Living and Loving Idaho

Halloween: No one would want to mistake this for a princess

2009-11-04T20:43:00.003-07:00

We had a bit of a fiasco last week when it came to costumes, as Lucy pitched a fit about her "Renaissance Maiden" potentially being confused for a princess - and, geez, we just wouldn't want that!

So, with some input from Susan, David went off to Walgreen's in search of things to "uglify" her get-up. I think the result was successful.

We failed to take a picture of Ethan - he had a costume faux pas as well. He was scheduled to be Darth Vader, which he was for school, but then he failed to put his costume in the suit case going to Victor. We managed to borrow a pirate costume out of the Scherr's house in Driggs - Ethan had great fun carrying his candy bag with a hook!

Everyone was so absolutely positively grateful to have ANY trick-or-treaters AT ALL, that with only going to maybe a dozen and a half houses, the kids came away with loads and loads of candy. David had to chat everyone up, too, so much so, that Lucy remarked, "This is why you don't take your parents trick-or-treating!"

Kelly Canyon: Maybe more exciting than you'd expect

2009-10-30T15:56:00.005-07:00

I used to trail run on a bit more frequent basis about 4-5 years ago, and we used to hike there more often in the pre-Victor-home-purchase days. I always thought it was a decent place to go for a hike, since it isn't much more than a 40 minute drive from IF, but not necessarily exciting or packed with amazing views.

Well, last weekend, we headed out to "The Y" parking area at Kelly Canyon (keep driving up the hill past the ski area), and started up the hill on the right end of the parking lot for a short hike. The way up was quite uneventful....

The views from the top were actually pretty impressive, with early snow dusting the peaks, fields still golden, and the light was excellent that day.

If you ask David which peak that is, surely it's "Baldy". They're ALL Baldy. I guess maybe in this case, that actually IS baldy.

The Hubers joined us again on this hike. As it was David's first post-op hike, no one was too worried he'd be hell-bent to reach "the top" of something, or opting for extra long extensions.

Since Bob was teasing me about the blog on this hike, I had to make sure I snuck him in.

Now for the excitement. So, after you reach the cell tower, Bob remembered that the last time they came, they took a different path up. I also remembered something different from my trail running days, and so we found a trail around the other side of the tower. Strangely, it was completely torn up. We continued on, thinking maybe it was a random occurrence, only to discover that someone had specifically intended to tear up the entire length of the this part of the trail (and hooks back up with the main wider trail you come up). Trees are pushed over, roots still in the ground. The dirt is all dug up, as if down with a heavy equipment. Surely, this was not a random act - why would they ruin this trail? This trail in the the Caribou-Targhee National Forest and presumably was maintained as part of the trail system. Were there too many motorized vehicles coming up this way? But why totally ruin the trail for everyone - it's pretty treacherous at this point. In fact, I was quite concerned about David, but we were too far gone done it to be worth turning back.

I had suggested that maybe they destroyed this trail because it was an important wildlife area. We had all kinds of ideas. We were mostly just generally annoyed with having to navigate the torn up trail, that we were kind of anxious to get to the end. Lisa was taking her time a bit more, and happened to notice the GINORMOUS MOOSE standing right near the trail that we had all just completely missed. Another moose was stuck back in there, too. We had seen tons of prints in there, but I thought, ah, I've been here so many times running, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, and have never seen anything. We won't see one! But there it was.

Kelly Canyon is more exciting than you might expect. Also a good bet is catching lunch or dinner at the Heise Pizza shop. I cannot eat pizza, but everyone else says it's good, and their salads and sandwiches are pretty tasty.

Lucy's Maiden Voyage

2009-10-27T21:54:00.004-07:00

Two weekends ago, Lucy and I took her brand new Trek road bike out for a spin on the "Shelley Ride". Lucy did this ride with me earlier this year on her mountain bike, and it took about 2 1/4 hours. This time, she averaged a little over 16mph, had no major stops (the Woodville store was closed - alas - Sunday!), and finished in about 1 3/4 hours. One of our book club members, a former elementary school teacher, said, "Her teacher probably thinks she's just telling tall tales when she says she biked 29 miles!"

This was probably the last time I'll get to do the Shelley ride this year, as we barely have a day without the chance of snow and over the threshold temperature I do not road ride below (50 degrees).

Lucy is a very excellent cyclist, and a good exercise partner in general (as long as there are no prizes involved, esp. not stuffed animals - whatever you do, do NOT ask her about the stuffed animal prizes from Spook splash!).

The best part of the ride comes about halfway through when you get to ride along the snake. It was a reasonably warm ride for October (maybe even 60!) and there was absolutely no wind until just about the time we had to turn around north - perfect!

The Only Nice Day When My Parents' Visited

2009-10-27T21:49:00.002-07:00

There was about one nice day the entire two and a half weeks when my parents' visited recently. You would think the first few weeks of October are pretty nice just about anywhere - and sometimes they are here, too. But pretty much every year it snows the first snow of the year around Lucy's birthday (today was the second snow). I tried to catch a few shots of the light through the trees on one of the last pleasant days of fall - when the trees still had leaves (they don't now) and it didn't get dark so early.

Spook Splash 2009

2009-10-25T21:15:00.002-07:00

This last Friday and Saturday the swimming season for 2009-2010 began. I had some mixed feelings about starting up the swim season again - meets are draining for all of us.

This one is not so bad, as it requires no travel and isn't super-dooper long. The kids did a fantastic job, which we sort of expected as they are both now in the upper end of their age group.

Here are the results:

Lucy
100 Freestyle - 2nd place - 1:14.43
100 IM - 3rd place - 1:27.66
50 Fly - 3rd place - 38.67 s.
50 Freestyle - 2nd place - 32.51 s.
50 Breastroke - 4th place - 51 s.
1st place in both 200 IM and 200 Freestyle relays
All of the times were improvements!

Ethan
100 Freestyle - 1st place - 1:22.97
100 IM - 1st place - 1:37.62
25 Fly - 2nd place - 22.48 s.
25 Backstroke - 2nd place - 21.39 s.
50 Freestyle - 1st place - 37.36 s.
1st place in 100 IM relay
All of the times were improvements!

Ethan was quite distressed, as half of his relay team left for the day before the relay took place. He started sobbing on the pool deck, so they threw him into a 10&under relay. He takes these things very seriously, and spends most of the meet cheering for other team members.

Some other highlights from the meet included watching what we believe to be a member of the USA Olympic team (or maybe junior team) swim against our top swimmer who is also of national caliber. It is amazing to see someone that good swim in the same pool, on the same day, as 6 year olds who can barely make it across the pool!

Another highlight was my debut on the competitive swimming scene as part of Lucy's 6-person "Pumpkin Relay". I had to swim a 50 yard freestyle, which I hadn't successfully done in a full-size pool. I didn't dare dive off the blocks (as even the little 7-year old on our team did), and I used my little noseplug. I am sure I embarrassed my family a bit, but I did actually swim quite successfully there and then back, with the little plastic pumpkin. I had thought there would be more adults participating, so I felt a little odd, but oh well. It feels so weird to be in there swimming while everyone is screaming and with all the excitement... I only felt, I am sure, a tiny sliver of what the kids feel when they are competing in all their races.

You can only focus on so much

2009-10-20T21:19:00.003-07:00

Last week I had to face some hard lessons about myself - when I flake, I flake BIG time. Most everyone I know thinks of me as organized to the point of OCD (and some in fact, call me, "the spreadsheet queen"), and yet how did I find myself at the airport last week without my cell phone AND with an expired driver's license?

I think it's because every person has a "focus" tolerance limit - you can only expend so much energy keeping up with everything in a day. I tend to drop off personal things with a low frequency of occurrence like renewing driver's licenses pretty easily (this is NOT the first time I showed up to an airport with an expired license). Or like, forgetting to pay the property taxes on our Swan Valley property. Or dentist appointments. Things like that.

I had a hard time admitting that I screwed up because I was so embarrassed - I'm not supposed to DO things like that. So that's how I ended up having to take the flying minivan, experience a near heart attack, and yet learn the lesson of overcoming fear. Borrowing phones and hitching rides all week -- hmm, probably learned that lesson pretty well. In fact, I went straight to the DMV on Monday and renewed until I'm 42. I'm not kidding.

Interesting that the lady who took my picture was the same one who took it last time. And I have to say, she is pretty much the only person who can take an attractive picture of me. I think she should maybe start up a glamour shot business.

Congratulations! I have another nephew

2009-10-19T21:39:00.002-07:00

Congratulations to Sarah and Matt who welcomed Samuel into the world today at 6lbs 14oz. I am anxious to see some pictures and am hoping everyone is doing well.

Probably the biggest disappointment of living so far away from everyone is the fact that I know my nieces and nephews very little.

Lessons in Overcoming Fears

2009-10-17T18:44:00.007-07:00

In the past month (and the past week particularly), I have had the pleasurable experience of being forced/coercing myself to overcome some fairly deep-rooted fears.

One of the most significant things I've done in the past two months is that I have learned how to swim. I don't mean that I've never gotten in the water before or that I would drown in deep water. But I do mean that when I started swimming on a more frequent basis in late August, I did not put my face in the water nor could I swim any faster than about half of Ethan's speed. I did not execute any major stroke properly. I could barely make it across the pool using freestyle (Grandmom Beth can attest to this).

I have hated swimming with a somewhat fiery passion since about the age of 11 when I was forced to take swimming lessons. I had a horrible sinus infection and ended up throwing up at the pool - extremely embarrassing, and forever more gave me the feeling that I just could not possibly breathe and swim at the same time. I also almost drowned in a hotel pool in Georgia at the age of 5. So, yes, I hated swimming.

I'm not sure why I started swimming this year. And at first, I was happy to embarrass myself by using only sidestroke and elementary backstroke, and maybe an occasional breastroke-ish like stroke with my head out of the water. I had a huge breakthrough when I gave up on trying to NOT suck water up my nose and started using a nose-plug - David says, "No self-respecting swimmer would EVER use a nose plug!"

Well, I'm not filled with swimming self-respect.

Since then, I have learned how to do legal breastroke and have successfully out-swam both Ethan and Lucy in the 20-yard pool. In the past two weeks, I have learned how to do a proper freestyle, enough so that Lucy said, "Wow Mommy, you really improved! I think you CAN beat Joey now!" (Joey is a six-year old on their swim team)

So, during this last week, when I almost lost myself completely to panic attacks when facing down the reality of flying in a Cessna caravan (more lovingly described as a "flying minivan" by my traveling companion), I thought about the peaceful feeling I now have of gliding through the water without fear - using the internal mechanism I developed to stop thinking I can't breathe underwater to attempt to calm my nerves.

I say, attempting, because when I first caught site of that teeny plane I went completely rigid on the runway. I kept thinking, well, I have no choice, I have no choice. Think breastroke, think breastroke. Breathe, breathe, you can breathe. After bending half-double and crawling to one of the 9 seats, I fumbled with the seat belt, and tried to rationalize how fabulous it was that my pilot was a late-teen girl (good reflexes), that it was raining (hmm, nothing redeeming there), that is was dark (good to not see the ground), that I at least had Roxane with me (talked her ear off like someone on a tremendous amount of stimulants for the entire 45 minutes), that I brought two extra sick bags from my Delta flight (you can't have too many sick bags). You think, hell, I can do anything for 45 minutes, right? And anyway, I don't think God meant for these other people to die right now. I just have this feeling.

I actually had zero problems - not even a hint of motion sickness. I am sure it would've been much more dangerous for me to drive 3 hours at night on an almost-deserted road - what with me still recovering from the flu fatigue.

Of course this didn't stop me from waking up in a cold sweat at 2:30 in the morning on Friday, beginning anew the panic of having to ride in the flying minivan. You would think I already did it, overcame that fear. I "slept" fitfully for the next hour and a half, working up quite the stomachache by 4:15 am when I went out to meet my shuttle driver. I think I was just so out of it (combination of fatigue and panic) that I essentially "passed out" sitting upright on the plane (no head rests). I woke up every ten minutes or so to compulsively monitor the time remaining.

I gotta give it to New Mexico airlines - their late teen pilots were absolutely perfect. I felt no turbulence and didn't have to shame myself with use of the sick bags. Amazing!

Now, that's not to say I'm about to fly that way again. I'm not sure I'm ready to keep "sticking my head in that water", so to speak. Not sure I'm ready to add flying in small planes in a windy place to my list of "fears overcomed". It's probably on the same list as "not dying on the spot when I see a grizzly bear" - something I'm proud of having survived, but not exactly looking for another opportunity to test my lessons learned.

Harvest Fest Idaho Style

2009-10-11T16:46:00.009-07:00

Yesterday we attended the very well-advertised Harvest Fest at Snake River Landing in Idaho Falls. I say "well-advertised" because there was at least a full-page ad (if not with an additional half-page ad) every day for about 2 weeks in the Post Register. Many things were promised, not all were delivered.

The weather was, I guess, appropriate for Idaho's perpetual winter - but for a Harvest fest, shouldn't it be somewhere between 55 and 65 with a beautiful blue sky and a light or no wind? Well, we had the blue sky. The temperatures were in the 30s when we got there - I suppose we should be grateful it wasn't snowing.

There wasn't much in terms of actual harvest produce, as there were two other farmer's markets in town on Saturday. There were plenty of pumpkins and gourds of various sizes to be had, and any number of places where you could buy an inordinate amount of potatoes (50 pounds for $20!).

We started the festival with some cookie decorating for the kids, and a cup of hot apple cider for me (which, of course, proceeded to burn the top of my mouth with).

While tarrying around the cookie decorating, we ran into the Hubers, the other local Pennsylvania family (there may be others, but to us, we are the PA families). I remarked to Bob, "Hmm, this could be a Harvest fest, if, you know, there were some freaking trees with leaves turning colors!" (As a side note, we had such a rapid switch from summer to fall that most of the leaves are still green and on the trees - or after last night's deep freeze into the high teens, they literally just fell off green en masse to the ground).

We had a hard time keeping track of David - he kind of flits around and these kinds of things. Or maybe it was glee in being crutch-less and brace-less for the longest time, taking his longest walk post-surgery!

We timed our trip to take full advantage of the food vendors at lunch time. Lucy and David enjoyed authentic Western "dutch oven" cooking; Nanny and I enjoyed Mexican tostadas (Nanny even braved the heat!); and Pappy and Ethan enjoyed hamburgers and corn dogs. They even had funnel cake - turns out it was the real deal, as the vendor is from Ephrata, PA.

As we rolled away from the picnic tables to peruse the rest of the activities (corn mazes, pony rides, etc.), we were approached by a TV newswoman wondering if the kids would like to be interviewed for a new piece. WOULD THEY?!!? As Lucy would say, "Well, who wouldn't!"

Lucy went first and ended up being featured prominently on the 10:00 news piece. She spoke intelligently with a smile, even when hit with a passing balloon. When asked what her favorite part of the festival was, she sheepishly said, "The funnel cake," and to the follow on question of why, "Because it's so... pastry-like..." The pastry-like part didn't make it into the piece.

Another part that didn't make it in was any of Ethan's interview. He said a lot of "No"s and "I don't know"s, and while he made a lot of very expressive faces and hand motions, didn't end up saying a whole lot. That's o.k. - he's already managed to squeeze himself into a handful of other newspaper and TV spots from Idaho to PA in his short life.

Snake River Landing has a great walking/bike path with relaxing water features throughout. It's a spot you should check out before the full brace of winter places us in its grasp.

Don't Call Me H1N1

2009-10-09T18:05:00.002-07:00

I was just noting that I have not posted since September 27. My mom remarked, in typical sarcastic fashion, "It's not like you've had the flu or anything."

My parents arrived, and David returned from an extended East Coast trip, 10 days ago on Lucy's birthday. After taking a huge EXHALE from the lengthy time the entire household responsibilities were on my shoulders, we quickly went into rapid-birthday-party planning. At the same time, winter struck with a bang (and don't worry, I saved you from the annual end-of-September "can you believe it snowed?" post - because really, who's surprised at this point). With such terrible weather, we took a pass on the usual Lucy hiking birthday and took a group of kids to the roller skating rink. That was Friday (10/1).

Saturday, Lucy and I both had a sore throat, hers much worse than mine. We took her to Community Care thinking "strep!" (AGAIN!) - strep test was negative and they guessed flu. Ah, we said - flu - bah. She has no flu symptoms!

Everyone proceeded as normal through Monday-Tuesday. I overindulged on Monday night (no details!), and thinking it was just my due result, I assumed my extremely ill feeling Tuesday was just probably as it should be. The kids went to swim team, read, homework, Wii - all the usual. Tuesday night I still felt sick and thought, hmm, that's odd.

When I woke the kids up Wednesday (10/7) morning, they both woke up with a moan and groan. Nanny and Pappy took them to the doctor - Ethan was negative for strep, Lucy positive for flu. I barely made it through the workday Wednesday, with tremendous chills striking me at lunchtime at the restaurant.

The kids have stayed home the rest of the week. I stayed home yesterday -- somehow the rumor was quickly passed around my work that I am suffering from "swine flu". All kinds of "cavorting with pigs" jokes... hmm, funny. I went in today because I am just trying to keep my head above water there, but it's not really fun to be viewed with that sideways-you-kinda-have-the-plague glance. We don't know for sure what form we have - seems like my kids are almost fully recovered.

I made it to 34 years old without ever having the flu before - that's pretty lucky, I guess. My mom claims I have it pretty easy, as I don't seem as sick as she remembers being. It's a really odd illness, I'm finding - where it really seems to go in waves of ill-feeling v. health. At this point, I am so freaking TIRED of being TIRED! When will I run again? When will I swim? When will I bike?

When will I be able to stay vertical long enough to do something I can take pictures of to post on the blog??

Big Elk Creek 2009

2009-09-27T22:28:00.004-07:00

I know autumn. I know leaves, I know color. I grew up in the southern Poconos of PA, I have lived in Vermont, and Lucy was born among the splendor of color in Northern Virginia. I have foliage-cred.

For a long time after moving to Idaho 9 years ago, I claimed that there was absolutely nothing redeeming about the fall in Idaho. I have said things like, "The leaves MIGHT turn yellow for a brief moment before they shiver off the trees to their death."

A few years ago, around the time we returned from Pittsburgh, I realized that there is one place in Eastern Idaho where, if you're lucky to hit it just right, you can see quite a majestic display of color, from the blaze of orange in the swamp maples, to the deep blue sky.

We usually refer to "this place" as Swan Valley, but it's actually along highway 26 just east of Swan Valley as you ride along the Palisades. A few miles on the left past the dam, you'll find the road leading back 2 miles to the start of the Big Elk Creek Hike.

This trail is an extremely easy hike, with very little gradient to speak of. The trail meanders above and near the creek itself, and around 2 miles in, there is a rocky, wide spot right off the trail, right along the stream itself. It's a perfect place to eat your lunch, let the kids be kids and throw the stones in the water, and just watch the stream float by (and try not to wonder whether or not it's a great place for predators to ambush...)

We brought Lucy's friends here for her birthday hike 2 years ago and haven't been back since. I had a bit of anxiety this morning, wondering if the leaves would be as spectacular as they were 2 years ago. I was NOT disappointed, in fact, some of the pictures seem to me to look almost exactly the same...

I have not seen anything in Eastern Idaho compare to this stretch of 26. Even the Teton Valley, which has uncomparably grand mountain views, just never quite reaches the poignancy of color that can be found in the Palisades-area canyons.

It almost makes you want to buy a great camera to do it justice. We don't have great luck with cameras, though. So I make do for now. This current camera is stuck in this odd rut where I have to select a scenery type to get it out of opposite-focused mode (lens zoomed in and yet focused to zoomed out mode) before I can start to take pictures.

The day was utterly perfect, with a strong cooling breeze, yet temperatures close to 80 with not a cloud in the sky.

The timing of our hike was perfect, as the forecast for this coming week is quite grim. In fact, the leaves probably will actually shiver and die on Wednesday, with highs predicted in the 40s and potentially even snow in the valley. "... FIRST POWERFUL FALL STORM HEADED TO IDAHO ..."

Perhaps tomorrow is the day for anyone reading this who can to take a day off and catch the beauty while you can.

Bike Repairs and What This Says About Humanity?

2009-09-24T22:21:00.002-07:00

As I am finishing off my glass of red wine (for "health"), I figured I might as well jot something on the blog to keep on the roll I've been in.

So, I took my Amsterdam into "the shop" yesterday to get tightened up, as just about every part on the thing was either loose, missing a screw, or both. It had become a rattletrap nightmare - my beloved bike, seemingly a pile of junk. Between the rubbing front fender and the completely free floating back fender, I just couldn't take it anymore. Remembering I had never had whatever part it was recalled fixed, I decided I should finally drive it in.

So, nice folks that they are (and I'm not going to badmouth the shop itself), they gave me a loaner bike. For some reason, that has sent more than one person into stitches that I actually wanted a loaner bike... My other bike has a flat tire, (I am not as much incapable of changing it as I am completely paranoid of causing a pinch flat when I change it) and here I've been essentially bike commuting exclusively in town since the summer began. I think getting a loaner bike is perfectly reasonable.

I was very thrilled to get the call today that it was fixed, as they had told me yesterday it wouldn't be done until tomorrow.

So here I am, riding it home, all upright and proud on my newly snazzified cruiser. Lo and behold, I turn into Community Park (all paved here, no dirt at all), and the screw holding the back fender brace pops off! I was like, You've got to be KIDDING me!

I stopped right away and searched for the bolt, luckily finding it. I managed to put it back on with a hex wrench (I am not completely helpless), and I tightened the other side, which was also completely loose and about to fall off.

Was that not what I brought it in for?

Does nobody test their work anymore?

And I can say that a bit tongue-and-cheek as a software developer - it's bit me more than once, ashamed to say. He was probably focused on say, getting the fender flush with the back brake (a main complaint) and completely spaced the fact that he had loosened the braces to do that.

So, maybe boring post, but to soothe your boredome, here's a random shot from 2 years ago when we hiked Mt. Mansfield in Vermont. Hopefully this shot demonstrates why I got stuck with vertigo and couldn't move after this point.

The kids look so little!!

Where the Ideas must go

2009-09-23T21:25:00.003-07:00

As I ride my cruiser home from work every day, I have all sorts of blog ideas flood my head. After reviewing homework, listening to Lucy sing ABBA off-key wandering around the house with the iPod, whipping the children into a frenzy getting ready for swim team, arguing over riding the bikes to swim team, rushing in some sort of moderate exercise, steering them home, making a dinner, cleaning up a dinner, working all evening, reading to the children, working more - somehow, the ideas aren't there anymore.

I think they must slip out of my ears onto the 25th street bike lane.

Sometimes I even chuckle to myself, "Oh that will be so funny!"

Well, given that I'm writing a post about not having ideas, I'll go for a picture. I looked through my stash of pictures to find something I haven't posted, and I found a picture of David...

David had serious knee surgery about a month ago - as most of the few folks reading this probably already know. It has definitely been an interesting experience and I'm sure will continue to be. The surgery was the result of a soccer inury instigated intentionally by a fellow men's league soccer player who apparently is extremely cavalier toward seriously altering someone's life and incurring thousands of dollars of medical bills. I don't feel kindly toward him. I don't know his name, but I haven't forgiven him yet. David has (I think), but that's just the kind of guy he is.

I don't think I realized until this injury exactly how much I rely on David for things.

Families that Run Races Together Stay Together??

2009-09-21T22:08:00.004-07:00

Or just increase the likelihood of repetitive use injuries, thereby increasing the revenue of our local orthopedic surgeons??

Hopefully not. I am down to running at most 3 days a week, in the 8-12 mile range (total, that is, not on one day, like I used to). The kids don't generally run at all, except for the occasional run-down-the-mountain-to-escape-impending-thunderstorm-doom. Apparently they do a bit of running at school as part of one of their 3(!) recesses...

So last Saturday, the kids and I entered a 3K race, mostly hoping that all of us would (a) finish without walking, and then for (b), we all had our secret goals:

(a) Me: to not let Ethan beat me (I can't quite yet handle my 8 year old beating me!)
(b) Lucy: to not fall too far behind Ethan
(c) Ethan: to not get too stressed about it being a "race" (he kept telling us, it's a "run" not a "race"!) - and yet how could he, we all had our sights set on him!

We all had a strong start. I was actually in the lead after the first few kids that sprinted too hard to start dropped off, but then Dan overtook me around 7 minutes in. I tried to stay relaxed, but I could tell my lungs were not exactly thrilled with this whole running faster thing, esp. with the air quality we suffer with in southeastern Idaho during harvest time. Unfortunately, I wheezed for the rest of the day. I think I actually look blue in that picture. It is not the prettiest picture ever taken of me, but it proves a point.

Ethan was behind a few kids until just about when he entered the track for the final stretch - I looked to the side and could see he was bearing down fast. I thought about slowing down and letting him beat me, but I would've actually had to walk, and I thought that he wouldn't appreciate that much, and anyway, given our performances, he will be besting me soon enough. It wasn't like I had any kick anyway, and was a little delirious what for nausea and lack of oxygen.

It was not a very well-attended race, so our family's high placing isn't so much to write home about (or are you thinking, not much to blog about??). But it was fun doing a race with the kids, and having David bike alongside us offering up all kinds of advice, encouragement, and at times, admonishment. He told me the night before that if I didn't do under 7:00 miles it would be shameful -- hmm. It was shameful.

I think the most amazing part is that the kids can run that far, and on top of it, run that fast! Ethan's time was around an 8:00 min/mile average, Lucy's 8:30 min/mile. When I first starting running cross country in high school, I could barely squeeze out 9:00 minute miles.

It must be all that swimming. But swimming is for another post...

Real Chili

2009-09-20T20:33:00.004-07:00

Thinking it was about time I used up the bag of organic pinto beans taking up space in my cupboard, I decided that our first cool fall day called for a big pot of chili (Note: I do NOT make chili with kidney beans! Still hate them!). In my perusal of the first third of October's Martha Stewart Living (I mention that so casually - don't be shocked I subscribe) I noticed a recipe for Texas Chili. It was meat only...no beans, but the recipe called for toasting, soaking, and then pureeing honest-to-goodness chili peppers, so I decided I wanted to give it a go, as I had never used dried chilis for anything (nor knew how).

I didn't think they had them at Albertson's, but there's this "Mexican" spice section at the end of one of the middle isles, and I was a bit befuddled to find the variety available to me in dried chilis. I couldn't remember the names of what I was supposed to get, so I went with the New Mexico chilis, as given my work travel, I am partial to New Mexico.

As would be expected from Martha Stewart, this was full-on, no shortcut chili. I'm surprised I wasn't instructed first on how to plant, grow, pick, dry, then use my peppers... I feel ashamed that I only started at the post-dry part. It took about 30 minutes or so to get it all together - maybe even a little longer. Closer to the book club start time, I put together some corn bread, because for some reason, I can't conceive of eating chile without corn bread.

It turned out pretty well, although the beans seemed too firm for my taste - I really don't prefer using dried beans - I know I'm not supposed to say I'd rather use canned, but canned beans seem a little less harsh on the old stomach!

I am sure my parents, brother, and sister are all open-mouth SHOCKED right now that I even made chili at all... I have a long history of despising chili, but as an adult, I can recognize that it's not chili I hate but those dastardly kidney beans. Yuck! My stomach still turns thinking about their taste and texture! Some things you just never get over...

The Spud Drive-In: I can't believe it was our first time there

2009-09-18T11:44:00.003-07:00

About 3 miles south of Driggs on Route 33, you will run across a huge potato chained to an old pick-up truck with a big screen facing the mountains in back of it. This is the Spud Drive-in Theatre, featured in National Geographic's ZipUSA story on Driggs in 2003. We drive by this all the time, but in the summer with it not getting dark until close to 10, always dismiss it as an idea for something to do.

Now that it gets dark quite a bit earlier, the shows start at 8pm. Last Saturday our friends Bob and Lisa said oh, there's a movie the kids would enjoy, "Aliens in the Attic". A bunch of us showed up, nabbed front row "seats", and got settled for the show. "Settled" meaning, David propped up in the back of the Pilot in his CPM machine with a beer supplied by Bob, and Lisa and I settled under blankets on camp chairs with glasses of red wine. Lisa and I had both thought of the possibility of being bored and brought books just in case, but with the wine and the chance for constant commentary, we didn't need them.

"Aliens in the Attic" is sort of an odd movie. We had all thought it was an animated Pixar-type movie. Turns out it wasn't - and at first, it seemed very "T" for teen-themed, with the older girl in the family in bikinis or partially dressed and focused on infatuation with her college-aged boyfriend. Lisa and I were constantly raising our eyebrows and didn't quite understand where it was going until the little ugly aliens showed up. We started to question why these "family" movies always have the "hot mom" and yet the Dads are always sort of bumbling, goofy, and not terribly attractive (this one had Kevin Nealon - think back to this history of Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's -- you are getting the picture). What's with the snub for the moms?

Funniest part of the movie: Listening to David and Bob laugh more than the kids.

Best part about the experience: Looking at the starry sky and watching a meteor shower in the northern part of the sky. You haven't seen stars until you've been somwhere truly dark and remote ... and cold and crisp.

It was $18 ($6 per person >8), and much more fun than going to the standard movie theater.

Revisiting the Stairs

2009-09-15T21:15:00.006-07:00

As a conclusion to our friend Bob's "Birthday weekend", we headed out the South Teton Canyon trailhead to achieve success in climbing "Devil's Stairs". Last year we summitted the stairs with our visiting exchange student, Anne Laure (last year's post), and I have to say, the weather was much more beautiful and the wildflowers more numerous.

But this year's ascent had its charms. The threat of rain meant cooler temperatures. The rumble of thunder and ominous dark clouds meant the children kept quite the rapid pace on the hike (... almost trot) home. The awkward light meant most of my pictures were quite awful, less discernment required to find pictures to upload. Warnings of moose near the trail meant focused hiking, on edge until we finally spotted the beasts far off the trail in the bushes...far enough away that even Sam didn't set to the chase. The loud, clapping thunder appropriately timed at the peak of our ascent kept us from being tempted to continue deeper into the meadow on the top of the ridge.

My pictures are much better from last year, but I did my best. This hike is deceptively easy for the first 2.7 miles back to the base of the stairs. Beware, the entire elevation gain (~1000 ft) is in the last 0.9 miles. It is a heart-pounding exercise, and the last few tenths of a mile have fairly precipitous drop-offs. If a person suffers from acrophobia, this hike is not recommended. Check out the children descending in the following photo - imagine me as drill sergeant, "Down, children, down! Do you hear the thunder? Move it, move it!"

This hike is accessed at the far end of Teton Canyon, which is a right turn off of Ski Hill Road in Teton Valley. I think the most beautiful and impressive part begins after you ascend the stairs and head toward Meek Pass and Alaska Basin, along which you can view many of the Teton peaks ... alas, we didn't want this hike to be our last, and thus hurried out as quickly as possible to avoid the danger of the storm hanging around the heights.

It has been a goal of mine to reach the base of the Devil's stairs on cross country skis. I wonder if this will be the year?

There Oughta Be a Law - Episode 5

2009-09-15T21:10:00.003-07:00

Against new corny techy terms:

Webinar - ugh, it makes me shiver even to type it - Short for Web-based seminar, a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is transmitted over the Web.

We don't call on-line degrees "webucation". The word is an abomination.

Webinar. Please!

A Popular Hike We've Never Done

2009-09-14T19:07:00.012-07:00

With the main goal of the day being a swim at the Jackson Rec Center, we decided to fill the earlier part of the day with a hike in the Grand Teton National Park. We dropped poor David off with crutches, a water bottle, small back pack and apple at the town square and headed off to convince the entry guy that I really did have a pass (I do, honest), that my husband doesn't carry his wallet because he had surgery.... "Well where is he now?"

"Down in Jackson," looking as honest and hopeful as I possibly could.

He looked at me skeptically. "If he doesn't carry his wallet, then that means YOU could carry the card, right?"

"Right, but I didn't. I'm sorry." Gently indicating with a nod of the head the CPM machine I have to schlep around in the back of the car, and looking at him with big wide pity-eyes.

I got away with a $5 satellite pass, which isn't a bad deal. He gave us a couple of day hike maps and we tried to pick out an appropriate hike. Lucy was opting for hikes with the most ominous names ("Death Canyon", "Bearpaw Lake"). Ethan thought a hike that ended in waterfalls seemed appealing, so we settled on the "Hidden Falls" hike from Jenny Lake.

You can opt for a ferry ride across the lake for $10/adult, $5/child, or you can kick your kids in the pants and say, "get moving!" The difference in hiking time is significant (1 mile vs. 5 miles), but we were there to get some movement in. Lucy tried to suggest the ferry, but failed. The ferry could be saved for our less adventurous visitors.

We started right at Jenny Lake, heading around the south and west coasts of the lake. It was an extremely bright day and I had a difficult time taking pictures that weren't completely washed out.

Before I load up the few pictures that turned out o.k., I wanted to note the paranoia the National Park service causes with their constant "Be Bear Aware!" reminders. It was extremely hard NOT to be panicked the entire way, what with "Be Bear Aware!" signs and explanations in the bathroom, parking lot, trailhead, even at the Hidden Falls themselves... NOTE: Don't leave your back pack even for A MINUTE! God knows those bears love Oreos! It was all I could do to keep my imagination in check. Really, do we need THAT MANY reminders??

I managed to keep myself calm enough to enjoy the hike reasonably well - there were so many people on that trail with bear spray, I felt fairly protected. We ended up hiking the extra 0.4 miles to "Inspriation Point" (much to Lucy's chagrin - she complained endlessly like I was torturing her with an "extra hike"... make sure to take friends or Daddy with Lucy, it keeps the complaining down). Inspiration point offers a view of the whole of Jenny Lake and a pretty awesome view back into Cascade Canyon.

On the way out of Moose junction, we (appropriately) saw a moose in the river. Some idiots were about 10 yards away from it (or less) on the other side of the river - I stayed a VERY safe distance, thus the not so great shot.

While this is an extremely popular hike and might cause an adventurous reader to avoid it, it's popular for a reason... it's moderate (or easy) in intensity, a satisfying (yet not too taxing) length, with a great payoff waterfall, lake, and high mountain canyon. I'd definitely do this one again.

Decision Points

2009-09-10T20:21:00.004-07:00

Major decision points in your life tend to attach themselves to a physical place in your memory (sometimes even to food, in my case). For example, David proposed to me at a French restaurant (Le cheminée) in downtown Philadelphia, where I had cream of tomato soup and Norwegian salmon. We decided to leave Pittsburgh when I was crying in the upstairs bedroom in the back where Lucy slept - I was sitting on the floor on the left side of the bed. Later that day (David's birthday) we had dinner at that Italian place in the walk-down off Walnut street - I had spaghetti and meatballs. They gave us the meal for free so not everything we would remember about Pittsburgh would be bad.

This whole "decision point" topic came into my head today because someone was asking me about interesting places to stay within about an hour's drive of Idaho Falls. The Blue Heron Inn is a place that came to mind - then the memories quickly followed. Although I stayed overnight there a few times, the memory that is most strongly attached to the place is from the "Alpha course spiritual retreat weekend" we did as part of the Alpha group at our church. David and I did not stay over night, but we spent the entire day there in small group discussions, watching videos, and ... thinking. This was March of 2003, and I was in the middle of my second semester of organic chemistry, trying to decide whether or not to take the MCATs and then apply to medical school that fall. I had spent a lot of time thinking about this choice - I had taken classes for over 4 semesters, researched schools and how to apply - and I thought I knew my course of action. And yet something about that weekend, the combination of people's life stories they shared, the messages on the videos and in the readings, gave me the feeling that medical school was the wrong choice. It was a very unique feeling, one that I don't often get (but seem to at the very most important times - like when I took the tour at Swarthmore College as a senior in high school).

I did not schedule the MCAT and the die was cast.

Not long after that my friend Hollis got me set up with an interview with my current company. I had also recently tried out cooking on a large-scale, helping out with an international dinner put on by the then owner of Sato's, a Japanese restaurant that used to be in Idaho Falls (interestingly, the spot where Hollis first told me about the job possibility, over sushi). The owner/chef had offered me a job at the restaurant to train in Japanese-style cooking. I decided that I wanted to keep cooking as something I enjoy and return to the computer, which I had sworn off upon leaving Arlington, VA, for the open air of Idaho.

I also remember we had chicken cordon bleu for the meal at that retreat. Always have to remember the food...

More Wind Cave Fun

2009-09-09T20:26:00.012-07:00

Although I felt a tiny pang of guilt leaving David in the Victor house strapped into the CPM (continuous passive motion) machine, I headed out to Darby Canyon with the kids to join some friends for another jaunt on the Wind Cave trail.

Sunday was a gorgeous day for a hike - still warm-ish like summer, yet with a little hint of fall in the air. The kids got to hike with a group of friends, which increases the fun all around.

As you can see from the previous picture, the girls were extremely anxious to get into the cave proper. In this group, I am usually in charge of attempting the catch up with the children forging ahead. I am never terribly thrilled at the thought of heading into the cave (thoughts are: "Hmm, I've heard rocks fall from the ceiling sometimes. Yes, these rocks all over the floor must have come from somewhere.", "This is not so great for my ankles.", "What is back there that I can't see??", etc. But this time I went back about as far as I could go without completely losing my sight and took a seat.

Wind Cave is an extremely narrow opening looking out onto Darby Canyon and the foothills around. I had to play with my less-than-stellar camera a bit, but I got some cool results (and no, I did NOT use photoshop!).

I have heard that there is a narrow passage way you have to crawl through at the back of the cave that leads you to a larger, more open cave - I imagine that's all I ever know about it, as it is highly unlikely I will slide on my belly through a narrow opening to get to yet another closed in space.

Here's hoping the hikes continue until the snow falls!

Jelly Donuts

2009-09-02T21:10:00.003-07:00

As I was paging through the September issue of Cooking Light at dinner tonight, what do I see but a picture of a luscious jelly donut with red goo oozing out the center, some lucky person having already taken a big bite.

Mmmm... jelly donuts. So I got to thinking about jelly donuts and my past with jelly donuts.

My love affair with jelly donuts pretty much started and ended with Wenzel's Bakery in Tamaqua, PA. They were (and still are) my favorite doughnuts of all time. I believe this place is now closed down. I can still remember the taste in mouth, the texture, the smell! It was a rare day that I would choose something other than a jelly donut - maybe a sugar twist every now and then. Maybe.

I remember one time in high school I ate two jelly donuts for breakfast before a track meet and my boyfriend at the time said something to the effect of, "You'll be getting fat if you keep eating like that." He was a real sweetheart -- keeper really. Ruined my doughnut buzz!

So I was chatting all about jelly donuts to Lucy (left out the icky boyfriend part), and she said, "Why, I've never HAD a jelly donut at all!" Then we talked about how I was fairly obsessed with jelly donuts as my favorite snack during her pregnancy (late in the pregnancy, after we moved to Virgnia).

Which does seem quite awful of me. These are kids that have had doughnuts probably less than a handful of times in their lives, so in frequently in fact, that they usually call them "bagels".

Now, it's not entirely that I'm so uptight now about what I eat that I don't eat doughnuts now - it's more that pretty much nothing can EVER live up to Wenzel's bakery in my mind, so why bother? Every donut will fall short of the glory of Wenzel's!

But Lucy and I decided that I will go to the donut store on Woodruff (Bakers Dozen) tomorrow morning and pick some up for both my office and home so she can see what she thinks. I'm going to bet she's going to LOVE them.

Bike Advocacy Goes Rogue

2009-08-30T22:10:00.004-07:00

Maybe those readers who live in Idaho Falls heard tell last Monday of some crazy lady on a bike losing her marbles at the 25th and Holmes intersection. That crazy lady would be me.

Finishing my daily ride, I was probably cruising at around 21 mph on Holmes halfway between Sunnyside and 25th when this girl leans out the car window and yells, "Get on the $#@%#^&* sidewalk!" Wasn't she brave?

Oh, too bad for them -- the light at 25th changed just in time, and hmm, somebody was a little faster on the bike than they anticipated. I pulled up right next to the car and leaned in to find a ditzy-looking blonde and her tank-topped boyfriend, late-tweens/early twenties.

"I have EVERY RIGHT TO BE ON THE ROAD!" I yelled (remember, my heart is pounding, my adrenaline flowing freely, having just finished an hour ride at my top speed - I think perhaps I was a little frightening).

At first they just sort of stared in surprise, like, uh, you weren't supposed to catch up to us. The girl looked a little shell-shocked. I leaned in and said, "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! AFRAID?? DIDN'T THINK I'D CATCH UP! IT'S EXTREMELY DANGEROUS FOR YOU TO YELL OUT THE WINDOW AT ME!" She kept looking away, but I suppose her man felt I was threatening her (I was contemplating physical violence, AND I had the "Pappy-means-business-face" on... too bad I couldn't give her "the finger that bites") but after a moment, the boy starts at it, "Get on the $#@%#^&* sidewalk! You're supposed to be on the $#@%#^&* sidewalk!"

"It's not safe for me to ride on the sidewalk - not for me and not for pedestrians. I have the same rights to the road as you."

"$#@%#^&* you, $#@%#^&*!"

"Don't talk to me like that! I'm not going to stoop to your level and swear!"

"Shut up, $#@%#^&*!"

"That's a great attitude... you keep yelling at cyclists, you hit somebody or cause somebody to crash, and you're going to jail, idiot."

"$#@%#^&* $#@%#^&* $#@%#^&* $#@%#^&* $#@%#^&* " Laughing, laughing.

"Yeah, because going to jail would be REAL funny, pal."

Really, I gotta come up with some better lines.... I mean, what do you say to these people?? I am somebody's mother, somebody's daughter, somebody's friend, why do people think they can toy with my safety just because they think they can get away with it? I just get SO ENRAGED! UGH! I can hardly stand it even now remembering it.

I decided maybe I need to just carry a small pad and a pen and take down license plates. The only thing I'll say to people is, "I have your license plate and I'll be calling the police. My good friend is a bike cop on the force. Have a nice day!"

Because really, this anger isn't helping anything and it's only raising my blood pressure. And as David remarked, I probably only made that guy hate cyclists more. And maybe the bike cop isn't a good friend, but he will be after I call him a dozen times ;)

Remembering David's Last Hurrah (at least, for awhile)

2009-08-30T21:32:00.007-07:00

Things have been so utterly insane, disorganized, out of control --- since David's knee surgery 9 days ago. I have been a very poor blogger - most likely because I do not deal well with disruptions to my schedule and general life organization. As many of my friends would say, I am the "spreadsheet woman" - and therefore any departure from strict predictability and compartmentalization makes me a little crazy. I AM that person that does the sudoku with her coffee every morning.

So needless to say, I am a bit behind on the posting. It saddened me when I reviewed these pictures this evening to find that they are some of the worst pictures I have ever taken. This was from David's final weekend of freedom before the surgery. He couldn't do much at that point, but had been told he could bike. People should be forewarned that when they tell David he can do something, whatever activity that may be, that they should be aware what that means to him -- not, bike around the neighborhood or around the river.... we should all just be glad he didn't have the four of us biking over Teton Pass for his last exericse...

No, it was what we in our family consider an easy outing - the 16-mile round trip trail between Wilson and Teton Village. This has been a favorite ride ever since Ethan was about 3 and could manage to keep a two-wheeler balanced (See our early Jackson days).

Some people might think a 16-mile bike ride would NOT be advisable with 3.5 ligament tears and an almost complete miniscus tear, but, bah! Like I said, it wasn't the pass!

While in Teton Village, we ran into his eventual surgeon's wife who was like, you should call him! Which he did, and then had the surgery the following Friday...

But at Teton Village, we downed some delicious baked goods from that fabulous place that's upstairs in the middle of the village... can't remember the name. We tarried a bit long, however - good Lord, I almost forgot the hailstorm we rode in for the first 2 miles on the way back to Wilson! I suppose it's easy to suppress the feeling of ice pelting your eyes in August. You tell yourself over and over again that "this really can't be happening", so in the end, your mind thinks it didn't.

Oh but it did. And the preferable term is "hailstorm" not "ice storm" - and no, that isn't a vest AND sweatshirt AND long pants that Ethan is wearing in the middle of August. He's just a very cold boy.

A highlight of the way out was spotting the osprey's nest about 2 miles in filled with an osprey. But! Lo and behold, I am officially the world's WORST bird photographer, so this is as good as it gets:

Now one might think that a 16-mile bike ride would be enough for someone in such a state... Well, we followed our bike ride with a trip to the Jackson pool, where a certain someone could've simply relaxed in the hot tub, floated in the kids' pool, or, I don't know, read a book in the lobby?

No, someone swam (legless) for about an hour or maybe more. That someone was at least 2-3 times as fast as me swimming (legless). The good news in all this is that I've taken up swimming as a new addition to my workout routine - pathetic as I am. I usually feel most comfortable swimming at Apple with the 70+ crowd, as my pathetic head-out-of-water breaststroke is about as slow as their freestyle.... about... I'm not claiming I'm faster than anyone. Let's just say I asked Ethan to help me with my backstroke, and in the first 10 seconds he bust out laughing. Really, for the kid that hates to be laughed at, that was quite cruel.

We argued and drove around downtown Jackson for about 30 minutes before settling on the vegan-friendly Lotus Cafe. Yum, I have good thoughts remembering it, and it was two weeks ago! We lucked out and hit the buy-one-get-one-free curry night. I had the eggplant curry, and here was finally a place I didn't feel compelled to press the waitstaff about the dairy content! We even topped it off with dessert, as the chocolate cake was accompanied by non-dairy vanilla frozen substance!!

Ethan downed both the appetizers and his 1/2 lb organic bison burger. Later in the car, he busts out of the blue with, "Mommy, I have to say, those organic buffalo burgers are REALLY quite good." Which of course, given his timing and delivery, had us in stitches. During the breakfast the following morning, I caught he and Lucy in conversation where I overheard Ethan, "I'm just really into organic these days."

Oh, the good ol' days of the Teton Valley/Jackson weekends! They will come again, they will come again!

Fleet Feet

2009-08-29T20:46:00.008-07:00

This morning we enjoyed a ginormous "David" breakfast, which has a few essential ingredients: pancakes, smoothie (with jam and preferably ice cream), sausage and/or bacon, and a fruit of some kind (this time it was peaches from a friend's tree). I can't possibly fall asleep on the job now that I'm in charge of the weekend breakfast for David's "brief" post-op recovery period.

So having claimed she already ate breakfast, Grandmom took Sam on a walk and discovered a kids' race that was to occur in about 20 minutes in the park. So we hustled the kids (tummies packed with breakfast) into sneakers and running clothes and took them over to the park. Amazingly, the race was completely free and they were able to sign up without a problem.

Our kids were in the category of I believe 6-10 year olds, or maybe 6-12. The race was a little over a mile long. There were kids as young as toddlers taking part - we remarked on how much Zady and Evie would've enjoyed the race (esp. with the "snack pack" at the end!).

As the race was starting off, I said to Grandmom, "Well, I'm not sure how they'll do, but I'm not sure I want to deal with Ethan crying if he loses."

I guess I didn't have to worry about that too much.

He took off to a VERY quick start, with a solid lead throughout the 1st lap. Lucy was not too far behind in about the top 5. The kid behind him had his Dad running along the course next to him trying to coach him on how to catch Ethan, but Ethan kept looking behind and kicking it up a notch if the kid inched closer. In the final 100 yard shoot Ethan sprinted so fast, I could hardly pass him to snap a picture. In fact, you can see my failure at right.

Ethan, as he proceeded to tell most everyone he met throughout the day, was "1st Overall". Lucy ended up 5th overall and 2nd for girls. It was so fun to watch them run, I have to say. I wish we had a little kids' track team around here.

Now I know my dad will be asking, what were their times? I don't think they kept track of times, and sadly, neither did I. All I know is that I would've been hard-pressed to keep up with Ethan for that distance at that pace, so I'm thinking it was pretty quick.

When we came back to the house, Ethan couldn't really resist the opportunity to point out something that had never happened before ... he said thoughtfully, "Isn't that funny how I beat Lucy?" Hmm. I stopped where that was going right away. Anyone who has been around when Lucy's been told that some day Ethan will beat her in sports knows that that's dangerous ground.

And then either to be nice to me or prove her superiority in something to Ethan, Lucy decided to go on my 30-mile "Shelley Ride". We kept a pretty steady but easy pace - unfortunately for Lucy the south wind was fairly stiff this afternoon, but we made it to Shelley in about an hour. We stopped at the river for a little snack - a bald eagle flew right in front of us into a tree and we got to watch it for awhile. A couple of pelicans floated by and later we saw about 8 ospreys flying overhead... and with a little stop at the Woodville store for M&Ms and a slushie, it was a perfect Saturday afternoon ride.

As our ex-exchange student Anne Laure would have said, "It was a very SPORTY day!"

Speaking of exchange students, David has been considering getting another one. I'm wondering if life isn't hectic enough already??