It snowed!

I didn't get pictures today; we had 54 8th graders from Pugetropolis. I was otherwise occupied. But hey, two of the visiting teachers were Don and Everett, TRTs from the summer who worked with us on the curriculum project.

Don owes me dinner for sticking me with all of his middle school football players.

It's supposed to be the same weather through Thursday, so I'll try to get snow pictures from Paradise tomorrow.

Snow is on the way!

From the NOAA forecast for Paradise tomorrow:

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THE RECENT DRY AND MILD WEATHER PATTERN WILL COME TO AN ABRUPT ENDTONIGHT AS A COLD FRONT SWINGS ACROSS THE AREA.

WHILE THE FRONT WILL BRING SOME LIGHT RAIN TO MOST AREASTHIS EVENING...THE BIGGER WEATHER CHANGE WILL BE NOTICED ON TUESDAY.TEMPERATURES IN THE LOWLANDS WILL TOP OUT IN THE 50S ONTUESDAY...WHILE TEMPERATURES IN THE MOUNTAINS PASSES
ONLY PEAK OUTAROUND THE 40 DEGREE MARK.PRECIPITATION ON TUESDAY WILL BE SHOWERY...SO SNOWFALL AMOUNTS INTHE MOUNTAINS ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BE HEAVY. HOWEVER SNOW LEVELSWILL BE AROUND 4000 FEET AND AN INCH OR TWO IS POSSIBLE
ABOVEABOUT 5000 FEET.

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Winter is on its way!

Autumn in the Cascades

During the past couple of weeks, the fall colors have really developed. The Blueberries are just beautiful!

Update for the Week...

The last half of this week has flown by! Last night, my roommate moved out. Heather was only seasonally here, working for the Natural & Cultural Resources Division. Her last day of work was yesterday, and now she has a week off. Then she's headed to Yosemite for a 5-month project.

Yosemite is one park that I haven't been to yet. Yet. Someday I'll get to see those monoliths.

Meanwhile, I was out hiking the Skyline trail from Paradise with a couple of classes of fourth and fifth graders the past two days. It's almost nice to sit here in the quiet office for a few minutes! Today will be a short day in the office; tomorrow morning I'm going to a workshop all about the mushrooms and fungi found in the park. It should be interesting; I'm hoping to come home with something yummy to eat, too. :)

Next week I have a few programs to give and then next weekend I'm house- and dog-sitting for the sled dog team again. I love those dogs!

It seems like I have very little of any substance to write about lately. I think my mind is in 1000 directions at once and I can't really focus on any one thing.

But maybe now that I have my apartment all to my quiet self again, I'll get back to reading and thinking more. ;)

Question...

I have this problem on my work (read: 'government') computer. Some of the blogs I follow don't load properly when I open the site to read them. For instance, MountainMama's blog rarely opens for me. I get the title bar graphic, and the info boxes on the left column. But the content rarely shows. This happens occasionally to other blogs as well. But it does not happen all of the time! When I'm really lucky, the entire front page of a blog will load and I'll be able to read to my heart's content.

Does anyone else have this problem? I bet this is just the silly servers here at the office. Inconsistent problems at random times. Go figure.

New Sweater

So today's post is not going to be about work. Unless you consider knitting as work. Which I don't. ;)
I'm working on a new cabled raglan pullover for myself. I got the yarn a year ago, and I've been charting out various cables in Excel since. I never could find one that I was 100% happy with, but I think this is turning out ok. I'm hoping that the 5 balls of yarn will be enough for a hood. I'd love to make this into a hoodie. Maybe I'll get this done in time for the fall winter.


What do you think? I know the pictures are small, but does the cable set work?

New Week... The boss is back

Other than that, I'm out of words.

Oh! I found out today that the interp division will be showing the new Ken Burns documentary series about the National Parks at the VC at Paradise. So I will get to see it!!!

Good-bye Mary

I saw in the CNN headlines this morning that Mary Travers has died. Sad. I really like folk music like Peter, Paul and Mary produced. Music with a message.

Maybe I'm just not in tune with today's music. But whatever happened to artists that could actually sing? There seems to be fewer and fewer.

End-of-the-Year Reports

This week, one of my tasks is to write up what I've done thus far during my internship here at Mount Rainier. I thought it would be hard. So I started an outline.

DEAR GOD, I AM A NERD.

It's going to have chapters. God help the people who actually read this thing.

Busy, Busy

I have found things to do at the office between programs. This is a very good thing. I'm hoping to stay busy!

Meanwhile, there are suddenly several blogs that I need to read and/or catch up on.

Hmmm... What to do first??

A Gift Certificate!!!

Oh! Those lovely Smith Girls in Estes Park, CO, sent me a $30 gift certificate to KnitPicks!!! Oh my. What choices I have. I don't even know where to begin! I have this notion that I want some City Tweed, perhaps either in the Plum Wine or Enchanted colorways...

Or maybe some more sock yarn.

Maybe some lace?

Back to the Blazing Metropolis...

...that is Ashford, Washington.

My detail to the East (a.k.a. "Sunny") Side of the Park is over. No more waking up to Alpenglow at 6:30 a.m. Sigh.

I'm sitting here at Whittaker's in Ashford, attempting to catch up on things that have happened during the past month while I was out of touch. (Am I ever really in touch?!) Yet all that's on my mind is food.

For those of you who are curious, the wild berry-picking total for the season thus far is:

1 qt, 1 c. Blackcap raspberries
2 c. Thimbleberries
1 c. Salmonberries (Hannah and I ate most of what we picked in July!)
1 qt, 2 c. Blackberries
4+ qts. mixed Blueberries and Black Huckleberries

Needless to say, it's jamming season here. I also picked up a couple of pickle recipes from Ranger Julia last week. Very interesting; I'll have to try them. Makes me hungry just to think about it. Oh, and a small jar of peach ketchup was shared around the south blockhouse at Sunrise, thanks to Ranger Julia as well. I REALLY want to try to recreate that recipe. Seriously yummy.

I have a 3-day weekend this weekend, as I only had 1 day off during the past two weeks. I have a huge to-do list, including laundry, groceries, banking, etc. etc. etc.

Or maybe I'll just sleep the weekend away.