It’s that time of year again…

Not Christmas time or winter time.  It’s that time of the year where I whine and cry and curl into a ball and beg Mr. to take me back home to see Santa Barbara again.  I miss that town more than I think I’ve ever missed a person, maybe more than I’ve ever missed my dog.

I lived in Santa Barbara for 5 years throughout college, always less than a block from the beach and only a couple blocks from my precious, windowless, Psych building.  1 year in the dorms on campus, 3 years in a second story 1 bedroom apartment where we paid rent for a parking spot…

and 1 final year in a four-plex with lots of closets.  I loved those closets.  I graduated in September of 2006 and with no job and my lease ending, I moved back to Northern California until further notice.  Since then, I’ve found myself parked in Northern California.

There are advantages.  I like snowboarding and we’re less than 10 miles from the park.  Mr. built our house, so we own it and don’t have a mortgage, which is nice, and I get to finally paint rooms and do all the crazy landscaping I wanted to do all those years I was renting.  I can walk up the street and see Mt. Shasta.  I got to grow up a little country, shooting guns and riding horses bareback.  Also, the art scene here is insane for somewhere so rural.

However, there is no beach and I can’t wear flip flops in February and there is no Bagel Shop across the street.  Oh man, how I miss the Bagel Shop.  I miss theme parties.  I miss almost daily farmers markets and buying fresh flowers for a couple bucks in “winter" (which isn’t at all winter-y)  I even miss Snowy Plovers, although the little punks shut down the beach part of the year. 

 

Fortunately, I get to go back occasionally to visit and walk down the wharf and drive through Summerland and pick which house I want to buy, but it’s been too long so I’m going to start whining until I get to go back.

Shasta (or Santa Barbara?) Betty 

Brrrr

What I do when it’s cold outside?  Sometimes I’m actually productive, I’ll start on Christmas presents I’ve resigned myself to make (I’m a little insane, ambitious and have unrealistic expectations of myself.  There is no therapy for this, trust me, I have a Psych BA).  During my periods of productivity I usually have a myriad of insane ideas, like self publishing magazines and teaching photography workshops.  Sometimes I dive head first into some project with the Weed Arts Council (I’m on the board of directors, love local art… more on that another time).

Mostly, however, I’m completely unproductive.  I wear ridiculous furry boots that aren’t age appropriate and I assault my house with a camera.  Sometimes I lay in the middle of the hardwood floor with my head on a pillow and the camera set to black and white, extra sharp, extra contrast.  Then I bust out the zoom and see what I can see from that spot on the floor.  Examples:

Then occasionally, I take photos of my husband and my dog sleeping.  Don’t tell him though, ok?  At least I choose an example that didn’t show Mr. and his funny sleep faces.

Someone please give me something productive to do that will hold my attention for more than 20 minutes.

Thanks,
Shasta Betty

Snow’s Descent on Dunsmuir

I know there have been a lot of snow related posts and pictures lately.  But the snow is just so pretty!  The sun is out and it’s all melting, but here are some (okay, a lot of) shots from the most recent storm.

In case you forgot, it’s cold outside.  Cold and gray.

The neighbor’s house looks warm though.

All the snow and cedar makes for a nice bokeh on photos of my wind chimes.

  

Ok, that’s all the photos I felt like taking at home.  So I grabbed Mr. and we headed into Dunsmuir to snap the quiet snow of the town.

It was so so gray and foggy and still snowing.  The Sacramento River looked beautiful framed in the snow draped trees.

Here’s where it all went bad…. I stopped the car and jumped out to take some photos under the bridges.

Jump back in the Jeep… and it won’t start.  Oh yay!  The battery is dead.  Now to call Jeep Roadside for a jump start.

Now, I do recognize that it was snowing.  I was well aware sitting in the car with no heater.  However, they had just plowed and the roads were manageable.  The freeway was plowed and had salt and rock sprayed all over.  It wasn’t slippy at all.  Yet, somehow, it took the tow truck driver 2 hours to make the 15 mile trip to our car.  His estimated time was 40 minutes, which is still silly and long.  Apparently he went down the freshly groomed freeway at 15 miles an hour, then decided he needed to chain up in town.  See photo below of the snow on the road.  This does not require chains.

I thought it was utterly ridiculous.  Especially because I spent that whole time sitting in my Jeep with no heat wearing yoga pants and a hoodie.  It was cold.  Next time, I’m calling AAA.

   

Safely back at home, I shot a couple black and whites of the Mr. in the front yard with Isaiah, then headed in and drank hot chocolate.  I really could have gone for some peppermint schnapps in that hot chocolate, but I’ll be darned if I was getting back out in my car with the dead battery.

    

At least the snow if pretty.  Now it’s melting and the trees are green again.

I’m sure this won’t be the last of the snow, but I could use a break for now.

Shasta Betty

Post Turkey-day Weirdness

I woke up Thursday at 4am.  I cleaned until approximately 7am, and then took a shower.  Then I started cooking the 21 lb turkey my mom bought for my family of 5-whole-people who were having Thanksgiving at my house.  Her justification being that it cost the same for 21lb turkeys as 17lb turkeys.  Whatever.  It barely fit in my roasting pan.

I fell asleep after everyone left at 6, then woke up at 3am.  Then the weirdness ensued!  I played Frontierville for an hour, read old Pioneer Woman posts, tried to find something to eat that wasn’t Thanksgiving-y with no luck, made hot chocolate, had my husband tell me I was being “too loud” (in all fairness it was 4am and I was talking to the dog and I did turn on every light and stick my toes under his blanket and cry about being cold for 15 minutes). 

Now, I’m uploading photos from Thanksgiving and remembering how funny it was to watch my dad and little sister try to learn to play Call of Duty before giving up and playing Super Mario Brothers on the Wii.  (I love that game, you can jump on the other players’ heads).

Buttered up turkey that we shoved into the roasting rack.

Cranberries

Fresh green beans, post blanching.

Cranberries with sugar on them that sort of looked like snow.

Brie and Chive biscuits that I totally botched the recipe for.  By the way, at this point I was just having fun taking photos.  The food was such pretty colors.

My mom cooking after I gave up and started playing Super Mario Brothers.

Watching Dad and Meg play, it cracked me up.  Notice the two beast Labradors on the floor battling over a bone.  This happened ALL DAY.  They teased each other and warred over chew toys for hours.  Since there aren’t baby cousins to run amuck all day, we have to settle for dog cousins.  It was fun to watch, though.

 

Instigator.

 

Being a school employee, Mr. has been off all week and has protested shaving.  He’s getting grisly.  Some bigfoot jokes were flicked in his general direction.  He said he’s shaving on Saturday.

Happy Dogs

Check out those white dog teeth.  We’re brushers in this family.  Total tangent: our dog’s all natural toothpaste is peanut flavored, but smells like mint.  That’s weird, right?  I try to get my Mr. to taste it and ease my curiosity, but he won’t.

Carissa posing with the family.  Weirdo.

 

Chloe after stealing green beans.  She eats anything.  Weird, weird dog.

 

How everyone felt post dinner.

Here’s me in the mirror trying to photograph how shiny my hair is since I’ve been using a vinegar/water/grapefruit essential oil rinse.  It’s totally shiny, but my hair smells like vinegar.  I really only ended up with a nice shot of my Canon.

 

And now… Well, I’m sitting in the house and wishing we didn’t have such a big house, because it won’t get warm in here and a smaller house would be easier to heat.  I’m also wearing furry boots that are pink and have silver snowflakes on them, because that is totally age appropriate… but my feet are warm finally!

Hope your holiday was just as interesting.

Shasta Betty

Baby, it’s cold outside

 

If you need me, I’ll be crawled back into bed with Lord of the Rings (Extended Version) and a nice warm animal.

Shasta Betty

Tis the Season

I made these in Photoshop using a photo from our wedding.  Happy Holidays everyone (because we probably won’t mail these out, haha!)

Adventures in Snow

Since we live just south of Mount Shasta, we get a lot of snow.  While some people might think it’s fun to bundle up in the house and ride out the storm, I like to get out in the storm. 

One of my favorite activities is to drive around town and ruin all the fresh snow on the ground with cutesy swerve-y, tire marks.  (Sorry, residents of Siskiyou County, if you’re offended by my ruining of your snow).

Luckily, I have a Wrangler with big ol’ tires so I can cruise safely down back roads and up hills during the winter weather.  My Mr. and I went on a mission to the grocery store after our power was out.  I was also able to snap photos over the past couple days of adventures, and of pretty things.  Here are some images with a little narration just for you!

“Snow Cone”  hehe.

Now for some adventure shots.  We threw a jacket on Chloe, put her on a really long leash and let her tear through all the snow in the front yard.  She is definitely a snow dog.

She digs in it, jumps through it, stands on top of big snow piles and looks powerful.  She also decided to tear off her jacket at one point.  What a sweet, lovely dog she is some days.

 

Isaiah attempted to walk out in the snow so he could pest me.  He stopped short once it starting getting deep enough that he was swimming in it.  So I picked him up…. and threw him in the deep stuff.  Hehe, he crawled out just fine, don’t worry.

Ezra, well… Ezra lives inside and he’ll be darned if anyone is going to get him outside in any snow.

    

Here are some from out little adventure in the Jeep.  It was snowing really hard by the time we got off the freeway at home, but I had fun.  I feel a little unstoppable in my car in this weather sometimes.

 

I’ve got a shotgun, a rifle and a four wheel drive, and a country girl can survive (name that song).

 

Lots of Love from the Snow,
Shasta Betty

PS. What do you think of the centered photos versus left oriented photos?

PPS.  I’m getting ready to have a contest, so stay posted.  Unless there is snow, I promise it’ll be up by tomorrow.  It’s a great holiday gift prize too, I’m very excited!!