Monday, May 20, 2013

5 Months in One Blog Post

The semester is over and the beginning of summer in Arizona is absolutely beautiful! Five months of stuff is too much to really capture in one blog, so I'll make it a fairly short photo recap.

Here's what I've done so far in 2013:

January:    
I gave a duck a bath.

 

February:
My mom and my sister came to visit. I got to meet my adorable nephew Andrew for the first time and of course, I got a picture of everyone with him, except myself.
                 
 

My black duck unexpectedly died. My guess is that she choked. Unfortunately, I paid $75 dollars for that duck and was expecting great things from her. My mom and I rather unceremoniously buried her beneath a Scrub Oak in the forest. 

 
I went to Santa Monica to preview the Vidal Sassoon cosmetology school and take a picture of the Ferris Wheel on the pier, then slept in the back of a Caballero at the Cherry Park skate park in Long Beach, then went to Corona to meet my partner's parents and 14 small dogs. It was beautiful and fun and California is a crazy place.



March: 
Jett and I took Harvey to Willow Lake. We got our feet muddy, threw sticks for Harv, admired all the gorgeous aquatic birds, and spent a lot of time examining, and photographing, the finer details of the natural world, like this dried up pond scum and this drift wood:


              
 We spent a night and a day at Fossil Creek.


 I made BANANA BREAD CINNAMON ROLLS! Maybe one of the best recipes I've ever found.


 Spring finally sprung in the gravel of Jett's front yard.


April:
I got a job with Prescott College's literary journal Alligator Juniper. This year I'm on the pages as Administrative Staff, but I've already advanced to the position of Assistant Managing Editor!

Check out the Alligator Juniper blog!
Jett and I went to the Songkran Festival at Wat Promkunaram Buddhist temple in Phoenix. It was the Thai New Year. We gave rice and limes to the monks.We were invited to feast on the most delicious home-made Thai food. I didn't take any pictures.
Then we spent some time sneaking around in the bushes surrounding the outer fence of a zoo in Surprise, Arizona because we didn't want to pay $32 each to get in. Then we went to a car show at a funeral home. Then we went seeking a smoothie in Anthem. I didn't take any pictures of that either.
         
The next weekend we went back to Phoenix to watch the finals of the Desert Ice Bonspiel, the Coyote Curling Club's annual curling tournament.


My classes started wrapping up at the end of April. The final result of the Newspaper Journalism Practicum was not a newspaper, but this beautiful magazine The Raven Review. I wrote articles, took pictures, helped edit and design the entire magazine, then took responsibility for a portion of the distribution once it was printed. Great experience with tangible results!


May: 

I saw the Hoover Dam for the first time.


I went to Vegas for the first time. I stayed with a really fun little group of girls at Rumors Boutique, enjoyed the palm trees, and hung out by the pool.


The lot of us got dressed up and went out on the town to do bachelorette party things on The Strip. It was fun. Vegas is a crazy place.


Weddings usually happen after those sorts of parties and I had the pleasure of making the cake! Here is the 'topper' I made. It was more of an insert really...


My good friends Dillon and Anya got married on the rim of the Grand Canyon, so the cake design was also inspired by the Canyon. I baked each layer to resemble the main geological layers of the Canyon, then carved an actual canyon into the finished cake, complete with the muddy water of the un-dammed Colorado River and river rocks.


Jett made the trees. The trees, rocks, and tiny flowers were all made from edible fondant. The mossy, grassy looking stuff was Graham Cracker crumbs that I spray painted green with edible spray paint.


Instead of the traditional cutting-of-the-cake-by-bride-and-groom, Dillon and Anya took turns giving a Grand Canyon geology lesson as they sliced down through the layers.


 My remaining female duck started nesting.


So far she is dedicated to setting, but she's not very good at it. She often loses some of her eggs, once she lost all of them without realizing any had gone missing, and she doesn't really get the whole idea of hiding the nest in a safe, secure location. I'm hoping that her inadequate nesting methods are due to this being her first time. I gave four duck eggs to a neighbor with a broody hen. At this point I think the chicken has a better chance of hatching her four eggs than my poor duck does hatching the remaining four.



Jett and I are getting ready to finish out the month up north, rafting and camping on the Snake River, then visiting family and friends all over Montana. Hopefully some ducklings will be hatching when we return at the beginning of June!