My Vacation! (thanks, dad!)

just drivin through on my way to kansas!

three days driving to kansas, rolled in to crystal's, went with her and her dad to water aerobics, then it was yummy mexican food and beer for dinner!

organic grocers downtown lawrence

kiki!

the lovely erika hanging up her laundry!

tuck!!

crystal, andy, and i out for a drink at henry's!

cool tattoo!

no lawrence house party would be complete without a sweet alien-making kit.

off to camp gaia!!

my god-father, red, in his sweet mongolian outfit!

trina (my lil' sis) and i haveing dinner with red and sue.

time to hangout in cedar springs with galadrial!

blueberries!
say hello to dinner!

fire up the sauna!!

BEES!

i've been doing alot of driving!

Helllo, Wyoming!

check out this storm front, it's looks like an alien battleship or something.

driving into the sunset was rather surreal. i got into my dad's at ~2am.

back to the tetons! and yes, i some how managed to look like tom sawyer.

hey, ryger, whatcha got there?

first: off for a hike with dad and ryan.

hey, daddy!

hanging out for lunch after a great bike ride.

up for some snow on a long hike with ryan.

there's a black marmot on the lower rock to the left.

yellowstone!

old faithful.

montana.

smile in the clouds.

the breaking of our days.

some birds have been nesting in the gutter. the cats are enthralled!

my kickin neighbors off to their nursing end-of-the-year party.

ok, check yourselves people, things are about to get cute and cuddly!

studied at a bar one afternoon, of course this lead to a game or two of pool before calling it a night.

my man playing me some sweet blues.

lichens afoot!

bug that looks like part of a pine-cone. sneaky bug.

MOSS!!

i'm not surprised that ryan likes the tortoise pose (you can see most of his turtle tattoo on his ankle).

Tree planting and other things!

sitting in the grass during breaks has become rather commonplace. hello, lindsay!

in the park, sitting in the grass, distracted from my bike home.

a gift from someone special.

spring is blooming on campus!

ice cube.

shotglass skull.

a tiny little black bug,

...with an orange skull on his back,

...came to visit me.

view from law school's second floor porch.

YAY!

goslings! O_O so cute!!!

tree planting with sean!

i planted this one!

Go, Sean, Go!

Sean is a lean, green, eco-friendly machine!

And I helped!

Rugby end-season banquet!! all of us rookies had to dress up like babies, lol!

EARTH DAY CELEBRATION AT THE RIVERFRONT PARK!!!

for the pony!

strange tailpipes afoot!

hello studies, hello iced mocha.

a short morning hike to see ryan's water reclaimation facility. i'll reclaim your water. ;)

genna's tree.

ryan's rock.

an art piece at a first friday downtown.

tulips are coming up in the neighborhood!

Now for the required cute cat pics! ladies and gentlemen, i give you: Velcro on Catnip!

check out my toe

"oh no, she's found me sleeping in the clothes..."

"Maybe if i don't move she won't notice..."

*enter velcro stage left*

"Hey, chainsaw, whatcha doing?"

"Go away! i've got a good thing going here, don't mess it up!"

"fine. sourpuss." *velcro exit stage right*

random guy at coffee shop.

rain clouds out on the high plains south of spokane.

spokane county courthouse on the left, mt. spokane back on the right.

the lower falls.

a cleat landed at the base of my toenail, then scraped along the toe, leaving a bruise.

flowers are blooming along the hiking trail at the little spokane river.

hmm, i wonder who's rock this is?

ta-dah!

rachel and ryan.

coming down from the view we walked in a narrow canyon. there were at least 5 deer remains in various stages, we think this must be where a pack of wolves (perhaps) make their kills because it seems to lend itself to trapping.

and then some tea afterwards. my dad made this pot! :)

A side note: gunslinger, elena's birthday, and cats

ok, i bought a life-sized (maybe a little bigger) original oil painting of clint eastwood. for all you dark tower fans, oh yeah, be jealous! ;) it's like having Roland in my bedroom. meow!

erika came to visit! to celebrate, we burned that truckload of wood i've had since sept!

and we had natural, vanilla ice cream with blackberry sauce, walnuts, and garlic!

birthday cake for elena!

happy birthday, elena!

what a cute boy! he's totally embodying the joy of yoga right now.

this may turn into a "thing" i've already taken a picture of chainsaw sleeping next to this picture, so now there's three layers. how many can i take if i keep layering it like this?

Honduras: Copan!

Honduras has rocking cattle!

a small model of the ruins of Copan!

crocodile!

Alter Q!! (an alter commemorating the 16th ruler of Copan's ascension)

16 jaguars were sacrificed on this when it was dedicated! how do you catch 16 jaguars?

it's famous!

here's 18rabbits (the 13th ruler), he ruled during this city's golden age.

the ruins were large and silent.

this is the residential area of the king and noble peoples.

the 16th ruler's tomb...

it was robbed and stripped bare after the city was abandoned during the 17th ruler's reign.

the sun.

the Jaguar place, where the ceremonies and dances were performed.

up on the king's platform.

the king's platform looks like a snake's mouth, there are the snake's teeth. a face inside a snake's mouth was a very powerful symbol for the Mayan.

the king's view of the jaguar place.

plus me!

here's a view of the hieroglyphic stairs (covered by tarp), and the ball court.

giant, giant tree holding one of the larger pyramids together, some of it's branches were thick enough to drive my truck on!

jaguar statute in the jaguar place, the large indentions used to hold pieces of obsidian

here's the hieroglyphic stairs, the history of the Copan dynasty are carved into the steps, which are eroding. since they've only just been able to read ancient Mayan in the last 20 years or so, archaeologists are scrambling to get it all down before it's gone.

the ball court with the stairs behind it. this is where teams played to continue the sun's motion, then the losing team's best player would be sacrificed!

undersea objects were symbols of the underworld for the Mayan, this turtle is scary!

this swirling seashells are also a sign of power from the underworld.

here's the human sacrifice alter! the player would lean backwards and rest their head in that groove, then they would be decapitated (probably starting with a throat slice) and the blood would run down the grooves and be collected to pour on another alter.

the sacrificial alter is in the shape of the ball (representing the sun) from the ball game. talk about living and dying by your sport!

our guide is pointing to the hieroglyph for "18 rabbits" the 13th ruler of Copan, and the ruler at the civilization's peak of culture and building. he has three dots (each mean 1) and then three bars (each mean 5) and then the symbol for this rabbit/guinea pig thing that lives in the jungle.look at how beautiful the sky is!

scarlet macaws (the honduran national bird) get free meals at the ruins, so they like to hang around, and since we were some of the last people at the ruins for the day, they were hanging out pretty close!

the evening was finished with an approx $6 filet mingon! ;)

Mongo

I scanned this photo, it's in a picture frame on my mantle. this is little puppy mongo, chewing on an old shoe, under a work table on the back porch of our home in Ada, OK, where we first adopted mongo. here's from last year's christmas.

here's mongo on "signal mountain" in the tetons.

mongo was old faithful.

he travelled all over the place with my dad: kansas to colorado to wyoming to arizona to washington to texas.

mongo on the beach. this dog got to see just about everything.

he was loving and well loved. he was smart and sweet. he will be missed and his memory cherished. i love you, mongo, thank you for being in my life for so many years.


here's a video from christmas. it was so cute that my dad had built a ramp for mongo to get into the truck. it's a touching expression of a man's love for his dog.