BA on Boxing Day

For this year's birthday I finagled an intense drive from Kingston to London (en route to Barrie and via Waterloo) in order to see the show I miss the most since my move... yup, that's right... the BA Baracus Band! YAY! Check out Papa's shirt! Djembe was in top form that night, wowee!


It was fun having the Pembroke St. reunion despite missing one ultra-hyper and integral link to the house dynamic... kilometres...

BEG, Papa and me

Papa, TFF and Jumpmaster

Rather than post all the videos I took that night, I thought I would post one little teaser and provide links to the rest, for those die-hard BA fans who can't get enough of tinny sound and poor in-bar videography from an older digital camera and a person (me) who forgets how to hold the camera...



Fraggle Rock (featuring Duncan for old times sake)
Bette Davis Eyes (short - people started dancing right in front of my camera...)
a Corey Hart tribute (I'd never heard them do this one before!!! fun!)
and Girls (another one I hadn't heard them do before - and also fun!)

xmas knitting...

Now that xmas is past, I can proudly display the MAD knitting skillz I invoked in order to accomplish this year's task of making stuff for people.

simple socks for grandma (my own boring pattern in boring beige ultra-fine merino)

festive socks for mama (Baudelaire from knitty.com)

gloves for papa (Urban Rustic from knitty.com)

sweater for young Nathan belonging to Stephen and Janel (ChildHood from knitty.com)

...and Sheldon the turtle with removable shell for sis (Sheldon from knitty.com)

I knit other things for other people as well that I neglected to photograph - but you get the idea. WHEW!

snow!

I am currently blogging from wireless internet in the LA airport. I have to board my flight in a little under 4 hours and am trying to occupy myself seeing as the chairs in here are arranged in such a way that you cannot lie down. So I will regale you with sleepy babble recounting my last desert adventure of 2006!

This has been a record year for desert roaming - and the Mojave to be sure! On the way out I drove by Tehachapi, as usual, and for the first time saw the range covered in a light dusting of snow - naturally I had to pull over and collect some photographic evidence to show you all.


Bird Nerd accompanied me for this round and we went on an expedition across the marble mountains where I exhibited an extraordinary lack of map-reading proficiency. (Check out that wicked use of the letter "X"!!!)
Luckily I more than made up for it with mad bat-photography skillz. Oh yeah, and mad love from the waitress at Bun Boy who has a slightly over-the-top enthusiasm for seeing my bright (although usually dirty from desert roaming) face appear in her place of work for a burger after a day of playing in rocks.

last hike (clamber) of 2006

Ludlow isn't quite a ghost town yet - it has the advantage of being situated at the junction of old rte66 and I40 just where the 66 detours south - watch for future adventures featuring Ludlow - I have the sneaking suspicion that I'll stay at the motel one night...

why is this banana advertising Pirates of the Caribbean?

looking south from the marble mountains - is that a low-flying plane or what? a super speedy jet scared the crap out of us up on the mountain ridge later on.

this dyke is creating one of my favourite rock formations: stegosaurus rock. check out those excellent basalt stegosaurus spines sticking out of the granite!

can you see the truck way down there? what about the absurdly located patch of agriculture?

yeti homes and mining tunnels

dissapointingly this tunnel into the limestone was short and not a a skarn...

luckily it housed a bat! which I photographed with some difficulty, then accidentally deleted off my camera, and so had to go back in for a second, significantly more difficult try... oops.
this yeti-home is constructed of "elephant skin" weathered limestone. very sharp. oweeee!

not jumping

Here I am atop a particularly square rock.

sunset in the marble mountains

First the grey rocks turn yellow...

Then orange...

Then black while the sky turns from blue to gold...

And then to pink.

Shortly thereafter you find yourself completely enshrouded by black until the pinpricks of starlight come into view.

Good day - Bad day

So far today has been rather mood-swingy...

• Good day: have a home for kitten to go to! Hooray!!!
• Better day: vet squeezed me in early today so I could finish up with kitten's boosters and he'd be all ready to go to San Luis Obispo (his new home) Tuesday morning! Yay! Thanks vet!
• Even better day: finally thought of something for my last present to get, managed to squeeze all presents as well as minimal amount of clothing into suitcase, was able to drink coffee again for the first time in a week! Yipee!
• Great day: will be able to squeeze in one last day of desert romping before leaving the country. Woohoo!

Say bye-bye to kitten!

• Bad day: called rental car people about a suddenly flattish tire on rental car, they directed me to their tire place where I had to hang around for an hour or so while they fixed the car. Grrr - time waster.
• Worse day: stopped by bank to get Canadian money, they said they don't deal with foreign exchange, I have to order that on the phone ('cause what - they're a BANK, that's not what banks DO???). Gave me a number, sent me to their lobby phone where I called, found out it was not the right number, called the number the phone person gave me, found out that you don't order the money over the phone you order it at the branch... phone guy commented that I had clearly received "stellar customer service". Stood back in line at the branch, tried again, they claimed ignorance and tried having me order it over the internet. Turns out there's a minimum amount one can order this way (which was more than I wanted) AND there's a fee that's bigger than if I just took money out from the bank machine in Canada. (This, by the way, was one of the first things I asked about when I started the inquiries...)
• Rip my f*$#ing hair out day: got denied for line of credit, which makes Jeep purchasing INCREDIBLY difficult. Total time wasted at bank? 2 hrs.
  

• Better day: found out Pi was going to drive the kitten to the coast rather than me having to do that tomorrow. Pi has fabulously saved me AN ENTIRE DAY of time that I can use to deal with any of the above things that made today a bad day.
  

What does JEEP stand for again?

Here's looking at a late xmas present for myself (only for 2x the cost of the damage on my Golf!)

damn, they really DO play with TP

it's like they're posing

Sorry - couldn't resist...

When nerds knit...

My geology friends had better know what this is...

Up close and personal

As requested

A 2nd kitten video - here's a box of coffee on my kitchen floor - obviously a new toy/hideaway.

mutant

As I ran to grab my camera to capture the two-headed pile of orange fur on my couch one of them (can you guess who?) got wriggly and moved.

Which turned out fine, because it resulted in this amusing photo.

So yes, to answer the burning question, the kitten is still at my house - there have been no requests for kittens in response to my hunt for a home for him.

The new breakfast routine

Now my mornings go something like this:

• respond to kiki's meowing by getting up and feeding him (normal)
• turn on espresso machine
• respond to kitten's meowing by freeing him from the bathroom (where I trap him overnight)
• grab kitten in one hand so that he doesn't barge in front of kiki to steal his food (to which kiki either responds by hissing or looking at me bewildered)
• grab cup to have coffee in (still holding kitten)
• put kitten food on counter with kitten in front of it hoping that kitten will find it more interesting than kiki's food (has not happened yet)
• grab kitten
• clean litter boxes (kitten likes to use both of them at night)
• make coffee
• check to see if kiki's done eating yet (even though he gobbles it fast, it seems like it takes forever now!)
• put kitten down if kiki's done
• shove kiki in litter box
• clean litter box (again)
• let kiki outside to hang around on the patio
• drink coffee while kitten does this:

Imposter!

What's that behind Kiki's whiskers???

Texas Gal rescued a little kitten on Tuesday and with a complete and utter lack of places to put him, he's spent some time in my office and is currently hanging around my house until a home is found for him.

Barely bigger than a mousie - much smaller than a Kiki!

I can't help myself

Ok folks... I apologize for the plush toilet rolls (what the????), but if you need to procrastinate in a fit of silly giggles, please please please go here: www.cuteoverload.com and specifially read the "rules of cuteness" link listed on the left. Paying special attention to a) suction cups on hands and beadiest of eyes, b) cuteness "trifecta", and c) "eye capsules". KM, there's otters on there too!!!

Las Vegas Wedding

Following the coastal and desert adventures, I had one day of "work" (for which BEG was my guest lecturer) - that also ended at 10pm. During that night class the Fly Fisherman zipped out to take BEG to the bus station and after that class Duncan and I began the trek to Vegas.

The Fly Fisherman (TFF) thankfully did most of the driving, I was just physically capable anymore! We arrived at Bally's in Vegas around 3am, checked in, and found our room. TFF wanted to look around a bit, never having been to Vegas before. So... while I photographed the $4.50 bottle of water in our bathroom, he IRONED HIS JEANS for us to go out.


We found ourselves at one of the bars in Ceasar's Palace around 3:30am and settled down for a deliciously minty Mojito. Eventually making it to bed at 5:30am, just as BEG would have been checking in for her flight in LA.