Aug 31: New Card!

I thought that I would be getting a new green debit card, but to my surprise the BofA Alaska Airlines debit card got a face lift! Lavish.

Aug 30: Uh-oh!!!

Guess i took a mental break from photography today!

Aug 29: Trip A

Phew, we survived NPS 3!!! I can't believe I drove almost 2,700 miles. Who's a rockstar?

Aug 28: Momma

While up at Glacier, we ventured out for a wee little bit on the highline trail. We were both pleased and surprised to run into a momma goat & her fuzzy little kid along the trail. Super cute super.

Aug 27: Typical Friday

Today was just your typical Friday... spent an hour or so editing pics at a Starbucks in Helena, visited a roadside rock shop to buys some dinasaur poo, drove a couple hundred miles north to the east side of Glacier National Park, drove around at 6,000 foot or so elevation, ate some bison & elk chili, startrailed till 2:30 am, then stayed in a haunted-ish, creepy basement room at a lavish mountain lodge. Like I said, pretty typical.

Aug 26: Beefalo

On Tuesday, we had Buffalo Burgers at Bullwinkle's in West Yellowstone (AWESOME, btw), Wednesday we had buffalo meatloaf at Rosie's in Gardiner (not too shabby, either), and today, today we had buffalo jerky from a roadside gas station (pretty darn good, too). We continued the buffalo trend on Friday, too, with some buffalo cuisine in our destination de jour. The outcome for that dinner though was mixed... the bison/elk chili that I had was yummy, but the buffalo meatloaf dma tried was, well, not so good.

Aug 25: Montana Colonel

Check out the Colonel's hat.... that's so Montana.

Aug 24: Grand Sunrise

Another chilly night in the car! We startrailed last night at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone & just camped out in the parking lot there to be in position to capture sunrise. It was a beautiful, misty morning; what a great start to the day.

Aug 23: Grand Sunset

After a chilly, chilly night of car camping near Missoula, we made it to Yellowstone. We were behind schedule, but managed to make it to our destination in time for a beautiful sunset and moonrise at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Aug 22: Extended Trip

We hit our first roadblock of the trip on day one... I left my wallet at the KFC/Taco Bell in Toppenish. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this till two hours later when we were somewhere in the middle of a bunch of wheat fields. Long story short: We back-tracked two hours, found my wallet (phew, thankfully!) & ended up car camping in the Tri-Cities instead of our intended destination & were set a little bit behind schedule. We realized, though, that we set our own schedule, so we took advantage of the beautiful weather & spent Sunday in the wheat fields. It was legendary.

Aug 21: Good to Go

I have never seen my Sentra so packed! DMA and I headed out on a road trip today, NPS 3.... our third major National Park trip. The first one was about a year ago when we headed to the Grand Tetons, then the second was this past April when we headed down to Yosemite. This trip will be the furthest I have ever driven from home... I am both excited and nervous at the same time.

Aug 20: Happy Hour

After work today I headed over to Applebee's with some friends for work for Happy Hour. It was fun & I wish we would get together more often!

Aug 19: Cleaning the Gear

Cleaned up my camera gear today in preparation of the big road trip! yay-yers!

Aug 18: Famous

went to dinner tonight with mom at Famous Dave's. our server made this cute little pig made out of bbq sauce. thank you famous kyle ;)

Aug 17: Free Car Wash with Oil Change

I left work a little early today to run some errands.... Tires rotated? check. Brakes checked? uh check. Oil change, complete with carwash? check! I also managed to vaccum the trunk of my car. Not too shabby. I think my car is ready for the big road trip on Saturday!!!!!!!

Aug 16: Euka Evo

So, I was putting away some laundry and I got a text from dma that read "Send me a pic of Euka where ever she is." So, I headed out to the living room and found her lounging on the cool floor near my door. And..... I took a picture.

Aug 15: Lucky Star

all riiiiight... this one is a bit more like it! Too bad this is a black & white pic; the colors in the sky were great. For this shoot, dma & I trekked out to Rattlesnake Lake... again, we found a dark park full of folks enjoying the warm summer weather. The immature shouts and screaming pierced through the dark silence, but I didn't mind; reminded me of when I was younger... hanging out with my friends out in the sticks somewhere in A-town being as goofy as goofy can get.

Aug 14: Backyard Star

Aaah yes, here is my third startrail... plane trail, dust specks and all. Lesson learned? Two actually: I have about 40 minutes of recording time before my battery goes mmmblah AND i should clean my sensor!!!!

Aug 13: Shooting Star

Two nights of startrailing combined with starting work at 6am on Friday meant that Friday night, I was pooped. I didn't do any startrailing, but took this quick pic of dma's set-up.

Aug 12: Phantom Stars

Tonight was pretty cool; we headed to Phantom Lake for star trailing. A LOT of other people had the same idea... there were meteor showers! So, even though it was practically the middle of the night, there was a pretty cool vibe in the super dark park. Lesson learned tonight: um, my d200 doesn't account for time needed for noise reduction when sucking the life out of my battery.

Aug 11: Basketball Stars

Tonight was night one of Startrail Bonanza. Location: basketball court. Lesson learned: d200 is a hungry hungry hippo when it comes to batteries.

Aug 10: Happy Meeting

I got together tonight with my fellow PM alums to wrap up the planning for our upcoming reunion. I actually took a break from the planning side, offering instead to be super worker.... can't wait!

Aug 9: Bacholorette Style

The contents of a (cleaned out) bachelorette fridge: yogurt, strawberries, spinach, smart balance spread, some old coffee grounds & a diet pepsi. Sweet Pea agrees.... it is time to go to the grocery store!

Aug 8: The New Mr. & Mrs.

Congrats Jimmy & Colby! So glad that the rain stayed away long enough for this lovely, lakeside ceremony.

(and... I will be updating this pic soon with a higher quality image, but dang, isn't my evo awesome?? I love it!)

Aug 7: Errands & Manicotti

I think that today's weather prooved that I am a true native of the northwest. The weather was rainy & windy and I felt content. Don't get me wrong, I luuuuuuuv the sunshine, but it was nice to just have a chill, rainy day. DMA and I spent the afternoon running errands, omgosh we even went into a mall! Since the weather was cooler I decided to fire up the oven & attempt to make manicotti with garlic spinach on the side. um... yum!

Aug 6: Froyo

I am not sure which was more exciting today... updating my phone with Froyo or getting the new Ikea catalog in the mail!!!

Aug 5: First Thursday

The best thing about the first thursday of the month? Free admission to SAM!!! As an added bonus, the horrible John with Art piece has been replaced by Jerry Pethick's "Le Semeur/Sunlight and Flies" looks like it was fun to, uh, gather supplies ;)

(side note: I took this pic with my cell phone. yay evo! But I need to track down my mini usb to properly transfer the full file. check back later for a better image!)

Aug 4: Watched Pot

Who says a watched pot never boils. Ha!

Aug 3: Northern Lights

Such a cool night. Dma, butcher & I were on a mission to capture the Northern Lights caused by some solar flares. Turns out that we didn't see any, and I don't think anyone did, but it was a great night for star trailing anyway. I took this pic without a remote! I held down the shutter release for 70 seconds. even I am impressed.

Aug 2: Do Not Destroy

At my desk at work I have this super-awesome 3-month calendar (actually, it is awesome, I use it all the time). It is made of some mighty sturdy cardboard; supposedly intended to last for eternity. (I would actually date it back to at least the 60's or 70's, so not a bad life for an office supply product, eh?)

Aug 1: Solar

It was a weird sun day.... the sun was casting an orange hue; eerie, eh? Dma and I figured we should follow the sun & head west. We wandered a bit and ended up back at Deception Pass. I was captivated by the twinkly reflections in the waves and took a bunch of soft focus images, like this one...