Nothing is Ever Easy: Drywall Woes

Ah house remodeling. How I love thee (not). Always throwing us curve balls. Today I ran out 'quickly' at lunch to buy a piece of sheetrock (after dragging poor William to two other Home Depot on Saturday in search of the correct thickness - who knew not all HD carry all the same drywall options. hmph!)

  

Instead of being quick the Sheetrock wouldn't fit in the Subaru (it may look like a 4' wide hatch, but it's not. I promise. I tried really hard). 

AND I ended up covered in powdery white drywall dust for the afternoon - so professional!

Mom's First (!) Camo

I'm skeptical as to whether or not this is actually true, but mom swears this past weekend was her first time donning camo. Hard to believe after 20+ years in Alaska, but there you have it. 

The photo evidence:

We had a gorgeous day in Portland on Saturday - so Thor, Mom and I loaded into the boat Saturday afternoon and hit the Willamette for a little springer salmon fishing. We didn't have any luck - but it was beautiful and ate a lot of dried plums, Mac nuts, and scotch eggs. 

relaxing in the sun

clear view of Mt. Hood (fuzzies complements of my pro photography skills). 

it was a little chillier once we got the boat moving and had the wind to contend with. 

we even ducked out to the Columbia to run around with some of the big barges 

Sunday I headed out to Hood River to get some time in on my mountain bike while Thor headed out to the coast to fish. 

Views from the trail have changed at Hospital Hill due to all the logging.  

Overall I had a great day exploring by myself in the sun. 

And Thor lucked out and caught a couple fish!

Steelhead Saturday

It hasn't been all work and no play (who do you think we are?!) - last weekend we snuck out for a day to go coastal steelhead fishing. We got rained on a little, but it wasn't too bad. Here's the photo evidence!

Getting ready at the van. 

Hiking in along the decommissioned tracks. 

Lots of pretty holes to fish 

On our fourth hole Thor hooked a steelhead!

The fish really gave Thor a run for his money - he had to scale this steep rock river bank down to the next pool to catch up with his fish. 

Landing attempt #1

Not quite - they're slippery buggers!

Successful landing!

I did some 'river-pooling' and caught some newt friends. 

Love their fiery orange bellies!

After we hiked about six miles upstream we floated back out in a 2-man pack raft. it was a little bit spicy in some of the rapids without a spray deck! we dumped once, but overall it went well and we had a great time!

March Madness

Yes - today is the start of March Madness, but that's not what this post is about.  The title is also an appropriate description of what's going on at Casa Tingey. Maybe I should have titled it 'February/March Madness!'

What have the Tingeys been up to that has kept Sarah from dutifully blogging their adventures? Well, let's see:

- We just wrapped up another Whole 30 challenge (strict grain-free, sugar-free, (+ more) paleo eating) which we did with Anna this time around. And yes, I said 'we' - Thor did it to this time AND we even went coffeeless this time around. If you've ever travelled with T and I you know we love our coffee, so this was a big deal. Keeping up with the meal planning and cooking kept us busy

- We're remodeling our house. We started with just the upstairs (putting in a bathroom to turn top floor into a master suite) and then thought "oh what the heck- everything's dusty already - lets embark on the kitchen too!" As though we have SO much extra time. So we're squeezing in tile tear-down and selecting fixtures and paint colors and appliances and hanging Sheetrock.  I need to give a special shout out to Thor here who has been a rock star and really carried the weight of the project on his shoulders. Turns out I would be a terrible GÇ/interior Designer. :) But I'm a good little jr. carpenter if you give me a specific task to help with!

- Since we didn't have much going on I enthusiastically committed us to participating in a 20-day Minimalist challenge with our friends Sarah and Scott. On day 1 you get rid of 1 item, on day 2 you get rid of 2 items, and so on up to day 20. (Technically it's supposed to be a 30-day challenge, but Sarah (the OTHER Sarah) had the good sense to suggest shortening the challenge a bit. Smart lady!) I'm happy to report I successfully combatted my hoarding tendencies and we took a whopping load to Goodwill last weekend. 

Okay! Here are some pics to give you a taste of these activities:

pear, fig, apricot, goji berry winter salad for a brunch we went to at Laurie & Dans

Paleo yum! Elk burger, roasted Brussels sprouts and sautéed chard with currants and almonds. 

Red beef curry with yams in the crock pot - Thanks for the recipe mom! 

Kitchen - tearing down that hideous lavender backsplash. 

Our attic - gutted. 

Thor will love me ever so dearly for this picture: hanging new Sheetrock. 

Day 2: ooooold glasses

Day 13: bathroom clutter

Day 3: college plywood bookshelves and falling apart baskets that scuffed our porch tile (hmph)

Day 14: old dog toys, t-shirts, etc

The whole haul off to Goodwill!

Colorado Trip Part 2: Sheri's in Mancos

After Christmas we headed to Mancos to visit Sheri and we had an awesome time. More Nordic skiing, some hiking, playing Settlers of Catan, good food at Absolute Bakery, hanging out, and an evening of ballroom dancing! Also we met Daphne's new boyfriend, Ryan, and he is great!

Afternoon hike behind Ryan's house. 

Thor - very excited to be skiing despite the fact that we were both very tired after skiing 5km uphill!

Thor and I had a mini race around a 1 km loop. I won! but boy was I heaving afterwards!! and I sounded like a smoker I was hacking so badly afterwards. clearly it has been a LONG time since I've done a hard effort in cold air!

relaxing on Sheri's porch

night view from the porch

soaking in the sun our last afternoon in mancos. we didn't want to leave!

View headed north back home towards Portland

January Sun and Winter Mountain Biking

This past weekend we had amazing, sunny, clear weather. Adele was passing through town - so of course we had to go mountain biking!

Saturday Adele and I went riding with the Coalition crew. These peeps are on the enduro team that we'll race for this summer. 

I miss my riding buddy!

I stole Thor's new custom titanium Vulture SS for the day. What a fun bike!!!

Alas - Adele had to roll south Saturday night, but that did not stop us from getting out on Sunday! Thor, Laurie and I headed to Surveyors Ridge to ride. That trail should be under three feet of snow right now, but it has been so dry we were able to go. 

View of Mt. Hood

Me - clashing my colors. As usual. 

Panorama! You can't see them because of my zoom, but all four big peaks were visible:Hood, Adams, St. Helens and Rainier. 

It got a little chilly so I had the opportunity to test my new wind breaker that Fred gave me for Christmas. it's awesome!

And this shot is from Monday on our way to dinner for our anniversary. Just in case you're wondering what we look like seven years later.