God Bless Texas!

Don't you just love vacations? B and I just spent 6 days in Texas visiting his family-- 16 relatives in all. Here's a little vacation photographic snack:

Bryan working in the yard at the house outside of Murchison.
Birds take flight out of the tree in the front yard. Who knows what spooked 'em but they all took off at one time. Jennifer and me getting ready to tear it up at the Athens roller rink. I think there were maybe 4 people there older than us and I believe they were all there because they were waiting for their kids......Me outside of Thompson + Hanson, a landscape architecture firm on West Alabama Street in Houston. My latest issue of Domino magazine included a feature on this section of Houston so we spent a beautiful day window shopping and hitting the antique stores with Bryan's mom Flora and his aunt Linda. Since the sun came out while we were in Houston, we talked Flora and Mark into driving us down to the beach in Galveston. That's me walking the beach looking for shells-- pretty much what I do when we go to the beach in Oregon. Oh, except it was sunny at this beach.Bryan with his mom, Flora and her husband Mark. Mark introduced us to Goodsen's diner in Tomball, TX-- home of the world's biggest chicken fried steak. I swear it was as big as B's face. I think Texas gets a bad rap sometimes. Must be all of that "Don't Mess With Texas" talk. Sure, it's huge, the cities are huge, the SUVs are huge, and the freeways are huge, but the sky is also huge. And the thunderstorms that roll through are huge and AMAZING. In Texas, men hold doors open and call you "ma'am". There are still dry counties-- I had to register into the "drinking club" in order to have a margarita at the Jalapeno Tree in Athens on my birthday. There is a Dairy Queen in every small town and the people are some of the nicest around. Maybe it's the accent or all of the "how y'all doin' today", but you just feel welcome you know?

Oh, I am soooo much better!

So, I had to dig deep into the archives to bring you this great photo:
This was the first time I tried sliding down a mountain on some kind of board. I was 20 years old and at a scary place called Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They had, like 4 green runs, all off the same lift. I paid $10 and road the same lift and boarded the same runs for 2 days. Let's just say that snowboarding isn't my thing. I tried skiing the year after that and well, I sort-of like it a wee bit better.

B and I headed to Mt. Bachelor a couple of weeks ago for two blue bird days of skiing. Here are my favorite shots:

B landing after a jump. Either we need a faster camera or I need a faster finger-- I tried all day, but couldn't get a shot of him at the top of the jump.
Me coming down a black diamond. Yep, that's right, I've improved since that first day on the Jackson slopes. I can follow B anywhere now.B and me and the Three Sisters in central Oregon. Mt. Bachelor is about 9,000 feet and you can ski right off the top. It's one of the best views around.And finally, the shot of the day.

185 inches

In case you were wondering what 185 inches of snow looks like:

While it practically vomits rain in P-town everyday, it dumps snow in the Cascades. These are shots from Government Camp atop Mt. Hood. This last shot is the lodge at Ski Bowl, one of the Mt. Hood ski resorts. Ski Bowl is only at about 3,500 feet so this kind of snow is unreal. And, yes, the skiing has been unreal this year too.This photo is courtesy of another blog: www.barkernews.blogspot.com.

Time traveling

You know how sometimes you smell something and it instantly takes you somewhere else? For example, anytime I smell cinnamon rolls, I feel like I'm standing in front of a Cinnabon at the airport. Well, the same thing happens to me with music, certain songs in particular.

Last week, a bunch of my co-workers and I went roller skating. I remember going to roller skating parties as a kid-- piling in the car, driving to Wakefield, skating in the basement of the bowling alley. This roller rink is a little nicer-- it's at Oaks Park, Portland's quaint little amusement park by the river. We hit the rink hard, did the tempo skate (that's where everyone jam skates really fast around the outside edge) and even the backwards skate.

And then it happened. Someone, probably one of my REI co-workers, requested "Blame it on the Rain" by Milli Vanilli. And, poof! I was instantly transported back to 2nd grade again. All I needed to make it complete was Sarah Hekmati and Carla Kemp. We were the hottest little skaters the poor boys of Wakefield, Nebraska had ever seen.

The Billy Goat returns

About two years ago, Bryan went back to Arizona to photograph a wedding for one of his college friends. He flew home early on a Monday morning and went to work. By noon that day, he was sicker than sick and was in bed at home. He couldn't keep anything down and basically slept for three days. (We found out later, that some other people from the wedding got sick too, probably something in the food.)

During one of those nights, I was on the phone with my brother. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Yeah, so Bryan has been sick for three days. Can't seem to eat anything.

Craig: Really? That sucks.

Me: It's weird, it's as if there is something living inside of him, eating what he is eating.

Craig: What, you mean like a billy goat?

Huh? Well, yes Craig, as a matter of fact, it's exactly like a billy goat.

Well, the billy goat made a return this week. I woke up in the middle of the night on Wednesday and puked my guts out. I don't think I've ever been more sick than I was that night. Probably some leftovers I ate. I was finally starting to feel better yesterday, but now B is sick. Those gosh darn billy goats. They can be so pesky sometimes.