Geology of the Lewis and Clark Caverns

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to visit the Lewis and Clark Caverns for a geology fieldtrip, sponsored by the people we love to hate, BIG OIL COMPANIES. One of their main geophysicists graduated from MSU and did his thesis project on the caves. He actually mapped almost all of the known passages back in the 70's. We all got a free shirt with the map printed on the back. I plan on wearing it on my next visit so I don't get lost. Anyway, it was freaking cool! There were 7 of us from around the general area, and because we were being led around by the guy that mapped it, we were allowed into other parts of the cave that tourists don't usuallly see.






The cave trip took about 2.5 hours. The first part of the day was spent studying lithologies, fault movements, and conglomerate rock masses. I ate lunch on rocks older than your oldest relative. Your 1 billion year old relative. That's right creationists, a billion.

Enjoy your week everybody. Molly will be home the first weekend in October and I'll be making a brief stop for approximately 48 hours in mid October.

A Life - and a VERY Important Sandwich

I am happy to report that I have a small social life. In a matter of TWO days I attended THREE, count them, THREE social gatherings!!! Sunday, we went to an Obama volunteer meeting. There were some great people there and we also met a local politician - JP Pomnichowski. I signed up to volunteer so will be apart of my first political campaign and continued on my path of becoming a bonified tree-hugging hippie (says my repub friends). I'm really excited to learn more and actually be involved - Montana is 50/50 right now so how cool to work towards their efforts! After the meeting, we went over to admire our friends' new deck. Tyson provided a helpful hand during the month before wife and dog arrived on the building of said deck and it was really neat! Lander and John were lovely hosts and Moose got to play with his friend, Yacu.

Last night was the last event - I attended a training session for Eagle Mount Therapeutic Horseback Riding Center. Gina, the director, was awesome and I am really looking forward to volunteering there. I'm going to be involved in a hippotherapy class with little kidos who are very physically challenged. I am looking forward to meeting my new friend next Friday. I also will be on their "sub" list in case people can't make it or call in sick - which will be fun to meet the variety of people!

The last part of my posting will be devoted to one of Tyson's best friends in the whole wide world: Travis. If you know this fellow, you will know that he has VERY specific taste in foods. Some examples of this I have picked up throughout the years include:

~eating each item in a distinct order - you will NEVER catch Travis eating his burger and fries intermixed - it must be one before the other! Not even on Thanksgiving will you find Travis mixing his foods...

~strong distaste for mustard. His distaste for it goes so far as to eat around a mustard thumbprint found on his burger at Winsteads

~hatred for pickles - don't even put it on the plate NEAR his food. If pickle juice is soaking into fries, chips or bread - you can bet there might be something left on his typically clean plate!

Despite these oddities, Travis had a sandwich named after him at a local restaurant today. I am VERY proud to include photos of Travis with the sandwich description AND a photo of the actual sandwich. I don't think I've found a time Tyson has been more sad to miss out on something in KC, as going for The Travis Sandwich day today in KC. His work towards his sandwich brings me to ask myself and all of you - if there were a sandwich named after you, what would it consist of? Please post a comment including your response, as I am truly interested!!!

Travis - We think you have a winner in that sandwich and hope that it made the permanent menu!

Credibility Check

To help ensure my co-workers see that I truly work from home, as opposed to sitting outside all day watching the mountains I can see from my back deck, riding down the river on a raft, or sitting out on a ski lift somewhere - I thought I would provide my photo evidence. We get several requests for photos of our place, but thus far, this is the only one that exists. We're working on it. Some important things to note about my home "office":

• My desk is in the L shape I prefer. To enable this structure, we used our old coffee table top and situated it above Moose's kennel, which turned out to be the perfect height.
• If you look carefully at the dark shadows, you will see Moose sleeping inside his kennel, which is where he can typically be found when I'm working. We have worked very hard with Moose to leave his toys outside of the room, as the random squeaking is very confusing when on conference calls.
• My desk is still as much a mess as it was in KC - I think this helps the legitimacy. (the fellow BAs can attest)
• For those in my department reading - I was quite jealous of Blaine's desk, so incorporated a stylish lamp, some artwork by my artist friend Shannon, my trusty desk horse (thanks Andy and Nick), and photos of some of my favorite new babies (preston, syd and laila!) I appreciate those sending photos, as I need more baby pics added. The only other photos are of adam, parents and grandparents.
• Yes - I'm wearing shorts, a tank top and my hair in pigtails. My "dressing" for work is dressing to work OUT. This motivates me to actually go through with it. So far - I'm doing well at daily runs. moose whines at me around 5:30 every day which helps me walk away from my desk. My outfit is the most commonly asked question from people I talk to during the day so thought I would make sure and add that bullet.

What I do after work and my run is my next photo. That sums up my days and nights here - at least weekdays/nights!

On a last note about my posting subject: I typically try not to upset people by adding my political views, unlike my lovely husband. I respect what he has to say though - and typically agree wholeheartedly. I just tend to avoid topics that might push issues between my friends and have always tried to keep an open mind about all candidates despite my liberal upbringing. At first, I was excited that McCain was the selected R candidate (not excited enough to vote for him, mind you) - he isn't as religious right as I expected and I like some of what he has to say and always had respect for him. I do want to say that this slander campaign of spinning and lies has led me to feel a little differently about the opposing candidates. I know this is suposedly what AMERICAN politics is all about, but it doesn't make me any more sick about it. All I can say, is refer to http://www.factcheck.org/, as they are an UNbiased website that can tell you about the truth (they will also talk about any lies the demos push out there). I am getting quite sick with this election already and we still have two months left! I'm ready for it to be over. Well, it's about that time to go enjoy my end of the night position in photo 2 listed. ~mols

While the wife's away.............

....................... the boys will chop firewood and go mudding. Molly had yet ANOTHER wedding to attend this past weekend, leaving her husband and canine child to fend for themselves. Moose and I spent Friday night at the cabin drinking Kokanees and weilding an axe, not necessarily in that order. Moose also helped to rearrange the pile of firewood by constantly picking up a freshly cut piece and dropping it in the yard. At least that kept him from eating deer droppings. There are so many things for dogs to do in the mountains! For everyone that is unfamiliar with Kokanee, here is a pic. Fresh Canadian Rocky Mountain Beer. You actually have to hike to a cold mountain stream just to find them. On a good day there'll be a case waiting for you.

As I'm sure most of you don't know, the Montana State Bobcat Football team decided to have a go with the Big 12 on Saturday. They travelled all the way to Manhattan to test their skills. Now, I didn't have time to watch the game, but I had a sixth sense about the outcome. Before checking the final score a few of us tried to make an educated guess as to the actual points scored by each team. I picked the score within 6 points. MSU 10 KSU 63. Actual score---69 to 10. MSU football has a long way to go.

I will leave everyone with something to ponder: why haven't we seen Sarah Palin being interviewed by any of the news agencies since her nomination? Here's why--------

Climatic changes

A cold wind has blown down from the Northwest this past Labor Day weekend.

It didn't last long though, seeing that it was actually full of hot air. Oh, the weather has been real weird around here too. We got a brief dusting of snow on Monday, but now we're back up into the 70's and loving it.

Hope everyones holiday weekend went well. We've been busy and haven't been able to post in a while. Moose got to return to the river on Saturday and subsequently found another dead fish to rub himself on. Bath time again.

The next day I took him on a hike and he found something even more interesting to smear on his face. A deer leg.

School started yesterday and the work load is already ridiculous. Because I'm a transfer student I am required to take some of MSU's core classes. Well, the only one left for this semester was World Architecture. Sounds like an interesting topic. It involves quite a bit of history, which I fully enjoy, but here's the catch. I had to buy 5 books for this one class. Then, when I go to class, the professor has a list of 6 more supplemental books that he would like us to have access to. After hearing that I then find out that one of the $55.00 books I purchased isn't required for this class at all. He just thought it would be a good coffee table book. Thank you, but my bike magazines will suffice.

Dream Ticket

President Clinton's and Joe Biden's speeches were great. Can't wait until tomorrow.

At least I know how to do yard work

What I've learned about the college employment system: it's not there to help you.
So, I've been perusing the list of available jobs that the University has to offer and scaled it down to the few that were semi-interesting/applicable to my field. The Dept. of Fish, Wildlife and PArks had quite a few to choose from. So, I called, asked questions, was asked to come fill out an application, etc. I went down to the offices and asked one of the employees for a student employment application (which I was instructed to do no less than 30 minutes prior). She asked if I was a member of the work-study program. I am not. She then told me she had nothing for me. When I started to ask another question she cut me off and said "We have nothing for you here." Apparently all of the University jobs have priority qualifications that I am not eligible for. Why am I not eligible? Because I have had a job and paid all of my taxes since I was 14 years old. If I would have been unemployed for the last year my qualification status would have skyrocketed. Anyway, I have met some very nice people who are originally from KC that need a lot of work done around they're house. I would like to personally thank my father for the thousands of child labor hours I spent raking leaves and trimming hedges. That experience is now paying its dividends.