ellenmelon

Spokane

On our trip to Montana, we flew in and out of Spokane, Washington. My dad grew up there, but this was my first visit. My Uncle Owen is a great tour guide.

Before meeting up with Owen, D and I wandered around downtown Spokane. We walked through Riverfront Park, where we encountered some mysterious rodents, which turned out to be marmots.

I also restricted myself to buying 3 skeins of yarn at Holy Threads, which, despite the sketchiness implied by its name and cross-like "T" on its logo, was one of the coolest yarn stores I've ever been in, unlike the one in Bigfork, Montana, where Bill O'Reilly was playing on the radio. More on knitting in a future post...

Summertime!

I just finished this book. At first, I didn't know if I was going to be able to handle it, because it is really sad. But about 100 pages in, I was hooked.

D & I are trying to turn over our Netflix movies more quickly these days, but it still took us awhile to get to this. Perhaps it was because we subconciously knew this DVD signalled the launch of our movie careers. I am relegated to the extras, and look extremely attentive. D, looking much more relaxed, appears in the first 60 seconds of the movie itself.
If that's not enough of a reason to rent this, you can see the beginnings of Sufjan. Early on, he seems to appear in their lives like an angel. You can really see how his music and performances were rooted in Danielson.

And, finally, I bought this for myself as a late birthday present. I've only made it through the first 2 discs so far, but this summer, I'm totally going to watch all the episodes. My favorite so far: "The Summer of '82", in which Alex meets an older woman while delivering groceries. I'm really looking forward to Tom Hanks' appearance as Uncle Ned in "The Fugitive", Parts 1 and 2, in which I believe the Keatons will convince Tom to turn himself in to the FBI. I'm not really sure, since I don't actually think I saw any of this season when it originally aired. Stephen doesn't have a beard yet, and Skippy has only appeared once so far.

Big Sur

We stayed in Big Sur last week and had a great time. Highlights included massages at Esalen and dinner at the super-fancy restaurant at the Post Ranch Inn.
We could see spouting whales every afternoon from our yurt at Treebones. We could also hear mysterious noises from the completely inaccessible beach below. It turned out this was what was going on...

David took this video with my new Christmas camera at this beach near San Simeon where thousands of these elephant seals show up every winter to give birth, nurse, and mate, and hundreds of tourists and schoolkids watch.

Tahoe

This was at the top of the mountain, before I tentatively made my way down. It was pretty cold up there, but I was glad I went up to the top to see the view!

Lawrence vs. Chapel Hill

I miss Lawrence, and I do like a little snow, but still...

Today in Lawrence, KS:

Snow Shower and Windy

18°F
Feels Like
1°F

Today in Chapel Hill, NC:

Cloudy

73°F
Feels Like
73°F

We're alive

Since David hasn't been blogging either, it must be pretty obvious we're crazy busy. But we have managed to squeeze in a little fun. Including...

Sufjan! We saw him at Memorial Hall at UNC almost two weeks ago. He was a magical bird and his band were bugs. His wings kept bumping into other people on stage. He clapped politely for himself. He played some holiday songs and some songs about birds, along with the Sufjan standards.

Other excitement has included buying a new bed (It's gigantic- I'll let David report), and a visit from my parents on the first leg of their road trip to Arkansas.