Gone.

Screw this place, I'm outta here.

Left work early today, got my crap together, and now I'm going up north to the Traverse area. Be back tomorrow night.

Gonna enjoy some fall colors and some much needed R & R!

Maple roasted apples and hockey

First thing first: I know I might be thinking ahead, but the fact that I-70 is currently shut down in Colorado because of that wicked snowstorm has thoughts of snowboarding and winter fun careening down the powder-covered mountains in my head.  I should probably feel sorry for those people stranded in the snowstorm... Oh who am I kidding, I don't feel sorry for them! Anybody who is stuck in Colorado and has a PROBLEM with it can kiss my butt, I WISH I were stuck in that beautiful state... working lots and lots of snowplow overtime, so I can spend all my money on ski passes!

Anyway, back to the present. October is my favorite month. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love cooler weather and changing leaves and apples. APPLES! I'm apple-mad right now. Plus, I have this urge to cook. Now, I'm not reknowned for my cooking ability, but give me a recipe and I'll give you a meal. ;) With my apple-madness came the inspiration to cook up some Maple Roasted Apples tonite. Did I mention I made tortellini for dinner? LOL! Not exactly a complimentary pair, but I am a woman and can have ridiculous cravings. They turned out pretty good, but here are my comments: I used Fuji apples - it was all I had - but I think they might be better with more tart apples, like Granny Smith. I also added some nutmeg for subtle flavor. Overall, they're pretty darn good! One more mental note: When stealing cinnamon from my parent's house, make sure it's PURE, like the bottle says... and not mixed with sugar. Woops. So my Maple Apples might be a bit sweeter than they should be, but they're still mighty tasty and perfect for...

Watching hockey! I know, another mismatch - baked apples, tortellini, and hockey. This is why I am a bachelorette - so I can do ridiculous things like that and not care what anybody else thinks!

Oh, and so I can also do all of this while wearing only shorts and a bra. :P Hee hee!

That website I got the recipe from - the State of Michigan - has a lot of other delicious sounding dishes that I'll probably try out once I buy some groceries. Check it out!

Wings lost but that's ok. I love hockey. In fact, I am probably going to play again this winter. It's been two years since the women's hockey team I was on won the "Cup" - a mounted men's jock strap - and I found a great Adult Beginner's hockey program that sounds just what I need - it's not a team, but an actual class where you work on those fundamental skills that make you a good player. I can PLAY but during a game, it moves so quickly it is hard to work on technique (which I have none, hee hee).

Wilson kept me company this weekend and we had a romantic and wonderful time together. He was afraid of my hallway for some reason (??) and slept on the couch (we sound like a feuding married couple!) but we was good to snuggle with for a mid-day nap on Saturday. I love cider mills and Wilson loves being outside, so I took him up to Yates and we hiked along the river. He made friends with a pug, a pit bull, and some old blind mutt, and I just strolled along in my cowgirl shirt and cordouroys looking cute. ;)  I thought dogs were a good way to pick up guys, but apparently I was a good way for him to pick up other dogs! Hmmph!

The party Saturday night was... interesting. I'd rather not recap. It wasn't pretty.

Sunday was absolutely beautiful, and I had my typical dilemma - it was so nice outside, I couldn't decide what I wanted to do! It always comes down to: running, mountain biking, going for a motorcycle ride, or hiking. I wanted to see Jenna but she's a busy lass so we had to postpone, but she helped me narrow it down to "something on wheels". Motorized, or non? My Honda won over my Raleigh, so I put on my new leather jacket, my warm gloves, and hit the road on that beautiful, sunny, cool day!

I had grand plans - go up Rochester Road, take Orion Road to Lake Orion, then up to Oxford,head east to Romeo, and eventually take Mound Road back down and eventually make my way home. What really happened was that I was mildly cold because I don't have chaps, so I was going to head up Rochester... and didn't realize it was dirt road. I backtracked and went to Orion Rd, to downtown Lake Orion... and came home. It was still 60-70 miles, and it was BEAUTIFUL! I think Orion Rd. beats Dixboro as my favorite ride so far. I used to work in Oakland Township and forgot that road goes right by my old work. It's winding and hilly, the blue sky was pure and crisp, leaves just starting to change to orange, yellow, and red, the smell of leaves and wood burning, cool wind blowing through my hair... I am so glad I bought that motorcycle!

I am now working five 8 hour days instead of four 10 hour days... Gosh it doesn't seem like we get anything done. I'm not complaining - I'm burnt out. We busted ASH (hee hee, get it? Ash, as in ash trees with the ash borer... ok stupid forestry humor) all summer and I'm exhausted.

Enough for now. Guess I was feeling conversational with my computer tonite. :)

Here's some pictures. Enjoy.

Song that's in my head lately:

Ryan Adams - Touch, Feel and Lose

I knew I was never gonna talk to you tomorrow
And oh, the birds how they sing
If you were a bird could you sing me a song of sorrow
'Cause all I know from you is grief
But I never wanted to be your rolling train

I never wanted to be your dancin' shoes
I just wanted you to love me
I just wanted you to love me
Touch, feel & lose
And cry, cry, cry

I thought maybe I could be some kind of shelter
But oh, your storm how it raged
You know your kisses, they like lightnin' and thunder
And your smile is sweet and come down like rain

I never wanted to be your dancin' shoes
I just wanted you to love me
I just wanted you to love me
Touch, feel & lose
And cry, cry, cry

Leaves and Pumpkins!

With my allergies running rampant, I'm sitting here watching Wyatt Earp, chatting with my friend Tara online, and hanging out with my main man of my life, Wilson.

Yes, Wilson is my family's Scotty dog. But he's as good as it gets right now. ;)  Yeah, I just took him for the evening to give him a little vacation, and give me a little canine companionship so maybe I won't go out and get Munchkin (aka Darby) tomorrow. Having a puppy when leaf and snow seasons come up, with all that overtime and not being home a lot, would be very hard to do.

So now, instead of a puppy, I might buy a truck. Focus is getting to that point where I either need to fix some things, or get a new car. Toyota Tacoma or Chevy Silverado, 4x4 and extended cab, for those rugged Montana and Colorado roads when I go back out there!

Some guy's dad just bought Key Largo, a bar on Walled Lake, so they are having a big party tomorrow. My Novi boys and I are going to be there tomorrow to tear it up! Should be fun. Besides that, I plan on taking a scenic tour of the fall colors - hopefully on my motorcycle if the weather is kind. Michigan's travel website has a few good routes: Mackinaw City - Charlevoix - Petosky, or Jackson - Ann Arbor - Monroe, or Detroit - Algonac - Lake Orion - Port Huron.

My sister Linda and I have decided (more accurately: I ORDERED her, and she agreed) to go on a vacation some time after April next year. It's either going to be Alaska, Utah, or, if we both save our money diligently (not gonna happen), New Zealand. I told her she must go mountain biking in Moab and explore the slot canyons in Zion if she goes with me to Utah, hiking and camping in New Zealand, or watching grizzlies and getting lost in Denali if we go to Alaska - and she will love it. No ifs, ands, or buts.

For once, I don't think she minded me telling her what to do. ;)

Well, back to my movie and my man Wilson!

amazing discovery!

I discovered something fantastic today:

I can hook up my little-but-powerful speakers and subwoofer to my little dinky TV to get surround sound! So much sound out of a little TV!

This would have been nice to have when Matt, my friend from Virginia, visited me - we sat around drinking PBR and MGD while watching a bad French film, Le Femme Nikita, and we couldn't hear what they were saying and kept turning it up... but we realized how silly it was to turn it up, because we couldn't understand it anyway.  ;)

It was great to see him though, and after I went to Kevin's for his and Jeff's birthday celebration, I went with him and his friend to a party at some Fisheries grad students' condo... And they probably had at least 10 aquariums, ranging from full salt-water reefs, to lungfish from around to world, to an assortment of gars. We played flip cup with Labatt Blue Light, and I figured out that for the life of me, I just can't get even a mere BUZZ off of Light, just simply felt very FULL. At least there were fewer empty calories than I would have had otherwise! hee hee.

I ended up sleeping on Matt's friend's couch, in the company of two cats... which I am allergic to. Needless to say, it took a strong cup of coffee and some strong allergy pills to get me going the next morning.

Last night, I watched a show on the Discovery Channel called "Heart of a Lioness". It was about this lone lioness, whos entire pride had probably been killed by the locals when she was young. A lion's social structure is so important, that it traumatized her and caused her to act in a very strang way. She found a baby oryx - like an antelope - and the baby was so scared, it didn't run away. This can throw off a predator sometimes, when it doesn't run, it doesn't always trigger the predator's kill instinct... in this lioness' case, she started licking the baby... following the baby... She adopted the baby oryx! Which was all cute and all, but the baby couldn't feed from the lioness, and was too young to eat solid foods by itself. The lioness adopted the baby and cuddled it and followed it for over 2 weeks, and neither one of them ate. The locals tried to feed the lioness, but she wouldn't even eat the meat thrown to her. So this naturalist chic is driving along following lioness and oryx when suddenly, out of nowhere - GROWL! - A male lion comes out of the bushes and has the baby's throat in his mouth! The baby was still alive, but lioness was too starved and weak to do anything about it! She had to simply watch as "her" oryx was eaten. She even behaved as if a lion had just killed a real cub. It ends up she adopted 5 more oryxs before she disappeared - probably because she had the instinct to raise babies, but no means to do it. The look on the naturalist's face when the lion snatched up the baby was horrific! It was so sad, I could have cried if I was more girlie. :P

And one last thing before I hop in the shower and then watch Lost... MSN has an article on some good places to live to be out-of-doors. I'd live in any of these cities... except I have no idea how Grand Rapids, MI got on the same list as Missoula, MT and Laramie, WY!! Anybody wanna move with me?

Ok I lied, THIS is the last thing before I watch Lost... Looks like Montana and Wyoming got dumped on by a snowstorm! I remember when I was out there last year, Matt was visiting and we got our first accumulation on Sept. 18th, if I remember correctly... driving that 1 1/2 hrs between Yellowstone and Red Rocks was definitely a trip, with my Focus sliding all over the dirt road. Ahh, I miss it out there. There I go again... reminicing on the past. ;)

I was looking through some photos on my computer and found something funny that I didn't even know I had.

I'm going to be a bridesmaid in Donna's wedding... but at least I won't have to swat deer flies off of her like I did for Tara! ;)

Happy Birthday Kevin and Jeff!

Spending the weekend hanging with my random-adventure friend Matt and drinking enough Labatt Lite to last a life time. Oh, and the Lions just lost, of course.