Fun with Jen in Bend

Took a little spin up to Bend, OR to visit my friend Jen Coughlin over Memorial Weekend. We had gorgeous weather the whole time, which was awesome. Did a bunch of hiking, mountain biking, dining, and relaxing. It was quite the necessary respite from a hectic work week last week. Thanks Jen!

Went to this really great restaurant, The Blue Olive, sat in cozy deck chairs, and enjoyed a delicious meal and gorgeous view.

Jen, Jeff, and Katharine posing in front of the awesome view.

More views!

Friends!

Think this must have turned into a model session rather than a meal!

FOREVER!

Took a big digger on my mountain bike and face planted into the dirt.

Better view here, in case you couldn't see how dirty my face was!

A little PBR can fix anything...except the pain in my shoulder that also manifested from the fall.


Jeff was more than a little amused with my new look.

Lizard's Birthday Bash

I had a marathon trip down to San Francisco yesterday for my friend Liz Kenny's birthday bash. It was quite the feat...worked a twelve hour shift on Friday, drove down to SF, picked up Chelsea (who flew in from Jackson Hole to surprise Liz) at BART, navigated the crazy SF streets and sidewalk parking situation, joined the gang that had already accumulated since earlier that morning, slept on a hardwood floor, spent the entire day at Great America riding rollar coasters and standing in line in 80+ degree weather, drove back to the city, had dinner, drove back up to Tahoe through the I-80 construction detour nightmare, in bed by 1:30 am, and now up at 6:30 and back to work for another 12 hour shift at the hospital...agghhhhhhh! I'm getting too old for this! But it was fun. And how could I say no the helping Chels pull off the "Big Surprise?"

Lizard, the birthday girl, after a fun day of wine tasting at Grgich Hills Estate in Napa...wish I could have been there for that!

Megan and Katharine, enjoying the Bay views and early morning sun from the roof-deck of a sweet SF apartment.

Whoa, did you see that...?


Yay, Chelsea's here!

Ouch, I'm not to flexible! Maybe its time for a little stretching??

Lake Cushing Crossing

The last weekend at Squaw was full of fun and excitment, including the 19th Annual Lake Cushing Crossing. This year I dressed up as "Flapper Kat," a flapper costume from the Roaring 20's, complete with my bottle of moonshine. The entrance into the lake was a rather large drop this year, making it a bit of a challenge, but I made it all the way across the pond and out the other side successfully!

Ski boots and a flapper dress...always a good look on the slopes!

Hanging with the gang from Graham's after the crossing.

Sarah Jones, dressed up as the "Cookie Queen," was a crowd favorite as she tossed fresh chocolate chip cookies to everyone.

And click here for a video of my lake crossing (skip to minute 6:24 to see me): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfUb18AdNKc

Summer Remodeling with the Bears

The bear broke into my house last month while I was out of town on Easter Sunday. He busted down my back door, attacked my brand new fridge, and totally cleaned out the freezer (that was the only good stuff he could find...there was no other food or trash anywhere else in the house worth eating)! It was quite a mess. Luckily I had my nice neighbor, Mike The Bear Slayer, to come to the rescue! He cleaned up the mess and put up my new plywood door. Then a week later the bear came back in the middle of the night while I was sleeping and broke the plywood door down again. He made quite a racket and woke me up in a flash. Luckily I was able to make enough noise to scare him off before he came back in to do more harm! But he broke my new plywood door, and we had to reinforce it with a 2x4.

The spray paint is all part of the new "look" I'm going for with this summer's remodeling session.

The snowblower is even part the new "defense zone!"