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!