Let it snow

I had an epiphany during our first cross country ski trip of the season, about winter sports. It seems pretty obvious now that I've had it, but since I didn't really have easy access before, it just didn't occur to me. But having spent four glorious hours in winter wonderland, I realized that getting outside in the winter in a way I can really look forward to, is a way to combat S.A.D., make the long dreary months between Jan and March go by quicker and even avoid that feeling of dread I get during Fall every year because winter is coming.

Aside from the exercise and the endorphins, just the fact of getting out into the postcard that is the pacific NW gives me a new perspective. Endless rain in town means snow on the mountain.

Jess already owned cross country skis when we met. She's been doing it since she was six years old. I had been a few times in high school and then not again till last year with her.

I had a much better time on this trip, what with the better snow and the not having hives from an extreme allergy to hidden Brazil nuts in my bread. I had enough fun that I've spent the last week shopping for my own gear and it'll all be delivered/ready for pick up on Friday. And like magic, I got an invite from an old friend of mom's to go skiing on Saturday.

After lots of shopping around, I managed to get pretty good deals on my kit. The skis and poles from Next Adventure, boots from Backcountry.com and bindings on sale at REI. And if my feet were smaller I could've gotten the boots at REI for $80.

Alpina Control Skis: $109.00
Rottefella bindings: $46.99
Rossignol BC X3 boots: $114.00
Leki Back Country Air Ergo adjustable poles: $79.99

(Keeping up with your girlfriend on the slopes: Priceless --yeah I had to do it :)

I'll report back after Saturday on the performance of all my new gear.

ETA: This also counts as Art#2 since I made the movie after midnight. I'm slowing learning my way around the IMovie. It's fun.

Puzzling

I've never really thought of myself as a puzzle person. But if other people are doing puzzles, I can get sucked in pretty easily, which is what happened when I went to the Sylvia Beach hotel with Carmen and Traci. So when Jess and I saw this puzzle in the gift shop at Crater Lake, we thought it would be fun to invite Carmen over and have a puzzle day, which is just what we did today.

There was guacamole and chips, tea and good conversation and catching up. Jess didn't like working upside down so I took the top spot and worked on the clouds. The two of them poured over colors but colors were useless to me in the cloud section. I became obsessed with memorizing shapes, which is my preferred puzzle methodology. Once I had an image of some distinctive feature, I could often be heard muttering "two bumps, two bumps, two bumps," or some other reminder chant. This always caused the others to make fun of me, but they couldn't argue with the effectiveness of my methods. This was definitely one of the most challenging puzzles I've encountered, with odd curves to the pieces and no clear lines. Often pieces would clearly fit together, but not hold together on their own until a third or fourth piece was found to hold them fast. When I solved one of these, I would declare, "Security! We have security!"

There were two edge pieces that we didn't find until late in the game. Whenever a piece proved particularly wily, Jess would exclaim, "I think there are pieces missing!" even though we'd just cracked open the sealed wrapper. Sensing an opportunity, I told her she had to give me a dollar for every time she said it. A quick and easy $20 for me if only she would pay up...

Sadly Carmen had to leave before we were quite finished. Jess and I spent another hour or so and it was a battle to the end, but oh so satisfying.

I could see myself becoming a puzzle person.

Let the Resolutions Begin!

I wanted to write more, so here we go. I've just signed on for this:

Join me (Cortney Erskine) & many others in this New Year’s Invitation on behalf of Studio PA-CO!

~ 365 Degrees ~

Make one piece of art EVERYDAY starting January 1st, 2008 thru 12/31/08. Whatever medium you desire.

We will meet to discuss experiences and share monthly at Studio PA-CO every Last Thursday of the month at 6 PM.

Come January ‘09 a group show is planned & potential publishing of artists work by Alberta Street Small Press.

Everyday. Overwhelming, but I think I can do it. What have you committed to in 2008?

Holidaze Pt 1 - Christmas Eve

Well I made it through my first mom-less holiday season more or less intact. Some extra moodiness for sure, but all in all it went much better than I would've thought. I think it was helped by the fact that I've long been over the hype that is Christmas and have been striving for low-key traditions for years.

I spent the days enjoying the family I have left, which is considerable, and enjoying quiet (blessedly quiet) times with Jess.

Christmas eve we went to my dad's annual dinner, which includes fifty or so of our closest family, friends and probably a few folks who heard there was a good meal to be had and showed up. There's always a core group that I knew and recognize and then a much larger percentage of folks that I only see once a year and wouldn't recognize on the street if I saw them again. My strategy is to hug everyone who hugs me and it seems to work out well. I warned Jess not to expect introductions.

Jess came down with a cold that included a four day sinus headache so she was even less prepared than usual to deal with the madness that is large numbers of my family combined in a small space, but she was a trooper. Walking into the house was like walking into a wall of sound, such as you might find in a football stadium. No one's ever heard of an inside voice and the volume just escalates as people try to out shout each other to be heard. The children are quiet by comparison, though most of them are relegated to the basement game room. Even I was overwhelmed, and I grew up with it.

Jess forgot her lactose pills (there's no hope of avoiding dairy and we gave up trying until '08) so she ran back home to get them. Meanwhile, I found happiness in a bowl of sausage dip. Living with a vegetarian has definitely given me a greater appreciate of well prepared meat, since I rarely bother to cook it at home. I barely managed to tear myself away from the dip, but I didn't want to fill up completely before dinner.

When the time came to eat, we managed to squeeze everyone into the main room for prayer. I always marvel that we all fit, it reminds me of the time I saw a six foot tall Yoga master squeeze himself into a three foot square box on That's Incredible.

Then my dad's wife announced the rules for the food line; people 40 and over first, followed by people with children under the age of 10.

What? I felt betrayed. I was suddenly glad for all that dip I'd eaten. I couldn't bare to stand around and watch the line crawl by, so Jess I retired to the quietest room, one just off the kitchen while we waited for people to get through. We ended up at the back of the line, something that's never happened to me at a family gathering.

You know those people who wait for someone else to go first in line, or cut the first piece of dessert? I'm not that person. In fact, I feel it's my sworn duty to help those people by being the first in line so they can feel free and unencumbered about getting their food.

The line at least moved quickly, but as we got into the kitchen and started to see the food choices awaiting us, it became clear that Jess's options weren't just limited, they were non-existent. Every vegetable dish was filled with meat--hamhocks flavoring the greens, bacon floating in the cabbage. There wasn't even any mac and cheese in sight. There was potato salad but Jess hates potato salad as much as mom did.

Luckily she's learned never to go to my dad's house hungry. She'd eaten some not long before we left so she wasn't starving. As they saw her approaching the table, the servers realized the situation and Faye took control. "Hang on a few minutes, Jess I'm going to make you something." She wouldn't hear any protesting from Jess, who looked to me for help. I just shrugged. "They have to feed people, it's what they do," I said. In due course, Faye brought over some Uncle Ben's wild rice with vegetables.

We sat in our 'quiet' room with some cousins, visiting, eating and eventually sampling desserts, before making a fairly early exit. I heard the final count was sixty-six people.

Vacation

It was in this super-dork configuration of gear that I headed out into the muck for what I didn't know then would be five hours of running around. First stop Kinkos, where of course they screwed up my order. Just like old times. Once they got it right, I said I'd go next door and come back in ten minutes to pick it up. And of course it wasn't ready when I came back. You really do have to stand there and watch to get anything done. I didn't get mad, because I remember how it is to work there and I'm just glad to have escaped.

I killed the (apparently useless) waiting time at the Mountain Shop next door, looking at snowboarding jackets. I've been making noise about going snowboarding again, despite dubious results the previous two times. I know if I could go more than once a year, I could greatly improve my learning curve.

From there it was downtown to the central library to pick up Blue Screen by Robert Parker, so I could return the copy I bought at Powells. I It was supposed to be a gift for Traci but of course she's read every Parker novel that's been out more than five minutes. Not sure how she managed that in the middle of her first term of law school but I gave up and just got her a gift card because I don't care what Liz Pulliam Weston says. I'm certainly not anti-present, but I never look a gift card in the mouth and neither does Traci. Anything that equates to her spending someone else's money is fine with her. And she proceeded to find a stack of books I never would've thought to get her so all's well that ends well.

So I read the latest novel, Now and Then, picked up Blue Screen at the library and then returned both to the store today. Powells was a MADHOUSE, which wasn't really a surprise. There was literally a guy who's only job was to stand at the end of the line holding a sign that said, "End of the fastest line in town." And I have to admit, I waited less then five minutes to get to the counter, even through the line was just shy of bursting out of the Orange room entirely.

On my way to Powells, I suddenly remembered that I was back in Cacao territory and almost did a little dance of joy on my bike. So after Powells, I headed right over and indulged in a 4 oz cinnamon drinking chocolate, an earl grey truffle and a couple of salted caramels. That place will ruin you for other chocolate. Since I discovered the truffles, my average spend there has gone from $5 to $10 dollars. It's really good I don't live close to it, but it's really bad that I seem to be down there a lot lately. Even bad weather isn't keeping me away.

Next stop was Trader Joes for some frozen mangoes. I'm newly addicted to mango smoothies in the morning. A nice change from strawberry and blueberry. And finally, back over the bridge towards home. My last planned stop was New Seasons but at the last minute I turned up Mississippi to hit up Grand Central Bakery on Fremont. I've been craving some potato bread from that shop for a while and since I was planning to make soup for dinner, it seemed a good reward for going up the big hill. The problem with that Mississippi hill is that it doesn't seem so bad, but then just when you think it's over, it goes on for another two blocks and gets steeper. The thought literally went like this: Hey, that wasn't so ba--holy crap this is steep!

But I made it and rewarded myself with potato bread, and continued on to the madhouse that was New Seasons. I didn't care though because the first thing I saw when I walked in the door was this: An olive oil smorgasborg. I used extreme self control and limited myself to seven or eight samples, including the $30 bottle from Australia. Tasty, but way out of my budget. I did however, fall prey to the grapefruit sample lady. She was giving out the fresh squeezed juice and I can honestly say, I've never tasted anything grapefruit-related that was so naturally sweet. I bought two to put through the inherited juicer lounging in the garage.

Riding home from the store, the sky was amazing...inky black, and foreboding in one direction and clear and moonlit in the other. I was very glad I'd taken to the streets under my own power for the day so I could enjoy it.





The evening was spent making a rutabaga and leek chowder that was a smashing success. This was my first year experiencing the rutabaga and I've been quite pleased. The soup was easy to make, took under an hour, was creamy, yet dairy-free, with a good flavor and was quite filling to boot. I'll post the recipe if requested.

We're between Dexter DVDs from Netflix right now, so we finished up with some Playstation snowboarding. I really need to practice my tricks, Jess stomped all over me in freestyle.

I think I'm finally getting into this vacation thing.

Dedication

My mom created and ran the library at Self Enhancement Inc for nine years, and passed her love of reading on to countless kids in the process.

This coming Monday, December 17th, The SEI library will be formally dedicated, the Genia Adair Memorial Library. It just seems right that someone who loved reading so much, and shared that with so many others should have a great tribute like this.

The ceremony is open to the community and will be held in the gymnasium of the SEI building and will include remarks from CEO Tony Hopson, SEI students and others.

Monday Dec 17th
5:00--5:30pm
3920 North Kerby Ave



It's a bit fuzzy due to having to convert the format, but she's reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. While hiking. Cuz that's just how she rolled.

Two funny videos

Because I can never get too many good laughs this year. Shamelessly stolen from Kelli because she stole it from someone else so it wasn't hers anyway:



Please don't play this for my cat, she might get ideas. Thanks to the deeply disturbed cyclists of the Ironclad cycling team.

4.0

Just took my last final. As of 11:12pm I can now resume attending normal life. That means I might actually post some stuff. Soon.

Whipped

It's been a good day so far. We pondered getting up and doing the weekly Sorella team ride this morning, but Jess only has one day off this weekend and I have just been tired. Instead we slept in and barely hauled ourselves out of bed around 10am. After smoothies and scrambled eggs, we decided we'd better get outside after all. Today was bright and sunny with temps in the low 40's. Not exactly warm, but for December, it's pretty darn good and days like this don't come around very much.

Jess pumped up the tires on the roadies and then came the agonizing about what to wear. I went with wool socks, shoe covers, shorts, tights, arm warmers, long sleeve jersey, wind vest and wind-proof shell, topped up with my Smartwool beanie. My smart wool gloves with mountain bike gloves over them have been working better than I ever expected. I knew I'd probably be a little cold, but bulky gloves and road bikes don't go very well together.

Jess's Sugoi hooded jersey was in the wash, so I loaned her my short sleeve wool jersey and she put tank top base layer, long sleeve shirt and wind vest, along with shorts and full length leg warmers. It was a full hour between having the idea and getting out the door, but we finally hit the road shortly before 1:00.

It was chilly, but the sun helped and I was pretty happy with my clothing choices. My hands were cold immediately, but a few windmills with my arms at stop lights and they revived. Jess was not so fortunate. I swear all the blood in her body just stops at her shoulders and thighs. I'm not against keeping the core warm, but share the love for crying out loud. Growing up in Wisconsin, I'm still not sure how she survived to adulthood.

We headed south from our house, down Interstate to the Esplanade and then east on Hawthorne to Harrison and up to Mt Tabor. Jess wanted to snack after we climbed Mt Tabor, but I suggested doing it before so we wouldn't climb and get all sweaty, and then stand around in the shade just before making a frigid decent. My plan sort of worked, but we weren't counting on the steady headwinds from the north. We were assaulted pretty much constantly and the whole second half of the ride we were pretty much frozen.

We came down Mt Tabor and headed north and through the golf course with a stop at one of our favorite little shops just off Sandy. We stayed there long enough to partially thaw out but the rest of the trip was pretty chilly for both of us.

Still, I was really glad to get out for a long ride, something I haven't done since the end of September. I was in serious danger of spending the entire day in a somewhat zombified state. The ride woke me up and got my blood moving, although now I'm really tired and sore. Out of shape much?

As soon as we got home, we peeled off our layers with frozen fingers. I headed straight for the shower, but Jess had to thaw her hands and feet some before subjecting them to hot water.

Shortly, we're headed out to a party at my long lost cousin's house. It will be good to see some family all together. I suspect it will be loud.

Cyclocross madness

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The last cyclocross race of the season was out at PIR the first weekend of December. That's about a 10 minute bike ride from our house so we ventured out into the muck to watch the insanity. The rain was epic, and the temperature was in the 30's and yet we saw guys in the elite men's race wearing what I would consider summer race-wear; shorts, short sleeve jersey, short fingered gloves, or in some cases no gloves at all. There we were bundled in many layers and waterproof shells and I just could not fathom how they did it. My capacity for suffering will never be that high. But it's sure fun to watch them slide around.

We mostly watched on a muddy hill that most riders started out riding up but as the laps went on you could see how much more effort it took and more of them got off and ran. There were also more wipe outs.

We didn't even last the whole hour to see the end of the men's race. We got too cold and baring our hands to unlock our bikes was the final straw. It was then that I discovered that they way to get Jess to ride faster is to freeze her. In an effort to get feeling back to her extremeties, she left me in the dust getting out of there. We stopped at Fred Meyer on the way home and I locked her bike up for her so she could go straight inside and warm up. All part of the service.

Back to Church

I started my own church. I'm not particularly religious, but a few years ago, when my mom was bugging me about going to church with her, I decided I'd just start my own Sunday tradition. Also, I'd just been dumped and I needed something more productive to do than sit around at home alone feeling sorry for myself.

Thus, the Church of Waffles was born. Most of my friends are of similar secular bent as myself, but as it turns out, we could all get behind (or outside of) a good waffle.

At the time, I was living with my old roommate Carrie, in a big house with a wood stove. Saturdays I would clean and Sunday mornings I would get up early, start a big fire in the wood stove and start cooking. In addition to waffles, I would usually make veggie and regular sausage or bacon, and some kind of egg dish. I finally learned to make and grew to love frittatas but sometimes I'd do a big scramble or once, an omelet bar. I'm really good at omelets. Juice, coffee and tea would round out the menu.

I did this, just about every Sunday, from December 2005 to March 2006. The last one I pulled out all the stops and asked Stephanie to come and play, which she did. It was fabulous.

Most weeks, I provided all the food and didn't ask for contributions. Sometimes I'd have people bring fruit or juice. People often brought things without my asking but always there was a good feast and anywhere from 6-20 of my friends to enjoy it with. In January I met and started dating Jess, and C.O.W. became a great way for her to meet my friends.

In this way a lot of my friends got to meet and connect with each other which was really cool. And when mom got sick, it was a lot of the people I'd fed all winter who stepped up to the plate to make our lives easier in whatever ways they could, which was a lot.

Today was the revival of C.O.W. It was our first one since moving into our new house. There was still a fire, though I flipped a switch to light it instead of chopping wood (which, with the weather the way it has been, was quite a relief!). It's been raining--no, pouring--all day and we weren't sure if folks would actually leave their houses to come see us...but ten people showed up which turned out to be the perfect number. It was great to see some people I've lost touch with during my year of hell, and just hang out laughing and talking about stupid names for towns--like the one in Indiana called Gnaw Bone--but pronounced gah-naw-bunny. It makes a great interjection in the middle of a conversation. Try it.

Several friends ran into my Dad this week and excitedly asked "Are you coming to brunch?" Which could have been akward since I hadn't exactly extended an invitation--not because I didn't want him there, but mainly I didn't invite any family members who I know are usually in traditional churches between ten and noon on Sundays.

To the suggestion that perhaps the name of our shindig could be considered sacrilegious, Danette replied, "No, it's SACRILICIOUS!"

I think I'll use that on next month's invitation.

Can't we all just get home alive?

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

November called and got it's weather back and today was a truly miserable, never-ending downpour kind of day and I really didn't want to go out in it.

But I did, because the We Are All Traffic press conference was held at 12:30 down at City Hall. I went because I'm concerned about the fact that several cyclists have been hurt or killed in the last few weeks and the police continue to bend over backwards to excuse drivers who are clearly at fault. I went because my girlfriend rode out in this crappy weather to work this morning, as she does three out of four mornings a week these days and I want her to come home safe each night. (Two close calls today for her, one in each direction). I went because we ride by Brett's ghost bike all the time.

As I pulled up to Interstate, a MAX train was waiting with open doors so I hopped aboard. Yay multimodalism. I checked out Brett's memorial as we went down the hill.

I got off downtown and even on two wheels, getting through traffic was tough. The buses are going up third street now while construction continues on the new MAX line. Twice I gave up and walked up the sidewalk just to keep moving. As I got back to a rideable street, I noticed an SUV at the light with her right turn signal on. How ironic would it be to get right hooked on the way to the traffic rally? I didn't feel like being a martyr today. I waved at the driver till I got her attention and signaled my intention to go straight. Disaster averted.

The crowd was pretty good for a Friday in the middle of the day. Most of the cycling heavy hitters were in attendance. Several speakers got up and gave some really nice talks, focused on trying to heal the bikes vs cars divide that the media insists on playing up relentlessly for the sake or ratings.

Personally, I would like to get back to enjoying my commutes instead of feeling like I'm venturing into a war zone each day.

Here's a snippet from Joe's (AKA Metal Cowboy) talk about R.E.S.P.E.C.T. We could all use a little more of it.

Beach Day

Beach day is an idea that I came up with originally when some friends and I had scheduled a trip but one by one we all backed out becuase we were broke. But, since we'd already planned to spend the weekend together, I suggested we dedicate at least one day to pretending we were at the beach. I hosted, everyone brought food and Tessa even brought her "Endless Beach" DVD which as you might suspect, just plays scenes of ocean waves continually, like a never ending visual Enya. It was perfect.

Jess and I spend a lot of time at home, but not enough time really enjoying home, so we decided to do a beach day for two. Unplugged, offline and no work allowed.

The weather was freakishly cooperative, serving up our first official storm of the Fall/Winter with rain and wind gusts up to 50mph. After the last week or more of gorgeous mild sunny Fall days, it was quite a shock to the system--but a perfect day to stay in, put on your most comfortable jammies and watch movies by the fake fire, which is just what we did. The Minestra Root Vegetable soup we made on Saturday was a perfect compliment to the weather. We watched leaves blow down our street and saw a huge branch that had broken off and fallen into the driveway across the street but were fortunate not to lose power at any time during the day.

Jess has her own Netflix account now, so we had plenty of movies to choose from. We started with Hell On Wheels, a documentary about the Tour de France which follows the German Telekom (now T-Mobile) team in the 2004 race. We followed that up with lunch and a few Tony Hawk battles and then watched Superman Returns. The opening credits rolled and some expository text came rolling up about Krypton, the journey to earth etc etc. I said, "You probably know all this stuff already," and started to fast forward.

"No, I don't, what's the story?"

"What!? You've never seen Superman?" I knew that she was tragically sheltered from pop culture in her youth, but come on, it's Superman! Truth, justice, the American way! Well there was no help for it. But I'll have to rectify this gaping hole in her super hero education before winter is over.

The entire day was lazy, warm (did I mention the fake fire) and thoroughly enjoyable. We've decided to do it once a month.

Portland

Here's another quintessential Portland scene. I'm at the Alberta St Teahouse and the guy next to me is sitting cross legged in a comfortable chair. Next to his chair is the box for the brand new black Macbook he's busy configuring, a Vaude pannier for his bike, a rain jacket and his bike helmet.

While he waited for the new settings to be downloaded, he read a book. Now he's downloading Firefox and looking at the website for The Farm Cafe, a restaurant which gets all it's ingredients from local farmers and probably gives out spoons and forks made from corn if you order to-go. Now his Firefox is all loaded and he's checking his Gmail.

Let's sum up:

• Bike
• raingear
• laptop
• open source browser
• tea
• organically and locally minded.
  

I love this town.

Therapy

I walked out of my therapy session this morning. As I came down the stairs there was a Fedex guy staring intently at the office directory. He looked up at me and I expected him to say, "Do you know where ____'s office is?" but instead he said, "You look just like your mom."

SUCKER PUNCH!

Can I go in and ask for another hour? Probably not. I smiled and said, "How do you know my mom?" Stupid. Slow thinking. The correct question would have been "How did you know my mom?" because I couldn't tell if he actually knew that she died, especially with that big smile on his face. (Aside-as politically correct as it may be, I consciously avoid using terms like 'passed away.' in reference to my mom. She certainly didn't do anything remotely passive in regards to her dying, unless you count the ever present denial...). Turned out he knew her from Jefferson, from around, from one of her ex boyfriends.

"Do you work here?"

No, I'm in therapy because my mom's dead.

"No, I just had an appointment."

I could've dropped the bomb, but I wasn't up to it and why ruin his day? More importantly, why ruin the $65 dollars I just spent trying to stay sane? I wished him a good day and took my girlfriend's car to the carwash.

Haiku Hotties

It's so incredibly 'Portland' that the first Livewire show to sell out is the special two hour Wordstock show. I heard one woman say that tickets were being hotly bid for on craiglist and went up to $60 (tickets are normally $12). We love us some books here.

Everyone was all agog about Harry Shearer being on the show. Apparently he's done a few voices on the Simpsons and I assume he's written a book or two. For once, I had no intention of going to Livewire--even the book episode, which probably has mom shifting around in her urn...but it was song writer night for VfSD and I knew it was going to be good. But then, Steph called yesterday and said that Livewire had agreed to plug the last weekend of concerts in exchange for them providing Haiku Hotties for the show.

I'm sure you're wondering, "what is a haiku hottie?" Well, I'll tell ya. It's volunteers who need publicity of some sort and to get it, we wear itchy feather boas and walk around for an hour or so with one of those cigarette girl boxes around our necks, handing out programs and haiku cards. The audience submits their haikus and if their poem is picked to read on the air then they get a gift certificate to Powell's books. I expect the competition was pretty fierce on this particular night.

We took a few hundred postcards and stuffed them into the programs. Once the show started, we collected the last of the finished haikus and then we bugged out and headed over to the Mission for the rest of the concert. Sadly, we missed Linda Hornbuckle's performance, which was a total bummer. I heard she sang Amazing Grace, which I'm sure would've given me goose bumps. But we all make sacrifices for the cause. And the rest of the show was really good and it was great to hear some new artists. Jess has been saying for a while that we need to get out and see new people (i.e. not Steph, Lara or McKinley). Of the folks who were new to me, I really enjoyed Jacob Van Auken.

We lasted almost all the way through the night, but had to leave just as Little Sue was going on, as I was fading fast and getting really hungry.

Tomorrow, a little sleeping in, cyclocross (watching), book shelf shopping, homework and skating. Not necessarily in that order.

Close Call

Jess is embarking on a detox diet (no wheat, dairy, sugar) to try to deal with some gastric issues and, as any good girlfriend would, I have agreed to support her by eating everything in the house that is now off limits. It's a tough job choking down the rest of the pumpkin cookies, chocolate pudding and various cheese products, but I try to shoulder the burden gracefully.

Last night we went to New Seasons and I decided to get some granola to go with the massive container of yogurt now sitting in our fridge. They have lots of different granola varieties so I decided to test taste before buying. The first one I tried was called Rainforest Granola. I carefully scooped out one small piece and dropped it in my hand.

I popped it in my mouth and the flavor was good, nutty but sweet. As I was swallowing, I happened to look a bit closer at the container label and see these words:

CONTAINS CASHEWS & BRAZIL NUTS

Crap. Having enjoyed a variety of nuts throughout my life I was surprised to learn last winter--in the middle of a cross country ski trip--that I am violently allergic to brazil nuts. We're talking hives, itching, throat-closing allergic.

OK, I thought, it was just one piece. How bad could it be? I had barely finished this thought when I felt a peculiar tickling in my throat. Less than a minute had passed! I couldn't believe it. I called over to Jess, who was busy getting beans further down the aisle. "Honey, don't ever buy me Rainforest Granola."

"Why?"

I told her about the nuts and what was happening. It was mild but totally discernible and already it felt kind of hard to swallow. I waited a few more minutes and when it seemed to be progressing, I went over to the pharmacy. I explained what had happened and they were only too happy to break open a bottle of Benadryl and give me one. It took a while to take effect, which was probably good since we had to ride our bikes home with our groceries. When the sleepies hit, they hit hard, but I took a power nap and rallied so we could go to the Voices For Silent Disasters performance.

And the moral of the story is, read the label kids! And always carry drugs.

The Visit

Jess's dad came to visit in October for four days. The whole thing went pretty well, despite the fact that I had a huge project due for school. I stayed up all night Friday working on it and after sleeping in a little on Saturday, still managed to be social for most of the day.

We took Chuck around to a bunch of our favorite eats, like the Blue Moose, Little Red Bike Cafe, Flavour Spot and Thai Noon. He managed to only publicly embarrass us one time. Sunday we went out to Rainier, OR to watch cyclocross racing.

Monday was a gorgeous sunny Fall day and we headed over to Portland Meadows for a couple of hours to watch the racing. I'm in a horse phase right now and I hadn't been over there for few years. Yeah, it's a small time track full of nags as far as the big time racing venues are concerned, but the horses are still real pretty and it's exciting to watch and hear them come thundering down the home stretch.

On his last night, my dad joined us for dinner and we finally answered the burning question of which dad talks more. Mine won by a landslide. :) Fortunately, they both tend to say interesting things, and it relieves us from playing hostesses over dinner.

Ride for a Fallen Comrade

Image from Jonathan Maus

Having no obligations today other than taking Chuck to the airport this morning, I came home and indulged in taped episodes of Heroes and Battlestar Galactica. By the time I was done with that, I was well on my way to wasting what could be the last sunny day until May.

That combined with the news of yet another cyclist getting picked off by a right hook from a truck yesterday spurred me into action. I threw on my team kit, pumped up the roadie tires and headed out on a one woman memorial ride. I went where I always go when I need to pedal out some pain--Rocky Butte. It doesn't take much hill to leave me panting and Rocky Butte always does the trick.

On the way I thought about the latest crash victim, Brett Jarolimek. He worked at the Bike Gallery and was well known in the racing community and the bike comunity at large. He competed in the cross race we went to watch on Sunday. I didn't know him and never met him but I'm all too aware whenever I throw a leg over my saddle, I could very well be him. I ride down Interstate all the time. I know how crappily the lights are timed and how narrow the bike lane gets just when your speed going down the hill is the greatest. I have felt the WHOOSH of semis passing me less than two feet away and you can bet I am watching to see if they need to turn. I do not want my memorial to be some ghost bike on a corner.

Still, there's only so much you can do and then you have to let go and live life. Which is the point of going on a ride. I attacked the Rocky Butte climb harder than I ever have, not fading after the tunnel like I usually do. I just kept pushing and pushing all the way to the top. I felt my lungs, bursting, legs burning, heart pounding between my ears and was grateful to be alive and healthy and pedaling. I sent some thoughts out to Brett and all the people mourning him right now.

I started out with a notion to time-trial the whole ride, but I had to stop at the top and take in the views of Mt Hood & Mt Saint Helens, cause working so hard and not enjoying the view seemed so pointless. Then I took my sweet reward, braking only a little on the backside and hitting 41.5 mph on the way down. I didn't get any bugs in my teeth, but it wasn't because I wasn't smiling...

The rest of the ride, I spun at a comfortable pace and kept an eagle eye out to make sure I made it home safe, taking the lane at most of the lights to avoid the suicide slot.

My friend Greg wrote a heartfelt guest post on BikePortland today urging people to turn sadness into action. Inspired by that message, I went to tonight's town hall meeting on the Safe and Sound Streets proposal that could actually put some money into making our streets safer for all road users. I'm glad I live in a place where our city leaders are willing to ask hard questions and tackle overwhelming issues like the 422 million dollars in deferred maintenance liability that has built up over the years. $72 per year in energy fees and gas taxes seems like a bargain for better signal timing, more sidewalks and hundreds of new miles in bike Blvds. Especially if it'll keep more of us on the road and out of the cemetery.

Crunch

My slacking off last week came back to haunt me this week, as I had my first big project due for a class which coincided with Jess's dad coming into town. I stayed up till 5:30am Saturday morning finishing most of the work, slept till 10:00 or so and then we went over to the Red Bike for breakfast. It was hopping as usual and we saw our fellow bike dorks Deanne and Jonathan.

The plan was to drop me off at home to finish my paper while Jess and Chuck went to Powells. They got distracted talking about home projects and before I knew it they had a bunch of tools and the step stool out and were tackling the upstairs office door. Our house is fairly new and the settling of the first few years has tilted things enough that two of our doors won't close. Chuck, being ah, frugally minded, took a look and figure sanding down the top of the doors would be the cheapest, easiest way to fix them.

I finished my paper to the sounds of electric sanding, vacuuming and occasional swearing, but we both got the job done eventually.

I rewarded myself with an episode of season 2 Battlestar Galactica and later we went out to a Livewire show, which is a whole post in itself.

I made it through the day pretty well considering I'd only had 3 hours of sleep, but I was glad to hit the sheets finally. Sadly, my rest was short lived. I woke up three hours later with a phlegm attack and spent 30 minutes coughing and hacking. I couldn't even retreat to the guest room, since it was occupied--and besides, laying down seemed to make it worse. Instead I spent some time online researching the possible causes of my trouble. I figured it could be either dairy, gastric problems, which I have a history of, or the lingering of the cold I had three weeks ago. Either way, I was pretty pissed off about not being able to sleep. After an hour online, I successfully went back to bed for a few hours.

Today we grabbed waffle goodness at Flavour Spot and headed out to Rainier, OR for the third in the Cross Crusade Cyclocross series. We wanted to Chuck to have a quintessential Portland experience. Lots of Sorella's were out representing and I think we got 3 of the top 5 spots in the Master women 35-44. Colleen keeps saying she's 'retired' but she keeps winning the races. I hope I can ride that fast when I 'retire.'

We also got to see our buddy Rebecca, whom we met doing the Idaho ride this past Labor Day weekend (which I will one day finish writing about--really). She's doing her best to lure me out to race (as are many of my team mates) and she reeled in the line a little by suggesting I take her new ultra-light cross bike for a spin around the parking lot. It was light alright, and cornered like a dream and I almost endo'd when I forgot the brakes were disc and they worked *really* well. There were no barriers on today's course which makes the whole thing look more enticing--but I could still see the pain on those uphills. I'll probably end up trying it at some point. Maybe next year...

Here's a few shots we snapped of the action:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Soon after we left the race, Jess saved us all from untimely death with a masterful piece of defensive driving. Some idiot that didn't know how to merge was coming onto the highway and would've totally broadsided us had she not gunned it and laid on her horn. With a car directly to the left of us, she had nowhere else to go. The other driver finally got a clue and we watched as he slammed on the brakes and his car swerved 90 degrees in both directions and nearly hit both retaining walls, while we cruised away unscathed. We all waited for the bad sound we knew was coming, but miraculously, they got straightened out and kept going. Hopefully the near death experience means they'll watch where they're going next time. The odd thing was I looked up in time from my crocheting to see the whole thing, but my heart rate never even went up, even after the fact. Neither did Jess's obviously, cause she reacted and got us clear and never broke a sweat. And people think bike commuting is dangerous...

The evening has been spent in various forms of industry--more door fixing for Jess and Chuck and cookie and cake baking for me. Cory is coming over to pick up his post hole digger and wheel barrow that we borrowed for fence building so it seems a good opportunity to thank him again with some baked goods--all of which I have thoroughly checked for poisons by sampling them myself. It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.