Blind Date at the Dairy - Race #1 - 9/29/10

Last night was the first race in the Blind Date at the Dairy Wednesday night series - and it was a blast!

Check out www.pdxcross.com and click on the gallery for 'Tickle at Twilight' - my friend Laurie and I are in the third picture at the front of the lineup.

The field was a little bigger than Sunday's, and there were some new faces lined up in the Women's B field. The gun went off and I think I was about12th off the line. Oof - Got to work on those starts! My goal the first lap was just to keep moving a steady pace and stay upright in some of the loose gravel turns so as not to get tangled with anyone. By the end of the first lap I think I had moved up to about 5th. My friend, Lindsay, passed me at the beginning of the second lap - and she was setting a great pace on her SS - I just kept thinking to myself 'stick with Lindsay, stick with Lindsay' - she is such a strong rider, and it's so great to see her out racing and having fun after the past year. She pinch flatted somewhere along the line though - so after that I spend the race reeling in the other two women that were left ahead of me. I caught one of the during the 4th lap - which left a single Ironclad rider out in front - and holy cow was she strong! I had no idea who she was, but she was setting a blistering pace on her SS, and I likely would not have caught her except she had a very unfortunate mechanical on the last lap. I came up on her on the backside of the course fiddling with her front wheel, so I stopped and asked if she wanted me to wait for her to get her bike fixed. Right as I was asking she was closing her quick release and yelled "NO!" over her shoulder as she started up the run up ahead of me. I was still standing still straddling my bike - so I quickly dismounted and started up the runup after her - the chase was on! There was a short, steep downhill after the run up, and I think she may have had trouble clipping in, or hit a bump funny, in any case - she swung wide into the left-hand turn at the bottom of the hill and I was just able to sneak the inside line on the corner and catch up with her. From there on out we were neck in next going through the village and into the finishing field. It was pretty fun going through the final set of barriers right next to someone! I knew I couldn't mess up at all going through the final set of S-turns either. As usual, I neglected to get out of my saddle for the final sprint (oops), but I ended up crossing the line in front anyways. (i.e. I won!). I think my favorite part of my race was Margi cheering her head off at the finish - I think it made me corner better. =)

Pickled Lemon Cucumbers

A couple of weeks ago I decided it was time to find a use for the gobs of lemon cucumbers my plants were producing. We had so many cucumbers we couldn't keep up with them, so I decided to try making pickles with them. I used the following recipe that I found on the blog Jillicious Discoveries:

Bread-and-Butter Pickle Slices

From So Easy to Preserve, pgs. 125-126

Yields = 7-8 pints

6 pounds of 4 to 5-inch pickling cucumbers *I used mostly lemon cucumbers and one large Armenian cucumber.

8 cups thinly sliced onions /about 3 pounds *I used a mixture of walla walla onions and yellow onions

1/2 cup canning salt *It's very important to use "canning" or "pickling" salt, rather than table salt. Other salts contain anti-caking materials and this can make the brine or liquid cloudy.

Crushed or cubed ice

4 cups vinegar (5%) *Use vinegar of 5-percent acidity. Do not use homemade vinegar or vinegar that you don't know the acidity of in pickling. Also, do not dilute the vinegar, because you will be diluting the preservative effect.

4 1/2 cups sugar

2 Tbsp. mustard seed

1 1/2 Tbsp. celery seed

1 Tbsp. ground turmeric

Preparation:

1) Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/6-inch off blossom end and discard. Cut into 3/16-inch rings.

2) Combine cucumbers and onions in a large bowl. Add canning salt.
3) Cover with 2 inches crushed or cubed ice. Refrigerate 3 to 4 hours, adding more ice as needed.

To Make Pickles:

1) Add sugar and remaining ingredients to vinegar in a large pot. Boil 10 minutes.

2) Add well drained cucumbers and onions and slowly reheat to boiling.
Fill pint or quart jars with cucumber & onion slices, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Fill to 1/2 inch from top with hot cooking liquid. Remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rims. Adjust lids.

4) Process pints or quarts for 10 minutes in a Boiling Water Bath. After processing and cooling, jars should be stored 4 to 5 weeks before use to develop ideal flavor.

*Remember after removing jars from Boiling Water Bath, they should remain undisturbed for 12 hours before moving them to storage.

Battle of Barlow - My First Cx Race of the Year!

Photo Credit: Jose Sandoval

Coming into this past weekend I wasn't sure if I'd be able to race or not. I'd sold my San Jose a few weeks earlier so I'd have cash to put down on a new Cx bike, and as of Thursday I still didn't have it! Friday I got the call that the bike was built and I could swing by and pick it up - perfect! I already had plans to mountain bike on Saturday, so Sunday pre-race was my first time on the bike - which caused a few problems during the day (slightly different frame geometry - which meant I kept sticking my hand into my spokes instead of through the frame when I tried to pick it up) - but overall it was a lot of fun to ride!

The course was perfect on Sunday. Muddy, muddy, muddy - and tough handling - which made for an exciting, fun race. I managed to line up in the front for the start - and was in about 5th place heading into the first off-camber section. I was creeping up into third headed into the first set of barriers - which was the first time I stuck my hand into my wheel and almost dropped my bike. so pro! I dropped a couple spots in that fumble, but had caught back up to everyone by the time we were at the railroad tie run up. I passed two or three girls going up the rail ties....and then never saw anyone from my race again. I didn't like it! It was very strange to be out riding by myself - and by the end of the first lap I was panicking a bit, so I slowed down until two of the master's A riders caught up to me mid-way through my second lap. They would have caught me eventually anyways (they're both spectacular mtn.bikers) - but I felt much better once there were people ahead of me that I could 'chase' again.

The race was over before I knew it - It went by really quickly, and I had a great time. It was the perfect course for a single speed bike - because I think with all the sticky mud it would have been tough to shift cleanly anyways. Sooo - end result was I ended up winning my category - which was really exciting - BUT not everyone was there, so it will be interesting to see how things go at this weekend's race at Alpenrose Dairy - which is the first race in the Cross Crusade series!

Holy Pumpkin!

Check out this giant pumpkin that Thor, Mom & I saw last weekend when we were driving back from mushroom picking out near the coast! Isn't this thing crazy? Think of how many pies it would make. MMmmmm...pies....

Fall Pheasant Hunting on Sauvie Island

Thor and I headed out Saturday for some fall pheasant hunting on Sauvie Island this past weekend (planted birds). We managed to sneak a couple hours in before the rain hit - and the skies even cleared up for a little while - it was beautiful!

Me - at the southern boundary of the area.

Hiking through the corn fields - I'm glad we didn't push anything up in here - as it would have been impossible to see the pheasants!

We were totally unsuccessful; however, after packing it up in the car and driving down the road about 400 feet we ran into this pheasant right in the middle of the road (look for the very small speck around the center line - my iPhone doesn't zoom).

We pointed the bird out to Laea and she about launched herself through the windshield. Here's a picture of her up on the dashboard whining to get out at the pheasant - it was pretty funny!

The Pops Comes to Portland!

Last weekend Dad came to Portland for a couple of days - and Thor and I had a great time puttering around Portland with him!

We picked him up from the airport on Friday night, and rolled out to dinner at Grüner in downtown Portland. We had heard they had an amazing burger, and were really excited to try it; however, when we got there and were seated we discovered that you can only get the burger if you're sitting in the bar. Dang! We had delicious food anyways - and this just means we'll get to go back at some point!

Dad & I at Grüners waiting for our beers!

Saturday was a pretty low key day. We rolled out mid-day and puttered around to get coffee, run some errands, and stop by Belmont Station - a local beer shop that has every type of beer under the sun. Dad thought he'd died and gone to heaven - so we made 2 mix-and-match six packs to bring home and drink while reading on the porch in the sun. Very relaxing! For dinner Saturday Anna came over to eat with us, and Thor made a pizza on the grill. Dad's first time having one of Thor's pizzas - and it turned out perfectly - topped with basil & tomatoes from our garden!


Sunday we rolled out of bed and out to the coast to do a little crabbing out near Nehalem bay. Of course, we packed a bunch of our beers from Belmont Station so we could stay hydrated the entire day. =)

Dad, sampling a limited edition brew from Lagunitas.

The weather was perfect! We didn't catch any legal crabs - but we had a great couple of hours cruising around in the sun.

Thor & I in the boat.

Maybe we had too much beer while crabbing - because for some reason taking this picture seemed like a really good idea when we got back to shore to turn in the boat.

Overall it was a really fun weekend - and a treat to hang out with Dad on a weekend with such amazing, sunny fall weather.