Har har.

Chris and I 'cycled out to the 70 & Van Dorn Russ's to get supplies for Irish Beef Stew, and saw Hallmark's not-so-well-thought-out ad campaign for Moms Day.



Only a month left, guys; don't forget to rock your mom. Or maybe I will.

The Pride of Flagstaff

I don't have a lot of traditions or rituals, but every time I'm in Flagstaff I stop at the Route 66 Hot Dog Haus.

Why? An all-beef hot dog on a pretzel dough bun, dammit.

Rock that Klein

And for no reason whatsoever, here's a shot of Jonn's backside. We rode to Best Buy to acquire consumer electronics.

My second (or sixth) home

Returning from a one-night jaunt to Portland/Seattle. Been here about four hours now. Denver Int'l is one of the best airports in the USA, though, and the "business" (see: free internet) center is relatively calm.

Not pictured is the uber-emo coffee shack named "Cutter's Point Coffee" I saw in Olympia this morning.

BNSF

Was returning from a quick pre-Sunset ride on the Bison last night and was about 20' away from the RR crossing on South Street when the gates came down. The conductor had the horn held down for a good 15 seconds straight as they traversed the crossing (and passed me) which, if I recall, isn't kosher, and I probably lost a few frequencies in my head. Thanks guys.

First new Portishead this millennium

I enjoy Portishead, although it certainly doesn't hit the right note for every occasion. They're releasing their first new album in like a decade April 29.

I'm sure it's leaked somewhere, but I've never bothered with that stuff. That being said, somebody posted one of the songs on YouTube.

Bringing it back, 9 months later.

I stopped updating this because not a whole lot had been going on.

Still not a whole lot going on. Screw it.

Still traveling to all those places for work, plus the Front Range in CO and WY (As I type this from a hotel room in Loveland, near Fort Collins). Developed a general sense of complacency with my job; traveling is now as commonplace as breathing.

Still live with Chris and Jenna in a fine townhouse with proximity to Open Harvest, a crappy sports bar, and my office.

Still a supporter of Obama; still loathe Hillary. I won't get into that here; there are only 7 trillion other blogs for people to feel self-important with regard to the election.

Now for some images of the past nine months



Forslund returned from deep dark Africa. Tony got engaged. I got a new ride:



Being friends of Jonn, Tony et. al., and desire to use my car as little as possible finally lead to me making a investment in a new bicycle. I had been interested in getting a Cross-Check for a while, and about three weeks later it has only exceeded my expectations. I can't get enough of it and wish I could (safely) bring it with me on my work travels.

Good: beer. Bad: Shaving.



And I can make some pretty rad salsa, accomplished by roasting the ingredients seen below. Yeah. Homemade salsa. I roll hard.



OK, look for a new post sometime in 2009.

Portland.

Can't say I've ever opened a hotel drawer to find this combination before.

Art is for pretentious ninnies

Rather than spend money on generic prints or resort to the sweet framed photos of chicks on semi trucks I bought at Bag N Save, Jenna and I decided to make our own. Oh dear god. We were joined by the adorable Sarah Schroeder in this endeavor, might I add.

First we have Sarah's creation. I commented that it looked like something you could buy in Target's dorm room section, but I meant it in a good way:



Jenna did this one. She has actual talent that comes with taking classes for this sort of thing:



Then we have this BITCHIN' tree I did. Basically I just really like blue and green - globes, maps, etc. A tree is green. The sky is blue. Connect the dots:




Then I reverted back to my usual cynical self, and did. . . this:

Suggestions Needed for New Compound nickname.

As of July, the News Link Compound will be no more - Shannon is moving to Chi-Town, Cathy's going her own direction, and the house is one or two cracks away from condemnation. It's been fun, but alas, it's time for new digs. So. . .

THE SETTING:



Roughly 5 blocks from my current residence; within a block and a half of both a generic and hippie grocery store, coffee house and porn shop.

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

Thew, your fearless leader (sans beard, at least currently):



Christopher Schacht, AKA Chris AKA Schacht, who will be attending the prestigious UNL College O' Law because he has nothing better to do:



Jenna, who was basically in the right place in the right time, will keep Chris and I in check when it comes to all the girls neither of us will be bringing home:



Stay tuned.

While I'm at it, here are some from the Columbia River Gorge

I'm killing time at the airport in Phoenix and figured I'd post some more.

These are from the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge. I've driven back and forth through it four times now and I don't think I'll ever get tired of it.

Just east of The Dalles, OR on the Old Columbia River Highway. Lots of winding around and stuff. That's I-84 down there:



A town in Washington (not sure which):



I spent a couple of hours on the bank of the river taking photos of a rail gang repairing this line of track. The railroad is big on preventing "slip, trip and fall" injuries, and this kind of puts it into perspective, as walking back and forth across the ballast wasn't exactly easy, and well, yeah:



I took this one on my first trip out there back in March. Cloudy but still kickin' rad:



Multnomah Falls. I believe it's the 2nd tallest year-round waterfall in the USA (no idea what #1 is):

The Sand IS WHITE

I suppose this is worth posting.

Thursday evening, after wrapping up my job responsibilities in Belen, New Mexico, I decided to take a detour on my way to El Paso and visit White Sands National Monument. There were a ton of people there - not sure if it's usually that way this time of year or the fact that there was a full moon that night, or perhaps because there's nothing else to do in the vicinity of Alamogordo. . .

At any rate, I used my work camera, a Canon Rebel XT, to take some shots as the sun went down:



I'm HUGE (!!!):



Yucca:



A couple of the better landscape shots I took:





Abusing the camera's timer setting to recreate the cover of 'The Gods Must Be Crazy'



Full moon rising. Wish I had a tighter lens:

Three months later

If anyone is still checking this. . . wow.

On that note, Cornbread, these are for you.

He has my sword.

“I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness in this — a certain audacity — to this announcement. I know that I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.”

GObama!

Wow, I should get the rights to that quick

How about a dulcimer?

Andrew Bird, whom I firmly believe is the best young/living singer/songwriter/whistler in music today (to hell with Surf-Yan Whats-His-Name; and you all know deep down that Oberst just plain sucks), did a guess spot as "Dr. Stringz" on some kid's puppet show.

Epic.



When he says "I've got more stringed instruments to fix" at the end his delivery seems to imply he just then realized what he was doing. Either way, good for him.

New album out March 20. I'm betting now it'll be in my top 3 of 2007

Because Jonn told me to and because I have something worth posting

So my boss pulled me in his office last week and asked me if I'd be OK changing territories. The reasons for this:

1) I've established a decent amount of consistency amongst our clients in Texas and Louisiana
2) Some of our clients have lacked said consistency.

On that note, I'll be making two more trips to Texas (although I may still go to Houston like four times a year for a meeting). The first is to San Antonio, meaning it may be the last time I see Austin for awhile. That's one of the big, if not biggest downfall to all this.

Then I get to go down there with Niles, the dude who will hopefully succeed me (anyone know Niles? I know people who know him at any rate).

So what areas of the country will I be taking over? Well, here are the major metropolitan areas:

Seattle


Portland, AKA the International Hub of Underachievement


Phoenix


Albuquerque


Also: Tucson, El Paso, Spokane and Eugene, Ore.

So yeah. Looking forward to talking to folks with a different mentality, although the adjustment's going to be kind of rough. Oh well; it's not as though I really have a life outside of work anyway so s'all good.

I can rent a car for less money now

Random photos from a small gathering on my 25th birthday.

I take credit for introducing Sarah B. to cider. Too bad she'll grow tired of it within five months, as is the case with everyone.


I on the other hand was drinking something from Belgium that came in a freakin' goblet. Sarah S. looks... yeah I don't know.


Shannon und Lisa


Willa (she blinks a lot in photos), Dominique (was sick but still came, the trooper), and Cathy


Will, one of the few cool male employees at work, and his fiance, Lacey


What? It's beer from El Salvador. Piss off.

Why have I ever given a dollar to this business

From back when the Burger King was actually a scary human being, as opposed to a scary human being in a scary mask.

I apologize for the nightmares.

Jonn updated his; I'd better fall in line

Nothing has happened of note since October 11.

Alright, here's some Halloween photos (I was in Austin with Tenspeed).

I really wanted to find one of those goofy Euro-ties that are like a scarf you wear inside a shirt, but I was unsuccessful in that venture - and believe me, I tried.

So my first idea was to utilize my own supplies and go as, um, one of THESE guys:



But that seemed kind of weak, so ultimately I decided to use Justin's costume from last year - A Team Zissou crewman:


I wanted a clear shot of Justin's neck - he wrote on it with pen in an attempt to be that guy who was on Project: Runway or whatever. With him is Lincoln expat Matt R., who went as Floyd Landis but kept getting called Lance Armstrong. Philistines.

Dominique Garay

I know this guy through my co-worker Willa, to whom he is engaged. Heck of a poet and an all-around nice guy; not pretentious at all.

He's in the running to appear on an HBO program, so vote for him: http://www.blastro.com/spokenwordbattle

His myspace (some of his other stuff is on there, I highly recommend the YouTube video): http://www.myspace.com/darcpoet