Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Work, Cubbies, Flagstaff and a Cheers to Stebes!!

We will go ahead and start the blog off with a picture that makes you smile. It's a cat's life and that is officially Player's chair. It's in the front room wich we dont use and that is where you can find him...always. He is expressing his need for us to turn on the air!

This, i think, is a cactus mouse and he was very curious of me and my gear one morning at work.

The worst thing about monsoon season is the humidity, being from Chicago its not that bad but dont tell Shyama that, he thinks its awful! The best thing about monsoon season are the lightning storms and the beautiful sunrises!

This was a lucky find! The crew and i went out toe xplore the desert after a rainy morning in hopes of running into just this! Speckled rattlesnake

What a beauty!

again, stormy mornings make for good pictures!


Working weekends has gotten old and frustrating but this rare occurence sure made this morning well worth it...


This rainbow was just massive across the desert..too bad my panoramic pic didnt come out:(
Storm is a comin!
The monday observed for 4th of July Justin and Anne got us tickets to the Cubs vs. DBacks game so we enjoyed an afternoon of bball and beer and watched the Cubbies kick the dbacks ass!

Really need to get me a Castro jersey before he's traded!

Good times at the ballpark!
This is Zambrano before he hit a 2 run homer that finished the game.
This, of course, is after
Final Score! Cubs get the W!!
Don't ask, but it sure did come out cute:)....in hindsight, i really shoulda moved those chairs!


This guy is a Clark's spiny lizard, he has a blue chin and blue side splotches on his belly to attract the females. We saw him on our first walk around lower Mary Lake in Flagstaff, AZ.
(he was adorable and got erased during the editing process-fuckn blogger!)



Make a wish, bitches:)

Lower Mary Lake, Flagstaff, AZ

'What, daddy?; no thanks i don't like the water'

the other side was forest land so peeps with boats would row out there and set up camp.

'She'll be fine, she needs to know that she can swim on her own, maybe the will help her lose her fear of the water'....

i dont know if you call this swimming she looked more like scooby doo running on water....

This was a nice lil hike we did in the mountains.

Stella!!!! (stellar jay)


Once we got down into the canyon this was the view.


Happy me and our happy camping dog!

this was Bilis' big find for the day, baby bird fell from the nest...it was my bright idea to 'save' the bird. The biologist in me said leave it and let nature takes its course, the human in me said you cannot leave this baby bird to die here....

Bilis' second big find and way cuter than the damn baby bird! i love him-as i got closer he got bigger warning me to leave him alone:)


This is Mormon lake it was massive and wasnt full so there appeared to be wetlands around. We saw elk wading around.

This was pretty much the cutest thing ever! Bilis was disturbed that she could not see over the wall so dad picked her up and she just looked over smelling and wandering and did not want to be put down:)
This was yet another attempt on Shyam's part to teach the dog that she could swim..this was a better swimming attempt than previous.


This is an unhappy wet dog. i am pretty sure she is asking 'why daddy?'

Here we is drunky at a bar in downtown Flagstaff with one of my coworkers Garrett and his girlfriend, Kat.


That's right boys, Beaver Street Brewery, Mmmm beaver brews:)

Route 66 baby! there are references and t-shirts everywhere, i managed to get the image from the bus we rode downtown:)
Electric powered VW that we saw in town, pretty cool!

On our drive back from Flagstaff we went through Sedona. It's been 7+ years since i took this drive and 17+ years for Shyama-we had forgotton how beautiful it was:)




Posting these pics is just another way to lure you both out here and i sure hope it works!!

I dont know what took me so long to make this it is a layered chocolate rum cake and was delicious!!!






Finally!, photos of us using the steamer!! the other times we always forgot to take them...we were real proud of ourselves making our own home made sia-pao (steamed bbq pork buns). Shyam did this up along with his infamous eggrolls and ck adobo:)




I hope this finds you both well...still waiting on Olympic peninsula pics Taj!?!
Good Luck in your job search, Stebes, i know its rough out there.
Mom booked her flight out in Oct. and we got tickets to see Ravi Shankar, pretty amazing we are stoked about it!
take care guys, xo

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Portland, Friends & Too Much Time...

I found some photo's on my phone that I took while in Portland. The week mostly consisted of hanging out at some bars or at Taj's house. It was great to get out there and then relax and enjoy it. Too many times I go on a trip and get exhausted and by the time I come home I need to relax. It was nice to change it up.

Some skyline pics. I do miss this.










This was the rooftop we climbed the third day I was there. We were absolutely hammered and probably should not of climbed up a fire escape latter to the top of a four story building. But it was fun. This is the view from downtown Vancouver.








There is Taj, climbing up the second time. And the air conditioning unit in the pic is the one that he did a barrel roll off of and twisted his ankle.









After the US lost to Ghana and got kicked out of the World Cup (pardon the pun), Chris, Brandy and I went over to one of their friends house to hang out by the pool and try to cheer up. The ball of hair is Balivor, their dog.










A nice pic of us fighting the sun. That hat is unbecoming of Chris, yet with my white-ness, maybe I should be the one with the hat.


And the too much time on my hands part. I did a score sheet of the All-Star game which was actually rather difficult with the 19 different pitchers that played the game. I checked it out and I am 99% sure that I got it all right. And I am 99% sure that I will not score an All-Star game again.













Well take care everyone, I miss you all and hope you are doing great. I did look to adopt a puppy the other day, but ultimately decided against it. Maybe when I get rolling with a job I'll reconsider.

Later on,
sh