Team Kooter and The Chilkoot Madness... A Retrospective.

Introduction

In 1897, the steamship Portland steamed into Seattle carrying a ton of gold from the Klondike. This sparked the Yukon gold rush. Over the next 3 years 100,000 gold seekers would make there way from Dyea in southeast Alaska into the Yukon Territory via one of two mountain passes. Of those, only 1000 would ever make any money... only 200 would strike it rich. Ironically, those 200 who struck it rich had already done so upon the arrival of the Portland's news in Seattle in 1897. Perhaps even more surprising, people today are STILL making the 33 mile journey on foot over the Chilkoot Pass... and for what? A certificate of completion? Idiots.

Chapter 1 - Training

So for the most part, every weekend in May and June, the "Chill Kooters**"(thank you Kristin) were preparing with training hikes. Some of the hikes involved most members of the team, some involved as few as 2. I hiked 3-4 times, I can't remember. Either way, it was essentially worthless, except it FELT like we were training and that was helpful, I guess. Also, we established a team name (as mentioned above) and pseudonyms as well.

left to right:

Jennie - Master Kooter
Amy - Amy Kooter
Tara - Baby Kooter (late addition)
Kristin - Top Kooter
Zoltan - Colonel Kooter
Myself - The Big Kooter, a.k.a. TBK (taking picture)



** Yes, we are all well aware that kooter is a slang term for, well, how can I put this lightly... vagina.

Chapter 2 - Team Planning Meeting

I gotta be honest, I was at this meeting, but I wasn't paying attention. This is a likely reason that my pack weighed 20+ pounds more than anyone else's.

Chapter 3 - Arrival

We left Seattle on Thursday and arrived fairly late in Juneau... an uneventful trip. Early afternoon on Friday we arrived at the airport for our flight to Skagway. As we were boarding the plane I was thinking "this is a small plane..." I was the last one on and I was chatting up the pilot:

Me: Oh man, who's your copilot today.
Ray (pilot): Looks like its you.
Me: Haha, awesome.
Ray: Let me get in first and I'll put the seat back.
Me: Wait, What!? You're serious?
Ray: Yeah, hold on.
Me: YES! THIS RULES SO HARD!



I felt like I had just won the lottery. I mean, had that plane gone down, I would have been high-fiving the pilot the whole way... it was THAT awesome.



Team Kooter spent the evening in the bustling metropolis of Skagway sampling various local saloons and entertainment. The night ended late, but it felt early. It never really got dark. We were a week this side of solstice at 59.5 latitude.



Chapter 4 - Day One, 12, no wait... 13 miles? DAMNIT!

The day started out lovely enough, breakfast burrito and a Dyea Dave greeting. Dyea Dave is this guy who shuttled us to the trail head. I liked his style, 2(flannel shirt) + tophat + handlebar mustache = first class, and I knew we'd be treated as nothing but. Dyea is the name of the town that once stood at the foot of the Chilkoot trail, one valley to the west, but the railroad went to Skagway and so did everyone in Dyea.





Holy crap folks... we're hiking. It was hard to believe that we were actually on the trail, starting the trip that had been in the plans for so long. The hike up through the river valley was a gentle grade and we made pretty good time. We had about 12 miles to hike, but we had plenty of time so we rested often and stopped for a nice long lunch. FFWD>> mile 12.25. Our feet are killing us. Thank God. A sign that says Sheep Camp. Finally, we've arrived at our destination. Wait, what the hell is that? Another sign that says: Camp, 3/4 mile. UGH!! WHYYYYYYYY? Needless to say, very demoralizing.



We rolled into camp at about 7pm, just in time for the ranger to give his talk about the pass. As soon as that was through we inhaled our dinners and hit the sack. We would need to be over the pass by 1pm tomorrow, so we were going to be heading out of camp at 6am. Lame.

Chapter 5 - Day 2, Perfection.

This morning started without our planned breakfast and, of course, it took me longer to pack my stuff and tear down the tent than I had anticipated. I was hell bent on getting out of camp by 6am, the ranger preferred time, so I was a little frantic. In a little role reversal, Jennie was trying to calm me down. Her attempts were fairly effective. We were outta camp by 7am. The only reason I wasn't stressed is because we were not the LAST ones out of camp.

About 10 minutes down the trail Zoltan remembered that he had left a shirt in the warming hut at camp. We stopped, Zoltan ran, we cursed him and applied deet heavily. Something like only 10 minutes later, we were on our way again.

The weather was pretty nice... cold and overcast, but no rain, and the going was significantly tougher than the previous day. We were scrambling through more boulder fields and the elevation was increasing at a quicker rate. We encountered snow about 1 mile from the summit and it was a nice break. We made our way to an area called The Scales which is just before the big climb to the summit. During the gold rush, anyone going over the pass would have to stop here and weigh their gear to make sure that they had the requisite 1-year supply of 1000 pounds (they obviously made several trips). We were carrying less. We took a little break as we eyed the pass.



The pass was awesome. It was steep and scary at times, but it was great in that we were so preoccupied with the possibility of plummeting to our death, that we were at the top before we realized it. Triumph. And into Canada we went... the weather cleared up and we had the most amazing hiking ahead.





After clearing a mile long avalanche zone just on the Canadian side of the pass, we stopped for lunch. Its hard to imagine a better place to have had lunch. We found an outcropping of rocks with a thick pad of moss and some shelter from the wind. Food was good and we were able to take a short little nap in the sun. Totally awesome.



Happy Camp was waiting for us just a few miles down trail. We got to camp and secured a few tent platforms and cracked open a couple of bottles of wine we'd lugged over the pass (small boxes... not glass bottles). We had plans to stay up late and sleep in. Unfortunately, it doesn't get dark, which I've already been over (refer to Chapter 4).



Chapter 6 - Day 3, Bear Bare Loon Lake

Lazy morning, lazy trek, lazy lunch, more trekking... etc. About 5 miles out of camp we came upon our next scheduled spot to camp, Lindeman City. But the night before, we'd talked with some folks from Whitehorse who had said that we HAD to make it to Bare Loon Lake... it was SO much nicer and just a few miles down the trail, making what would've been our shortest day a bit longer. The problem was availability of camp sites. We were unsure if a group ahead of us had hiked all the way out to Bennett like they said they might. If they did, we could push on, if they didn't it might be questionable. We arrived in Lindeman City and chatted with Renee, a French Canadian ranger who lived there. He said that there would be a ranger boating into the Bare Loon Lake camp in about an hour and that she would be able to tell us if there we're available spots to camp. We rested for about an hour waiting for word from the ranger. In true French Canadian fashion (I have no idea what that means), Renee found us one hour later but informed us that Christine, the ranger by boat, was not going to Bare Loon but instead was coming directly to Lindeman City and wanted to talk to us... WHAT!?



When Christine arrived, she told us that the reason she didn't stop at Bare Loon Lake was because there was a black bear hanging out at the dock where she wanted to tie up. So, instead she just came to meet us. She wasn't able to tell us if there was room at camp but gave us a couple of options. We could camp at Lindeman like our itinerary stated... or we could go ahead to Bare Loon. If we chose the latter, we would be tasked with a mission. Warn the campers at Bare Loon Lake of the bear near by and inform them of a bear that was seen in camp the night before. Easy choice. ACCEPT THE MISSION.

Damn, we had a mission. It was great. Never had I hiked with such purpose. Plus, there was the added excitement of the possibility of running into a bear on the trail. How would I kill it? Would I be forced to ram my trekking pole down its neck? Would I punch it in the face as it lunged for my throat? One thing was for sure... WE HAD TO WARN CAMP!!



The sun was setting and it was starting to get a little dark in the dense forest. We huddled together as we hiked. Would this be our last hike, I thought? A couple of miles passed and we were still trudging on. Just around the corner was our camp and we knew we could be closing in on an encounter. As we crested a bluff and turned the corner into camp... THERE HE WAS... HOLY CRAP... its Renee. And Christine. What the hell are they doing here? They had made their way back down from Lindeman by boat, beating us there and welcoming us into camp with Canadian flags and pins (it was Canada Day) Crap. What about our mission? Whatever, this sucks. Mission ruined. At least the other group made it out to Bennett so there was room in camp...

Chapter 6 - Day 4, Triumph at Bennett

Well, no bear encounters... and now we were on to our shortest day of hiking and the last day of our trip. We would be in Bennett by noon and on the train by 1pm. The last mile or so was through sand... not desert really, but just thick sand. I'm not really sure where it came from but I have 2 guesses. It is either glacial silt deposited there hundreds of thousands of years ago... or moved there by the people building the railroad for more solid ground to work on.



Anyway, Bennett was a pretty great site. I originally thought that I'd like to get there early so we could spend some time checking out what Bennett had to offer. I quickly realized that Bennett had a train to offer and that was it. The town, basically abandoned in 1900 after the last gold seekers built boats and paddled north on Lake Bennett, consisted of a train depot and an old church. We just got on the train and ate lunch.



The train ride was pretty amazing. Its a narrow gauge railway that links Carcross in the Yukon Territory to Skagway, A 67.5 mile railway (original was about 110 miles)... climbs 3000 feet in only 20 miles. Bennett is somewhere in between. It gets to Skagway via the White Pass, a longer but lower grade than the Chilkoot Pass. It was completed in just 26 months, which was a considerable feat of engineering in those days.



Wow, back in Skagway... Most of Team Kooter went off to Juneau the same way they came in, via Cessna Caravan... a bittersweet departure. Jennie and I stayed in Skagway another night and caught the ferry to Juneau in the morning...

Chapter 7 - A Story of the Malaspina and a Couple of VIPs

We caught the ferry at about 7am. The purser was checking our IDs as we entered the ferry and she saw Jennie's passport and said, "Oh... come see me a few minutes after we are underway, the captain would like to give you a state room." SWEEEEEEET!



So, Jennie's dad was a Captain for the Alaska Marine Highway System. Although he piloted all the ferries in the fleet, I believe he had the longest tenure on the Malaspina. Jennie claimed to know the ship like the back of her hand but we were continually getting lost. Anyhow, her father had let the captain know that we would be on board and the Captain arranged for a room for us and invited us up to the bridge. We spent about an hour on the bridge talking with Captain Actor and the 1st Mate. The ride is about 5 and a half hours, so we left the bridge but made plans to return when we were nearing Juneau. See, Jennie's folks have a house on the beach on Favorite Channel, a channel that the ferry passes through to get to Juneau. We returned to the bridge after sunning ourselves in the solarium...

Captain [steering off course toward beach]: So which house is yours?
Jennie: The one with the blue roof.
Captain: You may want to cover your ears.

That fog horn is effing LOUD. He blew it for a long time. It was great. Captain Karl Schoeppe was sitting in his captain's chair with a front row seat, JoAnn and cousin Lucas waving from the front porch.



Later, as recounted by one of the ships crew members on the bridge:

Crew Member: Whoa, we're steering off course... this doesn't look right. Where are we going!!??
Passenger: You don't know where we are going!!??

OOPS.

and then the party was over... well, the Chilkoot party that is... of course it gave way to the next one. We tore Juneau APART.

F#@k it dude, lets go bowling...

So, after 3 long days of grinding away at the fluid dynamics exam, and another couple of days until the cloud microphysics exam, a few of us decided to take a break at the union building at school. We went bowling. It was a nice break. My friends would tell you that they beat me... but I would tell you that I am winning at life.



Also, this is basically how we all feel. Kelly's interpretation is on the board behind her. Pretty close I'd say.

Seattle

Howdy folks... If you know who I am, then you know that I live in Seattle. If you know me, but don't know that I live in Seattle, you're an idiot. If you don't know me, then now you know I live in Seattle, apart from who I might be. Good for you.

Now, regardless of which of the above categories you fall into... DAMNIT! I've lost my train of thought. Thanks a lot.

Anyhow, here are some pictures I took of Seattle, my home town. Some at Kerry Park on Queen Anne as the sun was setting, and some from Gasworks Park in Fremont/Wallingford later in the evening.

a couple of things...

Ok, so like I said, like 4 hundredths of a second ago, a couple of things:

1. I finished the last episode of the last season of The Sopranos last night. A disproportionate amount of people hated the way it ended. I did not. In fact, it ended better than I could have possibly imagined. Some stuff happened that was awesome. Then some more stuff happened after that (as opposed to some stuff NOT happening). My advice to America: Quit being so damned negative all the time.

2. There is this website that you should check out. I wasted a fair amount of time on it the other day... mostly laughing. Now, there is some really dumb stuff on this site, but there is also some really funny stuff. Try to figure out what's funny and get back to me. I'll tell you if you're right or wrong.

3. Did you think I was going to forget to give you the web address? Yes you did. Quit being so damned negative all the time. www.graphjam.com.

Here I aaaam...

... ROOOOCK YOU LIKE A HURRICAAAANE!!!!

Gosh, C'MON... TAKE FOREVER!

Uhg. Where to start... I think it’s probably easier to write up posts a little at a time instead of trying to remember what I’ve been doing over the last 3+ weeks. Not to mention, a lot less boring for the average reader. I’ll have to file that one away in the old memory banks.

About a week and a half ago I had every intention of updating everyone on MW’s recent life happenings. It all started one evening after paying all of my bills online. I WAS BEING ATTACKED!! or rather, my computer was. I was somehow tricked into allowing a virus/worm to backdoor me. Yeah, I said it. That’s exactly what it felt like happened. I was like, “C’mon man, I’m just trying to raise my credit score... why you gotta do me like this?”

Anyways, that’s my pathetic excuse for why this post is retardedly late in coming, instead of just ridiculously late. But fuck it. I know I’ve already lost the bulk of my readership. May is a rebuilding month. They’ll be back.

So, moving on... Like I said, a lot of crazy shit has gone down, and rather than bore you to tears giving you details like, “I accidentally murdered some dude that tried to ask me for directions,” or “I auditioned for the next season of American Idol,” I thought I’d just make a list of some of the GENERAL things that I have been up to over the last few weeks.

A list of things that I have been doing since you last read my blog:

1. School (like this wasn’t going to be on the list... use your brain)
2. Crying
3. Running (once)
4. Hamburger
5. Cheeseburger

OK, so I haven’t been THAT busy.

Keep your pants on folks...

...life update coming shortly. I've been knee deep in a little something I like to call "none of your business." But I'll make it your business soon. OK?

(some baby name) = Cohen Isaac Loos

...and there you have it. The baby has been named. Deal with it.

His name is (some baby name) Loos

oh man... this baby (my nephew) is probably a better baby than any you know of. I'm talking, in terms of just general babiness, he's definitely the best there is. Now, I know you're thinking, "What the hell is he talking about!?" Let me explain. I'm just saying that as far as regular, everyday, run of the mill baby stuff goes, THIS baby is the world champion of all other babies, in all other worlds. The Interplanetary Extragalactical Baby Champion if you will... and you will.



See? I told you.

READ THIS POST FIRST!!

I know what you're thinking...
1. Doesn't he have blog worthy things going on in his life?
2. How does he expect his readership to explode if he doesn't blog more than every 10 days?
3. Does he care about MY feelings?

And, I also know that you are leaning towards answers of
1. Obviously not
2. God, he's a god damned idiot, and
3. Obviously not

As for 2. and 3., I'm not yet sure how to answer those questions. BUT, I can assure you that I definitely have blog worthy things going on in my life. In fact, so many that I am paralyzed by indecision. Originally, I thought: "I have some shit to talk about... I better get to writing up this monster post that includes all of it before I forget something that I think everyone should know." Then I thought, "but maybe I should write a few different posts so that I can individually reference each of them at a future date if I need to." Then I thought, "maybe I should make this frozen pizza and worry about this crap later." Seriously, I have eaten like 14 pizzas.

Anyway, I'm out of pizzas and its time to make a decision. It's a choose your own adventure. Separate posts which you can link to from this post. Deal with it.

1. Friday night in Seattle... WITH SURPRISE ENDING.
2. Saturday golf.
3. Sunday at Steven's Pass (fun for the whole Family).

Friday night at the movies

Oh man, you will NOT be sorry you chose this little gem.

BRUCE WILLIS WAS DEAD THE WHOLE TIME.

So, a very large group of us went out on Friday night to the Big Picture downtown. Its a small movie theater that attaches to a bar and will serve you drinks, white cheddar popcorn, etc. during the movie. The popcorn is what I imagine being addicted to crack is like... I couldn't keep my face out of it.

The movie showing that night was called The Bank Job and the general consensus was that it was pretty good. I think someone might have mentioned that they thought it was "so racist", but that same someone may have also slept through most of it. I thought it was good, and that includes good stereotype portrayal.

After the movie, a decent sized group of us made it over to the 5 Spot on the top of Queen Anne. I immediately ordered a banana split and had it finished before anyone else's food got there. Then I helped at least 3 other people finish their meals.

This is where the evening gets a little nutty. At about 12am, we all leave the 5 Spot. I got in my car parked right in front of the restaurant and Brian and Kim get in theirs (also parked right in front). Everyone else had to walk further down the street to get into theirs. Right after Brian and Kim pulled out, a small 4 door sedan BLEW past me and was basically racing down the road. My first thought was, "That guy is going to kill someone..." He was totally out of control and the rest of our group was walking down the road to get to their cars. Brian was stopped at a 4-way stop up the road and the guy pulled into the oncoming lane and tore threw the intersection. Another couple of blocks up he encountered an SUV stopped at a stop sign. He again pulled into the oncoming lane to blow through the intersection again... only this time, there was a Subaru Outback that was turning left. He sideswiped the Subaru and drove directly into the corner deli.



Brian and Kim saw the whole thing happen and I drove up on it about 20 seconds later. Brian called the police and they arrived within 5 minutes (busy night apparently). The guy gets out of the car, climbs over a ton of debris, and immediately asks for a light. After a couple minutes of questions the officer decides to arrest him, to which he replies "I know my rights... you can't do this... DO YOU KNOW WHO MY LAWYER IS!!??" Face hits cruiser hood. It was awesome.

Oh yeah, Kevin Spacey IS Keyser Soze.

Choose a different story...

Obviously,,, you're not a golfer

Holy crap... solid choice, you are going to LOVE this story.

Early last week, a friend of mine, Steve*, sent out an email to a handful of dudes suggesting that we golf on Saturday. Hell yes, I'm in. I haven't golfed in about a year but thankfully it's not that hard. Everyone who was emailed responded and Steve made a tee time for 3 at 1pm. Radical. Golf was on. I was pretty pumped.

FFWD >> Saturday Morning. I was driving all over town to secure rollerderby tickets for the upcoming sold out bout. What's rollerderby you ask? You have some catching up to do. Start here.

So, I drove to a coffee shop in West Seattle which is owned by one of the rollergirls. I bought THE LAST THREE TICKETS IN TOWN (I think... every other place I checked was sold out). As I was leaving I ran into none other than, Carly*, Steve's lovely wife.

Mike: Oh man, fancy seeing you here.
Carly: I know, weird.
Mike: I'm totally getting my fix today... you now, and Steve this afternoon.
Carly: What are you talking about?
Mike: I'm golfing with Steve and Jack* this afternoon at 1pm. He didn't tell you?
Carly: No you're not.
Mike: Yes I am.
Carly: No you're not.
Mike: What? Why?
Carly: Steve went skiing this morning.
Mike: Are you effing kidding me?

Seriously, Steve made arrangements for us to golf on Saturday, then went skiing. Awesome. Apparently he somehow didn't think that we finalized things. I don't get it. Anyway, I went golfing with Jack. It was fun. Some highlights of the round: a birdie, 2 Rainier tall boys, and a sandwich (half of which was eaten by a crow... effing crow).

* Names that were not my own were changed to protect the identity of friends.

Choose a different story...

Steven's Pass

Tame choice, lots of pictures... pretty pictures.

On Sunday morning I drug Jennie out of bed and took her to Steven's Pass to do some shredding on the slopes. We tore up some knarly powder and ground some wicked rails. Actually, we just rode the lifts and cruised around on our snowboards in some snow. It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun. My plan to be a better snowboarder than her after going just 5 times is totally on track. I have LOTS of pictures of her wiping out. She won't let me post those.

Here are some that I CAN post.







Seriously, next time, you can find me in the half pipe dropping fakie pivot rock FS/BS bigspins on your ass.

Choose a different story... if this isn't your last one.

Lopez Island

Well, in my last weekend before school starts back up, Jennie and I went up to Lopez Island in the San Juan Islands to get away from the city. It was fantastic. We couldn't even be stopped by the weather (unseasonably cold temperatures and snow in late march is just about unheard of). Thanks so much to Jennie's friends Bret and Michael for letting us stay.

Friday: I picked Jennie up from work after packing up the car and drove up to Anacortes where we caught the 6:20 ferry to Lopez. We arrived at the cabin with about 30 minutes of light left and settled in.

Saturday: Got up at around 9 and made breakfast. We caught the 11:20 ferry to Orcas and drove over to the East side of the island to Moran State Park. We parked at the base of Mt. Constitution (2407 ft) with the hopes of making it the 4 miles to the top. The weather was disgusting... raining (then snowing), cold... and we quickly got into 5 inches of snow near the top.With the ferry schedule in mind, we turned around about 3 miles in after finishing nearly ALL the elevation gain (it turns out that the last mile is relatively flat, which we didn't know at the time... oh well) The good news is that we made it back to the ferry terminal and Lopez island on the last ferry of the evening. Jennie slaved away at the stove making a great stir fry. Awesome sunset. Solid day.

Sunday: Super lazy day. Got up late, read all morning. Checked out the Lopez Village, a small little island village near the west beach of Lopez, and walked along the beach road. We returned to the cabin, packed, closed it up and bailed out in time to catch the 6:05 ferry back to Seattle.

Basically, go to the San Juan Islands. You will not regret it. Or maybe you will, but that'll be your fault for having such a bad attitude.

On the offensive

So, I've offended my first blog viewer/friend by inadvertently excluding him from one of my posts. I ran into him at the Rollerderby and failed to mention that little nugget of information. Of course, he informed me of this, made some threats off the record and forced me to make it up to him by honoring him in his own post.

So, Sebby, here's your post... looking good buddy.

Dinner Conversation

Scott: Hey man, I'm just going to borrow your ranch dressing since it doesn't look like you're using it... my salad is kinda dry.
Mike: Oh man, there's nothing worse than a dry salad.
Scott: Oh, I don't know... I think the situation in Iraq is pretty bad.

Roller Derby/March Madness

Holy effing crap. My new favorite sport is ROLLER DERBY. It's the perfect mix of awesomeness, insanity, and alcohol. I'm buying season tickets next year.

The evening started out with a line that snaked all the way around the building. It seemed like there were thousands of people there. When we finally made it inside, we chose to sit on the floor right in front of the crash barriers. This was a little worrisome but I was optimistic. PBR tall boys calmed my nerves. There would be many trips to the bar.

Since Jennie was out of town this weekend, I went with Tom and a couple of his friends, Phil and Neve.


Lacey, Jennie's friend (a.k.a. Carmen Getsome), skates (rolls?) with Grave Danger, one of the Rat City Rollergirl teams. They pretty much got destroyed by Derby Liberation Front (another RCR team), but it was still super fun to watch. And she was AWESOME. Oh yeah, also, she proposed to her boyfriend before the bout. He said, "are you serious?" (then yes, I think).

Grave Danger Bench


Derby Liberation Front Bench


I didn't know much about the rules of roller derby so it took me a little while to figure it out. It's probably just easier to link you to the wikipedia page that describes the rules if you're interested. Or you can just trust me that its awesome. If you have an opportunity to see it, you should.

Moving on... Friday was also awesome. Scott and I went up to Seth's place and watched the NCAA tournament all day. We got there at about 9am. Seth immediately made us all gigantic omelettes and cinnamon rolls while Scott whipped up a great batch of Bloody Marys. I'm not a huge fan of the Bloody Mary but Scott is a bit of a connoisseur. They were delicious. One of the most filling breakfasts ever was followed up by one of the better NCAA bball days in recent memory. We watched Duke barely escape Belmont, Western Kentucky beat 5 seeded Drake in OT, and San Diego beat 4 seeded UConn in OT. Of course, all of the basketball and beer consumption was exhausting, so Seth made us some sandwiches which were consumed with more beer, obviously.



Enough for now...

Camera

So, over the last few years I haven't taken too many photos. My old camera lasted me for a while but I felt like it only allowed me to take the most basic photos... anything taking a bit more skill or patience and the picture turned out crap. I've always attributed this to the camera but maybe, in fact, it's my own dumb ass. Either way, we'll never know, because, finally, today I purchased a new camera. I took the advice of a good friend and semi-professional photographer, Reid, and bought a camera that he recommended. Now I can share more of my life with my family and friends, and not just over the phone. I look at it as a nice investment. In screwing around with it this afternoon (hey, I'm outta school now, what the hell else am I going to do?), I took a few kinda cool pictures... mostly of the car, but a couple of others as well.

Disclaimer: I know virtually NOTHING about photography. I just want to HAVE pictures.

Reid taught me how to take "depth of field" photos. These are my attempts...





Anyway... more to come. Special thanks to Reid for helping me get this started.

First post

Well, here goes...

So, today I finished the last of my finals. Thank goodness that's over with (Yes! Spring break!). I have one more quarter to go, then the research starts.

What's on tap for spring break you ask? Well, March Madness for starters... Tomorrow, Scott and I will drive to Seth's place in Lynnwood and watch every single game available to us starting at 9-something AM. I plan on being hammered by 12 at the latest.

After a morning of recovery, roller derby Saturday evening. One of Jennie's coworkers is a Rat City Rollergirl. It should be a face melter.

Alright, it's late and I'm exhausted from a week of hell. More later...