Hawaiin Living with Anna & Harrison

One + months later I am finally getting around to posting this smattering of pictures of Anna & Harrison in Hawaii! Anna was sweet enough to burn some pictures of the two of them around the island and I thought others would love seeing a few shots of them as well!

Obviously this is not Anna, or Harrison, but Anna took this picture! Isn't it amazing? She is a wizard with her G10 camera!

Harrison - showing off his bounty. He has a super green thumb! While I was visiting I saw their papaya trees that he planted last year - they're huge and it was such a treat to eat fresh papaya from the backyard every morning.

Anna & H - on the beach in Kihei.

Harrison practicing his skateboard skills. Girls like guys with skillz. =)

Hiking (at Haleakala, if I remember correctly)

Anna. She's just so dang cute!

Bear Spring Trap XC Race - 04.25.2010

View from the back of the truck on the way home from McCubbins Gulch

Yesterday was the Bear Spring XC MTB race up at McCubbins Gulch (Race #3 in the Oregon XC MTB Series). The weather was perfect this year, no snow on the trail, and the course was a lot of fun - just the right amount of technical riding to keep things interesting!

My race report should really start on Saturday - when I had a bit of scare that I might not be able to race at all! Thor & I were out riding at Family Man at Post Canyon with Becky & Matt, and were practicing riding this long, skinny log that runs in a U-Shape up at the very top of Family Man. Things were going well until I tried to bump over a gap and my rear tire slid off the log - I heard this awful cracking sound and turned around to see my carbon fiber derailleur cage sheared off and stuck in the log - completely detached from my bike! It was about 4:00 at this point, and I was sure I'd just dashed my chances of being able to race on Sunday.

A few calls later we discovered that the Oregon Bike Shop was open until 7 p.m. on Saturdays - and they were willing to drop what they were doing and work on my bike that night to get it fixed up so I could race on Sunday! We hopped in the truck and bee-lined back into town and pulled into the shop around 5:30 - they swapped my derailleur out and fixed some other stuff I'd jammed and got me back on my bike in about an hour. Sweet!

Sunday morning we rolled out of town with 4 bikes and Thor, Becky, Matt & I packed into the truck. It immediately became clear that none of us had really looked at the instructions to the race and we realized we had about 30-40 minutes more of driving than we'd thought. Oops. (Note to self 1: showing up 30 minutes prior to race start when half of the car hasn't registered is cutting it TOO close!)

The air was crisp and clear, and I was tempted to race in both my leg & arm warmers, but at the last minute as we were lined up Thor convinced me to start without them and I am so glad he did! The day warmed up quickly and the race temp was perfect - probably about 65 degrees and sunny - it was absolutely lovely.

The Cat II women's field did one 20-mile lap - and I had no idea what to expect (Note to self 2: It might be handy to study the course map ahead of time in order to have an idea of a) where one is, and b) how much farther one has to ride at any given point on the course). The course was mostly old 4-wheeler track - which was a nice width as it allowed for opportunities to pass. There were some really fun stretches of technical riding, and a number of downhills that you could really let go and fly down as well.

Overall I had a great time - the course was totally rideable with enough techy sections to keep things interesting, and 20-miles didn't feel nearly as horrible as I was expecting it to. I also realized that I actually have gotten much better at descending - as there were a number of times when I caught up to groups of Cat II men braking their way down the hills. It's always fun when you have the realization that your practicing is actually paying off! Un-officially I think I finished 2nd in the Cat II womens' field - and Becky won our race! BUT I was even more excited about the fact that I was only about 12-minutes behind Thor who finished around 10th in the Cat II men's field!

Blazers Playoff Game 3 - Bittersweet!

Oh dang - I meant to post this last Friday! As a surprise Thor got me tickets to see the Blazers playoffs game 3 - my very first playoffs game!!! It was disappointing that the Blazers lost, but I had a great time anyways and am SURE they will make it again next year and I'll have another chance to see them stomp the Suns (dang Jason Richardson and his wildly accurate 3-point shooting!)

Perfect Sunday Ride!

On Sunday we headed out to ride near Hood River with some friends, and it was a GREAT day of riding! One of the best all year: perfect weather, perfect trail, fun friends, and we all rode well - so it was a blast! We stopped for a snack up at the high point - and got a picture of all the ladies on the ride. One 'normal' and one posed like 'sorority girls.'

Sarah, Margi, me & Lauri with the Gorge in the background.

Sorority Pose with Hood in background. (Note: I have no idea why we decided this was the sorority pose - it's just what we came up with!)

Lindsay's Quilt

Here's a picture of the quilt that a bunch of people got together and whipped up for a friend of ours who was diagnosed with cancer earlier this spring. Some of you knew I was working on this - so here's the final pic! (although it's a terrible picture! I was hoping to get something better - but a shoddy iPhone pic is going to have to do).

Mushroom Hunting, our Downhilling Dog & Spring Planting!

Saturday we had a day based primarily around Portland. Thor got up super early (like 4:30 a.m. oof!) and headed out springer fishing on the Willamette with Joe, Micah, and some other friends. They watched 5 other boats catch salmon - but didn't get to bring home any themselves. =( Thor caught a sturgeon, but even that was smaller than legal so he had to throw it back.

In the afternoon we went Morel hunting with our friend, Sean. It was a pretty unsuccessful outing mushroom-wise - but we did get a beautiful afternoon walk with the dogs which we capped with a beer on the patio sitting in the sun. Lovely.

Showcasing one of the four mushrooms I was able to locate on Saturday afternoon. Not exactly a 'haul'

When we got back from mushroom hunting Thor & I took a little break to try Thor's full-face helmet on Laea. Because that's just the type of nice dog owners we are. hah! I can pretty much guarantee Laea didn't like the helmet - but she did sit still long enough for us to get this picture which will keep Thor and I in stitches for a long time. I don't think we'll be taking Laea to Blackrock any time soon. =)


We had just enough daylight left to get out in the garden and get some seeds planted. Thor built a neat trellis along one side of our newly built raised bed (our third) and then he tackled planting our pea varieties while I got some other tasty edibles in the ground:

From Botanical Interests:
Snow Peas: Oregon Sugar Pod II
Onion: Ringmaster
Radish: Cherry Belle

And from Territorial Seed:
Snap Peas: Cascadia
Beet: Chioggia