With Summer Over

A Goose Looking for Sandwiches at Detroit Lake

With the summer over and fall well on its way, my job with the City of Salem is done. It was a great summer job that finished up on Halloween.
There was a pizza party for my last day, and I wore a pirate costume to work (not a sexy pirate, mind you, a work appropriate pirate.) Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of pirate me, but here are some jokes I learned.
What kind of socks do pirates wear?
Arr-gyle socks!

What is a pirate's favorite letter?
R?
The C!

I miss having a job, and going to work every day. I'm volunteering with the USGS again. My plan is to spend about 30 hours a week volunteering with about half of that field work and the other half office work. The field work requires me to be up in Portland, but the office work can be done at home. Not surprisingly that is the hardest part of me, the working at home part. It gets incredibly lonely.

Baby Goose... Also Looking for Snacks

Ferret Pictures Just Cuz

 I gave the ferrets a bath today. These pictures are not from today, but I thought it was time I posted more ferret pictures.

Otaku (sleeping on the left). Pip (sleeping on the right in the Shadows). Bear (wiggling and making it hard to get a picture) 

Bear, B

Indigestion

Too much coffee, I guess. The sensation is nearly identical to the choked, slightly strangled feeling I get from swallowing pills without enough water. It passes in time, but it is one of the more unpleasant experiences I have endured in my rather comfortable life. I can see why it's called heart burn. It's in the chest. It burns. Why exactly does it burn?
The fact that it is called acid indigestion leads me to believe that heartburn is caused by the stomach environment becoming too acidic, but why the sensation of heat?  Drinking cold water helps. Is it the dilution or the cold. I'm sure the wise and magical internet knows, but, for now, I am content in my ignorance.
Upon arrive home (feeling quite horrible), I devoured a handful of tums. That's 4 to be precise.
While I was chewing my chalky salvation, I discovered that Andrew had made dinner. What a great surprise.

Crazy Weekend In Seattle

Andrew and I spent last weekend in Seattle helping Sarah and Joe move. It seems to me that moving and Seattle go hand in hand. Andrew and I did a fair bit of it when we were there (in and out of storage units mostly.) Sarah and Joe hired movers so we did very little heavy lifting. Andrew and I helped with packing and unpacking and scrubbing the walls with Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. Those things are amazing. Watch out, though. They'll dry out your hands. It was nice to see Sarah and Joe even if we were pretty much working the whole time. Andrew and I enjoyed some good Seattle food and listened to an audio book in the car.

The book is called The Forest of Hands And Teeth. It's set in a world several generations after a zombie apocalypse. The zombies are called unconsecrated, but they're zombies. I enjoyed the first three quarters of the book quite a bit, but the last quarter seemed to drag on and on to finally arrive at an ending that didn't really resolve much.

The aftermath of the weekend echoes through the start of the week. We are exhausted and running out of clean underwear. Andrew is taking the day off tomorrow. He has a job interview. I guess you already know I'm proud of him.

Pwetentious-Wentious

I don't feel well. This evening. I've been laying on the bed doing not all that much... poking around on the internet.
Andrew spend a bit of the evening hanging out with me. We got on the subject of proper pronunciation.
"I'm not pretentious about that am I?" I asked.
"No," assured Andrew.
"Good," I yawned, "I don't think I'm really pretentious about things anymore."
"She said pretentiously," Andrew laughed.
"I wasn't," I protested, "I was yawning!"
Andrew hugged me, "I'm teasing." His voice changed and his smiled turned grin. "Ooh, Smoopy-oopy. Not my sweet, Jennykins. She wouldn't be pwetentious-wentious."
Pwetentious-wentious... best phrase ever. I solomnly swear, that from this day forward, I will never again be pretentious. I will only be pwetentious-wentious.

Why I Like Tuesdays

So I have a job. Did I mention I have a job? I have a job with the City of Salem until the end of October. I've been adjusting to my schedule. It turns out that jobs take a lot of time. Fortunately I love mine and here's one reason why. It's called Tuesday.

Every Tuesday Chris and I do sampling on Detroit Lake. Chris is my coworker who I do most of my work with. The watershed monitoring program only has two employees. One is me. The other is Chris. We work together quite well. I will not post a picture of him today because I have not asked him if he minds having his picture put up on the internet. I doubt he does, but it's best to ask. 

So, now that I've oh so briefly introduced Chris, here is some of what I saw last Tuesday. 

Proud mamma and baby ducks at the log boom, our first sample site of the day. (Chris took this picture for my as my hands were full of cable.)

Here's picture of me doing a water quality profile at our second site of the day, heater creek. (Chris also took this picture) 

Oh yeah, and by the way, I'M ON A BOAT!

...and look who's hanging out.

A guest joins us when we stop for a snack.

Awkward adolescent Mergansers! 

Proud mamma Merganser with her teenagers.

Baby duck and the last site of the day (Brietenbush Arm.)

The ducks and geese at Breitenbush arm of Detroit Lake are extremely bold. I'm told they will hope right up in your boat with you, and I believe it. 

Backpacking Adventures and Misadventures

4th of July weekend Andrew and I decided to take a backpacking adventure along the Pacific Crest Trail at the base of Three Fingered Jack. 

Andrew using his phone as a GPS.

Bear Grass in Bloom

More Bear Grass

Picture Perfect Camp Site

Andrew Scaling a Tree to Put Up The Hammock

The Hammock

The Three Sisters (I think)

Packing Up After Breakfast.  

Hey Mom, do you remember buying that cup for me. I've had it for over a decade now. It still has JH on the bottom in purple nail polish.

Andrew's Pack with the Little Solar Panel Charging on the Back

Exquisite and Peaceful.

Some kind of Phlox

The Road to Mordor

Three Fingered Jack Looking Ominous

A flower That I thought Was Pretty.

Me Looking AT Something

I'm On Top of The World!

But We're Actually Still Going Up

... And Up

The mosquitoes very much appreciated us hiking ourselves all the way up to the snow line to provide them with a snack.

Hmmm... Snow. I'm sure we'll get through it soon. 

If You Look Angle of My Feet, You'll Get A Better Idea of How Steep This Was. 

Three Fingered Jack 

Me-"Look at the tracks. This guy and his do did it, so we can too."

This is about the time we decided to reevaluate our course.

Going back the way we came would involve scaling the same scary snow covered slopes that we'd just traversed. Going forward was the same or maybe worse. Stuck between snow and more snow, we chose down, straight down.

Hiking or Sliding Down The Hill

This Marsh Provided a Break from the Snow

Marshes Are Nice. We Found Some Frogs in This One. 

 

Our path intersected the lower elevation trail that we were aiming for like a very tired charm. We found a nice spot to set up camp and I sat in a creek. Then we tore down camp and hiking out before we could get too stiff. Andrew's ankle was turned and my butt was sore from falling on it. We spent night two of our backpacking trip at home in our own bed, and it was very nice indeed.