You can help my derby team get to Oregon!

JCRD Trainwrecks are bouting in Oregon September 7th and 8th and we need your help to get there!
Anything helps, and right now we are just over 10% to our goal. With your help you can bring us a little closer to our WFTDA bouts in the Beaver state! Puh-leeeze help us - we really don't want to have to forfeit :/

I made a thing

It's about time! When was the last time I sewed anything? I miss it. I'm glad I sat down and did the making today - this thing is pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

 

What is this thing that I made?

 Let's unzip it and see...

Keep on opening it...

 Tada! It's a grocery tote (a bacon grocery tote) - YAY!

 I made it following this handy tutorial here. Very pleased with the results. The canvas is a bit tricky to stuff in there, but it'll be sturdy I'm sure. I think the next one should be a combo of canvas on the bottom and handles, and maybe a lighter cotton for the sides.

Wedding at Croctuta

From one wedding straight to another... drove up to some of my most favouritest mountains and celebrated a cabin-mountain-meadow wedding in the hot California sun.

Casual, rustic, short & sweet.

Since we were in the neighbourhood, had to make a trek to Lassen Volcanic National Park and hike up Mt. Lassen.

It was bright and sunny, but the air was cool, which made for perfect hiking weather and also perfect "sunburn the crap out of yourself" weather.

This fatty chipmunk went directly from the peanut he was shoving in his mouth to the green m&m he wished he'd noticed first but was glad he discovered before any other critters got to it.

After hiking Lassen we went to check out the (extremely disappointing) cold boiling lake. Not much of the lake was "boiling"... most of it was "filled with plants".

But... 2.5 miles later, the trail did take us up into Bumpass Hell via the little-traveled back route, which made it completely worthwhile.

I went to Ottawa, watched kitties get their teeth brushed, and then I went to an awesome gay wedding in a barn in Port Hope

It's all true. In that order. Here's some photos to show off the short but fun trip!

 R soothes 18 in preparation for the procedure

mmmm... chicken flavour toothpaste!

the product

BEG brings 12 in for treatment

vampira!

center: me and the two happy grooms. clockwise from top left: km's happy mama, beet hummus, old friends from Kingston days, first dance, R being the grumpy cat (unknowingly - he'd never heard of grumpy cat before), R being his more normal self, blue grass band, really weird wine ingredients, BEG wearing the fun hat

Two derbies

Our team has a connection with the demolition derby show in Ogden, so some of us went down to exchange volunteer time (timing between car hits) for roller derby promotion. Timing cars was actually kinda fun... must remember ear plugs next time!!!

 

Check out the car that came down from British Columbia! I don't understand the penguin... but whatever...

 

Pretty setting for an ugly event.

  

This guy from Idaho liked our logo so much he painted it on his truck.

 This guy was quite the dancer across the way in the audience... I think his "vest" is made out of balloons???

And then, this weekend my old roller derby team made the drive from Bakersfield to come play my new roller derby team. It was a blast, and a lovely reunion and a good bout and we won!

The semester ended, and I went into the field

Field work this spring involved borrowing some rafts and getting a couple of special permits to collect samples in Desolation-Gray Canyons... while rafting down said canyons...

It started out pretty ominous and with a few snafus, but by day 2 everything had worked itself out, including the weather! Many samples were collected during the week on the river, it was spectacularly beautiful, hot, loads of dead animals floating down the river, too much food, and overall a grand success.

 

 stormy beginnings

 

 open skies

 

 just the right amount of white water

 

 desert blooms

 gorgeous camps

mountain lion tracks

parking boats at awkward landings to reach awkward outcrops to do field work - hooray for lots of field assistants!

can't complain about that.

One week later.

Today is Tuesday. Taco Tuesday, if you will. If Kiki was allowed to eat tacos, he would've LOVED them. Not just the taco meat, which is obvious, but also the cheese and sour cream, and guacamole too since the weirdo liked avocado... so, in honor of Kiki and taco Tuesday, here's an early photo of Kiki from when I first rescued his little kitten friend Loki, and a video (thanks Brock) of a happy Kiki being petted by Mazzy back in Bakersfield.

 

Goodbye to Kiki

Back in the summer of 2002 I went to the Kingston Humane Society with my roommate at the time, Joanne, to adopt a short haired cat. A mangy looking orange thing picked me through the bars, and Joanne insisted that I bring that one home. The Humane Society identified him as a "domestic short hair". About a month or so later, ear mites, parasites, and other ailments gone, his fur grew in and it became obvious that this was no short haired cat.

This was a food-stealing, long-haired, attention craving, loving ball of fur, a dog in a cat suit, who accompanied me at 4 different homes in Kingston, my parents home in Barrie, a ski trip to Val David in Quebec, a cross-country week long driving move to California, 6 years in Bakersfield, and another move to Utah with a stopover in the mountain wilderness of the Sierra Nevada.

I named this blog for Kiki. I was attempting to toilet train him when I started blogging. The toilet training was a failure, probably due to the cat-falling-in-the-toilet incident...

Kiki's tolerant nature and role as entertainer, comforter, and allergen will all be missed terribly.

No one has any idea how poor, stupid, Loki will survive this loss.

Sad days around here for sure.

Visit from Sister

Lulu came out to visit, and building on the theme of weird California, I immediately took her out to see the "Metaphor: Tree of Utah" that Utah is not famous for.

Metaphor.

Then we drove a little further along to the Bonneville Speedway.

It was a lake, thus we could set no land speed records.

Since it's winter, we went cross country skiing a couple of times. The first of these times it was too warm to ski... so instead I accumulated huge wads of snow above and below my skis and plodded along awkwardly on ski-stilts.

 

Lulu did enjoy that we got to ski into Idaho though.

Conveniently there was a derby scrimmage on this weekend as well, so some watching of derby got to happen for Lulu as well. Here Roll X and I are doing something useful AND the photo isn't blurry. Success!

Rockets are cool. Science is fun...

I'd rather watch NASA launch a new LandSat than work on edits any day.

Then, while I'm watching said launch on my computer, I take a bunch of screen captures. Then I compile them. Then I post the compilation on my blog:

So, if you missed it. This gives you a bit of a play-by-play.

Antarctic Adventures - Penguins are Adorable

Throughout the course of the trip I took video of penguins (because they are hilarious and adorable). In lieu of bringing back a live penguin, which was requested but essentially impossible, I assembled video clips and edited my little summary of favourites and cutest penguin-i-ness. Then I put it on youtube. Now it's also here.

Richard Alley (also on the trip - awesome, right?) captured an amazing clip of penguins that he also put on youtube, so I might as well share that with you too:

Antarctic Adventures - Livingston Island - South Shetlands

Our final landing before the Drake Passage was on Livingston Island where we saw the only "flowering" plants of the Antarctic - in flower! In addition, we were blasted by the most horrendous of foul stenches imaginable. So horrendous they were, in fact, unimaginable. Consequently I bee-lined for the rocks as far away from the horrifying odors as possible.

Day 19:
Cobbles and lichen at peninsula Hurd
The to Hannah Point all covered in turds
The penguins were sharting
Elephant seals farting
And plant fossils for geology nerds

Hairy lichen - in "flower"

"Pixie Cups"

Hairy lichen

Plant fossils!

Pearlwort

Antarctic Adventures - Port Lockroy & Neko Harbor

This was our final landing in the Antarctic before heading north. Port Lockroy is a British research station that has been around for several decades, and naturally, being British, has a post office. Part of the station has a "museum" set up the way Antarctic scientific research was done in the 40's and 50's (it's basically just preserved, complete with food, from that time). It was really cool, and this is where I sent a few postcards. Mail from here goes by boat to the Falklands, then military plane to the UK, then enters the British postal system!

Day 18:
Postcards were sent from British Base A
Then back on ship for BBQ day
Humpbacks, zodiacs
Snowslides on our backs
Then from the Antarctic we sailed away

Food shelf!

Recipe book, complete with instructions for penguins, seals and cormorants

I knitted a vengeful fur seal, here it is looking satisfied after a hearty whale snack. Picked those bones clean!

Weddell seal

Neko Harbor sunset