an opinion and maybe not have much impact(see previous comments). But if you come into the recovery room and say "you named her what?" with a look of horror on your face, well, we may have a problem.

But there's another angle. On one hand, we think we have good taste, we think we have a good name, but we're rookies at this, we've only named pets before, and this has just a skosh more gravity, so maybe others' opinions are warranted. We've come up with what we think is a good strategy. Laura and I (this isn't settled yet, we may need something notarized first, we're checking) will "drop" the name to one person each, not family, not close friends, and gauge the reaction, prefacing the "drop" (name dropping is saying you know someone or met someone you deem important to transfer that deemed importance onto you, Google it if you're confused) with an actual request for honesty with a further pre-preface of granting the person immunity from offense so they can actually offer an honest opinion without fear of reprimand. We then will regroup, share the responses, and......................

what? what will we do? We'll still no doubt think we have good taste and a good name. If the persons offered negative opinions we can simply discount them by saying we didn't care about their opinions in the first place, or claim, that despite the preface and pre-preface they offered a fauxpinion (faux = fake so fauxpinion = fake opinion, yeah, I think I just made that up *head nodding*) and so it doesn't count. In either case, if we don't care (either about their opinion or fauxpinion), then why did we go through this process in the first place!

I told someone the other day that sometimes the shortest distance between two points isn't a straight line, its a circle. And that's what we have here people, a circle, and its not the Disney circle of life with Simba and friends, its the Baby Name Decision Vortex and you're caught in it.

Stayed tuned, we may name drop our baby name tomorrow.

Capitol Grace

2008-05-21T22:41:00.000-07:00

Joseph Cope and I went to Madison, Wisconsin for the blending trip. We stopped by the State Capitol building and recorded this, harmony via whistle, I love it!

It will flow

2008-05-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

I hath only time for setup, no time for first writeup.
Check back soon and enjoy, the getup.