Splash, Splash, Splash I've Been Taking Some Baths

It's been several years since we lived in a place that had a bathtub and, as of late, I've been taking quite a few baths.  It has been luxurious, so relaxing and stress relieving.  My mother even bought me some stress relieving bubble bath for Christmas--which smells delightful and really does help with relaxation. Dan has put together a little candle stand and when I turn off the lights and soak by candle light--relaxation reigns.

This past year, most of which I did not have a bath, has been quite a stressful year. I am definitely looking forward to a less stressful and more bathful (and yes I'm making up words) 2014.  If you have a tub be sure to take some time to enjoy!

Highway Temptations

More Handstands in 2014!!!!

Shots Shots Shots Shots Shots Shots Shots Shots Shots Shots Shots Shots Shots Shots Shots Shots...of Olive Oil?

(sung in the style of LMFAO Shots)

About a month or so ago I was listening to NPR and they were talking about olive oil tasting. They were discussing it much the same way people talk about wine tasting. They were discussing it as a sensory experience, the aroma, the complex flavors and, now this shocked me, how you don't use bread to taste it, but rather slurp the oil straight out of a small glass--shots anyone?! Listening to this show, I was thinking, olive oil tasting sounds horrible, who would ever want to shoot or slurp olive oil? Definitely not me, give me some bread please and I'll just dip it. I had a sneaking suspicion that for me slurping oil would most likely lead to retroperistalsis--no thanks!

 Well, the other day I had the opportunity to go olive oil tasting. There is a new olive oil shop here in Reno called Big Horn Olive Oil Company. It's on Mayberry and McCarren, in the Mayberry Landing shopping center. They've only been open a couple of months and were kind enough to donate some items to our Wingding's raffle and silent auction. They also invited us to come over to the store and do a tasting. Immediately my thoughts drifted back to the NPR program, I became a bit nervous, but figured what the heck, I'll give it a try.

Let me just tell you, olive oil tasting was amazing! It was soooooo good and slurping olive oil is not even remotely vomit inducing--as I once feared. We started with extra virgin olive oil that we warmed in the glass with the palm of our hand, we inhaled the aroma then slurped away. After we tasted the straight extra virgin olive oil we tried combinations of infused olive oils with balsamic vinegars. We tried Wild mushroom and sage infused olive oil mixed with traditional balsamic vinegar which was my favorite. We also tried blood orange infused olive oil mixed with dark chocolate balsamic vinegar which was surprisingly delicious--I could definitely see this on a sweet spinach salad or maybe even on ice cream, soooo yummy! If you're in Reno I highly recommend going into this shop and giving olive oil tasting a try. It was fun and delicious and a nice sober alternative to wine, whiskey and tequila tasting!

Oh, and don't you just love their logo?! I do!!!

Cheers!

Hiatus is Over

Playing on rocks at the Tom Basin Planting

Alright, my hiatus is over. Sorry it has been so long.  I started a new job and have been very busy.  I have been going on a lot of wild adventures though. I'll post about them in more detail soon, but here's a brief synopsis: 

1) Started working with Friends of Nevada Wilderness again, YAY!!!
2) Sage Grouse Lek counts
3) Planting bitterbrush, sagebrush and willow in the area that burned in Tom Basin in the Santa Rosa range, just north of Paradise Valley
4) Hiking up to the waterfall in Hunter Creek
5)  Seeing a lot of flowers
6) My sister is in town, YAY!!!
7) Playing ultimate--of course
8) Prepping for the Gold Diggers - Reno Tahoe Odyssey, we're back and more blinged out the ever!!! 
9) Taking the kids out for hikes
10) Checking out the Super full moon on Cinco De Mayo

Oh, and I will be checking out the eclipse on Sunday, I can't wait--Nevada is one of the best areas to see it!!!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Mountains and awesome cloudy skies are most definitely a few of my favorite things--although this is not a great picture

Alright, while reading this post you must hum and/or sing the Sound of Music's, My Favorite Things. This can be done silently in your head, out loud, at the top of your lungs or anywhere in between--your choosing.

There is very little that is better than a long holiday weekend spent with a few of your favorite things. On Wednesday evening I came home from Paradise Valley and stopped by the condo where I got to visit with my favorite sister, Erin (fresh in from Flagstaff, AZ) and my favorite mother. I then headed to our house and pretty much fell into a delish pre-thanksgiving meal with my favorite Dan and our housemates.

On Thursday we were lucky enough to spend the morning with a few of our favorite peeps enjoying one of our favorite pastimes--ultimate frisbee of course. After that, we picked up that favorite sister of mine and headed down to Carson/Douglas to have Thanksgiving dinner with my Dad's family. My brothers were super cute, as always and Tanner loved being a ham. Friday we slept in, then took the kids (Dusty, Coco, Bodie and Casper the friendly goat) for a nice, little hike--another favorite pastime of ours. Friday night we did a post-thanksgiving dinner with mom and Erin at one of our favorite restaurants, Bangkok Cuisine, which was yummy as usual. Then we met up with some more of our favorite peeps for a beer at the Tap House.

Ultimate-favorite sport

My favorite puppy kids

My favorite kid kids and their handsome papa--also a favorite of mine

My favorite and gorgeous mother and sister at the yummy Bangkok Cuisine

Saturday morning we met up with my sister and mother for a great breakfast at the Squeeze in then headed off to afternoon pick-up, where we got an ultimate surprise! Our good friend, Wayne, Wayne-O, BTW, Big Tall Wayne--who now lives in Colorado, was in town for the holiday and showed up for some fantastic, frisbee fun. After pick-up we went to Craft for some beers with more of our favorite people.

If you thought we were done with big meals, we were not. On Sunday our good friend Wayne wanted to get some sushi, which we hadn't had for quite some time and definitely did not want to miss out on. We were also supposed to go to a friends' Late-giving, but we had to bail on that because we had to get our house ready for the landlords "walk through" on Monday. Overall it was a great weekend spent doing great things with great people. And, even with all of this, we still missed out on seeing some of our favorite people, but hopefully we'll catch up with them soon. I love my life and the amazing people and critters in it, thank you all!

My sister the pool shark

Ham

Dad and my favorite brothers-the things- at Halloween

Last Day in Paradise-Thank Goodness

Santa Rosa Mountains from the Forest Service Station

Well, I'm actually a bit torn, I really like the little town of Paradise and I love having the Santa Rosa Mountains so close by, but my time here has been extremely strained and quite frankly, I can't wait to get the heck out of Dodge. I came to Paradise hoping to learn more about weeds, but unfortunately I didn't learn as much as I would have liked. The following is a list of positive things I am taking from this experience:

1) I got to spend more time exploring the beautiful Santa Rosa Mountains.

2) I learned that I can be extremely--extremely--patient with people.

3) I learned that I can be quite a handy fix it girl--repairing the recoil starter, whoot, whoot!

4) I met a few folks that I really enjoyed.

5) I am damn good at what I do and I need not forget it!

6) I need to remind myself of #5 when I can't find a job and get all down on myself.

Weekend Fun in Fall

Chicken Creek, where we branded the first day

In between my weeks in Paradise Valley I have been keeping myself quite busy, this past weekend was my first weekend in Reno in four weeks. The first weekend we were at the ranch branding, which is always a good time. I switched between giving shots and branding calves. The next weekend was Halloween, we went to the ranch again to celebrate with family. And last weekend we went to San Fransisco to sell books at the Basque Cultural Day where we danced the evening away to a great Basque band whose name I can't recall, but I'll try to find out. These weekends have been a lot of fun, but it was really nice to finally have a quiet weekend in Reno, we went hot tubbing and had dinner with friends, I played ultimate for the first time in quite awhile and we went out and had a wonderful dinner with my mom. She is such a great mom and person, I love her soooooo much, thanks mom! Here are some pictures of these fun filled weekends, although I don't have any of my nice, quiet weekend in Reno, oh-well.

Dan excited about branding...or our new truck?

Branding, in action

Lunch time after branding

Gopher snake we found on our way home from the branding

Halloween I was a flower and Dan, a bee

Our friends, dead skiers

Basque Cultural Center, where we celebrated Basque Cultural Day

Making friends at Basque Cultural Day

Smoothie Goodness

In all of my life, I have never been a big breakfast eater. I know, I know, skipping breakfast is a horrible horrible thing--although I never really felt that way. I just don't like eating in the mornings. It tends to make me feel weighed down and sluggish and my stomach nauseous. And--get ready for this, try to hold back your stones--I just really don't like breakfast foods. Eggs make me nauseous, bacon is good but so greasy, I'd rather eat a piece of bread than toast. The only breakfast food that I really like is chicken fried steak, which is super heavy and not all that healthy, so I don't like to eat it very often...Peg's Glorified Ham &Eggs, mmmmmmmm.

In the last couple of weeks, however I've gotten really into making smoothies for breakfast. I love them! They allow me to get great healthy nutrition in the morning and make me feel energized rather than weighed down. When I first started making them I didn't put yogurt in them. I just wanted fruit and juice. Instead of yogurt, I would use a banana to give them a creamy, smooth texture. In the past week though I have started adding activia yogurt: I've been having some issues with my digestive system, so I thought I'd give it a try and it seems to be helping.

When I make my smoothies I tend to use apple juice as a base. It doesn't overwhelm the flavor of the fruits which is nice. I should try using some other juices as a base, but I've really been enjoying the apple. So far, one of my favorite mixes is what I call the purple power punch (PPP). I put in apple juice 1 banana, about 8 blackberries, about 30 blueberries, a piece of kale, honey, and yogurt--which is optional. It is delicious, I had one this morning. I've also been making ones with mango and kiwi, yummy! They are so fun to play around with and are such a great way to get a bunch of fruits and veggies in early in the morning. I recommend highly!

Just Another Day in the Rain!

Snow in the Santa Rosa Mountains!

Well, we did not work on weeds again yesterday. It was a fairly nasty day, it rained all morning and most of the afternoon. It even hailed on us a bit and the Santa Rosas got snow. Crazy! We can't spray when it's raining because the rain dilutes the chemical and washes it off of the plants. The plants then continue to live happy lives, growing and reproducing and our time spent spraying would have been wasted. We were going to drive out to do some weed monitoring, but Dave told us not to because apparently the roads get really bad in the rain. So, we ended up cleaning the office, working on the PDR and doing some paper work. Later in the day, however, someone tried to drive out to the wilderness area, but got stuck in the mud. The fire guys had to go rescue him--we were glad we took Dave's advice and didn't drive out.

The other day a bought a beginners acrylic paint set, just for fun. I broke it out last night and played with it for awhile. I have never really painted before, so this should be an interesting, if not comical, endeavor. I had fun mixing colors and painting simple flowers and crosses. I can't wait to play with it some more, maybe attempt a landscape or two.

My masterpiece, watch out Georgia O'keeffe!

I also bought a yoga DVD so I can get some exercise and stretching in while I'm out here. I'm such a goob though, I totally forgot that my computer doesn't have a cd drive. We bought an external one, but I didn't even think to bring it with me. Last night I got everything all ready; I had my comfy yoga pants on, I laid out my yoga pad, I had the lights nice and low and was all set to begin my new yoga routine. I pulled out my DVD and went to put it in the side of my computer--like I would on my mac--then realized "oh shit, this is not my mac, this is the pc and it has no cd drive!" Sad, sad face--I was soooooo ready to get my yoga on. Oh well, what can you do? I'll just have to bring the cd drive out with me next time. Till then yoga, till then.

Plants that Clean

Over at Eartheasy there's an interesting article about a NASA study in which scientists found the top 10 plants that reduce indoor pollutants.

The top 10 plants are:

1) Areca Palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens)
2) Lady Palm (Rhapis excelsa)
3) Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii)
4) Rubber Plant (Ficus robusta)
5) Dracaena “Janet Craig” (Dracaena deremensis)
6) Philodendron (Philodendron sp.)
7) Dwarf Date Palm (Phoenix roebelenii)
8) Ficus Alii (Ficus macleilandii “Alii”)
9) Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata “Bostoniensis”)
10) Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum “Mauna Loa”)

Hats, Hops, and Hucks: 2011

Team Prime BID

For those of you who don't know, one of my favorite ways to stay in shape for my wild adventures is to play ultimate frisbee. Frisbee tends to be much more of an addiction for me than anything else--it is so fun! This past weekend was one of the most incredibly fun tourneys of the year, the annual Hats, Hops, and Hucks (HHH). Hats; because it's a hat tournament--you tend not to know any of the players on your team and you have to wear a hat, Hops; because there's a lot of beer involved, and Hucks; because people love to throw that disc deep.

This year, 2011, was the 20th anniversary of HHH and there was a great turnout, we brought something like 30 folks from the Reno area--almost every team had a Reno-ite on it. Our team had 3 on it and another team had 6. There was only one team I knew of who didn't have anyone from Reno on it, but there could have been more.

Anyway, we got there around 7:30pm on Friday, registered and met up with other Reno folk. One great thing about this tournament is that food and camping is part of the registration fee, so once you're there you don't really have to worry about anything. Saturday morning we had a breakfast of eggs, pancakes and hash browns, then we hit the fields.

This year the theme was "Come and Get It", referring to food. There were three pools and they were aptly named breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was in the dinner pool and the name of my team was Prime BID, after Prime Rib--of course. On Saturday my team had a bit of a hard time gelling, we won 1 out of our 4 games. However, Saturday games just determine seeding positions and don't determine how you end up in the overall tournament. With our 3 loses, we ended up being seeded 12 out of 15 teams--not as high as we were hoping, but we were having a blast.

On Sunday we started out playing the 5th ranked team, INSIDE-OUT Burger and after a hard fought battle, we won!!! All while having an amazing dance party on the sidelines. We were super pumped! Our next game was against another bracket breaker, DISC-CUTS and Gravy, a team who was seeded 13th after Saturday, just beat their their highly ranked team and now the battle was between seeds 12 and 13, crazy! It was a super close game. We were down 1-7, but made an amazing run and came back. The result came down to a universe point, the score was 12-12 and whoever scored the 13th point got to move on to the semi-finals. We pulled it off and were in the semi-finals. It was a super close and fun game, although a bit nerve wracking.

Sideline dancing with FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI

In the semi-finals there were 3 teams from the dinner pool and 1 from the lunch pool. We ended up playing a team named SWINGlini and CLAMS, a dinner team who we played on Saturday and lost to--they were actually one of our bigger losses--but Sunday we turned things around and we ended up winning. Yay, we're in the finals!!!

Over in the other semi-final game, the teams were FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI vs. PULLed Pork, the game was really close and it came down to an universe point, which FLICK'n won. FLICK'n was in the dinner pool too, we played them on Saturday and had lost. The finals were so much fun. Both teams played really well, but in the end FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI were able to pull it out and beat us 11-17. It was pretty close until the end, when FLICK'n went on a streak and we just couldn't catch up.

Congrats to FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI, it was a great game!

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend of ultimate. Both us and FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI ended up playing a total of 8 games each!!! So much frisbee, so much fun, I wish it wasn't over. But, there's always next year and I can't wait for it!

An intense game of Ninja!

Thanks Mo for all the hard work you put in to make this tournament happen!

Casper the Friendly Goat

Welcome the new addition to our family, Casper the Friendly Goat. Yes, that's right, Bodie--our baby goat--has had a baby of her own. A little boy. He is super Cute and very energetic. He was born on Saturday May 28th at around 6:00pm.

Unfortunately, Bodie was feeling pretty poor after she gave birth. She wasn't eating and she was acting really depressed, so we called the vet. She came over and gave Bodie some "pick me up" shots, which worked really well and she was back to her normal, feisty self by the next day. YAY!

We're so proud of Bodie, she is such a great mother. We weren't sure if she would be since she didn't have a goat mother herself and since she hasn't been around other goats all that much. But, she loves her baby so much, she lets him eat (suck) and cuddle, they are sooooooooo cute together. I can't wait to take them on hikes, it's going to be so much fun!

Here's a couple more pictures!

Alright Alright

Being in Sacramento California all last week, I had no time to post. This week has been a crazy one and has kept me from posting as well. I'm going to try to get a post up by Friday morning, but it might end up being Saturday morning instead--we'll see how it goes.

The weather has gone cold again! It was really windy last night and this morning it was raining really hard and was still really windy. Just when we think spring is finally here to stay, mother nature says 'ha, fooled you! Here's some cold storminess!'

It's Time for Holi:

A celebration that I desperately wish was observed widely throughout the States. Holi, the Hindu Festival of Color, is a yearly festival celebrating the return of color to the world. Holi is celebrated on the Phalgun Purnima (or Pooranmashi, Full Moon) in the month of Phalgun according to the Hindu Calendar. This year the celebration starts March 19th and runs 2 day finishing on March 20th--the actual day of Holi.

According to The Festival of Colors, "Holi celebrates the spirit of life which is happiness and merriment. This festival is about letting go whatever has happened and enjoy life together with friends and family. Liveliness of spring season takes its heights, when colors and flowers swathe the courtyards and streets throughout the country."

Last year at this time I had already seen my first wildflowers mainly lomatiums and violas. I haven't seen any yet this year, we have had a few late snow storms and to be fair I haven't been out for a hike in awhile. My new job is keeping pretty busy, but hopefully I'll get out into the hills soon. We are going to be at the ranch this weekend (for Holi) and I'm sure we'll go for some hikes, hopefully I'll get lucky and spot a wildflower or two.

Happy Holi everyone, let the color of the season dye your soul a shade of joy!!!

Ouch, Perhaps the longest I've gone

without posting, crazy. I had plenty of time to post since early October--I hadn't been working. I guess I felt like I wasn't doing anything all that interesting. I had gone on some awesome hikes and was actually doing stuff, but I don't know why I wasn't inspired to write.

More recently I was hired at Sierra Nevada Journeys--a non-profit that focuses on science and outdoor education--as an Experiential Educator, which is exciting and keeping me really busy. I guess with busy comes inspiration to write. I don't have too much to say today, except that I'm going to try to get back into this, I miss writing and sharing what I love in this world.

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

Man, it's been a really busy month or so. I'm finishing up my job with Friends of Nevada Wilderness, which is keeping me hard at work. My last day with Friends is Friday the 24th and I don't think I'm going to finish everything that I wanted to get done. There's still an area in Gray Creek I would like to get to and I'd also like to get further into the west side of Hunter Creek.

I'm very sad that this awesome job is coming to an end, I have enjoyed the experience immensely. I can tell, however, that my body is a bit tired and is in need of a break--my knee has been hurting and I've been feeling fairly tired overall. I don't want to take too big of a break though, I'd like to stay in as good as shape as I am in now or, if I'm lucky, get into even better shape--that will be hard if I'm not hiking 8-20 miles a day like I am now. I want to start swimming again,maybe start running too. I'd like to do a marathon...I think. I also would like to get back into climbing, it's been a few years and I miss it. As for work, I hope I can find another job that is as awesome as this job. I think I'd be happy if my next job is even half as fun as this job. I feel so lucky to have had this opportunity to explore the Mount Rose Wilderness and to get to know the people at Friends, they have been wonderful, I'll miss them.

I know this post is a bit rambly for me, but it has been preoccupying my mind. As far as what I've been doing as of late; a couple of backpacking trips for work, a bachelorette weekend, and some pro-mini golf. Here's the proof:

Dan and two of the kids at work

Dan and Dust hard at work with me

I love Mount Rose Wilderness

Bachellorette floaty

Bachelorette Groove Thang

I love Mount Rose Wilderness

Backpack trip for work, Thomas Creek to Brockway

Gray Lake and Rose Knob Peak at Sundown

2010 4th Annual Pabst Reno-Tahoe Mini Golf Open:
The Most Awesome Team!

Another Year Gone By--Crazy!

This past Sunday was my 34th birthday, it was a really fun day. We started with Peg's Glorified Ham and Eggs for breakfast and then played some ultimate at Reno High. We were then going to float the river, but it was overcast and thundering so we decided not to. So we went home to rest for about an hour. After our rest, we went and spent the afternoon at the Reno Wine Walk--I hadn't done a wine walk in about a year so it was extra fun. After that, we went and had a yummy dinner at the Greek Festival. Then we finished up the night at a screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at Lawlor Event Center. A fun filled day to say the least!

Like I mentioned last year, I like to do something every year that makes that year special and unique. For me 33 was the year of travel. I had never traveled oversees until last year and I got to do it twice last year, yay!!! I went to Romania to visit my sister in the Peace Corps and to Euskadi because Dan was sent there for his work. Another thing that made this year super cool is that I have an awesome seasonal job with Friends of Nevada Wilderness and I have been able to explore parts of Mount Rose Wilderness I never thought I would. Sadly it will end in about a month.

Here's to making 34 as awesome as 33!!!!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from my travels, I hope you enjoy:

Sunset at the Black Sea

My Sister, her friend and me at the Nadia stature

Cows on the Black Sea

My sister and me at the Black Sea

The cathedral

Dan taking a picture

Playing on the Flysh

Dan and me on the cliffs

Dan playing on the coast

Trail Builder

I have always been interested in trail building, but I have never really had the opportunity to get involved with it. This past weekend the Tahoe Rim Trail Association (TRTA) put on a trail building class, so I decided to partake. It was a lot of fun. I didn't know anyone in the class, but the people were nice and I soon felt quite comfortable in the mix. A lot of the people in the course had been hired for the summer at various organizations through the Americorps program. They are either crew leaders or crew members who will be out working on the trails all summer. As for me, I think I'm just going to volunteer at some of the local trails--at least for now.

The class was interesting, I learned about the different tools that are used on the trail such as loppers, pruning and pole saws, Pulaskis, Pick Mattocks, McLouds, and rockbars. I really enjoyed getting dirty and the physical labor involved in building trails. We worked on a section of trail that had quite a bit of manzanita in it. The manzanita was difficult to work with, but made for an interesting experience. We had to deal with a lot of manzanita roots, but there was one huge manzanita root we had to remove, it was tough but we got it out.

There was an advanced class going on at the same time as our class. They were learning how to do really cool stuff. They learned how to set up a griphoist system to remove huge boulders. They also learned how to shape and split rocks to build stairs and shape unmovable rocks into safer forms. We got to watch them for a bit, i can't wait to take that class in the future it looks like a ton of fun.

For now I can't wait to get out onto the trails and help with some trail building and or maintenance. The TRTA is planning a Reno to Rim trail with building starting in July, that is definitely a trail project I would like get my hands dirty on.

See you on the trails!

24 hours of wind, pain and fun!

Wrestling a bear--think I'm winning?

This past weekend Dan and I decided to join in on the annual 24 hour Reno bike scavenger hunt/race--Scalleycat. The event has been held for several years and we have always wanted to attend, but in the past, life and location has kept us away. This year the stars aligned and we were able take part in the biking fun.

We started out at a local bar where we got our bike bible, which is the list of missions to complete during the scavenger hunt. The missions are worth varying points depending upon how difficult they are to complete. The bible contains way more missions than anyone can complete, so you have to pick and choose which missions to complete and in which order to complete them in. To get points you have to take a digital picture of you and your bike completing the mission. Oh yeah, and you compete in teams of two, one to be in the picture and one to take the picture. We didn't take the race part of it too seriously, we just wanted to ride and have fun--we even got 7 hours of sleep during the race.

Our route

We ended up riding a little over 60 miles. The first night was cold and windy and it even snowed on us a little. When we rode out to Patagonia we had a major head wind with rain and snow flurries, which made the ride out west quite interesting. We got to do all sorts of fun things during this great event. We drank beer, took shots, ate funky food, wrestled bears, climbed to letters, jumped into a massive dog pile, turned into unicorns, played with all sorts of animals, gave my mommy flowers, made new friends, hung with old ones and at the end, we danced the night away. All in all, it was an amazing 24 hours.

Here are just a few of the photos from our ride:

Dog pile in the middle of the Cal Neva dance floor.

I was turned into a unicorn at the Alibi

Giving my mommy fresh picked flowers.

New friends and a Rhea (these guys got second place, sweet).

Dan, Conor and a mountain goat.

Dan riding down 10 steps.