Bring on Spring!

Hello everyone! I’ll spare you my comments about it being awhile since my last post and jump right into it. As usual we have both been crazy crazy busy! We are crazy busy during the week with work and on the weekends we hit the accelerator to get as much out of them as possible. I have been traveling all over the place for work the last month and half- to name a few places: Atlanta, Dallas, San Diego, Northern Idaho, and places around Washington. I am still working on racking up those airline miles to get status (and at least have the chance to upgrade to first class). If there is one thing I know about air travel, it wasn’t made for tall folks. I’ll just leave it at that.

Jenny has also been insanely busy with her residency- working early mornings and late nights (and one weekend a month- which is the pits). Even with us working so hard during the week, we have been very busy on the weekends! The pictures will tell much more about our weekend activities, but we usually have some sort of project going. One project is our mini garden! Jenny ordered up a bunch of heirloom seeds, ranging from lettuce, asparagus, beans, tomatoes, all sorts of herbs, and even some thai hot peppers. You’ll see some pics below of the progress the plants have made in just a few weeks. One problem with our place is that we don’t have any space to put the plants outside. Well, three cups of coffee and one computer file later we had a design for a garden box! The box sits on top of a rather useless wall next to our driveway. Luckily, it is southern facing so the plants will be getting plenty of sunlight. Haven’t told the landlord yet, but I don’t see how he won’t approve (especially if we bribe him with homegrown veggies).

I have also been sewing a bunch of things lately. There are some pictures of some of my sewing projects below.

Aside from projects, Jenny and I have been hitting the slopes. Ullr (God of Snow) has smiled upon Washingtonians and has been dumping snow on the Cascades during the weekends. We have had 4 amazing powder days up at Stevens Pass this year(most days with over a foot of new snow)! I realize that everyone who is reading this might not be a skier, or have gotten to experience a real “powder day”. (I am writing this a day after a great powder day, so I can’t really contain my excitement- bear with me). On powder days you get to feel like a superhero- gliding swiftly and silently through snow covered forests and open bowls while taking in the breathtaking mountain views. It’s a very special and exciting feeling to get to experience a real powder day- as with most things- the pictures just don’t do it justice. I’ll stop talking about snow now.

A few weekends ago we went to a wedding for our friends who live in Louisiana. We ventured to St. Francisville, LA, and let me tell you, they know how to have a good time down there. The wedding was hosted at my friend’s (the groom) parent’s house. He had told us a million stories about where he grew up, but nothing prepared us for the unbelievable place his parents live at. The property was absolutely gorgeous- spanning about 300 acres, with several lakes, forest, and wide open fields of grass on it. They have horses, pigs, chickens, and even bees (they sent us honey- it was great)! A large portion of the wedding camped out by the big lake and every amentity was thought through- we stayed in a large tent with carpet, a queen size air mattress, and it even had flowers in there! As for Louisianans, they know how to throw a party. The food was amazingly done, and the beer….. overflowth. We had a really great time seeing old friends and making new ones.

Let me think what else I can fill you in on…. ah, yes. Biking! Seattle is totally into riding bicycles! There are bike lanes, bike paths, and drivers generally know to yield to bikers. Anyways, Jenny and I jumped on the bandwagon and we started biking to work! My first few rides started with some flat tires and full on adventures to get to work, but with a new set of tires and little know-how I have been successfully making the trip to and from work. When Jenny and I both commute via bike we get to ride the first 6 miles together (also we live at the top of a giant hill so the it’s nice ride in the morning…. The way back is a much different story). We are signed up for a 200 mile 2 day bike ride from Seattle to Vancouver, so we are training as much as we can for that!
Holy Moses! I guess I had a lot to talk about! Like I said before, we have been crazy busy for the last month and it’s looking like that isn’t going to change anytime soon. That does it from Seattle, thanks for reading up and enjoy the pics!

Bring on Spring! 

 

 Finished another insulated vest! Doesn't look like a garbage bag!

Bicycle Pannier initial design.

 

Coming together

 

 Testing the hook and anchor pieces for the pannier.

 Dewalt tools kick ass! Drilling holes for the pannier "backbone".

Mandatory beer test- needs some work.

 

Finished pannier on my bicycle.

Hotel Jeep. Spent the night in Stevens Pass parking lot dirt bagging it.

Hot breakfast and hot coffee after sleeping in the parking lot. Note: down sleepingbags are incredible.

Blue Bird day at Stevens.

Ripping through the trees on a powder day

Hi!

Heating up dinner in the parking lot at Stevens.

"tent town" at Jacob and Sarah's wedding

The house my friend, Jacob, grew up in. St Francisville, LA

The pig in the middle is named Leroy. He was not friendly.

Groomsmen drinking beers pre ceremony.

Pre ceremony shennanigans.

The Roland siblings!

Another view of the house.

Post ceremony- the party has started

Rolling up to the reception.

We named this dog Benji or Louie (depending on who you talked to). He was found roaming around the property during the weekend of the wedding. Someone from the wedding adopted him.

Our accommodations for the weekend.

Tent town lounge area

 

Initial design of the garden box.

 

The semi completed box- still need to put bracing legs on the left side- I will do that when we are ready to move the plants outside.

 My favorite botanist working hard!


Ready to go!


Our sprouting set up.

Our garden 2 weeks after planting.

I took this pic from Kerry Park in Seattle. It's an HDR photo- I basically took the same picture with a bunch of different exposures, put them on top of each other and viola!

 Yes, the camera is still on.

 Boulder Drop Rapid on the Skykomish. Class IV rapid just off the road on the way up to Stevens Pass.

The view from our living room- if you look closely you can see the sun setting over the Olympic Mountains!