Josh Ritter

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this to anyone yet, but I recently went to hear Josh Ritter play in Bozeman. The concert was so incredibly amazing that I can't even begin to speak of it here, suffice to say it changed my life. Really.

The whole smorgasbord of songs was transporting, but one in particular got under my skin and I can't get it out of my head. It is a new one, not on any previous albums (and therefore unpossessable by me... so far) and it just gets my head spinning in slow delirious circles of wonder. It is haunting, to say the least. So, now that I've built this baby up, here it is. Another New World.



The lyrics stir at my heart and make my chest ache. They make me want to write strange stories and travel and hibernate and and... everything. It is crazy how this song makes me feel. Based on that, I suggest you listen to it at least twice. And then go rewatch the trailer for "Where the Wild Things Are". It will be good for you, I promise.

"...And I won't call it rescue, what brought me back to here to the old world of drunken decline, pretend that the search for another new world was well worth the burning of mine. But sometimes at night, in my dreams comes the singing of some unknown tropical bird, and I smile in my sleep thinking Anabelle Lee has finally made it to another new world..."

Langhorne Slim

While I'm at it, I figure I might as well draw your attention to the excellent band that opened for Josh Ritter. I even bought their cd (for Oli, and got it signed to boot!) and I can say for the first time ever, this band is better live than on the cd. They just had so much energy! Now, this song I like the best (gets stuck in my head like whoa!) but I can't find a good live version to show you. Here is a decent one, but a little lackluster if you ask me. In fact, you probably shouldn't actaully watch the video. Just listen to the pretty addictive lyrics.



He wasn't quite that sweaty when I saw the band live... but almost. :)

"I knew the second we met, you'd go to my head... I wasn't much of a fighter or a lover, you said don't get excited but take cover..."

Fun Weekend

I haven't been posting at all lately, which seems to be the case when life is really fun. No time to blog about it!

But on sunday I did two fun things that deserve a post: I hiked Mount Helena with my mom, and went fishing in the creek with my dad. Here are some pictures!

I love my family :)

Something to consider....

Here is an animation that describes pretty accurately some of the feelings and confusion I've been experiencing lately. It makes a lot of sense to me, but I'm still left wondering... what to do?

                          

http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2008/06/04/the-tao-of-vagabond-travel/

"At what point when you have amassed X amount of personal fortune, accumulated Y amount of material possessions, and achieved Z status as ‘an upstanding member of society’ do you shout “Enough!” and commence living a life of contentment?"

So I haven't been keeping up with this blog at all lately. I still have pictures from my birthday and easter I want to post! Bah. There just seems like there is too much to do, and even with the excessive daylight we are graced with at the lodge, I never seem to be in the mood to sit down and plunk out some photos and words.

So as a little apology I figured I would give the people what they want: Bears! Didn't you know that's what you want? Of course it is, everyone wants one thing, and that's more bears!

Error Error

My blog seems to hate me lately. Also, photoshop doesn't want to work. And Bridge is absolutely on strike.

So I'm working on it, and soon you will have the excitment of all my birthday photos, including scavengar hunt extravaganza, Easter party frolicing and possibly even thrilling videos of little bobbins dancing. I know, I know. Contain yourselves.

But you must wait. Until then...

Ooooooooo

Take that, Martha

So I was watching Martha Stewart this morning, and she was preparing for Easter. Except... not. Mostly she was just showing old clips of previous Easter's past. And Martha, while you have some lovely ideas for decorating, they just aren't in my budget.

You know what I'd love to see? I love to see the episode where Martha moves to Alaska and is unemployed for 8 months and stealing crepe paper streamers out of the garbage at an eight year old's bithday party to make Easter decorations out of.

That's TV I'd pay the cable bill to watch. So you better check you'self, Martha. You've got some holiday decorating competition, and you better believe I'm going to bring it.

See that? That, my friends, is an Easter egg made from a broken wine glass, spent daffodils, an old film canister, some scrap ribbon and a piece of cardboard. Set up on an old shirt and a doily cut from used cardstock. Booya, as my father might say.

Oliver suggested I make a new blog, called "Take That, Martha". I think I might just have to.

It's a GREAT thing.

Birthday!

You might not have heard the good news, but I had a birthday! Yes, today I turned 23. Wow. How excited do I look?! It should be illegal.

To celebrate, Oliver made me an awesome breakfast of sausage, eggs, homemade breakfast potatoes, and of course strawberries, complete with a birthday throne. He also sneakily made me the World Famous Balckberry Cake! He even called mom to get the recipe... aw! Oliver made me "sleep in" even though I woke up at 7am so he could finish his surprises. "But I'm too excited to sleep..."

Also, Mount Redoubt erupted.

Since the day was actually clear and bright, we hopped into the car and rushed off to the beach for some photos.

Doesn't it look imposing?

A nice lady took our picture, but the sun was very bright

The beach in all its ice-chunk glory

Super neat. If you watched really carefully, you could see the ash cloud coiling up very slowly around the peak. This is the first time it has actually been clear enough to see it erupting! I know it isn't lava and dinosaur doom, but I thought it was very cool.

After viewing redoubt, we headed back into town to continue my day of surprises. Stay tuned!

`Danielle

In preparation for our Easter party, and also just because I wanted to, I've been making some fun little penants to hang around the house. We have a thrift store here with a lot of craft supplies, so I was able to get a whole stack of little fabric bits and a ball of string AND cute vintage little chicks (more on those later) for $2.50! I borrowed Sarah's sewing machine, but they were so little I ended up just hot gluing the buggers.

Also notice the sweet little yellow flowers! They are having all sorts of sales for house plants at the nursery right now, and though these aren't technically house plants... they fell into the sale heap anyhow. I couldn't afford the forced daffodils at $10 a pot, but I could afford these little guys for $1 and come change.

How I love a party... stay tuned for more crafts and party fun in the coming week!

`Danielle

Lovely song, shirt, and haircut

I think this song is lovely. I like how they filmed the video, so casual and intimate. I can picture being in the pub and watching. I also love love love her haircut and her shirt. I actually had myself convinced that I was going to cut in bangs like those.

Like, scissors in hand, ready. Then I remembered, I have curly/wavy hair. Hair that I've finally come to terms with wearing naturally most of the time. Fringe like hers only works on straight haired video vixens, or women who are slaves to their straight irons. Alas, no bangs for Danielle.

However, I borrowed Sarah's(Oli's sister)sewing machine and I'm determined to try for the asymmetrical neckline in the top. And I can still enjoy the fun lyrics, cute hair or no!

`Danielle

More activity

Redoubt has been busy. It errupted last night (early this morning) around 1:30am, this afternoon at 1:40pm, then at again at 3:29pm! Here is the latest photo taken near Homer:



And apparently last night during the early morning erruption we also had crazy lightening striking the mountain!

Here is a photo of the ash plume from Homer:

Pretty crazy happenings. Oliver is out shooting his rifle, but since the ash is now supposed to be heading to Soldotna, he is trying to get home. I hope there isn't too much. Messy stuff, that ash.

You can check out more photos (these are all from the avo website) http://www.avo.alaska.edu/volcanoes/volcimage.php?volcname=Redoubt

Love, Danielle

Holy I can't wait...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




I simply can't wait. I've been waiting for this to come out for awhile, after seeing a single screenshot months ago. October 16th is marked on our calendar. Holy cow, holy cow, holy cow....

`Danielle

Breaking News

Boom Boom!!!

Or perhaps more aptly, "puff fizzle....sigh*.

But regardless of the dramatic explosion or lack thereof, Redoubt finally erupted. After weeks of hoo haw and gossiping hullabaloo, the volcano actually honest to god truly went off last night. Five times!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29837941

We happened to get up early this morning to make a much anticipated (ha ha) trip to the DMV. But at about 8am, the power went out, and with it any chance of being first in line. Drat.

With no power comes no internet, which is our go-to source for news. We peeked into our slowly warming refrigerator and the results were uninspiring. So we joined the masses and jumped in the car to see what we could see. On our list of things to do: find other “survivors” and interrogate them for information, and forage for sustenance and ash-masks.

One fun part about the power outage is that traffic lights stop functioning. And we know that Americans in general have a problem driving at the best of times, but without someone telling us where to go and when to stop, things get really hairy. Common sense would say that all lights become four-way stops in the event of malfunction. However, about 1/3 of the population think that a lack of lights means they personally have the right of way, everywhere. Awesome! So while 2/3rds of us creep up to the intersection in meekness and fear that ballsey 1/3rd blows right through at 40 miles an hour.

Don’t worry mom, we wore our seatbelts and waited past our turn. Onwards to a grocery store. But alas, grocery stores have this funny habit of using those fancy automatic doors… which do not open without power. Lucky for us, Freddy’s was smart enough to include some regular, old fashioned doors on hinges! And enough of a backup generator to provide meager lights and run the card swipers. Phew.

Something we noticed while buying last minute jugs of water and produce: everything looks much nicer under the emergency low lighting. They should try it all the time. Save on power too. Also, with the threat of no refrigeration, everything fresh is on sale! Hurray for $1.25 mushrooms! Hurray for .98 cents a lb oranges! Hurrah and well done to the $1.50 gallon of milk!

So we drove, we shopped, we saved and conquered. All before most of the town was even awake. We learned from fellow shoppers that the power outage was weirdly enough unrelated to the volcano, and that electricity was supposed to return at 10 am. We got while the getting was good with our discount produce, ate cold chicken for breakfast and cheered quietly when the lights did flicker on.

But I took a bath, just in case, and there are now ash-masks in the car (you can relax mom and dad, as Oliver put it, “he provided for your little girl”) and water jugs in the kitchen. Along with those oranges, mushrooms, and milk. When the ash starts to fall or the sky is clear enough to get pictures, I’ll update again.

Cheers!

*PS* ash-masks. Try saying that one four times fast. Ash-masks, ash-makes, ack-mashs, ash-mash!

Random bears....

....roaming about in my mind.

These are the "twin" cubs that spent a lot of time around the lodge last fall. The big blonde is a brassy little thing, and always beating up on her little brother.

I got these pictures on the way in from a boat trip, just as the light was fading. They are fuzzy due to that and distance, but I love them just the same.

Something about the mother leading them off to do their important bear things just makes me smile.

New Car!

Oliver bought a new car last weekend, right before we headed up to Anchorage for the week for his construction job. I've been meaning to take a picture of the pretty thing, but of course we are now going through "break-up" (or melt down, as I call it) and the poor thing is not fit for photographing! So I snitched this picture from google instead. She looks just the same anyways!

It is a 2002 Ford Escort. We got a rocking deal on it, and we do need a second car (so I can get a job!) but Oliver isn't super comfortable with such a new car. So we got it with the idea that we would drive it a few months while looking for something more in the $800 range, that is older and he would know how to work on if it died. Then we will sell it, and hopefully for a little more than we paid for it! It has a few blemishes that are easily fixed that would up it's worth, and it has low miles.

Mostly, it is fun to have a new car! Especially a little red two door (picture my big mountain man tooling around town in a red sports car!) with 6 cd changer, a sunroof, and REMOTE START. The sunroof is largely a silly fun extra, but the remote start is certifiably excellent!

`Danielle

Valentine's Day

Rather than buy each other presents, Oliver and I have a made a tradition of going on road trips for anniversaries or holidays. So this year for Valentine’s Day we drove down to Homer to take in the Pratt Museum and walk the beach a little. I finally got a chance to check out my new lens, and it did great even in the foggy weather! Here are some silly pictures of us playing around on the beach.

We also stopped in to the Salty Dog Saloon to get a drink and check out the dollar bill I signed and put on the wall in August with dad, but alas, it had been bill-napped.

Disheartened by their heartless pilfering of my dollar, we chose not to get a drink there after all. So ha! Take that Salty Dog, you fickle mistress you.

`Danielle

Alpacas: circa November 2008

This post is a long time coming and specifically created for Jen. Look Jen, alpacas!

In November I was cordially invited to visit a local alpaca far, courtesy of Oliver’s mother, Lee. Oliver was busy hunting the mighty (or miniscule) Sitka deer, so I hopped in the truck and went along for the ride. We met a nice lady, her four daughters, two big dogs, and of course, her mob of alpacas.

Lee visiting

Lee checks out the fiber

Hello...

`Danielle

In the name of accountability, I'm going to promise some blog posts:

Coming at you in 3-D, by Monday at the latest, I will wax eloquent about....

-Alpaca Farming! Courtesy of November 2008!
-Valentine's Day Trip to Homer, the disapearance of our momento dollar and beach photographs
-The new car, in all its red, two-door, remote start glory
-The baby shower for Oliver's brother Josh's latest offspring and the handmade gift we are sending them

And hopefully.... my phone interview with Wildlife Images Animal Rehabilitation Center!
*yeah, whoo hoo! all right, way to go, general cheering*

I know how excited you all must be. But try try to contain yourselves.

Fur Rondy!

This week I am in Anchorage with Oliver while he is working on his condo construction project. We drove down on Sunday in our new car, which we bought minutes before we hit the road. More on that and pictures of it later. The main reason we had to hurry hurry hurry to Anchorage was to catch the last of the Fur Rendezvous festival! We missed the fireworks sadly and didn’t get to the blanket toss in time, but we did get to go to the best part (in my opinion)…. The carnival!

Since Oliver spends the summer at the lodge each year, I’ve been feeling like the two of us would never get to experience the fun of a fair together, which is one of my favorite things in the whole world. Luckily for us, in Alaska they have Fur Rondy in the winter, no matter the weather! The carnival was downtown in a parking lot, and we rode a couple rides and ate corndogs, hamburgers, fries, and funnel cakes! Oliver wanted to make sure we got the whole fair experience. :)

It was the first carnival I’ve ever been to that I wore a scarf to! We ate our food in a warming hut, and froze our fingers and butts off riding the rides. The highlight was getting initiated to the Alaskan “squirrel cages”, which are a rickety, duct-taped together version of the zipper. The carnie had a difficult time balancing the ride just right so that it would actually go! That was great. It was also fun to see all the little kids bundled up against the weather. And lots of people in crazy animal hats!

We were in such a hurry to take it all in; I didn’t even bring my camera for pictures. So you’ll have to make do with some from the internet I snitched. The ride below middle is the squirrel cages! The rest of this week has been fun, staying with Oliver’s aunt and uncle, Craig and Gail. I’ll try to update this weekend with more pictures…. I’m quite behind!

~Danielle

Apples and Talkative Ravens

This morning I am laying in bed enjoying our new wireless internet, eating apples with peanut butter, and listening to the raven outside my window making a fuss. These things are especially nice because: I don't have to blog upstairs, the apple is an organic gala on sale for only $1.23 a lb (that's super cheap Alaska style) the peanut butter I ground myself at Freddy's and has nothing but peanuts in it, and the raven not only makes a cool toad-like croaking noise, but he also can say "caw". He is not cawing, he is saying over and over, very carefully and distinctly "caw".

He is talking because he gets to eat my apple core. Lucky him.

I keep telling myself I will start posting again as soon as I get some photos organized. However, I'm coming to realize I will probably never post again if I use that excuse. So here I am, with no pictures but at least a little to say.

Today we are going out searching for cheap cars. We have realized that I will need some sort of vehicle if there is to be any chance of me getting a job. Also, if Oliver is looking at buying another car anyways, in case his breaks down.

SO, Oliver is looking for a "good car" for around $1000. A "good car" is one that is sturdy and has a good engine and that he knows how to work on. I am looking for a "crap car" for around $0-$100. A "crap car" is one that runs, or is close to running with $100-$200 worth of parts, and that could be cute if painted on with sharpies. I figure a car like that would pay itself off within a few weeks of work and be worth it.

If Oliver finds what he is looking for, that would be great. I could have a car to drive around and he would have his back-up for when his old car finally dies. If he doesn't, I will try my darndest to find something that runs for awhile for really cheap. So far I've found a 1991 Sundance in Anchorage for.... FREE. Also, it needs a new fuel injector. ALSO, it is my favorite color, the color I love everything in. Alright!

There seem to be a lot of cars in Alaska that are beat up and people just don't want to deal with anymore. Hopefully we can benefit from this!