A little B & J

We try and keep it pretty healthy here at our house. Someone (maybe Maggie? maybe Loni? maybe Jen?) turned me on to the Skinny Cow...actually, I think it might have been Oprah...Anyway...Skinny Cow has a great line of ice cream products that are low in fat but fairly high in taste.

However.

Sometimes you just have to throw the calorie counter out the dang window and buy yourself a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Last night was just such an occasion for me. Grey's season premiere...this is big doings - cause for celebration!

I remember when I was out in Missouri for my freshman year of college, I had dinner at one of my friends parents' house. The discussion turned to dessert, which turned to ice cream and I brought up Ben & Jerry's. The mom looked me right in the eye and told me she didn't like Ben and Jerry's - too creamy. I did all I could to not give her the death stare. I had never heard this statement before. Not like Ben and Jerry's? How could you? Stop it. I lost a little respect for her that day. I mean, really - a couple of spoonfuls will do ya, you don't have to eat the entire pint in one sitting. Too creamy? Pshaw.

My poison of choice last night? Mint cookie.

Got a favorite?

Confrontation

So another thing that happened over the weekend, that I didn't include in my weekend recap...

While we (Adam, our buddy Josh and me) were on our way out of Vermont, we stopped at this little cafe and had breakfast/lunch on their deck. Nothing fancy, just bagel sandwiches...But, we were sitting there enjoying the beautiful Vermont morning...When all of a sudden Adam is yelling at someone, over by our truck...Something about peeing and on your stuff.

Of course, my immediate reaction before I even know what is happening? I want to curl into a ball and hide. "Stop it...", I say to Adam.

Wait, what? What just happened?

I look over and see this woman walking the other direction away from the truck with a little yap dog at the other end of the leash she was holding.

Adam: That woman just let her dog pee all over the tire on the truck.
Amy: So?
Adam: Amy, that's disgusting. We put the keys in there all the time when we boat.
Amy: So, what's the big deal?
Adam to Josh: Amy is so afraid of confrontation, that she'd rather let someone walk all over her, than make them feel bad, by letting them know she feels bad about it.

It's something I've always done. Always. If there's the slightest chance that something could be controversial, I run. Sometimes, literally. It makes me sick to my stomach to think I might hurt some one's feelings.

Anyway, we got in the truck and headed home and I started thinking about it. Wait. He's right. I would NEVER let Kobe do that to some one's stuff. I was so focused on the fact that there was a confrontation, that I didn't even remotely think for a second that he may be right.

I've always admired people that have the self confidence to stand up for what they believe. Loni. Maggie. Marc. And so on. Sure, I might be a little ticked about what they say sometimes and don't always agree with them. But. I respect them for that. And I still love them.

When I posted the link to the webcast yesterday, the last thing that was on my mind was controversy. Really, I just wanted to let you all know about this, so you could get to know some candidates if you wanted to. I've always been a political nerdo. I was an intern at the Governor's Office when I was in college, for crying out loud.


But, when it started to get a little controversial with Maggie's comments - immediately, my heart sank a little. Oh no. Someone is going to say something back to that. It's going to get nasty. I don't want things getting nasty, not here.

Immediately, I wanted to think of something funny, light-hearted to post today. A joke, perhaps. Anything to get you to not read the comments from the last post. But then it hit me. Maybe a little FRIENDLY debate is OK sometimes. It gets us all thinking. And, maybe that's not a bad thing.


It's one baby step for me in an attempt to feel a little more comfortable with being uncomfortable.

--


OH...And my horse bit me last night. On the boob. That's funny, right? I can tell you what's not funny about it - it hurt AND left a mark!

Get Informed

I take my right to vote seriously. I won't bore you with the reasons why. But this is one of the few things I am passionate about. Don't vote? Don't bitch.

Sure, they may all be crooks, but you can at least vote for the candidate you think is the least of all evils. Your vote matters. Really.

I'm going to check in on this tomorrow. Thought I'd share in case anyone might be interested and hadn't heard about it.

http://www.myspace.com/election2008

P.S. No, I don't think they're all crooks.

Bye Bye, Perez

His website is like crack.

Seriously. And I'm an addict.

I made a decision yesterday to quit cold turkey. Honestly? It's *killing* me not to check it. There should be a rehab facility for this. Unless you live under a rock or are enlightened enough already to not care about celebrity gossip, you know who I'm talking about. If I got you hooked on this site, I apologize - let's quit together and start a support group.

I was working along in the loft, bee-bopping to some tunes, when the following line from a Marley song caught me:

While you point your fingers, someone else is judging you.


Eek. So true. Sure, I suppose you could use the argument that celebrities put themselves in the spotlight and it's all part of the biz. But they're people and it's gotta hurt them. Plus, we got bigger things to be worried about than who "they're" sleeping with, yes?

It's human nature I suppose, to gossip about other people. Not sure why...I guess temporarily it makes us feel better about ourselves. I try hard not to do this. But, I'm as guilty as anyone.

So anyway, yeah I quit Perez. You can currently find me shaking in a corner.

Willy would be proud

Friday afternoon found us on the road again.

This weekend the plan was to head over to Jamaica, Vermont to run the West river (http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River_detail_id_2055). The West river is dam controlled and they release water two weekends a year - one in the spring which is a Saturday and Sunday release and one in the Fall - which is for one day only - Saturday. This is a beautiful river. One of the cool things about it, is that there is a hiking trail along the entire thing. So if you don't paddle, you can hike along with your buddies who do.

The West is a Class III. I decided to raft it this time and hopped on a friend's raft for a run. Adam did multiple runs in his boat and I got some shots...

It was a great day on the river. Temps were mild and it was sunny.

Sunday, we packed up and headed back home...we decided to stop in at our local park and play spot...for a little urban kayaking...yup - that's the highway, right above us.

That's me in Adam's boat...Thinking maybe it will channel some of his skills to me...Don't think that's gonna happen though. Another great weekend for the memory book.

Find Your Spot!

I think I might make Wednesday's my 'find something on the Internet to play with' day. Today?

http://www.findyourspot.com

It only takes a few minutes, you answer questions about your likes/dislikes in regards to your living situation and it spits out your ideal place to live according to your answers. When it came time to choose a geographic location, I chose "none" so it wouldn't limit my places. Funny. My top ten?

1. Lewiston, ME
2. Hancock-Houghton, MI
3. Plymouth, NH
4. Montpelier, VT
5. Johnson, VT
6. Durango, CO
7. Shelbourne Falls, MA
8. Plattsburgh, NY
9. Williamstown, MA
10. Lebanon, NH

Even if you have no intention of moving anywhere, it's still fun and who knows? You might find that you're living exactly where you want to. Or, damn close.

Weekend Adventure: Part II, Things Brighten Up

I don't know about you, but watching buildings blow up sure snaps me out of a bad mood. After watching the smoke stacks (eventually) fall in Berlin - we had a whole new outlook on things and decided to get us some rain gear and warm clothes at a local shop and continue north for some camping and paddling.We set up camp and Adam did a little paddling on the rapids right by our site...


We were the only people in the entire campground. Kobe was beside himself with excitement. He got to run all over the place without me yelling at him to "get over here and leave those people alone!" As darkness started to settle in, we got the fire going and settled ourselves in for a nice cozy evening around the campfire. Enjoying some yummy cider from some local folks http://www.farnumhillciders.com/ and reflecting on our last crazy 24 hours.


The next day, we met up with our friend Steve and did some paddling.

Hey, look - it's me about to head into a crazy, wild class VI rapid...

OK, not so much a class VI, but we did find this nice spot with some little baby waves to surf while we were in between rapids. It was a great day on the river.

What did I learn this weekend? When you're about ready to lose it, go watch some buildings explode, have some coffee and eventually everything will be alright!

The Weekend: Part I, The Misadventures of Amy, Adam & Kobe

I wouldn't be being completely honest with my readers if I just pretended that all of our weekends are filled with fun and good times. Sometimes, we have misadventures - things suck and we want to kill each other. This weekend was clearly one of them and so, I will break it up into two parts. Today: The Misadventure.

The three of us headed north in the truck on Friday afternoon. Our mission? To pick up Adam's Jeep at his parents house, take it for a test run to Errol. Camp at Errol for the weekend and paddle and then take the Jeep and the truck home. That way, Adam could put the finishing touches on the Jeep and get it ready to sell.

This mission already makes me nervous. Why? You may be thinking. Seems simple enough. Because it involves me driving the truck, a standard. I have yet to master the standard. My mom can attest to the fact that I am no good at driving a stick. I think I may be solely responsible for her gray hairs, for that reason alone. I'm a little slow on the uptake when it comes to this task. But, I decided it was time to buck up and figure it out. The old Nike theme comes to mind.

We got to Adam's parents house much later than planned and when it was time to hit the road and head to Errol it was dark. It was about 9:00 pm and we had a 2 hour drive ahead of us. Uh huh. Off we went. I did fine taking off, no stalling. Sweet! Maybe I've got this, I am thinking. Ahh, not so fast, young lady. We get into town and stop for gas...And I stall it about three times.

Adam calls me on the phone and asks how I'm doing. I answer in one word sentences. He knows I am not happy, but I say to him..."I've just gotta do it. I have to." He tells me that we can leave the Jeep somewhere and abandon the mission. But I say no. So, we continue. I stall some more. He pulls over. I am on the verge of tears because I feel like such an idiot. "We're going to leave the Jeep." he says. "I used to work at a furniture builder, I'll leave it in the parking lot there with a note on the windshield. This is crazy, it's windy, the Jeep is loud, you're freaking out, we're both tired." "Fine." I respond.

So we pull into the furniture place. We're there for a couple of seconds when we hear this:

Man in the dark: This isn't an f-ing parking lot, get the f-out of here.
Amy: Uh oh (this is not happening, I'm thinking to myself)
Adam: Pete, is that you?
Man in the dark (aka, Pete - Adam's former boss): Yeeeaahhhh
Adam: It's Adam
Pete: F*&K. You stupid SOB, what do you want to get yourself shot?

They keep it simple in the North Country.

Adam goes on to explain the situation and Pete was our best buddy by the time we left. Sure, we could leave the Jeep there for the weekend.

Off we head, still with 1 1/2 drive left in front of us. Then, it starts raining. Adam tells me he can't make the drive - too tired. As am I. So we decide to try to find a hotel in Gorham. With the dog. We decide on the cheapest looking motel. Get a room there and sneak Kobe in. The place was nasty. But it was dry and had a bed (probably full of bugs). We went to sleep without saying a word.

The next morning we were both awoken by the pounding rain. "Maybe we should just go home?" I say. "Do you want to go get coffees?" Adam replied. "OK" I say. Adam goes out to the truck to get the bag with my raincoat and all of our warm clothes in it. It's gone. It flew out the back of the truck on our way.

Then we remembered that they were supposed to be blowing up the smoke stacks at the old paper mill in Berlin, right down the road,"The city that trees built" it says on their Welcome to Berlin sign. Once a booming mill town, Berlin is now a bit depressing. Every time we drive through there on our way to paddle, I am amazed. Everything is for sale, run down, the people look sad. Sweet - it could be fun to watch buildings blow up. This was supposed to be a new beginning for Berlin - a fresh start. We decide to do that and hope that it stops raining. Things are looking up. We got a great parking spot to view the stacks.

Little did we know that this is where THE biggest news story in the state was about to occur. They were to blow up three stacks. The first two toppled, no problemo. The third one, he was a stubborn sucker. They tried once...BOOM we heard. The thing doesn't even wiggle. "COOL!" I say to Adam and Kobe. "This is so symbolic. I love it. The stack is saying a big F-U. I worked hard for a lot of years and this is the thanks I get? I bet it's how a lot of the former mill workers are feeling right now too." They both just stared at me.

About 30 minutes later, they reset the charges and tried again. Again, nothing. Then, oh, maybe 20 minutes later, the sucker starts falling on it's own. "There it goes!" says Adam. And we watched the third and final tower fall. "I hope there wasn't anyone in there." we both say simultaneously. Check out the news story below to see pictures/video and what actually unfolded.

http://www.wmur.com/news/14121806/detail.html

We decided it was time to get out of town, and keep heading north. Up next, Weekend Part II: Things brighten up.

Scenes from the hood

Instead of sitting in front of the computer yesterday afternoon, I decided to go for a nice long walk with the boss.

Nah, nah, nah, nah poo poo....I'm swimming and you're not.

One of us seriously has a "boat buying" issue. Welcome to Adam and Amy's Kayak Shop, er, I mean, front porch.

Coffee, I Salute You

I was up until 1:00 this morning working on a manuscript, so I've earned a little "screw off on the Internet time" today. It ain't always sunshine and balloons working from home. One of the things that's no good is that the office is always here. To cut any of you off at the comments pass - no, I'm not complaining about my sweet gig - just stating the facts.

A couple of days ago Grandma/GB/Betty/Old Goat reminded me of an online game that I used to love playing and I thought I'd share in case you haven't played it before. It's fun. I stunk it up the first time I re-tried it yesterday. But I think I'm going to devote some good Internet time to it this afternoon. If you feel like wasting some time too:

http://www.addictinggames.com/texttwist.html

Keep Breathing

The one television show that I do watch on a regular basis is Grey's Anatomy. Love it. Love the unrealistic view of the ER and the peek into the lives of the interns. Actually, I thought it was unrealistic until Adam and I spent a few hours in the ER a couple of weeks ago when he injured his hand at work.

That place is full of the crazies! One woman next to us kept talking about how she was "froze" - her brain was froze, she couldn't think...And her body was froze - she couldn't eat or drink (which was BS by the way - because when the nurses left her little ER cubby, I totally heard her drinking). And how she wished she had never gotten that "damn cat" because she was going to be thrown out of her apartment TODAY because she had the cat. They called in someone from the Psych unit for her.

Anyway, I love Grey's Anatomy and was not disappointed by the season finale in the spring. Immediately following the episode, I logged onto the computer to download the final song that played as Christina struggled to shed her wedding dress after Burke left her at the alter. The song grabbed me and I had to hear the whole thing.

Well wasn't I disappointed when I learned that the song would not be released until today - this was May when I had to have it! So, instead I logged into the artist's myspace page and listened to it now and then. But it's here - and I am happy. I downloaded it from itunes first thing this morning. Have a listen!

Artist: Ingrid Michaelson
Song: Keep Breathing

http://www.myspace.com/ingridmichaelson

5 things I did this weekend

1. Played with all my nieces and my nephew.

2. Drank a Pumpkinhead Ale, or two (http://www.shipyard.com/). Fall is here and it tastes damn good.

3. Paddled with my best buddy. Just the two of us.

4. Googled 'frogs on wet roads' numerous times. Still no answer to "why." I am now obsessed with finding out.

5. Drove to Rhode Island and back in less than 5 hours. To buy a kayak. Cause it was "such a sweet deal..."

How 'bout you?

Carnage!

I was driving down the highway tonight after a rain shower and there they were: frogs. These little guys were *everywhere* - absolutely unavoidable. Trust me, I tried. For some reason in this particular spot - and I swear I'm not exaggerating - there were 100 of them. They were jumping all over the place. I literally said, "Oh lordy, sorry you guys!" out loud. It was frog madness - almost like a mass frog suicide.

I did a quick online search but couldn't find out why frogs flock to wet roads.

Does anyone know?

Because who doesn't love a cute puppy pic

I received this picture from my sister Chia this morning, and it was too cute to keep to myself. Meet Bumpa's new little one, JoJo.

I think I may have to go pay them a visit and meet her myself this afternoon.

Have a great weekend, all.

Video

Click on the link below to see a video put together by one of the dudes Adam paddled with on Sunday.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2799715370215019393

Get out the map...

What a kickin' weekend!

We headed north to the Forks, ME for a couple of days on the river. With no reservations for camping or a plan for who the heck we were going to meet up with when we got there - but hoping we'd find someone. We pulled into "town" and immediately saw one of our good friends, followed by a couple more - they had a campsite and sure, we could pitch our tent there. Sweet!

We set up camp and then went to grab some dinner, drinks and play some horse shoes at a restaurant down the road a piece - where Kobe almost ended up acquiring a new brother. We were heading back to the truck at the end of the evening and this dog randomly started following Adam...He got to the truck, opened the door and the dog hopped in, curled into a little ball in the passenger's seat and made himself at home. He was a super cool looking dog - yellow lab-ish with one blue eye and one yellow one and Kobe-calm.

Adam to the dog: Uh, doggie, Amy needs to sit there, you're gonna have to hop down.

Dog: Looks at Adam, and hops into the back seat of the truck.

Adam to Amy: I think he's coming home with us.

Amy: But, don't you think he belongs to someone? [no collar, though]

Adam: Well, maybe he does, but maybe he doesn't like that person, cause he sure seems to want to come with us.

Amy: I'll go back in and see if he belongs to anyone.

Adam: OK, but if he doesn't, he's ours. He loves us, and I know Kobe would love him.

So, in I went, secretly hoping that, nope - nobody knows the dog. I headed directly to the bar where I asked the college age-ish bartender if she knew the dog..."Oh, yeah - he's mine." Damn.

Out I went to break the news to Adam, who was talking to to the dog and petting him, who now had a name - Marshall.

Adam: I just told him all about Kobe.

Amy: He's got an owner.

Adam: What? Who?

Amy: The bartender.

Adam: Her??? She shouldn't have a dog.

Amy: Maybe not, but we can't just take some one's dog.

So, we had to physically remove him from the truck...neither of us could do it, our buddy Miah had to. Marshall followed us out to the road as we pulled away.

The next day, Adam was set to kayak the Dead River at 5500 cfs (http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River_detail_id_787) with a great group of people. The river is a solid class IV at this level. I was going to hop in a raft of a friend of ours. However, she didn't make it to the river, so I was out of luck...But was I? I ended up meeting another girl who wasn't paddling either, so we decided to head out and spend the day on the deck at a local resort, sampling the local brews http://www.northernoutdoors.com/maine_brewpub_microbrewery.html. Not a bad afternoon after all.

We met up with the boys later on and had a great night by the campfire. We also found our friend with the raft and decided that we would raft the Kenne the next day (http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River_detail_id_438) - another Class IV. It was a great day - Adam rafted with me - instead of paddling his boat...So, it was four of us in the raft. If you ever have the chance to see this river, I highly recommend it. It's beautiful.

After running the Kenne, it was time to head home (BOO!). Once we got to the highway, the traffic was bumper-to-bumper and we decided to find a back way home...So, I got out the map and navigated us back home. It took a bit longer - but maybe not - cause at least we were moving and not sitting in traffic. Normally the trip is 4 hours and we think it took about 5.

A good little weekend.