pet projects

We have a pet spider. Her name is Beatrice because we think that name suits a female black widow. Yes, I know you must be thinking - why does Heather have a pet black widow? It's a question that I have been asking myself too. It's because I got to rearrange and decorate the entire house while the boys sat quiet so when Derek wanted to cage one of the many black widows in the house, I went along. At least we can keep tabs on her and she's not roaming the house. A random beattle showed up in the house yesterday so we decided to feed it to Beatrice. It was amazing how fast she wound it up and ate it.

It finally dumped last night. It's a winter wonderland around Ashland. I'm glad I don't have to drive today because there are some serious yahoos on the road. I saw a guy in an F250 going down Vista sideways, that is until he turned all the way around and was sliding backwards. Luckily he used the curb to get himself stopped before smashing into any parked cars.

Winter Storm Warning...hmmm

There was a winter storm warning in effect until 10 pm last night. Apparently, it was the weather service screwing with us because we hardly got snow. It was cold though so we went for a hike up to Lamb Mine. It's a nice jaunt from the house. It was beautiful up there.

Derek wasn't impressed with my choice of trail to get there. This is what he had to say to the 2+ miles of straight up hill.

Christmas tree time

We cut a Christmas tree today. It's a pretty good deal. For $5. you can get a permit from the forest service to cut a tree. We found one that was perfect. We thought it was a bit taller than we wanted but it was skinny. Come to find out, it was a LOT taller than what we wanted. It's a perfect 7' tree now though :)

Lat night we all went to Jay's black tie party. Of course, I forgot to take pics of us all dressed up. I think it was because it was so cold in the house - I immediatly put my slippers on and wrapped myself in a blanket while we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive. Here's Derek scoping out the tree cutting areas. I wanted to cut a Christmas tree this year and he was a trooper and went on the adventure with me.

I spent a few hours this afternoon decorating so now it's festive in here for our Thanksgiving dinner. The house smells sooooo gooood.

Panama surf adventure

We are back from our Panamanian surf advenuture. It was a fun week loaded with good surf. We spent 6 days in Morro Negro at surf camp. We all had a great week in the water and were catching lots of waves by the end of the week. I was excited to catch my 1st real wave on the second day of the trip. I am excited about surfing now and may even brave the cold waters off the Oregon coast. We shall see...

At the end of the trip we spend a day in Panama City checking out this and that. We had lunch at the locks and watched a few large ships pass. It was very interesting and the museum there is quite informative.

We had a rather non-traditional Thanksgiving. Instead of the turkey dinner, football thing we had a pasties , moustache, sharpy tatoo party. Gabe had the English guy there convinced that all Americans do this on Thanksgiving. He's going to be disappointed if he ever makes it the states for the real deal. Most of the pictures from that night probably shouldn't be posted, but this one of Pete kind of sums it up.

We had a few nice susets. It usually rained in the afternoons and evenings but this particular day was beautiful and sunny. I am almost as pale as when I left but maybe it's better that way.

We all liked this low tide spot. It had nice, small, consistant waves. We didn't really have to work to get them either. Bonus! The morning spots were big and SCAREY. I didn't get any pics of those because we took the boats out to that area.

Panama

Off to Panama for 7 days of surf camp adventure :) woohoo!!!

Happy Turkey Day everyone.

opportunity

I've been hunkering down in my cave lately so no blog postings, etc. Sorry! I would like to report that I am finally a registered Landscape Architect :)! I had my oral interview on Friday. As it turned out, it was nothing more than a technicality. Good thing because I only spent about 2 hrs preparing for it. It's nice to have that over with and I am enjoying the accomplishment.

There have been some other work changes resulting from the ecomony, or should I say what remains of it. I am happy to report that I am still employed, even though it is at a reduced hours work week. I haven't actually worked a short week yet because as soon as I found out that my slackin, vacation lovin life style was going to be financially crimped, I threw out the word that I was looking for other opportunities to make some cash. This town in amazing! In a matter of 2 days I had a side job lined up as a photographers assistant - random!, but fun, and since then other random filler jobs have been trickling in. I have to take this opportunity to thank my parents for instilling in me, good ol' fashion work ethic! It's saving my ass right now :)

shocked and amazed

Pete was in a commercial yesterday for Lithia Motors and his role was to act shocked and amazed at the low prices. He demonstrated for Derek and I last night. I think it's convincing. What do you think?

Halloween and beyond...

Here's what I will look like in 50 years...or would have looked 50 years ago. I don't think this apple rolled too far from the family tree because I think I've seen this before...Derek kept laughing at me but for some reason he went out in public with me anyway. I've been a moving mad girl the past week. Derek, Leah and I went out on Halloween and ended up cutting a rug at the Siskiyou. It was a blast! Moving the next day went really well too. I have spent the last week getting settled into the new place, decorating, etc. The boys have been very patient with me and I really appreciate the freedom they have granted me to girl up the new pad. It definately has the bachelor pad thing going on a bit, but nothing like before. For instance, I am sitting on the kitchen couch listening to music and surfing the web. This was Pete's idea and I just went along with it to humor him, but it's great! Of course, there is still a couch out in the living room too.

Derek played me some music while we waited for the trick or treaters to take all the candy. He is a very talented musician and I enjoy listening to him play.

Leah was adorable on Halloween, as usual. She had wings too :)!

Emmigrant Lake

I have Cobie for the weekend. He is by far my favorite dog to watch. He was really mopey the first time I watched him and I thought that he must be really mellow. However, every time I watch him he gets a bit more spry. There is no wearing him out this weekend! We walked, we played fetch and his energy level stayed on that same highly elevated plain so off to the lake we went. He played for HOURS! He had a great time and he let me sleep until 8 today. Much better than the 4 am wake up call yesterday...

Leah wanted to show up her favorite juniper tree out by the lake so we walked along the shore and hunted for pertifed wood. Gary founs one good piece of petrified palm tree, which was pretty cool. There is some interesting geology out there. It's one of those places that I wouldn't think of as being interesting because it's kind of a nasty reservoir, but in actuality, it is quite unique.

We were starving yesterday. It was day 6 of the cleanse and we spent several hours talking about sugary good treats. Oddly though, it didn't make me crave them any more than normal though. In fact, in kind me into stubborn mode. I will not be ruled by the chocolate chip cookie!

Big D went HUGE last night. I made lentil soup and he added 4 sausages to it. I was impressed my his stomachs holding capacity. That is a mixing bowl that's he eating out of, by the way. I wish I could eat like that and be as slender. I don't really have much to complain about. I eat fairly well, but it's not like I really have to torture myself with restrictions.

interesting...

This is Sag's horoscope for today. I think this is interesting because I have been struggling with this in the past 24 hours. I'm freaking out about the state of affairs at work, the move, my mid life crisis in general. hmm, maybe I'll try something new and open up about my freak outs instead of internalizing them today.

"Although you might try to stay on the sunny side of your disposition, there could be a rather serious issue that needs airing. Others may expect you to be positive or even uplifting, but don't let their expectations stand in the way of your honesty. After all, part of your reputation is based on your ability to tell it like it is. You will feel much better once the truth is out in the open."

Whiskeytown

I went down to Whiskeytown with Peter, Melissa and Derek this weekend. It was a new place for all of us so we had fun exploring. Peter and I decided to mountain bike the entire weekend and yesterday was an adventure. Part of the trail was really fun, although littered with bear scat. We decided to check out Mill Creek Trail, which was quite beautiful but defanitley not a mountain bike trail. I think there were about 15 stream crossings, none of which were ridable. So, basically, we hiked our bikes along that one. Today was great though - we checked out a different area and rode the Shasta Mine Loop, the Clear Creek Canal Trail and a few others. It was fairly smooth, fast, and easy riding. Actually a really nice change of pace. Apparently there are three resident bears at Oak Bottom Camp Ground where we stayed and the camp host "assured" us that the bears would be in camp scavenging for food. I stayed up half the night waiting for one of the buggers to roam into camp - nuthin! I enjoyed the full moon though so it was worth being up half the night just for that.

First snow of the year

Holy crap! It really snowed last night. Apparently this is unseasonably early, but I say, bring it on! If it's going to snow and close all the mtn bike trails and good road rides, we may as well be skiing. I'd better head up the hill this weekend for one last attempt at the Ashland loop road before we're all valley bound for the season. Guess I had better do a Green Springs Loop on the road bike too because as the fog is lifting, it appears there is quite a bit of snow on that side of the valley as well. I'm impressed! The next question...can I really hold out on heat until I move at the end of the month??? 3 weeks to go and I'm running out of blankets to add to the pile.

The Wild and Scenic Rogue River

We had a great trip this weekend. It was the Momentum end of season employee trip and it was also the 1st weekend that we had rain, so it ended up being a fairly small group. Eight of headed down the Lower Rogue for this 3 day trip. I had never been on this section of the river so it was a real treat. It is an absolutely beautiful float.

Here's Alex putting his pirate flag on his boat at the put it. Derek, all smiles.
Robyn giving the cheers.

Tequilla shots to start off the trip. I went down the river with Alan. He was a great guide and he even taught me to row. I got quite a bit of practice in the flats and some of the very easy rapids. I pretty much sucked because I hit every rock in the river. I finally started to get it today though.
Pete and Robyn - we were calling them the Love Boat, but they didn't know it. hehehee
Mule Canyon was beautiful. The entire trip was really pretty. It rained most of the day and night on Friday and then really rained and poured most of the day Sat. We did have a few pockets of dry though and it was really nice last night when it finally stopped raining. We sat outside around the fire pit. It ended up being a really late night...

There was a water slide near camp. Of course, it was way too cold to actually partake in that fun, but we hiked up there to check it out. The canyon was incredible.

original polkas

My aunt and one of her friends wrote and performed these politically charged Sarah Palin polkas. They're pretty funny - check 'em out.

The Sarah Palin Polka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9Rsn8hKSEk&feature=email

The Perfect President?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCMBRxbppjk

Happy 34th in mystery location

This is Holly's "favorite" b-day picture. I think she was 16 here, but not sure. She's 34 today - Happy Birthday Sissy! We're all out here in SV celebrating. We all rolled into town yesterday afternoon and I did what I could to be the 1st one here so I could hit the trails. I went north of town and checked out some of the loops up there. It was sooooo pretty. The fall color is great right now. I must say, I love living in OR where there are a ton of trees and different shrubs that have a variety of fall color. However, the aspen still holds the number one spot in my heart. I know you east coast folks would argue, and have, and the maples on the east coast are very impressive, BUT the aspen is just amazing! I think it's the white bark, the sparseness of the leaves and the fact that they are in iscolated clumps. It makes them special.
We are staying in a condo. Thank goodness because Mom brought us boxes and boxes of stuff. As you can see from her expression, it's not stuff that she likes. There is some stuff that I like though. Random ceerap, but sadly there is only a few things that are being transported to the local thrift store.
I enoyed the irony of this particular item.

Rogue River twitch

It was a great weekend here in southern OR. Fall has set in and the temps are cooling off. I went out on a nice, long ride with Chrysten. We were going to do the Ride the Rogue century, but decided to skip it. We had a great ride out to and around Jacksonville. It wasn't that warm, but when I got back from the ride, Pete and I went out to the res to swim anyway. It will probably be the last day out there since it's getting pretty chilly. Today was a fast paced ride to 4 corners and an afternoon of fishing out on the Rogue River. I was too busy catching rocks to take pics, but it was a beautiful float.

nightmares

At the time I saw this man, I didn't find him disturbing. In fact, I was pretty impressed - naked unicycling could result in a lot of pain. However, I have now had not only one, but TWO nightmares with this guy in it. Even worse, his face is painted like a clown. Some of you already know how disturbing and creepy that I think clowns are, the rest of you know know. So anyway, this guy rides past a window that I'm looking out of and he has a clown face. Think Wizard of Oz, with this guy as the witch. No crazy laughing though, just that sick-ass serial killer clown face smile. I really wish I would have written down the rest of the dream when I woke up, but I didn't and now I can't remember. I even walked around the house until I was fully awake so I wouldn't fall back into the dream. I hope he doesn't appear a third time.

On a more pleasant note, I've been listening to Bitter Sweet lately and I'm diggin it! Beginning modern dance starts back up next week and I think this will be good practice music.

a must read

I was relieved when I got this in an e-mail this morning. There are very few political topics that truely boil my blood. There are a few however, which I will not get into on this forum. I will say though, that I feel very fortunate because my mother and father, and their generation, my grandmother, and her generation, have all fought hard and made many sacrifices so that my generation has choices. It's my responsiblilty, along with others in this generation, to keep those choices alive for future generations. As you can tell, this is one of the things that gets my blood boiling, so with that said, I would like to pass on this information to those that may be interested.

http://womenagainstsarahpalin.blogspot.com/

Jedadiah State Park

I went camping in Jedediah State Park this weekend. It's another great get away, only 2 hrs from home. It's near the coast and the Smith River runs through it. The weather was a lot warmer than last weekend so we got to swim in the river after mountain biking. It was soooo nice! The river is incredibly clear, deep and mellow. It was like being in a fresh water pool - it was refreshing since it was hot and muggy for the mountain biking portion of the day. It was amazing to be in the red woods, even though the trail was only ok. There was a section of it that was gravel - kind of strange. All I could think was how much work i must have been to haul all that gravel in and how it made the trail feel like a path in a city park. lame.
The trees are HUGE! We went for a walk along this one.
The light was amazing for our decent. I had fun playing with the different settings on my camera. The B&W were nice, but the sepia tones were much better, in my opinion. Not that I know a thing about photography though.

This seasonal bridge provides access to Stout Grove from the campground. It looks rickedy, but in fact, it seemed to be fairly stable. We couldn't ride our bikes in there, but we figured that the short walk was much better and more scenic alternative than the 4 miles of scarey, shoulderless road.

North Umpqua Trail

Four of us headed to the North Umpqua River this weekend for a camping / mtn biking adventure. It was Katie's first camping experience so we tried had to do it up right. Instead of hotdogs though, we make chicken sausages. Katie is a great cook so she jumped at the opportunity to saute the sausages after a failed attempt at roasting them. Katie is also the master smores maker. We are taking ADVANCED smores making here. Melted Reeces Peanutbutter cup smores. WOW! If I didn't know better, I would say that she is an experienced camper.
Kate is an experienced camper, as you can tell by the Red Stripe. She's a Montana girl and knows her way around camp.
It was cold. We were all shocked by the temps. I had on all my warm clothes and wasn't about to wonder far from the camp fire. We had rain Sun night, but luckily it was just enough to make a pleasant pitter patter on the tent - it lulled me to sleep.
Kate and Katie shuttled Jay and I up the trail. There was a fire in the area, but we thought it was in the section where the trail crossed the the opposite side of the river. We set off on the Deer Leap Segment of the North Umpqua Trail. It was absolutely amazing. When we came out on the other end of the trail, we learned it was closed due to fire activity. Way to post it on both ends of the trail...luckily we weren't really in the fire area. We are watching the smoke billow and the helicopter come in from water. As a result, we really weren't able to ride the Jessie Wright Segment. The rest of the ride was amazing though. We roded through Panther and then bailed out onto the road. I was so glad when Jay just laughed at me and said that I was a whoosie for bailing, but was right on my tail. I was beat and it was getting cold and looked like rain. We rode the Mott Segment the day before in combintation with Strawberry so I didn't feel like I was missing anything. This trail was amazing and I can't wait to explore more of it.

Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area

This weekend a friend showed me something new. We went to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area, We did a 9 mile hike out to the Chetco River and hung out for the afternoon. It was nice to hang out, swim, take a nap and relax. Of course, there was the 9 miles back to the car after all the down time, but the light was nice and we were able to stop and take some photos. We saw a stand of very interesting plants - the carnivorous Cobra Lily.

There as this random rusted out truck at the confluence of the trails. It was decent light for some b&w. The entire wilderness area was burned in the 2002 Biscuit Fire. These trees still had pine cones on it. They have hung on for 6 years - impressive.

The Chetco River is at the bottom of that valley. It was a long, steep trail with quite a few down trees. It was a work out!