dan le sac VS scroobius pip

... for your viewing pleasure. Yay youtube. Dont forget, theyre "just a band"

here a deer, there a deer, everywhere a deer deer

I know ive mentioned to a few of you, if not on my blog generally, that we have alot of deer in monterey. These deer arent like any other, in fact, the ones on base wont move when you walk by them. They are all pretty fearless. But, its cool, cause you can get up close and check em out, which isnt something a city girl like me has had much chance to do. The other day, there were 2 young bucks grazing in our back lot and i snapped some shots of em through the window.


These nex shots are of a neighbourhood cat, stalking the deer.








But, the deer didnt fear the cat, and instead they decided to take a nap. If i was doctor sues im sure i could write a book based on that line. But im not, so ill just show you the picutres instead.

word on the street......

better late than never

So, as i had mentioned to some of you, about a month ago now, a group of us went on a tour of a lighthouse. It was cool to get out down the coast, it really is beautiful down there. The tour itself was.. well.. it was a tour. Im not really a big fan of tours, id rather just look at things on my own time, i hate waiting for a group, and im not really one for learning about the history behind whatever im looking at. I prefer just to see it. Ive had my stint in school, i feel like im done learning for some time. Other than that, and the 50hour a mile winds and the freezing weather, the tour was cool. I got a bunch of nifty picutres to post.

this one is a shot of the hill that the lighthouse is on taken from the highway. We had to park at the bottom of this thing, and walk up... into 50 mile an hour winds.

This is a shot of what the edge of the path that we were walking up looked like. In the brochure for the tour it said "do not chase objects or people over the edge of the trail" I personally think that that goes with out saying, as im sure you can see with this last shot.


This is just a shot of the coast from the lighthouse hill. And another shot of the rocks below us, more proof of why not to chase anything off the path.



Heres some shots of the lighthouse itself.

Seven deadly sins

Ahhhh too true too true. Kootoes to whomever was brilliant enought to plot this out. Im going to hell.

Happy birthday to christopher

Sunday was Christopher's birthday. It was a nice chilled day... we had cake (as you can see), balloons, and went out to one of those japanese places that has the grill built right into the table. Id never been to one of those places before, so it was pretty neat. They even sang a version of happy birhday, and brought us ice cream. They also had a full sized candle for C to blow out, on some wierd ass birthday podium thing -- and they gave him a great hat. They tried to get him to dance around to the birhday song, but he wasnt having any of it. All and all it was a good day.

does any one really listen?

I was leaving base today, and as always I said good bye to the gaurd working there. I always say something along the lines of "bye, have a nice night", or some rendition. Today, I said have a good night, and the gaurd said "good, hows it going?" I mean, seriously, does have a good night sound anything like how are you doing? Furthermore, who asks some one how theyre doing as they are going? "bye, how are you doing??" I didnt say anything back, but instead wondered the whole way home how often people just hear what they want to hear. Its not a new thought, but i went on that tangent for a few blocks before i realized that ive been here close to a year now, and go to base at the least 4 times a week... and i have never once had some one say something that made as little sence as that. In fact, i couldnt remember one time in the last few years where ive said something that was responded to totally inappropriately. So, then i spent the next few blocks thinking about how people have this ONE experience, but then chalk it up to an every day experience. THAT person didnt listen to me, so, no one really listens. Ya know what i mean?

Further more, Im sure that poor gaurd thinks, "what a bitch, I asked her how she was doing, and she didnt even look at me -- what a snob"

A bored housewife: a letter of complaint to Take Home Chef

Dear viewer relations,

I would like to make a comment/complaint about your show, "Take Home Chef". I used to watch this show all the time, and enjoyed it, until I started to notice that the people that Curtis was "taking home" were all particularly affluent people. I personally do not have anything against affulent people, but I find this frustrating when watching "Take Home Chef" for many different reasons. First off, there is the issue of representation. As I have already mentioned, it seems to me that the people Curtis are cooking with are, by and large, people that are of a higher socio-economic back ground. Hence, the show does not take a reflective sample of the population, but rather focuses on a specifically small sample. Unfortunetly, what this leads to is obvious: the creation of a show where the main characters are people that the majority of your viewers can not identify with. Even worse, not only can they not identify with the people on your show, but they end up disliking or even resenting these people that "need help". The whole premise of this show is to help people, and yet time and time again you select those who really have the means to help themselves, ingoring so many people that truely need the assistance, people who cannot afford to take a cooking class, or dine out in restaurants every other evening (unlike most of the people on your show). Never have I watched Take Home Chef and thought "well thats great, he really helped that couple out", but have often thought, "those people can afford their own personal chef, what on earth is he even doing there". The last show I watched, I turned off after the crew pulled up into this woman's drive way, in her brand new Lexus, to her towering eight bedroom home, which over-looked the ocean. I just find it distasteful, frustrating, and such a shame that you, as a programming entity as well as a helping body, can not effectively represent the population at large, and provide assistance to a group who are most able to find means to help themselves, while a majority of the population remains ignored.

Thank you for your time in reading my concern,
T*****A D**E

2 ton paper weight

Well... we've been experiencing some problems with our bronco. Whenever you use the clutch it makes this grinding sound, thats sort of reminiscent to the sound of a lawnmower going over a tin can. The breaks squeek. There is a bad oil leak. The break fluid drains out as soon as you fill it up. Smoke billows out from under the hood if its running more than 10 minutes. It makes a weird whining sound. So, yeah, theres a few things going on with the bronco. The other day, we were going on some light house tour with some people from class, and our car wouldnt start, and so we decided we should take it in.

Well.. long story short, everything that could be wrong with the thing IS wrong with it, and the mechanic went out of his way to explain to us just WHY it would be unsafe for us to drive it home. The owner and manager came to talk to us about how he "cant emphasize enough that they dont recomend that we drive it home". The blue book value of our bronco is 1200$ if its in perfect condition... and well as i have explained its far from that. The estimated cost of fixing just the most major things (ie the clutch and the breaks -- which by the way are pretty much totally out), is appz 3500$. So, alas, we now have a 2 ton paper weight sitting in our parking spot, collecting dust. At least we got home ok from the shop.
:)

evolution

i dont have anything to say really .. I just saw this video, and thought some of you may like to see it - if you havent yet.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMxxelZHs8Y&NR


Im not technologically inclined like some of my friends (tom) who can just type a word and the word links whomever clicks on it to a certain site. I actually have to put the web address. Its less pretty but it works.

and so it was a trip to vancouver

Hello hello hello everyone in blog land. Like the new look? I figured, the new year deserves a new look, so i hacked off all my hair, changed my blog back ground, converted it to a new version (im no longer in beta version, whatever the hell that means), and due to a massive perplexion brought on by my frenchi friend mel, i also changed my blog name, to something that will suit me where ever i may end up. My new and improved blog name is now "itinerant_tee" and for those of you who arent scholars, this is what it means:

itinerant \eye-TIN-uhr-uhnt\, adjective:1. Passing or traveling from place to place; wandering.

(dont feel bad, i had to look it up)

So, death to cali t! Death to the old blog... and so long hair. I know its not the biggest picture, but i havent taken any but this one, since i had my hair cut. By the way, thanks Cheryl for the awesome clips. For those of you who dont know, or are totally stupid, that is my mom... Jerrie. (the spelling of my moms name is just for your Kat, as you seem to spell it more and more wrong everytime you try ;)

Vancouver was great. I cant tell you how nice it was to see everyone. Thank you rachel for comming to get me from seattle, and dont worry, you dont have to pay that speeding ticket if you dont plan on going down there ever again. Just think of it this way, I wont make you come back to seattle to get me next time if you havent paid the ticket off by then.

We had a nice little get together at my moms place, and pretty much everyone made an appearance. Even Tanya and scotty... i am totally highly impressed they made it, even if it was close to midnight. After they left, we broke out the trivial persuit pop culture, cause we are that cool, and played till after 1, and finnished off most of the grub (note to blog readers, rosy makes the best chocolate cake IN THE WORLD).

Here are some random shots from that night:


Ya ya ya... i know your thrilled to have your picture posted kat.. but in less you plan on flying down to california, theres really not one damn thing you can do about it... is there? hehehe.. no theres not.

Ha! dont let this picture fool you, neither of these two are sweet OR innocent. Just FYI.

We went to the hudsons landing one night, and though i cant speak for everyone else, i thought it was a blast! I think that may have been my favorite night in town... and thats not just because i got to kick toms ass at pool, but that sure helped. It was just all around a great night. Here is the hudsons landing:

After, we stopped by tom and mels new place so anita and i could see it. Totally cool place. Here is a shot of us, minus mel, on the way up to their suite.

So that, in a nut shell, was my trip to vancouver. There was a few coffees at the grind, lots of good food ( still cant believe there are 14$ salads at earls), and lots of laughs. On a serious note though, i have to say that it was sort of weird going back, I guess even though it hasnt been that long, it feels like its been forever since i had been there, and because so much has changed with me, i guess i was sort of expecting vancouver to have changed as well. On the other hand, i would have been highly upset if i had gotten there and everything was different. Ill say this, it was good to see everyone, and it was especially great to have some time with my mom. I even beat her at scrabble once! Nothing like growing up and beating your parents at the things that they taught you how to do. Feels good... feels damn good. Choke on that mom! hehehehe. Anyway. I love you all, and it was great to see you.

Oh yeah, i have one last thing to say to you guys (for old times sake):

and so it was a road trip: a christmas story part II

So, where was I? Ah yes, a nine hour drive from SC, a stop over in Tennesse, grabbing a twin, and hitting the road. I wanted all you canadians to see to see just how far of a drive it is from south carolina to our place here in cali. Here is the link to see it on google maps:

http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wl&qen&tab=wl&q

(my directions thing didnt work, but you can see SC on the very far right side, and Cali, on the very far left -- for you geographically ignorant canadians).

So, after we left Tennesse, we only stopped for the neccessities, gas, food and the bathroom - in that order. I tell you, I saw some gnarly bathrooms on that road trip, but nothing beats the horror show that I was privy to in LA. We decided to detour south of our route, and bipass colorado, as they were having a snow storm, and instead drive the width of texas. That state is huge! We had dinner in the evening on the eastern boarder, drove all night, and when we had breakfast we were still in texas! I had the 2-5 driving shift, as we decided it may be best to let me drive when all other sound minded people were sleeping. I was driving when the sky started to lighten, and we could see that there was desert all around us -- but it wasnt as I imagined the desert to be. It was very pretty, with lots of hills and a beatiful sunrise.


We drove and drove and drove, and came close enough to the mexican border that we began to see patrol cars, another highly effective american plan to aid in illegal immigration (this is where i roll my eyes). Anyway, we saw a ton of those trucks, but not one illegal running around on the side of the road, so who knows, maybe they are infact effective (this is where you would hear my sarcasm if we were speaking).

Of course we saw some interesting billboards in texas, this one, didnt surprise me at all considering our location, but if was say, on the outskirts of vancouver, i think it would have been more strange. Regardless, i got a good laugh.



Speaking of odd billboards, i dont know if you can see whats in this picture or not, but its a giant wood and metal roadrunner. Its like, at least 15 feet high, maybe taller it was hard to tell from the highway.


Also an odd billboard, and a bad picture, is this billboard/wood cut out of a baby, playing by itself in a lone feild. As far as I can tell there is no Ad that goes with this baby. Its just a baby sitting, all alone, in a feild. Talk about neglect. Maybe its a subliminal public service announcement. Who knows, but it is definetly odd, dont you think? No offence texas, i know i know, dont mess with texas, even if they have strange things on the sides of their roads.


K theres nothing odd about this next shot, its just the classic desert cactus shot. It was SO warm here that i was uncomfortable in long sleeves when we stopped at the gas station.

Looks hot, dont it?


Once we got out of texas the drive seemed not to drag on as bad as it had been. Its possible by that time we were all just a bit sleep deprived, and were suffering from cabin fever. Everything seemed that much more funny, especially the orange sunglasses that stowed away in Cs glove box. They were hours of fun. Just ask Christopher.. doesnt he look like hes having a blast?


This shot is taken through the glasses. Like I said, they were hours of fun (for me anyway). Who needs photo shop, or sepia function on their cameras when you got a fancy pair of yellow sunglasses??




I was really amazed to see how much new mexico, and the southern edges of Cali were just like texas geographically speaking. I mean, i know it never rains where i am in cali, but we have greenery. There wasnt alot of that along the eastern cali border, and for the most part, its hard to tell where my pictures are from, after we hit texas.

Heres a cool shot, of what the area looked like generally. Really cool rock formations -- and cheryl i thought about you the whole way through this part, and how you'd climb every rock there if you had the chance. Especially this one!


The sun set a few hours after we crossed the Cali border, and it was a georgous sunset. My pictures just dont do it justice, but heres a few anyways.


I was a little dissapointed that the sun went down before we got to LA, cause i wanted to see what it looked like. Well that was before I went through LA. As far as Im concerned now, that place could fall into the ocean and i wouldnt think twice about it. It was terrible. We got lost. Had to use this bathroom at a gas station that was so gross it rivals the nasty shell at the corner of clark and 6th. You know the one, the one that has the black light in it so junkies cant shoot up in it? Not to mention the wonderful graffitti, garbage, and aroma of je ne sais quoi. Anyway, we went further into LA than we wanted to cause we veered off onto the wrong highway. We went pretty far into LA, turned off the highway to try to pee and get directions, when we got back on the freeway, it wasnt the one we got off of. So, in trying to find the freeway we were on before the gas station, we saw a sign for the original highway we had accidently gotten off. Ureeka, it was like a gift from god, and we were yet again, on our way home, after a 2 hour detour of HellLa. We had to drive through a mountain pass to get home, just out side of LA. I had no idea they had mountains there. It was so windy, christopher was double handed and white knuckling it on the steering wheel, and i still thought the wind was going to pick us up and put us in the other lane. We made it through, and shortly there after we were driving along, and christopher and I smelled this unbelievably horrid stench. I ignored it, blowing it off as a farm, but after about 10 minutes, it just got stronger, and there was no farm in sight. Christopher looked over at me and whispered that maybe his brother had had an "accident". I shook my head, no, its just not possible for a grown man to deficate in his own pants, with out copious amounts of drugs or alcohol. But, as time passed and the smell got worse, i was frightened to admit he may be right. I think eventually our giggling woke blake up, and we watched him through the rearview to see if he was upset about anything. Finally C broke down and asked him if everything was ok, and i guess my initial hypothesis was correct, altough we couldnt see them, we had to be passing some sort of farm. Blake was clean. Heheheh. I took over driving, and yet again, geography that i had previously considered hills, became yet again mountains, and of course the california fog rolled in right at that time. I looked over at the clock after about an hour or so of driving. It was midnight, on the button, new years eve. I looked over at blake, my perfect copiolet and muttered grumpily "happy new years" as i gripped the steering wheel, driving through foggy mountains about 2 or so hours from home. We made in at about 3am and went straight to bed, and i tell you, i havent slept that well in a very long time.

So you kids know, I am heading to vancouver for 10 whole days tomorrow! So, not that its that strange for me to go 10 days with out posting, but i thought id tell ya just incase any of you were wondering where the heck i was. For you other folks, I will see you very soon!

And so it was christmas: a christmas story, part I

Ah yes, another christmas come and gone. Christopher and I were talking about it yesterday, and we both agree that it feels like we've been back for over a month. I thought about it, and realized that Christmas WAS almost a month ago now. Time just flies.

So, we started our trip in the monterey airport at 4am. Because of the time of year, and the elevated saftey threat, we were advised to fly 2 hours early. What a bunch of BS, the front desk checker inner people dont even show up until 4:30, and of course our people were late. Oh well, I like getting little sleep the night before I fly, so I can sleep the whole way there. Note to readers: people do not enjoy getting their photographs taken at 4 am. ESPECIALLY people who barely tollerate it at a decent hour.


So, we arrived in Nashville in the afternoon, the flight was uneventful, and our luggage arrived on time, as we did. Thats always a bonus. We only stayed a night, but I got to meet Christopher's grandparent who were very sweet. His grandfather was funny as hell. I also got to meet their family's new dog jack, a rescued shitzu (or how ever you spell it), who has recently undergone some serious surgery from being attacked by the neighbour's dog -- so jack is on his 3rd doggie life. We had a wonderful dinner out, where we saw Reba Macintyre the country singer. She has a house out that way, and looks exactly as she does on TV.


So, left to right in this picture are the grandparents, Christopher's mom, his twin, him, and in the front his step dad.

So the next day, we got into Christopher's truck, and made our way to his dads house in South carolina. Jack decided he should drive.



It was about a 9 hour drive to Christopher's dad and step mom's house, and other than a little rain, it was a nice drive. They have these GINORMOUS fireworks stores littered all over the highways out there. I mean, they are bigger than Cosco!



Seriously, can you believe this? Its a far cry from buying bottle rockets out of the "bad kids" locker in Junior high, like most canadian kids are forced to do.



There wasnt a ton to look at along the way, a few rolling hills that the locals probably call mountains, but are nothing but hills if you live near the rockies (as most of my fan base does). I managed to pull off a nice shot of a lake that were zooming past at like 120kms. Its one one of the local "mountains" I was talking about.


We made it to his dads house in one piece, and only with a tad of car trouble as we were arriving. Something about the gears, but as I dont know much about cars, and less about stick shifts, I will leave it at "car trouble". We got in late, so late the furballs were all long asleep under the christmas tree.

I snapped a few shots with my camera, but as some of you already know, one of my favorite things about going to Christopher's dads place is that i get to use his camera, so the next day he pulled it out for me, and I didnt use my camera one more time that trip. Very cool... he burned all my pics from his camera onto a disc, and of course now i cant find it anywhere, so all my pics from SC are lost. I did however get one shot of Paddi's (c's step mom) brother's pugs. They were SO sweet... I wanted to take them home with me.

I also got a picture of C and me, in my new shirt that his dad and Paddi got for me











Unfortunetly, thats all the shots i have from his dads place, too bad too cause its a cool house. They have a silo built into part of it, it was a real silo, and they redid the inside of it. We slept at the top of it the first few nights we were there. Its got a winding staircase to get to the top, and has a tin roof. It rained while we were there, and it sounded SO cool on the silo's tin roof. So, we stayed in SC for a few days, had a nice relaxing time, didnt do a whole hell of alot. Ate, shopped, and put a few puzzles together. That was fine with me. We headed back to nashville, where Christopher made me drive my first drive longer than 5 minutes not on a country back road. Yes, i learned how to drive stick on a highway going through what seemed alot more like mountains when IM driving. EEK. I drove for a couple of hours on the highway, then through part of the city, with lights and everything. I found it very stressful, but got us there without stalling. I was overly thankful when C said I could pull over and he would drive the rest of the way. I wouldnt have driven at all, but he pitched such a fit that i felt so bad i had to drive. We were at a gas station, where he announced your driving, and tried to get into the passanger seat. I didnt agree, and fought him for the passenger seat -- the whole while pleading "STOP.. your making a scene.. just DRIVE". Well, he won the wrestle, and beat me into the seat, so i just sat on his lap. He wasnt impressed - got out, and drove in silence for about an hour. Finally, like i said, i felt SO bad, i was forced to tell him i'd drive. And drive i did. SO we made it back to tennesse, stayed another night, had a very nice time. We went to the Opry mills hotel, which is HUGE. They get all decorated with lights at christmas, and lots of people go. Its hard to see the hotel, but thats the front view of one of the buildings, with all the trees lit outside.






So, thats opry mills hotel. It was pretty. They sure do deck the halls there every year. Im glad I got a chance to see it.

So, we slept at his moms, house, woke up the next day, had a great breakfast prepared by debbie (Cs mom).. and then me, christopher, and his twin brother blake hit the road. Little did i know at that time that that night was the last time id sleep in a bed for 6 states, and like 3000 miles. The boys decided that it would be a good idea to drive straight through to cali. But, I will leave that tale for my next post, a christmas story, part II.