Saturday, February 16, 2013

Snowbird Drop-in!

A world-traveler popped in! Yay! I haven't seen Dad since our ThanksgivingChristmasNewYearsBirthdays party! He was able to get his very long ride into one of our driveways! Yay!
I am not kidding when I say long ride.
It's really more of an adventure caravan. This driveway plan did, however, keep me from unloading that little toy and bopping around town in it. ;)
It took three of us, and a couple tries, but we got it out on the road and back in transit with mostly very little trouble.
Step away from the ATV, my husband. It's not for you. No, you can't take it hunting with you. Nor to fire. If you want one, you'll have to save your pennies and get your own.
Thanks for the fun visit, Dad! :)

I **Heart** You.

Will wonders never cease? I guess not. In the early days, my husband would tell me what a charming ladies man he was in high school. One of his signature moves was after picking up a girl in his '79 Celica, was to suavely ask her to get him something out of the glovebox, where unsuspecting young damsel would find a red rose! Mwahahah! He's so clever.
As our own courtship progressed, I would, on long roadtrips, randomly throw open the glovebox and turn, shocked and hurt...no rose. And I used this hilarious joke about 352 times in the past 21 years. But recently I had forgotten all about it. Well, we've been leaving Dad the Cooper this week, so when my husband picked me up from work, he quietly asked me to grab his sunglasses from the glovebox ....HAHAHAHAHA! Not one, but a whole bunch. He's such a keeper.
Plus he did the bulk of the heavy lifting in whipping up Dad and I a fantastic Valentine's Day meal. So sweet! He and I exchanged tix to West Side Story. YAY!
What did we have? For Valentine's Day? Uhm. Well. OK. Heart. We had heart. Yes, we ate heart on Valentine's Day. Hahahaha! Hilarity ensues. The brown ale is mostly for perspective, but the boys did have a couple. We also had venison, a couple of duck breasts, roasted winter veggies, and a caesar salad. I LOVE deer heart. I ADORE venison. But my husband's duck? It's really unequalled.
Everything you would expect to dress a Valentine table...roses, candles, pepper grinder, wine, annnnd a small dish of anchovies.
I've been on an anchovy kick for a while. Dad, Shelby, and I had all enjoyed anchovies on our caesar the evening before, and a long discussion about them ensued, and about whether you could get good ones on the open market (versus from Food Services of America). This night we tried these ones, and were surprisingly pleased with them. Do you have King Oscar in a can? Hee hee!
Cheers! Dad had graciously taken us (and Shelby) out to steak dinner Wednesday night, so we really had to return the favor. We live like kings and queens, I tell ya.
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! xo

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Gimme One More: National TV

OK, so I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but we went to this concert recently. Hee hee! While we were at the auditorium, we had dinner, and sitting up at the bar was a camera crew from CBS. Because they were shooting footage for this bit on Sunday Morning.
Which not only outlines John's Montana life, but also taunted me with reminders that he cut his hair.
While I'm normally very anti-stealing of the copyrighted digital works of others, I'm just going to look the other way for a minute. Here's a cool shot of the boys just wandering the tiny halls of this little auditorium.
Oh, and we were on national TV this morning. The phone wasn't ringing off the hook, folks noting they had seen us this morning...
...but it was still exciting to us. We've both been on TV before, but not national TV. OK, that's not true, I was in the audience on an episode of Vicki! in 1994, but that was quite a while ago. Click to see slightly larger my distinct jawline and my husband's very recognizable hat. :)

Swankification and Gypsies

There was supposed to be Vegas-style gambling, the kind with rented blackjack dealers and paper money, but we either missed it, or they didn't pull it off. They did a nice job with the stand-up lounge tables though.
And got one of my fave local bands to play, the Frim Fram 4.
It was hard to shoot in low light, as usual, without making a spectacle, but so fun to hang out with our peeps!
Buuuut, as we were too late for the buffet at the event, we were starving later in the evening, so popped over to Matador...
...where a crazy gypsy tried to put a hex on me... but her hexing skills were no match for mine own.
Plus photobooth! I love a good photobooth! I thought it was the year of the bloody mary, but it might be the year of the photobooth.

Charity Birthday Bash!

Have a swanky birthday party, invite all your friends, let your friends invite their friends, charge a small fee at the door, and give the money to an awesome charitable cause. SUCH a clever idea.
Despite my keen bow-tie tying skills, I STILL get looks like this. Hmph. The theme was "Old Vegas," which worked well for us. Every time we are in Vegas we always say, "We should come back and stay at Caesar's Palace, do it up old school." We haven't yet, but some day.
I can't do a ton of things with my hair, given that it won't hold a curl for more than about 3 minutes, but I can do this. I don't seem like the big hair type, I suspect, but I can get down with some big hair.
I love a good sanctioned wearing of black.
A little pre-funk at Brickyard. Shelby and I have had the champagne-gin cocktail, the French 75 (shout out to Lushy!) here before, but when I asked if I could get a French 75, our bartender said without hesitation or pause, "NO."

Oh. Uhm. Well. Ok...uhm...just prosecco for me I guess.

Snow!!

We've had a decent amount of snow this winter, though it took until the end of December to get here. But, mostly the ground has been white ever since. Once the roads are clear, I don't mind it. I consider it clearance to wear jeans and hiking boots to work everyday.
I suspect crime fighting must be easier in snowy climes. And coon fighting too, with their creepy little coon hands.
It was really too cold to snow for a while. I'm pleased it warmed up.
Mostly if its treacherous, I catch a ride in BigGreen, or just telework. I don't have a cool snow Zamboni like my husband does.
I love this pic because the snow makes it look like we live in the middle of a forest. I mean, we do live in the City of Trees... :)

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Auf Wiedersehen!

But alas, by definition, vacation must come to an end. Poop. So we did one last survey of the Boiling River, and hit the road.
Luckily, it was clear, and the sun was just around the bend...
So the drive home was fan-freaking-tastically glorious. Despite it being about 20 degrees. In fact, for most of our trip, it was warmer in Jellystone than it was in Boise.
We went home the pretty way, through Rigby and Howe. We also stopped for lunch at the Trouthunter on the Henry's Fork in Last Chance, Idaho, the business center of Island Park.
The drive through the Craters of the Moon National Monument was especially surreal when it's covered in snow. Adios Lava! Au revoir, Bozeman! Auf wiedersehen, John Mayer! (Any Django Unchained fans!!?) So long, Jellystone! We'll be back!

Assorted Park Aminals

In addition to myriad buffalo spied on our trip, we also were lucky to see...
...in addition to mangy old wolf...
...bald eagles...
...a spry little coyote...
...tons of elk... (They should consider adopting that as one of their collective nouns).
...probably my fave wildlife pic taken... :)
...gobs of birds and water foul, including this hilarious duck butt...
...and swans! Swans have good collective nouns, including a bank, a bevy, and possibly my fave, a lamentation of swans. (Different from the lamentation of the women.) 
BIG HORN SHEEP! BIG HORN SHEEP! (Though not a parcel, nor mob, of sheep). AND, surprise upon surprise, it was spied by ME! OK, my husband was driving when I spied him, but STILL, he usually spies ALL our spyings, even when driving. Big! Horn! Sheep!

Buffalo Jam!

On the return snowcoach trip, we came upon a herd of about 50 buffaloes in the road. I'd use the road too, much easier to walk on.
As we were in the back of the van, all my pix are out the rear window, but we lost a good hour on our return trip trying to get past the herd without being too disruptive of their day.
I had hoped there was some awesome collective noun for bison or buffalo, like  a skein, or a murder, or a canvas. Nope, just herd, or alternatively, gang can be used too.
We would get a few to divert off onto a side road and we would make some progress in getting past them, only for us all to discover that the side road was a short cut, and now they were farther ahead of us on our road than before.
It was really one of the coolest things about the trip, because we got to be so close to them (without threat of personal goring). We could see their horns, their snowy coats, their hooves, and look them in the eye, even as it got darker and darker.
There was another snowcoach behind us, and eventually we slowly made it past all the buffaloes without honking or bumping them. I just loved our super cool buffalo jam!