Susie's Meanderings

Game Day

Today is the first game of the season here in Corvallis. So rather than take pictures of all the dogs at the farmer's market, I took pictures of the beavers. Incidentally, it's approximately 1/2 mile from the Italian Deli to the French Patisserie in this town. That's how I like to get my exercise.

Lazy Sunday Morning? (and Evening)

9:00 am

10:30 am

5:30 pm

Blogging from the Hammock

My apologies for the slightly grainy quality of this image, I'm playing with my new webcam out here in the backyard. I'm tempted to set it up for motion detection to see if I can catch the squirrels and the deer in their attacks upon my mothers flowers, but I"m not quite ready to sacrifice my laptop to the brutal outdoors. Much to my delight, however, the wireless signal stretches all the way out to the hammock, so I can lie here in the glorious late Oregon summer and still enjoy all the advantages of being wired. After an exhausting morning traipsing around the farmer's market with my parents, (and to the French bakery for pastries, and at the opposite side of town, the Italian deli for Bresaola and Prosciutto) it's precisely what's called for.

Why I Love Summer in Oregon

From the farmer's market....

Corsica

Another beautiful day ashore in the Med - glorious sun, light breezes and French food. I think I settled for the more traditional Croque Monsieur, and a pretty pedestrian one at that, but it was still pleasant. Met in my cabin later for the remains of the fresh buffalo mozarella bought in Naples and for the entire wheel of raw milk camembert that has been fragrancing my refrigerator for the past 4 days. I nearly passed out from the fumes unwrapping it, but happily, it didn't taste anything like it smelled, and was devoured in short order. I moved along from there almost directly to curry night (hosted by the Indian crew in honor of Independence Day) where I was scolded for not eating more. Needless to say, all I could accomplish after this orgy of eating was a three hour nap on the heaving seas.
Oh, here's a picture from Corsica....

Eating my way through Europe

I really wanted to buy one of these for my cabin, but I didn't think I could finish it before I got home (and I thought it might be a little pungent), so I contented myself with some nice "lait cru" cheese today in Cannes, a couple of all butter pastries, and a backpack full of chorizo and other assorted sausages yesterday in Barcelona. The weather's perked up a bit and I have to wear sunscreen to go ashore again, but it hasn't been desperately hot yet. One week left and then it's back to the glorious Northwest.

Stonehenge

I don't think these pictures really need much introduction - we did a speed run in a taxi from Southampton to Stonehenge, threw ourselves around the perimeter with the thousands of other people who were similarly engaged, and still managed a 15 minute side trip to see the outside of Salisbury Cathedral (imagine having enough time in a port to actually see the insides of buildings...), and still made it home in time for passenger drills. Today was Spain, and I'll try to post a picture of lunch later.

Raiatea Hike

Lest you all think I'm living in sloth - I did hike up the big hill in Raiatea yesterday. Circumstances dictated that we go in the heat of midday, so I'm a little crispy around the edges today, but the view was fantastic, and we ended in the ocean. Here's the view from the top. That's Bora Bora in the background.

Bora Bora

I'm sorry - I have been lax lately - but who wants to play on a computer when I can spend my day here....

Nuku Hiva

I have been most remiss, and there's really no excuse except that all my days are blending into one. We've had excessive sea days on this cruise, due to high swell and not being able to safely tender ashore, so I've actually been working ocassionally. However, I did get ashore in Nuku Hiva - and it was much more amazing than I remembered. Somehow, last year when we were here it always just seemed dark and hot and depressing, and my friends I would go ashore and kick the dust and grumble and then go back to the ship and lie by the pool.
This time I went ashore alone in a rather contemplative mood, and got to walking along the shoreline, and came across the marae (I think) and all these fantastic statues just scattered around, and miraculously there was no one around, and I just sat in the shade of a palm tree watching the waves crash in until I was once again overrun by people. Here's my favorite of the statues.

Rain Rain

Well, for being in the glorious South Pacific, I'm not seeing much sun. We had a perfectly grey and rainy sea day yesterday, followed by an equally miserable day in Raiatea. I still managed to get ashore to get my fresh flower lei, which makes my cabin smell indescribably marvelous, and pretty much the rest of the day has been dedicated to napping. At the moment I'm trying, for the first time, the wireless connection on the ship.
Here's a picture from Rarotonga.

Fall Colors

Well, I'm home again, so my muscles are too sore to type, what with running every day and weight training, so here are some pictures instead. I love fall.

Halloween Photo Essay

For those of you who are not homestarrunner.com fans, the funny looking pumpkin is Trogdor. Designed by my nephew and carved by my ever patient sister.

A month's worth of Pictures

Knowing I would be in Kusadasi, where my laptop can once again be in glorious contact with the internet, I sorted through my pictures from the last month and tried to choose the best one from each port ( and one of me, due to special request from Tracey) , so here they are......

                   &

and my apologies for the weird spacing on the pictures, it's too hot and sleepy today for me to sort it out.

Tapas and Pictures

Went out last night in Barcelona for amazing tapas and beer. It's such a lovely city for sitting out at night. And best of all we missed the big fat rain storm that has made for a lovely cool day today. Anyway, here are some pictures from Capri....

Day at the Coast

A little photo essay for everyone's entertainment.....

Weekend at Bernie's (Brighton revisited)

Well, by popular request (at least two requests anyway) here are some pictures. Here is Gracie dog with her two parents ( I dare not call them owners) - I've been told I have a week to get her picture up, and I'm already late by two days - sorry Bernie, and here's me, sitting on the scaffolding outside Bernie's apartment (we like to think of it as an impromptu balcony) enjoying a Budweiser (the Czech kind, not the American one, which I would have drunk, but not enjoyed), and the view.

More Louie!

Well, okay, it's just one Louie picture, this is him relaxing with a Mythos beer and a greek salad after the Acropolis debacle. The other picture, well, if any of you have watched Fawlty Towers, this guy claims to be Manuel, I leave it to you to judge. At any rate, if it is him, he's now spending his days dressed as an ostrich chasing tourists on La Rambla.

Louie in Venice

The one of Louie and Bob in the gondola is shamelessly photoshopped, the closes Louie got to a gondola was 20 feet, and I don't think they make little gondolier hats in bear sizes, but it was irresistible. However, the one of Louie feeding the pigeons is all real. For those of you wondering, he is going to have a bath before he sleeps with me again.

Pelicans

Party party party, sun sun sun. Well, actually, the last two days have been, work work work, party, sleep, then work again. But today finds me in Puerto Vallarta once again, heading into what passes for my weekend on this ship. Here's a picture of some pelicans that are ubiquitous around here. These particular ones were just sitting on the dock in Cabo.

Pictures!

    
Here are the pictures I've desperately been trying to upload for a week. Finally made it ashore in Cabo San Lucas this week (difficult, due to trying to tender 3,000 people ashore and back in half a day), and it was lovely. Had fantastic breakfast tacos overlooking the bay.

Goodbye Corvallis!

I was supposed to be on my way to Seattle today, but it's such a glorious day here (and I wasn't near packed) that I decided to stay an extra day. Here are my favorite pictures from the week. The two from Bald Hill are from a bird watching walk I did with my parents (they watch birds, I take pictures of moss) and it's also my favorite running path. The deer were visiting my neighbor's yard today, enjoying a little salad of fresh crocus and daffodils.

Fun with Red Eye

Here's what Picture It does to squirrels with red eye:

He's a greedy piglet that visits every afternoon and devours all the sunflower seeds.

But - here's why I like my new camera. These flowers are actually about the size of pinheads. I took this on the daily forced march with my parents. Next to that is some of the sculpture that's cropping up in town these days.
    

Spring is Here!

     I love flowers....

The Tragedy of Poor Engineering

For those of you who have been wondering how I really spend my carefree days, here's a little pictorial history:

For those of you who think it's time I got back to the ship - you're right. But actually, I built this with my niece, and she wanted photographic evidence before her brother destroyed it, because "I've never built a track that looks like that before". And I have a new camera I wanted to play with.

Crawling Up the Mountain

Here's a little photo journal of the hike (climb?) we did in Bora Bora. I'm pretty sure the pictures say it all. Suffice it to say I crawled up most of the way on my hands and knees, and slid down most of the way back. Still sore and scratched up, but it was well worth it in the end.....

Pictures

So, true to my word, I'm posting again. I thought I'd put up a couple pictures from my hike the other day. Here's the view from the top of the hill in Raiatea. We hiked up through loose cows, loose horses, loose dogs, and loose pigs in the sweltering noon day sun, but ultimately decided the rewards were worth the effort.

Why I'm not Coming Home for the Holidays

So here are a couple pictures from yesterday....

One Month Left

Well, I have a month to the day left in my contract, and I'm starting to get a little sad. I'm working my way up to a fantastic tan, and three days ago I was watching flocks (schools?) of flying fish wing their way away from the wake of the ship. Yesterday was Moorea in the morning and Papeete and a crazy transvestite Piano Bar in the evening. What a life. Here are some pictures. The first one is from a hike we took in Raiatea up to the top of a very steep bluff. I had a headache when I was done, but the view was worth it. The second is the view of Papeete from the ship, which is the biggest city I've seen in 2 months.

2 Down...

I have finished my second cruise!! Today it's raining in Papeete, so perhaps some people will come to my afternoon classes. For the moment, I'm in internet heaven, with my own personal laptop plugged into a high speed connection. I only have to speak enough French to communicate what I want to do. Still really enjoying ship life, but it's going to exhaust me if I keep going like I am. Three late nights in a row, because I took the art director out the other night, and we closed down the nightclub. Crew party the next night (and naturally, I had to attend that), and the night before that was Island night, and well, that required drinking and dancing into the late evening. I'm becoming a happy adopter of the traditional afternoon nap, on those days that I can find the time for it.
Had some time for some excursions this week, went and fed the Manta Rays in Moorea, followed by some truly stunning snorkeling. Bora Bora was a little disappointing this week, the weather was a little cloudy, and the water, well, was only as clear as a swimming pool with leaves in it. Met up with Ross though, pictures below. Also got Louie and Bob out of hiding, and took them to the beach, nearly lost them, and my camera, to a freak wave, but I scooped them all up in the nick of time.
Oh, I also saw dolphins yesterday, leaping and everything.

Pictures

Here's Moorea and Bananas
  

Shamelessly Procrastinating

I'm supposed to be packing. In the last 4 hours I've mostly emptied one closet into 3 boxes, and have completely emptied one bookshelf. I'd say that constitutes about 2% of my stuff, with only a weekend between me and the impending movers. In the meantime, my laptop is singing its siren call, and I had to sort out the pictures from my last trip. This one is for Katie. You can't see it in the thumbnail, but the sign says "Toft Tree Farm".

Weekend Fun

Here's a photo from this weekend. A little mini golf at "The North Forty" in Sioux City......

Photos!

My two favorite pictures so far this week. I think they're pretty self explanatory. It's hard to see in the thumbnail, but that picturesque building on the lake is the Pizza Hut where I had lunch today.

Weekend Photos

I think these two say it all. The first one is our driveway at the house, the second is a group picture from the first night.

Some little pictures

Okay, here's the de rigeur sunset shot, and a little pic of Bob and Louie getting ready to snorkel.... (with some scenery in the background) both of these are from Maui.

Fireworks!

Don't expect to hear from me too much for the next two weeks, cause I'm going on VACATION!!! Of course, I've already hunted out two internet cafes, but Ross has told me I'm not allowed to touch a computer for two weeks. I don't think I'll make it that long personally. In the meantime, saw some really pretty fireworks tonight ( I was hopeful of watching them from my balcony, but the Foundation turned out to be in the way, so we walked down towards Pete's, which was kind of a relief, as my near neighbors were throwing firecrackers and sparklers at the passing cars (always nice to know the general maturity level of my co-residents) and I got some pretty pictures. Here are two of them...

Susie Needs a Photoblog

So I finally got around to scanning these pictures from my Oregon trip last night. This is right near Bandon, and my feet were freezing when I took this picture, because it was October, and I insist on walking barefoot on the beach. The tide was out when I walked out to these rocks, but came in rather suddenly while I was taking the pictures. I'm inspired by Aaron's newly redesigned photo pages. Well, I don't know how new they are, but new to me, cause I haven't looked at them in a while, and tempted to follow in his footsteps... in the meantime, here's Bandon, which, incidentally makes a really fine artisanal cheese....

Sunset

Check out the sunset last night. I love my camera, not so keen on the powerlines....

Recycling Rant

People who live in my building are dumb. Every month we get a little letter from our management, stating very clearly what is and is not recyclable. The city of Seattle sends us catchy little magnets with pictures. And yet, every single time I go to the recycle bin with my little bag of presorted bottles and junk mail, I find the dumpster is full to the brim with castoff styrofoam, mixed glass and plastic (though there's a big sign that says "NO GLASS"), food garbage, and I, good samaritan that I am, always end up dumpster diving to remove this stuff to the proper dumpster, which resides a mere 10 feet away. Grrr. On the other hand, here's a picture of one of my plants, which has survived many near death experiences, and lived to tell the tale....

More photos

Not really much to tell today, since thus far it's been an uneventful day, mostly consumed with trying to find a coffee pot at work that still has coffee in it, while assiduously avoiding making any myself. I saw Spirited Away last night. Lovely movie, but I thought the girl who did the dubbing was a little strident and whiny. But then I understand from watching the extra stuff on the DVD that she was having a hard time fitting all the english words into the Japanese animation.
So here's another picture, because I like pictures. This is my friend Laura - who's living in Abu Dhabi right now, but is coming to visit SOON.

Susie Plays With Pictures

Just because I can... here's another picture from Newport, RI

Chloe

I'm no Kris Bell.... but

I'm no Kris Bell.... but here are some pictures from the cliff walk
   

Two excruciating hours later, I

Two excruciating hours later, I finally have a few little pictures from the weekend up on the photos page. I'm saving the rest for something faster than 22K. I have a ridiculous number of Massachusetts photos to post (not all from this weekend). Hands are tired now from too much computer time. But just one more little picture because I forgot to post it with the others - here are Rachel and Louie enjoying our last morning at the beach house

Here's my first

Here's my first in blog photo, with nods of thanks to Katie for her patient teaching.