February, Season Extender

I haven't posted much lately.  I have no idea why.  NO motivation to do so, honestly. Stuck in a snowdrift perhaps... 

We've had a few breaks in the ice storms, freezing temps and mega snowfall (normal pass weather finally!) and have been out and about around the neighborhood.  Though last week we had over 3 feet of snow in about 4 days, another highway closure, and a small dose of cabin fever. Mae and I have been enjoying our outings.  It's so pretty!! And it will extend the snowboard/ski season!  Hooray!

I finished the '30 day Yoga Challenge with Adriene'...it did take me 43 days, but I did it and am now completely sold on yoga.  What about you??

Two songs on my mp3 player, on repeat:

I am a Rock  Give it a listen...."I have my books, and my poetry to protect me"
I never noticed what a dark song it really is.  But I LOVE it.

And the Jerry Douglas, Mumford & Sons cover of The Boxer .  It's simply fabulous.  

And your February??  How is it?  Possibly no one is enjoying it as much as Mae.

2017, The Universe, Yoga I Can Stand

Hello and Happy New Year!  It's 2017!  Can you believe it?  When I was a kid I used to calculate how old I would be in THE FUTURE...Well, I don't think I ever went past the year 2000.  And here I am, in 2017.  No hover car, no personal robot, no trips to Mars....But it's close, right?  I have the mars curiosity rover on instagram and that just blows me away!!  Pictures of Mars, the red planet, on my phone?  Way cool!

Ok enough of my ramblings....here's the photo of Mae you've all been waiting for, waiting in the snow for snowballs.

I have a couple of things to share with you....remember the Altras?  The shoe to end all mountain running shoes?  Well sadly, I ended up returning them after about 3 months.  They were perfect, great shoe, scrambling around the mountain, running , hiking.  they kept me comfy and dry through October, the wettest October on record in Seattle.  They were warm and great into November.  And then, one day, my feet were WET!  They were leaking at the seams and also had really broken down after only about 100 miles of use. No cushion, dead shoes.   I spoke to a rep at Altra and he confirmed that because they are new shoes/boots for them they didn't really know what to expect.  The "neoshell" is not actually neoprene but a gortex like material.  Anyway, they went back....I couldn't justify the $160 retail price (I paid $140 thru Road Runner Sports and they have an excellent return policy).  I got a really ugly pair of Asics that are doing the job well enough for half the price.

Ok, The Universe....so I don't mean this in a Carl Sagan way, though I LOVE Mr. Sagan.  I am talking about all that Karmic stuff, you know, things working out in the end?  squaring up the score. settling accounts.... My daughter was complaining about how she didn't get a discount on her rent after a friend said she referred her AND a manager called and told her she would get $300 off rent....a different manager told her NO.  Because the friend didn't fill out the referall form correctly.  What??  As my daughter was telling me the story, the Boston Irish in me came out and I wanted to call said manager and tell her what a *#@! she is, but then....and this is pretty amazing for me....but then I thought "no, the UNIVERSE can handle this".  You know why?  Because the Universe can dole out some really nasty shit!  What can I do?  Swear into the phone?  Use my wit and language to come up with some mean, but to the point, derogatory insults?  sure...But the Universe....the Universe takes care of revenge and getting even in a BIG way. I have seen this first hand .  I have seen some terrible things happen to people that have not been very nice to me.  Really awful, life changing things.  And that's sad.  So, I am letting go of anger (yeah right, at least this month ok?) letting go of righting wrongs.  I'm not using my life energy on that pursuit.  I'm gonna just let Good ol' buddy Universe do it's stuff.  I will stand up for my rights, take matters into my own hands when it's logical.  Ask me how this is going in a few months though!

Yoga.  So I have always tried to do yoga and have literally hated it!  Hated the often false, mumbo jumbo breathing crap (all that breathing!) and the little outfits and mats and the stupidly presented calm.  Plus, physically it kills me!  And I am no slump when it comes to athletics.   But....I have this friend.  He is a really awesome person, the 70 side of 60.  I met him in grad school more than 25 years ago and, well, he's one of my favorite people on the planet.  He's an antsy one.  Always on the move, he runs, works out with weights, swims and DOES YOGA.  So, if your friend, a friend whom you love and trust, tells you something is good?  That's right,  You gotta check it out.  I managed to find YOGA I CAN STAND!!  Yoga, I will admit, I actually LOVE!  It's Yoga With Adriene, and I am 10 days into the 30 day yoga challenge.  She's real!!  She's like "yo, dude, we are gonna DO YOGA".  Well, maybe not quite like that, but the presentation fits me, fits what I look for in any fitness instruction, honest, straight forward, no nonsense guidance.  Fabulous personality,Yoga with Adriene works for me.  If you are thinking of adding yoga to your life, check out her youtube channel .  There are a lot of sessions to choose from and they are short and so do-able!  

Happy 2017!  Hope the year is filled with all good things for you!  We will be out playing in the snow, enjoying this beautiful mountain day~ ciao!

Weekend Dog Love

Mae, Lucy, Harry and Max….

Mae was so excited to see snow this week that I couldn’t get a decent picture….beside herself!  Lucy….showing off her new winter coat.  And the little Harry with his big brother Max.  Weekend dog love!

Mountain Mae

I know you've been missing Mae.  Come on, of course you have!  She, as usual, has been having quite the life...running, hiking, swimming.   But last month she was stung by hornets three different times!  NOT fun.  The last time, we had been out hiking on the mountain and about half an hour after we got home I looked at her and her entire face was swelling!  Luckily a benadryl tablet brought it under control.  But she hid in the closet for the next hour!

The bee-sting lip look?

I've been a bit more careful about avoiding places bees might be, but it's not easy out in the woods.

Today she had her first Mountain Bike training ride, and she did great! Actually, this is the second try.  Last summer we took her out but she didn't get over jumping at the bikes and I wiped out pretty good.  This time I went fast enough that she had to really run to keep up and while she was trying to herd me for the first mile or so, she finally figured out that she could just run ahead or along side and it was a blast!  At last , a way to tire her out that doesn't wear me out first!

Does she look tired?

Tuesday Afternoon Fun

You know lately, all I want to do is wander around in the mountains with my dog.  Is that so wrong?   Here are a few shots from our Tuesday afternoon at the "lake"....

Someone pulled the plug....

It's okay, there's still MUD!

There's not much of summer left.  How are you spending your final days of the season?  Heading back to school?  Sending off the kids?  Sneaking in some last vacation days?  I hope it's all great!

Dogs and Houseplants....

This is a  quick post to relate something scary that happened with Mae last night.  We were getting ready for bed and she wanted to go out on the porch for a drink, (she has a bubbler fountain on porch) so I opened the door to let her out.  She came back inside and my husband yelled to me that she had something in her mouth.  Well, it was part of a silver jade plant that is in a pot on the porch, been there all summer along with  Aloe and other succulents.  We pulled the leaf out of her mouth and within a minute she started having what appeared to be an asthma attack, wheezing and having difficulty breathing!!  It lasted about 10 scary minutes and finally she was ok!!  A  quick check online though told me something I didn't know....Jade and Aloe are toxic to dogs!  While it's not likely they will consume enough to poison themselves, they can have irritation, stomach upset and other symptoms.  I had seen Mae nibble the ends of the aloe but never thought much about it.  Who knows why at 11 pm she decided to start eating a jade plant that she has sat next to all summer??  Dogs!!!  Anyway, just a heads up if you love succulents and dogs....like Lilies and cats, they might not go together!

And of course, the obligatory photo of Mae....keeping cool on a hot day in a mountain stream!

What's Happening??

Lake Days are back, and no one is happier about that than Mae!  Summer has certainly arrived with a heat wave this past weekend.  It's been nice to go to the lake for a short game of fetch and cool off in the very cold water!

I've been enjoying experimenting with the "shrubs" I purchased at the farmer's market.  I added them to beer and oh my!  that was very tasty.  Give it a try!  But my absolute favorite new summer drink is made with Bourbon, a shrub and JAM....Sweet Caroline's Jams and Jellies had a facebook post  awhile back that I had to follow up on:


"I don't know what to call this drink, but it's all about the smell of the woods in the middle of summer, and the bite of stinging nettles and thorns when picking wild blackberries. 1 shot of bourbon, 1 tablespoon of marionberry lime vanilla jam, a splash of blackberry vanilla cardamom shrub, a healthy dose of woodland bitters by Portland Bitters, and a splash of soda water."

It is delicious!!  I was able to find Portland Bitters in Whole Foods....of course it was the WF in Portland.  But they had a good variety of Portland Bitters and other brands as well.  More experimentation will be needed.  Anyway, if you can not get your hands on the shrub, you might try a berry cider in place of the shrub and soda water. (Try the blackberry cider from Atlas!)   A nice, rich berry jam will do if you can't get Caroline's.  But, if you live anywhere near where their products are available it is well worth the effort to pick up the jams and shrubs.  I promise you will not be disappointed!  (see more on their facebook page for details on where to find them!)

Hope your summer has gotten off to a good start!  Do you have a favorite water spot to cool off in?  A good summer drink you'd like to share?  Would love to hear about it!

Back Track

First, let's get the photos of Mae out of the way....I realize I should possibly change the name of this blog to Mountain Mae instead of Me.  But if you own a dog, especially a young dog, you know that they completely take over your life!

the "I hear a Subaru" face

close up

Snowshoe trail , so perfect for Mae~

Ok, now that that is done...let's back track a bit.  

Remember the book list?  There were a couple I wanted to mention.  The most memorable book I read last year was "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara.  Huge book, over 700 pages, and the Amazon description made it sound like a nice little romp through the lives of a group of college friends.  It was so much more!  And I won't spoil anything for you but I will say the reason it stayed with me and was so memorable is that the story was not what I expected at all.  The other reason was that the writing was VERY good , and in places (little places) even reminded me of Whitman.  However, there were a couple of flaws in the book that really made it  tumble off the GREAT list. One is the fact that you had to read about 500 pages to find out what had happened in the main character's life.  By then did I care??? No.   I pretty much skipped through that part of the book.  The other thing was that in places it started to feel like a script for Law & Order, SVU.   

A nice surprise was James Robertson's , "The Testament of Gideon Mack".  Very enjoyable, fun read about a man, a man of the cloth, who meets the devil!

Biggest disappointment?  Donna Tartt's , "The Goldfinch".  I had heard and read so much about this book and it is a good story, I'll give it that.  But I don't know....again, very lengthy and in places I felt it was just d r a g g i n g.   It wasn't completely satisfying for me. Was it for you?

The most unusual way to find a recommendation? Well it was word of mouth but I can't follow the dots on this one.  Too much music, too much beer perhaps.  I was out one night to see a band and met a professor of biology who was sitting next to me .  We got talking about beer, as he ran a beer club at the college.  Somehow he ended up recommending The Unbearable Lightness of Being....Remember that movie?  Well, it was dreamy right and  it certainly made me have a little crush on Daniel Day-Lewis.... it  was 1988, of course I had a crush on him.  But I had never read the book and of course the book is TOTALLY DIFFERENT.   Author Milan Kundera said later that he would NEVER allow a film from one of his works. I can't say that I blame him.

Running.  I will be honest I haven't had a real run since October!  I felt great then but in early November I got hit by some nasty virus that had me out for 3 weeks and then bad weather bollowed by our current snowpack have made actual running a bit problematic.  That's where snowshoes, xc skis and snowboards come in handy!  

Coffee.  Yup, still drinking it.  In moderation mstly.  I think I have found a balance with the bean.

Not much else to report here.  I got a splitboard for Christmas and hope to get out and use it soon.  A splitboard is a snowboard that essentially has been cut in half!  You can then wear it like skis with "skins" on the bottom to make it sticky and walk up the mountain. When you get to the top you  put it back together to ride down!   

"skinning" up

Happy trails!  Hope the new year has brought good fortune and good times!

Snow Day With Mae

Yes, perhaps I do have too much time on my hands today ?  You think?  What better way to spend it than playing in the snow with Mae!

Stumps

Days At The Lake

Our lake days are fading fast as the water recedes further and further.  It is used for irrigation east of the mountains and this year with low snow pack, it hasn't filled up as the water is drained out, so, we are about a month ahead with very low water.  However, that doesn't mean that we aren't still enjoying cooling off and paddling around on these very hot days!  And Mae, our 5 month old pup, is especially enjoying it!

I hope that summer is treating you well!  Keep cool and enjoy!

Mae This Week

Ben Moon and Denali, Dog's Life-Human's Life, A Tribute

The same lovely friend who sent great dog stories, photos and support when Scout passed away sent me this link last night.  I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful it is!  On so many levels, it is perfect: the scenery, the tribute, the life of dog and owner.  I think you all will appreciate it as much as I do~

Denali and Ben Moon (click for video)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Hiking With Mae

We have a new hiking partner in our family!  Her name is Mae.

Chasing Squirrels In Heaven

Last week we had to say goodbye to our best friend and SUPER DOG, Scout.  He gave us his love for over a decade, filled our hearts with joy and gave us enough good dog stories and memories to last a lifetime.  We will always miss him.  Rest in Peace little buddy.  Chase the squirrels in heaven!

our pup in 2002

It has been a very very sad time for us but my dog loving friends have helped ease the pain.  I've heard lots of good stories, also sad stories about their own old dogs.  But overall what stands out about every story regarding a best doggie friend, is the love they bring to our lives.  

I want to share this song with you, because it made me laugh out loud when I first heard it on Sirius Radio, the Loft.  When I found the video version, I laughed even louder!  Please, check it out.....Man and Dog

Funny right?  And the face on that old dog....so sweet.

Saying goodbye to our furry ones is so difficult. But we all feel pretty darn lucky to have had such a good dog.  The best dog, a Super Dog.....