two of the wranglers just walked past with headlamps and shotguns

i feel safe to walk back to my cabin

so i dont have any pictures
cause i was afraid my camera would get wet

but i decided to go canoeing yesterday
by myself

now most of you who know me
know that my experience with canoeing has been mostly limited to camp noah outings
where the main objective was just to float along and not hit any rocks

but it was a beautiful day
and i wanted to be outside
and my leg is still swollen, so hiking was out

canoeing it was
it started out ok
i got the boat launched and figured out how to steer
relaxed enjoyed the sun and the mountains

and then the wind picked up
and blew me all the way across the lake

so i got out and turned the boat around the started paddling back
but i only made it like a third of the way around the lake before i got blown back to the same spot

directly across from where i needed to put the boat back
what to do what to do,

so i ended up getting out, tying one sleave of my sweatshirt around the boat's bar
and pulling the other end
and wadded thru the 40s degree water around the edge of the lake pulling the boat behind me,
trying not to think about what i was stepping in (especially when i sunk up to my knees in sludge)
until i got to a place where
i could get back in and paddle back with out going head on into the wind
so much for staying off my ankle

there were two old guys fishing on the edge shaking their heads at me
i didnt tell anyone here about it, i just said it took me awhile to get back to the edge

of course if they read this they will know
but its too funny not to share

So I was walking in front of my cabin the other day..

and then i wasnt..


I was face down in the dirt with my ankle rolled to the side. it hurt alot...


I have a talent
not a very good talent
but a talent

in other news

I took the chinese girls to yellowstone. It was fun but i dont think I heard English all day. You can tell that the forest still hasnt come close to recovering from the fire 21 years ago. There was lots of very short trees, beside tall dead looking ones.

The girls had fun and took lots of pictures of everthing. Which is good because there was WAY too much construction to go back.




on the way back we ran into problems. the road is under quite a bit of construction and actually closes from 10pm to 1am and then opens for a half an hour then closes again until 6am
So we had to be thru the road block by 10pm or we would be stuck
we left at 7:30 which should have been plenty of time
except that i didnt plan on something

Bison

there are ALOT of bison in yellowstone
and it doesnt occur to anyone to pull over to take pictures
they all stop in the middle of the road

it took us a half an hour to go five miles...

and then one bison decided for a change of pace, he wanted to walk down the middle of the road...

and then we hit a separate part of construction that stopped us dead for twenty minutes. Once we made it thru that, the people in front of us decided that the speed limit would be too risky...so we went ten under for the next twenty miles...

we missed the road block by 15 minutes. So we had to wait until 1am

When we finally got back too the lodge, somewhere around 2 am i had the option of sleeping for about an hour and a half, or just going and getting all my work done. I took the second option. Everyone had a good breakfast, and i even made green tea cake, and white choc ginger ice cream for dessert. And then i crashed...

only to find that my ankle had swelled to the size of a grapefruit...

sometimes my life seems ludicrous..

This weekend we only have two guests for the rest of the week, so my job just got simpler.
Tomorrow im taking the chinese girls to Yellowstone national park, I need some time off property, and they want to see more of America. So it works out for both of us.
The internet is not working in my room so i lugged my computer down to the lodge to post this,

Im going to post some pictures of some of the desserts I've come up with. some of them are not so pretty, but they tasted good.

Banana Foster's Cheesecake

Caramel Cake with Chocolate Ganache, this one was one of the managers favorites

Citrus Cheesecake with Mangos


Strawberry Marscapone Tarte


Today since we only had a couple of people I decided to be more creative, and play with sugar.
So this is Choc Mousee with Raspberry sauce, and on top is a sugar cage


Ever since i tried a new york black and white cookie, i've wanted to make them
so i made them for tea yesterday, except that I made them bakery size, so they were the size of a coffee saucer
and i made 48 of them...
you know in case anyone wanted more than one. if you've never had one, they are cake-like cookies that are half iced with lemon icing, and half with choc icing
they are super soft, and super yummy

The staff has been very happy with me, most of them had never had one, they all got eaten, just not so many by guests

'This is how it works
You're young until you're not
You love until you don't
You try until you can't
You laugh until you cry
You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe
Until their dying breath'

this song has been on repeat on my mp3 player for 5 days now...

Well thanks to Ryan my computer is now up and running.


Today I decided to go for a light hike
Its a fairly secluded spot, and I was attempting to climb up a fairly steep part where it was mostly shale, so i was sliding back two feet for every three i climbed up. All of the sudden i heard a voice behind me 'What in the world are you doing?'
I fell down like ten feet in surprise, and turned around to see a hiker with a huge beard and two walking sticks. He was hiking the continental divide trail, which goes right by our lodge.
He was just pausing for a second, to laugh at me...

The reward for me hike, looked like this


I went into jackson hole last weekend and went to this great burrito stand called D. O. G.
they had a dog that apparently belonged to the cook, his nametag read ender wiggin
so i took a picture...


the burrito was good too, but for once i didnt take a picture of the food...