Thanksgiving Pies

Help support the Central Oregon Culinary School by purchasing your Thanksgiving pie from them. They are selling Apple, Chocolate Pecan Bourbon, and Pumpkin for $12 each and all proceeds go to the 2009 Italy Culinary Trip. Really, all proceeds will just go to your belly! Pies can be ordered by calling 318-3780 or by e-mail at jdarwin@cocc.edu. They will take orders up until Friday November 21, 2008 for pick up after noon on Wednesday November 26, 2008.

Cache Mtn

Saturday we had plans to meet some people to ride Cache Mtn but they called and canceled feeling sick. Derek and I soldiered on alone. We hadn't ridden Cache Mtn since the fall of 2004 as part of the Bend Fat Tire Tour. On that particular day we rode the 20+ miles in a heavy snowfall at times, rain at others. IT WAS FREEZING that day. This Saturday was a drastic difference. It was a perfect autumn day about 65 degrees, no wind, and spectacular color. Back in 2003 the B&B Complex fire devastated this area burning a total of 140 square miles. The regrowth is in full force.

Dance Stars

Happy Birthday Derek!

We're going to Hola for Derek's birthday tonight. Can't wait!

28 degrees for my ride in this morning. I couldn't find my extra strength warm gloves so my hands froze by the time I arrived.

Hard packed and tacky

The phrase "hard packed and tacky" make any mountain biker drool. We met some people for an awesome ride from Swampy up to Dutchman and then down Flagline. The trail was perfect, simply perfect. Surprisingly, we saw no other riders out. Fall conditions are my favorite time to ride usually...as long as it's good weather.

There was just this one little patch of snow and then a little bit of mud in a couple spots.



Sunday we went for a road ride before pigging out on some homemade chicken tamales for dinner. Our ride took us out into the country.



Oh, and the tamales were good!

Yesterday I rode out to the end of Skyliners and back for lunch. In 2 months time that ride probably won't be possible. Instead, I'll be cross country skiing out there. But until then I'll continue to put in the ear buds, hit play on the mp3 player and crank out the miles in the fresh afternoon air while watching trees fly by and squirrels scamper for safety.

It snowed a couple flakes on my ride home the other night but it appears that this week is going to be back to fall. It was kind of just a peak a boo of winter. I think I am going to attempt a ski race this year just for something to do. I am not the best skate skier by any means, and I really need to take some sort of formal lesson to make sure I'm doing stuff right, but I don't care. It will just be for fun.

Saturday we went to Man Maid which was part of the Bend Film Festival. Pretty entertaining film though it probably won't win the Best of Award. It was shot in and around Redmond so that was cool to see. I'm really happy Bend has the festival, it's a great event to draw some art into the town.

Yesterday morning was a chilly ride to work - 29 degrees. The river water was warmer than the air and steam was slowly rising. I cruised along the trail and had to just stop and stare at it for awhile...what a great morning.



After work I went for a mountain bike ride at Phil's with a beginner rider who is looking to get better. We started at 5pm and rode until about 6:40 when we were nearly frozen! The sun dropped below the trees and with it, the temps dropped drastically. BRRRRR!

Camouflage

This time of year I'm dressed in camouflage when I wear my Webcyclery team stuff with all the yellow and red. I'll have to get some fall color pics up. Don't be surprised if you see some snow on the hills in the background though. When I rode to work this morning I got a good look at what this weekend's mtn storms left behind up there and it looks white!

3" of Snow

Yes, that's right, it snowed up at Bachelor today. I wasn't up there, but got in a 20 mile ride before calling it quits for the day. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to ride with my compression stocking on our not but I figure it can't hurt, other than to wear it out faster. It's tough, I went for my bimonthly blood test yesterday and my INR was down to 1.8. It's supposed to be between 2-3 so they had to up my Coumadin dosage again. My workouts cause my body to metabolize the medicine faster so now that I'm up to full workout I hope it will stabalize.

Today we made a grand purchase...a Kitchen Aid mixer. The first thing to get mixed up - homemade banana cream pie completely from scratch.

I've been busy lately! I had company for a week and we spent a lot of time out and about. We walked around Shevlin Park and had a nice wine, bread, cheese, fruit picnic one day, we had a WONDERFUL dinner at Merenda's one night, enjoyed all the new seasonal beers at Deschutes (MY HOP TRIP IS BACK!!!). Now that Derek is in culinary school he is even more interested in food.

I'm still riding and swimming a lot. I won a subscription to WEND magazine as part of a commute challenge. I really dig that mag! I need to get a new rear fender for my bike so that when I ride to and from work I don't get the brown stripe on my butt when it rains/snows. That is coming you know. Today it rained for my swim. Nice and refreshing.