Camping

Sunday night Pat & I went camping down by the Salmon River.
It was a beautiful evening. I learned that the nice thing about car camping is that you can listen to music from the car. Pat proved his musical tastes were in fact all over the board, but my favorite was listening to the Nutcracker Suite as it was getting dark.

Sawtooth Music Festival

Saturday was the Sawtooth Music Festival. Pat, Susanna, Ben and myself caught the evening set. Some of the music was great, the backdrop definitely made the Festival stand out and the people watching was fantastic!

The lineup: http://sawtoothmusicfestival.com/


The fire twirlers were also amazing.

Tom & Tab Visit!

I got visitors this week! Tom and Tab came out from Asheville, picked up their friend Liz from Portland and came to Stanley! It was so good to see people from home. We had a great time catching up and I was thrilled to hear that no one is having fun at home without me- just kidding. They both seemed to very much enjoy relaxing in the outdoors of Idaho, this is their third year here. It was very cool to meet their friend Liz, an art professor in Portland.

They camped out very near the Ranch. We hung out by the campfire Sunday night. Then we found breakfast and took a great hike to Alpine Lake on Monday. Wildflowers abound! Tom took a dip in the lake, they don't call it Alpine because it's warm. Then I gave them a quick tour of the ranch where they got to meet my boss and then we watched sunset from Redfish Lake.

Quotes from a guest's dietary request email that will be in a sketch someday:
Lilly doesn't like fizzy drinks.
Lilly likes Peach Ice Tea.
Michael likes a nice cheese board.

Again, it was awesome to see Tom & Tab- yah!

Today they left and I went to Ketchum to see the new Batman movie- totally freaky- loved it!

Birthday thanks to home!

Thank all of you for all the birthday wishes from home. The birthday party in a box from LYLAS, rocked! Betsy, where did you find the "I Da Ho" card? I loved all the chocolate, I've already read all the magazines and Dylan did a reading from the romance novel at the porch gathering. I love you guys and can't wait to laugh with you soon!

Thank you to Keri for the pictures of the house- it looks great!

Thanks to Grams for more great books! Thanks to Betsy, Jessica & Marge for trying so hard to get a hold of me yesterday! And of course thanks to Mom & Dad for making me!

Thank you also to everybody who sent me emails and e-cards- they made me feel less far away from home. If I don't learn anything else while I'm out here, perhaps how good I have it in Asheville and what great family and friends will finally sink in!

Okay, enough, of my Oscar speech, I've got so save some for the real thing.

Birthday: Evening

I do like parties, but since we're not supposed to have "parties", we had a porch gathering. Food and drinks brought by all. Cookie dough provided by Rosie & Sylvia. Live music by Issac, Lee & Pat. It was great! I stayed up late, I drank gin & Sprite (the local store was out of tonic), I had a lot of fun.

Luke, the Wrangler, (not the same as the river guide) impressed us all with his skill of nibbling off the top of aluminium beer cans- aah to be 18, away from home and a cowboy! Erica and I shared lots of cookie dough. Pat, the baker, made me a special birthday dessert of orange tart filling inside chocolate cups. Apparently, somehow everyone had gotten the impression I liked chocolate ( I have no idea how that happened), so I got quite stocked up with all sorts of brownies, chocolate bars and more!

Oh yes, then we pulled the costumes out from last year's crew costume party- what's a porch gathering without dressing up in a Cowboy Cheerleader version of a Elvis jumpsuit. Then a guest, we believe the 17-year old, streaked not once, but twice past the porch. All in all a fun night!

Bring it 33!

From top to bottom: Susanna & Ben; Erica and I; Erica & Susannah contemplating cookie dough; Luke eating a can with Jeff in the background; Sylvia; Pat playing guitar; the last two of my fabulous birthday dessert cups; Edward; in costumes- Heather, Sylvia, myself & Susanna; porch gathering in general; Megan and myself.