Leavenworth, WA

I told Andrew that I would like to visit Leavenworth. He looked very confused. I confess I did not immediately make the connection to the famous prison with the same name, but everybody I have mentioned Leavenworth to has given me a puzzled look and asked why I am considering a honey moon in a state Penitentiary. I do not particularly want to visit the prison.

Leavenworth, Washington is a town in central Washington that has styled itself as a baravian village tucked away in the Alps. The "Alps" are the Washington portion of the cascades. It's not that far and it looks fun.

Aliens-what happens to Ripley next

I just watched Aliens for the first time. I very much like the happy ending. So what happens after they all go to sleep? Well to start with Ripley does not have good dreams. In fact she has a nightmare that they crash on a prison planet and everybody dies. This dream was so vivid that they made a whole movie out of it called "Alien 3" very original title. Anyway, after her nightmare, Ripley wakes up to find that they have arrived back home. Happily reunited with her cat, Ripley promptly gives up space travel marries Hicks and adopts Newt. She sues the company responsible for the deaths of 147 colonists and pretty much an entire military platoon. The settlement that she get includes a bunch of money and Bishop. Bishop becomes Ripley's butler and Newt's Nanny, but he soon grows bored and so he decides to put his great intelligence and bravery to use by solving crimes. Conveniently, people are murdered in interesting ways regularly in their new neighborhood which surprisingly continues to have a reputation as a safe place, so Bishop is able to be a detective while continuing as Ripley's butler. When Newt grew up, she went through a rebellious teenager phase and decided to try acid. She had a pretty bad acid trip experience in which her early childhood trauma combined with the normal issues a teenage girl has with her mom. She told some movie producers about her bad acid trip and they decided to make a 4th alien movie and call it Alien Resurrection. Being based on an acid trip this movie was understandably devoid of normal story logic.

Bear Chasing Ember

Abi's blog

Abi has an cool new blog. Check it out!
http://mskurf.wordpress.com/

Hunger Games Nightlock

After seeing the hunger games, I was curious if the nightlock berries are based on a real plant. As far as I can find on the web the answer is: no, they are not. I found suggestions that the name might be a combination of deadly nightshade (Belladonna) a poisonous member of the tomato family and hemlock a member of the carrot family supposed to have been used to execute Socrates.

Nightshade in photo above
http://www.troop245.org/ref/poison_plants_or.html



Hemlock in photo below
http://www.troop245.org/ref/poison_plants_or.html

Tip: if you are lost in the woods avoid eating things that look like carrots. They might be wild carrots, but they are more likely to be a poisonous cousin.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell -spoiler alert

After 32 hrs of slow story we get to a completely disappointing end. I am NOT a fan. I say not worth the time.


SPOILER ALERT
I'm sure, I'm misspelling names because I listened to it on CD instead of reading it.
So after all they've been through, Strange and his wife don't even get to be together. WTF! I feel cheated. They were happy. Then she gets abducted and Strange ends up not with Arabella not with Flora but with Norrell. Andrew described this as an anti-love story. And after all of those details and footnotes, we don't even find out what happens to lady Pole or the lady who was in love with Steven Black. She said that she would go anywhere with him, why couldn't she go to Fairy.

SO HERE'S HOW I SAY IT ENDS
Strange gives up doing magic in the public eye and the darkness dissipates. He and Arabella go to their old home and life continues as before except that strange never takes his wife for granted again. Norrell is exposed as an ass and he generally shunned. He returns to the country in disgrace and spends the rest of his life alone with his books. Chilgamess and Vinculus become the worlds greatest magicians. The lady who was in love with Steven Black goes to be his queen in Fairy. THE END

Backpacking Packing list

A list to go backpacking in style:

*Backpack
*Pocket knife
*Flash light
*Batteries
*Camera
*Pepper spray or bear mace (depends on where you're going)
*Hand warmers


Shelter
*sleeping bag
*sleeping mat
*tent
(or alternatively skip the mat and the tent for a hammock)
*Pillow case or compressible pillow (stuff your coat or extra clothes in the pillow case.)


Food:
*Mountainhouse freez-dried food is pretty awesome
*Beef jerky
*Trail mix (fancy stuff without the peanuts if you're like me. I get tired of peanuts really fast)
*Eggs (pack very carefully)
*Oatmeal
*Apples
*Peanut butter
*Granola bars
*Chocolate
*Hot cocoa, tea or instant coffee

Water:
* Water container
* Iodine tablets. You can get these at Bi-mart or Walmart or probably REI
* A water filter

Water container:
2 L soda bottles work okay to make sure you are carrying a lot of water.
A smaller water bottle that you can get to easily it good to have in addition.
Cammelbacks and platypus bags are also really nice. It's im[ortant to make sure that you water isn't going to leak all over your stuff. The most important thing to keep dry is your sleeping bag.

Cooking Gear:
*Propane
*Bunsen burner type stove
* light weight pot(s) if you have space it's nice to have a couple
*silver ware
* lighter or matches (or flint and steel if you know how)
* ziplock bags (a small handful of empty bags stuffed into a pot is always nice to have for trash and whatever)

Antibug- anitsun
*Head net (very nice if there are a lot of mosquitoes about)
*Bug spray
*Sun screen
*Sun glasses
*hat (very important)

Hygiene:
*Toilet paper
*Baby wipes
*Soap
*Wash cloth
*Towel- a microfiber shop rag or shammy cloth sort of thing works. Don't haul anything bigger than a dish towel.
*Hand lotion.
*Little plastic hand shovel (for burying your poo)
*Razor (I have vicious leg hair. It pokes me when I try to sleep.)
*Deodorant (if it's more than a couple of days)
*Comb - my hair seems to keep from being greasy longer if I mess with it as little as possible.
*Tooth brush
*Tooth paste
*Tampons (good to have along even if you aren't planning to need them)
*Hair ties

First Aid:
*Technu (for cleaning off poison oak oils)
*Ibuprofen
*gauze
*Athletic tape
*Neosporin
*Tweezers
*Nail cutter
*Mole skin (for blisters)
*Tums
*Wrap for sprained ankle

Clothes
*Clean socks for everyday (unless you are hiking in sandals)
*At least one change of pants and shirt
*Underwear -thongs take up less space but they have some obvious drawbacks. I like boxers or going commando. More air circulation is good if you're going to be sweating and not showering for a few days.
*warm hat
*gloves
*raincoat