"You are very likely thinking I’ve lost my mind by now and you may not be terribly far off."

I decided to try these as a reward for some people working really hard this week. It was quite the production, indeed, and I wasn't totally pleased with the results (in my opinion, they were good but not the WOW I had hoped for - but I expected that since I let the dough sit in the refrigerator longer than I'd wanted to).

But, they were gone in 60 seconds and several people requested the recipe. I'd call that a success.

a world of yum

Occupy Portland, Day 15.

tempting... but no thanks

I walk by this park every day on my way from the bus to the office. Sometimes someone is screaming into a megaphone. Other times a drum circle is surrounded by people dancing. Once in a while it's quiet.

The protest signs range from clever ("bros before CEOs!") to angry ("to hell with wall street!") to snarky ("keep shopping, everything is fine!") to I-have-no-idea-how-it-relates ("this is 100% recycled material," "Oregon is killing its senior citizens").

The park smells funny and soon it will start to rain again.

On the up side, a friend was telling me that she was at her (behemoth) bank yesterday and witnessed several people closing their accounts. She then went to take care of some business at her local credit union and changed her mind because the line was out the door.

Baby steps.

Bank changes aside, I haven't quite figured out what actions I need to take in support of all of this. The homeless problem is rampant here and that seems like the obvious place to devote some free time... but this is Portland, where people line up months in advance for volunteer opportunities. And also I'm getting old and complacent so I may just resort to giving money to local shelters and other community-building establishments. I have been shopping and eating local like crazy the last few weeks though.

But whatever the outcome? Sorry, Oakland and Berkeley friends, but our protest has THE BEST acronym. Army with harmony!

I think it's called "middle."

i have reached that age
where hiking downhill hurts more
than hiking uphill

Serene Lake Loop ~ Mt Hood National Forest

Photo walk #1: "a" for effort.

I tried a few "shoot from the hip" shots in Forest Park tonight. Most of them turned out like this:


But a few were pretty darned close:

How cool would it have been if the little girl was in perfect focus and the rest was fuzzy? Time to practice!

In case you haven't been to the eye doctor lately.

Wild onion:

one...


... or two?

Bleeding hearts:

one...


... or two?

Wild iris:

one...

...or two?

Thank you, Clackamas River Trail, for making up for lost wildflower time.

PSA: Tuesday evening stroll in the Gorge - a bazillion times more therapeutic than a gym treadmill.

Eight miles round trip... one photo.

Really done with the rain, Portland. Really. Done.

Blue skies come down on me.

after work today
walked around with a dumb smile
spring has sprung at last

At least we have a view.

longest week ever
gray skies finally cleared up
next stop: happy face

Heading south for the winter.

Last weekend I headed out to see what Klamath Falls, Crater Lake and some other nearby old towns were all about. Turns out, not much.

Crater Lake is pretty, for sure:


And they have a nice gift shop, and they keep the road plowed to the rim in the winter, and the post office at the visitor center closes at 2pm. That's about all I can say about Crater Lake. Other than, I hear it's lovely in the summer.

Earlier that weekend I headed a bit farther south on my way to Lava Beds National Monument and ran across this sign:

... and I got a little nostalgic. I then bought a couple of postcards and got charged sales tax, and the nostalgia went away. (I suppose if I'd pumped my own gas I could've brought it back?)

I did have a lot of fun in the caves though. There are about two dozen that they just let you wander through with a flashlight. The other caves I've visited (Sacramento, South Dakota, Colorado) required guided tours, but for this one I showed up, alone, around noon, and asked the gal at the front desk what she recommended, and she sent me off with two flashlights ("just in case") and a map with some stuff circled. Because it's winter there, the park was empty... and as a result the whole experience was pretty amazing.

Most of the caves are upright-walkable. Some you have to crouch in places, and a few require crawling. I didn't do the crawling ones out of respect for my knees (and my closet claustrophobia), but I definitely got deep underground in a few.

(Golden Dome)

In one of the earlier caves I was about 200 feet in, and I turned off the flashlight and stood in the dark listening to the silence. The wind was loud and gusting outside, and as a result the temperature was close to 25 degrees and close enough to freezing to my non-acclimated body. Inside the cave it was a balmy 55, slightly humid and... absolutely silent.

It was amazing.

And then I was reminded of recent mountain lion attacks in the area and I freaked out a little. "Surely they wouldn't just let people wander around solo if mountain lions were in the area. Surely. Right? I mean, this is a national effing monument after all, they can't afford bad publicity." And all was right again.

And then 25 years of pop culture kicked in. I saw a flash of the Indiana Jones scene where the water comes gushing through the tunnel, and I freaked out a little more and turned the flashlight back on. And then I saw flashes from The Lost Boys and I jerked the flashlight up to make sure no vamps or bats were lounging over my head. And then I remembered the cave scenes from The Goonies, which I'd watched on fuzzy cable the night before at the cheap motel, which is soooo not a scary movie but some of those scenes!... And then another two dozen scenes from Buffy ran through my head, and then...

And then I laughed at myself, appreciated the adrenaline rush, and moved on to the next cave. And? That night on fuzzy cable? The Lost Boys! I have seen it half a million times and could recite the lines in my sleep, but there was something serendipitous about the timing which resulted in my eyes being glued to the set the whole time despite having the next day to plan and Christmas cards to glue and emails to write. (Thank you, Joel Schumacher and the Coreys. Sparkling vamps my ass.)

These weekend trips have been experiments. I'm testing my tolerance after this recent revelation... So Eastern Oregon I planned pretty well. Southern Oregon, I knew where I was staying (and generally speaking, what was in the area), and I took some guide books, and that was the extent of the plan. Crater Lake was planned. The Lava Bed caves were not, I ran across them in the book the night before and they ended up being my favorite part of the trip.

The whole reason for the Southern Oregon adventure had to do with something I read in a guide book about 500 bald eagles nesting there in the winter. I'm not a big bird fan... Well, I'm a Big Bird fan but I'm generally not into birds. The bird refuges just across the border in CA did not excite me but they did interest me and I approached them as an opportunity to relax and to test my camera's sports/action mode. I ended up marveling at dozens of species of those amazing creatures - watching raptors float mid-air on their way to doing nothing, being guided through the auto tour by the same gorgeoous golden eagle, reminding myself to just sit back and observe and not worry about the perfect picture. That day I encountered three of the nine bald eagles recently seen in the area. Two are here:

Grungy and scrappy and scavengery and therefore worthy of being our nation's emblem? Sure. Creepily watching me as I ate my sandwich while taking tons of photos of them? Definitely.

So overall, I think the plan is working well. In a few weeks I'm heading down the 101 to Coastal Oregon. Other than having a few places of interest I'd like to check out, I'm going to wing it. And it's going to be amazing. This is the start of a whole new perspective, and I'm loving every minute of it. (I know, I know - I don't know who she is or what she did with Jen(n) - but I'm also not complaining...)

Friday five.

It's that time, well it was that time yesterday, so today's Friday five is about things I am particularly thankful for right now:

• my family, whose health has had many ups and downs over the years but who have been holding steady at "relatively healthy" lately
  
• my car, which doesn't complain too much about going 1000 miles in 4 days twice in a month when it's usual average is 10 miles/week
  
• my knees, which allowed me to run 9 miles Wednesday night also without much complaint (4 to go!)
• my town, which has been very good to me over the last year and a half
• my friends, who are mostly older and always wiser, who put up with me, make me laugh out loud (a lot), and challenge me to be a better person inside and out

And here's the cheese... it's not even good stinky runny cheese, it's the kind that's shaped into a ball and rolled in almonds that's on sale around the holidays, but it kind of spoke to me last weekend:


Like the spirit of Christmas, keep yesterday with you all through the year. Gratitude is a very powerful (and empowering) thing. Happy holidays!

Progress.

I had a long talk with someone today about these quarterly goals and whether they are helpful or harmful. In the end I decided they were helpful, except for last year around this time when I had the exact same running goal and ended up not meeting it due to a dying cat and hating work and general world-weariness that did not put me in a good space to be running 13 miles, yet I got as far as 8 at one time, yet I beat myself up about not making that goal. This year, though? ALL OVER IT. Six miles down as of Monday, seven additional to go. In eight weeks. Eh, whatever, it's been done... and if it's not done again, this year I'm simply not going to care. (But it will be done. Mark my words.)

In other goal-related news... October's Fugitives & Refugees attempt was a bit of a bust. The Wilhelm's Portland Memorial, which would've been a great Octoberish activity, is now closed to the public except during specific, sporadic tour hours. (This is most likely due to the book. Thank you, Chuck.) Mount Gleall Castle, Portland's equivalent of the Winchester Mystery House and also good around Halloween time, isn't accessible to the public, it turns out. And I'd really intended to go to Powell's rare book room, where the ghost of the founder allegedly hangs out on Tuesday evenings, but there was yoga to be done. Much more important for my psyche this quarter.

But! The Sauvie Island corn maize was taken a step further - I went to the haunted version and it was ridiculously awesome. (Next year I am working there. How fun would it be to walk 4" behind people dressed as a zombie? Hell, I'd volunteer my time for that.) And I went to the Roloff farm, not featured in Chuck's book for many reasons, the main one being that it wasn't around when he wrote it. But this?

Spooooooky!

Besides. Not that I'm competitive or hold myself to stupidly high standards or anything (ahem) but I've done plenty in the book already. Wild Abandon, Fuller's? Check. (Yum and meh, respectively.) Hippo Hardware? I love their hippos. The underground tour? Yup. The "getting off" chapter? Ummmmmm... no thank you. When the vegan strip club closed before I even moved here, the sordid life left nothing of interest to me.

Anyway, never fear. October may have been only moderately successful, but there is plenty of F&R in store for November and December. I may not even have to plan November's, if all goes well. Have I mentioned lately that I love this town?

And as far as The Plan, well, it's coming along. More to figure out this weekend, and more conversational Spanish to learn. Stay tuned.

A haiku for my new toy.

no spots when I zoom

vibrant hues, options a'plenty

{hearting} this camera

Eco-lazy.

It's become a personal challenge at this point. How high can I pile it before I need to take the 20 foot walk to the recycling bin outside?

Ahhhh, single living.

Will probably need more than nature to get over this one.

I did something really stupid recently, so to temporarily take my mind off that move I decided to seek solace in nature. (But just some quick solace - I had other shit to do today.)

I ran across some information about Carver Park. Close by, and where some of Twilight was filmed. The movie was wretched but the scenery did exemplify Oregon, so I decided to check it out.

Not much to it. Also, empty. I sat by this stream for about an hour and didn't see a soul:

Walking out I was still kicking myself, but despite that I was able to appreciate the beauty of lush, green Oregon.

I could live there. Right there. It's hard to do stupid things to trees.

Sooooooooo not Friday five.

Five photos I submitted today for the Oregon Wild photo contest, in no particular order... I have no aspirations of winning but it was fun to sort through the ridiculous mass of photos and pick just five.

There were all these crazy restrictions on where the photos were taken, so I hope I complied. You've probably seen these here or elsewhere already.

Metlako Falls on the Eagle Creek/Tunnel Falls hike - Columbia River Gorge

"Oregon sunshine" flowers on the Steins Pillar hike ~ Prineville, OR

Steelhead Falls - Terrebonne, OR

Silver Star Mountain hike - Columbia River Gorge

Saddle Mountain hike - Clatsop County, OR

Seattle daycation.

I didn't spend much time there. I spent more time in the car than in the city, in fact. My primary goal was the Jim Henson exhibit at the Experience Music Project, and I'm glad I saw it. Lots of old storyboards of Muppets/Sesame Street skits I first saw on TV thirty years ago, and original drawings/origins of some of my favorite characters.

Other than that, I spent enough time to get the obligatory Space Needle shot...


I stopped by the space-themed 826 Seattle where I found the most amazing book about happiness written by middle- and high-school kids. Why is it amazing, you ask? Partly because before each entry is a self-written intro to the artist. Henri, for example, loves to "draw cheese-square-chubb-chubb looking things," and Eliot likes "pie and boom" (as in, things exploding). The restly because those kids know happy.

I was looking for Capitol Hill, got lost and stumbled upon Easy Street Records where I saw that Shins free concert two years ago. After an hour I'd purchased a gajillion used albums including stuff I wanted (Halo Benders, previously unattained Elliot Smith and Rilo Kiley, etc) as well as the soundtrack from season one of Sifl & Olly. (Oh, Chester...)

I had dinner with someone I've been friends with for 20 (!) years and his lovely fiance, and after dinner we stopped at a nice viewpoint in their neighborhood where you can see the funky EMP amidst all the high-rises and the Space Needle...


And then the sun started to set...


And then it was 8:15pm and I had a 3-hour drive ahead of me so I headed out. But I exited I-5 and turned around to get a shot of this:

I had no idea they named themselves after a street. The name is suddenly not interesting anymore... therefore, neither is the band... and that kinda makes me sad. Or a music snob. Or just an idiot.

I'm not sure which.

Like Seaside, only better.

The first day trip was a hike near the coast (near Seaside, but not quite), followed by Tillamook's 100th Anniversary Cheese Fest, followed by dinner and beach time at Manzanita. So, in that order...

Saddle Mountain was great. A nice, challenging hike up to the highest peak in NW Oregon, with green everywhere:

And lovely views of the Pacific ocean from the top:

I haven't seen fog like that since San Francisco. I was surprised at how happy it made me.

The clouds (and/or my newly cleaned but suspiciously creaky camera) were not cooperating, but we also had views of Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier, Mt. St Helens and a few others off in the distance. I hope to return in early summer - the wildflowers we saw were mostly dead by this point, but the sheer volume of that dearly departed foliage promised some amazing pictures sometime around May of next year.

The next stop was the Tillamook 100th Anniversary party, which appealed to me for two reasons: "free cheese" and "petting zoo." The free cheese was alright, but the little disgruntled calf in the upper right corner of this photo made the entire trip worthwhile:

He's actually FROWNING. Come on. Calves can frown?! Maybe he's upset about the premature white. At any rate, there's an LOLcat caption in there somewhere. Add it to the comments if you wish.

After free cheese, it was decided that fish & chips were a mandatory end to the adventure, seeing as how we were on the coast and not having fresh fish would be a travesty. A tour up and down the 101 near Tillamook wound up in Manzanita, a lovely coastal town with lots of free parking and a ginormous, gorgeous beach...

... and a pub with amazing fish & chips - and if we were interested later, "Karoake from Hell!" (TM).

We were not interested in "Karoake from Hell!" (TM). But we were interested in this poor little jellyfish, all alone in the sand, apparently deceased, and decided to spiff it up a bit:

Unfortunately, with the help of the tide spiffing turned to vampiring, as is usually the case when I tend to be involved with things, for some reason... and the innocent jellyfish ended up being a part of something amazingly awful:

But then the tide washed the entire drawing and the entire jellyfish away, leaving a clean slate for the person wishing to draw some sort of nauseating initials/heart message.

The sunset wasn't much to look at, but the enormous coastal cloud surely was:

... it spanned the length of the coast as far as we could see. And the moon peeking through the pink was not too shabby either:

We've now started what you might call a "petition" to have a satellite office in Manzanita. I don't think it is going over too well with upper management.

This weekend is Seattle. It is, dammit. And then, a check mark.

Like Monday versus Friday.

The fairly disappointing Death Cab for Cutie show in 800 degree weather Friday night, followed by an attempt at karaoke, followed by funk night at a local dance spot, followed by collapsing into bed around 1am? That was so like a Monday.

The amazing Blind Pilot/Andrew Bird/Decemberists show in 750 degree weather Saturday night, followed by home, cheese and crackers, and settling in to fall asleep to SNL? Yeah, that was definitely like a Friday.

Damn, I'm old.

"Climbed a mountain and I turned around..."

I really had no intention of summitting Mt. Adams this weekend. At 12,281 feet, it's one of the highest peaks in the Cascade range - higher than Mt. St Helens, higher than Mt. Hood... I mean, look at it:

It's GINORMOUS.

I went along to support a friend. In the weeks leading up to it I got a little anxious... reading all the blogs and looking at all the photos made me pretty nervous, seeing as how my hiking lately involved small day packs on dirt trails with pretty flowers. Not to mention I'd barely been to the gym since blowing my Achilles tendons out hiking in the Bend desert. But I figured no matter how far I made it, a weekend camping on a mountain wouldn't be so bad.

We camped at the trailhead the first night. In the morning we headed up about 2 miles to a nice spot just below Crescent Ridge to camp, acclimate and watch "Mt. Adams TV" - people trekking up the first meaty slope:

I was hurting a little just from that short trek, and was very thankful for the ability to offload most of the weight in my pack and rest up for the big day. Around 4am the next morning we set out armed only with essential layers, gear, food and water on our backs. The air was crisp, the snow crunched under our crampons and the sunrise over Mt. Hood was beautiful:

My first goal was to make it to the top of Crescent Ridge so that no matter how much farther I made it, I could at least try glissading down the mountain. We made it up easily. The next goal was Lunch Counter, which wasn't a terrible hike, but beyond that it was just steep and brutal, and we took it one step at a time. (As one blogger notes, "I don’t think I have ever used as much profanity on a hike as I did on this one" - and I would agree.)

(side view - yes, this is what we were "hiking" up)

At one point about halfway to Piker's Peak, the false summit, I decided I was done. That would've meant that my friend would turn around too and I was there to support her... so I begrudgingly plowed on.

(view of Piker's Peak from below)

Finally we reached Piker's Peak and the real summit loomed ahead. Now? NOW? Now I was DETERMINED. Another thousand feet of moderate, well marked elevation? After 2500 feet of crazy, treacherous, terrifying, unmarked elevation to Piker's Peak? No problem.

And so we made it to the summit, and took the obligatory summit photos and surrounding view photos:

(Mt. St Helens in the distance - it's not erupting, I just need to have my camera cleaned)

Mission accomplished, we donned our waterproof layers and slid down the snow in about a tenth of the time it took us to climb up it. (Glissading, by the way, is my new favorite manner of travel. I'll ride a mule to the top of any mountain if it means I can be a human luge all the way down.)

While I'm proud of my accomplishment, I have to say that I prefer this view of Mt. Adams from now on:


... and it's unlikely that I will ever hike in snow again. Or sand, for that matter.