Life on the Palouse

Donnelly, Idaho

2008-01-22T19:12:00.000-08:00

Thanks to our friends Andy and Keri (who initiated the journey), we spent MLK weekend in Donnelly, Idaho with them and our friend Carlie. Donnelly is just south of McCall, Idaho which is about 200 miles south of Moscow. It's in some mountains (name? I dunno) and some lakes and lots of trees and is quite pretty. We rented a house (this one) and did alot of snow playing. You can see photos on my flicker site here: slideshow version or here: backwards, that is, not in order, for some reason. It was a fun weekend. We snowshoed a lot, played games, ate good, drank good, and sadly watched the Packers lose--well, sad for me at least.

It's been a weird semester so far, just trying to get ahold of my schedule which is almost TOO open. I teach Tuesdays from 9-10:30 and 3-5:30, then Thursdays from 9-10:30. That's IT! I have meetings and other student appointments, but I'm trying to find ways to get some research done. I love the schedule, but am having to learn to work with it a bit more productively.

Ok, I'm off to watch some bad tv.

christmas

2008-01-05T18:08:00.000-08:00

I've grown tired of posting photos here as it takes too much time, so....I've started a flickr account. You can see some xmas photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristinarola/

Christmas was good, but strange. Well, more that not being in the UP for the first time in 31 years was strange. Adam and Anne showed up late in the day on the 22nd. We drove to Uniontown and ate yummy burgers at Eleanor's. Sunday I have no idea what we did, but I suspect it involved being lazy. Christmas Eve we ate chex mix and drank Old Fashioneds (courtesy of dad) and Jeff whipped up a yummy meal. It was good. Christmas day we all had to head to Spokane by day's end (as we were flying out of Spokane at 6am on the 26th). But, we woke up, opened a ton of presents, ate bubble bread and sausage and cookies, ate leftovers, and then finally drove to Spokane around 7pm. While we had a white Christmas, it hadn't snowed in days UNTIL we decided to drive to Spokane. It was awful! UP blizzard awful! We had to go 35-40mph the whole way. It took almost 3 hours to get there when it usually takes 1 hour. Then Christmas day our flight was delayed 2 hours, and Adam and Anne's--while on time--sat on the runway for an hour getting de-iced. They missed their connection in Salt Lake. Thankfully we had a super long layover in MSP so our lateness didn't really matter much. But then our flight from MSP to Chicago was also delayed.....suffice it to say it was a looooong day. We finally made it to Chicago around 7pm and went to get Indian food for dinner w/ Katie and Cheryl. Adam and Anne also finally made it after some weird diversion to Cincinnati.

Chicago was good, but busier than I thought. I had to do interviews at strange intervals everyday. Eg; Friday 11-12, 2-3, 3-4. So it pretty much shot my entire day. The good news was that Cheryl stayed w/ us and we got a free upgrade to a suite b/c they screwed up our room. We also ate amazingly well, eating on Bedford at Frontera and a fusion Indian/Mexican place, then eating w/ Karen and Eli at a great Italian place and at Avec. So, it was great to see people . We also caught up w/ Alex Ilyasova a bit. I just imagined I'd have more freetime during the day which didn't happen. So be it.

We all, shockingly, got back to Spokane on time and w/in 5 minutes of each. After a delicious Mexican lunch in Spokane, we came back to Pullman for New Years Eve. We were so so tired that it was hard to function, but we managed to barely celebrate by watching TV and drinking a few leftover Old Fashioneds. Adam and Anne didn't make it to midnight, but I saw 30 seconds of it. Good enough!! Those kids headed back to Eugene on Jan 2 after a day of lazy. Lazy was good.

Now we're back, resettling into our routine. Spring semester starts on Monday--I could really use a few more days but so be it. Our weekend has been super lazy so that makes up for it mostly.

Off to eat dinner. Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving, etc.

2007-12-16T14:39:00.000-08:00

Greetings. My evil semester is finally over, and now I find myself in my PJs on Sunday at 2:30pm watching Lord of the Rings--this is pleasant.

In any case, Thanksgiving happened. Mom and Bill came to Pullman to visit

We tried to go to Joseph, OR--turns out it's a long drive. We only made it 1/2way, but saw some nice scenery on the way.

It was a pretty rotten day, and ended up snowing. Hence, our snowy house (it still looks like this, which is nice now that Christmas is approaching).

Eventually, we all made our way to Eugene where we drank beer

...and where we ate

...and where a small child filled a sisu shotglass with sausage
...and where Adam practiced being an old lady version of himself
...and where we took pictures of ourselves
So that was Thanksgiving. It was good.

This weekend Chris and Sharon and their circus (2 kids, 2 dogs) came down to visit. The kids are absurdly cute. We ate, drank, and were merry.

And speaking of merriment, our Christmas tree! We look tired. We are.
Adam and Anne will be here for Christmas, so that should be fun. This is my first Christmas in 31 years that I won't be in the Keweenaw. It's Jeff's first (33 years!). Phew. It's really nice not to be worrying about travelling though, much more relaxing. We'll see how it goes.

on that note, back to tv and snacks.

The Gales of November Remember

2007-11-11T20:32:00.000-08:00

It's been less than a month since my last post--not so bad! It's been busy to say the least. Lots of teaching, lots of advising, lots of work. Last time I posted we were headed to Portland. We had a really good time there, but for some reason I didn't take any pictures....who knows. We ate well and explored the city more than we had in the past. We also found the neighborhood we'd like to be idle rich in....now to win the lotto--it might help if we actually played it.

Lately we've been up to some nesting activity--painting, cleaning, rearranging furniture, etc. We move the dining room and at some point I should make a video of how it's all layed out now, but the dining room now looks like this:

Jeff has also been cultivating some facial hair. We went mushrooming last weekend and Jeff's beard helped with the mood of the northern Idaho woods:

This weekend we went up to Coeur d'Alene to visit Chris and Sharon and meet their new spawn. Their previous spawn, Silas, has a sweet little drum set which Jeff spent some time playing with (note, this is toddler size):

They fit Silas better:

Finally, Willow. It's hard to get good pics of squirmy babies.

Mom and Bill are headed here at the end of this week. We shall cavort in the Palouse and then head to Eugene for Turkey day.

Fall

2007-10-17T22:02:00.001-07:00

Apparently teaching 3 classes means that I only post in here every 2 months now...yeah me. Oops. So, stuff happened, it might've been good.

In September, we went on a Seattle journey to see a few concerts. One night we saw the Animal Collective in this club on Capitol Hill. It was bizarre, but interesting. We were old there, and got to watch all the cool kids be young and cool. The next night we saw the New Pornographers at a club downtown. They were really good. We were average age there, along w/ all the other married, balding, 30-something ex-college radio folk. It was fun to see shows again, it's been awhile.

Seattle:

On our way back from Seattle we drove through a grass fire. It was scary. Moments afterwards the highway was closed (it should've been when we drove through it as I'm pretty sure flames shouldn't be licking your tires as you drive).

Approaching the fire:

Miles after the fire, looking back over the river:

In September we also finally felt settled into the house. We still have a number of ongoing small project, but it feels much more like home now. Note, home:

In October, dad and Kelly came to visit. We had fun, ate good, and did some exploring. Some photographic evidence:

Down @ the Snake River--

Dad @ the Snake River, wearing the Packers shirt the day BEFORE the game, thus assuring a win:

Jeff @ the River looking like a badass:

The obligatory Lewiston view:

And then we went to Steptoe Butte which we had never been to. These pictures really don't do it justice, it was pretty amazing.

Dad and Kelly:

O'er there!

Good times.

Also in October, we bought gutters. Then the rain began. I guess gutters are good. We also had a visit from the world's biggest slug (seriously, what the hell?):

Tomorrow we're headed to Portland for the weekend. I have a meeting at WSU-Vancouver on Friday so we're making a weekend out of it. Hoorah!

On that note, I think you'll probably hear from me in another 2 months....such is the semester.

belated UP photos

2007-08-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

i'll post some photos of alex's visit later this week, but at the moment i'm catching up on my UP summer vacation photos--or at least a few highlights.

adam and anne's friends michael and melissa came to visit little traverse, we spent some time w/ dad and kelly in the front porch (aka, the place where, as grandpa burt says, "the damn thing [the lake] looks different every night).

jeff grills a duck beer can style:

this is me after performing katri and dan's wedding ceremony. i look very reverend-y don't i?

jeff and anne dance weird:

adam, jeff and anne do the traditional billy idol sneer:

my ladies!

ani is a bunny, matt is an angry bunny:

post-suomi breakfast. my people.

so that's that for now. i started teaching today, and i am a sleepy beaver. more later...

vacation!

2007-08-12T21:52:00.000-07:00

Jeff and I had the incredible burden this weekend of having a free cabin to use in Hope, Idaho (just near Sandpoint) overlooking Lake Pend Orielle (pond-er-ay). God bless generous colleagues. We headed out Friday afternoon, stopping at the coop to buy salami, mozzerella, tomato, basil, bread, wine, cereal, milk, and beer. It took about 1:45 to get to Coeur d'Alene and then another hour to Sandpoint. Finally, from Sandpoint to the cabin took about 30 minutes. Sandpoint is like Traverse City. A real mix of tourists and locals, and amazing views. Lots of cute shops, restaurants, etc. As you drive north and east around the lake (Hope is actually southeast of Sandpoint, but you have to go around the lake to get there) it becomes much less touristy, although it's definitely still got that vibe--just much less Traverse City feeling and much more Copper Harbor, if that makes sense.

The drive from Sandpoint to the cabin is crazy beautiful, weaving through the mountains and popping out periodically on the lake. See:

The actual town of Hope is teeny, with a few marinas, a few restaurants, and that's about it. The cabin is a little outside of Hope. You drive up this dirt road up a big ol' mountain. There is a real mix of cabins on the road. Some are trailers w/ junkyard dogs, some are really big ol' fancy log cabins, and everything in between. On the way you go by our favorite place, appropriate for north-Idaho (think militia):

We then found the cabin, just as the sun was starting to get low in the sky. This is a photo on our way out actually, but you can see the cabin:

It's on a sloping 5 acre lot, with a mix of grassland and big ol' conifers. It's a great 3 bedroom place, nice kitchen, and lots of windows. The best part is the view, and the front porch. We probably spent most our time on that porch.

Here's me when we first got there, opening my beer and prancing about the grassland:

Ok then, the view:

Not half bad eh?

Friday night we drank some wine and ate our coop goodies, as we were too fried to go back to town for dinner. It was quite lovely. We got up Saturday, hung out on the porch for awhile--see Jeff eat breakfast:

..and then we headed down to check out the water. There is a campground/public beach just down the hill from the cabin. It's really nice, and far less busy than the ones at Sandpoint, but still very popular.

Walking up to the water:

The lovely lake, as clear as Superior:

The beach, it's quite rocky:

And then, the self-portrait:

We wandered about Sandpoint later Saturday, and then eventually headed back to the cabin. Grabbed a belated birthday/anniversary dinner down at a place on the water, just a few miles from the cabin. It was really nice and quite tasty, plus it had a hell of a view.

Today, Sunday, we got up late, did our porch breakfast and eventually packed it up and headed out. Overall a really great vacation. Could've used about 2 more days of staring, but still, this was good.

sort of unpacked

2007-08-12T21:43:00.000-07:00

so the upstairs of the house is about as put together as it's going to get until we finish up the basement and move the tv. so....pictures:

the kitchen, notice the nice new black fridge. oooh, and we sold our old fridge tonight which was incredibly exciting and a bonus $200. yippee.

the dining nook, although we're pondering moving it to the office space. that won't make much sense via these pics, but if you were in the house you might get it. still, it works good for now.

the living space. that chair is sort of floating right now, but it works. also, the tv won't be staying there, but again, it works for now.

the office/bar:

and finally, the back stairwell which is going to be our picture hallway.

and there you go. tahdah.

we're still alive!

2007-08-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

So yeah, it's been awhile. The past month has been a blur. We went to the UP on July 12, got back here late on July 24, and then had a week to pack, move into the new place, and clean the old one. Needless to say it's been a pretty crazy month. BUT, we're now in the new place, our HOME, and are feeling really good about it. The main floor is almost unpacked and settled, but things are in a bit of disarray in that the TV is up here now, but once the basement is set up we're going to put the entertainment center down in the family room. Therefore, things aren't quite yet where we want them upstairs, thus: no pictures for you! Once the upstairs is feeling more like the way we want it, instead of in a bit of transition, then the pictures shall begin.

I've also been working on the yard a bit. I bought a few plants at the farmer's market last weekend (some black-eyed susans and some echinacea) and am cleaning out an old icky garden bed and getting those plants settled. The backyard is going to be really cool eventually, but is going to take some time and money (which is running low right now....i don't get paid over the summer and while we saved for it, the house ate up more than we sort of imagined...september 10, the 1st payday, can't come soon enough!).

Everyone who has come over since we moved is really surprised at how different the place looks. It's nice to have other people notice all the crazy hard work we put into it, it truly does look way different and really feels like ours.

So, I start school on August 20. Kind of crazy how quickly that's sneaking up on me. Bah. Oh well. I'm almost looking forward to the mundane again instead of this bizarre and hectic summer. Before that starts though, we're headed to Hope, Idaho this weekend for my birthday getaway. A colleague has a cabin up near Lake Pend Orielle and he's letting us use it for the weekend. It's near Sandpoint, Idaho, but just around the lake. We're looking very forward to it. The cabin has scrabble and a ping pong table, so I'm looking forward to wine, cheese, ping pong, scrabble, and naps.

Also, before school starts, Jeff's cousin Alex has decided to come and visit. He'll be coming on August 15. Our first house guest! This will force us to actually start unpacking the basement, as the guest bedroom is down there. Someday we'll save the money to put an egress window down there so that the bedroom is legal and so that the room feels a bit more hospitable, but for now it'll do.

Anyhow, yeah, that's us lately. Busy, but good and onto a new adventure--living in our own home! Hoorah :) Hope you're all doing well.

things were done

2007-07-11T00:12:00.001-07:00

It's past midnight, got home not long ago from a long long night of work, but things got done and nothing went terribly wrong. I can only muster some photographic evidence:

Our floors rule.

progress!

2007-07-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

So Jeff and I worked on the house Saturday from 9-8, and then today from 10-6. We are very tired, but we did a lot of good things. The countertop is officially on and fits. The hole for the sink was officially cut. The sink is officially installed. The plumbing is mostly done, except for an old ass broken pipe (the drain pipe between the sink and the basement) that needs a plumber to get it undone so we can replace it (as the top part cracked as it is so old and nasty). To get this far took a lot of work.

Part 1: countertop didn't fit, have to trim countertop. Fits.

Part 2: countertop fits end to end, but the backsplash blocks 1/2 of each outlet on the wall. Have to move outlets. Took all week (involving demoing part of wall, rebuilding wall, rerunning electrical).

Part 3: countertop fits end to end and doesn't block backsplash, but NOW the front to back is such that the backsplash juts out so far that the sink (well, at this point we haven't cut for sink yet, but measuring tell us) won't fit as the front of sink basin will just into front of cabinet.

Part 4: drive to Lewiston, imagine they make narrower sinks and Home Depot will sell them. No dice. This is Friday night, and we give up and have dinner at a wacky pizza place in Clarkston--pizza w/ mustard instead of tomato sauce, canadian bacon, yum yum yum. Bud in mugs. Good.

Part 5: realize we have to make countertop narrower, rent belt sander and Jeff spends an hour Saturday morning hunched over the countertop and sands an inch off the backsplash. Countertop finally fits!!!

Part 6: measure a million times for the sink hole. finally get it lined up. Cut hole for sink.

Part 7: get countertop (w/ Ruth's help) on cabinets, do some more beltsanding to get sink hole big enough. It fits! Happy dances! Oh crap, for some reason the standard sized sink screws won't fit between our sink and countertop. Give up. Sleep.

Part 8: Jeff does a bunch of plumbing. We visit hardware stores around lunchtime today, realize they don't make bigger sink screw contraptions. Jeff comes up w/ very creative solution. It works.

Part 9: Finally get sink screwed down. Plumbing mostly in. Test. Wait a second, the hot comes from the left pipe, not the right. Plumbed backwards. Hilarity. Thankfully an easy fix (just a quick switch) which will be done tomorrow.

Part 10: Eat frozen pasties. Look forward to vacation.

So yeah, that's the countertop debacle--we totally thought it would be easy and we've been messing w/ the sucker for a week now. But, it's pretty much done and it looks really nice. The before and after pic looks funny right now because we don't have the doors on the bottom yet, we're going to be doing a tile backsplash after we move in (so you're looking at old laminate glue from where we tore that off), and we still haven't had time for the floors. We realized it won't be too hard to do once we're in because all we have to do is move the stove and fridge which are rolly. It might happen before we leave on Thursday, but I'm kind of doubting it.

The electrician comes tomorrow to wire up the disposal (which we also put in), the dishwasher (which we also put in) and to give us a bathroom fan and outlet (which 1940s houses apparantly don't have). Tralala. So so sleepy.

Ok, a sort of strange before and after--think of not as after but as "in progress."

and the working man....

Goodnight everyone. Probably no updates for awhile...unless those floors magically get in before we leave.

you know what's....

2007-07-03T22:21:00.001-07:00

You know what's hard? Precisely fitting a countertop between two fixed walls. Our countertop is 11 feet and runs from wall to wall in the kitchen, so leaves no room for error. Last night Jeff cut it (took a long time due to some unexpected nails) and we had to call our friend Andy over to help us lift it up and after all this....it didn't fit. We gave up. Tonight, went back, recut, called Andy again, and voila! It fits!

You know what's funny? Sure, the countertop fits, but did we take into account the outlet and lightswitch on the back wall? The ones that were once visible but now w/ the built in 3" backsplash on the countertop, coupled with standard height cabinets that are a bit higher, are 1/4 covered? Um, no, we didn't take those into account.

You know what Jeff is doing right now? Reading about how to move electrical boxes.

You know what we're doing tomorrow? Hoping to move electrical boxes so that we can get back on schedule. However, 5pm signals bbq time at Andy's so we will give up at that point (if not sooner).

You know who has a lot of patience, much more than me? Jeff. I just want to pay people to fix shit when it goes wrong. My sisu is weak with the home repair.

You know what's really insane? PULLMAN LOVES FIREWORKS. There are 2 firework stands that have been up since the weekend--and tonight both had lines about 10 deep. The past 1.5 hours prove that point as that since 9pm there has been constant, and I mean constant, noise from fireworks. It's all around us. It's really amazing and starting to get mildly annoying. I wonder when it will stop. Along with the constant fireworks are a lot of freaked out barking dogs. Good times. 3 cheers for America.

So yeah, no parades for us tomorrow. BUT, bbq and then fireworks and local bands at Sunnyside Park in Pullman so that should be entertaining. The bus is running tomorrow night too, so no need to drive or find parking. Hoorah for public transit. Boo for lack of forethought. Yeah for Jeff's perseverance.

ps to below post

2007-07-01T23:24:00.000-07:00

OH, and I should've said: it was Jeff's birthday on Friday too, so we went out for a nice dinner @ Swilly's and went to a friend's place for dessert. Twas good.

Also, for those who heard about my cousin Brad's accident, he's doing better but still in very critical condition @ UMichigan's burn unit. They've been able to do some skin grafting on his hands, but they still have him on meds to keep him totally unconscious b/c of the pain. Crazy stuff--kind of puts our dumb stress in perspective.

So yeah, there is more to life than the house--like birthdays and perspective.

xo

timelines are no fun

2007-07-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

We have officially reached a terrifying point where we have TEN days left to finish up our work on the house. Reason is, in 11 days we fly back to the northwoods and when we return on July 24 we have one week left of our lease--meaning we need to move asap. Considering we haven't even packed one box yet, we need that week to pack and move. So...10 days. We've done a crazy amount of work in the past month but have a few major things left to do.

Lately, we've been tackling the final chore in the house: the kitchen! We planned on bumping out the old base cabinets about 4" so that they'd be a standard depth and we could install a dishwasher and use our new countertop w/out having to get it specially made. We began this task last weekend, and realized that it was a near impossibility. After a few panic attacks, and the help of some housewarming gifts from family, we decided to make a Home Depot run and buy new base cabinets. So...new base cabinets were purchased on Sunday and picked up in 2 chunks--one chunk on Friday night w/ our Uhaul. We also picked up the floor tile and the new countertop at this time. Saturday we got a call that our other chunk was in, so back to Lewiston.

In between the 2 Lewiston trips, we did a MAJOR chore of cleaning out the garage. The garage had become our dumping ground and had all old drapes, carpeting, padding, etc etc from the house. The garage also was full of other crap b/c we made a deal with the devil (aka estate sale guy) and for FREE got all of the contents of the garage--which meant good things like rakes and ladders, and gross things like dead mice, 50 year old lawn chemicals, and oodles and oodles and OODLES of junk. We're pretty sure they saved everything, it was pretty insane. Once we started cleaning we just unearthed more and more and more. We started the cleaning on Saturday morning and filled the entire 14 foot Uhaul. We got to the dump around 3pm and it felt really really good to get rid of all that crap. It was an incredibly filthy job though, and also exhausting. We had to get the truck weighed before and after in order to pay, and turns out we had THREE-THOUSAND POUNDS of garbage. So, in the span of a morning and afternoon, Jeff and I moved 3000 lbs of crap twice. We were so so so tired after that it was crazy. We got back to the house and gave the remaining stuff in the garage a good clenaing and now have a very lovely garage. For some really unusual reason we didn't take before and after pics, but do have some pics from the landfill which are kind of fun:

Notice the front-end loader pushing all of our garbage onto a conveyer belt--pretty slick. Also notice all the dust particles in the air--yuck.

Thumbs up to garbage! This is about 1/4 of the way through.

Jeff's arms after the journey. He is NOT that tan. We both took showers and left huge dirt rings in the tub--pretty nasty.

So, that was Saturday. Today began the day of kitchen. We spent all day getting the base cabinets in. It was pretty tricky getting them level and square as nothing in our house is level or square. But, there they are--they're in.

The beginnings: notice no cabinets.

Cabinets on the move:

And the end result of today. The new dishwasher is just sort of hanging out there, we need to hook all plumbing up still...but it looks cool.

Alrighty then, that's been our life lately. Get up, work, come home, eat, go to house, work, sleep, repeat. Vacation will be lovely.

The current timeline:

Monday: countertops on, sink in (but not plumbed in)
Tuesday: plumbing and garbage disposal
Wednesday: 4th of July, beer, fireworks, hopefully a day off if we're lucky
Thursday: current temp predicted is 101!!! Ack. Plan is to lay the kitchen floor, but we'll see how the heat goes.
Friday: floors
Saturday & Sunday: buff and revarnish living/dining/bedroom floors (we're not redoing them, just lightly sanding and revarnishing)
Monday: electrician comes, puts fan and outlet in bathroom, wires up dishwasher and disposal
Tuesday, Wednesday: probably do all the stuff that didn't actually happen according to schedule.
Thursday: fly to green bay. get ride to UP. sleep deeply.

So yeah, we've been busy. And so it goes.... looking very forward to vacation.

More Kuure Photos

2007-06-20T18:06:00.000-07:00

As you see in the previous post, the Kuures did a ton of work while they were here. But we also did a few other things, sort of. We picked them up last Tuesday and did the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene tour. Evidence:

The falls in Spokane were really rushing, this photo doesn't really do it justice. We also did the campus tour, and took the standard wind-sound-sculpture pics.

On our way down to buy a new dishwasher and fridge from Sears in Lewiston, ID (at the Father's Day sale, we're totally lame adults now) we stopped at the lookout above Lewiston. Lewiston is close to sea level, and this lookout is at 2000+ feet.

But really, other than eating a lot of meat and ice cream (hoorah for animals!) we spent most time working on the house. Evidence:

Ok then, it is documented.

living room post kuure

2007-06-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

\I'm very sleepy and will post more photos and tales of the Kuure's visit later, but for now here's a few pics of the living room/dining room before and after. Enjoy!

Walking into the living room before....

and after...

The front door before....

and after....

These pics don't quite match up, as the first one didn't show the mint green bookshelf and closet door, but you get the idea. Also, we're still missing a light fixture for this room--need to get on that. Ok then, before....

and after...

The free day laborers.....

A magnet reminder from my mom....

And a sneak peak of things to come:

The bathroom walls and floor are done, but we still need to get fixtures up so pics are waiting on that one. The kitchen is our next major chore. And I mean major.

g'night.

olympia

2007-06-11T21:50:00.000-07:00

So Jeffrey and I made a hasty decision Thursday night and decided to drive to Olympia on Friday to visit Erica and hit Ikea (to return item we purchased awhile back). Erica (from Houghton, for those who don't know her) has lived there since Fall and is an art professor at Evergreen College. She's leaving Evergreen this summer to move to NYC to try to make it as an artist--she's already got a show at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in NYC (see my NYC post from March) so it seems like a good time to go. In any case, she's been renting this cabin on the water and has been asking us to come for awhile so we finally went (on her LAST weekend in the cabin--better late than never).

Olympia is a great town--I absolutely loved it. Great shops, food, bars, views, people. It's on the south part of the Puget Sound. It was rainy most of the time we were there, but it still was really fun. Friday night we went to an art show. Erica's students had their end of the year art show in this old warehouse--some really nice stuff, and a lot of Evergreen art school kids (they're very funny, they're all different just like everyone else--kind of like they're all wearing the same uniform). Ate at a good burrito place. Went to a good bar, which we closed (which we NEVER do anymore). Got up Saturday and enjoyed the view for awhile, then went out for brunch, poked around at some bike stores, then headed off to Ikea to buy crap for the house. Ended the day with dim sum, and drove back to Pullman. Twas a good and random 36 hours.

Some pics.

The view from Erica's cabin--I sat and stared here for quite awhile Saturday morning.

Jeff and Erica post-bar, laughing about something.

Jeff looking surly in Erica's kitchen (the brass knuckles are for an upcoming art project)

Finally, the contradictory fortunes we got after dim sum (and after dropping a few hundred dollars at Ikea).

If you can't read them, Jeff's fortune: don't worry about money today, the best things in life are free. Kristin's fortune: you shouldn't overspend at the moment, frugality is important. Ha!

In other news, the Kuures get into Spokane at 10:15am tomorrow--they'll be here for a week. Our house hasn't been this clean in awhile :)

bedroom before and after pics

2007-06-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

some pics of the bedroom renovations (not quite the same angle, but....)

hopefully you can tell the before and after....and i leave you with a lovely picture of the palouse all in beautiful emerald green--tis lovely:

bedroom DONE and yard positively destroyed

2007-06-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

again, don't try this on dialup. please.

adam and anne's visit

2007-05-31T22:42:00.000-07:00

Adam and Anne came up to visit last weekend--twas good to see them. Even though we're on the same side of the country, it still is hard to for us to make the journey to see each ohter (a 7+ hour drive). They got in late Friday night and left Monday morning. We ate, hung out, saw Pirates, went to the Snake River, dragged them to Home Depot (where we ordered countertops and flooring for the kitchen) and made them do work on the house. Anne painted a lot of drawers, Adam did yardwork and did some painting, and we were generally amazed with how much 4 people can get done in 4 hours.

Ok, some pictures from the weekend:

Adam on the hill overlooking Lewiston (hill=2000 feet above the town itself)

The hill again:

Jeff taking a leak in a field by the Snake River:

Hiking along the banks of the river:

Scenery:

As for the house, the bedroom is ALMOST done. We feel like we've been working on it FOREVER. Tonight we touched up paint and put hardware back on. Now we just need to install the new ceiling light, haul in the dresser, adn eventually varnish the floors but we'll do that w/ the rest of the house.

We also had the yard guys come today and do some major demolition. The yard feels about 10x bigger now, it's pretty crazy. It has also illumninated the need for us to plant some grass, guess it's time to look into that.

Alright, sleep time. G'night. House pics will come when the bedroom is DONE.

before and after year 1 of job

2007-05-21T16:13:00.000-07:00

So I did a funny thing this year. My office computer has a build-in camera, so once/week I'd take a photo of my head. Why? I don't know, I'm a Leo--don't question me. I started it to see how my hair looked, but then I just kept doing it because it was funny to see how tired I looked some weeks, and how my bags under my eyes came and went, etc. In any case, I offer you here a visual:

Week 1 of new job:

Today (37 weeks later):

My hair took quite a turn eh?!? My office remains messy.

House Video--Part III

2007-05-06T12:49:00.001-07:00

I say this below, but if you're reading from top to bottom--if you have a slow connection, don't bother with these videos for it will make you sad and angry. Instead, rely on the pictures below. Ok then, enjoy:

House Video--Part II

2007-05-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

The Basement--weeeheew

House Video--Part I

2007-05-06T11:31:00.001-07:00

NOTE--those of you on a slow connection, do not even bother trying to watch these movies or you will be depressed.

before & after floors

2007-05-05T20:26:00.000-07:00

My feet hurt. I don't know exactly why, but I suspect it has something to do with ripping out carpeting and tearing ivy off of the house. First, ivy is insidiuous and if you ever have any nearing your home--KILL IT NOW! I spend a few hours tearing it down and away from the house, and it many parts it had started growing into the siding--messy business. But, no pics of that.

Second, the floors. God bless dust masks b/c there was years of dust and cat hair in that carpeting. We are overall very pleased with what we found underneath, but you can't see the one section where there are a bunch of holes drilled into the floor. Either the woman was OCD and needed to drill holes in the floor, or they were up to something that we can't quite figure out. We figure it's nothing some puddy and a nice area rug can't fix--not ideal, but better than they could've been as we had NO IDEA what was under that carpeting.

Ok then,

BEFORE

AFTER

one more....
BEFORE

AFTER

Off to eat some dinner and maybe go and see Spiderman.

spring in the palouse

2007-05-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

Spring is a season. I just learned this. It's not the few weeks between mud and mosquitos, but it's actually a season. I learned this when I asked my colleague Patty why it has been in the 50s for the past 6 weeks, that is, why hasn't it warmed up? why is it still in the 50s and 60s all the time? Having lived in the Dakotas and in Houghton, Patty looked at me and said, "Kristin, it's SPRING! it's a SEASON! it lasts for 2-3 months." Ahhh, a season you say? Magical.

As evidence of this magical season, note the tulip forest in our overgrown backyard. This tulip forest has been ongoing for a few weeks now.

The normally brown/tan/brown hills around here have become green. It's quite lovely. See?

Last weekend we went mushroom hunting along with the Palouse mushroom folk (I forget the organization name, they're odd but intriguing folk). We were hunting for morel mushrooms, a tasty shroom that only grows for a few months in select places in the US. The UP is one of them, and the woods of northern Idaho is another. So we went into the woods and hunted.

The hunt:

Random scenery:

And our bounty. 3+ hours of hunting for this tiny bounty, divided by 4 people (our friends Eric and Jessica). They tasted delicious w/ cod, potatoes, and a cream sauce. Mmm.

Spring. Tahdah!

Oh, and we closed on the house this morning. We are home owners?!?! Crazy. More on that in the near future....

seattle

2007-04-19T21:47:00.000-07:00

So in the past month we've been on the Atlantic (see photos below) and now on the Pacific. Jeff and I went to Seattle last weekend to visit w/ Adam and Anne who were in town for a philosophy nerdery conference. We stayed at this wacky place in Seattle )see here). Similar to Brooklyn, it was BnoB (bed no breakfast). It's a pretty nice deal as you don't have to hang out w/ some strangers making you breakfast, yet you get to have a house, your own bedroom, and kitchen in a unique space. It was right off the 5 and really close to everything.

We got in late Thursday night, and then Friday morning Anne and I went to see Adam present at his conference. He's a good presenter, but I have no idea what he said. People seemed to like it though, so I'm thinking it was good. Meanwhile, Jeff was bike store shopping. Friday afternoon we all went to lunch at this yummy Vietnamese place in the International Distrcit downtown. Mmmm. Then dropped Adam back at conference, and drove around a bit, did some shopping on Capitol Hill,crashed, then met Adam again for dinner. Went to a yummy place in Ballard (neighborhood of Seattle) called La Carta de Oaxaca. We had eaten there w/ Jokes this fall . Waited forever, but it was totally worth it. Delicious.

Saturday got up and headed downtown to do the Pike Place Market and walk on the piers. Raining when we started, but the sun eventually came out. Ate at a good French bistro for lunch. Did some shopping (FINALLY found a trenchcoat that fits me right @ Nordstrom's Rack). Then we drove Adam back to his conference. We all headed back to Ballard to do some shopping and strolling. Anne bought nice dresses, I found $250 shoes that were beautiful and that I didn't even try on b/c I would've found some dumb way of justifying the cost. Damn. Saturday night we fetched Adam adn went to a hipster bar for wacky burgers (mine had beets on it!) and some drinks.

Sunday we went to this place on Finney Ridge called Mae's for breakfast. Erin, our old landlord, had taken me there a few years ago and I remember it being delicious which it was. Great biscuits and smoked salmon omelets. Yum. We all then parted ways, and Jeff and I headed to IKEA for some new house furniture shopping.

Finally bought a bed frame (did you know I haven't slept off the floor since 1994?), and Jeff and I have always just had our mattress on the floor. We figure we're adults now. Also finally bought a living room chair--cheapy, but functional. Got a few lamps and a bedside table. It was quite a load of furniture for less than 500 which was really impressive. God bless that store.

Ok then, some pics:

A pier and man purses:

Creepy creatures @ Archie McPhee's in Ballard:

A chair, ottomon, 3 lamps, one bed, 2 bedside stands, a 6-pack, and our luggage. 3 cheers for the Subaru!

and, our grown-up bed:

Ok then, that was our trip. One week left of classes here, one week of finals, then Session 1 of summer begins. Teaching Tech & Prof Writing. Meh, but good $. Closing on house on May 1. Made deal with estate sale guy that he doesn't have to clean out garage BUT we get all contents (lots of yard tools and ladders and lumber). Sentences getting shorter. Getting tired. Sleep.

New York

2007-03-31T23:32:00.000-07:00

Last week Jeff and I went to New York so that I could attend the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). I was pretty darn busy, but still managed to squeeze in some fun. Jeff got to explore NYC and played much more than I. Professionally it was a good conference (lots of connections made and reconnected, SUNY is interested in the edited collection Anne and I are working on, etc). Personally, it was good to see people again. Got to catch up with Jenny, Kathryn, Cheryl, Matt, Hayengas, Yang (but very briefly), Jim, Lori, etc etc. The Bedford party was at Tavern on the Green. Great food, open bar, crazy atmosphere--good times. Ate good food all over the place. Ate at Esca (a Mario Batali restaurant), a yummy Korean place in the East Village (where we ran into Ilan, Bravo's Top Chef winner and dreamboat), Grimaldi's pizza under the Brooklyn Bridge (BEST.PIZZA.EVER), ate ate ate, drank, slept very little. Got back late last Saturday, and then Jeff got the flu and was down and out for most of the week w/ a 103 fever, sweats, chills, the whole bit. Knock on wood, I haven't gotten it.

Some pics:
After eating best pizza ever, before getting chocolate from Jacques Torres amazing chocolate shop.
Matt Hill's head at the Bedford party @ Tavern on the Green. That place is odd.

The MTU party where the MTU alum outnumbered the current MTUers. Strange days indeed.

Times Square post Bedford party and MTU party. That would be Jeff.
Mom and I entering the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. Why? To see an exhibit from Erica Lord, Houghton native. Wacky stuff.

Look, it's Erica's name on a wall in a museum!
...and Erica's multimedia video art installation. Way cool. Like totally.

The view outside our door in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Stayed at a BnoB. Cheap, easy subway access, and that view is absurd.

Ok, it's late-ish and I'm sleepy, so that's that for now.

we bought a house!

2007-03-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

we bought a house! we close May 1. check it out:
http://www.wsu.edu/~arola/garyhouse/

2.5 months w/out a post

2007-03-07T20:40:00.000-08:00

So apparantly I've been busy, since I haven't posted in ages. Here's a few general life updates.

December: went home for the holidays. Flew into Chicago and drove up with the Martins and back with Katie. Weird Christmas b/c there was NO snow, which I hear is no longer a problem. Spent New Years Eve in Chicago. Visited people. Drank beer. Ate too much food. Good times. Highlights:

No snow at the camp!

Grandparent pics (or, Mandelbaum, Mandelbaum, Mandelbaum):

Anne learns to make the secret family recipe:

Christmas Eve singalong w/ Myrtle and Maggie:

We spent a lot of time at the KBC which such people as--
Dad & Kelly

Jokes

Jeff read bedtime stories to Ani:

Then New Years Eve in Chicago, was was just surreal. Fireworks in Millenium Park and post-midnight party in Omni hotel suite (of ex-Houghtonite).

Fireworks and champagne!

Ok, so that was December and a bit of January. Whne we got back in January we kept getting this weird freezing fog, which is just really strange stuff. It's just really cold foggy mist, but sticks to trees and crystalizes them in these crazy beautiful ways, for eg:

But imagine this all over every tree, shrub, and branch--it's like a crystal wonderland! Really pretty. Januray was January. Teaching 2 new classes, getting back into work, etc etc.

February we started looking at houses to buy again. Sort of depressing in comparison to Houghton prices, but I suppose it's really cheap in comparison to Seattle. Alas, we're still looking. We also visited Chris and Sharon in Coeur d'Alene twice. Once when we went shopping in Spokane, and once when Jeff and them went snowboarding at Schweitzer mountain. Obviously, no pics from shopping, but....

Schweitzer at the base looking over at the lodge and village, with the mountain to my right and straight ahead and down...b/c, well, I'm on the mountain:

Looking down at Lake Pend O'Reille (pronounced: Ponderay):

I went snowshoeing with some strangers, it was nice snow and fun trails:

Good times were had by all. Silas spent the day in Saturday daycare, which he really enjoyed and didn't want to leave (b/c we're all so terrible to hang out w/).

Silas:

March has involved more househunting, lots of working, looking forward to New York in 2 weeks, and GO COUGS! The WSU basketball team did well this year, ended up ranked at #11. We went to the UCLA/WSU game last Thursday and has a really good time. We ended up losing, but the crowd was really fun--the students are insane, they spent the night outside waiting for seats.

So that's about that. We've been having fun in the NW seeing new things.

belated snow pictures

2006-12-20T20:39:00.000-08:00

Since we no longer have snow, and apparantly neither does the UP, I thought I'd post some snow pics from a few weeks ago. We had a good 3 weeks of snow on the ground here, it was quite pretty. For example, the view out our back door:

On our Christmas letter you'll see a nice pic Jeff took at this artisan's barn in Uniontown (think Ahmeek) but here's another pic:

So yeah, that was snow in Pullman. Tahdah!

We had a birthday party last weekend for our friends Jessica, Ruth, and Nishant. It was fun, but people stayed until 2am which is something I haven't done since Houghton. I was feeling pretty gross on Sunday. Some pics of people:

Ruth (new cello prof), Keri (new oboe prof), and Andy (Keri's husband, former high school string teacher, now house husband) discover the Keweenaw--

I turned Grandma Bernie's old vanity into a bar. Hoorah for Finnish inventiveness:

Oh, and in 10 minutes Ruth learned how to play the accordian. Musicians suck.

I guess that's about it. There are other photos but I'm too lazy to resize them.

We're headed to Spokane tomorrow night and then flying to Chicago on Friday morning. Driving from Chicago to Houghton on Saturday w/ the Martins. Should be fun.

See many of you soon!

winter walking (??) advisory

2006-12-06T15:49:00.000-08:00

This email just showed up in my inbox, and for some reason it cracked me up. Then again, maybe it's something MTU should send out to people not used to walking on snow:

Slips and falls due to winter~Rs snow and ice account for a significant number of painful injuries at WSU. Here are some suggestions to keep you on your feet during the slippery season.

Footwear should have low heels and soles constructed of a slip-resistant material. Rubber boots or boots with ribbed soles give more traction and slip less than leather or plastic soles. Also, dress warmly. Being cold may cause you to hurry or tense your muscles -- both of which can affect your balance.

Adjust the way you walk on slippery surfaces to a slower, more uniform pace. Walk on the whole foot (not just the toes) to get the best friction from your footwear. Avoid starting, stopping, and turning suddenly, and adjust your stride so that the body~Rs center of gravity is directly above your feet by taking shorter steps and placing your feet further apart laterally. Allow yourself plenty of time to get where you~Rre going.

Pay extra attention to walking surface conditions. Early darkness, glare, snow, fog, or rain may reduce visibility and hide ice patches. Look down with your eyes, but don't bow your head--it could propel you forward. Don't take shortcuts and always use sidewalks and the cleared paths in parking lots. Grassy slopes can be more dangerous than snowy steps. Also, be alert for rutted and uneven surfaces, and floors immediately inside doorways, where water and snow can accumulate. Be aware of gravel provided for traction as the snow and ice melt because walking on a gravel-covered surface can be like walking on marbles.

When crossing slick streets keep in mind that vehicles need much greater distances to stop on ice or wet snow and that weather conditions may limit a driver~Rs vision. Ensure vehicles have adequate time and distance to stop before you enter crosswalks.

Be extremely careful exiting your vehicle. Swing your legs around and place both feet on the pavement before you attempt to stand. Steady yourself on the door frame until you have gained your balance. Avoid
reaching beyond your center of balance to take hold of the door, because this may cause a fall.

Carry only those items necessary because with your ams full of weighted or bulky packages, you are not able to see the hazards, and the added weight can affect your balance.

Wearing the appropriate footwear, walking defensively, and being aware of the surface and surrounding conditions when encountering slick paths and roads can help you avoid an injury.

For additional information about winter survival, the Environmental Health & Safety web site has fact sheets about avoid slips and falls (http://www.ehs.wsu.edu/Factsheets/FAQSlipFall.asp), preventing
frostbite and hypothermia for those working outdoors (http://www.ehs.wsu.edu/Factsheets/FAQCold.asp), and
driving in winter conditions (http://www.ehs.wsu.edu/Factsheets/pdf/FAQWinterDrive.pdf). The Washington
Department of Transportation site (http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/) includes travel advisories
and mountain pass conditions.

happy belated thanksgiving

2006-12-03T18:19:00.000-08:00

so the near death accident on the way home from portland last sunday made me less than enthusiastic to post an update on our trip. but, a week later it doesn't feel so scary anymore (even though i am now officially a TERRIBLE passenger in the car) so: thanksgiving update!

mom and mark came to visit the saturday before t-day. we picked them up in spokane, and did some spokane touristy stuff including:

the weird park on the river, which in the summer is probably hopping and in the winter holds an ice rink and this weird thing overhead--

the spokane river and the bridge where what'shisface from smoke signals throws his fathers ashes at the end of the film--

we also went to a western wear store (corral west ranch wear, which jeff kept calling cornell west ranch wear). mom bought some red cowboy boots. jeff dressed up for us:

he actually bought the shirt, which is quite lovely.

we then spent the next few days bumming around pullman. went to wawawai park on the snake river, quite pretty (saw COUGAR tracks there---go cougs!):

we did other stuff too. i don't remember anymore, but i'm sure it was good.

on wednesday we drove to eugene, or to visit adam and anne. the drive was mostly ok but portland traffic STUNK and we got stuck there for about 2 hours which was really a drag. took us about 10 hours to get from pullman to eugene. went out to dinner that night and then did the whole thanksgiving thing on thursday as evidenced by this:

friday we bummed around eugene and jeff got a tattoo:

saturday we all headed to portland to drop off mark and mom at the airport. adam, anne, jeff and i spent afternoon bumming around:

mt. hood came out (look to the left of downtown):

then, since anne caught adam's cold (which jeff now has) those losers went back to eugene. jeff and i had yummy moroccan (sp?) dinner.

sunday we headed back to pullman. snowstorm in the gorge, but really really beautiful (and we were post storm so visibility good, roads so so). once we got out of the gorge it was pretty much fine:

BUT, about 10 miles out of the tri-cities we hit a slush pile going aobut 65 mph. we lost control, went off road, up imbankment, sideways back into road (at which point i pretty much figured i was going to get hit by a semi and die) and then back onto side of road/ditch. somehow we didn't die. we lost part of the front bumper and our lisence plate and now our car alarm goes of randomly, but other than that we're ok. it really sucked though. the rest of the drive was pretty much a blur. all those years in michigan w/ no accidents, 4 months in washington state and accident. what the hell.

in any case, that was our thanksgiving. enjoy.

anne got adam's cold (which jeff now has) and so those losers went back to eugene.

darker than dark

2006-11-15T16:19:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to say that it is 4:12pm and it is almost totally dark outside. That's right, the sun has officially set. Did I mention it's only 4:12pm? Ok, good. Living on the eastern edge of a time zone is no fun.

weekend

2006-11-13T21:01:00.000-08:00

Jeff's college roommate, Chris, and his wife Sharon and their son Silas live in Coeur d'Alene now (which is only about 2 hours from here). We stayed w/ them on our way out here, but haven't seen them since. They came down on Saturday for dinner. They got in around 5:30pm and we just hung out, ate good food, and laughed at Silas who is 14 months and very amusing. Here's a few pics:

Oh yeah, and Jeff bought something this weekend:

We both badly want to play them, but we need to wait until the downstairs neighbor isn't here and she's always here. Grr. must.make.noise!

Ok, Heroes is on, I like this show, I must go.

new hair!

2006-11-10T22:24:00.000-08:00

Jeff and I had today off for Veteran's Day (hoorah for being state employees!). I had a massage at 10, and a haircut at 2:30. My new masseuse is so so so cheap it's absurd. She's new and tyring to get clientele, so she's only $55 for TWO hours. She's also really good. Lovely. After the massage Jeff and I went to Moscow for lunch, then chair shopping (still haven't quite decided on anything, therefore mom and Mark will be sitting on the floor....oops). Then I went to get my haircut at a new place some women Jeff works w/ had recommended. I was spaced out from the massage and pretty much just let her do what she wanted. Here's what I ended up with (bad lighting, web cam photo, sorry):

I like it I think. Bangs and red, wacky.

So last weekend Jeff and I went to Spokane for the day to get some shopping done. It only takes about an hour and 15 minutes to get there, and there's a huge mall, Target, restaurants, all that city crap that you just need to do once in awhile. This past week was pretty hectic as I now have advisees so that's a lot of extra meetings. I'm also working on an article with Cheryl and a book proposal with Anne Wysocki. Not a super stressy week, just pretty full.

Tomorrow there's a pow wow in Moscow so we might check that out. Chris and Sharon and kid are going to probably come down from Coeur d'Alene for dinner tomorrow, so that should be fun. Mom and Mark get here a week from tomorrow, time is moving so fast!

So that's really about it from here. Work, new hair, commerce. There you go.

lazy bones

2006-10-29T18:34:00.000-08:00

holy man am i lazy tonight. i would personally like to blame sunday, grading papers this morning, and an afternoon matinee. after grading 3 more papers, i just made an executive decision that i can finish grading in the morning, and that i am officially done for the night.

jeff and i went to see the departed this afternoon. it's REALLY good, i quite enjoyed it. leonardo dicaprio does a great job. i usually don't care much for him, but he did this role really really well. if you like scorsese films i think you'll really like it. i also ate popcorn at the movie which i haven't done in ages. mmm.

other than seeing the movie, jeff and i really haven't done much of anything this weekend. friday night we went to the chair of the english department's house for dinner. he and his wife are pretty amusing, they swear at each other a lot (but in a loving way i think...). saturday i drove jeff to work for 10:30 and went to the last farmer's market of the season. i bought a bunch of apples and pears, some new potatoes, and some arugula. then i started feeling a little cruddy again (pesky cold lingering). on my way home i stopped at the annual craft fair in the colesium here. it was huge, but pretty terrible. definitely a 'craft' fair. if you wanted something w/ your name painted on it, you were in luck. i was feeling pretty run down there, and the smell of badly scented homemade candles was getting to me, so i came home and ended up taking a 2 hour nap. i still felt a bit run down afterwards, but not nearly as bad. i think i just needed a final nap to really get rid of this cold.

last night i picked up jeff from work at 6:30 and we decided to rent a movie. we decided to find a new video store (b/c it's $4.50 to rent from blockbuster here!). it was in this place called the adam's mall, a place we had no idea where it was. we found it, and it's smack dab in the middle of fraternity houses. this was during the 2nd half of the WSU/UCLA game and when we got out of the car we could hear cheering from all sorts of houses around us, as well as the bar that is in the mall (more like an old high school w/ 5 businesses in it). the sound of cheering all around us was pretty funny, such a huge huge football school here. and the adam's mall knows it's market! one bar, a video store, a party store, the pita pit (subway on pitas), and a branch of the pullman police department. too funny. anyhow, we rented the xmen, decided to order pizza from papa john's (which is right there as well) and then sat in the bar and drank a beer and watched the game w/ a bunch of rowdy WSU fans. wow, lots of hooting and hollering and minor drunkenness. it was fun for the 15 minutes we waited for our pizza, but that was probably enough. amusing though. so we got home, ate pizza, watched xmen3 (fun!) and went to sleep.

quite a rockin' weekend!

this falling back deal is nice, although at 5pm today it was DARK. grr. alright then, off to eat dinner, sleep, and begin week 11 of school. crazy.

week 10 almost done!

2006-10-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that week 10 of school is just about over. Eeks! I've gotta say that prepping for 2 new courses has really sucked up a major chunk of time. I also got in over my head with grading, in that I assigned too many in-depth papers that I really wanted to give a lot of feedback to. But feedback takes time. Time time time. Oh well, lesson learned. If I wasn't worrying about getting some articles out I'd be fine, but it's that "publish or perish" worry that lingers over me. I'm looking forward to breaks where I can spend a few days in coffee shops just writing/reading and not grading papers. What am I saying, I'll totally be grading papers. HA! Ok, Christmas maybe will be free.

Speaking of which, it looks like we'll be getting home for Christmas, that is assuming airfares don't continue to go as crazy as they already are. Last week tickets were 500, now they're 700!!! We're looking into flying to MSP (200 cheaper) and then getting a ride from jokes who will be headed to the UP anyway. Then on the way back we could celebrate new years even in MSP which would be fun. But, this is all tentative and there is the possibility that jokes will actually get a job in the meantime which might screw things up. We'll see.

So last Saturday (day 1 of cold) I went mushroom hunting with my friend Jessica. I totally forgot my camera, so no pictures for you. She knows a woman in soil sciences who is a mushroom geek, so she took us hunting for chantrelles. We went to this national forest about 45 minutes from here. It was very beautiful and lush there, and super moist (so unlike Pullman!). There were a TON of mushrooms, but we didn't find any tasty ones (not chantrelles). There were also a lot of bird hunters around which was funny. We all were told to wear bright colors, so as not to be mistaken for birds. Anyhow, it was fun and now I know a new place to check out.

My cold is finally going away I think. This makes me happy. Jeff works Friday and Saturday again, so I'll be grading more papers this weekend. Exciting! Come November we're going to have to play more on weekends, maybe a day trip to Spokane or something. Ok, off to watch tv and go to sleep.

it's been awhile

2006-10-16T21:07:00.000-07:00

haven't posted in awhile, it's been a pretty crazy week. it's midterms, and my students are fried, and i'm fried, and everyone needs a week off. but no, instead papers are due and papers need to be graded and blah blah blah. oh well, i'm just tired and mildly cranky. i also got a bit stressed out because next week i start teaching a 3 week section of this intro to english studies course. my 3 weeks are on professional writing and visual rhetoric. should be ok, patty gave me a lot of materials from the time she did it, but it's just one more prep for 3 weeks. we'll see how it goes. i'm just tired i think, need a vacation. looking forward to thanksgiving.

so jeff started his new job today. hard to tell on the 1st day, but he liked it as much as he could so far. spent time getting things set up, etc. he's working at the coop also, so he's a busy beaver. as of nov 1 his coop hours will be much less though, so that will help. for now what really stinks is he works saturdays. but this has been ok as i've hada lot of work to do, so i can work on saturdays.

so a few things showed up in the mail last week, i thought i'd share:

that thing on the left looks better close up:

hoorah! bound dissertation and diploma, both in the same week!

ok, on another note, some folks wanted to see pics of our place inside so here you go.

this is the living area and our new tv stand. not much on the walls yet, we're lazy.

i spun around from where i was standing and took this pic, our dining room i guess, but we only have 2 chairs right now

kitchen view 1

kitchen view 2

did anyone just see the bears come back and win that game? holy wah! ok then, gotta run.

pictures: tahdah

2006-10-08T21:21:00.001-07:00

batch 1: dad, kelly, pullman

dad in my classroom

batch 2: kamiak butte--jeff loves nature

batch 3: jeff takes good pictures

yooper visit

2006-10-08T19:19:00.000-07:00

holy wah, i'm beat. long weekend, but we had a really nice time. dad and kelly got here thursday around 3. they came over, checked out our place, then we took a tour of pullman and moscow. we ended up driving to uniontown (on a dirt road we'd never been on, through a wheatfield, the scenic path) for dinner. we ate at eleanor's pub for dinner, who promise "the best burgers on the palouse" and i think they're probably right. friday i had to be at work from 11-3, and jeff worked all day. we met dad and kelly for breakfast at the old european (bigger/brighter suomi) where we ate abelskivers, eggs, and meat products. dad and kelly spent the day bumming around, then i met them at the book store around 3 where we poked around and they looked for WSU gear. did a campus tour after that, and then met up w/ our regular friday cocktail crew at rico's bar. finally we ended up the red door restaurant in moscow where we ate a very very yummy dinner, and where we met jeff after he got off of work. saturday we did the farmer's market, looked at the grizzly bears, watched some football, grabbed lunch, and went to prairie home companion. it was really cool and wacky to have prairie home here in pullman. i hope some of you managed to catch it live. it was a really nice time, great musicians, and just a lot of silliness. worth the $$ definitely. we then came back here and watched more football (theme of weekend) and finally went to swilly's in pullman for dinner. had great food. crashed.

wait, some of you might be wondering why we didn't end up in coeur d'alene. well, we were planning to go saturday after prairie home, primarily because there were no hotel rooms available in pullman that night and we figured it'd be fun to poke around. but they ended up getting the hotel for saturday night (somebody cancelled) so we just stayed put which was probably much easier in the long run.

anyhow, this morning we met up at a bar called the office. yes, i was at a bar on a sunday morning at 10am. but it was fun. it's this bar that shows every single nfl game and serves breakfast. so we watched the pack, drank bloody marys, and ate food. dad and i stuck around to watch the pack screw up and lose, and kelly roamed pullman a bit and jeff went to the bike store. it was fun. our friends andy and keri told us about it, as they're huge colts fans and go there most sundays to watch the game.

dad and kelly left here around 2pm to head to spokane, they fly out at 7am monday. then jeff and i went to kamiak butte as it's open again now that fire season is over. it's a butte about 10 miles from here. you can drive about 1/2way up and hike the rest of the way. jeff and i took a 3 mile loop around the butte. it's really pretty, but the way up is a bit of a hike. whew. nice views. i'll post pics soon. we then went to a belated wedding party some folks in the dept were having (they got married in portland in july). now i'm home. and tired. and have to go to the chiropracter at 8am tomorrow. but jeff is making me dinner, so i'm happy. it's week 8 this week, hard to believe. holy wah indeed.

ps. go cougs, go blue.

he got the job!

2006-10-04T15:36:00.000-07:00

So apparantly Jeff has some magical fairy dust around sprinkling every interview he goes to. He interviewed on Monday at 3, today at 3 (48 hours later) he got the job offer. We're both a little conflicted about it, but it's always nice to get an offer.

Pros: it pays well, it's only 20 hrs/week, after 4 months he can begin taking any class at the University for $5/class, it's doing more design than he's been able to do at his past job

Cons: working both the coop job and this one will mean a lot of working, will it lead him away from kitchen work? does he want to be led away from kitchen work? he'll have staff hours, not academic hours, so for eg he'll only get a few days off at thanksgiving and christmas and NO summer off.

He did say yes. He'll start in 2 weeks. And the way he figures it for now, he'll give it a whirl for the next 8 months and see how it treats him. Is the universe leading him down a path towards grad school?

Oh, and we also realized today that he's never *not* gotten a job he's interviewed for. What a turd.

In any case, he's happy for the most part, and a bit conflicted about where this is leading him in life.

Ok, I have to get back to doing a ton of work. I'm trying to plan for Friday and Monday classes today so that I can enjoy my time with Dad and Kelly and not be worrying about lesson plans. Pip pip.

workin' man

2006-10-02T21:05:00.000-07:00

Not much new here, BUT jeff had his interview at WSU today. It's a part time job doing kind of what he did at MTU. It would be nice in that he could take classes for $5/pop which would be pretty cool. He felt like it went pretty well, as well as he thought it could. So now we just wait and see what happens.

He worked all weekend at the coop, which was probably ok because I had a ton of grading to do. I spent time at the coffee shop grading rhetoric papers, then I spent time on our back porch reading aristotle. Weeheew. Pretty dull weekend, but I got a lot done so that's good.

Dad and Kelly are on the Oregon coast right now and are headed this way Thursday. It's kind of hard to think what to do with them here, since there's really not much to do... but it should be fine. It'll be good to see them and show them where we live.

The Packers stink. I just watched them for the first time all season since we don't get their Sunday games here (they just played Monday night). Now I've gotta watch Heroes, which I can't tell if I think is awesome or just cheesy. We shall see.

new job, accupuncture, and bbq

2006-09-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

So yesterday at 1pm Jeff had an interview at the Moscow Coop for a deli position. At 5:30pm he got a call asking him if he could start today!!! That's some quick turnaround. He was especially shocked because they told him he wouldn't hear for a week. They must've liked him. He went in for a one hour traning session today, and for the next week he'll be shadowing people to learn how it all works there. He'll be working 28 hours/week until the end of October, then it can change up. Unfortunately until the end of October he'll be working Saturdays. But...that's ok. And he can get off the Saturday Dad and Kelly are in town. In any case, it all happened so fast that he's feeling a bit overwhelmed but mostly happy. AND, on Monday of next week he has an interview for the part time WSU job. It's possible, then, if he gets it that he could suddenly be working 48 hours/week. Yucky. He's thinking if he gets the WSU job (which is a big "if" since the job market on campus is so weird) he'll take it from there--possibly cutting back at the coop. But for now, job, working with food, good good.

I went to a chinese medicine doctor today and got accupuncture. It was wacky. I never had accupuncture under Marcie, so while a lot of the treatment was normal, the needles weren't. But it didn't hurt at all and was really relaxing. She also seemed to have a lot of insight into my health...things she just kind of figured out based on my pulses. Chinese medicine is crazy, and fascinating. Anyhow, I liked her a lot and am happy to have found her.

I went to get accupuncture in Moscow while Jeff did his coop traning part 1, then we hooked up and ended up getting dinner at Patty's Kitchen, which is a Mexican place in Moscow. On Wednesdays they have a bbq in the yard, so we decided to try it. Amazing ribs and beef tips. Yummmmm.

No longer full of needles, but full of meat, and watching America's Next Top Model, and soon to watch Project Runway. Yeah me.

Oh yeah, and that job thing is going ok too :) I really love my rhetoric students, they're awesome. Ok, off to tv land.

weekend in seattle (and a little bit sleepless)

2006-09-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

We took off for Seattle on Friday around 2pm, after grabbing some nutritious Jack in the Box lunch. We had directions to Chris' place (Jokes' sister) that helped us avoid Seattle rush hour traffic, which was a good thing as we got to the Seattle area around 6pm. We didn't get to Chris' until around 6:45, but still, less than a 5 hour drive which is pretty great. Chris, her husband Steve, and their absurdly cute 2 year old daughter Lucy live in a north-eastern suburb of Seattle called Woodinville. Their house is in a great secluded area--it sort of feels like you're in Pointe Mills or something. We hung out for a bit, and then went with Jokes to dinner at a place called Lark in Capitol Hill (a neighborhood of Seattle). Great little place that Jeff found (of course) where we ate tapas style French type food. Very very yummy, but we had to wait to get seated for about an hour so we didn't get done eating until around 10:45pm, but still well worth it. It took about 35 minutes to get back to Chris where we slept poorly for whatever reason.

Saturday we got up and went to IKEA with Chris, Lucy, and Jokes. The store was way bigger than the one we had been to in Alexandria, VA. Jeff and I got all domestic and had a hard time not buying more than we had alloted. We ended up getting what we had planned: a TV stand, a nicer bookshelf, a utilitarian bookshelf, and then we also got a small TV stand for our bedroom TV and a few closet organizer things...oh, and a stuffed elephant for Lucy. It all fit in our car easily which was good. After IKEA we met Erica Lord at a Dim Sum restaurant (she works at Evergreen College now in Olympia, about an hour south of Seattle). Great lunch, good times. Erica had to get back to do work, so Jokes, Jeff and I headed into the city. We explored a big Asian grocery store next to the football stadium, then we went to the Capitol Hill neighborhood again and went record shopping, looked at some clothes, and watched people. We ended up in Ballard for dinner, another neighborhood. Very cool area. Great Mexican dinner, and amazing margaritas. Mmm. We headed back to Woodinville and partook of Chris and Steve's big ol' hottub. It was really relaxing. Then to sleep, where I didn't sleep well again for whatever reason. Lucy was coming down with a cold and was up a lot during the night being sad, so that might've been part it of. Can't complain about a free place to stay though!

Sunday we got up, headed to Bellvue for Indian lunch with Jokes, and then dropped her off at her brother's house. Got to see her nephews who are HUGE now (they're in 1st grade). One is super silly and very Jokinen, the other is super quiet. We then headed back to Pullman. It only took about 4.5 hours to get back. I was super duper tired and went to sleep at 9:30, got up at 8am. whew!

I had a TON of work to do today, going out of town is fun but getting behind is annoying. I was at school for about 10 hours, yuck. Oh well, I'll get caught up and Seattle was fun. Here's some silly pics:

the excellent hot tub and good beer (rogue dead guy ale, yum)

lucy on the phone (she will also dance to any music and yell "led zeplanin, led zeplanin" which is really really funny)

the millers in bad shadows. nice trees around their place.

the drive out of seattle, super duper beautiful

about 60 miles or so out of pullman, a barn with the ubiquitous "go cougs" slogan

rhetoric class

2006-09-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

I really really like teaching my rhetoric class, and I really really don't like teaching my technical communication class--does this mean things even out? Rhetoric is fun, we get to look at all sorts of cool examples and talk about how arguments work/don't work. Tech comm is like stabbing my eye out with a fork. I need to find a way to hopefully never teach tech comm again, it's just so painful. Basically it feels like you're just teaching students formulas for creating effective texts in the workplace. I can see how that is pratical and valuable, but good lord it's boring. I need to get through 10 more weeks. 10. ugh.

I have a weird fuzzy feeling in my head today and I hope it's not a cold coming on, as we're headed to Seattle this weekend to visit jokes (who is visiting her sister). My students all had the stomach flu a few weeks ago, which I successfully avoided. Now they all seem to have colds, which I need to successfully avoid as well. Why are students so germy? Why can't I take a sauna to chase it off? Perhaps I need to go buy some whiskey. We've had no liquor in the house since we moved here, since we got rid of it all before we left and now we have to make an effort to go to the state-run liquor store, as they don't sell it anywhere else. Beer and wine are everywhere, but liquor not so much.

It's been cold and cloudy lately, odd weather to go from sunny and 95 to cloudy and 50. Next week looks warmer, this is good. 70s are where it's at.

football game

2006-09-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

did i mention we went to the WSU/Idaho football game last weekend? we did. wsu whooped up on idaho, so it was actually kind of dull after the 1st half, but still fun. pics to prove:

if you look really closely, you'll see a football going through the goal posts. can you see it?

2006-09-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

i'm watching wife swap. i don't know why. it's making me mad, there's a crazy man on who is a germophobe. cable is slowly going to rot my brain.

this weekend was good, we went to the moscow farmer's market and bought a bunch of yummy stuff (the best peaches ever). then we went to the latah county fair. i love fairs. we watched part of the livestock auction (see below) but we have no idea why some pigs went for $300 and others for $200...sometimes the fatter ones were cheaper. why?

we also saw the cutest baby goats ever. example:

then jeff posed for a picture:

it was a good day. we ended at a house in moscow for the head secretary in my dept retirement party. they had a fireplace and a leather couch, it made me lazy.

this weekend we're headed to seattle to visit jokes who will be visiting her sis for 10 days. it should be fun.

association for faculty women: a vestige of the past?

2006-09-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

so i went to the first meeting of the year tonight for the association for faculty women, which i will now refer to as "the ol' girls network" and i'm not sure i mean that in a good way. i decided to go because, well, it seemed like a good idea and my friend jessica was going. but it was a really weird crew. it was full of 50-something profs who were all white liberal feminist from the 70s and 80s. don't get me wrong, these women fought hard for equal rights and equal pay and all that stuff that makes my life as a new prof pretty damn good. BUT... these women also seem to have created exactly what they were against. they were super cliquey, very macho, very braggy, very what i imagine the men were like that they were trying to be taken seriously by. and to be taken seriously by these men, they BECAME these men. they became super me-centered, and super exclusive, and very suit like. it was a weird place, and they weren't very welcoming, and it felt like to be one of them you had to bitch about "the man" and brag about your work, and that's just not my schtick. so yeah, no more afw for me. $12 for good appetizers and free wine though, so i lapped it up grad-student style.

i had a super long day today. went to the gym at 7am, then a new chiropracter at 9 (i miss kemmy and mischa!!!), then finshed grading papers which pained me. i'm pretty sure my students either don't care or don't listen to me or a little of both. then i worked at school on the seedlings of a possible new edited collection on feminism and new media, then i also worked on the seedlings of a new article, then the ol' girls network, now rockstar supernova. which is the best thing on tv and i'm sad it's the last week. but WAIT! there's project runway tomorrow. god bless cable.

still smokey around here, too many wildfires around these parts. my allergies are crappy today. yuck. i want clean air! it's supposed to rain later this week, here's hoping.