Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear

Because we've been doing a bit of traveling, and good driving music normally accompanies long trips, I decided to compile a list from our iPod of the top 10 songs played while driving (thanks for the inspiration, LG)

"Maybe Sparrow" Neko Case

"Morse" Nightmares on Wax

"Campus" Vampire Weekend

"Absinthe Party and the Fly Honey Warehouse" Minus the Bear"

"No Sunlight" Death Cab For Cutie

"Another Night" Heavens

"Good People" Jack Johnson
"Fever" Bonobo

"Back in your Head" Tegan and Sara (Thanks, Graham, for gettin' us hooked!)

"Trees" Pulp

Anyway, we've been getting pretty stoked for Lindsay's next assignment in Eugene, OR. If asked why, it's probably because it's nothing like Tacoma. I should do a compare contrast of the two locales, but I'll save that for a later post...one where I'll have more time and have pent up a week or so's worth of sarcasm to spice it up a bit. But for now, we'll simply say that it's going to be nice to see green again, and be amongst (or closer to) some like-minded folks.

Last weekend/week was spent in Bend with our transplant crew of once-upon-a-time East Coasters. The Lord and Jedi were as hospitable as ever, inviting the dingy climbing crew back to their eclectic little farm in Alfalfa for some impromptu gardening, grilling, and hot-tubbin' fun. On our first day there, Mabel jumped the fence and waited for us in their driveway until we got home...she knew she was bad.

We cranked for multiple days at Smith Rock, and the temps ranged from scorched-Earth-hot to jacket and hat weather. We climbed hard, played hard, and then slept pretty hard too. Unfortunately, Lindsay's sleep pattern was a bit warped the first evening there, as she had just gotten off a 3-night, 12 hour/day, work week, and was firing on about 4 hours of sleep. A few adult beverages helped soothe teh loopy beast inside, though.

Now that we're back in Aromaland (aka Tacoma), we are focusing our attention on young Mabel. Today, she is spending her time at the Hound Hangout in town. In about an hour I'll be hearing from them to see if she successfully passed the initial "meet and greet" to gain her access to frequent visits. I have a sneaky suspicion she behaved.

To The East and Back Again!

Sorry for the delay, folks, but Lindsay and I haven't been very stationary over the past few weeks.
August 1st we spent some time over in Leavenworth climbing with our friend Emily who was out here for a few days.

The weekend of August 8th, we were back in VT for a great wedding. Our friends, Ted and Kristine, got hitched. The stay was all too brief, and the rain was all to present, but we did get to see a lot of friends which is always a treat. A couple of highlights from the trip: Our connecting flight from Philadelphia to Burlington was overbooked, so we offered up our seats in exchange for 2 free roundtrip tickets anywhere in the contigious US. We also stayed with Auntie Nicole, our great neighbor and dear friend in VT. Pizza at "Good Times", and sandwiches from the "Paisley Hippo" punctuated the eating side of things, and a return flight that was delayed for 3 hours in Philadelphia (again!). The wife became quite grumpy as a result...and I don't blame her one bit. We think that city and airport has it out for us.

This past weekend (August 15th-17th), we spent rafting up the Deschutes River in Oregon with our friends, Shea and Annie and some of folks we had met at their wedding, as well as some couples we had never met prior to this trip. (Link to photos from rafting trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/chrisduca34/RaftingOnTheDeschutesRiverAugust2008 )

Mabel stayed at the Cascade Pet Camp in Hood River for the few days that we were away, and according to her doggie report card (yes, each dog gets a report card upon their departure from camp!), she didn't like her stay one bit (we think she was a little homesick). Prior to her going to camp, she paid a little visit to her private pedicurist, Annie, where she hasd her nails examined and trimmed...a dogs life is quite rough.

The few days we spent on the river, the temperatures reached well into 100 degrees fahrenheit. I believe Saturday's temps topped out a whopping 110 degrees, with a breeze that was so warm it felt like a hair dryer was pointing at you from above. Needless-to-say, much time was spent hanging off the raft, or floating beside it in the river as we were swept down river by the strong current. Our campsite was pretty sweet, and I think had we floated further up the river, we probably wouldn't have found a site as large and as accomodating (an outhouse was there!). We were freaked out a couple of times while camping. First, Shea's sister-in-law spotted 2 black widow spiders in the outhouse, and then Annie decided to follow a deer path down river without telling anyone she was leaving. We thought was abducted, but she was just being curious.

In other news, there are some updates as to our next assignment, but I won't spoil any surprises until we are sure that we'll be there.

We're off in a few hours for a couple of days of rock climbing along the Tieton River in Eastern Washington...we'll post some pictures of that when we get back.

The countdown has begun...we only have 4 weeks left in Tacoma!