Merry Christmas!

Carol Crawl on the 19th

How we spent Christmas Day

Mel Tillis at Music Ranch

What a gorgeous evening! I had never been to Music Ranch and am regretting the lack. While the music may not have been to my taste and I only knew one song, it was a lovely evening with two great friends and an awesome chance to see some live music.

Some good food

a toast to the evening

View behind us

Me and the band

Groovin'

A day on the river

Today, I got to spend an awesome day on the river paddleboarding with some friends. There were supposed to be nine of us but one person got called away for a fire and one got called out in a Search and Rescue. So seven of us hit the river at noon from Emigrant and quite thoroughly enjoyed the day. We alternated paddling, hanging out on the boards, and falling into the river. The weather prediction was a high of 77 with a 40% chance of rain so we set out with some trepidation. The weather guys were once again wrong since it was beautiful all day, only getting chilly when we hit the last stretch.
The ultimate plan was to paddle right up to the shore of he Yellowstone Valley Grill. It's a swanky place but it's Montana swanky, meaning that they won't turn you away if you turn up in your waders. However, we landed two hours before our reservation, even being super leisurely an stopping for beer at Grey Owl and lounging on the unnamed beach for awhile. So Trudy, Leigh Ann and I headed back onto the river and Heidi and Stefanie did a car drop for us at Mallard's Rest. We ended up getting off the river (which was running a about 3 miles/hr) around 4:20 which gave us time to change, return the boards to Livingston, and get back to the Grill for dinner.
And it was Really, Really good food. Expensive but totally worth it. I got the Chocolate Soufflé as an appetizer (what? I like dessert!) and ordered all of the sides. The kale was okay, the asparagus fabulous, and the whipped potatoes well worth experiencing. I even enjoyed the sweet potatoes side (I keep trying them... They're growing on me).
An all-around fun day!

A night on the... well, it's not really the town, is it?

Every once in awhile I have a good idea. This time, it was to reenact our trip to Tower-Roosevelt, though, this time (hopefully) without a mudslide. It proved to be a lovely evening with friends and one I hope to do again soon.

Monday dinner

At Hapa Izakaya

SLA conference in Vancouver - Day 1

Today was the first day of the trip that I had something work-related to do. Getting to the convention center was a breeze. I am totally on board with being close to the hotel to save on transportation. It was fantastic. 

The opening session was... an opening session. Lots of awards. The keynote speaker was pretty good looking at easy data and epidemiology. It was enlightening and a little scary. 

Then Jackie and I went to the Government meeting/60 Government sites in 60 minutes. There were some good sites listed.

Park to Paradise

I've been very bad about posting lately. It's been busy. I've been subbing in for some classes (pilates, yoga, body sculpt) as well as helping to get ready for the local Park to Paradise Triathlon. A triathlon I also participated in. As a soloist. It was an interesting experience. I've been saying I would do that for almost four years now and finally bit the bullet to do it. I can't say it was fun, but I did cross something off my bucket list. And, allowing for exit time and then having to towel off and change from skin out (yes, I dumped my kayak, but I kept going!), this was one of my best runs ever. Under twelve minute miles. Woot woot!

Before the race

Can't tell it's my second time out on a kayak (ever!), can you?

Yes, that is a mixture of rain and snow, thank you for asking

One of my besties showing me the way

And then helping me change my shoes, again

Another friend helping me by opening a peanut butter pack

Eating peanut better, setting out, not realizing that 17 miles ahead are muddy, gross, and going to make me want to cry.