group runs, revisited

I recently posted about my feelings on group runs, and asked "What am I missing?"  Well, I now have an answer for myself.

I've been running in my group for a couple of months now, and while I do think it is easier to forget I am running, zone out, and go the distance when I'm alone, I am starting to enjoy my group.  So, what was I missing that I now appreciate? 1- if you have a scheduled group run, then you are forced to get off your duff and run even if you don't feel like it. And then, of course, you are always glad you did. And, 2- I have one running buddy in particular who does a great job of pushing me to make progress on my pace goals, but who is still very patient about the fact that I am much slower than she is.

weekend of fun (sentimental blog post warning)

Last weekend I was in Portland for my friend Heather's wedding. It was awesome, not only because I was happy for Heather (or because I was in Portland), but because I got to see many friends I had not seen for 4 or more years. That is too long to go between visits, but what I loved was how seamlessly we fell back into conversations. Although catching up was delightful, what was most wonderful was that it didn't fell like any time had passed since our last seeing each other. Now, of course I miss everyone anew. Not to get all sentimental, but I really am blessed to have found the friends I have through the years. I know that not everyone is this lucky. I can only hope we don't go 4 years in between visits again. Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

friends, shoes, and good times...

My friend Irene is visiting from Phoenix for the week, and tonight we hit the town! By the end of a night of bowling, bar hopping, and walking the 10 blocks back to my car, our feet were tired. But our shoes? Our shoes still looked fabulous!

true story

I finally got my hands on this picture. When Brandi, Kelly and I went on our hike up to to Holland Falls, this is the sign that greeted us:

as you wish

A few weeks ago I went camping with a few friends. We had a blast; my friends do car camping up right, and we played games, cards, boccie ball, and croquet. Yes, I said "croquet." Croquet is actually quite fun. I didn't believe it either, but it is true. I dare you not to have fun while playing croquet; I double dog dare you!

Ironically, this game of croquet came exactly one day after my dad told me he was giving our crochet set to good will. We've had a croquet set in our garage since my grandma died 7 years ago, and before that it sat in her storage room. I told my dad that I had never played and never would play croquet, so he should go ahead and give it away. Oh, how I was kicking myself the next day! You mean I had this game at my fingertips my whole life and never played it, only now (once it's been given away) to learn how wonderful it is? Luckily, when I arrived home from camping, I discovered that my dad had not yet made the trip to goodwill, so the croquet set is still safely stowed in our garage. YAY!

fun in glacier

Last week, Bird and I went camping in Glacier for a few days. Upon arrival, we set up camp and headed out for a hike. The hike was in Griz Country, so I was on alert. Fortunately, we did not come across any bears on the trail, although there was a tree stump that put a good scare in us. When we got back to camp, we noticed a bunch of people crowded around our campsite. They couldn't all be gathered for a deer, could they? No. Oh no. They were crowded around for a bear. Yep, that's right. A bear was milling around my tent and the tents of the people in the next site over. By the time Bird and I got to our site, the bear had moved off into the woods, away from all the people and commotion. I caught a glimpse of him, and he appeared big. Of course, any bear near your tent will appear big.

The Forest Ranger came and shoo-ed him off. Apparently, the bear was a sub-adult black bear. He comes around this camp ground often, but has never gotten into people food/trash or bothered anyone. Surprisingly, I was not freaked out, and felt confident I would sleep through the night.

As I was cleaning up dinner, I told Bird that the ranger said to wash our dishes at our site, but to use the dump-sink for our drippings. I told her this as I was heating water in our chili bowl so I could better clean it. The bowl sat atop my trusty pocket-rocket stove, and as I'm saying "we just have to be sure not to spill any of our drippings," what do I do? Why I knock over the bowl of chili water all over the table and ground. Seriously. Now, for those of you who have witnessed my klutziness, this may come as no surprise. It did not seem to faze Bird. I, however, was freaking out that there was now chili all over the ground of our campsite. A campsite visited by a bear not 2 hours earlier! I thought about moving camp, but instead just removed any dirt that was anywhere near the spillage, and called it good. Needless to say, the bear did not come back to eat the chili or me.

The next day we saw another bear (on the side of the road on our way to a hike). Bears are awesome, but I'd rather they not be near my tent.

Holland Falls Hike

Pictures, I say! Pictures! Here are a few pictures from a hike I went on yesterday up to Holland Falls:

I met a new friend along the way. It always surprises me how non-pulsed these mule deers are at my presence; it's a good thing I don't have a hunting rifle.

This is a picture of Holland Lake. The mountains pictured are the Mission Mountains: the most magnificent mountains I've ever seen. I still remember the first time I laid eyes on them. I had gone home with a friend who lived on the Flathead Indian Reservation for Thanksgiving my freshman year. We drove in at night so I did not see the mountains upon my arrival, but I woke up in the morning and outside the huge bay window were this majestic mountains. It was breath-taking.

Here are the falls. Unfortunately, I don't have a good picture of the falls that doesn't also picture either me or Brandi.

This little guy is about 1 foot away from me and Brandi. He and a friend wanted a bit of our apples, and they would not leave us alone. They actually did come up by our feet, and they were fast little critters! People should not feed critters because THIS is what happens.

All settled!

After several days on the road and almost a week visiting good friends, Bird and I arrived in Missoula to find that the room we had rented out for the summer (and put all of our belongings we couldn't live without for 2 months in) had been re-rented out from under us! Nothing like realizing you are homeless after 9 hours on the road! Horrah!

Long story short: the college kid we were renting from is a piece of crapola, and (we think) gave our room away to a freind of a friend. He moved our stuff out to the garage and said "sorry, I didn't know you were taking the room." Um...what? We said we were taking it, we talked to your roomate, we moved our stuff in (as per his okay), and said we'd be moving in on the first. What's not to know?

Luckily, we found a place with 2 rooms (bonus!) that is downtown right around the corner from my favorite burrito place (bonus!) and in walk/biking distance from everywhere we want to go (bonus!). The new place is not well kept (dirty hippies), but we basically have the upstairs (w/ a half bath) to ourselves, so we can keep our area clean.

So far, we've gotten setteled, watch Bird's tennis teammates compete (and win all their games), walked a lot, biked a lot, and eaten a ton. Good times. Tomorrow morning, we hike the M! YAY!.

So, that's the update on me!

Welcome Perma!

And the Anti-blog comes around; I could not be happier! Welcome to the blogwagon, Perma! :) Hopefully this will new addition to the blogwagon will rejuvinate the rest of us slackers! I know I'll have some Missoula stories to share soon!

To all my good friends, I miss you!

King of Carrots Flowers

I have 2 versions of King of Carrots Flowers on my Ipod. One, by Neutral Milk Hotel, and one version preformed by Tessellation Monkey Head. On random, the version by TMH just came on, and it served as a reminder that Matt has a really nice voice (Panda remarked on this the last time this song shuffled up on the playlist). He should sing more often. And the band should put out more music.

Party Games

All in all, I've had a great weekend. My birthday spectacular began on Thursday when I got to sleep in (always good), lunch w/ a friend, and watch Scrubs and About a Boy with Panda. Friday I had a totaly awesome time at the pub and back at the good old a-p-t for delicious cake and hearty laughter with great friends. Last night, I had another group of friends over for a lively game of Apples to Apples and Scruples; it was a super cool night as well. Tonight, I"ll go out to dinner with my fam-damily at a delicous Japanese resturant - I can't wait!

Thanks to everyone for making my birthday spectacular!

Now, a word about Scruples...
In this game each person has 5 questions cards, one answer card, one plead the 5th card, and a challenge coin. The object of the game is to get rid of all your question cards by asking one person a question and getting them to answer they same way as your answer card - the options are: YES, NO, or DEPENDS. If they answer as you want, you get rid of your question card but if they don't, you draw another one. You always draw a new answer card. At any point someone can challenge the answer someone gives and everyone votes to say if that person is lying or telling the truth.

Bored? Yeah, we were too. This is not a fun game. The box makes it sound fun, but in actuality most people are doing nothing during most of the game. There is just too much wait time, and the questions (which are supposed to be moral dilemas) are just not that juicy. If you want a game in the same family that will bring forth giggling and fun, try True Colors. In this game everyone is invovled in every round.

Here's how True Colors works: Everyone picks a color and everyone has cards that have the different colors on them. A question is asked "who's most likly to....." and everyone picks two of their colored cards and puts them in a box thing. So, you are anonymously voting and you can vote for two differnet people or for the same person twice. Get it? Then, the votes are counted. It is fun, but best if played with people who know eachother well and who are good sports about things. It kicks Scruples ass.

Tadpole Visits Santa

Some of you may remember my friend Frog and her 2 1/2 year old daughter, Tadpole from this post.

Tadpole loves to dance, and usually when I visit we dance for hours at a time. She can dance to anything, although she prefers hip hop and oldies and is not a big fan of the slower music. She is very aware of the beat and often can start humming or even singing (as much as a 2 1/2 year old can) along to the music. She is quite musical. Tadpole comes up with dance moves, and her favorite is to shake her bottom while demanding that others join in and "shake it" too.

The other day, Frog took Tadpole to see Santa at their community center. Just when Tadpole sat on Santa's lap, someone started playing Christmas music. Upon hearing the music, Tadpole jumped off Santa's lap and started dancing - then she said to Santa "Shake it, Clausy - Shake it!" Frog was mortified, but I guess Santa thought he'd found a pretty good dance partner because he stood up and danced with her.

Kids are so cute.

It is a day worthy of hats!

Today in History:

**Napoleon crowned emperor (1804)
**Monroe Doctrine declared (1823)
**James K. Polk (our 11th President) affirms the Monroe Doctrine (1845)
**McCarthy Condemned by Senate (1954)
**John Gotti now head of Gambino family (1985)

But most noteworthy….

Nell was Born!!

Happy Birthday, Nell. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Message to my traveling Friends:

Happy Thanksgiving and Safe Travel!!

This Day in History

This day in history....

• Articles of Confederation Adopted
• The March to the Sea Begins
• Elvis' first film debuts
• A Tale of Two Cities (final installment) is published
• And finally, the most noteworthy "this day in history,"...MATT WAS BORN!!!

Happy Birthday Matt!

this blog brought to you, in large part, by the " history channel"

Ghost or Creepy Imaginary Friend- you make the call

Halloween for me is more than just one day a year. I love the turning leaves, the pumpkins, and cute black cats and witches. My celebrations started last Saturday when I hung out with my friend Frog and her daughter Tadpole. We went to a Halloween celebration on her mainstreet and Tadpole got to go trick-or-treating in her cute litte princess outfit. The night was suppossed to end with Tadpole going to bed and Frog and I carving pumpkins while watching scary movies. Well, Tadpole had other ideas, and ended up freaking me out more than any stupid movie could hope to do.

I was sitting on one end of the couch, and Tadpole was standing facing the other end when she got this weird look on her face and started to wave. She waved at what? Nothing that I could see. Then she mentioned a "man" (she is 2 1/2 and sometimes hard to understand). I mentioned this to Frog and she told me that Tadpole has been talking about this "man" more and more. Frog will find Tadpole talking to her baby doll saying "it's okay, it's okay." When asked what's wrong with baby doll Tadpole replies, "The man scared her." Frog says conversations like this have been becoming more regular. Frog informed me that usually the "man" is in Tadpole's room, so when she asked me if I wanted to go in her room, I said, "No, Tadpole, I do not want to go in your room." Child freaked me out!

Now, I realize in and of itself this is not much to blog about, or to be freaked out about, but there is more. Oh yes, there is more. First, some backround. Even when Tadpole was very young, she would wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares about a scarey man. Another night, Frog was sitting in her living room and saw the shadow of a man, she thought someone was on her porch, so she entered her bedroom to tell Mr. Frog and the shadow followed her into her room and then vanished! No, it was not Frog's own shadow - I asked. Something seems to be going on.

Let's get back to this past weekend. The next day, Tadpole was eating her lunch and she got this "weird" look on her face. This is what transpired:

Frog: Tadpole- what are you looking at?
Tadpole: The Man
Frog: No, Manda when home yesterday (Tadpole calls me "mana")
Tadpole: Not Mana, The MAN (getting a little upset)
Frog: T-man? (their cat). He's in the other room.
Tadpole: NO! THE MAN (really upset now).
Now, Frog did not want to encourage this or put ideas in Tadpole's head, but she was curious to figure out what Tadpole was talking about.

Frog: Does the man talk to you?
Tadpole: No
Frog: Is he nice?
Tadpole: YeahFrog: Does he talk to you?
Tadpole: NoFrog: Where is he now?
Tadpole: Behind you.

Creepy! So, Frog told Tadpole to tell the Man it's okay and he should go to heaven. That is exactly what she did. I have not heard if the Man has made anymore appearences, but I will keep you posted.
Happy Halloween!