Household Problem

By this picture you would think, how could anyone have a problem with a cat this cute. Let me tell you, it takes work, at doing nothing, to look that good. Two days ago I noticed that she was staring at the oven, she tends to space out so this did not surprise me that much. Yesterday as I was running out the door to work I saw it; a rabies, flea infested, hanta virus ridden mouse. I have had many strange things make it into my house, bed bugs, sand fleas, tarantula, and recently a very large caterpillar, but never a mouse. I was a big elephant in headlights. I did not know what to do. I looked to my left then to my right. Do I call Kellie? Do I try to catch it and risk a series of rabies shot so painful death would be pleasurable? No, turn on all the lights in the house so that it thinks it is day time. They are nocturnal after all.

I finished work and ran directly to the only store open at 3:30 am, Walgreen's. This turned into an adventure in itself. Do you know who shops at Walgreen's at 3:30 am? No one normal. I soon found myself in a best mouse trap, bed bug, and various other pest problems with a very nice but very strange clerk and an over pierced, painted face, ripped skirt punk rocker chick. I must say my life is nothing but boring.

Back to the main problem at hand. As of day one, no mouse has been caught, and we all know that princess cat of ours will never touch a dirty little mouse.

Cool new pic of kitten

Pitch and Put

The Dude

For Kellie's birthday we went to Mopin Oregon to raft the Deschutes. To our surprise The Dude was the guide. For those of you who do not know, The Dude, he is the character from the Big Labowski. After the river trip we went to Bend Oregon, a small town we fell in love with, unfortunately there are no jobs there.

Soon after, by someone I met at the Churnament, I was asked last moment to carve a pig for Pix at their annual Bastille day celebration. Good times good people.

The Ice Cream Churnament

I was asked by one of my employers if I had Friday off. Afraid they were going to ask me to do some undesirable work I asked why. To my surprise they asked me to be a member of their Ice Cream making team. This would be a tournament in Pioneer Square to find out who would be the fastest ice cream and tastiest ice cream makers. This would be judged by a well known news anchor and the dairy princess among other dignitaries. To my employers this meant make the best ice cream and get the name of the restaurant out. To me this meant find the most awesome outfit you can find and crank some ice cream. Soon The Creamanator would get the rest of his teammates on the bandwagon. To our surprise our dark cherry chevre ice cream did not win tastiest, an by no means were we the fastest, but one weeks later they brought a trophy to the restaurant and awarded us most enthusiastic. Hurray for teem BELLY!

The End of an Era

So the dream came to an end. I had planned to rock the stang for years to come. As fate would have it she would only make it to 95,000 miles. Her head gasket blew and without the time or space to fix her, the hardest decision had to be made. She has gone to be with others like her and it was only fitting that a rusty old man named chuck creaked his modified pickup to take her off to his shop. May she give the next person as many great times as she gave me.

The Maiden Voyage

On a warm overcast day two men leaped from the dock, over the gunnel and into a boat. With only the words of a couple of instructional books they raised the mail sail, sheeted in, and sailed off into the horizon. Within minutes the wetsuits were coming off, they are hot! Sweat was pouring from their brows, and the jib was raised. As the boat healed over, they rocked the rudder and off they were. A jibe at the buoy, a rocky change of sides, and back to the dock they were headed. Slowly they moved toward the dock, for later they would learn that their sails were not positioned for a run. They creeped into the dock with precision, tied the vessel off, and exchanged a highfive, for the are now sailors.

The Fitting Boat Name

We all know that person that really fits their name, like Bud, the really nice guy down the street. Well I found a boat with a very fitting name... El Titanic

Monkey crooks

On the beaches of the national park Manuel Antonio the white face monkeys will eat out of your hand, but watch out they will also snatch your bag and run off with it. I do like a beach where the monkeys are more of a threat than criminals. These monkeys found some banana peals in the trash they just could not resist.

Rafting the El Toro

After the wedding we decided the best way to start a honeymoon was to jump in a raft and race down a river. It was lots of fun, but the water was low, it is the dry season, and we got stuck on the rocks twice. Just imagine when the water is high. We saw howler monkeys, birds, and nothing beats a nice float through the jungle.

Wedding Pics

Here are some pictures. I just found out that the entire ceremony was filmed. I am currently working on a way to receive it due to its large file size, if you have ideas let me know. Till then this will have to do.

Viva El Dia De Coconut!

Costa Rica

For those of you that were out of the loop... we got married. The wedding took place in Nosara Costa Rica on the perfect beach with the perfect sunset. After which we spent almost two weeks traveling the country. We took, a record for us, over 200 pics, however we did not take any of the wedding since we were the main attraction. If you have some send them to me, till then the link to the wedding album, that was made by the photographer, is at the bottom of the blog.

After long hours in the airport and on the plane we made it to Costa Rica. Upon arriving in the airport we were able to catch a shuttle to the rental car. If you have never been to the Virgin Islands where shuttles are against the law, you may not appreciate the shuttle as much as we did. We requested the cheapest car we could, probably not the best idea in retrospect, which I have had larger Tonka Trucks, and it was a standard transmission. I did not know that any rental companies in the world still rented standard transmissions. We signed some papers and off we were for the five and a half hour drive to Nosara.

After a brief stop for lunch at a road side restaurant we drove for another two hours until we made the last turnoff. The roads till then where pretty good, but the final road was like nothing I had ever tried to navigate. It was full of craters, not potholes, boulders, rocks, and speed bumps the size of most ski jumps. This road took an hour to go about six miles, but we made it. We met Gale at his guest house Lodge Vista Del Mar and enjoyed a much needed nap.

Later that evening we were able to meet up with Kellie's family for dinner. We went to a nice little open restaurant called the Guilded Iguana which was great, my sea bass was fantastic (it was local not Chilean). About five minutes after the waiter took our order the power went out, so reminiscent of our time in the Caribbean. This did not stall the restaurant at all and we finished our meal on the candle light. Wen we got back I still had not heared from my family and was getting concerned. After an hour of trying to call them and no answer, I finally asked Gale for their key so that I could let them into their room when they got there. To which he replied, "Oh they just went out for dinner and to watch some live music." I guess I deserved that for all the nights I stayed out too late while they stayed up worrying.

The next day we went to talk to the lawyer about the wedding. When we got there, after much confusion, we figure out he was the wrong lawyer. We had talked to this lawyer eight months ago, but ended up going with another. This lawyer emailed us the day before, which we thought was the other one we had already sent money to. We got this sorted out, but the other law firm had left for the day, leaving us with some real concern. After a wonderful sunset and dinner with both our families at La Luna, a restaurant on the beach, we returned to our hotel. After assuring Kellie that I would sort out the lawyers in the morning, we tucked in for a restless night.

http://kellie.micelebracion.com