For the sake of my reading... this is going to be a brief overview... because this is now the only way that I remember what I do on a day to day basis (otherwise, it really does all blur together).

Last, last Mon: First reading group meeting, where we learned the dreadful news that we might actually have to buy our own books. Update: we have to buy all but one. Boo.

Tues: I turned in my first bit of written work as a grad student -- a response for Memoria (all about Plato... yep, riveting stuff).

Weds: In the evening, I attempted to make sushi. This actually kind of worked, although the rolls weren't very tight, so I had difficulty keeping things together. At one point I was actually hand-fanning the rice as it cooled, with my little decorative paper fan (I followed Joyce Chen's instructions very closely).

Thurs: Enjoyable class, but I had come down with an odd like 3 day "cold" that consisted of a runny (and alternatively congested) nose. Isn't it strange that the nose cycles are the inverse of what you would want? It's runny during the day when you don't want to blow into a tissue in front of people, and then at night when you're not in public, it's too congested to do anything about. Urgh.

Fri: After class, at our Mantis journal meeting, we had a Yiddish composer speak about his projects in creating music for modern Yiddish poetry. Supposedly I was doing work in the afternoon, as I was out all night at the party welcoming first years & re-acquainting w/ 2nd & upper years. Crazy -- I don't know how everyone fit into Joe's apartment... we were packed, and the noise of everyone talking was incredible. Wondered if the neighbors would complain, as we didn't leave till 2 am. I kept the alcohol consumption to a minimum, after my over-the-top screwdriver the previous weekend!

Sat: As might be imagined, I slept till around noon. Then I got to work on finding a bike on Craig's List. I love CL -- I found a bike for $80, w/ bookrack (necessity), and within 4 hours of making my initial call, the seller dropped it off for me. Perfect!

Sunday: With newly acquired bike, met up with Jill for a bike ride to the Menlo Park farmer's market. Easier typed than done. The mythical bike path was no where to be found, and we got lost when we ventured off the campus map's limited representation of surrounding streets. But once I spotted Peet's, I knew we were in the general vicinity (from a random comment made on a website about going to the farmer's market). Great euphoria & sense of accomplishment when we saw the white tents. Be still my heart: local, organic pomegranates. Messy as all hell to eat, as I found out when I burst some seeds at the sink the other day & got red droplets all over a cream colored tank top. Anyway, we had such fun going through the stands... almost everything organic or no sprays... all the farmers into talking about the produce (we got a lesson on rare apple varieties from a 22 year old who claimed to have 20 years of selling experience --black twig, favorite). And, adding convenience to our lives, the farmer's market is in the Trader Joe's parking lot. So I spent under 35$ on over a week's worth of produce, and lots of nice TJ staples (like risotto & polenta... I'm expanding my carbohydrate repertoire. I now have 4 kinds of rice, about 4 or 5 types of pasta, couscous, quinoa, and the above mentioned risotto & polenta). Oh and my new thing: crumbled feta. You can put feta on ANYTHING.

Anyway, afterwards we went to the Hillel House for brunch and jazz... talked to non-English grad students (novel idea), and left in time to do some more reading.

Now this past week has sped by...

Mon: Endless, endless search for the stupid campus bike shop. Misguided directions did NOT help (who can't tell right from left? No, OTHER left). Finally got there, bought a u-lock and bike helmet, got the hell out. Took a zippy trip to Mollie Stone's for essentials (read: Ben and Jerry's that was on sale). Got back, rushed to the talk on taste (about Denise Gigante's new book, which, from what I've heard of it, is amazing). Ducked out early to get to the Review Club meeting -- stomach was growling. Strange to listen to talk about the idea of control over the body (taste, sex) while your stomach is growling. Esp. when you get to talking about essential and nonessential cannibalism. Commiserated with others on this point -- the talk did after all coincide with the dinner hour. Great fun to be with all the English grad students -- talked with Sarah -- planned lunch date.

Tues: Biked to Sarah's for lunch -- Jill had already arrived. Talked about how Sarah catalyzed this huge change in my food habits, which led to my make-up revolution, which influenced my switch to natural household products/ cleaners... Best part of the day, definitely! I then had to register my bike w/ Stanford... the exciting point was getting free bike lights! Yay, I'm visible at night! However, nearly got hit by a car on the way home from Memoria -- don't know if they even stopped at the all-way stop, but I was already halfway across the road, and they clearly were not paying attention. Was immensely disappointed that they didn't stop or yell an apology, or something. When you almost run a bicyclist over on what is, after all, a very bike-laden route, I expect some sort of acknowledgement of wrongdoing! Not the way the world works, I'm told. Anyway, got home, talked to Mom on phone (she sympathized -- whereas Andrew was very blunt: "Well, you've got to watch out. But I'm glad you didn't get killed." Thanks, honey. He didn't seem to grasp the extent of the other party's guilt).

Weds: Got excited about TA-ing in Pedagogy, as we got to hear from undergrads on their experiences. In the evening went on a studio sponsored dinner trip to the Olive Garden. Unfortunately, we didn't split the bill very fairly (at least, not fair in the eyes of those of us who ordered vegetarian dinners which were significantly cheaper than others). But, it was cool to get to know the neighbors. And I discovered I think Tues night, that Lauren, who's in two of my classes, lives next door! Crazy. We agreed as we walked to class together today (arrived late, as I was biking at her walking pace, eek) that we'd never know we live next to anyone.

Thurs: Awesome Intro to Grad class -- Prof. L was there, and I got to talk a little bit about my feminist slant on Burke's rhetoric -- hysteria, Humpty Dumpty, "Adam's fall," and "uterine beginnings." To his credit, Prof. L told us, he did end up switching HIS terministic screen (from "man" to "human"). Didn't know that when I was up in arms while reading... Anyway, we had lunch together, which is always fun, and then I had a brief meeting and reading...

Fri: Hmm. What DID I do today? Class this morning was wonderful, except for the arriving like 2 minutes late part (hate that -- esp. since I was up early and left in time, if only I'd decided to ride my bike... but it was more fun getting to know Lauren a bit more on the walk over). Hmm... great speaker at the Mantis meeting, all about translation. Was tempted to learn Italian and start translating obscure novels. Had an amazing eggplant/ dried tomato/ ricotta cheese sandwich. Met with Prof. R -- about presentation, and life so far here. Very helpful. Visited library, biked home in skirt (glad for a woman's bike -- the lowered bar does make it easier). Now... back to reading. I'm just getting into Cloud Atlas, which has improved considerably now that we're off the Chattham Islands.

Eek before I forget my first week as a graduate student…!

Last Sat.: Jess came over and we hung out, watched some SNL w/ Will Ferrell, & had a regular sleepover! It was cool to just kick back before the craziness started. Sunday the Studio was having a BBQ, so Jessika came over for lunch, and we actually met up with a number of people she knows. I met M.— from the housing office, her friend I think Pete, who seems like a total younger brother (I don’t even have a brother, and I know that’s what he seems like!), and Payula (not sure how to spell her name).

After, I had to completely change, because I smelled like the smoke off the grill… Around dinner time I headed over to the grove by the English dept. for our “Garden Party.” Not to be confused with the Mansfield story of the same name… Ahh I wish I had pictures from everything. I was able to re-meet everyone I met while I was visiting last spring, and get to know some older students as well. I was standing over by a table of food, when Jill & Sarah found me… which was exciting because Sarah was my host last spring, and I think she’s wonderful and brilliant – and I just enjoy listening to whatever she’s talking about. After the party broke up, I retreated to my room for Desperate Housewives, and (possibly) the last good night of sleep for the year…

Monday started off slowly, as the first class I wanted to check out wasn’t till 3:15: Bender’s Enlightenment & Public Sphere course. Everyone went, but I think a number of us decided against taking it because, frankly, the reading load looked out of control. And I’m simply NOT an 18th century person. In the evening, I ended up going to Justin’s w/ James & Jill (all the J’s!)… we had aspirations of watching a really… unique movie, but ended up just talking (along with the roommates). The time kind of flew by, because suddenly we realized that it was nearly 1 am… oops.

Luckily, I also didn’t have class till 3:15 on Tues. I met up with my advisor in the afternoon, which was pretty uneventful because I didn’t have much to ask about, just a general sense of uncertainty. The Memoria class was awesome, and I knew right away that I would stay in it.

Weds: We all had Pedagogy w/ Leher…and then I ended up sitting on a bench in the grove, reading. I walked home with Elda and Lupe, showed them my room, made dinner, and then headed off for the library. It was funny, because I actually was walking right behind Elda & Lupe, but didn’t realize it for a while due to the iPod… Anyway, I was relatively productive at the lib., and then headed home for sleep.

Thurs: First Intro to Grad Studies course… which is awesome, because Jones is a wonderful prof, and it’s just us 9 first year English students. We ended up making coffee, but I was really… up and running. We kind of did the icebreaker of introducing ourselves and saying something “surprising about Stanford” (mine: fall is just not happening). After a very successful class, we all headed over to the Thai place for lunch. I had some lunch stuff w/ me, so I just grabbed a Thai iced tea… odd moment: a bird peed on us, twice! Elda & Jill were hardest hit, but I definitely felt spray… ick. We thought after the first dumping, that we’d be safe, since the bird was probably done. But, we were wrong.

After, I hung out in the Bender room for a while, reading… beautiful view up there, of the foothills and the palm tree tops. Then a brief stay in the TA lounge… It was still incredibly hot out… And, of course, The OC!! The ending song (Alphaville’s Forever Young, as heard in Napoleon Dynamite) was incredibly sad… so I decided to buy it on iTunes (so easy).

Friday: I had one class, the Visual Culture in 19th Century Britain. It sounded really cool, and then we went to Special Collections… I LOVE special collections. Not only did I get to handle a 1st ed. of Rossetti’s Goblin Market (w/ drawings by Dante Rossetti), I also was able to hold and read Katherine Mansfield’s edition of Oscar Wilde’s maxims (including “Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attraction of others”), which was interesting because I remember reading that she attempted to formulate her own Wildean maxims in her journal. So crazy to hold something she read and carried with her… I felt like I had something of a fetish for the material book… rather like the idea of relics, I suppose…

In the evening, most of us met up at Lupe & Elda’s for a pre-party to the grad school community party. Elda poured me a massive screwdriver, so I was pretty done for the night… it was fun socializing though, and talking about things unrelated to the classroom… we waited in line for like half an hour, finally got in, got smooshed in the crowd, I had some water, and then we were herded out, where we talked for at least 40 minutes on the sidewalk. Cindy of the Comp Lit program gave me some plastic cups, since they repossessed mine (even though it was empty and had never contained alcohol). Finally got home… eek 2 am… and slept.

Sat. I headed to the lib. fairly early and met up with Jess for a study session. I visited the TA lounge again… and after seeing where Jess lived, we concluded that neither of us had food… so we went out! To this amazing Indian restaurant, where I ordered my usual chicken tikka masala (the most perfect food of this world), and tried to identify chutneys. We realized that we really don’t know what sauce is what – just that we’ll eat whatever is set before us! As we were putting leftovers into those Styrofoam containers, Jess was holding hers over the candle, and something smelled funny, and the guy at the table over said “what your box!”, and we realized that the whole top had basically melted. Horrible smell, but sooo funny. As Jess says, never a dull moment =)

Back home, I did some more reading, watched SNL, and finally got my laundry done! And Andrew & I have got our webcams working, which make being apart slightly less sad… because at least we can see each other.

This morning I woke up at a decent hour… went to the free Studio 1 brunch (and met up w/ Marissa at her door, strangely, as she was going out for laundry as I was walking by for brunch, so we went together)… walked to the Union for money…talked to Mom while waiting to hear about shopping plans… and luckily got a ride w/ Justin and Jill to Mollie Stone’s (a cute natural foods store). It took me for what seemed like forever to pick up some stuff, mainly produce, as that was what I was missing… Next week I’m going to get up early and walk to the Menlo Park farmer’s market, one way or another!! I need a bike though, at some point, I’m realizing…

Anyway, I got a bit of work done, and then made my usual skillet cornbread for our potluck. Which was soooo fun! We had a huge amount of food, and just gorged ourselves, and talked… and James timed our “silences” – every 7 minutes, till he told us, and we started altering our patterns a bit. Talked about the food dyed cupcakes, TV’s more complicated plots, chickens, cricket, etc.

Ahh... and I came home, and realized, I'm quite happy so far =) Our "cohort love 1" was great, classes are interesting (and challenging), and, well, the climate is a welcome change from MA... (although I miss the beautiful fall, and I'm sure I'll miss the nice pre-April snow).

Now… D.H.’s and more reading…

I'm at Stanford now!!

The last few days in Oregon were a whirlwind...

The last Thurs. I was home (as in like 9 days ago), Mom and Mer & I first went to the Jacobson's farm for some organic produce, and then got our start on the Surveyor's Ridge trail. We took the half that we didn't take last time. On the way up, Mer found a "gut pile," probably from a bear. It was pretty disgusting. Merrie wanted to cut it open and see what the bear's last meal was. Luckily, she did not do so. The trail was beautiful -- we saw a little hill of rock that we thought was Shell Mt., but ended up not being it. At the top we saw a cross, and found a gravesite. Mer spotted lots of animal tracks -- from deer and elk to bear and cougar. It seemed like it was taking forever to find the end of the trail... we hiked on what looked like an old road, back on a trail (luckily the trail split right where the road started going uphill!), through clearings and through forest. Mom spotted some wild elderberry patches, and shrubs that we used to have back by the trail that led to the clothes lines. At long last, when we were starving and tired of walking, we spotted the trailhead that we started on last time. So we've done the whole trail now, piecemeal.

At home, we wanted something fast... so I tried making basically chicken scampi w/ kale and zucchini, since we had some white wine. Mom was in charge of getting the chicken in chunks, and I took care of the rest.

Friday Mer & I went to visit our dad. We got a fairly early start, got gas in Troutdale because it was like $2.60 something, and then drove for a long, long time. The hwy was beautiful -- lots of big trees and leafy ground cover. It was raining though along the hwy, and multiple construction sites meant getting stopped 3 times. Luckily, it was sunny in town. Anyway, it was great seeing Dad again, and seeing that he was doing well. Cute apartment, Margy seemed in good spirits, and the place where Dad works is right across the street. We chatted for a while, and then drove out to the coast. Kind of like what we used to do when we were little -- walking on the sand, exploring tidepools, and looking for agates and shells. Mer found an agate, but only partial sand dollars. The whole sand dollar is an elusive creature, apparently. We saw many a starfish and sea anemone... Mer was poking an anemone, and I said "I want that" (since we were going to watch Napoleon Dynamite that night, it was on our minds -- if you haven't seen it, that's what this woman says in a funny voice after seeing a tupperware collection with a free model ship thrown in. Hilarious). Anyway, Mer laughed and said she'd put that in her blog. But as you can see from her blog, she hasn't updated in weeks! So I had to pick up the slack. Sorry, Mer =)

We kept seeing these little tiny squid looking creatures on the sand... washed up. Dad thought they were little cuttlefish. Maybe a batch of eggs went awry... hard telling. The entire beach was practically deserted... and I loved that there were caves and a tunnel to another beach that you could only get to during low tide... and at which you could get stuck during high tide. Beautiful area, and a nice sunny day, with just a few clouds. Dad spotted a bunch of pelicans, which we watched diving into the waves. Afterward, driving, we saw a large deer cross our path. A black tail, I think Mer said.

For dinner we had pizza... and then we watched Napoleon Dynamite. I got sad about leaving everything all over again, and Dad and Margy were like "Stay with us!" Something about leaving MHC, leaving home, then leaving Madison & Andrew, and now leaving home again.... eek. But we eventually started the movie, which made me laugh. We were able to get me a toothbrush, and Mer & I popsicles, since the store across the street is open 24 hours. I hadn't really packed thinking that we'd stay overnight, but it ended up working out.

Sat. morning we got up early -- at 6:45 am -- and quickly got our stuff together. All I had clean was a sweater, so, I wore a sweater, which was fine in the morning, but gradually became too warm. Hugged and said our goodbyes, and then we were off... We JUST beat the construction, we saw them setting up as we cruised by. Yes!!

On the way home we stopped at Troutdale again for gas, and one of the attendants recognized us, so I explained that we'd been driving a lot! In Hood River we decided to visit Grammy, despite our being kind of unkempt. But it's always fun visiting Grammy, so she got us both feeling better. She was telling us about her days at boarding school when she was younger... and taking night classes while helping to keep the boarding house going... and leaving business school for a job in Hood River. She wants pictures of our "digs" so she can see where we're living -- so I must do that today, now that the apt. is basically together.

Anyway, back home we had lots of packing to do -- Mer more than me, since Mom had done lots of mine for me (thank God!) I made a quick dinner of pasta & "roasted pepper sauce," which was a rendition of a recipe I found on a pasta box. Turned out well, and then I rushed off to pick blackberries along the ditch before the last light faded. I picked as many as I could easily get to, called Dad since he wanted to know how I was doing, and then hurried back in the dusk to meet up with Mer & Bosun.

We left for Corvalis early Sunday morning... not as early as we'd hoped to, but still a decent hour. We unloaded Mer's stuff, toured the co-op, which is SO MUCH NICER than Reed was! and went on some shopping expeditions (during which I found a few things too, including hangers, Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap, and a wicker hamper). We took another trip to Subway (funny since Mer & I had just eaten at a Subway on our way to Dad's on Friday), said our goodbyes, and rushed off to Jerry's in Myrtle Creek. The whole way I was going to be in the back of the truck now -- on the way to Corvallis I'd just driven w/ Mer in the Jeep. Anyway, we pulled into Jerry's around 7:30 or 8, talked, and then his daughter, Cassie, drove us to the nearest grocery store to pick up something fast for dinner... which for me meant a veggie burrito. And after dinner, we girls shared a pint of Ben & Jerry's... Just as an aside, Ben and Jerry's frozen yogurt is just as good as the ice cream, I don't know how they manage it. And Andrew and I had this chocolate frozen yogurt with brownie bites in it over the summer, and that was impressive, too. Makes you wonder why they don't make lower fat versions of more ice creams... Didn't one of the founders of Ben and Jerry's recently have like a heart attack or something? I remember two ice cream gurus had heart problems, as explained in Supersize Me, a found of Ben and Jerry's and a founder of Baskin-Robbins. Anyway, back to the narrative...

That night I slept quite peacefully on the couch, got up early, and we all headed out at what was a decent hour but not as early as I'd hoped to leave. We drove A LOT on Monday... took pitstops at a Pacific Crest Trail trailhead, at a market for ice cream, later for gas before hitting SF. Andrew gave us directions that worked well till I got us going like north instead of south on 101... but we made it into Palo Alto. Unfortunately, we didn't realize we'd need directions to the motel, too... who knew that El Camino Real passes through like 5 different towns? And that we'd see like 3 different Super 8's? Argh. We finally made it, with another grocery store dinner in arms...

Tues. morning we went to pick up my keys, and then wandered all over looking for Studio 1. Let me tell you this now: Studio 1 is impossible to find. The sign that says "Studios 1 & 2" really only points to #2. And Studio 1 is not marked. At all. No signs, nothing. So we finally found it, on foot, and as Mom and Tim went to get the truck and repark, I headed up to see my home for the year... I was very happy! More storage than I had anticipated, everything looked new and clean, and more spacious than I had imagined. Ahh.

So after getting my previously owned crap into the apt., it was time to buy more. Mom and I had lunch at Ikea and then shopped till we dropped... got lost in the rain on the way to Wal-Mart, got new directions from Andrew, made it to Wal-Mart, Trader Joe's, and Target... and then promptly got lost. I think this was another Becky thing, where I was like, I think we're going the wrong way, let's turn around, and then got us lost. Basically, we went the OPPOSITE way from campus, toward Mountain View... got quite lost, and to top things off, the traffic lights seemed out from the storm, all just flashing red, so everything was backed up and gridlocked. Eek! We FINALLY made it home around 8 pm... We decided on a nice dinner at the Olive Garden, which we all enjoyed.

The next day Mom and I made a similar route for last minute stuff and grocery shopping, only this time without getting lost. Another Ikea trip for lunch and a throw blanket and trash cans, Target and Wal-Mart for a TV & sheets & mattress pad, Trader Joe's for tons of food... then we got to the motel in time for a swim. Bit cold, but once you're in, if you keep moving and swimming, you're fine. Ahh I love swimming. Tim sat poolside while Mom and I did some leisurely laps. Anyway, for dinner we went to the Boston Market that was also really close to the motel (we walked, and could have walked the night before to the Olive Garden but no one believed me that it was really close & easier than getting the truck turned around w/ U-turns). Afterwards, Mom and I did laundry at my place, and took a trip to Safeway for last minute stuff. Then she left to sleep at the motel, and I stayed to do a few more things and spend my first night in my studio.

Thurs. Mom and Tim helped me with things I can't do (i.e. things involving a tool box), and then we got an antenna for my tv at Target. By that time they needed to leave... very sad to say goodbye! I loved having them here to explore & set up with me. Luckily I got together with Jessika later, as we crashed a new faculty meet-and-greet & took some cookies, and eventually found the grad school mixer. We met one chemistry student, Ngon, and talked about bugs & learning tips, etc. After, I accompanied Jess in her pursuit to reclaim her bedding, which was stored at her advisor's house. Later, we watched the OC (which was horribly fuzzy on my TV, next time I've got to see if anyone's watching in the lounge!!), ate popcorn, and watched A Midsummer's Night Dream, despite getting quite sleepy! Jess slept over, as it was late and we were both exhausted. And the bed, let's face it, is huge. It takes up like half my studio space!

Anyway, so yesterday was my first like English specific thing... an orientation, where we met the grad studies director, chair of the dept, and the director of the dual Phd in Humanities program. It was great chatting, catching up, planning OC and Desperate Housewives nights, and asking the third years all manner of questions... One of the co-chairs of the Review Club, Claire, was excited that I knew Madison and was used to the farmer's markets, and advised me to visit the Menlo Park farmer's market here on Sunday mornings. So I think I'm going to take a very long walk tomorrow to do just that, and get my bearings around this place!

I was actually surprised I didn't get lost yesterday, going from the EV Community Ctr, to Old Union for my ID, to building 460. I got to the orientation waaay early... and read my newspaper. Anyway, it only took me 13 minutes to walk to my studio, so I don't know if I'll really need a bike or not. Guess we'll see after this farmer's market tomorrow. I'm just used to walking and hiking, but who knows... maybe I'll become a bike convert.

After getting home, Jess and I got together, as I made pesto and we just hung out and watched some Super Nanny (which was what the one station that I get really well was playing).

Kinda strange to wake up here with nothing much to do -- but I know that won't be the norm! Time to do laundry, now...

I’m overdue for an update…

I flew into Oregon last Sunday (the fourth), and was both happy to see Mom and Mer at the airport (I sneaked up on them and surprised them at security) and sad to be sooo far away from WI. Definitely was having second thoughts about the whole going to school in separate parts of the country thing…

Well, luckily there has been plenty to keep me busy—

Monday Mer & I went blackberry picking up at the ditch, and took some cool pictures. Well, I thought they were cool. Upon arriving home, we found that we had actually picked plenty for a pie. After dinner, we headed back for an extended picking session (as in, each picking nearly a coffee can’s worth of berries… Mer was ready to go home before we had quite gotten to the top of the containers, but she might have been right… it was getting more and more dangerous to trample into the pricklies looking for ripe berries), so that the next day Mom and I could make jam. So that was my big activity on Tues. – finally learning to make jam! Basically, it involves standing over some very hot water at the stove (with the jars in it), stirring the very hot jam mixture, and then trying to pour this mixture into the hot jars without spilling too much of what’s essentially magenta dye with seeds in it. In the evening we watched Supersize Me, which everyone enjoyed, and talked about food.

Weds., after Mer got home from work, we finally went floating! This was an event, as it wasn’t warm enough in June to do this, and way back last summer, I was only here for chilly weather. So it was my first float for two years – not much has changed, of course, the water is still freeeeezing… but we did kind of “pick up” a black lab, who followed us all the way down to our house, swimming most of the way. This dog was still energetic though, and we threw sticks for her for about half an hour before deciding we were tired out before her. She was still belly flopping into the ditch, sending up sprays of water, and jumping about waiting for us to throw the stick yet again… Some creatures would find retrieving sticks tedious… not labs. Unfortunately, she had a collar, so we had to take her back up the ditch to return to her home… So tempting to keep wandering dogs!

Thurs. was the famous Rosauer’s cereal sale – so Mom and I went food shopping early in the day, beating the rush. Because I find it very important to beat the rush when it comes to supermarket sales – I’ve seen what happens when Ben & Jerry’s goes on sale for 2.50$ a pint. They had my favorite organic Optimum cereals for like $1.69 a box; I stocked up! When Mer got home, we went for another round of blackberrying (not to be mistaken for Bunburying). This wasn’t the forced march of picking for jam, though – we just wanted some more berries on hand for fresh eating (I like them on my cereal because even cereals that include dried fruit never give you enough of it, in my opinion. And sometimes the dried blueberries in my Optimum Power cereal sink to the bottom).

Friday was busy – Bosun had an appointment at the vet (he’s like totally deaf now, P.S.), and I had an appointment with my oral surgeon in the Dalles. Unfortunately, my oral surgeon didn’t bother telling me that they had moved into a new office since I saw them in June. Mom and I felt like we were in the Twilight Zone… I realized that I was pretty doped up last time I was there, but I knew I had had surgery in that room that looked completely different! So we finally found their number in a handy phonebook on our way out of the building, and arrived late. They apologized, and I forgave them, because they were so friendly & I liked their new office oodles more than the past one. Anyway, it seems my slow-to-heal lower left jaw is OK for now, but they can do “plastic surgery for the gums” if my dentist ever thinks the roots aren’t sufficiently covered.

After that, Mom and I were free to shop – at Fred Meyer’s, Staples, and then back home at Wal-Mart, I think… And I still can’t find enough notebook options in recycled paper. It annoys me greatly that notebook makers are either marketing to people who want style, OR people who want recycled products. What about someone who wants a better-than-generic notebook, but also wants to be a little friendly to the environment? There’s a niche market here waiting to be filled! Come on, FiveStar, Mead, someone!

Anyway, Mer ended up picking up Boson from the vet, as Mom and I were running late after a stop at Rosauer’s. In the evening, I helped Mom make a rhubarb pie… because I love those, and when’s the last time you saw rhubarb at a supermarket? Ahh sometimes I wish I were an organic farmer – there are so many specialty crops that it would be cool to bring back…

Saturday the apartment supplying continued – visited the Senior Center rummage sale, yard sales, etc… I found a cool retro wooden dish drying rack, a sea-glass plate (I just had to have it, even though it might not be the MOST useful thing…), a new cutting board, a silverware separator, and some blue cords for Mer (that fit her perfectly – I always know if they’re a tad too small for me, they’ll fit her perfectly).

In the afternoon I was in charge of making another batch of skillet cornbread for the potluck picnic Mer was bringing me to… After a brief stop at Freddy’s, we got to Mer’s co-worker’s/boss’s house in the Dalles. Unfortunately… it was too cold to swim in the pool. But it was tons of fun anyway – Allison had cooked her own homemade fried chicken, & corn & coleslaw. Someone brought a salad & fruit salad, and it was a ton of food. And dessert… Allison had made this banana pudding with bananas & vanilla wafers… Mer’s coworker Jane had made a fruit tart w/ peaches and blueberries. I wish I had the recipes. I finally understood why Mer enjoyed work – her coworkers are awesome. Allison was constantly making us laugh, and everyone was just fun to be around. A very successful picnic, even though it was indoors!

Sunday Mer left for Matt’s, and Mom and I were planning on hiking on the mountain… until Mom discovered a flat tire on the jeep. So after watching Tim change the tire to something that would at least get her to the tire place in the morning (and helping a token amount – I’d have a slightly better idea now of what would need to be done in that situation), we resorted to plan B: hiking the logging trail along the ditch. On the way, we saw the flock of like 7 or 8 wild turkeys coming up from the orchard and flying across the ditch. I’d wondered what it would be like to see them in a flock, after Mer and I have repeatedly come upon their tracks. We got up to where Mer & I have stopped before – at a sweeping circle on the dusty road, that starts going more steeply uphill. I wanted to sit on this log on the bluff above the trail while we ate our snack, but after trying to scale the steep & crumbling-beneath-our-feet slope, I resorted for a rock along the trail.

I made fried rice for dinner – which turned out well. Not too mushy… perhaps because we left the rice to cool in the fridge uncovered.

Monday morning we got up early to take Mom’s jeep to the tire place, which is conveniently located next to Wal-Mart. I got some basic kitchen stuff… like a salt and pepper shaker, whisk, & food chopper… I know that Wal-Mart isn’t the BEST company… but, well, they do have incredibly low prices for basics when you’re trying to stock up an apartment. There are some things I’m waiting on Ikea for, but other stuff I’d rather get here and avoid the like 8% sales tax in CA!

Anyway, the tires were soon on, and we ate a quick lunch at Jackson Park, swung by the health center, and then I sat in another park listening to a podcast (Living on Earth, my favorite) and talking to Andrew and sitting in the sun.

I was in charge of dinner – enchiladas w/ leftover rice, black beans, and leftover chicken that I shredded. Getting used to putting a meal together, so hopefully I’ll have time to cook at grad school!!

Yesterday was fun – Mom and I finally got up to the mountain for a hike. We drove up to Cloud Cap, and had to take a detour along the Timberline Trail since the old bridge toward Elk Cove was washed out. The new bridge is way scary… just some planks of wood with a cable railing on one side, over rushing water and huge boulders. Eek. We only ran into one other person hiking (but he was going on the round the mountain loop). Lots of steep hills to traverse… we made our destination two little waterfalls, as it was getting late. The sky kept clearing up as the day wore on, and the clouds moved off the mountain… so we did get some beautiful views of the peak of Mt. Hood, along with the panorama of the other mountains (St. Helen, Adams, and Rainier way off in the distance so that it blended in with the clouds), bluffs, and the eastern desert. Unfortunately, my brand new batteries burned out, so I didn’t get pictures of everything… I resorted to my camera phone at some point. Anyway, on the way in, while we were eating on the rocks, Mom spotted two deer. I was too slow, and just saw the one, which looked young, switching its tail and heading into the forest.

The real animal watching was on the way home, though, as we rattled down the 9 mile dirt road in the jeep. We saw three deer on the roadway, then another by itself, so we were looking out for wildlife. At one straightway, a young looking black bear ran across the road! It was the first time I’d seen a bear in the wild, and Mom and I were super excited. I would guess it was around 200, 250 pounds, and it must have crossed within like 10 or 15 feet of the jeep. Amazing. We got out and looked around for him, but couldn’t find a trace, except a little deer path up the hill. So cool! I wish I had had a camera at the ready!

Anyway – that was my excitement for the day! I decided to do the cooking, so we had spaghetti (w/ Mom’s fresh Greek oregano and tomatoes – I love gardens) and salad. I used the whole wheat pasta I’d found at Wal-Mart, and I think I’ve converted Mum – it’s so much better than the usual bleached and then enriched variety. And just an 8th of the box has 10% of your daily iron, which I think is incredible…

That’s all for now – waiting for Mer to arrive home with our salt water taffy!!

In light of the fact that I'm flying back to Oregon tomorrow, I thought perhaps I should update one more time...

Friday -- After I last blogged, Andrew arrived home, & in good spirits about classes. As predicted, it seems that we need to just start classes to get back in the swing of things and feel less worried. So we talked -- and ate leftovers on the patio -- and took care of stuff around the place, before starting on our afternoon plans. We wanted to go on a bike ride, since Andrew bought two bikes way back when through Craig's list, which we'd only used like once before together. Perfect day for it -- sunny but not sweltering, hardly a cloud in the sky. After a bit of hectic riding through the busy streets, we reached the bike path around the lake. I don't know how long a ride Andrew was planning on -- but he was surprised that we got as far as we did! We stopped along the lake at a bench to catch the views -- and sat down on a dock in the shade. Idyllic -- if only it wasn't always at the back of my mind that I have to leave soon! From there, we ended up veering off the lake path to follow a little stream for a while through a quaint looking neighborhood & dog running field. Reminded Andrew of Amsterdam. Reminded me of some vague childhood impressions of a different time's town. Lots of lilypads in the stream, ducks, fields... you get the idea. On the way back, we stopped off at a park area along the lake -- got more views & pictures -- and then headed home. Luckily at this point the sun wasn't in my eyes. On the way out of town, the sun had been shining at just such an angle to slip in above my sunglasses... ergh.

After cleaning up, it was about time to fix dinner... We'd decided to make fried rice -- w/ Thai basil & cashews -- and Andrew made a perfect batch. I like eating in the park, and the night previous had been fun picnicking, so we took dinner down to the park again and ate off the little plastic plates that came w/ Andrew's picnic backpack. This time, again, a kite flier was practicing in all the wind (but he wasn't as good as the guy we'd seen the night before). Sad though... watched the sun set & cuddled.

Back home, we put our plan into action to avoid moping around the apartment. So, since we'd never tried frozen custard, we headed to our neighborhood Culver's & ordered the day's special flavor: Payday. Of course, we added fudge (which, as Andrew said, has nothing on Herrell's (which, by the way, we saw the Food Network covering on Unwrapped (something about their smoosh-ins & banana splits))). Frozen custard is sooo much better than frozen yogurt! At first we thought it was just glorified frozen yogurt, but we were oh so wrong. Much creamier, and richer.

Then, in the tradition of lazy evenings, we mini golfed! This course was far superior to the one in the Dells -- Wizard of Oz themed, w/ lots of big statues of animals, a slide, water everywhere (that I got caught in on multiple occasions), and all sorts of tricky shots that I DEFINITELY didn't make. It seems that I can't exactly aim, and hit the ball straight ahead... no, it always ends up veering off course. Andrew seems to think this has something to do with the fact that I can't tell when I'm hitting backwards (wrong side or something). It was pretty crowded, which was fun, except the loudest portion of this crowd consisted of very loud 13-year-olds singing The Little Mermaid songs. Ick.

After all the excitement -- Andrew won the first round, I the second, and he definitely won overall by over ten points -- we headed home. Watched some OC and some trashy tv to take our mind off the imminent departure...

Today we slept in -- went to the farmer's market & checked out the preparation for Taste of Madison -- had lunch (something w/ chickpeas & red peppers & tomatoes & zucchini) -- did laundry (someone who deserves to do laundry forever in Hades, while pushing a stone up a hill, opened all three doors to our dryers in the start of the cycle, which delayed and irritated us) -- went grocery shopping at Woodman's (sadness! I love Woodman's) -- went to the Square for Taste of Madison (first stop: Andrew: pad thai; Becky: squash curry (the best!!) second stop: Andrew: more pad thai, but warmer this time, and better, I think; Becky: more curry, but this one more coconutty, which reminded me of that disgusting Blanchard salad I had at MHC that made my stomach react VERY badly, but I'm trying to retrain my tastebuds to not freak out, since not every dish w/ coconut milk is as disastrous as those made back at MHC) -- moved our blanket from the Square to the park, and sat watching the remnants of a sunset, and two guys who jumped into the lake, and some woman in a little dress and ridiculously high heels made in the style of sneakers (bizarre) -- dropped everything off at home, and then took one last walk around the Capitol to see the dismantling of the T.O.M. vendors -- I started packing -- watched some more trashy TV (nothing like Elimidate to make you forget your problems) -- and now it's time for the last OC episode on disc three (I think I'll just read a review of the last half of the second season, it's still all fresh in my mind, but I want to be ready for Thurs - the season is starting!!!)

I've loved Madison -- and staying with Andrew -- and doing fun summery stuff -- we looked at pictures today that we've taken throughout the summer, and made recipe lists of the dinners we've made. As sad as it is to go... I know I'll love coming back for my next visit!

Eek the summer is winding down... here's what I've been up to lately.

Last Tuesday: We took another trip into the Wisconsin Dells -- not to a waterpark, though, in light of both the cooler weather & the recent outbreak of infection at a NY waterpark. So instead, I thought it was time for a visit to the deer park.

I'm pretty sure that I saw the National Geographic article on the deer park... We bought little packets of crackers to feed the deer, which are specially made since deer can't have iodine, apparently. The park was ridiculous -- like some alternate world where natural laws don't apply. It had a petting zoo and two separate enclosures of free ranging deer. Off to the sides of the paths, they had smaller fenced in areas for various rarer species. The deer in the two main areas, though, were either in an enclosure that they could go in and out of freely (to either assault people for food or take a nap, depending) or walking along the paths with the visitors. I was rather excited about trying to pet the deer... my favorite was a buck with huge velvety antlers (which he kept hitting me in the head with as he went after the crackers). Andrew took TONS of pictures.

Afterwards, since we had some time to kill, we checked out mini golf. We settled at a smaller place with 9 holes, since I just wanted to see if I was bored out of my mind or not. Turns out, mini golf is pretty fun -- although I lost, miserably!

Soon it was time to head over to the Big Sky drive in theater -- we sat in the entrance line and watched the sun set -- which was beautiful... it lit up the field next to us, golden & highlighting all the buzzing insects. We'd decided to eat dinner there, so we had not-the-healthiest selection of grilled cheese & chicken strips & onion rings & fries... luckily I had brought some pears along to at least give us some token healthiness. This time we were at the first screen... we watched Wedding Crashers (fun, but predictable), and European Gigilo (gross in parts, but it took place in Amsterdam, which got Andrew excited). Like last time, we got to watch the moon, too (although on the way home, the planets weren't aligned in such a way as to overlap the moon & capitol building... which happened on our first trip back late at night from the theater).

Weds: We waited all day for cable (which was eventually installed, but improperly, which you'll hear about if you keep reading). In the evening, we brought a pesto pasta & fruit salad picnic over to a "park" for an orchestra performance. We sat on the outskirts, since we had a blanket & needed grass, and it was all parking lot in front or already-claimed-green-space. Odd place for it -- although it was called a park, it was really more of an industrial park, basically the parking lot of some businesses. Anyway, the music was lovely, and during the 1812 Overture, they started the fireworks. We packed up and started heading out, but had to stand and watch the last of the fireworks before getting too far away.

Afterwards, we took a random trip to Target (as in, I wanted some new pens & this scarf I'd seen earlier, and Andrew needed to find a birthday card), and then headed home.

Thurs: As the cable wasn't working properly, Andrew called up & asked for help, which was supposed to arrive by 5 pm. That time came and went... So we took an emergency trip to Willy St. Co-op for some sushi making supplies, assembled some rolls, and then had to put them away as the emergency crew arrived. These two guys knew what they were doing, and had everything working before they left. But, we still had OC to watch, so, we didn't really use the cable too much yet!

Friday: Friday kind of got loss in the shuffle. I was in my one week of limbo between insurance plans, & we were playing with the cable... I asked Andrew too, and neither of us can remember what we did...

Sat: Farmer's Market! And then in the afternoon we wandered around State St., looking at retro clothing places, and exploring the shops. I enjoyed the free trade place, & the community pharmacy (where I found a stainless steel water bottle!!)

Sun: There were about 3 festivals going on this weekend, so Sun. early we made it to the Middleton Festival (in celebration of Money magazine or some such publication rating them the #1 town to live in). We participated in the pie & ice cream eating social -- I found raspberry rhubarb, and Andrew went for the safe apple. We looked at the craft booths, weaving around doll's clothes, the beer tent, and families wearing matching "I believe in Jesus" t-shirts.

After, we checked out the Atwood Festival, which was more our speed... Hippie music, lots of environmentally aware people who rode their bikes, political buttons & bumper stickers... People just seemed healthier & friendlier than in Middleton (not to mention that finally we weren't in an ENTIRELY white suburb).

Anyway, the festival hopping was cut short to visit Woodman's for some enchilada supplies & other food stuffs...

Monday: We headed to the Botanical Gardens, which were GORGEOUS. A rose garden, sunken garden, herb garden, Thai pavilion, & green expanses... Around certain flower beds, we were counting over ten monarch butterflies fluttering about at once. Lovely place.

After being in the sun all afternoon, we returned home to clean up before heading over to Ariel's to join her family & Molly for dinner. Amazing vegetarian dish w/ pasta & feta... I'm definitely stealing the recipe =) Talked about eating vegetarian, Apple computers, MHC, ESB advisors, Robin McKinley (and her 23 pairs of Reeboks!), etc... Sad to leave, and know that they're heading back to MHC and I'm not there!!

Back home, Andrew ended up baking chocolate chip cookies (we substituted Kahlua for vanilla, and Andrew did something crazy with peanut butter and crushed peanuts, but it turned out well). And, of course, we watched more OC Season 2.

Tues: We took one last trip out of town... On our way to Devil's Lake, we decided to stop off at Mirror Lake instead. Pretty cool but partly sunny out... so we took out au paddleboat, and explored the lake a bit. Beautiful...on one side we looked at the rock layers, and in general just enjoyed the scenery. We had a snack (yum, plums), and then headed back to shore. The rest of Mirror Lake didn't seem like the place to sit and read, so we headed down to Devil's Lake to sit & enjoy the view & read a bit. So pretty... said my goodbye's to Devil's Lake, till next summer, and we headed home.

Weds: We tried to get up early, and went to Pedro's for lunch. I enjoyed eating outside, but the service was pretty bad. Strange... it was much better in the Dells when it was crazy busy, than in Madison on a very quiet day after the lunch rush. We still hadn't gotten our food, when others who had ordered right before us were LEAVING. And when the food did come, my vegetarian tamales were missing two key ingredients in the filling, and was basically burned onto the plate. Kind of strange. We weren't very sold on the place after that.

Anyway, afterwards we had fun -- we headed to the arboretum, took a footpath that was kind of a dead end, and then drove more into the thick of the area. We walked down a hill and through a park-like atmosphere of various trees spaced along the grass. Eventually we came upon the visitor's center, and then went through the prairie/ savannah spaces on our way to the ponds. At one mucky wetland area, we saw some frogs (one type identified as leopard frogs by some official looking sorts who stopped by and looked at the water level). Lots of green algea on the water, which made the whole scene seem, well, like various shades of green. At the other larger pond, Andrew was saying "I think the other one was better --- TURTLES!" So we saw some sort of water turtle, and then stood together waiting to perhaps see more. No luck, though. Pretty though, blue skies, trees, limbs...

This was also the day of the hurricane suddenly affecting gas prices -- wow, suddenly a 40 to 50 cent jump overnight... Andrew filled up at $2.99, and I regretted that I didn't have him do it the day before when it was at like $2.74. Listening to NPR today, I can't believe New Orleans is, well, gone, even though I never visited so I don't exactly have an image in my mind. I enjoyed one commentator asking, why bother to rebuild, when we usually don't even build a housing complex on a flood plain, let alone an entire city? I'm all in favor of that, because, as was also pointed out, by the time the city is repaired, all the residents will have integrated into other communities. Maybe it's best not to defy nature, and just realize that unless they're really commited to building up the levees properly, that the site should be abandoned in favor of something better... And in further NPR induced rants, why are we driving suv's (and why is the government supporting it through tax break incentives) that get MAYBE 20 miles per gallon, when we have the technology to drive vehicles that get more like 200, 300 miles to the gallon? (At least according to the commentator I heard). But I don't doubt that we could become much less reliant on oil, which would put us in a position of much more control over our economy & environment, if we had the public & government support to make that a priority. I'd rather we had spent the 200 billion from Iraq so far, on making ourselves less reliant on oil... argh.

Anyway, after a quick trip home to clean up, we went to the Comp. Sci. department picnic. It was kinda unorganized, but fun -- and they had Spotted Cow beer! Soon after we arrived, I recognized a woman who I'd met as my tour guide during my visit back in March. Megan was there with her gf, so we talked a bit, and then another woman I remembered, Andrea, was there with her husband. It was great to see them, and talk shop a little. So Andrew & I both knew people to socialize with, and met others. All sorts of interesting characters... And luckily they had veggie burgers!

Back home, it was time for a salad (since there was no vegetation served at dinner), some OC, and dessert.

Thurs: Andrew had some fellowship meeting to go to, so we walked down State St. to the university, and I sat on the lawn and read for a while. After the music playing got a little too religious for me, I decided it was time to migrate to the terrace. I was just reading the paper, when Andrew got out of his meeting. We soon headed back home, running a few errands along the way.

Back home, it was sad because it was like, school really is starting, and I really do have to leave soon... But we decided to have a nice picnic at the park down the street, so we packed up our pesto dinner & set up on the little hill. A couple people were doing some extreme kite flying, so we watched them, and then watched the sun go down. After lounging for a bit, we returned home, and did some shopping at Willy St... their organic produce is amazing... it made a pretty good fruit salad =)

We'd gotten Return of the Living Dead III in the mail, which wasn't as good because it was more serious, but didn't have the storyline or acting to be serious... I preferred the comedies. Anyway, the redeeming point was the fact that the same artist who plays Julie Cooper in the OC, played Julie in RLD3! Soooo strange... and disturbing.

Also started a scrabble game... we'll have to play that online together even when we're at school apart.

Then, to unwind, we had dessert & some more OC =)

Well I guess that's it... this morning Andrew headed off to his first classes... and I can't believe I'm leaving so soon. It's really sad, because, well, I could have decided to stay here... and live together, and go to school together... I guess, I just hope I love being at Stanford enough that I can cope with not getting to see Andrew as much.

Anyway -- more later...

Definitely time for an update, because I was starting to forget when we did what... which makes for a messy blog.

Lots of fun movie watching. About a week and a half ago, I know we watched Return of the Living Dead (in all its 80s fabulousness -- some punk rock kids are actually named Suicide and Trash) and Evil Dead II (scary, again). RotLD is more funny than anything else -- the zombies are caused by army chemicals gone awry, they can talk and think, and they want only brains. This makes for some great lines, such as: "But I don't care darling, because I love you, and you've got to let me eat your brains." Evil Dead II was a tad confusing because the first 7 minutes are a refilmed recap of what happened in the first movie, and then it takes off with new material.

Completely unrelated -- we watched Microcosmos -- an awesome movie -- all insects & classical music. Probably best to have a drink or something first, though.

Let's see... I also remember having a late night run to Woodman's (grocery store) for ice cream... And we got creative in the kitchen & made a yummy spicy dinner -- Andrew was in charge of making the spicy salmon and cornbread, and I made fresh salsa. Unfortunately, I still haven't learned to wear gloves while cutting jalapenos. So my fingers were burning for hours afterwards. But the salsa... yummy.

Ok from here on out, I can actually get more specific...

Last Monday: We had a big adventure -- early in the day we headed to the Wisconsin Dells, and stopped at the OK Corral for a guided horseback ride through Devil's Canyon (which isn't as huge as it sounds) & some forest & pastures. It was tons of fun though -- Andrew was on the large chestnut Sammy, who seemed to want nothing more than to run into trees in order to scratch himself. Andrew had some trouble controlling Sammy's movements, so he resorted to kind of pushing himself off from nearby trees. Then there was my pretty girl, Arial, who was very worried about flies. So I spent some time just rubbing her neck so the flies wouldn't settle. A very leisurely, we-don't-want-to-kill-you sort of pace & trail, but I just wanted to be around horses -- I've always wished that I had a horse, and they're simply beautiful and smell, well, like a barn, which i think is a good thing.

Afterwards, on the suggestion of a woman working at the corral, we went to a pizza place in the downtown area. Pretty good -- but we were still pretty sold on making our own good food for less. Then we had a bit more time to kill -- I found some little copper earrings for like $3, and some postcards. Also enjoyed getting another view of the river in the cooled-down weather.

Then it was time for the drive in theater -- we got there too early, so we drove & saw cows in pasture and scenic barns (Andrew did indeed take pictures). We got a front row seat, and cracked out our candy. I insisted on popcorn because it was more reasonably priced than at, say, a regular theater. And we ate the whole tub. Oh that fake butter... you know it's bad when they put quotes around it: "hot buttered" popcorn. Ouch.

Anyway -- the double feature was Dukes of Hazzard (very entertaining, surprisingly), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (please spare me the pseudo-psych back story!) At first Andrew was worried that we'd fall asleep on the drive home, but the sugar kept us hyper for the duration.

Tuesday: I felt the need to keep up the trend of squeezing touristy stuff in every day, so I reminded Andrew that we hadn't been in the capitol building yet. So we walked over, explored, walked around on the outlook deck, and then took the tour. It was funny (our tour guide was great) and informative -- we saw all the different imported marbles/ granites, the supreme court, the assembly/ senate rooms, a conference room, the stuffed owl (a reminder of Old Abe -- Civil War hero), a big brass badger (rub his nose for good luck), and learned why it's the badger state (people initially often lived in dug out caves, like badgers). Beautiful, opulent building...

Later, we watched Supersize Me while cooking pot roast. I was completely floored, and of course disturbed. Lots of funny moments though... And the extras are fantastic -- an interview with the author of Fast Food Nation (a full 25 minutes), and a HILARIOUS piece on the decomposition of fast food. Come to find out, french fries like never break down. After nearly two months, they looked the same as the first day! EEK.

Late at night (this was a bad idea) we watched White Noise. So scary! The idea that spirits are still around... and then seeing the extras that included some true believers (in fact I think I saw them on the scifi channel at some point) running experiments... and then looking it up on the internet and seeing that lots of people believe in that stuff... needless to say, we kind of freaked ourselves out. I turned on all the lights just to use the bathroom. I didn't want to see anything in the mirror, you know!

Weds: After running some errands, we went to the zoo & visited old friends (growing lion cubs) and new (huge muppet-like chimps). Always fun. In the evening we went to the jazz on State St. for a while -- finally found a place to sit near the front -- and went home for a scrabble match. I probably won.

Thurs: The weather was iffy, so we went to the art museum. We looked at EVERYTHING. From the display on local American magic realists (John Wilde was my favorite), to the 18th century Flemish/ Dutch paintings, to the modern/ postmodern displays on the top level. Highlights: Circus themed sculpture, a painting of a Japanese street reflected in a furniture store window, and a chest of drawers stuffed with items, making for an interactive work of art.

After, it was time for food shopping... And minutes after getting in the car to go home, it started pouring. The sky just opened up and dumped. Thank God for indoor parking. So from inside, we watched the storm raging that brought on 11 tornadoes. Yipes. In keeping with the stormy theme, we watched the horribly 80s fab Return of the Living Dead II, which was basically a rehashing of the first, but with the addition of a young boy. "Have we been here before?"

Friday: Momentous day -- we ordered my new computer! Which will actually be up to date, and capable of doing all the things I'll want in the next four or five years. With the Apple discounts, I also ordered an Ipod mini which is free after the rebate, and a printer that was $100 off. Fun stuff.

In the evening, we walked to Monona Terrace to scope out the jazzy Dane Dance, and then proceded to the Union Terrace for ice cream and a song or two of the blues concert. Later on, I finished Moby Dick (so, so good). After some reflection, I decided it was time to take a break. So we watched Alice in Wonderland (yes, the 1951 Disney movie), which was, well, sublime. I love that cat!

Sat: Farmer's market excursion -- we're getting so good at it, even got kale & becky-approved meat & a melon. After, we actually sold my older computer for a compromised price -- yay! I feel very confident that it will serve someone well. But really, when embarking on another 5 to 6 years of, well, essentially professional academics, it seemed like it was time for an update... Goodbye Sony! I loved your screen, but not your fans.

After the business was taken care of, we were free to see the Corn fest. We drove out to Sun Prairie, and wandered about. carnival like -- rides, craft booths, petting fair, "midget races" (small cars), and, of course, CORN. You can get a whole box of corn, or by the ear. Andrew and I got one ear each -- I husked mine, dipped it in the tub of butter, salted it... best corn I've ever had. It was amazing. After that, there wasn't much more to do but wander around. But for an entry price of 50 cents, you can't really complain...

In the evening, we walked over to the Union Terrace again, for the second night of Blues. We sat by the lake at a picnic table. Very pretty & romantic.

Sunday: Andrew had orientation, so I fixed myself a nice lunch and read tons of NYT articles, and then went to meet him at the Union Terrace. He was pretty much done, so we left, relaxed, and then went grocery shopping. Very successful trip -- I love how cheap the ice cream is! Lotso good stuff. We had a late dinner of a TexMex casserole, topped with cornbread, and then played scrabble (Andrew just barely beat me) while watching the first of those National Geographic shows on 9/ 11. Very interesting... and very scary how many signs there were that a better secret service job could have picked up on. The preventability is what makes one freshly upset... after all, the reality has been there for four years, but knowing all the details of how it came about... ack.

Monday: Today we did another thing on our list. After getting my cell phone squared away (it's now in the mail!) we embarked on a journey. We walked along State Street, to the Union, and then from there, to Picnic Point, which has great views of the lake & city. Very pretty -- saw a small bunny, & lots of birds and squirrels. All in all.. about an 8 mile trek after getting there, looking about at the point, and then walking all the way back. crazy! Luckily dinner was already made and ready to be heated up... also had to have a scrabble rematch (I won, by a good margin! although we let me bend the rules at first after drawing initial hands of 5 vowels -- three times in a row!).

Now quite tired... must get to bed.

Time for an update!!

So about a week and a half ago, we took our first trip out toward Devil’s Lake. On the way, we stopped at the Wollersheim Winery for a tour and tasting. The tour was fun – the winery is located on a beautiful piece of land, on one of the few hills here in WI. The guide explained that they used to have rose bushes at the end of each row as a plant-disease indicator. And what used to be a cellar area is now a blocked off cave in the hill. Inside, where they ferment the grapes, there were huge vats… and a cellar area for storage in white oak barrels, which they were very picky about… apparently you can taste the difference in the wood, depending upon where the trees grew… sounded kind of crazy to me. The tasting was fun, and I got a better idea of the distinctions between different varieties. They even make a spiced wine, which was really strong and basically tasted like spiced pumpkin pie.

Afterwards, we headed to Devil’s Lake for a hike. We went up the west side’s trail, which was all up and then all down hill. We took the tumbled rock trail on the way back, and got a good close up look at the purple metamorphic rocks that are distinctive of that area. I was very itchy the whole time… perhaps due to the bug repellant itself. Ick! Anyway, the water looked beautiful, and after seeing the south side of the lake that, at that time of the evening at least, was quite secluded, we decided we’d need to come back.

Hmmm… so last Friday we went to a concert at the union terrace – instrumental hip stuff that Andrew’s into. This guy randomly asked us to guard his table (and his pitchers of beer), in exchange for some of the said beer. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize that the pitchers have deposit charges… so when some guy asked to borrow it we didn’t think anything of it and said yes. Oops… We ended up walking home after the first set – nice evening out! Except again, I was very itchy.

So at some point Andrew decided that something must be wrong because I get itchy all the time and am so busy scratching that I totally miss out on any fun. He looked it up on the internet, read some symptoms of dermographism out, and I realized that he was basically describing my skin. Basically… my skin reacts to any irritation, producing a welt or “weal.” Then my body freaks out and there’s too much histamine or something and the initial welt causes more itchiness so I keep scratching and that can cause more welts… and then after about 25 minutes everything’s normal again as the welts subside. Crazy, huh? Anyway, the past couple of days I’ve been taking allergy medicine as the medical sites recommend, and I do seem… a lot less itchy.

In other news… last Sat. we went to the farmer’s market at a decent hour, and I realized that there really ARE a ton of vendors. Lots of affordable organic produce and ground beef. Yay!

Sunday we went to a play in a park out in Stoughton. We brought a picnic dinner of pesto & pasta, and watched the Outdoor Spaces group perform King Lear. Very low budget, but I enjoyed the refresher, esp. outside in the evening… lots of fireflies flitting about! Too bad they weren’t doing a comedy or A Midsummer’s Night Dream.

Anyway… on Monday we went back to Devil’s Lake for swimming. The south side was pretty busy suddenly, as a lot of kids were there on school buses. Ick. But we still swam, so all was not lost! Pretty nice, but the lake’s bottom is mushy with mud, which is sometimes a tad disconcerting.

Tues. we took a trip shopping, and I got some basics at the Gap… including an umbrella, a hat ($3), leather slipper shoes ($4), and some basic shirts w/ sleeves (which my wardrobe was sorely lacking). I signed up for the Gap card finally… the 20% off definitely was appealing.

Weds evening we had a picnic dinner on the patio, wine & brie included, and then went to the Square to catch some of the orchestra performance. It was Americana themed… odd… but, still an orchestra was playing so I can’t complain. We walked down toward the convention center, and then on our way back, Anna suddenly was there! Crazy to actually find the one person you know in Madison at a crowded affair like that! Anyway, it was her birthday, so she was there with her sister and her sister’s bf. They also had cheese and wine, so we sat in with them and chatted.

Let’s see… Thurs. I think was the evening we took a walk… and earlier I went on a cleaning spree when Andrew was out, and showered, and did my fake tanner (so cool, by the way, that such things are available…) then Friday we took dinner down to the lakeside park for a picnic, and hung out to watch the sun set… yesterday we went to the farmer’s market as usual, and then a street fair, the Atwood Street Fair I think, and wandered around amongst vendors and music, drinking natural soda and eating organic coconut juice bars (from the Willy St. Co-op stand). So afterwards we went to Willy St. Co-op to browse… so cool, because the “conventionally grown” veggies are the minority section there, the opposite of course of most supermarkets. Definitely overpriced through, even on obviously widely available items like Luna bars.

I guess that brings us up to today! We hung out most of the day, and then went on a walk in the afternoon for some exercise. Picnicked on the square on the capitol building lawn, and then went to a theater for some local documentary films. I especially loved the “Trash Days” one – all about the trash generated by the Aug. 15th massive move-in day, when most university kids switch apts. Apparently like 10 thousand apts. are moved in and out of within the space of three days. Crazy! Soooo much waste… iiiiiiiccckkkkyyy landfills…

Hmm… in other news, we’ve been watching Star Wars (in order) w/ one to go. Also Netflixed Evil Dead, which was way gorier than I was expecting. Pretty damn scary, too. I’m about halfway through Moby Dick – I’m warming up to Melville, gradually. Lots of interesting cooking, now that we have sources of Thai basil. And we had another chicken masala night.

That’s it, for now…

Oh no I'm soooo far behind...

I'll try to remember things in a semi-chronological order...

About a week and a half ago, Andrew & I headed off toward Chicago. Well first of all we had to go to IKEA, because Andrew had been freaking out about what sort of coffee table he was going to "complete the apartment" with. Since most of the apt. is oak, beige, red, and navy blue, we had to exhaust all oak-en possiblities within the Madison area. This meant veering off highways suddenly to visit pricey furniture stores with "OAK" in the title, and measuring and re-measuring the living room space and comparing it with dimensions of various coffee tables as described online. Thank God, Andrew did, indeed, find a nice coffee table equivalent.

Afterwards, we were free to visit Karuna and Craig! We talked for a bit over tea, I met the puppy (who was inordinately fond of Andrew's shoes), and then we headed into the city. So many tall buildings! And lots of great park spaces and fountains. We saw huge panels that we thought were merely fountains at first, and then we realized that they also functioned as tv screens. HUGE tv screens. And Craig showed us the silver bean which was being polished up. Very impressed by the city, and it explains so much about why South Hadley wasn't exactly Karuna's favorite place to be. Plus, the city just seemed so much, well, cleaner than NYC. For dinner we went to Pizzaria Due -- yum -- and then we walked a bit more before heading back. Somehow, we timed our quick visit to B&N at exactly the right time to witness the Harry Potter-mania. Lots of kids. Lots of kids dressed up as book characters. And lots of kids drinking espresso. I was worried. I guess I'm glad that kids are reading, but God I wish kids got excited over really amazing time-tested, human truth-filled, mind-expanding novels and poetry. But alas, all the kids want are their Goosebumps and Harry Potter... Andrew, Anna & I were discussing this, and it finally helped me realize why I don't like H.P. that much -- as Anna says, it's simply too popularized and mainstream. I'd just look at it as a cultural artifact, instead of as a piece of art or a great work of literature. So I guess I'll stick to my own reading list this summer (which is being crafted after the scary oral quals list).

Anyway, I guess I got a bit ahead of myself up there, but the above mentioned conversation with Anna took place last Monday. We went to the Union terrace to watch Psycho on the screen outdoors (which was fabulous, I only wish I'd never heard or seen anything of it before so I could have been thoroughly and completely shocked). Afterwards, we showed Anna the apt. and talked for awhile.

Hmm... what else. Not even sure if I mentioned a prior trip to Lake Kegonsa -- we took a short nature walk and waded a bit (very nervous about the blue green algea). To get back to being in chronological order, that Tuesday was a big grocery shopping day... then we had a couple of stay at home sorta days since it was rainy. Andrew got the bikes fixed up, and we took a short ride to the lake & park right next to us. It was kind of pathetic, because I'm not so good with the coordination and balance stuff, and I'm rather nervous about sharing the road with automobiles.

Friday we did the whole county fair thing. This involved wandering through 4-H displays for nearly two hours (Andrew was kind of shocked, and especially confused by the cake decorating and baked goods contests). Somehow, I kept my interest level up while examining self-portrait photos of a moody looking preteen taken with her camera phone, and evaluating the size of those home grown onions and beets. We also, of course, had to walk through the commercial vendors. Andrew did not believe me when I said that we really don't want to do that. This area included a Pro-Life woman with little plastic fetuses in a wicker basket. At one point we saw a little girl approach the stand and treat the plastic fetuses like dolls. It was difficult to know whether to laugh or just feel rather disconcerted. I went with the latter.

Tucked behind the commercial vendors, we found the petting zoo section. There were chicks hatching in real time, and ducklings being handed over to sticky-fingered toddlers. Unfortunately, I missed a priceless scene, but Andrew related it to me afterwards:

At the bird petting station, two little girls were playing with a duckling. The older girl tried to hand the duckling to her younger sister, while their mother supervised, advising the younger girl to "not hold it so tightly." Then the father arrived on the scene, and directed to mom: "You're letting so-and-so hold it? Don't you remember what happened with..." And the mom said something to the effect of: "Oh, yeah, so-and-so, maybe we should just let your big sister hold it, and you can look." And the little girl relinquished the duckling and walked away crying. Ah the fair!

Andrew was also new to the whole idea of putting livestock and chickens on display. So we got a full tour of the beef and dairy cows, and saw a huge assortment of variously feathered chickens, turkeys, and ducks. Not to mention the rabbits, including one French lop that was seriously bigger than your average toddler.

Finally, we got to the entertainment and carnival section... cotton candy, Hawaiian ice, carnies yelling to Andrew "if your gf is worth $3, you'll play this game and win a stuffed monstrosity!" (OK, they didn't use the word "monstrosity," they didn't really have the imagination for that)... Saw a truly disturbing family act with singing pigs ("My dad began this show back in 1957..." saddest thing I've ever heard in my life), and then saw some acrobatics (in neon lime outfits, no less) and a hip hop group perform. Then finally a ride on the ferris wheel, which perfectly coincided with the red sun setting behind the horizon.

Saturday evening we followed up with a trip to a Madison Mallards minor baseball league game. Way overboard on the between-innings entertainment... baseball bat spinning (both men fell over, promptly, for the record), free sandwich and chicken skewer throwing (being literal here, not exaggerating), and water ballon slingshot tossing. We lost the game, but there was still a fireworks display afterwards. Nothing like being right under the booming...

Yesterday was scorching hot... so we went to a nicer side of Lake Mendota (don't tell Anna, she'd be worried for our health). But Andrew did call prior, and checked up on their testing. The attendant told him that their beach had tested negative to everything thus far in the season, so we went for it (but washed off in the showers REALLY well afterwards, and showered as soon as we got home). Kinda greenish water, with lots of weeds, but it was so hot and I still think it's better than chlorine and toddler-pee (i.e., public swimming pools). We also had to run some errands... in other words, return stuff that I'd bought. This will require some explaining...


WARNING: here begins rant about organic foods and parabens -- it might be really boring for you

So I've been wanting to go organic and more natural all around since, well, I became aware of my own mortality and the fact that our modern lifestyle seems to create a lot of cancer victims. Andrew & I have been pretty good about incorporating more organic foods... my cereal, milk, yogurt, and much of the produce is organic. Andrew often scoffs or jokes about it, but he finally checked up on some not-for-profit reports on pesticide residues in foods, and realized that underneath my rather preachy mode of talking about it, there are some actual facts and figures. Anyway, we're definitely aware, and following the little guidebook for 12 most/ least contaminated produce items... And luckily, Woodman's makes organic seem cheap enough on some things at least to be reasonable (blueberries for $2, avocadoes at about 1.30 each, and 3 pounds of apples for $2.50, for example). I've also been worried about animal products, ever since writing animal rights articles for WARM2Kids. So we've got to get the cage-free eggs, and the "smart chicken" sans antibiotics and hormones. We saw a clip on tv about the treatment of chickens at many farms, and after seeing the horribly diseased and mutilated birds for a few minutes, I think Andrew came around.

Anyway, with all this worrying, I also started thinking about what makeup and body products I use, and what businesses I'm thereby supporting. This spurred a visit to Whole Foods to get new moisturizers, sunblocks, and foundations. But then I realized that EVERY SINGLE THING had parabens in it. To catch you up on this in case you're not entirely paranoid like me: Parabens are chemicals that sometimes occur in nature, and which most cosmetics and personal care product manufacturers have taken up due to their low cost and efficiency at preserving everything from shampoo to blush. While they haven't been DEFINITIVELY linked with breast cancer, there was a big scare in the UK a while back, from what I can gather, when breast cancer tumor samples were found to contain un-broken-down parabens. They thought that this paraben-dosage might be due to deoderants, as it would explain why many tumors occur near the portion of the breast closest to the underarm, and why the left breast seems more susceptible to cancer (some investigator hypothesized that since most people are right handed, they'd apply deoderant more heavily on the left underarm). So scary, right? And when I saw that Breast Cancer Action (www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org) has addressed the parabens link, I figured, why risk it? Why not find stuff that DOESN'T contain a chemical that might not be safe? (After all, the cosmetics industry really isn't very tightly regulated... many products mysteriously don't have ingredient labels (my mascara doesn't, for example, and check out the Clinique website.. a search for "ingredients" didn't turn up a single hit for me.) ... and the tests done on rats to check the safety of parabens aren't that convincing. A one time huge dose does NOT simulate the effects of slathering on paraben-laden-products every day for like 50 years.)

So, after feeling totally betrayed by Whole Foods, I returned every single thing and bought my new products online from Avalon Organics & Burt's Bees (paraben free!) I also exchanged my unused sunless tanner (by Neutrogena, featuring a whopping five different forms of parabens) for the Coppertone variety (paraben-free, as I'd learned online from a fellow-shopper). Thank God Wal-Mart employees don't really care that you don't have a receipt! But after all, I'd never even cracked open the bottle (as must have been evident by my still-way-too-white skin).

I guess I'm slowly becoming a good fit for the Bay area, right?

WARNING: end of rant

Hmmm... not too much else to report, except for the movies & scrabble games...

I've been beating Andrew, badly, at Scrabble. Admittedly, this came after a few heavy losses on my side, and even one game that started and was then called off by me when Andrew used all his letters over TWO double word tiles. But now that I've scored around 380 for a couple of games, and used all my letters a few times, I feel like we're finally a pretty even match.

We've been watching a lot of the OC... probably about half way through season one now. Such fun.

Also, I've been watching the Star Wars movies (in order) so that we can see the third in theaters. We also got around to watching Resident Evil, which we totally enjoyed. Difficult to figure out what was going on at first (neither of us had played the video game), but a good fun time afterwards. Hard to fit in mutants AND zombies, but they did it! (being sarcastic here, just wanted to verify that.) It was also kinda creepy when the fire alarm went off midway through. Someone apparently burnt pizza.

On a Discovery channel special on lions, we watched about five female lions take down some sort of buffalo. They started tearing at the skin (rather unsuccessfully), and Andrew cleverly said: "Wow, it's like leather." Pause. "Wait, it IS leather!"

So now that I've been in Madison for over a week, I thought it might be a good idea to update so I don't fall too far behind... We've had some adventures...including, last Friday, wandering around Madison, visiting the Gap (yay for cheap capris) & getting Andrew set up with a new bank. The weather has been mostly great -- quite hot!

Last weekend, we were in search of Farmer's Markets... we visited one kind of sketchy one in the Wal-Mart parking lot (which was fairly successful since we got tomato plants & lettuce plants), as well as the more established one that is usually "on the square" but this Sat. was down a few blocks since the Art on the Square had taken over. It was a very, very hot and sunny day, and getting in line with all the other slowly staggering about lookers was excruciating. So we got our tomatoes & broccoli & onions & basil & lettuce and got out of there! In the afternoon we took a walk to the park that's like 5 minutes from Andrew's place... the water was looking kinda yucky, but nice views of the lake.

Sunday we took a trip to Sun Prairie, thinking that perhaps the last of the strawberries would be waiting for us at this family farm we looked up online. No such luck. So we got a good look at real farm country -- lots of long roads and cornfields. Much of the dairy products we've been buying are actually from Sun Prairie. We went down their quaint downtown, which was quite dead on Sunday (as a sign proclaimed on one shop, Sunday is "for church & fishin' "). We realized that the Georgia O'Keeffe Memorial Ave did indeed have something to do with the town... a sign alerted us that O'Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie! On the way home, we stopped by a liquidator's, and I found Luna bars for 59 cents (which I'd been looking up online that morning) & horehound candy (which I never can find anywhere). So that was fun... in the evening we took our mango fried rice leftovers to a park, and ate as twilight came on.

Monday was a huge shopping day -- Andrew was off to the University in the morning to talk to a prof, and I stayed home to work on stuff after sleeping in. In the late afternoon we went to Woodman's to buy supplies for dinners for the rest of the week... took forever... Woodman's is the biggeset supermarket... but doesn't have very good organic produce (ie they haven't got much, not even organic apples). So we still had to supplement with Jenifer's market. But oh well. We were starving by the time we got home, so I did the appetizers/ I'm-going-to-faint-while-making-dinner-if-I-don't-eat-somethings (brie & pesto roll & cheddar & granny smiths). As an aside: Jenifer St. Market had THE BEST granny smiths I've ever tasted (and organic, too!!) Anyways, Andrew made his famous pesto, and all was well again.

Yesterday we were on a pretty good schedule, we were quite proud of ourselves. We headed off to the zoo in the afternoon -- saw a gi-normous Galapagos Tortoise (apparently they grow up to 4 feet in diameter, and can weigh hundreds of pounds), bears (black, grizzly, and polar -- all actually awake!), flamingos (I bet they're confused, what the f*&# are they doing in Wisconsin??!!), giraffes, an ostrich guarding her egg, and, best of all, five young lions! The lion cubs were born in Oct., were available to be seen in late April, and are now frolicking about in their own large playing area. The entire time we watched them, one or another was stalking an oblivious brother or sister, chasing one another along the rocks, or pouncing in a not-so-stealthy manner. Adorable! We realized how much smaller they were than adult lions, when we saw the female/ male pair. Huge! The seals & river otters were also active & funny -- the seals kept gurgling as if trying to get something out of their throats. It was good weather -- slightly drizzly but cooled down (thankfully).

For dinner, we had sushi night -- w/ mango, avocado, cucumber, and smoked salmon. Stuffed ourselves, as usual. And we were actually ready to settle in for a movie before it was dark out!

Movie watching lately... I'm catching up on zombie-genre movies, so I finally saw Shaun of the Dead. I LOVED the part where they're all pretending to be zombies to "fit in" and get through the crowd of dead. Hilarious. And all the fake outs, and the proper British manners that get in the way of surviving zombie attacks. And that the main character took so long to realize what was going on. Great! And for Merrie: Coldplay definitely was involved -- if you watch the TV clips they show after the attacks at the end of the movie, one includes a shot of Coldplay, and the name is even mentioned! (I guess the lead was a zombie-extra.)

Then last night we saw 28 Days Later, which we decided was just a rehashing of other zombie movies, namely Day of the Dead. The filming was so dark you could hardly tell what was going on... in a way that wasn't necessarily beneficial to the film (the whole oh-we-don't-know-what's-going-on-any-better-than-the-lead feeling can only work for so long). Calling it an infection instead of reanimation didn't really hold me... even one of the directors slipped by calling them "zombies or the infected" in a commentary clip of a deleted scene. And you never really get WHY the infected are so intent on going after other humans. Unlike zombies, they don't need human flesh to survive... and you'd think that "rage" could be directed against other targets as well. And how exactly do they survive at all, if we never see them eating or drinking? It just doesn't make much sense. And some of the infected, which supposedly have been running about for weeks, looked pretty damn healthy, not scrawny. Lots of similar stuff from the genre... like fortresses or protected areas run by soldiers & what do you do when a loved one turns into an infected & the issue of infecteds that look like children. And the ideas were old -- they struck me as pretty similar to Romero's Day of the Dead (the uninfected turning on one another, the threat of the women being subjected/ harassed under might-is-right, the question of who's more "human" (using infecteds to kill off unsavory uninfecteds, and filming the main character, Jim, in a similar manner to the infecteds when he's on a rampage in the final scenes in the house.)) We weren't terribly impressed... but it was entertaining while it lasted.

Also, we've been playing Scrabble -- I won the first night, and Andrew won the second. But I still maintain that his win was reliant upon my crappy letter selection (who gets four i's at once?? and w/ two u's?!) Yes... I take it too seriously.

Today there was a great op-ed piece by Sarah Vowell in the NYT -- here's a link. She's hilarious, and it doesn't hurt that I agree with her! http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/opinion/13vowell.html?th&emc=th

I'm now in Madison!!

But I'm gonna need to backtrack a bit with my bad updating record...

Before leaving Oregon, there were a few things that needed to be taken care of -- namely, taking care of alpacas & doing some last minute stuff with the family. Weds was my last big scrapbooking expedition. It was sad to pack everything up -- I hope Mer starts going down to Grammy's soon to take my place!

Thurs I helped Mum clean, and then we had an adventure up at Kingsley Lake. It was hot and sunny, but windy up at the lake, so we mainly just sat & snacked (I'd also brought a Chai Luna bar, I love that company). The lake was perfectly blue though, and I think Mom got a wild hair... because after we realized it would be an awfully goosebumpy experience to swim, we hit the old road up to Kingsley. This road really deserves some description: potholes and rocks everywhere, deep ruts from all the four-wheelers that are dug in so deep that a regular sized car could have the underside torn up. We bumped down this road for a few minutes, and luckily came upon the lower reservoir. I think it'd be cool to hike across the dike there, as it's now all blocked off from car use. We kept going, hoping to find Warren Lake. We went up gravel and dirt roads, taking every offshoot in the hope that it would be the old road to get to the lake. We found many logging areas & burn piles, a few impassable old roads, and a hiking trail (with candy stripe plants, very unusual looking, like candy canes with vertical stripes and little flowering parts along the curve). It was strange to find beer cans littering everywhere, even after driving on so many bad roads and finding such a supposedly remote area...

We never did find Warren Lake, and luckily Mom picked the right branches of the downhill trek, so we ended up getting home so Mer and I could go out for our beloved taco pizza at Pietro's. I think I've cracked how to make it, so that will have to be a cooking project this summer. We had orange soda, which you only need once a year, and lamented the changes made in the new "gaming area" or whatever since we were kids. The loss of the mechanical horse is really unacceptable.

Friday I job shadowed at the Whitman's, and in the evening we took a bbq -- complete with hormone & antibiotic & animal by-product free steak and corn on the cob. Mer and I wandered around Nottingham (not a Robin Hood delusion, we really have areas named Nottingham and Sherwood -- not to mention Little John) & tried to get as far across the river on rocks and sandbars as possible. It did look greener over there. On the way home we visited Linda, which was fun since I hadn't gotten to see her yet.

Sat. I took over alpaca duties, manning the store at the Whitman's & taking care of the creatures. A number of nice people came by & sedately fed the alpacas. Then, right over the time when Mer and I should have been eating lunch, this family from the Dalles pulled up. As you'll see, the fact that they came from the Dalles is rather important -- it explains a lot, as Mer and I thought. The family consisted of a grandmother with a smoker's cough, a teenage son with bushy hair, and two very active blond kids. They wanted to feed the alpacas, so we sat out there with them for about 40 minutes as the kids were indefatigable. They wanted to feed and pet every alpaca, it seemed, and then when they ran out, wanted more pellets. I didn't want to stand out there any longer, so I directed them toward the hay. I finally had to go back to homebase to help out another couple of visitors, so Mer had the arduous task of standing out there watching. Finally, the grandmother at least finished up, and returned to the store to cough on me and ask me to read price tags on things, since she didn't have her glasses on her. Eventually she walked out, hollering "thanks" and waiting for the kids in the car. Well the kids FINALLY came into the store, and wanted to know if the candy by the guestbook was free. So they had candy (dropping parts of wrappers on the floor in the process), and then like the mouse that's had a cookie, needed something to drink. So they asked for water, which I directed them toward, and then they wanted cups, and then of course they needed me to throw the cups away for them, and then they had to leave. It was rather, well, rude -- at least buy a magnet or something small after taking up that much of our time!! Geez.

That night we had an unhealthy dinner by my request -- fried chicken. And Mer and I went off for a drive on our own after feeding the alpacas -- we saw two sets of two deer (although I missed one of them, I'm taking Mer's word for it) while driving around eating laffy taffy and a york, the combination of which was nasty, in retrospect. Anyway, on the way back I saw something shiny moving in the dark -- definitely not the reflectors on the side of the road, but eyeshine from some animal. At first I thought perhaps a racoon or something, but as we got closer we realized it was a young dog -- and a German Shepherd at that! So we stopped the car, and Mer went after the dog, which actually ran by us again. Then I turned the jeep around to shine the headlights (because it was entirely dark by this time), but we never found the dog again. Mer and Tim even went to Tollbridge to warn the park supervisor that someone's dog might have gotten spooked by the fireworks & ran off. The supervisor was quite rude... who says "then don't" when someone starts off with "I hate to bother you, but" ??

Sunday morning me and Mer had alpaca duty, and then I had to finish getting ready to leave for the airport. We stopped by Arlene's on the way out of town, which was nice since I hadn't seen her yet. My flights were uneventful, but I've concluded that Phoenix is a horrible place to fly through. It was 112 degrees there, although a very nice dry heat, and they had very very limited food options that were both semi healthy and affordable. Sometimes I miss McDonald's -- at least if they had one there'd have been affordable salads! The salad I got cost over $4, and consisted of iceberg lettuce, shavings of red lettuce, bits of carrot, and two measly cucumber slices -- the romaine lettuce it claimed to contain was sparse at best, and the cherry tomatoes entirely nonexistent. Screw you, Pizza Hut! Who can't even manage to make a decent salad??!!

My only other complaint was on the second leg of the journey... The seatbelt sign was on nearly the entire flight, after the pilot initially estimated only 4-5 minutes of turbulence. The turbulence was barely noticeable, and an hour later when it went off, about half the plane started staggering toward the bathroom. Of course there are only two bathrooms on the plane for coach, so there was a line backed up about ten seats' length. A man sitting near the lavatory area urged me and another girl to go up to first class, and "start a revolution." I was tempted, but then you know they'll think you're a terrorist and detain your ass for God only knows how long. So I sat there in line, and after about five people had relieved their bladders, the f#*@ing sign went back on. Well we didn't sit down, probably because 1) we were already in line and needed, obviously, to use the facilities, and 2) because the pilot was an ass and probably wouldn't turn the sign off again until the engines were off. Needless to say, I noticed little to no turbulence while I was in the box they claim is a restroom -- and somehow I even irrigated my wisdom tooth hole (with water I brought in, of course, you don't want to drink the water they have on board in the lavatories).

Of course my luggage was about the last thing off the plane, so Andrew actually came in and found me at the baggage carousel long before I saw my distinctive purple bags come sliding by. We had a late night drive from Milwaukee to Madison, and then I got the grand tour of Andrew's spacious studio, which doesn't feel like a studio. The bathroom's all done up in turquoise, lime, and navy, and the living area/ kitchen area/ bedroom section is more oak/ beige/ red/ blue. Andrew wonders whether he'd be living in black and orange if he'd moved in around Halloween. He also says he'll need me to be here if he ever has friends over, or they'll think he's gay (yes, things really match around here that well. Plus Andrew is just tidy, which doesn't seem to be the norm for the male persuasion). After seeing the place, taking a bath, and having a snack, we didn't get to bed till around 4 am...

Naturally, we then slept in till at least noon, but there was nothing in the house to eat yet since Andrew had been too busy getting the place unpacked for me to do much shopping. Luckily he did get bread & my yogurt, so we had something before heading off for supplies. Our first stop was Walmart, where we loaded up on basics (can't really beat spices for 50 cents each). Then it was Cub's Foods, which we weren't impressed with, and after I found that they had no free range chicken or healthier meat options, I insisted that we leave. Finally found Jenifer Street Market, where I happily ordered organic ground beef, loaded up on brie, and hurried on out. We didn't have time to fix dinner before fireworks, but I did make up a snack plate of bread & crackers & blueberries & strawberries & brie (very red white and blue). So we had a little wine and cheese party while watching fireworks from the roof. So nice! Dinner was late -- spaghetti like how we made it at home (and the sauce from Walmart definitely needed some doctoring up).

Tuesday was more supply shopping... Andrew needed barstools for his breakfast bar, so we visited "The Stool Store." Yes, it's really called that. We settled on some wooden swivel chairs, and right across the road we located Woodman's, the large and elusive supermarket that my hosts at UW had brought me to way back in March. I couldn't remember the name, or find it listed in Google's yellow pages, so I was quite happy with the lucky find... the place is massive -- with the equivalent of about 5 aisles in a normal supermarket dedicated to ice cream. The equivalent of about 4 aisles goes to cheese, and the produce area is mind boggling. I allowed Andrew to get steak there, although I couldn't find organic, and we got some yummy ice cream that is apparently marketed to the Latino population (Fiesta chocolate taco). And of course we had to get cheesecurds!

We didn't get home till a little later than we anticipated... and didn't start dinner till about 8:30 pm. Since we were making enchiladas with homemade salsa and homemade tortilla chips, let's just say we didn't eat till around 11:30!! But it was yummy!

Yesterday Andrew was checking out car insurance, so I wandered over to a Salvation Army store -- found some random clothes (Gap like-new khaki beach pants for $1.50, a shirt for $2, and another shirt for $1), and some books. Andrew found a nice picture frame for the bathroom, and we were tempted to buy this Christian handbook for teens -- that claimed homosexuals will burn in hell, and that everyone should "stay clear" of the flames -- if only to burn the damn thing itself.

Afterwards we had to scout out kitchen utensils, as Andrew returned some to Bed Bath and Beyond and picked out more at Target. I was so tired of wandering around! Luckily I'd gotten some applesauce and bottled water to make me feel a little better while debating over what sort of grips Andrew really needs on a spatula (slotted or solid?), and what type of grilling device he might want (grill, electronic gadgetry, or skillet with ridged bottom?). ACK!

On the way home we stopped by Pier1 for little festive lights to put out on the patio, and I saw the canopies I need to decide on... they have them for about $20, in yellow, red, and green... trying to decide if I want red or green above my bed (which has green accents as well as pink/red flowers... hard choice).

Finally last night we cooked dinner at a decent hour. Andrew was in charge of the steaks, and I was all over the salad (I decided to add blueberries) and the corn on the cob. We felt uber grown up eating at the breakfast bar with the seat cushioned-stools and our wine glasses. So we finally settled down -- Andrew is always working on the task of unpacking and hanging things up on the walls -- and actually sat on the couch together for the first extended period to watch In Good Company! And decided that the couch is, indeed, comfortable.

This morning we heard the sound of children yelling and making odd noises -- we think there's some company next door perhaps specializing in treating mentally retarded children, as we've seen glimpses inside and Andrew has yet to investigate further. Maintenance got Andrew out of bed (I was already washing my face and brushing) to check on a few things. The explosive faucet that splashes water all over the counter was indeed missing a device, and now it apparently works like a normal faucet (thank God -- I have yet to use it this morning since Andrew's on pancake duty, and am actually looking forward to testing it out). The stove burner is supposedly fixed... we'll see.

So that's the whirlwind story of helping Andrew to set up his apartment!! Crazy times... we're finally getting settled enough to start enjoying local stuff, I think! Must find lakes & hiking trails, hopefully get into Chicago, etc.!