I have lots and lots to tell...

first of all...may I just say that one of the scariest things in the world is to see a spider in your bedroom... then turn around to do something....and then turn back only to find yourself unaware of the spiders location. Spiders folks... a big problem in our house lately. Freaking frightening. Aside from the spiders, a lot of exciting things for me to blog about. First of all, Nicole (my beloved cousin for those of you who don't know) will be arriving this coming Friday night for a visit. I was only able to request Saturday off, but I'm so excited and I am counting down the days until she gets here. Rach and I have been looking forward to a hiking trip to Rocky Mountain National Park and we find no better reason for a visit than showing Nicole the incredible mountains that we cherish so dearly. Now I know most of you have never been to Colorado and have never seen the wilderness of the Rockies first hand. There are songs about it for a reason. They are absolutely spectacular. There is nothing more humbling. Personally, not even the ocean can make you feel so at mercy to nature. We humans have a tendency to think this is our world that we are given to play in. The Rocky Mountains are a constant reminder that Mother Earth was here long before we were making stones into wheels and will be here long after. Rachel and I have noticed that there are a lot more car accidents being picked up on the side of the road then we are used to on the east coast. When her parents were here, every time we were in the car, they made comments on how hard it must be to keep your eyes on the road while surrounded by such beauty. The mountain range is always there, and it will always, always, demand your attention. I can't wait to share these mountains with someone that is so close to my heart. I don't think she realizes it, but Nicole has always been a role model to me and I'm so excited to finally be able to show her something that will undoubtedly have her in awe. It's one thing to look at a man made structure and be amazed, but it's a whole other realm when you stand inside of something that you can't explain. The nature that is accessible from Denver, Colorado is something that is not within reach through anywhere I have been in the US so far. I think my appreciation for nature has been multiplied by about a million because of a trip Rachel and I took a few days ago. About two and a half hours south of Denver there is a place called Canon City. In Canon City, Colorado lies the Royal Gorge. Please take a moment away from the blog here to google this gorge. It is one of the biggest in the US, perhaps one of the biggest in the world. It sits around an elevation of 6,000 feet above sea level and exists far deeper into the actual Rocky Mountains than Denver does. Denver is about a twenty minute or so drive from the foot hills. The Rockly Mountains can be seen by turning your head to the west, you can't possibly miss them unless you're blind. If your blind, you can probably sense they're presence anyway. So with a full day plus the next morning off of work, we decided to head to Canon City to see this famous Royal Gorge that we've been hearing about since we got here. To make the trip not only more rustic but cheap, we stayed on a camping ground rather than a hotel for $60. Our cabin consisted of one double bed, two bunk beds and a door. It was small, primitive and there were mountains not only located to the west, but to two other directions as well (I'm not quite sure which ones). Bottom line is, we were IN the Rocky Mountains. We arrived at Canon City around one in the afternoon and after checking into our cabin went straight to the Royal Gorge. What makes the Royal Gorge so magnificent, besides it's depth, running river and overall beauty is the Royal Gorge Bridge that connects one side to the other. It's the tallest suspension bridge in the world. When I tell you that you haven't had your breathe taken away....you better believe that that I mean that nothing has ever left me standing in a communication-less state than this bridge has. The bridge is surrounded my a theme-ish sort of park. There are little shops, a train to ride,a petting zoo and a few animals on display in the park around the bridge. We paid our twenty dollars per person and walked around the park. We pet some goats at the petting zoo, took some pictures of buffalos and the biggest deer we've ever seen (even in the movies), went into a few shops, saw some of an old western reinactment, and walked across the bridge. While we walked across this incredibly tall bridge we peered below and watched the Arkansas River flow from one end of the gorge to the other. When I say the bridge is tall I don't mean that you drive across and the column like structures supporting the bridge tower over you...I mean that the distance from the wooden boards that support your feet to the river running its coarse under you is so far that you could fit a New York City building between the space. The river looks like a trail of condensation left from your air conditioning unit. Standing on the bridge and looking at the water reinvigorated a yearning that I've had since I stepped foot in Colorado. I NEEDED to go white water rafting. I saw what the river looked like from the bridge. I NEEDED to see what the bridge looks like from the river. A five minute phone call to a local white water rafting outfitter, and we were scheduled to depart at 9am the next day. After walking the bridge, buying Rachel a necklance and purchasing Kangaroo and Ostrich beef jerky, Rach and I headed back to our cabin. It was getting really cool out so we changed and Rach asked one of the staff where the best place to go for dinner was. Without hesitating, this one guy told us to go to White Water Cafe. So off we went. Not thirty seconds after we sat down did I notice something excited on the menu. The people of Colorado have adopted a very peculiar dish they call their own delicacy. Rach and I have been wanted to try this dish since we've gotten here but the dish is somewhat hard to find and we haven't been able to make the trip to the resaurant near Denver we know prepares it. Well, just our luck, I look down at the bar and BBQ menu before and I see it.... acting as if it was just another item on the menu, there it is. Rocky Mountain Oysters. Deep fried of served with cocktail sauce. 'Fried oysters??? But you can find them in restaurants easily you say. Well, my bloggy buttercup.... not these bad boys. Fried oysters may be common Creole cuisine, but Rocky Mountain Oysters are a whole other ball game. Ball game...that's exactly what they are. They are balls. The thinly sliced and deep fried testicles of a bull. In conjunction with our culinary feats that we are determined to undertake, we immediately ask our waitress for an order of this Colorado legacy. We made sure to order a strong drink (a blue moon with orange juice and a shot of orange vodka) to help our adventurous appetites be happy and strong. We took a video of the first bit. Since I am so technologically challenged, I'll leave Rachel in charge of posting the ordeal. Long story short, there were a lot of fried reproductive organs left in the basket for the server to take far, far away from us. It was a stormy night with plenty of rain and thunder. In Canon City there's basically nothing to do if the thrill filled outdoors is closed for business. For Rachel and I this leaves two options. The first option is Shark Week on Discovery Channel (how fun is that?!) and the other one, which due to our primitive lodging was chosen....is to drink as much as we can. So that we did. After our offensively off-putting oysters and below par sandwiches we decided to drink until our we pee breaks were separated only by ten minute intervals. We drank fast and called it an early night since we had our first ever, white water rafting adventure early the next morning. We arrived, with not even a touch of a hangover, at the Echo Canon Rafting office at 8:15 the next morning. We blindly signed a waiver that probably relived the company of the responsibility of our accidental death and sat around for almost an hour in our orange life jackets and helmets while about 60 other people signed their own lives away. Poor Rachel was super scared and I was trying to cross my fingers as tightly as I could hoping that we would go through rapids that would endanger our lives. Finally, a very adventure by nature looking guy loaded everyone onto the bus that would take us to our launch site about ten minutes away from the Echo Canon offices. We got off the school bus turned adventure transporter and stared at the river while the guides double checked the rafts and equipment. There were five guides attaching paddles and such to the rafts and Rachel and I immediately started observing them so we could decide which guide we hoped would take us down the river. Our eyes passed slowly and methodically from guide to guide until we saw her at the same time and looked at each other in confirmation. Out of the five guides, there was only one girl She was tan, blonde and totally jacked from guiding rafts down the river all summer. We stood in the crowd and waited patiently for our names to be called so we could be ushered to our designated raft. Two names down and her raft was still empty. Good sign. Another party called... they went to another guide. Again, a good sign. "Cappola party?" The guy that had given a safety speech on the bus ride over finally called our name. We stepped forward and meekly raised our hands for fear that looking too enthusiastic would make us looks like dorks in the presence of these outdoor gurus. "You two are with Krista." After a quick, undetectable glance of excitement towards each other, we awkwardly introduced ourselves to our guide and remained quiet until the other people in the our raft were told that they would be riding with Krista as well. After a few minutes of safety and 'what to expect' talk she pushed the boat into the river and everyone climbed on board. There was a family of four in the raft with us. A mother, her two daughters and one of the daughters boyfriend. Everyone had they're own paddle and Krista explained the commands that she would be yelling. We all did some practice strokes and then we were good to go. Our journey down the river lasted around two hours and even included some 4 scale rapids. Rapids are rated on a scale from 1-6 depending on their intensity. The highest level is a six and can only be done by kayak. We floated under the Royal Gorge Bridge and paddled in the very spots we were stared down at in awe and wonder the day before. That day before we found the bridge extremely impressive and at the top of our list of "Most Beautiful Things We've Ever Seen". Unexpectedly, the bridge was even more sobering and magical from below. It looked as if someone had installed a photoshop program into my eyes. The entire rafting experience stands as one of the best in my entire life. You're in awe the minute you arrive at the launch area to the second the bus pulls you away and the river disappears from view. We chatted with Krista the whole way since we were toward the back of the boat with her. I wish Canon City was closer so we could go rafting all the time. It was unreal. After rafting we came back to Denver and I had to rush to work and be there by four. Well, I'm exhausted and I think this post is long enough. See you all soon.

how bout them red socks?

So much time has gone by my little bloggetts, I just don't know where to begin! I apologize once again for my absence, I realize that it has been a very long time since my last entry. To start off, Rachel's birthday week was a complete success. The surprise went smoothly and we had night after night of birthday debauchery and madness. Since the family left, Rach and I have been to the Museum of Natural History, Water World and have been working hard. We haven't really hit any new restaurants since we are usually working at night. Water world was super fun. It is exactly what you think it is, it's a water park and we had an absolute blast. At the museum we finally saw the Bodies exhibit that has been touring the country for a few years now. It was definitely cool but I don't think I was quite as blown away as I had been promised. But it was definitely very interesting and it was inspiring to be around something that must have taken so much time and effort. Did you know that if you took a single person's circulatory system and unraveled it and stretched it into a line that it would wrap around the world twice?! Holy freakin moley! The cool thing about the exhibit is that everything is real. The lungs, the muscles, the everything is all from people who signed forms to allow their bodies to be used in the exhibit. At least I think that all of it was. Most of it definitely was. The images that were especially arresting for me were the embryos, which were set in little tubes from 2 weeks to 30 weeks or so. You saw how this little tiny bug looking thing grew into a baby. Another image that really grabbed me was the image of a lung with emphasyma and the lung of a smoker. The smokers lung was completely black. The lungs with cancer and emphasyma looked like they had already died and started to decay. Very frightening images. After the Bodies exhibit we went to the Planetarium. There, Whoopi Goldberg narrated the story of our stars and made us feel very very tiny. After that we went to an Imax movie called "Hubble" where Leonardo DiCaprio led us through an exploration of space through NASA's Hubble telescope. We got to watch astronauts go to space and repair the telescope and then traveled through images captured by it's lens. I'm still confused about how the thing works but it can see light years away so we can look into the past which frankly, boggles my mind. I don't understand how we can know so much about space. Like, how the hell do they know all this stuff! Hats off to the smartie pantses over at NASA. Jeez. So this is the cool stuff that we've been doing instead of blogging. Oh oh... last week we rode our bikes to downtown and swam in the little canal where there's a tiny little beach and tiny little rapids for kids to tube down. Imagine my disappointment when I saw this and didn't have a tube. While I played around in the water looking for treasures, Rachel laid out on her blanket and read her magazine like an adult. While she was there, she shared her shade under a tree with a girl in a wheelchair. I came back from the little river and found them chatting. This girl moved her wheel chair around by moving a pen around a touchpad attached to her chair. She had no used of her hands but could move her elbows and shoulders. I was introduced and Rachel told me that when she was 17 years old, this girl had lost control of her car and tumbled down a cliff. If she had broken one vertabrae higher, she would have been completely paralyzed. Where her car fell, there were only two houses anywhere around. A firefighter that lived in one of them heard the crash and saved her life. Rach and I rode our bikes back to the house with a new and very real sense of appreciation for our lives and our ability to ride our bikes. It's sad that sometimes we need another person's tragedy to be reminded of how good we really have it. Life can change in an instant. Far too quickly for us to waste time ever feeling sorry for ourselves. So maybe your curious about this entries title. Well...my fellow adventurers, we have officially landed ourselves a new home. After posting a sublet plea for anywhere in the country on facebook and hoping that fate would decide our next spot of exploration, the adventure Gods answered our prayers and is sending us to B town. We found a sublet through our good friend Cassie and will be living in Boston from Sept 1 till the end of November. We're especially excited about the New England fall. The pretty colors, the crisp air, the smell of apple cider and pumpkins.... we can't wait. We also know that it's gay friendly because well... duh...marriage is legal! Don't worry family and friends, we won't elope and deprive you of what one day will be the most funnest, super cool, outa sight wedding receptions of all time. Also, another great part about swinging over to Boston is.... we're going to spend a few days in New York along the way! Thats right... get your party hats out and put your game faces on because we're comin home! Both Rach and I have collectively spent maybe three days in Boston total so there is lots of exploring to do. If you know anywhere we should hit up when we get there, let us know. Lot's of my friends have lived there and they loved it. Now I'm just dealing with the anxiety of telling my job we're leaving. Boa has known forever but I don't know how to tell my boss. The people I work with are great, but he's kind of an asshole and I'm afraid if I give him two weeks notice he'll screw me over for two weeks, which I can't afford. I think I'll tell my coworker Megan first, who I really like, and ask her for advice. She's worked for Tom for 9 years so if anyone would know how to handle the situation it would be her. We're excited to move on, but we're extremely sad to leave Denver. We really love it here and if we were ready to settle down, I think this would be the place. But we're just not ready. And you never know... your life can change in an instant so you have to live everyday with all your heart. So for this next chapter in adventure, we'll be switching our beloved red rocks... for our sworn enemy the Red Socks. Funny how that worked out huh? Rach and I decided we'll go to Fenway for a game but we're not brave enough to wear any Yankees clothes. Maybe we'll wear them under our hoodies and if there are lots of Yankee fans to protect us we'll take the sweatshirts off. Now the new countdown begins...three weeks and two days left with the mountains we've grown to love so very much. -lj

I'm 25 years old

So I have finally recovered from my birthday week! My parents came into town the morning of my birthday, of course after being delayed in Chicago. And to my surprise, my best friend Melissa was with them!!! Thanks to Joanna my amazing girlfriend who knows the best present ever!!!! So long story short we had a blast. We took them all around downtown and up to red rocks and out to eat about every 2 hours haha. By the end we had drank and ate ourselves to the max. We even contemplated them staying til Sunday. But everyone has to get back to "real life" eventually. Good for us we're on an adventure so our "real life" is pretty exciting anyway haha. As for now... we are deciding our next destination and trying to enjoy the last 4 weeks in Denver. We stayed here a little longer then anticipated but that's ok. It's amazing here. Any ideas or suggestions for our next journey feel free to post =) Also, if anyone knows someone who needs a sublet that helps too!! Happy end of July everyone... onto August soon. xoxo

oh i give up

no paragraphs I suppose...whats that about I wonder?

alright that didn't work... testing... testing..

testing 1 2 3...

testing something about this paragraph business.... hello hello

We should have known better...

So more adventure today! We drove into the mountains to check out Deer Creek Canyon and noticed while we were in the foothills that our gas light was on. We decided we should continue and fill it up on the way back. Continue up we did. No, our car didnt break down. We pulled into the parking lot that looked like the place we were supposed to be going. I grabbed our backback full of four bottles of water, a flint, some bandages and some neosporin spray and we studied the map infront of the trailheads to choose our route. It was 90 degrees out and the air was almost still. We took ten steps onto the trailhead, stopped and took a look around. This didn't look like the other hikes we'd been on that took us up rocky mountains (literally, they were covered in rocks)with trees and creeks. This seemed more barran. And it was hazy outside because of the heat. We quickly made a decision to get back in the car, go get some gas, and find another spot to explore nature for the day. After coasting down the mountain road trying to hit the gas peddle as little as possible we came to a 7eleven and filled up the car. As I was filling it up I suggested that maybe we get sushi before Rach headed off to work tonight. In her appreciation, since she likes sushi way more than I do, she suggested when I got back to the car that we go to the aquarium today instead of go hiking. The aquarium! I've been wanted to go since we got here! Woohoo! Goodbye haze, black bear warnings and heat stroke, we're goin to the aquarium! We drove back to civilization and in fifteen minutes found ourselves in the aquarium parking lot. Almost forty dollars later and a parking voucher that promised we'd pay $7 more on our way out, we were in! We had so much fun. Funny how for some reason, I don't feel as bad for the fish in the tanks as I do for the mammals in the cages at the zoo. All the fun and almost no guilt! We saw lots of fish, turtles, sharks, stingrays, sharks, snakes, SHARKS, and for some reason we didn't understand...tigers. One of the tigers had the same birthday as me! I still didn't understand what they were doing at the aquarium though. We were having a wonderful time. Eventually, towards the end we came to a tank with a bunch of different fish in it. all the tanks were only around four feet tall so if you reallly wanted to...you could touch the top of the water. There was a really cool looking yellow fish swimming on top of the water back and forth. I reached my finger out and touched its back very lightly and respectfully. Its back was very hard, almost like a shell although it didn't look like it had one. It must be internal? Well I got such a kick out of this that I called Rachel over to feel the fish. While we were peering over looking and skimming our fingers over the water to attract the little fishes attention we heard a very stern womans voice behind us say "Please don't touch the fish. Thank you!" Yikes! Busted! Jeez, there weren't even any signs to say not to do it. We weren't hurting them. It's not like we were grappling and trying to fish them out. I turned around to find some old, blonde bitch standing there wearing a tee shirt and fanny pack pushing around her old blonde friend in a wheelchair. When I say old, I don't actually mean old. I'd guess fifties or sixties, but hey, that's older than us. Did some bitch in a fanny pack just reprimand me in a public space? "Do you work here?" I replied, knowing quite well that she did not. "No". she said. "But does that really matter?" There was a pause. I couldn't believe this woman! I'm not some little 15 year old punk! I volunteer and use words like please, excuse me and ma'am and sir! Then as I'm registering all this she has the nerve to tell... "you should know better". I should know better! I don't even KNOW anyone more repectful or polite than myself, not to toot my own horn. And this STRANGER is telling me that I should know better. I told her to mind her own business and walked away. I dont' know why it bothered me so much. I was really angry. She talked to me like I was her child's friend. I went over my thoughts with myself. Was I angry because she was right? Should I know better? Was I doing something wrong? Wait...no! I wasn't doing anything to hurt the little fish. I was simply putting out my finger so that its back would graze my skin on its way by. I've learned to walk away when I get mad because I know my temper can escalate quickly. But I really wish I had told her that I was an adult and what I was doing and that she had absolutely no right to talk to me the way she did. She obviously thought I was younger than I am which bothered me even more. Damn this childish demeanor and adoloescent charm! After emerging from the path that brings you through the aquarium we came to something that would definitly cool me down! There was a little pool full of stingrays for you to guess what...guess what they were there for....TOUCHING!!! You could touch them! Ha! In your face fanny packed witch! I'm gonna touch the stingrays and you can't say anything! Not only could you touch them.. you could feed them! For less than three dollars you were given three dead little fish, each about the size of an adult pinky. A poster told us that we should hold the fish by the tail between our fingers while we were making a fist. Just the way you'd hold a key to punch an attacker...or some lady who can't mind her business! Feeding and touching the stringrays was a blast! You just held your fist under the water and they'd rub their nose on your hand, then swim over your hand so you can't see it (which is scary) and then it eats the fish. They were huge! And so soft and silky! It was the best part of the day and exactly what I needed after being yelled at for touching things! Because I have the best girlfriend EVER Rach let me do two fishes and she did it once. She's the best. After feeding the stingrays we got pretty hungry ourselves and decided to keep the aquarium excitment going by eating at the aquarium restaurant. Well, THIS we should have known better. The food was pretty bad and kind of expensive. We both expected it to be bad anyway, I mean, c'mon, its the restuarant inside the aquarium. But at least we got to watch sharks swim around while we were eating our horrible food. Now rach is at work and I'm home again watching TV. I've really gotten into Lifetime lately. The show REBA is actually really good! It's just way to hot to go outside! We might go out with Liz tonight which can only ensure two things. A great night and an awful morning. But, nothing good comes free right? Oh I almost forgot! Remember yesterday when I bought Rachel that good luck statue from Mt. Everest Imports? Well I used that information today to get me Nosz! Pernounced.. Noses. Nosz is my new, little stuffed stingray! I plan for him to live in the car, but for the time being he'll sleep with me until the excitement of a new stuffed animal leaves me. He was only two dollars more than Rachel's statue and we bonded in the gift shop regardless of the fact that Rachel was trying to rush me out before I got attached to anything. She should have held my hand and pulled me through so I couldn't grab anything! I mean, it's her fault... she should have known better... -lj

reflection

I took some time last night while Rach was at work to reflect and read over our blog from the beginning. It was so much fun to do! We worked so hard on this adventure idea and were so excited about it! How can we give the idea up after only three months? We spent three times that long planning it! I say we must go on and I insisted to Rachel when she got home that she should take time to read our blog as well. It just gives a different perspective. One that we had a very clear view of only a few months ago. This is such a cool idea! What twenty five year old wouldn't want to go on a two year (give or take) long road trip! The experiences and friends we will walk away with after this will be far more valuable to us than going back to school right now before we're ready. We had already pretty much decided to continue on adventure a few days ago but reading the blog sort of set a reset button for me. It restored me to my original factory state and reignited my passion for what we're doing. I'm so glad I did it. Anyway...I apologize to readers that blogspot does not let me make paragraphs while I'm writing. Sometimes the lack of paragraphs make it hard to follow when I all of a sudden change subjects. If I could separate my ideas into paragraphs for you to be better understand, I would, however, I cannot. So...switching topics... the movie yesterday was amazing and so funny. It was touching, very clever and if anything, left Rach and I wanted daughters rather than wanting to be actors. But remember when I said I couldn't wait for the cartoon in the beginning? Well, there wasn't one! Maybe I was wrong- I guess it's not a Pixar movie. Regardless, I was very disappointed because i just LOVE those little short cartoons. I want to get that DVD of them that one an Oscar two years ago. I find short cartoons so intelligent and imaginative. So, moving on, after the movie we decided that our little travel bug was hungry. Two nights earlier we had watched our (or maybe my) hero, Anthony Bourdain eat at a sausage cart placed somewhere on the 16th Street Mall. The 16th Street Mall is sort of Denver's Times Square. It's the tourist strip but its still full of fun shops, the book stores, restaurants, the movie theatre we go to (a lot), piano's in the middle for anyone to sit and play and a free bus that runs up and down the street from Capital Hill to the little canal. Don't picture Times Square in your head. If there's one thing about Denver its that its clean clean clean and does NOT resemble New York City. This explanation having been said, Rachel and I decided to find this sausage cart that Anthony Bourdain showered with praise. We decided to walk toward Capital Hill since we were closest to that. No go, it wasn't that way. So we turned around and walked down the street in the opposite direction. We went into one of my favorite stores called Mt. Everest Imports and Rachel bought a little good luck statue. This store has imports from Nepal and Tibet and smells like inscence. I've always loved this store. So now with good luck charm in hand (which cost us $5.34, 34 is my lucky number!) we continued down the street. No cars are allowed on 16th st, only those free busses so the middle is a free, safe space. In about two blocks we saw an information booth and walked over to inquire about this sausage stand we'd seen on Travel Channel. The lady knew exactly what we were talking about! "You must mean Biker Jim." Yes! That was the guy's name! She took a little black and white map printed on a piece of computer paper and marked an "X"on the corner of Arapahoe and 16th. She handed us the paper and wished us a good day. We kept walking and finally found the stand! We knew it was the right one because we recognized the sign in front. "Elk and jalepeno, Alaskan Reindeer..ALWAYS" Yep, this is what we were looking for! This is the stuff this adventure is about! Although this was the right cart we were disappointed that a nice looking guy around our age wearing a green shirt promoting recycling, replaced the famous Biker Jim we were excited to meet. We chatted with the guy and he explained that he sort of worked the cart for Jim now because they were busy getting a restaurant built. This guy seems really passionate about the cart and it seemed he'd been working with Biker Jim for a long time so we found him a very acceptable substitute. We wanted to try all the sausages since lots of them were proteins we've never tried, but they seemed so big we only chose two. We chose the Elk jalepeno and the Alaskan Reindeer. He asked what we wanted on them and we told him to be in charge of that. They came with a squirt of cream cheese and carmalized onions. We're not crazy about onions but if there's one important thing we've learned working in restaurants, it's that chef's do things for a reason. If it normally came with onions, then thats how we were going to eat them. I had been eyeing some picked relish the whole time and threw that on the reindeer one. (A move I will regret) We found an empty table on the side walk with an umbrella and sat down, super excited for a culinary adventure which is our ABSOLUTE very favorite kind of adventure. They weren't quite as good as we expected and we had to spend a minute scraping that super sweet pickle relish off the reindeer but they were still pretty good. Our mistake was trying these spicy, meaty, hot sausage/hot dogs on a 100 degree July day. The reindeer meat was especially delicious. It was really sweet and juicy. The elk was a little gamier but still full of flavor. Next time we definitely want to try the rattlesnake/pheasant sausage and I want to try the reindeer one without onions. I get why they're there... I just can't help it if I don't like them! We practically had to roll ourselves back to the car we were so full. Even though it wasn't as good as we thought, we think under different weather conditions it could be so we totally plan on going back till we try all of them. The experience gave me yet another reason to want to move to Alaska for a few months... Reindeer meat is really really good! Today we're going to check out some hiking grounds we might want to take the Popson parents when they come next week. It's going to be so fun to show them around and for them to see where we've been living. I wish my parents could come. My biological parents! Last time I was with the Popsons I was instructed to refer to them as mom and dad. Well...as dad. I need an arm around my shoulder and a "moment" to start calling Karen, mom, which I will force her to do next week. Another night alone tonight for me while Rachel goes to work. Don't be surprised if you get a second post today! -lj

our new LOST

It appears we've replaced ABCs LOST with our own life size version. We seem to find ourselves at a cross road at the moment and every twenty minutes we want to go a different direction. Do we stay? Do we continue? Do we go back to NY? It's a very tough call and depending on our surroundings at the moment, they all have their times of making sense. We've still got this acting bug napping at our feet whenever we see a good movie or watch a musician perform. We feel a sense of comfort and fun when we're out with Liz, Rachel's boss/our best friend here. And when we watch Anthony Bourdain travel the world and experience things that eventually mold him into the super totally awesome guy that he is... we want to keep this adventure going no matter how far away we feel it takes us from growing up. I keep trying to justify that traveling can be a way of growing up because it makes you smarter, more aware, well traveled (obviously) and more adventurous...not to mention more understanding and more tolerant of things you perviously didn't understand. My life has always seemed to just work out well when I follow my heart so why wouldn't this? I like relying on my instincts and making decisions based on gut alone rather than throwing reason into the mix which never really did anyone any good in my opinion. As much as I'd love to sit here and philosophize my life into understanding in blog world, Rachel and I must leave to catch yet another movie. It seems to be one of our favorite things to do. It's the new Pixar movie which is a guaranteed good time. I'm looking forward to not only the movie but the touching and adorable cartoon that will play before the movie begins. I love that Pixar has those! Thankfully cartoons don't make us miss acting the way real people movies do, so I'm excited for a good day! -lj

dogs

Well I am up bright and early on this Monday morning because for some reason Joanna and I feel the need to be nice to our neighbors and offer to dog-sit for them. Let's start at the beginning. Betty left Wednesday night for California. Thursday morning, Beau (her black lab) had diarrhea. All day Thursday...same thing. When we returned from work Thursday night he left lots of presents, or should I say puddles, all over the carpets in the living room. Of course strategically missing the easy-to-clean hardwood floors. So friday comes... and the same events occur WHILE JOANNA WAS HOME!! So it's not that he couldn't have made it outside. Now, i'm taking is personally. Well then our neighbor Dory comes over and says that her house sitter cancelled can we go down and feed her sharpee and beagle until Sunday. "Oh sure", we say. "No problem". Haha. What a joke. We refer to the beagle as big girl. She is 13 years old and literally would eat shit if it were on the menu. She will grab anything and everything she can and shove it in her mouth. The sharpee, or wrinkles as we called her, on the other hand is extremely sensitive and wouldn't eat no matter what we did. Poor Joanna laid on the floor for an hour so that the dog would feel comfortable with her. She has a little more patience than I do clearly. The next day she was on their back porch trying to get the sharpee inside and stepped in shit. The owners don't walk them they just have a doggy door to the back porch where they have 3 dogs relieve themselves. So now it's Sunday morning. Before agreeing to help Dory and knowing what a pain it was we had told ANOTHER neighbor Vicki that we would watch her Jack-Russel-Terrior for her. So at 9:30am Sunday morning here comes full of life, and barks, RIDLEY!!! Oh great a little dog running around sick Beau barking her brains out. So we head back over to Dory's, attempt to feed them one last time and are relieved that at least that is over. So Jo and I decide that since we have the day off until 5pm we will go to the zoo. So we leave Beau and Ridley home to play with eachother and embark on our journey. The Zoo was awesome =) We had a great time. We get back to the apartment with just enough time to quickly get ready for work, when oh, big shocker, the dogs pissed and pooped all over the rugs in the living room. Apparently they had a territory-marking CONTEST!!!!! So, we attempt to clean it all up, eat our subs, shower, get ready, and take them for a walk. VERY LONG STORY SHORT......They are now punished to the kitchen while we are gone and I am up so early this Monday morning because a little doggy doesn't like to stop barking until you wake up. CONCLUSION------ we will have a cat. And only a cat. I apologize for the vent but geez. What a weekend. Lilith Fair tomorrow =) and all puppies back to their owners. Thank god. Happy Monday everyone.