Jet-setting in Sun Valley

My very jet-setting husband has been living it up in the very chic Sun Valley since Wednesday, attending a GIS conference. He was pleased to run into some of his old peeps from Washington County and from other metro agencies.

Meanwhile, Miss G and I have been working furiously on my final project for my class that ends tomorrow. Whoo-hoo! We've also, again, been working on clearing out the DVR.

The view from this armchair is likely not as fancy as the views up north. :)

Happy Idaho to Us!

I'd like to take this opportunity to note that it was a year ago yesterday that we piled everything we owned into our vehicles, a U-Haul trailer, and storage units spread across two states, and we moved to Idaho.

It's been a good move. Fun to shake things up a little. I'm happier with more sun and less rain. So many nice people! And Boise's size is just right.

And we thank heavens every day that the Beaverton house sold when it did. :) Happy Idaho!

Hunting, Day Two: A Deerth of Killin'.

4:50 a.m.: Four hours of sleep makes for some gooood huntin'.

A: I think our bait isn't any good. Maybe we should set out some bowls of warm creamed corn. Who doesn't love creamed corn? I think the deer would really dig that. And some huckleberry pies. Deers would love huckleberry pies.

J: Woman, you aren't feedin' huckleberry pies to the deer. If we have a huckleberry pie, I'm eatin' it.

A: Hmm. At this point, I think the odds of you eatin' huckleberry pie are better than the odds of you eatin' deer.

8:20 a.m.: We'll tiptoe around some more, in hopes of finding something. No such luck.

J: Yes, yes, this is the spot. We should hunt this flat area here at the top.

A: Flat area? What, are deer lazy?

J: No. I am.

10:47 a.m.: Huntin' breakfast. PB-n-J and Diet Cokes. Breakfast of champions.


3:30 p.m.: As we came down Hwy 21 Sunday afternoon, there was a fish and wildlife check station on the side of the road that asked hunters to drive through and record their activites -- harvest or not. The white board leaning against their truck indicated that of the 262 hunters that had come down off the hill Sunday, 15 had deer, and 4 had elk. So really, the deer were likely just on to us.

Hunting, Day One: No Deer

Writing a 7-page paper in 3 hours flat, combined with working late Friday night allowed me to take the weekend off! A nice break during this challenging project at work.

How better to spend my first day off in 10 days, than to don as much orange and red as I could and traipse around the Idaho wilderness with my husband?

It was really fun. And we hiked around a lot. But, we didn't get anything. In fact, we didn't even SEE anything. 'Cept a LOT of bear poop.

Gratuitous "big gun" shot. Would be better with an actual deer under his foot, but we'll take what we can get.

Huntin' picnic: turkey sandwiches on the tailgate.

J: OK, we're gonna pull over here and you can make samiches and we'll take a little break.

A: Why am I making samiches? You could make samiches, you know.

J: No, I can't.

A: Well why not?

J: I don't know. I don't make hunting samiches. Brad always makes hunting samiches.

A: Well heavens, I hope MY samiches can live up to BRAD'S samiches.

J: Yeah. Me too.

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach? Naw. I think it's through showing him your awesome truck driving skills. Keeping it at a steady 10 mph. While driving a standard transmission. IN HIKING BOOTS. For hours on end. Without driving off the cliff. Or fussing with the satellite radio.

Perhaps my best 'shot' of the day. ;) The South Fork of the Boise River at Arrowrock Reservoir, taken on our way home, in the last minutes of daylight, around 7 p.m.

LOO. ZER.

What's slightly more awesome than being the loser who works until 11 p.m. on a Friday night?

Working until 11 p.m. on a Friday night and having to listen to the Boise State Broncos/Hawai'i Warriors game...which, I COULD HEAR, LIVE, AT MY DESK. The cheering, the hoorah-ing, the band. ALL OF IT. And really, it SUCKED. I'm not a huge Broncos fan, but being taunted by all the fun was really too much. Here's a pic of Bronco Stadium taken from my DESK. I'm pretty sure the band was in the middle of "Dah dah dah dah dah DAH! 'TEQUILA!' " when I took it. The Broncos won 27-7...and anyway, they were still the Rainbow Warriors when we lived there.

You Made a Fruitcake?

That was my husband's response to this pic of the mosaic-ed pictured frame I made at Mosaic Night, a super fun opportunity to glue, gab, and gobble down delicious snicky-snacks with a small group of other harried, yet creative types, including Brandy, our organizer and mosaic guru, and Paula, among others!



The small white blocks are actually tiny mirrors, and the piece is mid-grout here.


OK. While I think it's pretty, it might resemble fruitcake just a wee bit. :)

Blasphemer!

I just heard on the radio that Zac Efron will be starring in remake of Footloose? I'm pretty sure that's one of the seven signs of the apocalypse. Must be time to move to Idaho and start stockpiling guns.

Oh wait.

Sister Update: New Hair, New Kitty!

Sister got a new haircut! It had been quite a while since she'd gotten a haircut, so it was well deserved. Way to spice up the Farmers cubicles, sister! And are you rockin' Farmers logowear? Sweet.





PLUS, GUESS WHAT! Sister got a kitty! "Alley Katz" is her first non-goldfish pet in adultdom. Where did she get this spectacular beast, you ask? The pound? Rescue?

Naw. Not Sister. She just took the neighbor's cat.

She said, "WHAT!? Your old cat doesn't like your new dog, so you keep your cat locked in the garage 24/7? Aw, hell no! What say you pass over the gato and no one gets hurt...

Welcome to the family, Alley!

The cat in the hat...in French, chat chapeau...in spanish it's el gato in a som-brer-ro...

Uh, That Was Quick!

Uh, yeah. It snowed today. Not like a "thick rain," or a flurry that melts instantly. Real snow. Sloshing up the streets. Filling up the parking lot. Landing on my head. Snow. Crazy.

OK, one more.

Alms...Alms for the poor....

Make a Note of it

Today (October 8) was the first day:

• We turned on the heat.
• I used the heated seats in the Cooper.
• The weatherman forecast "snow" in the valley.

That was fast!

Silver Lake, Oregon: Part 2

Well, since it seems we go off on adventures so rarely these days, here are a few more pics from our weekend in Ory-gun.

This is the wee-est cabin EVER. It comfortably housed us for about 18 hours, but by about 9 a.m. the next morning, I, for one, was ready to bid it a fond adieu!

I couldn't stop taking pictures of these weird rolling clouds that looked like they'd been painted on. I have about 400 pictures of them if this one doesn't suit you.

Carolyn and I were both shocked to learn that my husband is pretty skilled with a lariat! Who knew!?!

What a catch! ;)

Carolyn walking back from the 100-year-old bathhouse that houses part of the Summer Lake Hot Springs, where we soaked in the medicinal waters.

My parting shot as we left Paisley. But more importantly, who is his VP?

We've Returned from South Central (Oregon)!

WHOO-WEE! Our trip to southern central Oregon was a whole lotta whirlwind, but we successfully celebrated Carolyn's (belated) birthday with hikes, dinner, and cupcakes! It was a super fun adventure, but we don't recommend this trip again without at least one day off.



We saw a LOT of this view.



We made it all the way to Christmas Valley Friday night, where we snuggled into the truck...only to have Miss G keep us up half the night, circling and circling on the sleeping bags, attempting to get out of the truck and at the fox/coyote/raccoon or whatever other wildlife outside was making her insane.

Us about to hike around Fort Rock, a crater that was shelter for natives thousands of years ago.

JN and Carolyn hiking through "Crack in the Ground," a volcanic fissure about 2 miles long and 70 feet deep in some spots.

Another small hike before dinner.

Dinner at the Cowboy Dinner Tree! If you are ever in southern central Oregon, you gotta go to this unusual little off-the-grid restaurant. You have two menu options: a 28 oz. steak or a whole chicken!

I love the little pirate head sticking out from behind JN's orange fleece. And where else would one wear a gold bolo tie necklace? (Thanks, Mom!) The next morning we parted ways, us back to Boise, them off to Ashland for a play. Happy Birthday Carolyn! Thankfully, we will still need you, and we will still feed you, when you are 64. :)

Thursday Night at our Household

One of us made choco-late cup-cakes.

One of us got a new gun.

Can you guess which?

(Here's a hint. Don't tell my husband I put a cupcake on his new gun. ;)

Nephews on the First Day o' School!

OK, the first day of school was a while back, but here are Louis and Oliver in their matching OREGON DUCKS jackets off to the first day of school!

I'm glad to see that all the family members are big on "First Day of School" pics. :)

Two Hundred Posts!

Can you believe this is my 200th post? Amazing! I hope I've entertained you more than bored you, kept you up-to-date on our Boise adventures, and most importantly, kept from overloading your inboxes with tons of photos!

In honor of my 200th post, and the publishing last week of the "Best of Boise" issue of the Boise Weekly (Idaho's equivalent of Willamette Week) I'd like to offer my's Best of Boise!

• Best Wildlife: A tie!! Between the sleek red foxes that hang out across the street from our house and the funny little quail who play behind our house.
• Best Season: Winter! I loved the fun and beauty of a true, cold, snowy winter here.
• Best Meal Out: Spicy lamb grinder at Bar Gernika. Spectacular. Despite the fact that when I eat it, I can hear that little bleating lamb from the Simpsons saying "Liiiiisaaaaa, don't eeeeeat meeeee."
• Best Cocktail: The Fuji Apple at Happy Fish Sushi & Martini Bar: Absolut Citron, Absolut Mandarin, Apple Schnapps and fresh lemon juice with...get this...pop rocks on the rim!!!
• Best Unexpected Recycling Perk: Can buy any brand of soda and simply recycle can at curbside!!
• Best Phrase to Explain Anything Wonky, Off-kilter, or Beyond Explanation: "Well...it's Idaho..."