oh pow pow

Even our chickens got a little festive for the Christmas holiday. (note the blue egg)

The snow has been falling for days now. The trucker upgraded the plow to the giant tractor plow. Good thing he likes to push snow so much!


We spent christmas yesterday held up in the house with the fire going strong. Somehow santa still managed to land on the roof (possibly what started the roof slide along with the hurricane winds) and the house was blessed with christmas presants. Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday time off as much as we are!

A little before and after....

Just when you think winter will never get here.....suddenlly your clearence on the vw isnt enough to get you out of the driveway. Times like this make me miss Winter Park.....or maybe just immediate access to a ski mountain..


The instant snowfall has granted me personal escort to and from work. As we drove in last night, it was a game to count how many cars were in the ditch. It wasnt until an ambulance was spotted in the ditch that I knew it was going to be a long night.

my apron is malfunctioning

You know and I know....in Amandaland, if you wear an apron and step into the kitchen, you have the superpowers of top chefs.


So I take down the apron from the tooth hook of the boar head, and start on the masterpiece that was to be the truckers birthday dinner. In my own defense, I was sleep deprived from the previous nights graveyard shift, and in a time crunch to make dinner and bake a cake before I had to go back to the hospital.

The recipe is simple and one from the "BAM" himself.

Raw Shrimp
Emrils essence spice (sprinkled over the cooking shrimp)
1 clove chopped garlic
2 tbs olive oil

Cook shrimp with above, as the shrimp pinkens add....

1 cup white wine
1/2 cup lemon juice

Pile on top cooked pasta, s&p toss and serve hot.

smelling soooo good, I'm thinking

"BAM"

Until we sit and the trucker takes a big bite and....CRUNCH....I forgot to peel the shrimp. son of a ......... peeling cooked shrimp that is smothered in sauce while singing happy birthday to your husband.....priceless

But wait, the cake! The beautiful black forest cake that your family will attest to the fact that you called them to find out what the hell was....

well....

I was out of confectioners sugar. so I substituted with real sugar.....which is not an acceptable substitution despite what that stupid website said. There is no thickening agent in it, and incredibly.....um....crunchy. If there was video you would see that the cake frosting moved like the blob...

BAM.

Celebrating Amandaland

Killing time before work tonight came across this photo of Keva at my bachelorhood party. The true humor lies at the trail head where Keva stood with my banner...waiting patiently....as other people arrived at the trail.....and in a turn of much confusion, another Amanda arrived.

Other Amanda who we don't know: "Is that for me?"

Keva: "um...no..."

Other Amanda who we don't know: "Oh, because I'm Amanda...and it's my birthday"

Keva: Weird. Want me to take your picture with the sign?

The rest of the morning had some confusion with the other Amanda hiking party. Which is a lesson to us all...

Travel with a flag.

It was a tight squeeze, but everyone insisted on going into the woods to find the Christmas tree. You'll notice there that Teva can see out the window if she sits on Jake's lumbar spine.

So into the Rifle wilderness we go. There has been such little snow here, that it was pretty easy to get in and out. We were a little off on how BIG the tree was. So after the fourth trimming....we got it squeezed in.



Lets call it a....um....work in progress. Going to buy Christmas decorations is a little overwhelming. Plus we are a fairly non-traditional home, so an angel just didn't cut it. Unfortunately the Nome made the tree too top heavy and that idea was held off until more duct tape could be purchased....

turkey lurky dooo

Well we are off to go spend thanksgiving in denver!! In an attempt not to cook and trash the house, we are planning to go elsewhere and trashing someone elses!

With all the dogs in tow....here we gooooooo!

Because we can

At wal-mart yesterday, I came across a rescue dog shirt perfect to accesorise the basset hound. It was a tight squeeze, but he managed to suck it in.

FYI

Catching a loose chicken is a two person job. Anything less and your not 'catching' a chicken your 'chasing' a chicken around a chicken coop.

In a circle.

For thirty minutes.

FYI #2. The idea, I'll get a dog, is a poor idea. Dogs do not make good back up in chicken catching. 'chasing the chicken' now becomes 'trying to save the chicken life'

Chicken 1, Amanda 0, Atlas 4

did you pack tom?

I'll work with the crappy on and off internet only because I know my sister is bored out of her mind right now. It is my duty then to give her a funny story, but first lets set the scene:

I'm at work, which is now the graveyard shift on the weekends. Lots of interesting characters. Including a few that I work with. Come around one am, what is left of the skeleton crew staggers around the hospital in search of candy and conversation. I, normally have both, and in comes a new face for me, Fire red from the lab. I call her fire red from the lab because she has dyed fire red hair and she works in the lab. White coat and all with the square black glasses, in her late 40's is my quess. Now I keep it fairly dark in my department at night, I find it easier for the drunks and they in return seem to be less combative, but even with the lessened light, Fire red from the lab is sheer brightness. I'll be honest, she catches me mid boggie session in an attempt to stay awake. Full power walk she comes through the automatic doors looking for someone else I had never heard of. Trying to take the attention off of my sweet dance moves I offer her a hot tamale. She accepts and eyeballs my south africa book and the following conversation occurs.

"are you really going to africa?"

yes. In June

"really?"

yes. I even comitted to buying the travel guide.

"can I ask what may be a weird favor?"

um. sure.

"will you take some of tom with you? I have bagged up his ashes in different bags so that he can travel all over."

(wow total shock, it clicks here that the company email about a spouse dying must have been Fire red from the labs husband)

um, isnt that maybe something that you want to do?

"not africa. I'll never make it there, no desire, but Tom really wanted to go" she continues while downing the box of red hots looking me dead in the eye the whole time. "just sprinkle him somewhere cool and thats that."

thats that. I dont see how I can refuse.

The rest of the night I tried to come up with the funniest way to tell the trucker about this. Around three red flies back in through the hall....

"word in the lab is your going to fiji too"

Get away from my dead cat!!

So I'm having a very zen moment during my morning yoga when my gaze goes out the window and I am distracted by five very large buzzards dive bombing and landing next to the garage. For a moment I think nothing, then somewhere in the clarity of the crescent moon pose it hits me. buzzards outside of fence=good. Buzzards landing = something dead. Lance the cat outside of fence living in garage=bad. Buzzards=dead cat. Bad.

This is the course my brain goes.

Warrior two took on a whole new meaning as I fly down the stairs in my zen like outfit and run out the door screaming nooooO! I hit the gate breaking land speed records, climbing up the hill waving my arms screaming 'get away from my dead cat!!!'.

About the time I got to where I thought the dead cat would be, the buzzards were off the ground and now just circling around above. And I cant find the dead cat. But I am still screaming at the buzzards to go away, throwing the occasional rock. As I continue to walk around in the trees, I start to realize....I'm about to see a dead cat. Despite my experience in Anatomy with this, I am finding myself unprepared. So I stop, and take in a few breaths and decide, that I HAVE to find the dead cat. I can not leave his body out here to be pecked at by the buzzards. With a solid 210 heart rate, and watching the buzzards above, I try and stand as still as possible scanning the bumpy juniper tree yard. And then from behind me the crude loud meow of my not really dead cat Lance.

I am not kidding people when I say I jumped a good eleven feet in the air looking like I had just been tazered in the back. And Lance, apparently awaken from his morning siesta by me screaming about a dead cat trotted over from the garage. The next few minutes I spent bent over trying to recover from a heart attack as not dead cat weaved his way through my legs. Stupid cross eyed cat looked up at me and saw the buzzards in the sky and ran back to the garage.

sticking with it

Compromise. If the boar head stays, then I will decorate it.

The wedding went off without a fire, helicopter, passing out panic attack or any other mad hatter pre wedding dream disaster that I had. There were a few hiccups, and yes my loving sister did start off her toast with ' my sister has had a lot of boyfriends'. Hysterically enough, the wedding video ends with one of my best friends staggering off with her husband discussing their level of inebriation.

oye I love it

but as things wind down, it sure was nice to have seen everyone and had a chance to celebrate such an anticipated day. And the presents sure are a nice touch.

Ill post some pictures when I get them all in. They have been arriving in bits and pieces, and the ones from the actual photographer are still out. Thanks for sticking around!
Until then, keep your pimp hand strong!

Roundtrip ticket

It's going to be tough trying to get the trucker to stop saying 'eh' all the time, but other then that Canada is a pretty cool place. Which is good, because that's why we went there. Being 102 degrees here = cranky pants, and with a 9 day break from work we headed for the border. Americas cool cousin Canada. Where we proceeded to visit friends we had me once years ago, meet family friends for the first time, and essentially spare bedroom surfed our way around BC.

Having never been, I have to say it was pretty sweet. And the temperatures even drove me to buy a jacket. Canada. You have yet to let me down.

The boats on Victoria Island.

The culture diversity in Vancouver was outrageous. We went to the Islamic festival downtown, and since the sign said, learn about the Islamic culture, and we didn't know about any of it, we went. What a kind group of people so eager to share there culture. At one booth a young man asked if we were married, when I told him 'soon', they got so excited and dressed us up in the traditional wedding attire and took our pictures. The jeans and tennis shoes totally give away the fact that we are soooo american.


The trip took us inland then to do a little sailing with one of my moms childhood friends. This is a must stop for anyone going to BC. Al and JoAnn have a charter sailboat 'The Cats Ass'. I got to drive. Before we left I was using all kinds of sailing jargon. 'Hand over the booty!'

Oh wait, that's pirate talk.

The trip was wrapped up at a small farm on a lake with some snowmobiling friends of the truckers. The trip had barely ended before another began, and we just got home from a second quick trip to see the crew from WP, as Molly and Pete got married. Now for me it's time go go join the crew downstairs, and try to get some rest in before the work week begins.

not as easy as it looks

Mom is on me about being a month behind on blogging. Considering I was gone for 2 weeks and took my national registry this month, I thought I was doing good breathing.

I passed by the way. (and the crowd goes wild)



Meanwhile the trucker and I loaded all the dogs in the burb and drove to the eastish coast to take a little break from it all.
We stayed off the main highways (to throw off the feds of course) and just enjoyed the drive.

It became pieapolooza 2008. I ate pie in each state we went to. The winner you ask? Kentucky. Yum. Runner up, Oklahoma followed by a close third in southern Colorado.

So it's back home and Ive started work, as well as a workout routine to take care of the pie handles. On top of it all planning a wedding is not as easy as the tv shows make it look. I have NO idea what I'm doing and everyone assumes that I do. This is my first wedding folks. I logged onto a wedding website and after registering all of our info a window pops up.....

92 days to go and 231 unchecked 'to do' things.

Oh sweet jesus, giving me a countdown is not doing anything but increasing my heart rate. Which on the plus side has got to be burning some calories.

How to call AAA

AAA: Hello Miss King, are you in a safe location?



Well the police are here, so I'm going to say yes.



AAA: Ok good, what can we help you with?

I'm going to need a tow.

AAA: Ok, what is the make, model of the vehicle?

79 VW westy

AAA: What color is the vehicle



On fire red

AAA: Can you give a landmark for the tow truck, we are concerned he may not be able to locate you.



Sure, tell him to follow the smoke, when he can see the flames slow down, and if he passes the fire engine, he's gone too far.

AAA: Oh.

I dont even know where to begin

I graduated.

(Id show you a picture but I forgot my camera at home)

My family and I plus the trucker went to the grand canyon.

(and I forgot the camera)but luckily superstar sister photo logged it all

The trucker asked me to marry him during the sunrise over the canyon.

(and superstar sister had a camera)



(I said yes)

Then we came home from family trip USA, and worked all morning on Beck McVanagon. (luckily I have this picture from the archives)



Then, after the fishing poles were loaded in, and one German Shepard later, we made it 12 miles down when the bus caught on fire.

(and luckily despite the fact that we didn't have the camera, some of the people who watched it blow up were nice enough to email me a picture from their camera phones)




So what have you guys been up to?

Springtime pictures to keep you posted

Everyone seems to be thawing out, soaking up some sun, and spending time playing in the sprinklers around here without me.


Even the spiring chickens are acting their part.

Unfortunatly I am not the only one that wants to carry around the chicks.




Even the elk are enjoying to upcoming grass.



Apparently everyone gets bored since I'm on nights now, and there have been some creative games being played by the dogs in my absence. Like.....Eat the spinkler starring Atlas, and Tevas favorite, count the fat rolls on Mr. Jakers. Lucky for me, I get to join them in a few weeks.

Happy easter easter bunny balk balk!

Yesterday, the trucker, his bff and I spent the day working on the yard around the house. Considering I havent really ever had a yard to plant things in before, I had no idea what I was doing when I went to Lowes. Somewher, sometime, I think I heard, or saw that if you plant bulbs when its still frosting outside that they grow after and you never have to plant them again. Anyone? Anyone?

Anyways, I bought a ton of bulbs, and about half way through the morning, my well planned landscaping ideas of tall flowers behind short flowers.....turned into my randomly throwing bulbs on the ground. If anything grows I'll let you know. In my mind it is going to look like something out of Gardening Magizine.

Final words

My portfolio is complete. My brain is a little mushy, and when I looked over it this morning, I find the 'letter to bette', may be a little more honest then I should.....but funny




Dear Bette,
I know how everyone always says how happy that they are, you had this as an assignment. Honestly, this portfolio just made me feel more insecure about what I thought I knew. Or more importantly what I was hoping that my brain would remember from the accumulation of two year of flashcards. Frankly, the magnetism/ electromagnetism section isn’t my best work. I think I had to go over it about 3 separate times just wondering if what I had written even made any sense, or if I had just convinced myself what I had written was correct after staring at it for 3 hours. And let’s face it, if there is a massive explosion in the world and I am the one left to wire us a new x-ray circuit, I may personally be responsible for blowing up the remaining survivors. My strengths on the other hand, are a confident understanding of radiation protection and an incredible dedication to the patient care. I will leave this program knowing that I have a solid understanding of what is going to produce a good image, all the while protecting my patient from the radiation that I alone am exposing them to. I will also always understand that I am never done learning about the field.
I hope you don’t find yourself too terribly bored while reading this. Perhaps you would enjoy a tasty adult beverage after you’re done. Now that I’m done, that idea sounds pretty good.

Thank you for your dedication to us,
Amanda

Ok ok fine.

I'm alive, feeling good, except I'm pretty sure that something happened in the universe and I'm dealing with 1/4 of the hours that used to be consumed in a day.

The trucker and I cleared out and cleaned the apartment yesterday. All official now, We're living in sin. It's quite impressive how much I had crammed into that space. Many trips to the thrift store later, and I still managed 3 truck loads to the house. I was so exhausted on the last day of packing that when I hit I70 and watched something fly off the back I took in a sigh and though.....one less thing I have to unpack.




The handsome hound is trying his hardest to adjust to the sleeping arrangements.
Meanwhile, the trucker is battling what I'm guessing lab results this week will determine a parasite.

F-ing Jamaica, the gift that just keeps on giving.


As far as school goes I learned in my mock registry that taking the REAL registry hung over is not a good idea. Somewhere around #84 the headache creeped on, and then around #113 I contemplated stopping where I was at and taking a nap. Yikes. Luckily in my heart of hearts I know that my score will be better next time based on the fact that I will not be drunk from 1-84.

Stupid box wine and good friends.

So I'll try to be better with keeping updates, and maybe soon I'll unpack the camera and give some new pictures. 71 days till graduation. 71 days

Snow snow and more snow

It seems like the second it's time for me to go anywhere lately, there is a massive snowstorm on the frunt. I know, thats no excuse for not blogging. We have gotten a rediculus amount of snow over the last two weeks. Sure, just when I have an out of town rotation and a car without 4WD.

Control the slide and carry an extra pair of pants and panties in the car. Thats the girl I've become, and thats the way I roll.

The new hospital is quite nice. Such a small town that at lunch last week there was a HUGE uproar in the cafeteria over the highschool varsity football team. It seems that the freshman that helped the varsity team during practice recieved a varsity letter for their participation.

Those bastards.

With the exception of the piling snow, everything else is clipping along well. I'm in the last semester of school......what?! seriously?! that went by way fast. Next week I leave for my first radiology confrence.....in VEGAS BABY! I've never been, so there may be some blog worthy stories coming soon. I did however have to sign a waiver along with my other classmates promising to show up sober to all functions where representing the college. Bah.

Come wednesday, I'm sure to see another massive snowstorm on the horizon as I will slide my way into nevada. Keep your fingers crossed, and ignore the spelling errors, blogger spell check isn't working. Leave it be I am a slave to spell check.

Tijuana, I mean Jamaica pictures

Jamaica is a total shithole. Seriously. It's not even a step above Tijuana.....it's more like the raised part of the sidewalk on the edge that catches your toe and makes you bust out your front teeth when you fall.

We did some cool stuff, but everything and everywhere you go, you need to check the legitimacy of it because not everywhere is safe.


After the death defying car rental in Kingston from what I can only describe as Kingston's king pen....we were off in our obviously stolen car racing for the beach. Which coincidentally there isn't really too much of. The beach that there is, is gated and private. Everything else is a wall built that the ocean smacks against, so you see HUGE waves, but impossible to surf because of the jagged rock underneath.

The 'how to stay safe in Jamaica' tour book in our condo told us where to go and what to do. So we did. It included.... going to see where Bob Marley grew up and is buried.

Climb the falls. (This was fun until the trucker broke his toe.)


Ride horses in the ocean water. My poor horse saw this as his opportunity to make a break for Cuba.

Donkey dress up. Note that is nothing like the Tijuana donkey show.

Thought about some canoeing but like the horse, the trucker and I would have pushed on till Cuba.

And of course drink lots and lots of rum in hope of killing any parasites that might have snuck their way in.