Moving!

Tonight, at 7pm, Oliver and I will recieve the keys to our first apartment together! After three years of dating, visiting six countries, and living in four different states, we are finally settling down. For the next SEVEN MONTHS we will be in one place! Hurrah!

There are many many pictures to share from the last few months, from home in Montana, to the amazing internship in Oregon, to our visit back to Alaska, down to Colorado where we are now, and all the roads drawn out in between. I have a lot of updating to do!

And now, our very own place, our first place, here in Denver. I am so very excited. Cheers!

Watch this

Right this second. Watch this, then book a flight with me to Iceland. Oh gosh, doesn't this make you so happy?! Lordy.

Pure Icelandic Magic

Too busy being happy

So although I have tons of fun pictures and videos to post, I have been too busy having fun. So much fun, I can hardly stand it. Life just keeps getting better and better! I will get around to posting eventually, but for now, here is a shot of me and the first wild owl I've ever "mugged up" (as they call catching a raptor here). Don't worry, I mugged her minimally :) She should be released soon, once she has started catching live prey again.  Cheers!

Saturday Night

This is my view from up on the loft. See those guys down there? Those guys are my people.

See that soup shot? That soup was an experiment for a Saturday night.

I love to make stew, and I don't often vary from my tried and true "counter soup stew" recipe that involves lots of things like lentils and split peas and barley that most stew makers shun. It just isn't traditional, I know. But boy, is it tasty! However, tonight I didn't have all my goods. And I didn't even have red wine to try a more rustic meat potatoes and carrot stew recipe I was eyeballing from Giada's website. 

What I did have was moose meat, squash, and balsamic vinegar. So what the heck, why not brown that moosey in the vinegar and toss in some squash chunks with the potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, stewed tomatoes, and homemade "beef stock" (chicken cubes + worchestire + rosemary and tons of garlic reduced down).

It was AWESOME. Thick and warm and melt in your mouthy and just a little sweet. Boy howdy.

Date Day

Being busy folk with lots of responsibility (har har) we decided it was important to get out of the cabin and away from those punks we live with and have a date day. On the itinerary: sharing a lunch at Cosmic Kitchen, free day at the local Pratt Museum, dinner at the fancy Land's End for 40% off "local's night", and a movie, "The Book of Eli".

Oliver is excited for dinner!

I don't know if any of you have noticed this, but.... we are excitable folk.

Did I ever mention Oliver worked on a Gieco caveman commercial on the famous "Time Bandit"?

Deadliest Catch fans, eat your heart out!

Sunset from our window back at the cabin.

Our Life

This is me                                                             This is my man

This is what we look like living in Alaska. That nighty was a gift from Oliver's mom for Christmas. She laughed when I opened it. Oliver laughs whenever I wear it. Which is everyday.

Oliver's shirt came from the $5 bag sale at Bishops Attic, the local thrift store.

I will never ever let him get rid of it

This is Kevyn and Dave's cute little cabin that we are house-sitting. Notice it is one room. Notice the lack of a railing up on the loft. This does not bode well for two people who sleep walk. Oh well.

These are punks. Renegade punks who we feed everyday. See how needy?

This punk thinks she can be a lap dog.

This punk also has some freaky-deaky eyes.

That is all for now. Tune in later to find out what happens when we leave our cocoon for the "real world".

Yikes.

Extreme Tubing!

We have been having a lot of fun in Homer recently, so I'm trying to get some pictures posted. Oliver's sister Sarah came down a couple weekends ago to do some extreme tubing at the hill near our cabin. As luck would have it, Oliver's brother Eli and his family came down that day too! We had a ton of fun with the kids and Sarah got some fun pictures.    

                             

The little cabin

When we first came up to Homer, we were staying in this little cabin. It has electricty, but no running water. The day we were set to move into the "big house" we had what turned out to be the biggest storm of the season. Kevyn and Dave barely got out of town in time! It was pretty wild.

Adorable little one room cabin with a loft.

Game Night! (I lost, as you can see...drat)

            Before                                                          During                                                       After the storm.

That is Kevyn coming to help us move! Notice poor Bandit is swimming over her head in snow.

Because I would rather procrastinate some more...

...than actually update my blog like I need to!

*They don't even give peanuts anymore! Oh the inhumanity.

Married To The Sea Completely random and often times downright inappropriate.

Just the way I like it.

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