Whales!

Once again, it's been a while, but I've started a new job since my last post! I'm training to be a naturalist with Island Adventures Whale Watching in Anacortes and it is one of the best jobs I've ever had. I spend a lot of time in the office taking reservations, but I have gotten a few good days in on the boat in Everett. We've even been featured on King 5 news a few times!

I'm on this page: http://www.island-adventures.com/whale-watching-tours/crew.php

I work with some great people and I have been currently learning the ins and outs of the galley. They finally let me run it myself (questionable decisions, it was my third time) and I didn't mess anything up! That same day I had to help with the lines as the boat was coming into the dock. While I tied all of the lines correctly, I did catch one on a door AND I fell down the stairs in front of everyone. Classic. My only excuse was that it was raining...

After being there for a month and a half, I've mastered the arts of the office - which leads me to one of my life mottos "people are stupid". I'd like to just leave it at that, but I have a few gems to share:

Phone: "You know when the whales jump and splash?"

Me: "Yeah?"

Phone: "Can we make a reservation for the day when they do that?"

Me: "Well, whales are wild animals..." blah blah animal behavior explanation.

Phone: "Ok, I've made a reservation for a hotel on San Juan Island"

Me: "Ok...do you want to take the tour before or after you take a ferry to the hotel?"

Phone: "Before"

Me: "We have one on that day at 11 am"

Phone: "Then you'll drop me off, right?"

Me: (so confused) "Uh, our tour is out of Everett, it lasts for 3 hours, and then you will have to catch a ferry to San Juan Island to get to your hotel"

Phone: "I work in Everett. You'll drop me off and then pick me up again?"

Me: "No. Our tour is out of the Everett marina. We just observe whales in the area and then we come back. No stopping"

Phone: "Then how am I going to get to my hotel?"

Me: "A ferry..."

In the office (In Anacortes): "I'm here to check in for the whale watching tour"

Me: "Did you make a reservation yourself online?"

Office: "Yes, yesterday"

Me: "Did you read the email with the directions to the boat? The boat leaves out of the Everett marina"

Office: "Oh, yeah I read the email and it said Everett but I didn't think anything of it. I made a reservation in Anacortes for a hotel so that we could be right here"

Me: "Where are you normally staying?"

Office: "Seattle"

THE IRONY!

Gray whale season so far (credit for photos to Bart Rulon, Michael Colahan, and Brooke McKinley):

Video tour of the boat:

Crayon Art Instructions

Our apartment walls are/were still pretty bare since we moved in last September. Terry always encourages me to make my own art to decorate and I appreciate that because every time I jump into a new project I enjoy myself immensely. I initially found the inspiration for crayon art from the Pinterest website (where people can do some amazing things). Being the researcher that I am, I hunted around for directions and set to practicing.

The steps are pretty simple and I like to refer to it as "dummy art" because it's pretty hard to mess up. To practice, we bought cheaper, small canvases from Michael's (I had everyone involved to try different techniques). We hot glued various sizes and colors of crayons - both with and without the labels - to the tops of the canvases. Then, we used a hair dryer and different attachments to heat up and melt the crayons so that the wax would run down the canvas.

Things I learned from practicing:

1. A hair dryer works fine, but tends to shoot the melted wax all over the canvas and you can't direct it very well.

2. I prefer crayons with the labels removed.

3. Smaller crayon pieces work better for smaller canvases.

4. Crayola works best.

5. Large globs of crayon that have been melted will snap off of the canvas.

Practice results:

For the real deal, I waited for the 50 percent off sale at Michael's and went back and purchased some higher quality canvas in several different sizes. I also bought about 400 crayons (sounds like a lot, but it's only around 3 large boxes and I had a lot of canvas to cover). I mixed in regular crayons with metallic and glitter versions when I found out they existed. They are hard to find, even on the internet, but Wal-Mart has everything.

After telling my grandparents about the project one day, my grandpa suggested I use a heat gun instead of a hair dryer and I might get closer to the desired results that I was describing. As far as I know, a heat gun is a man tool and it came from my grandpa's shop, so I don't know what it is actually supposed to be used for. Melting things, I guess. Essentially, it gets a lot warmer than a hair dryer and has a setting where it will blow air out very slowly allowing for more control over the location and length of the dripping wax. I have a feeling that this heat gun saved my project.

After some creative brainstorming with my brother, I decided that I also wanted to eventually draw silhouettes among the colors and we came up with what they would be, where they would go, and exactly what color patterns I would use. We spent about two hours cutting the labels off of the crayons - SO MANY CRAYONS - and hot glued them into place. The smaller canvases got smaller portions of crayon.

Moving into the garage, I used the heat gun to melt the crayons and tilted each canvas to speed up or slow down the wax lines. If there were any large globs of crayon at the end of the drip, I laid the canvas down flat and set the heat gun on the drip to distribute the wax better. I don't know if this is necessary, but I let the canvases set for over a day before returning to them. I measured the areas I would be working with and drew the silhouettes that I wanted on thicker card stock paper and cut them out. Then I traced the picture onto the canvas with a pencil and filled it all in with a sharpie. This was the hardest part only because you can't erase on canvas so I was nervous about messing up.

Results!

Umbrella:

Swing:

Spider:

Owls:

Shark:

Shore Trail Snow

My mom took some great pictures on the Padilla Bay shore trail during our January snow storm. I got a few up in Bellingham as well, but it was so cold that I didn't last outside for very long. The only wildlife we saw were tiny bird prints next to the barbeque.

Shore trail blue heron:

There is a wild snow goose that we see near the shore trail pretty often. It has recently paired up with an escaped domesticated goose and now we see them together everywhere. Love story.

The same day in Bellingham:

Night Skiing

I love going night skiing (or snowboarding) at Steven's Pass every year. We try to make a tradition of it on New Year's Eve because no one is there. It's awesome. And cheap! You can't really go wrong.

Before we started:

It gets pretty cold at night so you seriously have to wear everything you own - the least amount of skin showing, the better (especially me):

When finished - and really ready for warmth and dinner:

Mmmmmmm....

For my mom's birthday last December, my grandmother brought over a recipe book she found from when my mom was in 2nd (?) grade. This thing was hilarious. All of the students brought in one of their favorite recipes and it was copied, published, and distributed for some sort of Mother's Tea or Mother's Day.

I went through the whole thing and picked the greatest entries. I apologize if some of the pictures are a little fuzzy - it's really hard to take a picture when you're laughing so hard.

#1 Saucy Franks - Sounds like a fancy name for hot dogs and ketchup.

#2 Meat Hot Dish - Creative.

#3 Meat Pie - Please take note that hot dogs were still referred to as "wieners" and that this recipe needed 12 (!) of them.

#4 Crusty Tuna Surprise - No.

#5 Saucy Meat Roll - This one calls for 12 oz of pork lunch meat. Yum.

#6 Strawberry or Raspberry Jam - That's not that weird right? Well, when it is "made with Cool Aid" it sure sounds healthy and appetizing.

#7 Tomato Soup Cake - This is wrong.

Eugene visits

You know those best friends that will jump into unheated swimming pools with you in the middle of January at 3 am? Terry and I have one in my other other favorite place to live: Eugene, Oregon.

Terry and Joel sharing a candle-lit dinner - winter 2010:

Every couple of months we make the trip down to Eugene or Joel will come and visit us in Bellingham. We visited on our way back from Florida (last January - the pool incident), again in May, and the night after my GRE test in August.

Our May trip:

In August, I was so grateful for the warm weather, good company, and Ninkasi.

Of course, I wasn't allowed to sit next to Terry, Joel had already claimed him.

Summer Boat Trips

Last summer we went on two of our more memorable boat trips in the Puget Sound. There are a couple of orca pods that hang out here every year to hunt king salmon and look for other delicious food treats. The whole family + Terry took the boat out in June to sit in the sun and look for whales. I studied my GRE vocabulary flashcards during the lulls - Terry taught me how to remember what enigma meant by reminding me that the Joker's name in Batman was E. Nigma. I'll never forget now.

On the first trip, we saw all of the normal fauna: seals, marine birds, fish, and river otters. It was also the first summer afternoon where it was warm enough to wear shorts:

At the end of a long day of NO whale sightings, we decided to head back to Anacortes. Around the edge of Lummi Island, a pod of orcas surfaced around the boat and chased fish. We watched them until it was safe to start the boat engine again and came away with a really awesome hunting picture.

On the second trip (4th of July), we went fishing. On all previous fishing occasions, Eric and I caught unimpressive flatfish and rockfish - throwbacks, so my expectations were not high. We waited forever for a bite and when we got one, everyone let me reel it in.

This time, I got a little more than I expected.

At one point, I honestly thought I hooked a shark because it was so strong. Thirty minutes later, we got a glimpse of what I had - my very first king chinook salmon. Then the seals started to follow us and I reeled faster.

Celebratory Mike's: