Happy New Year!
Well, the holidays (and my paid time off) have come & gone, and it's a new year. Wow, that was fast. I went to Boise and then to Portland for Christmas, and got to see plenty of friends & family along the way. It was lots of fun and it was so nice to have two really long weekends in a row. Yay for paid holiday time!
We started a new family tradition last year when my cousins Emily and Aaron (that's them in the middle of that picture) moved to Boise. We do a White Elephant gift exchange every year, with ridiculous thrift-store gifts. This year I ended up with some strange clay figurine thingy and a ceramic cowboy boot. Oh joy. The funniest gag gift this year was a douche. And my mom is the one who bought it (at the dollar store), hahahaha!!! My cousins and uncle were sporting some sweet thrift store Chritmas vests and sweatshirts (my uncle brought them all the way from Kansas). In the picture is Wes (my cousin's fiancé as of Christmas day), Emily, Aaron, and Uncle Jerry. Yes, my family is silly, and we're damn proud of it!
I got to hang out with some friends from Boise (which at times felt like a mini-high school reunion), many of whom I haven't seen in forever. It's amazing where everyone is now & what they're doing, and we only graduated high school together 6 years ago... My friend Amy just bought & is moving into her first house of her own this week, CONGRATULATIONS AMY! :) Now I have another excuse to visit Boise more often and someone new to stay with. We went to Portland for Christmas Eve and Christmas, which was wonderful! I love seeing all my cousins, especially the little ones. We had some big family meals (and even still had a "kids table" which I sat at because we're too big for one table) and I got to play with my cousin Joan's son, Connor. Man, kids grow fast! I'll be uploading the rest of my Christmas pictures soon, they'll be on my
flickr page.
On the way home to Moscow, my car decided to die on me! The battery light came on, then the stereo went out, and then I started losing power... I pulled over and then couldn't get it started again. :( Luckily my parents were about an hour behind me and I got a ride from a very nice person to the nearest town to call them (no cell coverage where I pulled over, dagnabbit!). I called my insurance & got a tow truck, then got picked up by my fam and we went back to the car. We towed it back to Boise where my cousin, Aaron, installed a new alternator and battery (after much hassle with getting the right alternator). My family saved the day, yay! And I totally owe Aaron for getting me back on the road the next day. ;)
It was good to finally be home, and Juneau was soooo excited to see me! He attacked me with kisses when I got home (and so did Seneca, although there was no jumping up & scratching involved). I made out like a bandit for Christmas as usual (thanks everyone!) and got mostly useful stuff (like a popcorn popper! and a DVD/VRC player! and rope sandals! and organic cotton towels!). My mom sent me home with presents for Seneca, Juneau, and Maya since they were in Moscow for Christmas. They all loved their gifts and so do I! :) I hope I spoiled my family just a little this year as well, they deserve it.
My sister, Rachel, is now
studying abroad in Spain (she left New Year's Day for five months). I'm so jealous! Except that I am going to visit her there in March with my parents. It sure will be interesting finding vegetarian-friendly food in such a meat-centered culture. Rachel's gonna stake it out for me. I'm hoping Seneca can come meet me in Spain and we can go elsewhere in Europe (Paris! Amsterdam! Brussels to see my friend Nate! Prague to see our friend John!) but I have a feeling that would be too long & too expensive of a trip, so maybe we'll have to wait 'till next year... Until then, I will be practicing my español (
Soy vegetariana, y tu?
¡Las corridas de toros son crueles!)...
Yup, good holidays. It was fun. And now, on with my way-too-many-to-keep New Years' Resolutions!
Labels: holidays
Hectic Holidays
I can't believe it's December already. YIKES! This is a busy time of year, especially since I've barely started my Christmas shopping and I have tons of projects to wrap up before the end of the year, including a web site I'm designing for a landscaping company and my cousin Joan's wedding invitations (sorry Joan, I am a slacker with those Save-the-Date cards)! It's been busy at work as well, especially because we have a shortage of web designers but a surplus in projects. So I've been running around frantically, attempting to keep everything in order and trying to ward off the inevitable winter cold season.
Thanksgiving was wonderful, the Tofurky came out great, and I even got my dad to try some! We ate lots of great food and I even got to have pie twice. Mmm.... pie.... I arrived back in Moscow just after our first snow did, and it's been freezing and snowing ever since. We have about 6 inches or so on the ground, blanketing Moscow in sparkly white goodness. Unfortunately the roads have been very dangerous, and I heard the sad news after coming home that a wonderful Moscow friend, Stephanie, died in a car accident on icy roads. :( She was on the Hempfest committee with me and recently had a baby (who was also in the car and probably won't make it either, very sad). What a crappy way to start off the holiday season. Every winter there is news about people dying or getting hurt on the roads up here, mostly students, and this is the second time since I've lived here that I have known someone who died in an accident. Did I mention there are some very dangerous highways around here? Anyway, Stephanie inspired me to get new tires, so Sen & I took the car in and got some nice all-weather tires. They were damn expensive but well worth it, I feel much safer.
We've been enjoying the snow and even got a chance to go snowboarding at Silver Mountain this weekend. It was beautiful, the powder was awesome, and hardly anyone was there. I also did a little shopping in Spokane and replaced my camera at last. My old one had fallen into a glass of wine & was doomed, so I made sure to get the extra warranty that covers stuff like that on my new camera. I basically upgraded and got a very similar camera to the beloved one I lost - the Nikon Coolpix L6. As someone who carries a camera around everywhere, I had to get a replacement as soon as possible. It's much lighter, has a big huge screen, and takes the same memory card & batteries as the old camera. 6 Megapixels & 3x zoom should be just fine for my needs, and it had a higher ISO rating than most of the cameras I looked at. So I'm excited to try it out & take some snow pictures! :)
My house is decorated for the holidays (thanks to my mother's endless hand-me-down decorations) and I'm slowly getting some Christmas shopping done, but other than that, I am so not ready for the Holiday chaos. Can we just slow down the entire month of December?
Labels: family, holidays
Tofurky Day is coming!
I am home in Boise for Thanksgiving and looking forward to the delicious
Tofurky I'll be making on Thursday. If you've never tried this delicious vegan holiday roast, you gotta (even if you hate tofu, trust me, you'll love it)! It smells like turkey, tastes like turkey (well, from what I can remember anyway), but doesn't have that nasty side affect that comes with actual turkey - the DEATH of a sentient being. Don't forget to baste the Tofurky profusely and smother it in vegan gravy. Mmm, mmm good!
Of course, I'm looking forward to spending time with family even more than the Tofurky, but my mind gets kinda stuck on food sometimes. We'll be having a pretty simple Thanksgiving with my parents, sister, and cousins Emily (and her boyfriend Wes) and Aaron. There will be food, wine, and lots of good old-fashioned family togetherness. Oh joy! I can't believe it's already the holiday season and snow will be falling soon (well, it better be, cuz I want to get some snowboarding in). The fall has gone pretty fast, and as we head into winter I am reminded of how lucky I am and how much I have to be thankful for. I am awfully grateful to have such a loving & supporting family, a wonderful man to share life with, two adorable healthy fur-children, a good job with co-workers who rock, and many great friends. It's times like Thanksgiving that make me think, "ahhh, ain't life grand?"
I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving - don't forget to count your blessings and be thankful for all you have. I know I will. Now, go get yourself a Tofurky & give it a try! You'll never go back to dead bird. ;)
Labels: family, holidays
Earth Day & Hempfest
This was one crazy weekend! Hempfest on Earthday was Saturday, and I designed the t-shirts and posters for the event (see previous post for visuals) so it was good to get that finished. The shirts sold out, so apparently people really liked them, and money was raised for next year's event. Yay! I also had a booth and sold hemp & gemstone jewelry, home made herbal products like body scrub & candles, duct tape wallets, etc. I got up super-early so I grabbed a great spot and made some money, just in time for my birthday! This year marked the 10th annual Moscow Hempfest. It surprised me that a tiny town like Moscow has such an event, modeled after the
Seattle Hempfest that I also attend regularly. Of course, ours is much smaller, but with much of the same spirit of the hemp movement. All the musicians were local, and we had poets, speakers, and vendors from all over. It was a beautiful day, too, so it was so nice to see all the hard work come together in a great event.
I'm getting excited for festival season, and finally got the
barterfair.org site back up & running on my server. There's a lot of fairs and festivals this spring and summer, I hope to go to a few of them! I ordered tons of organic soap & oil making supplies, including some new bottles, so I'll be busy making herbal products and selling them at festivals. With the success of some of my recent designs, I've been motivated to get a cafepress store started so I can sell my shirt designs (most notably, ones from Hempfest and the Peace Coalitioon rally) online and at festivals this summer.
The search for the bus is progressing nicely. We think we may have found the dream car in Oregon. It's a camper van that's been running on bio-diesel. There's a few repairs to be made, but hopefully we can get it and start the grease conversion process. No more oil dependence for our fuel! I'm so excited, after a few months of searching we're hoping this one pans out. We may be headed to pick it up as early as this weekend if all goes well! I'm already planning to make colorful curtains to make it a little home sweet home on wheels! I never thought I'd be into RVs like my grandparents (ok so I'm sure I'll never be into the HUGE RVs they drive around) but I'm pretty stoked about this mini-RV greasemobile. Time to start planning camping trips, National Park stops, and festivals to hit this summer! Woohoo!
...And it gets better. Wednesday is my birthday! Yay! Not sure what the plans are yet, but I'm thinking a potluck will be involved. I have a big package from Mom & Dad waiting to be opened (aren't they sweet?!) so I'm trying to keep away from it until my b-day. Every year birthdays seem to get less and less exciting, but this year I actually get a paid holiday, so that's reason enough to celebrate! Ok, I guess I better calm down and get some work done now... :)
Labels: holidays
Hectic Happy Holidays
Whew, the holiday rush is over and I'm just settling down. What a crazy couple of weeks! I spent Christmas in Boise (stopped in McCall for snowboarding on the way down) and brought Juneau and Maya there to see their "grandparents." I spent a week at my parents' house (brought my work with me) and got to hang out with family and friends. We went on a Christmas light tour with my cousins and aunt and uncle, did a White Elephant gag gift exchange on Christmas Eve, and had a wonderful Christmas morning in which everyone got spoiled rotten as usual! I'm excited that I got a new office chair and other office supplies so I can be more comfy in my little home office. Thanks Mom & Dad! I also got an ice cream maker, magic bullet kitchen gadget, and a new mess kit for backpacking, among other things. On Christmas day we went up to McCall after spending some time with Seneca's family, and then came home the day after.
After one day home, it was on the road again. We headed to San Francisco with our friends Hallie and Joel for "Sea of Dreams," a New Year's String Cheese Incident show. I had never seen Cheese live before and San Fran is just plain awesome, so I was excited about the road trip. We stopped in Ashland, Oregon, the first night and as we headed South it got more and more rainy. We tried going down 101, but that turned out to be a bad idea. Mudslides had closed the highway, so after staying a night in the very wet Redwoods, we turned around and tried another way. A few hours and 2 failed detours later, we were finally on our way to the show. It was raining so hard it felt like we were in a Monsoon, and it took us forever to finally get across that bridge and park the car. We arrived at the first night of the concert around midnight, but luckily we only missed one set.
The venue for Sea of Dreams (Concourse Exhibition Center) was filled with "cheeseheads" all dressed up in crazy costumes. There was psychadelic art on display and a room with nothing but blacklight sensitive obstacles. There were 3 stages and several booths full of interesting wares. It was pretty crowded but I got a great view of String Cheese and danced and walked around the venue until about 3am. We headed to our hotel room, which ended up being quite a fiasco after having our rervation "lost" then found and being double-booked in a room with another crew of "cheeseheads." Eventually we got our room and got a few hours of sleep. The next day was actually sunny! We explored San Francisco, hung out near Haight Ashbury and Golden Gate Park, and tried tasty brews at the Magnolia Brewery on Haight St.
New Year's Eve was one I won't soon forget! We wore psychadelic costumes and got to the venue early. String Cheese played on and on (from about 9 pm to 2:20 am with one set break!) and there were tons of people dressed up in crazy costumes complete with flashing lights and more. We headed to the floor to ring in the New Year while Cheese jammed out. At midnight, there was a countdown and thousands of balloons were released from nets on the ceiling. Glow sticks and balloons were bouncing around in the crowd, and everyone tried to keep the balloons up in the air. The energy at the show was amazing, and kept us going until around 4 am when we started our walk to the hotel.
We stopped by the ocean on the way out of town the next day and headed to Portland. We finally got some sleep staying with my cousins in Portland and headed to Moscow the day after. We stopped for a hike at Multnomah Falls and hiked to the top to soak in the view. I've seen those falls so many times, but never from right above the edge of the cliff! It was a quick and uneventful ride back to Moscow...
I'm starting a 40 hour/week schedule today. I'm working 10 hour days, 4 days a week. It will be hard to get used to and take up most of my days, but my 3-day weekends are precious and I can use the money! At least I have a more ergonomic chair to sit in now... Time to start another busy year. Happy 2006!
Labels: family, holidays, volksvegan grease bus
Tofurky Day
This Thanksgiving was the first I've spent with Seneca, and also our first totally vegetarian organic Thanksgiving feast. We made Tofurky, mashed potatoes and corn gravy, steamed veggies, zucchini bread, hot spiced cider, and to top it all off, we made pumpkin pie from scratch. Granny would've been proud—I scooped out the pumpkins and Seneca made the crust, I even toasted the pumpkin seeds afterwards. :) It was a delicious meal! Seneca and I stayed home for the feast, and shared it with our pets and 2 other dogs we were watching for our friends. So we had Juneau ("the wolf"), Walrus (yes, that's really her name), and Jonah Bear (who is about the size of a bear), plus Maya. I like to say we spent Thanksgiving with a wolf, a bear, and a walrus. :) And someone in the house did get turkey; the dogs had some turkey dog food. They are carnivores after all...
Last night we had a leftovers potluck and tonight we're going to a friend's house for more leftovers and poker. The leftovers are half the fun of Thanksgiving! :) Yesterday (Black Friday) was
Buy Nothing Day, so while most Americans were out crowding the malls (I heard on the news that an old man was trampled and overzealous Wal-Mart shoppers were maced by an off-duty cop), we refrained from consumerism and stayed home instead. I did give in and buy my way into a show last night, but at least I supported a local band, not a Wal-Mart.
Speaking of Wal-Mart, after finally winning a battle to add a Wal-Mart Super Center to Pullman (8 miles away), the greedy corporation wants to add one here in Moscow, and move their current store to a bigger location so they can turn the other side of town into a desolate strip mall. I need to go see that new movie,
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices. They're sexist, harmful to small businesses, and don't offer health care to over half their employees, this I already know. But I'm sure the movie shows even more about the dark forces of Wally World. :)
I'm enjoying the 4-day weekend so far, I think today is a good time to clean out the car, take the dogs for a walk, and maybe go get some weather stripping for underneath the back door. You know, the regular Saturday afternoon chores and such... It's getting damn cold here, but no snow yet! I'm hoping for a good snowboarding season. :)
Labels: holidays, vegetarianism/animal rights
Independence Day
I had a great 4th of July weekend. Seneca, Juneau, and I went backpacking in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in the Wind Lakes area. It was beautiful and remote. We hiked up to the top of Grave Peak, a huge 8,300 foot tall mountain with a retired fire lookout on top. The mountains in that area are all granite with large spires and boulders, so it was quite a climb. But the veiw at the top was well worth it. In the lookout, we could open all of the shutters and see for hundreds of miles in every direction. It was absolutely beautiful. My fireworks came in the form of a campfire, and it was nice to get away from the fakey patriotism and polluting fireworks normally associated with the holiday. Instead I got to experience what little true American wilderness is left. Needless to say I came home with sore knees and lots of misquito bites, but it was a much needed break.
Since coming back I've been very busy with work, and picked up a new project, designing materials for Palousafest. It's put on every fall at UI as kind of an orientation fair for students. The project had a really quick turnaround time but I guess I better get used to that. I sure could use the extra cash right now anyway. I've also been trucking along on my other work projects and sending out a few resumes every week. It's been hard to find jobs at places I feel good about working at, and it seems like when I do find an awesome design firm or organization, the competition is fierce. It's all part of the job market I guess. Maybe I should just start my own business. :)
Labels: holidays
Birthday
I had a pretty good birthday yesterday. I got lots of free beer and went out to the Red Door with Seneca. Then we went to the Garden, where I got more free drinks. There were some naughty friends of mine there who gave me some pretty weird drinks (ever heard of a backdraft?) that made me a little sick. At least this year I didn't puke all over the bar and I do remember the entire evening. Good thing I was 22, not 21, that was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. I did scrape my toes up on the way to the bathroom though, and now I'm a gimp. Ouchie!
I heard from lots of family and friends, thanks for the cards everyone! Most of my birthday presents were early, but that's ok, I still enjoyed them all!
Labels: holidays
Archives
subscribe to feed
