Monday, June 27, 2005

Ack it's been awhile. Strange that I don't update as much now that I have so much free time, I guess it's because there isn't as much to say?

Hmmmm... Well, I've been doing a lot of scrapbooking w/ Grammy, which is an effective way of recovering and sorting memories... So I've been spending more time down in Hood River -- had lunch at Twin Peaks once with Mer & Mum & Grammy &Aunt Margaret, another time just with Grams and Mum. Yum, milkshakes!

Also been doing some more of my favorite activity back home -- hiking. Mum & I went up to Lost Lake the weekend before last, and ended up hiking around the lake. Just going to the dock seemed awfully short after our Surveyor's Ridge excursion. So for once we didn't eat till nearly the end of the hike. It was good hiking weather -- cool but only a bit of sun unfortunately. We saw an adorable cabin up on the side of the lake, and I thought it would be great fun to rent a little cabin or go camping w/ Andrew. Mom tried to explain the difference between hemlocks and cedars -- I realized I don't really know my tree/ bird/ plant identifications very well. Afterwards, we went to Wahtum Lake (excuse to eat dessert out of doors). I took the Wahtum Express trail up and down, a.k.a. 250 steps that bring you into or out of the deep valley that is the lake bed.

One evening after Mer got home from work, we decided to bring Bosun up to Laurance Lake for an excursion. He has to be lifted into and out of the trunk of the jeep, because he's so old and, well, a basset hound. I really wanted to go swimming even though it was chilly... so I finally got up the guts to take like two strokes out, and then come back to shore =) In the tradition of our family's obsession with eating (esp. when out of doors), me and Mer then ate Luna bars (Bosun likes Lemon Zest).

This past weekend was pretty packed, as Mer and I were Domino sitting for our high school teacher, Mrs. J. Domino is a pitbull/ cattle dog mix, so he's a TAD crazy. But he's gotten better with age, and he's so intelligent that you can practically train him to respond to you in the space of an extended weekend. Tried to teach him "down" and the difference between licking and biting! Friday night me and Mer escaped & watched Something's Gotta Give, and didn't get home till 1 am (we didn't check the length of the movie before starting it). Sat. was lots of fun -- I had convinced Mer to see Land of the Dead with me, so we headed into Hood River for a matinee. The guy who let us in told us he frankly thought neither of us was old enough to get in to an R rated movie. I was thinking... sure I look young, but not THAT young!

The movie was great -- sometimes heavy handed w/ the politics (like the line "we don't negotiate with terrorists" and using the word "jihad" as if it were everyday street slang), but lots of good zombie scenes and definitely scary. Mer also appreciated that it was more than just a horror movie. And although I didn't TOTALLY buy the "let's make the zombies more human than the humans" idea, I was starting to sympathize a tad bit with the head zombie who got mad when people killed his fellow zombies just for the hell of it. But come on, if the zombies were relaly "just looking for a place to go," they needn't invade the city and eat tons of people. That's just uncalled for. Can't wait for the unrated version though, you could tell the scenes that were being held back...

I hadn't exactly gotten an appetite while watching the movie, but we still went for dinner at the Crazy Pepper. Yums.

In the evening we continued the horror trend w/ Young Frankenstein (Mom actually stayed awake!!)

Sunday was chilly, but we hiked anyways after a quick visit with Uncle Scott and Ardyth. Went up to Wahtum Lake again, to Anthill Trail. Great views to the east and of the lake... lots of uphill at first (I was feeling rather out of shape). Then we joined up with an old road that took us back to the top of the lake. Interesting, we finally know where that closed off road goes! Strange sustained whistling bird call that we couldn't place, seemed to follow us... It started raining, so we tailgated in the jeep for our picnic. Because we can't go on a hike without eating, obviously!

In the evening we watched The Life Aquatic, which I liked more and more as it went on. Mer also enjoyed it... we loved that all the creatures seemed to be machines, so random!

Today was pretty horrible weather... I had some stuff to do, which included stressing about where to get these certain eyeglass frames that I want. I keep getting these loan consolidation forms even though I've consolidated, supposedly, with the company that's sending them. So I finally called up, and had to wait 5 minutes on hold for the guy to flirt with me. I was asking what my status was, and he said "you're fine -- I bet you hear that from all the guys." And then he called me sweetie or something. I told Mer about that one, and we had a good laugh.

This evening we took another short hike/ walk up at the irrigation trail by Settler's Pond. We saw two deer by the water (Mer saw one more that we missed on the trail). Unfortunately we didn't catch a glimpse of a bear, though we did see its droppings... Heard another bird call we couldn't place, a strange looping repeated trill.

Hmm I guess that's the highlights, I haven't been very good at keeping track of everything!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Becky! Every time I hear about George Romero I wonder if you have seen the new movie. And look at that: you have. Also: in your hikes, keep your eyes open for Bigfoot. And take notes if you see one, that way you can be in my book: Sasquatch: The Myth, The Legend, and What it Says about Us. HA. -Julia

Anonymous said...

What a jerk, to be flirting with you when you're trying to consolidate your loans! Too bad you couldn't have used it to get your rate lowered a percentage point or two... :P