Fall for All

Snickerdoodles

We're still plugging away here under the big sky. We had a great time last week during Peggy & Earl's visit. I don't have many photos, given that I actually missed some of the daytime outings to attend meetings. If I did, one *might* include the bear cub that they saw when Matt took them to see Palisade Falls. (On a possibly related note, we now own bear spray.) We had a shocking amount of rain while they were here, but it seemed to clear off for a bit each day so that at least some of Bozeman could be taken in from a dry vantage point. And we sent them away, after some terrific quality time, with some cookies (we're totally in love with our mixer as of late), so it all felt like a win. Except for Kassi, who got pictures of snickerdoodles, no cookies to eat, and none of the above fun. Poor kid.

Otherwise, it's been a lot of work and chores here. I have some major lab setup happening this week and Matt has people signed up and ready to be participants in some of his research.

We have also found a very sweet group of people here (4 young couples, including us) who we see every week and spent some extra time with over the weekend. Among us, we represent three academic departments and a section of the library, which is kind of fun. I never anticipated how much I would appreciate knowing people outside of my own department, but it's been a great way to keep from being sucked into a small section of life and just staying there.

We did do some more hikes last week and this morning. The leaves are starting to turn here, though I'm not sure how many fall colors we'll actually see given how dry things are in the day-to-day. Even without a lot of colors, though, how gorgeous is this photo below? Are you starting to think that I'm just downloading stuff of the internet and saying things like, "oh yeah. . . we were totally here. . . "

no worries. we think it's kind of ridiculous, too. there are a lot of days that we still can't believe that we live here. the hike today also took us past the remains of an old cabin and old mining shaft that we speculated about for a bit before continuing on. we're not sure what was mined here, but it looks old, looks like it would be cold in the winter, and was probably a LOT of work.

We also finally got to something that I think Matt has been wanting to do since he started to realize that he's quite good at cooking. During one of his conference trips a couple of years ago, he tried chicken and waffles and totally fell in love. Today, we pulled together his developing culinary expertise and all of our new kitchen toys (now including a waffle maker, obvi) and made some ourselves. (Yes, the plural is accurate there. I made the waffles).

I don't know that I've actually ever had anything like it before. It was good - we both agreed that it would be worth having again (especially if we have guests in town!) and we were kind of extra proud of how cute it looked.

That's a lot of good news, right?! Now for the bad news:

Holy moly. I don't know what's coming through here on Wednesday and Thursday, but it looks crazy. I'm pretty sure that 99% of the people who look at that will respond the way that I did. One should keep in mind, though, that there is already a legitimate buzz here about winter. People are PUMPED. We have never seen people so excited and eager to get snow. Everyone is still pretty angry that last year wasn't a a great year for skiing; they've apparently been antsy to get in a good day on a powdery mountain since last November.  So, good luck to them. If I make it through the end of the week, I'll try to muster some additional excitement on their behalf!

Delightful Things in Mountain Time

Much to our delight, we've recently found ourselves positioned as a two-person arc in a circle of friends who share these very important common interests: college football, hiking, and live music.  There are still a few (unnamed) individuals trying to expand the circle to include camping, fly fishing, and recreational sports leagues, but I wouldn't check any of those off as accomplished yet (a.k.a, "Becky still has no desire to sleep in a sleeping bag on the ground"). Nonetheless, some very important ground has been covered.

Pickwick at The Filling Station

Last week we went with two couples we have met since moving here to see the bands Pickwick and Moondoggies at The Filling Station. Like all good, inexpensive live music venues (see, for example, CoMo's Mojos), The Filling Station looks like a pretty spectacular dump from the outside. And I honestly write that with the greatest of affection. From the inside, the dump vibe turns into fun vibe. I think only people who grew doing small-town things like going to "fish fry night" at the VFW hall can really feel the homeyness of a place that asks you to save your glass because the bar only has so many. Or that, for example, has delightfully tacky neon signs over walls filled with old license plates and beer cans. Or that

The Filling Station

spotlights a flying horse throughout the show. It truly would be a shame for such things to go unappreciated. So, we appreciated the heck out of them and had a sweaty, great time. I have tickets to see Blitzen Trapper there in October (poor Matt will be out of town), but we've just noticed some other acts that we might enjoy will also be coming through town, including Okkervil River and Jolie Holland. It probably goes without saying that we are pretty excited to have a place in our backyard that we can go to for some good live music. We've been joking that the music scene here lies somewhere between the awesomeness of Columbia/Madison and the awfulness of State College.

I suppose that it is ironic, then, that we are pretty exhausted now that classes have geared up.  Of the two of us, Matt certainly has much

The M Trail

more of a right to complain, as I'm not teaching this semester. Nonetheless, we still get pretty excited about getting our weekend hikes in. There's an odd yet endearing tradition in Montana's university towns that involves placing a giant letter on the face of a mountain. (The woman from the alumni office who spoke at our orientation would want me to be sure to mention that MSU put up their letter, a gift from the senior class, before the other schools). Thus, it is also a tradition for subsequent generations to hike up the mountain to the letters. So, last week we did what felt like a treacherous (or perhaps just cruel) 850-feet-in-1.6-mile climb to the M on the edge of Bozeman. The photo to the right is taken from the bottom, left corner of the M. When you feel like you have a pretty good sense of that photo in your mind, click here and check out what that letter looks like from a bit farther away. Do your legs hurt a little bit just thinking about it? Because mine definitely hurt a little bit after hiking it. But the way down was lovely. We stopped and took this set of really intimidating, conquistador-looking photos just so that you'll all think that we're really dominating the hiking scene here. Sorry my hair looks so awesome (or, "awesome"). That must be pretty intimidating, too.














In all seriousness, though, we can't get enough of these views from the peaks of our hikes. Everything is so big and the rest of the world looks really, really beautiful from a summit. (There's got to be a life metaphor in that somewhere. . . )

Lava Lake

This weekend went hiking with our department chair, who taught us about oregon grapes, thimbleberries, and that "you can shake hands with a fir, but not with a pine." I must say that it feels *kind of* cool to know some of the local flora (though I'm the least likely of the three of us to actually remember said names), but even without it, this was easily our favorite hike to date. Before the midway turnaround, you find yourself at about 4700 feet in front of this gorgeous lake (that is Matt and Colleen finishing their lunches). If I would have panned a bit to the right, you would also see a man with his dog. If I would have taken a video, you would see and hear that every time the man jumped off of a big rock into the water, the dog went crazy with worry. . . whining and crying until his owner was safely back out of the water and on to the rock. We saw and heard a good number of repetitions in this cycle: both heartwarming and heartbreaking.

I also desperately wanted to take a picture of the undergrads who were clearly celebrating labor day weekend at the lake. . .which included at least one guy floating astride a giant log in the water, beer in hand and yelling back to his buddies on the shore. If you think I had any chance at keeping my laughter under control during that, you are definitely wrong.

Lest you think I'm trying to insinuate that everything is beautiful in Montana, let me put your mind at ease: the Iowa game was still pretty ugly here (or the score anyway - we are actually sans the Big Ten Network), and the fact that 50% of the televisions were showing UFC when we went to watch the Nebraska-Wyoming game last night didn't exactly leave a lovely picture in my mind. And, depending on your standards of beauty, you can always go click on that picture of The Filling Station again :)

We are headed into another busy week, but not too much so to wish an early happy birthday to the other mom/mother-in-law of our life, who we are both VERY much looking forward to seeing when she and Earl are out in a few weeks. (We've even gotten almost all of the curtains hung to make things really homey for our guests!) In any case, we hope your birthday is wonderful, Peg!

acclimating to the new life

if i told you that my husband and i made a delicious tofu dinner last night, would you think that i got remarried? well, prepare your mind to be blown, because i am not, in fact, remarried, but last night we feasted on this spicy vegan peanut butter tofu with sirracha, thanks to Kalyn's Kitchen. we've got a groove going for our meal planning, and we've employed a number of recurring "themed" nights, including a meatless monday. i'm not going to lie to you, this was delicious. but it almost burned my face off. it's kind of an iterative process to figure out what my tolerance level for sirracha really is.

berry and bread bounty

another part of our routine has become this weekday farmers market. i think that i've gushed about this a bit before, but we are really loving it. we've capitalized on their bread, pastry, and veggie selection and have eaten there every tuesday that we've been in town. we also tried this ice cream made from oatmeal. (if you're wondering how that went, just picture us saying, "what the heck?! this is made from oatmeal!!" about 5,000 times in a row. and then think more about a creamy ice cream than a sweet ice cream. that pretty much covers it). now, hopefully that description and my photos makes you think that we are well-rounded shoppers, because i'd be lying if i said that today we didn't come home with the following bag: raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and peaches. we got a little bit out of control with

the fruit.

work-related preparations have been happening this week. matt and i are both still assembling our laboratories. outside of waiting for his internet ports to be turned on, he's got one room that is pretty much ready to go. this means that he should be ready to start collecting data a soon as his study protocols are deemed ethical by the internal review board, and that's pretty awesome as far as quick work goes. he's also put quite a bit of time into revamping his website, which looks great (in my humble opinion) and can be viewed by all here. my setup is a bit slower-going. i'm still deciding how my temporary setup will work, given that the construction definitely won't be happening. however, i did hire two students this week who will work part-time in the lab and interviewed another who seems interested in some independent work with me. between my continuing lab setup and matt's prepping two courses for the coming semester (we start on monday the 26th), the work routine is still being worked out.

Bozeman from Drinking Horse Mountain

its been pretty hot here (i mentioned that nobody has air conditioning, right? :), so we made sure to do our weekend hike last weekend during the morning hours, before the heat was at its maximum. we actually made it to the summit of drinking horse mountain - which is over a mile high according to this website - via a short but very steep trail. being at the top was totally worth it, though, because the views looking back at bozeman were terrific. and matt even let me get a picture of him this time, because i'm pretty sure that his mom wants to see his smiling face on occasion, too :)

then we came back home and were very, very thankful that there is no humidity here. because if there was, that story would end, "and then we spent the whole day looking for window air units."  

the coming week is full of more of the same plus orientations, pot lucks, and welcome-type events for us. it's starting to feel like we actually have a home and jobs here!

(also, if you notice the date on the top of this post, it just happens to be my mom's birthday today. so, happy birthday, Mom!)

Today our stuff moves in with us

Today is the day that we are supposed to receive all of the things that we turned over to United Van Lines two weeks ago. To say that we are eagerly awaiting their arrival would be a shameful understatement. They just don't make air mattresses like they used to. Well, actually, air mattresses are probably way better than they used to be - but they are no beds, let me tell you.

The Badlands, SD

Mt. Rushmore

That is not to say, though, that the last two weeks have been a bust. The trip out here was pretty great. It was Matt's first drive through the Dakotas, and we are both chalking it up as a success. It got a liiiiiitle bit long in places, but mostly, it was gorgeous.

We stopped at the crossing of the Missouri River, Wall Drug, and the Badlands

Crazy Horse Memorial

National Park on our first day through SD. We spent the night in Rapid City, which was both larger and cuter than anticipated. Then, we set out for Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, and the remaining gazillion miles to Montana. We also stopped en route at the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn. All worthwhile stops, in our opinion, although the last was the most sobering. Especially in the wake of discussions about changing the name of that football team in DC, there were still a few things that, to us, seemed like indicators of some progress yet to be made on the front of relations

Marking Fallen Fighters at Little Bighorn

with Native Americans. In some ways, the literature put out by the government at the memorial reminded me of stories that I heard in graduate school of kids from the south studying "The War of Northern Aggression" rather than the Civil War. In any case, these are all topics for another, more political blog that isn't in the spirit of just trying to keep up with friends and family :)

On an unrelated note, driving through Wyoming was really, really awful. Like, really awful.

The non-history lesson that we learned was that majority of the states that we crossed are absolutely gorgeous. The scenery can go from prairie to a former sea bed to the barren west to mountains in no time flat. And if you discover that, in fact, your phone has the ability to take panoramic photos (note: Dad, if you're wondering right now, your phone can take panoramic photos), you can do stuff like this and then spend a lot of time delighting in it:

Panoramic View of the Badlands

We have also taken much delight in our new hometown. My advice for anyone who will be in our position is this: if you are going to spend a week and a half in an empty house with none of your belongings, move to a place that plans a BUNCH of outdoor goings-on. In the first week that we were here, Bozeman hosted two farmers markets, the Bite of Bozeman, the Sweet Pea Festival, and shuts down main street one night each week for live music and festivities. What? In a town of 40,000 people? Yep. That's the one. And boy was it nice when we otherwise have literally only two suitcases of belongings. Plus, it was awesome to be served cherry lemonade with a piece of watermelon in it. It's like one good idea after another here. Matt has also been particularly appreciative that all of these events happen in a place where there is no humidity. I can't say that I disagree.

We've also been spending time starting to assemble our offices and lab rooms. Undoubtedly, a more intensive version of these efforts will be in place this week. At minimum, I have my desk set up and we've figured out the bus route that runs from across the street to the student union that sits right next to my office building (Matt has a walk of about another 50 yards). All in all, the people have been incredibly nice, the weather has been amazing, and we're pretty excited to be settling in together! 

long overdue, but comin' at ya, all the same

there's been a lot going on here (and in the ohio branch) lately. matt and i both have a list of personal and professional "to-dos" that need to be taken care of before we move. and we've both been traveling, of course (we fear a little bit for the economic security of the airlines, once we're in the same state).

in april, i went to seattle for the first time. i had a conference downtown. true to its stereotypes, it rained every single day that i was there. a cold rain, always hard enough to be annoying, usually for most of the day. so, when i finished my talk and had a message from briana that it was nice out and she was heading to the space needle, i was on board! in probably the most awkward part of my trip, the search through my bag before entering the space needle turned up a metal fork. one i had stuffed into my bag after lunch at work one day and failed to retrieve with the rest of my post-lunch items. even more awesome: it looked pretty gross. i knew that the icky, dried brown coating was sauce from the peanut noodles, but i'm not sure if the security guard believed me. in any case, he was a good sport about it, took my fork away, had me fill out a tag for it, and told me that i could come back and get it once our tour of the space needle was over. of course, a rush to get on the light rail meant forgetting it at the guard's stand. so, if anyone is ever in seattle and wants to retrieve my dirty fork from the space needle, feel free.

after seattle, i drove to iowa to see my cousin, jessie jo, before she shipped off to start basic

training. (that pic is her and i at the wedding. i don't know why it looks like i've never seen a camera before.)

then, i continued down the road toward home because it was gabe's junior prom. i don't know if everyone's high school does/did this, but mine has an event called the grand march, where each of the couples (or even just a group of friends who wants to walk together) is presented to anyone from the public who wants to attend. it sounds kind of funny, but it creates a nice opportunity for friends

after Gabe's Grand March

and family to snap some photos (without actually showing up at their kids' prom. . . which some parents actually might) and the people in the community love to see the dresses. obviously. i lived in pennsylvania during both of kassi's proms and we are obviously moving to montana this summer, so it was a lot of driving, but it was nice to get to see one of the kids during such a fun time.

and i'm going to put up this pic of gabe and me rather than gabe and his date. even though her dress was way cuter.

the following weekend, matt and i met up in chicago for yet another psychology conference. we obviously also took the opportunity to sample some chicago cuisine and spend some quality time with dj and laura. now, if you would've told me five years ago that we would be choosing sushi over deep dish pizza, i would have told you that you were crazy. but that is, in fact, what happened. and it was spicy and delicious. just the way that we like it.

that brings us to last weekend. my friend kristi came to madison for the glow run 5k. since

the race was an evening event, we took the day to hang out, get pedicures, explore h&m, and catch up as we haven't for quite a long time. the run was pretty fun. it's a cool theme. and we went for good, wisconsin cheese balls (or "cheese curds" as they're called here, which i hate saying because "curd" is a gross word), as kristi demanded it as a stipulation of her visit. these are stipulations that i can live with, to be sure.

that pretty much brings us to now. matt and i just got back home from a house-hunting trip to montana. we found a cute rental. i'll post pictures once we know for sure that it will be ours. we also did our share to sample the local cuisine. we're really willing to take one for the team in that regard. we loved the places that we found, which included this cafe, this pizza place, and an old train depot that has been converted to a bar and grill. not to mention, i was elated to see that many of the businesses have adopted my long-standing pragmatic approach to "one-seater" bathrooms being unisex, cleverly labeling them "either" and "or" rather than "men" and "women." gone (hopefully) are my days of having to wait for 15 women to go to the bathroom one-by-one while the men's room sits empty. that's all i've been asking for. and, luckily, it never got to this point for me.

next weekend, kara and my sister, dy, are coming for the twilight 10K, then i'm heading to ohio, to iowa to see jill and meet little elsie, then toronto, then we're on our cruise, then moving. pretty much like everyone else's summer, i think.  you think you'll have so much time and you really don't. and then before you know it, you're moving to montana. well, maybe that part is specific to us :)

Job Search Update #2: The decision

As Lebron would put it, we're taking our talents to Montana State University. We're so excited. We're both on the tenure track, will be living in the same house, and will be housed in the same department. We're so, super thankful for all of the offers that we had, but this really seemed/seems like the best fit for us. There are still some things to work out re: my start date (it looks like my grant might actually be funded - yay!), but next year at this time we should be one of those "traditional" couples that live in the same city. crazy, huh?

so, what is this "bozeman" place? so far as we can tell, it's a mix of academics, former hippies, cowboys, and nature lovers. oh, and - in the summer - people visiting yellowstone. what sounds exciting about that? well, let us fill you in. . .

1. Boz Angeles: This nickname was bestowed in the last decade, as more and more Californians and celebrities started heading toward Big Sky Country. John Mayer hails from here. Rumor has it that Johnny Depp and the Jolie-Pitts have homes as well, though their sightings appear less frequently. People regularly see the likes of Michael Keaton, David Letterman, and other names that I always recognize when Matt says them, but never remember myself.


2. The out-of-doors: How's this photo look to you?  ->

Not too shabby, eh?

That's what we thought. And you'll see what they do with all of that space if you google Bozeman paired with any of the following: running, hiking, fishing, canoe, kayak, bike, trail, parks, skiing, snowshoe, well. . . .you get the idea. We are SO excited about the opportunities for playing out of doors. We are even more excited to learn that you can rent most of the necessary equipment from the University. In an unexpected way, my joining the winter running program here turns out to even more beneficial, as my former attitude about staying inside all winter long (out of necessity) is slowing changing. Slowly.

3. The "City": It's no secret that I'm more drawn to the city lights and Matt would prefer a more secluded existence. We're realizing more and more that Bozeman presents a really nice opportunity to compromise on this. We can live close enough to places that walking or biking to work/lunch/etc. - and generally being around people - remains plausible. However, we'll be in a small enough place that everyone isn't right on top of each other, people have yards, and nature is still just a few steps away. I'm not going to lie, though, I'm still holding out hope that an H&M might show up at some point. As is Matt, I'm sure, that we end up living next to a stream in a forest with friendly wildlife as neighbors :)

4. Montana has no sales tax. I don't think I need to explain how or why that is awesome.

5. Local eats: We are slowly learning more and more about how self-sustained life can apparently be in Bozeman. Not for me, of course, because I know nothing about catching or cooking food (though I do remember being in our garden when I was little), but for people with more knowledge about such things. There is a whole list of CSAs in the Bozeman area, Matt found this place that stocks kinds of fresh fish that I've never even heard of (but don't click on the "home" link. the pictures are not good.), and neither one of us hit a local restaurant that we didn't like.

6. An airport!: Given how much I've come to love having the Madison airport only 2.5 miles away, I'm super excited for Matt to understand how awesome it is to not have the drive to the airport take over an hour.  My family (and Karen) should note the direct flights to/from Minneapolis. Matt's family (and Kara) should note the "word on the street" that Southwest is thinking of joining the Boz team.

downtown bozeman

7. Local events: As it turns out, downtown Bozeman has a pretty active social life. There are  lots of regular happenings, including weekly music and drinks on main street. To add to the draw, main street is freaking adorable and littered with independent local businesses. We like all of these things.

Obviously, this is not an inclusive list. And everything is secondary to the excitement that we feel about FINALLY being able to live and work in the same place. But we are pretty pumped about what 2013 will be bringing us. Not that 2010 - 2012 were devoid of major life events. But, you know, this is definitely one that we have been waiting for for a while!