As you can tell....it's spring

Ah, spring in Bozeman! Here you always know when spring arrives because it snows more. Our yard sale was supposed to be this morning, but as the icicles on the clothes line clearly indicates, this was not to be. Thank goodness Kadie decided to sell everything on Craigslist. Our sale emporium was a resounding success and we had the added benefit of not having to drag everything out onto the snow covered lawn. The countdown to leaving the shack is now 6 days!

Ranger Kadie, Zoo Naturalist

Just in time for Andrea's birthday yesterday, I got a JOB!!! Yay. Happy birthday!

From henceforth, I shall be known as a "Naturalist", in the great tradition of my heros Sir David Attenborough, Farley Mowatt, Gerald Durrell, and of course, Jane Goodall (LOVE that hair-do!) So, from time to time I may be entertaining you all with Zoo Tales (he he he)

The best thing about this job, I believe, is it's a Temp/Part-time gig which will give me plenty of time to play, learn all about the area's animal life (and animal life from around the world!), and bicycle like a crazy woman all summer.

AND, the job doesn't start until the first part of June, which is perfect because it will give Andrea and I a chance to get settled and relax a bit together before the deluge of homework begins.

Now to work on outfitting my Naturalist's tool-belt...

Kadie & Andrea's Craigslist Emporium

In preparation for moving, we were going to have a yard sale. Bozeman springtime weather put the kaibosh on that... As I write this, it is transitioning from sideways grapple to sideways stinging rain, and our yard sale plans have melted away like sugar cubes in hot coffee.

Fortunately, I have been going with plan B ever since looking at the 10-day predictions on weather.com (which brings to mind Andrea's favorite adage: the chinese word for 'problem' is the same word for 'opportunity'...) and that would be: CRAIGSLIST! Already sold: the loft bed, climbing holds, a bivy sack, tent, bamboo blinds, and dog booties. There are folks calling about the nail polish, hair spray, and body lotion I put up (we cleaned out some storage crap from The Mayor's little house).

If you know anyone who might want to buy the Sourcebook in Asian Philosophy, a Dream Dictionary, or maybe some esoteric texts on music theory, don't hesitate to let us know...

More pics from the roadtrip

Caption contest?

While camping in the rain at Ainsworth State Park in the Gorge, we attempted the Sunday Times crossword. Camping and crosswords....aaaahhhh

Beats the heck outa Motel 6.

We took a lot of pictures of the dog on this trip (as we do everywhere). Here she is, in her favorite seat, enjoying the scenery.

One of the most important things on a road trip is COFFEE: but you never really own the coffee, you merely lease it for a short time. We pulled off in Drummond, MT to relinquish it in the proper receptacles, and found this nifty little watering hole.

Here's a shout out to all the Swedes in Andrea's family

Apartment Hunting

Amazing Thai food at PokPok

Wind energy is BIG in the Gorge

Andrea's Blackberry came in handy for navigating to dinner. And, check out that funky bedspread.

Chili listened at the door all night long, ever vigilant

We roadtripped out to the Portland area over the weekend in hopes of finding an apartment. This time we took the Chi with which unfortunately caused us to become very sleep deprived. Chili has not had much experience staying in hotels....our cheap hotel had paper thin walls along with an adjoining room (where you could hear the distinct sound of a beer opening) causing her to be ever vigilant which meant little sleep for us. But we pressed on! We looked at 6 apartments total, 3 of which were in Beaverton which I have decided is hell personified. We lucked out on the final apartment on our list and will have a protected woodland right outside our balcony. Kadie is very excited for all the birding opportunities!

To celebrate finding a new abode, we went out to dinner at Pok Pok with Kadie's brother Micha. This was quite possibly the best Thai food I have ever had and I really enjoyed the beer from Laos.

After another night of little sleep (the Chi ever so vigilant) we grabbed some free coffee from out cheap motel. It was horrible, however Kadie observed "it's not horrible, it's just not good". Indeed. Desperate to get a good night's sleep we traveled away from Portland up the Columbia river gorge to find a place to camp. Along the way we hiked up to several beautiful waterfalls and soaked up all the greenery. We crashed in the tent around 6pm and slept a good 13 hours. Chili is very used to camping and backpacking so she shelved the vigilance and konked out too. It was good.

Road Trip Weather Forecast

Right now it is snowing lightly in Bozeman. The forecast lists a winter weather advisory for us, and in Portland the forecast is rain, with a chance of showers, and more rain.

Aside from planning for the road trip, we are excited because today we are giving notice for moving out of the shack! We are hoping it's ok for us to stay through the first week of May, otherwise we will be camping out during Kadie's last few days of work...