Finally

Kelly & I finally went to the Burger Bar. We've been talking about going for at least 2 years now. There's no indoor seating and we picked a perfectly frigid day to go, but the food was everything we dreamed it would be. I had a peanut butter cup shake and it was divine. Some of the best shakes ever. Tony's strawberry shake was to die for. You would think it was summer with the ripe strawberry flavor except that you were freezing inside and out.

All I had was a burger, fries (didn't even eat them all), and the shake and I was full (bloated) all day. I haven't been eating a lot of burgers and fries lately so it was lovely while I was eating it but seriously, it took forever to digest. I ate some berries later for dinner, but that was it.

Also, I finally went snowshoeing this weekend. I have wanted to try snowshoeing forever. I even bought a pair of used ex-rentals from REI last year but still never went.

I'm dumb enough to consider going on my own, but not dumb enough to actually go on my own. For sure I would end up in an avalanche disappear mysteriously until some hikers found me the next spring. I just don't want to inflict that kind of emotional damage to hikers. Bikers or skiers, sure, but not hikers.

We went on the Mill D trail up to Donut Falls. It's this hole in a sort of rocky cave like area. It's totally a cave in the winter with all the snow piled up on it. Very cool. I plan to go back if not again on snowshoes, then in the summer as a hike.

The Circle of Life

So in one day I got to feed both my new three week old niece and my dad.

My new niece is Savannah. She is a doll. She reminds me a lot of my sister. I see a lot of my sister in her other two kids, but for some reason I see more of her in this one. Not that that makes any difference. I love all of them. So far this one seems to be as easy going as the other two. She eats and sleeps. I haven't seen much crying or fussing.

I don't know what it is about babies, but why is it you can love something so much that doesn't talk or contribute to society or really have much personality at all. Maybe it's just that she's part of my sister and you can transfer the love you have for a sibling off on their offspring. I don't know. I just know my heart gets all squeezy and tight when I hold her.

Feeding a parent is not the same thing as feeding a baby. I think you do it out of the same reasoning. You love them and they are helpless and you want to take care of them, but it doesn't evoke the same emotions. For the most part I feel surprisingly little. Not little, more like nothing. The scary absence of feeling cause you know if you didn't block it off you would feel really bad and sick.

Get Out of the Smog

You're sick of running on the treadmill everyday. The roads are actually clear of snow and ice. You are itching to break out your tighty, running tights and breath in the brisk cool winter air. And then you look out the window and there it is. The Salt Lake Valley winter smog. You've heard running in it is like smoking a pack of cigarettes. True or not you'd rather not find out.

City Creek Canyon is the answer to your winter smog running blues. The smog is usually brought on by the infamous "inversion". I can't tell you all the scientific reasoning, but during this time, City Creek Canyon stays free and clear of the smog.

I've run there in the winter and it's even been warmer the further up the canyon I went. Except for immediately after a snowstorm, the roads are kept pretty clear even in January and February. There may be a few ice patches where the water runs across the road. Just be smart and slow down to an awkward shuffle.

This is actually one of the most beautiful routes I've run in the winter. Blue skies, snow flocked evergreens, and the sound of City Creek babbling down the canyon.

Job Hunting/Marathon training

I'm doing the whole job hunt thing. I just remembered why I haven't done this for a while. I'm seriously considering a meter reader job. It requires a lot of walking. I'm all over that. I'd really like a job that got me outdoors for part of the day. If there's a jumpsuit that comes with it, I'm so in.

Ogden Marathon II
Since I have all this free time right now, I've decided to train to run another marathon. I really liked the Ogden. It's well organized, the route is beautiful, and I'd really like to go back and beat my time. I ran it in 2007 and finished in 5:09. I really wanted to run a sub 5 hour marathon. I'll never qualify for Boston, but I think I can do better.

Other races I am planning on or have registered for 2009:
Moab Half Marathon
Ogden Marathon
Spudman Triathlon (Olympic distance)(if I don't make the lottery, I may try the Vikingman again)
Peach Day's 10K

I'll probably add a few more races, but I haven't settled on which yet.

Well, got to go run, literally....

Road Trip, Part deux

I've been to Phoenix a couple of times but I've either been passing by or it was July. You don't go outside in July unless its to sit in the pool. Anyhow, it's lovely in the winter. I hiked two different peaks, Squaw and Camelback.



Mr. R took me on the hike up Squaw "mountain". I started shooting off my mouth about how these aren't mountains by Utah standards. Then I ran out of breath so I stopped. The peaks/mountains are not that high there but the trails go straight up instead of nice gradual switchbacks. I mean it was no Timp, but both hikes were pretty strenuous. I highly recommend them.

Second day I was going to go back to where Squaw is and hike around all the lowland trails, but I didn't find it. Strangely I came across another trail head which turned out to be Camelback. I actually thought this trail was a little more lovely a trail. It had some technical parts though.


There was a decorated Christmas tree on top. Fun and festive.


There was this one guy who was "running" it. He went up and down at least 3 times while I was there.


I took off for San Diego after the hike. It's a nice straight shot to CA from Phoenix. Nothing very eventful. There is this dunes area that I thought was pretty cool when you cross the AZ/CA border. The sun was setting so I didn't get any pics.


San Diego. What do I say. Every time I get back for a visit it's like I never left. I love the freeway systems there. So quick and easy to get everywhere.


I did make it to the beach. I didn't get in though. I didn't take my wetsuit with me. It was chilly. The air, the sand, the water. I'm not usually that weak sauce and if someone had been there encouraging me I would have totally plunged, but I admit it, I wimped out. I did wade though. I had a lovely walk along La Jolla Shores though. The tide was low enough that I could go all the way over to where the tide pools are.


I crossed most of my to do list off. I ate a burrito from Los Alamos in Old Town. Beach. Fish tacos. I did not make it to Little Italy for gelato. Also, I did not go to Tijauana to search for a ceramic surf monkey. Apparently there's a lot of Mexican mafia killings in TJ everyday (all the border towns for that matter) and it was highly suggested I not go. I figured the monkey wasn't worth possible death.


The final item on my list was shenanigans with Doctor B. I don't know what I was doing the two years I lived in San Diego, but apparently I missed the giant turd. There is this sculpture that is supposed to be a wave in honor of some ocean god. Well, if I were the sculptor, I would stay away from water, cause if I were the ocean god, I'd drown this guy for insulting me with a giant doo-doo.




Did I mention it was raining? Pretty hard. So Doc B is all, let's climb it. He climbed it just fine. My shoes slid right off the thing. I did take them off. After B jumped like 40 feet through the air, did a flip and a roll or something (that's how I remember it now), he comes over to help me up. With some hefting, prodding and poking of my posterior, I finally get maybe halfway up. But I'm like spread across the back of this thing and my grip is slipping. I do a lot of dumb things with very little encouragement but I got really scared and started squealing and stuff. I wasn't sure how I was going to get down without completely falling. Doc B to the rescue. Somehow I ended up sitting on his shoulders, at which point I think the squealing resumed, then climbed down his back.

I'll have to get into the climbing gym and improve my climbing skills so next time I'm in the area I can take another crack at the giant ocean turd.

I made it back to Utah in time to get up to my parents for Christmas Eve. All and all a great trip.

Road Trippin'

So since I lost my job but I'm still on payroll for awhile, I took off for warmer climes. Well I thought I did. Haha. I went down to Phoenix first. The epic journey there was full of adventure which I love and I survived it so it's all good now.

The first adventure was realizing 2 hours into the trip that I didn't have my one friends phone number and address with me. Oops. Fortunately this was a happy accident cause I ended up staying with my BFF's brother and that was a lot of fun. Not that the first plan wouldn't have been, but I did get to sleep in to my hearts content at plan B.

The drive through Utah was nice. Scenic, roads were good, and I had a good time. Zion's Park region was fantastic with the snow kissed red rocks. I got off I-15 outside of Cedar City and went over through Hurricane. This sent me past Colorado City where all the houses are Polygamist sized. Seriously, all the houses are really big. Not really rich big, all utility big. I took some pictures while driving by. Creepy. I got a great picture of a car pulling a kid through a snow field. Could be polygamists. Since we don't know for sure, I say they are.

After that things went downhill. Technically they went mostly up hill but along the top of the Grand Canyon region the roads got really bad and I only saw a couple of plows going the other way. Apparently they usually close this road but I must have made it up there before that happened. There was at least 2-4 inches on the roads when I started. Sometimes I could hear the snow on the bottom of the car and I seriously thought for a while there I might be sleeping in my car up there for the night. All of a sudden taking my -5 deg sleeping bag and snowshoes was not so silly. There was a truck a ways ahead of my though and I followed it's tire ruts. At one point a dear walked in front of my car across the road. I didn't have to brake cause I was going so slow it made it across with time to spare.

The truck ahead of me went off the road on the steep down windy part though. Me and the truck behind me stopped to see if they were ok. (You just stop and put on your hazards cause there's no side of the road. There's road with snow or A LOT of snow on the side that you'll never get out of. It turns out the mom tapped her brakes at the top of the downhill and they weren't responding so she went to the side so they didn't like die flying off one of the turns. They had these four poor sheep in the back of the pick up all pushed into each other. Funny in a sad kind of way. The truck was almost completely on it's side. If it had gone any further it probably would have rolled and they'd have lost the sheep for sure.

The best part of this accident was they guy that pulled over had some of the hottest sideburns I've seen since Doctor Stu. They were bi-level. That's right, bi-level. Hot, hot, hot. Anyhow, it's 20 degrees out and this mom and her two sons are stuck on the top of a mountain in a blizzard. My mom will probably kill me when she finds out but I gave one of the sons a ride to Tuba City cause it was only 11 miles off my route down to Phoenix. He thought he knew my foster sister cause she's from Tuba City. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. Anyhow I think he was more afraid of me than I was of him. If not at first, definitely after 1 1/2 hours of More ABBA Gold (I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, On & On & On, Summer Night City, Ring Ring, all these are more, more gold). The mom wanted to stay with the sheep and I couldn't leave them to freeze all night so I took the dude to his Uncle's so they could get his truck to pick up the sheep and his mom & brother.

I did finally make it to Phoenix about 2-3 hours later than I thought. Flagstaff was a mess too, and when I finally got out of the snow, it just poured rain the rest of the way.

I made Swedish pancakes for the trip and that was good cause I didn't stop much for food. I wanted to get there. They're good for about 2 days by the way without refrigeration. I recommend them for road trips and hiking.

Swedish Pancakes
1 1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup flour
3 eggs
1 tsp salt
2 Tbl melted butter

Mix all that together then cook them like you would crepes (spray the pan with oil, pour in a thin coating of the batter and flip when the top side is firmed up). They go great with lingonberry sauce/jam, nutella, peanut butter, or just plain. Välsmakande!

In the next edition--Hiking report from Phoenix, Why San Diego is so awesome, and nearly climbed a giant turd......

Halloween and birthdays

I really like Halloween. Definitely one of my favorite holidays. It's not about the candy. If it were about the candy it would be about the KitKats and the Nerds. There's just something fun in being able to wear a mullet wig or a knife in your back or puffy shirts in public with relatively few people staring.

This was one of the sweetest Halloweens since I left San Diego. I got to host a joint party with a couple of friends. For one thing people actually dressed up. Hardcore. While the male pregnant Wonder Woman, the devil with horns and furry cloven hooves, that super cute sassy vampire slayer (oh that was me, haha), the viking lady, and some others where totally awesome, for sure Aslan and the White Witch were the best. I may have helped out with their costumes. What can I say.

The decorating was super fun too. We had black plastic all over. I made balloon ghosts that glowed. That's a keeper for sure. I can't take much credit for the decorations. I was so busy this week that I was not as participative as I could have been. It was an example of what can be done if you get enough people involved. The party was awesomely fun. We must have had 50-60 people throughout the night.

I'm waiting to get my "spooky" camera pictures developed. Will post them when I can .

It was my birthday yesterday!!! Not one of the better to tell you the truth. I got a stomach bug or some bad leftovers or something and spent most of the day laying on the couch with a bucket next to me or running for the loo. You may be thinking how sad that is to be sick on one's birthday. You could even think that could be a bad omen for the year to come. Not me. I see it as a relief. It can only get better from there!

Seriously, as I lay in the fetal position in the shower, aside from the nausea and splinting pain in my head, all I thought about was how much fun I had had the night before and how blessed I was with such great friends and family. I don't have good friends, I have great friends.

Speaking of great friends, I called off the shindig for that evening, but Kelly, sweetest kindest girl in the world, came over and tried to make sure I still had a special birthday. I got a birthday smoothie with a candle in it. She also totally cleaned my kitchen as it had not been attended to as it should have been with the busy week I'd had.