Pro-Soup Propaganda

Image from Izismile. :o)

Sorry I haven't really updated on the Spending Fast. We've been doing pretty good. It's relatively easy to not go wild at spending money when I have to tell myself that we don't really have the money to spend. On the other hand, we have been eating the same thing for days now and it would be nice to have a wee bit more spending money for that, but I'm fine. I do find myself eating a lot of toast and PB&J sandwiches on homemade bread. Filling and cheap! (And delicious!)

We did go over on our gas budget this month because we went up the mountain twice for playing in the snow, but I was able to save money in other areas, so it made up for it. I contacted both Progressive and Comcast about lowering our rates and it worked!

Also, since we recently got our electric bill I took a peek at it compared to last year at this time and I'm shocked! Last January we used 838kwh and this month we used 489. Quite a difference! I'm curious to see how it looks next month, too, since it will be a more complete month of usage (I technically started the spending fast about a week into January, I think). One thing that we still have to do fairly frequently is use the dehumidifier because our apartment gets really damp. I just noticed this morning that I need to leave it on more because there is a layer of condensation going about 1.5" up every window in the apartment. Not okay! So the dehumidifier is back on.

With the spending fast, it's still nice that I have my own spending money so I don't go completely crazy. It's nice that I've been able to treat Jonathan to beer a few times. I also just finished paying off my credit card bill (from buying some bras and my REI Endeavor pants) and can now start hoarding money for my trip again. I've managed to sell quite a bit of stuff on eBay and Amazon in the past couple of weeks and am going to be pet-sitting for two different friends in the next two weeks and am also hired to clean a house that some renters just moved out of so that it can be rented out again!

I also will soon be selling soaps at a shop here in town! More details to come as soon as they are figured out. I will also hopefully be helping a friend who has a booth at the Saturday Market during the weekends this spring and summer. I'm working really hard to come up with $6,194.84, which is the difference between how much I have saved now ($4,805.16) and $11,000, which is about how much paying for the preliminary part of my trip is going to be. Once I get it paid for I can know that I'm ACTUALLY GOING OMG and can then worry about the plane trip, travel insurance, and food/spending money later. (I have also been in contact with one of the travel officers for the trip and there are still lots of camping and kayaking spots available!)

But now! I need to get ready so I can head to work. I hope everyone has a great weekend and has lots of fun stuff planned!

I thought I'd share the details of the trip I'm planning on taking. I'm going to do the "Patagonia Experience and Quest for the Arctic Circle" and the "Easter Island Pre-Cruise Extension" tours through G Adventures. I have several friends who have done tours with G and they had great trips. I'm hoping to magically somehow be able to do the trip happening in February of 2013, but I'm fine if I don't have the money saved up (soon!) in order to at least book the trip. There is a fair amount of hiking, camping, and kayaking on this trip, which is why I chose it!

My trip will start with me flying into Santiago, Chile, and hopping on the boat to take me to Easter Island. I really want to go see the moai!

Image by Wiki user Aurbina.

I'll spend six days on the Easter Island expedition and will then head to Buenos Aires to then meet up with the rest of my group in Ushuaia.

The second day we'll be hiking around El Chalten, Argentina. There's lots of mountains and glaciers in the area.

Image by LongHornDave.

Fun fact: the mountain skyline in Patagonia's logo is of Mount Fitz Roy in Patagonia. I'll be looking at it here!

Image by Martin St-Amant.

Image from Oregon Wild.

Hmmm...I guess I can see it...

We'll then be heading to the Moreno Glacier in Glacier National Park, Argentina.

Image by Wiki user Marianocecoswki.

We'll then spend a few days in the Torres de Pain National Park in Chile.

Image by Wiki user Miguel.V.

The three towers are the most famous pieces of the park:

Image by Wiki user Stevage.

We'll also be seeing the Grey Glacier in the park:

Image by Wiki user B1mbo.

We'll then head back to Argentina to Ushuaia to get ready to get on the M/S Expedition to head for Antarctica! We'll spend the next twelve days in transit. We'll head to Drake Passage, the Antarctic Peninsula, the South Shetland Islands, cross the Arctic Circle, and then head back to Ushuaia!

Photo by NASA.

During the Antarctic part of the tour I will be signing up for kayaking and camping. EXCITING!!! Not to mention the hoards of penguins, minke whales, leopard seals, and a bajillion types of birds that we'll be seeing!

Can you see why I'm so excited for this trip? :oD

I just need to work my tail off and get at least $11,000 before the last quad-cabin room fills up on the M/S Expedition (there are currently five left). I'm thinking I have maybe four months in which to do this. I also don't know if the camping and kayaking spots have filled up, because there are limited spots and they can go quickly. If there is no chance of kayaking or camping and I don't get one of the quad rooms I will wait until 2014 to do the trip. If I am spending the bucks to make this a huge month-long trip then I want to do it right and do everything I want to do!

Guys, I had the best weekend ever, hands down. No, really. On Saturday I volunteered with Friends of Trees and helped plant nine trees on Gladstone. I then went home and spent the rest of the night in my minkie pants, snuggled up on the couch. Yesterday Jonathan and I went with several friends to the mountain to snowshoe. We went down part of the Pacific Crest Trail and did about five miles of snowshoeing/hiking overall. Plus, it was snowing pretty hard, so it was absolutely gorgeous!

Starter holes for us to put trees in 

 All of our trees to plant

Showing the volunteers how to plant the trees 

That is a good-looking moat 

The Tuffies got a little dirty 

Getting ready to use the stake pounder. Gotta wear the hard hat! 

Close-up of the roots of an Autumn Gold Gingko

And then Sunday's pictures... 

This is the same place where Jonathan and I took the lower picture just a few weeks earlier! 

Hey, mountain!

This is how tall the snow is over the road.

I've got a bunch of stuff listed on eBay and CraigsList right now, so I thought I'd share some of it in case anyone was interested. The money goes straight toward my trip fund, which I'm actually going to talk about next week because I'm changing it just a little bit and hopefully going SOONER!! If you see something you like that's not on eBay let me know because I will happy ship my CraigsList stuff! Also, if you want something that I have listed on eBay that doesn't have any bids on it, make me a reasonable offer and we'll go that route!

 20lb Scuba Diving Weight Belt

 Prana's Jenny Skirt in a size small

 Locally-made skirt, size 4-8 or so? It's made to fit a range of sizes.

It has a BUM RUFFLE ON THE BACK!!! 

 North Face Summit Series boy's track jacket, size medium

(Also fits small ladies. ;o)

(There is a whole Kobo saga about me getting a Kobo.)

(My silver sparkle princess Kobo will be here Tuesday!) 

 Sperry Pelican rain boots, size 6

I've been selling a bit of stuff lately, but it's slowed down a bit. I think a lot of what I have listed on eBay will sell, though. I also am selling my Kitchenaid mixer and the ice cream attachment, so if you're interested in that let me know!

I'll have more posts next week. Not much has happened this past week and I've been busy with statistics homework. This weekend I'll be planting trees with Friends of Trees and snowshoeing with friends! Should be a good time!

Yesterday Jonathan and I walked around the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge for the first time. It was so pretty! We were specifically on the lookout for herons, but never saw any, although we saw lots of ducks, nuthatches, and lots of teeny little brown birds that we are thinking are virios or kinglets. They were so cute! The weather was mostly sideways snow/rain and so was pretty wet and cold, but it was nice to be outside! All photos are here...

This is apparently the outside to an old mausoleum? 

The anthropologist nerd in me is wondering, "What was on these pilings? Was there

an old building here once?" 

Colorful trees 

He humors me. :o)

All in all, it was a great day and it felt awesome to get outside again! We had made an REI run beforehand so I could pick up their Endeavor pants, which are freaking amazing. Oh, man. New favorite pants. I have been wanting some hiking pants similar to these for a couple of years, but have never bit the bullet. After finding out that I was going to be hiking a LOT more in the near future, I decided to just go for it. I already want the black pair, too. These pants are awesome! Windproof to 30mph, water beaded up on the outside and then dried quickly, super comfy, and, most importantly, my butt looks good. ;o) I can't wait to do a lot more hiking and traveling with them! Also, the petite size fit my Hobbity inseam perfectly. To not have to hem a pair of pants and to be able to wear them out of the store is an extreme rarity for me. Seriously. Buy these pants. Now.

More hiking will happen soon. I wonder where we'll we go next?

All I have to say is, "Yeeeaaahhhhh!!!!"

Yesterday was the first big hike of the year and it was AWESOME! Me, four other friends, and SEVEN dogs hiked from Wahkeena Falls to Multnomah Falls. It's about a 5.5 mile loop and most of it is a steep up-hill, full of switchbacks. Artoo was a champ throughout almost the whole thing and had a GREAT time with the other dogs, except for the last mile he was completely dragging. He has been on some long hikes in the past, but I think today was just too much for him all at once after not doing anything really active for so long. But I am proud of him! The weather was gorgeous and there was a ton of snow out. Here's some of the pictures I took, but all of the photos are in this album!

This last picture was Artoo and I waiting for our ride. He had gotten to the point where he could just Go. No. Further. He actually managed to pick a pretty good spot to be done in, since we were right at Multnomah Falls Lodge. We stayed behind while everyone else hiked back to the car and came to get us. I was totally bundled up and was trying to get him to snuggle with me to keep warm, but I think he was just too concerned with people-watching to realize that he was cold and tired. And, of course, as soon as he got into the car he was totally fine.

Today Jonathan and I are going to do the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge hike, which sounds pretty, so pictures of that to come later! What did you do this weekend?