Spudward: Adventures on the Western Fringe of the Rocky Mountains

Hey, that looks familiar!

2010-09-18T13:05:00.003-06:00

So, I was sweeping the path up to our front door when I noticed a familiar looking shape in the rocks that make up the path:

Yep, it's the outline of our fair state.

MIGRATION.

2010-08-17T21:50:00.002-06:00

Fun, fun. Until I develop a good way to migrate posts, old posts will remain here, but the new fun and games will be taking place at: http://www.spudward.com . See you there!

Losing an e-mail account fouls up everything.

2010-06-03T12:43:00.004-06:00

Dear readers,

As most of you well know, I was recently kidnapped in London and held hostage for an e-mail ransom. The result of this adventure was the unfortunate deletion of my old e-mail addresses, ariel.holman@gmail.com, the one tied to this blog, being one of them.

Though I transferred administrator privilages over before I deleted that google account, unfortunately, it appears that it has messed things up over here at Spudward as well (not the hacker, just the loss of the account).

We have many wonderful things to share - including a marching marmot, and pictures and stories from our trip out to Grand Teton National Park.

In the days to come, keep an eye out for more information - I'll be migrating the blog to another location, and hopefully will be able to retain a similar web address.

Thanks for your patience - the potato will be back before you know it!

Love, Ariel & Charlie

Adventures at state agencies.

2010-02-20T18:47:00.001-07:00

"You have got to be kidding me. Seriously. SERIOUSLY?"

You can always expect a long wait and some curious people-watching, but never have I had an experience at the Social Security office as I did the other day.

Now, I'm a pretty patient person, and after a couple years of commuting to work on Portland's public transportation system, I'd like to think that I have pretty tolerant attitude toward the public at large. Stinky people? Oh well. Life happens. Rude people? I've got my "ignoring you" and "disinterest" faces down pat. Crazy people? Just part of the community; be polite, but try not to engage.

You definitely utilize those skills when you have a hang out at a public services office.

So I am sitting there. Minding my own business. Waffling between reading the book I brought and checking my phone for the best, newest things on the internet and e-mail. Typical waiting behavior.

The room was stuffy and redolent of people with a lower-than-average idea of hygiene. Yuck.

When I came in, the hyper-friendly security agent informed me that I wasn't allowed to have my coffee mug in the room, and that I had to leave it on the counter by the door. Bummer. Now I'm a little undercaffeinated, too.

The room is slowly filling up when two men come through the door. One guy is a small, wiry, whip-skinny fellow, the other (The Lenny to his George) is tall and pretty overweight. Tall enough, that when I was seated, and the two men took the seats next to me, the big guy's hip was at the same level as my head.

The big guy identifies a friend across the room, and stands up to talk to him. First, however, he turns to talk to the skinny guy. The rows are close enough together, that I had to turn and make room for him to stand and make his way down the aisle. I'm turned away, as, due to the architecture of his frame and my seated position, his butt is right next to my face. I'm trying to be polite, and just ignore the situation as best I can.

That's when I noticed a slight odor.

Phew, poor guy. He also must fall into the "poor hygiene" category, because MAN he smells like... well... POOP.

Being polite. Just minding my own business.

The smell intensifies.

Wow. I wonder if that old lady in front of my ripped one - sometimes old people aren't too conscious of controlling those things.

And it continues to get worse.

All of a sudden it hits me (like a wave of rotten eggs and a meal that didn't agree with someone)... this guy just farted in my face.

He stood there.
With his butt.
In my face.
And let one go.

They couldn't call my number fast enough.

By the way - with regard to the name changing (the purpose of my being there)? We decided to go with Varhol. What do you think?

Saturday mornings.

2010-01-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

There's nothing quite like a lazy Saturday morning when the weather outside is dreary, the air inside in chilly, and you have nothing (absolutely nothing!) on your agenda.

Sleeping in until 10, warm people wrapped in a dense, heavy cocoon of blankets.

The warm, roasty smell of brewing coffee.

Dragging chairs and laptops into the warm kitchen and sharing internet clips and funny blog posts we wait for sweet popovers to "pop" in the oven.

This American Life weaving curious, inquisitive stories on the radio.

Yes, friends. This is the homebody life that a wintery morning demands of a newly married couple.

Here's a link to the popover recipe we used: Sugar-Crusted Popovers.
Let me offer a tip or two: if using a muffin tin, heat it in the oven while you blend the batter. Put a pat of butter (just a tiny, bean-sized one) in each indentation. Add the batter once the butter is completely melted. Don't worry about brushing them with melted butter (it ended up being TOO rich for us). Dust them with sugar or another topping. We like: powdered sugar and lemon, honey butter, lemon curd, cinnamon sugar, jam. Anyhow, use his batter recipe, though. It was perfect.

Winter in the desert.

2010-01-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

Snow, cold; cold, snow. Wind, clouds, sun, cold, snow, snow, snow.

Winter has settled in on Boise. We've had a few days of snow tempered by melty, 40 degree days, sunshine, and rain. The good old back-and forth. Rumor has it that the foothills trails are a mucky mess, so our options for shot dayhikes are slim. We've been eyeballing the snow depths in the nearby mountains, and our snow shoes are burning holes in the wall. Maybe tomorrow.

I know, you probably want to hear about the wedding and the holidays. As several weekends spent almost entirely in our pajamas evinces, we still feel like we're catching up and recovering.

Since our last update we've honeymooned in Mexico...

(These, and the rest of the pictures from the trip are located here: "Troncones" on Ariel's flickr stream)

Traveled to the Mother Land for the holidays...

And enjoyed Christmas with all the various permutations of our families.

Now, with the last long slog of winter ahead of us (though the days are getting longer again!), I guess it's time to buck-up and address those real, grown-up things that we've been putting off for the last few months (bank accounts, name changes, etc. JOY!).

In some respects it's a little relieving - we now have the time and wherewithal to actually settle into somewhat of a normal life again. And that is a good thing.

That said, knowing us, chances are it won't be altogether TOO normal.

(Photo by Steve Schmidt of Olyphotos)

Happy holidays, happy new year, and all our love and warm wishes for the days and months ahead.

We're Married!

2009-10-13T10:08:00.002-06:00

We did it! On October 10, 2009 we got married in Port Gamble, Washington! We had a beautiful ceremony, lovely weather, were surrounded by our wonderful and loving friends and family - everything was perfect.

We'll write more about the wedding soon (and post some pictures too!) but we're still on our way back to Boise right now. Thank you to all of our family and friends who came to the wedding or gave us well wishes from afar! We love you!

Things.

2009-09-28T19:50:00.003-06:00

The temperature in the next 24 hours is supposed to drop over 35 degrees. That's the different between highs - not between a high and a low. Welcome to fall.

The worry and planning, fuss and frenzy thermometer is supposed to have an equivalent jump in the opposite direction. Less than two weeks until crazy event-of-your-life madness.

And Otto snuggles on the couch, happy we're home, snoozing and drooling.

It's dark by eight and Charlie is making Indian food from a jar. And it smells amazing.

This weekend we're going to go buy ~~fireworks~~ novelty sparklers 40 minutes away in Mountain Home.

Our house is being overwhelmed by boxes. Boxes and box stuffing in every room. It's a big cat fort.

We still have windows open in the living room, and I'm debating pulling out the box of winter sweaters--folded and smelling like stiff, scratchy, wool.

Is it bad luck to listen to our reception mix before the wedding? If it is, don't say anything to me about it.

My wedding band isn't here yet. We ordered it from a catalog, and it's supposed to be here soon.

There's cat food on the floor in the kitchen.

It's been months since we've taken a walk down along the river.

Just a tease...

2009-09-07T20:35:00.004-06:00

More to come on this one, I promise.

Over the long Labor Day weekend, Charlie and I decided to take a break from wedding-land and set out on a three-day backpacking trip up into the Sawtooth National Wilderness Area. It was a classic Sawtooth trip in the eastern part of the mountains, about 15 minutes from Stanley, Idaho.

We hiked the spectacular Toxaway Lake-Alice Lake loop. With an unanticipated few extra miles in the beginning (due to a trail-head goof), in all we hiked 20.2 miles in three days. We climbed (and then, of course, descended) about 2,900 feet in all. Our highest point, crossing Snowyside Pass, was at about 9,400 feet.

I have a million pictures to sort through (surprise, surprise), but here are a couple early favorites that I can't help but share.

These colors are completely authentic - no post-process color or saturation tweaking at all.
Both shots are from where we stayed on night 2, Alice Lake. If you click on the pictures, it should take you to flickr, where you can view larger sizes.

Ka-Pow!

2009-08-30T12:52:00.002-06:00

Last night, impressive thunderstorms rolled through the Treasure Valley, leaving much cooler temperatures in their wake. We had thunder, lightening, and lots of rain, all of which reminded me of the thunderstorms in Iowa when I was growing up. Ariel and I turned off the lights in our apartment, pulled open the blinds, and rotated our little Ikea couch towards the window so that we could watch it blow over the town.

Today, the temperature is in the 70s, which is much more refreshing than the high 90s days of last week. We're planning to take advantage of the "cool-down" and go for a walk on the Ridge to Rivers trail system in the foothills before the next big storm blows into town.

Wedding Invitation Fever!

2009-08-22T16:40:00.002-06:00

This weekend we are busily putting together our wedding invitations. After a lot of debate about which invitations we would go with, we settled on a design that we really love: it's clean, simple, modern, elegant and has some of our "fall colors" that will be incorporated into the wedding itself. The invitations arrived in the mail for us on Friday and we need to turn them around pretty quickly to send them off to wedding guests. Right now we're writing addresses, stuffing envelopes, and attaching stamps - they all go in the mail on Monday!

It's hard to believe that our wedding is less than 2 months away. Have we mentioned that on our second date we watched the movie "A Very Long Engagement"?

In which we are seduced yet again by the Wallowas

2009-08-02T13:18:00.003-06:00

You'd think we'd have learned after the first time: the Wallowas do not kid around.

Being the suckers for granite, alpine lakes, and green trees that we are, Charlie and I decided that, rather than blow things up for the 4th of July, we'd hit the trail for a two-night 14-mile backpack up into Oregon's Eagle Cap Wilderness area.

You may remember our previous trip there - what with the September first snowfall and all.

This time, we were on the run from a storm front that was scheduled to pummel Idaho's mountains with some nice thunder, lightening, hail, and rain over the long weekend. Looking at the weather forecast, we determined there might be better opportunities for visiting the "Frank Church/River of No Return" wilderness (like, you know, when there was a better chance of us returning).

So back we went to our beloved Oregon. We were delighted to discover that the in-point for the trail was just outside of Baker City - just a 2.5 hour drive from Boise. We'd be at the trailhead in a scant three hours. Definite striking distance for a weekend hike.

Things started off great. We reached the trailhead at about 1:00 on Friday. Already it was stuffy and warm, with big puffy clouds gathering above the mountains. Undeterred, we loaded our packs. Just .6 miles in, we were already stopping (and posing!) for a photoshoot.

Charlie looks cool and calm as usual (he knows how to look good in pictures!), Ariel, on the other hand, had a different "face" in mind:

Little was I to know that this face would re-appear, in various forms throughout the rest of our adventurous weekend. One needs to start practicing early on in the trip for any real success, right?

After a mosquito-rich slog up-hill through some pretty dense brush, our hike opened up into a series of lovely meadows.

Though difficult to see in the picture, the wildflowers were just starting to bloom on this hike, and we were surrounded on the trip by purples, blues, yellows, and pinks. At points along the trail, it looked like people had planted them especially for our enjoyment.

In this picture, you can see the clouds starting to gather in earnest. The sky was darkening, and we didn't want to be caught out in a downpour. This was about half-way through our first day's intended mileage. We consulted, and made the, in retrospect, rather foolish decision to postpone lunch until we hit camp. It was only a few more miles! In the hot weather, we weren't noticeably hungry, and the gorp seemed to be doing the trick.

Of course, anyone who's been on a backpack or two, knows that this is exactly what NOT to do. We pushed through to Eagle Meadows, and fell into a heap at the campsite. Aching legs, headaches, the gamut. And, adding insult to injury, all the campsites in the meadow appeared to be taken. Ditching the packs, we set off in opposite directions in search of a private (ie: off the trail) spot to camp. Eventually, we stumbled upon what appeared to be a campsite in the trees close to the creek. A little dark, and apparently unused yet this season, it nevertheless fit the bill.

Charlie threw a nice campfire together, and after a snack and a short nap, life was looking just peachy again. We even had a nice granite fireplace, to boot!

We had a peaceful night in camp, and the next morning dawned sunny and bright. We packed up camp and headed up the short (yet steep!) trail to our second campsite: Eagle Lake.

Saturday was even hotter than Friday, and the day's climb was on a good, study trail, up a rather exposed slope. The views back down the valley were incredible and we racked up elevation with every switchback.

As we climbed, snow grew more prevalent along the trail, and near the top we came across this neat snow-bridge above the trail. Decided it was wise not to climb inside it for a more up-close view, but the cool air blowing through it felt amazing. It was hard not to want to curl up for a nap inside.

Shortly after the "cave" we arrived at the lake. In retrospect, July 4th is quite early in the season for Eagle Cap trips, so it should have been no real surprise to find it almost still completely frozen.

The lake itself was a beautiful spot. It was dammed by people in the region early on to help with irrigation for farming in the valleys below. The dam itself is a quite impressive work of backcountry engineering.

We goofed around up at the lake for the next couple hours, and set-up camp. Despite the existence of a spectacular campsite out on a rocky bluff at the end of the lake, we elected to pitch our tent in what appeared to be a more sheltered location on the shoulder of the hill, amongst several large granite boulders.

Even though it was more protected, as you can see, the view left nothing to be wanted:

Unfortunately, though, bluebird skies gave way to dark clouds, and a decent thunderstorm rolled in. Charlie was a pro (all those years living in Iowa, perhaps?), but I was quite the wimp--repeatedly wondering aloud why we'd chosen to camp at this $#%@^$ lake, and why we hadn't just stayed in our safe little spot in the valley and made a day hike out of it??

As the rain (and hail) hammered down on the tent, we also noticed something about our nice, protected little site: it was a bowl for catching runoff. So much so, that there were little rivers running down the sides of the hill right into our campsite. Fantastic.

We found ourselves with an inch of water evenly divided between the ground, the ground tarp, and the bottom of the tent. We waited out the storm floating in a puddle on our thermarest matresses.

The good news about our site was, even though it accumulated water quickly, it also drained almost just as fast. The picture above was shortly after the storm ended, and already we were seeing progress on our little houseboat situation.

Once the storm had passed, the rest of the evening progressed without incident. We cooked up some instant backpacking food, watched the sun go down on the mountains, and tucked into the tents for the night. It was a somewhat sleepless night, what, with the deer traipsing through camp and schnuffling through our backpacks (hurrah for hanging food high!), and the silent flashes of lightening that illuminated the sky (I nervously counted in my head, "Mississippi-one, Mississippi-two..." by the time I got to "Mississippi-twenty-one" with no thunder, I decided that I was being somewhat ridiculous.).

We awoke the next morning to bright skies, and clean air. We had a long hike ahead of us, so got started early, said goodbye to the lake, and set off for the valley.

The hike back involved some useful adventure skills such as fording frigid creeks in sandals, balancing across logs, and keeping one's feet under one's legs on steep descents.

In all, it was a great expedition into the backcountry, and, while the Eagle Cap Wilderness always has something new and adventurous in store for us, it also never dissapoints. We always leave yearning to go back next weekend, and the weekend after, and the weekened after that....

If you're still antsy for more pictures, there are a bunch more up on Flickr (as well as the ones here).

Proving myself wrong, yet again.

2009-04-21T17:55:00.005-06:00

Two weeks ago, I was lamenting our spring here in Idaho:

"It just isn't LUSH enough!"

"I miss Portland's exuberant cherry trees."

"No magnolias? (Heavy sigh.)"

Pouting, I prepared to move from a drab, brown winter, into a muted, subdued spring. But, as usual, when I complain about something, I had to eat my words.

While Boise doesn't have the outrageous explosions of blossoms and greenery and fecund growth that I became accostumed to in Portland, it puts on a pretty good springtime show.

On Easter afternoon, since Charlie had to work, I took a walk by myself through the North End to enjoy the sunny day. Cherry trees! Plum trees! Forsythia (Boise LOVES this plant)! Tulips! Magnolias! Everything was just a riot of color and flowers.

Better yet, the farmer's market started up last weekend. We wandered, dazed, through the throngs of people attending, and only bought a loaf of bread and a dozen eggs. Asparagus was the vegetable du jour, but they were asking almost $4 a bunch. While the general populace was there, and ready to eagerly embrace the market, the vegetables seem to have a little more growing to do before things can really begin in earnest. Nonetheless, life here is feeling a little more bearable again. Just being able to comfortably go outdoors in a teeshirt and sandals raises my mood 100-fold.

With spring in full-blast, it means that summer, with its 100 degree days and dusty afternoons is looming just over the horizon. The last two days have been hot--85 degrees yesterday, with similar weather forecast for today. But, being that it's still spring, we have to take this in stride, and enjoy the taste of summer before it becomes opressive: a week ago today, there was snow in the forecast, and the prediction for the weekend is rain, and 58. I think we should be able to handle this task. If there's one thing growing up in Washington has taught us, it's to enjoy and appreciate sunny, warm days when they come around.

So for today, I'll put sunscreen on my shoulders, and dig out the shorts, tank tops, and sun dresses I packed away last fall. I might also pack up a few sweaters--I just don't see myself wearing a wool turtleneck from here on out.

The Great Coffee Table Search... or... Welcome to Craigslist Boise

2009-03-12T20:38:00.017-06:00

I will just do away with the "I'm-so-sorry-we-haven't-posted-in-forever" apologies right now. Life, Christmas, a case of the blues, and winter all struck at once, and things get behind.

If anyone is reading any longer, and you're interested in keeping up, most of our recent adventures (including a trip to the Snake River Birds of Prey Area) have been documented on my (Ariel's) Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arielarielariel . There, you can also find interesting things like The Funeral Cone and Charlie's New Personal Hygiene Plan.

But, the point of this post isn't to fill you in on things that we've been up to, but, rather, on one specific point of interest: a photo-walk through the truly amazing selection of coffee tables available for sale on Craigslist here in Boise.

Last weekend, Charlie got the idea that perhaps we needed a coffee table for this room--with the thought that, with a table, we might live in it a little more. Always up for a hunt--especially if it involves things like furniture--I immediately pulled up Craigslist to find the perfect secret bargain.

In doing so, I forget that, even here in Boise, Craigslist is no longer the somewhat hip, "subculture" exchange of goods that it once seemed. Or, for that matter, even just a place to get good stuff from people with decent taste.

Which leads me to the thought that maybe the problem isn't a slide toward a trailerpark garage sale, but rather a simple difference in taste between myself and the average Craislist seller.

Then again, perhaps you'll disagree?

It's hard, in fact to disagree with the seller's statement that this is an "impressive" coffee table. Though, I find the expectation that they'll get the requested $500 for it "impressive" as well.

Impressive wasn't quite up our alley, so instead I opened up one that the seller described as very "sterdy" (sic), and "handmade." I never would have guessed it was handmade. Or, sterdy for that matter, actually.

No, I was on Craigslist in search of a diamond in the rough--a bargain that we'd love, and could really live with... "Yours for only $100!" How could we resist? (Apparently, you could buy the whole living room set--which, I sincerely hope included the... mmm... "arrangement"(?) atop the table). I'll bet they would have thrown in the fireplace guard for a good price, too.

How about this stunning ensemble? For only $500 you can have the chairs AND table. Just in case I ever needed to have a "Parisian Cafe Gardern Party" in my living room.

Too curlicued for our tastes.

One of the things that was most fascinating about browsing coffee tables, was reading the excuses people gave for getting rid of things. Rather than "Good Lord, it's just too damn UGLY!" (which the people of THIS table should have said...)

People would came up with a series of curious excuses. Some were heartbreaking, and reflected the current economic downturn ("Lost house. Moving into our RV. Can't keep the furniture."), others reflected new life changes. For instance, the table below was being sold for the simple reason of, "BABY TAKING OVER HOUSE. MUST SELL." (No hard feelings, honey, but the baby's just TAKING OVER THE HOUSE.) I just noticed that the baby appears to be taking over the picture too, in the background.

Well, we don't have a baby to worry about, and who knows, maybe round is our thing?

Maybe not. It was also amazing that people thought they were doing you a favor by passing along an amazing deal for a table on which they'd OBVIOUSLY spent way too much money... This lovely Jaguar number could be had for the STEAL price of around $500. They'd originally bought this "unique" (their word, how true) gem in Las Vegas for $1000. Oh well, better than gambling it away... I think?

Shortly after this post, I ran across another advertising a similar table. Maybe a bear is better suited to an Idaho lifestyle. What's up with the animals bearing our burdens?

A couple of my other favorites include:

"We just don't use it." (I wonder why??)

"$200! Won't Last! (Can be easily spray-painted a different color!)" (Why would I spend $200 on a table only to SPRAY-PAINT it?)

A handmade creation that they put a lot of "time, effort, and hard work" into... (Yes, the legs look like firewood, and it's covered in bottle caps.)

I just have no words for this one. Is this even a TABLE?

And, finally. Tonight's winner. Found with the end-all, be-all caption: "Great in Any Setting!"

Suffice to say, in wrapping up, that we went home table-less. Better luck next time?

Waiting for our ship to come in.

2008-12-23T19:30:00.005-07:00

Like everyone else faced with traveling through the "Storm of the Century" that's marauded the United States, Charlie and I are hanging out in an airport right now, waiting for our flight to come in. Fortunately for us, we've only been here for about an hour--we live ten minutes from the Boise airport, and so were able to easily manage the delays without camping out.

I'm pretty amazed to hear of all the madness that's happening to you all out in Seattle and Portland. As most of you know, I'm a HUGE fan of crazy weather--it breaks my heart a little not to be there for it all! We've gotten a little weather out in Boise, too, but it's not quite the same around here.

For example: it snowed in Boise on Sunday night, and not ONLY was I expected to get to work on Monday, but I was expected to BE THERE ON TIME, too! And we had like, THREE INCHES OF SNOW! The humanity. It's just not quite the same when things keep functioning despite the weather.

That said, everyone wishes that things like airports and trains functioned throughout storms. Charlie and I are trying to fly in to the SeaTac airport for the first leg of our triple-state-Christmas-extravaganza--the same airport where 3,000 people have been sleeping the past few nights because they couldn't get flights out. From the news stories I've been able to put together, they've run out of food, blankets, and flights. Remind me again why Charlie and I are trying to GET to this place that thousands of people are desperately trying to LEAVE? It's a little mad.

Here we are:

Snowtown, USA.

2008-12-21T18:48:00.009-07:00

Well, it seems that way to Charlie and I, at least.

By now you've probably seen Charlie's last post about our Christmas tree. It was lots of fun to go pick it out together.

Currently we're enjoying (?) our first winter storm in Boise. It's been going on for about a week now. Everything is snowy and a little wild, but the city seems to do a good job managing the weather. Far better than Seattle and Portland who are in the throes of hysteria right now with their monster winter storms.

It's been warmer that they were originally predicting--only into the 10's and MAYBE a single digit. Still, it's been hard for a little kitty to adjust to. He spends his time rotating between a few warm places in our house. I almost feel like I should draw a Family-Circle style chart to illustrate it. He insists on sleeping on the bed at night. Then once the humans are done showering for the day, he sits in the warm shower (IN THE WET SHOWER!) for 20 minutes or so. Then he moves to the chair by the heater. He alternates between that, and between sitting in front of the other space heater all day.

And sometimes he burrows into any pile of fabric he can find.

Today when I got out of the shower, I sat down on the bed, and heard a quiet little "mrow" from under a pile of blankets and clothing. I peeled back a few layers, and found the cat curled up, INSIDE my skirt. Okie dokie.

Despite Otto's wimpiness, we still made it outside for a walk today. I'll share a few shots of Boise in the winter and snow to give you an idea of what we're looking at. We're supposed to get another 3 or 4 inches tonight. This is on a walk up to Camel's Back. There were tons of people sledding and playing in the snow.

Christmastime is here...

2008-12-13T15:57:00.008-07:00

Ariel and I bought our first Christmas tree together for our apartment last weekend. We picked up a four footer from a little Christmas tree lot off of Broadway here in Boise. Since it was so small, we had no trouble at all fitting it in our Toyota Yaris.

Shortly after getting it home, we pulled out our ornaments and got to work on decorating it.

We also pulled out some other Christmas doodads and decorated the house - it's starting to feel festive around here!

We'll be heading out of town soon to celebrate Christmas with family, first in Washington, then in Illinois. But for now, we're enjoying the holiday season for the very first time in Boise.

Ho hum. Back to the real world.

2008-10-16T18:34:00.005-06:00

Uh.... The blog. Right.

We have an excuse this time, I promise. The past three weekends, Charlie and I have had out-of-town guests sleeping cozily on our couch and floor. Friends from Portland, friends from Washington, and Charlie's sister have all graced our humble abode.

What a wonderful time we've had. We paddled about on Swan boats in Julia Davis Park. We toured the Old Idaho Penitentiary. We got stuck in a thunderstorm and learned all about our new state at the Idaho State History museum. We saw original wagon-wheel ruts in the ground from the Oregon Trail. We ate three ice cream potatoes. We tried a new restaurant. We took a chilly hike in the foothills. We lit a fire in our fireplace for the first time. We experienced our first snowfall in Boise. We watched the debates, cooked delicious meals, played board games, drank wine and beer, and had great conversations. Wow.

We're not sure what to do with ourselves now! Perhaps on Saturday morning Charlie and I will find ourselves drawn to Boise State University and the greenbelt for our weekly tour about... it's becoming a tradition! Will our stomachs rumble because we haven't stuffed ourselves to the gills at a weekend breakfast out? What's Otto going to do when he has to sleep in the living room because there are no guests to protect from his over-eager cuddles?

It's been busy, and so, so much fun, but I'm relieved that I don't have to fuss over my clutter-pile of mail this week. Otto will also appreciate not being chased around the house by the nasty broom as we sweep the hardwoods.

In the end, though, Charlie and I are so grateful to have friends and family that care enough about us to want to fly to the middle of nowhere (haha, for you coastal folks, anyhow) on their vacation weekends just to visit us.

A few other things have been afoot, too. Charlie and I are plotting a weekend escape to the Hailey/Sun Valley area for my birthday this weekend (birthday is on a MONDAY this year, how disappointing!). We're hoping for lots of colorful trees, and a little time spent checking out Ketchum, Sun Valley, and a little hiking in the area. We might even make it over to Craters of the Moon. I'm looking forward to that. Apparently last weekend in Hailey, there was a big, awesome festival called The Trailing of the Sheep. This involved 1500 sheep being run down the streets of the city. We are definitely THERE next year. Apparently it's a really remarkable festival, and was listed as one of the top ten fall festivals in the world by MSN travel. Sheep!

Finally, I've picked up an on-again off-again part-time job in addition to my full-time one (that Charlie, he is so stingy--I had to look for another job in order to justify a tin of lip balm now and then....). This week I made a little pocket cash doing some pet-sitting for a guy who works for my company.

I was watching four pets: two dogs and two cats. The cats are old as old can be--sweet, creaky creatures that followed me around the house begging for a scratch or two. The dogs are as different as they come: one, an old mutt, is shaggy, slow, and sweet. He wanders about the house, clicking his toe nails and slowly surveying his domain. The other dog, a bounces-off-the-walls 3-year old Doberman is quite another story. She's spring-loaded and wired for sound. Even after having the chance to meet her with her people around, the first time I showed up it took us most of an hour to come to an understanding. I don't blame her in the least ("WHO are you, WHY are you in my house, and I'm-in-a-crate-and-can't-do-anything-but-bark-at-you-and-snarl-a-little!"), I think she was wound up, nervous, and protective. I ended up bribing her with her obsessive love: a rubbery frisbee. As her owner later said, "when faced with the option of protecting her house or playing frisbee, you know where her priorities are." After thoroughly exhausting her with a game of fetch, we were suddenly fast friends--even the kind of friends who try and climb in each other's laps, and dance in wiggly circles when they show up at the house the next day. In all, it was a great experience, but certainly one that stretched my creativity and pushed my boundaries a little (in a good way) when it comes to dealing with critters. Tonight is the first night in a couple days that I'm not taking care of them... and you know? I kind of miss it. Otto on the other hand is glad that I'm no longer covered in grass bits and dog slobber.

For that matter, so is Charlie.

Catch-up

2008-09-21T17:23:00.003-06:00

Starting a new job has taken a toll on the frequency that we've been able to update this blog! Amazing how working all day 1) reduces the amount of time you have to write and 2) limits the number of blog-able experiences you have on any given day. That is, unless you plan on blogging about your job.

Let me say a few brief things about my job to quench the curiosity I know at least a few of you have expressed:

It's great. The people are supremely friendly. In fact, it's the friendliest new job I've ever had. People stop by and ask how things are going, and go out of their way to swing by my cubicle just to say "hi"--let me add that I've known most of these folks for a week and a half.

One harmless little anecdote: the ratio of men to women in this workplace is way different than what I was accustomed to at Portland State. I'd say that it's the exact opposite, in fact. I've gone from an office that was predominantly women, to one that's probably 90-95% men.

The other day one of my coworkers stopped by my desk and asked that I spread the word that they were having birthday cake in another part of the office. So, I walked around the cubicles, letting people know that there was birthday cake to be had. I've found that working with women, it's almost like pulling teeth to get them to come for cake. And when they do, they only want "just a small piece." In my current office, the word spread like wildfire. "CAKE?! WHAT KIND OF CAKE? IS IT CARROT CAKE? WHERE'S THE CAKE!?" Heads sprung up like whack-a-mole's from all the cubicles at the mention of it. When I walked down to get my piece, I found myself in line behind a whole mess of guys all waiting for their cake. AWESOME. This is my kind of workplace.

Other interesting things--for the first time in 59 days, we had a big rainstorm move through Boise this weekend. It started on Friday night as some thunderstorms broke over the city. Big flashes of lightning and rolling rumbles of thunder. It started pouring during the night, and rained most of the day on Saturday. For those of you who find weather as interesting as I do, imagine this: Friday, there was a record high of 94 degrees; today, Sunday, it didn't even break 70. I think we got up to 67 or so. Throughout the week we'd planned a camping trip up to the McCall area for this weekend, but as Friday night rolled around, and we faced the reality of packing our gear and going grocery shopping, we decided to abandon those plans. When we awoke on Saturday morning to the sound of rain pouring down the steps in the courtyard behind our bedroom, we were so thankful that we'd elected to stay home.

Instead, we just enjoyed the city this weekend. It's amazing how quiet it is here in town on a Sunday. The downtown area is a ghost-town. The stores and boutiques are closed, and the restaurants are dead. We got coffee and walked around looking through the windows of places we'd like to return to eventually. The Co-op in town was also having a "Fall Harvest Festival" with farmer's market-style vendors all offering samples, a wine tasting, and a live band. We wandered through that for a while and tried some awesome pickles, salsa, mustard, and hot sauces.

Finally, this weekend we ate out at a great restaurant downtown. Any Boise-ites reading along, take note: A Taste of Memphis down on Idaho St (next door to Old Chicago, and just below the Rose Room), is a great barbecue joint with the world's friendliest owner and the BEST hush puppies EVER. They seem to be getting hit hard by the slow economy: the owner said she didn't know how much longer she'd be able to stay open. It's really sad--especially when the sub-par chain restaurant Old Chicago was jumping all night next door. Charlie has the Friday Night Special--homemade Gumbo with sausage and chicken--and hush puppies on the side, and I had the barbecued pork ribs with some stellar collard greens and potato salad for sides. I also ordered some sweet tea so sugary it made my teeth hurt. I have to say, though, as amazing as my ribs were, and as tasty as the greens were (with chunks of ham cooked throughout!), the hushpuppies really stole the show. I've never been a huge hushpuppy fan--normally they seem somewhat boring: deep fried cornbread? These were awesome--crispy, hot, bite-sized, and full of flavor and spices. WOW. Anyhow, if you're in the area, I highly recommend the restaurant and especially the hush puppies. The owner and her family are ridiculously nice as well. Unfortunately, though, if you're a vegetarian, the menu might be a little on the spare side--but, with barbecue and southern food, that's no real shocker, I suppose.

Update

2008-09-08T18:59:00.004-06:00

Here's a picture of what remains of the excitement last night. Turns out it was two buildings back from ours. There was a big yellow building I didn't even know about between us and the fire.

Anyhow. Yeesh! This looks like a storage shed or something that was attached to the back of some law offices. Not much of a storage shed any longer! What we saw last night, were the firefighters walking on the roof of the brick building. I think, for the owners, it was fortunate that it was a brick building and not a wood one. Scary.

Not exactly what you want to hear at 3 am.

2008-09-08T13:21:00.006-06:00

The light flicks on in the courtyard area behind our apartment, shining through our blinds and onto the ceiling.

People are talking, though, through the window it's hard to hear what they're saying beyond murmured mumbles.

A chorus of sirens whines through the night, but that's not unusual since we live relatively close to a hospital.

Somehow Charlie and I both wake up right about the time that we hear the neighbor out in the courtyard say, in a flat, alarm-less voice, "Fire."

We look at one another, and I don't remember who it was that asked, "Should we go see what's going on?" but, we both throw sweatshirts on and walk out in our pjs.

The back courtyard is full of red flashing lights, and we can see them strobing in through our kitchen window.

We look out the front windows, and there are three or four big fire trucks parked in the street directly in front of our apartment building.

Putting flip-flops on, we go outside to try and see what's happening. Our neighbor from upstairs is on the porch next to ours, smoking a cigarette. He's in his pj's too. We talk for a minute: no, it's not our building that's on fire. He says that he thought about starting to pitch his worldly belongings from the window for a moment, though.

Idiotically, I say something to the tune of, "Wow, I think I can smell smoke or something," forgetting, of course that he's standing there smoking. Obviously, it's 3 am, and even though I feel wide-awake, my brain isn't firing on all cylinders yet. I try to cover it up by saying something to the effect of, "I thought I smelled something when I woke up, too."

Charlie and I decide to see if we can see better what's going on, and head part way around the block in one direction and then the other. We pause by the alley long enough to watch the fire fighters put a ladder up against a building just to the rear of ours. They climb onto the roof and stomp around.

There's water from their hoses all over the ground.

It's all kind of anonymous and dream-like. Some guy (I think he lives in our building, but I could be wrong, it was late, but he looked vaguely familiar), stops and asks if we're checking out the excitement in the neighborhood. We nod and mutter something inane and inarticulate, transfixed by the alien men in full-body equipment and the red blinking lights.

Then, assured that everything is under control, and that our building isn't going to burn down around our ears, we try to go back to bed and back to sleep. I distinctly remember Charlie's watch beeping at 4 am, however, and I think it was light out before I really, really fell back into any sort of a restful sleep.

In other surreal-ness, when I got up this morning, there was a lone bagpiper playing somewhere outside. I think he was practicing. It went on, quite literally, for TWO HOURS. Hello alternate reality Boise universe.

Summer vacation.

2008-09-05T10:16:00.006-06:00

It's funny how in the course of a day, sitting around until noon in your pajamas can go from being something pathetic that you try not to broadcast ("Me? Noooo, I blow-dried my hair this morning, and I am DEFINITELY wearing pants right now. In case you were wondering, I was also DEFINITELY out of bed before 10 am, too.") to something decadent that you luxuriate in and maybe even taunt your close friends with a little ("Mmm... this coffee sure is good. It's even better IN PAJAMAS! Too bad I had sit on the couch all morning with the internet and a good book... What? You had to work?"). It's amazing the power that words, terms, and states of being can have on how we (and others) view our actions. When you're unemployed, lounging around in pajamas seems a little pathetic and sloppy; when you're simply waiting for employment to begin it feels like VACATION! And there is nothing wrong with pajamas until noon on vacation!

Wait, what's that? Employed? Yes, dear friends and family, Ariel's sweet summer vacation of 2008 has officially ended: yesterday I received a job offer I couldn't refuse, and this morning I accepted it. I start work on Wednesday the 10th.

It has been a PROCESS. In all, I've had NINE interviews this go-round, three of which were for the job I've just accepted, and most of which took place in the last week and a half. Overall, I sent out 33 applications (a large chunk of those I'm including sprung forth from two standard state position listings--so, I have to say, it sounds impressive, but really, it wasn't quite as much work as it seems), I was rejected from 17 opportunities, and I turned down one offer because the management and I weren't a good fit.

I had some doozies as far as interviews went, too (I can write about these because they were either for jobs for which I was turned down, or for positions that I ended up turning down myself).* I interviewed with someone who may well have been drunk (perhaps it was just said individual's face and way of throwing back their head when they laughed, but wowza... that would have been tricky to handle in a supervisor!), I had an exceptionally combative, aggressive interviewer whose immediate purpose, it seemed, was to try and catch me in a contradiction and to fluster me out of my poised interviewing comfort zone, I had a four-hour interview that didn't even result in a thanks-but-no-thanks phone call (or even a real hand-signed signature on a piece of paper), I was turned down for a job IN an interview for being too skilled and qualified for the position, and I had a couple big let downs for awesome interviews I thought I'd nailed.

Wow. I'm glad it's over.

The timing feels right, too. As the days start to shorten, the temperatures mellow, and the nights and mornings grow chilly, it feels like time to give up on summer vacation and turn my mind toward "real life" again. I think that a job is a good step in that direction.

I'll be entering into an industry that I know virtually nothing about (don't worry, MY job is within my knowledge/comfort zone, just not the company's overall industry), and working for a much larger immediate office than I've been involved with before. But, having met the people, and having had the opportunity to get to know the company a little, I think it's a good fit and that it will be a good challenge for me. I look forward to starting.

I also look forward to not worrying about things like eating out on occasion or picking up a new pair of shoes. Yes, Otto, I can afford to buy shoes AND cat food again! You don't have to eat Hobo spiders any longer!

* * *

Aaaaand now on TV there are adorable elementary school children in hard hats with shovels breaking ground on a new elementary school. The cuteness has made me lose my train of thought, so... consider this the most recent update!

xoxo

Ariel

*In the interest of keeping my new job, and keeping positive relations with all potential co-workers and clients, I'm making the decision right now not to blog about work in any sort of a specific or derogatory way. If something exciting and big happens, expect to hear about it, otherwise just assume all is peachy. :)

And a good Labor Day to you, too!

2008-09-02T15:01:00.005-06:00

Our apartment looks like a campsite exploded in it.

In our library room, you'll find Charlie's tent, our two plastic bins of camping gear, a pile of stinky laundry, and various other bits and pieces that suggest we might have spent a weekend in the woods. Our kitchen plays host to half-eaten bags of trail mix, a sink heaping with camping dishes, and the remains of a lunch I'm trying to scarf down before attending to it all.

So, if you guessed that we spent Labor Day hiking and camping our little hearts out, you hit the nail on the head.

In somewhat of an 11th hour decision, Charlie and I selected the Eagle Cap Wilderness area as our Labor Day destination. The forecast called for "abundant sun" on Saturday, clouds on Sunday, and chilly "fall-like" temperatures for Sunday night. So we packed sweaters, gloves, and a bit of wool and polar fleece, and hit the road early Saturday morning. When it comes to getting out of the house early in the morning, Charlie and I are not yet experts. We'd determined that our departure time needed to fall between 6:30 and 7:00 am, since we had a 5 hour drive to the trailhead in Eastern Oregon (yuck). We left close to 7:30--I was feeling a little disappointed with our inability to get out the door, until I realized that just by the sheer magic of driving west, we'd gain an hour as we crossed from Mountain to Pacific time zones.

Saturday we had a gorgeous day of hiking full of rivers and peaks, blurred in my memory by a sweaty forehead and a trail that just never quit with the uphill climbing. Charlie, on the other hand was a robot when it came to reaching our destination. I don't think I ever saw a drop of sweat on his brow. When I'd arrive at a top of a tough patch, huffing and puffing like a locomotive, and trying to keep sweaty strands of hair out of my face he'd be standing there, gazing out over the view, cool as a cucumber, ready to move on. In all, we only did 6.3 miles, and about 1800 ft of elevation gain. I think I need to get in better condition before we plan any week-long loop hikes.

Our first night at the campground was nice. The lake was beautiful, but packed full of people. One of the funnier moments of the trip occurred just after we'd chosen our campsite. The clouds had blown in and the wind had picked up, and, with Charlie vouching that the coast was clear, I quick stripped down to my skivvies, and was one leg into a warmer pair of pants when a woman from the next campsite over comes bounding over the ridge "Halloooo"-ing with a smile. I sat down quick on a crumbly log (I probably have slivers in my butt that I don't even know about), and tossed my pants over my lap. It turns out she and her husband were on a eight-day backpacking trip with their two daughters and two dogs and she'd forgotten to bring along soap. They were planning on fishing, and that seemed foolish and pretty grimy without anything to wash-up with. First of all, let me point out that their daughters were probably 6 and 10. It took me a few minutes to get past the fact that they were planning a trip of that caliber with kids that young. Wow. I almost forgot that I didn't have any pants on. After asking for just a moment so that I could get dressed, we were able to get them a baggie of campsoap and send her on her way.

We didn't get rid of them entirely, though, as the two girls spent the evening and most of the next day galloping around the lake side, sneaking behind trees, and making a game out of spying on the neighbors (us). We were continually entertained by little blond heads dashing about and giggling, and snuffly dogs checking out our tent in the morning.

Our first night on the lake was nice. We hiked a little up the hill behind our site and found a campfire ring (we were too close to the lake in our site for one), and had a nice crackly little fire. It was a chilly night, so it was much appreciated. Saturday night, both Charlie and I woke up at some point to the sound of ice pellets hitting and rolling off the tent. Chilly indeed!

Our original plan had been to spend one night at Minam Lake (pictured above), and then climb a ridge and camp our second night at Mirror Lake. But, the combination of soft feet and new-ish boots left me with quarter-sized blisters on both my heels. By the time we reached the lake, they were looking awful, but hadn't burst yet (hooray for moleskin and creative band-aid-ing). That, and hearing from a few hikers that Mirror Lake was thronged with people, I asked Charlie if perhaps we could consider staying put at Minam Lake, and taking a day hike around the area on Sunday instead. He was fine with that idea, so we packed up and moved to a new campsite on the other side of the lake and set out in search of another little lake in the area: Blue Lake.

According to our guidebook, Blue Lake was only .9 miles from where we were and we'd gain about 400 ft in elevation getting there. We saw a signpost in a cairn of rocks pointing the way, but it didn't really seem to indicate much of a trail. Charlie thought that we should take the thinner trail, but I talked him into taking the more well-trod one, with the thought that maybe the sign had gotten spun around a little.
Of course, that wasn't the case. We didn't end up making it out to Blue Lake, but we did find ourselves in the Minam River Valley. It was beautiful, with sweeping green valley walls, and granite peaks looming overhead. There was also an icy wind blowing, which made us decide to turn around after a short lunch stop.

When we arrived back at our campsite, the wind was still blowing, and we unfortunately had to spend an absolutely outrageous amount of time pumping water (my filter needs to be replaced, and it started giving up the "volume" ghost on this trip--water was still clean, it just came out veeerrrrryyyyy slowly). By the time we'd finished with that (squatting unceremoniously on a rock in the lake with cold water pouring over my hands doing the same repetitive motion again and again, all with that darn cold wind blowing), I was kind of stiff and cranky. I decided to go take a nap in the tent and try to warm up. Charlie was kind enough to get a picture.

He was also kind enough to find a bunch of wood and get a crackling fire going. It took great effort, but I dragged myself out of the tent and joined him. And I was glad I did. We spent the rest of that evening by the fire, until about 8:30 (it was dark), it began SNOWING. It was small, pellety snow--it almost looked like it should have been in a snow globe. We washed dishes at super-speed and threw our things together, and threw ourselves into the tent. It was somewhat hilarious, but also extremely cozy to fall asleep with the sound of snow on the tent roof and walls.

We woke up to 1/2" coating everything, and a layer of icy water frozen on the rainfly of the tent.

Monday was a quick day. We ate breakfast in the chilly air (somehow redeemed a little by the dusting of snow--I told Charlie that I think it was probably just as cold as the day prior, but somehow my brain understood the temperature better because I could see the snow), and enjoyed an amazing, still morning on the lake before we packed up and hit the trail.

It was a quick hike out, and a long drive home, but we had an amazing time. The only thing that could have made it better would have been to share it with family and friends. So, clear your calendars--we're hoping to get back to this part of Oregon next summer, and you're cordially invited. Hearing large groups of campers laughing across the lake on Sunday night, made us wish we had a few more faces in our camping party. So, who's on board? :)

Oh, and finally, one parting shot--we're still adjusting to a few things about not living in Portland, and about living in a more "outdoorsy" place. Spotted on the highway headed home between Baker City and Boise. Idaho plates, but I think he bagged half of Oregon!

Offending the potato sensibilities of Idaho

2008-08-26T11:19:00.002-06:00

After I made the last bland post about "what we did last weekend" I remembered a story that I was meaning to relate to you but had forgotten about. So you get the BONUS FEATURE of two posts in one day.

So, as I mentioned below, one of the activities on our radar this weekend was celebrating the birthday of a close friend of mine. I wanted to find her the perfect birthday present, and, of course, she's kind of a notoriously hard person to shop for. Eventually I came up with something that I was pleased with, but then wanted to top the gift off with a little humor. And, as we now live in Idaho, I decided that a potato-theme was absolutely in order. I'd wanted to buy her a beautiful russet, tie a red ribbon around it and include it in her package, but as Friday afternoon ticked on, I ran out of time to swing by the grocery store to pick one up.

All we had at home was a bag of little red potatoes.

Creativity kicked into high gear, and I found a length of ribbon, a big needle, and strung three of the red potatoes onto the ribbon for, voila! a quick, home-made potato necklace. I stuffed it into the bag with her other gift (glassware, so I'd stashed it in my carry-on for safe travels).

Charlie and I arrived at the airport in perfect time. I took off anything metal, and we went through the security line. I have to say, for such a small airport, they sure were surly on Friday. The TSA women snapped at both of us, chastised us for heading in the wrong direction after the metal detector, and snapped at us for handing them more papers than just our boarding passes. It just seemed an extension of this hospitality when they stopped the conveyor belt to take a closer look at my bag.

There was much nodding and consulting behind the x-ray machine, and then finally one of the uniformed women stepped out, asked, "Is this your bag?" and told me she needed to take a look inside. She scooped up my bin, and led me down to the examination table. Kindly enough, once we reached the table she allowed me to put my shoes on before she started going through things. GEE, THANKS.

Her first question, "Do you have anything sharp in your bag?"

I replied that it was my work bag, and that while I didn't think I did, it was possible that there might be something I'd forgotten? (The whole time I was thinking of my old boss who'd forgotten that she had a giant steak knife in her work bag and then tried to go through airport security--didn't go over so well, but we had a good laugh over it.)

She opened up my bag and went immediately for Celeste's present. I didn't make a peep. First thing she gets to, of course, is the potato necklace. Three red potatoes strung onto a white satiny ribbon. She stops. Looks at me. Looks at the potatoes. Looks at me again. And, with no smile, question, or even hint of amusement, shakes her head disgustedly (with one skeptical eyebrow arched), and asks again, "Do you have anything sharp in there?" This time, her tone was annoyed.

I shook my head.

"Just go ahead."

"Thank you!"

Anyhow, I guess you can just call me "the Potato Bomber" from here on out.

I considered telling her it was a low-fat version of a candy necklace. Something for me to snack on during the plane ride if I got hungry.

Probably wouldn't have thought that was funny, either, though.

Misc. thoughts on various things.

2008-08-26T10:36:00.003-06:00

So far so good. We've been on an almost-weekly roll with this blog. All things considered, that's not too bad. Of course, I'd like to be even better than that about updating, but, I suppose there has to be time to do those things that we're telling you about, right?

Rest assured that things continue to plug along in Spudward land. Charlie's job is picking up steam as we approach his busiest time of year (start of school, homecoming, etc), and he's working his tookus off. Lots of early mornings, busy evenings, and hectic days. It really makes me appreciate not having a 40-minute commute to see one another--when his job in Forest Grove was in a similarly busy phase, the amount of time we were able to spend together plummeted.

I am an interviewing machine as of late: one interview last week, and three more this week. Things seem to finally be starting to stick (cross your fingers for that). To date, I've completed applications for 30 jobs, have had interviews scheduled for 6 of those jobs, and have been rejected for approximately 14 (that I've officially heard back from... a few others I think I can unofficially assume I've been rejected for based on the length of time elapsed since I've applied). Wow. Of course, a few of those applications were long shots--"Wouldn't it be awesome if..." sort of things. Sooner or later the right thing will come along. Keep thinking job-y thoughts for me!

Despite all this business, Charlie and I have been traveling machines, too. Last weekend we made it back to Oregon to celebrate and wedding and a birthday. It was such a ridiculously short trip... we both wished that we could spend another day (or ten) there with friends and family. The wedding was at beautiful Skamania Lodge, and it was great to be able to connect with the whole Johansson clan on family and friends.

Of course, for those of you who know Charlie and I (which I hope most of those reading do!), you know that the trip wouldn't be complete without something a little strange and quirky. And boy do we have it for you this time!

Our good friend Devon drove us out to the wedding on Saturday morning, and, trying to squeeze in a little more time together, we decided to find a park and hang out by the Columbia River for a while (we'd talked about day hiking, but then no one did any research, and we decided to just walk around instead). Passing the turn for Skamania, we came across Home Valley Park... a little local park with a windsurfing beach that happened to be hosting a festival that weekend: The Bigfoot Bash and Bounty.

As you know, Charlie and I have a funny fascination with all things Bigfoot (we even chose a hike just because it featured a Sasquatch trap!), so we definitely had to check this one out. The Bigfoot Bounty and Bash turned out to be quite the serious affair. It featured lectures, a concert stage, a life-sized bigfoot cut-out, a person in a bigfoot costume, face painting, a beer garden, and a fun run! Yet, despite all of that, what it lacked was any sense of humor whatsoever.

We sat down to listen to a woman speak about her experience meeting bigfoot while hiking, and I still can't believe how solemn and sincere it was. Not an ounce of humor. She deeply, thoroughly believed that bigfoot was a kind, gentle creature--as evidenced by the restraint he exercised toward loggers destroying his forests! We were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt on that, but when she said that she "sincerely believed that bigfoot was an interdimensional species" we decided it was time to leave before our snorts and chortles offended anyone. Maybe he is. Maybe we're just not ready to believe.

Here are a few pictures from the event:

Devon and Charlie get up close and personal with the hairy man of the woods:

It's real, folks, I promise!

Despite all the infrastructure for fun, not much going on here. And yes, that is a giant painted bigfoot next to the tree.

Anyhow, Charlie has Labor Day off, so we're toying with the idea of taking a camping road trip down to Salt Lake City and back for the weekend. We haven't really set up much in the way of "plans" yet, so any ideas or suggestions would be awesome. I'll let you know how it pans out.

Not even a potato product of Idaho.

2008-08-18T17:19:00.004-06:00

So I just looked at a bag of red potatoes I bought at the grocery store.

Guess where they're from.

Yeah, I would have guessed Idaho, too. Seems like a "DUH" sort of question.

They're from Tualatin, OR.

I've been quite surprised to find how many of our products and how much of our produce comes to Boise via Oregon. It seems like every time I take a moment to look, we're "importing" something into our kitchen from the motherland. Even, it turns out, potatoes.

Actually, I was doing a little website/company specific job-hunting the other day, and, knowing that it has a big presence in Idaho, wandered onto the Albertsons page. Well, guess where their corporate headquarters are: Portland.

Phllllllt.

This brings me to think about the conversations we've had about how Charlie and I are going to try to localize our purchasing power as much as possible. We don't have current plans to try for a 100-mile diet, and we don't do anywhere near the shopping we should at the farmer's market (and can't afford to shop as much as we'd like at the Co-op), but we've had some conversations about what we are going to try to consider "local." Let me emphasize, we're not "locavore" purists, but we appreciate the importance and power of that movement. So, we've decided to try and support products that come from a one-state radius: Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Montana, etc.

And probably from Mexico, too. Gotta have those avocados.

More importantly, we've decided to try to prioritize our spending when it comes to food--particularly meat. While neither of us is planning on becoming a vegetarian yet, we have decided to do our best to make ethical meat purchases. Rather than buy that cheap meat at the big box grocery store, we've decided to spend a little more on the small ranch raised, grass-fed products--or, if we can't justify the expense, we'll go without. Happy piggies taste better, and will make us feel better in the end. Not to mention we'll support small operations so as to avoid the ethical treatment issues, waste issues, and importing-across-large-distances issues.

So, anyhow. We're on the hunt for some good Idaho meat. Guess we'll have to visit the Co-op after all! Unless you know of a good meat producer in Tualatin?

On Idaho.

2008-08-15T08:02:00.003-06:00

Well, believe it or not, despite having the Olympics to wrench ourselves away from (well, wrench myself away from, Charlie seems to have no trouble), we've still managed to get out and about a little over the past week. I apologize for the lack of updates, Charlie is due up to post a great entry about our two most recent camping trips, and I was saving the spotlight for him. Unfortunately, life and work got in the way, and he's off to McCall for a weekend leadership retreat. So, until he gets back, and puts together a great post about camping in Idaho, you'll just have to suffer with me instead.

That's not to say that things aren't a little busy in my life as well. I've had some leads on jobs lately that have led to a couple interviews. I'm sort of superstitious over talking about such things while they're still in the unconfirmed phases (job opportunities), so I'll give you more details later. They've both great jobs, and so far all the people have been extremely nice. I had one interview on Tuesday, and another lined up for next Thursday. So, even though I'm not showing many of my cards, keep your fingers crossed. As nice as taking a break from work has been, I think the cat is getting tired of sharing his couch.

I mentioned a little that we'd been doing some camping lately--we had an amazing trip up to the Sawtooth Mts. that I'll let Charlie fill the details in around later. But we traveled with Charlie's parents and friends, seven of us in total, and had the chance to see Stanley, ID, and the amazing area around it. Really, really spectacular.

Charlie and I had a conversation on the car trip home about Idaho in general. How are you feeling about it? What's your impression so far? We were both of the opinion that we're quite, quite fond of the place so far--especially everything north of the foothills. We've had some remarkable trips already. As for Boise, and the more arid parts of the state, I think they're growing on us, but there's still some growing left to do. We're toying with the idea of a Labor Day weekend camping trip south of here, and driving down toward Salt Lake City for the weekend. Maybe that will give us the chance to really appreciate this desert climate.

I've gotten out into the foothills for a little sagebrush appreciation lately, and I've found it quite interesting. So dry, and such a different climate from what I'm used to. But I certainly think there's beauty there, and I'm working on finding it for myself.

I'm trying to think of an especially interesting anecdote to share with you before I go, but it's still early here, so my brain is running on empty. I'm sure I'll come up with something as soon as I sign off. If so, I'll let you know.

UPDATE: While musing over something interesting to share with the blog-o-sphere, I remembered this post that I put up before our camping trip over on Portlandiaquill. It's about getting used to all the creepy crawly and extreme things that we've been encountering here. If things like spiders with boxing-glove-shaped genitalia sound curious and interesting to you, you should probably read it. And for the record, we've killed like five of them now. IN OUR HOUSE. I'm trying to talk Charlie into getting a vacuum cleaner despite the fact that we have hardwood floors. GUHHHHH.....!!!!!

A funny story about moving out (better late than never)

2008-08-01T11:09:00.001-06:00

So, this story is a little belated timeline-wise. But I wanted to wait until things were all wrapped up with our property management company back in Portland before exposing this story to the world (internet). For those of you that haven't heard it yet, it's a doozy.

About a month ago (actually, exactly a month ago yesterday) Devon and I were working hard to complete the final scrub-down of our house in Portland. Everything was packed up and crammed into cars and moving vans, and the house was looking good. As we sweated and scrubbed in the 90 degree heat, we ticked off rooms: bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, living room--DONE! We had the kitchen left to scrub, and a final zoom through with the vacuum. Devon was scrubbing the kitchen, and I was touching up a little paint damage we'd managed to do to the baseboards around the house.

Let me advise you right now, NEVER do baseboard touch-up work in a house that you are about an hour away from being DONE with. NEVER AGAIN.

I was in one of the bedrooms, scootching my way around the floor of the room on my butt, filling the little dark spots where the paint had been chipped off. Let me add, the baseboards in our house were white, so I had a can of white paint I was carrying around with me. Paint can in hand, I stood up to take a look at how things were going, and promptly stubbed my toe on the carpet and tripped. The paint can flew out of my hands, and paint exploded across the BROWN carpet and onto the tan walls. There was paint EVERYWHERE.

Based on the speed at which Devon made it into the room, the tone of my voice when I howled "OH NO, DEVON!!!!" must have been a pretty good indicator of my emotion: panic. We grabbed as many towels as we could find and started frantically sopping up paint. What in the HELL were we going to do? Not only was our deposit as good as gone, we were probably going to have to pay to have the whole damn room re-carpeted--maybe even the whole HOUSE.

We had been probably TWO hours from being done with the house, and still hadn't had dinner. The frantic brainstorming started. I encouraged Devon to start helping with the carpet rather than the walls (we had matching paint for the walls, we could touch that up later). Thinking back to what had worked best as far as getting the paint brushes clean, I told Devon we HAD to keep the paint wet. If we let it dry, there was no hope left. I grabbed a water bottle and then a bucket and started pouring water directly on the carpet. Then came the dish soap. It had worked for getting the paint out of the brushes, why not the carpet? So, with a sponge mop, a bucket of water, rags and a bottle of dishsoap, we went to work. And believe it or not, it started to come up.

We managed to get about 1/2 of the paint out that way, I think (or maybe it was just more spread out?). Devon started thinking, and remembered that she'd seen carpet cleaners for rent at Fred Meyer. At this point, it couldn't hurt. She jumped in the car, and drove out to the store to see about renting one. Sure enough, they had them. Unfortunately, they required photo ID to rent one. And hers was locked in her office at work (oh, the coincidence). She blasted home, tossed me her car keys (mine was packed with plants--no room for a steam cleaner), and I went and grabbed the machine.

I cannot BELIEVE how well it worked. It was outstanding. Emily, David, and their friend Allen came by to pick up Flymo (our hovercraft lawnmower) as I was sucking up the last of it and drying out the carpet. By that point, aside from my frazzled appearance, they swore you couldn't tell there'd been a bucket of paint spilled all over the carpet. The other awesome thing about the cleaner, is that it sucked up all the water we'd dumped on the carpet trying to prevent the paint from drying.

Devon stopped by the next day to check on things, and she said there was no sign of the disaster. Sure enough, we got our deposit back from the management company today, and it was the entire thing.

Good grief.

The moral of this story is: don't play with paint in rental houses.

Extra curricular.

2008-07-23T13:21:00.000-06:00

I promise that this is, in fact, a Charlie and Ariel blog... searching and applying for jobs (while not far from a full-time job in and of itself) leaves me with a little more down time than Charlie has had recently to post updates. I’m sure than when our internet is up and running, you’ll hear from him a little more frequently.

Aside from all the moving in and job-hunting stuff, we’ve been pretty busy since we arrived.

To begin, as an amazing welcome to Boise gift, Brian and Marsha (friends of the Varlands), gave Charlie and I tickets to attend a performance of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, put on by the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. It was an impressive show. The acting was exquisite, and the subject, though a little somber for a typical Fourth of July, was poignant and thought-provoking.

The setting for their plays couldn’t have been more perfect. The performances take place around sunset, a little outside of town, in a sleek amphitheater tucked into a bend of the Boise river. Before the show, you package up a picnic (including beer or a bottle of wine!), and bring it and your blanket or lawn chairs to the theater. The seating is terraced, and you can find your assigned grassy plot, and set up camp. They also have tables and chairs set up further back for those less naturally-inclined (or with more extravagant picnics). Watching live theater in the cool night air (a relief after those 100-degree days!), with a bottle of wine and picnic is really about as good as it gets. I can appreciate why it’s such a beloved staple of Boise culture.

We’ve done a little biking up and down the Greenbelt (probably 5 miles in each direction, east and west), and have taken several walks around the North End (the historic district our apartment borders upon). It’s interesting to see a climate so different from that which we’re accustomed. Cottonwood trees thronging the river banks, "puncture vines" (still not sure what they are specifically except that they sound BAD) in the open areas surrounding the bike trail, and dry, dry, dry once you get away from the river. Despite all my "woe is me" over the brown hills and the lack of count-able trees, the countryside here is growing on me. The hills not sit in my mind as more "golden" than brown, and the scarcity of trees outside of the city makes the ones we have here a little more special.

Part of my "coming around" might have had to do with the short little hike Charlie and I took up at the Bogus Basin ski area a couple weeks ago. We drove up on a Friday (before he started work) and wove our way through the summer version of ski runs (dirt trails and double-tracks) to the top of the Schafer Saddle. Our trail was choked with wildflowers and thick with butterflies. To the north and east we could see acre upon acre of woods and mountains. To the south and west, dry, flat, "golden." We really do live on the edge of where the climate changes from one to the other. It’s a unique place. We had a nice picnic on the summit and enjoyed the views of the Treasure Valley and the Sawtooth Mountains. Given my skiing ability (or pronounced lack thereof), upon looking at the signs for the different runs up there at the top I gave that view an extra-hard look--it could be the only season in which I’m able to enjoy it. Unless, of course, they start allowing people to ride the lifts up and then back DOWN again.

Most recently, we were able to catch the Twilight Criterion bike race in downtown Boise. The final two races of the day (the ones we made it there for) were the top women and men racing that night--for those bike folks "in the know" I believe I heard someone say that the top riders were Category 2 racers. Included among them was Kristen Armstrong who walloped the ladies’ field in her final race before the Beijing Olympics. We had a great spot on the last corner before the finish line, and were thoroughly impressed by how fast and how nimble everyone rode. Ms. Armstrong in particular was outstanding. By the end of the race, she had left the pack in the dust--lapping them on her way to the finish line. I sent a text message to one of my bikey friends back in Portland exclaiming over this feat. Her response was "Wow, she must be a professional." It was later that we realized we’d seen someone headed for the Olympics. Explained a lot.

The men’s race was also exciting, though from our position it was difficult to tell how many laps they had left or how close they were to one another at the finish. Not exceedingly familiar with the competition, it also made it difficult to keep track of who was ahead and to not lose them in the pack. Despite that, the teamwork and strategy involved in the race was apparent, and we had a fantastic time watching it all unfold (even though we may not have completely understood what it was we were seeing at all times).

This coming weekend, we’re planning on putting together a short hike and overnight up in the mountains somewhere. We had some exciting thunderstorms blow through yesterday, so we’ll have to do some research and make sure there’s nothing washed out or burning where we intend to head. I think that we’re both excited to get out of the city (at last!) and see a little more of the state that we now call "home."

Until then,

xoxoxo

2008-07-22T23:24:00.001-06:00

END EPISODE I.

(In which Charlie and Ariel pack their worldly belongings and attempt the Oregon Trail in reverse)

Some photos from the moving in process.

2008-07-22T14:21:00.000-06:00

I've uploaded a whole slew of photos to my flickrstream. You, of course, can see the entire batch of our moving pictures there.
In the meantime, however, here are a select few to flesh out the longer post below.

As you can see, we are all still smiling. :)

This is at our first break in The Dalles. Charlie's wearing the awesome Woodpecker Trucking cap his parents found for him. It matches the giant Penske truck (for the record, I wussed out and refused to drive that truck AT ALL; Charlie is the real champ for driving it across Oregon and into Idaho).

Thank goodness for the fact that Charlie and I are cohabitating. This picture proves my crazy plant-lady tendencies. My car was packed to the gills with plants, cleaning supplies, and the cat.

All I need now is a scary Ms. Havisham cake.

We ended up having quite a bit of furniture that needed assembling. Our new Ikea loveseat is included in the tally. It was far simpler to put together than the cube of materials and 30-page booklet may have implied. We were even able to put it together as our brains slowly melted into the new hot weather.

NICE, isn't it? This was our scary view for the first couple of days. It looks like a garage! I think it's safe to say that it doesn't look like this any longer. I've taken the first couple of photos of the "finished" rooms, and will be getting them up here before long.

Updates since the prior post.

2008-07-21T12:17:00.002-06:00

Since I typed up the prior post (at home, while un-wired), there are a few things to update. Of course, we're having our very first cloudy day. It's kind of nice. :)

Finally a post about something more than the internet

2008-07-21T12:17:00.001-06:00

Even though the internet drama is still in the works (the internet is in a box on our couch, our property manager has verified that we have no normal phone jack, and she’s calling the owner and the phone company to see what happens next), I decided it was only fair to take a little time to type up a few observations about moving in, our experiences so far in Idaho, and getting used to living in an apartment again.

To begin, we had such a welcome send off from Portland and arrival in Boise on our moving day. Charlie’s mom and dad drove down to Portland so that his dad could assist us in driving our two cars and the moving van cross-state. It was such an amazing help to have that third person for the driving. We made a quick stop for a lovely warm breakfast (both the food and the people!) at the home of relatives of Charlie’s that live in Hillsboro, Oregon. After hugs and bon voyages, we hit the road.

There’s not a ton to say about being on the road. We drove. And drove and drove and drove. I’d had a bad experience the night before at an Oil Can Henry’s in which they essentially told me my car wouldn’t make it back to my house that night—let along all the way to Idaho!—so I was a little anxious about that most of the way. Suffice to say we made it here just fine. The cat survived the trip, too. We wedged the carrier into the front seat next to me, and he alternately meowed indignantly and slept with his back to me for the entire eight hours.

When we arrived here in Boise, family friends of Charlie’s showed up with tennis shoes and open arms and helped us unload the van. It was such an amazing help. We had six people in total helping us carry boxes from the street into our apartment. After spending the better part of two days painstaking loading things into the van, it was remarkable how fast we were able to empty it out. We then all hoofed it up to a bar and grill just up the road for a beer and a light dinner. After all the driving, and then a little drama with our apartment keys (the post office started forwarding my mail two days early, and thus the priority mail package containing our keys never made it to us in Portland—fortunately, our property manager lives within walking distance and could bring extra keys over), it was amazing to just relax and enjoy good food and such welcoming company.

Beyond that, our first week was concerned primarily with unloading boxes and trying to find things like clean underwear and the little Ziploc baggies we’d packed full of our furniture assembling hardware. In the process of opening and breaking down boxes, it was hilarious how many knives accumulated all around our house. We decided that 1) we felt exceptionally safe in case of a home intrusion (there were weapons hidden everywhere!) and 2) it would have been an excellent setting for an action movie (weapons hidden everywhere, boxes to back flip over). Sharp pointies aside, Otto settled right in, and we utilized our AC only a few times as we got used to a standard daily temperature of over 90 degrees. The other night, taking an evening walk, Charlie and I noted that since we’ve been here, it’s been sunnier than you can even imagine—we haven’t even had a single, fully cloudy day. Two weeks of exclusively sunny days. All sun, all the time.

Readjusting to apartment life has been… amusing. As it turns out, we’ve had a rock band (real, not video game) living in the basement apartment just below us. Fortunately, they sound awesome and they shut down practices by 9:00pm. Unfortunately they like to play loud and their drums are just below our dining room/library room. It’s also taken us a while to get used to the number of smokers in our building. They can’t smoke in the building, but it certainly wafts into the windows when they smoke in the rear courtyard. Finally, there’s a screamer in the building. We’re talking Herbal Essences, full blown best-experience-of-my life type of screamer (if you know what I’m insinuating). At least we know everyone is happy, right?

Everyone has been so friendly and welcoming. We’ve met almost all our neighbors, and they’re all exceptionally nice. The people above us invited Charlie up for a barbeque on the roof (I was feeling a little under the weather so declined), and the people (non-band people) in the other basement apartment complimented how good our food always smells. Oh yeah, and, as it turns out, the band moved out this week and the apartment below us is now for rent. Overall, things are good.

Adjusting to living together has been a funny process for Charlie and I, too. We’ve found we have such a funny collection of duplicate things. Two coffee brewers (the conversation went like this: “Mine makes tasty coffee!” “Mine’s smaller than yours! It fits better!” “Mine matches our other kitchen stuff!”—of course it was all in good spirits), too many knives, and too many Norton Anthologies. We’ve also found a few things that we’re curiously lacking: glasses (as in water/drinking glasses), floor lamps, chairs. As I’m sure any couple moving in together can attest to discovering, one of us is also a little less tidy than the other as well. I bet it won’t surprise anyone to hear how than dynamic breaks down. We’re thinking about getting Charlie a dust buster so that he can follow me around and pick up the trail of debris that follows in my wake. Whoops!

We’ve found that we’re also sharing our building with an unusual set of neighbors: a swarm of honeybees! The other night we were getting ready for bed, and I noticed Otto, nose to the ground, following behind a honeybee that was walking along the floor. The next night, there were three in the house, flying around the light fixture. We stuffed the gaps around the air conditioner with towels, and then the next day went outside to see if there was anything out there. Sure enough, in a crack between stones, we spotted a nest of honeybees. We elected not to make a big deal about it, considering the state of honeybees in the world right now, and I have to say, sitting near that window, I love to watch them flying to and from their nest. The towels worked wonders, and we all can coexist happily. Yellow jackets are one thing, honeybees have a whole different benign presence to them.

I think that this is about it for now as far as apartment updates go. I have plenty more to share with you all about other things we’ve seen and done since moving here, but those will appear in future posts. Stay tuned for updates about the day hike we took, the play we attended, live (free!) music, and the perils of job hunting.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with this funny little Boise fact. According to Wikipedia, the climate here is officially semi-arid. Other regions of the world sharing a semi-arid climate include: the Australian outback, Northern Africa, West Texas, and Pakistan. They are doing a military training exercise south of here in which they’ve created a faux Iraqi town, have hired actors, and are going to try to give soldiers a relatively similar experience to that which they’ll encounter in Iraq and Afghanistan. The newsman said that, while the temperatures were on average 10 degrees cooler here than in Iraq, otherwise it’s a remarkably similar climate.

So, there you have it. We send our love from little Persepolis.

xoxo

Ariel and Charlie

The woes of getting wired

2008-07-13T17:07:00.000-06:00

Well, we still don't have the internet.

This is becoming somewhat of an interesting saga. First, we ordered the internet from Qwest. Charlie was on the phone with them for nearly an hour. First came the identity verification test. His information failed the first time, then went through the second time (what, you have to have a green card to get the internet now?) for inexplicable reasons. Countdown: 20 minutes verifying information. Then, upon giving the associate our address, we apparently did not exist as an apartment building. We were listed as an "institute" of some sort. To remedy this situation, they need to contact our property manager and have her vouch as to the fact that we indeed have a bed, a stove, and a couch in our domicile, and that no, there weren't padded walls or any officy goings-on in our space. Once these two hurdles were cleared (countdown: 30 more minutes of waiting) the associate thanked Charlie profusely for his kindness and patience, and promised to send a box with the internet to our doorstep.

That was, I believe, Monday morning. With the giddy patience of kindergartners on Christmas Eve, Charlie and I checked our front porch daily to see if the internet had yet arrived. Finally, come Friday, it showed up. The irony of waiting for a snail mail box to bring us the internet was not lost on us--in fact, the chuckles we shared over it made the wait that much more tolerable (as did the free wireless at the Library!--that's how it's officially written here: always with the exclamation point). Charlie unpacked the box and we petted and ooh-ed over the sleek cords and fancy wireless modem router.

Then we set to locating the phone jack for the long-awaited consummation of our internet hopes. Funny thing is, there wasn't one. We've searched our apartment high and low, and unless the phone jack is hidden behind the refrigerator, we've discovered that there simply ISN'T one in our apartment. THE PAIN THE AGONY! It seems like a strange thing to be lacking, since these have been apartments for, oh, the last 99 YEARS or so. We have a call into our property manager (late in the day on Friday) so hopefully we can get this ironed out sometime this week. We asked another building resident whether he has a phone jack in his apartment, and apparently they do, so hopefully we're just not looking in the right drawers or storage closets for ours.

More about Boise and our experiences here once we're wired, I promise! For now, things are going well, and I hope they are well for you too.

We're both missing you all but having a great time here so far, too.

x's and o's,

Ariel and Charlie

Short post

2008-07-03T15:48:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to leave a short post on here to let you all know that we made it to Boise just fine.
Cat, Charlie, and Ariel are all happy, healthy, and HOT. It's supposed to be 106 here today. That's just WRONG.

Lots of stories from moving and pre-moving to share with you all, but since I'm on library-time internet, I don't have the spare minutes left.

Rest assured you will hear all sorts of fun things in good time.

Once we dig out of all the boxes in our apartment and get our internet set up, you'll be the first ones to know.
:)

Until then, think chilly thoughts for us.

One more thing...

2008-06-24T14:27:00.000-06:00

I forgot to mention in my previous post, I found out a little more about the building that our new apartment is in.

Apparently, it's on the National Register of Historic Places! The building was built in 1909, and it's one of two "Wolters Double Houses" (it, and the building next to it)--essentially, old "duplexes" or row houses. It was built by the same architects who constructed the beautiful Boise High school and the Egyptian Theater downtown!

Our leasing agent also let us know that these beautiful fixtures (in the dining room area) are original:

We'll be living in turn-of-the-century STYLE my friends! I can't wait to have you all over for tea, crumpets, and a ballyhoo.

And thus commence packing.

2008-06-24T11:28:00.000-06:00

Wow. One week (did you hear me: ONE WEEK) until Charlie and I (and Charlie's dad!) make the big drive from Portland to Boise, earthly possessions in tow.

The closer we get to that day, the more things speed up. Tomorrow is my last day of work, and then it's a pack-a-thon until we fly our little nests on the morning of the 1st.

Pack-a-thon and clean-a-thon that is.

I remain stunned by how much dust accumulates in my house. I also remain stunned by the amount of JUNK that builds up. Time to purge. Hopefully a "free" listing on Craigslist takes care of at least some of it.

I'm also going to try to sell a few more things (couch, nasty old papasan chair, some old bike wheel rims, old horseback riding breeches/boots, etc.). Hopefully craigslist works out, and we'll be done with those things soon.

* * *

Otto isn't exactly sure what to make of all this packing up. He'll zoom around the house, frolicking in all the new, extra space, and then he'll stop, look up at me with these forlorn, confused little eyes. It's pretty apparent he knows that SOMETHING is up, just not quite what.

One thing is for certain, though, he doesn't want to be left behind:

Forgot to add...

2008-06-16T10:18:00.000-06:00

Forgot to mention, the rest of the pictures from our trip are up... you can check them out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/arielarielariel/ if you're so inclined!

It's official!

2008-06-15T23:23:00.000-06:00

I got a call this morning from the woman who was looking at our rental application for our #1 choice apartment--and she confirmed it, we're set to go with our favorite place! Yeehaw!

I can't say enough nice things about the apartment--nice part of town, beautiful place, full of character. I'm running out of steam as far as a long texty post goes, but I will share some of the pictures we took of the place below.

Basic stats: 2 bedroom, one bath. Ground floor apartment. Built-in's, hardwood floors, fireplace. Laundry on-site. Good enough for me!

Dining room.

Fireplace

Pocket doors.

View down the "hall" to the kitchen.

Kitchen

From the outside. Ours is the one on the ground floor.

So there you have it! Our new house! Hooray! I think it's going to be a really lovely place to live. We're both so very excited about it.

Heading home...

2008-06-14T18:36:00.000-06:00

I'm blogging this from the Boise airport, where Ariel and I are waiting for our flight back to Portland after our three-day house-hunting trip. It's been a whirlwind of house and apartment viewings - we toured 8 different places! All were unique and different from each other. Luckily, we've narrowed the search down to our top 2 places. Both are apartments in the north end of Boise, a beautiful, old residential area of town with tree-lined boulevards and easy access to several parks and the downtown area. (You can read more about the historic north end here.) We've got confirmation from one of the apartments that they'd love to rent to us and we're pretty sure the other one will be offered to us on Monday. We will have an update here on Spudward about our new apartment soon!

After checking out rentals all day yesterday, we took an evening drive on Bogus Basin Road into the foot hills outside of Boise last night where we watched the sunset. Ariel snapped some beautiful shots of the hills and city at dusk:

Today (Saturday), we walked through the Capitol City Farmer's Market downtown, took an afternoon walk in Morrison Park (where we unexpectedly ran into the Boise LGBT Pride festival taking place!), strolled down the Boise River Greenbelt and walked through BSU's campus, and topped the afternoon off with (world famous) milkshakes at Moon's Kitchen Cafe.

It's hard to believe that we'll be back for good in two weeks! There's so much left to do before we move, but after this trip it feels like Boise will be a good "first home" for us in our life together.

"Can you come look at the house at 8:30?" "PM?! Uh... sure...."

2008-06-12T21:12:00.000-06:00

(Caveat: The following was written and posted at about 10 pm after a crazy day of house-hunting that started at 4:00am in Portland, OR. I've decided to leave it up, crazy and disjointed as it is--it captures how crazy I felt by the end of the day!!)

When we finally got back to the hotel (to finally stay there for the night, that is), Charlie turned on the TV and John Stewart was saying something about people taking vacations.
Well, today is the first of our "vacation" days off from work for the purpose of visiting Boise and finding a house to live in.

Trivial, light-hearted fun!

Actually, we're having a lovely time together--exploring Boise, meeting people, and enjoying the 70 degree days (!!!). It's just that we've been up since 4:00 am this morning.

Of course the day started E-A-R-L-Y in Portland this morning. Even the cat, known for his 7-am-on-a-Sunday-good-morning-walk-up-your-body-and-lick-your-forehead, seemed to think this was a little extreme (he was the last one in the house to get up this morning, and when I fed him, he kind of stumbled into the living room--because that's what he was "supposed" to do--and then spent a while looking at his food in a confused sort of way). We had a gorgeous and amazing flight from Portland to Boise. I forget how much I enjoy flying! As we climbed out of town, we were moments away from identifying my house from above when we broke through the clouds and into clear, sunny skies.

It was breathtaking. Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, Jefferson and the Sisters, and possibly even Baker (though, we weren't entirely sure about that one) were all rising above the clouds. I've never taken pictures from a plane before, but I think I got some nice ones today despite the fuzzy, blurry airplane windows.

In addition to the mountains, it was amazing to see how the clouds ended abruptly at the Eastern edge of Mt. Hood, and kind of poured into the valleys and into nothingness.

(In the picture above, from left to right: Mt Hood, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams)

(Above: Mt. Adams in foreground, Rainier behind.)

After we landed in Boise and picked up our rental car, we set out immediately to meet up with a rental management representative and check out a house. And so began our day. We had three appointments lined up to see houses even before we arrived. Aside from a brief interlude in which Charlie took a brief work meeting (and I went to Starbucks and searched for more houses) it was all houses all the time. Back and forth across Boise I-can't-tell-you-how-many-times.

In the end, the tally has us at: 5 houses toured, one house rented away before we could view it, and countless houses visited from the outside and either rejected or added to the "emergency back-up" list. We have three applications in-hand that we intend to complete this weekend, all three of which are for places with their perks, their quirks, and that we all love a little already. We'll see. Once our brains are feeling a little less loose and wiggly in our skulls (aka, tomorrow!) we'll be figuring out our game plan and lining up a few back-up apps.

Boy. Are. We. Exhausted.

I have to say, we've sure met some lovely people along the way today--everyone has been so kind and so friendly. I really think that we're going to enjoy living here. If for no other reason than that Boise is such a trusting place!

TWO of the appointments for houses we had lined up in advance for this trip involved landlords who left the doors unlocked (or told us, raw strangers from the internet, where the keys were hidden)--when I asked the first leasing agent about the car break-in rates in the neighborhood (a valid question, I thought, given he busy street close by, and our experiences with petty crime of that nature in Portland!), she looked at me as if I'd just said something truly appalling. It took her completely off-guard, "I don't keep crime statistic rates on my properties." But I love how trusting and sincere Boise seems. That said, I don't plan on changing my habits of locking doors any time soon!

Anyhow, we had some fun checking out rentals today, so I'll leave you with a couple funny shots.

(And no, ye curious minds, Charlie didn't actually use the toilet in the picture above.)

We're gonna get married!

2008-06-11T14:34:00.000-06:00

We're engaged! Super awesome wedding coming in 2009!

Returning to the city of trees.

2008-06-10T17:28:00.000-06:00

Contemplating how much browner it will be in Boise this trip than it was on our last (just shy of three weeks ago).

Temperatures are supposed to be in the 70's and upper 80's. Excellent house-hunting weather if I ever saw any.

In advance of our trip, I wanted to share another gem with you from the great Craigslist search of 2008.

The posting title reads: "$850 / 3br - Enchanting 3br 2ba w/ AC,Washer& Dryer included, built in wine rack (Boise Area)"

Take a moment and imagine what you picture an "enchanting" house to be. For some it might be a river view, for others s fireplace and jacuzzi tub. Here's the ad.

Perhaps I'm being a little hard on ol' Boise, but, for me, this ad demonstrates two examples of things that do not scream "enchanting:"

1) Rent to own because of pending foreclosure.
2) Taupe.

Though, I suppose if I were to REALLY utilize that built-in wine rack HARD, anything could eventually become "enchanting" enough....

Cross your fingers, we have four appointments set up for walk-throughs (of exceedingly enchanting houses, of course!).

More updates from the road to come!

Boise, Boise, Boise and thoughts on finally being off the road.

2008-05-27T19:33:00.000-06:00

Our weekend trip to Boise wrapped up on Tuesday.

It was a whirlwind experience and a great time.

We spent a little time house-hunting, attended a lovely wedding (I'll let Charlie fill you in more on that later), and had the chance to get a feel for the downtown and north end.

First impressions? Friendly and dry.

Everyone we met in Boise was so nice and was eager to share suggestions and recommendations for future residents. Though it's hard to get a good impression of a place from a 24-hour stay, my first impression of the folks who live there is very positive.

The climate, however, is going to be dry-dry-dry. Though we heard this tends to be a "greener" time of year there, to our eyes (accustomed to the lush, verdant jungle that is western Oregon--"Please! STOP GROWING and give me a chance to catch up with you, LAWN!"), everything seemed brown and burnt-out already. I predict that, for me, this has the potential to be something that will take a while to get used to. As I told Charlie, I was virtually raised under a toadstool in the Seattle area, and my later move to Portland hasn't done much to dry me out. My gills still function just fine, thankyouverymuch! I've never much needed to use hand lotion or chapstick--I predict that soon may change. I also predict that when we move to Boise, you'll be able to often find me prone, under the sprinkler, trying just as hard as the grass to absorb a little "green."

But, that's just the landscape--and I can get used to that.

The food we had the opportunity to eat there was fantastic--we had lunch at a lovely Mediterranean restaurant in the downtown area. It was delicious. The downtown seems to be thriving and lively--lots of restaurants with outdoor seating, and lots of people out and about everywhere. Lots of bikers and joggers, and people enjoying themselves. And finally (perhaps most important!), plenty of coffee shops to keep Charlie and I awake and alive.

We looked at a house for rent. It was adorable and in a good neighborhood. We were ready to rent it, and even called the woman back to say so--in the end, though, it ended up not quite working out. They say things work out the way they do for a reason, and I think this may be an instance of that. Even after we'd called, the more we thought about it, the more reserations we started to have. What? You want to sell it after a year? What? You want to remodel the whole kitchen when we're "out of town for a weekend" (seriously: tile the floors, replace the cabinets, new counter, new dishwasher, etc. Unrealistic goal!)? So, we're back on the house hunt again, this time with a few more options in hand before we head on our next trip east.

Even though we didn't get it, we're still so, so excited to find something together:

Anyhow, overall it was a great trip, and we'll be back soon with more stories I'm sure.

I'll leave you with a great photo from Charlie's dad of the big wind turbines in the Gorge. Even more impressive than the shot, is the fact that he took it from the backseat while we were driving down I-84!

Windmills in the Gorge, photo by Dan Varland.

On the Road... to Boise

2008-05-24T22:55:00.000-06:00

Good morning campers!

While most of you are hunkering down in the extreme weather in Portland tonight (lightning, heavy rain), Charlie and I (and Charlie's parents) are overnighting in Eastern Oregon. Baker City, to be specific. Thanks to wifi at the Best Western, I can share a few nice road photos with you.

The drive has been beautiful and relatively uneventful--sunny most of the way, though we ran into a few storm cells as we were heading into the hills east of Pendleton. We had a nice dinner at the Red Lion in Pendleton, and though the hotel itself was kind of a blast from the past style-wise (and age-wise with regard to most of its patrons!), the view out the restaurant's big picture windows left us looking mostly beyond the walls.

Tonight we're hoteling it up, watching cable and bouncing on the beds, but tomorrow will find us up early to make a rental-house-viewing appointment at 10:30 am in Boise. We had somewhat of a distressing realization as we were coming into Pendleton--we'd arranged a 10:3o am appointment, planning to leave Pendleton at 7:00-ish am. That appointment was on Boise time, however (Mountain Time), and we were on Oregon time (Pacific). We did some last-minute plan changing, though, and worked it out just fine--we've a 6:30 am breakfast date with Charlie's parents in the morning, and hopefully will be on the road to Boise at 7.

I haven't been south of La Grande since I was 15 or 16, and I really didn't remember how spectacular the valley containing Baker City is. We drove in right at sunset, and the sky was lighting up the snowy mountains that border the highway on both sides and turning the clouds pink and orange.

Anyhow, time for me to pay attention to Charlie now, but let me leave you with a few photos from the Emigrant Springs area viewpoint just outside Pendleton.

Things to Do

2008-05-23T15:43:00.000-06:00

I asked someone I know who is from Eagle, ID recently what his top five things are to do in Boise. Here's what he told me, in order.

5) Drinking the amazing milkshakes at Moon's Kitchen Cafe.

4) Biking or jogging on the 25-mile Greenbelt (which follows along the Boise River).

3) Skiing at nearby ski areas, such as Bogus Basin.

2) Taking in a football game at Boise State University. (And enjoying the view of BSU's unique blue astroturf.)

1) Floating down the Boise River. (This is a favorite summer pastime of many Boise-ites. Nearly everyone I've talked to says it's a must.)

Ariel and I are pretty excited to try these things. Perhaps a milkshake at Moon's will be in order after we unpack all of our boxes.

Reaction.

2008-05-21T14:56:00.000-06:00

So far the "We're moving to Boise!" reaction has been pretty positive.

Not sure about Charlie, but I've had a few funny responses.

One co-worker at the high school fixated upon the idea of DUST:

"It's supposed to be real dusty there," he said. "I know someone who moved here from there. She said her husband shined his shoes before work every morning, and as soon as he stepped outside? WHAM. DUST. So, watch out for the dust."

Another made me feel so special:

"Oh. That's about where I grew up. Hmm. Interesting. Well, I suppose this means I need to get the Conference Proceedings finished."

(I should say that she went on to say very positive things about Boise; also the "Conference Proceedings" are a project for which I'm waiting on a piece from her to finally complete--I've been waiting since November for that piece.)

Overall, though, everyone seems to be excited.

Spudward!

2008-05-21T14:21:00.001-06:00

At least for the weekend at any rate.

We're headed to Boise for the weekend with Charlie's parents. I'm certainly looking forward to checking it out and seeing what this "place" where supposedly I am going to "live" is like.

The only time I've spent in Boise was an overnight stay mid-road trip en route to New Mexico when I was 15 or 16. In contrast, once this weekend is over, Charlie will have been there three times in the last month--twice in one WEEK even! (On a side note: he commented to me the other day regarding a short work-related trip earlier this week, "I've never flown somewhere just for a day before! I've never been important enough for someone to fly me somewhere for a day before!" Exciting things!)

It's funny, from my point of view, Boise still seems like a unique and interesting "vacation" destination. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that I'll actually be living there and actually needing to find lucrative employment in "the city of trees" (as it's called) in about a month. Also hard to conceptualize: I won't be living in Portland any longer. No longer an Oregonian. No longer a Portlander. I'll have a new driver's license, new plates on my car (Idaho... those are the red, white, and blue ones, right?), and will have to register to vote again.

Of course people do this all the time--every day. It's not like this is a strange, remarkable thing, but nonetheless, it's a big life change. That said, I'm thankful for such a great partner in adventure. I couldn't ask for someone better. :)

For Rent: BIG YARD.

2008-05-19T13:03:00.000-06:00

Half of the fun (or frustration) of moving is browsing through the FOR RENT ads on Craigslist. Doing so can give you a real sense of the place you're moving to, and sometimes, a great sense of the people who live there.

I ran across one the other day, that, while not IN Boise (in a nearby city), I hope exemplifies the sense of humor of the average Idahoian (Boisian? What will we call ourselves?).

In particular, the picture of "Junior" (or maybe that's Fido?) and the emphasis, nay, insistence on a bonfire really tickled me.

I've PDF'd it so we can enjoy it forever, since Craigslist postings tend to expire.

Here's the link: House for Rent

What, what?

2008-05-18T12:02:00.000-06:00

There's a rumor going around that we're moving to Idaho.
Let me banish it from the ephemeral world of myth and hear-say.

Is this true?
Sure thing. Charlie got the phone call last week and now we're Boise-bound.

Boise, Idaho!

6 hrs, 45 minutes from Portland, OR.
9 hrs, 25 minutes from Hoquiam, WA.
8 hrs, 53 minutes from Seabeck, WA.
8 hrs, 42 minutes from Kingston, WA.

6 hrs, 24 minutes from Grand Teton National Park.
6 hrs, 52 minutes from Yellowstone National Park.
5 hrs, 59 minutes from Steens Mountain, OR.
4 hrs, 49 minutes from Salt Lake City, UT.

Good news: a week or two after we move, we get the opportunity to see Andrew Bird and Josh Ritter, co-headlining together. I think this is a good sign.

In other things, we wanted Otto to have plenty of warning, so we broke the news gently.
As you can see, he's still adjusting to the idea:

xoxo

Ariel