Raining & Racing + Pictures

The Indy 500 is today along with the Coca-Cola 600 after that. That is 1,100 miles for racing today! The road race in Monaco was also on tv earlier but I didn't watch much of that...

The Memorial Day weekend has been filled with rain thus far. OH! It's been raining since early Saturday morning as well. We still went on the "Behind the Signs" tour at Lee Metcalf Refuge. It was very informative and fun as well. If it wouldn't have been raining and 40 degress we would have enjoyed it much more. Yes, that's right, I said 40 degress. The high yesterday was 46 and the predicted high is 53 today, however I have a feeling we won't get to 50.

On with the pictures now... Since recieving the camera on Wednesday evening, I have taken 213 pictures - I really havn't had a chance to really set up any 'nice' pictures, but I have been able to take a few pictures which I will share.


We have some flowers in the backyard that are just blooming and they are making a good subject to photograph. The good thing about flowers is they don't move around and it is easy to setup a picture that looks good. I havn't been able to take any pictures in full sunlight though. All of the outdoor pictures were taken when it was cloudy or near sundown without any direct sunlight. I do like the close-up pictures of the flowers and the detail that the camera shows. I am hoping the rain will give me a break so I can run outside and take some pictures of the flowers with water on them. Those types of pictures usually make a nice photograph as well.

Due to the fact I havn't mowed the lawn in three weeks, we have quite a wide variety of grasses and weeds growing throughout the yard. I got down on the ground and took a few pictures and I thought the detail in the photo was excellent. I especially like how quickly the background blurs and the foreground comes into focus. The picture almost becomes an eye teaser in the fact that it is difficult to tell where one stem ends and another begins. The white and green contrast is a nice effect as well - as with the pictures before, the violet and green contrast is nice.

I also found a flower in the flowerbed by the sidewalk which had gone unnoticed. I didn't think it would make much of a photo, but after looking it over a few times I am starting to like the picture more and more. I really like how the flower is in focus and the stem extends down and goes out of focus at the bottom of the picture. Once again, there is a nice contrast with the white petals and the green background - with a hint of dark red - make for a nice look.

For the final outdoor picture I have a view of the Bitterroot Valley from our back deck. This would be looking southwest at Lolo. I really liked how the setting sun reflected off the leaves of the tree on the left side and the dark clouds around the mountain really made a nice contrast. For just snapping a quick picture of the area I was quite pleased with the results. On the right side you can see the tree which has died. I am afraid that the tree is going to blow over in a strong wind and really make a mess of things, but the landlord didn't seem to concerned with the tree, so I will let it be and keep clear when a storm approaches!

And now I will move onto some subjects with a little character. Ha ha! Well, the first picture is obviously of Laura. Oh, I forgot to mention, the camera takes black and white photos as well - I have really liked that feature for just snapping photos of us when we are just sitting around. Laura has been a very good sport with all the pictures I have been taking. She is probably getting a little tired with me taking the camera everywhere, but she doesn't complain when I start putting the camera in her face and start taking pictures. She does laugh at me when I take ten pictures in a row, but she knows I am an odd character to start with.. I mean look at the pictures I took this morning...

The first picture looks like my prison photo or something. I am in desperate need of a haircut and probably should find a razor as well. I didn't do too bad for just sticking the camera into the air and shooting a picture though.

I used a mirror to get the shots actually - but I never checked the viewfinder to see where the camera was focusing. I just aimed in the direction I thought I needed and took the picture. A couple of pictures I zoomed in and then took a guess as to where the best angle would be. Here's one I got lucky on and actually got my entire face in the frame. No Photoshop or anything - actually all of my prison photos are 'as is' and no editing was done... Maybe I should give myself a digital haircut though, look at that mess!

Don't be under the impression that I am mad in these pictures. I am usually in a pretty good mood, but my face naturally seems to have a 'pissed off' demeanor whenever I am not intentionally smiling. So even though I look unhappy this is really how I always look. Ha ha! Yikes... I like the picture where you can see the camera off to the side of the frame. Not only do you get a wonderful view of my stylish hair, but you can also see that wild shower curtain we have!

Finally, I like the last picture because nothing is exactly in perfect focus. The door is out of focus, but so is my face. There isn't a distinct area that is focused. Sometimes those are the best photos.

That's all the pictures I have right now - that are any good anyway. I will be trying to get some more photos when I get a chance to get outside and take some pictures. When the rain stops I will definatly be out there!

Until again

-=Nolan=-

It's Finally Friday!

It has been another busy week here in The Garden City of Missoula, Montana. The landscaping crew began work on Tuesday at a new location. The first day we just worked on making a grade for a patio and then on Wednesday and Thursday I worked on constructing a wall. I used a concrete block which was colored a dark grey or light brown and measured 1'x8"x4". The blocks are not heavy, but they are not designed to be stacked more than about 1-2 feet. The wall I built was 4 feet tall and had to be perfectly level. I found this quite challenging considering the wall started on a concrete patio for the first ten feet and then made a 85 degree turn onto dirt. However, I did finish the wall today and it actually looks pretty good for my first time. The boss was pleased with my eye for detail and mixing the block to create a nice flow throughout the wall... I recieved a raise as well, so he has been happy with the work that has been done. I have to admit, the landscaping is a great way to spend a summer. Even though it can be hot and uncomfortable at times, there isn't much that can beat working outside and being constructive - and in the end we are improving the beauty of the area! ha ha!

Last night Laura and I stopped by a friends house to pick up a chair which she was giving away. It wasn't in very good shape. The back was falling off of it and the screws were gone. Today, after work, I summoned the aid of my handy tool kit and began operations to fix the chair. The procedure went off without a hitch and the chair seems to be making a very good recovery from the ten minutes of work I had to do. The back of the chair is now stable and it does not recline at will. On top of all that, it is rather comfortable as well. I felt the chair deserved to sit next to the Coleman grill in the living room... I took a picture of it with the new camera that Laura and I are testing out.

New camera you ask!? Well, it isn't our camera. It is a camera for Laura's mom. She had me do some research on cameras and then buy one for her. Lets just say that I am extreamly jealous that she gets to use this camera. I am happy with the one we have right now, but if I could get my hands on a camera like this then I don't think I would do anything else but take pictures. This isn't the greatest camera on the market, but the price was right and we got it for more than 30% cheaper than it retails for. I have been taking a lot of pictures with it and reading the instruction manual so I can explain everything to Laura's mom when we give it to her in a few weeks.

I will post any pictures which I feel a worthy of sharing. I have been very impressed with some of the random ones I have experimented with, so I might be posting them soon! Until again

-=Nolan=-

The ABC's Of My Life

First and foremost I want to share this picture.

It has been 5 years since this picture was taken at the Nebraska State Track Meet. This was the front page of the sports section of the Omaha World Herald my Senior year. The handoff between Nick and I in the Class A 4X800 meter relay. I was the lead running for our team - Kearney High School. I could lie and say I was in first place when I handed off to Nick, but like I said, that would be a lie. I actually handed off in third place, which is all I was asked to do - but Nick did his work and got us into second place. The lead runner in the 4X800 at state is quite a wild ride, or should I say wild run in this case. Everyone gets over excited to runs way too fast. It's hard not to get pulled into that excitement as well. When we came through the first lap I was about 15th place of 16 teams. When I came through the clock said 56 seconds - I knew right then that I was in good shape because the lead runners had come through in 52 seconds, and only two guys were capable to actually finishing under 2 minutes after that pace. I passed about 10 people coming out of the 2nd turn onto the backstretch and never looked back. I went onto run 1:58.6 and make this handoff to Nick. As far as 4x800 handoffs go, this one is as close to perfect as they come. The full extention of the arms while keeping pace - we are far apart and we gained a lot of ground for the handoff. We had been working on the handoff for well over a month, everyday after practice we were on the track and going over every step of the handoff. As you can see in the background Grand Island wasn't far behind us, but they didn't have a very good handoff and they didn't catch us again until the finish line - nearly 1.5 miles down the road.... We ended up 3rd overall - but that wasn't bad for a bunch of no name guys. One of the meet officials asked us why our 'good guys' were not running in the race and to that we replied "Wait and see." A job well done gentlemen.


And now, in an effort to keep the blog interesting I am going to try a little informative survey about myself and share it with everyone. I stole this from someone who stole it from someone who stole it from someone... Anyway, I will be answering the questions and, as always, adding my own commentary.

A is for age: 23 years 170 days

B is for booze of choice: Mt. Dew - it's booze in my book.

C is for career: Currently a landscaper and husband.

D is for your dog's name: Don't have a dog, but Brooklyn lives in our backyard.

E is for an essential item you use every day: Computer

F is for favorite song at the moment: Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven has been my favorite song for many years now. However, the song I am enjoying currently is Looking Glass - Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)

G is for favorite games: Ultimate Frisbee

H is for hometown: Kearney, Nebraska

I is for instruments you play: Harmonica

K is for kids?: No kids around yet except Laura and I - we are big kids.

L is for last song listened to?: Canned Heat - Going Up The Country

M is for mom's job: DUH! Being MOM! Plus she drives the 'short bus'

N is for name of your crush: Laura

O is for overnight hospital stays: Never stayed in the hospital overnight, but every time I have had stitches it has been dark or atleast dark when I walk out of the emergency room, so it seems late at night.

P is for phobias: I thought phobias was spelled with an F...? Fobia.. Hmm, doesn't look right does it.? Actually, I don't have any known phobias but hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words. What kind of sick joke is this??? If you break the word up it is Hippo-poto-monstros-esquipped-alio-phobia... That would scare me too!

Q is for favorite queer: Huh? What is this all about. I am gonna change this to queen - yes, favorite queen. My favorite queen in history is probably Anne Boleyn.

R is for biggest regrets: Well, without getting too personal... Not saying sorry to someone who I treated badly long ago - I never got an opportunity to appologize for being a jerk and I wish I would have.

S is for status: Married

T is for time you wake up: 6:30ish am

U is for underwear: Underwear? Yes, I wear them, but all that you could think of for U was underwear? Get your mind out of the gutter. I am changing this to U is for Unique Trait: In which case I would have to say my unique trait is: I'm Nolan!!!

V is for vegetable you love: Carrots are good.

W is for worst habit: Ask Laura, she thinks I have a lot.

X is for x-rays you've had: Well the dentist x-rays my teeth every year, but otherwise I can only remember two in recent years. When I was in college I had an x-ray of my foot where they thought there was a stress fracture - there wasn't. When I was a senior in high school I broke my finger playing football with my friends and I didn't have it checked out for over a year. Opps.

Y is for yummy food you make: Cowboy Stew

Z is for your favorite animal at the Zoo: Besides myself? Anything big is cool.

Until Again

-=Nolan=-

Saturday Outting

Laura and I went to see the flood waters and hike around the Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge. We didn't get any good pictures of the flood waters, but they are definatly high! I did take a few pictures out at the refuge on our hike. Here's Laura looking through the viewing scope at a few ducks and geese. I also took a series of pictures to make a panoramic of. For the panoramic photo I took the picture vertically and took 13 of them. Then I used my Photoshop program to 'stitch' the digital pictures together. It's not exactly a great picture, but I got some practice and now I will know what to do next time to make the pictures better. Not much else happening today. I installed a new motion light outside. The old motion light seems to have broken. It was coming on during the day and then it just stopped working all together. So the landlord had us buy a new one and we are writting it out of our rent for the month. Until again

-=Nolan=-

A Storm!

Friday was another warm day here in Missoula. We had some thunderheads forming around the valley towards late afternoon and into the evening. Around 7:00 the sky got dark and I watched a storm come down the valley towards us. It brought some good gusts of wind and a small amount of rain. There was some lightning and thunder as well, but nothing that shook the house. It reminded me of a good thunderstorm in Nebraska - only the warnings issued were flood warnings for the valley. The Bitterroot River has a flood stage of 11.0 feet and the river has been flowing between 10.5 and 10.8 feet! Laura and I are hoping to get out and see the river sometime this weekend. They reported on the news that the river has never flooded before. I found that hard to believe, but all the rivers are very high this morning.

I ran outside to take some pictures after the storm before we played games with our neighbor. There was a great double rainbow that appeared to end just up the hill from us.The setting sun really made an intersting orange glow appear throughout the sky and the rain was still falling while I took pictures. I stood under the tree and snapped some pictures.And the dog had to join me for a game of fetch. She loves it when I kick the ball for her and she can run across the yard to get it. However, she cheats when she is playing because she runs out in front of the ball and then waits for me to kick it in her direction. So usually I kick it the opposite direction.I hope everyone has a good weekend. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Another Busy Week

The title says it all. Laura and I have been on the go all week. Monday and Tuesday I worked full days and then came home to grab a quick shower before heading back out the door to meet up with my uncle from Casper. We showed him around town and had a great time.

I don't have much time to blog this morning, but I wanted to share some pictures I took Sunday afternoon while Laura and I were hiking. Temperatures have been at or above 90 for the last few days and the new wave downtown on the river has been quite a busy place. They did construction on the wave this winter and now that the river has high flow, from spring melt, everyone is excited to be on the river and be at the wave.I have an Ultimate Frisbee game tonight which I am looking forward to. I will let you know how that goes. Until again -=Nolan=-

Saturday Hike

Our hike yesterday was very nice. We hiked on Mill Creek and hiked up to the water fall. It was a rather warm area to hike because it was the area that burned in 2000. If you remember when Montana was ablaze with fires at the time - well this is the area that was burning. It is recovering rather well now. There are lots of new trees and a large variety of plants as well. The first picture was taken while I was standing on a rock in the middle of the river. You can see that there is a lot of open space, but it is slowly gaining more and more trees.Laura spotted some moose tracks on our way into the falls, but as like last time we didn't have any encounter. Maybe the fact that there were five of us hiking along and talking gave away our stealth approach..? When we got to the falls we found a geocache and then sat next to the falls to eat some lunch or have a snack before hiking back out. Laura put her feet in the water, but didn't last long - the water is all snow melt right now so it is VERY cold. The falls were neat to see as well. The spring melt makes them very dangerous so it was a little tricky while stepping around and being sure not to fall in. I ventured out away from the falls and took a picture of them just as Laura was coming to look for me - she thought I had fallen into the falls because she couldn't find me. Opps. You can barely see Laura on the right side of the picture at the top of the falls.
The last picture I just took quickly as we were starting our way back to the trailhead. You can see the cliffs in the background but it is hard to see them as they really were. This area was carved out by glaciers which carves out valleys like this in the shape of a U - the sides are usually straight up and down - and there were areas that were well over 1,000 feet straight up. It was really neat to see the cliffs like that.Overall we had a nice hike, even thought it wasn't exactly our idea of a hike. We were able to find two more geocaches and we have hiked another trail around the Missoula area. Until again

-=Nolan=-

The Weekend

What a weekend it is going to be... Well, first off let me say this, it is 8:00 am on a Saturday morning, I have been up since 7:15 and I feel like I slept in too. I usually think sleeping in is getting up at 9:00 but I guess when I am getting up at 6:30 all week then 7:15 seems like a late start. But about the weekend, here in Missoula it is graduation weekend. The University graduates this morning and there will, no doubt, be beer, beer, and more beer to celebrate. There is only one graduation per school year so anyone who graduated at Christmas can come back to walk across the stage for graduation.

Don't forget that it is Mother's Day weekend so the resturants will be packed most of the weekend and since we are in Missoula I am sure beer will be needed to celebrate the occasion as well. *sigh* Yeah, that's how things are around here, beer is needed for everything. I have a small collection of beer accumulating in the fridge because people pass it around after Ultimate and I always end up with one in hand somehow. So I bring them home incase someone wants it - like anyone other than Laura and I will be around though. ha ha! Actually, on Monday we are going to have some visitors. My aunt and uncle from Casper will be in town and said they would give us a call while they were here.

Laura and I recieved a phone call last night to go hiking with some friends from the chemistry department. We will be hiking into the Mill Creek Falls which is near where we hiked last weekend. It is only three miles to the falls so we won't be doing any major hiking, maybe more of a walk - like last week - most of the trails are used extensively so have taken a lot of the 'work' out of the hike and made wide trails. We are taking along a girl who has never been hiking before so it will be interesting to see how she does. Actually it will be interesting to see how everyone does. When Laura and I hike we like to clip along around 3 miles an hour - that is with our pack gear on and going down the trail, not just out for a stroll down the sidewalk. I have a feeling this hike will be more like 1.5-2 miles an hour and there won't be much exercise recieved. We blame our experience of running in college as the resulting factor for a need to sweat and breath hard to get somewhere when we are going anywhere via foot. During our workouts, if we we not sweating, breathing hard, and close to exhaustion after every run then we were not getting in shape, and thus we were not getting any better for competition. Well, when that gets ingrained into your head then everything you do must be the same way. I find myself the same way during Ultimate Frisbee. So needless to say, Laura and I will be in the back of the group so we don't set a pace that will be too fast.

Here's some stats about our hike today. This is taken from the book Day Hikes Around Missoula.
Hiking Distance: 6 miles round trip
Hiking Time: 3 hours
Elevation Gain: 650 feet

Summary of hike: Mill Creek is a continuous display of cascades, falls and pools. The creek's headwaters are at Mill Lake at an elevation of 6,550 feet, eleven miles from the trailhead. The Mill Creek Trail follows the rushing creek all the way to the lake. Soaring canyon walls tower above the trail. This hike takes in the first three miles of the trail to a magnificent 60-foot waterfall and a swimming hole at the base of the falls. The large boulders make perfect seats for viewing the falls and relaxing.

I will be taking the camera along on the hike this morning. We are leaving at 10:00 so I am sure will be most of the afternoon before we arrive back in Missoula...but we are looking at a great day. Near 75 and partly cloudy. Tomorrow the high is set for 82 and then on Monday 88! The trails will be packed this weekend for sure.

And as always, here is a picture. This is from last week - Laura decided she needed something to do so she kicked a pine cone for awhile. I will try to get some pictures from the hike up on Sunday or Monday. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Giant Slayers

Well, I have been meaning to update my blog twice since Monday. My excuses are as follows: Tuesday night I was just preparing to blog when I realized we needed to talk to the upstairs neighbor about the landlord coming this week. So what was going to be a 1 minute chat turned into a 30 minute session of chit chat and talking. Then Wednesday night I was too tired from Ultimate to blog...

Let me tell you about our Ultimate game. We were 2-3 going into this game. We didn't have a full roster, only 2 subs for the guys, and we played the only undefeated team in the league with a 5-0 record. Things were not looking good for us. They scored twice on us without any trouble and then we finally caught a break and got ourselves in the game. Before we knew it the score was 4-4 and when we went to halftime we were ahead 7-6. An impressive first half and we were quite happy to have the giants at our mercy. We finished the game 13-10 and closed the books for any teams to go undefeated this spring. The weird thing is that last Wednesday we lost to the only team who HAD NOT won a game and the week before that, two weeks ago, we beat another undefeated team. When we finished the game some of the specators called us the "giant slayers" and couldn't understand how we had lost three games... Sometimes we find ourselves wondering as well.

That's all I have to say right now. I will wrap it up with a picture I took this weekend while we were out geocaching... Now, geocaches are not supposed to be around railroad tracks but we happened to cross the tracks while attempting to find a cache. However, we found that the area just across the tracks was flooded and there was no way we were going to get to the cache without some waders. These tracks are hardly ever used. In the 8 months I have been here I have yet to see a train on the tracks. Missoula is such a 'progressive' community, but they waste a lot of opportunity when it comes to getting things that truely could make a difference. By this I mean that they should invest in a rail system for commuters in the valley which backs up traffic during rush hour - with a rail system there would be a relief on vehicle travel AND there would be less pollution in the valley....

...but what do I know? I'm just the guy who knows everything and knows how to fix it all. Huh, another missed opportunity for the community when they didn't hire me. ZING! ha ha!

Until again

-=Nolan=-

A Hiking We Will Go

I thought I would post some pictures of the first REAL hike of the year that Laura and I have gone on. We hiked in 4.5 miles to find a cache and had a great time getting to it. Remember those packs we got back in January? Well we got them out and took them along for their maiden hike. We hiked up Burr Creek to Fred Burr Reservoir. It is a reservoir in the mountains and in the summers it looks very nice - however it wasn't exactly a pretty lake yesterday. The lake didn't have much water in it - most of the water was rushing down the creek. You can see the snow wasn't far from us and we had snow and rain for most of the hike - in fact it was hard to get a picture of the lake because the rain was falling and getting on the lens. It was nice to have the rain though... That way we could test out our packs and be sure they are going to be water proof for future hikes when we will need them for several days.

The picture of the lake, or lack there of, is looking West - if you could see through the snow storm then Idaho would be out on the horizon. We were just Northwest of Hamilton, Montana - which is around 40 miles South of Missoula.

There were a few waterfalls on the other side of the creek which were several hundred feet tall. The one pictured was quite some distance away and I had to zoom in nearly all the way to get a good picture of it. The picture really doesn't do much justice for the size of the falls.

On our way back to the car, actually not long after we turned around, we came across some tracks on the ground which were not there when we hiked in. We determined the tracks to be that of a moose which had passed by no more than fifteen minutes prior - because it had only been that long since we hiked pass. We never found the moose, but I am sure the moose saw us. We were not exactly quiet - when you hike in bear country you don't want to be quiet - you actually want to talk and make noise so you don't surprise any bears. If they hear you coming they usually retreat before you arrive. Two of Laura's friends have already seen Black Bears around Missoula and in the Bitterroot Valley, where we were hiking at.

We also passed by some flowers which we didn't know the name of, but I took a picture of one of them in hopes that someone could identify it. And finally here is a photo of the mighty hikers near the end of the hike. We look quite stylish with our packs on - you can see we tied our sleeping bags on as well to see how well they would ride along with us. Overall we were very happy with our packs and can't wait to get out and use them this summer! We are also getting excited about our trip to Yellowstone to hike into the most remote location in the lower 48 states. It will be nearly 30 miles to the nearest road, which is an old logging road which isn't used much any longer. I will tell more about that trip later. Until again

-=Nolan=-

May Post

As I was working this afternoon, I realized I had not updated my blog in a week! Why did I randomly remember this trivial detail? Hard to say, but I know something I can say... I have found my new favorite tool - the pickaxe. Yes, the pickaxe is my new best friend when it comes to work - you know what I am talking about, it's the tool that all the old time miners used. Here's a picture for some more help. This thing is great - one thing I have had to adjust to is the amount of rocks in the soil here. In Nebraska you might find a rock on occasion, but here in Western Montana it is a rare day when you don't see a rock in the ground. Most shovels don't dig well in hard packed soil, but after a few minutes of breaking apart the soil with the pickaxe I can scoop out a 2'X4'X2' hole in about 10 minutes. Today I helped bust out some stumps that were in the way of an irrigation line - we brought in a tractor to dig them out, but I had to break the roots first. I grabbed the pickaxe and started swinging away and in a few minutes we had a few stumps removed.

Last Friday Laura had a soccer game. I went and took some pictures of her. She plays defense and does well to get in the way of the ball - which is really all you have to do when you are on defense. They didn't win their game, but I thought they did a pretty good job for the circumstances. The other team was very organized and should have won by more than they did.

On Sunday we went for a walk at Maclay Flats, which is a trail along the Bitterroot River outside of Missoula. We went with our neighbor and did some geocaching along the way. Brooklyn the dog came along as well and retrieved sticks we threw for her. She likes to jump into the river and get the sticks as they float down the river. She picked up a very large stick and decided it was the stick she wanted us to throw for her and no matter how far we threw the stick she brought it back. She is quite an energetic dog. She is only a year old, so she still has a lot of puppy characteristics.

As far as our geocaching goes, we have been finding a few each week. We are up to 618 finds now and we have a few more caches we are looking forward to finding... I forgot to mention that on Saturday Laura went running with some friends so I went along to find some geocaches. We went to the Rattlesnake Canyon area and there I was taking pictures when I was stopped by a guy riding his bike. He asked me about my camera and told me that he used to take pictures of mining ghost towns in Montana. He showed me his book and I told him I was looking forward to finding some of the ghost towns and taking some pictures of them myself. Hopefully I will find some time this summer to go find a few of the towns that are nearby. Here's the blog I posted back on February 21 about some of the ghost towns I have visited. I would like to return to Rhyolite, the ghost town in Nevada, sometime when it is not too hot and I could do some more exploring...

I will try to keep the blog updated more often. The first two weeks of work have been quite tiring, but I am finding that I am adjusting to the change and starting to get myself into a routine as well. Until again

-=Nolan=-