September 2, 2008
~ burning the midnight oil ~
This past weekend proved to be a most excellent three-day weekend. Clearly, three day weekends are far superior to two day weekends.
I'll begin by highlighting Saturday evening's fun, a BBQ chez Amy. In spite of the good company (Amy, Elizabeth, Leah, David, Josh, and Eric), the good atmosphere (the backyard lawn), the good food (chorizos, potato salad, fruit salad, roasted veggies), and the beverages (beer), no one had a very good time. In fact, it was so terrible, that we have decided never to have a BBQ ever again. What made the experience pretty much unbearable was this puppy-dog who was running around trying to swindle everyone's beer. Note, that below photo was a shot from the gods - - it appears as though David was giving the puppy beer, when in fact the puppy was the perpetrator, having suddenly lunged at the beer bottle. Through the course of the evening, so much beer was spilled as a result of puppy (and subsequently licked up by puppy) that we surmised he had become rather tipsy. Photos of the horrendous evening are available here.
Saturday was also the day when Josh and I had yet another adventure in the Owyhees. Unfortunately, it's been a while since we were down there - - but we decided to do a refined version of the Sage Creek Loop that we did in June. We've been out there enough that we're really getting to know our way around. This was the first time in the Sage Creek zone when we didn't have to spend time figuring out where we were going and back-tracking because we went the wrong way. We did a perfect loop that I approximate was 2.5 hours. Ultimately, I bet Josh and I could make some money by developing a mountain biking Owyhees book - - Josh was even talking about opening a bike shop in Marsing (maybe not the best idea in today's economy). Anyway, the loop took us over lots of ups and downs, some unridable ups that we had to hike-a-bike, and some pretty challengingly technical downhills that I felt very accomplished after riding successfully. I've developed a lot more confidence on the more technical downhills - - the Owyhees are great for that. The Boise foothills, all groomed and smooth, are wonderful but can hold a person back from developing confidence on not-groomed and not-smooth trails. I love the Owyhees - - so much potential adventure. Photos from this ride may be viewed here.
I've been getting a good amount of riding in, which adds to my feeling good on the bike. On Sunday, Josh and I rode Sidewinder, which is a nice fun quickie ride. Funny story about that ride... I had been having a bit of trouble with the shifting on my bike. On the ride in the Owyhees, the front gears were very malaligned - - Josh did a complete gear adjustment on the trail, but they wouldn't function properly. I took the bike into the shop to have the mechanics fix it. Got the bike back on Sunday and Josh and I rode Sidewinder. The front gears were working, but the back gears were not. Josh spent more time trail-side trying to adjust them, to no avail. We rode anyway. As I was grunting up one of the climbs, the chain broke. Josh was the mechanical hero, as he was able to fix the chain with his semi-broken chain tool and we were able to finish the ride. That night, we hung out at the bike shop drinking beers, Josh fixing my bike for good, and me knitting.
And finally, I know how you have all being eagerly awaiting my knitting report.
I've finished Inishfern. TAHDAH!!! My improvised top-down asymmetrical seamless raglan. The cables both diminish and transform into different cables. It is fitted with a flair at the waist. And the button band - - an opportunity for improvisation! After trying a number of options, I found that I liked the expanding garter panel with a set of cables - - the buttons are set by the cables, as opposed to traditional button holes. Tradition, smadition! Below you may see more clearly the cabled button band - - also, note my vintage buttons.
In other knews, I know I've been going bananas obsessing about mittens. This explains why I randomly cast on for Ice Queen over the weekend. I have to roll my eyes at myself - - not only do I have several projects currently in progress, not only do I have my sights set on several patterns, but Ice Queen is a very random and spontaneous cast on. I suppose that it happened after I was reading about how cowls are the new scarves, and I realized that the pattern might be a good use for that lace yarn I procured for a failed project a few months ago. And so...Ice Queen. I've taken the Cascade Elite Silky Alpaca lace yarn, doubled it, and also included a strand of the green angora from a thrift store sweater I recycled. Very very soft and very very warm. As evidenced by the below status-photo, I am knitting it much tighter than the pattern, so as to make for a more warm cowl.
July 15, 2008
~ that which I have lost ~
Life has been rather eventful the last several days.
On Friday, Josh, Josh's Mom, Carla, and I went to the YMCA after I got off work and played some basketball. It was quite hot outside, so some athletic recreation in the airconditioning was lovely. We played some game called "knockout" - - I'm not sure if this is a pre-existing b-ball game or if they made it up, but it was a lot of fun. I, however, was not very good at it - - that whole "hand-eye-ball-hoop coordination" thing. I did arbitrarily win - - at some point, someone decided that the next person to get a shot would be the winner - - and that was me, the winner, even though I was well behind everyone else in terms of total shots.
Afterwards, we all made the trek over to someplace south of Nampa to attend a Mormon singles dance. Occasionally, I have noted that sometimes a person can have unrealistic expectations of a particular situation. On this particular occasion, Josh's Mom was rather consumed with the notion of meeting a Mormon cowboy...specifically, a Mormon Sam Elliott. I'm not prone to bursting anyone's bubble, so I went along with the scheme as though meeting the Mormon version of Sam Elliott was a realistic endeavor. When we arrived, we were all disappointed. I am at a loss as to how to describe the scene without coming off as an ass, but since I normally come off as an ass and since I don't care if you think I'm an ass for how I felt about the attendees at the Mormon singles dance, I'll just spit it out. Ugly, everyone was butt ass ugly. Even Josh's Mom, who I have the sense is not someone to riducule someone else's appearance, pointed out an ugly person with a terrible haircut. Another problem with the dance was that it was misleading as a dance. By "dance" everyone has assumed that WE would be the ones dancing. Instead, they had two Hawaiian women dancing and everyone else watching them dance. It was odd. We hung out long enough to watch a full Hawaiian dance and for the women to introduce their children and tell everyone what ward they belong to, and then we began our escape to the car. We did sit in the car in the parking lot for several minutes just in case Sam Elliott were to swagger by. Eventually, we left and went to a motorcycle bar in Melba.
On Saturday, we all piled into the car (with the addition of Eric, so it was a very full car) and went to Blue Lake. Blue Lake has become the standard place to take out-of-towners to show off the wilderness glory of Idaho. Even though the water in the lake was freezing (indeed, we later learned that a week ago, there was still ice on the lake), Josh was determined to get his swimming on. Now, when opting to go swimming in freezing water, some people employ the tactic of jumping in the water immediately to get it over with. Not Josh. Josh prefers to slowly inch is way into the freezing water, to really prolong what would be a relatively short freezing shock to the system into about a half hour ordeal of shocking his body one inch at a time. Me, I waded in the water a bit, and then just relaxed on the shore.
One point worth noting about the trip was that I had failed to bring appropriate footwear for the quarter mile hike down to the lake and back. As you all know, that hike, while short, is decently steep and has lots of rocks and loose sand. And I hiked up and down it in my flip flops.
Incidentally, I've been wanting to update everyone on my flip flop situation. Several months ago, I mentioned that I had opted to purchase a rather expensive pair of Ugg flip flips, only because the salesperson assured me over and over that they "would last forever." You may recall that I was skeptical but gullible. So, this was back in April, which is not exactly flip flop wearing weather. For roughly one month, I had barely worn them at all. And then one warm day, I wore them to my place of employment, and at some point during the course of the day, they broke. So much for "lasting forever." Lucky for me they broke before the month was up and I was able to return them for a full refund. I then procured a much more affordable pair of flip flops that I have been wearing ragged, have held up remarkably, and that have proven to be the best pair of flops I have ever had the privilege of wearing under my feet.
It was this pair of flip flops in which I hiked over the weekend. I was very impressed with their performance as hiking flops. The only drawback to them was that after I had tromped across the various streams and they were all wet, the material under my feet became ridiculously slippery and it was a bit problemmatic to hike back up to the car in my slippery flops.
That evening, Josh, Carla, and I got really smashed and went dancing at a local club.
November 4, 2006
~ Hiking the 8th Street Interpretive Trail, Drinking and Riding to Wineries, and costumed parties ~
This past Saturday was a great day for me. On Friday after I got off of work, Josh and I hiked the 8th Street Interpretive Trail. It was a beautiful fall evening. We spent the majority of the hike brainstorming what we wanted to be for halloween. A few months ago, I came up with the idea of being an activist for planetary rights, protesting the demotion of Pluto to less than full planet status. I thought I'd wear a garbage bag fashioned into a dark orb, spraypainted gray, with leggings and a protest sign proclaiming "Pluto is a planet, dammit!" No one seemed to think this as brilliant as I and the idea withered along with the fame and fortune of the once glorious Pluto. At about the time that I had this flash of brilliance, Josh decided that we should go dressed in Mormon temple garments which are not all that attractive. The plan went so far as to investigate the distributor of these elusive underpants, but we discovered that one needs one's Mormon identification numbers to even register one's garment size, so that idea was out the window. On our hike, we threw out hundreds of ideas. We were focusing on couple costumes, like Thomas Jefferson & Benjamin Franklin, Pamela Anderson & Kid Rock, and once he came up with the idea, Josh simply would not let go of the idea of going as Mr. Rogers and the Cat. And I found his manner of persuasion most unconvincing; he kept turning to me and articulating several "mew, mew, mew"s. I dunno, I feel very OVER the whole "going as a cat" thing, even if it's the Mr. Rogers cat. Me, I was obsessed about going as our pre-cool selves. By the end of the hike, we disagreed on the matter as though we were disagreeing over the quantity of some lifesaving elixir to administer to a dying person. Which was kind of ridiculous. Here's some photos of the hike.
And then there came Saturday.
I had been looking forward to the possibility of sleeping in on Saturday morning as a person wandering the Sahara would crave an oasis...my bed, the warm little nook tucked away from the street and city noise, where I have all my sweet little dreams and snuggle in my bundly pillows...yet there was to be none of that on Saturday morning. Somehow, the chi wasn't there. I couldn't find that spot of amazingness that I get lost in every morning when I need to get out of bed to go to work. It was something of a travesty. So I just got up and got ready for my big day.
At 9:30, I picked up Josh and we drove out to Nampa for a coffee at the Flying M coffee garage, which is a very quality place for a morning coffee experience. What makes it super satisfying are the TWO wonderful yarn stores and the THREE great used book stores within walking distance. That downtown Nampa, seriously, people need to appreciate it.
From there, we drove out to the St. Chappelle winery and had a good sampling of their wine selection. I didn't say anything at the time, but I felt that the wine pourer was being much more generous with Josh than with me. Neverthehoo, it was fantastic. Once imbibed, we changed into our cycling gear and set out on a bike ride. I have no sense of direction and didn't consult the map, so I don't have a clue what our route was. I know that we rode for a good distance. After maybe ten miles, we turned onto a dirt road that was difficult for me to ride my road bike on. This led us to the Sawtooth Winery, where we bumped into some folks that we had had an interaction with back at St. Chappelle (they took our photo) and they said that they had been cheering and toasting our cycling up the dirt road. At this winery, the wine pourer was extremely generous, pouring us a third of a glass of each wine...and I think we may have had about seven wines??? Granted, that is not all THAT much wine, but since we were on a bike ride, I feel that my blood stream had opened itself up to all liquids that I delivered to it, in the hopes of remaining hydrated. So the wine quickly made me tipsy. Speaking of tipsy, somehow I fell in love with this silly wine bag with a woman named Tipsy, described as a happy lush. I dunno, had to have been there. We spent some time at this winery outside, where there were some lovely roses that we stopped to smell.
As we mounted our trusty steeds, I was giggly and smily, clearly drinking and riding. We set out down the road and I found it quite a challenge to direct my bicycle straightly. At least it was a vacant farmroad. Oh yes, the scenery! It was beautiful. Farmland, but near to the Owhyees it was stunning, as is evidenced in my photos. At some point, we pulled over for a bio break and I became extremely alarmed when I realized that there was a bunch of idiots on the cliff above us firing shotguns. A dude in a truck pulled over and we all had a conversation about how horrid that was, but yawhatever free country bit, so they assured me that we were too far away for the bullets to hit us, but I was totally freaked. I mean, they were SHOOTING GUNS IN OUR DIRECTION!!!! Yea, I had something of a cow. 
As we were driving back into town, we remembered having seen a sign at K-Mart for 40% off on Halloween costumes. We stopped at the K-Mart in Nampa and selected two cheap standard costumes. We then spent some time seperately resting up and then united once more to get ready for the evening. We donned our costumes and makeup and hit the Balcony Dance Club for hours and hours of dancing. I became utterly intoxicated over my vodka redbulls and was a dancing feind.
October 3, 2006
~ Marriage, Mishaps, and Mindlessness in Portland ~
I took a small sweet trip to Portland over the weekend to act as a witness to the marriage of Elizabeth and Edvin. While I was involved in the logistics of how this was going to work, I wondered why it was necessary for me to fly all the terribly long distance for this activity. After all, Elizabeth could have easily found some homeless person who, for five bucks, could have been her lady of honor. ...sigh... But apparently she preferred me over a random homeless person for the honor. And I am glad that I went. Not only did I have a fabulous time, but by last Thursday (the day that I left), I was feeling in need of a vacation. Work as been kind of, you know, unpleasant. Anyhoo, the marriage was great. We all got up at the asscrack of dawn to get ready for the big day. At some point, while I was rifling around in my suitcase and feeling inadequate, I said to Elizabeth "Hey, do you mind if I wear jeans to your marriage?" We then got into the automobile, bride groom and me, and drove into the downtown area during the morning rushhour traffic. Edvin appeared to be experiencing a certain amount of anxiety about arriving on time. And Elizabeth reassured him that we had plenty of time. After we parked, we walked to the courthouse where we met Miro, the other witness, who appeared to have just dragged himself out of bed. We then stood in a really long line to go through the security checkpoint at the courthouse. Then we walked around and paid various fees and filled out forms. Finally, we were able to sit outside of the judge's chambers where I sat around taking photos and Elizabeth and Edvin reviewed their vows. After gaining admittance to the judge's chambers, I continued to take photographs while the judge lectured everyone about marriage. It was weird. He was going on and on about how much he enjoys doing marriages because it's the only time during his day that he gets to see happy people. He also described the bureaucratic ordeal that is the marriage process in detail. At some point, he made a random comment about people being worried about terrorism, and I felt totally thrown for a loop, having no idea what terrorism had to do with anything. Granted, I wasn't really listening to what he had been blabbing about, but still. Call me simple and naive, but I am not one of those persons who obsess about terrorism day in and day out. So then they got married and I did not pay one ounce of attention to the ceremony because I was too busy taking photos. Snap, snap, snap. Then everyone sat down again after the judge pronounced Elizabeth and Edvin "man and wife" and he began to explain the importance of the marriage license. Then again, he felt it was necessary to include a random comment about what if Immigration Services come after Edvin. And it all became, for me, illuminated. The judge thought it was a green card marriage, despite the fact that Edvin is an American citizen. And the comment about terrorism... reflective of Edvin's atheist/muslim background, native language and crazy weird unAmerican name??? I dunno, it seemed to me the opposite of politically correct of the judge to make these comments. But I kept that opinion to myself and continue to snap, snap, snap photographs.
After that, we then took the marriage license to the county office building dealie where they paid yet another fee to become officially married. Then we got breakfast at this fantastic restaurant. I anticipated that an enitre breakfast entree would be too much food for me, so I persuaded Miro to share an order of eggs bennie with me. This proved wise, as our respective portions were the perfect size and so amazingly delicious. At that point, Elizabeth and I decided to spend the rest of the day together. We got onto some bikes and rode over the bridge to downtown and engaged in some enjoyable shopping. At a certain establishment, I found a great pair of Citizen jeans for a ridiculously low price. Which I found quite exciting. Elizabeth and I, upon becoming hungry for lunch, rode the bicycles out to another part of the city for some sushi. While the sushi was by no means the most impressive sushi, it was very good and was served on individual plates revolving on a conveyer belt. It was an exciting experience. I began by picking up a plate worth $1.50 and ate some amazing tuna sushi with spicy sauce. Then I picked up a plate for $2 with another kind of sushi. I had four plates in total and spent a mere $6. Whoever came up with the idea of conveyer belt sushi is a genius. Elizabeth and I then proceeded to ride bikes to her home, and I had a blast. We stopped by a yarn store with attached coffee shop and spent quite a while knitting. Yet again, another example of pure genius: a coffee shop attached to a yarn store. I experienced something akin to being in heaven.
Later that evening, there was something of an ordeal to gather everyone up for dinner. I attempted to play as little part in the organizing process as I could. Sheesh, trying to navigate around everyone's schedules and getting them to sit down for dinner together! Anyhoo, after much of the craziness had happened, Elizabeth and I picked up Lorry and then went to one Mississippi Pizza establishment, where we met Edvin and Miro, and Miro's brother and sister-in-law for dinner. I drank several glasses of wine and ate several slices of pizza. It was fun. At some point, as I was yawning over my senior citizen bedtime, Lorry and I became aware that everyone else intended to stay out much later than we wanted. Thus, we said our goodbyes and went to locate a bus to take us home. It was funny, hahahaha, I was loopy from the wine and had no sense of where I was, and Lorry also did not seem to know where to catch the bus. So we walked around a lot. Eventually, we loaded onto the bus and I experienced a delirious public transportation thing.
On Saturday, I got up early and wandered several blocks and blocks away for a coffee and food item. And I knitted a lot. At some point, a guy sat at the table nearest to mine (which was still two feet or so away from me) and proceeded to make an elaborate gem stone display on the table. He had a crap load of gem stones which he meticulously arranged and he also propped up a couple of books on gem stones. Once he got this to his satisfaction, he sat back and appeared to be waiting around for people to ask him questions about gem stones. I found it odd and he seemed, to me, off somehow. Then I did some shopping in that part of the city, locating some amazing shoes, and then met up with Elizabeth and Edvin for lunch. That afternoon, Elizabeth and I went on a long hike in Washington Park, which was fantastic. I felt very lucky to have experienced Portland under such good weather circumstances. We also did a bit of browsing at some shops along a hipster type street. That evening, after discussing all that we felt like doing, we decided to spend the evening making dinner at their home and watching Six Feet Under. While we were making diner, Edvin came home and surprised us with some Cherry Fudge ice cream. So it was a perfect restfull evening. The next day, we had coffee and an exciting pastry item at Grand Central Bakery before I caught my flight home. I certainly love fabulous weekend trips!
May 28, 2006
~ Dancing at the Balcony ~
It had been a long time since I had gone dancing, by the time that I went dancing this Friday night. Honey Bear and Poopy were in town for the three-day weekend, and I had prepared myself for a party-fun-night. Honey Bear and Poopy never came out, so fuck'em, I went dancing alone. (And by "alone", I mean "with Josh"). We went to what has been voted as "best dance club in Boise", The Balcony, but my hypothesis is that the vote is by default, as there is a dearth of quality dancing opportunities in the city of trees. Actually, the Balcony happens to be my favorite place to go dancing, but considering that I basically loathe all of the other dancing opportunities in town, I am growing tired of always going to the same place.
Additionally, I have some complaints about the place. Firstly, one of the Balcony's strong points is its hightened acceptance of all individuals. Gone to an extreme, however, this can lead to the establishment being packed with annoyingness. For example, the Balcony is located a mere two blocks from the Qwest Arena which can overwhelm the downtown area with the opposite of downtowners when hosting such activities as hockey games, Styxx concerts, and as what was taking place on Friday, the "Raw Wrestle Mania Revenge Tour". What I find rather interesting is the fact that the Balcony is a gay club, yet on Friday when the "Raw Wrestle Mania Revenge Tour" was over, it became the party venue for the wrestling fans. Secondly, while the Balcony can play a lot of good music that I want to dance to, such as nasty hip hop, it has a tendency to play Miscellaneous Techno Song way too many times. AND, while I love Madonna and Cher, I am of the opinion that their music is played too much at the Balcony. For example, on Friday while I was there, I heard the exact same remix of that one Madonna song I don't know the name of three times. Therefore, because of both the crowd and the music, this was my response at about 1:15 in the morning.
Upon our arrival at the establishment, Josh and I were awestruck by the older gentleman who was dancing. He was probably about 75 and was wearing a silk button-up shirt with brightly colored fish. And he was dancing his soul out. It was amazing.
We ordered drinks and sat down to drink them until we felt like shaking our bottoms. Here are some exciting photographs of myself during this period.
The dancing started when the song which we have informally named "The San Francisco Song" projected from the speakers. Everytime that "The San Francisco Song" comes on, it is necessary for us to dance in an almost-slow motion affected-theatrical/flamoyant/overly-dramatic manner. Which is fun! "And it made our hearts ache for San Fransisco" (--Josh, 2006).
Once the dancing started, it wasn't about to be contained. Yet, it wasn't what I would call a packed venue, that evening. Nor was it attractive. This is my observation grounded in typecasting and mistrust... it seems that many people who are obsessed with watching sporting events are themselves very out of shape who wear nothing but sports fitness attire and sneakers. This is ironic, I find. So all of the wrestling fans were taking over the dance floor with their poorly-navigated and rigid dancing.
During the songs which I didn't particularly care for, such as "Miscellaneous Techno Song", I took some photos of our shoes and of Josh's hands.
At some point, I went to utilize the ladies' loo, and when I returned, I found that my favorite nasty rap song was playing. So I went onto the dance floor myself and danced and danced. Fortunately, there was plenty of space for me to get my dance moves on. And behind me some wrestling fans decided to emulate their non-wrestling-fans homosexual counterparts, by taking off their shirts and dancing. Josh opted to photograph this.
As is evidenced from the photos, I enjoy dancing in a somewhat silly manner.
So we danced and danced, and imbibed. Then we left and walked to my place. On our way, Josh opted to rest on the soft grass of the Idaho State Legislature grounds and later relaxed in my new large red comfy chair. The next morning, I didn't feel so good and spent time relaxing myself in my comfy chair.
