Closed for the Season

For the last couple of weeks I have been out state. As nothing much has been happening with the job search--apart from me sending applications to people I am beginning to believe don't exist--I packed the wagon and headed off to the great white north (or somewhere near there). It was, needless to say, a very long drive. However, with the cooler weather and no one in my car to make comfortable but myself I opened the sunroof, rolled the windows down, and turned up whatever the hell I wanted to listen to. (I spent most of the trip flipping between NPR and the Beatles) It was a pretty nice drive once I got off the freeway.

The instigation for the trip was an invitation from the parents of the goddaughter who live in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. They were nice enough to show me around and feed me lots of Huckleberries, and a lot of other really tasty things. My goddaughter is closing in on her first birthday and is as cute as ever. I am miserable about taking pictures so you'll have to see pictures of her on their blog.


Some of the trip's events included a trip to Canada (Yes, it is every bit as weird as I had imagined), a visit to the Spokane County fair complete with an escaped criminally insane murderer and a deep fried Twinkie, Huckleberry picking, pie eating, nature seeing, football watching, Beatle's Rockband playing, muscle car driving, Food Network watching, apple picking, farmers market donut eating, copius amounts of laughing, and a lot of other things I can't seem to remember at the moment.

What made the drive so nice was that I just kind of took my time and stopped when I felt like it. I usually stopped at a rest stop which was always interesting. Most of these rest stops were there in conjunction with some kind of historic point. The best "historic point" that I saw was one regarding the pioneers on the Oregon trail. It read something like, "Outside of Indians, prairie fires, cholera, famine, cyclones, cloud bursts, quick sand, snow slides, and blizzards they had a tolerably blithe and gay trip." Really? Who writes this stuff?

In short, I had a great time. On the way home I stopped in Salt Lake and had a job interview. It went as well as I could have hoped for. In all honesty, he didn't ask many questions. I just sat there and listened to him talk about the job. Even though the interview went alright it was just kind of weeding-out interview. I think I'm still a long way from finding anything out about that particular job. Until whatever's next comes, bring on the next trip!

Who Needs Julia Child? (probably me)

Okay, I'll admit I saw the movie and I liked it. Really though, what's not to like about copious amounts of food porn and Merle Streep. So with that movie as the instigator, I've been playing around in the kitchen some. The pictured dish is, from scratch, "killer" tomato soup. It turned out pretty good and went well with the spinach salad and homemade rolls.

Thanks to some (i.e. A LOT OF) great pie while I was visiting friends, I worked up the nerve to try my hand at the keystone of the Thanksgiving Holiday again. The last time I tried to make pie the oven caught on fire, the crust was inedible and the end product resembled pecan based concrete. This time I attempted an apple pie and thanks to some moral support and a couple of good recipes it turned out 500% better than my first attempt. The crust wasn't the prettiest, but it was flaky and fantastic. Bring on the turkey season!

Now, who's for Dennys?

Okay, so the big news since arriving is that Ely got another stop light. We have been sitting at just three for a good decade or more due to one of our downtown lights being removed because it had become pointless. The day I arrived they had a big ribbon cutting and everything. Big stuff.

In other news: I spent some time this last week down at the Grandparents in Logandale, Nevada. It was hot, but nice. I went to Vegas with Grandpa one day and Grandma made me a batch of her dinner rolls that I pretty much consumed myself. They were even nice enough to turn the A/C up so that it was less than 85 degrees in their house. In fact, once you get past the unbearable heat and the scenery that resembles the inside of a giant dust bin, Clark County really is kind of nice.


I got cornered into sub-ing for the 12-13 year-old Sunday School class this Sunday. The kids weren't too bad and the lesson went okay. However, the room was a little warm (no a/c) so the window was open, and I found myself trying to talk over the top of this ->


The station is just a block from the Church and they were being very liberal with the whistle. I don't know how many people have ever had their Sunday School lesson disrupted by a 1910 steam locomotive, but I love it. Highly recommended.

In my spare time I mow the lawn in the middle of the day, glare at the neighbor's dog, and tinker with my car. I'm planning to head up to extreme Northern Idaho this week, and I've got a job interview in Salt Lake this Tuesday.