Lexington, Lemmings, and Leeloo!

Ten Sleep

2011-08-16T12:38:00.001-04:00

Leaving Ten Sleep was hard to do. The limestone canyon yawns for over 10 miles, just asking- BEGGING- to be climbed. And it’s ALL bolted… and the approach trails are heavenly… and the climbing reminds us of the Red. Seriously, we climbed 21 routes in 2.5 days. My hands are crying but the rest of me is smiling.

Ten Sleep is named because it is the midpoint between 2 Native American trading outposts. It was 10 days/nights travel from both locations.

Our first stop in town was at Dirty Sally’s. It is run by a wonderful Veteran named Katherine. If you call her Sally, she charges you a $1 “ignorance fee”! I approve! The town of Ten Sleep actually looks like a town straight from a western movie… wooden buildings… the works. Dirty Sally’s even has old-fashioned saloon doors! We got our climbing book and some ice cream (oh yeah! You have to get ice cream from the soda fountain in the back!)

So a little about the book: it is insane. A great guide to the walls with fantastic pictures and listings of routes, everything you need is in the book, but finding it might take a few minutes! There is a lot of additional information on space, the powers of good and evil, and African dictators… routes don’t get stars; they get pictures of kitties, sexy ladies, or a nationalistic symbol. Route descriptions are also… unique. It is easy to get lost in this book. Double entendres also come easily when referring to it:
We are only here for 2 days, so we’re going to do as many kitties and porno shots as possible!
Let’s go climb “Hooray for Boobies”, it has nice deep pockets you can slide your hands into…
…you get the idea!

It is cold in the morning, but warms up quickly. You spend the day chasing shade. After enjoying 2 days traipsing up 10c routes with 15 bolts and the anchors, or stemming while facing out into the valley, or bushwacking across scree in direct sunlight when there was no trail where the book thought one would be… we were ready for town. Lunch at the “Crazy Woman” is a must. Then we said good-bye to our new friends and headed out of town.

The prairies and fields between Ten Sleep and Yosemite are booooooooooorrrrrrrrrriiiiiiinnnnngggggg. But Leeloo is enjoying the chance to sleep after running about the canyon, and I must say that a lack of movement is particularly joyful for me too. Except that I ate too much. Food baby demands a nap.

on the road again

2011-08-09T21:48:00.001-04:00

So, I wanted to journal our travels and, true to blonde form, it took me over a week to remember this old blog we have… PERFECT! So I hereby resurrect the blog of bygone misadventures!

Recapping July would take forever, so too bad, I’m skipping it. Maybe if I get bored I’ll return to it, but chances of that are pretty darn slim. This first post is going to be a little long, so I have sectioned it for those seeking brevity.

GETTING THERE:

Augustine adventures, here we go! So we headed out to Rushmore, expecting to split the drive in half. Made it to Kansas City driving through temps as high as 115*F (too hot even in the car with the AC blasting)… then headed out to much cooler temps in the morning. We got a late start since I was feeling under the weather and slept in. This current headache has lasted a week… and was migraine level for 3 of those days. To say it has affected the trip would be an understatement, but when have I ever let anything stop me.  Anywho, the Missouri river is REALLY flooded, and it appears that it has been for some time as trees are dying. Where it had receded there were dead crops and grass. Water lapped the sides of the highway for quite a while, and we were rerouted twice away from the river, adding over 2 hours to our drive. I don’t think there was an area where we went the speed limit for 8 hours! Back woods Missouri is very quaint though!

So we got into Mt. Rushmore very late. It was 1230 in the morning in KY time, 1030pm locally. I am a little sad we missed the Corn Palace and Wall Drug, but hey, you can’t have everything in life, right?!

RUSHMORE!

Too tired to find a campsite we slept in the car at the National Forest adjacent to Rushmore. In the morning we set up camp, discovered water, and set out to do some climbing (smart with a migraine, don’t you think?!?). One small issue: these are granite pillars, with camouflaged bolts placed at varying intervals. Sometimes the routes were bolted safely like in the Red, other times they were more like western routes where the first bolt is 20ft up and the anchors are at 30 ft… So identifying routes can be difficult. Add to that the fact that the last guidebook put out was published in 1995 (there are at least twice as many routes now), contains very limited drawn pictures of faces, and mostly contains crudely drawn topo maps of pillars (so an oval could represent either a tall cylindrical pillar or one that is conical and short). Poor descriptions added to the problem, and most of the time locals point out which routes are good and which to avoid, and help visitors orient themselves. Sturgis motorcycle week was about to start, so there were no locals climbing. It is no surprise then, that we started one fin over from where we planned and accidentally got on a 10a when we thought we were on a 7 (non-climbers read here the route was much harder than expected, but still in our range)… oops! The rest of the day was, thankfully, delightful and uneventful.

We met the most wonderful people camping at the Forest Service area at Wrinkled Rock: several teachers, and several other people making the most of unemployment. But the place was pretty much ours, Sturgis scared everyone else away. We learned from a local that a new book is coming out sometime in the next year with all the new routes in it, pictures, etc. After talking with the rangers, we found out that Leeloo was welcome on leash in many more of the climbing areas than expected, and we extended our stay to get more of the classics in.

Rushmore is granite. Large grained, rough, chossy (bits break off when you climb), full of greasy quartz crystals, odd hand-holds rock that is completely different than sandstone. Most of the routes were slabby, and chewed up our shoes. And our rope. Oops. Worth it! But we missed our chance to climb at the needles with a local we had become friends with; he wanted to climb on our rest/travel day.

Said hi to the president’s heads, then headed out for Devils Tower. It has been raining here almost every evening. You can watch the clouds come in really quickly, rain for 10 minutes or so, then blow away. It is all very different than at home. Weather underground forecasted rain all day for the past 2 days. Good thing it was wrong!

DEVILS TOWER

Got up early, headed to the tower, registered, and started our approach. Curtis bought a small book of the climbs out there, decent route drawings, but no descriptions. Very little information was in the book about the approaches or descents… do you sense a pattern forming here? I do! So we started our approach, left the paved tourist trail, and started picking out the trail through the talus field. We got all the way up to the tower (note, NEVER mention your opinion of talus slopes until you know you are done with them or Murphy’s law will bite you in the butt), and found that we were not near our climb. We were near some 5.11 cracks (non-climbers read here: very difficult). Found out later that we were on the correct approach for the “easy” route we had planned, but if you don’t know your way around the base of Devils Tower then you wouldn’t be able to navigate the ins and outs of the slabby and slightly slick columns. So BACK down the talus slope we went… and picked our way through the boulders and bity stones to the other side of the route, then headed BACK up the talus field. Got out the rope about 120 feet below the start of the climb and improvised a 5.5 climb up to the start of the route. Approaching the route took as long as climbing it!

The Park Service recognizes the draw that climbers are to the tourists. Many of the benches and viewing areas are designed to be shady and in prime view of the climbing routes. We were on display like animals in the zoo!

“Durrance” is considered one of the top 50 climbs in North America, and it reaches the top of the tower, so this route was a no-brainer for us. We had looked at some other routes, just in case Durrance was busy, as it usually is. Thankfully, there was only a short wait while the only other party that morning finished the first pitch. The first pitch involves going up a loose and leaning column broken into 3 pieces. Each piece weighs about 250 tons, so it is still stable, but the top one has been known to shift a little every now and again. There are warnings not to place gear between it and the main tower, and not to push off of both rocks at the same time! Welcome to off-width climbing! The second pitch was 2 cracks a bit more than shoulder width apart that widened to off-width for the last 30 feet. My favorite pitches came next: one with a traverse around a bulge that is called “walking the plank”. Then some delightful crack climbing that was fun and quick. After that an awkward chimney crack that my hips and shoulders kept getting caught in. Finally, you traverse around under some roofs and jump (yes, I said jump) over a drop-off (don’t look down), then follow a wide ledge system (the meadows) around the tower until you find a chimney to scramble up that is easy climbing (they say class 3, Curt agreed with me it needed protection) to the top.

There is a meadow at the top, gorgeous views at least 50 miles in all directions, and lots of flying and biting ants. 4 double rope rappels down. And an easy walk-off through the talus slope to the paved walkway. Where all the bikers wanted to talk to us about the climb, and the top, and how crazy we were… they had watched us rappel. Got some beta on other climbing areas from a ranger (we have met more rangers on this trip who climb…), and headed back to the campsite to check on one sleeping and happy puppy dog.

Who knew I could arm-bar and chickenwing with the best of them? Certainly not me!

ONWARD:

After all our adventures, we are tired of trying to find routes in areas we are unfamiliar with. It takes time. It takes a good guidebook. And most importantly, it takes patience. Patience we want to apply to studying for Curt’s board exam. So we are changing plans from backpacking and climbing trad at Wind River, to climbing sport at Ten Sleep Canyon. Although it is raining, the guidebook might be the most interesting reading material we have… I have been laughing all afternoon!

good weekends and great friends!

2009-07-21T15:34:00.000-04:00

Since we have returned, life has abruptly returned to “normal”. The lawn is growing richly and densely… the food is flowing from the CSA (veggies and eggs and chickens, oh my!), curt has been grocery shopping… I have been working in Indianapolis and Louisville quite a bit.

It has been good.

The current work schedule has me off for 3 weekends this summer (but with many, many Sundays in addition to that). One of them was this past weekend. So curt and I had to make the most of it: imagine… 2 days off with the hubby! WHOOPIE! Curt pulled some major strings at work, gave up his 3 day weekend to move the call schedule, and vwalah! Suddenly the future was wide open!

We took off on a 3.5 hr cruise south into the middle of Tennessee. The Obed is a lovely river with some nice cliffs on it. We got in after midnight Friday night (there’s a homestead there that lets you camp on their property. It is really quite nice there . On Saturday we climbed some of the easier sport routes; it is all nice sandstone like the red river gorge. Ever since I started getting ready for the Slovakia trip I have been leading more sport routes (instead of just cleaning up after curt). I’m getting my lead head back and it feels good.

The nice thing about the Obed is that when you’re done climbing you can jump into the river at this awesome swimming hole. About a year and a half ago we were there and got Leeloo to jump into the water with us, and ever since then she has not liked the water…. Wonder why, it was only October when she jumped in! so she found some other dogs to play with on the shore while we cleaned up with the fishes.

Sunday we were really sore (really, really sore), so we decided to try our hands at the trad climbing there. I lead an infrequently climbed 5.6 (soft and fuzzy route!) in my new shoes and had a blast (before my new shoes, my previous view of trad climbing was closer to “yelch!” ). We walked a little further down the trail and found a famous trad route called alpine dihedral. It is 2 pitches (it is so tall that the rope isn’t long enough to go to the top and get back down, so you have to stop halfway, have the other climber join you, and then continue up the wall to the top.) This is a 5.8 climb which is at the edge of Curt’s comfort zone for trad… and he climbed it like a pro! It lived up to the fame… it was a wonderful, open climb… just a joy the whole way up… and the VIEWS! YOWZA!

And when we got down, Leeloo and tipsy (one of the dogs who lives at the campground and likes to tag along to the crag…. He made a good choice with us, as he got cookies whenever Leeloo did, which happens frequently enough to be worthwhile on these trips) were very happy to see us. Took another quick dip and headed home… and slept like the dead… I love my bed. I LOVE sleeping in my bed. It is so comfy 

After a couple more days in Indianapolis, I came home excited to see LORI AND BRIAN!!!!!! WOOT! They were driving by on their way from one family to another and we haven’t seen them in YEARS! I miss having them in my life. They are a breath of fresh air and just a joy to talk to… and play Euker with! No one knows how to play in Kentucky. No one. We have only played once since we left Lansing. It was great night and Lori and I beat the pants off Curt and Brian twice! Hehehe he *snort* hehe… No, really, Lori beat the pants off them and I happily went along for the ride. They are great friends that remind me about what is important in life. They are good for my soul, and live entirely too far away.

The other thing that happened last month was that Carrie came to visit!!! We did EVERYTHING while she was here: pet expensive racehorses at the track, hike in the gorge with the dogs, found a poisonous snake when both dogs were off-leash… went to the bars and danced all night at pride… made fun of the saddlebred horse museum, ate out a whole heaping lot and saw a vineyard… and of course introduced carrie to the look of disgust when she tasted bourbon at a tour! Hehehe. We even found the Kentucky ren fest and listened to baudy stories of seafaring weenies while drinking hard cider. I need more weekends like this!

Since then, I have been up in Indianapolis almost non-stop and we got a third weekend away in Tennessee. This time we headed down to the Devil’s racetrack which is right off of 75. we had to stay in a campground, but it was a nice one with trees and shade and grass. Saturday we put on our packs and hiked out to the wall… and missed the turn-off and had to bushwack back down the mountain… and found the stream… and spent about another hour looking for the turn-off… and then found it around 3pm that day! We did a multi-pitch climb and called it a day as all 3 of us were exhausted! After some really good food we were out for the night… we went back and climbed a few routes the next day, drove home, and I took off for Indianapolis again.

In other news, we did get to see harry potter this week!

Hiking and Scrambling and Eating, oh my! aka: the rest of the Slovakia trip!

2009-06-05T15:34:00.001-04:00

Our train ride to Poprad from Bratislava was uneventful. The scenery was gorgeous and the hills grew as we traveled farther east. We caught a commuter train deep into the High Tatras as a steady rain fell. Naturally, this meant that there wasn't that much of the Tatras to see, as it was covered in clouds.

So, the original plan was to get a bus ride to Podbanske so that we could hike a path called the Tatranska Magistrala across the tallest mountain range in Slovakia. In the summer this bus runs 3 times a day. In the second week of May, it doesn't.

Plan B: take a bus or a train into the High Tatras to a town near our first night's stay. This worked well, but due to set- backs, we didn't get into town until around 5:30 pm. The hiking information office was closed, and we couldn't start hiking without a map (and who would want to, in the rain), so we got a room for the night with a plan to continue on the Magistrala in the morning, once we had our map.

That night, we discovered the best bar ever... The hostel manager, cook, and their friend were all just hanging out in this bar decorated with several boar skins, small stuffed rodents, and more Antlers than you could shake a stick at. We don’t speak Slovak, they don’t speak English, so we communicated in broken German that we all learned waaay back in high school (I see no potential problem with this… do you?). These kindly, and already tipsy, gentlemen decided it was their obligation to teach us about Slovakian liquor! (You can imagine how much fun our German conversation was, as it became increasingly drunken as the night went on) … and I became increasingly aware that the friend guy was hitting on me…

So... In the morning we went to the Forestry Information Center and learned that the Magistrala trail was closed until June 17th. So the rain and trouble with the Bus schedule was Providence!

Plan C: Day hike to a wonderful waterfall above tree line and less than 1 Km (1/2 mile) from the Polish border, gourmet lunch in tourist central around a beautiful alpine lake, then hike up to a chalet for the night! The High Tatras are 6- 8000 feet tall and very similar to the White Mountains but they are much younger and have more dirt. So I suppose we shouldn't have been surprised that the trails were closed due to snow... In fact, we rather enjoyed post-holing through the snow (there is not nearly enough snow in Kentucky) on our way to the waterfall and up the Chalet. We even took a trip further up a pass as far as the trails were open to get an amazing view of the valley below and Slovensky Raj on the other side. We “skied” down the trail until we were post-holing again. There’s a lot to see in these mountains, but we were too early. We’ll just have to go back sometime…

From there we headed back to Poprad to catch a bus for Slovensky Raj. There is a direct bus. We knew there should be one. But the “helpful” little lady behind the informacie counter gave us one with a connection. Which we tried to take; instead of listening to our guts and applying ourselves to the foreign bus schedules with funny little symbols. Oops. Lesson learned. Second lesson: pay attention and don’t fall asleep on the bus! You might miss your stop and get off 10miles from where you wanted to be… In an urban suburb stop nowhere near interesting… but Providence struck again, and we found that there was a bus that went from the stop we were stranded at all the way to where we were going! I kid you not! No sweat! We stocked up on Kofola (have I mentioned we LOVE this stuff?) and hiked out to find a hostel.

And find a hostel we did! A little piece of heaven on earth! The girl working the front desk spoke (what in Slovakia is considered) impeccable English, there were real mattresses on the beds (have we mentioned that in other hotels the mattresses are made of 3 cushions with particleboard sandwiching some leettle springs like old Studebaker cushions: one for your head and shoulders, one under the butt, and the last to get the gangly end), and the food was fantastic! We also got to watch tv from bed in our room! In SPANISH! Well, we watched a little of House, MD in Slovak then switched to the “international news” which was in Spanish. Then Friends started in Spanish… very weird…

In the morning we set out to hike the beautiful gorges of Slovensky Raj. Of all the outdoorsy things we did, this may have been my favorite! Those who know my childhood stomping grounds know my love of the Polarbear Caves in New Hampshire, or Mahoosic Notch or the Beehive Mountain trail in Maine. All the platforms and narrow areas to squeeze through and metal added to the rock to make it easier… this is of the same ilk, only on CRACK! There are 8 gorges in the park and the trails are one way heading uphill. We managed to cover enough ground to hike 2 of the gorges and found some lovely scenery and views along the way. We had some lovely views of the High Tatras, capped in clouds and lost in thought. Then we happened into some old ruins of a monastery! We explored around the ruins, enjoying the signage (actually in English!) describing how it had started early in the 1000’s and had been used until it was ordered destroyed and abandoned sometime in the 1400’s! Very cool stuff to walk around and peer into their cellars and kitchens… oh, so while climbing the second gorge we passed a nun! Major props to the nun in her blue summer habit (read here full length dress and veil that went down to her waist) hiking up what we considered a fun clamor, but definitely to be done in PANTS… and she was making GOOD time too!

We sped back to the hostel for a last, wonderful lunch of Slovakian fare (this was the only place where I trusted the English enough to determine that the potato latkes were gluten free- and OHHH SOOO TASTY!!!!) The best part about Czech and Slovakia is that the traditional foods all involve cream sauces NOT thickened with flour… yummmm. I’ve been craving cream sauces since we got back and since I have been traveling for work and haven’t been out to the store yet in any real capacity, it means Indian and Thai foods that are rich and delicious… but back to Slovakia… delicious and decadent cream sauces. So glad I don’t eat kosher, because this is some FABULOUS eats!

We got the direct bus back to Poprad, and took a night train back to Praha. Night train left at 720pm and arrived in Praha at 4am (groan!). We had 3 conductors rotate through while on the train, so they kept entering our compartment (imagine a slightly run-down and aged version of the compartments on the Hogwarts express [complete with red pleather seat covers] if you haven’t ridden second class on a European train!) to check our ticket. This meant getting up every hour roughly and handing them our tickets AGAIN. By around 230 they figured it out and stopped bothering us. But what we didn’t expect were the police. We had seen LOTS of police both in the cities and on public transport all through our trip. Their presence is visible and much more pervasive than in the US, but we had never had any reason to give them any more than a passing thought. They were just that friendly police ociffer… I’m not as think as you drunk I am… you know, someone else’s problem but not ours… WELL. Here’s the audio (at least my memory of it) of events as they unfolded:

-Whoosh! Slam! BROINNNNNG! (those were the sounds of the door being opened more forcefully than necessary and the lights being turned on. The conductors were at least kind enough not to turn the lights on….)

-Squeek, Squeek, Squeek (me rubbing my eyes)

-“ZBRZSKTRISKA BRZRTISTAZBRTITSKY DRZBRIATSKA!” (police officer trying to communicate briskly and authoritatively with us… as if that hadn’t been established by turning the very bright light)

-“Prosim, English… oder Deutsch?” (me, requesting politely a language I might possibly understand)

-“NO!”

-Curt hands the little man our train tickets in his half-asleep state. (this is what he has done every time we’ve been woken up on this ride and it had always worked before…)

-“NO!” the little man hands the tickets back

-grind grind grind (cogs turning in little man’s head) “passport.”

-“OH!” (duh, why didn’t we think of that…) rumble rumble (we get out and hand him our passports. He procedes to look at them and punch our id codes into his little handheld electronic doo-hicky thing)

-*silence*

-*ominous silence*

-I blearily blink a few times, trying to clear my head and wake up enough in my sleep-deprived state for a conversation I know I can’t understand in Czech when well rested…

-clomp clomp clomp (2 other police officers come over to see what is taking our little man so long and does he need back-up?)

brzasejrqntbkfasdiotrjt ska (whispers between police officers)

-slink slink slink (other officers moving away)

-flip, flip, grind grind grind (officer flipping through our passport stamps looking for our stamp of entry [which he can’t find, mind you, because the idiots at customs in Amsterdam stamped it over the 30 other stamps opposite the India visa and it is all a blur there now] and thinking very hard.)

-ffft, ffft (officer fingering his handcuffs with the caress of a lover, contemplating how much fun it would be to arrest us, but not worth all the paperwork??? This is pure speculation, but HONESTLY, he was starting to freak me out a little)

-“Next Apache!” (I have no idea how that is spelled, but that’s what it sounds like and it means “here you go” in Czech)

-STOMP stomp (as he moves to the next compartment). Whoosh! Slam! Broinnng!

So THAT was exciting… and harmless… THANK GOODNESS! And led to much quiet contemplation about the police and our desire for security and how that might differ given the political upheaval in these countries vs. the US… and how the huge numbers of police may or may not be comforting to all the czeck people in the way that traffic cops may or may not be comforting in the US…blah, blah, blah, did I mention he was fingering his HANDCUFFS! So, when we were returning to the US, I asked the nice lady behind the *very tall* (woot!, go height advantage!) customs desk to stamp a *different* page, she LAUGHED at me and went right on ahead and stamped it over all the other stamps again anyway, and I sighed, because no one is going to try and arrest me on the other side of the gate in the airport… and if they had wanted to, at least they probably would have been able to speak english…

Anywho, back in Praha, we checked back into the clown and bard, slept until 8 or 9 in the morning (mmmm) and got up to tour the jewish district on a cloudy overcast day. There are about 8 museums in old temples and you can’t take any pictures… but the best part is that in the one working temple there is supposed to be a GOLEM that lives in the rafters. He’s made out of clay from the river by one of the old rabbi’s (whose gravestone can be seen in the graveyard… part of the museum tour) of the temple and he is supposed to protect it. COOL! I WANT A LITTLE GOLEM TO PROTECT MY HOUSE! Well, I wasn’t willing to buy one of the little overpriced clay golems they had for sale (most were made in china anyway…) so I am still trying to decide if a Batman or Spiderman action figurine would be equal to the task… No, I’d better hold out for wolverine. He’s the best American equivalent for non-Jewish households…

The Jewish museums are a MUST if you are going to Prague, though. Seriously. It is incredibly moving (and depressing) to see all the history there. And a cloudy, overcast, drippy day sets the mood for sadness and contemplation like none-other. I don’t really have words for all the thoughts in my head in relation to that day, but yowza… just go if you ever get the chance…

Our last night in town we ate dinner at the lesbian Mecca in Prague. Then we headed to the bar for one last shot of absinth (which we had avoided since our first encounter of not-tasty-ness) and the bartender actually spoke English and taught us a better way of drinking it (it involves a sugar cube and a metal spoon and lots of FIRE!). this is a much improved beverage now….

And had a fairly uneventful flight home. So that was the second half of our trip! TADA! Our lawn was up to my waist when we arrived in our driveway, and Leeloo is still a little stuck to my side. Poor girl. I’m ready to go back! pictures to follow soon!

a little czech

2009-05-24T11:16:00.002-04:00

so, i promise to put up more about our trip... but before i get to work on that, let's have a little lesson in czech. you know, that stuff that every american should know...

english: czech or slovak, whichever we used more... phonetic for happiness!

please: prosim pro.seem (like a rolled spanish r, but only one tick)
thankyou: dakujem dya.ku.yem
ladie's: zeny zh(like pleasure)... zhe.nee
tea: caj "chai"
beer: pivo yes, pi.vo!

way: cesta tse.sta
old: jizni yizh.nee
rocks: skaly skall.eee
corner/arete: hrana that one is pretty much like it looks!
on the west side: zapadni za.paud.nee
on the northwest side: severozapadni se.ver.o.za.paud.nee
face: stena stey.nuh

since we've returned i have barely been home, i've been working so much. but curt found this video of other people climbing in the czech republic and i got to watch it last night. it is so true to what curt and i felt out there... here are a few of my favorite quotes:

take your shoes off so you can feel the grain of sand beneath your feet... this place is definitely the scariest place i have ever climbed... with no chalk and little protection, all of the talismans you carry against the dangers of climbing are left behind and what is left is you and the rock.... it's really quite adventurous. half the time you don't know where you're going... probably one of the best pitches of rock climbing i've ever done... i think you're supposed to place knots here, except for the fact that i don't know how to place knots... do i wish every place in the world were like this? hell, no!... major props to the homies climbing here in eastern europe.... the amazing thing about this area is, once you top out, you are in this wide open expanse. it's really inspiring.... it's really meaningful to travel halfway around the world and have the common ground of climbing.

that said, we were very careful about the routes we chose to do... and there you have my first happy reliving of the rock-climbing... and we only got one really good day of climbing in!

beautiful bratislava

2009-05-09T15:58:00.002-04:00

okay, so apparently typing while buzzed is a bad idea in that i don't explain things well and i can't type... oops! important things that were missing from the last post... did i forget to mention that the climbing book is in czeck? so when we got out to the rocks we were trying to decipher the little drawings and line them up with giant pillars based off of a little chicken scratch english and tiny pictures with czeck writing! so much fun!

absinthe update: i was "drunk" ALL NIGHT. I would wake up, think "yup, still not normal" and go back to bed. made for very interesting dreams. also, if you are going to drink absinthe, add LOTS of sugar. we put in 2 cubes and stirred for a good 20 minutes and that improved things greatly :)

but on to more important topics!

we are LOVING bratislava! sean picked us up from the busstop and we went home to the 6th floor flat to SHOWER and do LAUNDRY!!!! eep! anne got home and we all went out for PIZZA. my bestest friends in the whole wide world found me GLUTEN FREE PIZZA in the foreign lands of bratislava and it was SOOOOOO TASTY! honestly, it was a superthin crust with yummy toppings and everything! from there we went to visit friends and eat fruit salad. and tried slovakian wine and sodas.... good night with good people!

friday started with a bang! we had polenta pancakes and BACON and chai and lots of fruit. fantastic bacony bits. then it was off to vienna! we visited the graveyard and the musician's graves and the fabulous church there and toured around the market where we ate all manner of fabulous things from thai food and sushi to candied cumquats to lychee soda and both vianeese and italian coffees... yum yum yum... so we are again eating our way through the country we are in.

vienna was beautiful and all, but home was calling and we were beat so we came back and had a bbq with SCALLOPS AND SHRIMPIES and raosted marshmallows and bananas. oh! and vinea, a grape soda that is very wine-like. yum! the weather has been fantastic here with ne'er a cloud in the sky!

oh! oh! on the train back, we got to watch the countryside and it was sooo pretty! and there was a windmill farm! and these kids who were travelling were playing that game where you name things under a theme while clapping your hands and they were great fun! they were doing european capitals and got into an arguement about istambul... it is IN europe but is not a european capital! i only wish i was so fluent in another language that i could have a conversation like that... i am also going to refer to soccer as "american soccer" from now on!

today was busy with devin castle in the morning which was wonderful! it is a castle ruin with lots of great views of the danube and an archeological museum and beautiful walks by sculptures with fields of queen anne's lace behind us...

ate lunch at a grill that made wonderful kolbassa and drank kofala on tap. it is a dark soda made with the water left over from decaffinating coffee... it is not as sweet as most soda, and tastes a little like dr. pepper and is WONDERFUL stuff that packs a kick!

on the way home we walked through old town, enjoying the crazy statues and beautiful sights, and climbed st. michael's gate with weaponry museum, saw a reproduced pharmacy from several hundred years ago, stopped off at a few art galleries (and more coffee of course...) and then up to bratislava castle to walk the grounds, which also has wonderful views. this castle is under major reconstruction now, so we couldn't get inside.

we made it to the mall to see everyone and their dogs and enjoy all the sexy underwear shops... no really, we went to see the movie startrek which was awesome! the movie wasfun, the assigned seats were plush and comfy, the screen was huge, and you can buy wine and beer!

cabbage soup for dinner has left me a little gassy, but it was soo tasty and worth it! and i haven't gassed anyone out yet, so so far, so good! one more day here, and then we head out for the high tatras and slovensky raj (slovakian paradise). the only problem is, i don't want to leave!

love!

chesky raj

2009-05-06T17:21:00.002-04:00

climbing in the czech republick is AWESOME! we started by taking a 2 hour busride up to cesky raj (czeck paradise) and asked the lovely lady at the info desk (who spoke english) about getting from jacin to the national park... she replied that we were already IN bohemian paradice, and where would we like to go specifically... so was got out hte map and dutifully got the bus schedule. the we headed over to the climbing store where we bought a book on climbing in the area. the helpful little man there told us the best places to go, helpfully explained that the bolts there (metal peices in the wall) were spaced 5-15 mters apart (yowza!), and that the sandstone was very soft, so no chalk or nuts (metal trad gear) in the rock, if you please.... yeah, yeah, yeah...

2 hours later we were hiking to the hostal. no such luck, they are not open for tourist season yet. so we hiked to the petrovsky skale (the pinnicles) and tried to find the routes the little man recommended. found some and realized that there are no bolts if you can place gear (to try and preserve the rock)... and that meant maybe one bolt if it was below a 5.10... so to climb something reasonable meant throwing trad gear in the wall... but no trad gear allowed... only rope knots! headed out to ponder this and find a place to sleep. hiked about 5km looking for a hostel and found a hotel room around 930pm.

in the morning we returned to the wall, climbed a friggin' 5.10 called "emporer's hat" to the top of a pinnicle (AWESOME view with lots of tourists taking our picture), and enjoyed being about as close as you can get to god without falling off a small roacky perch... curt estimates the top to be about 21 square feet...with commanding views...

clibed some other suff, placing rope instead of metal in the wall. "this knot is not a nut". the sandstone was so soft that we walked on sand on the ground, sand crumbled into our palms when we climbed, and i lost a foothold and scraped my shin on what felt like sandpaper! no wonder no metal!

we had a great time, and hiked 7km out to jicin this morning in the rain. the countryside is beautiful!

back in prague for the night where we are enjoying the buzz from our first absinthe... can accurately tell you that absinthe = drunk + happy!

tomorrow we head out for bratislava to see annie and sean! oh boy! we are leaving REALLY EARLY!!!! so now, i think, it is time for bed! hope you all are well!

PRAHA, CZ

2009-05-04T03:10:00.002-04:00

we are safe and sound in Prague (Praha here)... it is absolutely georgeous! will add pics later! the old architecture is astounding, the former communist housing block where we are staying particularly mind numbing, and the food is suprisingly fantastic! i was a little scared!

for all those who know us, YES, we are consuming many fantastic and weird foods that are oh so tasty... and full of eggs, cabbage, strange meats foreign to our digestive tracts, and other gas producing items useful for propelling us up and down hills!

yesterday we hit the castle, many other bohemian landmarks, saw cz period dancing and art exhibits, and really enjoyed a stroll down by the river. this city does it right! and, had we been awake, it even has a great night life. recession, prague laughs at you! hahahahahahaha. that and the fact that we went over 36hours with no sleep. zombie tourists! waahoo!

on another note, the keyboards here are easily navigated, the facebook webpage is very funny looking in chesky, and in trying to find english we have both changed our pages to pirate! my status was update 2 grains of sand ago! hehehe

off to rockclimb in Jic(h)in at Cesky raj (pronounced chesky rai- means czech paradise) for the next few days... that and find out what the locals eat for breakfast! see yas!

and we're off!

2009-05-02T10:54:00.003-04:00

so it is derby weekend... and we have left the state! for some reason, horseracing seems to be lost on us!

so instead, we are in michigan with the kids. haveing a tumble before our flight to slovakia. the bags are packed, the climbing gear is sorted and stowed, the backpacking gear is downsized (amazing how little you need when you aren't sleeping in a tent!), and most importantly, the *CAREPACKAGE* is finished for annie and sean. deet nestled in plastic far far away from the peanut-butter chocolates i spent yesterday dipping.

so my stress level has plummetted in the last 12 hours! AND my sleep schedule is soooo screwy right now i think i am subsisting on caffeine and sugar, but that will only help my jet lag, right?! AND, curt hasn't killed or disowned me for being a tad on the short side lately... a fact he passes off as "well, you haven't even been home, so how could I?" hmmm. there's some truth to that!

so, we will be gone for 2 weeks. we will have shady e-mail access during that time. we will not have phone access. we will not be speaking english even! should be exciting! i can't wait!

i will update if we get the chance, but don't hold your breath!

love!

all shiny and new!

2009-01-11T12:49:00.007-05:00

The Garage picture I promised! Isn’t it gorgeous! Amazing, how getting that one house issue out of the way changed my whole perception of our house and the neighborhood… I feel like I got an extreme make-over!

Actually, there have been a lot of changes around here lately… I went from 6 days a week at work back down to 4 and already feel a renewed sense of calm and anti-craziness settling on me. I keep taking deep breaths and realizing that my stress level is not as high as I expect it to be…

Christmas and New Years were wonderful this year! We did not make it back to New England again (boohoo), but we had a wonderful time making the most of what we did have! We went up to MI to visit the Dyer clan again, and had a wonderful time monging and unwrapping. Ashley went to the climbing gym with us for the first time and showed the big kids how it's done. It was a most wonderful trip. Leeloo discovered how to open presents! On New Year's we went out to see the movie MILK, you know, a date... at the theatre. Great movie, a must see.

We had to replace the transmission in Annie, our 2003 Corolla. The repair had to wait because of the costs of the garage. Grr. And after doing that, the battery died. Not that we are complaining about that, it did last 80,000 miles and was original to the car. So, while we waited for it to be installed, we drove a couple of the other cars that were on the lot around… and found this nice little 2001 corolla with only 60,000 miles on it….

And Curt’s car needed a lot of wear and tear replacement parts (tires, struts, brakes…)…

So we traded it in and got a new-to-us car! A new car! She is so pretty! We’ve named her Carina. She is pretty basic- no cruise control, we have to roll our windows and manually lock the doors. But she is in excellent shape and will be a more practical car than the rapidly aging Saturn. It has been raining like none other here, so the picture is a little dank, despite our spirits!

For Christmas this year, Curt and I got tickets to Wicked in Louisville. We headed out there today and it was awesome! We haven’t been to a show since we moved to Kentucky… we really needed this date. When we got back we reconnected with our friend Erin, who’s been traveling a lot lately like me. We had sushi. SUSHI. YUMMY SUSHI….

I think I am in heaven now. Pardon me while I ooze.

a long time gone

2008-12-03T12:02:00.026-05:00

oops, so i haven't posted in a while...
so much has happened. in no particular order here are some of the high-lights :)

we got rid of the rotten, foundationless, structurally unsound thing mascarading as our garage, and replaced it with a lovely new, structurally sound, foundation clad garage of joy. it makes me soooo happy. never mind the fact that we went for a loan to cover everything, and then the market crashed and we only got half of what we asked for. we'd already started building so we finished the project. We did have to remove a tree in the process because the center was rotten and the loss of the roots was too much for it. As the directions it could fall involved taking out power to the neighborhood, takingout power to the house, falling on the new garage, or taking out the house... we decided to safely take it down before any of these things happened...
and i just realized we don't have a finished garage pic yet... will get that up soon (and you all know what soon means when I say it...)

CARRIE! finally got to see carrie and meet the clyde man. he is a ham and Leeloo loved the company. We also got to meet Carrie's boyfriend adam and hang out in Pennsylvania. Sooo nice to have friends in far away places... even if it is a really loooong drive for sushi and indian food... and leeloo wonders if this sharing thing is all it is cracked up to be...

MOMMY! mom came to visit on her way out to her fabulous new condo in sunny arizona! she moved around her whole life to line up with my one day off (read here work has been up to 6 days a week here and when it wasn't i was in jury duty) because SHE LOOOOOOVES ME! and for once nothing in our house broke while she was here... 'course, that means that the transmission in her van needed replacing before the next leg of her journey and her stay got extended (whopee for me! sad for car and wallet, boo) but we did have a fabulous day at the toyota plant (a little piece of walt disney world in rural kentucky... like the peter pan ride, only the cars are flying and you drive around in a little trolley). mom and dave got to see a little more when they weren't fretting about the van (so proud of them, i am a natural fretter, which is better than being a natural fritter...mmmm, fritters).

DADDY! dad and candy came down for a visit and see the new house. And what fun! we toured around all the must-sees: the red-river, the chocolate factory down the street from us, getting lost on the streets of lexington.

Thanksgiving! went to see the dyer clan in michigan and eat til bursting such wonderful things as gluten free cornbread stuffing and turkey and all kinds of yummy beverages... the kids all played kennel and fort. we went rock-climbing at the old gym and stuffed ourselves silly at zimmerman's roadhouse. lots of time to relax and rub the belly:)

whirl of a week

2008-09-09T14:03:00.003-04:00

what an awesome week we've had!

it all started with drinking liberally 2 weeks ago... had some of the greatest conversations there to date and met lots of cool people. but especially one of them...we found a new friend at drinking liberally and she is fabulous! she has wine nights and likes to do out-doorsy things and is spiritually in touch with herself and smart and has no filters to what comes out of her mouth... PERFECT! and her schedule is about as crazy as curt and mine are, so no worries there! and she's also fairly new in town, so we can go check out town together...

so we went to wine night and met her fabulous friends

and then we bbqed on our new back patio and got to know each other... and curt got really drunk... it was hilarious! tra la la

i had such a good weekend... even though i worked both days... i got to see my old friends up at florence and curt cleaned the whole house (except for the bathrooms which i had already tackled) and i have been social and life is FABOO. i have the greatest husband ever... EVER EVER EVER!

curt and i have joined the uk fall into fitness challenge which means that we are trying to do some exercise-like activity 4 days a week. so far so good. we're starting to do yoga again at home, and yesterday evening at the gym 2 poeple doing a piece on the climbing wall for the school newspaper asked curt and i to have our pictures taken while climbing... we're posterchildren for the climbing wall, who knew?! i'll see if i can get a copy of the pics to post. so we both are starting to feel better physically, too.

now if only i could get my work-life to be as good as my social and home life... because i have transferred hospitals i have lost my e-mail account, lost my 401K and health/insurance, and even my electronic abilityto punch into work. so much fun! there have also been problems with my state licensures that i have to work out on my time off... ah well. life can't be all fun!

curt is enjoying work as well, he is trying to get into good study habits, is leading some meds students, is still working on traumatic brain injury, and is looking for a clinical study to help out with for the year.

hope all of you are enjoying yourselves there in the real world... or at least having as much fun as us.

laboring very hard at having fun!

2008-09-02T12:28:00.004-04:00

oh, so much to report! our anniversary was wonderful, curt bought me flowers (daisies) and we had a lovely dinner at home after i got home from work. nice, quiet, relaxing evening which is what the drs ordered.

for curt's birthday we went to visit carrie at her new digs. AWESOME weekend! leeloo got to meet her cuzzin clyde. they got along wonderfully, and it is a good thing they are both adopted because by the end of the weekend clyde was humping leeloo like there was no tomorrow! they played and played and PLAAAAYYYED and played... leeloo had the time of her life! so did clyde. and it was ever so nice to see carrie again! she lives too far away.

so i started my new job traveling and doing relief work, and so far so good.

this last weekend curt and i both had 3 days off for laborday, so we packed up and headed out to big south fork at the ky/tenn boarder. did 6 and a hlaf miles in that day with leeloo sporting her backpack happily along. walked through lots and lots of poison ivy... camped by a lovely stream, and got up the next morning to continue on. we put our old socks on as we had a lot of wet stream crossings ahead, and started off on a 17mile day! saw an owl, some black beavers, and a rattlesnake. cooled off halfway with a dip in the big south fork itself where, much to our suprise (and most likely hers as well), leeloo went swimming! with a current and everything! so was all had a grand splash before hiking out of the gorge and onto the plateau. got some lovely views and set up camp near a scenic overlook on the john muir trail. that's when we sat down and looked at our legs. we were covered in ticks! hundreds of 'em! so, we started scraping them off as we let our poor wet feet dry off. when we took off our socks, we noticed that we both had a bad rash on our ankles and calves... you guessed it! poison ivy! seems the river helped to spread those oils around! and we had continued the deed while removing those pesky ticks...

the next morning we were off again, with thick morning fog that turned into a humid day like the one before. after a lovely shower we headed home with our dirty dog...

and stopped at a most cursed mcdonalds on the way home! they messed up our order (we ordered twice before the manager came over), the manager had to fix it, the salad only had about 10 pieces of lettuce in it, then the large sweet tea lost it's lid and splattered all over my lap in the car... filling the cup-holders and soaking the seat and my clothes (and the frenchfries). so my salad tasted like sweet tea...

but all in all, it was a fabulous weekend! and we had thai food for dinner when we got home. YUM!

headcramp

2008-08-05T15:02:00.002-04:00

the dreaded migraines have returned...

i still don't have my schedule for august yet. the reason for this... corporate american veterinary medicine does not have the job locally that they promised me. they have some part-time work, and some travelling to ohio, indiana, and louisville, etc as needed to fill a full-time position. kvatch.

so, i can continue to work with them, not gain a clientelle and not work on developing my infrastructure here; i can burn this bridge by looking for another job; or i can actually take up that underwater basketweaving profession i have so actively dreamed of for so long.

i have applied for my indiana and ohio licenses.

in other news, our garage is still standing. things have been a littleon hold as we hold our heads and try to make the spinning stop.

curt and i saw a great drag show here in town last week... it was so much fun to have a night out!
and curt loves his residency. he was on call this weekend and things seem to have gone very well.

and this week is the boone county fair... the one year anniversary to my first introduction to being a southerner! add in curt's birthday and our anniversary, and visiting carrie in pa, and there is a lot of sunshine ahead to look forward to!

i'm baaaaaaack!

2008-07-07T10:20:00.002-04:00

so, i tried to blog... honest... but blogger wouldn't let me in. now it will. whatever. so be it.

so, anyway, what's happened?

both of my parents came to visit (at different times) and we had a blast... several trips to the red, hit the chocolate museum, miguel's pizza, the horse park, got lost ALL over lexington... bbq, lots of hugs, all sorts of important stuff like that. so much more to do here when it's warm out!

CURT SURVIVED INTERN YEAR! his last month was the worst because he was on blue trauma surgery. so he would work a 30hr+ shift once every 3 days. he had no sleep scedule. and every time he was home and awake (rare), he would see helicopters headed to the hospital and cringe because he knew he'd be taking care of whoever was in the copter soon. ahh, the drama of a level one trauma center. now he sees them and comments on how he is NOT at the hospital. he is going through the post-traumatic sleep-deprived stress syndrome that i went through in vet school. it is nice to see him emerge on the other side. i missed him.

that said, we had a lovely weekend together! we were supposed to go camping, but it was too rainy (measure of this is if we are willing to have leeloo sleeping in the bag wth us after the mud and rain of the day. answer this time: HECK, NO!) so, we stayed home and bummed around, hit the 4th of july in town (we haven't been out in public for a while)- it seems so much less organized than in small town north andover... went out for italian... YES! gluten-free italian! HEEHEEHEEHAW*snort* giggle giggle.... wasn't bad. wasn't great either, but the idea of pasta in a restaurant was too much and i had to. celiacs is friggin' well known now.

went climbing on saturday (the old fall-back). went with our good buddy jay to climb some of the classic routes at the red. we only climb them about once a year because they are pumpy and difficult, and i used to have no problem with them but now they make me sore... i used to be in such good shape.

then, oooohhh, then! curt and i went on a DATE! a real, bonified, dressed up, go out and do something date! we went to see the local bellydancers at their annual show. some of it was actually bellydancing! my schedule hasn't let me check out the belly scene here, but the only classes they offer are in tribal... so i have been a little dubious. for good reason. but i am not really willing yet to drive to cincinn for a troupe, so i suppose i should engage more here. and, like i said, some of it was actually bellydancing! and some of it i wasn't nearly drugged or drunk enough to understand.

so, all in all, it has been good here. there have been some stressful and sad things, the "tragic death" at work, work in general, losing the air conditioning in the company car i drive... that sort of thing... but everything is on the up and up. little dirty birds have finally given me some timeframe for work... and then my gas bill will go waaaaaaaay waaaaaaaay waaaaaaay down. like, a couple extra hundred a month! i'm looking forward to setting up a social network here, which should happen once i work within a half-hour of where i live and have time in the evenings:) more on that when it actually happens...

mwah!

the grand canyon was... GRAND

2008-04-28T06:44:00.012-04:00

it is so hard to wrap my finger and my thoughts around this trip... but here's a go.

i went to the grand canyon in high school on a girl scout trip. we had wanted to do a camping trip below the rim. so we started planning, but we weren't allowed to take a troup of 3 girls. so after doubling the size ofour troup, the backpacking was out as none of them knew how. so the trip was very touristy and not what i had wanted.

THIS was my dream grand canyon trip. something i was not prepared for a decade or so ago...

mom picked us up at the airport with the exciting news of a new condo! we spent a wonderful night at the rim and she dropped us off at the trailhead. first warning you are in for an adventure... when the description of the trail is "the new trail a crazy old miner made when the old native american trails washed out." second clue... when the directions to find the trailhead are: go a mile past the outlook and look for a no parking sign. this trail (the new hance trail down red canyon) was amazing. curt and i got lost twice and it was like grand canyon desert meets rockslides in the white mountains... the drop-offs were incredible! we made it down to the colorado in about 6 hours and set up camp on a dune (i know, i cringed too, but there is one dune set aside for camping and the others are ecologically sound).

the real issue with the grand canyon is that it is one mile deep and 10 miles across. this means that the perspective you get from the top, the middle, and the bottom are all completely different. and to make it more interesting, each individual tributary further amplifies the canyon with their own lead-ins. so... if you start down from one of the tributaries and end up at the colorado, you cannot see the actual top from where you came down. it is too far back. it is a maddening trick of perception similar to, but more intense than the false summits experienced when climbing mountains.

the next day we went up to a plateau about 1000ft above the colorado to a trail called the tonto trail and headed west to hance creek. it was freezing above the rim, but it got into the high 90's every day down at this elevation. so spring was in full swing. all the plants were flowering... yucca, cacti, desert rose... EVERYTHING! desert flowers are such a contradiction in terms that it is constantly startling and brilliant. finding the creeks running is an added benefit... and you know you're getting close when you see green cottonwoods. color perception is weird in the canyon. the first day we looked at so much red rock that when i looked at my skin (slathered in as much sunblock as it could hold), it looked blue! so these cottonwoods were GREEN. we camped in a box canyon with a fabulous waterfall and the sounds of frogs.

from hance creek we left the tonto trail for a day and went over horseshoe plateau. we got to see a spring (tainted with especially heavy levels of arsnic), and found an old mineshaft. well, we're crazy, so we got out our headlamps and headed in... wow. mines of moria has a whole new meaning now. man-made holes are frightening. 200years is not a very long time when you think of rock formations, and it wasn't long before the heebie-geebies set in... but we found a couple of branchings, saw the old iron rail and enjoyed what we could with our feeble light. can't wait to look online and see what we can find out about the depths of this mine! from the debris pile, it looks like it was a copper mine.

continueing to the top of the plateau, we could see other mines that were started, as well as the remains of their old camphouse and tin can trashheap. very cool. we had heard from a park ranger when we were planning the trip that there was a cave on top of the plateau and we set off to find it. we were not disappointed! the cave of domes, which we later saw from our campsight on the other side of the plateau, is literally on the side of the plateau, and goes in far enough for us to find a caver's box (sign in and out if you want to go caving there) and has some great features in the rock. there is apparently some graffitti from the 1800's but our headlamps were not strong enough to find it. in fact, only one was strong enough to navigate by at all, and i was taking pictures with the flash in order to see what was in front of me! needless to say, we could not explore too far without the caving gear necessary, but boy was it ever an awesome sight! made doubly strong by eerging from the cave to views of the grand canyon... some cosmic sense of humor that was!

we rejoined the tonto trail and followed a level path westward towards the more touristy area of the canyon. this course gave us amazing views as we wound in and out of tributary canyons and got to see slit canyons, box canyons, and astounding drop-offs as well as some amazing sandstone features! the rocks change depending on how deep in the canyon you are and it is common to see petrified shells and such in several of the layers...

in our free time we followed the creek beds in several areas. at this time of year, it was easy to find springs and areas where the streams come up above the ground for a while... loads of tadples, frogs, and other creatures we associate with water (even mosquitoes) having a lovely time... and every night our camp was somewhere completely different. we found antlers and deer jawbones, and lots of feces (deer and small mammal) everywhere we explored... and there were TONS of lizards.

our last night was the only dry campsite we had, and so we loaded up on water at a spring a couple miles from boulder creek and hauled 12 liters around the dry cremation creak to a camping spot out on the plateau. this was the only night we were not sheltered from the wind. for some unknown reason, i did not expect it to be as severely windy as it was. which is really silly if you think about it, as there are channels to funnel the wind, and the wind is responsable for many of the features that make the canyon so extraordinary... so. it was windy the last night, but the view was INCREDIBLE. and because no one wants to haul heavy water around, the trail was barely used and sometimes difficult and fun to follow. we also got some solitude in the best sense of the word. we thought there would be fewer people than there were, but due to the season and the easy availability of water, we found 10-15 people camping near us every night the first 3 nights! from the afternoon of the 4th day to the evening of the 5th day, we saw noone. amazing.

the last day we had 4 liters of water each (what was recommended, but nearly twice as much as we needed) when weset out. after 1.5-2 miles of well travelled trail from dayhikers staying below the rim, we hit the tip-off point, where the south kaibab trail intersects the tonto trail... 4.4 miles from the top and 2.5 miles from the colorado. we resisted the urge to see the river again, wanting to be sure there was enough time to catch our bus... and headed out of the canyon. the south kaibab is one of the most heavily used trails... even used by donkeys to restock phantom ranch at the river... so it was an abrupt change from what we had been doing. there was trail maintainance and stone edging nearly the entire way up, and we could walk side by side when there was no traffic. i was sad not to meet a donkey team, but there was plenty of fresh feces to go around... and we flew up the trail, admiring the areas of cobblestone and built-up embankment made by the ccc boys during the depression. this is one of the rare trails that goes up the butt, instead of following a tributary, so the views were a consistant inspiration and the breeze very welcome. we got to the top before 11am, having made such good time that we were laughing and giggling about it. we had time to shower and refresh and embiggen ourselves with food before meeting our van to return to the world of the living. spent the night in an old hotel in downtown flagstaff, enjoying local entertainment and antique elevators and fabulous thai food... and caught the van back to the pheonix airport in the morning.

dum de doodle dum!

2008-04-18T21:59:00.006-04:00

well, i am sorry that i have fallen out of touch. it all started with a bad headcold, which, combining work and weather, still is bothering me, but to a much lesser extent. but enough about work!

i have spent most of my free time in the last month sleeping off this funk! but on the odd day when it was sunny and i was awake:

spring apparently hit us late this year, but i thought it was really early, after a decade of being frozen in the wastelands of michigan! just look at my neighbor's yard! loads of dafodils were in prime bloom almost 2 weeks ago... my rosebush has lots of leaflets and looks FABOOOOOOO. nothing worth a photo yet... but i'm sure there will be buds soon...

we bought a share in a community agriculture at uk, and so i don't have a big garden this year. this is a good thing, as we have a lot of outdoor work to do this year. we're planning on fixing the cement around the house and repairing the holey garage.

and speaking of house repairs, we replanted grass seed in the front yard in march just before that huge storm. i thought our timing might have been bad, but as it turns out, we may have hit just the right time window, as now we have lots of little baby grasslings yaawning into the sunlight!

life is truely amazing, even if it is weedlike and non-indiginous. but what is the bluegrass without bluegrass?!

in the area of fun, curt and i have strung up a slackline in the back yard. it is like a tightrope, only made out of 1" wide webbing and not so high off the ground. so far we both suck at it, but it is lots of fun, and hopefully practice will be rewarding.

we also have been out climbing, and learning how to climb trad (or traditional), where you place little pieces of metal into cracks on the wall and wedge them into place to hold you to the wall if you fall. then, you have to climb up again to remove it when you are done. it takesa lot more time and skill than we currently have, but it is a fun and new, and we have great teachers. and it doesn't hurt the rock (faq).

and tomorrow (starts singing from the musical annie), we are leaving for the GRAND CANYON! i am soooo excited to see mom, and hike below the rim... i promise to take loads of pics! i am so ready for this vacation!

2008-04-18T21:42:00.003-04:00

wow

2008-03-12T21:16:00.002-04:00

so, the pictures will be a minute coming, BUT!

here's what we've been up to:
drunken scrabble
leveling the front yard with the new rototiller
sewing grass seed and moving bark mulch
flowers in the back yard
drove to work and got stuck in the snowstorm
motel 6ed it up with leeloo (very exciting) and worked alone at work
no, i mean ALONE, no nurses, no front desk staff, no one!

did i mention drunken scrabble?!?

THE TRIP

2008-02-26T13:41:00.008-05:00

Monday, the holiday, was another day at work with no computers. Tuesday morning was more of the same, but our new server came Tuesday morning and was working before our afternoon appointments. I never want to do that again. Things seem to have settled down since then. Freezing rain/ice storms will do that to a place.

So, after debating the stupidity of going camping after an icestorm blew through town, curt and I decided our trail-fever was worse than the cabin-fever we would feel if we tried to stay warm and cozy at home. That, and I really wanted to put that backpack of Leeloo's to good use.

So we packed up and headed down to the red river gorge for Leeloo's first backpacking trip. She was ever so proud at the trailhead, all spiffed out with her pack and her z-rest, milking all the attention from the other hikers that they could muster.

It was beautiful out, and there was plenty of time to enjoy it. The ice melted through the afternoon in a beautiful fog. We set up camp, and gave Leeloo her first dinner (I think the extra meals alone are incentive for her, I have never seen a dog so food motivated). Then, we headed out to explore the area a little. Found some beautiful caves and cliffs and trails others have started… the fog wore off in the late afternoon and we got some good views before heading back to camp to make dinner (#2 for Leeloo, oh boy!).

I have needed a trip like this for a while. The winter this year was unpredictable, an freezing rains are not something to get caught in, so our rare chances to get out were often spoiled before we could even hit the trailhead.

After dinner, we all curled up in the tent. Historically, this is where Leeloo tries to bring the tent down, or otherwise explores her environment as a plaything in all manner of inappropriate ways. She also is notorious for not sleeping through the night, but readjusting every 20 min, and when she finally does settle down, snoring vociferously. Last summer, we would camp near the car and when we couldn’t handle it anymore, would merely put her in her kennel next to us; problem solved. But, and this may be due to the fact that she walked 7-8 miles with us…who knows, this weekend she graduated to a full night in the sack with mom and dad. She crashed amazingly well, and a decent night of sleep was had by all (I never sleep well the first night out).

The next day was a wonderful mix of ridgeline, walking by the stream in the gorge, and crossing a loooooong suspension bridge. Leeloo was scared to cross the first time (imagine much crawling and encouragement with gentle pushing from behind, but once we crossed it and she received her victory treat (TREAT?!? Treat! Treat, treat, treat!!!!), she went back across it with no issue what-so-ever. On the way back to the car, we all enjoyed slipping about in the mud and crossing streams. All I can say is that all small dogs should come with a handle. Ingenious!

Once we were home, Curt and I seriously got to business and made a chicken-pot-pie. I have been fiending for one of these for ages. AGES! It was ever so tasty. We are geniuses. Mmmmm. Pot-pie! I will be eating the left-overs for a week! I am so excited.

i'm doing the electric slide...

2008-02-17T20:09:00.002-05:00

it is official, we are paperless at work! the last thing to go electronic, our schedule book, has finally gone to that sad, papershredder in the sky. it is not too bad, other than the fact that we have about 20 9am appts booked every dya ubtil the overlap with the old system wears off, and the fact that all our drop-offs: tentative, scheduled, wellness check-ups, surgeries and otherwise are all jumbled together.

then (dut duh duh doom!) the worst thing imaginable happens, total system melt-down: grey screens of death from every computer. at 5pm (our busy last 3 hours of the day). we thickly came to realize that we could no longer: print out drug labels, print out estimates to show owners how much our medications cost, insert medical exam findings, check people out (accept any form of currency including credit cardds), call people to tell them not to come in, look at appointments to find out who is coming in, find out what vaccines a puppy needs, or do anything resembling a functioning hospital. anything. snake severed at the headcomes to mind...

i love banfield!

but in other exciting news, we are taking leeloo on her first overnight backpacking trip next weekend! yaahoo! we promise to take pictures.

happy valentine's day to everyone! (we made duck. QWAAAAK)

knitting!

2008-02-05T11:46:00.000-05:00

i don't know what it is, but the crazies have all been out at the vet clinic.

and i've been under the weather, so it is completely amazing that *doot doo doo doo!* i have started knitting again! here are my first pair of finished socks and some gauntlets (fingerless gloves is the new chic term, but whatever) i made recently! soo proud. this yarn was fun, it is a shame that the socks kept getting interrupted by other projects and took me a year. so worth it!

it has also been really cold here. down to 8 degrees and such on a regular basis. and while leeloo is not normally into all that fru-fru dress-up stuff, i did make her wear a coat when we went out hiking as she is not aclimated to being out in this kind of weather. of course, there are no coats her size available at the store, but this one (lab sized) did fit after some very basic taking in of the belly-strap. it even looks fetching under her new backpack! we tried it out one day on our hike at a regional wilderness area! it should work great on longer backpacking trips, once she works up to it!

it has warmed up and become rather rainy here, but no complaints as i haven't scraped my car in a few days! in other news, curt is on neurosurgery this month which means he is very busy, but in constant need of friendly contact. we will try to get him out as much as possible, but if you don't seehear from us, that is why. i will, of course, continue to deal with crazies at work :)

bajingo!

2008-01-28T20:46:00.000-05:00

curtis believes that who-ha's on doggies should be called bajingos. hehehe

miricles in my life

2008-01-28T20:38:00.000-05:00

some things in this world never cease to amaze me.

first off, surgeons today can go into your brain, remove a tumor, and have you wake up talking and recognising people! i am so thankful for that right now. and even more thankful that neither curt or i have to do this. mmmwah.

second, also on a surgical note, i love the fact that i can take a dog in heat, obviously pms-ing and unhappy, leaking blood out of her who-ha... and in a matter of multiple multiple minutes spay her and see her a few hours later, obviously not cramping anymore. sore from surgery, but obviously feeling much better! just give it a few days, honey, and you will feel like gold! no more hormone bitchiness!

and finally, i love the fact that people i know and love, people living close to me right now, have enough brain power to realize that bush's state of the union address is the perfect set-up for a drinking game. curt and i are off for fun and booze :)

happy new year!

2008-01-01T10:40:00.000-05:00

hmm

2007-12-20T18:22:00.000-05:00

so i started that blog in november, but it was really posted today. ah well

walking in a winter wonderland

2007-11-28T20:51:00.000-05:00

so, it's been a while since i last posted. oops. the holiday season is upon us and no one is perfect. work has been just that. people complain that our hours aren't good enough (we are open more than 10 hours a day, 7 days a week), that our prices are too expensive (i agree sometimes with that), and that they weren't going to do anything for their pet anyway because, and i quote, "its christmas"... i mean, really, your dog is DYING, and you won't buy it medication because why? oh! yeah, you really need to get a pair of chinos to gift wrap under the tree...

but i have actually gotten a nice little break from all that recently. lets see, what have curt and i really been up to?

ahh, for only a few hundred dollars we managed to insulate the attic... with recycled paper blown insulation that looks like snow... grey tufts of warm snowy dust bunnies to keep us snuggly all winter. best darn day ever. so rewarding. seriously, if you need a date, this was the best date EVER. EVER! the dreaded attic project is FINISHED! it is satisfying to see fluffy stuff fly into empty beams and become useful, we came out of it looking like diminuative grey-hairs, and we saved almost $3,000 by doing it ourselves. and our heat is on a lot less often... and we got a great work-out (i mean, seriously sore the next morning). overall, i think this was the best $500 ever spent. mmm.

that means that since we moved in, we have replaced the back door, the roof, the insulation, the windows, and replaced the crawlspace screens. we have torn down the old-english ivy and replaced the piping from the street to the house! i'm sure there's more, but i can't think of it right now, and this is pretty impressive for only having the house since july!

then mom and dave came to visit. of course, my luck, it rained the whole time, and the heat died the first night they were here (it was a little exciting because this the first time that something needing doing was covered by our home warrenty- but we did not follow the correct procedure by going through them first since they were not available, and ended up paying for the repairs ourseves as heat is just maybe, kind-of, necessary when it is in the low 30's outside). but we OVERCAME!!!! and had a blast. got family time in, some shopping, *enjoyed* the bourbon trail, and saw a most mind-altering movie.... good times.

and most recently, we returned from michigan where leeloo met all of curt's family! carol et al have all moved out to toledo, and are staying with mom and dad for the time being. we stayed at the steph et all household, and leeloo got to spend an agreeable couple days stealing cookies from little hands and cleaning up messes (cereal and crayons and cheese, oh my!). she was really, really well behaved! we had a blast, and set no alarms, and enjoyed good food, good family fun, and lights and snow. i love all my nieces and nephews, but there sure are a lot of them now. concentrated energy, that's what kids are! 4 kids 5 and under. wow. 5 with leeloo.

other new leeloo discoveries: see is making out like a bandit this holiday season. lucky dog! she also loves snow! there was 6-8inches in michigan and she happily trounced through it every chance she got. soo funny.

so, we are all cozy and happy this holiday season. we are happy to be home, and were even happier to have all these adventures. just have to fight off the glums at not going back to now england for the first time ever. just enjoying the high of yummy christmas life right now.

while we are all feeling grateful for how wonderful our lives are now, it is time to take a moment and appreciate just how easy oour lives are. in comparison, mr. snowy, beloved snowman squeeky toy of the masses, has just undergone his tenth, yes tenth, surgery. he has lost his tasselled hat, beautiful bow-tie, and has undergone several amputations. further surgeries to help stabilize him will be funded through the leeloo teething christmas foundation, and recovery time in hospice is covered by all her new toys...

that is about all for this end of the woods. we are both working through christmas and new years this year (being an intern sucks, but no complaints given how much time we did get this year!).

waahoooooo

2007-11-11T10:01:00.000-05:00

here are the pictures of our great adventure in underground plumbing! it has been an experience. not only was it wonderfully fun to see the front yard play nice with a backhoe.

we had to pull out a bush to get the pipes changed out. and guess what?! the bush is still alive! i was worried that it wouldn't make it, but so far, so good. (yes i am obcessed about my bush. you may all giggle and tee hee).

so here is what the frony yard looks like now. it's a little hard to see, but the mound is a long way from settling, and there are chunks of clay (yes, i know, i moved from the horridclay of michigan to the clay of kentucky) as big as basketballs (note, the excellent sports mention. this is as close as i'll ever get!) so i need to have a date with a rototiller. and it is time once again to pray for rain.

in other exciting news, i got my time off for "christmas"! it pays to have a hubby who gets his winter break off of the usual cycle of holidays! yippee! oh i am so happy! la la lalalalalaallalalalalala! llama! it also pays to have accrued time off that can be requested. hehehe. life is good.

always something

2007-11-07T10:18:00.000-05:00

first off, continuing the pictures of the house. they are sprinkled throughout. but now, the real gripe:

so, just when we felt on top of things here, our water bill shoots through the roof. turns out we have a leak in the water pipe between the street meter and the house. this is, apparently, our problem and not the city's. we are going to have our yard dug up and the pipes replaced. goodie. just how everyone sees their day off. and, this is not covered by our home-purchasers insurance which covers the house for one year. but not the property, it only covers from the foundation in and up. at least the ground is not frozen yet.

in other trying news, we are really strapped for vets at work. hard thing to imagine in a 4 vet practice, right?! well, part of the comforting idea that if anything happens to you, there will be other vets ready and able to come in and cover your clients until you return is the fact that you will sometimes be that vet for others in the corporation. so, i have been covering for a vet in loisville 2 days a week since she went in for surgery and needs at least 6 weeks medical leave. i work part time now at my own clinic. one of the other 4 vets works only part time in florence and part time in hyde park. hyde park just had a 90 day review with it's only full time vet, and apparently the meeting ended with :don't come back tomorrow! don't come back ever! so, we have to get a full time vet there too. that's one more vet down. so, i'm part time, dr o is part time, and dr j in no more at our clinic until we have a replacement... that leaves an equivalent of 2 full time vets in a practice that should have 2 vets there (maybe 3) 7 days a week.

long story short, were are all a little stressed right now. i get 2 days off for thanksgiving (nice gesture) but curt won't be free. grr. and christmas will be interesting to say the least. i worked my first sunday ALONE! all alone. all emergencies, no scheduled appointments, no other vets. i removed fishhooks and amputated adult dog tails... all went really (suprisingly) well. i rock as a vet! go me! woot! i just wish i had seen it coming, as i found out saturday night and had no time to talk myself down from the rapid rising panic.

leeloo is doing well in puppy class. we've only had 3 so far, but she is responding to me and is not a crazy flying furball at the end of the leash any more. (she is doing great at home, the distrations of other dogs, though, that is much more difficult).

mwah!

auds (the distracted)

happy birthday to me!

2007-10-27T08:37:00.000-04:00

i did NOTHING! and it was wonderful!

well, i baked a cake (chocolate with cream cheese frosting), and curt got some sleep and we went climbing and out for sushi. SUSHI! yummy, rolled up, happy sushi with interesting food combinations! waahoo!

oh! and the baby bushes i planted are doing just great! here they are! aren't they so cute?! woodgie woodgie woodgie little planties... when they grow up, they will look like this: i can't wait! it will be beautiful!

and yesterday, i saw our roof *oh boy* in the sunlight! no rain, no post-work or pre-work darkness... just warm sunlight and our new roof. which, by the way, looks like this! fantabuloso! mmm, architectural shingles!

happy halloweenie to all of you scary ghouls out there! we had our open haunted house at work, and our work social outing to the haunted uss nightmare in cincinnati was awesome (except for leeloo getting a little separation anxiety and tearing up the floor in tammy's bathroom. i'll go up tomorrow to fix it)! while i will be missing a party tonight (no loss, got to spend the day with my hubby), we are now crashed as a family of 3 in front of the fake fire. okay, curt is right, it is an actual fire, but the logs are very fake. kelly's baby shower and tammy's bathroom are tomorrow.

beutifully productive days

2007-10-17T10:10:00.000-04:00

ahh, monday was just peachy-perfect. an early morning jump-start to the day... then i had an appt with a blown insulation guy over the sad and pathetic insulation situation in our attic (no wonder the old owners payed almost $300/month to heat this place). learned some good stuff, although it was too expensive and we will probably just tackle this one ourselves too...

then, i cut matting for framing pictures and reduced the size of that project. my desire to actually finish the project has been reduced since anne and sean are no longer visiting (but at least they will be loving a new bundle of joy that they are the proud godparents of!), but now the large mat-board isn't the main attraction of the living room. success in smaller packages!

then, i finalized the roof contractors and the windows. the new roof should be on by friday (in fact, they just dropped off the new tiles today... better than getting a new toy!). the windows, however, will take 5-7 weeks to order and come in. so... no new windows until dec., but at least all my little ducks are in a row.

i did laundry and dishes, played with the dog... THEN i went to the garden center and got bushes for the front of the house. which i brought home and finished the landscaping. i pulled out a small tree and moved boulders... grrr, i am powerful woman, hear me roar! and now the house has a facelift! baby bushes... so nice to have it done...

i started patching the insulation on the heating ducts, then met curtis when he got off of work and we went climbing then out to eat. what a great night... actually sitting down and talking with my husband and eating fabulous dosas at the southern indian restaurant. hmm, heavenly ending to a perfect day!

yesterday, well, that was just work and puppy class... poor leeloo, learning how to behave herself... so sad. teeheehee.

today will be decidedly less productive, although i will be visiting home depot AGAIN.

tickled pink

2007-10-10T09:06:00.000-04:00

amy's wedding was absolutely beautiful... she was a picture of perfection, we all had fabulous updos (i had more than 70 bobbypins in my head) and glorious gowns... no one tripped and fell, the ceremony was just the right length, the reception food was fantastic, and the dj rocked! it was so wonderful to see my vet school friends again!

plus, being in detroit and east lansing, we stocked up on good sushi, bubble tea, and middle eastern. ahhh, tasty vacation.

we were driving home when, much to our surprise, ren called and we found out that we are god-parents to beautiful little jackie! oh great excitment and long distance schmoozing over an 8 lb infant!

then, we also made it down to the smokies for some great backpacking...views, walking in clouds, the at.... so refreshing and desperately needed. it was a great week off, all things said. now we are both back to the grindstone.

sorry no pics, but getting the words up is a good start.

the MASTER bedroom

2007-09-20T20:02:00.001-04:00

here it is, in all it's glory...

it even comes with a full bath! (small)

and i just couldn't resist some more pics of the cutie!

(and her duckie-okay, it is really a phesant)

i am an auntie!

2007-09-19T12:17:00.000-04:00

hooray! jackie was born this past weekend, and both mom carol and baby are happy and healthy.

oh, and here is leeloo, our cutie-pie. i spayed her

on monday, and she is still a little out of it, although nothing beats the vomiting punch-drunk puppy i brought home... today we start her first puppy class.

curt and i had a magical weekend in tenn this past weekend. curt got 2 days off in a row, and we drove off into the middle of nowhere... i mean, literally, nowhere. it is amazing that these places still exist. down a road that turned into dirt after a stream crossing, we pulled into some stranger's driveway- the only available place to camp- hoping it was the right location and we weren't tresspassing because this sort of place i expect shotguns... and pitched our tent (and the dog kennel as leeloo still doesn't sleep through the night).

we had one good day of rockclimbing- curt and i loved the routes down there, and curt decided to end on a 5.11a. bear in mind that we are climbing sport, which means that he is taking the rope up with him and clipping it into the wall as he goes. if he falls, he will fall from where he is, back to his last clip, and then the same distance under the clip... plus a little extra for rope stretching... so most people climb a few grades lower on lead than on top-rope (in the gym where the rope goes all the way to the top and you maybe fall a foot if you don't do the move correctly). curt climbs 5.11a's in the gym. he nearly falls, he dramatically saves himself and scrambles to return to a place of refined balance... he makes it to the top of the route (hooray!) and i lower him down, stopping every 6-10 ft or so to retrieve his gear holding the rope to the wall. the problem is, this route traversed up the wall at about a 45 degree angle, and under a huge ledge... to get his last piece, he had to pull on my end of the rope and haul himself back under the ledge. when he got it off the wall, we BOTH swung waaaaaay out pendulum-style. he, gracefully arching through the air, and i lifting my feet to avoid hitting rocks. no problem, right?

not so. i swing directly into a dead tree stump, breaking it in the process, and swing back into a live tree trunk... thus making all my scrapes andbruises symetrical... all minor, don't worry. this arc takes us right through the line we had set up for leeloo to run on... she is so startled she begins to howl and bark, shaking like mad, upsetting a hornet, and getting stung behind the ear (poor thing!). everyone is fine, i lower curt, and calm the puppy. we pack up and leave, deciding to go for a swim in the stream to clean off. cold, but refreshing. leeloo looks at us expectantly from shore, so i turn on the sweet talk and say "come 'ere". she, apparently thinking she could walk on water, LEAPS! toward me, the look of utter amazement and incomprehension spreading on her face as she sinks up to her neck in cold water...and promptly tries to clamor up me to get out. i turn her around and curt fishes her back onto shore. we dry off, change into warm clothes, and hang out by the fire with the owners we have now met...on sunday, we decide to forgo the climbing for some hiking, and got some great views.

ho0use pictures to follow soon. love!

Mwah ha ha ha ha

2007-09-14T00:21:00.000-04:00

i figured out how to change some things on this blog! tee hee, now curt and i can argue pettily over what the name should be. any suggestions? the name may change frequently now. ah, the many problems of an indecisive poster....

okay, after 1230... time for bed. pictures will have to wait.

the beauty of the changing leaves

2007-09-13T23:25:00.000-04:00

sooo far behind in the postings! must bulletpoint to get through in a reawsonable time!

-WE HAVE A PUPPY! her name is Leeloo, she is about 5 months old. she is a mix of (most likely) beagle and deutschund. so cute. brown. untrained from previous home.

-my job rocks! yesterday i saved a kitty on death's doorstep, merely by giving it fluids and passing a urinary catheter! some days this job is truely rewarding... nice kitty.

-curt is on ortho surgery for this month and next. he is working 80+ hours a week and wanders in the closest semblence to a zombie he can muster. but he managed to get acouple days off in a row that line up with mine. he is an angel. hmm, angel-zombie... sounds like a great b movie...

-having a shifting schedule where you never have the same days off is tough because you can't join any groups or classes. i think i went to yoga twice. it met 4 days a week all summer....

-the library is inconveniently placed. everything is when you are doing work/transit for >60 hours a week.

-leeloo loves her duckie. she also has made more friends than me, and often plays with finns, the dog of dr j, and harley, the neighbors boxer.... that said, finns got run over by mom's 4-wheeler today, so play dates may be suspended for a while.

-we still haven't finished unpacking. there will be much celebration when that happens.

-i still haven't figured out how to put up pictures on this blog. once i figure that out, there will be puppy pictures, then a tour of the house in installments.

-i still haven't looked at the spain pictures since we got home. poot : (

-i still haven't learned another foreign language, but banfield is actually working on purchasing a car for me! woot!

-carol is due any time now. giddy excitement! after all, i should call because she is MY sister-in-law (tee hee).

-great excitement in the near futute (besides the baby), includes leeloo's first camping experience, spaying her, and puppy classes starting next week! (i am such a dope-y dog mom!). then close on that tail... amy's wedding, a backpacking trip (sans puppy), mybirthday, annie and sean visiting... world peace, and an end to global warming! can't you just see it now!

-i love my commute. losing the time sucks, losing the energy sucks. wasting the gas sucks. but the time i gain with the people i chat with on the phone is priceless. and so far leeloo sleeps through it fine.

-i'm used to going to bed at 10, and it is now midnight... perhaps there is a bettertime to be doing this.

love you all

oh, yeah!

2007-08-21T13:58:00.000-04:00

and i finally got my license! woot!

desk destruction!

2007-08-21T13:44:00.000-04:00

it was too hot to go climbing, so we moved all the books out of the study and began trying to dismantle the built in desk that the previous owner built with his limited skill. we need the space for shelves for our fun books (to keep them distinct from our medical books, which are not exactly a sure-fire fun read...) and the desk is really an eye-sore. after much fun with our fabulous powerdrill, and a small amount of prying and pushing, and only very minor wall demolition, we regained a part of the office that had been screaming for freedom! no more oddly sized desk for you, little study!

we are now repairing the wall and shopping for shelves that match our medical book shelves.

i cleaned out a lot of old notes and books from undergrad... who knew i would not actually need my beef management notes in the real world? or british empiricism... honestly, i can be such a pack-rat! reading through some of my old notes, though, i realized that i used to be quite smart... and funny! i wonder where that part of my brain went. medicine and philosophy work so differently in my little mind. ah well, off to find more buried treasures...

en- title-ment

2007-08-10T17:14:00.001-04:00

maybe my last name is gale-dyer because i am long-winded and good at staining my clothes...

that last post went on for miles!

the missing links

2007-08-09T08:51:00.000-04:00

so much to say...

had a great time at amy's wedding shower and really appreciated the girl time only such a trip can provide. my friends truely make my life an enjoyable experience... i only wish amy could fully appreciate how truely gorgeous she looks, yes, the awesome make-up and hair help.... but i mean all the time. when she is happy, she glows and she is clueless... it is part of what makes her so sweet and innocent (hahaha)

no but really... what is this epidemic of beautiful, intellegent, totally capable young women who know they are smart because of thier achievements, know they are capable (sometimes) because of their abilities... but apparently never absorbed the fact that they too, are beautiful. even if they are told that they are... they don't believe it. (seriously think about how many women you know who fit this category!) i wonder what would happen if they all suddenly suffered an affliction of suspension of disbelief... and saw what everyone else around them saw. myself included. maybe this needs to be a part of the new feminist movement... helping the next generation accept what they look like, and appreciating just how beautiful they really are. no conceit, just a good self-appreciation. maybe an increase in self-esteem... (the piano elevator music version of what a wonderful world this could be swells in the quiet after the schpiel)

my job is going well. i see real animals and try my best to help them and their owners (sorry.. banfield Pet parents)... i am really happy here. i work with a great bunch of people. they are efficient, funny, fun-loving people and i am blessed to have such a great group... they are letting me choose which sick patients to slowly widen my work and build my confidence....

it is only natural for a new vet to need to build their confidence... they have never worked without someone watching over their shoulder, ensuring they don't make a mistake... someone to talk everything out with and double and triple check before you do anything... it is a bit of a culture shock to suddenly think that you are suddenly solely responsible for the lives and deaths of your patients under your care.

it is one thinkg to know and expect that you are new to this, this is difficult, and you have a low level of confidence due to a lack of experience... it is another to realize that not only is all of this true, but 4 years of degrading, mind-blowing, self-esteem destroying medical education has pussy-whipped me into a blubbering fool incapable of acting on my own knowledge and self-initiative. especially since i still don't have my license and am therefore not endangering my own ability to practice medicine in the future... and at this point, i am only seeing things that i KNOW and am familiar with. for goodness' sake! if i know i am doing it right, why do i need confirmation and back pats to go with it. why isn't my voice good enough? this should dissipate with time. i know it will get better, but i have never been well known for my patience (stop laughing! it's not funny to laugh at the impatient girl...) but i love my job. every day i get better, i am learning the flow well, i am understanding the computer system better... life is good.

anywho, in other exciting news, our bedframe is coming today! yippee!!! no more sleeping on the floor for me! and my paycheck is also coming on saturday! double yippee!!! i plan on dancing across the clinic, butt a wiggling, at the sight of my largest payload ever! it's a real job if they pay you, right?

and in other news, i went to the boone (as in daniel boone) county fair last night with a bunch of girls from work. i ate cotten candy, got to watch the walking horses show (this is extreemely funny and i highly recommmend seeing it for yourself sometime. imagine a horse walking on it's hind legs and flipping it's front legs out as it goes. and the riders are all hunched over like little old men in shriner's cars...), toured the little rides, saw some bad karyoke, and even watched a demolition derby race (yes, i said race... they had to do figure 8s around a track like those toy cars we all had when we werre little... sooo much fun! amazing to see old front wheel drives do some stunts like that in the mud... and 2 cars even caught on fire! i am finding and coming to terms with my inner red-neck hick! and wow, the announcers were something else!) i feel initiated into kentucky life. the state fair is next week... yeehaw! too bad we missed the frog racing contest... one of the girls was going to enter it! tomorrow is the watermellon seed spitting contest... and the boy's pig wrestle... i love this state!

happy anniversary

2007-08-06T13:51:00.000-04:00

well, it's been 4 years. 4 long years (although not because of the company). i finally feel like i am setting up shop with my hubby, something traditionally reserved for newly-weds. with each new addition- pictures, furniture, whatever, this place feels more like home. i think having the dining room chairs is what really did it for me. now that they are all here and assembled properly, we can actually sit down and share a meal together, when we're both here at dinner time, and that is precious.

today is one of those days. how we managed to both be free today is beyond me, but it is wonderfully comforting to walk to the store together, pick out ingredients together, and come back andcook... (i'm a sap, i know). it is wonderful just to function as a pair again. cooking together is a large part of what started this relationship. i am truely happy.

so what's on the menu? roast duck breast in a raspberry/red wine sauce, baked root veggies (carrots, potatoes, leeks, and fennel), and our mississippi mud wedding cake (complete with fresh strawberries, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream...) YUM! we have our champagne too... and tickets to go see some live music tonight... i am drunk on happiness.

hmm

on the job front, 'cause i know you're all so curious... i love it! they are actually letting me see cases... have been all week. i started seeing sick animals over the past few days. it is still hard, because i don't have my license yet, and have to work "under vet direction"...but it feels real. a real job. real clients... learning the ropes and the computers...

curt is on neuro right now, and it seems fairly laid back. he is on call a lot, but he managed to get some sleep last night, and has not needed a nap yet...

more updates later, i am going to get back to communally living with my hubbie! eep!

Suprise!

2007-07-26T08:05:00.000-04:00

It has been a great week... the last week of freedom. Once i had my start date for work, Dave and I planned a suprise visit to mom's for her 60th birthday! his daughters picked me up at the airport and took me back to Judy's house, and mom was so suprised when she picked me up in addition to Harry Potter 3 and 4 movies. It was great.

We got lots of gab time, an afternoon at the beach, dinner with my bro, a full day of house repair, one infamous banana split from Tredwells, and even the new Harry Potter movie at the IMAX theater in Jordan's Furniture! It was a full 2 days... a great way to spend my last free time before entering the peons of the working world.

Which i now am.... my first day was yesterday, and i just didn't get around to posting then... it is hard to judge the job by yesterday. i didn't see one animal all day! i spent all day on their computers doing learning modules... and not info on the data system they have... this was propaganda to brainwash me into the company (actually, it is not a company, but Banfield, the TEAM... we use SmartTalk at work, not your ordinary english... it helps with a little rose tint, but it does create the urge to strangle....). I learned about the Banfield vision and the barriers to proper health care... my GOD, like i really need this waffle... i went to 4 years of vet school. if i don't know what keeps people from giving their pets the proper amount of healthcare, then i shouldn't have graduated. This is slow and frustrating. the rest of this week is going to be the same. I won't get to be a part of a working hospital until next monday, and then it is just shadowing.... grrr

but all is well. they are at least looking out for me having a good start... i just wish it wasn't so tacky and obvious propoganda.

that said, i have found a pretty good yoga class here. tra la la. and the climbing wall at the UK gym is small, and has frustrating rules, but the routes aren't too bad. life moves on.

and this weekend is amy's wedding shower! happiness!

A musings

2007-07-14T16:00:00.000-04:00

i'm still happy about my job. i think.

i have recently realized that i have a job, i own a house (MY house [our house]. not anyone else's), i have my own lawn...i might actually resemble an adult! who ever wouldhave guessed? this is all quite shocking to me. and i feel very successful and self-important (imagine here the internal 3 yearold sticking out her chest and proclaiming to the world her significance...)

i still have no new friends here, but that will take time. it is difficult to force myself to socialize solo when during the day i get funny looks for not having umpteen children that i am staying home to care for, and in the evenings, i want to see my hubby if it's possible. but i am no longer a shut-in. i have been exploring the world around me and will maybe meet people there later...

i think the hardest part of curt's internship is not the hours that he's gone, it's the fact that he's here now, but desperately needs sleep...

i also find it funny that he started this blog, and yet i think he has posted a grand total of 3 times...

i hope that my work schedule will make it easier for us to see each other and not harder, as i will have 3-4 days off a week, and he gets 4 days off a month... they have to overlap at some point, right?

EMPLOYED!

2007-07-12T14:37:00.000-04:00

this is very exciting news! the details:

there are precious few small animal jobs in the area. if i wanted to work exclussively in cows that would be one thing. there are 2 jobs in the area. if i had board certification and about 10 years of experience, there are a few jobs... i get regular e-mails from new job postings over 2 hours drive away! but not much locally. the local options?:

1) a place called heartland, has 2 well established clinics and good mentorship opportunities. willing to train me in any interest i might have, wanting me to become a specialist (although not necessarily board certified) in whatever. lots of back-up help. i would be helping them open a new clinic 15 min from my house. long hours- they want to be open until 11 pm, and i will have to do quite a bit of emergency work during that time.
2) a place 6 miles from home that was recently purchased by a former associate vet, he has no real plans for the future of the clinic. rare staff meetings, old vaccine protocols... bonus is that i would always get a day off midweek and 1.5 days every weekend, with a whole weekend every 3rd week.
3) banfield vet clinic in petsmart. have a good standard of care and lots of staff to help. want me to drive 1.5 hours both directions for a year until the new clinic opens closer to home. downside: this is a nation-wide corperation... yelch! commute is long and BORING. will have to invest in books on tape... yada, yada.

the outcome?:
1)they were very impressed with me, and would love to work with me, but are unable to offer me employment for the next year. no, sorry, not even part-time. after that point they may be able to hire me. MAY. 1 year. so sorry to waste your time and raise your hopes... so sorry to raise your expectations and get you ready for the real world. (losers)
2) they have no direction. they don't return my calls. they don't even have enough exam rooms for the number of vets they have. losers.
3) banfield had me come in to shadow for a half day the saturday after the 4th- ie the busiest they will ever be. we talked. we viewed. we assisted by squishing and restraining animals while they worked away. it was okay. OKAY. then i drove that whole long 1.5 hour commute up to florence and saw them on a slow day. hehe. i walk in and no one can greet me right away because... they are all too busy snibbling home-made cookies someone brought in (score 1 point). then they all introduce themselves, and include me in the conversation (point 2), and have a goodflow of gab, fun, funny, etc. no diamonds forming in their GI tracts, let me tell you! (point 3). they promise me i won't have to work alone for the first couple of months, at least until i'm comfortable. they are all working together well, they help each other out, and hang out together outside of the clinic (another point!).. it was a smooth and enjoyable day. we discussed lots of stuff. i feel comfortable there and happy.

i returned today for my contract meeting. i actually got hired! someone wants me! i feel so loved! so it is corporate... so it is a commute... the commute is only for one year until the new clinic opens, i have a good group until that time. i have a salary exactly what i expected, no signing bonus (normal for vet med), no moving bonus (had i signed with them before the move it couldhave been up to $2000), yes i get compensation for the miles... they may even give me a car! i had to pee in a cup for them. i can start my training as early as next week. yippee! i feel good about this. i think. there are times i wonder what i'm doing, but hey... if it doesn't work out, i can always start over again. the clinic meets my standards. they may vaccinate more than i like, but they are all about preventative care and client education. i can do my own diet plans... i can do as much CE as i want if i preapprove it (prove it will be of monetary value). i can grow here and stretch my wet little wings. i can learn a foreign language while driving mindlessly on I75. i only have to work 3-4 days a week because the days are long. they are open 7 days a week, so my weekends will not be normal all the time. this is all good.

and look at my other options. i mean seriously, what choice do i have.

i'm happy. at least, i'm giddy. i hope i'm still happy in a couple of weeks. it will be good to get my feet wet again.

i have 3 months to sign the contract. wish me luck!

treading water

2007-07-01T17:50:00.001-04:00

i have reached the point where i can do stuff all day, and at the end of it, nothing looks done! so okay, a few more boxes have been FLATTENED (new source of joy in my life). The clothing drawers are organized and everything fits better now... the laundry is done... there are lots of fresh, organic, locally grown veggies in the fridge that i got when checking out the local farmers market (not entirely disappointing, but small).... but nothing looks better.

maybe i am just frustrated by the lack of hangy things to put up all my pretties! we have no anchors for the pictures that go around the house... we have no heavy duty hooks for the hammock (which will vastly improve my standard of living)

or by the fact that when i go to the store to buy necessities for the new house, they are invariably out of exactly what i wanted!

or by the fact that it is sunday, and many things i want to do cannot happen on sunday here... in fact, i was walking to the farmer's market when i ran into this man who teaches at the local seminary school... he's new to the neighborhood too, and sunday (unlike for everyone else in his profession) was his day off! so, we had a lovely chat, i snoogled his dogs, and went our separate ways. only to run into him again at the store, where neither of us could get what we wanted! :)

but i absolutely love being only 1 hour from the red river gorge... it is beautiful, it is GORGEous (teehee), it is magnificent... it has great hiking and climbing. who could ask for anything more?

on the job front for those who are wondering... i have a lunch interview on tuesday. what was i thinking? i have no table manners, i distinctly lack the ability to look graceful while trying to manhandle a fork, and i have food allergies! what was i thinking? i was thinking, "hey, you're offering to meet me for lunch?? cool! free food, possible job friggin' 6 miles from home... this will be fun!" sometimes i can be the dorkimus maximus. i am DOOMED! oh yeah, i also need a resume printed up... need to see if the printer is hooked up, with the paper i haven't unpacked yet... indeed, haven't found yet... YIPES! getting nervous. hope i don't stain my shirt while i dribble...

time to pull out the old mantra: i am good enough, i am smart enough, and dog-gone it, people LIKE me.

i will get a job, it will be a good one, and i will be rockin'!
sorry for the rant!
auds

liquor barn

2007-06-27T23:39:00.000-04:00

who knew a lawnmower and a new tv could bring so much pleasure? (okay, so really it was the company we had when we bought said items that made my day... but still, how can you resist an opening line like that?)

the dyerdad came for a visit this week, and it has been wonderful to see family again. or really, any familiar face. he was a real trooper when it came time to shop for appliances, and even helped us map out the town a little with the discover of another sporting goods store, and the infamous liquor barn- the ultimate party store! the story:

we were trying out the new grill, and had decided that it was of utmost importance that we have some margaritas as an evening beverage accent... this point was made more resolute by the realization that we were out of jose cuervo (small family party after graduation took care of that bottle and saved us from having to move it...) and needed limade and limes... yes, we prettymuch only had the ice and a few drops of triple sec... so we made for the nearest liquor store: 2 blocks from our house. SCARY! they did have tequila, so not all was lost, but this establishment was a sorry excuse for a liquor store (and this from the girl who is drunk after one drink!). after dinner, curt diligently looked online for a better way to procure future beverages... and discovered, not to far across town, the liquor barn...

upon entering the establishment, we discovered that this place does NOT deserve the name. wewere inundated with fabulous cheeses and meats, an olive bar, and even fabulous international crackers! there were over a dozen isles of alcohol, with wines separated geographically (yes, we got some rioja wine to remind us of our trip), and vast arrays of ever liquor imaginable... w efound spanish 10 year reserve brandy, all sorts of high quality boozes, and goggled at the locked chest contianing brandy at the measly pittance of $5000... there is beer from around the country (good microbrews), especially some of curt's favorite michigan brands!

our larders are now full, we have happily sampled the spanish brandy, and we have discovered a national treasure, contentedly sitting right by our doorstep!

and on a similar note, another fabulous thing about lexington is the recycling! we have a city trash bin, an equally sized recycling bin, and a third for yard waste! we can recycle clear, green and brown glass, and all kinds of cardboard (not to mention the usuals) curbside! i LOVE this town!

oh! and wehave a live rosebush!
yippee!
i have once again been blown off course, and will write more later about what has been going on here....

mwah!
auds

watch out, i may have turned my brain on...

2007-06-22T15:41:00.000-04:00

house update: we have all amenities, the bedroom and kitchen are mostly unpacked, the living room actually resembles one, curt and i are actually (believe it or not) enjoying life without a tv immensely, and the fridge just made a lovely little noise where the ice drops into the bucket with no human interference (JOY!). many of the address changes have been made, the cable internet has been ordered, the new bank account is open, the loans and mortgage have been addressed, and we will have our first guest (curt's dad) this sunday (WAAHOOO!). just because there is no guest room yet to speak of, and the "study" is a small room with absolutely 2 degrees of movement capable between all the boxes means nothing! NOTHING! we will prevail. there will be a home where once there was a house!

no real buyers remorse yet, more buyers loud exhalations (internal monologue hears Dr. Edie saying, "Heavy sighs... what's up?"). i know we bought a good house. i know the house needs a LOT of work, and i know i am happier here than i would be in every other house we saw, an apartment, or something... but limboland is not a fun place to be, and this is still limboland.

i am still adjusting to not being on camino. i have started driving here, which believe it or not, was a very daunting thing for me... i have no maps, no idea where things are, and i haven't driven in over a month (not to mention the fact that i have never liked driving very much). life makes so much more sense on foot, or even on bike. i can at least live in the happy delusion that my life moves at a pace i enjoy. i miss so much focusing on the road when i drive. i miss flowers and natural breezes. but hey, mobility is a good thing. and i actually had somewhere to go.

speaking of which... the camino... why did 2 unitarians decide to do a catholic pilgrimage across northern spain in their freetime? well, long and complicated answer to that. we wanted a vacation, and another long distance hike. we wanted to see spain, and the best way to get to know a country is to walk through the small towns and talk with the people who live there. live with them as much as possible. cultural immersion. great way to improve and revive my spanish. but there is still a spiritual journey behind it. there is a saying that people do the camino for 3 reasons: to ask for something, to be thankful for something, or they don't know. many people hike because they have lost a loved one, overcome an illness or cancer, because they are NOT overcomeing an illness or cancer, or to see how the camino will change them. It is not all about religion, for some it is only for sport. for me (not talking too much for curt here), i hiked for all three reasons. i am very thankful for my life, my family, my health, everything i have been given and have worked for. my support network is amazing. i needed time to recover from vet school as well. anyone who had to witness my body's odd medical maladies or dealt with me crying over the last few years is well aware of how desperately i needed to "walk away" from it all. but that said, i still don't know why i walk. i have always hiked with a sort of loss for why i do it. i can tell you what i like about hiking: covering long distances is very rewarding. there is a lot of time to contemplate. even if you don't wish to be introspective, you can only sing bohemian rhapsody so many times while you're walking, and you will eventually run out of bad 80's songs to sing. long, quiet hours of you, nature, and the road ahead (and my hubby). nothing could be better. or more painful, or harder work which may not prove rewarding if there are no views. there are many bad analogies that can be made (in life, as on the camino, one will make some wrong turns)... it is rewarding to live with less, to be reduced to the simplicity of a backpack.
the camino is amazing in it's differences to the at. having a bed at the end of every night, and often a volunteer to look after your blisters... a hot and filling meal for only about 12 dollars... the hope of a shower when you arrive. the camino is a road, often a dirt road, but always wide and decently level compared with the mountains of the at. this was a luxery hike for curt and i, but for many others, it was very difficult. it was inspiring to see the challenges others overcame on their camino. one lady broke her arm and continued to walk. old, frail, obese, and ill... many people ho couldnot speak or understand spanish.
there are fabulous old towns, hundreds of years old, with an aging population living a life that hasn't changed much over that time. there are old churches and monestaries, old pilgrims hospitals and hermitages, all offering a dark, quiet, cool place to sit and recoop... reflect, if they weren't in ruins yet. much of the camino is seeing the remains of human efforts: you cross roman bridges and walk on old roman roads. you pass ruins of christianity and churches in use that are decaying, have plants growing on the walls and rooof, and are reminders to the impermanance of human endeavors. the cathedral at santiago is a good example of that. there aren't enough clergy to keep the building free of vegitation, and many of the exterior fascades are grimey and in disrepair. you also pass through big and modern cities. bustling with thousands of people and noise, a reminder of what you have left behind.
but much of the camino is the same as the at. there are views, there is a lot of time to just be with yourself. there are fabulous flowers and people and conversations. there is time to be light and free, time to goof off, and breath the fresh air (and sometimes the pesticides they were spaying on the grapevines...). the camino is a long distance hike like any other, showing the goodness of the people who intersect it. camino literally means "the way" in spanish, and it does have a kind of taoist feel to it. people often asked if we were on "the way" and there is an understanding that, while yes, it is sometimes about the destination, the journey is important too, and should be experienced.
there is a huge push by the church to distinguish what the camino is all about. they are desperately trying to seperate the pilgrim from the tourist. they are trying to set some guidelines and ethics for the camino (something that has spiralled out of their control in the same way that the forest service does not really control the at)... trying to encourage the ever swelling numbers of people not to litter, not to skip ahead and take the bus, not to be demanding of a hotel-lilke accomidation, but to be thankful for the accomidations that are available... this distinction between the tourist and the pilgrim is a very deep issue, and one that reached far beyond the religious observers who were hiking. a famous german comedian hiked one year and wrote a best-selling book that brought many "tourists" this year. they stayed in the towns, and at the alburgues/refugios with the hikers, but they took the bus. they used the system for a cheap vacation. As the european union is spending quite a bit of money to refurbish the communities along the camino, and to plan for the camino's future as a source of touristic revinue, they too are trying to attract a pilgrim and not a tourist. there are exhibits and propoganda everywhere. everyone likes a pilgrim who spends money.
which is part of the issue that many people seem to have forgotten. the original pilgrim was a tourist. this was the first vacation. they travelled by many means: some on foot, yes, but many others took horses or mules, wagons, etc. some traveled in the lap of luxury. some travelled solely on the charity of others (that would be impossible today).
but in the end, both curt and i came away with a long distance hike, a good break from the real world, a chance to be with each other and ourselves, and a better understanding of spain, the provinces we travelled through, and catholicism past and present. we hopefully have found a little more peace and serenity that we can bring back with us, and at the very least, this long and rambling blog that made no point or sense what-so-ever...

sorry, i seem to have gone off the deep end. and i didn't even start to say what i meant to...
but at least i got a good respite from unpacking!
and i get to meet people at a barbque tonight! maybe i'll meet some fabulous new people today (i mean, other than the little man who installed the fridge)

love to all
auds

quick update

2007-06-19T22:08:00.000-04:00

we have water! i can flush my toilet! yippee!

our stuff has arrived, but is not unpacked. the pods delivery truck is just about the coolest thing ever to watch unload... it squeezed down our narrow driveway, raised the pod up up up, narrowly missing some electrical wires, pulled the truck out, lowered the pod, and moved the braces and truck back and forth, up and down, to put everything back in place and off he drove... missing our roof by less than 2 inches! so impressed!

we have gas and hot water (a real shower! oh boy, i can't wait!)... we even bought a washer, dryer, and fridge, although they won't arrive until friday. boo hoo.

we will grill tomorrow, if i can find the tools to put the grill together. i am soo excited! we also found a middle eastern grocery! my taste buds are happy to be in lexington!

i miss my friends and family dearly... curt had his orientation all day which didn't help, but hey, at least one of us has a job, right? big hugs to all of you!
auds

home again, home again, jiggidy jog

2007-06-18T20:48:00.000-04:00

we are home! it has been an event!

we have toured the sites in Santiago de compostella, have smelled the refrshing scents of the ocean (from the other side) and cooled our feet in the waves of the rising tides.

had an uneventful flight back to london (the second most expensive city in the world, currently). there we had an eventful ride on the tube trying to get from the airport to the hostel we had booked a reservation at... only to discover that the reservation had been denied and we were clueless because of our limited internet access! after vainly searching for a new hostel, i turned up the charm and managed to finagle us a "private room with private bath"- otherwise known as the fouton in the basement hang-out room where the pool table was. while there was no door, we managed to slowly edge everyone out and were in bed by 11pm!!! had a great night's sleep, and beds in the real dorms for the following night. i so rock!

sunday, we tried to get a tour of westminster, but no go on a holy day, apparently. we did walk around it again and admired how, in comparison to every cathedral in spain, it was REMARKABLY clean and well restored/preserved. tried to see the changing of the guards at buckingham, but no go with some big schindig happening that evening... tried to see a show with cheap tickies... but no go on a sunday, apparently all the actors take sunday as a day off- except for blueman group and the lion king. ah well. so we went to the clink museum, the tower bridge experience, ate some fabulous indian food and strolled up porobello road (after the booths had closed because- you guessed it, it was sunday!)

flew out in the wee early hours this morning. there were these cool computers in the backs of the seats in front of us... with free complimentary movies- excellent if you have not watched tv for a month! both curt and i saw 3 films and several tv shows each before the plane landed. delta food is actrually quite tasty (suprised? i was!). and we got a free complimentary drink. overall a great time!

then we landed in atlanta... woe! we had to go through customs and recheck our bagage (glass bottles of nummy alcohol still intact)... then manouver and wait for our flight... all well and good... then wonder as we see our bag still sitting on the tarmack as we pull out to take off... then realize (shockand amazement) that our house and car keys are inside that said bag on the tarmack.... and wait at the airport over 2 hours after landing for the next flight to bring us said bag as we could not get into our house or car (location of camping gear) and could do nothing about it as the person who has the spares was not reachabel... we also realized upon arrival, that... hehehe, glass bottles of numminess had broken into many tiny pieces spreading a wealth of alcoholic gifts over our clothes! oops... so, if you thought you might get some good spanish brandy, wine from rioja, or delicate pacharan.... think again!

now we are happily home and typing at the local food co-op (where we are now members! hooray!) with free internet access. we have no water, no phone, and no gas. we have just managed to straighten out our cell phones (don't ask!) and they are working if you need to reach us! (again, YAY! and *phew*) we do have electricity and (can you believe it: air conditioning!). we have no furniture or fridge. i find this highly amusing! i also don't know what i am going to eat tomorrow with these said issues as i must be home to get the water on...

ah well! tired! it is after 2 am in london right now!
mwah!
auds

compostella!

2007-06-13T10:37:00.000-04:00

we have arrived! we are in santiago, we have recieved our compostella in our latin names (audrey is etheldrodo and curtis stephen is estebum...teehee), and have heard our arrival blessed in mass in the cathedral at santiago. life is good. we have passed the supposed remains of the apostle and waited in line to hug the back of the wooden statue of the saint... who could ask for anything more? well, it would be cool to see the gargantuine insence burner swing pleasant smelling smoke over the rancid smelling pilgrims, but they only do that on sundays during peak pilgrim season....

tomorrow we are off the finnisterra, the end of the world. hopefully the weather will hold out for us. now to celebrate in true gallician style: tapas, wine, cider, and beer! and pulpo!

now we are tourists again, and for the next week.... here in santiago, then in london for a day before we fly home. unfortunately, there are no bullfights in this area, the national crest in the flag of the country, which elsewhere has a bull, only has a cow in this region. fitting considering the area we walked through for the last 100km. most of the last 100km was down shady dirt roads in the heart of dairy country.

mwah!

valdareeeee, valdaraaaahhhhhh!

2007-06-10T12:44:00.000-04:00

so, after the coolest ren-fest ever... (somehow better than in michigan because they had shows on how they make clay tiles, how they carve stone, and falconry, etc... not to mention men in tights throwing flags.... ahh, i love eurpoe!)

we continued on with the camino. we passed the meseta (imagine a plain that takes over a week to cross... yelch!), and have returned to a hilly region after criossing 2 mountains. the scenery is MUCH improved. and, to add to interest, we have passed through several more distinct cultures. we started in basque country in the mountains, hit their past enemies and now friends, the castillians in the areas of castilla and leon, and then spent a couple days with a people known as marigatos, with an unknown ancestory who are very proud (read here excellent service and very tasty food!!!) and are now in galacia, land with yet another language that is >NOT spanish, but they seem to understand it fine. it is very nice here.

there are now daily showers, but they don´t last too long. the scenery is fabulous, and we are in our hiking groove with the return of hills and great views. the food is interesting, they are known for their hard cider (oh boy), a special white wine, and pulpo (ocuçtopus!!!!). there is even cabbage in the soup now (read here, more vegitables and tooting up the trail.

we have also witnessed a travestçy to nature. it was not only a mullet, it was a mullet of dirty brown hair with poorly proportioned front hair, and the back hair was placed in cornrolls (braids) that were not well cared for and were starting to get matts BETWEEN the cornrolls! you have been warned, do not let this happen to you or your loved ones. this is not an internet hoax!

we will be in santiago in a couple of days. hard to imagine we are almost done. at this rate we should have time to go to finnesterre (the end of the world!, or at least before the americas were "discovered") and dip our tootsies in the water.

i am starting to have a little anxiety about returning to the real world. we left it so suddenly, i hardly remember the kentucky house we are returning to... but we are still flying home on the 18th!

there was a lot more that was supposed to go in here. we are having a fabulous time!
love to all! and pulpo!
auds

Ren fest!

2007-06-02T09:00:00.000-04:00

ok, so i am reading a book set in mideival times, am hiking a midieval pilgrimage, and am currently in a town celebrating a jousting tounament that restored justice to the town... in a 2 dat mideival festival! how cool is that! it is very similar to the ren fest in michigan, or king aurther´s fair in mass, but it is the whole town... everyone in costume (except the bewildered hiking pilgrims)... this is most excellent. we saw flag throwers and the joust is tommorrow on the original jousting field (we will miss it, unfortunately, as it would set us waaaay to far behind).

tomorrow we will goto astorga and see the chocolate museum there (this city was famous for it´s chocolate for MANY a year, back in the day... and the museum will not be missed!).

in other news, curt injured his shin, which swelled most impressively. we took 2 days off in leon, and are moving very slowly. we are going to try hiking tomorrow, and see how it goes. he says he is feelin much better, so no worries!

we are getting a little tired of spanish food. there isn´t as much variation as we are used to.

tomorrow will mark the end of our thrid week on camino. and yes, we look like dirty hikers.

mwah!
auds

2007-05-29T11:30:00.001-04:00

i found it!!! yay!

2007-05-29T11:27:00.001-04:00

Wow! i actually have a properly labeled keyboard! soo happy to get my wxclimation point back! let´s see... where did i leave off...things have picked up nicely since our last post... the rain has not fallen for 2 days. the weather has finally started to get warm, although it was 5 degrees celcius yesterday when we started hiking (0 is freezing). all the townsfolk are complaining about the unseasonably cold, wet, and windy weather. >Curt and I slowwed down for a few days, met some fabulous americans from NYC... and have found a washer (ohh), dryer(ahh), and hot shower!!!!we went through a lovely town with a castle at the top of the hill. we got a great view, and free run of the ruins! it was awesome to climb the stairs in this castle and see the sights from up high! this town also boasted the most sumptuous, romantic dinner on the trail yet. old stone building, 200 year old wooden ceiling, fabulous lights... great atmosphere... sooo romantico! we are currently hiking through plains. it is flat and you can see everything around for kilometers... i mean miles... you can even see the funny line of hikers headed for the next town...the wildflowers have been amazing. whole fields of poppies, daisies, and dandylions. prickly plansts that remind me of indian paintbrush.. and rosemary and lavender growing wild! have recently passed fields of peppers, lentils, snap peas, etc. makes the hike more interesting. i expected the plants to be a little more diverse than from the US, but hey... where else have the invading species come from... have also enjoyed many happy chirping birds, mice, bunnies, and even some martins. LOVE the cuckoos.we mostly sleep in alburgues with about 10-20 to a room, shared (sometimes co-ed) showers and toilets, but a cheap price of 5-7 euros. we have sadly left the good sausage behind.curtis and i are both having a little difficulty adjusting to all the new proteins we have been consuming. makes the hike a LOT more interesting (although not necessarily in a good way). that is all for now...mwaH!

DAMN! I JUST LOST MY POST!

2007-05-29T11:16:00.000-04:00

it was really long and good too...

we are in the province of palencia now.

okay... there was a castle ruin that was fun and we got to run around in it. great views and multiple floors! had a romantic meal in an old building run by charming brazilians...

staying in cheap alburgues with 10-20 people to a room, have recently encountered washers, dryers, and >HOT showers (oh my!)

have left the good sausage behind. boo hoo. having trouble with all the new protiens in our diet.

fields contain poppies, daisies, dandylions, beautiful wildflowers and even prickly plants that look like indian paintbrush. have passed more wheat, barley, peppers, greenbeans, lentils, and potatoes... etc. we are currently passin through lots of farm fields on FLAT plains. can see for kilometers.

we are over half-way (yippee!)
love

new spanish word for the day

2007-05-24T13:17:00.001-04:00

chopsticks: los marillos

doesnçt that just make you happy... some things are the same, greasy food the whole world around.

the rain in spain stays mainly in the mud

2007-05-24T13:17:00.000-04:00

it has been raining nearly daily since we started hiking. it makes for some cold days, but great hiking when it finally clears ¿and more cafe con leche for usª? so, we have made some good time these past 3 days, going over 30 km every day. the chorizo sausage is still good, the wine is great, and the company is interesting.

where else in the world can you speak 3 languages and hear 7 before breakfast? ok, well, maybe at the un, youçre right, but this is aclose second. i have never really wished so hard for a german english dictionary in my life in a non=german speakin country. who knew? also, i have started eating small amounts of seafood out of necessity. so far, so good. curtis, asyou can well imagine, is thrilled. i also still continue to like white and rose wine. yum. there is no exclimation point on this keyboard...

we have walked in the mud up to our ankles, on back=dirt roads, through the vinyards= and i do mean through... also on old roman roads, over old roman bridges... along the highway= that was a fun interlude today= and through all the major cities... this keyboard is not labeled properly.

the fun part is when we go through small, old villages where we can see old houses. everyone in the small villages is reallly nice and helpful, and most speak slowly so that i can understand. curtçs spanish is growing by leaps and bounds. i am actually enjoying some compliments about my spanish abilities. people are really impressed when we say we are from the usa. they donçt expect us to know a foreign language. it is hard not to buy an old hpouse in a small village and set up shop here...

almost everyone here has heard of celiacçs disease, so getting food is no issue. that said, i do eat a lot of eggs and french fries... there is an omlette... known as a tortilla here... that has onion and poatato in it... yuym yum yum. there are also large, tasty, cheap hikers meals in most towns. finally had good, homemade paella as well... different, but good. also tried bloodsausage for the first time... again, gross looking, different, but good.

went through atapuerca today, home of the oldest human remains ever found... and have seen some mighty nice churches as well. also passed a fountain that dispences wine instaed of water ... not the best wine ever, but hey, itçs free wine, we cançt be choosy....

more later. i should now be able to give more specific details on our journey since the basics are covered.

watching the hail
audrey and curtis

el camino up-date

2007-05-21T14:05:00.000-04:00

okay... 11 minutes... we started in st. jean, pied du port <(france, at the boarder where there is a pass in the pyraneese<) and hiked 27 km uphill the first day, without breakfast, lunch, or snacky-poos!) suprisingly, we were there by 3 pm... good motivation! when we arrived (spanish speakers at last!!!), the food had never been so good! the accomidations were also great! there are hostels for pilgrims here (called alburgues or refugios). and it is hard to hear the word pilgrim <(pelegrino) without hearing the word gringo within it! the first night there were 110 people in one room sleeping! it has been fewer since then. the churches and dining halls, etc. were midieval and from the 12-13th century! we are getting good at aging churtches to the century at a glance.

we have become addicted to several food items here. the cafe con leche <8coffee>VERY good, and we have about 2-4 cups each day! the helado (icecream) is also good, but it is not gellatto. we are addicted to the local cheeses and meats (yes, we are eating meat here, it makes the trip >MUCH easier). there is a local sausage called chirozoz that we can´t get enough of, although it is salty. audrey has started drinking good amounts of both white and rose wine and is currently typing tipsy, which could explain the gramnmer, although the bad keyboard is part of it. more later. love you all!

happy in wine-country
the kids

2007-05-16T15:07:00.000-04:00

5 minutes on this connection! we are in pamplona right now, and unfortunately, the bulls at not! we bought our house without serious events, and made our flight with tons of timne to spare. we arrived in london early saturday morning (9AM) and spent the day tiredly touring the important sights: london/tower bridge, westim8inster abbey, and big ben, and the tower of london. spent the night in the airport (london is expensive-save money by sleeping at the airport!) and flew out at 630 am for pau, france. had some fun in france- pau, bayonne, and st. jean, pied de port. now on camino. more details later!

love

what a long, strange trip it's been

2007-05-09T20:21:00.000-04:00

okay, so we fell off the world.

we found a house. we are closing on it tomorrow! our new address will be

Drs. Audrey and Curtis Gale-Dyer
2404 Southview Drive
Lexington, KY 40503

in other news, both curt and i graduated! graduation was a fantabulous event with lots of family, friends, and tasty food. not to mention booze. it was a much needed chance to sit back and relax (which i appreciated even more since i just finished internal medicine...). I think the coolest part was getting to hood my husband! Many fond memories and lots of pictures. it might be a while before we get the pictures up on the web-page, however, since we are taking a much needed vacation to SPAIN to hike the camino de santiago!!! yes, i will try to keep the blog updated while i am there... pero ahora esta practicando mi espanol. depends on how often we have internet access.

we packed up the house on monday and tuesday, and the movers loaded our little pod tuesday afternoon. we took off this morning after meeting one last time with our ex-landlord, ron. we officially no longer live in michigan (oh the excitement!)- made curt and i a little teary-eyed. long drive behind us (con mis discos compactos que tienen lecciones en espanol) with 2 cars, and we are about to crash into a long-deserved hot tub!

future plans: close on the house tomorrow and pack for spain. i have an interview at a small animal clinic on friday, and we fly out friday night for our wonderful month of walking and eating in spain! soo excited.

it hasn't quite sunk in yet! i'll try an post more later!

DR. Audrey Gale-Dyer (make sure the v in DVM is nice and pointy)

househunting... maybe one will land on me!

2007-04-06T12:27:00.000-04:00

so... since we found out we were moving to lexington, ky... things have been hectic. we have driven down 3 weekends in a row, crash upon arrival, and get up sat. to go tour houses with our realator lady, who hence-forth shall be referred to as glinda the good witch. she is very well intentioned, but often sends us on stupid missions of DOOM when what we really need is already on our feet...

at any rate, we found a nice house with a garage and hammock set-up close to 2 parks and a golfcourse on a nice little dead-end in the middle of the city. we have since pieced together in the last week of bidding that said owners are building their new house outside of the city, and are not nearly finished with it as their stove is sitting in the garage as we speak, er, type. So, the fact that this house has been on the market for 6 months already means nothing in their level of desperation, as they can't live in their new place yet... grrrr. and glinda does not understand the first thing about bargaining... she is just too sweet.

so, since there is now a good chance that we will not get this house, we are back on the hunt again. too bad easter is upon us and the market has effectively stopped for this event down in southern kentucky. so... next weekend... and our schedule has been pushed back so far from bidding with people who are not serious about selling that we might have to either give up our vacation to spain, or not buy a house until we get back, living in short term apartments and storing our stuff. (holy run-on sentences batman! does this make any sense?!)

i also might kill something if we have to drive the 7 hours down to lexington too many more times... although, actually, i have been killing lately... we had a mouse in our kitchen! i saw the turds and quickly called curt to see if he had any traps i could use... he said that afore-mentioned turds were probably just seeds (can you believe he said that to moi- self-proclaimed turd expert!) and not to worry... so i bought some traps and vwah-lah! one dead mousey! hehehehehehehe. HA haha ha ha. i win. it does raise the question, though, of why we are bothering to feed the cats (useless miniature beasts of burden)....

in other, more uplifting but equally gross news, my current rotation is derm, where i roll around with greasy, itchy, nasty, dogs who are losing their haircoat... and i get to do lots of skin-tests that will make me more valuable when i get a job (BTW, no one is advertising for a vet job in the lexington area... schmucks). and carrie is on with me, which is a nice change and helpful for helping me reacclimate to the vet clinic.

curt is on rheumatology right now... lots of autoimmune disease fun for him!

only 28 days until graduation! (17 of which i will spend on EVIL internal medicine)
31-41 people will celebrate graduation with carrie, amy, curt, and i at our celebratory dinner!
22 degrees- the temperature it was yesterday... after my garden had turned green and i discovered that my brussel sprouts had overwintered...
1- the number of houses curt and i need to purchase in ky...also the number of good jobs i need to find...

Big New

2007-03-16T10:02:00.000-04:00

It is official,
We are moving to Lexington, KY. I have gotten into the physical medicine
and rehabilitation program at UK. We are excited. The first year promises
to be very rough, but more management after that. I have already called a
realtor and will be looking at houses this weekend. We are finally leaving
the state of Michigan.

a thought on cooking veggies

2007-03-06T18:27:00.000-05:00

asparagus should not melt in your mouth. that's all i have to say.

it's puppy class tonight! waahoo!

the wheels on the bus...

2007-03-05T18:52:00.000-05:00

i have been covering some serious ground lately! last rotation i was on equine ambulatory, a rotation where you drive around with vets from barn to barn... and let me tell you, february is not a pleasent month for such activities...

i saw a lot and learned bunches too... there were lots of nice horsies, and the vets knew i wasn't an equine person, so i didn't have to go near the mean ones! soo fabulous!

my hands have been EVERYWHERE! if you can imagine a spot to stick your hand in a horse, my hand was there! well, maybe not the ear, but everywhere else! i even stuck it through a hole from the mouth (between 2 molar teeth) up into the nasal cavity! how cool is that?! and i'll tell you, when it is this cold out, it feels good to palpate somewhere warm...

speaking of it being cold... the first week it was so cold (coming up to about 8 degrees as a high) that we couldn't sedate the horses... they wouldn't be able to stay warm enough! and i spent a lot of time shivering and taking hot showers when i got back each night.

times you should not be wet (the original title to this post): we were out collecting a stallion for artificial insemination... (just hang in there, you sick-o's!) and the horse was a bit of an idiot... he didn't want to mount the dummy mare (large padded chez-lounge made specifically for the male horse to hump... ) correctly, choosing instead to try and get on from the side (now i ask you, how effective would that be on a real mare? i mean, come ON!)... at any rate, it took him so long that the warm water in the artificial vagina (it is kept warm and firm with hot water for maximal stallion comfort- isn't this the greatest post EVER....) cooled down, and we had to dump it and get fresh water. there was something wrong with the connection, and i, who was dilligently watching the horse and not the giant tidal wave spray of water that was headed directly towards me, was very suprised but the rapidly cooled shower... BRRRR! as a final point, the stallion was collected, but flipped over the dummy twice in the process and sent the vet i was with rolling in the dirt of the arena. all of us left this experience a little sorer than we came into it... lessons learned: when watching and encouraging stallion masterbation: be fit, be nimble, be hot before you start, and be prepared to get wet! ah, so wrong, so very, very wrong... and yet...

then i got to inseminate the mare! maybe i'll be a daddy in 11 months!

i had a perfect weekend in the middle of this rotation. i went to tenn to visit curtis. we went hiking in the smokies and around the camp where he was staying. it was lovely and, oh yeah, 50 degrees out! it was fabulous, it was wonderful. everyone there was so nice, and the hotel wasn't bad either! we even ate fantastic thai food! so glad i went.

now i am in rochester michigan, outside of detroit, at leader dogs for the blind. for my next rotation (3 weeks), i will be doing vet work under the vets at leader dogs on puppies, well trained dogs, and pregnant breeding dogs. SO GEEKED! today was the first day. i am living in a dorm here so i don't have to commute an hour and a half to 2 hours every day (nice change from my 40 minute commute daily for the ambulatory rotation, then driving all day). it is fun living in the dorm. i have my own room, and get to eat meals with the trainers and people who are getting their leader dogs... so far so good!

countdown:
days to graduation: 59
days until the match: 10 (when we will know where we will live next year)
rotations before graduation: 3 (including leader dogs)
salads i have eaten today: 2

love to all my peeps!
audrey

oops!

2007-02-17T10:42:00.001-05:00

and, only 76 days until graduation!

brrr!

2007-02-17T10:21:00.000-05:00

i am currently on equine ambulatory, a rotation where we ride around with horse vets and experience the "real world" of equine medicine... and i'll tell you, i picked a doozie of a time to be out and about! february is the slow season for equine... it is too early for most horses to get thier spring vaccines, and many of the foals here aren't born yet because it is way to cold and snowy for new life to flourish like it could in kentucky or other places further south... normally, there would be a lot of dentals to do, but it has been so cold (with highs in the teens) that it is too cold to sedate the horses and file their teeth back to a happy place... this means that, while i nearly froze to death the first couple of days trying to stock the trucks, i am usually home by 3-4pm and have time for a nap and foot warming. there should be a rush once that 30 degree weather we've been promised shows up...

curtis hasn't posted since he left and that makes me sad, he said he would... poot. so, i guess i will post for him with the most recent news: he did not match to Lansing. this means that we won't be living in michigan next year (YAY!), but also that we have to wait until march 15th to match to a different program through the MD match... so no job hunting for me for a while :) it also means that his name showed up on a list of people who didn't match to a program and we got about 30 calls this week of programs looking for applicants. the phone rang off the hook monday night and i was still recieving calls on friday! nice to know curtis is so sought after...

life is still pretty lonely here, with curtis galavanting around in tennessee, and my vet school friends on internal medicine (very time consuming...) i didn't really hang out with anyone until last night, when carrie and i had a real conversation (ohh, ahh!), dinner, and went to pan's labrynth. good movie but much more dark and depressing than one would imagine. beautiful cinematography. not nearly light hearted enough for depressed and cold vet students though... hopefully i can refill on fun and friends this weekend and feel good about going back to work on monday.

bubbles! my bubbles!

2007-02-09T23:04:00.000-05:00

so, i have learned my lesson... those tapioca bubbles that are normally in bubble tea do NOT belong in my hot cocoa. yeeelch. nuf said.

this rotation is a lesson in taking your work home... i have had an extra cat in the house who needed the kind of care that can only be found with constant supervision like in an ICU... and since our budget is zip... well, she came home for the night. and almost stayed. a little daunting when you not only pack up a comatose cat and some supplies, but also the blue juice (euthanasia solution) in case things don't go well. last i saw the kitty, all was punch drunk peaches and cream :) i hope she finds a good home. also almost had an extra bunny abandoned at the clinic. hmmm... maybe the best time to adopt a bunny is when curt isn't here to say no... hmmm.... naughty little ideas forming over here in my brain! lalala!

have a job interview tomorrow... and get to visit our friends paul and julie waaay out in grand rapids at the same time. looking forward to seeing friends again, it has been very lonely here. looking forward to any conversation that does not involve medicating or surgimizing animals, or even just some happy silence with loved ones...

missing curtis who is agonizingly close to the AT right now. so tempting to run away! especially since i've been sick and am now starting to feel better...

number of days until graduation: 83, today is over!
number of surgeries on this rotation: 20 something
number of pets in the house: 2

love to all my peeps!

eggplant, anyone?

2007-02-06T20:31:00.000-05:00

the daily numbers:
temperature when i left the house: -2
temperature when i left work: 10
temperature with wind chill: -22
percentage of people in my rotation who couldn't start their cars this morning: 33%
days until graduation: 87

the world is a lot cleaner! curt has left for his wilderness medicine course in tenn, and i am combating lonliness by scouring the house! all that is left is the pile on my desk (like that'll get cleaned up this lifetime!) and mopping the linolium floors (la la la LINOLIUM!) i have cooked enough food to feed a large italian family, and the garlic store is diminished to prove it! (i am sooo proud i haven't been mope-ing)...

this week has been really great at school too, we get tech student support this week, so there is someone there to order about and satisfy my zesty need for domination and control:) ...i mean... help set up, break down, restrain animals, monitor anesthesia, and clean! MWAH HA HA HA HA

but really, having tech students was awesome today because it meant that we could have 6 surgeries going at once instead of the usual 3. if they had stayed one more hour, we would have been done by noon! as it was, i still got home at an unheard of 330pm! ahhh, the joy of extra hands. the joy of a midday nap when you feel under the weather...

buenas noches!

Curtis's Update

2007-01-30T17:34:00.000-05:00

Life is going. I am in my last week of my emergency medicine rotation. What an adventure this has been. But I am learning a lot and seeing just as much. Probably more than I care to remember. Due to patient confidential, no details. Sorry

But on another note, I finished up my last two interview. The first was in Kentucky for a PMR program. Love the area, will how can I not with the Red River Gorge an hour away. Sadly that program is second on my list at the moment. The program was great, but more of an inpatient feel and I would like more outpatient. One thing that came out of it was that Audrey and I got a little vacation out of it. For us finding this time together is rare and we take full advantage of it.

My second interview was in Beaver, PA. Cute, did I say cute, little town 40 north of Pittsburgh. This interview was in a family practice residency. It would be an excellent environment to learn in. I would be ready to handle just about anything if I took this spot. But I not sure how good of a match it is for me. I have till the end of this week to decide on my ranking order for the MD match.

My ranking for the DO match is done. That was easy with only one program, PMR in Lansing.

I leave Saturday for my wilderness medical elective in the Tenn. I am excited, but this will mean I won't see Audrey for 4 weeks.

That it for now. Later.

back in the saddle, again!

2007-01-28T21:44:00.000-05:00

now that i am back at school, all is not so horrible:) lifeis actually pretty good (and here i had been worried). hmmm the sectional updaye (much like a sectional sofa, and equally squishy)

(today i apparently like parentheses)

i am currently on spay/neuter. an awesome rotation where we get to do just that with dogs and cats. it is uber fun and i enjoy doing real surgery again instead of being a retractor/restrainer for other people. it is also nice that many of the animals we do surgery on are shelter animals and this will go a long way toward getting them adopted. there is very little beurocracy on this rotation.

I PASSED BOARDS! (i am so smart. look at my brain shine... oh wait, that's my greasy forehead...)

this weekend was MVC, or the local vet conference in lansing. i got to see some great presentations and see lots of friends from other classes. more importantly, i started interviewing for jobs in the michigan area. most of these jobs will probably be filled before i know if i'm staying in this state, but it was good to get out there and see what is available. there were a couple i am actually excited by and want to go visit. just think, soon, people will pay ME to stick my nose and fingers where they don't belong (ears and butts, respectively... you sick-o's!), instead of the other way around...

so... life is good.

curtis is on emergency right now, and while his shifts are, thankfully, reasonable, he has a lot of 6pm-2am shifts which means that we never see each other. next week he is leaving for his externship in wilderness medicine (read here: camping and backpacking and rock-climbing... oh my!). he'll be off enjoying life for a month and i'll be here sticking my arm deep into the uncharted waters of ambulatory equine medicine... i am so jealous. eventually, i know i will see him sometime before graduation.

most of my friends are gone right now, it is pretty lonely.

the official numbers!
days until graduation: 95 (today is over, right?)
spays/neuters this rotation: 5
number of carrots i ate for dinner while chatting: 35 (it's a LOT)
phone conversations tonight: 4
age of my nephew stephen: 1 YEAR OLD! (happy birthday!)

reveling in the love of family and friend time (in person or on the phone).... happy happy

now all i have to do is go to the store so there is milk and breakfast for tomorrow. hehehe, i'm a slacker!

toodles! audrey

aud's vacay log

2007-01-21T11:11:00.000-05:00

ahhh, home again! there is no place furrier!

winter break was awesome... got to do christmas with all three fams~ whoopee!

went home to Mass/NH after ophtho and arrived just in time for the huge Hannukkah party! too tired for words, Christmas was a smaller, quieter affair this year. once we had regained our momentum, we went hiking, to the human body exhibit at the museum of science, and all around boston in our continuing trek thru the freedom trail. left boston with temps in the 70's (why? why did we leave a warm and happy place?)

curt's fabuluos parents braved the cold, 20 degree weather to pick us up at the airport and fill us up with warm, tasty food.

early the next morning, curt drove me back to the airport for my flight to florida. yes, i went on vacation without him! no, i don't feel guilty. he's been troipsing about the country on interviews without me, and now i am merely returning the favor... hehehe. so, i met up with carrie, one of my good friends from vet school, in orlando for a week of R+R. we went to seaworld, epcot, animal kingdom, ripley's believe it or not museum, la nouba (fantabulous show from circ du soleil), the magic kingdom, horseback riding (i see no animal trend here, do you?), the makahiki luau, food at wolfgang pucks, and even a movie on the one morning it rained... not to mention plenty of time poolside and lounging in the hottub with a frosty, alcoholically enhanced chocolate milkshake.... mmm, heaven!

carrie's aunts are wonderful, and gave us a timeshare at this fancy hotel for a week to make the trip affordable, as well as the most perfect seats for la nouba. we could see the performers glisten (certain people don't sweat) and see details from the costumes... and there was a long trampoline that came right at us!

needless to say, it was difficult to leave heaven behind, since the temps had just climbed back up to nice warm 80's... but i dutifully flew home to the 17 degree weather and icestorms... michigan is not my favorite state right now... AND i know what i will do with my life when i fail out of vet school or run screaming from it to never return again (whichever). i am going to go train dolphins and swim with them every day in shows at seaworld! i am only 6 credits away from the degree, and they'll probably give it to me for all the work i've done in vet school! mwah hah ha ha ha!

a couple relaxing days at home, then i went down to kentucky with curt for another of his interviews... it went well, and i really like the lexington area. they still have 4 seasons, but you can plant a garden in february... there are hills, mountians, the red river gorge (good for rockclimbing and camping). we were going to camp after, but an approaching ice storm made us think better of trying to drive home on icy roads and i am now cozy on the sofa, asphyxiating on belle's hair. i love being home!

and now for the official counts:
breakdowns with crying about having to go back to CVM (only during this break): 9
days until graduation: 103 (including weekends)
number of days off left before graduation: 0

we have posted new pictures for the year! go see them at www.msu.edu/~dyercurt
there are lots of people we visited that we don't have good pics of, and lots of people we haven't seen that we have no recent pics of. if your pic is missing from our frigde, and we didn't get one in the mail this past month or so, send us one and we'll add it to the collection of happy faces!

loving you all.

the skinny (from audrey)

2006-12-10T10:49:00.000-05:00

hello all you happy people out there! boards are officially over (well, i won't know if i passed for a couple of months...) and am i ever glad. it is really weird to take an exam and have no idea how you did. seriously. i am still trying to break free from the migraine a 6 hour computer exam with a flickering screen can give you.

graduation is this may, when curt graduates from med school 24 hours before i graduate from vet school. it is so real i can taste it! i have this strange urge to get my personality out of the cedar chest, dust it off, air out the smell of moth balls, and try it on again. boy, have i missed being a real person!

can't look for a job until curt and i know what state we'll be living in. the match happens in march and until then, i just get to procrastinate on my resume... hehehe

current rotation is ophtho. loving the nasty eyeballs! soo cool and gross! i got to watch a vitreocentesis on friday (this is when they stick a needle in the eye to get a sample of the jello called vitreous that makes your eye round- this dog had liquid instead of jello from his disease)

and on that last appetizing note... time to start thinking about chocolates! any flavors people want? is it time for cherry mice again?

The start

2006-12-09T15:48:00.000-05:00

After much thought and my inability to keep in touch with people, I decided the easier way to try and maintain contact was to start a blog. Currently I am on my way home after two interviews in the northeast corner of TN. Both were in family practice. I enjoyed the people at both programs. The programs themselves had everything I needed and wanted from an education and experience point of view. The concern is the location. There is plenty of outdoor activities for us (rockclimbing, hiking, skiing, and etc.) but lacks some things that the I found in New Mexico. Like Trader Joes, Whole Foods and family to start. Plus I clicked better with the residents in New Mexico. Though in New Mexico I will have to work harder and be more motitaved to maintain, let alone improve my OMT. But I do like a challenge on occasion. Now this may be all for not, because my true first choice is in the PMR progam in Lansing. I still have two interviews left, one in PMR in Ketucky and another in family practice in PA. This process of deciding residencies program has turned out to more intense than I thought.