Nissan Pathfinder, 1991-2008, Rest In Peace

The full life of Nissan Pathfinder sadly came to a close on Saturday, July 12th, 2008. Nissan was heading home from a trip to the local biking trailhead with a balding 31-year-old and an overly furry 7-year-old in tow when it suffered a devastating timing belt break. The break did irreparable (or at least ridiculously expensive) damage to the valves of Nissan's engine. Nissan's caretaker changed the spark plugs in futility and rushed Nissan to the College Exxon (rushed = Monday morning) with the help of Elite Towing. Unfortunately Nissan was deemed to be damaged beyond reasonable revival and will soon be laid to rest at AF&T Auto Parts and Salvage. The balding caretaker will receive $60 for his troubles. Nissan lived each of its 195,000+ miles with a spirit of adventure and an obnoxious ticking noise.

This just in! An investigation of an unnamed, balding, 31-year old has recently been opened. This individual is suspected of criminal negligence. This unscrupulous individual will allegedly receive $60 as a result of his crimes. If you see this person, please call AAA immediately. Do not attempt to approach him as he may be dangerous. Authorities believe he is at large in Bozeman on a blue bicycle.

Is it November yet?

I love the summer, but sometimes I wish that I could hit the fast-forward button. . .
http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/D/DIRTY_AIR?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-03-14-09-48-22

Holiday Pics

I got on the blog tonight to share some of our holiday-time photos but realized that most of the pics that I wanted to share are on Erin's camera. Unfortunately she is in New York visiting her family and I'm pretty sure she has her camera with her. I found some other pictures that are worth sharing though. You'll just have to deal with the fact that they are a little bit random.



This is from Bozeman's Christmas Stroll; it's a big deal around here and I wanted to go to it more to see the spectacle than to really participate much. Main Street is closed down and insanity rules for a few hours. One of the jewelry stores downtown had college-aged girls dressed as Elves (or something) dancing and posing in the front display window. Kind of reminded me of the Calvin Kline weird dancing billboard deal in Time's Square.



Erin hard at work for school. She didn't know I was taking this but I love the way the picture turned out. I can't wait until she's done with school; though she'll probably just find something else to keep her busy whe we get to that point.

This last one I took at the top of the hill next to our house where I walk Kaya every morning. I typically walk her between 5:45 and 6:30 and it's completely dark, but this is on a Saturday not long after snow.



I can't wait to get Erin's camera. I'll give you a little teaser for photos to come: Christmas Turtlenecks.

HS Reunion

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine from High School (Taylor, I know many of you know him) organized a get-together of a group of guys that knew each other in high school. We went up to McCall (9 hours from Bozeman!)for a long-weekend (long describing the time driving, not the time relaxing).

I had a great time (aside from the driving) and really thought that the whole thing was interesting. I can't say that all of the guys that were there were my closest friends from high school, but a couple of them were (Trevor, Taylor, Bryce) and they were all guys that I considered friends. I've kept up with Trevor and Taylor the best, though thats not saying much, but I was really struck by how much they all seemed to be pretty much the same. I wonder how much of that was real and how much is the result of reverting to old social roles? While each person's chosen life path has definately taken them in a different direction than my own, their choice of life path seemed quite fitting. But maybe I'm just fitting my observations to my theory. Do I sound like a dorky scientist or what?

P.S. It's crazy how I start a blog out meaning to tell one story, and end up telling another.

Camera Recovery

Hi, everybody. I finally found a cord that I could use to download photos from my camera. Thought I would share one or two.


Erin, Kaya, and I went fishing on the Madison River over a month ago. I was really jonesing to go and managed to drag Erin away from her homework long enought to join me. After driving about 45 minutes we got out of the car and stepped into a frickin' tornado. For those of you who have gone fly-fishing, you know that this is about the time that you turn the car around and go watch a movie or something.

Well, I was pretty exited to go and wanted Erin to get a feel for what it's all about; so we suited up and waded into the river. The picture with Kaya is pretty deceiving; she was nothing close to well-behaved. I swear she knew where I was going to cast before I did. Time and again she would barrel into the river right to where I was headed. It was OK because the whole thing was an exercise in futility from the outset, but I might hesitate before taking her with me when I'm serious about catching fish.

The highlight was watching Kaya trying to get to the opposite shore in places where it got deep. She loves the water but hates swimming in it. She would get close enough to the shore to taste it, but would get swept back just before getting there. She would look back at us frantically and then struggle to the banks. It was really funny. I'm excited about the winter but not a huge fan of working during the few hours of daylight.


How’s that for 16 words, Mom?

LET'S GO ROCKIES, YOU CAN DO IT!

There. Including this sentence that makes fifteen words.

GO ROCKIES!