Hunting for the Big One

So yesterday, unable to justify spending $60 on a Christmas tree, Gabe Hatter, his girlfriend Amy, sweet Harley and I all trekked up into the Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest to hack down our own. It only costs $10 for a permit and you get the pleasure of lugging yourself into the sodden Washington forest, now under about three feet of snow.

The map they give you at the ranger station isn't of much help, though it does provide directions to where most of the nobles firs grow. Nobles take about seven to nine years to get to standard Christmas tree size 8-12 ft., and they only grow above 2000" in elevation. But they do make the best Christmas trees, needle retention and robustness and all that.

The snow was about two feet deep from the unplowed entrance to the forest road and heavy from the couple days of rain. I don't have any chains but putting the Jesus in FWD seemed to do the trick. It was slow going and Amy was less than thrilled about all the slipping around as we cornered up the steep forest road. I think at one point she even asked to be let out. Which I thought at the time she was just joking about. But after a few tough turns I think she'd had enough. Luckily we had just managed to find the trail head that the map pointed out as the way to our illusive trees.

You just have to love a Washington winter. Dumping snow one minute and then pouring rain the next. We snowshoed for about an hour as the rain just came rolling down in sheets every five minutes and still found nothing. Well, a few scraggly nobles and of course the towering giants, but that was all. I almost settled for this little chubby guy but just couldn't bring myself to do it.

The Forest Service is supposed to plow the roads tomorrow so we're going to try it again. Hopefully this time we'll have more luck. As if they're hiding from us. The Nobles apparently are also the fastest of the firs. We'll just have to try and get to a higher elevation this time, maybe they'll be slower up there, thinner air and everything.

All this in the pursuit of the holiday spirit. Carrie has to work unfortunately, though anyway she still remains unconvinced that this is necessary. But I am relentless in my chase of tradition. I can remember hiking out with my family to look for a tree, all of us tired and wet as Pa rejected one tree after another, finally settling on some lopsided monstrosity to my mother's gentle admonishments. Carrie's initial response was that we don't even have any ornaments. But that's what God made popcorn for isn't it? That and beer cans. You'd be amazed at what one can make with a beer can and some duct tape.

I'm sure tomorrow will bring the best Christmas tree ever. I can just feel it.

Carrie Wins!

I put a couple of new links as well to our blog. One is an article about our recent exploits against the forces of evil. Carrie led the opposition against this coal plant and they succeeded in getting it stopped for the time being. It is a great article. Way to go Dizzy! The other one is about a group we're starting with some help from others here in Columbia City, it's called Sustainable South Seattle. We had our first meeting before we left and our next in a couple of weeks. It should be a lot of fun getting to know our community and working with other members to facilitate the dialogue between various interests groups. The other two are links to my latest writing for eHow and Hubpages. Check them all out and don't forget to click on the Ads ;-)

A Happy ChristGiving Weekend

I just want to say thanks to the Dolwick family for a lovely Kenturkey holiday. Carrie and I had a wonderful time. Never in my life have I ate so much, drank so much, gambled so much and laughed so hard. Well, I've probably drank more but the rest I'll let stand.

For those of you that don't know, Carrie and I went back to her home town of Louisville, Kentucky for Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful trip full of much eating, as per the holiday, much drinking, as per Kentucky, and even a bit of gambling - you just have to love those ponies.

I got to play with all of Carrie's nephews, Goose and Alex, and her nieces, Little Mo and Abigail. They are hilarious. Abbey has just about as much energy and enthusiasm as I imagine Carrie did in her youth. Especially after seven chocolate cookies. Little Mojo is the hit of any party, even sleeping. And Alex and Gus have the coolest collection of Hero Clix I've ever seen.

Thanksgiving dinner was an actual buffet with the whole extended family in attendance. Paul, Carrie's father, managed to pawn off some of his and Scott's home brew on everyone and even whipped out a bottle of the XXX hard cider, though I don't think anyone dared to try it. The food was outstanding and I ate enough of it to make me think I was going to have a heart attack. Overcoming the fear, I then Promptly fell asleep (Sshhh) on the couch and had to go lay down for a nap. Oh, tryptophan my old friend you win again. You always do.

The next day was the greatest day ever. First we went to the track. That's Churchill Downs horse track. Carrie's Uncle Brian is a trainer there and got us into the back field where they house all the horses. We got to see over thirty different horses and even feed carrots and mints to a couple. I'll post some pictures when we get our camera charged. We got to watch a couple of races from the backfield and even got to see them get the horses into the starting gates and then spring out to start the race. It was pretty amazing. Carrie and I even won a couple of races!

Then Brian took us out along the track to the stadium where I made some more bets, got to watch another couple of races and had a mint julep, which if you've never had one, they are awesome. I swear that bartender put about half a bottle of bourbon in mine. But I didn't let that stop me from betting! We also got to go down along the rail and watch the horses come across the finish, which would have been more exciting Had I not lost that one.

After all that excitement you'd think most families would call it a day. But not the Dolwicks! Off we went again to The Bonnie Castle Club, where Paul, Scott and Tim are members, for a little Bingo. Paul was the bingo caller and I must say he did a terrible job because I didn't win a thing. After bingo we had a private family dance party where by tradition the women dance in a circle holding hands while the men watch amused from the side. What a night.

Saturday was another fine day for eating and drinking, Paul grilled up some bacon wrapped fillets and again forced me to drink more of his home brew. After dinner everyone gathered around the Christmas tree and we celebrated ChristGiving Day. Tim even made shirts for everyone that said "Feelin' Quirky in Kenturkey - Dolwick ChristGiving Weekend 2007" to commemorate the event. We then exchanged gifts from the Youngest to the oldest and I think I got the most! They must really want me to come back.

All in all, I had a wonderful time in KY and I urge everyone to take some time to visit. Kentucky is a crazy place with no laws. I'm sure you could stay with the Dolwick's. Call me, I'll give you their number.

Here we are

I've heard that we've been requested to post another day in Seattle. So, here goes: I normally wouldn't have time to do this because I've been working alot, although this is what my bosses call the "slow season." I did get a week off a couple of weeks ago, and November looks nice and sparse, but its been crazy the last couple of weeks. This week I've been getting up at four in the morning to serve breakfast for the Machinist's Union at Boeing and working for twelve hours a day getting ready for this weekend, which is booked solid. The reason I've got time today is because I'm bedridden with some sort of terrible virus. Go figure. I think my throat is going to burst into flame and light my hair on fire. And my voice sounds like a cross between Yoda and a heavy-set transvestite. I think my work is just going to have to do without me today. Who wants a skinny version of Divine serving them drinks?
Carrie also has been busy, as I say "saving the world and destroying people's livelihoods." But recently the only livelihood she's irradicated has been that of coal workers. Which is fine. And by the looks of it, she's going to be mighty busy since there are dozens of plants applying for zoning across the nation right now. Especially in her home state of Kentucky. They seem to love coal there. Come January she's going to be travelling down to Olympia more with the start of the legislative session, of the "Sesh" as they say in the biz, to lobby for the Coalition.
I just turned on italics for no reason and can't figure out how... oh there we go. I just read this great article by Naomi Kline in Harper's called "Disaster Capitalism" it was incredible. She spoke on NPR last night and has a new book out I want to read. Very interesting. All about how the current administration has outsourced all these tradional government jobs to large multinational corporations and how they are providing only relief and coverage in disaster situations, from wars to natural disasters, to the wealthy and monied interests. Very interesting indeed.
Somehow, between the working, I have managed to read alot and have been entertaining the idea of going to law school. Possibly for Environmental Law ,though it appears that the LSAT's are very hard. Who would have thought? I've been studying one of the Princeton review course books and have discovered parts of my brain unknown to me. But we'll see.
We celebrated my 32 birthday this tuesday. It was a lovely evening complete with an Italian man named Luigi stuffing us with all sorts of delectible treats and savory tidbits. We do love a good meal. That mixed with the great company and a couple bottles of northern Italian wine made it a wonderful celebration indeed. Other highlights since our last post:

Carrie road her bike to Bellingham, which is just over a hundred miles away, her first Century ride.

I got my car back, then had to replace the alternator, steering fluid pump and various other parts. But, its still cheaper than a car payment.

Harley Rose is becoming the best puppy ever. Though she does seem to harbor some confusion over the rule of no peeing in the basement. She's still rather adorable otherwise.

It seems as if we are going to make it to KY for Thanksgiving. Maybe Harley too.

And besides all that I'm sure other wild and wonderful things have happened, but I just can't think of them. So there you go. I'll attempt to be more diligent in my future updating. Hope your all enjoying the Autumn change. It is gorgeous here.

Welcome back to Seattle

Carrie and I have moved into our temporary house here in Seattle. The steady roar of the freeway lulls us to sleep. We've both started our new jobs and are enjoying ourselves tremendously. Although, some aspects of the big city are hard to wrap our country heads around. Like, for instance, how you need to lock your car. One of the unfortunate results of living in urban sprawl is that if your car is unlocked, it will have a greater likelihood of getting stolen. As ours did. I told the officer on the phone that we had been in town for less than a week and he responded, "welcome to Seattle." Thank you indeed. But, the return rate is high and hopefully it won't be used as a toilet or crack den by some homeless vagrants. All our friends, while lamenting our loss, show no surprise. They have all had their cars stolen, or know somebody who has, sometimes even multiple times. Rough. But we will move on cuz "The good lord giveth, and the good lord taketh away." Cheers.

Getting outta here!

With mixed emotions we are leaving Alaska. Just when the weather was turning promising, the bears are coming out and the Halibut are being caught, we are packing up and leaving Ketchikan.

I (carrie) accepted a job at the Northwest Energy Coalition. After attempting to land a job there for the last 3 years, I was offered a position as a policy associate. I am thrilled. My first project is to monitor the rule making of new landmark legislation passed by WA state to limit emissions of power production. A bold and brilliant idea! Check out their website, www.nwenergy.com.

Since the shamrock challenge. We have had some great times in Alaska, with some fabulous and fun visitors (Mom, Dad, Sarah and Wilson the bulldog). I would like to share some of the highlights and corresponding picture for your visual enjoyment.

Shamrock Challenge

 

Dog shown for size.