Three years ago, we ran off to the mountains and eloped.

Two years ago, we left for our honeymoon in Belize.

Today, in proper SMITH magazine fashion, I dedicate one word to each of those years and share the six-word version of our love story.

He thought my name was Kara.

We’ve been laughing ever since. Happy anniversary po-po. I sure do love you.

Suffice it to say, these two have a permanent place in my heart.

So a few months ago, when they realized one of their dreams and bought a bike shop, I knew that I had to support them…by purchasing a new bike.

(You might remember that my fancy bike was stolen last year.)

And beside my awesome new bike and my amazing old friends, there’s an even cooler piece to the bike story. Dewey and Jessica didn’t buy just any bike store. No, the bike store they bought, The Pedal House, is the same bike shop where I rediscovered my love of bikes in college. It was also where I bought my first-ever “grown-up” bike, of the Kona mountain variety, back when I was nineteen. I still have my Kona, with all the original Pedal House stickers.

The circle of life is complete. Especially if  life=bicycles + friends.

I’m off to ride my new Bianchi. She’s too pretty not to hop on.

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.”          -Iris Murdoch

(We started gardening together last year. And by started gardening, I mean that I helped him prepare the soil and hoped to God I wouldn’t kill anything.)

Seeds are now in the ground for our second garden. I did help with that. But what’s always really interesting to me is just HOW much my husband knows about gardening. He’s a virtual garden master. A level 70, hoe-wielding garden guru.

(Between his ability to grow food and his ability to make soap, you best be running to our house when the apocalypse hits. Well, not all of you. Just the cool ones. Or those with skills that can be bartered.)

The best part of all is that he doesn’t just keep all that knowledge to himself. Oh no. He is happy to share all that dirt(y) know-how by writing a guest-post for a friend’s blog, explaining how hard it is to garden in Colorado’s climate and how you can start composting at home and how square-foot gardening works.

Be still, my green-loving heart.

You can read his guest post (since he never blogs anywhere else, ahem) over there and be sure to submit any questions you might have in the comments.

In my opinion, this is the best part of the entire post…

His first adventures with soil

I’m lucky to married to a man who can geek out about seeds with the best of them.

And now I ask…how does your garden grow?

]]> http://talltara.com/the-constant-and-geeky-gardener/feed/ 5 http://talltara.com/dont-stop-belizean/ http://talltara.com/dont-stop-belizean/#comments Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:46:51 +0000 Tarable http://talltara.com/?p=780 When people ask about my honeymoon, words fail me. Thoughts and images must suffice as complete sentences are lacking.

pineapple, papayas, plantains, Placencia and pina coladas

scuba-diving with nurse sharks, moray eels and sea turtles

no work, no laptops, no email, no phone

traveling from island to jungle to mountaintop to peninsula

bug bites, chest acne, coral reef rash & sunburns

biking with a forest fire on the left

trekking on San Pedro with a golf cart and a dead battery

climbing to the top of Mayan ruins

boosting him up to grab a coconut out of a tree

more champagne than necessary

hiking, napping & never knowing how much to tip

renewing vows, setting goals, making plans

drinking Belikin beer and striking up conversations with locals

speaking in accents and making fun of Jimmy Buffett cover bands

outdoor showers, hammocks and the beauty of an island breeze

taking part in San Pedro’s famous chicken drop

swimming through a Mayan cave filled with sacrificial human remains

realizing that drum lines, cole slaw and Bob Marley all hold global appeal

learning, laughing, lounging, loving

soaking up places too schmancy for us

embracing the fact that our honeymoon is only just beginning

thanks to all our friends and family who made this trip possible

(we love you all)

belize honeymoon/one-year anniversary trip 2010

Happy anniversary my love. It’s been a wonderful year…

but can we go on our honeymoon now?

(Not that we’re that excited about it or anything…)

Many thanks to Shane Rich and his oncemany project for this amazing anniversary shoot. I love what he’s doing and if you’d like to find out more, be sure to check out his site for more info.

(Also look for us in Boulder’s Daily Camera on March 15th to see pictures of Shane taking pictures of us. Totally meta.)

Bye.

Off to Belize…

Like the birthday that I got an external hard drive. Or the time that my husband glued magnets to the back of our spices because we couldn’t fit a spice rack in our tiny kitchen. Not to mention the numerous camera accessories he’s bought me over the years.

But my favorite is when he visited a laser-etcher, checking on a potential manufacturer for his business, and had this sample made for me…

Come on...we are still newlyweds, after all.

What about you? On this Ballentine’s Day, I want to know about the geekiest gift you’ve ever received. Spill it in the comments and let us celebrate the romance that is geek love together.

From my bachelorette party in February…

To my wedding reception in June…

Elaine Eleanor Ellis rocked my world this year.

With her charmingly awkward ways and her ability to pierce ear drums with a high-pitched “Ummmmm…”, Elaine made me laugh a lot.

She also helped me pick out a wedding dress. Without hitting anything in her car.

Thanks to Chicks who Click, Elaine and I shared hotel rooms in two different states. In one, I drifted off to sleep making fun of the fact that she had to check Twitter before she could go to sleep.

“Goodnight @ElaineEllis.”

In the other hotel room we shared, Elaine promptly fell asleep within two minutes of scoring us a free movie from hotel  management.

Of course, she was probably really tired from all that chalk-art drawing she had done earlier that evening.

The highlight of my friendship with Elaine this year was sharing the stage with her at Ignite 5. The beauty of doing a presentation about beer is that you have to hang out and drink beer while planning your talk. Our hard work paid off and we schooled the geeks with our knowledge of Colorado microbrews.

But the thing I love most about Elaine is that two months ago she did something most of us only dream about: she quit her job to travel. And on top of that, she did it all by herself.

I couldn’t be prouder of my friend. Judging from her blog posts and tweets, Elaine is doing a wonderful job of traveling solo and seems to be succeeding in the goal of spreading her special brand of awkward all over Europe.

Thanks for all the fun this year Elaine. Here’s to more Rio margs together in 2010! ¹

Photo credits: highfireDANGER, greeblemonkey, and kitseeborg

Enter snowy day and the perfect time to sit down and revisit said list. After blowing dust off the blog post, I spent some time thinking about what I’ve accomplished. ¹

With the hopes of keeping myself accountable, here’s how I’ve been progressing:

#2. run another marathon.

This was one of those goals that got slightly amended. I did not have time to train for a marathon, but I did have time to run a different half-marathon in a new state. So that’s what I did instead. (Perhaps before I’m 40 I’ll get another notch in my marathon belt.)

#3. elope.

Done. And done well.

#4. work on improving my green thumb by growing beans and helping with the community garden.

With the help of my ever-loving  and most patient husband, our garden was bountiful and prosperous.

#5. pay down credit card debt.

Two cards down, a few more to go.

#6. write more letters.

Do thank-you notes count? ²

#10. play another season of Ultimate Frisbee.

It wasn’t a championship season like last year, but we had a lot of spirit. ³

#11. do more push-ups.

The ladies of the Lijit office do (almost) daily push-ups together. Nothing beats a little muscle pump in the afternoon.

#14. roller derby!

Saw my first bout last month and although I’m still undecided on whether or not I should try out, I’m a big fan.

#16. get scuba certified.

Thanks to Weaver’s Dive Center, I’m all set. Belize, here I come!

#24. throw a kickass wedding party.

How about not one, but two kickass wedding parties?

#29. put money in my savings account every month.

So far, so good. ⁴

The results are a little rough, dear readers.  I’m almost two-thirds of the way through the year and I an only done with one-third of my list.

However, to make myself feel better, I will rationalize that a full third of the list are all goals that are in progress, which means that they will be crossed off at some point:

#1. more yoga.

#8. incorporate strength training into my workout routine.

#9. reach out to my old friends.

#13. give more bodywork

#17. blog more. ⁵

#20. get rid of unnecessary stuff.

#21. say yes more.

#22. reach outside of my comfort zone.

#23. swim.

#27. be sure my loved ones know how I feel about them.

#28. dance more.

#30. acknowledge gratitude daily.

So, what about that pesky last third of the list? For one reason or another, these goals are the ones that will probably need some adjusting ⁶ in order to accomplish.

These represent the worst kind of to-do’s–easy to type but much too broad and vague to actually do:

#31.  practice compassion.

#32. forgive and forget.

And then some goals are difficult to achieve because of the money involved:

#19. buy more vintage clothing.

#26. get the tattoo on my ankle redone.

Not to mention, there are the things left that I keep meaning to do…

#7. perform stand-up at least once a month.

#12. explore new parts of Colorado.

#15. experiment with video

#18. learn basics of Photoshop.

#25. volunteer my time with a cause close to my heart.

#33. learn how to juggle.

but that take up more time or energy than I had realized when first creating this list. But I’m figuring it out as I go…and my progress reflects that fact.

It’s just a shame that rocking the footnote plugin wasn’t on the list. ⁷

I never have a good answer to that one.

photo credit: duncan

I’ve been married before and I’ve changed my name before. It wasn’t an easy process or one I enjoyed. Same goes for switching back to my maiden name after the divorce.  (He politely asked me to not keep his name and I was more than happy to oblige.) In case you lost count, that’s already two times that I’ve changed my name. Oh, twenties, how much you taught me.

However, this time it’s different. The last time I changed my name, I wasn’t doing much of anything online and I definitely wasn’t working in the tech industry. I didn’t have a profile set up under my name on tons of services or any idea that “Google juice” actually existed. A digital footprint wasn’t something I thought about.

Which leads me to the Marriage 2.0 question…do I change my name this time around?

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m nothing close to a page rank queen because I’m defintely not the only Tara Anderson around. There is an amazingly talented crafter (who beat me to the username on Flickr and takes wonderful photos), an OB/GYN doctor in Illinois, a public radio producer in New York City and a few profiles on MySpace.

Let’s not forget the struggling actress and the  list-maker, both of whom besides sharing my name, also share similar passions with me. Don’t even get me started on the hot swimsuit entrepreneur currently living in Romania.

But the thing is…I like my name.

After a little online research into the subject, another point surfaced. There are no other Tara Calihmans out there. If I took my husband’s last name, I could own the space. I go from an Anderson to a Calihman, keeping myself still in the first half of the alphabet and with the same number of letters, but I become the only Tara Calihman.

Even more online research brings me to one of my favorite women. Turns out Penelope Trunk has changed her name four times, which makes my two name changes seem like child’s play.

photo by: slavin fpo

But this possible increase in the search results comes at what cost? Having to change my name on not just all of my physical accounts but also on all of my viral ones, getting the word out to people I know and building my Google cred from the bottom. Oy. Just the thought of it makes my head hurt with visions of form after form, lost pieces of mail and a weird kind of online anonymity that might end up hurting the chances of someone looking for me. (On a related geeky note, do I have to retag everything?)

Like so many other things about the beginning of a new life, this question is just the tip of the iceberg.  If I don’t change my  name, what happens when we have kids? Do we become that annoying couple with a hyphenated last name that becomes too long to fit on forms? Does my husband change his name or do we decide to buck tradition and pick a new last name together? Does my name have anything to do with my identity beyond the realm of Google? What is a name anyway?

And of course, why is this something I’m even worrying about? You don’t see guys writing posts like these.

Help me out and shine some light on this one, oh smart ladies of the internet. What do you think, or better yet–what have you done about changing your name after marriage?

In Kato's words...awwwww...how cute

This past weekend, we started a garden together.

Radish, scallions and kale, oh my!

To be honest, I was way more nervous about the garden because I don’t have a green thumb. Quite the opposite in fact…. I’m like the Jack Kevorkian of plant life. But he asked if I would be interested in helping with the spring planting. And what’s a newlywed to do?

He's just so cute...

Plus he totally bribed me.

The pink watering can did the trick.

Before we could even think about planting anything, we had to prepare the soil. This process took almost four hours and included digging up roots, shoveling old soil out, adding in a compost/peat moss mixture (along with many other nutrient rich substances) and mixing it all up in order to make sure our garden had a fertile foundation.

a lovely manure and compost mixture

After our soil was ready, we had to enable the partitioning that was to set the stage for our garden. I was informed that square foot gardening is “one of the geekiest ways to garden” and that thanks to my own geeky spouse, we already had a spreadsheet of where the different crops were going. ‘Twas a good thing that he knew what he was doing.

Ides of March, my ass

All the time spent working that close to the earth left me feeling more grounded than I had in a long time. No pun intended.

I realized that tending a garden is a lot like tending a relationship. There is planning, heavy lifting, uprooting,  maintaining, and big piles of stuff you have to move around. It’s hard work, your hands will get dirty and without enough attention, your efforts will be for naught.

getting down and dirty

As you put seeds into the ground, you can’t but help but  be overcome with a feeling of optimistic hope. By planting a seed, you are siding with the belief that there is potential in the future…that anything is possible, that life will provide and that with the right care, you can grow something to be proud of…all the same feelings I had during my wedding.

If these are the salad days, pass the homemade vinaigrette please because we’re growing three different types of lettuce. (Who knew?)