Me and the Gang

Eating Junk and Watching Rubbish

2012-01-25T13:20:00.000-08:00

We are in Eugene right now, hanging out with Chris and Laurel. My mom has been potty training the puppy while we are gone. She says that Bella is sick of babysitting him.

This is a picture of Bella and Killer asleep in the back of the van during our road trip.

A kiss in the night.

2012-01-21T08:57:00.000-08:00

A few nights ago I turned to Ralph in bed and made kissing noises with my mouth, using echolocation to hone in on his face in the dark (he makes the noises back to me). I located his lips and went for it, my lips slightly parted. The moment his hairy(?) lips met mine, a tiny tongue quickly darted in and out of my mouth. Those were not Ralph's lips. They were Killer's. It was one of the most surprising and grody kisses I have ever experienced.

I can't stop laughing about it.

Snow this morning.

2012-01-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

Ralph fell asleep while holding Killer.

Bella holding Killer.

We woke up to some snow today.

Bella chasing Coco in the snow.

Lederhosen!

2012-01-09T17:29:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, Ralph recieved lederhosen from my uncle, Steve. I got a pair too but as they say in Bavaria, my thighs go straight to the floor. I am sending them back for a beefier leg version. I'm sure that it's from carrying goats and dogs in my bike trailer... Yeah.

Until then, I will wear Ralph's. They look much better on him.

Lederhosen, a Christmas tradition. I can't wait to wear mine around the yard and to the store.

Thank you, Steve and Irmgard!

As a side note, we discussed personal creeds in church this Sunday and I have identified 3 things that I feel that have become my "creed" over the years:

1) I fly my freak flag high. (Also known as: I can do whatever I want, I'm eccentric.)

2) I am a friend to people who need a friend.

3) I try my hardest not to judge.

Some Dam Pictures

2012-01-08T08:23:00.000-08:00

The water level is down about 10 feet from the 1980s now that California draws some of its water from the reservoir. You can see the line in the rocks behind us in the pictures.

Ralph, Elaine and son Wesley

This is where water would go if there was enough to overfill the reservoir.

Water that leaks through the dam is pumped back up into the reservoir.

A dam bridge was built so highway traffic to Arizona no longer needs to put stress on the dam.

It's difficult to capture how tall the dam is.

The Hoover Dam.

A sign which captures the style of the 30s, when the dam was built.

I let both dogs ride in my lap on the way back to Vegas.

Killer got all shivery because I need to keep the AC on so Bella doesn't pant. I covered him with a welding hat and he fell asleep.

Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures of us hanging out with Karen and Chuck. We did see the Blue Man Group (courtesy of Uncle Steve). Pictures of that will be posted later.

Welcome to Fab Las Vegas

2012-01-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

Motoring

2011-12-31T22:28:00.000-08:00

Arizona state tree. Apparently they can reach heights of up to 12 meters. I haven't yet seen one that tall.

Killer asleep. He's good in the car.

He burrowed under Bella to get warm.

The favorite toy of both dogs: ALF.

Bella is showing off her Pawdicure while Killer chews her monkey toy. Emmie painted her nails this time around with nail polish that I bought her for Christmas.

We are in Vegas right now with cousins Karen and Chuck. We visited with Jane and Lee tonight when we arrived. I don't want to use my time here writing stories so I will make this post short. Happy New Year Everyone!

Ralph's Christmas Present

2011-12-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

The Men.

Zombie puppy

Getting warmed up next to Bella.

I just finished knitting him a sweater.

We went out the day after Christmas and purchased a doggy crate. I thought that it would be a good time to socialize him so I stayed outside of the store in my t-shirt and let people hold him and talk to him. He was shaking like crazy. I've never had a tiny dog before so I thought that he was just being wimpy about meeting new folks. One lady held him and told me that he was too small to be out without clothes on. She was right. Once we warmed him up he stopped shaking. I had no idea because we are in Phoenix, AZ. It's too warm down here for Bella. The only time I make her wear her sweater is if I have to wear one under my coat or if she is sick. I heart my Mastiff.

Ralph named him "Killer." He's a Min Pin Terrier mix and is 8 weeks old. I have no idea how big he will get. Ralph has always wanted a tiny dog so now we can cross that one off of his bucket list.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2011-12-25T10:30:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite picture of Bella. I hope that all of your wildest dreams come true this Chrismas. And I drew Melissa's name. She says "Neener, neener!" to you all. :)

Love, Shannon.

Dogs Sleeping

2011-12-21T14:24:00.000-08:00

As you can see, the dogs like to snuggle.

Toe-up, 2-at-a-time socks in Regia stripe Juniper.

I've made progress on my to-do list:

To do in Phoenix:

~~Sew a quilt.~~

The quilt was a quick project because I had already pieced the top. All I did was bind the edges and tie it. It's a recycled denim quilt with a flannel backing and polyester batting which Bonnie purchased at a yard sale for $0.50. I normally use cotton/poly batting but it's hard to pass up batting for such a great price. Bonnie is a great yard-saler.
Potty train the puppy.

Potty training is ok. When he falls asleep he pees on himself. He is catching on while awake, though. Ralph's dad doesn't believe in crating at night so I will let him take on the potty training from here.

~~Eat delivery Tamales.~~

Delivery Tamales were eaten. The neighbor even sent over some fruit and nut salad. It had spiced Jicama in it (I think). Not really my thing but it was interesting to try.

~~Start a pair of socks(magic loop, 2 at a time).~~

Socks are on the needles and it was easier than I thought to cast on. I used the figure 8 method and was able to cast on both at once without needing to transfer one to another set of needles while working the other. At least this pair of socks should be identical.

Recover my songs from my old (crashed) laptop for the road trip back. Attempted

I purchased a case for my hard drive. It spins but won't boot up. I tried loading on 2 computers but it does the same thing so it might be dead. I will pay someone who is more saavy to retrieve the songs.

3 out of 5 isn't bad

Puppies, Phoenix

2011-12-16T16:13:00.000-08:00

I am at Ralph's dad's house in Phoenix where I will stay for the next 2 weeks. Mike (Ralph's dad) brought home these 2 puppies. Bella is 110 lbs so the puppies are... 2 pounds? I don't know what breed they are. I am guessing pug-chihuahua mix. The one on the right is now living at Michelle's house. The one on the left has taken over the whole dog bed. Bella lays on the hardwood floor. Ha ha.

To do in Phoenix:

Sew a quilt.
Potty train the puppy.

Eat delivery Tamales.

Start a pair of socks(magic loop, 2 at a time).

Recover my songs from my old (crashed) laptop for the road trip back.

My blog has Jumped the Shark. Nothing interesting here, folks.

School Play, Dog attacked by a Kitty

2011-12-15T08:17:00.000-08:00

Last nigh I drove to our friend's house to carpool into town. I had the dog on leash because they have kittens and Bella is not good with the kitties. One of their cats was at the front door and I erroneously assumed that it would leave when it saw me approach with the dog. Wrong. It saw that Bella was tethered and it jumped with all four paws claws out to attach itself to her face. The whole time I was yelling at it to flee: "Run, you fool! Don't you know that she'll eat you?! SCRAM!"

No, the cat wanted a piece of Bella. hahahaha. After it got in a few good swipes it ran off unharmed.

Me and Riley. Riley is becoming a prolific knitter.

Kim and Ryan

Kyle and Coco with Paul clowning above

We attended the local elementary school play. I am posting a video on youtube of the kids saying their lines* (nothing exciting there unless you know the kids). At the end of the play the school principal got up and invited the school's former students to join the current students in song. A religious song. In a public elementary school. I couldn't believe my ears. It is a tradition that is at least 20 years old, gauging from the age of the audience members standing to sing. It's a cute tradition that wouldn't fly at my elementary school in the conservative and tiny town of Wimer, OR. This rural Arizona town is homogeneous. I volunteered my sewing skills to make costumes one afternoon at the school and everyone was calling each other sister Soandso. Sister Soandso, will you please pass me the scissors? ... Did you hear that Sister Whatsherface had her baby last night? ... Etc. I recognized almost everyone from Sunday School. It must be easy for them to raise their kids in this town because there is peer pressure to go to church and avoid getting tattoos. Wow. I'm ok about moving back to Oregon because rural Arizona is just too precious to spoil with my "Liberal Ideologies."**

I am Shannon, I've lived in a Yurt and I'm a Mormon.

*I'm not even going to write about the sexist roles assigned to the girls.

**I consider myself to be moderately conservative but it's all relative, right? Riiiiiiight.

Ralph just woke up to remind me of the gigantic spider that lives under our bed. It freaks me out. I'm 95% positive that it crawls through my hair while I sleep.

My Grocery Store Jeans

2011-12-13T18:47:00.000-08:00

I posted previously on how I think it's cool that the grocery store across the street from Ralph's dad's house sells jeans. I just wanted to post a snapshot of what 10 dollars will buy these days. Plus I was trying to show them to my mom on Skype today but the lighting was crappy. Here you go, Mom. I love you.

Bella vs. Javelina

2011-12-10T12:56:00.001-08:00

We were packing up our yurt and heard Bella bark outside. Normally she likes to be right next to me but we have discovered that she loves the snow so she was outside playing. We walked outside to see 2 Javelina that were almost as large as Bella, rooting around in a hole that she had dug yesterday. She stared them down with her hair on end and barked. We tried to call her off but one charged her and the other fled. She evaded his tusks and then chased them both into the wash. Ralph followed while wielding a large stick. I thought for sure that they would gore her. Ralph was able to call her off and she ran back to me at the yurt, unharmed. This was a time when I wish I owned a gun.

Javelina are also known as razorbacks, peccaries, or wild hogs. They originate from South America and are thought to be in the same family as the hippopotamus. It's crazy what one can remember from a 4th grade science project.

These were the first that I have seen (and hopefully the last). Even though javelina are non-native to the U.S., it is unlawful to kill them without a permit. I looked that one up on Arizona's Game and Fish website.

The goats are gone.

2011-12-08T16:54:00.001-08:00

Cesario came over this afternoon with a van full of children and put the goats in the back. I think that they will have a good home keeping his horse company and playing with the kiddos. With all of those little kids, I don't care even if he does decide to eat them (I don't think that he will).

Yurt in the Snow

2011-12-07T05:13:00.001-08:00

I visited a friend last night and this 8 point was in her living room. I think that it's some kind of record or something. Talented taxidermist. The guy stares right at you in this picture.

Me and Holly. Holly has a collection of belt buckles that she has earned barrel racing.

Here is a picture of the yurt in the snow, as requested by Rochelle. You can see how nicely the snow slides off of the roof. Today I am going to shovel the snow from around it and get everything ready to take down and transport this weekend.

Secret Christmas Person: It went in the mail yesterday.

The Future

2011-12-06T06:18:00.001-08:00

Our plans have been made so I can share now. Ralph's dad's health has improved immensely since he quit smoking and his mom has informed us that she can manage without assistance. All I can say is GOODY! We can go back to Oregon with a clear conscience knowing that we have met our familial obligations here in Arizona.

So all of our stuff is going back into the van and someone is picking up the yurt this weekend (I hope). The yurt was such a great experience, people. When we were packing up our stuff, Ralph told me that it was a good experience so it is true. Hahaha. It was a a blast to build and we learned a ton. I am convinced that humanure composting is the future of waste treatment. If you are at all curious, read the Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins. You can read it for free online or there are a number of purchasing options on his website.

The plan for now is to go back to good ol' RR and find a job in Eugene. Something to do for several years while Ralphie earns his degree. Ralph didn't like Portland as much as I did but we lived in Eugene for years and he likes it there(I like it too). Coos Bay is still #1 on the list of places we've lived.

I am happy that I get to go back to the Pacific Northwest. I was lovesick for it when I first moved to Los Angeles for school and I am lovesick for it now. I love the overcast skies and the rain. I know that I've shared before that I picture myself living in the PNW for my life.

It might be a surprise to some of you but you haven't called me so if you want a heads up on stuff that's going on, call or Skype ok? I don't write everything on the blog, sheesh. :)

Snow Day!

2011-12-02T18:24:00.001-08:00

Last night my 8 y/o friend, Coco, danced around the house before bedtime with her pajamas inside out and backwards. She informed us all that if we all wore our pajamas that way and put a spoon under our pillows then school would be canceled for snow. It works, people. Just look at our van:

Almost 2 feet of snow overnight!

Eating fresh snow.

Ralph

The kids made a snowman

With a big nose.

Bella is chest deep.

Stylish.

We played outside all morning but spent the rest of the day warming by the fire with yarn, fleece and spindle. I am putting some videos up on youtube of Bella and the kids in the snow.

Snowflake, AZ

2011-12-02T18:16:00.001-08:00

We went to the Snowflake temple with friends. Inside, the gold leafing is Southwestern style and instead of the usual reproduction artwork there were navajo tapestries on the walls. So gorgeous. Seeing those tapestries has inspired me to recommit to my spinning and weaving.

FYI, most of the hills in this area are made of cinder but the temple is built upon a rock.

BF, Downtown Phoenix

2011-12-01T07:19:00.001-08:00

The day after Thanksgiving, Bonnie and Emmie dragged me around the shops (my choice, it was a fun girl's day). I thought that there would be more mayhem in Phoenix but no one got into any fistfights. There were cops everywhere. I think it's unsafe to go shopping for huge quantities of electronics in the dark. I bought 4 dollars worth of beads.

Laaaaaadies! In the parking lot at it's-still-dark-o'clock.

These next photos are of Downtown Phoenix taken Friday evening. Michelle, Ralph and I saw the new Twilight movie. I literally puked after the C-section by vampire teeth part. Okay so that part to me was really grody but it wasn't the reason why I got sick. I must have eaten something bad because I was sick all night. Crummy leftovers or something. Fiona and Zac in India probably had it worse but it was one of the most terrible nights of my life. I'll forego the Turkey and stuffing this Christmas for Tamales.

A city truly built for cars.

South Phoenix

2011-11-27T22:45:00.001-08:00

If I wasn't scared to live in an area devoid of natural water features, we would live in Ralph's dad's neighborhood. Ralph's grandparents moved there in the 50's and now his dad and step mom live in the old house. They get regular deliveries of tamales and other home cooked food from the neighb across the street. There is a great market a few blocks down where you can not only get great prices on fresh produce, but you can buy jeans for ten dollars. The main street nearby has a bike lane and bus line and the original farm adobe still exists (I am not sure how old it is, but it is from the original farm that the neighborhood took over). There are a few bad things about the neighborhood, not including that it is built in a desert. Stray dogs and the occasional murder or attempted murder.

Tamale delivery: delicious, homemade and inexpensive. At $1/tamale I would never cook again.

Buying jeans at the market: I tried it and I liked it. The jeans are not for waifs with big bellies, like most jeans I have purchased in the past. They aren't perfect, but the waist fits better than all of my other jeans. And they were 1/4 the price of my GAP jeans which lasted me about 60 wears. Oh and I get to practice my Spanish when I shop at the market. I like that too.

Cool old adobe: If we planned on staying in AZ for more than a few years, I could totally see us upgrading to one of those from our yurt.

Bike lane/bus line: because I would rather exercise or knit while I commute.

Stray dogs: No big deal. Bella was outside taking a smoke break with Ralph's dad when 2 strays trotted into the yard. She barked and the older, larger bulldog backed out but the young bull terrier pup didn't so she dominated it until Jack called her off. No worries, she is UTD on shots. It's just good to know that she will take care of her family.

Violence: Don't steal a phone from the wrong guy. One of the houses next door has a guest house which was rented out to an individual with poor judgement. He stole a phone earlier this year and attracted a car full of thugs with automatic weapons. Sometime in the middle of the night Ralph's bro, Jack, awoke to gunfire. They were shooting up the neighbor's house. Over a phone. No one was hit but they only missed the baby in his crib by about a foot. It seems like the area gets a lot of news coverage for these types of crimes. So no going out at night and no stealing.

I am more scared of getting skin cancer and not having enough water than getting bit or shot or knifed. South Phoenix is interesting.

View Larger Map

It's a map to the Ranch Market if anyone wants to spy on Ralph's dad's neighborhood via Street View or Google Earth. Walk the streets behind the safety, comfort and anonymity of your computer screen.

I found the camera when I cleaned the van today.

2011-11-23T16:08:00.001-08:00

So I am happy to share some photos.

The ceiling is dark yet I don't mind because the padding that we used for insulation was free. With that new mattress, we sleep about 8 feet above the floor. I am very happy that I found my camera again so I can take pictures of the holiday festivities in Phoenix.

I have been wanting a nicer looking hat to wear for when I dress up so I am doing lacework in one of my fave colors. I like it so far. A black one is next on my list--in a different pattern. There are enough great patterns out there so I don't ever have to knit the same thing twice. Another thing is that I am not monogamous with my knitting. I need a few projects going to not be bored.

Secret Christmas Person, I am still working on your gift. I hope that you are getting all antsy-pantsy about not knowing what it is or if I even drew your name. :) I know that I am having fun with it.

Garden Plans

2011-11-22T16:05:00.001-08:00

I am really excited about my garden space. Five of my garlic cloves are coming up so they aren't dead. Yaaay! I plan on fixing the outer fence to the garden by spring, using the goat area for the actual growing of things. They have eaten down the weeds and we added straw to the bare ground. Naggy and Newt should leave a good amount of droppings during the next few months. Today I retrieved Newt from the auto shop next door. He gets lonely if we leave him out in the pen so he wanders wherever he hears voices. Apparently he has wandered into their office a few times so I need to get hopping on operation fence-reinforcement. They keep saying that they don't mind but I'm pretty sure they do.

We put some insulation in the roof today and got a new-to-us mattress on the loft. I know that how we acquired the mattress will gross most people out. Ralph's friend who does home restoration had a flood job. They were going to throw out a mattress from the guest room which had gotten wet. Well this is Arizona, folks. In the Pacific Northwest, the thing would have been moldy in a second. It is completely dry, doesn't have an odor and has no watermarks on it. And it's more comfortable than our camp pads. For zero dollars and keeping it out of the landfill for awhile longer, that's not bad.

The yurt almost got up to 90 degrees today when I built a fire in the stove after we installed the insulation. I don't know if I regret the insulation or not. One thing that I don't regret is cutting the door in half so the top can swing open for ventilation.

No new pictures again. I misplaced my camera this time but at least I have the charger :)

This is Scarlet in her cute Halloween costume. The picture was just too cute not to repost. I wish that I was actually there to see her in it. Instead I was in Phoenix and there were a lot of strange sexy-costumes. Sexy Peter Pan? Sexy 3 year old witch? Ralph and I were homicidal maniacs: they look just like everybody else. (Chris, know what movie that line came from?)

Yurt Warming Party.

2011-11-19T09:41:00.001-08:00

We invited friends over last night for a yurt warming party. The kids couldn't get enough of the loft, climbing up and asking us to pass food to them. After dark, we watched shadow puppet performances on the wall of the yurt depicting Bella and Newt fighting and other animal dramas. I didn't take any pictures because we were having too much fun.

Bratwurst and blackberry soda were enjoyed by all. Our new oil lamp (which is bright enough to read and knit by) had its inaugural lighting. With the kids bouncing all around, it lasted about five minutes before it broke. Someone was moving it to a safer place. LOL. We're going to need a New new oil lamp. The lamp puts out so much more light than the five candles. I think I can live without electricity if we have two of these going.

The goat came back the very next day...

2011-11-18T09:23:00.001-08:00

The goat came back. We thought he was a goner but the goat came back, he just wouldn't stay away.

He was in the pen by noon, yesterday. We are fixing the goat pen. Apparently, our Naggy is a little fattie because she can't jump over the short fence. The new guy can clear it easily.

I want to name him Wei or Farinelli, or after another famous eunuch. Does anyone know the name of Ethiopian Eunuch (from the New Testament)? Farinelli would be a good one because the little dude likes to vocalize if I walk too fast for him to follow. Castrato is just not subtle enough for his name. I would give you all a picture but you'll have to wait because I have a cold and do not want to go outside right now.

Update: Ralph wants to name him Newt, short for neutral or neutered. Naggy and Newt... it has a nice ring to it. We're still taking suggestions, though.

An interview Russ and I gave at Bike Farm:

2011-11-17T09:23:00.001-08:00

If only I could have made a living volunteering at Bike Farm...

http://56abikespace.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/episode-three-us-bike-mechs-the-bike-farm/

56abikespace is a London bicycle collective that is similar to Bike Farm. They have tools and help others learn bicycle repair/maintenance. I stole this picture of us in Bike Farm from the 56a website. You can see more about Bike Farm and 56A at:

bikefarm.org

http://56abikespace.wordpress.com/

Thanks, L, for the shout out to Bike Farm!

Don't worry, we're staying warm!

2011-11-16T18:24:00.001-08:00

Bella, tucked in her blanket and wearing a cowl.

Ralph, modeling our elk skin blanket.

I purchased new boots for work.

Ralph and I visited our friend's goat farm today and Ralph tasted goat milk. He isn't really into it but I like it. We helped them wrangle animals to take to auction. They offered us a neutered male pygmy to keep our Naggy company. It turned out that the male is Naggy's kid and our cousin's favorite out of the four that she birthed. We did take him home and put him in the goat pen. Naggy wouldn't stop dominating him and I had to leave for an appointment in town so Ralph staked her out in the garden, left him in the goat pen and drove with me to town. I am super bummed about this next part of the story. We came home a few hours later and he had escaped somehow. I followed his tracks with Naggy and Bella and my little cousins (the rodeo cowgirls) until it got too cold and dark. He is a dead goat. I know that a cougar or bear will eat him unless someone takes him in. I feel really bummed that he didn't last a few hours in our care. We are terrible goat owners.

Ralph went to work and so did I... Organizing.

2011-11-15T18:46:00.001-08:00

Naggy's Kermit the Frog eye. She wandered off to the neighbors when I went inside for a bit. I know to look for her where people are because she is so social. FYI, Arizona is a free range state. It means that the property owner is responsible for fencing their property if they do not want livestock to enter. We have tons of cow patties in our garden area because one of the neighbors took down our fence. I don't mind. More fertilizer for me.

While I was hanging up blankets, she decided to invite herself in. She missed me and the dog, I guess.

She hopped up and walked in like she belonged inside. I realize that in Mongolia animals stayed inside the yurt to keep it warm. Ralph says no goats in the yurt. Sorry Naggy. I put her outside and she stood guard in front of the door. I put her in her pen when it got dark. I worry about coyotes.

The reflective blankets might keep some of the sun's rays out of the yurt in the middle of the day.

Our kitchen cabinet. Bare except for the stash of seaweed in the upper left corner. We had to stock up when we were in phoenix because no one sells it up here. I'm going shopping tomorrow at Safeway, not Walmart. Those are the two stores to choose from up here.

Toilet shot. It's tucked behind the kitchen cabinet. I thought that it would smell terrible but it only smells like sawdust. I'm not finished building the exterior yet. It's inside for the winter but I will move it out into the wood shed during warmer months. I have a cute curtain to hang in front of it for privacy.

I made a little wire thing so I could see the things that I was unpacking.

My 5 candles. We don't have a lamp yet. It's too dark to knit or read.

The stove and my five candles... yeah........... [crickets chirping]......... I'm not the kind of person who can just sit and meditate for hours so I decided to go visit Aunt Pam and Uncle Bill. We're watching NCIS. Don't worry. I blew out the candles before I left.

Good suggestions on the comments everyone. I'll reply to questions down there to keep it all together.

The yurt interior and Meghan, avert your eyes. More of Ms. Tiddles.

2011-11-15T12:23:00.001-08:00

A view from the loft. You can see our breakfast warming on the stove. We both slept through the night so the stove didn't get fed. We woke up and it was 30 degrees inside. I built a fire and had it up to 70 in about a half hour. Bella was so sad that she didn't have thumbs to climb up the ladder into the loft. Ralph says she's "Nebused." Neglected AND Abused. Naggy heard us wake up and called for us to quit neglecting her, too.

Here is our bedding. It's probably a full size, I am not sure exactly because we are using camp pads instead of a mattress.

This is the underside of the loft, showing the "Barn Wood."

Now here is my lovely lady in her honored spot on the old chest (which will house my fiber and yarn). You can see my spinning wheel and bag of wool flanking the chest.

A closer-up picture of her, the chest, and a tiny wool rug.

Here is the inscription on the bottom of the bust. My mom and dad purchased her from the artist while touring Jamaica. She is very heavy. I don't know what kind of wood she is carved from.

I am still organizing our things so I do not want to give a full tour yet. The goat and the dog are getting along. I will post more on that some other time. I met some goat people and they told me that she should have a friend. I am thinking about getting one of four options: a neutered male pygmy (free), a sheep($100?), a llama, or another female who is in milk. I don't know what the acquisition cost would be of the others. Another option would be to get Naggy knocked up and let her keep one of her kids. I do not want to own an intact male. I also wonder why Bella isn't a good enough friend for her. I'm not ready to own another animal yet.

In other news, I have uploaded a video of Naggy in the bike trailer to youtube under my account: panchymagogue.

Loft is Finished!

2011-11-14T16:03:00.001-08:00

Our friends came over on Saturday to hang out and eat ice cream. This is my BFF. She sings the poop in a bucket song and helps me weed the garden and paint. The little guy in the background is in LOVE with our goat. He would come over every day to visit if he could. I think I am going to put my bike mech skills to use and fix up their bikes so they can visit whenever they want. We would not have been able to build the yurt without their dad's help. Apparently, Ralph would not have been able to get the truck out of the ditch without his help.

We had all of our stuff crammed to one side so we could work. This young dude helped get the fire going so our ice cream would melt.

Drum roll please..................................................I have a friend who is over 10 now!! She came over and helped me clean out the construction debris from the yurt. It was mostly hangout time and we got a lot of organizing done. It's not very hard to organize a 200sqft yurt. Oh and I have the perfect spot for Ms. Tiddles. Over half of our belongings are fiber-related or bicycle/scooter related. If I didn't knit or ride we could have moved here in a Geo Metro.

I didn't take any pictures today because I lost my camera charger. Don't worry, mom, I just found it while organizing stuff to bring to the yurt. Brad, I will try and get a few eyeball shots of the goat for you. I agree, they look kind of creepy, like Kermit the Frog eyes.

Esteemed Commenter P.J.: I looked up photos of Patricia Hitchcock and my profile pic does look a lot like her. Good eye. I've been meaning to change it to something more representative of myself anyway... I'm too lazy. Meh.

NERAK

2011-11-12T08:39:00.001-08:00

This is why I LOOOOOOOVE my bike:

It's utilitarian.

I picked up Naggy from our cousin's house yesterday. It's kind of a funny story. I rode over there around 9 but didn't call first. As I was untying her leash, I heard Kimmie and the twins step outside and Kimmie said "Will one of you two call Shannon so she'll come and pick up that darn goat?!" Then they looked over at the goat shed and I was there. Hahaha. She captured video of me towing Naggy away. It's on Facebook. Naggy didn't complain until I slowed down to turn into our driveway. I think that the ride was about 2 miles. It was one of those rides where I wish I had a helmet cam to capture the looks on people's faces as they passed me.

She is so gentle and didn't mind getting in the trailer. Once home, she followed me around all day.

Our cousins were rodeo queens in the local elementary school talent show. They are the twins on the left. It was a fun evening to raise money for a school field trip.

Last night we went over to out friend's house and watched "The Watcher in the Woods." It is the creepiest Disney movie ever made. One of the kids was so freaked out that he started another movie to make himself forget about the Watcher so he wouldn't have any nightmares. We stayed for the second feature and had an impromptu sleep-over party on the sectional couch. I awoke around 3 and Ralph was semi-awake so we decided to drive home--less than a mile away. For some reason he pulled into his uncle's driveway instead of ours and took the road which requires 4 wheel drive. I asked him why we are 4x4ing at 3am and he said that he didn't mean to turn there and continued driving. We high-centered so at 3am with a pickaxe and shovel, we tried to dig ourselves out. Hahahaha. I didn't have my camera with me. After awhile we left the truck and went to bed. Ralph dug it out this morning while I was sleeping in.

Cool Doohickies

2011-11-10T14:28:00.001-08:00

This is a fly-tying device that I used to remove a metal splinter. Ralph's mom uses it for crafts.

This is a neat-o vegetable chopper. It was Ralph's great-grandma's and then his grandma's. We found it when we were looking for dishes for our yurt.

Ralph's uncle bill made this knife. I like its shape. It's small like a paring knife but shaped like my favorite knife out of our set. I used it to cut carrot sticks last night and now I want one.

Ralph's mom made multi-grain bread today in a pretty yellow Pyrex loaf pan. I love vintage Pyrex. Nice loaf, too.

Yurt Progress

We are halfway finished building the sleeping loft in the yurt. We used "reclaimed" (a fancy term for junky) wood. My little friend Coco might come over tomorrow to help me paint a rug on the floor. Today I moved a ton of garbage out of a ditch. The larger appliances are a 2-person job. Maybe I could get Bella to help me with her pulling harness. Her help today was with digging up rusty car parts and being cute, in general. Digging on command is one of her most useful tricks--she's a great garden helper.

Other Stuff

I read everyone's comments and I try to call/text/skype because I like to be a little more personal. I'm not sure what the protocol is and how or if I should respond in the comments. What is everyone's preference? Personal call? I could call everyone. My Skype name is Shannon Faulkinbury if you haven't looked me up yet. I never log into my Jentzsch Skype account anymore.

Bicycle, bicycle!

2011-11-08T18:51:00.000-08:00

I finally put Bella's trailer together and went for a little ride last night. I dusted off the ol' bike blinkys but couldn't find the doggles. She doesn't like her trailer as much as she used to. I think that it has something to do with the gravel roads and potholes. She'll get used to it. The picture above has been resurrected from my Portland file. That's my hip trailer setup. I'm out of denial now. I am a hipster.

Parisa and her brother came up for a visit from Tuscon. We all went on a ride today. It was fun. I like visiting with family but I miss my PNW family. Speaking of family, I haven't been able to get my bro steve on the phone for awhile... I want to visit him. Can someone text me his address? I will totally ride my scooter out there and sit on his doorstep.

I have been doing Secret Christmas Knitting for my secret person for Christmas. The thing about secret persons is that everyone knows everyone else's secret person so there is really nothing secret about it but it is still fun to do secret gift-making. I really want to show what I made but I can't because my secret person might read this blog. Instead I will show proof of the animal cruelty that Bella endures. The turban that she is so thrilled to wear is one that I knit during a fun family gathering on the Oregon Coast last year. I wish I had that pic of Uncle Steve wearing it. I really love turbans. It's a Lonnie thing.

It snowed again.

2011-11-06T22:23:00.000-08:00

We adjusted the straps on the outside of the tarps because they weren't holding up in strong winds. It's a funny story. I don't want to take the time to write the long version. The short version is that the roof almost blew off and we spent all day fighting the wind, trying to get it to fold nicely. Ralph is tall so he was doing all of the tarp-folding while I was the anchor. The wind was so strong that I felt like I would fly away with the tarp. I wished, at the time, that I weighed as much as Ralph. It was stressful at the time but we had a good laugh that afternoon when it was all over. We were exhausted.

I must admit defeat, though. The wind (and thunder and lightening and rain) storm extended into the second night in our yurt. Bella was so freaked out that she wouldn't rest until she was lying between us on the floor on our camp mats. Around 2 am there was a huge gust that filled the yurt like a balloon, causing the walls and roof to flex. The yurt shook terribly when it deflated. I turned to Ralph, who was holding Bella, and said forget the dog, hold me because I am scared. We then decided to gather our blankets and pillows and flee to Ralph's mom's house. Ralph opened the door and Bella disappeared into the darkness. I thought that it was a terrible time to develop a fear of storms. We called for her and told her to go to Grandma's house. She darted out from under a tree onto the road ahead, looked back at me, turned and sprinted as fast as she could to the house. We followed. When we entered the house Ralph's mom was watching Netflix on our Wii. The dog rushed to her and buried her face into the blanket on her lap while wiggling with joy. She loves Grandma.

We have taken a couple of days to button up the yurt, eliminating drafts so the balloon effect doesn't happen again. We finished framing in the door and are securing the bottom of the wall tarp to the deck. I am experimenting with Gorilla Tape to see if I can use it to smooth the folds better and make the roof more aerodynamic. The wood stove is more than enough to heat the yurt. We totally roast in there.

Well I have to say that the picture I took of the stove in the last post is misleading. It is not so spacious inside. I had to hold the camera at the edge of the floor at the wall to get that shot. LOLs.

We moved in!

2011-11-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

You can sort of make out our stovepipe at the point of the roof. That old door came out of the crumbling old house. I replaced 2 of the panes yesterday and we cut the door in half so we can swing the top half open when the fire is too hot. We haven't finished framing it in yet.

Our tiny stove. It has a nice little viewing window. We only moved a few things so far. I will clean and arrange things more tomorrow. You can see our stack of poo buckets in the background.

I like it. It's nice and cozy. I can't wait to get started on our sleeping loft so we can get the bed out of the way and have people over for a party.

Eugene

2011-11-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

My dad and mom took Chris, Laurel and me to Off the Waffle for breakfast on Saturday. My dad is holding a jar of freshly squeezed orange juice with lots of pulp. Someone stands in the kitchen all morning and squeezes oranges.

Here are our dessert waffles. I forgot to take a picture of our first round of waffles, which were served to us on plates. Mine had goat cheese, fresh basil and eggs.

Carving pumpkins with exchange students at Laurel's dad's house.

I thought that this leaf was nice to look at.

We all dipped apples into caramel.

Chris and Laurel posing.

I flew back to Phoenix after pumpkin carving and went to Ralph's sister's house for Halloween. We made chicken and rice, stuffed it into a pumpkin and baked it for dinner. Very festive.

Wimer, OR

2011-10-28T03:53:00.000-07:00

I am at my parent's house in Wimer. Where the heck is Wimer? Haha... loved those Wimer Day t-shirts.

Me and Scarlet in our new winter hats. My mom made Scarlet's in one evening and she bought mine at Goodwill.

It is hard to get a full picture of Duke because he approaches whenever I get eye-level to him. All of the other shots had just his eyeballs. Coco is in the background playing.

The trampoline was frozen in the morning when I snapped pics of the dogs/yard.

The garden next to the pool.

An ostrich that my mom is babysitting for Kaitlyn. He greets anyone entering the garden.

A view of the field from the deck. The dogs spend hours out there digging for moles.

Duke was distracted enough that I could get a picture of more than just his eyeballs. He is scratching his old man stomach. He is the reason why I am awake blogging right now while everyone is in bed. He despises coyotes and will wig out at the door until someone lets him go at them. Chris saw him chase and bite one in the butt a few years ago.

Ralph's brother just got hit by a car while crossing in an unmarked crosswalk outside of the neighborhood grocery store. I was shocked when I heard about it because Jack is a firm advocate of the lug-nut rule on the road and is very careful when he chooses to be a vulnerable road user. He is ok and didn't even go to the hospital. Crosswalks in Arizona, like Oregon, are at every intersection of the road, regardless of paint markings. I have crossed at that intersection a handful of times and have seen others cross with children and/or armloads of grocery bags. I don't want to get political and rant-y on my blog (Although I could). I just wanted to share how hard it is to be a pedestrian. Watch for pedestrians and stop. Take 40 seconds to be a human.*

*Take 40 seconds to be a human. It's a mantra that I thought up when I commuted by bike and rail 50 miles to and from work in Portland. I saw a lot of rude behavior on the road. A man once told me through his passenger window at an intersection that he would try to hit me the next time he saw me on my bike. Totally rude and selfish behavior. During my daily commute, I vowed to ensure that I had at least 40 seconds to be neighborly, stop for pedestrians, help an elderly woman load some boxes into her car, etc. I mumble it to myself when I stop at an unmarked intersection to let a man and stroller cross safely and drivers honk impatiently. It really only takes 40 seconds to be safe and to think of others.

The yurt is almost finished.

2011-10-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

The billboards are on the yurt! We are almost ready to move in.

The tarps need a little smoothing before we tie them down.

We are going to add rigid foam insulation to the roof.

And blankets to the walls.

I am leaving today for Oregon and will be gone for a week and a half. Ralph and Bella will remain in Arizona.

Raising the roof, continued.

2011-10-18T12:35:00.000-07:00

I think that you can just imagine that I wrote a cheesy caption to go with this photo.

We raised the roof.

2011-10-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

I like how the roof ring turned out. I think that it looks nice up there. The ladder is 12 feet.

This picture shows how we rested the roof rafters on the cable ring around the wall lattice. And Bella's ear.

Here it is before we cut the bottom of the lattice to match up with the floor and before we add the billboard tarps. You can see our old washing machine that will become a sink in the yurt. I found it in some weeds.

I am flying up to Oregon for awhile to Ben and Tori's sealing. Hopefully we can get the yurt put together before then. I don't want to leave Ralph with all of the work.

The walls and roof and a cool bullet.

2011-10-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

The wall went up yesterday. It is a bit over 7 feet tall.

Ralph and I put up 4 roof rafters and had to stop because we don't have a ladder that is tall enough.We will borrow one and finish Monday. I like the pitch of our roof. I think that the snow will slip right off of it.

This is a picture of a cool bullet in a dead oak tree that we cut down today. It was the last day to cut oak for firewood because the leaves are turning. I counted how many rings the bullet goes down and it was 4 to 6 deep. If we didn't have to cut wood for everyone we would probably be finished with the yurt by now.

Close up of the bullet.

An unfurled billboard tarp. It's the one for the walls. The advertisement is for a newspaper. You can't really see how large it is in the picture. It's 14'x48'. I will trim it a bit because it is too long for the walls.

Here's the billboard tarp for the roof, still in the package. I don't know what the advertisement is. we are going to put the ad side in and cover them up with blankets.

I'll post more pictures as we make more progress/see more interesting things. I wish I caught a picture of the tarantula that Bella was harassing. I shooed her away from it because those things are deadly and I want her to live another five years.

Rocket Stove

2011-10-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

Ralph's uncle, Bill, made us a really cool stove for outdoor cooking. It's called a rocket stove and it uses very little wood. We made Ramen and cabbage on it to test it out. The handles didn't even get warm so we were able to move it when we were done cooking.

Yurt Progress: We got the walls up but I am waiting to take a picture when we start putting up the ring.

Winter is here.

2011-10-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

As you can see, winter has suddenly arrived. Bummer because I had just planted garlic two days before this photo was taken (I was wearing shorts, too). I guess I'll need to replant in the Spring. It's weird how there was one day of Fall weather and the next day it snowed all day. In the PNW we were lucky to see this much snow once a year in January. The good news is that all of the mosquitoes are dead. The bad news is that the huge red ants aren't dead. Yet. One bit me in the ankle on the sunny day when I was wearing shorts and planting garlic. It burned like crazy and swelled a teeny bit like a mosquito bite. I built a bonfire over the ant hill yesterday to burn a rotten table and dresser and other miscellaneous rotten wood things like the old pink outhouse. I doubt that it killed many but I am so going to dig up that hole in the middle of winter to let them freeze. BuaHaHaHa... It is so on, giant red ants.

The snow melted off yesterday afternoon and we finished the deck. Or, I should say, our friend finished it. I am so glad that he offered to help us build it because his plans are so much stronger than the plans that I downloaded from the internet. He was happy to help because he has saved up enough money to buy property, doesn't have money to build a house, and wants to see how this yurt stuff pans out. A month ago he didn't even know what a yurt was, now he's thinking about making or buying one for his family. His little girl constantly sings the 'Poop in a bucket' song and helped me fill up my compost bin for poop--er, I should say, humanure compost.

Pictures from yesterday:

For the record, 2 3-string bales covered 200 sq. feet.

8 sheets of plywood was enough with excess left over for us to build our toilet.

Cutie miss Bella coming in for a hug. Our friend's girl got attacked about a year ago by a dog who looked just like Bella. Last night when I took her with me to pick up some pizza for the work crew she told me that Bella is one of her favorite dogs. Kids are so resilient. I know adults who are afraid of dogs forever because they were bit once.

The Happenings...

2011-10-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

Alright fancy people. Ever since I became a firefighter I have been too vague about the happy-haps and the goings-on in my life. I'll use my time right now to fill y'all in:

Firefighting: I decided that big-city firefighting wasn't for me so I quit Fortland Pire(That's me being real sneaky-like. I don't want a google search of P---land F-re bringing my blog to the top of the list so I changed the spelling.). I applied to the 10-person department down here in Linden. There are 6 reserve openings.

Moving: I love the Pacific Northwest and planned on staying there for the rest of my life. Then I married Ralph who is from Arizona. His entire family lives in Arizona. He has seen his brothers only a few times in the three years we've been married. We decided to move to the White Mountains because I will melt and die of skin cancer if we lived in Phoenix. So we live in Linden, near Show Low. I like to call it Bubbaville, AZ. Population: Tire. We live with Ralph's mom on the family property. Ralph's great-grandfather was one of the founders of Linden and homesteaded hundreds of acres of land here. His children and grandchildren have since sold off/lost hundreds of acres and less than 20 acres remain. We are building a yurt on the unused (unauthorized dump) portion of his mom's land.

Yurt-ing: We decided to build a small yurt so we can save up for some property. It will be approximately 200 round feet and will have no plumbing or electricity. We are going to use a composting toilet and heat/cook with a wood stove. I will go take pictures of the site now...

...See? There is a lot of cleaning to do out there and those buildings need to be disassembled for safety. BUT there a nice area for a garden. AND it's private. We are building the deck so it can be disassembled and relocated someday.

Permit-ing: In Arizona a household does not need a permit to discharge less than 400 gallons of graywater per day. I am not sure how much we will produce. 10 per day? A composting toilet is also completely legal as long as you do not sell the compost. A permit is unnecessary for the deck because it is costing us less than 500 dollars to build. As for the yurt, I haven't found any guidelines regarding tents in Navajo County. It is better to ask forgiveness than permission.

Bella: She turned 5 in April. She was digging in an ant hill today and totally pissed off a bunch of red ants. Then she started eating them and they bit her in the mouth and on the feet. Ha! She deserved it although Ralph helped brush the ant pincers off of her paws. Nice guy--nicer than me. I wanted to let her learn her lesson so she'll quit bothering them.

Today was an underwear day.

2011-10-02T15:48:00.000-07:00

I didn't get dressed at all, but stayed in bed and watched conference on my new netbook--the one I got to replace the old laptop that bit the dust on our trip. It gets about 8 hours of battery to one charge.

Ralph made our sundaes and brought them back to bed for breakfast. I ate cheetos and vitamins for lunch. The picture is one from central Utah. We kept refilling disposable drink cups with gas station ice and then adding drink mix to stay cool. As always, Bella was thrilled to have her picture taken. She really does love riding in the car and kept asking Ralph if he would let her in when they passed parked cars on foot yesterday. Did I ever mention how lazy my dog is? She hates to go on walks. She's snoring like an old man on our bed right now**

Our yurt is coming along and a friend is giving us a wood stove so we can heat it this winter. I don't feel like taking pictures until we get it set up on the insulated deck we are building. I got the yurt plans from instructables. Best website ever.

**When Ralph and I lived with my parents, you could hear the dog snoring loudly from almost every room in the house. One morning my dad started talking about getting Ralph fitted for an anti-snoring mouthpiece. My mom turned to him and said, "Randy, it's the dog!" I guess it was one of those had-to-be-there moments...

100th post. And pics from our journey.

2011-09-24T23:22:00.000-07:00

The pictures are out of order. I am posting from a new computer because mine crashed on our trip. Literally. We were in Boise, ID looking for this burger place (see pic). I wasn't feeling well so Ralph takes my computer into Starbucks to google map the place. When he came out to type the address into the GPS he set the computer on the van and a big gust of wind came and knocked it off and it crashed to the pavement.

The last picture is Ralph in front of Crater Lake. I kept saying: look, can you believe how beautiful it is, it's amazing... Ralph accused me of sounding like the double-rainbow guy LOL.

The next pic is Ralph in front of our tent with Bella and "tiddles" our travelling companion. We were just outside of Burns, Or in that picture and considered staying at an old work camp (we couldn't find a campsite). It was totally creepy with old stone shacks and fences. I wish I had thought of taking a picture to show you how creepy it was at dusk. Anyway, we decided to move along and we found this campground a mile or so down the highway. It was 8 dollars a night.

The next picture is of the giant burger that we ate at Big Jud's in Boise. It was so delicious and it lasted us 2 days for food. I will build the burger from the bottom up: Bun, 1 lb pattie, bleu cheese, swiss cheese, saute'd mushrooms, bacon, 1lb pattie, bleu cheese, swiss cheese, saute'd mushrooms, bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo, bun. It was so good I think I might ride my scooter or the bus back there sometime to order another. It's called the Big Bleu Burger. We saw it on Man vs Food and had to try it.

The next picture is of me and Bella catching a view of the Painted Desert in the Petrified Forest National Park. I swear that the dog likes to see the National Parks as much as we do. Before we made it to the park we had driven all night through the Navajo Indian Reservation. As I was driving I saw several trucks pulled off on the side of the road, bunking up for the night. I thought that I would pull over too before we hit the reservation because apparently it is not safe for white people at night. Ralph was asleep and I went too far. I decided to keep driving all of the way through and not stop for anything... Well I needed to go to the bathroom so I did stop at a gas station at 3 am. Bella needed to go too and as I was walking her on leash 2 reservation dogs started to close in on us. She was so spooked that she wanted to turn around and sprint back to the van before it was too late. That is exactly what we did. Ralph bought some soda and chips in the convenience store during the potty break and the clerk told him to be careful because it was the first of the month and he had sold a ton of beer that night to some rowdy guys. We decided to get out of there and continued on the highway. Ralph was awake then and warned me that the Native Americans put their cattle along the side of the road at night in hopes that one will get hit so they can get paid for it. I thought it was a crock until I did pass a herd of cattle inches from the side of the road. Arizona is a free-range state so this practice is legal. I somehow missed the turn for the main highway and we ended up driving on this terribly-maintained, remote road in the middle of the reservation in the wee hours of the morning. Not the smartest thing to do. I realized that we were on the wrong road when we passed a sign that pointed the direction of a National Monument and I thought weren't we supposed to be on the other side of that? Eeek! I pulled over for a minute and looked at the map, found another road to take and barely made it to another gas station to sleep because I was very tired. We didn't make it out of the reservation until daylight when I awoke to a group of women gawking at me through the passenger window as they waited at the bus stop. I was drooling. Ralph was well rested so he drove us to the Painted desert.

The last (first) picture is Bella taking in the sights and smells of the Petrified Forest. We saw petroglyphs, an adobe, an old car on Route 66, cool sand colors, and lots of petrified wood. I won't bore you with pictures of rocks. It's a neat park that we will be visiting again because it is only 60 miles away from our house. It would be fun to go on a tandem bike ride to camp there. I really really really want a tandem because they are so much faster than single bikes. Ralph and I rode one once in Portland and we loved it. I let Ralph be in charge and it was nice to just pedal and look around from the stoker's seat. I'm pretty sure we went about 20 miles and it was effortless. I digress. sorry.

We made it to Show Low intact.

Pictures of the trip so far...

2011-08-30T07:16:00.000-07:00

Ralph and I stayed longer than planned in Eugene to hang out with Laurel and Chris. While we were there we visited the coast for an afternoon. After Eugene we decided to see our friends in Coos Bay--we stayed for the evening and left the next morning to visit my parents before heading to Rogue River. I am posting from Rogue River, Or right now and we are leaving for Crater Lake today.

We were on our way to an impromptu trip to Florence from Eugene. Bella wanted to be part of the action up front with Laurel. She obviously doesn't fit but will try anyway.

It's a windy day at the beach.

Chris and Laurel fit us all into their Subaru. Bella and Ralph pose next to it.

Ralph and I stopped by the post-office to unload some books and tools. Only 15 dollars to send 50lbs of hand tools!

Ralph and Al.

Myriam wanted to get in on this photo of Terri and me. We're BFF.

Bella and her old friend Hatch at our friend's house in Coos Bay. They were very happy to see each other and played nonstop during our stay.

Coco and Bella at my Parent's house

Scarlet annoyed that I would take a picture while she was being changed.

I wanted to post more pics but Blogger only uploaded these.

We're Gonna Moooove Away From Here...

2011-08-24T10:52:00.000-07:00

You can find us if you wanna go there. Gonna Move Skip to about 1 minute in for the chorus.

You can't see it in the picture, but we have a bucket and shovel handy for picking up roadkill. Oh and Bella sits between the bucket seats in the front.

Ethan, Chris and Dad visited

2011-07-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

We went to a cool trampoline place. Video on youtube:

Fixin it up!

2011-07-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

I made the Bikefarm blog again:

http://bikefarm.org/2011/07/13/fix-it-fair/

Bella's Friends

2011-07-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Our roommate's new puppy, shadow:

They play a lot.

China and Duke

She doesn't get to run free often.

New scooter 120 mpg.

2011-06-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

I bought a new scooter. It's rad. I ride it all over town and Ralph rides it to school. Sometimes we ride it together but it's kind of small for that. We hardly drive the van anymore. It's made by the same company that made the Honda Cub 90 back in the 60s and the Honda Passport scooter in the 70s and 80s. The only upgrades from the old 60s Hondas(from what I can tell) is front shocks, larger displacement engine, electronic ignition and a better headlight. Parking it is a social event, as many people ask me questions about it.

Apparently, it is the best-selling motorcycle of all time. Here are some links of people riding the same things in asia:

http://onemansblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/vietnamese-loaded-scooter.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AFniiJWIbq4/S_3FiuJ0fDI/AAAAAAAAAfY/r3klg-3_gAc/s1600/Scooters+May+2010-15.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_L6vvt8rj_DU/THTwgRdX1vI/AAAAAAAABVE/wProaexmZbU/s1600/BaliFamilyScooterSize.jpg

Dog Commuting by Bike

2011-05-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

I took a picture and two videos while on my commute from Bike Farm. I rebuilt a wheel today, too. It's dangerous to take pictures and videos while riding :) The best of the 2 videos will be on youtube.
Ralph had an accident while doing the dishes and almost all of our mugs and several plates were broken. I thought it was funny that our least favorite mug and the mug that already had a crack in it were unharmed. So we are going to rebuild our mug collection sometime.

It's Friday--but for me, it's Saturday.

2011-05-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

Yep, I only work 4 days a week. It's great. I get to wake up on Friday to this face:

I am not posting pics of me and Ralph as we wake up. Mostly because we aren't decent. I like waking up on Friday because I get to stay in bed as long as I want to and then Ralph and I let Bella squeeze between us on the bed. She swim crawls in the blankets from the foot of the bed to almost the pillows.

She turned 5 last month. I've been bummed about it this week because she's so large and I will be lucky if she lives to be 10. It's kind of like I went through her mid-life crisis for her. During her mid-life crisis, Ralph and I made plans to purchase a cool sidecar motorcycle (or scooter) sometime next year. She's been really good in the bike trailer so I think it's only natural to get a sidecar rig to enjoy. She's my BFF. The best dog ever. Literally. I say to her: Bella, where's Ralph? Go get Ralph! Then she trots around the house until she finds him and I give her a treat. Good girl.

Here are some pics of what I am thinking about buying:

http://www.enfieldmotorcycles.com/custom_whitesidecar1.html

this

this if possible

Bella Trailer

2011-04-22T03:18:00.000-07:00

My comrade at Bike Farm captured a picture of Bella on her first day riding in her trailer. I am planning on taking some video during today's commute. The original post can be found on the Bike Farm blog:

http://bikefarm.org/2011/04/21/dogs-and-bikes/

This one is for Alex.

2011-04-07T18:09:00.001-07:00

I heard that you liked Sesame Street.

Sundae Sunday pic

2011-04-03T09:35:00.001-07:00

New Bella Mover

2011-03-26T17:44:00.000-07:00

Ralph and I purchased a bike trailer for the dog so she can tag along with me to the bike shop on Fridays. Here are some pictures of her getting used to it before we put the wheels back on it and take her around the neighborhood.

With her doggles on.

No doggles on. The flash is too much for her sleepy face.

I Really Love to Brush My Teeth

2011-03-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

One reason why I wanted to be a dentist when I was in the first grade.

Sundae Sunday

2011-02-20T14:49:00.000-08:00

In college I used to eat ice cream at least once a day. Well I am trying to get back to that level of ice cream enjoyment by instituting Sundae Sunday at our place. This morning Ralph and I toasted almonds and oatmeal in butter, sauteed Pink Lady apples and seasoned it all with cinnamon, brown sugar and a bit of salt. We then ate it with ice cream. Judge me if you must. Last Sunday we had Pancakes with strawberries, ice cream, and chocolate syrup. Sorry, no pictures.

Penny Farthing

2011-02-06T10:14:00.000-08:00

I must have watched this 10 times this morning while taking bike snob's latest quiz. Ralph and I laughed our heads off.

I saw this picture of Penguins wearing sweaters

2011-01-21T06:34:00.000-08:00

Saw it on resweater.

Happy New Year

2011-01-14T07:10:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late.

I like my bike--it's fast.

2010-09-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

This song goes out to Dan.

I like my bike by Hurtbird

I wanted to add that they are playing at the BTA's commute challenge afterparty.

The picture is one I took of our bike tree in the living room. Ralph and Peter built it. Mine is the one on the left.

Twinners.

2010-09-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

We are wearing the same color of polish on our toes.

Hey you GUYS! We went on a Goonies trip to Astoria.

2010-09-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

Bella crammed herself between the front seats so we could leave for our road trip.

On the way we saw a cool hippy bus:

This jailhouse is in the first scene. It's now a museum.

I was trying to recreate the hanging scene. There's a camera on the ceiling outside the cell that captures images of hanging feet and posts them to the museum website.

Aww, BUSTED!

We got to see the map that showed the goonies how to get to the 'rich stuff'

That's mom's favorite part!

Ralph and Sloth, hangin'

Non-Goonies stop. This is the school from Kindergarten Cop.

Ceej, Ralph and I snuck up to see Mikey's house.

You can see our video of the Truffle Shuffle on youtube. My username is panchymagogue.

Another non-goonies stop: The Column. I think that it's over 100 years old. We walked 164 steps to the top.

Cannon Beach, a landmark rock from the movie. Ceejy looks cute in this picture.

Ralph battling yoda in front of a comic book store.

We didn't get to go to the bowling alley where Chunk squished his burger and milkshake against the window to get a good view of the police chase. Don't worry, we plan on making the trip again with Jeff and Hillary.

Ceej took me to see Lady GaGa at the Rose Garden.

2010-08-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

First of all, I need to thank CJ for coming up to Portland to visit me and for taking me to the concert. We had so much fun together!

I took Ceejykin's picture with some pretty ladies. GaGa calls her superfans "Little Monsters."

I don't care that people think she is weird. She's very artistic and sounds as good live as she does in the studio. She's a great talent. I only wish that she didn't swear so much between songs. That was disappointing to me.

I wanted to get a shot with my eyes closed--Looks like I have them open-huh? Creepy.

The pic is a littls blurry--we were dancing at the time.

Hillary did our makeup at her apartment downtown before the show. Thanks Hills!

More pics of the puppy and Bella.

2010-08-04T19:40:00.000-07:00

I don't really want this to become a puppy blog but I can't help showing them off. Bella is a good foster mom--this pup was taken from his own mom a few weeks too early! I think that he's 8 or 9 weeks now.

Midterm results...

2010-07-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

I got a 95% on my midterm.

I need to post some pics of Bella playing with our roommate's puppy--now that is newsworthy!

Update: I added pics.

He likes to chew on the corner of her mouth.
She gently play-bites with him.
My roommate was told that he is a pit bull but he looks a lot like Bella did when she was a puppy. I think that he is at least half American Bulldog. He is 7 weeks old.

It's fun to have a puppy to play with that I don't have to raise. Bella is kind of raising him. She is a good playmate for him and has been a good example for housebreaking.

EMT Class

2010-07-21T18:48:00.000-07:00

I am in PF&R's accelerated EMT-B class. This class is intense--We covered one term in 2 weeks. Tomorrow is my first midterm. Wish me luck.

"I'm on a board!"

I Passed the Interview!

2010-06-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let you all know that I passed the Chief's interview. So, I am officially accepted into the Firefighter Trainee Program. This is all pending a good physical and background check.

We will be moving to Portland soon. Maybe I will post more frequently now that I am not feeling all losery-without-a-job.

1927 Singer 66-16 treadle

2010-03-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

Megan and I were sitting around talking about how cheaply a place can be furnished off of craigslist. Seriously cheap--my roommates and I bought a washer and dryer set for $75 once. So I wanted to see what kinds of things that people in our area give away for free at the moment:

One super old-school treadle machine!!!! I sent an email, knowing that they had probably received 50 emails in the first hour.... Well they must have liked what I said because they held onto it for me.

One treadle sewing machine from the 20s. I know that it was made in 1927 because I looked up the serial number online. I found out the model with a little sleuthing--singer didn't put model numbers on their earliest machines. According to this key, my machine is a 66-16, although I am not sure because it doesn't match the picture exactly. It might be a 101 or a 99-13. I hope that it is a 66-13 because parts are easier to obtain.
Speaking of parts, I looked up the cost of all of the missing parts and doodads that have been made to upgrade the sewing experience from this website and it'll cost me around 10 dollars. The manual will probably cost me 10-20 dollars. I am not going to buy anything right now. I will just fashion a belt from an old strip of leather or bicycle inner tube and maybe tape a bit of Plexiglas over the area where the bobbin slider is missing. This will get me sewing under my own foot power immediately until either Ralph or I get a job and we can order parts. I probably won't ever order the manual.

One of the unique features that I have noticed about this machine--other than it being human-powered--is that it does not require a bobbin case. I am lucky because it is one less tiny part to lose/replace. Another cool thing is that it is user-serviceable. There is no electric motor to monkey with so I feel more confident in breaking it open to clean/lube all of those grimy 83 year old parts. I know that some sewing machine purist out there will probably send me some hate mail when I document the many ways in which I will desecrate this machine:

Frankenstein a crank light to the drive belt to power my own sewing light.
Maybe do the same with a radio to get my tunes on while sewing.
Scrape of the cracked veneer so my cloth doesn't snag.
Paint each wooden piece with contrasting oil paints so loud that my grandma would yell "Cannit, it's evening."
MacGuyver a bicycle spinning wheel off of the treadle base so I don't ever have to spend $500 on some fancy Ashton to make my own yarn.
I am sure that there are myriad second uses that I haven't considered in the several years in which I have coveted such a machine.

Okay, folks, I think that I have geeked on enough about this Singer. Until next time...

Yard Work

2010-03-05T18:50:00.000-08:00

Ralph and I went to my parent's house and did some yard work to get the place ready for spring. He likes to move things around with the lawnmower. It's a good thing because we have a huge pile of rocks to move. Th smoke in the background is of a stump that we burned out. I should have taken a picture of that. The hole that we dug around it was huge.

Hiatus

2010-02-02T12:58:00.000-08:00

I didn't take a break from reading everyone's blogs but I haven't felt like blogging for several months. Sorry--it just seems easier to let everyone know about my wherabouts and whatnots via text message, email or phone. Although many of you already know, I graduated in December. My diploma arrived a couple of weeks ago in the mail and it is official: I have a BS in Biology from the University of Oregon.

My parents came to visit and we celebrated my graduation by watching Avatar(opening night) and eating at Porta restaurant in North Bend. Online reviews are less than stellar for Porta. I don't understand--the food was amazing! My mom ordered scallops, I had rabbit, my dad and Ralph ordered the beef tenderloin... You could have cut the meat with a fork. We made early reservations (6:00) so we could catch an earlier showing at the theater. I would suggest going early like we did because we ordered their last beef tenderloin, leaving only one cut of meat to order for the late diners. We also had the restaurant to ourselves for the first 30-40 minutes. They did bring my dad's dinner a few minutes later than ours but we soon forgot this indiscretion when we began eating. Overall, I would recommend this restaurant.

The image is of me on the roof of our trailer.

Orca killing a harbor porpoise

2009-08-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

My class at OIMB went whale and bird watching offshore one last time. We saw a transient group of orcas--two females and one male. They were swimming in circles with what looked like an orca calf. Then one of the females charged out of the water, tossing this harbor porpoise. My classmate, J. Goodell, happened to turn her camera on at the right moment and got this shot. I don't think that I will see anything like this again.

Notes on orcas:

There are two resident populations of killer whales in the Pacific Nortwest: Northern (Vancouver, BC to Alaska) whales and Southern (Puget Sound to S. Vancouver island) whales. Residents normally eat fish like salmon. Transient killer whales normally eat marine mammals. When they catch mammalian prey they toss it around for awhile, much like a cat tends to toss around a mouse before eating it. Not much is known about the reasons for this behavior. Perhaps they are teaching their young how to hunt. Another hypothesis is that they jolt the blubber free of the rest of the carcass while tossing prey (thus making it easier to bite off the best part of the animal:fat). Maybe it's fun to do.

Also, killer whales are opportunists. They will eat bottom fish, whale carcasses, seals and sea lions, and less commonly polar bears and moose. Orcas in Patagonia are known to strand themselves on the shore in order to catch a meal. If I had to choose between swimming in orca territory or shark territory, I would choose sharks.

If you click on the photo, it should get larger. It's amazing that we even got to see it, so I am happy with a grainy photo.

Life's a Beach.

2009-08-03T18:41:00.000-07:00

Today Ralph took Bella down to the jetty for some fetch in the water. I met them after school got out. She is like a maniac with the waves. We can't get her to stop biting at them when they roll in. Anyway, a little boy at the beach really wanted to throw the stick for her so we stayed out a little longer than we should have. She got really pooped and drank a ton of salt water. At home she put herself to bed and was shivering like crazy so we tucked her in. She would run herself to death if we let her.

Ihasahotdog

2009-07-27T19:11:00.001-07:00

see more dog and puppy pictures

Another funny picture b/c I haven't posted in ages.

Bella's New Look

2009-07-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

After two swimming scares, we decided to get Bella a lifejacket. She tends to overestimate her skills and gets swept out by the tide. We also made a sailing friend and this will be useful on the boat. I think that she's worth 33dollars. It has a handle on the back so you can use a boat hook to grab the dog and lift out of the water. I don't know anyone who could lift her out, but I think it will be a good feature when there are other dogs around or if we see a seal and she wants to jump for it. The orange color is nice, too. There was a green one at mini pet mart that wasn't as visible. we bought it last night. I'll let you know if she sinks or floats.

PS We live in Charleston, OR now for those of you who didn't hear.

Why we don't invite the neighbors over for dinner:

2009-07-03T06:56:00.000-07:00

Me and Ralph made some delicious BBQ ribs recently. The first time we made them I thought: Oh we have so many, we should invite one of our neighbors over to help eat them. Luckily I didn't follow through with this thought. We get smeared with BBQ sauce every time. This was the second time we made them.

Boil the ribs for 20-30min

BBQ for 6min each side--you can also broil in the oven if you want less carcinogens on your carcinogens.

Add BBQ sauce and eat

Don't invite the neighbors

Unveiling...

2009-06-22T18:06:00.001-07:00

I can't think of anything to write to go with this.

Richard Simmons

2009-06-16T14:19:00.000-07:00

I had a dream about Richard Simmons last night. He visited me at my parents house and I gushed to him about his work in "Sweatin to the Oldies". I was so star-struck that I had to pee. So he waited on the couch while I peed and looked for my camera. When I went back to the living room he was talking politics with Kermit the Frog. Then I got really excited and asked if I could take a picture of them together. They obliged. Then I really wanted their autographs so I went to get a pen and then I woke up. I really need to lay off the Zyrtec.

Shake that butt--and move those thighs!!

What do we do with all of Ralph's hair?

2009-05-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

We wash it in the bathtub, of course!

Ralph's Haircut

2009-05-31T12:55:00.000-07:00

This is Ralph's Summer haircut. He's so Bad.

Panchymagogue

2009-05-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

After talking to Ben last night I decided to get a youtube account. I shoulda done this years ago--now all of the good names are taken so I am panchymagogue. Oh and the poster is just for fun for everyone who has ever worked a high-turnover job.

Found Bella's Toy Today

2009-05-04T22:17:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I took Bella to play fetch behind Winco with her favorite toy. It's a Kong squeaker with a fabric tail--the dog version of a foxtail if any of you remember those from elementary school. So I launch it high into the air and it bounces off of a cedar tree and lands on top of a semi trailer. Bummer. The trailer is about 12 feet tall and I don't pole vault anymore. I started to climb the tree and Bella got all excited because she knew that her fave toy was somewhere up there. After a bit of thought, I jumped back down to the ground--I didn't bring my phone with me and our insurance deductible is worth more than a 10 dollar toy. Double Bummer. I am sure if Bella had opposing thumbs she would have climbed the tree and jumpped onto the semi herself.

This morning: Ralph and I ran out of milk so I took Bella out for a walk at 8 to get a gallon. I decided to walk around the back of the store to let her run free. She ran under the semi and came out with her toy! I was sure that we had lost it. It must have gotten blown off during the wind storm.

Birds and Bees.

2009-04-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

Fiona, I have a response to your I.V.F. post. If you have a difficult time talking to your kids about fertilization, ust let your kids watch these art films about insects making babies. Here's a link to the most mild one. We watched the bee one in my pollination biology class. Caution: it's about S-E-X so it might be offensive--don't click the link. PS the costumes are hilarious.

Spider

Spring Break

2009-03-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

We were lucky and got to snag Ethan(the nephew) for a few days last week.

First day: Visited Oregon Art Supply and purchased pencils, a drawing pad and pastels for sketching wildlife. Took out the long boards for a ride through the park with Bella. Played video games, sketched, watched Back to the Future 2 and 3. Longboarded to the library and checked out a few wildlife books. Made and ate sushi. Longboarded to the pool for a swim.

Second Day: Longboarded to the store and back to the pool (I forgot my bathing suit!). Lonboarded to Blockbuster to exchange video games. Ate ice cream. Played video games. Longboarded around the park with Bella. Went bowling (Ethan's first time). Changed into PJ's and crowded into bed to watch Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Note: All four of us were crowded into the bed to watch I.J. (Me, Ralph, Ethan and Bella). Bella fell asleep first, then me, then Ralph and Ethan was left to finish the movie. It wasn't that late, but it's nearly impossible for me to stay awake in a movie--let alone watch one while lying down. Our big TV was out due to a user-error so the only option was Ralph's old TV in the bedroom.

Third day: Longboarded, of course! Swimming at the wave pool (Jeff, Ethan and Ralph). Played video games and ate dinner/lunch. Left for Grandma's.

We must have logged several miles of longboarding during his visit and he is getting to be a pro at turning corners! Ethan, you can come visit anytime--we love having you!

They're ALIVE!

2009-03-30T15:14:00.001-07:00

This is a plant post. I ended the life of an already-traumetized houseplant in order to plant an indoor herb garden this year. I know that a lot of people like to go to the nursery and buy plants, but I like to watch them grow from seed to table. We planted them about a week ago. In this pic, you can see that I used an old bedside clamp lamp and a plant bulb to give light to our babies.

This next, blurry pic is of our little darlings in their warm and happy place.
We have already started peppers and tomatos in yogurt containers and they are several inches tall already. On an unrelated note, I decided to paint one of our chairs yellow. You can see it in the first pic.

My stash, Alf, My Sled

2009-03-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

It's time to tour de stash! Here is my lovely yarn. Most of it came from thrifted sweaters. I really like the darker green because of it's luxurious fibers and the mustard yellow because it's machine washable. I have purse plans for the raspberry and mitten/hat plans for the grey. I already knitted Lonnie with the teal and a sweater stripe with the dark teal. The multicolored ball is my first try at painting with kool aid. I try to keep my stash and WIPs down to three plastic drawers full--so far, so good. I do this by knitting a lot and by having plans for the yarn before I buy it. And by buying, I mean, unraveling a sweater.

Poor, faceless Alf. You might remember a post awhile back about recuing Alf from the dumpster at our apartment complex. Here he is after several months as Bella's favorite toy. She carries him all over the apartment and frequently uses him as her pillow. Sometimes I tell her to get Ralph for me and she trots away, only to return with Alf. Potayto-potawto.
I finally took a picture of my trusty sled. I don't have much to say about it except that it's fast and has a Garbage Pail Kids sticker on it. By the picture, can anyone tell which GPK is on my sled? I will send you a piece of snail mail if you can guess.

Bonsai!!!!!!!!!

2009-03-21T15:00:00.000-07:00

Ralph and I joined the Eugene Bonsai Society and I wanted to show off what we have done so far:

Here is Ralph's tree. He wired it into a windswept design and repotted it at the first meeting. It's so cute!

Here is mine. I got a little carried away with the clippers and made it an informal upright style. Ralph taught me everything he learned at the meeting because I couldn't attend.

Okay, so here is an interesting note about Bonsai: it is pronounced BONES EYE. It's one of the club requirements to say it correctly so I have to remember.

More Knitting

2009-03-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

I cornered Ralph to get a pic of his hat and fingerless gloves set. They are for work, since he needs his fingers to hold his tools. I finally knitted him something. He doesn't normally wear knitware because he is such a hot houseplant :)

New Hat

2009-03-21T12:50:00.001-07:00

I knitted Guinan, by yarn abuse. My mom looks hotter in it than I do--I wish I had taken a pic when she borrowed it. I love it, though.

Cute pic.

2009-03-18T16:01:00.001-07:00

see more dog and puppy pictures

I just wanted to put this up here because I haven't had pics on my blog lately.

Update

2009-03-18T15:04:00.000-07:00

Skeleton:

My mom, Chris and I drove down to Utah for my last week of training and competition. The track had been closed for 3 weeks--I didn't actually leave Wednesday because my coach texted me Tuesday, informing me of the extended closure. So I had a tues-thurs to practice for the Western Regionals competition. I had fun at the race and feel like I did well. I got 5th the first day, then popped a groove on my first run of the second day--into last, then cut two seconds off of my time on the second run by staying in the groove and driving better and moved back into 5th. I could have done better had I been able to do the push training in the summer--my start times were mediocre. Overall, a great experience. I met some cool people and had a lot of fun. I will be going in the summer to work on my starts, then again in the winter to train. I won't be going to lake placid as brakeman to a bobsledder. School starts in a week and a half.

Right Now:

Cleaning the apartment after being gone, organizing my yarn, planning a quilt using our discarded clothes and an old Bella sheet, putting winter clothes away. I need to vacuum and cook something for dinner.

BTW- Has anyone made their own ghetto space bags? I was thinking of doing this to my sweaters to save space in our closet.

Happy Valentines Day!!

2009-02-14T19:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I gave our friend's two boys rides on my motorcycle. The youngest called me and made me promise to come and when he actually took a ride around the block, he was afraid to go longer! He was cute, though. The boys got all jazzed about motorcycles after they checked some books out from the library. Their mom is worried that she will have to learn to ride when they get old enough for their own dirt bikes.

On the way home, I bought some cowboy boots at the thrift store and had to tie them to my sissy bar. I talked the guy at the counter into a discount b/c they still had manure caked on the bottoms--nothing a little leather cleaner didn't take care of when I got home. Cleaned and waxed, I now have a 200 dollar pair of boots for 18 dollars. They are my present from Ralph picked out by me :) Oh and the leather cleaner was free from someone's apartment that I cleaned a month ago.

Last night my BFF Mel and Ralph's BFF Ron stopped over and we ended up playing Guitar Hero until one. Actually, I fell asleep well before one AM. In my new cowboy boots (okay so I have to break them in). It was way fun. And I finished beating it this morning when I woke up.

Ralph and I dusted off the old longboards today for a ride to Blockbusters via the bike path. I tried to get Bellas harness on her but it was adjusted for last summer and it didn't fit. She is a little fattie now. Chris weighed her this week and she is 110lbs! IDK, she doesn't look like a fattie to me--maybe this is her filling out with muscles. So I had to refit her fancy harness and then she pulled us the whole way to Blockbusters--about 4 miles round trip. She loves to pull. I really wish that we took our camera with us. Ralph and I held hands side-by-side while she happily tugged away (we helped a little because it was a lot of weight and a long trip). Suprisingly, she is not pooped right now. Usually she sleeps for hours after a day like this.

So that's what we did this holiday. I have to leave again for Utah Wednesday night.

Interesting website

2009-02-01T09:33:00.000-08:00

This blog is devoted to calling out obvious knockoffs. Very interesing to read.

http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com

Skeleton Training Park City, UT

2009-01-25T20:11:00.000-08:00

Warning--GORE alert. Do not read if you have a squeamish stomach.

So I bought my first sled on Saturday and am really excited to try it out this week. I can only take about 3 runs down the track each day because the G-forces are hard on the old bones--lol. So after I bought my sled, I spent hours cutting foam pieces and taping them to the saddle so it forms better to my body. I haven't named her yet :)

Oh--I wish that I took pics of my shoulders after my first week of training. Hitting a wall of ice at 75+ mph is not good for the skin. A lady at church was about to give me a talking-to about domestic violence until my cousin mentioned that I moved here for skeleton training. Then we all had a laugh about it. I bought a camping pad and cut it into pieces to put inside my spandex for training runs so I don't get all beat up anymore. During my first week, I got stabbed by an icicle in the ankle on my way down the track. It went through my sock and skin and a little way into my muscle. I didn't notice it until it had melted already and I was walking around for awhile. So I had to drive off the mountain to urgent care and get it cleaned out. I negotiated with the doctor before I agreed to be treated and talked the price down from 680 to 80 dollars--that's only 20 dollars more than what it cost to treat bella for a similar injury. There was no way I was going to pay that much for 10 minutes of treatment and 3 band aids. My other freak injury happened when I was going around the highest pressure curve (#6). I accidentally poked my bottom lip out of my helmet and it dragged a little on the ice and left a bloody spot on the track. It's hard for me to notice the injuries until I have been walking around for awhile. I noticed this one when I took my helmet off and mouth guard out and there was some coagulated blood in my chin guard and, apparently, on my face. So I am the first person in my coaches' memory who has been stabbed by ice and who has dragged a bottom lip on the track. It's normal(and really gross) to drag a chin, but not a bottom lip. I went home after that and fixed my helmet so I couldn't make that mistake again. I made the visor by boiling a sheet of Plexiglas to make it bend into the right shape and my coach drilled holes in the sides of the helmet so we could attach a chin guard. BTW, I was borrowing a helmet and it had all of the mentioned safety features, but a small gap between the visor and chin guard.

Sorry-no pics. I forgot the camera at home.

Anti Car Payment Video

2009-01-21T21:05:00.001-08:00

So this is another reason to drive an old volkswagen:

http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/lms/drive_free/player.cfm

Okay, so maybe the guy exaggerates a bit, but I still think it's better to pay cash for some things. Plus, if you did 1000 dollars worth of maintenance per year on an old car you'd still end up saving tons of money if your car payment is around 400dollars a month. 400x12-1000=3800 dollars per year savings!

Alrighty, soapbox time is over for now.

Yellow Cardigan

2009-01-10T16:44:00.000-08:00

I knitted this for NaNoSweMo, the National November Sweater-knitting Month. My mom took some pics for me to post to the net.

Lonnie

2009-01-10T14:58:00.001-08:00

*Free knitting pattern*

It started out in my head as an asymmetric hat, inspired by some of the turbans that my grandmother used to rock in the sixties. I ended up with a head wrap that I love. Great color, perfect size. I reclaimed the yarn from a sweater outcast, but you can use any yarn weight by modifying the pattern to fit your guage. It took a couple of nights to make. Warning: requires some sewing.

RS or Right Side=the correct side or the side that you want people to see

WS or Wrong Side=the hidden side

Materials:

One skein of merino worsted weight in a color that you love

Size 7 or 8 needles, depending on guage

Tapestry needle

Guage is 6rows/inch; 6sts/inch in 2x2 rib

Sized for a 22 inch circumference head. For a smaller or larger head, subtract or add rows to the first piece.

First Piece:

CO 30 sts

K2P2 across, working in 2x2 rib for approximately 130 rows

BO all sts

Join ends knit-to-knit, purl-to-purl using the tapestry needle

The resulting seam does not need to be perfect, as it will be covered by a knitted ribbon. This is your band

Second Piece:

CO 5 sts

Work in stockinette, purling the edge stitches.

Continue for 30 or more rows.

BO all sts and keep a 24 inch tail of yarn on the end for sewing.

Finishing:

Use 12 inches of yarn to cinch the band at its join. To make it simpler, you can sew through the sides of the raised knits in the rib on one side of the join, then turn at the end and sew through the knits on the other side of the seam. With the yarn ends on one edge of the band, you can easily tie off the cinched (or gathered, if you like) seam at your desired width. It might be about 2.5 inches wide at the cinch and about 4 inches wide everywhere else.

Your band is gathered to your liking and tied off. You will now use your knitted ribbon to cover the seam on the right side of the band. Thread the tail of your ribbon and use it to sew the short end approximately 0.25 inches onto the wrong side of the headband with the right side of the ribbon facing out. If you lay it out, it will make a "T" shape. You will then wrap the ribbon (RS out) over the seam on the right side of the band. Sew it down one long side, curling the rest of the ribbon around to the WS. Sew the short end of the ribbon down on the WS, then sew back down the other long side. Tie off the end and weave the ends into the WS.

Rock on. Make my grandma proud.