Quote of the Day.

Female Customer at Work :

The very definition of a fixie is that it has no breaks.


(Yes, I did pop into her conversation and explain (with a smile of course) that the only thing included in the definition of Fixed Gear is the lack of a free wheel in the back hub... that there are all sorts of different "fixies" out there, that most of them have brakes, and that the only ones that are purposely built not to are track bikes, which are designed to be ridden indoors, in races, on a track, only. That people who complain about hipsters putting brakes on the track bikes they try to ride around town, are like people complaining about others putting rear view mirrors on formula one cars so they can drive them to the grocery store... and I even restrained myself from telling her that if all the information she has about bicycles comes from reading some mag like Bust, she should probably shut her mouth and eat the food I just served her).

Market Happy Fun Times.

Besides produce, this is the other thing I got at the Saturday Markets.

The first of the six blooms opened the day after I got it, and kept going from there. It was pretty funny riding home with it in the front basket on my bike, through the middle of downtown.

Better than a cut bouquet any day.

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A sense of Place.

After wandering through the library our first week here, I decided I needed to dedicate my reading for a little while, if not most of our stay Up Here, to US history. I may have grown up in Iowa (which is an Anglicized Native American name) but when you learn about the history of Iowa it doesn't include native populations, it's all pioneers and homesteaders with wagons and families, not the way you hear about them and see them out here. Plus this town's got a bit of the country's recent Lewis and Clark fever (as they passed though this area) and it's all been making me think about Place. And how Americans think about place, and movement and "Home".

Anyway - I did a quick review,

25 state names are derived from Native American names (more often than not, one tribe's name for another tribe or location, not the local tribe's name for itself or it's home)

5 are Spanish

4 are French

4 are "other" - either totally made up (Idaho), unknown, or Dutch :)

and 12 are of some English derivative (like Georgia after King George or Virginia after Elizabeth I, etc)

It's particularly interesting to me, the little bit I've been out east, as everything is either straight Native language names, or right out of British tradition with North Something, East Something, Something Harbor, etc with 4-5 towns all sharing the same name just with modifiers, which is something that isn't really done out West.

Anyway. Names.


Anybody have any good suggestions on histories of New England and East Coast Native American / colonist relations???

Knives are for losers.

Farmer's Market Peppers (x two different types) plus Farmer's Market Onions and Garlic.

Mashing stuff up is fun.

And juicy!

Have I mentioned there are three Saturday Markets. One with lots of produce and flowers (though 85% of the folks at the stalls are of Asian heritage which leaves me to question - are they the only ones capable of growing a sufficient quantity of veggies in Missoula??? Is there an Asian produce cartel??? Is it all just an odd coincidence??? Is the entire market funded by one large, Asian owned farm and the multiple stalls are just a way to assuage our capitalist need to feel like we've bought from the "better" supplier???), the next one - near the Adventure Cycling headquaters - is more a craft fair with log furniture, organic cosmetics, beeswax candles and the like, and the last one, Down By The River is the oddest of all, part produce, part product, they have Montana grown meat for sale in large coolers, regionally caught fish, some personal care items, with live music and this weird pet expo going on right next door...

and then, since the markets are all essentially in one line, at the north of downtown, right in the middle, and then at the south end, a bunch of musicians and a few odd vendors (read fresh doughnuts) set up along the path people walk from one to the next so downtown is this huge swarm of people every Saturday morning.

Two Things

Last night at work, a bit before midnight as we were starting to slow down, what I can only presume was a homeless man, came in, sat down at a crowded table, then pulled out his Thing and started urinating underneath the table.

He was helped outside by our manager who just happened to be there, who waited with him till the police showed up, both of whom greeted the man by his first name.

Good times.


Also - I've finally removed all my Mercedes- Benz links from my browser bookmarks. I guess finality has to come eventually... links on my blog will be next... but not right now.

More photos from Last week.

Along the bike back, on the south side of the Clark Fork, is a little railinged observation platform where you can pull off and watch the kayakers, out of everyone else's way.

Out first meal in our new apartment (almost two weeks ago now!)

We stirfried in a wok we bought with part of a gift card my mother gave me for my b-day... I've always wanted a wok, even though I don't actually cook much, the only thing I do cook is fried rice, so that about works out just right.

And our view from the parking lot of the grocery store a few blocks from our place. It works for me.

Also - I've ridden over 100 miles now, since we moved here... 2/3 of that just around town on errands and whatnot, not a lot my most ya'll's standards, but fine by mine.

Backing it up.

Proof that I can in fact, drink beer faster than D.

The outdoor symphony performance the other day.

There were lots of people.

Even more people.

The Musicians are under the white tent.
The view in the other direction.
Kayakers like to play in the riffle... across the way you can see the old Milwaukee Train Depot, now the national headquarters of the Boone and Crockett Club :)

What... Dirt... Where???

Miles Ridden: 28
Things Painted: 0

It's the longest ride I've done since TIv4...

I rode with D up to the Rattlesnake Recreation Area, where he went off with 8 other guys on the Thursday Night Group Ride, and I rode down a now gated gravel road toward the Wilderness Area.

So, really, 14 of the miles, getting from Home to The Rattlesnake and back, were pavement. But I got 14 miles of gravel in. And some of them were ZoomZoom - 18mph on gravel (with rocks) two track through dense woods is fast for me...

No camera. And I didn't ever freak out about bears. I've come to terms with them around Missoula. There are no Grizzlies in the Bitterroots, so I'll hold off on my freak-out till our first trip to Yellowstone or Glacier, since moving. Seems like a suitable compromise.


D crashed and was all tired and achy when we got home, so I made dinner, my standard - Fried Rice!!! Yea!!! (Note sarcasm).


And I got "hired" today. I say that in quotes because he said he'd officially call once he lined up a few other people so to have us come in for paperwork and training all together. It was funny, he started to say he'd give me a call and then realized what that translated to and backed up to say "I mean, I can say right now you have the job..." so now, instead of tales from "The Wine Bar" there will be tales from "The Pub" which seems sufficiently nondescript considering this is a college town, and well, there are at least several establishments that fall under that classification.

Suffice to say, The Pub serves a lot of beer, but a lot of food too.

It seems to have a pretty good attitude, I think it will be a good place to work.

Paint - dos!

The Red Side. (Note: The weird dark blue with hint of green door frame was that color when we moved in - the main reason why I don't think our landlord/property management company will actually mind the painting I'm doing...)

Reminder - what the blue side looks like. The part I really like is when you look through the edge of the glass and see the blue trim and the red trim right next to each other. If only blue and red politicians could get along so well.

The door table that started it all... Montana Style (now a foot and a half shorter)... serving as much needed counter space in the kitchen.

Spearmint plant that D bought me the other day!!! (I spy Mojitos in my future...)

Paint!!!

One of the cabinets in the kitchen didn't have any handles, so we bought a set of $2 wooden knobs, that I figured I would paint.
We still had almost half a quart each of the blue and green paint I'd picked out, and the purple and red that D'd selected when we moved to Arizona.
However - once the can of blue paint was opened, stirred (a lot), and the little knobs were finished, I started looking around -

First I found a door. And promptly sat down and started painting the top panel of the lower half of the door... not sure why. I did the top two panels free hand, till we left to run errands. When we got back I decided I was lazy and pulled out my roll of painter's tape to mask up the bottom panel and window trim.

When I was done with the door I started looking around again. By this time we had bottles of beer from the local Bayern Brewery (have I mentioned there are three breweries in Missoula, and another one in the small town of Hamilton, 40 miles down the Bitterroot Valley).

Better already. (Props to D for using pliers to screw in the last few stripped out wood screws this morning during reassembly :)

The inside of the door might get a similar treatment in Red this evening.

Uh-oh.

Myself + Open Can of Paint + Beer = Unexpectedly Late Night.

Photos tomorrow when it all dries...

Me: 1 - Plant: None

Evil, vicious, pokey plant! (With sticky burrs)!

The other day I took D's serrated Spiderco rescue knife and hacked the tops off. Today, I came back for the roots... I got far. Then I found a worm (bottom left of above). M and worms are not friends. D suggested I get the big long shovel and continue (instead of the short trowel I was using) but he didn't understand - it's not that I want to be far away from the worm when I squish it - I don't want to squish it at all, or puncture it, smash it, squash it, I don't want anything I'm touching to touch it in any way that might lead to it's juicy, wet little innards spilling all over the place. (My worm thing is like my bear thing, but different).

So I left for an hour and came back later. The root part of the plant in the photo above is about a foot long, maybe longer.

The biggest one had this weird black pit in the middle of the root knot, not all that far beneath the surface. I ended up breaking it apart to get it free, then hacking at the rest of the root that I could manage to expose...

fun times.

No more pokey :)

Grrrrrrrr!!!

Quote of the Day.

D - I like to burn things!

(on the stove, that is)

Just like Dorothy.

I've been coveting pretty bicycle baskets for awhile, and while no where in Missoula had anything all that exciting, and I don't actually have the bike that will be my "commuter" yet - I thought I'd get a nice little basket in the meantime, to get me started.

Because some of the bike trails are gravel, and there's a lot of pot holes and what not, it was decided M'Lady the Road Bike was too delicate for Missoula town riding - therefore My Pretty Basket goes on PomPom. Handily, the tab for removing the basket from it's harness is bright red, and fits Pom's color scheme beautifully!

We picked it up at Missoula Bicycle Works while riding around town two days ago. The nice store attendant gave me an allen wrench and let me attach it, right there in the store... happiness.

I've now used it twice, taking it into a store, shopping, and then clipping it onto the harness and riding home with my purchases. Extra Happiness.

Misoola.

I went online today to check on our insurance policy (I'd called yesterday to change it to Montana - no switching states online) and after I sat on hold for a few minutes, had hung up to go into the DMV.

I wanted to find the phone number again - and after logging into our account, saw our new address listed... according to the woman I talked to on the phone - we live in the town of Misoola.

Nice.


Also - I rode my bike to Wal-Mart yesterday night (yes, you heard that right, less than 3 miles round trip...) and bought some hair ties.

This is a big deal, as since April when I cut my hair I've been using rubber bands to hold it back, and people keep telling me this is bad. The last straw was broken, when my large stash of rubber bands was still packed in an unknown box somewhere, and the two or three that live in my purse could not be located. I resorted to using one of the pipe-cleaners that normally keep our electronics cables wrapped up, as a hair tie... and it kept pricking me in the back of the neck.

Hair ties!!!

Who would have known...

and speaking of cutting my hair in April, looks like, if all goes well, I might have another hair cut this coming April for

TRANSIOWAVERSIONFIVE!!!

Ahem...

if I get in.

Home, I mean...

we have landed an attic - after four days in Missoula, we have an address, internet, and the shortest lease we could manage (six months) to find the "perfect" place with our criteria of

1) Space
2) Location
3) Not Muck-Muck

we've currently got 1.75 out of three - so we're doing all right :) I won't tell you how that 1.75 breaks down.

Anyway.

Internet!!!