the argus

time to post a new post, well alright. well alright.

i ruined my favorite new sweater by sitting too close to the heater. it is freezing in my drafty shanty of a home. i have to chip the icicles offa the cat's whiskers when i get home from work. unfortunately, our house is made of cinder blocks. we live in the lap of luxury.

reading log for past 1.5 weeks:

1. portnoy's complaint, by philip roth. read in one sitting. good, not great. actually a book stealthily gifted to joe from ben. but i stole it ! har

2. nickel and dimed, barbara ehrenreich. i was searching for the book form of popcorn, light and fluffy, salty, air-popped, chalky white. well, i found it in this disappointing book. boohoo, boohoo, i don't feel bad for you barbara. you think you're cool but you're not ! take that !

3. fast food nation, eric schloss-face. why yes, everyone and their brother has read this. so what ? it is an official selection of the onate high school reader's club. and, really, how could i resist ? great factoids ! seriously, i was reading disgusting factoids to joe about every 10 minutes. i was trying to blow his mind. didn't work. in valley girl voice: "but, seriously, fast food is, like, so, gross!"

4. the feminine mystique, betty friedan. just started this baby. after slogging through 97 introductary chapters, forward march into an in-depth analysis of the great malaise of the housewife! ah, sweet private sphere ! ol' girl.

listening to: buffalo stance, neenah cherry. also: bonnie prince billy, the raconteurs. much anticipating: clap your hands say yeah. not as in love with t.v. on the radio as joe.

cooking: bulgar chili, and 'noodle mountain'.

wearing: americorps uniform.

growing: my hair out.

watching: pan's labyrinth. jeesh. man. i thought this was going to be like alice in wonderland. turns out to be brutally violent. we were covering our eyes and cringing for a good portion of the film. sick! still was good.

with obama and clinton announcing their presidental bids this week, new mexico governor bill richardson is expected to announce his own campaign for president today. i saw richardson on wednesday for a volunteer conference at the state capitol building in santa fe. i was sent, with two of my co-workers, to represent our americorps program.



richardson is extremely popular here, winning his second term last november with 69% of the vote. i am impressed by his dedication to international affairs, particularly his recent work in darfur. his resume is about a mile long and extremely varied, however his popularity is completely eclipsed by that of clinton and obama. example: today, i said to joe, 'richardson is probably going to announce his run for president today' and joe says, 'is that the guy from montana?' referring to tester. getting his western cowboy dems mixed up i guess. whatever. so anywho, it's between the african-american, the woman, and the hispanic. i like them all.

back into the routine here in cruces. after a week of training, and then 2 days up in santa fe, i finally got back to onate high school on thursday. things are looking up for us over there. i have two new coworkers with me, replacing my one partner from last semester. they are doing a great job. i lost four great students from last semester, two moved away, one got long-term suspended, and the other dropped out of school. i was shocked and upset to hear about that last student. he succumbed to the pressure to quit school and work full-time to support his mom. he is also deep into gang culture. he was excited about the catcher in the rye, the first real book he ever read. i worked really closely with him on that book. i asked him what he wanted to do in the future, and he said 'have you seen the movie blow ?' anyway it was sad to see him drop out.

watched the pianist last night. it was pretty much amazing. even though joe was reluctant to watch it, but who can blame him...when is anyone in the lets-watch-an-extremely-depressing-holocaust-film mood ?

stephan colbert was on the o'reilly factor last week.

o'reilly: I have a sheet here that says you dislike and you are afraid of bears and owls. Is that true?
colbert: I am afraid of bears. I think owls are a waste of time.

think we're going to play cards tonight. haven't done that yet in NM. better watch out, cruces! you don't know what you're up against...suckers!

cat and mouse

i'm in santa fe right now for work. BUT, before i left las cruces today, this is what i saw:

IN THE TREE:


AT THE BOTTOM:


more later. wireless doesn't work in my hotel room, unfortunately.

MN photos

I didn't get nearly enough photos on my trip home. here's a few (don't check my flickr just yet tho, haven't had time to post any this week)

JOE AND REECE:


XMAS DINNER, MADE LOVINGLY BY MY MOM:


JESSE AND JOE, ON FOREST LAKE:


NEW YEAR'S EVE, AFTER SUSHI, PRE-MIDNIGHT, DOWNTOWN ST. PAUL. CHELSEA, BRIAN, BEN, ANNA, AND ME:

hey folks

to those of you who are going to be in minneapolis over the holidays, please email me or call me and let me know what dates you'll be around. and particularly if you are available for new year's eve. party at brian's xmas night as well.

see you soon !

sneaky pete

sneak peek

felt.

i have always had an aversion to felt. that is, until about a week ago ! now it seems the wonders of felt will never cease !


belated santa fe fotos.

the pink adobe:


typical:


snow!:

the hurts

as many of my dear readers know, the hurt family is expecting their first child any day now. like really any minute now. i am anxiously awaiting the call...and as most of you have probably experienced i am really bad at answering phone calls. so i keep checking my phone to see if i've missed a call from andy.

let me say a few words about the hurts. andy has been a really close friend of mine since elementary school. he started dating missy right around when joe and i started dating, in 11th grade. andy and joe are also good friends. so our lives have been parallel for a long time. although they've lived in california for several years now, we've kept in close touch. our lives have diverged quite a bit (studying liberal arts vs. the marines) but that only makes our friendship more dynamic. and, we're all sort of cosmically related. for example, missy and i are EXACTLY the same age to the day.

andy is the most hilarious person i know. and he's going to make a fabulous father. and missy is very nuturing, caring and loving. she'll be a perfect mother. the baby is going to be so-o--o--o lucky.

don't start thinking that i want to have kids or anything--but it's definitely going to be awesome to see this little baby grow up (kinda like with reece, my little nephew).

so anyways i thought i'd share the excitement. yay!

december already

lots to report on, but haven't really felt like blogging. so it has been a while. first of all, had a nice time over thanksgiving with our guests. did a day hike in the organs, soaked in some hot springs twice, went camping, ate out a lot. etc, etc. it was so great to have time off. really great. i've had photos up from that week for a while now, so head over to flickr if you haven't in a while. here's a few:

katie in white sands:


dinosaur at our campground:


joe and jesse, prehike:


we went up to santa fe this past weekend to celebrate my birthday. it was interesting to (finally) get up there. we checked out some galleries and the museum of international folk art. mostly we shopped. looked around for xmas gifts but were not quite as successful as i would've liked. stayed at a bed and breakfast which was a luxury considering our budget. ate an indian meal and mexican the next day. it's about a 4 hour drive from here so lots of driving. oh yah, and it was snowy! which i liked, because that helped make it really feel like my birthday. took a few photos which have not been posted yet.

thanks to all who remembered my birthday/called me/sent packages and cards, etc. that was awesome. i bought a sewing machine last night with a bday gift card. woohoo ! fun stuff.

i'm working on some xmas gifts, little by little getting them done. our house is cold and drafty. joe good, cat good.

yar

well, the time has come again for my bi-annual cold. the kind where i go through a whole box of kleenex in 24 hours. the kind when i'm freezing but really burning up. the kind where it would be offensive if i tried to go out in public. yes folks, i am that gross right now. i could go into more grotesque detail, but nah. meds help a little bit, but make me loopy. an example: right when the cold hit, yesterday afternoon, i took some tylenol cold and thought i'd be safe to swing by a thrift store on my way home from work early. well, the meds made me not function properly. as i was leaving i literally ran hard--smacked, really-- into a glass door. really loud and embarassing. other things, most notably tavist-D, also have this floaty, moronic effect on me.

anywho, i am homebound.

so how bout them elections? huh ?

check out chase korte in these peacewalker clips. chase is an inspiration. he went out there and DID this thing...walked 1100 miles. the background story is scripted. it's a hybrid genre.

making of the film
a single step
1000 mile walk
at a pub

and, as chase dessert, check out his new commercial.