Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas to all of you wonderful people! I am at work today with Aspen sleeping under my desk. I must apologize for not posting anything for 20 days. Tonight I am making Christmas dinner with Tara. Tyler doesn't get home until 9ish p.m. so it will be a late night. I promise I'll post pictures soon of the whole affair. Much love to you all!

Aspen is here!

Tyler got me a puppy for an early Christmas present!


Here is Aspen. She's a four-month old golden retriever.


All these pictures were taken with camera phones because my camera is broken.

A brief account of past, present and future events

Well, I didn't ruin Thanksgiving — the day turned out to be a smashing success. Zack watched football while I made stuffing, cranberry sauce, cooked the turkey and mashed the potatoes to go with the gravy. Tara and her mom Heidi came over and so did Jennie (the new girl at work) and her boyfriend Nick. We all ate when Tyler got home at 7:13 p.m. (said he was going to be home at 7 p.m. and we were STARVING).

As for current news, our house got jacked up yesterday. I'm not talking about a remodel, I'm talking about the construction dudes that took one of the stilts our home is built on and raised it up. Now the place is level. It used to slant to the Northwest side. Zack made the observation that you had to walk uphill to go downstairs and he thought that was just wrong. Because of the new face-lift, the wall cracked a little in the corner of the building, but Brent, our landlord, said he'd fix it as soon as the house settles for 30 days. Shame on me for renting a house on stilts.

Tomorrow Tyler and me are going to the Broncos game in Oakland. I'm praying to the Car Talk Gods for my car gets there and back. The poor girl just doesn't have that much in her.

If anyone is curious about where we live, I recently wrote an article about the neighborhood we live in. So if you want to know about the great crazy people who are making us feel at home, I'd recommend checking it out.

Tagged!

Alright, Sue tagged me. Normally I don't do these sorts of forwards, but since my cooperation was bought with the flattery of her words, I will participate. Here are 10 random things about me:

10) I still am frightened by almost every scary movie ever filmed.

9) When I was little, I loved dresses. My grandma said I didn't want to wear a jacket at a playground during the winter because no one would see my pretty dress.

8) If I am telling a story to my friends and family, I tend to embellish the details.

7) I want a puppy — now.

6) In my opinion, gravy should be its own food group.

5) My left pinky finger has only partial feeling in it after I stabbed it with a filet knife while slicing a bagel three years ago.

4) I used to pick fights with my brother, until he surpassed me in size.

3) It bugs me when people don't use AP style.

2) My dad thinks we have nice toes.

1) When you meet my parents, your first reaction will be: "Now I get it. This all is starting to make sense..."

I'm tagging the only other people I know who have blogs: Karen, Jacob, Liz and Toddster. I am confidant they'll have wonderfully random answers.

Bring on the snow

A view of Lake Tahoe at dusk from the top of the hill.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Tyler and me are going to busy at work. Heavenly Resort is supposed to open on Nov. 23, and if that's true, Tyler's restaurant should be extra busy with the holiday and the start of the ski season.

I have to get ALL my stories done before the holiday, otherwise I won't have anything to put in the paper for Friday or Monday. I also want to get them all done because my brother is coming up to eat some turkey as well. I went to the grocery store last night and stocked up on some frozen pizzas and large quantities of chips and salsa so Zack doesn't eat us out of house and home. I'm looking forward to having him here, even though he tends to eat a lot.

As for fun stuff, Tyler and I have been playing disc golf on our days off from work, waiting for the snow to cover the slopes (I just bought my season pass today, so it better start soon). For now, I am trying to get better so I can show him up when we do play together, but I think I need a bit more practice before that can happen. They have two courses in the area and the one we play at, Bijou, has 27 baskets.

I'm attempting to make my grandma's rolls today, so I'm sure that will make for an interesting anecdote later. Since the dough has to rise three times, there is plenty of time for me to screw something up. So tune in for an update in the next few days on high-altitude baking...

Election night fun

Tonight is election night here at the Tribune and I am sitting here in the newsroom anxiously awaiting the results for the school board and the college board of trustees. Tyler was nice enough to make lasagna and garlic bread for all of us, so at least our stomachs are happy.

I’ve started filming Web videos to go along with my articles for our online edition, so if any of you are ever bored, you can check out the paper and see the new medium I’ve been using for my stories. We filmed one today with me donating blood at a blood drive. It’s going to go along with a story I’m writing about the importance of blood donation, so I’m feeling a little drained right now.

Tyler’s job is working out great — they hired an accomplished chef whom he can learn a great deal from so he’s excited. They’re revamping the menu and making it smaller so they can focus on making a few dishes taste spectacular instead of serving a ton of dishes that taste good. I’m very happy he found a place that challenges him and makes him excited about food. I like to see him come home from work smiling.

Now, all I need is my season pass to Heavenly, a new car and a dog and life will be complete...

Belated Halloween pics

My scary jack-o-lantern.



Tara's vampire jack-o-lantern.

Three's company

Tara, one of my oldest and dearest friends is coming to Lake Tahoe as well. I told her about the insanely cheap tuition at Lake Tahoe Community College for California residents (only $600 for the year) and I guess she just could resist the allure of sleeping on our couch. She is getting in on Monday night so I am taking Tuesday off from work to hang out and show her around. It'll be good to have her around. I hear there's huge 80s bash for Halloween on the North Shore that I know I can drag her to. If anyone has any costume suggestions for us, let me know.

Life in Tahoe is treating us well. This town is so convenient: a bar is located right next to my work for that Friday 5 p.m. beer with your co-workers and another bar is walking distance from our place. Besides the great proximity, the one next to our apartment serves free spaghetti for locals every Monday night. Can you think of a better way to spend your Monday night than with free food, football and a pint? I think not. We just need to have the snow to start falling and sticking so we can enjoy the mountain too.

Before I end this, I'll leave you all with one random thought: mindless breaks are necessary in order to prevent spontaneous combustion. Everyone should indulge once in a while.

They haven't fired me yet

I just finished my second week of work at the paper without getting in much trouble at all. I figure as long as I don't get the paper involved in any libel suits I'll be doing alright.

Along with starting his job at The Ridge, Tyler's sister Katie came to visit us this week which was great. It was nice to finally meet her. Tyler cooked us a fabulous dinner that Katie and I watched him cook from the low barstools at the counter. He made chicken and eggplant parmigiana with a fantastic salad. If you have never had baked beets with truffle oil and blue cheese, you have not lived. Katie made coconut tapioca for dessert too, so my stomach and taste buds were pretty happy by the end of the meal.

That's all I have for now. As soon as my camera begins cooperating with me, I'll post some more pictures along with more amusing anecdotes.

And now for pictures...

I just finished my first week of work at the paper and I am loving my job! It doesn't feel like a job at all — it actually feels like an upgraded version of The Western Front.

Tyler has been actively hunting for a job and may have found one. As soon as the drug tests come back on Monday, he'll start work at The Ridge on Wednesday. It's within walking distance of our place.

I'll quit writing now so all of you can see those pictures you've been requesting.


Here is the living room...


The dining room...


The kitchen with infinite counter space...


Tyler's IV martini (you'll have to ask him)...


Tyler freaking out...


And finally, snow fungi (because apparently snowmen are overdone).

We made it

After driving for 18 hours, we finally made it to our new home. I'll post pictures as soon as we have our new place in order. Just thought I'd let everyone know we made it.

Lake Tahoe, here we come

That's right everyone, Tyler and I are moving to Lake Tahoe. I got a job as a reporter at the Tahoe Daily Tribune and we are leaving good ol' Bellingham on Sept. 26. So if any of you folks out there want to buy any of our stuff (or just are feeling nice and want to drive our stuff down) let me know.

Airports suck

This is what the Reno-Tahoe Airport looks like at 10:15 p.m.

I am currently stuck at the airport. I have been here since 3 p.m. and I was supposed to be flying out at 8:30 p.m. but I'm now scheduled to fly out at 11 p.m. I am sick of flying. I have been at the airport 6 days in over 2 1/2 weeks. I'm over it.

It wasn't all that bad though because this is the place I went to:


Isn't it beautiful? South Lake Tahoe is a great place.

I just hope I get home before I have to wait tables at the Manor tomorrow...sigh...but who knows...

There's no place like Homer...

The sun came out for us on Wednesday so we could see across Kachamak Bay and look down on the spit.

Sorry it's been so long since I have posted anything on this blog. In a matter of two weeks I've been in New York, Washington, Alaska and now back in Washington again. I'm flying to Lake Tahoe on Tuesday for a job interview so I'm not getting much time to slow down. And now for what I've been up to...

Home(r) was great! Tyler went up with me and we had a wonderful time. We went fishing on Sunday and Tyler caught his first salmon (and it was bigger than mine and BJ's). My dad and mom's good friend Johnny Mac took us trolling for silvers on his commercial boat the Anna Lane.

Also while we were there, my grandma organized the service for my aunt. We threw a nice send off party for her afterward and a lot of people came out for it. My dad built a fire (because me aunt loved campfires) and we'll all sat out there and chatted until 1 a.m. I think it was just the therapy we all needed to say goodbye.

Tyler and I did go have some Homer brews in Sobe bottles at the Salty Dawg (alas I have no pictures) so that he could rightful earn the right to wear one of there sweatshirts.

I'm going to stop typing because I think the pictures say it all. It was just so good to be home and hanging out with Tyler again that I could have done nothing while I was there and had a great time. Here is the eye candy for you all:


Here is the knife holder on Mac's boat.


This is my adopted grandma BJ — she puts my partying skills to shame.


Tyler after he caught his fish with my dad and mom.


My mom caught a baby halibut and we had to throw it back.


My dad instructing how to scale and gut a fish.


Tyler giving a try at gutting and using an ulu.


Our fishes...


Driving into Homer in the pick-up truck.


Here is the swan Tyler made for the service and the one my dad's friend Butch said he'd shoot if it moved.


A moosey!


This is a sign from the hike we went on — if any one can shed light on what "interpretive stop" means let me know.


Hanging out with a weird sculpture.


Me after the hike.

And finally....


Can you spot the star of the Deadliest Catch?

Start spreading the news...I'm leaving tomorrow...

This is where the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live (April O'Neal told me).

Well, I will be leaving the Large Pear tomorrow to go back to the Evergreen state. My college career is over and now I am entering real life as my father would say. It's not quite sinking in because I missed commencement, but I'm sure it will hit me when I get back to Bellingham.

To celebrate, my roomies Mark and Sue took me out to dinner at Harvest on Hudson — we shared a wonderful tasty dinner together out on the restaurant's patio that overlooked the Hudson river. After drinking wine and eating, we came back to the apartment to indulge in the peach pie Sue and I baked for dessert (which I plan to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner before I leave). They have treated me so well here and I can't thank them enough for welcoming me into their lives so graciously.

As great as it's been to have the opportunity to live and work in New York, I just can hardly wait to get back. On Friday Tyler and I are flying up to Alaska where we will head on down to Anchor Point and Homer, so I'll be jumping states quite a bit here in the next few weeks. Until my next adventure, this is Sara signing off from the Bronx — I can't wait to see you all!!!

News and copy unite once more to tackle Manhattan

This is Jacob at the sketch Middle Eastern cuisine restaurant — we called this the murder room because it was tucked away in the back where you couldn't see the street and the floor was metal, which is perfect for hosing off any fluids that might spill on the ground.

So I get a call on Saturday and sure enough it's good ol' Buckenmeyer, my newsroom pal and reporting partner. You might as well call us Woodward and Bernstein. Turns out, he took the bus up from D.C. and was in the city for the day, so he thought we could meet up. We had a day full of adventures starting with lunch at a creepy restaurant (we were feeling adventurous but when you see multiple people walking in then leaving immediately, it's probably a bad sign). Then we went to the Empire State building, Bryant Park, mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral (my first time at mass ever), Ground Zero and Battery Park. Needless to say I was a little exhausted at the end of the day when we had a beer and said our goodbyes. He was heading to Philly that evening and he had no idea where he was going once he got there — he was equipped with some Chuck Norris moves so I'm sure he's OK.

And for today Mark, Sue and me (er, I mean "I") left the house early this morning so Mark could go golfing, and Sue and I could go to Cold Springs. We had breakfast at a cute cafe called The Founder and then began our Sunday adventure. We decided to hike part of the Appalachian Trail — if it weren't for our lack of supplies and hungry stomachs, we would have made it to Georgia by nightfall (next time Sue, next time). It was wonderful to get in the woods again and be away from the city.

Here are some more pictures from the weekend:


A view from Battery Park.


A boat sailing at sunset.


Smiling Sue at one of the many trail heads of the Appalachian Trail.

MTA let the beat mmmmmm....drop

The Manhattan skyline after the Beastie Boys performed in Central Park.

Imagine a world where there are tornados in Brooklyn, lighting at all hours of the night and a place where 2.5 inches of water can bring a city's transit system to a halt. This was the scene here on the East side this morning and why I walked almost 20 blocks to work today. The alphabet soup of subway lines not running was almost too much to comprehend — the MTA was scrambling to get everything running as quick as they could. It was bizarre. And for another weird aside, 50 cent was in the office today. Crazy.

But the day ended on a good note with some Beastie Boys in the park. One word can describe it: awesome. If you take their stage energy and top it off with a beer sitting on the lawn after a hectic day at work — you've got something close to sublime.

Asbury Park

Just a random beach bum catching a few Zs — I'm being nice by not posting pictures of sleepy Sue (but I won't be so charitable next time).

Ahhhhh the beach.....What more can be said? I'll I have to say is that it was EXTREMELY hard to go to work this morning. I wanted to crawl back into to bed and call in sick so I could spend one more lazy day at the beach.

I had a wonderful time hanging out with Sue, Mark, Liam, Melinda, Aine and little Caera. The whole weekend was full of good times; Aine made me realize how much negotiating my parents must of had to do with me when I was three, especially when it comes to bringing jellyfish home from the beach (don't worry, they weren't alive); Melinda and Liam were kind enough to let me crash their evenings of Harry Potter and a walk to downtown Asbury Park where Latin music was playing on the sidewalk; Sue and I were periodically left at the picnic table to entertain ourselves and Mark would disappear to play golf and would find his way back to us somehow (just as long as he didn't have to eat vegetables). There were no schedules involved with the weekend, which makes for a wonderful relaxing environment. Now all I want to do is take the next few weeks off and stay there — too bad I can't get credit for that.


Melinda and Aine playing in the sand.


Aine after I buried her in her sand bed.

The Mom visit

Here I am protesting a photo-op at MoMA because I felt like acting like a brat.

Seriously, it was great having my mom here so we could sort through our family's next step with planning the funeral and all. We did have a great time tramping around New York. We went to Shea Stadium and watched the Mets lose to the Nationals on Friday, we saw The Lion King on Broadway, visited MoMA, the Met, and explored a bit of China Town. The highlight was seeing the Times Square guitar-playing naked cowboy AND the Central Park opera-singing naked indian violinist — don't worry, I'm going back to get pictures later because my camera's batteries died again. Here are some other pictures for you all:


This guy was trudging around a fountain in the park looking for something, but I don't think he ever found what he was looking for.


Strawberry Fields forever...


Squishy lives in Central Park! And he has friends! Shame on all you non-believers....

I'll miss you Auntie Carol

My Auntie Carol sportin' the hat my Mom made her for Christmas.


Both of us at a Mariners' game sippin' on some brews (my mom didn't tell me she was taking a picture).

My aunt died today — it still just feels like a bad dream so I don't want to believe it. I still don't know what happened really, just that Dad, Mom and Zack are going into Homer to be with my Grandma. I just wanted to post pictures in her memory because it's all that I feel I can do right now. She was a wonderful woman — fun to hang around and always was there for me whenever I needed her. The best part about her was her sense of humor and when I was making fun of her, she was dishin' it right back to me. Here are things I'll always remember:

-Small waterfalls on the way to Crater Lake
-Pepperoncinis on windows in Pizza Hut
-Camping trips
-Knitting her scarf for her ON Christmas day
-Taking me out to Boundary Bay Brewery AFTER my 21-run and her commenting on my appearance (and lack of appetite)
-Her Christmas cookies
-Old-lady sunglasses
-Red-eye pick-ups from SeaTac
-My dad calling her "Uncle Carol"
-Trash cans with Zack and me inside
-Cat carriers
-Frozen margaritas

And that's just to name a few. Most of these things won't make sense to a lot of people, but if you were there to witness some of these events, they were mighty funny times that I'm sure can make smiles appear on people's faces remembering them — even now. I love you Auntie Carol.

I'm safe at home with Glenn and Abigail

After talking to Kelsy, Nate, Liam and my brother, I decided to post something quick just to say that I wasn't by the explosion at all in Midtown Manhattan. I'm still waiting to hear back from my friends Megan, Lauren and a few of my co-workers. My work isn't by Grand Central so everyone at the magazine should be fine. Much love to everyone I've heard from, I miss you all!

If you want to know what's all going on, The New York Times is doing a great job with updates.

A lazy wonderful weekend

Abigail, also known as the Lil' Diva, tends to get her beauty rest on my suitcase.

Wow — it's been a month already! I'm sorry to report that I didn't do anything exciting, but I did enjoy my weekend relaxing in the sun, reading my book, writing in my journal, running and eating good food. My camera ran out of batteries when I was in the park, so I couldn't take pictures of this really cool street show I watched. One of the performers completed about 10 back flips in a row without moving from the spot he started in. Two other guys were in this show and they were incredibly springy and strong too. They could walk on their hands down a flight of stairs and complete an array of acrobatic feats. This amazed me because I retired from gymnastics a long time ago when I accomplished the cartwheel — I wanted to end my career as a gymnast on a high note.

Work is still great — we put the September issue to bed on Friday. You all should read the article about the new Into the Wild movie. The final product turned out great and I actually got to transcribe the interview the reporter did with Sean Penn, which I thought was pretty cool. Now we're going to be focusing all our energy on the October and November issues.

That's all I have, I hope you all are well and at this rate, I'll be seeing everyone again in no time. Much love!!!

Into the city park

A little baseball at Central Park on a weekend afternoon.

Life is going well and city life is becoming a little less foreign to me. The only thing I'm really not getting used to is this 90 degree weather — I guess there will always be that part of Alaska in me that will never go away.

This week at work I was able to proofread the first draft of an article that is going in our September issue. It's about the Into the Wild movie coming out soon and the reporter went up to Alaska and interviewed a bunch of people. Being a former resident of the state, one of the editors let me read through the article to see what I thought of it, just to make sure the author captured the correct image of Alaskans. I was happy to see that the reporter nailed the article and it also made me laugh because so many of the people in it reminded me of everyone I grew up around. My favorite line in the whole article is this: "Here's the real Alaska state motto — 'Hold my beer and watch this!" If you grew up there you'd be laughing as hard as I was.

Nothing more patriotic than a hot dog eating contest...

The new hot dog eating record at Nathan's— they're already counting down for next year.

Well I'm glad I decided to venture down to Coney Island for this event. Joey Chestnut took the title home for the good ol' U.S. of A by defeating the six-time defending champion Takeru Kobayashi. He ate 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes while Kobayashi (who has arthritis in his jaw) ONLY ate 63. And yes, I went and ate a hot dog after this brilliant display of athleticism. The whole thing was nuts — if you just listened to the event and closed your eyes, you would of thought some epic religous judgment was about to take place and not a hot god eating contest. The crowd erupted with American pride as soon as Chestnut's victory was announced. Nothing makes my heart swell with pride more than watching an American gorge themselves on our Independance day and reclaim an eating title that has been over seas for the past six years. It was quite entertaining to say the least.


Here's the mustard making the rounds...


And this guy was just too cool to be my friend.

Mom sent me pictures!

Todd, Tracy, Stevie, me and Stewie on my last night in Bellingham.


Roomie and me in our matching Beav wear (you know your leaving B'ham when you get a Beav shirt).


Tyler and me (I always think I'm taller than I actually am).

Everyone is just so cute in these photos, I thought I'd post them for all to see.

So today was my third Monday here, but it still feels like I just got here. I must say that after so many Fun Day Mondays from working at the Manor, it feels incredibly WRONG to go to work on a Monday. When my alarm goes off my internal body clock still doesn't register that I have to be somewhere.

Last Thursday Michael Moore had a press conference at our office — and I missed it!!! I was busy doing research in the library when one of my fellow interns, Will, came in and told me all about the awesome interview I missed. I slugged him and told him next time to drag me away from whatever I was doing. Other than that incident, work is going well. I just miss writing but hopefully I'll be able to start doing that soon if my pitches work out.

I've started looking into jobs after I realized that in seven weeks my internship will be over, and I probably should have a some sort of half concocted plan of where I'm going to end up after this crazy ride. A job with some sort of vision coverage would be nice because I'm running a little low on contacts and for the sake of my eyes, that problem needs to be remedied. Unfortunatley most of the job descriptions don't entail living on a beach, sleeping in a hammock and sipping on margaritas. Oh well. I'll just have to keep looking...