oh the irony

we were driving splashily through the rainy streets of spokane, having accidentally driven to the northgate mall, when zooming past a long line of cars waiting to turn in laura spied this sign. she chuckled and pointed, then protested when i quickly turned into the parking lot. i thought it was the funniest thing ever. i mean, here we were, the two bird-hatingest girls in all the west together in one car, and this is where we landed (pun intended). she didn't even want to go in. i wanted to for comedy value but we only made it as far as just inside the front door (and by "front" i mean back). it didn't take her long to realize that none of the birds were "tied down" and she started, uh, flapping her wings? (so sorry) in fear and we quickly fled. so, we successfully patronized: frank's diner, the kiev grocery and the satellite diner but were too late to enjoy a delicious "donut parade" donut after having driven around all day looking for the shop. victory was ours, though, when we found it, albeit closed, on our way out of town. i guess we have our destination for next time.

dreamy

as i do my darndest to while away the hours, my mind can't help but drift off to sleepyland. i've been searching a while now through pictures tagged "sleep" on flickr to try and capture something...mere tiredness, i guess (sleep deprivation, really) and after hundreds of pictures of napping kitties (which didn't help matters) i came upon this wonderful room. doesn't it look amazing? so cozy, almost magical, like something out of a storybook. i wish i could jump into it right now (that bed specifically). if i had a room like that i think i'd hole up for the whole winter. my little apartment is quite cozy too, but when you've got a thing for a-framed rooms, nothing less will do.

fountain of youth?

i had not seen this picture before, or maybe very briefly. but i like it a lot so i'll borrow it from lancelot for this purpose: to celebrate another year gone by in one young life. i was thinking about this, you know one of the things i like best about her? i love that she is curious. and by curious i don't mean odd. i mean she desires to know stuff. i am not curious, and that is why i drive my brother crazy and that is why she and him get along famously. she has to watch a movie through to the bitter end, just to know what happens. i can't even sit through to the end, much less give any sort of resemblance to a rat's behind what happens. she has this thing called an attention span. i love that about her. cody has one too, which is probably why they can hang out both at work and at play, and by "play" i mean watching arrested development (playing a dvd). i will never live down the fact that when he was, oh maybe 10 or 11 he BEGGED me to let him teach me how to play chess and i refused. i was too busy reading the latest issue of vogue. that very well may have been my undoing. say what you will about video games, but my measley, lifelong, grand total of maybe 8 hours of mario is dwarfed in a single weekend by his, yet he's got the focus of a hawk. and i can't even sit through a whole round of "crack the case." but darnit i can tell you who seal's married to. who leonardo is dating. who edward burns' wife is. who adriana lima is. who alex wek is. not to mention anything you don't want to know about hollywood. back to the young life at hand, when you see her today, wish her a happy birthday, and while you're at it, tell her something, anything. i promise she'll take interest.

let's go for a ride

i am breaking the blog silence that seems to have fallen over our circle of friends. it's been hushed in blogland for a fortnight or better and i think it's high time to say i'm mad as 'ell and i'm not going to take it anymore. ok that was silly but i amused myself. i happened back upon this picture and i was thinking of how fun it was and it put me in the mood to throw on a kerchief and some oversized sunglasses and go for a ride. problem is, i don't have a ride right now. anyone currently in possession of a ride willing to throw on a kerchief and oversized sunglasses and go for a ride with me? in the 50's and 60's, throwing on a kerchief and oversized sunglasses pretty much meant you were going for a ride. everyone knew it. everyone pretty much knew what was on your agenda. so, you with "rides" give me a call if you have anywhere, or nowhere to go.

eat bacon from a can, just like the stars

last night after the chi alpha bible study and the weekly trip here, three of us decided to go to clay's house to see this. i had no idea what joy lay ahead of me. we walked in, and at first it seemed like a pretty ordinary house...until clay started digging out the, shall we say, aged food? (make "aged" italicized in your minds, i don't know how to use this mac). jell-o, sandwich bags, relish, these, canned clams, you name it, and all from circa 1950. we headed toward the garage and clay told us that his aunt and uncle (who own the house) own one of these and my already-high excitement tripled because it's one of my biggest dreams to own one one day. but it was too dark to see in so we continued on to the garage and found some old ballot boxes, golf clubs, more typical garage fare. then clay came running around the corner, yelling "i found us a flashlight," and furiously started turning the crank on the, yep, manpowered device. we tried to shine it in the windows of the airstream, but the power would only last about 4 seconds, so we settled for using my cell phone. but the fun was just beginning. it was on to the bedrooms next, where clay showed us this, among other things. but the best was still yet to come...the BASEment!!! the stairway is shingled, yes, shingled. that is, on the walls going down there are shingles, and the hand"rail" is a rope. once you reach the bottom you are greeted by a ferocious, mardi gras-esque wall hanging of a tiger. directly to the right of that is this: a leather horse and a pool table surrounded by a border made of oversized playing cards and felt dice with a felt background, so the dice can be moved like biblical characters from a sunday school story. words cannot describe my happiness upon entering this room.
red shag carpet not only on the floor, but on the wall under the bar and on the poles as well. if you ask me, nothing says party like this,, especially when it comes complete with these! but the biggest downer of the evening, the real buzzkill was when we stumbled across this. pesky stradiuvarii are always getting in the way of real (again, italics please) treasures. have fun in france, clay. you will be missed!

charles degaulle airport

i had the opportunity to look at this lovely ceiling for approximately nine hours on friday. i mistakenly thought i was safe from mad chaos, being that i was not traveling through london, but no. the chaos was not a respector of countries, it would seem. after a tearful goodbye to slovakia i was catapulted into the rudeness that is western europe. i know it's a gross generalization, but can i help it if i've scarcely experienced anything to the contrary? after having waited in line a while, i got sent to the end of another line, which was huge. little did i know, however, that that would turn into a cakewalk when compared to the lines that lay ahead of me. i made my flight, but it was close. and, by the way, they charge you for airplane food on austrian air. i arrived at cdg in paris about 9:30 and my flight to newark was to leave at 1:15 so i thought to myself, "i'll just relax, have some peanuts and juice, and in a few hours i'll find the gate i need to go to," all the while feeling sorry for the poor suckers standing in the eight-mile line to who knows where. soon enough i found out that it was going to i know where...the united states of america. so i went through this line where they were kind enough to lighten my load significantly of some expensive items of the liquid sort. i must admit, the security guards that searched me were sweet, though. they tried to help me keep as much as possible. i went in the secure area and waited. everything was delayed. i fell asleep and awoke at 3 and ran to my gate, only to discover that i had another 3 1/2 hour wait ahead of me. this wait was due to the fact that they decided to search everyone again, and this time without mercy. they took my new nalgene even though it was empty...and to make a long story short (too late) i spent the night in a ghetto in newark, nj and at 4:30 the next morning went to wait in a line that will dwarf the rolling stones line tomorrow. but i cleared that one, too, with even enough time to buy a bagel. of course this was all in the name of safety, and i'm glad for that, really. it tested my patience, which is not a bad thing to have tested regularly. and it made me happy i live in a state with more cows than people. cows don't fly.

coming home

greetings! it's my last full day in banovce and i am really pressed for time, but wanted to squeeze in one last blog entry. this summer has been amazing. the Lord did wayyyy more than i ever thought He would and with such grace. what i mean is, i really thought there would be turbulent times of loneliness, homesickness, language difficulties, possibly getting lost or mugged or who knows what? but it was the smoothest summer i could have hoped for. i miss: mexican food, laughing really hard, being fully understood, and maybe being able to get alone. i mean really alone. there's ALWAYS someone around, here, watching. the communists wanted it that way, i think:) no, i'm kidding. but really, yesterday i thought i was alone with...someone (blush) and along came a woman walking through the field out of nowhere. but to sum it up, God grew me here. i have learned more about grace and mercy in 2 months than i have in my whole life. i have learned more about what it means to love someone unconditionally than i ever have before. and i thank you all with an inexpressible gratefulness for your prayers and support. i can't wait to see you all. see you soon.

Main Street Banovce - Afternoon

hi y'all. just wanted to share with you a few things that have been happening around here with me. today at 5:30 i leave for a youth camp. it is for Christians all over slovakia. probably something like s.a.l.t. (for those of you who are involved in chi alpha)...only in the summer...and in slovakia...with camping involved...ok, so nothing like salt:) but i'm excited because treti den' is playing for worship. they're a really good slovak Christian band that i have been listening to since the first year i came here. last friday 10 of us went to a neighboring village to have our friday (young believers') group with some Christians who live there. we had worship and this guy, martin, gave a word and it was powerful. there was a tongue and interpretation and during the last worship song i was thinking about how sometimes i feel bad when people ask me what i'm doing here, like what i do on a daily basis because i feel like i don't have enough to tell them. i'm like "i'm studying slovak and meeting with people and praying for them and helping where i can," but it doesn't feel concrete or like it's enough. so God spoke to me in that moment. He said, "you are doing way more than you realize." and i just cried because it was what i needed to hear. then afterwards martin came up to me and had my friend gretka translate for me, he said "God wants you to know that you are helping Him more than you even know." and i could have hugged him. so neat.
then, last night i had made arrangements to meet with jaro fero (mentioned in previous xa blog). i really wanted to hear his story, so tomas met us and we walked out to the lake and sat and talked. he told me how he came to believe and it was amazing. he has such a good sense of humor and he kept saying that he is so glad God has a sense of humor. i can't tell you how wonderful it was to be with them and just talk about the Lord and His goodness and grace. jaro said he is the type of person who cannot be forced to do anything, so that was one of the things that drew him to God. he asks us to do things, not forces us, you know? his wife was a Christian before he was and it was causing a lot of trouble in their marriage so he set out to prove her wrong with her own beliefs. in other words he set out to read the bible to prove her wrong and in the midst of doing so, got saved. he said one day he was in one room and he was reading through a tract that had an american astronaut (neil armstrong) on the front. i guess maybe he was a Christian or something. anyhow, jaro was skeptical about this tract. then he got a phone call and went into the living room and for no aparent reason picked up the tv remote and clicked on the tv and right on the screen was the exact same picture of the astronaut as the one on the tract. he said he laughed for ten minutes. it's beautiful. he is excited to meet again and study the bible together with tomas and maybe others. and so am i:)

wedding day

as mentioned in my earlier post, here is my home for the summer. i guess you can't actually see our flat, it's on the fifth floor, which to americans is the sixth floor. no one lives on the first floor in europe;) but this is majo and daska and daniela on the day of lance and miska's wedding last year. don't they look handsome? i talked to majo last night, he called from dublin. poor kid is trying to figure out the irish accent. his english is excellent, but you have to admit even the savviest native speakers have struggled a time or two to discern...ohforgetit! i sat here for 5 minutes trying to think of a joke about the top of the marnin. yes, marnin. and for erin, darby o'gill and the lettle pay-ple. oh, that made me laugh. goodbye everyone.

daska and jack

let's start from the very beginning. julie andrews would say that it is a very good place to start. this photo was taken last year when scott, jack and i sneaked off to banovce to see daska (whom i'm living with now) and her son majo. it came out that daska really liked country music, and that, in fact, she used to sing in a country band. then out emerged the cowboy boots from the closet and the rest, as they say, is history. i gave her a copy of this pic and she took it and made a cutout of jack and he currently stands watch on the desk in her room. i'd have done the same, i'm sure. but here she is. and you can see our home a little bit. this is the view from where i sit and eat, eighteen times a day. at her every urging. i always think of funny or clever things to blog and then when i sit down to do so, i go blank. i wanted to do a whole blog on observations about slovakia. i think i'll save this one for when i can sit down and think beforehand. i have made a lot of them, believe me. hey, i think i have another pic on flickr of our building...let me look:)

piggyback

ok can i just say it??? i think this may have been my first piggy back ride ever, save for those that james made me take from her when we were "little," er, when she was little, and i was...young. i really felt like i was being brave by accepting scott's invitation to take a piggy back ride to a little underground italian restaurant in banska bystrica. i was not certain that he could carry me and was frankly a little surprised when he did. i'm working on this. being brave. what a great picture, though, eh? thank you to sylvia for getting some posted and reminding me of this happy memory.

For the taste of celebration...

oh, for crying in the night, if it gets any harder to find a picture i'll never blog again. could be the 90% sweat humidity in this internet cafe, too. those europeans really love their foosball! anyhoo, here it is, dun dun dun. whence comes my name. in a crazy twist of events my (cajun) uncle, gary, mentioned in passing that our name came from a plum brandy. then last year during our time of "bar evangelism" (scott and jack being the main attraction, but, then, when weren't they?:) a bottle was brought out in our honor. lo and behold i saw something vaguely, albeit slavified, resembling my last name. i chuckled in disbelief and politely got away with only a sip of the offering (their judgement already blurred, thankfully). since then, slivovica has seemed to pop up with regularity. the other night at a friend's flat (again, thankfully, i was able to decline since they explained that it "wasn't a drink for ladies"), today at tesco, and a few other places. but i can assure you that none of these has been imported to california, or whatever it says on the bottom of this bottle. i have some funny misunderstandings that i meant to write about but now i am running out of time. i will be speaking tonight about the love of God at a women's small group. i'm nervous since we don't really have a translator. only a woman who speaks pretty good german and really poor english:) but God will translate, i hope.

Zmrzlina

hello sweet bloggers. still finding myself unable to upload my pictures onto blogger, i am forced to rely on the pictures of others, and with no pictures of banovce to be found, i default to ice cream. oh who am i kidding? default nothing. anyway, i had two scoops of this delicious frozen treat earlier today and it's likely i'll have more. but today was special because they had not one but two of my favorites. my only favorites, really. jogurt and malina (raspberry). there's really no other way to go. each scoop costs seven crowns, i think. amazing. well i could go on, but since i've been on this computer going on three hours, i think i'd better let sleeping cones lie. i know, i know. that's not even what that phrase refers to. so, so long for now. have some dq for me:)

Kosice, Slovakia (sunset in Old Town)

this is right near where we are staying!!!! isn't it neat? katka's mom's flat is right in the middle of the old town. it's so wonderful and convenient. we can walk just around the corner and we're right in the middle of everything! yesterday we watched a historical re enactment of the austrians fighting the hungarians. it was neat, annnd a little creepy! but to me the whole old town feels like a movie set. much like that new development by lance and shannon's house where all the buildings look like fake facades. you know what i mean? anyhow, we've been in this underground netcafe long enough. it's time to see the sunlight. plus, we haven't eaten in over an HOUR, and that just doesn't do here, it seems:)
off to aida, the sweet shop we go. i am living a charmed life here.

The Golden Hall, Bojnice Castle

ahojte from slovakia. today megan and i set out on our own by bus to a nearby town to see the bojnice castle. this blog entry is dedicated to dave barney, who upon entering this particular room of the castle looked up at the ceiling and said, 'talk about bling-bling!!!' i laughed really hard. so back to going to castle...i was really scared. i mean, that is the thing that scares me most...no, you wiseguys, not castles...public transportation. that, and new restaurants. and we had to conquer both today. we made it to bojnice ok because katka personally put us on the bus and told the driver to tell us when we had arrived. but from there we had to take a city bus up to the castle. i confidently got on a bus that stopped in front of a sign that read bojnice and within minutes we were the only ones on the bus and the driver stood up and just looked at us. my biggest fear. it happened to me in london when i was alone too, but there i had ended up in wimbeldon;) so we walked back to the bus station and i had to, gulp, ask a lady for help. she was sweet and more than happy to do so so we made it to the castle and zoo, neither of which we entered. i'm so glad megan and i are so alike. we walked around and took pictures and that was enough for us. then it was eating time. we searched and settled on a little place advertising slovak food. this is what scares me about new restaurants, ones that i've never been to before...i never know, do you just sit down and wait to be brought a menu or do you order at the counter? but we took a risk and just sat at an outside table and no one stared at us so i figured we were good. sure enough a waitress brought us a menu. we had decided to get a beer together, mainly to be funny, but when i tried to order a topvar, slovakia's most famous beer, she just said some word i didn't understand. luckily i'm a QUICK one and i figured out that it was another beer. so after a few embarassing moments with the waitress we got our delicious lunch and paid and all. well of course we, then, had to go take a picture of me posing on a toy horse that scott made famous when we were there 3 years ago. but as a result we missed our bus by a matter of seconds. thinking we could just catch the next one we realized it wasn't for over an hour and had to get back to the bus depot to go back to banska bystrica. so what do you do???what do you do? you call speedy taxi, of course. i did get a cell phone, a mobile, if you will (i won't;) so i dialed the number nervously and asked in slovak if he spoke english "a little" was the reply but luckily we were standing by a hotel so i asked in slovak if he knew where the such and such hotel was and he said he'd be there in 3 minutes, which was good because our bus back to bb was in about 12. he was a sweet driver and we spoke german together. so we made it back without incident, other than looking a little foolish paying for the bus because slovaks do not talk to each other, so amidst the pindrop silence we could not contain our laughter at the stoic driver and the comment la roja had made previous to our stepping on. i had wanted to get an icecream bar called a magnum bar, which is, ahem, bar none, the best ice cream bar in the world. but it was such a close call getting back to the bus, and she asked if i wanted to get my magnum bar and i was like, no i don't. because i didn't want to risk missing another bus etc. it was really funny. i miss you all and love you all.

bald-y

this is a quickie blog just to let you all know that we're here, we're safe, we're having a great time. my travel went well. i puked minutes before boarding the plane in bozeman and not again! praise God! my ride was comfortable. i was nauseated for a day or two and had zero energy, but now feel good. krakow is beautiful right now. i chose this pic because there are some crazy haircuts here, but we have already had some awesome experiences. yesterday we were having devotions in the park and worshiping and a woman came up and sat with us, we thought she was a friend of the missionary because she arrived at the same time but we found out later that as she walked by our circle she saw a ring of light around us. she said no one ever gathers in that park and no one sings, and especially no one prays for each other like we were. then we got to meet with the group of young polish people last night that the missionaries work with. their group is called impact. this young man named bartek preached. i, for one, was completely blessed and overcome with emotion and tears (might be that i was jetlagged too:) then they prayed for us at the end and i cried a lot. he said this phrase, "God, You have said to this team 'you are ready.'" and it was just such a blessing to realize that God has prepared us and He has felt that we were ready to do the work that He has for us. uh, what else? i guess i'd better post this before i get kicked off this comp. i love you all.

with apologies to edward hopper

hey! i hate the new addition (detraction) to our quaint little downtown as much as the next guy, (ooh, and i just cringed, picturing the river of farmers' market goers flowing in and out of the place on saturday mornings and tuesday evenings, dropping seven dollars on a latte.) which is why i wanted to give a shout-out to the other recent addition. the one a little to the left, er, west of the aforementioned, er, aforereferenced business, er bloodsucking bully. i'm talking about CITY BREW!!! i have to say i wasn't all too excited to see it going in, either, because missoula needs a new coffee shop like it needs a new, what, bank? unemployment agency? its decor, too, bears an uncanny resemblance to its napoleonic neighbor (hey that's pretty good!)with even a circular green logo. nevertheless, my eternity-in-coming point is this...they open at 5 am, are right on the way to the hospital, and have the friendliest baristas in town. (sorry l.p.) not only have i not gotten an unfriendly coffee-maker yet, they have all been unusually and sincerely friendly. and at 5:50 a.m. this is no small thing.

lickety split

so i ruled and reigned over the queendom for three years and the answer to your question, blogger fans, is yes. i DO have too much time on my hands. but i had an idea. i was browsing through flickr, possibly going through soft-serve withdrawals at the time, and looked up "dq." there are only 327 pictures with this tag and 11 of them are mine. half of them have nothing to do with dairy queen and one poor soul was even under the impression that dq stood for don quixote. that fool! just kidding, sort of. well the above photo is, in my opinion, the best one and, although admittedly pretty sweet, that's not saying too much. so thus comes the challenge. i think we should flood flickr with hot eats and cool treats. i'm proposing a friendly little competition to all you faithful readers. take the best picture and i will personally treat you to, well, a treat of your choice. the winner will be decided by flickr viewers. i will check to see which of our dq pics is the most viewed/commented/favorited (don't cheat) before i leave on, say, my last day of work (may 12th, that gives you two weeks). then to celebrate my leaving and your winning we'll head off to the land of lactose. all will be welcome, but only one will go for free:) deal? p.s. a moment of silence for when the dairy queen used to live next to the burger king:(

Ivan

this little guy is my friend leanna's little boy ivan. he just got tested for the gifted and talented program at his school and they discovered what i could have told them long ago...he is both gifted and talented. he is very funny, obsessed with robots and is a bit of a trouble-maker. smart people often are. his teacher had a hard time staying mad at him for drawing on his test when she looked and found a drawing of a praying mantis, detailed down to its very joints. what a cutie.

Does this crack anyone else up?

i know, i know. just got back from a trip to los angeles and THIS is what i choose to blog about? well sometimes pictures win out over subject matter. i was walking home from work yesterday, waiting on the corner of broadway and higgins to cross the street when i spotted this. i don't know if you can tell from the picture but this is a cardboard cut-out of the owner of instyprints (right? missoulians help me out). i know you've seen his award-winning commercials. but what's creepy (or should i say creepiEST?) is that it's about a three-quarters-size cutout, which is always creepy. i can't exactly put my finger on why it is. maybe it goes back to the terror that people in period costumes bring. history is scary and it seems like all people from history were small. we know napoleon was, i picture pushkin to have been...well, another contributing factor to this (yet another) neurosis of mine may have been the time i saw prince's purple rain costume in a display case in the hardrock cafe in nyc. he is, apparently, the size of this cut-out. uhhh, shudder.

nataLEEa klondike

i'm sorry t. i told you i'd get you back for your blog post. i had to stay true to my word.

yep, that's my country

i think i just found my new favorite flickr photographer. not only are they brilliant with a camera, they are clever with titles and the like. (czech me out) my most favorite sLOVEenska (which means "of slovakia," as in photos of slovakia, in slovak. too bad it doesn't work in english sLOVAkia. lova. kinda rings a, um, different tune.

hisssssss

in the notorious words of they might be giants, "this car is protected by viper." and can i just say, thissss car isssss protected by one badd-a#* (really wanted to use the s's on badd-a#* so i could be onomatopoetic) viper if i ever ssssaw one. oh boy. it must be late. my jokes are even worse than usual. actually, (it must be late if i'm questioning whether or not actually has two ls. actualy? no, actually) this was a pretty freakin' sweet snake door lock cover rocky spotted in butte a few weekends ago. there we were, h.j., rahee, krysty kay, rockabella and i, coming out of the world's best second-hand store (yeah, you know) when all of a sudden rock looks to his left and there, in the window of a little red (again, bad-a#*) pickup with airbrushed something or other on the door (screaming eagle was it?), was this little tough guy. i know I won't be lookin' to break and enter any time soon!

beyond balderdash

...no, no, no, this is no one we know. i just needed a picture of a muscle builder to help illustrate the gems i saved from the game of beyond balderdash i played with katie, bethie, and chris when we visited portland. for those of you unlucky souls who have never experienced the joys of the game, the object is to fool everyone with the most convincing made-up description or definition of a given name, date, movie title or acronym. here are some of my favorites:
movie "three bites of the apple"-a guy wins a pantload of money at a casino and suddenly women are all over him.
movie "age isn't everything"- a 15 year old boy spends the summer hitting on older girls and driving with a fake id.
movie "age isn't everything"-a 15 year old german shepard defies the odds by coming out of retirement for one more drug bust.
movie "meeting at midnight"- a highschooler with a learning disability secretly meets with his english teacher for some late-night tutoring.
movie "homebodies"-two out-of-work muscle builders get put on house arrest and hilarity ensues.
movie "homebodies"-two obese men who eat potato chips and veg out, drinking and staying home.

i'll leave you to guess who penned each answer, but it may or may not have been:
katie, chris, katie, katie, chris and bethie...in that order

awww, isn't 'e cute?

codella schelbella i love you. you might be the smartest little dresser i know. not only good taste in clothing, but good taste in on-line cartoons, to boot. even if i got you hooked on h.s.r. wish we could hang out more. looking forward to the next trip to the gym...two...too.

Piggyback

hey! you asked for it, lady. so don't make that face under the weight of all my, well, weight. i fought pretty good to warn you not to try and pick me up. just borrowed this pic and the next from knitload to say, "aaaaaaaaaaah. come, summer." ***click on this photo for some extra notes and specifics.***

did it fool you, too?

no one but maybe eri and i are arguing that we look a heck of a lot alike. but when a pic fools even me, how can i argue? she unknowingly pulled a fast one on curtis cole the other night when he thought she was me. identical cousins...(all the way).

happy bday, tot!

this might be my favorite picture from my trip to portland a few weeks ago. i have a series of katie nailbiting/chris coffee drinking and it's great because he becomes increasingly more annoyed with every photo i snapped. i just think this picture is so telling. well anyhow, happy bday sweetie girl. i miss you so much! erin and i were talking about you yesterday, missing you and all your quirks. it's like you don't realize how much you miss someone 'til you see them again. can't wait for the day that we can return to fat dave's together again...or better yet, muchas gracias! go do something fun tonight!

value village

when i went to portland last month we made a special trip all the way to another STATE to see this. ok so that's not enTIREly true. we did go to another state, washington (about 10 minutes away) but we did not go to see this. this was a bonus. maybe it sounds kind of sick, but there's something funny about a barbie in a bag.

a little bubbly

i guess a couple a things. we had an open mic/art show the other night in the UC and it was a success. several people brought in art work to display, including paintings, photos, poetry, and mixed media. peter encouraged me to sell my photos to help fund my missions trips. then i went to dillon and spent time with some artistic friends who were also very encouraging about my pictures. it made me very excited and inspired to do more. then lastly, i just miss slovakia. hearing scott's stories, seeing his pictures, and reading sara's newsletter from there just resounds in my ears the calling.

Jack Everlovin Foster

i raise my proverbial glass to this boy, who loves freedom more than anyone i have known. Jesus offered us freedom, but so few of us know how to take it. this kid, though, took and ran with it. all the way to puerto rico, where he just up and move to, aparently. i'm sure his hair is blowing in the breeze there, just the way he likes it. here's to fearlessness.

fat dave's

here is a sweet little joint known as fat dave's. it's open 24 hours a day. it has a juke box. it's juke box contains red, red wine. it has a stained glass window that says "fun." it is all out of pie except for coconut cream meningue. it's waitresses allow us to play scrabble there. it is katie's boyfriend's favorite restaurant. it was the site of their first date. it is pretty sweet if you ask me. and speaking of 24 hour joints, we drove by but did not get to patronize a 24 hour drive-thru fast food mexican place named muchas gracias. i think i am going to open one in missoula. and lastly, we did get to go to a 24 hour donut shop. it has an open sign...that's permanent!

Blue like jazz church

it's a crappy pic, i know. but i just had to do something to make record of my visit. i'm back from my long weekend in portland. it was really good to see tot and her boyfriend, despite the rain. and i mean RAIN! i don't think i could ever live in portland. but the church service at imago was really good. i enjoyed pastor rick's sermon immensely. they have a lot of cool things going on there. writing classes, discussions on faith in film, making meals for families of sick kids at the ronald mcdonald house...it challenged me and inspired me to think of new ways to spread the love of jesus.

the cutest baby on the planet

this is isaac. a son of a friend's sister. well, a son of some friends' sister. last night we celebrated one of the aforementioned friend's birthdays. his 19th. he maintains that when he and his wife have a baby, "people will come from millions of miles to see 'the cutest baby on the planet,'" but i think he has some competition with his nephew, don't you?

katie potatie

this was the last time i saw my friend katie. this is 6:30 in the morning, the day scott and i left for slovakia last year. it was also katie's departing day from the garden city, her home for many years. she had blonde hair then, but has had many different colors since, and when i see her this upcoming weekend (yay!) i am not sure what color it will be. no matter what happens this weekend i hope: scrabble, twin bings, and/or homestyle bakes are involved. can't wait to see ya, tot.

hardin, mt

here was our first destination. the purple cow. after having been disappointed last presidents' day weekend when the p.c. was closed due to p.d. it became a much-anticipated locale for those among us who had, you know, been previously disappointed. and though none of us partook in the legendary "dozen egg, loaf of toast, gallon of oj and pound of meat (or whatever) breakfast" for twenty bucks (or whatever) it was still a friendly little joint with waitresses that called you honey (which, by the way grew less and less frequent the further east and south we drove) and let us return to the salad bar if we wished.

Wyoming at night

this picture is real. i didn't just cover the lens on my camera and snap. i literally pointed the camera out the window and took this driving through wyoming at night.

The pizza bandito

this is where they raise pizza. iowa. on the pizza ranch. it's home of the pizza lover's pizza aparenly. just one lover. and the home of his or her pizza.

Southern(illinois)belle

i don't think many would disagree that this bed topper was kind of creepy. luckily the owners weren't. brighton, illinois' vi and wayne graciously opened up their home to three of us, fed us like kings, told us some stories and sent us on our way.

Missouri loves company

quick, find something that says where we're at on it. oh, yeah!!! the lottery!!!

Quality inn!

yeah, we were all really excited about the swimming pool and eighties video games until we discovered that the
q-inn had a sizeable moisture/mold problem. and when something keeps james outta the pool you KNOW it's got to be bad.

I saw the sign

almost there!!!

Purrfect

Kentuckat. otherwise known as ken or kenny. "borrowed" off the Christmas tree at our hotel. friend for life.

Its good 2b staff

well, dessert translates a little better than real food, which is the primary reason that i make it the majority of my diet. and by "diet" i don't mean restriction of fat and calories, thank goodness.

Mmmmm

food never translates in photographs, which is why they use elmer's glue on cheerios in commercials. but let me tell you, the staff dinner was incredibly edible. and i don't ever eat real food.

Good mornin

i thought it was going to be a good morning until i discovered that this was not a REAL dunkin' donuts, rather a little corner of a gas station that sold a few of their donuts and some coffee. furthermore they had changed the design of their cups, which had previously been making me happy since childhood. i'm hoping it was just a seasonal design and soon they'll be back to their 60's looking pink cuteness.

Rael in arabic

rach and lacey got free henna tattoos at a eurasia booth. as mentioned in the title, this one says rael in arabic. pretty sweet.

H.n.y.

what else is there to say?

Twig and leaf cafe

the pride of louisville...or should be. run by one johnny-rotten-esque punk waiter and and one indian-as-in-from-india cook whom no one could understand but he didn't care and just talked to you as if you could. delicious vanilla malts.

Fon definitely do

as much as you can tell from this crappy camera phone picture, yes, that is a fountain of chocolate behind krysty. and let me tell you, she was not upset about it. the city of louisville graciously paid for us to have chocolate fondue on new year's. what a town.