Cupcakes and Rain

Thunderstorms and baking keep me distracted from finals I have to study for and a British Literature paper I have to write this weekend. Yesterday was spent making pie cupcakes with a friend (yes, really, it's a pie and a cupcake in one) and listening to a lot of The Head and the Heart. And today, i'm slowly crossing off the items on my to-do list that's about 14 inches long (and I write small). I know we're all thinking the same thing...just two more weeks of textbooks and paper and notes and lectures and then we're free. I think once finals are over, I'll just want to live in the backyard for a while. I'll check everyday to see if my Spinach seeds have grown out of the soil and I'll read books and eat dinner in the grass.  And then Nate and I will go on a road trip. Yes, I think I'm ready for all that.



- K

She Looks Like Emillion Bucks

That's right, it's time again for our weekly installment of "Emily Friday". This week's featuree is one of my closest half-giraffe friends and possibly the funniest of her species. She plays Skyrim like nobody's business and wears purple sometimes. She's the caregiver of two pet rats (their names are Torple and Bin), who often times spend their afternoons atop her shoulder while she eats pitas with hummus. They enjoy swallowing whole blueberries. But back to Emily. She's a gem.

- K

Yes, Yes It's Spring

It's been so springy lately that we ate pesto in the garden, played frisbee in the sprinklers, and even got pretty bad sunburns.



- K & N

Emily Friday

To satisfy our diverse reader base, we've added a recurring series called "Emily Fridays". We will feature some of our favorite Emily's, both those we know and those we do not. Conveniently, this inaugural "Emily Friday" falls on the birthday of Nate's sister, who is (even more conveniently) named Emily. It also falls on 4/20, but that in fact is inconvenient. In celebration, we spent the afternoon making raspberry macaroons, no ganja included. There was some hopeless macaroon-to-parchment-paper fusion, which in the end was solved with a trick we found online: you just have to put a wet paper towel under the parchment paper and the cookies will slide right off. Then we gave them to Emily. All in all, it was a grand celebration for an even grander Emily.

 

- K & N

p.s. We discovered an awesome song.

Basghetti and Meatballs

Tonight, we finally made the trip to visit the Missoula Food Co-op. We looked like lost little lobsters walking through a grain field seeking out someone for membership information. Nate told me to erase that sentence. But I didn't.



Spaghetti and meatballs were on the menu made from our Co-op findings. We ate outside in the post-rain dampness. Despite the good times, our house still smells of meatballs. The fucking doors and windows are now open and the fan is running (despite the late night temperature), creating a perfectly chilly climate for Nate's new patagonia coat.



- K & N

Stump now. BearFight Forever.

This weekend was spent playing seven games of Ultimate, driving nigh on twenty hours and smelling like all the worst parts of seventeen sweaty men. The college sectionals tournament was in Boise where the weather was fantastic other than medium high winds, and The University of Montana BearFight showed that we are fully out of hibernation. Coming in to the tournament as the tenth seed of ten teams, BearFight (or Stump, as our lovers know us) tore apart all expectations and placed halfway up the ladder in fifth. Sadly, this was one spot away from a bid to Regionals, but nonetheless, the BearFight showed everyone, including #2 seed Gonzaga and #3 seed Utah State how ruthless Montana Ultimate can be (in a good way). A final game against Washington State on Sunday afternoon proved to be too much for Stump, but the battle was a tough one in which we fought back to tie from a four point deficit at halftime. The weekend was colored with huge plays and as always, the Spirit of the Game rang true. It was as successful and inspiring as a missed Regionals bid can be and we know all of them will always remember the night they played the Titans  BearFight.








- N

Patagonia Part III

It was our last day on this gorgeous continent...and we hiked on a glacier. It far exceeded my expectations. After strapping homemade crampons to our boots, we hiked over an hour across pure ice. It wasn't flat or smooth, the path was over jagged spikes of compacted snow. It wasn't so much the surrounding scenery that captivated me, but the deep cerulean pockets of water caught in the ice. Every so often, our path would lead us to bright blue cauldrons of crystal clear water or over small sharp canyons of dark purple. And if that weren't enough, at the end of the trek, we received a final gift: a glass filled with glacier ice and a shot of irish whiskey. What an extraordinary exit. 

- K

Patagonia Part II

Happy Easter everyone.









- K

Patagonia Part I

Surely, this should inspire my poetic side, but for now, I am lost for words. I am stunned by this place.











-K

The Falls

Crowds of people at Iguazu Falls. It's because it's the week before Easter. We walked long bridges over the widest part of the river for fifteen minutes before we reached Devil's Throat. The river just disappeared and flowed into a huge half moon cliff where mist pillowed up from the hard basalt landing. It was overwhelming, standing there at the top of his throat looking down. I imagined a single water droplet, a leaf, a coin, my sunglasses tumbling into that dark mist and how long it would take to reach the bottom.

Small Joys

Birkenstocks, Bailey's in my frappuccino and a Buenos Aires afternoon.

A Brand New Day

April 2nd. No more pranks; no more fooling around; a lot more Ultimate. Tonight was the first week of Missoula Ultimate Spring League, and I must say, it was a wonderful night. The weather was kind and the games were close. I must admit, for my team, defeat in this first week, but I have a strong suspicion that we will soon become a top contender, vying for the "trophy" come May 21st. I say "trophy" rather than trophy because there is no "actual" trophy. This is, after all, the $40-entrance-fee-Missoula-Ultimate-Spring-Leage-we-all-know-and-love. However -- ahem -- as a defending champion myself (a proud member of 2011's Skidmark Horde), I can personally confirm the reality that is a gift of 72 virgins to the champion team (Or maybe we won glow-in-the-dark discs. . .). Anywhoozle, the time has come for me (and you too, Dear Reader), to start running hard, cutting deep, and, most importantly, thinking up some creative (and vulgar) post-game cheers.

p.s. Whew, that was a lot of parentheses and hyphens. ( - )







- N

Finally

After a ten hour flight, a lost bag and long layovers we are finally in Buenos Aires. Yesterday was spent in ithe Recoletta cemetery and then La Boca enjoying the sun and vivid colors of the city. We finished the long first day with beer and fresh empanadas.







- K