The best day

Tomorrow the ear doctor and I are doing one of our very favorite things to do in the whole world.

We're going to the zoo.

Usually we go every summer and spend the whole day there, seeing the Zebras and Penguins (my favorite) and the Polar Bears (his favorite). We walk and walk and walk until we're so tired we can't walk anymore. We have ice cream and an overpriced lunch, and usually get a waterbottle in the shape of an animal filled with strange red juice pretended to be made from fruit. I love it so much, but it's usually really hot dusty and crowded.

This year, I wised up, used that lump on top of my neck and decided that we'd go in October when the crowds were probably less dense and the weather was perfect.

Well, tomorrow is the day. It's going to be 70 degrees and sunny all day.

Plus, I was talking to a little girl I go to church with and she informed me that Zebras were her favorite too, and she just went to the zoo last week and they had a BABY ZEBRA there!

Woo-hoo!

My review

Last night the ear doctor and I went to see the new Elizabeth movie.

First off, I liked the movie. It was pretty good...but we both agreed that it wasn't something we'd buy and watch again. It was interesting to learn a bit more about Euro history and attempt (again) to remember who was related to who back then. During my trip to London a few years back I had it all worked out, but that dusty corner of my mind hasn't been used since.

Second, the costumes. Beautiful! Sunning. I actually wanted some of the fabric used in her dresses just because it was so luxe and gorgeous.

Third, is Cate Blanchet(t) ever a white skinned person! After the movie the ear doctor commented to me, "well, now we know there is at least one person who is even whiter than you, babe." Thanks sweets, I think?

Perfect for me

This ipod shuffle game is so perfect for me because at work I often plug in my ipod and listen for hours on end. It's a great way to get away from the distracting ambient sound around me.

So the game is to list the first 10 songs that are played by your ipod in shuffle mode. I'm a little embarrassed that this might show that my taste in music is kind of strange, dated, and not that "cool," but oh well.

1) Lovefool-The Cardigans. Who doesn't hear this song and instantly jump back to middle school/early high school? Great memories with this song for me.

2) Pale september -Fiona Apple. I love the sadness she is able to express in her music. Just plain pretty to me. Also, she uses really interesting word choice. I admit that sometimes I've had to consult a dictionary to figure out what she's talking about.

3) Wish you were here-Incubus. Incubus is my go to angry music. Listen to the lyrics. I've totally felt this way before.

4) Fast as you can-Fiona Apple. I love the way that she plays with time signature in this song. Very creative and you don't hear that kind of thing in music today. Most things are straight 4/4 time....boring.

5) Joker-Steve Miler Band. Is there a better cruisin song in the summer song? I don't think so.....well maybe Margaritaville.

6) Sunday Morning-Maroon 5. Ok, this is the ONLY Maroon 5 song in my ipod and it has to show up when I'm playing this game?!?!? Dorky. Actually, this song makes me really happy to listen to and it is pretty different from the rest of their overplayed gross music.

7) No shirt, No shoes, No problem-Kenny Chesney. Sometimes when I'm in my office I need a song that makes me feel like I'm at the beach. Plus, the fiddle part in this song is really pretty. Who can resist a steel drum?

8) Let it be-Beatles. Amen. Last weekend we went to see Across the Universe. Whoever was able to string all these songs together into one story is very, very creative and smart.

9) Brothers on a hotel bed-Death Cab for Cutie. The back beat in this song is SO cool. The ear doctor is a drummer and is totally nuts over this drumming. This is a perfect example of something I never would have noticed without him.

10) Jackson-Johnny Cash and June Carter. I'm so glad some Cash made the list because there is a whole lot of it on the ole ipod. Love it. Makes me want to dance around my cubical.

What are yours?

Finally

Fall has finally arrived here in Colorado and I am SO excited.

On my drive into work this morning the sun was bright, the air cold and there was a light dusting of snow on the flat iron mountains. Just breathtaking.

In honor of the season I'm wearing my new gray herringbone wool pants. This weekend I splurged a little and got these beauties. I love wide leg pants and always have.

I also got a pair of black patent leather flat Mary Janes. I'm pretty sure the 7 year old Katie would approve of the shoes.

Dear Martha,

Please stop stalking me.

I know you are staking me because you are designing products made specifically to tempt me to go off my budget and buy things.

I mean, really, who were these made for besides me? My crazy love of milk? And celebrating seasons through dishes?

And putting them on sale right now is especially low.

Love, Katie

Like a log

I am a very sound sleeper. I attribute this honed skill to the genius of my mom and my own personal greed. When we were little my mom would promise a dollar to the kid who could fall asleep first. Money is a great motivator to a kid who loves Toys R Us. Anyway, this constant conditioning has molded me into the person who falls asleep anywhere: bumpy Mexican bus rides, uncomfortable plane seats, the middle of my chemistry classes, etc.

However, there are only two things that will wake me up enough in the night to actually get me out of bed. Not having to go to the bathroom (that can wait til morning) or needing to get a drink (I'd rather spit sawdust before getting out of my cozy bed). They are:

1. Having nightmares about my teeth falling out. I haven't been to a dentist in WAY too long and have recurring nightmares about rotting teeth. Scary enough to get me out of bed for 3 minutes for a middle of the night teeth brushing.
2. Twisted up pajamas. Man, I cannot STAND having my pajamas twisted all around me. It will wake me up and I'll actually stand up out of my bed so that gravity can help me unwind the boa-constrictor-like effect of long pajama pants.

So now you know.

How To

Since I was out of new books, and the ear doctor had it laying around, I decided I'd start reading the classic book "How to win friends and influence people." I didn't really feel like I needed to "win" more friends or learn how to influence people, but I've heard a lot about the book. It seemed like a good idea to read something that gets that much hype.




Guess what? I really like the book. I was almost expecting this book to be Machiavellian in it's teachings and techniques. I was worried that it would teach people to be false and manipulative. Well, it doesn't. It promotes sincerity above everything else. And, again, I like it a lot.



It has been a great reminder to me of how to be kind and more interested in other people than I am in myself. It has reminded me to SMILE more, and in smiling I find myself happier. It just helps me remember everything that I know I should be doing and don't do nearly often enough.



No wonder this book has been around since the early 1900s.

Our night

I never think it's that big of a deal when we don't make time for it. However, when we do, I realize how important and special it is.

Monday nights the ear doctor and I take time to be together. We share our personal thoughts on things a bit deeper than which show we like better this season: The Office or 30 Rock.

Last night we took a walk around the ritzy neighborhood that our apartment complex backs up to. We spent 2 hours walking around talking about our future, our dreams of our ideal home, how we appreciate each other and what kind of dog we want to get.

Just as we turned to go home we looked out at the mountains. It was just starting to get dark and the mountains had changed from their rugged three dimensional shapes to flat, 2-D cutouts in varying shades of lavender. The intense green of the golf course and the pungent smell of crisp, drying leaves completed one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen. I asked him if he'd ever seen something so beautiful. He took two steps away, looked back at me and the beautiful vista and, looking me full in the eyes, said, "Never."

Hmmmm, how I love this man.

I told him that he had to remember that moment forever so that when we are 70 and still together we'd always be able to look back and picture that day. It was a day I loved him with more of myself than I ever thought I'd be able to give. It was our day.

Swoon

One of my favorite bloggers, Leslie at A Room Somewhere found my dream dress today.



If anyone has $140 that they want to spend on a very deserving girl, head on over to Pears and Bears and pick this number up in my size. I would wear it everyday until it disintegrated. It'd be just like my favorite sweatshirt from second grade with the rainbow on the front and shoulder pads that I made my dad wash every night so I could wear it to school everyday one week while my mom was away on a business trip.

Save the earth

Well, after a week at jury duty I am excited to be back working at the job I love. To the untrained eye, it may seem like nothing changed at my job while I was away. The same people sit in the same cubicles working on the same program.

However, a closer look reveals a tiny, but very interesting change.

When I moved to the new building in which I work I immediately found my way to the closest coffee pot/communal food area. I don't drink coffee, but I do indulge in a daily cup of powdered hot cocoa. Sometimes this cup is the only thing that helps me push through that 10 am realization that I'm going to be here a L-O-N-G time today. It's a small reward I let myself have for making it into work at all. Sometimes, if I'm feeling very good, I even make the sugar free kind.

The first morning I arrived at the white particle board counter top, I noticed there were no stereotypical white Styrofoam cups anywhere readily available. I thought that was strange. My eyes flitted up to the cabinet above the coffee maker where someone had taped a condemning sign. It read:



Well, I didn't have my own cup. I support saving the environment, but giving up my morning treat was out of the question that morning. Stealthily I opened the cupboard to find a small stack of the offensive Styrofoam cups. Quickly I emptied my Swiss Miss and headed back to my cube to hide my wanton, earth killing ways from my coworkers.

Over the ensuing days I kept forgetting my own cup and with shame scurried to and from the hot water spigot. I didn't want everyone thinking I was a heartless, ozone-depleting, clear-cutting, over consumer (which, it turns out, I am).

This morning I returned from Jury Duty and found the sign had been removed and the white cups proudly displayed on the counter.

Interesting.....very interesting.

Proud to be an American

Monday I was summoned for Jury Duty. While I waited in a large white corral area with 300 other annoyed potential jurors I started to write a post about how they could improve the Jury duty experience (ie provide danish, invest in arm chairs, get screens with information like at the airport, create smaller waiting rooms, get a freakin subscription to Domino or Blueprint, ect).

However, as the day wore on and I went through the selection process for a week long felony case, my chances for creating a really funny post from this experience started to diminish.

After I was selected for the jury I am currently serving on, and after hearing the horiffic details of the case at hand all I am left with is gratitude.

I am grateful for the family I am part of and the extreme privledges I got for free. I am so humbled to live in a country with this, while very imperfect, working justice system. I am so lucky to have a job that will pay me to serve out my civic duty. I am so thankful that my country is only asking 5 working days of my time and still letting me come home each night to my wonderful husband, instead of asking me to relocate to a different country and requesting my whole existence.

Serving on a jury is an inconvenience, but a blessing.

(Sorry if there are typos, the spell checker isn't working and I am a HORRIBLE speller on my own)

Last converstaion of the day

Last night, just before drifting off to sleep, our dark bedroom

Katie: What are we doing tomorrow night again?

EarD: (Pause for dramatic, incredulous effect) Ummm, watching The Office.

Katie: (with a renewed excitement) Oh, yeah. That is going to be awesome.

Pause for a few moments to let the realization sink in

EarD: What are you most excited about?

Katie: Well, I really miss Kevin and Angela. They are my friends and I haven't seen them in a really long time. (pause) And, I'm really excited to see how Pam and Jim's date goes.

End Scene.




Yes, we really to think The Office characters are real people. We know this because they are our friends.

Not fair

Someone made the office smell like syrup.

That, and popping a bag of delicious microwave popcorn at 2:30 ought to be ILLEGAL.

Update: SOMEONE JUST POPPED POPCORN IN THE COMMUNAL WORK MICROWAVE!?!?!?!?!?

Can't shake a feeling

Last night I had a terrible dream. One of those really really real ones that seem so much like reality that when you wake up you're not sure if you've actually just fallen asleep. Like sleeping was reality and waking the dream.

This dream was about a friend who'd hurt me and I couldn't figure out why. I didn't understand what I'd done to ellicit they're hurtful behavior. I felt small, unloved, insecure and alone.

As I laid in bed the darkness of my room was crushingly heavy and tears pricked the sides of my eyes. I turned over to escape the dark and face the pale blue light coming from my recharging cell phone hoping for solace. Instead, I was surrounded by an icy world that filled my eyes and chilled my heart.

I drifted back off to sleep, but was blessed with no restful slumber.

Hours later I awoke to my warm and inviting bedroom, the breakfast sandwich my hunk of a husband makes me every time I sleep in later than he does, and a kitchen full of bright slanting morning sunshine.

Yet, twinges of the feeling remained.

The happy, enveloping steam of my shower had cold little fingertips as it enveloped me. The freshly ironed shirt had a hidden and unnoticed wrinkle down the front. The tall, frothy morning glass of milk had a faint scent of rot. I hate bad dreams that stay with me all day and leave me in a funk.

Does this happen to anyone else?

da da da da......DA

A co-worker in the cubical next to mine has the Law and Order song as his ring tone.

Every time it rings I get a simultaneously suspicious and hardcore look on my face, whip my head around and train my truth-eliciting, piercing gaze out into the hallway. Nothing gets by agent Katie....nothing.

Count em

Today I've been married to my best friend for 3, count em, 3 months!

I'm so lucky!

New style icon

I know a lot of people say that Audrey Hepburn is their favorite style icon from the past. And, had you asked me that question 2 weeks ago I probably would have said the same.

However, a interesting turn of events has occurred.

Thanks to AMC for running 14 of Alfred Hitchcock's movies for the past week I have adopted a new style icon. And she is...

....wait for it....

The beautiful Ms. Grace Kelly.

Although there were some fairly scandalous rumors surrounding her early years, how can you not just fall head over heels with her style?

This dress is from Rear window and when I saw it on the screen I think I actually gasped. The ear doctor looked at me like I was crazy. It is really very beautiful.

Oh, to have a reason to wear wrist length gloves! And drive with Cary Grant! (From To Catch a Thief)

Plus, every time someone comments on my wedding dress, they say that it reminds them of hers. What a compliment! After looking up her dress, I cansee the parallels, what do you think?

Office Reno

I was reading over at Design*Sponge today and she had a really rad post about an ad company that let their employees re-do their offices to help with creativity.

This blew my mind and got me really excited.

I have a creative job, so why shouldn't I have a creative space? I should.

My current layout is like this:
Surrounded on all sides by built in desk space that I don't use, and don't need. The walls are three shades of gray, and the whole thing is a little.....utilitarian.

This is what I would do, if I could:

1. Rip out all the built in furniture. It is nast.

2. Get a rad desk and face it to the opening of my cube. This criss-cross Crate and Barrel number is pretty awesome. Get some cool little yellow accents for the desk...maybe this cute tiny Kate Spade clock?

3. For storage, pick up this cook black, boxy IKEA book case. I could store my text books and pictures very well and get some cool boxes to store my files.

4. Add a small round working table and guest chair so that there is a different, designated space for when people come to collaborate with me. This eames-esque tulip table from DWR would make me SOOOO happy.

5. Make one entire corner from floor to the top of my cube covered in white board. I really like to draw while I design. It helps me explain it to other people. Plus, I think all that white will look cool.

6. Set the white table and white boards off by a cool, brightly colored rug in the work table corner like this one from FLOR.

7. Cover what isn't covered by the white boards of the bottom and left walls in some cool wall paper. I found a perfect picture of this yesterday, but didn't save it...ughhh. It was a framed peice of yellow wall paper with very organic looking white trees all over it. Very pretty.

8. Do something pretty plain to the other two walls....maybe just a nice creamy white color and hang a picture or two? I'd have to see how it looks with all the graphic-ness of the wall paper. Maybe I could do some kind of padded wall thing like Rose and Radish did a while back. That way I could lean back and take a little rest when I eyes get tired of a computer screen. Sounds good, no?

So yeah, that's what I'd love to do with this space.

Not the maid

Tuesday night I was sick as a dog.

However, a month before I had offered to make dinner for the three missionaries currently living in our area. They don't have much money, so the members of our congregation take care of their meals. As bad as I felt, I knew I would feel even worse if I called up last minute and cancelled on them.

About 40 minutes before they were supposed to arrive the ear doctor and I realized that we had bought bone-in chicken breasts and our planned meal was an artichoke stuffed, pounded thin, BONELESS, chick breast. Bad idea.

I quickly flipped through my absolute FAVORITE cookbook du jour, The Best 30-minute recipe: A Best Recipe Classic, which my sister's in-laws gave us as a wedding gift (thanks Whitings!....this book is AWESOME) and found a delicious sounding panko breaded, almond crusted chicken breast topped with cranberry and orange relish.

(BTW, this book is seriously awesome. I cook from it about three times a week)

By this time we only had about 30 minutes to make our entire meal. Yikes. I love cooking, but generally have a hard time doing it very quickly. Just as I was pouring the relish over the chicken, the ear doctor was fishing the steamed zucchini out of the pot, the missionaries arrived. I was shocked that we got it all pulled together.

However, since we were cooking with the speed and intensity of Hung on Top Chef, I wasn't doing dishes as I went, like usual. And, after dinner we had delicious pumpkin spice cake (from this month's Bon Appetit...pretty good. Mine turned out a bit dry....that's Colorado for you. It was better the second day after the frosting has time to soak in).

The result? A TON of dishes. And I mean you probably could have dumped all the dirty dishes into a bad, brought it to our scale and weighed in at around 1,997 lbs....a TON. Every horizontal surface was stacked in a Sword-in-the-stone-esque fashion nearly to the ceiling.

After entertaining our guests to the best of my ability, I turned to the sink, pushed up the sleeves of the shirt I'd been lounging around in all day and set my mind to the task of rocking that stack out.

The ear doctor gently pulled me from the sink, set me down on the couch, covered me with a blanket, got me a glass of nice cold lemonade and spent the next HOUR AND A HALF doing the dishes.

Ahhhhhh, what a guy! Love really is everything it's cracked up to be.

Recovery

So, after laying around in bed and on the couch for two days walking up the single flight of stairs to my office seemed like scaling Mt. Everest.

I had to stop TWICE on my way up to catch my breath.

I hate being sick....

Competitve

Last week the ear doctor and I were a little hyper before we went to bed.

We held the first annual Freestyle bed jumping contest. Turns out the layout of our apartment is perfect for really building up speed.

The challenge involved starting down the hallway and running full out until you get to the bed. Then, you had to jump on the bed. The coolness of the jump was judged by both and a winning jump selected. The ear doctor was much better at the forward flip, but I rocked out the "fish" jump.

It was awesome. Totally the right thing to do to our $1200 bed....

We are so mature and grown up.

Finally!

When I was in middle school my friends had a pool.

In Washington State, where I grew up, this was unheard of. No one had a pool. It just isn't sunny enough there to justify the effort and expense, but my friends had a pool. I remember going over there almost every day during the summer and swimming and having a great time.

I would hook my legs up over the side of the pool and push myself down into the water until I was totally upside down, my back touching the unexpected coolness of ceramic tile. I would open my eyes and look up through the water to the trees, clouds and the side of their house. All of these images would be familiar, and yet completley foreign in their wiggly new shapes.

This is one of the calmest, most serene memories I have.

Which is probably why I've fallen head over heals in love with Lorraine Shemesh's work.

Beautiful, no?

Goo

I just looked down at the front of what I supposed was my clean shirt.

Turns out this was the same shirt I browned Tuesday nights chorizo in.

Rad.

Maybe my co-workers will think the superflous amount of little dots all along the bottom of my shirt is some really cool artistic look I'm going for? Doubtful.....very doubtful.

We need just a couple more cool things to hang in our entry hallway to disguise the hideous breaker box that the apartment builder didn't think of at all and put in the most obvious and ugly spot. I mean, the dumb thing is the first thing anyone sees when they enter our home! ANNOYING.

I've been trolling around Etsy and found some beauties, but now the question is...which will it be?

Dazeychic has some pretty great prints that would look great with the colors of our house. Plus, the birds in the second one are very little, so the ear doctor won't roll his eyes and go, "oh, birds, they're so trendy right now"

This awesome poster from Strawberryluna is SO cool, although it's probably a bit bright for the spot I'm looking to fill right now. I think this print just rules, which is surprising to me because stuff like this is usually a bit too graphic for my taste. Look who's growing!!! Oops, birds again, sorry ed.

Wow, I really like this one from elsita too, but I wish it didn't have the writing in the bottom right corner. If the writing hadn't been there I would have LOVED to put it up and make people nervous out until they figured out what it was saying. That'd be pretty cool.

Well, I just really love that "Love is everything it's cracked up to be" print. I guess I'm going to have to spend some of my monthly frivolous spending money and get it.

Back to school

About twice a year I change the wall paper on my monitors at work. I know this may not be very exciting for the rest of you, but it's a really fun day when all the pictures that I end up staring at for about 8 hours of my day....every day...actually change.

Anyway, here's what they are now. On the left hand monitor we have:

And on the right we have:

Aren't you jealous of the exciting life I live?

Boo-ya!

Guess who is going to be the proud owner of these RIDICULOUSLY cool shoes?!?!?




After entering about 100 different blog giveaways over the past year my "efforts" have finally paid of thanks to the two rad girls at Your Heart Out, and the awesome company (ryka) that employs cool people like k8!

(picture me spinning around in my office chair smiling with child-like glee while surrounded by my gray padded-walled cubical).

What a great way to start a day!

WWDRD?

One of the strangest gifts we got for our wedding, or so I thought, was a book written by financial guru Dave Ramsey called The Total Money Makeover.

When I tore open the pretty floral wrapping paper, I was really surprised that someone got us a book about finances. I'm not really into finances and neither is the ear doctor. We do OK for where we are in life and we thought we had things pretty much under control in this arena.

Well, instead of just throwing the book up on the shelf to let it collect dust, I decided to start reading. Boy, am I glad I did! This book has totally realigned our thought process about money, budgeting and finances. In the book he promises that, barring any truly horrible luck at the beginning of life, if you stick to his principles in the book you can be a millionaire in a decade. He stresses that if you give up things for a short time and have a little perspective about your life-time, anyone can really succeed in the money game.

I am so excited about the promises made in this book and I am so grateful to the thoughtful couple who got us this book for us as a wedding gift! I'm so glad we're jumping on the Zero-debt bandwagon so early in our marriage.

Next time I see the Steinblicks (the givers of the book) I'm giving them a bone-crushing hug and a big wet sloppy kiss on the cheek. That's just how grateful I am to these people.

Do yourself a favor...get on a budget and read this book. It worked for us!

Tuesdays with ed

Tuesdays are my favorite nights of the week.

I love Tuesdays because that is the night that the ear doctor puts his grilling skillz to the test and, man-o-man, do I love the homework! Last night he made us delicious steaks with his first ever BBQ sauce from scratch and the most delicious chorizo and mushroom quesadillas with cilantro and jack cheese. YUMMMM. I'd never thought of grilling quesadillas before, but it was the PERFECT cooking method. The tortillas came out perfect and crispy, you'd never get them that way in a pan! Anyway, I love turning on some music (last night was Alison Kraus and Union Station live) and talking to the ear doctor while he cooks.

All of this grilling has made me realize another difference between the ear doctor and myself.

For his birthday a couple of weeks ago my parents got him a brand new grilling cook book. When he opened the package the look on his face belonged to a 7 year old receiving his first electric train set. It was great. He's been reading it pretty much non-stop since he got it.

Two days ago I found the book opened up and sitting on the counter in the bathroom. It took me a minute to realize that the ear doctor was using the new grilling book to "occupy" his time whilst using the facilities! I laughed out loud.

My big realization was this: men and women think of bathroom time very differently (I know....earth-shaking, isn't it?).

I don't think there has been a single instance in my life where I entered the bathroom thinking "I'm going to be in there a while so I might as well bring some reading material along with me." Maybe it's the boy scout in them always wanting to be prepared, but I've just never seen the need for some extracurricular activities.

Girls, do you bring reading material with you? Have you ever found yourself sitting around in there thinking, "man, this is taking a long time, if only I'd brought that Amy Tan novel I've been reading?"

Ohhhh

This would look SO pretty on my kitchen counter.

Even though she'd be the new kid on the block, she would TOTALLY fit in with white enamel canisters and glass Kosher Salt container by the stove.

Although, if beautiful bird oil decantur added her beautiful self to the stove-counter party I might start to feel bad for retro looking toaster all alone far on the other side of the kitchen.

(From Mozi)

New job

I've recently moved jobs. Now I work with different people, which is both great, and a little sad. Here is a list of things about my new job.

1. On Wednesday, my first day here, someone's baby was crying for 4 hours straight. I thought that was kind of different.
2. The floor of our building is like a trampoline. Whenever anyone walks by my cube the whole thing shakes so much I think we're having a 4.5 Richter scale earthquake. I've even developed a really fast way to "batten down the hatches" so that my precious plastic framed awards don't fall off the gray padded walls.
3. My new extension is x7749, which is really cool because 7 x 7 = 49. (How about that, Kath?)

I think this place needs a plant or two.....

Wow....I could do this

I saw this quilt this morning and fell in L-O-V-E.

I think I'm going to try to make something similar, but in shades of either blue or green. Which should I do?

Labor Day

So the reason there has been an uncommonly long break here is because the ear doctor and I took off for a long weekend over Labor Day. His b-day is Sept 4, so every year we get to take an awesome trip to celebrate.

This year we decided to go to Mt. Rushmore. I was a little nervous about going to somewhere called the black hills and the badlands. Judging from the titles, I wasn't really expecting much natural beauty. Boy was I wrong.

Friday we took off after work and stayed the night in the glorious Express Inn in Cheyenne, WY. Turns out, when you book a room at a 2 star hotel to save money you get pretty much what you pay for. I knew we were in trouble when we got to our room at we weren't allowed to reverse the pull of gravity and make our cigarette smoke go down.

On the plus side the phone specifically positioned to be used while going to the bathroom was sure a convenience.

And the huge mold colony growing on the shower curtain wet the ear doctor's appetite.

We woke up early Saturday morning and high tailed it out of Wyoming. The first stop on our trip...jewel cave. This cave is the second longest set of caves in the world. The ear doctor and I love a cave tour, and this one was no different. The cool thing about this tour is that we decided to take the lantern tour. The cave was an unfinished path and only lit by the small paraffin oil lanterns.

The ear doctor was brave because he had the power of the ThunderCats with him. I was a little more nervous.

After going through the caves we found our lovely campsite at the Big Pine Campground and set up camp.....it was a beautiful campground. Luckily the tent sites and the RV sites were separated by a big hill. Not that I don't love RVers, but the glare from their TVs at night can be a little distracting when you're trying to get your s'more on.

That night we had the most difficult time lighting a fire. We tried and tried until we had to throw up our hands in defeat. The ear doctor took this defeat to heart and the next morning took out his frustration on the stupid fire "pit".

In case you can't tell what you're looking at, it is a cement slab with a welded metal box on top. Guess what sucks? Trying to build a fire that requires a lot of oxygen in a 3 sided closed box. We figured out what the problem was in the light of the next day....the paper was coated in a flame retardant wax and the wood we thought was nice and dry had really been sitting in a dark, wet box for 3 weeks....go figure.

Sunday morning we went to see the crazyhorse monument. This is a pretty cool undertaking that I had no knowledge of before heading out there. This guy was commissioned by the Lakota elders to carve the likeness of Crazy Horse into a cliff. He started in the 50's, all alone, and started working. He spent the first 2 years just getting his equipment up the mountain. Since then his family has worked on the mountain without any funding from the government, despite being offered it. They didn't want anything to do with a handout. This monument has been built solely on private funds. I love that. When I'm a millionaire this is the kind of thing that I will support.

We needed a break from sight-seeing so we found a place for milk shakes. Butter pecan....soooo good!

Then, we headed off to the main event...Mt. Rushmore. We decided to pay the $5 and get the hand held guided tour. So worth the investment. I love learning all I can about the building of monuments and stuff like that.

Before heading back to the Big Pine Campground, we stopped off at the "cosmos mystery area" which was pretty much a cool little house built at a strange angle on the side of a hill. The whole experience plays with the inner conflict between what you see and what you feel. The ear doctor was all about it, being really into balance and the workings of the inner ear. I was really excited because a lot of the same sensations we experienced are experienced by astronauts in space. Yes, we are both big dorks.

Monday morning we pack up camp and drove to yet another set of caves (see, I told we loved caves), Wind Cave. This tour was a lot like the other tours we've been on with electric lighting and cement paths. Wind cave is the 4th longest cave at 125 miles long. The crazy thing is that all 125 miles are under 1 square mile of ground on the surface. That means a very dense, curvy, vertical set of caves. After entering the cave we went down about 150 stairs to get to the tour. Also, Wind Cave has 95% if the world's "box work" formations. Everywhere inside of the cave seemed to be covered in thin webbing. It kind of looked like the cross sections of bone marrow, or a sea sponge. Very cool. I wish my old roommie Nikita had been there to explain it to me (she's a geologist now).

After the cave we drove into Custer State Park. What a beautiful place! I kept singing "home, home on the range" and wishing that we had a log cabin on the property. We took the long wildlife loop in the south-east corner of the park, and guess what? We found ourselves in the middle of a wild herd of buffalo! The ear doctor was ecstatic!

After seeing the Buffalo, we drove up through the needles highway in the Northwest corner of the park. In this area of the park there are sharp towers of granite that pushed their way up out of the ground all over the place. On the freeway they've blasted really narrow tunnels through the rock. One of the tunnels is only 9 ft wide, so driving through was a little nerve racking.

The eye of the needle:

That night we stayed at the State Game Lodge in the park, which is where Pres. Calvin Coolidge spent his summer months while he was president. It was a really breathtaking area and we had our own little cabin that reminded me of being at summer camp.

Tuesday morning we packed up and drove home...with one important stop. In Hot Springs, SD there is an in situ archaeological dig of a sink hole. In this dig they've already found the remains of 56 mammoths! The ear doctor LOVES dinosaurs, so we just had to stop there. It was really cool. The whole building is build around a current, live dig where you can see the bones of Colombian and Woolly mammoths!


(mammoth femur)


(mammoth mandible...jaw bone)


Between the caves, the monuments, the animals, the scenery and visiting the town of Lusk, WY twice, we had a totally awesome time!