5012 Oregon Haus

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T17:52:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Today I am thankful for a husband who keeps things fun by making me do spontaneous things - like this past weekend, for example, when we went on a training ride and he decided that a good mid-ride snack would be a cupcake. Here's kind of how the conversation went.

Me: "I'm hungry - I can't make it back!"

Thor: "Well then let's stop here at Piece of Cake and get a cupcake"

Me: "A cupcake isn't a mid-ride snack!!"

Thor: "Why not?"

Me:"Uhhhh..."

Yep - he helps keep things fun. Otherwise I'd be too busy always doing what I 'should' be doing. Thanks Thor!

San Diego

2012-02-13T22:48:00.001-08:00

my mom and I flew to San Diego to see Aunt Julie while she was in the hospital - and while we were there we made a lap quilt for her.

it was great being able to go down and support aunt Julie - and I'm glad we were able to bust out a quilt for her in two nights too!

Secret Date Saturday: Go-kart Racing!

2012-02-05T11:01:00.001-08:00

Late post - but two weekends ago I planned a secret date to take Thor go karting and we had a blast! Soooo much fun - those little karts can get up to 30mph! we raced for 10 minutes- and my fastest lap was less than .5 seconds behind Thor's fastest lap. so close! next time I'll get him!

Laea Earning Her Keep

2012-01-21T18:24:00.000-08:00

Thor headed out east for a day of hunting with Laea last weekend. She's really starting to slow down - but she still loves it! She gets so excited when Thor brings out all the gear. It's pretty cute!

5 Years!

2012-01-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

Thor and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary this past weekend! it was fun! we went out to dinner one night, and then Thor whipped up a dinner of tuna steaks and bok choy on the second night - accompanied by a bottle of champagne especially for the occasion (thanks mom!).
please enjoy our special 5-year anniversary self-portrait. you can see how excited Thor is that I was making him take pictures!

2011! Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

2012-01-07T19:30:00.000-08:00

le sigh. I am not off to a very good start of posting pics in a timely manner if my second post of 2012 is actually from 2011. well, I suppose I can only get better from here!
these pics are from our last day in Colorado which we got to spend with Ralph hiking at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. it was beautiful! clear, sunny skies and just a smattering of snow. we did about a 4-mile hike out to an overlook of the canyon. it was a great way to spend our last day!

Happy New Year! (super slacker posting start to 2012)

2012-01-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! yes - its a week late, but better late than never, right? hopefully this doesn't set the tone for all of 2012!

we spent New Years day biking with friends (and dogs!) out at Syncline - it's so nice to be back out on my bike again! also - thor and I rocked our new wool bike caps that we got for Christmas - thanks Uncle Fred!!

snowshoeing at monarch pass

2011-12-30T16:10:00.000-08:00

our second day in crested butte we decided to drive to Monarch ski area in search of better snow. Thor and I entertained ourselves in the car taking silly pictures - as you can see!

I dropped Thor, Daphne and Sheri off at the ski area (where they found better snow than crested butte!) and then I headed back up the road to do a snowshoe up to Monarch Pass on the continental divide. fortunately for me the route is on an established cat trail so I was able to snowshoe up without breaking trail (prob too much pressure and twisting on my knee at this point).

I reached the pass and the wind was howling! I had brought three of the five! dogs we were traveling with up with me - and Lance (Daphne's papillon who is all of 5lbs) got so cold! so he got to spend the rest of the snowshoe nestled in my coat.

all in all a super fun day in the snow and sun!

crested butte pictures

2011-12-29T14:57:00.000-08:00

and here are the pictures!

Crested Butte

2011-12-29T14:54:00.001-08:00

>
> we've been in crested butte for the past couple of days and the weather has been lovely! more pictures soon!
>

merry christmas colorado

2011-12-26T13:03:00.000-08:00

we spent Christmas eve and half of Christmas day hanging out in Mancos, going for walks, and in general enjoying the glorious, sunny weather.

mid-afternoon Christmas day we rolled northward to visit Ralph in Ouray. it was a beautiful drive and we arrived in the early evening and had a great dinner of salmon and broccoli before settling in for the tail end of the Lakers vs. Bulls Christmas day game, and then some James Bond. all in all a great day.

Christmas in Colorado Day 1: The Tingeys Acquire Extra Travelling Companions

2011-12-24T12:02:00.001-08:00

Thor and I rose bright and early yesterday (3:15 a.m.) to roll out to the PDX airport (thanks for the ride Mom!) to catch our flight to Denver. The plan was to arrive in Denver, pick up our rental car, and hit the road for the ~8-hour drive to Mancos.

Everything proceeded according to plan. our flights were on time, we made our connections, all our luggage showed up. it was lining up to be pretty uneventful trip until we were finalizing our rental car in Denver and the man behind us in line leaned forward and said "I'm sorry - did you guys say you're headed to Durango? if I pay the difference to upgrade you to a larger vehicle will you give my family a ride to Pagosa Springs?" Through some credit union/debit card snafoo Jimmie had found himself unable to actually rent the car he'd reserved ahead of time - and had no way to get down to their family in Pagosa (approx a 6.5 hour drive). They had left the East Coast the night before and were all clearly tired. Thor and I surveyed the pile of car seats, diaper bags and baby dolls, decided there was no way they could be serial killers traveling with small children, and said 'sure!'

20 minutes later Thor and I plus Jimmie, his wife Rachel, Ella (4), and Aubrey (<1) were packed into a full size truck with the luggage and skis piled high in the back. our Xmas road trip adventure had begun!

Despite the tight quarters we had a really enjoyable ride down with them. Jimmie is a post-doc in chemistry at Yale, and Rachel is a RN with a focus in breast feeding education. We occupied ourselves with a lot of chatting, singing (I think Ella and I sang Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus about 8 times) and iPhone distracting. (Ella and I spent a LOT of time 'customizing' photos with my app Camera+ (i'd let Ella pick the wash, border and caption. see a small sampling of pics below)).

Overall it was a fun trip - the girls were super sports with only one or two mini melt-downs - and we rolled into Pagosa around 7pm with a stiff, tired group - but still in relatively good spirits. Rachel's dad met us at a gas station where we swapped everything out of the truck, we said our quick goodbyes, and then Thor and I hit the road for the final couple hours to Mancos. We rolled in just in time to catch the last hour or so of Sheri's Xmas party with everyone from Alpackaraft - it was a great way to end a long day of travel!

The Most Beautiful Christmas Cookies. EVER!

2011-12-20T15:55:00.000-08:00

check out these cookies our friend Katherine made us! Thor will be lucky of there are any left by the time I get home with them!

Nutcracker 2011

2011-12-19T22:38:00.001-08:00

we went to the nutcracker this evening for the first time in years and had a great time. our friend, Sue, happens to be the photographer for the show this year so we got our picture taken with a couple of the dancers - doesn't Thor look excited to be next to the sugar plum fairy?

Sunrise From My Office

2011-12-19T11:51:00.001-08:00

I am very (very!) rarely at work early enough to see the sunrise, but every time I catch it I swear I will start coming in early every day because it is such an amazing view!

First Outdoor Bikeride!!!

2011-12-12T11:16:00.000-08:00

It was a little chilly (~25!), but I was not about to be deterred from getting out on my bike after being given the green light to start easing back into it!

I limited myself to about an hour, and it felt so good to be back out riding. Laea kept me company (Thor and Adele were riding fast elsewhere) - and we were the only ones out on the trail.

Bye bye brace!

2011-12-08T14:47:00.000-08:00

Leaving my little buddy behind (hopefully for good)! Got the all clear to go brace less and start riding again!

2011-12-07T07:21:00.001-08:00

Thor makes a mean biscuit crust! Thanks to mom for the tomato/corn/cheddar pie recipe. Yum!

A Winter Walk

2011-12-05T09:27:00.000-08:00

While everyone else rode bikes yesterday I minded the pups and took them for a walk up at Sandy Ridge. I was pooped! Turns out walking uphill is hard work! The air was crisp and cool, and by mid-morning the fog had burned off and it was lovely. The pups and I had a good time, but I can't wait to get back on my bike!!!

November Review

2011-12-02T11:10:00.001-08:00

1. William wins a prize
2. The new guest bedroom (come visit!)
3. Williams birthday
4. The fam comes for Thanksgiving!
5. First outside agility work with the 'ol knee!

Sent by iPhone

Ravens @ Seattle - My first NFL Game!

2011-11-15T18:34:00.001-08:00

This past weekend Thor and I rolled up to Seattle on Saturday afternoon to have a delicious dinner with Kathryn & Brian and play some 'competitive' Boggle. The main point of the trip was for Kathryn and I to go to the Seahawks game on Sunday afternoon - my first live NFL game! It was a lot of fun, and I actually think I made some great leaps forward in my ability to understand what's happening during a football game. The Seahawks won - yay! So overall it was a great first experience. Thanks cousin Kathryn!

Section 329 - Row W. Killer seats!

Metamorphosis!

2011-11-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

We've officially launched into finishing up our upstairs remodel. Skylights and sheetrock went in at the end of last week. Painting is happening now - and they'll start on the floors at the end of this week. We're hoping to move upstairs before thanksgiving! More pics to come.

Responsible Cx Babysitter!

2011-10-31T17:05:00.001-07:00

Costume? Check!

Beer? Check!

My bum leg makes me the perfect babysitter during Cx races - the best part of the weekend was hanging out with Spencer cheering for both Margi and Scott as they raced on Saturday and Sunday.

Halloween weekend in Bend

2011-10-31T14:37:00.001-07:00

We spent the weekend in glorious, SUNNY, Bend for the Halloween cx races. Thor cranked out a lot of miles on his mtn bike both days, and I went on a couple short 'walks' (hobbles) with the dogs, read a lot, and hung out with good friends.

The races themselves were fun to watch - I was more bummed about not mtn biking with Thor than I was about not racing. Soon, hopefully! (by soon I mean I am hoping maybe by the end of December I can do some soft pedaling).

Overall great weekend - and I even got to borrow a teen wolf costume to cheer on today (and no, I haven't actually seen Teen Wolf for any of you out there who know about my appalling lack of 80s movie knowledge. The costume was just given to me. :)

Sent from my iPhone

A Morning Stowaway!

2011-10-25T08:39:00.001-07:00

This morning I hastily grabbed the Oregonian that was sitting on our driveway, stuffed it in my backpack, and headed off to work. When I got to the office and pulled the paper out of my back I discovered I had a little buddy along for the ride – I’m glad he didn’t fall off in inside my backpack!

Alpacka Raft video: Pilgrims, Pioneers and Prophets

2011-10-21T15:42:00.000-07:00

This is a really neat compilation of Alpacka Raft footage from a couple of Alaska boaters. A nice way of showcasing Sheri's boats!

Coast!

2011-10-19T21:31:00.000-07:00

Chanterelles!

2011-10-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

Thor's mom, Sheri, is in town for the day - so we headed out mushroom hunting in the hopes of finding a few late season chanterelles. Success! Thor, Sheri and Laea did the actual hunting while I came along for the ride as a field trip away from the couch. I did some reading and caught up on a little knitting - all in all a nice fall morning!

Highlight of the Week!

2011-10-15T18:24:00.000-07:00

It has been a slow week without much to report. My MRI was last night - but I don't get the films read until Wednesday of next week. I talked Adele into driving me over to Chris King to pick up my new wheel set that I won for getting 2nd in my cat at the Oregon Super D series this summer. They should be a lot of fun once I get the green light to hop back on my bike!

Cross Crusade at Rainier: Sarah's First (and last) Cx Race of 2011!

2011-10-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Thor and I were finally around on the weekend and able to go to our first cyclocross race of the season. The rain had been coming down, the mud was thick, and our entire team was going to be out for the second Cross Crusade race of the season at Rainier High School.

In typical Tingey fashion we left the house waaaaaay too late and got to the race venue about 35 minutes before the start of our race. We rushed to registration, and then warmed up for about 20 minutes before our start. Thor's field went out first, with mine following about 1.5 minutes later. I got to the top of the first hill and around the corner with the main pack, and as I entered the woods for the first time there was Thor standing on the sidelines cheering. He'd blown his rear tire out in the roots on the first turn. The first $30 registration down the tubes. Rainier 1: Tingeys 0.

I continued to race hard - (although not that hard if this picture is any indication of my effort level) - and quickly remembered how tough cx can be! I think it had been at least 5 or 6 weeks since i'd put in a hard effort on my bike, and my lungs and legs were feeling it! About 4 laps in I burped my rear tire going around a corner, and lost almost all the air. I hopped off course and almost quit then (ahhh - hind sight is so 20/20) - but a bunch of well-intentioned hecklers on the sidelines convinced me to hop back in it and just run my bike to the pit (about half a lap away). I made it into the pit, pumped up my tire, hopped back on my bike and made it about another 1/4 lap before the final disaster struck. I was coming around a corner and realized the line I was on was going to put me right up against the tape at the side of the course on the outside of the corner. There were about 4 spectators there who did not appear to be moving even though it was becoming rapidly apparent that I was likely going to run into them because of how close to the course they were. At the last minute I put down my left foot without really thinking about it - and my foot stuck in the mud, catapulting me over the handlebars somehow and onto my back off course. I laid there for a bit thinking that they pain in my knee would go away and I would be able to get up and keep riding, but it did not. Second $30 registration of the day down the tubes. Rainier 2: Tingeys 0.

Soooo - anyhow. The end of the story is that I have a torn MCL (medial collateral ligament) in my left knee, and I have a super sweet ankle to mid-thigh brace that I get to wear 24/7 for the next eight weeks. I don't know if I'll need surgery yet - I need to go in for an MRI first, and before I can go in for an MRI my insurance has to decided that I do, in fact, need an MRI. Lovely. In the meantime I am at home icing and elevating my knee to try and get the swelling to subside. I'll probably be back to work next week, but it will be a slow couple of months for me coming up. At least it's not mountain biking season!

Here's a fun recap from the Tireless Velo crew - and a fun series of pictures that Bob Croucher on our team took of me clearing the barriers at the race before my untimely end.

The end result.

Day 7: Bend and then Home!

2011-09-29T18:33:00.000-07:00

On Monday night Thor had a great idea: that we drive 8-hours straight from Downieville, CA to Bend, OR so we could squeeze in one final day of riding before heading back home. So! Off we went at 6PM on our way north, and at 2AM we rolled safely up to our 'regular' campsite nears the Phils trail system in Bend. Success! Tuesday morning we were up early, and after a quick breakfast at Chow we hit the trails. We have wanted to ride the Bend high country for a long time - so we were very excited to link together the following route: North Trail --> Upper Mrazek -->Metolius Windigo-->Flagline-->South Trail (at least...I think these are the trails we linked together...I have a hard time remembering after the fact even though I'm trying to get better about reading the map!). This was our chilliest ride of the trip by far - and both of us were excited to have our long-sleeve jackets with us. Check out our pictures from the ride (I actually had a couple more - but I can't figure out how to post them right side up! Every time I upload them they turn upside down. So only two pictures it is!)

We drove home post-ride and ended the trip with a tasty pizza dinner with Mom at Apizza Scholls. A fine way to end the vacation!

p.s. I know I haven't posted pics from Days 5 or 6 - but all the good photos live on cousin Erica's phone and she is still on vacation. =)
p.p.s. Check out Ralph's recap of the first couple of days of our trip on his blog - it's much better descriptive writing than you will ever get from me!

Tumalo Falls - much larger and more beautiful in person than the photo makes it look.

Thor at the high point in the ride. Look at that snow - brrr!

Day 4: Cheering the Pro - Tara Ilanes Classic Day 1

2011-09-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we rolled over to Northstar Tahoe to watch Erica in the XC
race at the Tara Ilanes Classic - a two day event serving as a
fundraiser for people with paralysis. Erica had a great ride and came
in 2nd overall - it was fun to get to watch her ride!
For Babe fans out there we also saw a hilarious liscense plate in the
Northstar lot.

Day 3: Tahoe!

2011-09-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

We got up early on Friday morning and drove the final 250 miles to
Kings Beach. We arrived to lovely, warm weather and a fun afternoon of
splashing around on the beach! Thor and I tried paddle boarding for
the first time and discovered it's trickier than it looks (especially
with two people on the board!) but still a lot of fun!

Later in the afternoon I took off for a quick leg spin with Erica
which was a treat! Erica just needed to get an hour of moving her legs
so we wove around the neighborhoods near where we were staying - it
was fun just to go on a low key ride and chat.

Day 2: North Umpqua & Crater Lake

2011-09-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

We spent our second night camped at Lemolo Lake and woke up to
brilliant sun on the lake shore - it was an excellent place to enjoy
our morning coffee!

While Ralph headed off to do the Tokatee Falls hike Thor and I rode a
portion of the North Umpqua Trail - the Dread and Terror section.

We capped the afternoon off with a trip through Crater Lake National
Park - it was beautiful!!! I would love to go back to stay for a
couple days and hike around, and would highly recommend driving
through if you're ever in the area!

Day 1: Oakridge

2011-09-23T10:24:00.000-07:00

We rolled out of town late Tuesday night after a last minute trip to
the hospital to visit good friends Margi and Scott and their new
little one: Spencer Allan.

We got into oakridge about 11:30pm and immediately lit a campfire and
popped open beers - vacation had started! The next morning we got a
real treat when Ralph pulled out a little box of pastries from Petite
Provence for breakfast - yum!

Ralph, Thor and I headed out on a lovely, leisurely ride on Moon Point
- and then finished up the ride with a ~5 mile section on the Middle
Fork of the Willamette. I learned the importance of shock settings on
this ride! I was just feeling TERRIBLE on my bike - getting bounced
around, riding everything like it was my first time - ugh. It wasn't
until we got to the bottom of the downhill that I remembered Thor had
borrowed my bike and we'd forgotten to reset the shocks afterwards. I
couldn't believe what a difference it made!

We wrapped up the day with a brisk swim in the river, and then piled
in the truck to head over the top of FR 2134 to drop into the umpqua
river valley.

Hooray for vacation!!!

Thor's Harvest

2011-09-18T17:17:00.001-07:00

Look at this crazy carrot Thor pulled out of the garden this
afternoon! It has been a real bust of a year in the garden this year.
We were late getting things planted and then kind of neglected plants
for a bit mid-summer. We were super surpised to find this carrot
lurking in the corner of the raised bed!

Just Another Evening Stroll

2011-09-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

Cousin Erica Takes 2nd Place in PCP2P!!!

2011-09-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

Our cousin Erica is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! She got 2nd place in the Park City Point 2 Point last weekend - that is a BIG DEAL! She beat some big names in mtn. biking (like Rebecca Rusch) and was only behind endurance biking phenomenon Amanda Carey! Anyhow - Thor and I are super excited for her - and I just wanted to share the news on our blog so everyone can cheer for her from afar!

2011 Oregon Super D Finals

2011-09-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

I just realized I loaded all of these photos up last week and never posted them! Last weekend (9/4) was the final race in the Oregon Super D series - and both Thor and I started the race. I won mine (yay!), but Thor had a spectacular crash that resulted in broken handlebars, his saddle sheared off at the rails, and a mild concussion. Poor guy has been nursing a joggled brain all week and is looking at lots of rest, water, and limited biking for the next 3-months to ensure his brain is back functioning full speed.

I was able to find one picture of me on the web from the actual race (3rd row down, 3rd pic from the right) - looks to me like I'm having too much fun and not working hard enough here! Overall my race went pretty well. I had a slow start up top (the uphill section) and was behind ALL of the pro women by the time I got to the first split spot. *Note to self that these women are not just fast riding downhill!* Overall I thought I rode a very clean run for me....until I got to the bottom third of the course and managed to get the worst chainsuck I'd had in ages! I tried to just relax and pump my way through the rollers, but no amount of jimmying with my feet was getting the chain to break lose, and I was slowly losing speed - so I finally just decided to stop and get off my bike to jerk the chain out! I was soooo annoyed and as soon as I got off my bike I was cursing like a sailor as I tried to break my chain lose. I was finally able to jerk it out (maybe 20 seconds later?) and as I hopped back on my bike I realized there was a photographer sitting right there who had listened to me the whole time. Oops. My most lady like moment! Anyhow - i was able to get cranked back up to speed pretty quickly, but was convinced when I got to the bottom that I would be off the podium because of my mechanical. Not true! I was able to squeak out my first win of the season in the Cat1/2 women's category - which put me in 2nd place overall for the series. Very exciting!

There were a couple big names in bike racing on the start list (Brian Lopes, Eric Carter, and Jill Kintner to name a view). I managed to snap a couple pictures of them coming down in their pro race later in the afternoon - and Jill put up a post on her blog about the race here.

Me - right after winning my race. I'm still smiling because at this point Thor hasn't crashed his bike!

Cat 2 Mens 19-39 series podium. Thor was thrilled to end up 5th overall despite two DNF in the series!

Me on the top step of the Cat 1/2 Women's U35 podium for Sunday's race. I'm absolutely frozen! I need podium coaching from cousin Erica!

Yes - I know i'm on the 3rd place block here - but i really did end up 2nd overall! The 3rd place girl climbed onto the 2nd place block, and I didn't think it was a big enough deal to make her move. :)

Jill Kintner - 3 time world champion in 4x Downhill racing!

Brian Lopes - just an amazing blur as he flew down the course.

Thor with his banged up bike post race. Notice missing grip and seat!

2011 Sandy Ridge Super D — More Mountain Bike Photos

A Quilt for Margi & Scott

2011-08-31T16:03:00.000-07:00

I put together another one of these little car seat quilts for our friends Margi and Scott who should be getting their new little bundle of joy...oh...any day now! I used a lot of the same colors that I put in the quilt for Nico earlier this summer - next time I make one of these I'm going to have to switch up my color scheme!

Quilt for 'Bart Brad' - my chosen nick name for the lil' nugget (short for Bartholomew Bradway. I don't think the parents like my name suggestion!)

Plains of Abraham again!!!

2011-08-28T21:27:00.000-07:00

I got to ride plains of Abraham again today! Such a great trail! I
tagged along with our friends Laurie and dan at the last minute- it
was another beautiful day!

Plains of Abraham

2011-08-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

Thor and I got out last weekend to do one of our favorite rides:
Plains of Abraham. We like to ride this as a loop and head up to PofA,
across Windy Ridge, and back out the Smith Creek Drainage. It's about
a 5-hour ride if you ride pretty continuosly.

We rode on our own and had a great time! It was a real treat to ride
together - it has been a long time since just the two of us went on a
ride alone! After the ride we stopped to swim at a reservoir up near
St. Helens and it was absolutely lovely. We're hoping to try and sneak
in one more trip there before the end of the year!

Jackson Run Bike to Kindergarten

2011-08-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

I just love this video - it's from Pinkbike.

Jackson Run Bike to kindergarten. on pinkbike.com

Oakridge Super D Podium

2011-08-09T15:50:00.001-07:00

I found a podium picture from Sunday. I think we were supposed to be raising our arms in the air – but I hugged Beth instead. Oops! I don’t quite have my podium etiquette perfected yet. J

Oakridge Super D!

2011-08-08T15:26:00.001-07:00

Thor and I rolled down to Oakridge over the weekend for the Oakridge Super D. It was sort of a bittersweet weekend because Thor woke up on Saturday feeling fluish, and nowhere near 100% on his bike. He has been locked in a battle for overall series champion and needed to be on top of his game for the race on Sunday - unfortunately he woke up feeling worse on Sunday, tried to race anyways even though he was feeling dizzy and had vertigo on the bike - and crashed out (shredding his kit in the process). Very sad. Unfortunately all four races in the series count towards the overall standings - so he won't get to drop his worst race.

Bye bye carbon Santa Cruz Nomad bike frame (overall series prize for his category).

My race, on the other hand, went great! I got 2nd place in my

category, my best finish of the season - AND what I was even more excited about is that I cleared the 15-mile course in under an hour (~59:40)! Last year's winning time was ~1:06:00 - so I was pleased to shave over 6-minutes off that time. The woman that beat me is from Seattle and she is a) incredibly fast, and b) possibly the nicest person ever - so it was no problem to come in 2nd to her - because she's just fantastic all around. =) (AND - I would have made the top-5 pro podium with my time - which is also a first for me!). I won two tubeless ready Continental Tires (a Mountain King and a Trail King) - which was a GREAT prize. I've really loved the Continental tires I've ridden on in the past - so it will be fun to try a few more out.

My run was not perfect (I rode perhaps my sloppiest switchbacks of the season - sooo ugly! - I actually had to get off my bike at one steep, 180-degree turn and flip my bike around to face the correct direction before I could get back on!) -- BUT -- overall I did a much better job than usual of staying off my brakes and accelerating on the straight-aways - so I felt really good about my run even before I saw my time.

An extra special treat was the bear grass at the top of the course that was blooming - that only happens about once every seven years - this was the first time either Thor or I had seen it. Absolutely beautiful!

2011-08-04T10:39:00.000-07:00

Bell released a ~2 min. promotional video about the Oregon Super D series and Bell-sponsored rider Matt Slavin. The footage is neat - AND - Thor makes a 1-second cameo appearance at 1:35 in his snazzy orange helmet that he loves!

I just loooove my efficient showerhead!

2011-08-03T17:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the KGW's environmental reporter, Keely Chalmers, popped over to our house to interview me for a spot they did on the local nightly news about efficient showerheads. I'm at about 0:21 (and Laea made it too!)

Amazing Berry Goodness!

2011-07-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

We went to a bluegrass concert at Krugers Farm and got some good berry
picking in at the same time. It's possible we ate some berries too. :)

Harvest Time!

2011-07-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

Short Track

2011-07-25T21:09:00.001-07:00

My #1 fan at short track on Monday nights!

Finished!!! HC 110.

2011-07-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

Done! I finished in 13 hrs. 4 min. Good enough for 10th place!!

You might notice my blog title says 110 instead of 100....that was a
fun surprise at the end of the race!

More later - i'm headed to bed. Thanks for all the well wishes pre-race!

On The Way - HC100!!

2011-07-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

Well we're off! Thor, Mom and I are rolling out of town to Bend this
morning. Packet pick up and the mandatory racers meeting are this
afternoon - and tomorrow at 5:30 a.m. I'll head out on my 100-mile
ride. Fun! The weather is supposed to be beautiful, but a bit hot
(~87!!). Hopefully I'll get a picture to post up after the fact.

One Lucky Lady

2011-07-18T22:39:00.000-07:00

That's me! Thor is being the best help this week getting me ready for
my 100-miler on Saturday. He overhauled my bike today - and then spent
a good chunk of time drawing out the course on a large map so I could
see exactly where in going. He's the best!!!

Sewn Pants in Action!

2011-07-12T17:30:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I made a couple pairs of pants for various friends of ours having babies - and the little guys are now big enough to fit into them! I love getting pictures of the stuff I've made IN USE. It's super fun to see - and these three are such a group of cuties!

Avery - chilling in blue floral

Jackson in action - check out that belly!

Sweet Ella - looking just like Katy.

July 4th Weekend in Bend

2011-07-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

Thor and I rolled out to Bend this past weekend to camp with buds Emily & Sarah, race the Bend Super D, and relax in the sun. We had a fantastic time camping - and as an added bonus Thor won his race on Sunday!

My race went well too - right up until the very end. I was have a great race for me and was feeling really good about my speed heading into the final section of tight single track....where I ran into a junior racer who flat out refused to get out of my way!! I asked if I could go around him, and he said "No" (wha!?? who says that anyways?) - I had no idea what to do. I totally didn't want to be 'that jerk' that rages over the top of a younger race mid-race and knocks them off the trail (this kid was probably about 11) - but at the same time he was going SO SLOW and was totally ruining the end of my race. As we came into the final hill I tried to go around him and he swerved to block me! It was unreal. There were spectators yelling 'let her by!' and 'move over!' - but he kept saying 'NO!'. Argh - it was SO incredibly frustrating - I was practically in tears by the time I crossed the finish line. I probably lost about 30 seconds behind him and ended up missing the podium by 1 second - I was really bummed. A couple of people saw the end of the race and came up to me afterwards to say how sorry they were, but unfortunately none of that changes my official time which landed me in 4th overall. I also lost series points - so that was a tough pill to swallow as well.

Anyhow - despite the disappointing finish to my race I had fun anyways - and the rest of the weekend was great. Here are a collection of pictures from the weekend:

Some great pictures that Thor found online - I think the second picture is the best!

Victorious! The only picture of Thor post-win since we accidentally missed the podium call up. Oops.

Reading in front of the camp fire - a must on every camping trip!

Thor & I - clearly very excited for our fresh banana milkshakes!

Great friends Sarah & Emily - with Thor and I in background

Thor giving Seneca a 'lift' at the end of the long ride. She wagged her tail the whole way back to camp

And lastly - here's a neat video with footage from the Hood River Super D that we did earlier this summer!

Kona Magic Link Enduro Sessions from Christopher Halcrow on Vimeo.

2011-07-05T15:30:00.001-07:00

Sun. Mountain bikes. Good friends. Camping Sun. Swimming. Happy, dirty dogs. Fresh banana shakes. More sun.

Happy July 4th!!!!

Practically Pro!

2011-06-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

Wellll....not quite. But Thor and I did both make it farther around a
skinny log feature than we ever have before! We rolled out to Family
Man near Hood River to play around on the features and camp on
Saturday night. We had a great time riding the pump track, going over
a teeter-totter, riding on skinnies, and even trying a few table top
jumps (that's more Thor than me. I can't catch any air yet).

Smells Like Cream Puff Spirit

2011-06-24T13:11:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we rolled down to Oakridge with our friends Abby, Rachel, Ira & Craige. Rachel and Abby are training for the Cream Puff 100 so we needed to get some long training rides in - even though the weather wasn't ideal the first day (read: rain). The joke of the weekend whenever someone complained about something was - "sounds like someone needs to work on their Cream Puff spirit!" Hmm...maybe this was only funny if you were there!

Anyhow - we rode Moon Point, Alpine, and then scooted over and did the Mckenzie River Trail out-and-back - it was a full weekend and lots of fun! Here are some pictures from our trip.

Truck loaded up for shuttling. No matter how many times I see this I never get tired of taking this picture - I love all the bikes lined up!

Rachel on the fire road on the way to the top of Moon Point. We had to turn around before we reached the top because there was still too much snow!

Rachel - riding in the light rain

Ferns along the middle fork of the Willamette

We get to ride in such lush, beautiful woods!

The weather was better on day two - a great view from mid-way down the Alpine trail

Myself, Abby & Rachel

Yellow Fin Yumminess

2011-06-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

Anna, Dad & Brenda just got back from a week-long trip to Mexico where they did a little fishing, whale-watching, and swimming with sea lions! Check out this awesome yellow-fin tuna Brenda hooked - it's a beauty! Also exciting - they saw a pod of sperm whales! Anna's first sighting ever for this type of whale.

Brenda & Dad with Brenda's 96 lb. yellow fin tuna. Yum!

Double 4th!

2011-06-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

Last night was the second evening in the 8-series Portland Short track summer series. Thor had the best race ever and finished 4th in the Singlespeed Men's division, and I finished 4th in Pro/Cat1 Women

Here are some photos of Thor and I to click through from Oregon Velo -

Thor:
http://oregonvelo.exposuremanager.com/p/pdxstxc061311r2/pdxstxc061311224_7_11_31
http://oregonvelo.exposuremanager.com/p/pdxstxc061311r2/pdxstxc061311304_7_11_31

Me:
http://photos.oregonvelo.com/p/pdxstxc061311r4/pdxstxc061311566_7_11_33
http://photos.oregonvelo.com/p/pdxstxc061311r4/pdxstxc061311602_7_11_33
http://photos.oregonvelo.com/p/pdxstxc061311r4/pdxstxc061311635_7_11_33

Yes, yes - i know i look mildly terrified in the third picture. I need to get better at rallying over obstacles!

Whiskey Soda Lounge

2011-06-12T00:06:00.000-07:00

Went out for drinks with William and Adelle. They were out of the
noodley food item we wanted. The waiter recommend something else - and
we didn't really listen to what he said.

We got a plate of pig tongue, pork jowls, and fried pigs tails.
Somehow not what we remembered the waiter describing. Ick.

2011-06-11T20:55:00.001-07:00

After going into the office early and working all day on a Saturday
(yuck!) Thor came and picked me up at 6 and we raced out to Sandy
Ridge to do a lap on our bikes. It was just what I needed! Lovely,
mild summer temperatures, dappled evening sun, and fresh air.

I caught this picture of Thor going off the rock at the top. You can't
see much, but I like the colors and how it captures the feel of th

6 Hours of Washougal MTB (plus a little extra)

2011-06-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

In preparation for my long race in July I signed up for the 6 Hours of Washougal mountain bike race this past Saturday. (hmm...have I mentioned on the blog that I'm signed up for a 100-mile mountain bike race in July? Maybe not. I'm doing the High Cascades 100 on July 23! Yowzers!!!) My friends, Abby and Rachel, are also training for a 100-miler this summer (the Cascade Cream Puff) - so we decided to do the 6-hour race together....and then ride home from the Washougal Motorcross Park to Portland! It was a big day. The race itself was 7.2 miles/lap with 800 feet of climbing per lap. We knocked out 8 laps in 6 hours - 4 minutes for a total of 57.6 miles and 6,400 feet of climbing. After phase 1 of the day we changed clothes, pumped up our mtn.bike tires, and hit the road for the final 30 miles home to Portland. Technically this put us at 87.6 miles for the day, but we're calling it 90 because we had to back track a couple of times due to route finding issues on our way home. :) Fortunately the last 30 miles on the road are mostly flat or downhill - I'm not sure my legs would have tolerated too much more climbing!

I was lucky enough to have Mom, William, Adele & Thor waiting for me back in Portland - and they whipped up a delicious dinner of burgers (thanks Thor), with blue cheese (thanks Mom!), and a delicious rhubarb/strawberry desert (thanks Adele!). William provided good company. :)

Overall it was a great day - I was glad to get to test my legs at a long distance, and I was happy it was hot out (~85 degrees) so I could see how I felt riding for that long at that temperature. I am happy to say I did not have any trouble with cramping, or my stomach getting upset. Yay! The worst part of the day was my feet - admittedly I do need new mtn.bike shoes - but my feet were going numb by the end of the 6-hour race. I felt like my pedals were grinding a hole in my foot on every pedal stroke.Yuck! Obviously I survived though - and although my feet are still tender today I didn't suffer any blisters - so that's a plus.

Anyone out there really like their mountain bike shoes? I am now officially in the market for a new pair!

Abby and I at the end of a loooong day. Rachel is already at home at this point!

Hood River Super D - Video

2011-06-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

You can see a quick snippet of Thor riding at the end of the video - around 3:50. The video itself isn't that exciting - mostly a lot of raw clips run together - but you can get an idea of the course.

P.S. Happy Birthday Mom & Dad!

Hood River Super D

2011-05-31T18:13:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Thor and I skipped out on making camping/trip plans in favor of staying local to race the Hood River Super D on Sunday. It was a ton of fun - Thor raced in the Men's Cat 2 field and placed 2nd, and I raced in the women's Cat 1/2 field and placed third. It was a pretty challenging course for me - we pre-rode on Saturday, and there were certain features/parts of the course that I had to ride up to 5 or 6 times before figuring out the line I needed to be on in order to ride things. My final pre-ride on Saturday went really well - so I was feeling confident headed into Sunday's race.

I spent much of Sunday morning visualizing the course and how I wanted to ride my lines - things started out well for about the first five minutes, but then I bobbled going through a rock garden and ended up going over the bars. Hrmph. No injuries - just feet tangled in the dang handlebars and about 20 seconds down the tube. Anyhow - there was one feature in particular that I couldn't ride (although looking at the picture of Thor going off it below it doesn't really look that big...amazing how your perspective changes when you are approaching on your bike at 20 mph!) - riding off that jump will have to be my goal for next year!

Thor and I happened to be at the awards ceremony last year and they gave away AWESOME prizes - so we were very excited to be on the podium. Thor walked away with a new helmet, a hooded Dakine sweatshirt, a new Werewolf LT tire, and a Fox hat - pretty sweet! The women's prizes, on the other hand, were pretty disappointing. Second and third place in my category each got a patterned Dakine backpack (mine was floral. ick) that you would never actually use while riding your bike (read: no place for a hydration bladder - OR any place to strap your pads). It was frustrating - especially after the beginner men's category and the juniors walked away with tires, goggles and jerseys. Anyhow - the silver lining of the prize was that I was able to give the backpack away to a young girl who was just about to head off to pre-school for the first time and needed a new backpack. She was SUPER excited, and her mom was really appreciative - so that put a positive spin on the whole experience, and I was glad to see the back pack go home with someone who would actually use it!

Thanks to Adele for the pictures! She and William came out to cheer - and it was so much fun to see them out on the course. Mom worked as an official and ran the times for every racer that came down the course on Sunday - no small feat given that they were sending people off every minute from 11 a.m. until just after 3 p.m. - it was really neat to have all of us out there together, and we were able to snag a beer together afterwards at Double Mountain too.

Thor - about midway down the course clearing a mandatory drop (I had to walk this feature!)

Me - on the women's Cat 1/2 podium in 3rd (far left)

Thor and I together with our bling!

Stottlemeyer 60

2011-05-31T09:13:00.000-07:00

This post is pretty overdue - I was having trouble getting signed into Blogger for awhile, and then I forgot that I hadn't posted these pictures! Argh - sorry for the brevity of this post - I just want to get it up at this point!

Two weekends ago I rolled up to Seattle to visit Kathryn and Brian - and race the Stottlemeyer 60 near Port Gamble, WA. As you can probably guess from the name - the race was 60 miles, which is about twice as far as I've ever ridden on a mountain bike. Ooof. Overall the race ended up going pretty well for me, despite the fact that in my 5 a.m. blur stumbling around the house I managed to put Kathryn's contacts in instead of my own - so I wasn't seeing very well. (sort of hilarious after the fact, but I was really annoyed at the race - my depth perception was WAY off and I couldn't figure out what was going on!).

The course was twisty with a lot of off camber damp roots - the first lap was tough! it took me almost 2 hours to complete. By the end of the lap the sun had come out though, and that dried things up a lot. The final three laps went much faster, and I ended up finishing in just under 6:30 - good enough for 5th place in the women's category!

Happy Birthday Thor!

2011-05-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

Today is Thor's birthday - but the little workaholic (kidding!) is too slammed to take the day off to go do something fun, so we'll be celebrating by watching THOR in 3D tonight at the movie theater instead. That should be a blast, and seems like an appropriate way to celebrate the 'ol thunder god's b-day.

Thor - back in his carefree law school days when he could take his birthday off to go fishing.

Chainbreaker Weekend - Bend

2011-05-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to Bend with some good friends for camping, mtn.
biking, and racing the Chainbreaker XC MTB race. It was great! I drove
down with sturdy and Emily. We ate dinner at Jacksons Corner - and we
were treated to a super cute performance by this little girl playing
the bass guitar while wearing her karate outfit. Hilarious.

The weather was a little chillier than last year, but it was still
fun. I was sick, unfortunately, and spent most of Saturday in the tent
while Thor got some good rides in.

Sunday Thor & Emily raced - and I opted to take another day to recover
so i did a super mellow ride with Sturdy on the Marzek (sp?) trail.

We returned home with some dusty, happy pups - it was a fantastic
weekend!

Nico's Quilt

2011-05-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

My good 'ol buddy Joanna from high school x-country running is expecting her second little munchkin! She and her husband are going to have a little boy, Nico, in early June. Her baby shower was this past Tuesday, so in typical Sarah-fashion I waited until the very last minute to decide I was going to make something.

I decided to make a mini-quilt, 2'x2', for them to use with the baby carrier so there wasn't a lot of extra blanket getting in the way of the straps, etc. In my head I estimated that this should take me about 3-hours to complete, the perfect evening project! WRONG! Try more like 8-hours. I was up until about 2:30 in the morning - oof! But it was fun, and I figured it out, and fortunately I have an incredibly sweet husband who went to the video store for me to rent the fourth season of Mad Men so I could watch it while I worked.

Quilt front: made with fabric scraps, and polka-dot border from Cool Cottons!

Quilt back: Put a bird on it!

Glorious, Sunny Sunday Riding

2011-05-03T07:42:00.001-07:00

On Sunday it was beautiful and 70 degrees plus! Thor and I were both
suffering from sun withdrawal after our week in the SW - so we rolled
out for a morning of riding at syncline.

We capped the day with an afternoon of scouting the Hood River Super D
course at Post Canyon - it is a technical course! (at least for me)
and I'm glad we got a chance to check it out before the race at the
end of May.

Bridge of the Gods - 100.4 miles!

2011-04-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

I had to ride around the block to officially bump myself over 100
miles, so I'm counting every extra 10th of a mile!

Abby and I did the Bridge of the Gods ride today-which is basically
north across the river to WA, east out until you get almost to
Stevenson, across the Columbia on the bridge and into Casacade Locks,
OR, and then back west along the historic Columbia Hwy and into
Portland.

It was a gorgeous day - the temp was about 58. I had never been out
on the historic hwy before, and it was really beautiful! Overall a
pretty flat ride - with one climb around mile 60 up to a point where
you get a fantastic view of the gorge.

I am trying to get better about knowing how many calories I need to
take in on rides (in general I would guess I probably have a tendency
to overeat) - I read somewhere that for long races/rides (like 6 hrs
plus) a good rule of thumb is about 2 calories per pound of your body
weight per hour. So for me this would be about 300-320 calories per
hour. We were riding for about 6.5 hours-which would mean I should
have eaten ~1900 calories. I kept track of what I ate over the course
of this ride (which I did not pre 'plan'- just ate as I went. Took
some snacks, plus stopped at a gas station when I felt hungry):

Liquids (not counting H20):
24 oz. Bottle of carbo rocket (110 cal)
20 oz. Flat coke (240 cal)

Solid food
4 shot blocks (120 cal)
1 power bar (240 cal)
1 Luna bar (190 cal)
1 almond snickers bar (230 cal)
1 bag smokehouse almonds (340 cal)
2 servings gel (180 cal)

If my quick math is correct this was about 1970 calories - and I
rolled into the house just starting to feel hungry - so I'm thinking
this was just about perfect! I've decided I really like smokehouse
almonds on long rides - they have an obscene amount of salt on them
that tastes fabulous mid-way through a long ride. Coke in my water
bottle the second half of my ride is my other new favorite thing. I
like the caffeine.

Happy Easter! Plus pics from our last two rides

2011-04-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

Hello! Our fabulous trip is coming to an end, and we're wrapping up a
great Easter Sunday here in Colorado with Sheri and Daphne. We had a
delicious breakfast at Seasons in Durango (I had an amazing grilled
cheese with pesto, tomato, mozzarella, chevre, portabellas and
prosciutto. Yum!) - followed by an afternoon of puttering and watching
'The Dark Crystal' - a Jim Henson classic! It was snowing here - so a
slow afternoon was perfect.

On Friday morning we rolled out of the Fruita area to head back to
Moab. We spent the afternoon riding the Slickrock trail, and after
banging myself up on Thursday I took it slow. We rode this trail 1.5
years ago when we came through for Christmas 2009, and it was fun to
get on it again - both Thor and I thought it was easier than we
remembered, although there are still a few climbs that are so steep we
can't climb them!

Saturday a.m. we got up early and drove from Moab into Cortez to ride
at Phil's World with Fred again. Those trails are great! Nice and
rolling single track - Thor and I are both jealous that Fred gets to
ride them on a regular basis!

Since it was our last ride Thor and I swapped pedals so I could try
out his bike (an Ibis Mojo HD). His frame is a little large for me,
but I could still tell a huge difference in the frame geometry -the
slacked out head tube angle rolls off obstacles much more easily. The
HD is soooo much fun - it just WANTS to catch air! I couldn't believe
how much more comfortable I was jumping on his bike due to a) how
easily the bike takes off, b) how stable it is in the landings. (and
just to keep things in perspective, by 'jumping' I'm talking about 2
ft of air MAX. Nothing crazy). Anyhow - now of course I'm lusting
after a 6.5" travel all-mountain bike. Sigh...a girl can dream,
right? :)

Kokopelli Trails

2011-04-21T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well it's a good thing we left the vote out yesterday - because Fruita redeemed itself with the Kokopelli trails today - they were great! Super fun, rolling singletrack -it was fantastic! The only bummer was that I managed to endo on about a 2" rock and smack my face in the ground. Hmph. AND i wacked my hip and hit my femoral nerve, so my whole right quad is numb. It could have been MUCH worse though, so overall I feel lucky that I was able to ride away.

We started out the morning nice and easy reading at camp before meeting Tony (the guy we met from pdx earlier in the week) to ride. We had a blast riding with him, and clocked close to 30 miles with him - a solid day!

Grand Junction Trails

2011-04-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

Today we rode at the grand junction trails -which I think are technically still part of the Fruita trail system. We rode Tanaguache up to Pre-nup, down to Holy Cross (which was techy and fun), and then back up to do Eagle's Wing (definitely the best trail of the day-nice views). We did a couple other minor loops, but I can't remember the names right now.

So far Thor and I are a tad unimpressed with the Fruita trails. They would be GREAT to have in our backyard - don't get me wrong - we'd be stoked to have access to trails like these in Portland to ride on a daily basis, but in terms of them being 'destination' mtn. bike trails...well...our vote is still out! We have one more day of riding in Fruita at the Kokopelli trails tomorrow, and we'll see what we think after that.

On the food front Fruita has Moab beat (at least in terms of dinner!) We ate at the Hot Tomato tonight (www.hottomatocafe.com)-and their pizza was really good! We're already contemplating a second trip tomorrow night. (don't worry though - Double Mountain still has them beat).

2011-04-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we rode in Moab again and did Amassaback to Pothole Arch, and then came down Rockstacker and Jacksons. It was beautiful! Definitely the most scenic riding we've done so far this trip. It was also easily the most technical riding we've had all trip! I had to walk quite a few features, but Thor did great and rode some of the hardest lines he has ever tried! It was fun to watch. We would definitely come back and do this loop again.

More Porcupine Rim

2011-04-19T17:31:00.000-07:00

Porcupine Rim

2011-04-18T13:28:00.001-07:00

We just finished riding Porcupine Rim, and we had a blast! It's
basically a little over 20 miles (if you do both upper and lower) of
downhill fun! A good blend of flowy trail and technical slick rock/
chunk. Very fun!

Thor has more pics on his phone, but in these you'll get a sense of
the beautiful country we are riding in (and a shot of Thor fixing his
chain - we had 3 broken chains today!)

Fruita

2011-04-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

We got up early this morning and rolled up hwy 128 along the Colorado River to head north, then east to Fruita. The drive was beautiful - it was great to see the morning sun rise along the canyons.

We rode the BookCliffs area of Fruita, and we had fun - although there were a TON of people. More people on mtn. Bikes than we have ever seen. Most of them were families too, which was neat.

We ran into a nice couple from Portland - small world.
The trails we rode were: prime cut (about 4-5 times), joes ridge, chutes & ladders, kessel run, and zippity do dah. Zippity do dah was by far our favorite - those are what the pictures are of.
We were quite tired by the time we wrapped up our riding, and ready for a well earned Tecaté!

Moab

2011-04-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

After a delicious breakfast of elk chorizo and egg breakfast burritos
with Daphne we rolled out in 'Petunia' for Moab. Petunia is a
passenger van that Sheri acquired last year when the state of AZ
decided to reduce their fleet size. Sheri and her boyfriend, jack,
have been tricking out the van for camping and it's awesome! There is
a platform bed in it-and jack developed this neat shelf system for
storing all sorts of bits & pieces.

Anyhow. We rolled into Moab around noon, and after quick stops at
Uranium and Poison Spider Cycles we were ready to hit the trails. We
rode the sovereign single track system north of town, and it was
fantastic. Nice and techy - with plenty of ledges to ride up and down
- and slick rock! We got about a 4.5 hour ride in before calling it a
day and heading back to town for buffalo burgers and beers. Yum!

Mancos/Cortez

2011-04-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

Thor spent the day building bikes - and Daphne and I tooled around
mancos and Cortez running errands (such as buying stan's fluid for the
wheels).

We ate lunch in Cortez at this amazing cafe that grows all it's own
food. It's called The Farm. If you're ever on a SW roadtrip and find
yourself near Cortez I highly recommend stopping in ( www.sevenmeadowsfarm.com
)

We were able to sneak out on a short afternoon ride at Phil's Trails
with Thor's uncle Fred. We had a blast - and the trails were smooth
and fast. It was a good thing we did a mini test ride after building
the bikes up, because both of our suspensions need to get dialed in a
bit.

Thor Built Bikes

2011-04-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

Thor spent all afternoon today building up our bikes. They started out
in two suitcases, and ended up fully built out! Riding here we come!

2011-04-15T09:32:00.001-07:00

Sun!!!!!!!!!

2011-04-14T21:55:00.001-07:00

We left Portland and the depressing, april rain we've been having. Mom came and picked us up at work and we treated her to a cup of coava coffee on the way to the airport (great new coffee we recently discovered).

Despite almost missing our connecting flight in Denver (as we were deboarding our Portland flight we heard an announcement that our Durango flight was going to take off 25 minutes EARLY!!) -we arrived in Durango early to clear skies. All our baggage (and bikes!) made the flight too. Gorgeous, clear evening skies at the Durango airport.

Good 'ol Law School Days

2011-04-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

Thor just found this picture floating around in his inbox - it was probably taken at some point between 2004-2006 - or around the time Thor was in law school and actually had time to fish during the day.

2011-04-10T18:27:00.001-07:00

This is a test post! If this works I'll be able to post directly from my phone so I can put up pics from Thor and i's trip to CO while we're there. Fancy, eh?

This is Thor and I at our dog park. Laaazy Sunday evening. Thor is annoyed because I made him stop playing 'golf' with the chuckit to come take this picture. Doesn't he have a lovely face? ;)

Sandy Ridge Spring Brake Super Ds

2011-04-06T16:19:00.000-07:00

The past two weekends Thor and I have gone out to race the Sandy Ridge Spring Brake Super D series near Welches, OR.   Mom has been training to be a mtn. bike race official - so she has been out there as well, and it has been a lot of fun to see her at the races! Thor and I both did really well in our races, and it was fun to get some downhill practice in - I can't wait to do more later this summer. Thor got 3rd in his first race, but broke his chain in the second race and had to do the entire race chainless. This resulted in a slower overall time for him (slow as in I actually beat him!!!), but he still had a great time.   I won both of my races (women's cat 2 - and for those of you who think I am sandbagging I'm waiting until I do an actual super D course before I decide to upgrade for Super Ds. Sandy Ridge is like a XC course pointed down hill - there are no ledges or gaps to negotiate). I am; however, upgrading to Cat 1 for the next XC race, but that's not until the beginning of May.
    The weather was cold both Sundays: the first sunday it was pouring rain almost the entire time. I made the mistake of riding up to the start line (about a 35 min. ride uphill) with Thor for his start time - even though I didn't go off for almost another hour after him. I was soooo cold by the time my race started that I ended up racing in my rain coat (you can see my pink coat in the pictures). I learned my lesson this week and did a pre-ride of the course when I first got there in the morning, and then cozied up in the car with my book for about 1.5 hours before it was time to ride up for my start. MUCH better the second time around.

Here are some pictures of the two of us at the races.

Mom & I near the finish line after I finished on Sunday.

A couple of pictures from the April 3 race from Ruandy Albisuarez Photography:

This great picture of Thor going down hill in the third race (4/3) comes compliments of Tim Zimmerman Photography:

Here are some additional pictures from Ruandy Albisuarez Photography for the first race on March 27:

Thor found another two of me on someone's flickr feed as well:

Piggly Wiggly Weekend Ride

2011-03-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

Last weekend (I know, I know - late AGAIN!!) the weather was terrible (as it has been all 'spring' so far). Thor and I were determined to go biking, however, and so we ignored the NOAA radar report and headed out to the gorge to ride anyways.

Here is what it looked like as we approached Hood River. It never got better.

We rode about 6 six laps out at Syncline - which had both of us thoroughly pooped by the end. It poured on us the entire time, and was probably only about 38 degrees. Not exactly the best ride we've ever had, but we decided it was good training.

A couple of years ago Thor bought me this great jacket (a Sugoi that I don't think they make anymore) - and it finally bit the bust on this ride. As Thor put it: "it molted." It has been getting little holes here and there, but I think this ride was finally just too much for it, and the pouring rain just disintegrated what was left of the shell. R.I.P. Sugoi shell - this jacket hit the trash before we left Hood River.

Echo Red-to-Red: OR XC MTB Race #1

2011-03-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

Last, last weekend (the weekend of March 12/13 - I'm perpetually behind these days) - Thor and I rolled out to Echo, OR for the first OR XC MTB series race of 2011, and more importantly: the first camping trip of 2011!!!! We headed out with good buds Sarah, Emily & Josh (Becky had to stay home and be a genius prepping for her thesis defense coming up this spring). The race was on Saturday, so we rolled out on Friday right after work so we could squeeze two evenings of camping in.   Once again - photos are in no particular order (although I think I figured out what I am doing wrong - so I'm going to try loading my pics differently the next time and we'll see what happens).

Sarah's Race report (brief): For the first race of 2011 I raced in the Cat 2 19-34 Women's category. I felt really good - and ended up winning my race by a healthy margin of ~7 minutes. I think this means I should probably upgrade to Cat 1 for my next XC race - although I am cranky about this because it means I have much less chance of winning any sort of prizes this year. Yes, yes, I know - silly to be concerned about prizes - but I love them! I sort of feel like a little kid - I get stoked about pretty much anything (except hand-drawn paper awards). At this race I won a bottle of Sno Road Red-to-Red cabernet sauvignon from Sno Road Winery - very exciting!
    I raced on my new Niner hard tail that Thor just finished building up - and it felt fast! I was concerned about how my back would do over 24 miles with no rear shock, but although it was a bit tired by the end I was pleasantly surprised by how good I actually felt.   The first 1.5 miles or so of the race was on a gravel road - so you really had to push it to try and get good position in the field heading into the single track portion. I didn't pay attention at the start of the race, and thought that they were going to send the women out separately from the men - but that wasn't the case - so I ended up having a pretty poor position at the back of the pack heading out (note to self: pay attention to pre-race announcements). I had to do a lot of passing once I got onto the single track - but fortunately there were quite a few 'flattish' sections to power out and around people - so I didn't feel like it was too bad.
    About 2/3 of the way into the race I caught up with the leader of my field - although I didn't realize she was in my category - I whipped around her without paying much attention - and was then surprised when she passed me again about 3 minutes later. It was only then that I noticed she had the same color plate as me - which meant we had started at the same time. We rode together for the next couple of miles until I managed to hit my pedal on something and send myself flying over the handlebars - I never saw it coming! I landed pretty hard on my hands, but was able to pop up and get right back on my bike. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make up the 30-or-so seconds that I lost, but it turned out at the end that this other woman was a 35+ rider - so that's how I managed to win my race anyways despite the crash.

Thor's Race Report (even briefer): I had hoped to get a report from Thor himself - but as of press time (already late!) he still hadn't written anything up - so here's my version:   Thor is getting strong this year - he is riding a hard tail single speed that he bought from a friend of ours, and I'm impressed with his ability to ride that thing without totally bonking! It sounds like Thor was having a great race in the Men's SS category - until he went into a corner way too hot and peeled his tire of the rim. Oops. Epic crash - but he was fine - and 30 minutes later he was back on the course and was able to finish his race. No DNF - yay!   He had a great time - aside from thinking that the extra, muddy section that they tacked onto the Pro/Cat1/SS course was a total pile because it was 'too much like a cx course.'

Here are two pictures of Thor and I racing from Oregon Velo:

Okay - onto the fun stuff - camping!   We LOVE to camp. And Emily, Sarah & Josh also LOVE to camp. And we all LOVE to ride bikes. So it makes it especially fun when we are able to combine the two and camp and ride bikes all in the same weekend.   It's almost too much. The Sno Road Winery owns the land the course runs on, and they very graciously opened up a piece for racers to camp on for the weekend - it was perfect. The temperature was pretty chilly, but dry (mostly) - and we were able to see the stars at night, so I count that as a good camping trip. We ate good food, remembered the half & half for our coffee, and had plenty of bourbon in cider in the evenings - so it was a great start to the 2011 camping season.
    We stayed out camping on Saturday night too - and rode the course again on Sunday. Lovely.

Josh - and our truck full of bikes pre-race on Saturday morning

A view of the country we were riding through - from our ride on Sunday.

Thor, Josh, Sarah & Emily on the Sunday ride

Self portrait with my super fashionable shades (unfortunately they are REALLY comfortable, and don't fog at all....but I kind of feel like they look ridiculous)

Sarah - or 'Waldo' as we took to calling her that weekend - in her brand new glasses

Emily & Coop

double rainbow from our camp

Thor and I at the fire on Saturday night.

Sarah & Emily - enjoying the morning sun.

You can see the start of the bruising on my right hand (left in the pic) from my trip over the handlebars!

The epicly piggly weather upon getting back to Portland. It was like staring the dark clouds of doom in the face as we drove west down the Gorge.

Mom's Canon Beach Watercolor

2011-03-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

I just realized I never posted this picture that my mom painted at her water color workshop a couple of weeks ago - isn't it neat? I have zero artistic talent when it comes to drawing, painting and photography (what people generally think of as the 'arts') - but Anna and Mom are quite good - and I always love seeing what they're up to.

Sun & Snow - A fun filled weekend

2011-03-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend (the first weekend in March - so yes, I'm behind) - we had a fun weekend of playing in the outdoors - and got some sun AND snow time in! On Saturday we went back country skiing with our friends Margi & Scott up near Mt. Hood - it was the first time Thor and I had been on our skiis in over a year (!) - and it was such a treat to get outside to play in the snow. I miss it! The snow was heavy and wet, and Thor did quite a few summersaults over his ski tips, but overall we had a fantastic time.

On Sunday we rolled out to Syncline to test ride the 29ers that Thor has been busy building up in preparation for the XC race season. Mom, Annie & Laea came with for a great day of riding in the sun - followed by a tasty brew and lunch at Everybody's Brewing in White Salmon. I almost had a mini meltdown on the uphill when I ran out of snacks, but fortunately we ran into the Chris King crew out riding and one of them had an extra bar in their backpack. Crisis averted!

With the 29'ers at the start of Sunday's ride.

Mom & Annie - enjoying the sun.

The view from the top.

Laea with her 'stick' she found at our rest point.

In between runs on Saturday.

Williams' Susitna 100 Pics

2011-03-08T09:03:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics from the start of William's Susitna 100 attempt over President's Day weekend. W cranked out 50 miles in the snow before the shovel broke off the front of his sled. Dang! But he had a great time. Thanks to RW Renrag for the pictures!

W - attached to his sled -ready to run

Cozy in his coat - waiting for the start

A close up of the evil sled

Double Rainbow

2011-03-04T09:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the weather was a bit crazy - we'd have huge downpours followed by periods of sun. I stayed a little bit late at the office, and around 5:30pm happened to glance up and see this double rainbow! One is really obvious - but if you look to the right of it you can see the faintest shadow of a second rainbow - it was really spectacular set against the stormy blue/purple of the evening sky.

Looking east towards Mt. Hood - from my office building in downtown Portland.

The Presidential Ham

2011-03-02T18:01:00.000-08:00

Kathryn and Brian visited Portland over the weekend, and had the fun idea of going to check out some 'art' in the Pearl district. Thor and I had no idea where to go to see 'art' in Portland (I'm sure this is not surprising to any of you who know us!) - so Brian selected a show out of a local indy newspaper. His selection: The Presidential Ham.

The Presidential Ham ended up being a series of 44 oil paintings - one for each of our dear American Presidents. As the name implies - in each painting the President is holding a ham. In addition to the hung portraits there was an interactive component to the show as well - there were two paper mache hams on a table that you were encouraged to pick up and take your picture with. You were then supposed to send your picture to the artist, Bijijoo. Below you can see Thor and I's contributions to their collection. Overall it was quite an interesting experience - followed up by a delicious lunch at Kenny & Zuke's. Yum!

Napa 2011

2011-03-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

Last weekend over President's Day Thor and I took a trip down to St. Helena, CA to visit our great family - Linda and Garry Rose! Linda is Ralph's cousin, and we always enjoy seeing them, and getting a chance to visit - it always involves lots of coffee and fun chats! Anyhow - we had a fabulous weekend, but I feel like I'm getting behind on posting pictures, so I'm just going to toss them up here and put captions on everything. As usual - I can't remember how to upload the pictures so they show up in the correct order, and I also have trouble figuring out how to move the pictures around once they're uploaded....I know, I'm hopeless!

Linda & I at Benessere with the sign welcoming us to the winery! This cracked us up. Linda & Garry know the wine maker at Benessere - so he 'rolled out the red carpet for us'

A close up of our welcom sign

On our last day in CA Thor and I did a great hike up out of Calistoga. The colors were beautiful - here's a shot of Thor heading down the trail.

The trees were all draped in this beautiful lichen

The view from our lunch spot

Giving Thor the karate chop - with my ninja hood up. It was quite chilly up at the top!

On our way down Thor spied a little finger of single track snaking off into the woods. We followed it and came across a great biking trail - complete with banked turns and this crazy teeter-totter

I'm showing off how tall the poison ivy is in this shot here - waaaay over my head - and thick on both sides of the trail!

Took this early morning shot on my jog Sunday morning.

Another jogging pic

The weather was cold, cold, cold when we showed up on Friday night. We went to visit Pride on Saturday, and there was snow up in the vineyards! They said it hasn't snowed in the valley like that since 2007.

Self portrait - Pride Vineyards

lichen on a rock along our hike

Snow Day!

2011-02-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

The weather reports have been threatening snow all week with weather advisories posted everywhere. Of course, nothing had materialized as of last night - so I completely gave up hope of seeing anything white & fluffy on the ground, and then we woke up this morning to a nice layer of snow covering everything! Excellent! It's nothing like the snow coverage we had back in 2008 - but it's still fun to get a dusting, and it makes my heart happy to wake up and peer out the window from my bed to see the first snow of the year. It makes me feel like a kid again!

What I was struck by this morning was that when I first opened my eyes I knew that it had snowed just because of the color of the sky. When there is snow on the ground the dark sky is brighter (more like a dark brown). I'm not sure if this will make sense to people who didn't grow up where it snowed during the winter because I think the difference is pretty subtle, but the black of the night sky is brighter when there is snow on the ground reflecting all available light back up into the sky.

Thor - on the sidewalk in front of our bank.

Rodeo & More Sewing

2011-02-15T16:30:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Thor & I hit up the Professional Bull Riders tour stop in Portland with our friends Katie & Joe - it was a great time, we saw a few cowboys get tossed, and the main rodeo clown was an amazing dancer - he was hilarious! It was also a great venue for us to proudly display some of Thor's grandmother, Tat's, south-western jewelry. Tat had an absolutetly amazing collection, and Thor & I don't attend too many events where we can show off the pieces we have - we always enjoy it when we can though, and it's a fun way to remember Tat!

I also did some more sewing over the weekend - and was able to finish off a third pair of pants for our friend Jenn who is due in April. Jen's having a boy - so I left off the ruffles this time around. I love the fabric on this pair though!

Kathryn & Brian Wedding Photos - Sneak Peak!

2011-02-11T13:39:00.000-08:00

Kathryn & Brian's wedding photographer (Amelia Soper Photography) has a sneak peak of their wedding photos and a super sweet write-up on her photography blog. Check it out!

Stormtrooper

2011-02-07T16:06:00.000-08:00

I keep forgetting to post this hilarious picture of me in our friend's stormtrooper helmet. Or I should say, in one of our friend's stormtrooper helmets. They have multiple. And a pretty sweet collection of autographed Star Wars memorabilia to boot.

It's Baby Girl Season - Ruffled Pants for Little Ladies!

2011-02-03T16:36:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I got busy at the sewing machine and cranked out two pairs of sweet, ruffled pants for some friends of ours who just had baby girls. The purple pair is for Becky & Daren's new daughter, Avery - and the pink pair is for Andy & Katy's daughter, Ella.

Initially I was worried that the pants were going to be too small, but once I delivered them Katy showed me that the pants were practically taller than Ella right now, so no worries. Apparently I have absolutely no concept of how big a newborn is. =)

I used the Britches & Bloomers sewing pattern - and it was pretty straight forward and easy to follow. This is a great beginner sewing pattern that can be accomplished in one evening if you need to whip up a quick gift!

Avery's Pants!

Ella's Pants

Sweet Pugsley Video

2011-02-03T16:22:00.000-08:00

This is a neat video shot by some guys up in Whitehorse. This is apparently how I need to learn to jump my bike - in the snow! Somehow launching off a jump in the snow seems waaay less intimidating. Awesome video editing too!