PABLO PICASSO

Pablo Manuel Tejada Bassols is the best brother-in-law I have ever had in my whole life. Nick Smith is also awesome. But he isn't standing right here, hovering over my shoulder.

Happy freaking thanskgiving, ya'll!

xo,
Katie

My new apartment

In case you care, here are pictures of my new apartment in Greensboro. I found the most fantastic one bedroom on the second floor of an old cute house in the historic district. Best part is, I can practically see the science building from my living room window. I'm still working on getting furniture, but it's coming together.






Here's something I'm actually quite proud of: A giant poster (50 sheets of paper) of the Hawthorne bridge in Portland. Nick showed me this website that makes giant rastersized versions of pictures for free. Check it out: http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

Destination: Greensboro, NC...eventually

Natalie and I left Utah and drove 9ish hours to Rapid City, SD. We got to see Mount Rushmore, the beloved "Shrine of Democracy." Natalie got a real kick out of that distinction. I would say that Mount Rushmore is equal parts bizarre and jaw-dropping. Why the heck somebody would want to risk their lives hovering at the edge of a cliff in order to carve some dead guys' mugs into a giant rock is beyond me. Natalie and I feigned enthusiasm.


After SD, we headed to St. Paul, MN to see Lachelle, Nick, Keety, and Lola. No, this stop was not really on the way, but it was the highlight of our trip. We got to spend about 5 days with the fam and had a great time. Natalie bonded with Lola. I yelled at Keyton for standing on top of the car. He didn't really seem to care. That was kind of a theme for the whole week, actually.


Here we are at the zoo, sitting on top of a giant pig. How precious.

My birthday was August 9th, and we had an early celebration. Nick bought me a giant cheesecake from Costco. Lola wanted in on the frosting action. Smart baby.

In other events, Nick sat on top of Keyton. Typical.

Destination: Provo, UT

So, in case you don't know, I moved to Greensboro, NC for graduate school. And my moved I mean drove. My dear boyfriend-slave Mike volunteered to drive with me to Provo to pick up Natalie, who accompanied me on the remainder of the trip. We left bright and early for Utah, and I thought about bagging the whole grad school idea when my alarm went off at 3:30am.

Mike and I had a great time, though. Clearly.

When we arrived in Utah, Natalie took us out to Cafe Rio...I think that's what it's called. It's the place I remember Janelle always talked about.


Thanks, Mike, for helping me with this part of the drive. Without you, I probably would've fallen asleep at the wheel and wound up in a ditch somewhere in Idaho. That would have really sucked.

Running with Olympians

Meet Kara Goucher and Amy Yoder-Begley. Here they are at the 2009 Olympic trials after qualifying in the 10k. Amy is the one on the far left, and Kara is in the middle. (The other fast skinny lady is Shalane Flanagan, the American record holder in the 5k and the 10k.)


Now, here's a video of me racing Kara and Amy, the aforementioned Olympians. Look for me at the start, then 9 minutes later when Kara Goucher laps me during her finish, and then 50 seconds later when I finally finish. I'm in the black uniform all the way on the right in the front row. This was quite the experience of my life.


This video goes along nicely with my other documented Kara Goucher encounter. Here we are hanging out at the Olympic Trials in Eugene last summer.


This is how Amy and Kara must have felt after beating me in the 3k. Nobody was expecting such a slaughter!

Swiffer!

Mike Swiffers the ceiling. What a guy!

"Go away blue shark!"

Keyton likes to have his turn reading scriptures. See his blog for the entire blue shark story.