Autumn fun

I forgot to mention another reason why my weekend was so great:

It's cider mill season! I went to Parmenter's in Northville and picked up their awesome spiced donuts, apple cider, and cherry jalapeno salsa! That's one of the things that I missed most every time I moved out of state - the few weeks of apples apples apples!

I didn't do anything that was on my weekend wish-list, because I drove out to Cabelas on Saturday and Sunday for the Hunter Safety Class. I was the only older female, and the only adult without 12 year kids hanging off me! I did get to shoot a bow, but they only had a simulated rifle that you shot at a movie of deer on a big screen... which I did pretty well at! ;) I don't think I'll actually make it hunting this season, BUT...

There is a women's only firearms clinic at Multi-Lakes Conservation Association on October 15th for any of you ladies that want to try shooting a rifle or pistol! Here's the link for the "Women on Target" clinic. I'm excited!

So my wish list from last weekend... I'd do it this weekend, but I'm BUSY BUSY BUSY again! Kevin's birthday is the 1st, Jeff's is the 2nd... and they always have one hell of a party! Plus, I'm supposed to go to Cedar Point on Saturday...

I love fall! I am always so busy but it's so beautiful!

the good things in life

Another perfect evening, courtesy of the only good thing on Comcast: On Demand!

I can watch HBO's series "Deadwood" WHENEVER I WANT! Nothing like a sexy western lawman like Seth Bullock to keep me warm on a cool Friday night.

Add some gourmet pasta for dinner and I'm a happy camper. :)

My weekend wish-list is probably going to be modified quite a bit. I did end up taking a short hike with Wilson after taking him to the vet for an ear infection, but well I think I'm driving out to Cabela's in Dundee for a 2 day hunter safety class. Surprise! Yes I want to learn how to hunt, but my avenues for learning are limited to say the least. I might beg a guy from my old job to take me but I wish I had close friend that hunted! So that is going to take up all day both Saturday and Sunday. The plus is that I get to have another elk sandwich from their awesome deli!

I could always go out to Ann Arbor tonite to party with our no-longer-a-freshman friend Frosh (what do we call him now?!) and help get rid of 90 beers in beer pong... But all those empty calories! Hee hee!

Whenever I am stuck in traffic, I put on one of my favorite CDs and sing loudly to pass the time. I love it when I see other people singing, but especially men. If I ever find myself a single man that can handle me (ha ha ha!), I want him to be the type to sing in the car. Loudly. Enthusiastically. (And I don't mean to ghetto rap crap either!) So we can go on road trips and sound (and look) ridiculous together. And it would be great if he hunted, so he can show me how!! He has to own at least one pair of REAL boots and look good in Carhartts. And appreciate GOOD beer. And like spontaneous adventures. And Netflix. I'm addicted to Netflix.

Ok, now I just have to find him. ;)

thunderstorms

I'm sitting here with the lights off and the windows open, listening to the rain and thunder, watching a movie, and drinking the bestest summer beer in Michigan, Bell's Oberon.

What a fantastic evening!

The weather has turned a little cooler and the leaves are beginning to change, and seeing as fall is one of my top 4 favorite seasons (I love them all), it's inspiring me to do a lot of things I know I won't have time to do.

My weekend to-do/fantasy list:

- Take my digital camera with me EVERYWHERE. Take pictures of leaves changing, try to capture the flavor of pre-autumn in a photograph, for some reason everything seems so beautiful to me outside right now!

- Go for a long hike.

- Related to the hike: Either do that locally (Brighton? Bald Mountain? Somewhere new?) or go up north...

- Buy a leather jacket (FINALLY!) and hop on my motorcycle for a LONG ride - my longest is 1 1/2 hrs one way, so let's see where I can go!

- MOUNTAIN BIKE! I have to steal my parents tools and put on my clipless pedals that my buddy Dave hooked me up with, but this weather makes me wanna eat some dirt!

- Dog-nap my family's scotty dog Wilson for the weekend and take him with me for any adventures I get into... But he doesn't really fit on a motorcycle so I'll have to get creative.

Now back to my Bell's and my movie!

What my parents don't want to know...

Ok, so I'm not really a logger (I prefer the term "urban lumberchic), but this little article on MSN has supposedly the most dangerous jobs. The list is different from what I usually have heard, but they all say the same thing:

I love dangerous jobs, and I DON'T do it for the money. ;)

Sorry mom and dad. At least I have life insurance now! Hee hee!

Other news: Darby my fostered pup still hasn't been adopted yet. In another few weeks... if she's still around... hmmmm....

Got a windshield for my motorcycle. Just haven't had time to ride it!

Busy busy busy!

National Geographic photos!

I just have to share these links with you guys.

The first is a feature of NationalGeographic.com - their "Scenic Drive Guides to National Parks." Beautiful photographs of some of my favorite places in the United States. If I could, I would post a photo from the site, but I think technically that is a no-no. It's actually an advertisement, but I don't care!

The other is a photo of a liger - a lion/tiger hybrid. I've never seen a picture, but it's exactly what you would think of if you thought of putting a tiger and lion together - half a mane, lion's body, tiger stripes! And it's popular because of Napoleon Dynamite, or so they say.

All for now!

 

Puppy no more

After fostering Darby Coyote (aka Munchkin), the sweetest little shepherd girl, I decided not to keep her.

I SHOULD HAVE KEPT HER!

It was a tough call, but she had a few health problems I was concerned about, and she kept beating up my family's three little dogs. Looked like she was going to grow up to be an alpha female, but we were a bit worried she might hurt Tiny accidentally. She's just so young, it's hard to tell what kind of temperment and health problems she might have when she gets older. Gosh but she was the sweetest little thing. She was great in the car, and pretty good in her crate - only whined for a few minutes before quieting down. I think sometimes I bored her, especially when I was trying to put together my kitchen chairs and she kept stealing the screwdriver and anything else that was shiny. I brought her out to the park on Friday when I played horseshoes with my cityworker friends, and she was the best! She is a bit of a chicken so she didn't wander very far, but once she warmed up to the guys, she was the happiest little puppy and I could keep her off her leash without worrying about her.

I also know that having a dog would be a major hinderance to being a wildland firefighter in the future. Some places will allow dogs, and not all jobs travel as much as others... it would be do-able but challenging. For now, I had to give her back.

... But if she's not adopted out in a few weeks, I'm gonna take her back, as long as her health is better. No more worms! YUCK!

I even taught her how to sit and lie down in 5 minutes. She was so smart! And so pretty! It's lonely without her around here now. Granted, it was stressful and tiring trying to pottytrain her and deal with her endless puppy energy, but right now I miss having to take her out ever hour (only to have her end up peeing in the house anyway). She was a pain in the butt, but I loved her anyway! I mean, who doesn't appreciate unconditional puppy love? :)  She just followed me around and stared at her with her big brown eyes and tongue hanging out, watching me do dishes with such adoration, thinking I'm the most important person in the world when I am brushing my teeth... Why can't I find a man that treats me like that?! HA! :)

So here's lots of cute pictures. I hope Darby Coyote finds a great loving home! And if she doesn't... well I'm gonna get her back!

(photos are from my cell phone, that's why they're fuzzy)

 

My baby!

Got a pupper!

12 week old shepherd/spaniel mix, named Munchkin for now - but she won't be a munchkin for long! She already has big paws... and she's such a sweetie!

Need to think of a name!

Fastest trip to Colorado EVER

I packed the mini van and hit the road for that beautiful state called Colorado.

I got as far as Ann Arbor and bailed. As I was driving up 23, I thought about going north to the U.P. But I bailed on that idea when I got to I-96 and just went back to Royal Oak.

How lame is that?! But if I'm going out west, I might as well make a better trip out of it than this lame attempt. I want to see Montana, Wyoming, AND Colorado - if I'm going to one, I might as well go to them all.

I should have had this revelation BEFORE I started driving... but I was just so excited at the thought of being back there, I didn't really think it through.

So here are some pics from Ludington, and from Chicago. I think I'll just watch TV, build a bookcase, and go to bed early. Sounds like a decent labor day weekend to me!

Hmmph

I SHOULD be on the road right now, on my way to Buffalo, Wyoming. But I think my fire buddy out there got dispatched somewhere, since his cell phone isn't working. He might be on a fire, or even helping with hurricane clean-up. So I'm not going there.

Instead, I SHOULD be on my way out to Red Rock Lakes and Dillon, Montana to visit Howard, Marilyn, Jeff, Gillian; and watch those sexy cowboys in the rodeo; and tear it up for the Labor Day party. But because of the hurricance, gas prices are outrageous and I'm a little concerned about driving THAT far - about 32 hours. So I'm not going there.

Instead, I SHOULD be on my way right now to Fort Collins/Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park, to visit Jon, Scott, and Bill; and check out all those trees and plants I slaved away at planting, transplanting, raising, killing, and restoring; and finally climbing Longs Peak; and doing some bouldering and smelling the alpine air under that deep blue sky. But my mom is trying her hardest to bribe me to stay - promising to go furniture shopping with me, and go and find me a PUPPY this weekend! Plus, it's usually nuts in Rocky Mountain around Labor Day, and gas is more expensive there than in Montana. I miss it there so badly, though, and want to go, that I just MIGHT still head out there soon. I haven't made up my mind yet.

So instead, I am relaxing in my one armchair in my apartment, watching Gigantic, a documentary on They Might Be Giants, and putting off making the decision. If I don't think about it, I don't have to worry about it, right??

WHAT SHOULD I DO?!

Or, I might just go up to Copper Harbor. I haven't been there in years. Just need to get away!!!

The biggest reason I am hesitating going to Colorado is the fact that I am worried. No road trip is very good if there is that underlying concern about how much money you are spending, how much gas is going to be, if there will be shortages, etc etc. Hard to relax and enjoy yourself!

"If there's still ramblin' in the rambler let him go!" - Yonder Mountain String Band

Uh oh!

Oh dear.

My MOM started a blog. Read it, if you want the embarassing stuff about me and my family. I just KNOW it's not going to be pretty. ;)

LOVE YOU MOM! Happy (belated) birthday!

Ludington, my old sweet "home"

I got bored of messing around with my apartment this weekend, so I decided to do something spontaneous.

I drove 3 1/2 hrs to Ludington, went for a 2 hour hike and hung out for a bit, then drove home. In one day.

Yeah some people think that's weird... Well that's me. I get a whim, I run with it. It was such a great mini road trip, too! Beautiful weather. Ludington is one of my favorite state parks in the lower peninsula.

Coincidentally, I also "lived" there one summer during college. Remember when I said I couldn't decide what to do with my Electrofishing Manual? I used to shock fishies when I worked out of the Ludington Biological Station with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

So the only person that might appreciate these pictures would be Steve. It was sortof our first "living together" experience... if you count sleeping in the back of a big, red, old Ford truck, or if you count sleeping in the tiniest, cheapest motel 15 miles outside of Ludington.

I'll post my "good" pictures of Ludington, and from my Harry Potter Chicago weekend, when I feel like it. Right now, here's a photo tribute to those good ol' days of 10 days traveling around the entire state, living from motel to motel... and then making that drive back to our parents houses for our 4 day weekends.

The Alpine Motel - just big enough for a bed! Steve and I used to call it "Home Sweet Home"

 
The Ludington Biological Station. We played with chemicals, electroshock backpacks, boats, and sea lamprey.
We cruised around the state in our big trucks... yeah, I know how to use a winch.

Moving, painting, packing

I'm trying to pack up my stuff, and finally getting rid of 24 years of rat-pack collecting. Bye bye, collection of stuffed cows. ;)

BUT I can say this - how many people do YOU know that have to decide on what to do with their "Principles and Techniques of Electrofishing" manual?

(My decision: Recycle the manual... but keep the instructional CD, just in case!)

New "hobby"

I have a new hobby:

Selling my stuff on ebay and Amazon.com. (Click the link to see what I'm selling)

Yes, in light of the fact that I feel like I've spent my money frivolously lately, and that I am moving into an apartment on Wednesday, I've decided to "simplify" my life - and recover some of my assets in the process.

For example, I sold an old book about environmental issues recently for about $9. Today, I sold A Perfect Circle, eMotive for $8. Yeah, I love A Perfect Circle but that album just didn't do it for me. So, buh-bye CD! Off to New Jersey with you!

Fact: I am a pack rat.

But for all this crap I sell, I still manage to buy something else off of eBay. Currently trying to get a greatly reduced luggage bag for my motorcycle, along with a windshield. So in essense, I'm trading in random crap for motorcycle crap.

And this time, I really am moving (how many times have I said that?! Let's see... working on Mt. Mansfield in Vermont... working in Baxter State Park in Maine... Working at a ski resort in Virginia... working for the city of Aspen... oh, and my 1 day excursion to South Carolina for fire... and then my flat I moved into and out of just last week... yeah, I "really" move a lot, huh? <sarcasm>). I got an apartment in Royal Oak. Nothing fancy, not like these beautiful condo/apartments around Novi, but it suits my needs. PLUS  - no pet fees! Wooo hooo! I can't wait to adopt my new best friend soon. :)

A long meandering journey back to... where I was in the first place?!

I started moving into my flat on Sunday, but I was a bit irked when Steve, who had offered to help me, did not return my phone calls all day.

Ironically, by blowing me off, he made my life a lot easier when I started REPACKING my stuff into my car today. Thank you for ignoring me, Steve! :)

Yeah, I just can't live upstairs from a chain smoker. Even from just having my stuff there for 2 days, it smelled of smoke. Yuck. Oh well, guess I'll just keep fishing...

In the meantime, I have a gazillion books on my plate. Beth turned me on to the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton, and I've read all of them except the newest one, Incubus Dreams. 12 books in 3 months? Addictive, like the bite of a sexy vampire. Hee hee.

What next?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Savage Summit: True Stories of the First Five Women who Climbed K2

Kick Start: Cosmic Biker Babe's Guide to Life and Changing the Planet

Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills

Proficient Motorcycling

Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains

How Heavy is the Mountain

And taking a short break from Looking for Alaska

Yes, I love to read. ;) That, and watch as many movies from Netflix as possible! Currently on my plate: Mean Creek and Apocalypse Now

While I'm on a roll, here are a few dogs I would love to have, if I could only FIND A DECENT PLACE TO LIVE!

 

(If these pictures disappear, it hopefully means they have been adopted out! Click on the pictures to link to their adoption pages)

Oh, and I just thought of something so cool: you could call a mastiff and labrador mixed dog a MASTADOR! So how cool is it that Steve's dog Bear is a Mastador!

Here is a picture of the mighty mastador, Bear:

 

Ever see a dog like this? A greyhound shepherd mix! It just doesn't look right... cute, but like a sickly, skinny shepherd alien dog!

ARGH!

I'm still crossing my fingers that they might bust out a fire at Red Rock Lakes and call me back from intermittent status. Yeah, right.

So, I moved. Err... well, not exactly. I got the keys to a flat this weekend in Ferndale. Thing is, is that I'm freaking out about it. The dude downstairs is a chain smoker and all that crap floats up to my flat, and smoke makes me SICK! That, and I am a bit anxious about moving out by myself to that area. I've lived by myself before and love it... but that was in smaller towns with low crime, and there wasn't some random DUDE living downstairs. Not sure if I'm just having jitters or if I should really back out of this deal. I guess I'll decide tomorrow.

Had a great evening hanging out with Steve and Jenna last night! Long islands, breadsticks, and fantastic conversation. They really cheered me up, since I've been in just a horrible mood for the past... 3 months? ;)

What to do, what to do...

The near domestication of the wild Lisa

Me tying into the tree

So I bought a house. Sortof.

I signed the papers and, pending a satisfactory inspection, the house would be mine. I was on my way to domestic bliss and the American dream!

Yeah, right.

The house needed everything replaced - electrical, plumbing, furnace, standing water in the basement, just to name a few things. On top of everything, when the inspector measured the height of the upstairs, it wasn't tall enough to technically qualify as "living space" - making the house only 650 sq. ft. instead of 900! Needless to say, I backed out of that offer. They promptly relisted it and still have it advertised at 1000 sq. ft. (which we measured and it wasn't right in the first place) and are trying to rip somebody off. But it's not gonna be me!

So now, my cut-off date for buying a house is here - I gave myself until August 1st before I just said screw it and went for a rental. I don't know that I would live in a house long enough to make it worth while at this point - still wanna get back out west in the next couple years!

Who was I kidding anyway? I've always lived the life less ordinary, and I think it says something that my friends were more surprised that I was trying to buy a house, than the fact that I've moved 3 times with less than 2 weeks notice over the last 3 years! Me buying a house and settling down just wasn't meant to be; you can't domesticate a wild vixen like myself!

Hopefully in the next week I'll be moved out into a nice flat or house and get a dog and bide my time climbing trees until I'm ready to go back out west!

Speaking of climbing trees, here are some pictures of me and Joe at that tree climbing class a few weeks ago.

I did a pub crawl in Livonia last night with Jess and a bunch of friends, 100 people crammed into 2 big yellow school busses. We drank. A lot. ;)

Now, time to ride my motorcycle!

Joe in the tree

Me doing a limb walk

 

Lance

If I were to say I had a role model, it would be Lance Armstrong. Yep, he won his 7th (and last) Tour de France. What a bad-ass.

In semi-related news, my buddy Dave from the fire academy is a bad ass also. He used to be a bike mechanic for an internationally competitive cycling team and women's Tour de France or something like that. He did fire last year but went back into the cycling industry. I jokingly asked him to hook me up with some clipless pedals... Lo and behold, I had a strange package in the mail this week. Surprise! Dave pulled through. I'll get ya' back some time, fire buddy!

Oh, and I bought a house. But I'm too busy to write more right now. Just another typical day in the life of me. ;)

This journal brought to you by...

Buy my art. I am working on trying to get some more photographs for sale. If you're nice, you can ask me to lower the price for you. Click on the picture to see my "store"!

 

free to ride my machine!

There is NOTHING like riding on a motorcycle down Pontiac Trail at night, with no traffic at all to disrupt the flow or ruin the mood. Only the hypnotic rumble of my bike; the wind blowing at my face; the occassional bug smacking into my sunglasses; and the surreal sensation of being far from home - just me and my bike, racing down the winding road through the darkness. If I was uncertain before, I'm addicted now. Ride free! ;)