Wii Musings

Not to sound ungrateful, but I thought long and hard about getting a second job. It cuts into my free time. It's dashedly hard. And, let's face it, a Wii is a fairly frivolous item. But I did think long and hard about it. A job that would last a little over a month seemed just perfect. I would make my money slowly but surely and be able to get my new toy in October. Then I found out that I get tipped out. At a restaraunt which, by Gardiner standards, is fairly expensive. And I made all the needed money for both a Wii and a Wii Fit in two weeks. In less than a quarter of the time that I thought it would. So I geared myself up for nothing? Is that why I'm feeling somewhat disappointined? And what is going to happen in two weeks when tourism falls off and I'm not making this kind of money any more?

New Job

Started a new job last week. Why? Didn't quit the old one. No. This is a job in addition to the library job. Jessica, you may ask yourself, why would you willingly take on the responsibility of working another job hostessing? Especially one in a high-stress, fast-paced environment like Pedalino's (fancy Italian restaurant here in town.) Well. I want a Wii. And a Wii Fit. I don't get out enough in the winter and I need to have something that will keep me moving. Hopefully, the Wii Fit will do that for me. In the mean time, this job is sure keeping me on my toes. Five nights a week I'm working 4-6 hours at this new job. But, after only five nights of work, I'm half-way to my Wii-goal and that's only counting tips. I may be losing an hour of sleep but, oh man, I'm raking in the dough.
After next week though, if I screw up enough for them to fire me... I really won't care. Plus, it's Labor Day soon and the tourists will stop coming to the park soon enough and my hours will then be cut. Yay!

Catching Up Part 2

Almost two weeks ago (has it really been that long already? Really? It doesn't seem like it. Instead of slowing down, this summer is getting faster) it was The Guiles's birthday. On that happy day, a bunch of us went over to her place, made pizza from scratch (thanks to Emily's crust) and watched most of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." A pretty good birthday Day I would think. More on celebratin' later.

This being Gardiner, there were also four dogs present for the birthday and they got to play as well. This is a picture of Allie and Ruffers arriving.The next day was the second annual weed pull. For the past couple of years, Heidi has put together a half-day where a bunch of folks gather and work on ridding the Mammoth area of all of the weeds that have cropped up there. This year, I worked out behind the Mammoth cabins with Heidi, Chris Overbach, Bianca Klein, Pat (don't know her last name), Keri (also don't know her last name), and Chris Lehnertz for a little bit. It was pretty fun.

Cool grasshopper I saw.

The results of doing manual labor when normally having a desk job. Oopsie.

Hiking in Jardine

There has been so much going on lately that I can't keep up. So here are just a few glimpses into things that have happened recently. I will probably have to break it up into two posts. Though I had hoped to write more about each event, it just didn't happen, so here goes:

Jessica and Maeve, the two library seasonals for the summer have been here for two months which means that they only have a month left to go. This picture is from the week that we all worked on a Monday to do some preservation training.

Later that week, we had a very successful game night with Carrie, Trudy, Emily, Allie, Mariah and Janine all coming over to play Yahtzee in the back yard. Mariah showing off her red tongue

Me demonstrating how the same drink gave me pink lips

The sunset was stunning that night

That weekend I got to go hiking with Heidi. She's been so busy lately I'm frankly amazed that I got to go out not once, but twice. The first day was on Friday and we headed out at 7 and hiked for about three hours in Jardine. It's hard to tell from this picture but we actually ran into a whole bunch of worms that were hanging off of trees by long threads. It was like going through a spider's web.

This tree was covered by their webs

Heidi turning back from a stream crossing we decided not to do

Which was good 'cause we would have missed seeing the Moose mama and her baby. If we had been in Yellowstone, we would have been at the bare minimum for distance from wild animals.

Me doing a stream crossing the next day on the Bighorn Trail. Note the fancy toenails left over from cousin Sean's wedding. They matched my shoes perfectly.