Pretty evening!

Sissy!

Friday harbor

I'm on a boat!

Ride to work

Morning commute to San Juan island :)

Oh heeeeaaaaaayyyyy

Home Improvement

Today, I decided to install a washer and dryer by myself.



My roommate (the homeowner) purchased the w/d last night from craigslist, but he is going to be out of town for the next few days, so he can't hook it up himself. He hired some random craigslist guys deliver the w/d. They showed up this morning in a windowless, beat-up, 1980s Dodge Van. So naturally, I invited them into my home. Contrary to what the local evening news will tell you, not everyone on craigslist is a murderer, and lucky for me, neither were these guys.

Since I have dreams of being a real estate mogul someday, I figured that it would be a good idea for me to know how to install a w/d. How hard could it be? So, I googled "how to hook up a washer and dryer." Wait...I have to level the washing machine? Plumber's tape? What is that? Suddenly I had visions of flooding the basement and spending my evening hauling buckets of water up the stairs. I don't even know where Home Depot is...are they even still in business? Oh, and did I mention that the basement is totally creepy?




But really, what else do I have to do? Watch a few more episodes of Friday Night Lights on Netflix? Well, yes. XOXO



But if I flood the basement or find a dead body, I'll have a hilarious story that I can blog about. So, I grabbed some liquid courage and got to work.



It sounds simple. Just hook up the water hoses to the faucet and you're done. Unfortunately, when the previous owners removed the old w/d they chose to cut their hoses, leaving the other end connected to the faucet. I quickly figured out why -- the end of the hose that was connected to the faucet was rusted an impossible to remove. I found some WD-40, pliers, and my guns -- 20 minutes later, the hoses were off!



I connected the new hoses with only minor water spillage. The hot one may be hooked up to the cold and vice versa...I'm not really sure. The faucet leaks a bit -- probably because it is covered in rust -- not my fault. But, success! I was on a roll! I threw some towels in the machine for a test run and watched the magic happen.



Now that I succesfully had the washer working, I tackled the dryer. I had already been to the hardware store to buy a vent, which I hooked up fairly easily.



!!!!! so close!!!!! All I had left to do was plug the dryer in and I would be ready to launder -- clothes, money -- anything I wanted! The world was nearly in my hands until...



Three holes. Four pegs. F. Electrical work is beyond the scope of my knowledge. I'm not about to electrocute myself for clean towels. At least the evening wasn't a total loss. I mean, there was that BL Lime. :)

Beautiful day!

Rollin' on the River

Thank God I've watched my fair share of Man vs. Wild.

Last weekend, my friends and I were camping near Winthrop, WA, and we had plans to float the Methow River. Excited at the prospect of end-of-season sales, we decided to purchase our own flotation devices at Big 5.  For just $34.99, we got rafts that would hold two people each.  They came with oars and an air pump FTW.  There was even enough room for an ice chest full of Bud Light Lime and Coors Light. (Yes, I call them "ice chests" as opposed to "coolers," and yes, I enjoy a frosty Bud Light Lime and tapping the rockies from time to time.)

We set out on the river around 1pm for what was supposed to be a 3 hour float. There were 9 people in my immediate group, not including a dog.  Our friend had organized the float (about 30 people total).  Unbeknownst to all of us, the river was approximately 1 foot lower than it had been the week before when the organizer had floated it.  As a result, considerably more rocks and other obstacles were exposed.  These created some rapids that were somewhat difficult for a $34.99 raft to navigate.

I was in said raft with my friend Jenni; we popped one of the bottom compartments within 5 minutes of being on the river. Luckily, one of the compartments survived, but we had to spend the rest of the float yelling "asses up" every time we approached exposed rocks  (which was frequently). In between the rapids, we used empty coors light cans to bail out water.

Long story short, we made it ¾ of the way through the float before we had completely sunk two rafts and put a hole the size of a baseball  in the bottom of a third. This meant that the 9 people and a dog who had started the trip with 8 flotation devices had to finish with 6 flotation devices.  Moreover, the largest flotation devices were the ones that had sunk or were taking on water.  Time to cuddle up!

We made one last push down the river before we had to give up entirely.  Going through mild rapids with 400lbs of people and dog on a raft with a weight limit of 350lbs and a giant hole in the bottom just wasn't going to work.  Not only did we have no idea how much further the take out spot was, but the sun was about 40 minutes away from dropping behind a hill – meaning it was going to get cold quick.

We were about to resort to hitchhiking along the side of Hwy 20, but luckily, we met some nice campers who offered us more coors light and a ride back to town to get our cars.  Crisis averted!  Bear Grylls would be proud.

How to get control of the campfire music

Over the weekend, I went camping with some of my very bestest friends. We spent a lot of time (aka most of the time) sitting around the campfire listening to music and staring at the fire. Since we were camping with boys, I didn't get many opportunities to tend to the fire. Not that I'm complaining. The fire was great.



In situations such as these, it can also be difficult to get many opportunities to be in charge of the music. This weekend I accidentally discovered a surefire way (pun intended) to get control of the musical selection while camping. The first step is to gain some street cred. On the first night, put together a playlist that is pleasing to everyone in the group...especially the boys. This is key. As a girl, you need to impress the males in the group with your musical tastes so that they trust you with the ipod player. I suggest the following campfire playlist (in no particular order):

Man in the Mirror - MJ
This is how we do it - Montell Jordan
Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
Pimp Juice - Nelly*
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
I wish - Skee Lo
The Joker - Steve Miller band
Regulate - Warren G
Say it ain't so - Weezer
Here I go again - Whitesnake
Santeria - Sublime
Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins
Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash
Sweet Child O Mine - Guns n Roses
Nuthin But a g' thang - Dr. Dre/ snoop
Died in your arms tonight - cutting crew
Zombie - Cranberries
Gangsta's Paradise - Coolio
Check up on it - Beyonce*
Piano Man - Billy Joel
Wanted DEad or alive - Bon Jovi

*don't be afraid to throw in a few of your wacky favorites. Keep it authentic, or they'll know something's up.

The next night, they'll BEG you to make another playlist. They had so much fun belting out "Fallin' back on that ass with a hellified gangsta' lean; Gettin' funky on the mic like a' old batch o' collard greens" that they'll be dying to see what other awesome playlist you can come up with. This is when you move in for the kill. Now, you get to play Mariah Carey! At this point, it is key to keep some of the crowd-pleasing songs. You don't want anyone to turn off your music because you overloaded on Ke$ha. In fact, just keep Ke$ha out of it. That is strictly for alone-time on the elliptical machine. But, notice how the playlist shifts slightly for round two (country and chick pop make an appearance...and a little more Nelly):

Air Force Ones - Nelly
Always Be My Baby - Mariah Carey
Area Codes - Ludacris
Beat It - MJ
Bitch - Meredith Brooks
Born in the USA - The boss
Bootylicious - Destiny's Child
The Cowboy in Me - Tim McGraw
The Devil went down to georgia - charlie daniels band
Dirt off your shoulder - Jay Z
Don't stop believin - journey
Eye of the Tiger - survivor
Empire State of Mind - Alicia Keys & Jay z
Fancy - Reba Mcentire
What a Feeling - Irene Cara
Friday I'm in Love - The Cure
Gin & Juice - Snoop Dogg
Grillz - Nelly
Hash Pipe - Weezer
Hungry Eyes - Eric Carmen
I Love Rock and Roll - Joan Jett
I wanna dance with somebody - whitney houston
I'm on a Boat
Ignition - Jamie Foxx
Like a G6 - Far East Movement
Live Those Songs - Kenny Chesney
Magic Carpet Ride - Steppenwolf
No Diggity - Blackstreet
Paper Planes - MIA
Shameless - Garth Brooks
Tha Crossroads - Bone Thugs

Both playlists are guaranteed campfire favorites :) Enjoy!! Oh, and stay tuned for a future post on "how to dress for success at the campsite."