Snerkology
snerk (n): An utterance which suggests amusement/disgust/derision/disbelief.

Category: Jeep

A very relaxed Christmas

This past Christmas was the best one in recent memory. The chalet we rented in Flagstaff was decorated for the holidays, complete with a Christmas tree. I was more thrilled about this than I probably should have been, seeing as I’m an adult and all. But it has been so long since we’ve decorated for the holidays… I think the last time we had a tree was 2007. To be honest, I haven’t really missed having a tree. I’m not a fan of hauling out the decorations, being the ONLY ONE who decorates, having to keep the tree watered, keeping the pets away from the ornaments, living in fear of finding tinsel in the catbox, vacuuming needles, etc. etc. ad nausium. We just put the presents on a table and called it a done deal. This year, though, it was a lovely surprise to walk into our rental and see all of the decorations. It wasn’t overdone, just the right amount of festive touches that reminded us of the holiday without being overbearing or in our way.

We had a good giggle when Bailey jumped out of the Jeep and into the snow. She spread her legs out wide, dug her nails in, and sniffed for a good long moment before she started walking around. After that we had a hard time keeping her OUT of the snow. She LOVED it. The wraparound deck came in handy – we could let her (and Porsche) go out and race around without having to worry about her wandering off. She played in the snow, barked at the folks walking their dogs (even in the midst of the snowstorm… one lady walked a herd of five dogs, twice a day, regardless of the weather conditions), and went NUTS over the squirrels. BONKERS. COMPLETELY APESHIT.

We pretty much spent all four days in our pajamas. Our friends Aaron and Michelle, and Amanda and her dog Porsche, came up on the 23rd and spent the night. We stayed up late and ate way to much and drank even more, then played a hilariously inappropriate board game called Would You Rather? – The Twisted Sick and Wrong Version. The normal version would have been much too tame for our group, after all. Some of the questions were just AWFUL, but the hilarity escalated as the booze depleted. We feasted on Espo’s tamales, chili, Enchilada soup, berry pie, and a craptastic amount of junk food. We listened to music and ignored the television, played with the dogs and fed them far too many treats (Bailey is going to have to be treated for high cholesterol, I fear). The menfolk tended the fire, and I took too many macro pictures of ornaments.

Aaron, Michelle and Amanda all departed mid-afternoon on the 24th, just as a snowstorm started to roll in. Bill made a nest in front of the fireplace, and we snuggled and sipped whiskey and watched the snow fall. IT WAS SO FLIPPIN’ ROMANITCAL, YOU GUYS. It was wonderful to experience my first white Christmas since leaving Maine, and Bill’s first white Christmas ever. We just kept looking at each other and sighing, “Oh man, this is soooo niiiice.”

We left just briefly on Christmas Day to do a bit of exploring, and found the heads of a couple of trails that we want to explore this spring. Then it was back to the chalet, back in our jammies, and I read a book while Bill watched football. We mocked the people struggling to drive up the hill in front of the chalet, and generally felt superior in our Jeep-ness. The driveway hadn’t even been plowed out before our arrival, but Bill just smashed the Jeep into the snowbank until he gained access. YEAH, JEEP.

We had some of my epic chicken noodle soup and generally grazed on all of the other leftovers. We were more relaxed than either one of us could remember being in a very long time.

We were sorry to leave on the 26th, but we drove back home feeling quite a bit better prepared to deal with the return to “real life”. We’re definitely doing this again next Christmas. The rest of the photo set is here, if you’re interested.

Bill went back to work on Thursday, and I spent Thursday and Friday doing homework. I cooked a bunch last weekend, and Aaron and Michelle came back over on New Year’s Eve to party and spend the night. We were briefly visited by Amanda and her boyfriend, and our next door neighbor, and just enjoyed a mellow night listening to music and watching Phil Collins: Finally – The First Farewell Tour. We made an attempt at playing another round of Would You Rather, but gave up when we were too buzzed and giggly to read the cards. We slept in on New Year’s Day, then sat around eating donuts and coffee cake and mocking the parades on TV. Aaron and Michelle left at around noon, Bill’s sister Karen stopped by for a brief visit, and after she left I went back to bed for another three hours.

And here we are today, back to reality. I love having a couple of weeks off around the holidays, but man does it make it tough to come back after spending all of that time in stretchy pants.

Is this thing on?

I could ask the same question of my brain.

I know that the folks that struggle through NaNoWriMo, in which they write a 50,000 word novel in a single month, have more to brag about than I do. After all, I’ve been working on my portfolio since September, and when I turned it in earlier this week it only reached 106 pages and 30,592 words. That’s including a table of contents, both of my resumes, two pages of references and five appendixes. Still, I turned it in with an unbelievably satisfying sense of accomplishment.

Now I wait, and see how many credits I get for it. I should hear something by the 13th. I have 92 credits right now, and I need 120 to graduate. The max I can get on my portfolio is 30 credits – if I get 28 or above I only have to take the History of the Civil Rights Movement class I have scheduled for the Winter semester (which is just five weeks long). If I get 25-27 I’ll only have to take one additional class in the Spring semester. If I get 22-24 credits I’ll have to take two classes this spring. Any way I go, I have a May 2013 graduation date, because according to my professor it’s very unlikely that I’ll get any less than 22 credits.

Just in time to celebrate by going to Maine (in 187 days)!

I haven’t written this formally, for this amount of time on a single project, in my life. Sure, I’ve written papers before. I’ve written short stories. I’ve written blog posts and articles, some of them damn long. But I’ve never had to write about the “what” and the “how” of my skills (in this case I wrote three chapters – Supply Chain Management, Photography, and Writing for the Internet), then reflect upon them with the “why” that follows the path of how I got from “there” to “here”. “Zoom in” to develop narrative, then “zoom out” to provide high-level context, with an introduction and conclusion that tie those three very disparate subjects together in a single theme. It was very challenging, and very rewarding.

Though if I never have to write in the APA format again I’ll be JUST FINE WITH THAT.

It’s funny. When I turned in my paper I was convinced that I wouldn’t feel like writing again for MONTHS. But here I am. Can’t keep a good wordy bitch down, I guess.

GOD it’s nice to be able to swear again.

Aside from busting my ass at school, life has been lovely. We’ve been hanging out quite a bit with our friends Aaron and Michelle, going Jeepin’ and hanging out at each other’s houses (EPIC ROCK BAND). They’re awesome. Really, they kick ass. You WISH you had friends as awesome as these. Well, and if I am your friend, lookit that. You do. We went to Sedona a couple of weekends ago and if anybody wants me to take their engagement pictures, I have just the spot:

Yes, the colors actually do look like that. No, they aren’t actually engaged (ha, YET). And YES, I still don’t do weddings. Heh.

I finished our Christmas shopping yesterday, with shipments going out to long-distance friends and relatives, and stuff arriving to the house to be wrapped and lugged up to Flagstaff for what we will henceforth refer to as our “Chalet Christmas”.

Did I talk about that? Maybe I didn’t talk about that. I probably just told Facebook. Anyway! We’re renting a cabin in Flagstaff (called a “chalet” in the description, which if you stick strictly to the definition of a wooden, sloped roof vacation residence in the mountains, is correct) for Christmas. Friends and family are coming up on the night of the 23rd for food and fun (tamales and tacos for Christmas dinner!), and spending the night. Then Bill and I (and Bailey!) will be by ourselves, barring any other day visitors, until the 26th. It’s in the middle of a Ponderosa pine forest, at an elevation that allows for hopes of a white Christmas. There’s a huge stone fireplace, every amenity we need to keep us fed and occupied, and plenty of places nearby to hike and Jeep.

We’re really looking forward to it. What I didn’t realize about going away for Christmas, though, is the logistics that are involved. Lugging up the presents, cooking holiday food ahead of time, procuring party necessities (read: booze), packing clothing and necessities for us and the pupster… it’s certainly more of a challenge than just making sure the house is “company clean”. I suspect, though, that it will be totally worth it. I haven’t felt this much in the way of holiday spirit in YEARS.

Who wants to bet that Oz will poop in our shoes while we’re gone? The NERVE of us leaving him (and Zoe) alone at Christmas! With big bowls of food and water. And blankets and kitty beds on the couch to lay on. And umpteen-million toys. Yeah, the nerve. I bet every single cabinet in the kitchen will be standing wide open when we get back.

Other items of dubious interest:

- Amanda and I had a Magic Mike squee-fest one evening while Bill was gone. I taught her how painless tequila shots are when chased with a chunk of fresh pineapple. The tequila was better than the movie, though there were some drool-worthy scenes. THE V CUT, LADIES, AMIRITE?

- I made homemade chicken stock for the first time, and it turned out awesome (if you don’t have one, you MUST get a dutch oven. I have this one and I LOVE IT). Then I filled up a couple of muffin pans to freeze it into 1/2 cup serving sizes. Popped them out, put two in each baggie then put all of the baggies into a couple of gallon sized ziplocks, and felt very much like Harriet the Happy Homemaker.

- I am apparently a sucker for specific-use dishes. I got a couple of these and a couple of these from Uncommongoods.com. Now all I want to do is make tomato soup and grilled cheese, and tapas with a variety of dips. We are going to use the CRAP outta these. Also, I totally want these. Oh, and this! Thank God for wish lists.

Okay, that about wraps it up for this edition of Ohai Let’s Get All Caught Up. How are YOU?

Broken Arrow Trail, Sedona

This is the best trail we’ve Jeep’ed yet, I think. On Saturday Bill, Amanda and I headed up to Sedona to drive the Broken Arrow Trail. It was rated a seven (on a scale of 10) due to one particularly gnarly incline that we DEclined to traverse. But for that area, the rest of the trail is considered a six. The Pink Jeep tours routinely run these trails for visiting tourists. We were able to drive up and park right up on the red rocks, from which we caught some spectacular views. Even though it was pretty much straight up noon, I think the circular polarizing filter I used compensated pretty well for the incredibly harsh light.

We’re definitely going back, hopefully closer to sunset next time.

It was a fantastic day.

(Also, thank goodness Flickr increased their maximum file size!)

Click any to embiggen, and view the whole Jeep Adventures set here.

Too many photos to load on one page, so… - Read More -

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