Hornby Hornby Hornby

Wow, it has been a long time since I've posted here. Facebook kind of took over for a while. But I'm going to try to get some stuff up now, so I'll be posting some pictures and stories of what kinds of things have occupied my time for the last two years (at least the non-work time). Expect to see some changes in layout too. On to more fun. Last weekend was the annual trip to Hornby Island in British Columbia. It was a blast with the regular crew as usual, and for the first time, Russell got to go too! This time we took the Blackball ferry up. It's very cute and '70's kitch
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Definitely more convenient for those of us who live on the West side of the sound. The weather was cloudy but calm, no rain to speak of. Then it was dive dive dive for me and fishing and relaxing for Russell. Here's a mess of photos, I'll upload some videos to Youtube in the next couple days and link them in.
  Oh and yes, I do have a fancy new camera and housing... And of course...Sea Lions...

Yes!

Manuscript Submitted.

Bigger post later on random occurences.

Seeing into the matrix

So at work I have to work on a few computers and I use a remote log in program so that I don't have to walk between them every time I want to check something (I am allowed to be lazy this way, I run 2-3 miles every morning with the dog, then bike a 12 mile round trip to and from work, I do not lack for exercise). Today I found out what happens if you leave one logged in to another, return to the computer that it was logged into, and log back into the first computer.


I can see into the matrix apparently....

Amabilis

What with the pressures of modern life, it was time to get out of town for some outdoor time this weekend. I went on my first solo cross country ski. Normally I go with my dad, I enjoy it, he enjoys it, so we go together. Today however, he is here:


So, if I wanted to ski, it was solo or nothing (Russell does not ski).

I decided to go to Amabilis Mountain. Its out of the Cabin creek Sno-park and is a nice 8 mile round trip through varied terrain. The lower part of the trail is groomed, up to where the loop begins, then your on your own. After running Satchmo I was off.


I arrived in the rapidly filling parking lot around 10:20 am. Normally at this point my dad declares the local temperature and what wax we will be using for the day. Today, I got to decide on my own. Last time we used purple, and it seemed right for today. There was still purple wax on my skis, so I took off strait away. This didn't work so well, I was fine on the flat, but I wasn't going to be able to climb, just not enough wax. I paused at the base of the Amabilis split, and rewaxed with a little more purple. Perfect! And I was off.


The track climbs a groomed set of switchbacks in the forest. Its nice. As I was climbing apparently some local military base was having some kind of training. Three times some kind of jet went supersonic, it was kind of neat to hear the booming. I finally saw the last one, not close enough to catch a photo of sadly. It was way off to the south. Up and up and up.




The last photo is just be low the "Y". This is where the grooming stops, and most of the nordic skiers turn back. I was in for the full loop however. I went left, which is the long route to the summit. I should mention now, that there were signs of snowshoers on the groomed portion. With the exception of one group I saw, they were doing a good job of staying off the groomed track. Once past the end of the grooming however, all bets were off. Snowshoe tracks everywhere. Dear Snowshoers, please please make and stick to your own tracks, it is not necessary to tromp through every patch of snow just because it is there (especially if you are walking in ski tracks).


That was pretty much the worst section. Further up there was a clear "snowshoer" path and a clear ski path, nicely side by side. Up and up and up I went.





As you get higher, Mount Rainier emerges from behind the ridge to the south.


Its right in the gap between the trees.

Once you reach the ridge top is where navigation can become tricky. There's a break between the two roads. The trick is to go right at the big trees. You'll know your at the trees, trust me. Just follow their edges and you'll meet up with the other road.


Finally the top.


Big Trees.

The funny thing here, is apparently snowshoers lack the capability to navigate the remainder of the loop and just turn around. Ah, fresh snow with only a handful of other skiers.


While going up goes and goes and goes. Coming down is quite quick. Especially if the snow has warmed and you have wax for colder snow! Rocket Ski's. I stopped at the Y to rewax with a warmer wax to slow the rocket, and off I went.


Total Ski time, 3.5 hours for 8 miles. Would have gone slower, but this was also a training ski for Hog Loppet.

Once down, an appropriate celebratory beverage (Just one!) on the way home.


Couldn't have asked for a better day out or better weather and conditions!

Not really what I had in mind....

When I got a dog. Don't worry, I like Satchmo, he's not going anywhere :). Lets just say I forgot about some of those puppy period idiosyncrasies until yesterday.

Idiosyncrasies like a penchant for destruction while bored....


















































What these photos fail to capture is the sheer extent of the mess. Under that dog bed, there is a lot more. Destructo tally includes one umbrella, one Bluetooth headset, one Tupperware lid, two license plate covers, our dog bed, at least one plastic bag, one emptied bookshelf, several shredded documents, one laptop case, one cardboard box, shredded some Styrofoam, and used a refractometer as a bone. The room was covered in little chewed bits of paper and Styrofoam and cardboard. Also located and shredded a cat toy and found the hiding place of the tennis ball and ball thrower for the dog park (He's got the tennis ball in his mouth there).

Miraculously he didn't destroy either computer or find my knitting which was hidden behind the lap top (He thinks grabbing knitting and chewing on knitting needles is a Very Fun Game).

Apparently we need a little more exercise before being left alone for several hours. The weird thing is we have occasionally left him before and he's been just fine.

Recipe for a Sunday

What with the snow, being sick, having a puppy, and going back to work things have been a little chaotic around here. Last week I would describe mainly as having "survived". This weekend was time for a little R&R.

First, we went to Strange Brew, the infamous beer festival in Port Townsend. It was fun, the theme is having lots of breweries brew something weird. Options ranged from Indigo IPA (brewed with Captain Crunchberries) to Sour Cherry Bourbon stout. I have to say though, they need a bigger venue. By the end I was pretty crowded out (thus the complete lack of photos.

Today was about getting ready for the week and clearing my head and my house. Recipe for a perfect Sunday:

Lazy morning with lots of knitting.















That's the current sweater in progress, and so far the most accurate photo of its color (note to self, add to Ravelry so it looks less fluorescent blue).

Relatively well behaved Satchmo.




















Russell making lots of Stock.
















Finally a clean house.



Mentally ready to face the next week.

2012

2012. 2012 is going to be a big year. Russell is going to start running a brewery (this has been in the works for a while, but the big stuff is happening now). 2012 will see some sort of career transition for me as well in the next few months.

As this will be a big year, lets start by summarizing the fun stuff so far....

We went Razor Clamming (Ok, so this was technically still in 2011, but it was fun...).


Photo shamelessly stolen from Russel's facebook. Me apparently doing my best impression of a professional fisherwoman or something.

We got a new dog. Meet Satchmo.

Satchmo is a 9 (almost 10) month old chocolate Labrador we adopted from the Humane Society. He is ornery (the caption on this facebook photo from my husband is "It's hard work being poorly behaved) but fun and shows promise of turning into a model citizen of a Labrador when he grows out of this phase. (For anyone wondering about Ase, little Ase passed into the great dog park in the sky in May due to cancer, he'd had a good 16 years and it was his time).

I started the year right by taking a vacation. This is turning into an annual thing. I went to Hornby (which you may remember from these posts last year). Once again it was amazing. Here are some photos and video.











Once again it was a total mugging. This year the sea lions were more abundant and larger (though the "little" guys were plentiful as well). We even had a couple full size males come and check us out, which is a little tense (but still very cool).

We've had snow (no photos here, I've been under the weather). Satchmo loves snow.

I am almost done with a publication, should be submitted this week if all goes well.

Oh and in more minor victories...I hemmed some new pants. Keeping up with sewing is a goal for the year.