no place like...home?

Lassen Volcanic NP - Bumpass Hell

2009-10-12T21:48:00.001-07:00

This was actually on a Park Service sign.

This was the most interesting of our mini hikes Monday. It is a mini pocket of mud pools, steam vents, and other interesting volcan features. It was just as interesting as things we saw in Yellowstone, but not as massive and spread out.

This was a bubbling mud hole. I can't believe people have to be warned to stay away from this stuff.

This pool was really weird. It's hard to tell from the picture, but there is a film of iron pyrite on top. That's right, it's a pool of molten fool's gold.

Lassen Volcanic NP

2009-10-12T21:34:00.001-07:00

We arrived at Lassen in teh early afternoon. It was a really nice fall day so started off with a mini hike around Manzanita Lake (not the one pictured below). It was a very mellow 2 mile loop, which was about all I could handle, sadly. We saw some birds and a few fish, but the highlight was the muskrat that was about 2 feet away. It must have had a bank den because it was swimming with a mouth full of grass and dove out of site within a few feet of us. It was pretty cool. We also listened to a rander talk about birds of prey, specifically Bald Eagles and Osprey. We learned a few adaptions they have, such as hollow feathers and specuals on their feet.

Sun. brought full relief from the food poisoning "adventure" so I was ready to get out and explore. Derek humored me by agreeing to check out an 11 mile lakes loop trail. It was a really pretty trail and for most if it we were alone. It was nice to visit the park during off season because few people were in the camp ground, at the sites or on the hikes. This was one of many lakes we saw that day.

We spent Monday moring doing mini hikes. We started out going to Kings Falls. It was beautiful! And once again, we had it to ourselves. The creek is a basically a tiny, narrow creek that snakes through the valley above, but when it hits this canyon it makes a perfect cascade down the rocks. It was a nice volume of water - a very peaceful creek to sit by and enjoy.

The "money" shot of camping. Derek's reflective glasses tell the story.

Another picture from our Lakes loop. I've never seen so much Manzanita. It was the primary ground cover for acres.

Burney Falls

2009-10-12T21:29:00.001-07:00

Derek and I headed out to Lassen Volcanic National Park this weekend. We were going to camp at Burney Falls Friday night because it is close to the park entrance and is quite beautiful. I was delayed with a nasty case of food poisoning though so we departed Sat. am instead. We were able to stop at Berney Falls and do some short hikes, enjoy the sun and have lunch on the shore of the lake.

The falls are quite large considering the size of the creek that feeds them. The creek is spring fed and underground within a half mile of this site. It was quite beautiful and I'm glad we were able to stop and enjoy it.

Oregon Caves

2009-10-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a long time since I've blogged. I worked a lot this summer and didn't really have anything interesting to talk about. However, I am back to a normal work schedule so my weekends are once again my own so we've been exploring. I am also very motivated to blog now because Pete has offered us $10. a posting to promote fun things to do in SOOR. Easy enough!

As you can see, we had our second snow of the season this weekend. Snow level dropped to 4 thousand feet so we were in it at the Caves. It was fun, but what happened to fall???

Oregon Caves is worth checking out.

4th of July parade

2009-07-06T17:48:00.000-07:00

Happy belated 4th of July! It was a fun one this year. We all pitched in and made a Momentum float so there was a group of us in the parade. It was fun but kind of a bummer becausee we didn't get to see the other floats or things going on.

Pete was nice and drove the van so the rest of us could be irresponsible and drink cocktails at breakfast.

It ended up being an extremely warm day. Hot really, but I guess that's what the 4th of July is about. There was this random Great Dane dressed up in a poodle skirt and the owner said that the the dog could wear anything because he had huge balls. I didn't mean to get a shot of the dog balls, but I discovered that I did when I was going through the pics from the day. Random but so is dressing a dog up in a skirt.

Derek and I finally had a day off together, well part of a day anyway. We decided to go hiking at Grizzley Peak just outside of town. It was very pretty up there and the views of the Cascades was incredible! We saw Shasta, the rim of Crater Lake, Sisters, Bachelor, Thielson - the whole shibang.

There was a fire on the south side of Grizzley a few years ago. It doens't look like it would be pretty from town but it was really nice up there. There were still lots of wild flowers and it was actually fairly plush.

A beautiful day in SOOR

2009-06-22T17:58:00.001-07:00

It was another productive Monday. I "shopped" for a new phone this am and after the frustration of that became unbearable I hopped on the bike. I just don't get the whole on-line shopping thing - it's not for the tactile (or the technologically challenged!) It was a bit chilly when I left but it warmed up nicely. Yesterday started cold and ended even colder. I came home and made chicken soup! Wasn't yesterday the 1st day of summer??? Anyway, Jay and I went out for a quick 60 miler. At the 1/2 way point we stopped at this new mini mart out in Ruch. I love the Beans part because it seems especially random.

Siskiyou National Monument

2009-06-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

Derek and I went on an adventure today in Siskiyou National Monument. We hiking near Jenny Creek because Derek likes to rock hunt and fish there. He didn't catch any fish this trip but he did find a deer head. It had maggots crawling on it because it wasn't quite picked clean. GROSS! It still stunk too and he picked it up - nasty, nasty.

Here he is holding his 9 point buck. We saw cougar scat near the cabin but not near the deer head. The body wasn't with the head either so who knows what all ate it. It's fun because there aren't any trails in the Monument. It's fun to bush wack and happen across random stuff like this. We also saw a molted snake skin, tons of butterflies and different dragon flies and a few Western Fence Lizards. Not much else.

end of season hike

2009-06-11T21:53:00.000-07:00

For our end of season hike we went to a few places along the Rogue River. It wasn't much of a hike, but it was fun to see something new. We went to Mill Creek Falls, Natural Bridges, the Gorge and to some random reservoir. I had never been to any of those places even though I have driven by them several times. At Natural Bridges, the entire river goes under ground into lava tubes. At Mill Creek Falls there is a nice waterfall where Mill Creek dumps into the Rogue. That was pretty, but what was even more interesting was the giant boulders.

I liked how the roots of this tree were growing down the rock in search of cracks in the rocks.

I have been getting into the lichen lately. Here is a picture of Dragon Skin (Loberia oregana). It's a really neat looking lichen usually found only in old growth forests. It indicates a healthy forest ecosystem rich in nitrogen. This particular lichen is also a nitrogen fixer, meaning it has a cyanobacteria living on it that changes atmospheric nitrogen into ammonium, a usuable source of nitrogen for plants. The ammonium leeches out of the bacteria when it rains and makes its way to the forest floor.

Beatrice

2009-05-31T16:00:00.000-07:00

Well, Beatrice died. She was a good spider, but I guess her time was up. I've done some research and it appears that female black widows can live for up to a year and a half. We captured her in Oct and she was fairly large then so maybe it was old age. It was quite strange though because she just molted last week. Seems odd that she would soon after just curl up and die. I am suspicious about the bee that I captured and put into her cage two nights prior to her death. I think it was just a carpenter bee or honey bee of some kind. It wasn't aggressive so I'm pretty sure it wasn't some rogue killer bee up from CA. The bee was dead the morning after I put it in there, but that day Beatrice curled up on her log and started to die. The next moring she was belly up in the dirt. Could the bee have stung her??? I don't know and I can't seem to find the answer. In my research I did find that the Mud-Dauber Wasp (pictured below) preys on Black Widows. Interesting.

longest ride

2009-05-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

I went out on a 127 mile ride today. It was the longest ride I have ever been on so I was very happy that it felt like we were going downhill all day. Of course, we weren't because we did a big loop, but the winds were at our back on the way back home so it helped us out on the climbs. Jay is training for a cross country adventure starting in July. It's fun to have someone to do really long rides with and since he's training really hard he is always doing really long rides. In fact, this wasn't a long day for him and he's repeating it again tomorrow. ouch! Go Jay!

lichen

2009-05-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

I am turning into a blogger slacker these days. Nothing new is happening here though, but I have found a new interest - lichen. Its fun stuff and it's one of my favorite hike topics now-a-days. The kids get a kick out of it too because we get to talk about fire, birds, armpits, etc. The lichen above is called wolf lichen and can be used to make an irridecent brown die. Kind of cool since it's lime green. The one below is called Old Man's Beard and Derek was kind enough to demonstrate why.

skunks

2009-04-20T21:54:00.001-07:00

ok, so I'm a freak and usually enjoy the smell of skunks. However, this is the 2nd night this week that one is right outside my window sprayin who knows what. It was so strong the other night that it woke me from a dead sleep and tonight it's keeping me from one. I'm starting to re-evaluate my fondness of these odoriferous critters.

Dwarf Wooly Meadowfoam

2009-04-12T14:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! It was a fun day yesterday on the Table Rocks. Derek and I went hiking and explored the top of Upper Table Rock. I wanted to explore the top more since we usually don't have time to do that while I'm hiking for work. The Dwarf Wooly Meadowfoam is endemic to the table rocks and I hadn't seen the flower until yesterday. I was so excited to see that it is finally blooming.

Here is a picture of my new office :) It's great!

"spring" skiing

2009-03-15T18:58:00.001-07:00

I am beginning to redefine what I think about spring skiing. In CO it was all about blue skies, soft snow, warm weather and a cold beer on the patio at the end of the day. Apparently spring skiing in the Cascases is arctic winds, freezing ice called snow, bullet proof snow pack (because it is rather warm, just very wet), and white out conditions. It's more about the wind burn than the sun burn I am realizing. Derek and I went out to Grouse Gap today for a nice tour and we were both feeling pretty hard core about it. It was a nice tour though and come May, we might see that thing I love called the sun :)

Am I really getting paid to do this???

2009-03-09T20:06:00.000-07:00

I started my new job last week. I spaced bringing my camera on any of the hikes that I got paid to go on, but we'll be beack out there several more times before the season starts. It was a very intense week of training and I'm really glad we have 3 more before we start leading hikes. There is a LOT of information to absorb. Luckily, it is all very interesting, at least to me. I am currently studying up on all the plants, birds, mammals, etc. that can be seen at the Table Rocks. Last week we also learned about the fire ecology, ethnobotony, and Native American history of the region. This week we have firts aid/ CPR training, geology talk, we are learing the kits (the kits are games that we play with the kids to teach them about different animals that can be found on the rocks. We dress a student up as a turkey vulture, a lizard, or a ring tail cat), and whatever else we can fit into a 40 hr week. It's been a great time so far. Derek let me practice talking about all the neat stuff I've learned this week by hiking with me in the watershed this weekend. I bored him to death with every detail that I could remember. It was really helpful and I hope a few more people want to hike before I have to convey all of this information to classes of elementary and junior high school students. Must admit, I'm a bit nervous about that part!

ski touring in the sun to bike races in the rain

2009-02-19T18:21:00.000-08:00

We went to San Fran lasst weekend to see Peter and Melissa and to watch a few stages of the Tour of Cali. It was a very cold, wet weekend, but fun to watch the big dogs duke it out. We watched the women's crit in Santa Rosa on Sun. I really wanted to see Sharon the Hammer put the smack down, but she had some unfortunate luck in the 3rd corner of the 1st lap so we just hung out with her after the race instead. It was a short visit, but so it goes when it's 43 degrees and pouring rain.

It was Derek's first bike race. What a great one! We saw a bunch of the fast ladies and of course we saw the men's finish. It was very impressive, even though every one was wearing rain gear so it was hard to tell who was who.

It has been a fun few weeks on the government ski team. Jake and some of his buddies and I all weent to Brown Mountain last week. It was a beautiful day and the snow was perfect. We got 2 laps on the top and then one long 2500 vertical foot run. It was a perfect powder day and so far, the best turns of the season. Yesterday it was a Mt Shasta lift day. They got hammered with snow last weekend so we had to go check it out. It was a load of fun and cheaper than Mt. A! Today we went and got a few runs on a nice north facing slope behind Mt A. It was ok snow, but I struggled with it. Definately challenged me due to my bad habit of over turning. I had some good crashes today - keepin it real. I start my class tomorrow. I am very excited to be back in a classroom and to learn about green building practices.

Mt Shasta

2009-02-09T05:28:00.000-08:00

I finally made it down to Mt Shasta for some back country skiing. The conditions were variable but it was fun to be back on a huge mountain. We had a few good powder turns in the morning, hit some hidden rocks and then fought through the crust the rest of the day. We started out with a calm, blue ski morning but by the time we were back at the car the storm had moved in and we were in picking our way back in the freezing fog. When we got to the car we saw a Lemurian
hunter though. She had her face painted green and kind of looked like a witch. The full Mt Shasta experience.

Ranger Rick

2009-01-28T13:03:00.000-08:00

I found out this week that I got the job as an interpretive park ranger with the BLM. I am soooo excited! I'll be working out at the Table Rocks in the spring and then out at McGregor during the fall months. I am really excited to learn more about the natural history of this area and be outside for most of the summer. I'll work for Momentum packing trips this spring and summer so I should stay pretty busy. I'm also volunteering with The Green Building Council and have enrolled in a green building practices class. I am really excited about some of the fun opportunities that this horrible economy has created. This is going to be a fun summer!

Annual Bend trip

2009-01-21T10:24:00.001-08:00

We ventured off to Bend last weekend to enjoy some skiing. HA! We didn't even get the skies out of the car. It was cold so the bullet proof snow never got soft so we just hiked. Derek decided to brave it and tried to fish for awhile. His line was icing up but it was entertaining to watch him try to stealthily approach the hole. Overall, it was a great weekend of hiking and hanging out. It's warm here in Ashland so I think I'll enjoy my afternoon off and head out on the bike :) Base miles in warm, dry weather - gotta love it!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! I spend the holidays with the family this year. It was really nice to get back to CO and see everyone. Holly and Dave came to CO this year so we spent Christmas with Mom and Dad. It was really fun. We played a lot of board games and drank a few martinis. Then they headed to WY to snow mobile and I headed to the lodge to cross country ski for the week. I hadn't seen cousin Matt in 3 years so it was great to catch up with him. He's in Seattle now so I hope to see hime more than once a year.

There wasn't a lot of snow up there, but the skiing was still pretty good. We had quite a few wild life sightings. I saw a bull moose on my way back to the lodge one evening. I also saw a porcupine climbing a tree on an afternoon outing. Peter, Matt and I were lucky to see several elk and a moose with 2 calves on our telemark hill hill day. For the most part, we had sunny skies and warm weather. It was great to catch some rays and be warm!

pet projects

2008-12-19T15:01:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-14T08:16:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-07T16:27:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-02T08:12:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-20T19:04:00.001-08:00

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

Happy Turkey Day everyone.

opportunity

2008-11-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T12:59:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-11-09T17:13:00.001-08:00

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

2008-10-26T09:21:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-10-24T09:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-19T19:40:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-10T09:25:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-27T06:48:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-10T15:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-01T23:07:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-24T23:27:00.000-07:00

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!

Grizzley Peak

2008-08-17T22:37:00.001-07:00

Leah took us on a hike to this waterfall behind Grizzley Peak today. It was a nice walk and very educational. There was a botonist from Seattle and an herbist from Ashland so I learned some new plants. I also learned about the antlion. We wanted to see it in action so we dropped an ant in the hole and watched the "process".

I passed!!!!

2008-08-14T12:31:00.001-07:00

I am so excited I could puke, or cry, or jump up and down. I don't know what, but I am happy to report that I PASSED section C of the LARE. That means I am done with that evil test! Now that I've stopped shaking and am taking it all in, I have perma-grin.

San Fran, Napa...

2008-08-10T22:32:00.000-07:00

Another weekend down in San Fran. It was nice to get out of the smoke, ride, and hang out. Daryn and I went on a motorcycle ride to Napa. That was fun. There was this cool mushroom rock garden at one of the wineries. Being the landscape architect dorks that we are, we had to go around and check out the architecture and grounds at several wineries. It was fun!
Peter and Melissa threw a wine tasting fund raising party for Team in Training. They are participating in a triathalon and raising money for blood cancer research. It was a fun party and they were able to raise several hundred dollars for the Team. Good job guys! Peter built Casa and Mosi a cat run. They live near a reservoir (lots of cat eating critters roaming about) and not far from a busy road, so the cats stay inside. However, now that they have their cat run, the have access from a windown to cat cage in the back yard, via this screened in tunnel system. It's pretty slick and the cats seem to really like it.

Mt. Ashland hill climb

2008-08-03T13:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the Mt. Ashland hillclimb run. It's a 13.3 mile run with 56oo vertical feet of climbing. I have been training for this event all summer, well sorta. More like I've been dreading the pain from this event all summer. After a week on the bike at sea level I figured that I may be a bit tired, but to make the mental situation even worse, I couldn't help but notice that my work outs this week pretty much sucked. I ran on Tues. for the 1st time in over 2 weeks - had to walk a lot of the steep sections, was coughing up a lung all night, it pretty much wiped me out and it was only 5 miles. Wed. wasn't much better. I went mtn biking with a couple of my friends. From what I could tell, they weren't even breathing hard. Maybe I couldn't hear them over my wheasing nor see them through the blur of sweat that was stinging my eyes. I was off the back within 2 miles with sweat dripping off my chin, nose, elbows...pretty much suckin ass. In yoga on Thurs I was so stiff I could hardly get myself into warrior 1 and then my legs were so weak I could hardly hold the stance. Extreme fear set in by Friday morning, but I shuttled my car to the parking lot anyway and road my mtn bike down from the top. One pain free outdoor adventure of the week. Daryn drove up from Santa Rosa and arrived around 8 on Friday nt. It was his b-day (yes, he's even nuttier than I am - he ran this thing on his b-day weekend! and it was he who egged me on to actually committ to this thing. I made the mistake of mentioning it once and the next thing I knew I got an e-mail saying the he had signed up and attached was his training schedule. Even at the time I thought - dear god, what have I done...there's no backing out now.) Since it was his b-day we went to dinner, had a couple of beers and ended up staying out way too late for a 5:30 am wake up call. whadda ya do.

As it turned out though, I think making this run out to be hellish torture and the extended dread actually made the climb a lot easier. I was able to let go of any expectation so I wasn't pressuring myself. I just made a goal to run to Toothpick w/o stopping (WAY further up the hill than I have ever ran without walking) and gave myself permission to walk the rest of the way if need be. I ran to Toothpick and kept on going. Before I even knew what happened I was at 4 Corners and the part I feared the most was behind me. I was able to keep up with Daryn so I had some company for the last 7 miles (cause I really only enjoy 6 mile runs - after that they become really hard on me) and it was a beautiful day up on the mountain so I was enjoying the flowers and scenery. All in all, I felt pretty good during the event. I feel pretty good today too. I will definately do it again next year.

RAGBRAI the finally

2008-07-29T11:26:00.001-07:00

Here we are waiting for the bus to pick us up and take up back to Davenport.

After leaving the gang I headed to IA City to see A. Marg and U. Mark. It was great to catch up with them, eat some salad, take a real shower, do laundry, and sleep in a bed. Thanks A. Marg and U. Mark!!! Then it was off to Lenox to visit Gram. It was a short visit but a good one. She's as fiesty as ever. I hope I'm as sassy when I'm pushing 94.

RAGBRAI - part 3

2008-07-29T11:19:00.001-07:00

These win the cycling tan of the week award for sure!
We had to get our pictures taken with Vong. He had an incident that will surely do down in Team Shortbus history. I won't get into details, but it involved too much consumption and a trip to the hospital. He made the paper so we had to get our picture taken with him.
Last night of drinking Miller lite. augh, sweat goodness.

Couldn't get to the river to dip my tire in the Mississippi, but this is close enough. Over 500 miles this week and I left wanting more. What a fun vacation!

RAGBRAI part 2

2008-07-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

Most people think that IA is flat. In fact, is it not. It is a series of power rollers, which I loved.
We had some adverse weather one day, but we donned the rubber jackets and rolled to breakfast. It turned out to be a biscuit and gravy day - have to keep the blood thick to stay warm :) Nicole and Kristine posed for me in a corn field pee break.
All the cold weather made us thirtsy! Team Cockroach was sponsored by Corona so we stopped along the way to suppoort their cause. Along with free beer, we got free hats. Nice!
We made the mistake of skipping lunch after our monster breakfast, but luckily there was a monster size package of Goldfish to snack on.
There were several beer slides set up along the route. This one happened to be very close to camp so we pulled off to check it out. Nicole is demontrating proper team slip and slide technique.

RAGBRAI - part 1 Missiouri River

2008-07-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

I just spent the past 10 days in IA hanging out on the bike. It was an incredible time. Lauren and I rode out to the Missiouri River to dip our wheels since this is a new thing for us.
There was a lot of entertainment along the way. Elvis was at one of the stops on day one. This guy had placed 5th in some contest for his impersonation. Let me tell ya, this guy was good! I am still on the hunt for the pre bloated from being pilled out Elvis, but this guy brought back some fun road trip memories so I had to break out the Elvis t-shirt that night.
I have never riden with so many people! I realized last night that I was not alone for one moment the entire 10 days. I can't believe I didn't go postal. Anyway, this kind of shows what 10K people looks like. It was like this at all times of the day too. That was the crazy part.
We took over these tiny towns like a swarm of locust. The people were all so friendly and accomidating though. There was water for us, food (LOTS of food! I gained 4 lbs this week eating pork products and home made baked goods), entertainment, etc. The people watching was the best.
Here we are at one of our many lunch breaks. We rode with Glenn and Virgil quite a bit at the beginning of the week. They are great guys that are part of the same cycling club that we all traveled with over the week.

RAGBRAI

2008-07-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

This has been the best week on the bike! Nicole, Lauren, Kristine and I all met out in IA for 7 days of riding, eating and drinking. It was a great time and I can't wait to come back and ride it again next year. I have a lot of photos from the week that I'll post when I get back to OR. Now I am visiting A. Marg. and U. Mark. Off to see Gram in the am.

Cascade Classic

2008-07-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

I went up to Bend this weekend to cheer on Sharon the Hammer and the Value Act Team. It was fun to a fun race to watch and the scenery was beautiful. Duc spotted the priemo viewing spot so we camped out there for a few laps.

We saw Kristen Armstrong stand up and ride away from the field on the first lap. Her she goes. Notive that everyone else is standing up and she's just rolling away. Very impressive.

Happy 4th of July

2008-07-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

It was a fun 4th of July. We kicked it off on Thursday night with an "American stereotype" party. There were quite a few cowboys, a few dead heads and some white trash types. Pete was David Hasselhoff. That was just down right scarey! I was the stereotypical 50's housewife. I passed out literature with instructions on how to be a good housewife. We all had a good laugh about that one.
Yesterday was the parade. It was an interesting mix of the all American parade with some old cars, random floats for the high school kids, and the school bands. There were a few political floats and the random freak. It was a fun community event. I did think it was interesting that the junior high band wore tie died shirts an their uniform. We had to wear those polyester band dork uniforms and swear our butts off. Times are a changin...

Last night was the fireworks. It was a nice show and a good way to finish off the day. Now I have the entire weekend to do my normal weekend fun stuff. What a deal.

geranium tragedy

2008-06-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

We had this wind storm on Sat. night. It was kind of freaky when one of the cottonwoods fell down and landed on the beautiful geranium that Mom and Dad got for me when they were out here visiting. It WAS about 2 feet from the front door, but now ...well, its under that huge branch!

Freemont Fair

2008-06-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend up in Seattle with Holly celebrating the summer solstice. We went to the Freemont Fair and it was the most creative parade I've ever seen. It kicked off with cyclists, most of which were naked and covered with body paint. That was followed up by a lot of interesting costumes, music and COLORS.

We also got to spend a tiny bit of time with Drew, Rebecca and their newly born daughter, Ava. Of course, it freaked me out when Drew handed me Ava so I forgot to take pictures. Next time.

in limbo

2008-06-15T20:13:00.000-07:00

This was my 1st official weekend of the summer. I didn't really do anything special, but it was nice to be obligation free. I rearranged my living room, cleaned the house, rode my bike and hung out with friends. I went riding with two ladies that I recently met. It was nice to ride with women again, but it was much different than riding with the Hammer, Lauren and Nicole. It was a very recreational pace, they both had triples and one of them even wore one of those riding skirt things. It made me realize that I'm not ready to take it to the recreational level but I'm not wanting to race either. Guess I'm in limbo.

it's over for now...

2008-06-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

Well, the test was on Monday and I am glad that it is over. I have no idea how it went, but no point in worrying about it anymore. I'll get the results in August. I didn't realize how tired I was from the whole thing until last night. I slept a solid 10 hrs last night and I'm still pooped. I am really excited with my big plans for the weekend. I am going to clean my house and ride my bikes. I feel like I have so much time now that I don't have to study :)

Mr. Granite Man 2008

2008-06-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

Check this out. Peter made the paper! There are some good pictures and a great article.

Granite Man

2008-06-07T18:53:00.001-07:00

Today Peter and I participated in teh Granite Man. Peter did the full triathalon and I did the 11 mile mountain trail run. It was a beautiful day out at Applegate. Here I am posing for my start. 2 miles later I was walking, but so was everyone else.
Here is Peter coming out of the swim. As you can see, there is snow in the background, but he said the water wasn't that cold. Maybe it just didn't feel cold because he going so FAST.
Peter and I represented for the Armstrong's today. Peter broke his chain and had to run the last 3 miles of the ride, but still managed to place 1st place in the event. GO PETER - Mr. Granite Man. I ended up 2nd in my age category. I was pleased with that since I was only up to 7 miles in my training. I have big plans for next year and Peter has a title to defend so we'll be back.
Here is the plaque that Peter won. It's not quite a delicious bottle of wine, like he won at his last event, but the wine is gone now and fueled the victory today.

Saint Theresa's Prayer

2008-06-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

I am 3 days away from the exam and I am happy to say that I actually feel prepared for it. It has been the center of my life for the past 8 weeks - my number one priority. This test is supposed to be about public safety and welfare - nothing more and nothing less. Somehow it has taken on much greater meaning. Facing my fear of failure is one of those and the realization that I think this is a reflection on my professional competency, or lack of. I think these thoughts are part of the natural progression of getting liscenced. However, last June this section picked up even more baggage and over the past few weeks I've had some time to reflect on the past year. Last June when I was "preparing" for this exam it was the furthest thing from my mind - an anchor to Denver when I was ready to move on, an escape and a distraction from dealing with the loss of a wonderful new friend and it became a reflection and reality check on what real failure is. A year ago I had no idea where I would end up, but I had faith, the support of my family and friends and the guts to jump. I received this today and it is a wonderful reminder of the journey of the past year.

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be confident knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.

Sandbagger lingo

2008-05-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

I got this from a friend today and had a good a laugh at myself. What can I say besides most of us have been guilty of at least 1 of these comments and likely...well, all of them.

Cyclists are the biggest sandbaggers and secret trainers around. They'll say anything to soften you up for the kill. Don't let this happen to you. Study this handy rider's phrasebook to find out what they really mean when they say:

"I'm out of shape"
Translation: I ride 400 miles a week and haven't missed a day since the Ford administration. I replace my 11-tooth cog more often than you wash your shorts. My body fat percentage is lower than your mortgage rate.

"I'm not into competition. I'm just riding to stay in shape"
Translation: I will attack until you collapse in the gutter, babbling and whimpering. I will win the line sprint if I have to force you into oncoming traffic. I will crest this hill first if I have to grab your seat post, and spray energy drink in your eyes.

"I'm on my beater bike"
Translation: I had this baby custom-made in Tuscany using titanium blessed by the Pope. I took it to a wind tunnel and it disappeared. It weighs less than a fart and costs more than a divorce.

"It's not that hilly"
Translation: This climb lasts longer than a presidential campaign. Be careful on the steep sections or you'll fall over -- backward. You have a 39x23 low gear? Here's the name of my knee surgeon.

"You're doing great, honey"
Translation: Yo, lard ass, I'd like to get home before midnight. This is what you get for spending the winter decorating and eating > > chocolate. I shoulda married that cute Cat 1 racer when I had the chance.

"This is a no-drop ride"
Translation: I'll need an article of your clothing for the search-and-rescue dogs.

"It's not that far"
Translation: Bring your passport

Memorial Day

2008-05-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

It was nice to have a 3 day weekend. It is a long haul between New Year's and Memorial Day. The weather was all over the board this weekend - mostly crappy, so it made it a lot easier to study. 2 weeks from today I'll be smiling because this test will be over and it will be time to play :) I did get some fun time this weekend. During the sun break on Sat. I took my new trail shoes out. I have been struggling with this calf issue, but I am now convinced that I was my old shoes causing the aggrivation. I like my new comfy bright green trail running shoes.One of my fellow test taker friends came to visit this weekend. He didn't want to study so we just hung out on Sunday afternoon / evening. I took him on the 26 mile Ashland loop road and up Horn Gap I hadn't been on that single track. It was so cool! Daryn was a trooper too. The ride was a bit more than he wanted, but he kept smiling. After what turned into a 5 hr ride, we went and saw The Great American Trailer Park Musical. It was WAY out there, but mindless entertainment was a welcome break.

mid week blahs

2008-05-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it was over 100 just a few days ago. Now it is back the cold, foggy weather of 2 weeks ago. I haven't taken my jacket off all day, but I guess I should enjoy it while I can - only a few more weeks until it will be hot all the time.

It's been a fairly uneventful week. I attended a work seminar yesterday and learned about EZflow and Mycorrhizals. That was interesting! EZflow seems to be a very useful product - can't wait to have a reason to spec it!

Last night Leah and I went out to this farm party. I guess it's normally a huge event, but it was too cold to bring out the masses. It's was kind of lame so we decided to go check out the March Forth band, but we got there right as they finished. Another disappointment.

Looking forward to a long weekend. Big study plans, riding and relaxing. Sounds pretty good, minus the studying part. I'm trying not to think about the fun camping / rafting trip that I'm missing out on. Only 3 weeks until the test though and then my weekend life will be nuthin but riding, camping - FUN.

Wood Rat

2008-05-18T22:40:00.000-07:00

It was a really hot weekend in southern OR. Over 100 the past 3 days so I motivated and got some miles on the legs. Oddly, it felt really good to be out in the heat...hmm, weird. This am a small group of us tackled Wood Rat, which is only about 55 miles but does have quite a bit of climbing. I was suffering. I went on a nice only mountain bike ride last night in the 100 degree heat. I'm in bad shape because 12 hs is not long enough for me to recover. It was a beautiful day and a great ride! It made it easy to sit and study all afternoon too :)

Mother's Day

2008-05-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

We had a great time over Mother's Day weekend. The weather was nice - wow! We went white water rafting with Pete on Sat. He's demonstrating the proper way to swim down the river. Luckily, no one in our boat fell out. In fact, the only person who did fall out was Alex, but he was being a cowboy and was trying to make things more exciting for himself. Good thing he was the one who paid for that decision because his passengers were pretty freaked out. We all went out on Sat night and recapped the day with a few spirits. I can't keep up with Mom - I got the whoosey genes. Dad decided he'd check out my baggie trick. It didn't keep my feet dry, but it was quite warm.

We went to Jacksonville on Sun and walked around. I usually just ride thorugh so it was nice to check it out a bit. Then off to the coast on Monday. The weather was perfect there too. We went for a short hike in the redwoods and checked out the light house in Cresent City. Overall, it was a fun weekend. Thanks for coming to see me Mom, Dad and Holly!

where can I get a shirt like this???

2008-05-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

big week of fun

2008-05-06T16:45:00.001-07:00

Not much new to report because this weekend was fairly uneventful. Well, not really - it was way over the top actually, which kind of took a lot of "fun" out of it. Cleaned the house in preparation for Mom, Dad and Holly, did some gardening, got some work done, studied way too little (which only ups the stress level!), was up way too late listening to great bluegrass music at the Siskiyou pup, a nice flat run and a short road ride, and then dinner with friends on both nights. Maybe should have done 1/2 of those things to really enjoy any of them...someday I will learn. Mom, Dad, and Holly are coming this weekend though and I am very excited! I have all sorts of fun activities planned, including a day on the river with Pete, a trip to Crater Lake, hiking in the park and maybe a trip to Jacksonville. Should be a lot of fun and action packed! Of course, all but the river trip are "flexible" because I know that not eveyone likes to pack as much fun into one weekend as humanly possible. The weather forcast is good too. Thankfully!

WTF!

2008-04-29T15:29:00.000-07:00

This picture was in an article in "Landscape Architect and Specifier News". I just don't even know what to say about this...

spring skiing

2008-04-27T23:27:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful and warm day here in SOOR. I studied for several hours this am and then headed up to Mt. A with Otto to get some turns in. I didn't really have that much fun though - it was nice to be out there but I just wasn't into it. I think I wore myself out mountain biking yesterday because my hips were killin me today. Maybe I'm just being whiney - either way, I was suffering. The snow is melting really fast! Last week we were skiing fresh powder and this week it was dirt and shrubs!

4 Corners x 2

2008-04-26T21:50:00.000-07:00

No pictures from today's adventure, but I went mtn biking with the other Heather and one of her friends. It was great to finally ride with her - she kicked my ass too so it totally motivated me to get a few miles on the legs. Next Sat. is the Spring Thaw but there is too much snow on the course so it's been modified. We rode the course today and it was really hard! It was a roadie course but it is def. a climbers course now. I was thinking about sucking it up and doing the race, but not after pre-riding it today. It felt really good to get out on the mtn bike for several hours and suffering a bit. The rest of the day was all about studying - not as fun.

Boones Farm

2008-04-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

We went out to Boones Farm last night to listen to some bluegrass. It was so cool! Boones Farm is a goat farm way out near the Applegate, hence the reason I just had to go. There were a lot of hungry baby goats that went straight for our fingers. They bite pretty hard! glad I'm not a mama goat. The music was good and the atmosphere was great. It felt more like an autumn night because it was cold, there was a bon fire and the stage was lit with white Christmas lights. Best part is - I passed Pete's van driving test. We all hopped in one of the Momentum vans and took it out there since it's a good 40 min. drive from town and I was the DD. The van has no dash board lights, the head lights are a joke and the roads are windy and somehow I didn't scare Pete. We had to make a Jack in the Box stop on the way home - NASTY!!! - but I passed the drive through window test and then I only had to do a 2 pt. turn to get into his driveway - yeah! Now I get to be a driver on the trips this summer when Pete gets in a bind. oh yeah- cause that means I'll get to go on some river trips too. what a deal!

420

2008-04-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

The final day of the Mt. Ahsland ski season was yesterday. For the few of us that got up there early there was about 8" of light, fluffy powder. It was a great last day that I milked to the very end. A group of us finished up the season with a south side run, a reflective break at 420 with a view of the valley and a few rays of sun before calling it a day. Looking forward to some spring skiing up there now that the chairs have stopped running.

freeze warning

2008-04-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

It was a nice evening so I went out for a road ride after work. The pears are in full blossom and it was a sea of white. It was really pretty. I was in a hurry to get out of the house so I forgot my caerma...and my key. I guess I should hide a key outside because it's bound to happen again. There is yet another freeze warning for tonight and tomorrow evenings. Snow predicted about 15oo feet so we should have a powder day for the last weekend of skiing at Mt. Ashland. It's a good weekend for the ski industry, but it's going to a long, stressful weekend for the farmer's.

SecC

2008-04-14T19:08:00.000-07:00

design that is. I spent the weekend down in Golden Gate SP at a review course for section C of the LARE. It was a perfect weather weekend and I had a great view of the road so I got to see 100 or so bikers ride by while I sat on my ass and stressed about this damn test. It was a good class though and I think it will be helpful over the next 2 months as I study. I've scheduled approx. 80 hours of study time between now and the big day. Luckily I came home to sucky sucky weather so I won't be tempted to play outside this week. It's snowing - AGAIN!

I was able to run in the evenings and walk before class. The location was amazing! If you go there though, I would not recommend staying at the YMCA. I have no idea what prison is like but I imagine it to be much like our quarters this weekend. CMU walls covered with mold, mice, cold showers, rubber encased springs for "mattresses". fun fun.

Real Man Saddles

2008-04-06T22:22:00.001-07:00

Brian is back and is spreading the laughs. Are you man enough to ride the Real Man Saddle ?

Mt. Thielsen

2008-04-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

Today Otto and I went up to Mt. Thielson for some "spring" skiing. (to back up, I met Otto last week when I was up at Mt. Ashland. Come to find out, he's on the Hardy Engineering "ski team". We are teamed up with Hardy's civil side on several projects.) I haven't explored much of the back country areas so I was excited to get out of the bubble and see something new. Mt. Thielson is near Diamond Lake, which is only about 2 hrs from Ashland. When we got there I was suprised to find an empty parking lot. We had the entire place to ourselves! It snowed about 4 inches last night and it was cold today so the snow was perfect. As you can see from the pictures, it was a bit foggy (pea soup like) and snowy so the visibility was poor. I wasn't sure how fast I was going or is I was headed up or down, but at least when I fell it was a soft landing. We got one 2 minute bubble of sun which revealed a glimpse of the top, but I wasn't fast enough on getting the camera out to actually get a good picture of it. next time...

The rest of the weekend was fun. It was 1st Friday so Leah and I went out and socialized then a big group of us met out at Tabu and boogied until the wee hours of the night. Yesterday I went on a short ride and did domestic chores in preparation for the big review class in San Fran next weekend. Must pass section C!

the list

2008-04-03T23:34:00.000-07:00

ok- so I was having a conversation with one of my friends who got divorced about the same time I did. He had this interesting analogy about how he was dating "the devil". Not that this woman is evil or anything, but he knows that she's just alright for now, but a lot of fun. The conversation made me laugh because I knew exactly what he was talking about. It got me thinking about my devil vs. angel debate. The devil is so much fun, easy, low maintnance, but ultimately, very dangerous. The angel, on the other shoulder, well its pretty obvious what that's about.

a day in the saddle

2008-03-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

No pictures to post from today, but what a day! We had classic spring weather -we started in the warm sun but had everything from cold wind, no wind, snow, rain, and then sun again. It was so nice to see the sun though! I think the rain and nasty weather was bummin me out a bit more than I realized because after 2 days in the sun I feel normal again.

why am I still up???

2008-03-30T00:18:00.000-07:00

It has been brought to my attention that I am once again turning into a blog slacker so I will do my best to up the anti and start making more frequent entries into this on-line journal. Note though - just because you know what I'm doing doesn't mean I know what you are up to so I still want to hear from you :) hint hint.

This weekend has been fun, but a bit of a disappointment. I had plans to visit Peter and Melissa in Tahoe, but this past several weeks at work have been hectic and it all came to a head in the past 5 days. I wasn't able to get out of the office in time on fri to get to Tahoe so I decided to do some night skiing at Mt. A. DENIED! Night skiing is over. Instead, I sat on my couch like a zombie. I figured that today would be a great ski day though since it snowed all day yesterday, no night skiing last night and the Aerial lift was closed due to high winds yesterday. DENIED! Apparently the groomers were fighting some serious boredom Fri night - WFT! At least the shoots and the back side was still in good shape...and it was sunny :) It's a free day at the mountain tomorrow, but I don't even think it will be worth the money in gas so I think I'll ride Eddy instead. It will give me time to clean my house in the morning too. My house is so nasty that it's keeping me awake at night...hence the reason that I am still up.

funny from Dad

2008-03-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

This little animal is called the Naked Mole-Rat and it's from Africa.
So if you are having a bad day and feeling sorry for yourself.... Remember: Going through life is hard enough, but to go through life looking like a dick with buck teeth must be horrible!

You might not think it's funny now, but just wait until the image pops into your head in 2 hrs - it's worth a giggle.

Mamma Mia!

2008-03-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

I am up in Seattle with Holly this weekend. It worked out perfect because I had meetings in Portland for work on Thurs so I drove up there on Wed night and headed on up here after the meetings were over on Thurs afternoon. Holly doesn't work on Fridays so I took a mental health day and goofed around with her. (No worries - I'll work most of the afternoon today to make up for it...must get these school projects done!). Anyway, we went shopping, per my request because I needed to make an REI run to pick up my skins :).
I think I am going to sell the washer and dryer which will open up a corner of the living room so I might rearrange the house so I wanted to go to Ikea and get some "small space" organizing ideas. That place is great with their displays. I think I have a solution for the house and the best part is, all I bought for it was 2 pillows to put in the covers that Matt and Renee got me for Christmas. I am a bit lacking in plants too and I found this - it's a "money tree" so I had to get it. Maybe I'll put it in my money corner and see if starts to grow dollars.

Last night we went and saw Mama Mia. It was great!!! I am usually not into musicals, but I really enjoyed this. It was really funny and well done. I feel so cultural - I've already seen 3 shows this year.

cycling commercial

2008-03-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

check out this cycling awareness video from the UK

2 new loves

2008-03-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

First off, I must say that this week was hell and I have 2 more just like it coming up so come Friday afternoon I was in the world's worst mood. I knew that I'd be working this all day Sunday (or should be, but it's now 1:30 so it looks like it will be a short 6 hr work day) so that made it even worse. My new skies came in the mail on Wed, along with my bindings so by Thurs. they weree mounted and ready to ride. We just had a new storm system move through so it was the perfect conditions to check out the fat boards. I got the G3 Sirens, which are just made for the powder and crud so aound 3:30 on Friday afternoon I said f*#@ it, I'm outta here. Night skiing is $10 right now and there can't be a better way to spend a Friday evening than pounding out a bad mood on a new pair of skies, on a powder day non the less. Let me tell you, I ended up having the time of my life! I ran into a bunch of friends up there so I had a heard of teliers to rip around with for a couple of hours and then Alex showed up and the real fun started. He's a rebel without a cause, most of the time, but Friday night he was on a mission for the best powder runs on the mountain so off a poachin' we went. Tree line, in the dark, uncut powder, new fat skies, in a storm, with a fun companion - WOW!

Yesterday was the Tele Lizard. Of course, it was colder than hell and snowing. We were all out there skiing around in our costumes and freezing, but it was so much fun! I can't wait to do it next year. I even raced my new skies. I wore Gram's suit - it was an awesome costume. I thought polyester would be warmer, but it did not hold up to high winds, blowing snow /ice and low temps. I had so as many layers as a I could under wthe suit, to the point I couldn't bend my arms past 90 degrees and I was afraid to rip the butt out of the pants. Pete said I looked "frumpy" but I think that adds to the costume. I think he looked like a creepy perv with that mullet and hat, esp. when he was skiing around the pony I gave him for his b-day!

ok - better get to work because my neighbor just gave me 2 free tickets to Fences for tonight's performance. Time line...must motivate.

spring fever

2008-03-10T20:50:00.000-07:00

It was warm this weekend :)! I took advantage of it and spent 4.5 hrs each day sitting in the saddle, exploring more of the area. Bob and I went out to Gold Hill on Sat. The flowers are starting to appear in the ditches and the flowers are starting to open on the trees. Can't wait until the pears start to bloom - that will be relly pretty.

Bob doesn't like to pose, so he growled at me. He looks pretty tough - I think he should flash that look at the start line of his next race.

I started out the weekend at 1st Friday art walk. It was a nice evening so there were a lot of people out. I have been on a cleanse for the past month and Friday was the first day I could eat whatever I wanted. It was straight to Amuse for chocolate cake. It is the best dessert ever!!! Amuse was the 1st restraunt in town that I ate at and it still stands as my favorite - all because of that cake. It was a fun night too because I had a date with an interesting gentleman. After dinner we met a group of our friends at Tabu for the 1st Friday party and danced until 1 in the morning. Must have been the coffee I had Friday am, because every other night this month I've been out by 10:30. One good thing about going decaf - I actually sleep.

Of course, spring forward is always something to celebrate. We have a ton of work to get done this week so I worked late, but still had time to get out for a nice walk in the park after work. Looks like rain and snow on the way but that's ok because the Tele Lizard is this weekend so I'll be up on the mountain anyway. Can't wait to get schooled in the gates.

dividend time

2008-03-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

I hopped home last night thinking I would have a package from Holly on my stoop, but no package. However, REI saved the day because my dividend check was there waiting. I have been thinking long and hard about what I would get with this years' money and I decided that I "need" a Garmin. I have been doing a lot of trail running and my heart rate monitor died, and I don't have a computer on my mountain bike, so why not get an all in one / all sport monitoring device??? I know, I can justify just about anything when I want to. The bummer about it is that it's on back order from Garmin until the end of April and the 20% coupon is not applicable on GPS units. oh well - the dividend and gift certificates from Christmas still bring this little package of goodness below the cost of a trip to the grocery store. Just means I'll have to use the 20% off on something else :) After doing some research and reading the reviews, I decided on the Garmin Forerunner405. Style points on this one.

creativity

2008-03-03T08:37:00.000-08:00

I am very impressed with the creative power in our group of friends. We celebrated a third b-day for the month with a scavenger hunt and a full on Moraccan dinner. Robyn decorated to the nines! We all crowded around a long, low table and sat on pillows on the floor and enjoyed a wonderful, home cooked meal. We're good cooks too! I forgot to take pics - I really need to get in the habit of documenting this stuff because it is so impressive.

I went on a "break-through" ride yesterday. I was suffering, but I guess that's what happens. I was glad that I planned ahead and did all the prep work for dinner before Iwent out on the bike. That ginger crusted ahi tasted oh so gooood after 5 hrs in the saddle.

This is going to be a great week. It's the last 5 days of this month long cleanse, it's a new moon, first Friday art walk and the best of all...SPRING FORWARD! yeah

mini storm

2008-02-25T20:27:00.000-08:00

This was another action packed weekend. It started out with a fun night of dancing with Leah on friday evening, followed by some fun turns on the backside of Mt. A on Sat morning. It was pretty warm last week so the snow pack was solid (ice that is) but there was about 4" of powder on top of it. Pretty good skiing really and an easy skin up. Julie had a group of us over for dinner on Sat. evening and it was nice to share a "detox" meal with friends. Sun. morning was fairly warm so I snuck in a nice long trial run before the clouds moved in and opened up. It was nice to have my workout done by noon before it got cold and rainy. It made going to a Sunday matinee very enjoyable.

full moon eclipse

2008-02-20T20:48:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone was able to see the full moon eclipse this evening. We were very lucky out here in southern OR. The weather forcast was predicting cloudy skies and rain, but in the middle of the afternoon the clouds began to part and we ended up having clear skies. I had a great view of nature's show right from my back porch so I was taking it in. It was nice to be able to run inside and cook dinner while I watched. I must say, this dinner rocks too. So simple, but delicious! Salmon with brown rice and mango sauce. yummy.

breakin out Eddy

2008-02-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

It has been 2 long months since I've been out on my Eddy. It's been great skiing and cold and since I have no aspirations to race this year - why torture myself on the trainer. Well, here's why - I made it all of 45 miles in 3.5 hours today and I was nursing my legs back into town. Pathetic! Tele skiing is making me strong, but doing nothing for my pedal power or endurance. It was nice to get out on the bike though. I have missed riding and it felt good to be back in the saddle. It reached 50 today and no rain, despite the looming clouds and overcast skies. No skiing this weekend. It managed to warm up enough on Wed. night to rain on the mountain and destroy all of the wonderful powder from last weekend. oh well - maybe thes warm temps melted that nasty crust so we'll have some more good spring skiing like conditions this week :)

it just keeps coming...

2008-02-03T16:01:00.000-08:00

Another 4.5 feet of snow this week so I skied the mountain yesterday and today. The back country is sketchy since it hasn't really stopped snow or blowing for 3 days. It was nice to have two days back to back of riding the lift and getting face shots. What luck - 2 powder days on a weekend - this is rare. I am so tired now and I have that weird feeling like I am floating. Kind of like riding too many whirly rides, but not nauseating.

No pictures though , but what fun is it to look at photos of various shades of white :)

mid week skiing

2008-01-29T22:26:00.000-08:00

Pete, Bob and I headed to the hills this morning. It was dumping :)

Bob

2008-01-29T22:25:00.001-08:00

Pete

2008-01-29T22:21:00.001-08:00

snow angles

2008-01-28T20:26:00.000-08:00

What a fun night! Pete had a group of us over for dinner last night to test out one of his new trip meals. It was snowing really hard so we decided that we needed to try out Ally's new b-day presents (she got a saucer and one of those fast plastic sleds :)! Pete lives half way up a very steep hill that had been plowed down to pure ice so we climbed to the top and let it rip. It was Chevy Chase style - good times, good times. We played for about an hour until the cops caught us and asked us nicely to stop. Since they were nice, we stopped, made a few snow angles and then rode the sleds down to the bar. It was quite a sight - a row of sleds parked outside the Beaux Club.

snow in town!

2008-01-27T14:00:00.000-08:00

Pete and I were going to ski today, but due to extreme warm weather on the mountain, a lack of new snow, and then his guiltly conscious (he rented approach skies over a month ago and then forgot to return them - oops!) we went hiking instead. It great because I run these trails all the time, but Pete never goes above Litha Park so I took him to the place where the trolls live. The light wasn't as weird today so it didn't look as creepy as it did the last time I was there, but just imagine. The great part is we walked back there from home - no driving :)
By the time we got back to the Granite St. Res. it was dumping snow. It hardly ever snows in town, but this year is has several times. Of course, its always when I am gone and I come home to snow on the ground but today, I am watching it fall from the sky. I am glad to be inside now because it is a very wet snow and I was starting to get really cold on the way home. I am also glad that Pete wanted to go hiking because otherwise I would have taken the cross bike out for an adventure. I'd probably be out in the middle of nowhere right now hating it, but instead I am home, warm, and about to watch Jesus Camp. I've had the movie since Nov. so it is time.

it's my lucky day

2008-01-24T12:36:00.000-08:00

too bad it's Thurs., because if it were Wed I'd pish my luck and buy a power ball ticket. I was starving this am and burnt my toast (a little back ground - I don't have a toaster so I sear bread in a skillet and call it toast - it's a bit more time consuming but since I eat toast only every other month or so I don't think it's a big deal). Anyway - i had to sear up a new piece of bread so I was running a few minutes late. We had a flight out of Medford so I picked up the boss man and hit I-5 like a bat out of hell. Plus, I really like driving my car and there was no traffic...except for that highway patroler - ooops! As I rapidly approached him at 80 I saw the yellow, but lucky for me he was in a good mood or something. He gave me a verbal warning (yeah - not even a written one - I love it) and asked me to please slow down. Can do. I feel paid back for all my time driving like a grandma this summer - a karmic kick back for creeping along all those backroads when I could have opened it up and had some fun. I'll go back to my grandma ways though - won't get lucky all the time.

team fun

2008-01-22T22:32:00.000-08:00

A group of us ventured off to Bachelor for the weekend. We had a great time in the backcounty. The mountain didn't have any new snow so we decided to earn the turns. I wish I could spell the mountain that we climbed, but I can't. oh well. It was a short boot pack - only about 1 mile and it lead to a great bowl. I had a good time on that side, but realized that I am in dire need of some fat skies. The Cascade "powder" is a lot thicker than my old school thin boards have a chance of floating in. Good thing there are a few demo days coming up :) On Sunday I went and checked out the Bachelor Nordic Center because I have heard that it is incredible. I am happy to report that is in fact incredible! It was no Devil's Thumb though and it left me missing the Hammers. I thought of Sharon's perfect form as I glided along. It helped me maintain my composure :)

Off to Portland for the next few days. Rain in the forcast so hopefully that means more snow for the mountain - just in time for the weekend!

great days on the mountain

2008-01-13T20:05:00.000-08:00

After 60 hrs of deadline hell, unproductive meetings and too much time in front of the computer, I ended this week with 2 fantastic days skiing. I am so bummed that I didn't take my camera with me, but after bending my driver's license that was in apocket that I crashed on...I decided I better not take it with me. Yesterday was a great day in the back country - heavy, wet snow but it was warm and sunny and great to feel the sun on my face. Today I decided to hit the mountain because I want to make a break through with the poles this year. One of my friends volunteered to help me out - he's a race coach so he picked apart my form and gave me some tips. By the end of the day I was feeling improvements and I am so excited about it! We had a great day on the mountain - it was really fun to have a tour guide at a new place. We skiied all the chutes (most of which I had to cheat and jump turn down hill style because they were way too steep and icey to be dropping a heal - I tried the 1st turn and popped right up and got those edges in as hard as I could.) I scared the crap out of myself on one of them too but the fear was much worse than the reality, thankfully. The best run of the day was off the backside. Perfect spring style snow! Grabby in places but still really carvey. It was an incredible day up there because there was a huge inversion layer over the valley floor so all you could see was the tops of mountains and then a sea of clouds. We stopped half way down the back side and ended up laying in the snow for a good 20 minutes just taking it in. It felt more like an April day than the 2nd weekend of Jan. and it was so nice to feel the sun on my face and snow on my back.

if we were...

2008-01-04T14:31:00.000-08:00

in Florida - this might look like a hurricane. What a night - I thought the windows might blow out, we lost power, all sorts of down trees this am, and rain rain rain! I had a waterfall in the bathroom and mini pond by the back door where the wind blew the rain straight through the crack between the door and door jam. Six feet of snow predicted though :) Too much snow to ski in right now but after it settles a bit it will be great! Mt. A has been closed the past 2 days due to "blizzard conditions" - check out the cam.

Happy New Year!!!

2008-01-01T23:35:00.001-08:00

To end 2007, Pete and I went back country skiing behind Mt. Ashland. It was a perfect day up there - fresh powder turns, good company, and calm weather. To top it all off, we rolled back to the car right at sunset and the color over Shasta was absolutely incredible! Good ridens to 2007.

To kick off 2008, Leah and I went back country skiing again today. I didn't make it far though because I cracked, and then watched in horror, as the toe pice of my binding broke right off. I should have taken a picture of my awesome tape job, but I wasn't thinking about blogging then, just getting back to the car with BOTH skies and 2 ahppy knees. I was able to make a strong enough duck tape toe to get to the top of Mt. Ashland and down the face. Unlike yesterday, we had high winds today. I thought Leah might catch flight when we stopped to take our skins off and prepare for the decent. The ice beating against my face took away any desire to take up mountaineering. Snow is one thing, but pieces of ice really hurt!
I hope that you all havea wonderful 2008 and were able to kick it off doing something that you love!

Day at the mountain

2007-12-29T18:21:00.000-08:00

It has been dumping up at Mount Ashland so I decided to take a trip up there to check it out. It's a really fun mountain. The best part about it is that I was able to sleep in, kick around a bit and was up skiing within 45 minutes of leaving the house :)! Ashland just keeps getting better and better!!!