5 years!

Apples

Who remembers this classic Callister treat? Angie and I have a zillion apples and we've been getting pretty creative and liberal with them. Mona loves 'em too, but they give her gas, so we have to monitor her apple intake pretty carefully :)

Crawdad

I thought it would be a good Sunday activity to take Mona to the park and help her work on fetching. She's come along ways, but she still struggles sometimes with remembering to bring the ball back with her. While we were there we went to investigate the creek and found a pretty good sized crawdad. Mona didn't really want much to do with him, but I brought him home in my hat and we had us a reg'lar ol' crayfish boil in butter, garlic, salt and lemon juice. There was enough meat for each of us to have a nibble. Angie and I thought it was actually really delicious, but Mona thought it was more appetizing to sniff at, than to ingest. To each their own.

The Vegetable of Our Labors

Angie and I tried to raise a garden this year. It was a bit of work, but Angie had a nice little harvest of leafy greens every couple of weeks, and we had some radishes that were borderline county fair-ish. We were really disappointed that none of our tomatoes took off and we had only one solitary carrot. We babied that carrot all summer as if our very lives depended on its prosperity. Well I decided it was about harvest time for our carrot the other day. It was pretty unimpressive once I removed it from the ground, but Mona sure loved it! It gave her something to chew on besides our furniture.

Mona LuLu

I figured we'd better post something about Mona. To her, life is just a game and she just just loves playing! She loves to nose her way under blankets or pillows or pads or anything that she can get under. She particularly enjoys a game that we play together that I call "Blanket Wars" (see video)

Oh Canada!

Wheew... We're back!
Angie and I just came home from 9 magical days in Canada. I could talk your ears off about each and every one of those days, but I will try to instead make this our shortest blog post ever and just tell the juicier details in person to those we'll be seeing soon. In a nutshell:

-Drove 2004 miles
-Visited 5 Canadian National Parks
-We took 685 pictures!
-Celebrated Canada Day
-Picked our jaws up off the floor multiple times daily
-Saw deer, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, elk, coyote, fox, black bear, grizzly bear and more
-Hikes, Hot Springs, Ice Fields, Gondola, Canoeing, Glacial Lakes
-Sunshine, wind, rain
-Saw so many new and wonderful places!

It was an amazing trip and we'll never forget it. Anyone who has not visited the Canadian Rockies needs to do so ASAP! Unbelievable!!!

Pop Quiz

If I could be 15% of the artist each of these 6 guys are, I would rock 50% more than I do! But this isn't a math quiz, it's a "who am I?" quiz. These are the 6 most influential musicians in my life, see if you can name them! (without looking at others' comments)

Mom & Dad!

We were fortunate enough to have mom and dad come and visit us this weekend. They drove up all day Wednesday and stayed until this morning (Monday) before heading back home. It’s been about 8 months since we’ve had visitors so we were really excited to have them come. We kept them pretty busy while they were here. We’d made a huge list of things to do and places to go and see and we got through almost the entire list! Some highlights were the White Pine Scenic Byway up to Coeur d’Alene where we took a beautiful hike overlooking the lake, we also went to lots of thrift stores (of course) and visited Spokane where the river was so full and fast that it was crashing around and sending spray that soaked us pretty good. It is very green and pretty here right now and all of our drives were so beautiful! Dad and I hit up the driving range, played tennis and took a 20-mile bike ride and Angie and Mom enjoyed the farmer’s market, buying and preparing lots of raw foods dishes and doing lots of chatting. It was a great weekend and it was sad to say good-bye, but they’ve got lots of kids and grandkids to see this summer and are on their way this week to southern Utah to spend time with the Ures. Thanks mom and dad for the visit, we love you!

To My Bro-ha, 'Shwa

Here’s to one of the most awesome guys I know. It’s my brother Josh’s birthday tomorrow and I wanted to take the opportunity to share with the world some of his finer qualities that I admire most.

Josh is a super hard worker. He bit the bullet and started his own company last year in what was probably the riskiest time for new businesses in 20 years, but Josh is the kind of person who was going to make it work no matter what and he worked his tail off last summer doing everything he could to making sure Great Basin Asphalt would be around the next year. He put me to work last summer when things were really shaky at my job and for that Angie and I are extremely grateful. I got to spend a lot of time with Josh last year and we created a lot of great memories and experiences that I’m sure we’ll be laughing about for years. For example, finding out what one spends most of one’s time doing while in the state of Minnesota. He really became one of my best friends.

Josh is also an awesome father and family man. He and Deena have the coolest kids I know and they’re a good example to me of how to raise a family.

Josh likes really good music. And I don’t say that about a lot of people. I’m really picky about the music I listen to and my brothers are the only 2 people in the world whose musical opinions I value even a little bit. Josh, thanks for Charlie Daniels, Clutch, Def Leppard and so many others.

Josh is one of those people who is automatically your friend the moment you meet him. He has such a good report with people and that is something I wish I had more of an aptitude for. Josh is the kind of person you want at your party or social gathering because things are just more fun when he’s around.

Some other quick things: He's good at nintendo and the guitar, he's got a sweet truck, he can grow a beard that would put Brigham Young to shame, he tells good stories and make's good sound effects, he knows lots about computers, he's read everything, he's always surprising me with his knowledge of history, and he swallows his toothpaste after brushing (that's hardcore!)

So Happy Birthday, Josh!! Thanks for being who you are and for being a rad yon-brother-ah!

-Chubba-lubba

Eugene

Angie and I took advantage of a long weekend to visit Henry and Charlotte in Eugene, OR. Jake and Annie were there too, so it worked out just great! We drove 8+ hours across Washington and along the Columbia River to Portland then down a quick couple hours to Eugene. It was a nice drive with lots of scenery and we even saw a wolf! Neither Angie or I have ever seen one in the wild and it was quite the experience. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture, so you'll just have to believe us.

It was great to finally meet our new nephew and niece! They were on their best behavior and aside from some flatulence problems, they were a complete gentleman and lady. We had lots of fun just lounging around and hanging out with Jake and Annie, we missed them the last time they came to visit family in Salt Lake, since we had just barely moved to Idaho. We went to some thrift stores (a first for the kids) and Jacob led us on an expedition to find the Further Bus (Ken Kesey's psychedelic painted school bus), which had been sitting on a farm in a field visible from the road, until probably just before we got there. It was a very pleasant drive though.

On the drive home we stopped at Multnomah Falls. It was pretty impressive (see pics below).




And Moby too!

DJ Daniel James

So I finally get to fulfill one of my life-long dreams, that of being a radio DJ! The opportunity arose last November as I was speaking with a friend’s wife who had her own radio show on the Washington State University radio station. She said she just applied and was given a time slot and that she’s sure the University of Idaho has something similar. I looked into it and they do, KUOI is the University’s radio station and they just happened to be accepting applications for volunteers to host radio shows throughout the day. I applied, and they gave me a show!

Now, I had always wanted to be a DJ and thought that would be the best job in the world, but I hated the thought of having to play music I didn’t like. The great thing about KUOI is it’s public radio and apart from a few public service announcements and the weather, it’s 100% Dan’s music. It’s totally up to me and I can play whatever I want (so long as it’s appropriate). It’s like I’ve died and gone to heaven.

My show is from Noon to 2:30 every Wednesday and I call it “Long Strange Trip”, the show is dedicated to underappreciated folk/rock of the 60s and 70s. My first full show was yesterday and it went pretty darn well. Anyone interested can follow this link to stream KUOI live

http://kuoi.org:8000/kuoi.m3u

Tune in next week!