Quote of the Day.

Doorbell rings, D goes downstairs to answer it -

UPS guy - "Are you Dave"


Apparently Brian forgot to put the #A on our address (when he shipped a couple new tires for D) and the UPS guy just barely remembered that we, rather than our duplex neighbors, are Dave.

This is noteworthy, as right after we moved in here our UPS guy knew us well... the quantity of bike stuff arriving in the mail has steadily diminished over the last year :)

Just maybe...

“I think we’ve exploited all the countries on earth for people who really want to work for nothing.”


Mr. Konheim said.

Quotes.

From the University of Montana's website. (The university accepted it's first students in the fall of 1895).

"I hiked around town, the air sweet and dry, and was sort of overwhelmed by the perfection of it -- the old courthouse, the train depot, Mount [Jumbo] and Mount Sentinel rising up, the neon bars, the funky festivity of a college town ...."

-- Garrison Keillor


There are 3.1 million acres of wilderness within a 100-mile radius of campus.

"I’m in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection. But with Montana it is love. And it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it."

--John Steinbeck, "Travels with Charley"



"John Updike once called Missoula the Paris of the Nineties, because of the city’s legendary population of writers, but Paris lacks three world-renowned trout rivers and proximity to Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks."

--Outside Magazine



"Missoula -- it’s Montana, but it has feng shui and herbal tea."

-- Garrison Keillor, in the Missoulian




"Missoula ruins so many careers. People visit, and then throw everything away just so they can stay."

--Best-selling author James Lee Burke, in Men’s Journal



"Montana is the only state with a triple divide allowing water to flow into the Pacific, Atlantic and Hudson Bay. This phenomenon occurs at Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park."

–- 50states.com

"No. 11 small place for business and careers."
--Forbes Magazine, about Missoula

"No. 2 among small cities."
--Inc. Magazine, about Missoula in "Top 25 Places For Doing Business in America"

(Sounds good...)

From the National Park Service Morning Report.

Grand Canyon National Park (AZ)
Follow-up On Manhunt For Carjackers

On Monday, May 12th, park law enforcement rangers conducted a criminal manhunt following a carjacking at gunpoint of a visitor vehicle from Twin Overlooks on Desert View Drive (Highway 64). The manhunt was associated with the investigation of a motor vehicle accident in the same location that had occurred three-and-a-half hours earlier. Rangers investigating the accident immediately determined that there’d been an attempt to drive it over the rim of the canyon. Initial efforts to find the occupants – identified as brothers Travis and Willard Twiggs, ages 36 and 38 respectively – were unavailing. The vehicle was towed from the scene and impounded. Investigation revealed that Travis Twiggs, based at Quantico, Virginia, was known to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with recent tours of duty in Iraq. The search for the two men was impeded by a significant delay in receipt of the initial report by park dispatch. Immediate efforts included checkpoints outside the park and near Flagstaff, conducted with the assistance of officers from the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Weather conditions deteriorated overnight, with four inches of heavy snowfall blanketing the South Rim. The search continued on Tuesday, but without results. It was accordingly suspended that afternoon. On Wednesday, the white Dodge Caliber that the Twiggs’ had stolen was spotted at a Border Patrol checkpoint at Welton, Arizona, located 29 miles east of Yuma. A pursuit ensued which continued eastbound on Interstate 8 past Gila Bend. The 130-mile pursuit involved officers from the Border Patrol, Maricopa County Sheriff's Department, Arizona Department of Public Safety and Pinal County Sheriff's Office. Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation officers spiked the Caliber’s tires, but the car continued for another mile before going off the roadway. Pinal County deputies and Border Patrol officers converging on the car heard two shots and accordingly withdrew. Maricopa County and U.S. Customs helicopters hovered over the area for about 20 minutes, watching the vehicle. Bomb squad robots were called in and were used to determine that both Twiggs’ were dead. According to a Pinal County spokesman, one man evidently shot the other, then killed himself. [Submitted by Ken Phillips, Incident Commander]

In 1906 -

Dewey Bridge was the way to get from Moab to the outside world in Colorado.

In the 1980's it stopped serving motor vehicle traffic.

In 2000 it was restored for pedestrian and bicycle use.

In 2008 it burned as a consequence of a child starting a brush fire in a campground.

When it was build, it was the second longest suspension bridge, west of the Mississippi. It continued, till it burned, to be the longest Suspension bridge, and the longest clear-span bridge in Utah.

A few more photos from the weekend.

The "Mexican Hat" - and the crazy cliffs behind it. There is really not a mile of the drive from here to Moab that isn't interesting.

D on Elephant Butte, looking through the summit register. It goes back to 1976. The first time we got to the top I was soooooo enchanted with the idea of a summit register and D was sort of like "Oh - I don't do those things." Let's just say - he does now :)

The start of the second rappel. You do one repel on your way up, and one on your way down. Right below the bottom of the photo the rappel does free, into an overhanging amphitheater. The first time we did this route it was the second Rappel I'd ever done in my life - the first overhanging, and my first in the dark. I remember it well...

D coiling the rope at the bottom of the above rappel.

How to stem a pothole in five easy steps.

Starts are always ackward. Do your best.

The classic two legged stem, for as long as both your feet can reach both walls.

Match Feet.

Get your legs under you again for the dismount.

Only preceded in awkwardness by the start... the dismount... hope the friction holds you.
(From the descent of Elephant Butte, in Arches National Park)

The drive up.

We were headed NorthEast this weekend. The clouds were fun driving through Dine Country, better known as the Navajo Nation, better known as The Rez.

Green.

Can you see it??? There's green in that there dirt!!!

Quote of the Weekend.

Six year old girl, with her mother, on their way back up the Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon -

Mother - "Just... wait right here a minute."
Girl - "We hike faster than daddy."

Food!!!

After getting back from Iowa, I decided, for once, I should cook D something, instead of the other way around. However my meal ended up being very Midwestern.

Mashed potatoes, watermelon, and Corn on the Cob... with Burgers.

A distinction. In Arizona you buy "Some corn on the cob", in Iowa you buy "A couple ears of Peaches 'n' Cream" or some other specific variety. In Iowa - you know the differences between varieties of corn, and you have distinct preferences.

We also substituted ground Turkey, instead of beef for the Burgers (keeping D off the Evil Red Meat as much as possible). For D's I added PepperJack cheese, green peppers and homemade Guacamole on toasted MultiGrain bread from Chompie's. Yummy.

Then - on Saturday - we pan cooked the rest of the Ground Turkey into Sausage Patties and used them on Deep-Dish Pizza.

You can now order pizza from D with either Hand-Tossed or Deep-Dish crust. Spoiled - that's me.

We were inspired to make it this way, from America's Test Kitchen. Except to access the recipe online you have to create a user name and password... lame!!! So D just edited his regular recipe with a few changes he remembered from the show - like using Milk in the dough, and lining the pan with olive oil before putting the dough in, which essentially Fries the bottom of the crust while it's in the oven cooking.

It came out lovely!!!

Quote of the Day.

Talking about the Pizza -

M - "Why is your pizza all puffed up on the sides and mine isn't???"
D - "Cause my pizza likes have veggies on it."

Home.

She was supposed to be delivered to our house last night... but someone at the LBS in Des Moines decided to send it back to the LBS here, instead of to our house as specifically directed. Which meant that last night, right after I got to work, I got a distraught call from D saying the tracking number showed it was delivered - to Daniel at the front desk. We don't have a front desk - nor someone named Daniel. Which caused momentary panic on his behalf, till the snaffu was figured out.

D picked her up from the bike shop after work today and brought her home. Just a shadow of her former self.

And then D promptly stole his wheel back and started working on getting it set up for tube-less. Which he says was a success!!!

We have a weekend full of Cereal planned for sometime in the future and I'm debating whether I want PomPom or M'Lady for my adventures that weekend... which might involve some Honey Nut Cherrios, but definitely no Coco Pebbles!!!

Wondering. More and More.

Apparently the first person I talked to, over at the MVD, didn't know what he was talking about - when it comes to titling cars in Arizona.

Funny - seeing as that's his job.

So I'd assembled the majority of the paper work he had told me I needed and wanted to talk to someone in person about how to handle one link, the last link, that I was having a slight problem with.

I went in, explained my whole story to someone new, and was told that the link I was having such a problem with, wasn't even necessary.

Okady - Good news and Bad news. So one part wasn't necessary but the paperwork that I had on another part was wrong. I couldn't use Georgia papers, I needed them to fill out the Arizona version of that exact same paperwork.

I got that Arizona version filled out and went back there today. Turns out the first guy was still way off, the woman I spoke to just the other day only had it half right... and I do in fact need something from the link that was causing problems, except not what I thought I needed before.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to call up the son of the deceased car-dealership owner and tell him, that even though, just two days ago, I told him I needed nothing from him, I do, in fact, now need something from him, but it's different from what I told him I needed from him before.


Oh - and this wouldn't even be a problem if the car hadn't been repossessed. If the car hadn't been repossessed, the paperwork I have right now would be sufficient to get the car titled and registered.

The only reason they know the car has been repossessed, is because I have a Affidavit of Repossession, signed and notarized from the bank. The only reason I have that, is because the first MVD guy told me I needed it, so the bank in Georgia created one for me. So - I very well might have paperwork that I don't even need to have, but since I do have it, I need even more paperwork!!!


And right about now - I want to find that first guy from the MVD and hurt him. I want to hurt him.

If he hadn't had me get the Repo note, and knew what his job required the first time I went in there - I would have had my car titled about six months ago. As the paperwork I really, actually, truly needed to have, I have had for that time... but was told it was not enough.

Oh - and I'm going to have to pay, like, $100 in extra fees for not registering the car in the proper amount of time - because I was spending that time procuring this needless paperwork.


When things like this happen, I don't blame the bureaucracy. I blame that individual man - who did his job poorly. Who didn't bother to fully inform himself, who didn't take the time to ask his superiors, but just told me what to do himself, and in doing so, told me to do the wrong thing.

Umm...

D was downstairs playing with his bicycles when he called up - "If you hurry you can come see this tarantula" -

so I ran downstairs!!!

then I ran back up to grab the camera. I told D to keep it from crawling into the evergreen bushes while I ran - so he corralled it with the bike pump, which I included in the photo for size. It was a solid 3 1/2 inches!!!

Walnuts.

Happy little star cookies.

Something like a cross between a sugar cookie and shortbread - then, as I've recently enjoyed doing with chocolate chip cookies, I mince up some walnuts and roll one side of the little dough balls in the walnutty powder before squishing them down into the star-form trays. Not only does it add this delicious crunchy texture to the bottom of each cookie and almost enough protein to justify eating them, it also makes them Super easy to get out of the pans... no spray, butter, or parchment needed.

Differences.

It is sunny in Arizona. And our apartment seems to reach out, grab the sunlight and bring it into every little corner of the house.

This was not the case during the week I was at my parents' house in Iowa. Even if there was some sun - it never seemed to make it's way inside, due to things like -
a) Large Trees
b) Elaborate Curtains
c) Room orientation

I like sunshine. It's easier to get out of bed before 10am when there's gobs of sunlight filling the bedroom. I turned into a slug at my parents' house. I really hate the yellow light put out by most incandescent light bulbs - I'd rather leave the room in semi-darkness. This exacerbated the issue of their house.

I also like our internet - which sometimes seems slow, but is a freaking Prodigy compared to the AOL Dial-up that my mother continues to suffer through. She doesn't know what she's missing.


The plan as of now, is to have D go check out Missoula during a long, two-week road trip in June. While I really can't go with him, I'm now slightly hesitant to allow him to pick out an apartment for us - as Missoula starts out having not nearly as much sunlight as Arizona, it will be doubly important that our lodgings facilitate maximum sun-capture.

Quote of the Day.

"Viewer discretion is advised.

The Renaissance artwork in the following program contains nudity."


-20/20 intro


I'm sorry - are you kidding me???