The Garden, Episode 3

The dirt is here!  My two and a half yards of prime composted garden dirt arrived yesterday morning and last night, I spent two hours wheelbarrowing it over to the beds.  Linda calls it "black gold."  I'm just hoping it will yield green gold.

The Garden, Episode 2

Step two to planting a garden in the Northwest is apparently, go buy some dirt.  Seems like a weird thing to do, but I'm just following along here people!  Like I said before, I'm really trying to up my chances for success so I'm doing whatever it takes to get this garden off on the right foot. 

So, I bought some dirt today.  Two and a half yards of mulch compost will be delivered to my garden on Wednesday.  Just need to find a wheelbarrow.....oh, and a shovel.

Tonight, B and I are headed to the hardware store to get some fencing supplies.  There is a pesky deer that likes to nibble the new starts over at the plot and since we vetoed my scarecrow idea, a fence is in the plans.  Then, I can finally get something planted in the ground!

(Buy dirt.  Ha.  Sorry, I just can't get over it.)

Latin Life in Portland

Our good friend Alyson's birthday was last Friday and we celebrated with a fantastic dinner at Clyde Common and then salsa dancing at the Mambo Lounge.

I had my camera along but silly me, didn't take a single photo.  Good thing the folks from PDXLatino.com were around snapping shots.  Check out their site here:  www.pdxlatino.com and scroll down just a little.  Apparently, Alyson's friend Meg and I are now part of Latin Life in Portland.  Alyson is not in the shot because she was shaking her moves on the dance floor.  That birthday girl can dance.

Ski, ski, work, work, work, rinse, repeat.

Normally around this time of year, it won't freaking stop raining.  The days are gray and the sun rarely shines.  Normally around this time of year, I can't wait for summer to finally arrive.  Well, April 2009 has been a little different.  We've already had that gorgeous 80 degree weekend that sneaks in somehow every spring and the sun has been out most of the time.  As you can see from the last post, the Hoybooks have been taking full advantage.

So, here's the thing:  Bryan can't seem to stop thinking about winter.  With all of this sun and warm weather around, he still has a serious case of snowis slidis feveralis, a.k.a. ski fever.  We've been trying to find a cure but apparently more skiing is the only remedy.  

His first dose of medication was last week's shenanigans in Central Oregon, a ski-tour, corn harvest on Broken Top.  So, when that didn't work, we spent today at Timberline.  The weather was questionable the whole day-- what's with the fog?-- but the snow was great.  On the way home, we were already scheming another day on the slopes for next Sunday.

Summer, come on down, but can you wait just one more week?  Bryan needs serious help.

A 3-hour Cruise

Summer invaded Portland for a couple of days.  It's back to clouds today, but the weekend was amazing and lucky me, I had Monday off, the best day.  B and I saddled up some kayaks and headed out to cruise the lakes of Sauvie Island.  The island was created when the Multnomah River empties up with the Columbia River just northwest of Portland and it has lakes.  A bunch of 'em. Who knew?

 The water was calm, the sun was hot and the day was so fun.  It was just plain summer-ish.  We took a 3-hour cruise around Sturgeon Lake and then headed over to the Lodge's for the first bar-be-que of the season.  Nothing rounds out a hot day on the water like a brat and a beer.  Even though it didn't stick around long, it reminded me of why Oregon is just so dang fantastic.  Yeah, yeah, it rains a lot, but when it doesn't, it is beautiful and when we get days like Monday, it makes all the rest totally worth it. 

B paddles up on a bald eagle.  We also spotted two blue herons, six other eagles, lots of sturgeon wrestling around in the shallow water and three other HUGE birds that we couldn't name.  

B paddles with Mt. St. Helens off to the right.  We saw the whole Cascade chain from the middle of the lake-- Mt. Rainier, St. Helens, Adams, Hood and Jefferson.

The Garden, Episode 1

I'm a firm believer that many good ideas can come out of Happy Hour. My good friends from work, Linda and Sarah, and I meet about once a month for Happy Hour. We catch Sarah up on REI Tualatin gossip, she catches us up on her beautiful daughter. And we laugh, boy do we laugh.

Last fall, we started hatching the idea about planting a community garden of sorts. (We even went as far as raising chickens, but the more we thought about it, we decided that idea might have been the result of a two margarita night.) Linda's parents live on about three acres on a hill that gets great sunlight, so she offered up the land for our "farm." Thus, the Garden was born.

Today, we took the first steps. B and I headed over to our plot to put in our raised beds. Now, I should say here that I have an extremely black thumb. I'm don't know how it happened-- I come from a long lineage of green thumbs, but apparently those genes just didn't get transferred. When it comes to house plants, if I'm in charge, they will pretty much die a slow, wet death. I'm guilty of overwatering. Major overwatering. I just love them too much. I'm hoping that growing plants outdoors will help my chances. So in an effort to further boost my chances, we built two 8' x 4' raised beds today.

The next step will be mulch, the compost, then planting. I have a long way to go, but I think we got off on the right foot today.

This year's crop will hopefully include:

lettuce

spinach

okra

strawberries

snow peas

onions

cucumbers

tomatoes

and any other veggies we decide we MUST have.

Back in the saddle

You can't keep us down for long.  Skiing with Geoff at Timberline on Friday.  

Spring skiing is the best.  Have I mentioned that before?  Well, it is.  The snow is slushy and forgiving, the runs are deserted and I only have to wear three shirts. 

Rest area ahead

Ok, it's time for me to admit it.  I'm tired.  B is tired.  WE are tired.  I looked at the calendar today and thought, "What!  It's April?  What happened to March?"  And then I remembered.  We left part of March in Hawaii and the rest in Utah.  

This weekend rolled around and the weather was beeeyoootiful.  So naturally, B and I had big plans for Sunday-- tennis, bike ride, hike. Big plans.  

Want to know what really happened?  We played tennis for about half an hour, grabbed some lunch and blanket, went to the park and proceeded to read the paper in the sun and toss around the frisbee.  Then we went home and I took a nap.  That's right, I admit it.  It was 78 degrees out, in April, in OREGON and I took a nap.  Got a problem with it?  No?  Good.  Because it was delightful.

The Olsons do Utah.

I'm not sure who should take credit for the idea (probably my dad), but the Olsons went on vacation together last week.  Apparently, when we all live in far corners of the country-- New York, Oregon and Florida-- my parents have a hard time getting their kids together.  So, instead of all converging on Wayne, America like usual, we went on vacation together.  Just like the old days.

We rented a house outside of Zion National Park in southern Utah for four days.  Four great days of dune jumping, hiking, sight seeing, cooking, game playing and general merriment.  Here, as usual, is your photographic feast.

Our trip to Utah by the numbers:

Miles driven: 2,346

National parks visited: 2

Miles hiked:  20

Elevation gained:  4722 ft.

Family members present: 8

Cameras present at any given time:  10

Olsons that Mom fooled with her annual April Fool's Day joke: 2

Winners of the Zion cook-off:  Bridget and Craig (Sorry Scott, you ran a tight race, but that gelato thing was to die for.)

Hours the power was out at the Rabbit Junction rental mansion: 1 

Vertical skiied at Snowbird:  21,472 ft.

Times I laughed on this trip: a million

Times I smiled: a billion

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park-- very cool and since we were there early in the morning, the deserted coral pink sand dunes.

Craig, Bryan and Scott doin' some dune jumpin'.
Craig and Bridget make good use of the bleachers at the dunes.  The bleachers are for...?  

"Goooooo dunes! Go dunes!"
B and me at the top of Observation Point, elev. 6,508 ft. with a view up Zion Canyon.
The family hiking down into the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park.  This was my favorite side trip-- everywhere you looked was a photo waiting to happen.
Mom and Pops at Bryce Canyon.
Hoo-die hoo, I love those hoodoos.
The family poses at Bryce Point.
Mom setting out on the very sketchy trail up to Angel's Landing in Zion.   She is super hard core and keepin' it real.
Looking back down the ridge from the top of Angel's Landing.  Yep, that ridge is the trail folks. When I say "sketchy", oh boy, do I mean sketchy.  See the middle section down there?  Well, it's about 1,000 feet straight down on either side of you while you walk across a little rock bridge about five feet wide.  Yeah.  For reals.  
Brothers and sister at the top of Angel's Landing.
B and me on the Emerald Pools trail deep in the Zion Canyon.
Getting ready for another run down the powdery slopes of Snowbird, Utah.  Of-course we had to stop and ski on the way home.  

B kicking up some spray.

This pretty much sums up what I thought of the entire trip.  Wooo!

More island flavor

If you think you can handle it, click here.

Love writing

Lately, B has been hooking us up with a lot of new music.  Some I like, some I think is whiney, some I'm pretty much indifferent about, but most of it I love.  (We both have the same silly habit with music we end up liking-- we burn a cd so we can listen in the car and then only play that cd for about two weeks straight.  Non-stop.  Then, the cd gets shelved for couple of weeks, months maybe, until it resurfaces for another two weeks of fame.)  My current obsession?  Greg Laswell.

He mostly writes really, really sad songs--sometimes he'll play a lonely guitar riff and it's as if you can actually hear his heart breaking.  But it's his lyrics that get me and I think he's still writing love songs underneath.  Here is a sample of my favorites from his newest album:

if i could write out my own dream / for the next time that i sleep / you'd be the first one that i'd see / and i'd be the last one you keep

there's a song that i've waited / oh, to write with you / think i'll finish it instead / i got enough from you love / that it finishes itself / i regret

and if the plane lifts off / i'll write you a letter / to say goodbye / and i will make it long / and lie just a little / tell you that i'm doing fine

so go ahead and bang a gong / nothing / could drown out the sound of the whispers of my love

Masters of all trades

About a month ago, B moved into a office of his very own.  Well, his very own, plus four other guys, but an office nonetheless.  He is sharing a space in Lake Oswego with a marketing specialist, a videographer, a graphic designer and a web designer.  The trifecta plus two, so a five-fecta if you will.

It's great for oh, so many reasons:  a) B can keep normal office hours and has a place to meet clients, b) he can get out of the house to go to work which helps him keep normal working hours and c) all of the guys in the office have the chance to bounce ideas back and forth off one another, not to mention handing off clients to one another.

So far, it has been a great experience for everyone involved and they are just starting to get the ball rolling.  Last week, a writer for the local Lake O paper did a feature story on them for the front page of the Style section.  (I'm having trouble finding the link online so I think it might have just been in print.)  Here is a shot of what the page looked like:

Just a proud wife gushing a little bit over her hubby.

Doubleday Designs

A great big, huge shout out to my friend Erin and her new Etsy site: 

www.doubledaydesigns.etsy.com

She makes gorgeous jewelry, take a look around her shop!  Oh, and buy some of it too.

Liquid Aloha

So, it's time to explain the blog post drought around these parts.  B and I were on Kauai for a week.  Go ahead, take a moment.......

Yep, we just spent six fabulous days with the Incredi-Lodges on Hawaii's "Garden Isle."  We (in no particular order) hiked, drove around the island, drank, beach walked, combed the beach in the rain, golfed, snorkeled, laid out, surfed, boogie-boarded, kayaked up a river, ate ridiculous amounts of seafood and had a blast.  

Kauai is a fascinating place because the island has so many different landscapes.  We drove up the Waimea Canyon, the Grand Canyon of Hawaii, and saw rocks off the side of the road that could have been plucked right out of Utah and then, at the top of the canyon, we hiked through the muddiest jungle.  Even the beaches were different wherever we went-- rocks, steep cliffs, sand.  The weather was unpredictable too-- the island greeted us with two days of torrential rain, but we soon figured out that if we went to the south side, we'd have sunny skies all day. 

In order to save you all from a day-by-day, play-by-play of our trip, I'll just post a whole truck load of photos.  The Lodges are actually STILL in Hawaii so I'll add the link to Julia's photos once they get home.

Waimea Canyon

The start of the hike out to Pehia Vista.  Muddy!
Julia and I try to navigate a drier route through the muck puddle.
Pehia Vista, where we were supposed to see "grand views of the amazing and spectacular Na Pali coast" behind us.  Yeah, not so much.
B in one of our very classy $3 rain trench coats at the Hanalei Farmer's Market.  (Lesson learned?  Always pack a raincoat for any destination.  Always.)
Hibiscus.Geoff and B and their surfboards on Wailua beach.
B gets ready to tackle the waves.
B at Wailua beach after a tiring session.

Julia and me pose outside of our lunch spot in Hanalei.  Finally, the sun was out!  Just minutes after this, we find out that the bridge back to the rest of the island is closed.  Closed.  Oh well, guess we'll have to go shopping. :)

Kayaking up the Wailua river.

Sun + palm trees = "do we have to go home?"

Snorkels are sexy.
An aquatic friend comes ashore for a sun bath.
Sunrise outside our condo in Kapa'a.
On a beach in Po'ipu on the sunny south shore.

Light it up!

I think we have day and night for a reason.  Day is for activity, night is for sleep.  It's really just that simple.  I'm sure there are those that will definitely disagree with me-- the whole city of Las Vegas for one-- but seriously, it's the reason behind that rule every mother in every small town has:  "Come home when the street lights turn on."  In other words, it's getting dark, it's time to rest.

So, with that in mind, why do we go skiing at night?  And why, if it is so against what the natural turn of the earth wants us to do, is it soooooo awesome?

The Oregon Cascades saw a ridiculous 3 foot dump last week and we just couldn't stay off the mountain.  B and I hit the powdery slopes at Ski Bowl on Friday afternoon and skied our legs off.  

Night skiing is fun, but I'll be honest, it's weird.  Think about it:  they put up lights on the side of the mountain so you can do something that should be a daytime activity at night.  Oh, and you have to pay for it.  I think my big brother should think about adding some lights to his golf course.  Can you say "Cha-ching."  Hello?  Night is the new day.