Get me the duct tape

It was so warm that I rolled my window down in my car the other day and it stuck down. Somehow it came out of the track. So, with a flashlight and a screwdriver, Derek took my door apart to fix it. Half an hour in I heard the dangerous words, "Get me the duct tape." I can't complain though, he fixed it and saved us money!

I think I'm opposed to the proposed law where cyclists don't have to stop completely stop at stop signs if a car isn't coming. I mean, it's not that big of a deal to me to stop and then start back up. I have a bigger objection to stopping at a stoplight when there are no cars around.

Ride on.

Mountain Bike Race in February?

I'm toying with the idea of trying to race a new mountain bike race here in Oregon in...February! It's out east in Echo, Oregon and I think it would be fun to race it on a tandem with Derek. It would be more just for something fun to do. We'll see.

Last night we went to Webcyclery movie night and watched Bikecar. It's a movie about 4 snowboarders who build a pedal powered car and ride from Moscow, Idaho up to Silver Mtn, across Washington to some mountain, to Mt Hood in Oregon, and then on to Mt Bachelor here in Bend. It was just the kind of adventure that I would LOVE to do and I really enjoyed the film.

What a beautiful week! My rides to and from work were under unseasonably warm temperatures and my lunchtime rides were down right warm. It's still slightly dark when I start out in the morning but the sun rises as I quietly spin through the neighborhood. Some mornings the colors are magnificent and it's those mornings that I pedal a little slower so that I can admire the lasting effects of the sunrise.

Winter seems to have taken a break so with temps nearing 50 we we went mountain biking at Horse Ridge.



Last night we had dinner with a big group and everything was yummy!

I'm sure the topic of conversation all over town is the weather so I'll spare the discussion other than to say...what the hell is going on and where is winter?

I passed by a new store in the Old Mill Marketplace...just says ELECTRIC BIKES. Pretty self explanatory what they are probably selling, but I'll have to go check it out.

So far I haven't noticed an increase in people swimming at Juniper but the gym sure looks busy when I walk by. I wonder if any studies have been done regarding the average intelligence level of people using saunas. I have the most interesting discussions in there - surely the average user is smarter than most people.

That's about it - is it Friday yet?

Awesomeness

Yesterday we were up early and went to Meissner to skate ski. The lot was only partially full when we got there and one of the high school teams was leaving so it was relatively quite. The conditions were pretty nice and we did the Tangent Loop with ease. Great weather, good skiing.

We bought some ingredients to brew an amber ale so that's our next project.

Happy New Year

New Year's Even was great - we met up with a bunch of people and cross country skied out to one of the shelters. With the wood stove going and the music pumping we celebrated. Good times.

Christmas Ski

Yesterday after some homemade pancakes in my belly, we went xc skiing. 4 hours of breaking trail in deep powder was exhausting. All we could do after is sit on the couch and eat. Perfect day.

XC Ski Weekend

Saturday we were up early and went xc skiing at Swampy. It was a lot of trail breaking in deep powder since we were the first ones up to the Swede Shelter. Plenty of snow and relatively good weather. Sore legs.

Sunday we skied downtown to The Summit and joined some friends for beers. It was then settled that we are going to try our hand at homebrewing in the new year. That's an easy enough resolution to keep.

Sunday up at the shelter.







Derek on his way for beers.



Me skiing along the river on the way downtown.

Ski!

The snow was so light and dry today for my first ski. Everything just felt right shoooshing along. Afterwards we stopped and snowshoed in for a Christmas Tree. It's always quite an ordeal to find just the right one. This time we went to Wanoga Snowpark and hiked back up in for a nice 8 footer or so.





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Delicious

Last night's dinner was sweet potato tamales with goat and cream cheesed stuffed jalapenos and red snapper with a chipotle sauce. After that digested a tad we topped the night off with fresh from the oven Chocolate Lave Cake. I'm fueled up for today's adventures now.

Portland was fun - we spent the weekend watching cyclocross races, drinking beer at some new to us breweries, walking around, and having fun.

Happy Birthday to Me

It was my birthday and Derek cooked me an awesome dinner and then for dessert, a Sacher Cake. It's a Viennese cake, probably the most famous chocolate cake of all-time. It consists of chocolate sponge cake cut into three layers, between which he put a homemade cherry syrup. The whole cake is then iced with a velvet-like chocolate. IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!

It was really nice weather for riding yesteray and took advantage of it and went for a spin after lunch. Fall keeps chugging along and I'll take it while it's here, but I'm ready for snow too!

Group Ride

What another wonderful day for riding! Still no snow so we're having an extended riding season. The ride took us from Wanoga Snowpark into town. Great time.

Pyramid

Thanksgiving was great! We loaded the Bob trailer and bikes up with beer, potato gratin, green bean casserole and chocolate bourbon pecan pie and rode over to Stu and Linda's.

Funner

After a night of eating and drinking we slept in and then rode the new Funner trail up at Wanoga yesterday. We did it as a modified loop by heading down Funner and then up Tiddlywinks to the singletrack connector and then back up Funner. Fun stuff. It was the first time we've been all the way down the trail so we took a couple of the jumps pretty easy. Good times, decent weather and nice to pedal for a couple hours.

Movie Night

Last night was Webcyclery movie night so off we went. We started with some beers by the outside fire at McM's and then headed inside for the showing of 9 Ball Diaries. Very entertaining footage of some unbearable weather!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey, Take a Hike!

I hiked/jogged up Tumalo Mtn on Sunday. It was cold but very sunny as I started up the trail. The snow never got to be more than about 8" so I was fine in my hiking boots. The hike up was about 1.8 miles and gained 1,200 feet where it tops out at 7,779 feet. Brilliant views.
















Mt Bachelor across the street and starting to get a bit of base.

The last couple nights have been pretty chilly for my ride home. My observations: Jackson's Corner is VERY popular. Every night when I ride by it, the surrounding streets are lined with cars and it's buzzing inside. I need to try that place, seems promising. I saw that they lit up all the little trees in the Old Mill...looks nice. I love this time of year.

What a great weekend for riding! We did a nice road ride one day and mountain biked the next. Just for the record....Happy Valley has a lot of snow still and that storm we had a week or so ago caused A LOT of blowdown on the trails. It's weird riding through snow when it's 70 degrees out.





The snow started to show up at the river crossing and it got thick for periods.