What does he think about out there all alone?

Does he remember his mom and siblings?

Sushi, Saturdays, and spring time musings.

Friday night I revisited sushi. We've had a pretty tumultuous relationship. I want to like sushi, because thats what worldly people do, but I really hate sushi. The aforementioned friend of mine from high school came over to our neck of the woods, and we headed over to Poor Billys, a sushi hotspot. Luckily this time wasn't so bad. I was mostly focused on the warm sake in from of me. I had never had sake before, but this stuff was very mild and delicious. It had this faint aroma of my Grandma Nancy's homemade cinnamon roll dough, laid out in rectangles with melted butter drizzled over them. The cinnamon-sugar clusters expand outward as they sink slowly in the butter puddles. I would always pinch away the corners of the dough and eat them. I love dough. Anyway, Trip and I ordered things in roll form this time, to play it safe. What really made me hate sushi is the Nigiri form, which is when it's just sitting on a square of rice, staring at you. So the rolls are like child's play. Either way, I still don't get why people are all about it.

Saturday was a beautiful day. I went to work to check on the beetles, and brought my favorite Valentine along so he could run around the wide open spaces that house my place of work. It was really nice, too. about 50 degrees. Well there's this hay field right behind the greenhouse at work with a gorgeous view of mountains, so I jumped up on on of the round bales. Fortunately they are covered with black plastic, so they were warm and dry. I was up there, getting ready to take a picture when I felt a warm tongue on my jeans (He loves licking jeans where you wipe your hands on them. It's embarassing when you have company). I knew the culprit... Woodford! How did you get up here?! I had no idea he could climb, but he did. He jumped, dug his nails into the musty hay, and propelled himself upward. What a champ! Anyway, click here to watch the video that ensued.



After the large amount of alcohol we consumed Friday night, we were looking forward to not tearin' the town up again. Plus, Trip worked all day with our friend Greg doing some electrical work on some lady's barn roof. Well, I worked hard, too. As you could tell. I had this craving to go to Barnes and Noble to drink some hot chocolate and snuggle up in an oversized chair with a good book about sustainable living practices. Luckily, this can actually happen, and it did. I found this AWESOME book called Possum Living, written in the 70's by some backwoods bumpkin broad, Dolly Freed. Well, I thought so anyway. She wrote it with a 7th grade education, and it is hilarious, and way practical. As it turns out, she went on to be a NASA aeronautical engineer, and a professor, and an environmental educator. But this book tells you basically how to live with no money in the backwoods, and it's not all hippie crap either. It's like "Ok, doves are better to eat than starlings, but if you want something really good, eat a woodcock. Also, groundhogs are good, but best when clubbed, rather than shot." Plus she tells you how to distill all types of liquor, even a good moonshine. She doesn't do holidays, the gifts she gives include; dressed and frozen rabbits, double distilled (the good stuff) moonshine, and fresh eggs. I can't begin to profess my love for this woman. So, I showed the book to Trip, and he fell in love with it, too. So he bought it. Now we own this legacy.


Sunday was the two week birthday of my little baby chickens! They're getting all kind of feathers poking out all over them, and they look terribly awkward. However, they're getting much sweeter, so I can't hate on them for being ugly. I fed them part of my cereal this morning by hand, and one of them perched on my arm while the other three gathered around my cupped palm and ate their fill. Ahh, so cute. Click this spot to enjoy a video of them I took yesterday.

The temperature is increasing, and winter beginning to melt. Finally I remember what the snow has been hiding for three months. My visions of garden planting and seed starting are getting less hazy. Soon the chickens will be outside, pecking at bugs and scratching the earth under their feet. Woodford will laze about in his dog house, yawning in the sun. Warm, wet ground, tall boots covered in clay. My coffee on the front porch swing, gazing at Old Man Weather to the west.

Thoughts on having a weekend.

Photos from where I toil about for 40 hours per week.




Thats from my office.






Thats the greenhouse where I will keep my started seedlings in a few weeks.



Tonight a friend from high school is swinging by to have dinner downtown in Blacksburg. Apparently her boyfriend works in Roanoke, so it pans out for everyone. She wants to come by the house first to see Woodford and the chickens, so I'm leaving work a little early to clean up the homestead a bit. My boss already left an hour ago, after getting here two hours after me. Ahh, I can't wait to be full time someday...

I got a new phone yesterday, a Nokia Twist 7705. The "New Every Two" program from Verizon actually works. I got it for free, so it couldn't be better. Plus it's actually kind of hip, the hippest phone I've had yet. It even has a Qwerty keypad for optimum text messaging performance. Trip is already very happy about this. It also has a 3.0 megapixel camera, and took those two pictures from work that you see above. Not bad for a phone, you know?





And here I go on to a weekend that will spoil me, for now.

Happy Valentine's Day!

...and happy one-week celebration of life to my little chick-a-babies. They're beginning to look like real birds instead of presents in your Easter basket. Look at those primary wing feathers!

It's been an awesome weekend, with minimal dollazz spent on our part.

Friday night we went out for a quick bite to eat at a really sweet spot in Blacksburg, called Lefty's Main Street Grill. It's kind of an atmosphere like Applebee's, but completely Blacksburg-specific. And not quite as gaudy, more quaint. It used to be a Long John Silver's, but the place is actually fixed up really classy and cute inside. I know you don't believe me, but if we ever get any visitors, I'll prove it to you. Anyway, so we were munching on our din-din; my ham & asparagus sammie, and Trip with his hooha, whatever it was. I don't care. This girl approaches our table and claims she has tickets to a music show downtown, starting in 40 minutes, but her friend backed out and she didn't want to go alone. Would we like to have them for free? Uhhh, would we?! We've been wanting to go to a cool show for so long, but they're usually pretty expensive and we just can't justify it. Needless to say, we graciously accepted the 30$ pair of tickets.



We were heading to see Imani Winds, a Grammy winning group of wind instruments attached to people that play music from all over the world, with gusto! They were great! They performed at a downtown theater, The Lyric, that is supported solely by the community and volunteer work, I think? Anyway, it was the first time I had ever been to a show that had a clarinet or a bassoon, or both, on stage. All for free, what a great deal!

Saturday I felt pretty restless. It was really cold and all I wanted to do was bike to the coffee shop with Woodford, grab an iced coffee, sit outside while sporting my huge sunglasses with shorts, and pretend I am reading a book and taking notes, but actually watch people and sketch them. Alas, it was under 20 degrees, and at that point, there is no option as to whether your coffee is iced. :( Ahhh, I can't wait until spring time...



We decided Saturday night we would keep the music streak alive and go to another show, also for free: The New River Community College Banjo, Fiddle and Dance Club. Ohh... it was glorious. We walked into a large room radiating with beautiful mountain music, people laughing, dancing, and little kids bumbling around their parents' legs with smiles. We grabbed a couple hot dogs and sodas and watched with wide eyes and hopes to blend in. We were the youngest people there, aside from a slew of tykes under five. One band was a traditional bluegrass style band, while another was an old tyme band. They play the same instruments, but in a much different way. After several attempts on Trip's behalf, I finally accepted his offer to dance. We weaved our way up front to dance with the mass, although I did my best to bury us in it. As it turns out, it was pretty fun. People were jumping around and switching partners, old men were flirting, old ladies were blushing. Some were two-stepping, some were tapping, square dancing, but everyone was just moving their happy feet. Loves it. Why was I not born here?



Waking up first is something I have always loved doing, and living with Trip, it's pretty easy. I love morning! This morning I ate ice cream for breakfast (Karmel Sutra from B&J's, getting the Valentine mood off at an early start, yeah!), ground some coffee beans, made said coffee, and took Woodford on a nice long walk down the road. Of course, I deposited some coffee in Trip's thermos at the ready for his awakening! What a great Valentine I am? Well, it was an exceptionally pleasant morning, and everything seemed right, so I made a tiny video. I decided against using Blogger's video upload program, so I am going to put mine on youtube from now on. It's easier and there are less issues. Check out the earth's voluptuous curves via this valiant Valentine's viewing.

There is a cattle farm along the same road home, and one of the pastures full of steers contains one with a perfect heart shaped splotch on his face. This morning the farmer fed them right before I went through, so I had to search extra hard to find him and snap a photo, as they refused to lift their heads from the trough. I had to jump around and make weird squirrel noises to get this, totally ruining my long red pea coat with muck boots, coffee mug and coonhound sexy strut for the rest of the walk. Those things just seem to go together to me, uhh hello country life?



My Bovine-alentine.

Upon my return home, Woodford was feeling sleepy and lazy from his walk, and Goose took advantage of this. She's terrible. Yet another splendid video worth just a single viewing.

We spent the afternoon at one of our favorite restaurants in town, India Garden. It's a well-done, classy Indian joint with a moderately priced,(but freaking delicious!) lunch buffet. Much props to Trip for making this possible. He's so sweet. Look at him so sweetly laughing at my jokes, moments before we were hurled out of a plane toward the land that holds our feet and a sea of corn... before we were even dating! I love him so.



Tonight I made a new dinner: venison meatballs over rice with salad. I used a base recipe and modified it a bit because I didn't have some ingredients. Substituted salsa for tomato sauce, bread crumbs for saltines, and threw some applesauce in the topping because the ketchup thing was far too tart. Also, I didn't use dairy products... I was too busy with attending to Trip's and my constantly empty cans of PBR. The meatballs were pretttty tasty. Dad, I think you'd be a fan. I bet if you ground some venison and cooked it yourself, Mom wouldn't even know... until she started growing antlers, but those could easily be diagnosed as horns? Either way, she'd finally get the rack she's always wanted. Just kidding Mom!



One more thing, I noticed the Prairie Home Companion (NPR) this morning (yesterday's) was a little racy. Go get 'em Garrison Keillor!

Snow days and little chickie nugglies.

After such a brief mention of our pilgrimage to Illinois last time, I remembered a few things that deserve mention. One; somewhere between December 23rd and 24th, there was a huge ice storm up in Mendota, Il, where Trip and I happened to be located at the time. The power in the apartment above the dentist office flickered on and off, then eventually off. A pretty light show ensued, as the transformers all around the neighborhood were exploding beautiful shades of blue all around. A decently sized tree just between the office and the house (they are in the same yard, to those who don't know) got hit with too much of the good stuff, and one of it's huge branches fell down. It took out a window in Doc and Marilyn's house, too, right above their bedroom, without notice. No surprise there. As it were, Trip and my own sleepy head were only a few feet from said carnage. I guess I was too busy with visions of sugar plum fairies to wake. Above you can see Woodford and his new bestest friend, Mocha, Trip's uncle's dog. He finally found a canine to match his inferior intelligence!


The second story worthy of mention involves Trip clogging my parents' toilet and flooding the upstairs bathroom so that it seeped through the vents into the basement.





















One would think that with men like my father and brother under the same roof, this sort of thing must happen all the time. I inform you that it indeed has never happened. A man of talent, he is!


For a brief time toward the end of January, it was pretty good outside here. Trip and I took advantage of said goodness and headed over to a local hiking hotspot, along with every other human in SW Virginia, to burn some fat and see a waterfall. The Cascades are about 20 minutes west of Blacksburg, where you turn at a neat little convenience store with a delicious cafe. The spot serves as the jumping-off point for a lot of guided fishing trips, canoe trips, and things of the sort. If anyone ever comes to visit, these falls will probably be a destination. It's a pretty easy hike upward with absolutely scrumptious greenery. You follow the Little Stony Creek for a considerable distance. Apparently trout are pretty plentiful there, judging by the quantity of men in waders with floofy lures flying around in the air. It was pretty, and there was still a bit of ice, but most had thawed at that point. I heard it was pretty bomb-ass frozen.






Work is still going pretty well for me, haven't heard anything new on the full-time sitch. I just plug away, feeding and tucking beetles in all day. These are not the exact species of beetle I work with at the Quarantine Lab, but it is the one I worked with in the Insectary. Mine looks just like this but kind of red. There aren't any pictures of it on Google. Boo.




Trip's work is still going ok, too. He has some hard times, but he did get his new laptop at the beginning of the week. It's great! It's an HP of some sort, and it's pretty. All shiny and stuff. It even came with a remote control for playing music, I guess. It will save him so much time... time he could be professing his love for me or massaging my feet! Yeah right! Either way, he deserves it, and I am so happy for him.






One day we grabbed din-din at the Ethiopian restaurant downtown to celebrate... life? It's only a takeout place, so unfortunately the general public didn't get to view Trip nommin' on his first platter of empty hopes and dreams (kidding!). Ethiopian food is pretty tasty, I had some good stuff in New Jersey once. My meal there was easily within the top three meals I've ever had in my life. The cool thing about Ethiopian food is that you don't use silverware. You use this bread/wrap stuff called Injear to pick up the food and eat it. It has a sourdough-like taste and a chewy texture. This is another place that visitors would be suggested. The food is so savory, delicious, and it has a very comforting feel. Yumbly!



I'm sure you've heard about this snow thing we've been getting a lot of. We have more now than the Winter Olympics, even. Check that out, Canada. Apparently, some places here have received about three feet this season. Shit! We've got a huge ton around here. As it turns out, Virginians close down the world with a threat of snow or ice. We've had a couple snow days so far, including Friday. It was coming down Antarctica style! I went to work in the morning, but feared I wouldn't be able to get my little four-bangin' beast anywhere if there was as large of an accumulation as they were calling for. I don't know why I was worried, she gets me where I want to be. Anyway, here is a short video of our Friday afternoon well spent.








Saturday we headed over to the Pandapa's Pond trail system for Trip to take his snowboard on an unsuccessful run through the woods. While Trip was not having any luck going down hills, I spent my afternoon trying to get Woodford to fall into the semi-frozen creek. Unsuccess, but whatevs. Either way, it was nice to get out and see some familiar outside stuff. The rhododendrons looked pretty and plastic under the snowfall and bright sunlight. See!














































Also worth a mention are Woodford's newest and biggest friends. We go for a walk every day that weather allows, and happen upon a small pasture with two horses; a sorrel gelding and a pregnant bay mare. Every day I arrive at the fence and the gelding will come a strollin' over for a pat on the head. The mare reluctantly follows. Woodford runs around behind/between/circling them in all the wrong places searching for poop morsels. Thats his favorite part. Except the playing part. The gelding will actually play with him, bucking and running around with him. It's pretty funny. I'll get a video of it someday, but until then, here is a picture.





This past weekend we went to see Trip's man-crush star in his most recent film; Up in the Air. It was pretty good, also pretty depressing. But I have to admit, I've never really understood all the hype about Mr. Clooney. Uhhh, now I don't understand how I never understood. Whoa, Georgie Porgie!

When we returned from downtown Blacksburg's Saturday night activities, the house seemed perfectly nestled under her blanket of snow, radiating warmth and glowing with love. The clouds were low, and you can see the city lights of Christiansburg behind/above Price Mountain. They almost look like aurora borealis! Here is Woodford playing with his favorite toy, Trip, and their soccer ball. Trip kicked it down the drive and into the road, thats why I make a whiny voice at him at the end. It's the only whiny voice I've ever made at him, and for that I am glad to have captured such an event on film!




Also, in case you haven't heard, Monday I got four little bebe chickies. They all hatched Super Bowl Sunday, ready to partaay. There are three Blue Orpingtons and one Splash Orpington. I purchased them for a very modest price from a lovely lady in Catawba. She even shared the food with me! Anyway, this breed is dual-purpose, meaning they are great layers and also good for eatin' on. They get quite large, and they are known for being very friendly, supposedly one of the best for beginning chicken-keepers. They are also considered a Heritage Breed, meaning they have been around a very long time and a pure strain, not hybrids like many of the new commercial strains. That was an important factor to me, as many breeds of heritage animals (cows, chickens, pigs, turkeys) are getting faded out by the newer breeds used by commercial facilities. Heritage breeds tend to be pretty durable in the sense of pest-resistance and heat/cold hardiness, so I'm sure these ladies will be alright. I'm hoping that I'll get at least two females, as my primary interest is scramblin' eggs. However, my chick sexing skills are pretty rough... as they should be, I'm straight! *Couldn't resist.






I didn't name them yet, as I don't want attach myself before their gender becomes apparent. If I do get roosters, their names are probably going to end up "Noodle" and/or "Nugget" unless they're REALLY nice. It's like a feminist's revenge! Here is what the hens will look like as adults (blue first, then splash), and also included for your viewing pleasure is a video of my four little munchies. Enjoy looking at how cute they are, but not having to clean up the MASSIVE amount of dump they produce. Seriously, I had no idea they pooped so much.