laura
cope

Raw! Vegan! New Year’s Day dinner

“I don’t like raw tomatoes on my salad,” he says. “How about yours? Should I cook yours a bit?”

I sighed. “She would not cook her tomatoes.”

“Kristen?”

I’m subscribed to hundreds of cooking blogs, most of which regularly feature things like beef stews or cream-cheese frosting. I don’t remember how Kristen’s blog on raw foods made it into my RSS, but it became one of my favorites in 2009. I brought her sun-dried tomato pesto dip to Thanksgiving dinner and everyone loved it.

Dogs of the rez

Tamara LaPlante is the patron saint of stray dogs, which run rampant here.

She currently has 19 dogs, I think, plus what seems like a hundred cats and kittens.

It’s become a tradition among volunteers to give Tamara a bag of dog food before leaving the reservation. Now that it’s so bitterly cold outside, I understand better why Tamara fosters so many dogs.

She offered to host Pixel at her house, too, which was really sweet. So my little Maltese —

— almost befriended this guy —

— until I realized Frontier Airlines doesn’t allow dogs on its planes.

Ye Olde Main Sign: Then and Now

I wasn’t in my right mind when I said I’d post photos every day. I’m exhausted from picking and wrapping presents for an entire city (reservation) of children and catching up with people I see too little of. Here’s a cheap update:

hi, honey, I’m home

Tiny planes terrify me, especially when the pilot is my age. …

… even moreso when the pilot has to carve through icicles.

I skipped my senior year of high school; I’ve never had a physics class. It’s all magic to me, how this wimpy little propeller can hold a dozen adults in the air.

Only when we landed did I realize I’d slipped on the wrong shoes in my sleepless haste to leave for a 6:30 a.m. flight.

I walked a snowy quarter-mile in my little ballet flats and picked up some winter-appropriate attire from a store near my hotel.

Staying at the Days Inn by myself at Christmastime doesn’t compare to waking up on a flight attendant’s sprawling cattle ranch in the summer.