more Yellowstone photos

There were quite a few animal remains in this area. We think perhaps this is an area where predators (wolves?) hunt and/or eat.

A couple geothermal features we saw along the road

Okay, I have three minutes until the planned Blogger outage. Enough for a few words: We now have Web access in our home, which is excellent. Check for updates to this blog in the next few days, including a bunch more photos of Yellowstone.

I don't have a lot of time to write at this moment, as I'm swamped with cleaning, unpacking, calling utilities, etc. But I just wanted to say that we arrived safely on Wednesday, and we are sleeping in our house for the first time tonight! I will post more photos and comments from our journey--and some of our new home--soon. (Hopefully we'll have Internet access at the house soon, which would make that a lot easier. At this point, I have to go to a coffee shop to use my computer.)

Old Faithful

I love the way the steam melds with the clouds in this shot:

On Monday morning, we drove into the park for the second time. At the ranger station, there was a sign saying that Beartooth Highway was closed again. Apparently, there were a couple avalanches two hours or so after we drove by!

Butte. Perhaps the less said about Butte, the better. I don’t think we’ll be staying there again. Our hotel, our hotel room, our dinner options . . . Yeah, the less said, the better. :)

issues

I've been trying to blog for the last few days, with little success. Our hotel in Butte said it had wireless, but it would take minutes--literally minutes--to load a page. And now, in Spokane, I keep getting a "Bad Request" message when I try to upload photos to my blog. Ugh. I've been working on this for hours now, and we need to get ready to leave. I'm going to have to try to post all this when we get to Olympia, I guess. It might be a few days. Sorry.

more Yellowstone

Firehole River


Mammoth Hot Spring

Jupiter Terrace:



Minerva Terrace, currently inactive:

Liberty Cap, a dormant hot spring cone:

Palette Spring:

detail of running water and mineral deposits at Palette Spring:

Pronghorn

Pronghorn are the fastest land mammals in the New World.

Female pronghorn and young high up on the hillside:

Male pronghorn:

Bison videos! Excuse my raspy voice; I think I'm getting laryngitis or something. I'm down to a whisper now, which is probably good, as Liam is sleeping.

Today, Sunday, the first of June, we drove from Billings to Yellowstone. We left Billings at around noon, after stopping by Scott's house to see his parents and to meet their dog, Farley. We also had the privilege of seeing Scott's current photo show. His photography is really amazing.

The drive to Yellowstone was, of course, beautiful. We took Beartooth Highway and entered Yellowstone through the northeast entrance. This was the most convenient entrance for us by far, and we're really lucky it was open--it was closed until yesterday due to an avalanche. The highest point in our ascent up Beartooth Pass was close to 9000 feet. Here are some photos of our drive over the pass. I'm really bummed that the sky wasn't blue; the photos would've turned out a lot better.

At one point during our drive up the pass, I looked up at one of the snowy peaks and saw squiggly lines that looked exactly like ski tracks. I showed Steve, but he was skeptical. "Um, I really think those are ski tracks," I said. Sure enough, a couple seconds later I saw someone skiing (or snowboarding) down the peak. Incredible.

Our car has been doing so well up until now, and we were dismayed when it gave a violent lurch today while we were in The Middle of Nowhere, Montana. It was almost like it lost power for a second, but then kept right on going with no problem. It did this several more times. We racked our brains to figure out what was happening, and we even called my brother to see if he had any ideas. We came up with some possible problems but nothing definitive. We kept trying new methods that we hoped would make the problem go away (turning off cruise control, turning off the air conditioning, turning off the fan, staring at the engine and prodding belts and wires, putting premium gas in the car . . . ). The lurches kept happening at long and unpredictable intervals throughout our trip to Yellowstone, through our drive up the somewhat treacherous pass and down the other side, and on our trek through the park. It made us very tense, particularly because we were so far from home (either Aurora or Olympia).

Finally, as we were ascending another mountain within the park, I had an epiphany. I remembered that Steve had just changed the car battery about a week ago. I asked, "Steve, do you think maybe one of the battery connections is coming loose?" (This had happened to one of our other cars years ago, but I didn't even remember that. In that case, the car was an automatic and would just totally die whenever the connection would loosen. In this case, our car is a stickshift, so it keeps going after a momentary hesitation.) Anyway, Steve checked the battery connections, and sure enough, one of them was loose! Once we got to our hotel on the west side of Yellowstone, he tightened it up. We're hoping and praying that that was indeed the problem, and that it's now fixed. We'd appreciate your prayers about this too.

We had lunch by Soda Butte Creek, just inside the eastern edge of Yellowstone (see photo below). After lunch, I walked Jackson along the road, and he found what I'm pretty sure was some coyote poop. He was very interested in his find--he even tried to roll in it! This is not a typical Jackson reaction when encountering dog poop (which is one of the reasons I think it was coyote), and I'm really glad I caught him before he smeared it all over himself.

Over the past few weeks, I've been assembling a bag of treasures for Liam. Each day of our journey, he gets a brand new toy or activity at some point during the drive. Today's surprise was a bunch of animal figurines--cow, horse, chicken, bighorn sheep (some of you will catch the significance of this), and even a pig that oinks. He is very much enjoying his new collection, and he's working on perfecting his pig oink. He shared it with the hostess at the restaurant where we ate tonight, and she thought it was adorable, as do we.

Below are some photos of scenery within Yellowstone.

Beryl Spring:

Close-up of Beryl Spring's boiling water:



Gibbon Falls:


We also saw bison, elk, and even a pronghorn who had apparently just given birth to two calves (fawns?). At any rate, the pronghorn was so far away that we could hardly see her, and we couldn't see her newborn babies at all. But the huge crowd of people around us could see her quite well with their enormous telephoto lenses, binoculars, and telescopes. Below are a few of photos of bison. Don't worry; the second one is a zoom. I'm not a complete idiot, and I have no desire to be gored. I took the third one from the sunroof of our car. I'm also going to post some video from that particular bison sighting, which was amazing.







Now we're trying to decide what to do tomorrow. We were planning to take a quick morning drive into the park to see the typical tourist trap (Old Faithful), then head out to Missoula, MT. But we're having so much fun here that we're thinking about staying another night and skipping Missoula, or possibly driving to Bozeman, MT, instead of Missoula, which would give us more time in the park before we had to leave.

My camera ran out of battery this afternoon, and I idiotically forgot to bring the charger cord with us. Right now it's on the moving truck, which is somewhere in the Dakotas for all I know. We went to a camera shop here in West Yellowstone to see if we could get a charger cord or another battery (which wouldn't do us much good anyway, as they are sold uncharged). We didn't find either, at any rate--apparently our camera is fairly obscure. But I was desperate to have a camera, because there is so much to photograph in Yellowstone!

Besides, I dropped our camera about a year ago, and now it is very finicky. When you first turn it on, the screen is dark, and if you take a photo, it turns out entirely black. But then, once you've taken that first photo of absolutely nothing, it works just fine. However, this ritual can be quite frustrating, particularly when you're trying to capture a fleeting moment. We've been talking for months about getting a new camera, but we've been dragging our feet. I mean, technically our camera works, so we felt like getting a new one would be frivolous (not to mention expensive!).

Anyway, we did end up getting a new camera. This has to be the quickest, most impulsive decision of this sort that I've ever made. Typically I'll do hours of research before making this type of purchase. But the camera shop was closing in less than a half hour, so I did the next best thing: I got a personal recommendation. I called my friend Jan. She and my friend Elizabeth have the same camera, and they both like it very well. Hopefully I'll like it too!

We officially left Chicagoland on Thursday. It was so strange to see our empty house.

We ate lunch in our house but didn't have any chairs, so Liam had to dine on the kitchen counter.

We're in Billings, MT, now. We had very long days on Thursday and Friday; in both cases we didn't get to our hotel until after 11 p.m. This means that Liam didn't get much sleep, and it also means that I didn't have a chance to blog. But today we actually got to our destination before dark. *gasp!*

Overall, things have gone pretty well. We had a fairly tense drive to Minneapolis in the dark on Thursday, with a tremendous downpour making it difficult to see the road. Other than that, our drives have been pretty uneventful. Our car is doing just fine, aside from a hole in the muffler that makes it sound like we're trying unsuccessfully to trick out a Mazda 626. :) We use a tape adapter so we can listen to the music on our MP3 players through our car's stereo, but the tape player stopped working about 15 minutes into the first leg of our journey on Thursday. Plus, the car's antenna is broken, so we don't get radio reception. Thankfully, we had borrowed a long book on CD (Jane Eyre) from the library, and we've been enjoying listening to that. Steve has never read Jane Eyre, and it's been so many years since I have that it's really new for both of us. Liam and Jackson also seem riveted by the tale.

We got to see our friends Julie and Dennis (and their three kids) in St. Paul, but I'm kicking myself for not taking any photos! Here in Billings, we've had the privilege of spending some time with our friends Jan and Tim (and their two kids--see photos below), as well as our good friend Scott.

The drive from Bismarck, ND, to Billings today was beautiful. We passed through flat farmland, rolling hills, buttes, the Painted Canyon, and craggy hills. Once we got into Montana, our route took us along the Yellowstone River most of the way to Billings. We can see snow-covered mountains in the far distance from our hotel window here.

We ate lunch today in Glendive, MT, which, according to our friend Scott, is the smallest media market in the country. They have their own TV channel, which is basically run by one guy. We ate at one of probably two restaurants in the town--a Pizza Hut in a strip mall, with Jackson barking at us from the car the whole time. (Don't worry, he had plenty of shade and ventilation.)

Liam is doing great with the long drives. He gets bored and irritated at times, of course, but he really is handling it remarkably well. He doesn't sleep much in the car, though; he'll fall asleep, but he won't sleep for nearly as long as he would in his crib. This means that he's not getting good naps, on top of getting so little sleep at night. From now on, though, our driving days should be shorter, so hopefully he'll be able to have a better routine.

Jackson is traveling like a champ. He sleeps contentedly on the back seat next to Liam's car seat every day, strapped into his own safety belt.

Jackson has gotten much better about hotels too--no pacing or whining anymore. He had fun looking out the window of our fifth-story hotel room in Bismarck from his perch atop the air conditioner.

We're on to Yellowstone tomorrow!

We took this photo today; it should give you an idea of the vast distances and sparse population of Montana:

(As you've probably guessed, Miles is a street name.)

This'll be a short one; hopefully I'll have a chance to write more tomorrow/today (it's 1:15 am). Steve just got back to the hotel from cleaning our house. He is absolutely exhausted, understandably. Come to think of it, so am I, but it seems pretty unfair for me to complain when he spent the last five hours cleaning, and I spent them hanging out with Monaca and then watching David Letterman, Conan, and part of Dr. Phil (hey--the pickins were slim, okay?!).

Movin' out

So, the packers/movers came today. It's been a stressful couple of days getting ready for them to come; I'll spare you the details, but let's just say that it's hard when you're waiting till the last possible moment to take down paintings, etc., so that your house looks good for realtor showings. Last night (or should I say this morning?) we got to bed after 3 am. (Side note: Our house has not sold yet. Sigh. We'd appreciate prayers about this.)

We are in Aurora until Thursday morning, but we're staying in a hotel here for the next two nights, since we don't really have furniture, dishes, etc. available in our house anymore. Thankfully, Steve's company is paying for hotels.

I'm sitting in our hotel suite right now, with Jackson unwillingly at my feet and Liam sleeping in the bedroom. Our poor pooch is so nervous and unsure about what's going on. He's whining continually, particularly because Steve left to go help the movers get stuff out of our attic. Jackson just doesn't understand what's going on, poor guy. I actually had to attach his leash to the table so that he would stop scratching at the door. Here's a photo:

"Sharon Lamb, in The Secret Lives of Girls, says the two most important prohibitions for girls, entering the twenty-first century, are against sex and aggression. For women, exhibiting either kind of behavior--sexual or aggressive--is a potentially dangerous transgression. It can be seen as reneging on the promise that, according to Dana Crowley Jack in Behind the Mask, extends chivalric protections to women in exchange for their agreeing to be gentle, nurturing, and submissive. To be caught desiring either is to be caught eating forbidden fruit. And the repercussion is to be not only cast out but recast, positioned as something other than purely feminine, at once deprived of and liberated from a certain social compact."

- Without Apology, by Leah Hager Cohen

"If I were to die from eating something fattening, it would be bacon."

- Steve Taylor

"The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."

- Middlemarch, by George Eliot

"Love is like malaria--once it's under your skin, it's never really gone."

-Australian guy on "Crossing Jordan"

Weird photo

Okay, I invariably get to a point where I'm pretty confident in my technical abilities and my knowledge of blogging, and then something like this happens. Look to the left. Can anyone help me figure out why my photo is all squished, even though it looks fine on my blogger dashboard? And can you tell me how I can fix it?

Yet another quote

"We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws."

- Albert Einstein

Dancing dogs

Yes, I'm a crazy dog person.

More quotes

"The mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it."

-Middlemarch, by George Eliot

"Femininity is not the thing I hate once a month, it is not a collection of fatty deposits, not a style of clothing, or an overabundance of specific hormones. Femininity is a part of my essence, or philosophically speaking, my soul. Femininity is who I am, not merely what I do."

-Ruby Slippers, by Jonalyn Grace Fincher

Literary quotes

Here are a couple quotes that struck me as I was reading this week:

“He was, and is yet most likely, the wearisomest self-righteous Pharisee that ever ransacked a Bible to rake the promises to himself and fling the curses to his neighbours.”

–Nelly Dean, in reference to Joseph (Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë)

“[Marriage] is, of all transactions, the one in which people expect most from others, and are least honest themselves.”

–Mary Crawford (Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Library voice

The close tie between patriotism and Christianity

Butt out

I have never before agreed so much with Tyra Banks. Check this out:

February in Santa Cruz, CA (my birthplace)

Grrr . . . Minor rant: While I love most things about this template, I hate how it automatically capitalizes every word in the title of a post. The editor in me cringes!

Testing my patience

I was disappointed to read the following on a Christian crisis-pregnancy-center Web site. It's a test entitled "Am I going to heaven?" Most disappointing of all is probably the last part of the test.

Am I going to heaven?

It's not very encouraging that I'm surprised by this.

You know the Bible 100%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

I am

I am sleepy.

I want ice cream.

I have long second toes.

I wish I could fall asleep.

I hate it when my son gets shots.

I fear disappointing people.

I hear my son crying in the monitor.

I search for poop stains on baby clothes.

I wonder if I’m a better person than I was five years ago.

I regret saying vindictive things.

I love seeing my son smile at me in the morning.

I ache to go home again.

I think ½ cup is a ridiculous serving size for ice cream.

I always position toilet paper rolls with the paper coming over the top.

I usually correct typos I find in books.

I am not kidding.

I dance in smarty pants.

I sing without realizing it.

I never eat just ½ cup of ice cream.

I rarely lose things (famous last words).

I cry when I share details about my life (even fairly superficial ones) in groups.

I am not always good at giving people grace.

I lose weight when I get pregnant.

I'm confused by people who are purposely and randomly cruel.

I need to clean the bathrooms.



Now it's your turn!

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Imperial Majesty Wendy the Amicable of Deepest Throcking Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

True Confessions

We still have all our Christmas decorations up--outdoor and indoor (including the Christmas tree). The Christmas lights outside all still go on at dusk, as do the tree lights. Maybe I should send this in to PostSecret (see link at left).

Dance

Here's another video from OK Go, the group that did "Here We Go" (with the treadmills video).

Poem

I thought this was interesting.

The Calf's Path
Sam Walter Foss (1895)

One day through the primeval wood
A calf walked home as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail as all calves do.
Since then three hundred years have fled,
And I infer the calf is dead;
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hangs my moral tale.

The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bellwether sheep
Pursued the trail o'er hill and glade,
Through those old woods a path was made.
And many men wound in and out,
And dodged and turned and bent about,
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because 'twas such a crooked path;
But still they followed--do not laugh--
The first migrations of that calf,
And through this winding wood-way stalked
Because he wobbled when he walked.

This forest path became a lane
That bent and turned and turned again;
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet,
The road became a village street;
And this before men were aware,
A city's crowded thoroughfare.
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

Each day a hundred thousand rout
Followed this zigzag calf about
And o'er crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way,
And lost one hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent
To well-established precedent.

A moral lesson this might teach
Were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the Calf-path of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track
And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do,
They keep the path a sacred groove,
Along which all their lives they move;
But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,
Who saw the first primeval calf.

Ah, many things this tale might teach -
But I am not ordained to preach.

Liam's Blog

For those who are interested, I've updated Liam's blog (previously my pregnancy blog). You can access it from the link to the left. From now on, I'll post new posts at the top rather than the bottom.

In case you didn't know, at the very bottom of the page are early photos of Liam as well as a post describing the labor-and-delivery experience.

Long time no write

Whew! This parenting thing is hard. Don't have time to write. Haven't for weeks . . . and don't know if I ever will again. :)

How confident R U feeling 2day?

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?
Make a Quiz

My Little Boy

Liam Elliot Taylor

born 8 November 2006, 10:36 a.m.

8 pounds 2 ounces

19 1/2 inches

Trick or treat

Here are some Halloween "treats" for you.

Flaming Bag of Poo

Why Dogs Hate Halloween

Note: I'm not endorsing either Web site by posting these links.

New look

Now that things are showing up correctly, I'm liking the new look. I've also added some stuff to the sidebar (e.g., books I'm reading) and changed other things (e.g., I no longer have people's full names listed in the "My Friends' Blogs" section).

As a bonus, through this whole process, I've learned quite a bit about code. (Though I still have more to learn. Next item of business: Figure out how to add graphics to the sidebar and make them hyperlinks.)

It's kind of depressing how much time I spend tinkering with my blog. (That would sound kind of naughty to someone who didn't know what a blog was. Hee hee.) But when you've really got nothing else to do, it helps pass the time.

Aaggh!

Okay, more progress. Now my posts are showing up in the right place, but my photo is enormous! Nobody wants to see me on the big screen!

Some progress . . .

Okay, at least now the font looks right. Thanks for the help, Mike! Still working on the other problem . . .

Bear with me

Yes, I'm trying a new template (thanks for the tip, Julie), and yes, I realize that it doesn't look right yet. Everything is showing up as part of the sidebar. That's why the posts are displayed below the sidebar info instead of next to it; it's also why the font in my posts is so flowery and why every word in my posts is capitalized. I'm working on it. I'll fix it ASAICFOH (as soon as I can figure out how). Any hints from HTML-savvy friends? I've never been trained at all in HTML, so I'm learning as I go.

You've Changed 64% in 10 Years

Compared to who you were ten years ago, you've changed a great deal. In fact, you're probably in a completely different phase of your life - and very happy about it!

How Much Have You Changed in 10 Years?

If you go with my married name . . .

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 863 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

If you go with my maiden name . . .

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 147 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Your English Skills:

Grammar: 100% Punctuation: 100% Spelling: 100% Vocabulary: 100%

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

Getting sick of these yet?

Julie C., you need to take this quiz.

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

15% Upper Midwestern

10% Dixie

5% Yankee

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Is this a good thing?

Your Geek Profile:

Academic Geekiness: Highest Music Geekiness: High Internet Geekiness: Low Movie Geekiness: Low Fashion Geekiness: None Gamer Geekiness: None Geekiness in Love: None General Geekiness: None SciFi Geekiness: None

How Geeky Are You?

Well, at least they got the country right.

You Belong in Paris

You enjoy all that life has to offer, and you can appreciate the fine tastes and sites of Paris. You're the perfect person to wander the streets of Paris aimlessly, enjoying architecture and a crepe.

What European City Do You Belong In?

Funny New Link

Check out this link, Crummy Church Signs. It's hilarious . . . and sometimes disturbing.

I Didn't Know Treadmills Could Be So Cool

Check out this awesome video.

Book Survey

One book that changed your life: The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups by David Wisniewski

One book that you’ve read more than once: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

One book you’d want on a desert island: Wilderness Survival by Gregory J. Davenport

One book that made you laugh: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

One book that made you cry: The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

One book you wish had been written: Beyond Gender: Why "Male and Female He Created Them" Doesn't Come Close to Encapsulating God's Creativity

One book you wish had never been written: Due to a current source of part-time income that could be jeopardized if I revealed the title, author, and a link, I'll just reveal the initials: BUB by JD (if you don't get it, you'll have to ask me)

One book you’re currently reading: Les Miserables (sorry, I don't know how to do accent marks in HTML) by Victor Hugo (unabridged, 3-volume version in French)

One book you’ve been meaning to read: 1984 by George Orwell (I know, I know: "Gasp! You were an English major and you've never read that?!" I've read a lot of his essays--honest!)

One book you’d like to write: The Joy of Borgle Hounds

Now tag 5 people: Lori Day, Karl Gunther, Kelly Wood, Karin Buursma, Paul Hewson