IT ALL COMES BACK TO HITLER AND THE FOUNDING FATHERS

OK for some reason I can't embed it...wierd. So here is a link.


I love John Stewart, I think I may have said that before. This was on last weeks The Daily Show (thank you Hulu).
I've only ever seen Glenn Beck, O'Rielly, Hannity and their ilk spouting out intolerance, bigotry and disturbing sense of patriotism, either in cringing passing a random TV or on The Daily Show.
But what I've seen, he is spot on.

NERDYIST DOG EVA

Just a friendly warning.
Don't get stuck in a corner at a party with ol' Nigel UFo Spotter here. He'll bore you to the bone.

DON'T CALL ME ELF....

I love dressing up. It's fun to be something else but not want to be someone else.
I've been part of the SCA since I was 15, and dressing up was a big part of the appeal, along the sense of history and shooting the 'bad' guys with arrows.

Nothing was more fun than a costume party dominated by SCA friends. Comfortable with looking funny and very inventive.
Not to say non SCA friends were slackers either. I remember a costume part where at least one person turned up not in costume, hung out for a few minutes, went back home and returned in something that happily passed as non normal wear. Get people excited by the idea and some great stuff happens. I remember many awesome costume parties- Faires, Moulin Rougue, I'm Batman, Raj Jah G&Ts, plus the random Aussie style Halloween ones.

Halloween here in the States is a Big Deal. Deal that is Big.
Whole stores just appear in October full of spooky stuff, from whole lawn animatronic diaromas to tiny ice cube spiders.
On Nov 1st the space once more becomes a bare brick wall.

This year we went the Geek way. SCA clothes with a few accessories. It was my idea and I must admit I got a little excited about it all.


Downtown Flagstaff closed off its streets and become Spooky Haven. It was aimed mostly for families with rides and 'gentle' scares. We caught the bus downtown and the place of full of little monsters...some of them were even in costume..boom boom.
Our costume was a little obscure. The people who got it thought it was waaaaaay cool, it people who didn't still came up to us, mentioned we looked great but what the hell where we??.....
Explaining we were from a online computer game met with more than a few blank looks.
But it was all worth it for the chuckle it gave the other nerd's eye.

I had to wear my tusks most of the night because of the potential shame of being mistaken for a Elf...pahh...
The smiting would have been a real horror to witness.


Ok for you out there that don't know we have been playing World of Warcraft for nearly 5 years, here is our inspiration.

Quest Giver - I was a Troll
Quest Turn In - Rob was a Tauren

For The Horde

HALLOWEEN SNOW

Bit unusual for this time of year. Forgot how cold it is. I'm weak from a beautiful summer.


We are looking after Heidi for a couple of days, and it was her first snow romp.

Quick post to say we survived our mighty trek.
Fitz and Leala came over to visit and wanted to do a camping trip, Rob said he had the perfect one. Just a jaunt down to the Little Colorado River, which feeds into the Colorado River which runs through the Grand Canyon. How hard could it be?....
There were many rocks and hard places and we were firmly in between.


The trail is called the Hopi Salt and its abloody long way to go for some condiments.
We worked out via Google Earth we hiked about 2600ft down to the river then back up again. The trail is marked by cairns and can be easy to miss as we did the first day and hiked a far more arduous course than we needed to.


It was beautiful and amazing and a real reminder that nature is boss and you don't mess around with it or take it for granted. It was all a bit humbling and next time I'll do things a little different.
Well, it was a test that's for sure. I still ache. I will write more about it but here are some photos on my Flickr, and Leala's take on the whole thing at Baggy Trousers

The dogs did great, they carried their food on their backs and only needed to be lifted up and over things a few times.

Aspens turning

I'm writing a post about my humble take on the fear and loathing I'm seeing this country descend into but it all a bit depressing so I'll finish it later and talk about fun stuff.


Heidi got adopted by the in laws...woot!. We are very happy and she will part of out lives still.
She is becoming a ute dog. Mike has been taking her to his construction sites and she has totally settled in to the lifestyle. Rob has been working with Mike and on Friday he sent me the cutest picture of Mike on his bike and Heidi in the basket. They rode downtown for lunch and she sat in the basket happy as a happy thing.

One thing a love about living here is when we get invited to go camping Saturday morning by M&L, grab the dogs, food and sleeping bags drive half and hour and car camp amongst the pines and aspens. Its so easy and beautiful.

Heidi and her new Mum

And with views like this you can't go wrong.
Behind me are the mighty peaks all covered in patches of green and gold aspens. The landscape then turns into volcanic cinder hills, the painted desert and if you look closely, the north rim of the Grand Canyon. How super cool is that.


It was Heidi's first camping trip and she rocked. I woke up this morning, turned over and there she was curled up by my head.

F&L are coming to visit us on Saturday. Double woot. I love being tourist guide, and connecting with good friends is wonderful.
Trying to make the house vaguely respectable for them. I blame the dogs and ferrets....
It seems the the prices of flights to and from Oz are pretty damn cheap so anyone else who gets the itch to visit, love to have ya.
Also Kate and co will be visiting in Feb....Triple Woot. I can't wait. Hal just turned 15 and Snowpea will turn 12 while she is here.
Kate wanna look into cheap flights to Mexico? Chitchen Itza is calling.


I have to admit to a total crush on Jeff Goldblum at the moment...he was a bit kooky looking when he was younger but has aged very well. I think Rob has a little man crush as well.
We watched 'Raines' which he did a couple of years ago. It only went for 7 episodes, which was a shame cause it was cute. Though now is he in Law and Order so I'm getting them to eat ice cream and sigh a lot at.


Work is better. Things are calmed down but there is still issues which need to be fixed. I've been made a Lead, basically because everyone else left and I have now been there the longest. There may even be a tiny pay rise in it. We will see.

YAY FOR RUNNING

Heidi's leg is now totally straight and she has started to walk on the pads. They are a bit sore but they will toughen up quickly. She is a trooper. Here is some footage of her running around like a pork chop on our walk today.




Work seems to have calmed down and things are being sorted. After 3 manager types I'm the 4 longest employee there now...Its crazy. Turn over is expected in a business like this but since we lost at least 6 people in the last month its not a good look. But hopefully we can get on with the whole point of the job with less dramas.



This is up on the mesa behind our house. The San Francisco peaks are behind me. Tallest mountains in Arizona at 12000+ feet.
It really pretty and you can't see any building or roads. You do see Elk, Ravens and Rabbits boinging about.
In front of me, the land is owned by the Catholic church. They want to build a fracking huge church and school there. Bleaaak!
Its their property but really, talk about a mega eyesore. There is a meeting tomorrow night and we are planing on going to see whats its all about.
It would be a real shame and not just because its our backyard dammit.