Summer!

By popular demand, here's a pic of the baby birds from Silver Creek Falls! The middle chich poked his head out right as I was about to take the picture. They sure were fuzzy and cute.

Knock on wood, but I think that summer might be here at last! Work has been keeping me really busy, but I've been doing my best to get out and enjoy the sun while it lasts. The pool at my apartment has defanitely been in use! There is a free production of Juluis Ceaser this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at Washington Park, so I think I'm going to go check it out. For those of you who don't know, the new Batman movie will also be coming out this week. I was a fan of the last movie, and I'm a fan of Christian Bale so I might take a gander over to the movie theater and see that too.

Nature's Garden

I've just completed a sucessful vacation - my mom came for a visit and we had an action packed five days. We went to Seattle and did some touristy things there - visited Pike's market, saw the space needle (didn't go up, but got a good look), went to the aquarium and saw a very active octopus and some playful otters. I love watching them at feeding time - they are so goofy and graceful in the water. The train ride back was amazingly beautiful, the sky was so clear, and we had great views of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Saint Helens, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood. On Saturday we went to Silver Creek Falls State Park. It was so hot out that day! We didn't make it to all ten waterfalls, but I think we saw seven or eight of them. Double Falls was my favorite because you could get so close to it. The spray felt great. We also saw the cutest baby birds! If you weren't paying attention you wouldn't even notice them when you walked behind Lower South Falls. Luckily somebody pointed them out to us and I snapped a great pick just as the third chick was poking it's head out of the nest! The park also has so many beautiful wildflowers, like the wild iris. There are supposed to be cougar and black bear as well, but we didn't see any around. Today we ran Reach the Bridge, a fundraiser for the ALA. We got an early start (good thing too, because it was hot and humid) and I'm happy to report that both my mom and I reached the Burnside before it went up at 9. It was a really fun race, despite the fact that I almost got hit by some jackass as he drove through the course. After the race we decided to WALK back to the start, putting our daily total to over 10 miles. We went to the Rose Garden in Washington Park. I've never been, but the roses there are so beautiful! I really enjoyed running around and smelling them all. If you ever visit Portland, make sure you go to the Rose Garden!

Cookies n' Clean

This morning I discovered a bakery who's bagels are on par with Dunkin' Dounuts. Their hot chocolate leaves something to be desired, but Noah's Bagels are AWESOME! My mom is coming for a visit on Tuesday and so the majority of my day was spent cleaning and such. I'm also in the process of baking cookies tomorrow. While I was waiting for the dough to get cold I decided to try out my new blender! I used up the rest of my strawberries (which were getting yucky), my V8 splash (which I haven't drank in about a month), and some vanilla yogurt that I bought this morning. The result was pretty tasty and VERY pink. Tomorrow before I go to work I'm going to try out a peach, vanilla yogurt, and ice cubes. Yummy!

Picasso Who?

I'm having a great day today. I left work at 1030 this morning after an uneventful night. When pulling into my apartment complex I noticed that one of my neighbors was having a garage sale. I decided to walk over and I found two hot buys! One is a brand new blender, which I purchased for only $10. I tested it out and it works awesome. I can't wait to make a smoothie! The second big item was a reproduciton of a Picasso painting. I didn't want to ask the woman if it was original (who sells an original Picasso at a garage sale?) so I asked who the artist was that reproduced it. She told me that it was a print that she put on a canvas and then painted texture onto it. Totally Awesome. After my streak of good luck at the garage sale I decided that I should deal with the funny noise that my car has been making lately. I took it to a garage, dropped it off, and walked to the Max station. On the way I saw a man selling strawberries from the back of his truck (I've bought maple syrup and flowers from the backs of trucks too). I stopped and bought a quart and ate about half of it on my way home. On the Max the man I sat next to asked me what time it was, I told him, and then I asked him if he wanted a strawberry. He said yes and that they smelled really good. I think I made his day, and I let him take the biggest, reddest one. Everyone that I walked past for the remaining mile of my journey commented on what beautiful strawberries I had and I tried to share the love. Upon my return home I watched Dirty Dancing (for the very first time) and at the end of the movie the garage called to tell me that there was really nothing wrong with my car, just some shoddy work done by the last garage I went to in February. Oh! And Linnea made the best jam yesterday - I'm going to buy some vanilla ice cream later and combine the two (maybe in the blender?). Yeah!

On My Runarelli

Perhaps prematurely, I signed up for a triathlon later this summer. I'm not really prepared to do a triathlon, nor do I know how to train for one; but I hit the submit button and, as I have said to myself many times before, "How hard can it be?" I'm not shooitng for a stellar performance, just a strong finish. So in preparation for said triathlon, I went for a run today on the Rock Creek Trail. Every time I run that way I like to stop and stretch by a set of little memorial benches, which are in living memory of Graham Stewart Clark. I always wonder who Graham Stewart Clark is (besided lover of nature and cycling) and what could have happened that his life was cut short to 41 years. I think he would inspire me if I knew him and encourage me to do the triathlon. He strikes me as the type of person who has a 'work hard, play hard' attitude, but make sure that you're happy while your doing it. As my uncle once wrote about painter Stanton Englehart, "For Stanton, painting and fishing and cycling and loving are not about fame. They are about finding the inner soul of the outward experience." I think that could be Graham Stewart Clark, and it could be me too.

Why Free Heels?

When my dad taught me how to ski, he was teaching me about life. As we skied down the Catamount Bowl at Mad River Glen he said to me, "Life is really bumpy, just like this trail. To get down it you have to take it one bump at a time." It has proved true often enough, and I want to make this blog to remind me that there is more to life than just work. And to anyone who cares, when you free your heels you free your mind. Here's a pic of my dad and I on one of our free-heeled adventures.