Creeking and Carnage....

As Ive been very tardy on the blog for such a long time I thought you would like to hear the latest story in high adventure.

On the move down from Montana I bought a sweet LL Huck, a bigger rounder boat for when the tiny play kayak just doesnt cut it. I was originally hoping to use it on the class 4 drop section in Cody, but never happened. Yesterday it saw the creek it was made for. It was a truly epic adventure!

Red River I think it was called. The book called it class 4 creeking. we saw the pics and watched the videos. game on. If you dont know, classes go from one to five, that latter being extremely difficult and dangerous. as we put in the read and ran the top two miles like cake, and really fun little pourovers and boofs and snakey maneuvers. The creek is only a 4 mile stretch before it coagulates with the Rio Grande Middle Box. So were thinking "no problem, we ll be back in town to BBq by 5". Not the case. After 6 swims, two pin/wraps, some emergency strainer portages, my lost boat, two zdrag recoveries, lots of scouting, and lots of abrasion, we made it out of the last two miles of the creek to the Rio. Holy Shit. Then after that we had a 3 hour commute on the middle box to our completely unlocked shuttle car, where no one stole the beer, ariving at a prompt 8:45 pm.

The Beat Down:

Fearing foot entrapment, I did this kiddy cannonball slide down a rough rapid. It hurt. So do my knuckles and helmet.

The birthday paddle never left my hands, though it took some abuse with me on the swims.



I finally got to mechanical advantage a pinned boat off a rock. it was rad. glad I brought the gear, unfortunately when we found my boat 1 mile downstream, the unpin kit was still IN it, so we got to use some live bait, and muntner hitches to retrieve.



Overall awesome experience. Saw an elk too!

Also broke the K-stik last weekend dropping into a mile long Class 4 rapid. Talk about Oh Shit!

For the Birds....

We were wondering where the humming birds were? theyre up in MT already so why arent they at our feeder yet? Then I found em....in the garage skylight, stuck.

Big Water....

Its official. Dust off that NRS catalog. Find your straps. See if your lifejacket still floats.

Spring is here and the runoff is coming. The Rio Grande is welcoming the enthusiasts and it time to go rafting!! In celebration of this annual event I present a few whitewater movies to get the blood pumping and body thirsty.

Fill Er Up!!

The container is finally empty. And I just got text from mom about how many awesome dishes she wants to buy in Greece. I cried.

The Cheat, errr......

So I tried real hard to name the dude The Cheat. But to no avail. Hyside became the name, for obvious reasons, not based on hypalon.


So heres how it broke down:
There was this shelter dog who had a head too small for his body. A tried and tried to get me to cave on this dude but I wouldnt have a Betelgeused dog, or just any new dog arriving at my door. She was gonna have to work harder than that.
Then I got back from town one day and IT happened. Everywhere I went I saw this picture of a puppy that had come into work from the abandoned puppy thief, as I like to call her. I dont know how she does it but she drives down to the casinos and reservations and gathers litters from underneath broke down cars, brings em back to life and adopts em out. Sweet.

So I get home and head straight for the lappy...

Get thirsty and jet for the fridge

Go for a beer

Then I gots to pee

Unbelieveable....

So Dan and Kristina just got Maya the sun dog and Brian and Dawn just got Jeff for the Clyde Show. Time for the announcement.

Hes got biggum paws....


And his eyes are turning colors....

And hes going in for the nurse....

Which for obvious reasons Kona is not ok with

Vertigo....

Taos Box....

Pure awesomeness. The flow is coming up and the boats are going down. Check out the link for some funny pics of Amanda and I almost flipping. Facial expressions are the best. You cant tell from this angle but were part way to dropping in this massive hole. I had to reverse ferry to even pretend I had a chance at missing it. My face will tell you when were right on top of it. Sick!! 2070 cfs and rising!!

Link

Interviews....

So Im going in to ABQ for an interview this morning. gonna be fun. I applied for a stereo imaging position. Wish me luck.

As well I made this last night.


You can critisize all you want, but its not done yet and it shows.

Tequila is Bad News....

Floor is done, yes. Stove installed, yes. Shrimp has babies, yes. Hangover in full effect, yes. Chimney painted, yes.

Let There B Darkness....

I had such a productive day planned for yesterday, and then the blinds arrived, so I HAD to put them up. And I put one of the floor moldings in. And its super snowing this morning, very unlike the 80 degrees and sunny of yesterday.


Note the light gap on the bottoms, the material is still reall stiff so it doesnt fall all the way yet, funny. Should be done with the floor today, itll get molding tomorrow, and the stove goes in tomorrow, bc its obviously not quite done with winter.

Pump It Up....

Remember this? I believe I was in 7th grade maybe?



And then theres the other classic...

Non-Toxic but Completely Lethal....

Last year we had the mouse massacre. Then Kona found a relic of poison, but didnt die. This year the game is on again. Though Im calling out for a good name to festivities. the spring has been quite moist so the rodent population is going to skyrocket. Terms of this years genocide will be waged with an electric mouse trap. Bought on a whim, we now have have 2 kills 3 days. I bought another and they changed the design, so we shall see. Let the games begin!!!



[EDIT] After I wrote this I went back and found 2 mouse in there....thats a two'fer!!

800 Reasons....

So the sweetest plotter Ive ever owned just arrived at my door. Its missing things that it said it should be coming with, is 3 weeks late, and its in spanish. I just learned a huge lesson on ordering shit online. Luckily, I know spanish, and have extra cords laying around thatll work, butI dont have 2 rolls of paper. Other cool things that I noticed is that it has a huge RAM card in it as well as an ethernet hookup. Thats tight. It may actually have Post Script, which speeds up printing 10x. What a day. All this even after losing half of $100 grocery purchase somewhere, and losing my pizza in the oven last night...disaster stuck.

The Ninth Gate....

Actually theres only two. One of em has been replaced. I got a wild hair, and instead of doing something i was supposed to be doing, like finishing the floor and related tasks, I made a gate. Its super cheesy but actually works now, and looks neat. I love power tools.

Theres the old coyote gate, never worked, shotty design (shotty is a synonym for shitty, which I shoulda just used in the first place).

Different Levels of Comfort....

So many things are happening so fast. I need a nap.

The couches arrived and floor is quite done, and delivery folks keep calling. I chill on a nice new squishy couch, bodily relaxed, though hurting after a brutal first night of playing RFOM online on the PS3 last night. Shotties in the busyard is hillarious. You spawn and shoot, kill, die all at the same time...every time. I tried to dull the pain with some beer, which doesnt seem so dull anymore this morning. So here I sit, dreaming up a fantastic wish list of things I dont need, when I get that sick job(dreaming is a key word here). A new rope bag belt for rafting was like $245. Man, that exchange with Canada really sucks now. Drysuit: $600-800. Waiting till the water is warm...free.

Updates:
Even Kona approves:

Finality is Never Final....

Never...

The electrician came today and fixed some ghetto breakers in the fuse box. The wall is creamy white. The wall is now creamy white with finger globs. Sweet (sarcasm).

I have a pile of cheesy vids and pics of a killer rad floor and brisk gardening in the morning post snow breeziness. I shall just clump them here altogether.

I really like the contrast of the rock to mulch via path, keeping the interior free of mold!

I love watching fire and smoke, and finally the chimney has been color matched (finally painted). Some in the neighborhood say our chimney is too tall. I say I like the house not on fire. I also think this house has one of maybe four active fireplaces in the neighborhood (you can tell real easy from the soot/smoke). Community covenants suck ass.

I dont know why, but it keeps snowing, especially the year I cant afford to play. Lame. I am.

Apparently my camera no long records sound. Dumb. Im sure I did it somehow, but its gonna delay the vid of the Finnish'd floor....arrg.

Vegtetative Up and Comings....

A lot is going on around here. 99% of the floor is finished. Last night we got what looks like an inch of snow, in contrast to the 60 degree days previous. Eight aspen were put in with the sweetest irrigation drip system I have ever seen. The plumbing inspector walked right in the front door like he owned the place, Im sure the look on both our faces was "hey, what are you doing here?" The theater system is tight and the cabinets are still empty. Im dreading the door jambs on the floor so bad it hurts. Later today if it warms up I may go and make a vegetative walkaround video. We shall see. And thanks to everybody for the rickrolling.


What the shit am I supposed to do here?

No furniture sucks....

Video Walkthrough....

As per someones suggestion, I made a video of the construction. I know some peoples are totally confused as to the where and what was going on.

Because its a walkthrough its shaky, and pretty much my first video ever. The next shall be much improved I hope. We moved the garage into the house, hence the messiness. Almost done. Note the red piece of shit out in the driveway, hmmm....

Interesting I Thought....

Atheism has been popping up in conversations a lot lately, and I thought it was funny because its all about fighting atheism, and poorly. One sidedness...

From Boing Boing:

Ill. Rep. Monique Davis: it's dangerous for children to know atheists exist, orders atheist to stop testifying

Media Madness....

Almost there, just need to put the floor in today (tomorrow bc Im lazy) and align the couches. Bad ass.


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