Chicken pot pie and rollercoasters

Well, a few leaves are falling out here. Even though it's more due to dry weather than cold weather it does make us reflect on the fun outdoor stuff we have been able to do this summer. Randy was able to drop in for a surprise visit due to his new job shuttling him all over the country. Crystal had the camera in Montana (see last post) so I don't have any photos from our hike, but we hiked to the top of two huge waterfalls on a beautiful day. Randy got to sample some of the neighborhood's Lebanese and Cuban cuisine, which was everyone's favorite.


Crystal and I managed to get away to the Pacific coast which still runs old-fashioned steam engine trains for sight-seeing tours. We didn't take the tour, but the train looked neat with the off shore rock formations in the ocean behind it.


Olive is growing up so fast and has really taken a shine to Jelly. They like to jump on each other and sometimes Olive even rides her like a bull. It's hard to get a picture when that magic happens, but this one is pretty cute.


Every year thousands of people gather to our nearby volcano for an exciting soap box race. They move very fast and are hard to take a picture of, but it was fun to see so many people come together for something so ridiculously fun and childish.


Speaking of childish delight, for my birthday we celebrated retro-style. We found an old drug store that has an original soda fountain where they still mix your soda by hand. They still make Green River and serve ice cream. Then we were off to one of the oldest operating amusement parks in the country. We never went until now because we assumed it was expensive, but it turns out that it is run by a non-profiut for historical preservation. It's free admission and $2 a ride. You can even bring your own food and picnic on the river for free! We rode the bumper cars twice and this mini-rollarcoaster nearly gave us whiplash.


My first homemade chicken pot pie. Yum!

Summertime flying by!

Today finds me short on words and long on photos. More to come soon! Hope you are all well and that your summers are stretching out as long as possible.


A new way to dop off your mail













I was in Montana for a few days during wildfire season. Here is a fire burning just over this mountain.














Here's a picture in Missoula of what looks like a huge cloud coming over the mountains. It's not actually a cloud put an enormous plume of smoke from a fire that just broke out. Within the next 24 hours this settled over the city leaving it like a warzone. It was hard to see more then a block in any direction the smoke was so thick.













No trip to Missoula would be complete without stopping by the Farmer's Market.













And of course, bars which serve trail mix in plastic marguerita cups. You were right Ben, that's some sweet trail mix.












And a few of the many lovely cruiser bikes that come out to play in the summertime of Missoula.






































Back at the ranch we keep ourselves occupied.











And welcome a new person into the world. Morgan was born to our friend's Jesse and Kat.













And here are some of my most favorite people (our nieces and nephews from NY) who are bigger and bigger everytime I see them.












And when the fires weren't raging in Montana there was swimming to be had!

Scott bends the Casio and interviews on 7/31

As this is my first posting I have to give some proper thanks to my better half for maintaining this blog all by herself. This week I have some exciting news so I decided it was time to finally contribute a posting on our blog.

I got a letter telling me I passed my aptitude test, despite running out of time and having to guess on the last few questions! Now I am scheduled for the next step which is an interview with the governing board. That will happen on July 31st, but I will have to wait 2-4 weeks after that to see where I rank.

In other news I finally finished a long-term circuit bending project. Check out the finished product:

The Casio SK-1 keyboard can do some AMAZING stuff when you add a few modifications. 23 various switches, dials and contacts are mounted in the light box and connect to the keyboard's circiut board through the cable. Here's what the inside of the light box looks like.

All of these switches and dials operate the keyboard in various ways. Different settings and combinations will make the keyboard create abstract sounds that it was never intended to make. Now I just have to learn how to play this frankenstein machine!

So far it has been a lot of fun and I'm glad I have the free time to work on things like this. It has been a blessing in disguise to not be employed right now, so I'm trying to make the best of it.

Our friends just had a baby girl so I'm going to cut this short and go see her.