Self portrait taken 3/9/08 at John Lloyd State Park, Ft. Lauderdale, FL The person in this photo didn’t have two nieces. The person in this photo hasn’t hiked the Appalachian Trail. It was but a mere bucket list item in a tiny little journal, a dream that was probably not possible. The real thought hadn’t even crossed her mind. The person in this photo was not sure what she wanted to pursue creatively. The person in this photo had not gone to Bolivia yet. Only 9 more days until she landed at one of the highest airports in the world and waited to see if Marc and Eliana were waiting…

I am eating pecan pie, thanks to our field secretary. Pecan pie at Thanksgiving, oh yeah! My favorite is my grandmother’s pecan pie, which I think my mom follows now. I am also fond of Cracker Pie but I’m not sure this is the exact recipe, I don’t remember the vanilla part. It doesn’t matter, it’s delicious. Unfortunately I did not get any of that on Thanksgiving day but instead had to work. We had hoped that we would get rained out but the rain didn’t get here until after 3pm and we were done at lunch that day for the holiday. Seriously, so pointless. We took a quick nap…

Since I am having a very uneventful Thanksgiving I thought I’d post a few links to previous Thanksgivings. Well, at least the four that I still have up on this blog. 2009: Last year we walked 70 miles from Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean in preparation for the AT. It was our first major multi-day hike like this and well, it was rougher terrain than I expected. Florida is flat, I’ll give you that, but walking through saw palmettos and climbing over their long trunks can be tiring, and then stepping in pig ruts for long stretches also wears you thin. But, overall it was an awesome experience and…

Cool stuff on the web Kal has some cool Christmas desktop backgrounds to download, plus a plethora of other creative things you can buy for Christmas. Kasie has a recipe for pumpkin whoopie pies…um, yeah!!! Mom, make these! Elizabeth reaffirmed my dreamy nature in admitting she too wished to marry Prince William. We are both already off the market, but now Prince William is too. *drat*. Renee’s apple drawing made me want to bust out some art supplies. Check our her calendars, too. Chiot’s Run is also putting out a calendar for next year. It looks super awesome! We debated doing one before we started this job but the job…

Things started changing around here last week at work so I ended up on the trash crew instead of the drill crew because that section of the project was ending. My technical title is Biologist, but right now we have switched to being monitors for the trash crew that is going back and cleaning up all of the flagging that lined the trails through the woods. There are miles and miles and miles of this. I walked a four mile section with the Mexican worker that I am monitoring last week, and that was only for two hours. We get up even earlier for the safety meeting which is in…

I’m here. Been working longer hours as the project shifts gears. Been working on the website, too. Have 5 days off this week and am hoping to get a jump start on some things. Or not. Who knows. Just feeling lost without a home base right now. Missing the Big Dog and the Big Tiger right now. Hopefully more productive blogs this week.

The late afternoon is when the forest glows so beautifully. The morning has its moments, but I am fond of afternoon sunlight. How is it November already? Sometimes I wonder where the past three months went. It will be almost three months ago that we were on Katahdin. I am certainly not where I thought I would be. I think I figured we would have a place of our own by now and a ‘real’ job. Still waiting for both. Red lycoris lining the side of a forest road; a house is nearby. I finished reading one book last week, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. On the whole I thought it was…