I traveled to Fort Collins to celebrate Linda's brother's birthday. He studies Bats at CSU.

At one bar I played darts with these two dreamy grad students. I had to give the bartender my Driver's License to get the darts. I left the bar with the darts stuck to the board and my license behind the bar. My license is still behind the bar. Fort Collins is 70 miles away. Merde.

Linda's Brother is a Transformer collector. His collection was part of the reason I decided to travel up to Fort Collins. I've been wanting to see it for awhile. It did not dissapoint.

These shelvews of transformers are next to his bed. That's Star Scream on the top-shelf in the back. He transforms into an F-14 looking fighter.

He has many more stacked in his closet.

I got to choose one to get transformed. This one turned into a crane with a giant scythe.

It's "found art" day, here at Which Echoes. I'm bored at work and don't have any pictures to upload so I've decided to share some of the found art I have collected around the internet. Welcome to my gallery!
I must begin my discussion of art by giving thanks to Bob Ross. Bob Ross had a profound effect on my sense of beauty, respect for nature, and my growth as a human being. I just loved it when he dried off the brush by whacking it back and forth on the easel. Lord knows he like it too. He took joy in simple acts and "happy little bushes." Thank you Bob.

Is the night sky art? The answer is "yes." When man invented the telescope they only wished to see things further away, but the telescope brought us colors and patterns we never imagined. Its almost as if the telescope has a dual nature. It's a telescope to the scientist and a kaliedescope to the artist. If there is a God I will thank him first for the stars.

Is a mushroom cloud art? Yes. How awesome. How terrible. If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one... It's interesting to note as the U.S. flirts with the idea of taking action against Iran for producing nuclear weapons that Oppenheimer thought that nuclear weapons would bring peace. He reasoned that the idea of a nuclear war is too terrible to even consider, thus, no more war. Huh. I think his conclusion rests on the invalid premise that these decisions are made by sane men.

I found this on slate.com. I wish is was a rug on my floor.

This is a photo taken by my dear dear friend Doug Tewksbury. You can see this photo and many more like it at dougtewksbury.com. I love this photograph because of its charm. Some how this brokendown old truck just makes me smile. He took this picture on his solo tour of Guatelmala and Belize. Doug is an outstanding traveler. Some of my fondest memories are of traveling with him through Spain, France and Scotland.


Is sports art? Yes. Reggie Bush adds a little extra something to this touchdown run by leaping three or four feet in the air to evade a tackler. Guys like Reggie Bush bring art to sports by adding grace to a physical act. The best athletes can do this. A Michael Jordan slam dunk. A Steve Nash pick and roll. A Joe Montana 30 yard pass, caught one-handed by a diving Jerry Rice. An Ozzie Smith double play. A Randy Johnson shutout. As much as I crave the moment sports become art I would note that I think USC lost to UT because Bush, Leinart and Carroll put to much focus on the aesthetics. Sometimes you just have to get the job done.

The Continental Divide just before sunrise as seen while driving over Loveland Pass with Mom and Butch on our way to Keystone for a day of skiing.

Mom doesn't mind changing in public as evidenced by this shot of her working herself into her ski pants in the parking lot at Keystone. I have no other pictures of me ski trip because I lost my camera for most of the day. I realized this on the slope as I was laying in the snow in the trees looking up at the endlessly blue ski thinking to myself this is beautiful I'd like to post it on my blog. Then I reached for the pocket where I had put my camera to discover in shock that it was unzipped and my camera--gone. I skiied around the rest of the day finding the various places I'd fallen while skiing and digging down in the snow hoping to find my camera. Finally at the end of the day I checked the lost and found--hark! There must be a band of angels watching out for me. Maybe that's a waste of angels, I don't know.

No one's body does freckles like Ms. Lohan's body does freckles.

The last time Mom and Butch came to town they renovated my kitchen however there was still some caulking let to do for this trip. "Caulk" is definitely one of my favorite puns. For example: "Do we have enough caulk?" "This is cheap caulk." "Butch is good with caulk." "This caulk is sticky." "You never know when you'll need some caulk."

Last night I spent 5 hours with these days ladies awaiting our chance to provide testimony in the matter of J. W. v. The Honor Board. I am happy and proud to announce that J.W. has been cleared of all charges. It seemed to me the worst part for J. W. was the months awaiting the hearing. He handled it so well. He was calm, focused and strong. I often thought that if I had been put in the same situation that I would have cried in public regularly.

We took a trip to Canon Beach and visited this "crusty" little seafood shack. Oh, there were many things to enjoy. I had blackened salmon and smoked oysters. Lippy and chair shared some chowder and fish and chips, catfish also had chowder and Ms Geise, pictured above right, hates seafood and ordered a cheese burger and fries. I will never understand her kind.


The beach was beautiful. The Pacific is an awesome sight and it had been 5 or six years since I'd seen it last. We were lucky that the sun came out longer enough for us to watch it set. We were also lucky that Chair's friend Mandela had dropped off a Christmas present a day earlier.



I won ten dollars on this slot machine at the Las Vegas airport between connecting flights. Then I lost five. Net gain four. That four dollars was spent on some excedrine to ease my backpain. Two weeks sleeping on floors and half-deflated air matresses left me with a pinching ache in the middle of my back. "I'm much too young to feel this damn old." -- Garth Brooks.

Before Z, Smelly and I got to the juggle farm we stopped off at the Hagan's for some provisions. Smelly had told me a few days earlier about how they get a lot of there food out of trashcans behind the store. I was suspicious of this activity and wanted to see it for myself. So we pulled around back and smelly said "well if we're going to do it we're going to do it" and they set to doing it. I helped too and found a real decent head of lettuce. It really is amazing how much perfectly good food is thrown away everyday.

Here's vern with kitten. Vern seemed to be the most diligent of all the juggler's. The morning we left he was hammering shingles on the roof so that the rain didn't leak on the juggle area.

Here's the barn. This is were they live and practice. It might look a little run down on the outside but inside there is a wood stove and it is warm an cozy and there are giant padded rings that hang from the ceiling that are used for acrobatics. Oh and there are rockstar chickens in the yard.

"We let the kittens lick our hair and drank our chalky lemonade." -- Andrew Bird

Actually the kittens were brought to the barn to battle the giant rat, however first they must grow and practice their cat skills. In the meantime they are loved for their naivete and soft fur. They are also learning some circus tricks like jumping through hoops.

The jugglers also fashioned this circus net high up in the trees.

I don't know the blondes name but she's Lebn's lady. And that's River upfront. There's a lot more I"d like to say about the juggle farm but you're not going to understand unless you go. It's a wonderful place were sharing and hugs are way of life. They make it look so easy. But on to Portland and the cold wet dark. Here's our New Year's crew waiting for bus. Our tummies are full of facos and jaebos. (Facos=tacos with fake meat. Jaebos=Jaegermeister and Red Bull) Yum! Pictured above left to right: Ms. Geise, Lippy, Mr. Chair, Catfish Vegas, Z and me laying across their laps.

Here's some of us after many drinks. New Year's 2006 was good. It was real good.