Avo.

At the begining of August, right after we got our Montana apartment.

Transplanting it from the long, shallow pot, to a nice big round one.

A few days after the transplant, looking like there were no detrimental effects.

A few days ago - she's quite the happy thing, she is. Plus, a second one that's still in the first pot, is almost at the stage of this one in the first photo of this post - so probably a bit over a month behind this guy... so from the 11 avocado pits I orginially put into water, I believe I'll have two very successful plants!

From a little while ago.

We got ice cream at Big Dipper and then went down to the river to sit and eat it.

Till this little guy came over. D who had his feet in the water, jumped up and practically fell over to get away from it.

It startled when he jumped and went and settled on a rock near by.

Later, he swam away.

The end.

D thinks -

she doesn't have the ego for the job...

McCain's Speech...

did anyone else feel like he didn't have a very strong command over the audience???

Seemed like he got somewhat annoyed with them a couple times when they couldn't quiet down when he was trying to get into a flow in his speech, and then there were other times when he wanted a reaction and it took like half a second for the audience to catch up, and then there was an almost unnatural burst of cheers or boos once they realized he was pausing for them (as if a staff member grabbed a cattle prod and poked half the delegated all at once...).

Also - there was an echo in the hall that emphasized the smaller size of the audience and lent a slight amateurish sound to the speech which Obama definitely didn't have in his outdoor venue

(although, I will add, I found Obama's columns backdrop pretty stupid, I mean seriously... really... nobody could do better than replicating the feel of the portico that goes from the White House to the West Wing??? Nobody realized that was a bit too forced???).

Quick Commentary.

If words aren't important... if they're just a blanket Obama uses to cover up his lack of experience and substance and Action... then why does it matter so much, as Ms Palin pointed out last night, that Barak Obama can make an entire speech about our current military involvement without using the word "Victory" once, unless in reference to his own campaign??? As they themselves contend, just because you use a word, doesn't mean you can make it happen (((cough - abstinence only - cough))).


And - having just read (from the library) the collected speeches of Woodrow Wilson to congress and the American people directly leading up to our involvement in WWI, I'd like to point out that even back then, he was emphasizing the need to not create a Winner and a Loser - that to create a lasting peace and not just an end to the conflict at hand, we had to have, not a victory where one side felt beat up and abused, but a cessation of violence where all parties could then immediately gather at a table as equals to continue a dialogue that would prevent a future outburst of violence (when that didn't happen after WWI we got WWII - you think today's terrorism is bad, think of it as WWI and ponder what a Terrorist WWII would look like).

People are throwing around the term Victory a lot - but nobody wants to define what that means... is it Victory to squash Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the Taliban??? Or is it Victory to create a world where nations peacefully coexist, despite obvious differences, for generations???

Because trying to squash the extremists groups that are in existence right now, without validating the underlying feelings of the communities that support such organizations, are just going to breed new ones - it doesn't solve anything and it doesn't stop terrorism or violence against innocents around the world...

so - what is Victory, because depending on how you define it, I might not want your Victory.


P.S. While undoubtably Ms Palin can Deliver a speech well, I found her speech last night to be a bit puerile and heavy on thin terns of phrase... also - you can tell when she's trying too hard and putting on the polish a little thick... it was funny because I kept hearing how "authentic" she was, etc, while I found her to be quite the opposite. In subtle ways you could tell where she really meant what she said and when she was focusing more on the showmanship than the meaning.

I think its telling that they keep comparing Ms Palin to Barak Obama, and not to her counterpart, Mr Biden. First, because she'd lose in the comparison, and second, because they're trying to say, without saying it, that while she pales in comparison to Mr McCain as a presidential candidate, she's at least as good as Mr Obama and therefore she really is presidential material (if something were to happen, ya know).

I think the Obama campaign needs to put her back in her place on the bottom of the ticket and make her go up against Mr Biden. I think that's an important step in showing the Obama ticket is stronger as a unit that McCain/Palin.

My main issue - at this point, with Palin.

Yeah - so her 17 year old daughter is having a baby, probably because Ms Palin taught her daughter abstinence only, which is the educational model Ms Palin supported in Alaska... now that we're over that, can we discuss the way she told the world about it???

The McCain campaign has said they knew about Bristol's pregnancy when they chose her mother and the only reason Sarah Palin chose to share it on Monday was to refute the "liberal blogger" rumors that Trig was actually Bristol's child.

So - that makes Sarah Palin not only an incredibly selfish mother, but also an easily manipulatable and thin skinned politician. Are we really suppose to believe that she sacrificed her 17 year old daughter (who must already be going through a lot mentally and physically) to the American Media (and every Anne Coulter wanna-be sitting at home), just so half a dozen people on the web would stop challenging her word that Trig was her child??? Trig's too young to even know what's going on - and if he's really her child there should be a couple pages of medical records that could quickly set everything straight...

I mean really???

You don't react to those sorts of rumors, and particularly not in a way that subjects your daughter (someone she should want to be protecting with a thick cloak of privacy right about now) to a lot of negative commentary.

I mean the other issue is when she thought she was going to tell us... when the baby popped out??? I think a big sign that Ms Palin isn't ready for the rigours of national politics, is that she didn't tell anyone in the state of Alaska she was preggers with Trig till she was 2 months away from delivery... and I realize, for a woman her age, the likihood of a miscarriage and other complications were a lot higher, but that's the sort of thing that would never fly on the national stage, those are the sorts of things that you have to talk about with people - not because it's going to effect anything, just simply because major life events, even of a personal nature, have to get shared when you're a politician so that people don't think you're hiding stuff (or trying to call your daughter's baby your own...). The only reason those rumors could so easily gain so much ground is because of the odd way she delt with her pregnancy with Trig.

If she was going to tell us about Bristol's pregnancy, she should have done it when she made her initial speach, she walked on stage with her family and introduced them, except she should have said something like this -

"My son Track is not here, he's off training for deployment to Iraq in September. This is my youngest daughter Piper, and next, Willow, and our eldest daughter Bristol. She's holding our youngest child Trig - I've had her helping me with Trig quite a bit, to set a good example for her and help her learn as much as possible about dealing with new-borns, as she's expecting her first child in December. And speaking of new additions to our family, I'd like you to meet my soon-to-be son-in-law Levi, who's here tonight in the audience, to support Bristol and their baby. While I know my Bristol will be growing up even faster than we ever imagined, my husband Todd and I know the importance of giving them our full love and support while they start their new family together. We know the difference a strong and caring family makes in the lives of children and how hard families, not just ours, all over this country are dealing, right now, with challenges they never throught they would have to face, and that's why I'm so proud to run for Vice President of this grest country, because I believe I am the right person to work with John McCain to help struggling families across our nation prosper and grow stronger! (continue random nomination drivel here...)"


Bam - nothing more to be said. And nobody could run around with that.

However - I do appreciate how well it worked this way, where the conservative women rallied around her in the face of little investigation stuff, and declared their love for her, so that when she released the info about her daughter, all they could do was say that it doesn't change anything and any one who speaks ill of the girl or her mother is heartless and liberal... whereas if they'd had the info about the daughter to start with they might have been a bit less eager to take Sarah into their fold.

So it's sort of a toss up - but I really can't believe she let it all slip this way just to refute a couple bloggers... if that's really the truth behind their decision to release the information, Ms Palin is a pretty heartless mother and unthoughtful politician.


We won't even get into the fact that Sarah and Todd Palin referred to their daughter's "choice" to keep the baby and marry the father, and unless I hear a little more information about how it all went down, I'm not inclined to believe that Miss Bristol Palin had one tiny bit of choice when it came to what was going to happen to her baby or herself and her future. Maybe Levi proposed to her before they ever told either sets of parents, maybe they're totally in love and got pregnant on purpose, maybe - but until we get more details, that's a pretty hard situation to believe.

And if the right is all about loving, caring families, which is what I presume "Family Values" is all about, then why are they so eager and excited to force young mothers into marrying the fathers of their children... is that really the way to start a loving and caring family... that seems like just about the worst reason in the world to get married (getting preggers) - and I can't believe anyone who supports strong families would support such a step. (Yeah, I realize that Sarah and Todd Palin had Track a mere 8 months after they eloped, so Bristol's just following family tradition, albeit a few years early... and Sarah and Todd and many other people who got married in similar manners had very long marriages, so I shouldn't knock all shot-gun weddings... but...really).

Quotation Compendium.

Yesterday -

D - You don't like to have fun.
M - Yes I do.
D - No you don't.
M - I do too!


Today -

D - There's no more sunlight, you used it all.

(in our apartment for me to plant thing in).

Hmmmm....

The Bitterroot Valley is in the same Hardiness Zone as Southern Iowa, something seems wrong about that, considering it was in the 90's last week in Iowa, and in the 50's here...

then again, Hardiness Zones don't take into consideration the length of the growing period...

Quote of the Day.

From The Anchorage Daily News, and repeated in the Juneau Empire, from March of this year, by Sarah Palin -

"I recognize that any of the buzz surrounds the fact that I happen to fit a demographic that is appealing to the ticket right now," Palin said. "That's the reality. Again, I happen to fit a demographic at a time that the Republican Party needs to get with it and change and progress and allow others to be a part of public service. It's gender, it's age, it's kind of the maverick being from the outside. It's a combination of things."

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.

's

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!!!