Christmas tree non-adventure

Yesterday, we had planned on cutting our own Christmas tree from the Wasatch National Forest. You can get a tree-cutting permit for only $10 and they tell you where you can go to cut down a tree. It's a bit of a drive from our house to the permit place, about 3 hours or so.

So I decided to make us some turkey sandwiches with leftovers for the journey. I was cutting open some bisquits and I cut my thumb with one of our wonderfully sharp Cutco knives. It was so gross, because I saw that I cut a big chunk of my thumb. Adrian helped me run it through some water and then I had to lie down. He kept putting pressure on it while I lay there, very grossed out. Eventually it seemed to stop bleeding so he wrapped it, and we ended up not going on our Christmas tree adventure. :(

Later that evening, it bled some more, so we went to a clinic near our house and they cleaned it out and I got 11 stitches! ugh, lately, the thought of blood really makes me quesy, and I felt quesy at times in the clinic, especially when the doctor was digging in there and saying that the chunk was only attched by a sliver of skin, ew. But it is better now, and I feel less quesy about it. It hurt a little bit, but it was really the thought of it that bothered me more than anything. (I hope that I can handle kid injuries when we have kids and not faint when they bleed everywhere. I used to not be such a wuss, so I'm not sure when that changed.) They wrapped my hand pretty well, and now it looks like I have a hurt wrist.

So now, we are probably just going to put up our fake tree and get a real one next year, since I can't really help lift the tree on the car or anything like that - a little sad, but I guess we will save $10 (although, I'm not sure what the clinic bill is going to be yet, eek...)

happy thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving meal turned out decently, I thought. The turkey was a bit of an ordeal. The thing was so heavy everytime we tried to flip it and move it (it kind of dropped on the floor at one point - bad oven bag loading strategy, but we agreed that it had been way less than 5 seconds and we figured the hot oven would re-sterilize it...). And just seeing the whole body and dealing with it raw slightly grossed me out to the point that I can't fully savor it. Plus, I wanted to cook it breast-side down for 2/3 of the cooking time, but apparently I was mistaken which side was the breast...in the end, it turned out okay - it was perhaps a little dry, but I am so terrified of undercooking poultry that I was okay with that. I don't know that I ever want to cook a whole turkey again. There's just something about that headless body that is bothersome, and neither of us really like the dark meat that much anyways.

But the side dishes turned out great. We made mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes from scratch, stuffing, green bean casserole, and dinner rolls. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie and chocolate pumpkin cake. We have tons of leftovers...we'll see if I can eat more of that turkey. I found some recipes for leftover turkey.

Then, we went to see the movie Enchanted. We've been wanting to see it ever since we saw the preview in the summer. I really enjoyed it. It was so cute, and we sang, "That's how you know".

"You're not going to sing, are you?" ~ Robert in Enchanted.

turkeys...

I can kind of see why some people are vegetarians. I prepared the turkey tonight so that it can sit in a brine overnight, and it was a little disturbing to see that we are pretty much cooking the entire body of this animal. Even the neck is included in a bag in the turkey (which I find gross, but I was relieved that it was all in a bag that I just had to pull out. For some reason, I feel that our sophomore year when I made a turkey with Monica and Christy that we had to pull out a raw neck and I remember some screaming, but maybe I am remembering wrong). So really, the only thing missing was the head of the turkey (not that we are going to eat the neck - I threw that away).

on a more fun note, I baked our Thanksgiving desserts tonight. For our chocolate pumpkin cake, I pureed a real pumpkin! so that was exciting. Then for the pumpkin pie, I just used the much easier Libby's can. yay, there's something exciting about making our entire Thanksgiving dinner. I just hope it turns out all right.

thanksgiving break!

Thanksgiving break begins now! At Utah State, we get Wed-Fri off instead of only Thurs and Fri off at A&M. Although, now that I think about it, A&M, usually as a "last minute" treat, gets out Wed starting at noon. Which I think is kind of weird, because if a professor has morning and afternoon classes, then their morning class gets ahead of their afternoon class - it seems like a mess, and I don't understand why they just don't call the entire Wednesday a holiday. But that is just a big digression...

Actually, ever since Nate left last Thursday (!) for Thanksgiving, I've been feeling ready for the break. I did not get much work done this past weekend - it was mostly cleaning and organizing on Saturday and then on Sunday we went hiking with some friends (we conquered the 5 hills) and made and ate a ton of pizza afterwards (yum!). I finally got a lot of work done yesterday, though...

We took our last pre-Thanksgiving trip to the grocery store tonight, and I think I am ready to make a Thanksgiving meal. We were planning on inviting some friends over, but the small number of people who we know well are all leaving town for Thanksgiving (two are going to Seattle! it's crazy to think that Seattle is only 12 hours away), so it will just be me, Adrian, and Lucy. :) oh, well, I think it'll be more fun and relaxing this way...in case the turkey doesn't quite turn out as planned...

Bonfire 1999

we will always remember.

ski swap!

We went to the ski swap this morning and bought skis, boots, and poles! The ski swap was so cool with so much equipment of varying conditions for sale. I bought my skis with the bindings for $59. Now, I am ready to go - it just needs to snow! :)

While we are waiting for snow, we can mountain bike! We finally went for the first time today on the Lake Bonneville Shoreline Trail in Dry Canyon. It was really fun but also really hard - I really need to get in shape and there were some really steep uphill sections (that is a lot of reallys/reallies).

nablopomo

I feel that November is not the best month for nablopomo for me as a student. November always seems to be a hectic month! Perhaps, I will try a myblopomo (my blog posting month rather than the national blog posting month) some other month that works a little better for me. :)

morning kisses

When Lucy finally gets out of bed and comes downstairs (she likes to sleep in a little), Chico (an early riser) gets so excited and gives Lucy numerous kisses on the face. He licks her nose, eyes, and ears. It's so funny and cute...and a little gross.

yikes

I am blowing goats with this nablopomo thing. I forgot to post again yesterday. This weekend has mostly been uneventful - mostly lots of reading and paper writing. But we did take a small break to watch the first half of the Boise State/Utah State game (we 2-percented out after halftime when we were losing 31-0)....I'm not sure if Utah State will end up winning a game this year - I think we have one more chance against Idaho State, who has won only one game.

Then today we used our free Bee Movie tickets. I thought it was cute - and it reminds you of the importance of bees in our world. I read a quote by Albert Einstein that said without bees, humans would only live for 4 years. Also, in the movie The Eleventh Hour (one cool thing about Logan is even though it is pretty small, it has an arts cinema that shows documentaries and independent films), it was said that if humans had to do what bees do, it would cost 15 trillion dollars. So, I'll try to think about that the next time a bee flies in my face...

ugh

long day...

HDESM

The name of my degree is really long and weird: Human Dimensions in Ecosystem Science and Management. The goal of the degree (this is what I think so far...) is to really study and consider the interactions of humans and the environment. I am interested in water issues, both water quantity and water quality (but I haven't really defined my dissertation project yet...).

This degree is pretty different from my geology degrees, which consisted of straight-up biophysical science. Sometimes I feel a little out of place in the more social science aspect of my new degree, but I have noticed (at the GSA conference, for example) that I am most attracted to research projects that have a human element to it - projects that work to solve human problems with the environment.

I was reminded today of a conversation I had at GSA with a very interesting, dynamic woman geologist. We were talking about climate change and somehow we got on the topic of New Orleans. In her opinion, we should not be spending so much money to "rebuild" New Orleans, because the city is below sea-level (our doing since we do not allow the Mississippi River to be connected to its floodplain and resupply the land with sediment) and it's in a hurricane prone area (climate change or no climate change). Instead, she believes that we should be spending our money to help the people of New Orleans adapt and move away from this poorly planned city.

To a group of geologists, this makes total sense. But then I started thinking about New Orleans and its uniqueness. To the people who are from there, their identity is embedded in New Orleans - this weird, crazy place that probably only natives can really understand. Take away New Orleans and we take away who these people are. It's a difficult problem. I can see and understand both the physical science and social science views. I really don't have much of an idea on how to resolve it, but I like that my long-named, un-understandable degree focuses on these kinds of issues...

sad dog

Nate left to go to a conference in Arkansas until Sunday, so we are babysitting Chico while he's away. Poor Chico - he's such a sad pup without his dad. Adrian said that Lucy was mopey and sad when I was away in Denver. It's so sad and nice at the same time to see how much dogs miss you when you're gone.

"Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made." ~Roger Caras

Christmas Mountains update, skiing!, and Bee movie

The Texas School Land Board voted to delay the sale of the Christmas Mountains for three months, which gives the National Park Service time to buy the land. It's still not clear, though, if Commissioner Patterson will still require hunting and firearms to be allowed on the land. If that is the case, the NPS probably won't buy it, so we shall see what happens...

on a different note, we got our ski passes today before the special student rate expired! I'm so excited to ski the Beav...

also, (this shows how eventful my day has been) we went to Albertson's and bought 10 boxes of cereal for $2/each to get 2 free tickets to the Bee movie...plus, we've been eating a lot of cereal and regularly go through boxes. However, only a few cereals were part of the deal, so we will be eating Golden Grahams, Cocoa Puffs, and French Toast Crunch for awhile...probably not the healthiest...

october wrap-up

I'm going to post today before I forget. I thought I could do a brief October wrap-up now that November is officially here, time change and all.

Some time in the middle of October we had a pumpkin carving party and invited people over to carve pumpkins, eat some food, and play some games. It was pretty fun, and people's pumpkins turned out so good. Also, when people left, clean-up was so much faster and easier than in our College Station house since we have a dishwasher! incredible!

Adrian and I also went to this event called Pumpkin Walk. It's in a park in North Logan, and it's kind of like a Christmas tree walk, where different groups had exhibits of painted and carved pumpkins. They had Sesame Street, Garfield, and many more in the form of pumpkins and squash. It was kind of cute, and apparently a very popular event, as there were tons of people there!

I forgot to add, we also went to a corn maze with our friends, Seth and Emily. I had never been to one before, and it was really fun. Each season here seems to have some fun, festive activity to participate in. :)

Then at the end of October, I went to Denver for the GSA conference. I presented a poster on my masters thesis and went to a lot of other talks and presentations. It was a nice break from school and I got to see A&M people. I didn't really have a Halloween though, since I flew in at 11 pm on Halloween night, but maybe next year I'll have time to think of a clever costume. Adrian said that we did not get very many trick or treaters - only about 6 groups....

That was pretty much the 2nd half of my October... :)

oops

I've already failed at NaBloPoMo. Yesterday, I went to some hot springs in Idaho with some girls and then we went to dinner. We dropped off one of the girls first and noticed that Adrian was over at her place (Adrian and her husband, Seth had been working on building a shed at our house all day and then insulating their windows) so we stayed and talked to them for awhile. It was late when we came back home, but we started to watch the A&M -OU game that we had taped and I fell asleep at some point in the game...hence, no post yesterday...

Christmas Mountains

Next Tuesday, Nov. 6th, the Texas School Land Board will vote whether or not to sell the Christmas Mountains to private interests. The Christmas Mountains property contains most of the Christmas Mountains and is adjacent to Big Bend National Park. When the property was sold to the Texas General Land Office, the owner made an agreement with the then GLO land commissioner that the land be kept public and if the land was transferred, it could only be to the National Park Service or the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept, or else the owner would have to be consulted.

The National Park Service has recently expressed interest in obtaining the property to add to Big Bend National Park, but the current land commissioner does not want the property to go to the NPS, due to the Park Service's prohibitions on hunting and firearms. In addition, the current commissioner is not interested in checking with the previous owners to make sure that they approve of the sale - disregarding the owners agreement with the previous land commissioner.

I suppose the land commissioner is hoping that the land will go to private hands that will responsibly manage the lands and allow hunting, but I think that can be a gamble, plus I feel it's a shame that the land commissioner is not interested in adding more public land to Texas. According to some stats that I have looked up, less than 5% of land in Texas is public (I've found as little as 2%). In contrast, approximately 60% of land in Utah is public land! And honestly, this is one big reason why I really enjoy it in Utah. You can easily drive 20 minutes in every direction from our house and hike and camp! :) Also, I am biased, but Big Bend is really an incredible, special place and one of my most favorite national parks so far.

If you oppose the sale of the Christmas Mountains to private interests, here's a link to the petition: https://www.environmenttexas.org/action/preserving-texas/perry
For more info, here are some articles:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/us/03mountains.html?ref=environment
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/10/13/1013bigbend.html
http://www.bigbendgazette.com/blog/_archives/2005/12/2/1441607.html

nablopomo

November is NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month, where the goal is to post in your blog everyday for the month of November. We'll see if I can do it, although I imagine the posts could become boring. I've just gotten back from Denver so I could post about that. But I have quite a bit to catch up on right now (including a scary 3-hour fluvial geomorph test that I need to get to in a bit), so I will write more later.

mid-October update

I haven't updated in awhile. We have been somewhat busy with school. Here's what's happened so far:

1. Dinosaur National Monument with my fluvial geomorphology class. A fun trip - beautiful scenary. We hiked along and across the Yampa River, and it rained one night for the whole night, leaving me with a wet tent and wet sleeping bag.

This was one of our crossings, where the water came up to our chests!

2. Adrian's parents came to visit for a long weekend. We took them around to see the beautiful fall colors and it even snowed one day!

One of my favorite pictures of Lucy in a bed of colorful leaves.

Adrian's parents in the Logan Canyon.

Fall colors, while snowing!

A real pumpkin patch, where we picked two pumpkins, that still need faces.

Adrian's dad in front of the capitol in Salt Lake.

On the drive back from Salt Lake, snow on the mountain tops with fall colors on the slopes.

That is actually pretty much it. Last night, we went to a pig roast that the College of Natural Sciences holds every year in October. It was pretty fun with a huge bonfire that kept us warm through the drizzling night. Other than that, we have spent a lot of time reading (both of us), playing soccer (Adrian), and going on numerous fluvial trips and labs (me).

seasons!

We have seasons here! The leaves in the canyon have started changing color and it has been getting a little cooler in the mornings and evenings.

We have started getting into somewhat of a schedule and settling into school life. For the most part, I like it - I really like my fluvial geomorphology class where we go out every week to different rivers. We have to go into them and since I don't have waders, I wore the wetsuit that I bought at a thrift shop in San Diego today. I looked a little odd, walking to class in a wetsuit, as if I was going to school in California instead of the mountain west. But it kept me warm. :)

Other times, when I spend hours just reading, I start wondering why I am still in school, but I can't really complain.

Last week, Adrian and I volunteered with the Water Quality program, teaching 4th graders about macroinvertebrates in the Logan River at a campground in the canyon. While there, we noticed how the leaves have already started changing! We hope the colors will still be around when Adrian's parents visit us in the first week of October.

We also went to a USU soccer game on Sunday. It was pretty fun. It made me a little homesick for Aggieland with the rowdy, huge crowd, but the game at Utah State had a different kind of charm. Soccer games are free for everyone, and you can bring in coolers with food and drinks. We also saw several dogs there, and little kids would spend the time rolling down the hill, where people could sit in lawn chairs and blankets rather than the bleachers.

This weekend is actually homecoming week at Utah State, but I will have to miss the festivities since I have a weekend field trip with my geomorphology class...and I am not sure how to end my post, so it will just be an abrupt ending.

school has begun!

We are just about to finish week 2, and I feel like I have really started hitting the ground running. Overall, I am enjoying school (though I have a lot of reading to do), and I like working with my advisor. This will sound silly, but I feel more idealistic here (hopefully, this is not a temporary thing...) - I've been more exposed to stories of change and community-wide activism. There's a lot about A&M that I miss, but I'm glad that I chose to go elsewhere for my attempt at more schooling. Experiencing a different landscape, a different kind of people, and a different way of doing things has widened my perspective.

Lucy and Chico have been doing well. We discovered that there is more than just the beautiful Logan Canyon to hike in, but canyons all over the area that are a 15 minute drive away. We took the two dogs for a short hike in one of them the other day, and they had a good time. also, we found this little trail that runs parallel to the irrigation canal (which I am slowly learning more about) that is just a short walk from our house. It's a nice jogging trail, because it's away from the cars (and it's fairly flat as well. Maybe someday, I will get in shape and not huff as I walk up the hill to go to campus...).

I will end with some pictures of the pups:

school starts!

School starts tomorrow! I'm a little nervous about it...


I haven't really blogged much lately. Let's see, mostly we have been organizing, but some fun things happened: Christy came and visited us for 3 days. It was so much fun having Christy here. We went hiking and played a lot of the Settlers of Catan, a board game that Christy introduced us to. It was so nice having a great friend here - a kindred spirit in the same town, finally!



Lucy got into a little bit of trouble for barking too much - more on that later...


Nate, another Ph.D student in my department, and his dog, Chico, moved in with us for a short spell while Nate looks for a house to call his own. Chico is a Portuguese water dog, and he is so cute. He and Lucy play and wrestle together.


Today, we went into Ogden to watch the rookie team of the Dodgers, the Ogden Raptors play. Parker Dalton, of A&M, plays there now, and we got to meet him. He was so nice and so excited to see Aggies. Before we found him, a teammate of his talked to us and said that all Parker talks about is how great A&M is. :)

living in Logan!

A lot has happened since my last post, mainly moving to Logan, UT for an approximate 4-year adventure. There is nothing like stuffing a moving truck to the absolute fullest to make you realize that you have way too much stuff, but we had such wonderful friends in the two Marks and Bret to help with the stuffing. It's really the people and the great friends that we left behind in Texas that I miss the most.

So far, in Logan we have mostly been working on our house, trying to get everything fixed up before school starts (just one more week!). The latest task that we completed was painting a couple of rooms. Our bedroom is a two-toned green, the living room is russian blue with a reddish shelf as an accent, and then the room that I messed up on: the dining room - red and yellow...it is pretty bright and I am not sure that I really like it too much. But we have spent so much time painting that I refuse to paint anymore, but perhaps in a year, I will repaint if it hasn't grown on me by then.

For my birthday, we went away for a couple of days and escaped the paint fumes. We took Lucy to Wyoming. Adrian showed me around the town of Lander, WY where he did his 6-month internship and we camped at Sinks Canyon State Park. It was a great camp site, right next to the Popo Agie River. We went on a hike to a natural water slide, where water flows over a rock into a pond. We took turns riding the "slide" into the super cold water. (I might post our videos at some point.)

The next day we went to Thermopolis, where there are hot springs, and sat in them for 20 minutes in the free bathhouse (you wear swimsuits in the bathhouse...). On our way back home, we stopped at Fossil Butte National Monument, completed the senior ranger program, and hiked a nice hike around an island of aspen trees. It was a fun trip. It's exciting to realize all the incredible places that are very close to where we live. Lucy was really good throughout the trip. We tired her out on the hikes, so she went right to sleep in the tent. I will have to post pictures and a video or two of our hiking and bouldering dog. She has an adventurous heart.

hufflepuff

I've decided to retract what I said previously about Hufflepuff. I wouldn't mind being in Hufflepuff. Tonks was a Hufflepuff and we suspect that Lucy might be in Hufflepuff if she were to get sorted.

"You might belong in Hufflepuff, where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil;" ~ the Sorting Hat

mission accomplished!

We have actually done everything on my list of things I wanted to do before we left Texas:

1. hike up Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas - completed 7/01/07
2. take some pictures in the Texas bluebonnets - this was done in the spring on 2 different occasions
3. see Nickel Creek in concert again before they disassemble - seen at the Meridian on 4/20/07
4. go to an Astros game at Minute Maid Park - went to 3 games! (2 were free. I think we may have lost all 3 of those games...)
5. explore the George Bush Museum - I'm going to say that we did this. We went to the Museum on July 4, but I forgot that the entire main exhibit is closed until November, but we did see the miniature White House and both of us had already seen the main exhibit at some point previously.
6. visit the Houston Zoo to see our old friends one more time - completed 7/14/07
7. fully appreciate Whataburger, H.E.B., and Blue Bell - we are kind of still doing this, but I consider it done. :)

"Time is making fools of us again." ~ Albus Dumbledore

we say goodbye...

It seems like we have had a lot of goodbyes lately. First to my parents two weekends ago; then to our Bible study group when we met last week for a game night (we learned how to play a card game called Nertz); then to my boss (He's heading off to law school. The College of Geosciences paid for our lunch at Abuelo's and I truly ate an amazing amount of food.); and finally to Adrian's parents.

We spent this past weekend with them in Houston and went to the zoo Saturday. It really was the perfect day for the zoo. It was overcast the entire morning we were there with a few spots of slight drizzling. It was a nice temperature, and it made some of the animals a little more active. We rented the movie, The Holiday, which I thought was kind of cute - maybe a tad long - definitely a chick flick. Occasionally, when Cameron Diaz would talk, I would think, 'She sounds like Fiona...' Then we spent the rest of the time trying hard to find a DVD/VCR player that would work with his parents' connections. 2 hours and 4 stores later, we found one!

We got home in the evening Sunday night and prepared to make another goodbye - to Adrian's old blue Malibu. We made the sale, and the Malibu drove away. We are officially a one-car family now.

"You're supposed to be the leading lady in your own life, for God's sake!" ~ Kate Winslet, as Iris, in the Holiday.

Harry Potter

We went to see Harry Potter at 12:05 this morning with Michelle and Neal. It was packed - with some people in Gryffindor outfits. If I were not a muggle, I would most want to be in either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. And then I think that I might prefer Slytherin to Hufflepuff - it just seems like Hufflepuff kind of gets all the leftover people who are not distinctive - although, it is true that Cedric was a Hufflepuff...

Anyways, I think the movie did tell the overall story, but I had just finished rereading book 5, so I noticed so many differences. They cut out a lot (I suppose they had to), but some of the deletions made me sad. They also changed some things, mostly for the sake of simplifying and shortening, but there were some changes that really bothered me. I won't say anything specific so I don't inadvertently ruin the film for someone, but I will say: Harry and Cho's kiss in the movie was way more involved than in the book...

"Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked this easily -- weak people, in other words -- they stand no chance against his powers! He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease, Potter!" ~ Severus Snape (I really like Alan Rickman as Snape - he's cool.)

Our Corpus trip!

We went to Corpus this past weekend to see my parents for the last time before we move to Utah. It was weird and kind of sad to think that it may be awhile before I go to Corpus to their house again.

We all went to the beach together on Saturday - and Lucy swam for the first time! There was a deeper area in the water separated by a sandbar where we deposited Lucy in. Then, she swam to shore. She looked so cute swimming. I think it gave her a little of a high because after she swam to shore, she was so excited and ran around everywhere. She swam 3 times.

re-run of our Logan trip

I found this post as a draft and thought that I would post it, before I post the pictures and video (of Lucy swimming!) from our Corpus weekend.

We flew into Salt Lake on Tuesday a little after 4. By the time we picked up our rental car and drove through rush hour and construction, it was about 7 or so when we got into Logan. We ate dinner at Taco Time and settled in at Priya's house. She allowed us to stay at her house for the whole week even though she wasn't there!

Wednesday: We spent the morning walking around Logan.

Here is the Logan Temple.

Logan is on a grid system, and most of the streets have sidewalks, so it is really easy to walk everywhere. They also have these above ground irrigation canals that are interesting - some have ducks. We met with Andrea, our real estate agent, and looked at houses. We found two that we liked - we called them the little house and the big house. The little house was a bit farther away from campus and had an offer on it already by that afternoon. We decided to write an offer for the big house.

Thursday: We received a counter-offer that morning and submitted a counter-offer of our own. Then, we drove all the way through Logan Canyon to Bear Lake in Garden City. It is really a beautiful drive, with lots of hiking, climbing, and fishing opportunities along the way. We ate raspberry shakes in Garden City and hiked a short, easy hike in the Canyon - the Limber Pine trail. We went back to Priya's and learned that our counter-offer had been accepted, and we were under contract!

Friday: We went back into Logan Canyon and hiked to the Wind Cave, which was a fun, steep hike.

Wind Cave

Then we went back to our (hopefully) future house for the inspection. It is weird to think that the house is 108 years old!

For the most part, it seems in pretty good shape although there are some things about the house that aren't ideal. The good thing is that we are looking at the house as a place to live for 4-5 years, not a life-time, and that helps me not freak about things. Plus, the price we are paying is more than fair, and from what we have seen of the real-estate market in Logan, we don't think that we will have trouble selling it - unless the house falls apart... We also love the location, and we figured that our mortgage payments plus taxes and insurance would equal what it would cost to rent.

Our house! It's a little plain in the front. (incidentally, I have no idea why this is underlined...)

Half of our kitchen - look there's a dishwasher!

The living room

The backyard

Saturday: We met with Andrea again to add in more things to the addendum for the seller to fix before closing. We stopped by the Farmer's Market, which was really cute and fun. Then we headed back to the Canyon for the Mt. Naomi hike. This hike took us to Tony Grove Lake, which is beautiful. We even encountered several snow drifts on the hike!

Tony Grove Lake

Snow!

Sunday: A full day of traveling to get back to College Station at around 10 pm.

Guadalupe Peak

This past weekend, we took a short road-trip out to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The goal - hike up Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas before we move to Utah.

It was a fun, Texas-filled trip. On our trip out there on Saturday, we stopped briefly in Fredericksburg and walked down Main Street and browsed in the 10 cent store and in a fancy dog shop. We also stopped in Junction to eat Cooper's famous BBQ.

We got to the campsite at Guadalupe with plenty of time to set up our tent, eat a quick dinner of sandwiches, and make the campfire talk that night. The campfire talk was filled with children who kept interrupting the poor ranger while he tried to give his geology talk, but I suppose it is good that they are inquisitive and interested about the area - even if their questions had nothing to do with the subject on hand.

at our campsite before we put the tent up

The next day, we woke up after a strange night's sleep. It was somewhat loud in the campsite - with a group loudly discussing the merits of wedgies at 10, a group of guys barking loudly at 3 in the morning, and a car alarm incident at some point in the night (though, I actually slept through this, but it sounded amusing from Adrian's memory).

We went to the visitor's center to stamp our passports, buy a magnet, and ask a few questions about the hike. The girl working the desk was Class of '05. :)

Then we set out on the hike. It was a good hike. It is somewhat strenuous at the beginning, then gets easier, and then inclines steeply again until you get to the top. The hike climbs 2,950 feet to reach the 8,749 foot peak. It is cool, because as you climb, you can see how the vegetation changes - from desert plants, like agave and sotol, to ponderosa pines and junipers.

agave

the Texas madrone - one of my favorites

cholla!

At the top, there is this metal triangle symbol that denotes the peak (complete with the American Airlines symbol). There is also a log book where you can record your ascent to the top. :) We ate lunch at the summit and enjoyed the views for a spell. We met an SCA crew throughout the hike as well.

Here we are at the top. In the second picture, you can see El Capitan in the background.

We made it back down for a total excursion of almost 7 hours. We headed back to the visitor's center to complete our tasks for the senior ranger program. :) We earned our patches and headed back to the campsite, where we looked at the clouds, talked, and read for a spell until it was time for bed.

The next day, we left somewhat early to start on the 10 hour trip back to College Station. We stopped at a peach stand outside of Fredericksburg to buy some fresh, locally grown peaches. Then we stopped at the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Site outside of Johnson City. It was very pretty there with lots of wildflowers and cute walking trails along the Pedernales River. We didn't really stay too long, but we did get another stamp in our passports, and were able to see-saw in the adjoining playground area.

It was a fun road-trip, and I am glad that we were finally able to hike up to the highest point in Texas. It was something that I have been wanting to do for a really long time, and I am glad that I was able to do it with Adrian. :)

"I'm king of the world!" ~ Jack in Titanic (although, in this case, it's really king of Texas, perhaps...?)

B-G-O!

yay, for Biggio. He's my favorite and so nice. :)

Because we are dog/house-sitting, we had access to extended cable and were able to watch: Acie Law IV get drafted AND Biggio's 2998, 2999, 3000, 3001, and 3002 hits. Hurrah, it is always gratifying to see good things happen to nice people.

“I never did say that you can't be a nice guy and win. I said that if I was playing third base and my mother rounded third with the winning run, I'd trip her up.” ~ Leo Durocher

dinner with the Gastons

Last night, we got to have Mariann and Shawn over for the first time since their wedding. :) I made a chicken pesto pasta, which actually turned out pretty good (hurrah for the food processor), and then we finally finished off the fried icecream balls. It is always fun to have Mariann and Shawn over. We will miss those two! Adrian says they are good listeners, ha. So I hope that doesn't mean we spend the entire time talking, while they are forced to listen.

Sadly, it may be one of the last if not the last time to have someone over for dinner in College Station. Our house seems to be getting messier, and my will to clean it seems to have weakened over time...

back in Texas for a month or so

We are back in Texas after a week of blue, dry skies. The continual threats of rain seem to be making the air even more humid, which results in extra frizz for me, which seems more defined as my hair adjusts from being in dry air. :(

We are dog-sitting and kind of house-sitting this week for a family that lives off of Thomas Park. Last night, we cooked a premade casserole that was left for us, played Guitar Hero, washed clothes, and watched Mighty Ducks Three at the Fogles' house. It was kind of fun, but Duke really misses his parents.

a house!

We found a house and are under contract! whew, it is a fast process here in Logan. Houses go fast. I would see houses for sell and then poof, a day later they are under contract. We were lucky with this one - it was not even listed yet, but our agent knew the man who was selling. It is super old - 1899! But has been remodeled (there is even a dishwasher!). It is only 4 blocks from campus. The yard is not nearly as big as the yard we have in College Station, but hopefully, Lucy will still like it. We are across the street from a park. The house is a bit bigger than we really know what to do with, so we hope to have people visiting us. It is beautiful here...pictures to come. :)

2 posts in 1 day = not much to do at work...

I was talking to Amy the other day about weddings, and I talked about how I didn't really view my wedding as the most important day of my life, and therefore, nothing would really have bothered me too much if something went wrong (unless Adrian had said the wrong name or something!).

But I think I kind of left the impression that marrying Adrian didn't mean much to me - that's not what I meant. Just that, to me the fact that we are married and are spending the rest of our lives together is what makes me happy. It was actually kind of hard for me to really appreciate the ceremony with a lot of people looking at us. For me, my most happiest times are when it's just us together where no one is around to witness how truly strange we are.

"The most beautiful thing in the world is a match well made." ~ Emma Woodhouse in Emma. (this quote is from the movie, though. I am embarrassed to say that I have not read the book and am not sure if the quote is also in the novel.)

like clockwork

Due to rain, instead of going to the Bombers game last night (although, they did end up having the game), Adrian and I had the chance to hang out at Mark's apartment for a spell. We don't get the chance to see Mark that often. His work schedule changes with unusual hours, but it is always fun to go to his place - it is always educational. Mark is somewhat of a "hyper geek" (this is Mark's own term so I think it's okay to repeat it).

Last time, he showed us the rocks and minerals that he collected on his trip out west (I forgot which states). This time, he showed us the insides of the clock he was making. I would tell you more about it, but my mind is pretty limited when it comes to electronics and circuits and things of that nature. But he is very handy, and it's cool to see the things that he can create and make work.

back to the blogspot

My summer job is slightly boring, so I thought that I would try to revamp my blogspot as a way to pass the time. Although, since not much is happening this summer so far, it could make for a somewhat boring blog.

I was looking at my past xanga posts and then my past blogspot posts, and it will be a little sad to leave the xanga. Those were some quality posts, there, when compared to my older blogspot ones - those were really bad. But I like the features that blogger offers - will google ever cease coming up with the best ideas and methods?

Right now, the thing most preoccupying my mind is: looking for a place to live in Logan. I pretty much spend way too much time everyday looking at house listings and then mapping them on googlemaps. Currently, I am spoiled by being a 10-minute bike ride away from campus, and I am still trying to live a bikeable distance from the university. Tuesday, we head to Logan to house hunt - we are going to look at houses for sale and for rent. Whatever happens, I am hoping that when we return, I will no longer have to spend vast amounts of time looking at real estate sites...