The Best Back Scratcher

Saturday was my favorite day in Wyoming. I should squeeze a few more of those in while I can. I’m leaving soon for Denver. I took a 19-week legislative relief position at the AP bureau there. Very exciting. I hear they have stoplights there, but they don’t have moose like this.

Don’t worry, Mom. This one was taken with a zoom lens. I was also accompanied by a professional wildlife filmographer, but there will be more on that later.

This was at Grand Teton National Park Saturday. It’s surprising this big guy even has antlers still, since they shed them in the winter. It’s a good thing he has them because he sure seems to be enjoying this back scratch.

Ahhhh…..

A nice drive on a winter’s day

Yesterday I spent the day in Big Piney, also known as, “The Ice Box of the Nation,” to do some reporting.

This is the real sign that greets you when you enter Big Piney. It was taken in August, when it was much less icy.

Instead of pausing for lunch, I decided to go for a long drive around the nearby open spaces. After an interview with a local park ranger, I was craving it.

Don't forget to share the road!

So I put my big, green beastly 1998 Ford Expedition into four wheel drive, and I hit the road.

Sam + 4WD = <3

I love when I’m the only one on a road. It happens more often than you’d think.

I don't know what these red stick bushes are, but I like them a lot.

I just drove around until I hit one of these and then turned around. I blasted some quality John Denver, too.

At least this one doesn't say trespassers will be shot.

Some of the roads were a little scary to drive on, but my car never wavered, so I kept on keeping on. That car rocks… now that the heat works.

Yup. This thing on the right is a road.

And it’s all worth it when I see a view like this.

Ahhhhhhhhh.....

Oh, and did I mention that it was so warm in the “icebox of the nation” that I was driving with the windows down. 30 degrees is something to celebrate!

At least it’s pretty!

I complain a lot about Wyoming. It’s cold. I’m very far from everyone I know. I’m stuck here for Christmas. There is no ethnic food and no quality live music.

The worst part is that for about six weeks it has been bitter cold, but it hasn’t snowed. It’s a small town, and there isn’t much to do right now if there isn’t enough snow to ski or snowmobile or participate in any of those things I came here to try out.

Well it started snowing, so that’s all about to change. I rode a snowmobile through town on Sunday! Hopefully I won’t be completely alone for Christmas. I’ve accumulated a couple of packages marked “Do not open until Christmas!” from my mom and grandma, so at least I have that.

Having complained with words, I can only praise Wyoming with photography–

Here is a view of the Wind River Mountain Range, as seen from the mesa area, with a bonus sliver of a view of Fremont Lake.

That is all.

Carol of the Bells

This video features my three favorite Muppets. Awesome.

Strange food violence

I can’t wait until someday I write an odd-ball story like this that winds up being linked to by almost every news network in the country. Today it is all about food violence.

Exhibit A: Raw meat.

The crime?

A 53-year-old was arrested after alledgedly hitting a man in the head with a raw steak. According to a Marion County Sheriff’s Office report, the man told deputies Elsie Egan repeatedly hit him with the uncooked meat and slapped his face after he refused a piece of sliced bread. The man said he wanted a bread roll.

Dude, just take the bread.

Exhibit B: Cooked Meat.

The crime?

A 25-year-old Port St. Lucie man was arrested for allegedly rubbing a hamburger on his wife’s face during an argument. Police said Daniel Boss and his wife got into it late Thursday night and started calling each other names. At some point, the woman apparently poured soda on Boss’ hamburger, causing him to grab the sandwich, rub it in her face and start throwing food.

Don’t cry over spilled soda, man.

Exhibit C: Steamy, sticky starch.

The crime?

A 44-year-old woman was booked with second-degree battery after allegedly pouring a pot of boiling grits onto her sleeping boyfriend. St. Charles Parish sheriff’s deputies said Carolyn Brown caused second-degree burns on the man’s face and arms. The man told deputies that he came home from work on Nov. 7, got into an argument with Brown, told her that he was breaking up with her, then went to bed.

Uh, why would he sleep there if he were serious about breaking up? “It’s not you, it’s me. Man, am I tired!” I think that’s something George Costanza would do.

Now I’m going to get a little Debbie Downer on you, [SAD TROMBONE]. These are all examples of domestic violence that really should not be funny. Just like the Tiger Woods [possible?] domestic violence situation now and that SNL skit from last week.

But you know what? I laughed at every one. But then I felt guilty about it, I swear! But really, why are these things so damn funny? And more importantly, why can’t odd news happen near me, so I can have a story posted on every news site everywhere!!

How the Salahis got into the White House

[via my dad's sense of humor]

Too much cute.

This kid has a future.

[via]

The kid who might need that thing I last posted

Hello everyone. My name is Samantha, and I’m addicted to poop jokes.

But if I ever met a kid who needed a “Stormpooper onesie” it is the kid in this video.

[via Jezebel who got it from AdWeek via Jalopnik]

For the pooper in your life

The perfect gift for the little pooper. [via]

Hunter’s Long Strange Trip

In fall 2008 I sublet a furnished apartment from a twenty-something who left Chicago for a culinary internship in San Francisco for six months. She left all her furniture, including her extensive record, movie and book collections.

I picked up Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels from the bookshelf shortly after I moved in. It had apparently been stolen from a library at some point in its life, as evidenced by the bar-code and stamps on the front cover.

At some point I lost the book and never finished reading it. I figured it had to be somewhere in the apartment, so I didn’t bother to replace it when I moved in March 2009.

I lived in the next apartment, a studio in Ravenswood, until I decided to take this reporting job in Wyoming in July 2009. Somehow after I moved to Pinedale this same Hell’s Angels book showed up again. How? I have no clue.

About six weeks ago I picked it up again to read it and discovered some strange things. First of all, the bookmark was an index card with directions to my friend Marcus’s house.

Every once in a while I’m struck with a bout of homesickness for any one of the places I’ve lived. At that moment I happened to be homesick for Chicago and remembered going to his house last fall to meet the Chicagoist.com crew for the first time.

As I started to mope, I noticed something stranger. The library sticker on the front cover—

Teton County Library??

Somehow this book traveled from Chicago to Wyoming through me.  It sneaked by me through two apartment changes and one vehicle change.

Stranger yet, the previous owner of the book hailed from Florida, so who knows how it came to be in Chicago in the first place.

The book was last checked out in 2003, so after a six-year journey, I will return it to its original home in Jackson. Maybe they’ll give me a reward? Or maybe they’ll try to stick me with six years of overdue fines?