Tile update

Apparently our website comes up when people search for tile countertops on Yahoo. So, I thought I should post a pic of our recently updated bathroom and give them something to look at. It's been done for weeks but I never got around to posting it. Eric did a great job!

Quick Holiday Recap

We finally have time to post something! The past 2 weeks have been absolutely crazy (but in a good way).

Eric's parents flew out on the 12th and spent nearly a week with us. Eric learned the secret family baking techniques from his mom and then whooped his dad at a marathon game of gin :) We also went out for dim sum, checked out the Tacoma glass museum and celebrated Christmas early with some great gifts.

My parents just left this morning. We headed over to Leavenworth on Saturday- what a great place at Christmastime. It only took us four hours to get there! Darn snow. We also had Scrabble and Ms. Pacman tournaments and some great meals cooked by mom.

**Photos from both visits can be found here.**

It's the holiday season...

Christmas is in the air. You know, time to stress about everything! Ugh. This year won't quite as stressful because our parents are coming out here for the holidays. They get to experience the joys of a packed airport, crowded flights, and best of all, travelling with gifts.

Last weekend was full o' holiday cheer. Thursday night took us to Acme Bowl for my company holiday party. I just have one thing to say: I may not be able to cook a turkey but I sure can bowl one. It was totally on accident of course- I'm the world's worst bowler.

We hosted a cookie-baking night on Friday and are now up to our ears in gingerbread and sugary treats.

Saturday night was the 3rd annual Cortez Christmas party complete with great company, great food (the chowder!) and karaoke. No L.L. Cool J for Eric- he teamed up with Robin to sing (or yell) some Rage Against the Machine.

Sunday was my last race of the year. It was about 30 degrees at Kelly Creek and it even started snowing on the last lap. The course was very tough but I was able to stay in 2nd place the entire time. I think I ended the season on a good note :)

I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Weekend in pictures

It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas...until the rain and winds came, that is.

Eric put up the xmas lights on Friday:

It snowed on Saturday morning...then melted by nightfall.

We rode the Iron Horse trail but eventually the snow became too deep for my skinny tires.

Self portrait:

We always post pics of Daisy but never little B:

Thanksgiving weekend

It sure was nice having a 5-day weekend. In the morning I went on a Tiger hike with Misha. It was freezing out but sunny as could be. What a gorgeous day.



We had the "usuals" over for Thanksgving dinner. The turkey didn't turn out so well- thankfully we had a back up pot roast courtesy of Carol. After dinner we watched the Glutton Bowl, billed as "the World's Greatest Eating Competition". We thought the butter eating challenge was bad enough, but it actually got worse with competitors eating mayo, tongues and brains. You wanted to look away but you couldn't.

Eric worked a half day on Friday and I slept in :) We headed downtown later that afternoon to shop and watch the Macy's tree lighting and fireworks. Surprisingly the weather was nice- clear, cold and dry.

Saturday Eric went on a hike and I slept in again. I could get used to this. The rest of the day was spent loafing around and baking holiday cookies.



Today I raced at Seatac park. The course seemed like it was designed just for me- tons of smooth singletrack and several good run-ups. I started mid-pack but moved up to the front within a few minutes. As we transitioned from the pavement to singletrack I realized that I was in 3rd place and pushed hard to distance myself from the pack. One of the girls fell behind and I sprinted past the leader on the last lap. See the video here! I knew she was right behind on the last run-up but she couldn't catch me. I put the pedal to the metal and sprinted to 1st place! Woo Hoo! No medals at this race-my prize was 2 six packs of Fat Tire beer. I don't like beer but I was just happy to win something. Photos are here.

Click here to see a couple more videos. Note- I'm trying to fix the sideways one. In the meantime, just tilt your head :)

Gobble gobble...

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

Here's a cute shot of our nephew Kaden and his exquisite art project:

Today I lost a dear friend to the commercialization of Christmas. My little cactus felt the pressure to start the holidays early and broke out in full bloom. He claims it was caused by global warming, but I think the North Pole mafia had something to do with it.

Crash!

This weekend's adventure took us to the Olympic peninsula. On Saturday we tooled around the shops at Port Townsend and then drove up to Hurricane Ridge.

Boarding the ferry:


Eric looking at some duck:


View atop Hurricane Ridge:



Today I had a cross race at Ft. Flagler. I toggled between 2nd and 3rd place on the first 3 laps. I was feeling OK so I decided to rideone of the run-ups. Everything was great until I reached the top and them BAM! the bike goes out from underneath me and I'm laying on my side. Although a bit dazed (what just happened!?) I made a sweet recovery and got back on the bike. My left knee hurt but I attempted to ride it off. No good. About 300m down the course I could only pedal with my right leg so I decided to pull out. It was my first(and hopefully last)DNF of the year and it sucked! I hope this heals soon because next weekend is the state championship race.

Riding through old gun emplacements:

What a weekend!

This weekend was action packed. Saturday was the first ever Rico-Challenge adventure race held at Lake Sammamish State Park. Eric and Robin designed a fun course with a few surprises thrown in including a couple teammate swaps and a kick bike time trial. Photos are posted on the official Rico-Challenge website.

Today was my cross race at Donida Farm. I lined up late again and was stuck near the back of the pack. Then about a minute before the start I remembered that my tires were pumped up to road pressure, so I was frantically letting out air at the last minute. Oops. I was in the back for what seemed like an eternity. The muddy singletrack didn't allow for much passing, and then I got stuck behind two crashes and was passed by a number of girls. Somehow/somewhere I passed them all up again because I finished in 3rd! That was the toughest race I've done yet. I posted a few pictures here.

Julie and Jan's visit

Ok, this is a week late but oh well- we've been busy! Last (last) weekend Julie and Jan came out to visit. We started off with a great dinner at the Melting Pot, then hit the Pike Place on Saturday. After my race on Sunday we did a little more shopping at U Village. On Monday Eric took the ladies on tour of the city.

SCC #3- Kelly Creek

Yesterday was race #3 in the Seattle Cyclocross Series. I'm not even sure where it was. Enumclaw? Sumner? Moving along...This weekend's venue was a farm with grassy pastures and plenty of cow pies to ride though. I guess this course is typically very muddy but it turned out to be pretty dry (yea!).

I arrived somewhat early, warmed up for a few on the trainer then took a quick practice lap. I had been eyeing the "downhill from hell" from the comfort of my trainer and wanted to give a try. It looked really scary from the top, but not so bad once you got going. I even lined up early. Come to find out it wasn't necessary as I was "called up" to the front of the group with few other ladies. This was a pleasant surprise and really helped me establish a good lead from the start.

The first lap really sucked. I couldn't breathe and my stomach was on "E" despite choking down 2 Gu's right before the start. Even though I felt bad I was still able to keep the pack behind me. Laps 2-3 were more of the same and I traded places with a few women before eventually dropping them. The last lap was a string of "on your left" and "passing on the inside" while I tried to get around some of the slower men. Most were cool about it but some dude tried to outsprint me. Whatever! I passed him anyway and took 4th out of 28 :)

Thank you to my cheerleading squad-it was cool to hear my name all over the course ( Eric, Julie, Jan, Jerry, Stacy and my co-worker Sherri).

SCC Series #2- Evergreen

Today's cross race was at Evergreen High school. The morning was really foggy- I was wondering if I'd need a map to navigate the course, since I couldn't see any of it. I arrived about an hour and half before the start and kind of fumbled around till the last minute. Waiting in the port-a-potty line ate up about 20 minutes of my time since they only had two. That doesn't sit well with a bunch of nervous racers! I pre-rode about 3/4 of the course, made some last minutes changes to tire pressure than hauled over to the start line. My last race was women only; this time it was cat 4 women, a few master's men groups and some single speeders. Needless to say there were a lot of people on the course.

As usual, I lined up late and was at the back of the group. And I mean all the way in the back. The gun goes off and we start on a dirt track to some long grassy switchbacks. Then two run-ups, the latter of which was long and had loose dirt. After a bumpy descent we rode over more grass and then had two barriers at the top of a short incline. I liked this course a lot better than Marymoor.

The first lap went OK and I passed a couple girls. On lap #2 I noticed that a lot of people were losing steam and I took the opportunity to move up. Laps 3 and 4 were sweet and I moved up even further.

I came in 9th out of 36. I'm pleased with this finish because I didn't sleep well the night before and wasn't in the game mentally. And it was only my 2nd race ever. Thanks to Eric, Jerry and Stacy for cheering me on, especially at the top of the big run-up! Photos courtesy of Jerry- click here to see a few more.

The bathroom remodel

Our guest bathroom is the last room in the house to get any love. It has cream walls, cream moulding and you guessed it, cream tile. Boring! This week we're going to paint and install a granite tile countertop. Well, Ok, Eric is doing most of the work but someone has to supervise, right? I'll post pictures of our progress throughout the week.

Day 1: Remove old laminate countertop, buy and cut cement board.

This is how I feel after tonight's cross workout. I've got a goose-egg on my shin (from pedal), scraped ankle (also from pedal) and some mysterious cuts on my elbow.

Star-Crossed race report

Today was my first cross race ever. I chose Star-Crossed over Ft. Steilacoom because it seemed more fun and a lot less intimidating. This race is great- it's got music, a beer garden and tons of cow bell-clanging spectators to get you pumped. My race day support was top notch, thanks to Kristi and Craig from my new cross team Cycle U (I'm still racing MTB for Sega). As soon as I arrived Kristi plopped my bike on the trainer and I had a few minutes to spin before taking a practice lap with Craig. I felt like a pro with all this attention. The start line was a mess. We had to line up in numerical order but no one could see their number because it was pinned to their back! After a few minutes of "Hey, what's my number?" we were given more instructions that I did not understand. If you get passed in X lap, then you do Y. But if you get passed in Z lap then something else happens. Huh? I figured I'd just ride until someone told me to stop!

Then the gun fires and off we go. I learned a major lesson in the first 30 seconds- don't start at the back of the pack. I didn't have a choice in this race but I'll remember that in the future. I found it too difficult to pass other riders.

My first goal for the race was not to get lapped- with all the cat 3 riders in my field and I thought this would be inevitable. Starcrossed is a UCI sanctioned event and you'll get pulled from the course if that happens. Goal #1 achieved! My other goal was to not finish last. Goal #2 achieved- I came in 39th out of 52. Not too bad for a first race I guess. My skills suck though. I totally need to work on remounts- I had a close encounter with my rear tire on the 2nd lap. Eek. Eric pointed out that if I was just 30 seconds faster I could've moved up another 12 places! Next race.

Here are some more photos...

Last weekend was the 4thD AR on the Olympic Peninsula. The course looked brutal but Eric and Jerry did well, deciding to pull out after a nasty bikewhack. I didn't race but had some adventures of my own as an unofficial volunteer.

I just posted some photos from last weekend here.

We had a great whirlwind Labor Day weekend. I found some cheap airfare on Friday afternoon, booked the tickets, and then we flew to LA on Saturday morning. We hit all of our favorite places- the beach, Cha Cha Chicken, In and Out Burger, Disneyland...it was a blast. The hot weather made it feel like summer, something we've definitely missed out on this year in the PNW. We haven't been back to Cali since we moved and it was kind of weird to go back. It's a great place to visit, but I'm glad that we don't live there anymore!

Here we are at Disneyland...more pics to follow.

I took this shot last evening- you can see what my poor garden is up against. In case your wondering, this guy is moderately sized at 4+ inches. I've seen much larger ones around Tiger Mtn.

This weekend Eric attempted Rainier with Robin and Scott. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate- snow and high winds kept them at base camp.

Yes, we're still alive, we just don't have anything exciting to post.

Some photos from the past week:

Here we are at Safeco. Detroit did not play well but it was still a good game. I finally tried garlic fries...they're good until you reach that bottom layer that's almost entirely garlic.



Bates, home of the best sliders in metro Detroit. White Castle and Krystal pale in comparison. I was good and only ate one. Dad was smart and had a ham sandwich instead.



I have a long list of "must eats" when I head back to Michigan. Here they are, in no particular order:

-Gyro from the Coney Island-check!
-Michigan brand cottage cheese w/ Fritos-check!
-Cheese chimichanga from Xochimilco's-check!
-Bates burger-check!
-Primo's pizza slice if Darryl is in town-check!
-Dole whip from the Handi Dip-check!
-Jelly donut from West Fenkel's-check!
-Dan's sub- nope :(
-Mom's lasagna (if she feels like cooking) - nope :(

Sad news- my grandpa passed away on Saturday :(

He was the best grandpa, even though he made me drink hot totties when I was sick. He'll be greatly missed.

On our way back from REI yesterday we picked up some Squishees from the Kwik-E Mart. Huh? This is great- twelve 7-11's around the United States have been temporarily converted into Kwik-E Mart's to promote the upcoming Simpon's movie. In addition to Squishees, you can also buy Buzz Cola and Krusty-O's cereal (No Duff's though).

A few photos have been added to the gallery. Check them out here.

A brief writeup on our trip:

We left on Friday after work drove straight through. Well, after a few stops like the Gap outlet, that big-ass fruit stand/antique store near Ellensburg, Spokane and the small town of St. Regis (unfortunatley the trout aquarium was closed for the night). After a quick truck-stop nap we arrived in Yellowstone around 7am. We checked out several geyers and thermal features, then checked in to the Old Faithful Inn. What an amazing place- you really fell like you've gone back in time. I would highly recommend a stay there, but only if you're a sound sleeper- there is not much insulation in the place and you hear every single noise in the building.

The next day we checked out the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and a few other geysers. Then we drove to Grand Tetons NP and camped at Jenny Lake for a night. On Monday we had a nice hike up to Amphitheater Lake then headed down to Jackson Hole to see what the town was all about. Eric dubbed it the "Key West of Wyoming". It's very touristy and you can buy just about anything with a moose on it- tee shirt, shot glass, golf ball, you name it. It was still kind of neat though. Very "wild west".

On Tuesday we started heading home and shelled out the extra $10 to stay at the Missoula KOA. KOA's are a good place to people watch. We have a fondness for them, probably because they have hot showers and a $2.75 all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast. This one also had a hot tub and a game room where Eric won me a ketchup/mustard bottle combo from the claw machine.

We rolled into town on Wednesday afternoon, just in time for all the 4th of July festivities in our neighborhood. What a great trip!

Looks like the gallery problem fixed itself! Thats great because we ended up spending the entire evening at our neighbor's house.

Here is one of like 300 photos from last weekend (from Grand Tetons N.P.), more to come:

It appears that the photo gallery is experiencing some techincal difficulties. We just got back from Yellowstone but I'll try and locate/fix the problem tonight.

We hiked Mt. Si after work tonight. It was clear at the top and we had great views of Snoqualmie Valley.

Can you spot Rainier behind us?


Eric and the Haystack:


Adjusting my shoe before the downhill trek:

Last weekend was Eric's 32nd birthday. Jerry, Stacy, and the two of us went to Bend for some sun and fun. I love Bend- I would move there in a heartbeat!

Birthday Boy:


Smith Rock state park:


On the trail:

Last weekend was a real hodge-podge of activities.

-Friday night Eric took me on a date to 7-11 for slurpees and hot dogs. He sure knows how to treat a lady right.
-Saturday we rode at Tiger and later paddled the Sammamish Slough. After dinner we capped off the evening with a 1930's movie about the dangers of marijuana.
-Sunday we ran at Tiger and then ended up drinking wine 'till midnight at a neighbor's house.

Today we had a bear encounter in our neighborhood. Fortunately I saw it out of the corner of my eye at 50 yards out, otherwise we probably would've walked right in front of it.

We're back from the Big Muddy. As usual it was tough but a lot of fun. In total we were out for 22 hours. I'll write more later but for now here is a link to the photos.

Leavenworth is to Washington as Frankenmuth is to Michigan. Both are cheesy "Bavarian-themed" towns full of gift shops, candy factories and enough gingerbread trim to decimate a small forest. One big difference- the mountains! In the 2+ years we've lived in Washington we never made it to the Cascade Loop. The trip was last minute so we didn't have any real plans. We went on a short hike but for the most part just relaxed and enjoyed our surroundings(and the sun). The hiking, biking and rafting looked awesome. We picked up a few maps on our way home and will plan a return trip very soon.

Click here for our photos.

Eric ran his first 5K last week!

We just finished up our overnight hike. Carol dropped us off near Taylor Mountain around 9:30 last night and we strolled (OK, limped) in around 6. After a little good-natured whining we sucked it up and made the best of our evening. This morning our feet were a little sore but after a shower and breakfast we felt pretty good. The rest of our day will be spent vegetating on the couch.

I think we look pretty good considering we just hiked 25 miles:

Last night Patrice, Jerry, Eric and I raced the Beast in Issaquah. We had a slight homefield advantage since much of the race was right in our backyard. The course was long and we finished in 3.5 hours. Can't wait for the next one.

Random stuff from the weekend:

Robin's new hairstyle:



Here's Daisy, just hanging around. And yes, she has a killer grip on my hand!



And congrats to Sarah, who placed 9th in last weekend's road race!