Its Not Dead Yet!

(Er, the blog I mean... sorry 'bout the last 9 months...)

So we got to do a house swap with our renters in Tahoe this past weekend, and got to be reminded just how much we love the place...

There were scenic but kiddo-able hikes:


Boulders to attempt to budge:


Snowballs to throw in Lake Angela:


Snowballs to throw at Dad:


And Tank Boy's first mini-golf!


Not pictured is: poor Tank falling in the pond at Monika's going away party, countless hours of kiddo fun at the Smi-bach residence, a blissful hour beside Lake Tahoe, double Wild Cherries helpings of quiche, TWO trips to the Woah Nellie Deli, and quality family time reading aloud in the car. Happy summer folks, hope you're getting yours!

Unemployment Schmunemployment

Due to the recent notification that I will be unemployed in about a week, and a HUGE boulder that fell on the road between home and the office, I stayed home today and did almost nothing. But the crafter in me has been itching to do something, so I pulled out the rest of the orange roving I bought on etsy and spun the remainder into some sort of yarn... Pics of that after it dries from its little bath, but here's the process...




Oh, and yeah, we just got back from Hawaii, did I forget to mention that? During our eleven days there was quite a bit of rain...



but there was some glorious sunshine too...





So, yeah, I'm not complaining about anything!

A Bit Sad

As of last Wednesday, before Thanksgiving, I was 10 weeks pregnant. Sadly on Thanksgiving (after a lovely dinner) I suffered a miscarriage. I was in very capable hands, with an obgyn cousin of the Hub's at dinner with us, and another emergency room doctor cousin at the hospital 7 miles away. I did end up at the hospital, but was discharged after a few hours and sent home to rest (relatively) comfortably back at Aunt Madeleine and Uncle Matt's house.

So we're all okay now, albeit a bit sad. One remaining hurdle will be to explain to Jackson that the baby that was growing in mommy's belly is no longer there. So, because of the situation, all I can say is that I am especially thankful for my wonderful husband, the amazing family I married into, and my sweet little son. Wishing everyone a cozy weekend of quality family time.

Hey Shel, I Think I'm a Housewife...

Thanks to my dad, I did finally locate the camera, and now will proceed to update you with pictures that are perhaps a month old! Long live the internet for the up-to-date... uh... updates!

Here is Tank Boy competing in his first official ski race! He was a bit unclear on the concept, but I'm super proud regardless! (Blue flags, we're trying to go around the blue flags!)

Here he is after the race, super happy and snuggly!

And here he is about four minutes later, completely konked out (for almost 2 hours!) in the noisiest restaurant/hallway imaginable!


Now moving on to slightly more recent events, The Tank has rediscovered the joy of interlocking blocks. I know I'm his mom, but this thing was cool!


And as far as the house goes, we haven't completed any of those pesky little remaining tasks (towel racks, we don't need no stinkin' towel racks!) but we did gather up all the remaining (live) houseplants and style ourselves a little atrium. It is a wee slice of heaven indoors...


May the sun shine into your garden a little this week as well!

Huzzah!

Somehow my husband has gotten me into this Katherine Kerr book series about a fictional land called Deverry. You know a book series is going to be geeky if it has its own website. Extra geeky if said website has timelines, bibliographies and ancestry charts...

A coworker asked what I've been reading lately, and I was a bit embarrassed to admit that it was a celtic fantasy series, akin to (but not nearly as epic as) the Lord of the Rings and King Arthur. It is full of swordfights, wise sorcerers, fabricated languages with pronunciation guides, and lots of horseback riding. Yeah, I'm going to be forty this year. Long live my internal fourteen year old!

Currently I am smack dab in the middle of this series, book 6 of 12. The Hub, however is horribly disappointed that he has now finished the whole ride. No more suspicious packages will be arriving from far flung bookstores with the next paperback edition of this addictive drug. Alas. Poor him. Any suggestions from the geeky literati? Bonus points if it is a VERY LONG series, he is a rather prodigious reader!

Oooo! But speaking of packages, I joined this little club thingy, and am anxiously awaiting my first colorful, possibly incredibly silly, installment!

Sorry Dad, the drama and righteous indignation has all cooled down here and we're back to books and knitting for our day to day entertainment!

Oh, wait! I forgot! We did go out of town last weekend for The Huzbunkle's annual alumni ski race (slash fundraiser for Stanford Hospital). AND guess who won third place overall?! None other than my one-and-only! For the second year in a row! See, look, we're adventuresome! -ish!

And yeah, we took pictures, but somehow have not been able to locate the actual camera after the unpacking frenzy has settled. So you'll have to take my word on stuff right now, we have no photographic proof whatsoever!

Right This Very Minute

It is too bad that the Huzbunkle doesn't want a sweater vest for christmas, 'cause then I might make it on time...

But since he wants a whole actual sweater, those pesky sleeves might put me closer to his February birthday than Christmas morn... But I do have to say that it is begining to look a lot like a sweater these days, a nubbly, cabled, and complex sweater! Yay!

As for our train ride last week, Tank Boy and I had a fabulous time! We made the 6:20 am bus (a small miracle, if you know my preferred sleeping habits!) and then made all three subsequent transfers from bus to train to bus to train! We ended up in my old hometown of Truckee, where a friend picked us up and fixed us dinner while we waited for the Huzbunkle to fly back from a business trip in GA and then drive up from Sacramento. All together the logistics of this trip were akin to an algebra word problem, but it all went surprisingly smoothly in the end. We made it to the work holiday party in Reno, and rubbed elbows and white elephants with the big bosses, despite the fact that I had pretty much lost my voice to the hacking cough that had taken up residence in my torso region.

This weekend we're all considerably healthier and homebody-er! We got our tree up, and some lights on the entry way, and are tackling the two weeks of back laundry! Funny story about the tree though, last night, a mere 8 hours after getting the darn thing up and decorated, it decided to take a swan dive in to the middle of the living room floor. The Huz and I who had been dozing on the couch watching the tube, bolted upright ready for action at the surprisingly loud noise a fully decorated tree makes hitting the hardwood (and the family dog, totally uninjured btw.) An hour and three vacuum passes later we were back in business. Lets hope the bugger stays put this time!

We've got non-stop carols on the sound system, and a ham in the freezer! I loves me some holiday cheer!

Giddyap!

So I'm a bit of a one trick pony when it comes to following musicians. There is pretty much only one artist that I follow, regularly purchase music from, and attempt to see live. It is a little bit embarrassing how much I love this artist. I have silly fan fantasies of hanging out with her, taking her climbing, and our kids becoming friends. Did I mention the silly part?

Anywho, so she was playing a show down in Fresno (a good two hours and twenty-some-odd minutes away) and a few of us rallied to go see. It was a great evening, we ate dinner at a brew pub, had a few beers, someone asked me if I was famous (!?)...and Ani was just lovely, all soulful and talented.





Today, at work, I felt a little rough around the edges, but it was wonderfully worth it.

Progress!

This weekend was rather fruitful here at Casa Remodel. I finally got the Pergo flooring going! Here's Tank Boy doing the "Halfway Done Red Underpants Boogie."



Then we quick cleaned up, hopped in the car and unfortunately found the battery completely dead. The Hub performed the quickest jump ever (innuendo aside) and we were on the road in 3.5 minutes flat! See, we were in a bit of a rush to get up to Groveland to go to their Movies in the Park night. They were showing the Tale of Despereaux, which none of us had seen yet. The town is about an hour away, so we were trying to head out early to explore and hang out a bit before the movie. The best laid plans...

Now that Tank Boy is a Big Boy and Wearing Big Boy Underpants (see above) we travel with this everywhere we go. Forty minutes from our destination the warning call went out. We were not going to make it to any civilized facilities. So we deployed the on hand facilities on the side of the road. Unfortunately sometimes Tank likes to take his time. A half an hour later The Hub was off in the woods digging a cat hole to deposit Tank Boy's... um... deposit.

So at this point it was already past the Tankster's bedtime, and we were neither fed, nor at our destination. Which made me a bit antsy. But as luck would have it, we pulled up into the parking lot and made our way to the cool grassy expanse of the park just as the announcements were starting. And it was the best evening ever! Tank Boy had so much fun snuggling on the blanket, eating hot dogs and popcorn, and occasionally even watching the movie! Amazing starry skies, perfect temperature, and the world's cutest animated mouse! I can't recommend the Toddler trip to the movies in the park any more highly, despite the 11 pm bedtime!

Then Sunday, it was back to the old miter saw...

And The Hits Just Keep Coming!

Yesterday I tried to make the semi-epic (2+ hours each way) trip to Fresno with Tank Boy and a friend and her toddler, and the !@#$%^&*() Prius stopped working more than a half an hour from out destination. It was 106 degrees outside. Fortunately we happened to be by a "roadhouse" and pizza restaurant that had air conditioning. A tow truck was sent and a husband was summoned to the rescue. The kids ate pizza and watched movies on the laptop, so it could have been a lot worse. But it is a similar ghostly and unidentifiable problem that caused us to trade in the LAST Prius!

Evidently my biorhythms are off or something and I'm going to try and avoid any large scale projects at this time... If you need me I'll be hiding under my blankie.

Eventually Her Baby Will Earn An Income

Some of y'all might remember my friend Karel. But some of you may not know that she had a baby almost two months ago (because she's a terrible blog updater!) And furthermore, I'm pretty sure y'all didn't know that I got to go up to Reno and hang out with them over the weekend of the 4th. Notice the festive 4th of July outfit on the wee one...


We managed to get Karel a little more caught up on sleep while I was there,


go out to get our hair cut together, (Note the crazy prom hair!)


...and even made it on a short hike!


Thanks lady for sharing you beautiful new babe with me for the holiday!

Something else that is almost two months old is the Women's Thursday Evening Climbing Club that I've been organizing each week after work. Now I'll admit here that attendance hasn't been record breaking, so it has been more like "Come and Go Climbing With Suziehulahoop on Thursdays Club", but I'm not complaining! I've had at least one person show up every time, and that's all you need to tango, or climb! So yay us, we're out there making it happen! Thanks to my regulars, hope to see you all at one time perhaps!

I Need A Vacation After This Weekend...

I took the Amtrak bus/train combo to Tahoe this weekend and hand delivered the World's Cutest Baby Sweater, and the reaction was appropriately agog, so I did not have to bring it back home with me! And without further ado, the WCBS!



The shower was lovely, at a crazy mansion in Sparks (outside Reno) with a koi pond in the driveway, hot tub atrium in the middle of the house, and general loveliness all around. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so not only didn't I get a picture of the setting, I didn't get any pictures of the preggo either! Rats.

Then the (oft commenting and always lovely) Sara and I had a girlie evening of shopping and movie (The Watchmen!) watching, before collapsing into bed (couch) at 1 am. The next day I took the California Zephyr train back over Donner Summit, in a bit of a snow storm (yay! for not having to drive) and down to Sacramento. Where I had a three hour layover, but luckily the train station is two short blocks from a lovely outdoor mall! After wasting an appropriate amount of time, and not too terribly much money, I enjoyed a pleasant second train ride to Merced. (During which I was asked out by a random stranger, who must have had terrible vision to have not seen the wedding band.) I then made my way to my Big Boss's house which is, I kid you not, in Camelot. Who knew that Camelot was so close. And so gated.

After a lovely evening swapping knitting tales and family woes, I had a comfy snooze in a WHOLE double bed (to myself!) (due to the house remodel The Hub and I are sharing a SINGLE bed.) And to further the luxury, I got to languish in said bed until the late late hour of 8 am! Ah, the life!

Then I got to go back to the dratted dermatologist and have yet another suspicious bump chopped off, this time from my nose. Ack. Then the Costco run, the dog food run, the hardware store run, drug store and hairdresser stops, then the drive home, the happy family playing in the park time, then the rushed dinner, baby bath, and now I'm going to fall asleeeeeeeeeeee zzzzzzzzzzzz...........

Road Trip!

Jackson and I darted up to Grass Valley last weekend for a baby shower. We sort of missed the shower, but got to play with all the friends nonetheless. The weather couldn't have been more gorgeous there, so for those of you in the chillier parts of the country, here is a taste of spring...






And now I must pack for my first overnight back country ski trip in years. I love California!

From Flashes To Flames

So three weeks ago I got to go on that wonderful all gals climbing trip to the East Side of the Sierras. Despite living on Advil for the aforementioned persistent headache and then breaking a chunk off of my car, I had a really fabulous time! The company was amazing, the climbing challenging yet satisfying. So without further ado, here is my standard MO, a slide show of fun...

And then we came home and there was this pesky fire thing, and even peskier evacuation thing and then before you know it your hard earned calloused fingertips are peeling off...



But we are back in the old homestead now, with nothing more damaging than ash on the back porch and spoiled food in the freezer. Can I just mention here how much we LOVE OUR FIREMEN!?

(Hmm, the slide show is looking a bit iffy on the preview, I'll deal with it tomorrow if it isn't working right...)

Doing Things And Makin' Stuff...

So the fourth was wonderful here. Well, not here actually, but in Tahoe where we went. We got to stay in our usually rented house for the first time in 5 years or so, which was wonderful, despite the fact that there is no furniture, cooking utensils or other housewares. We got to see bazillions of friends, and their kids, so big and so wee! Tank boy got to go kayaking on Lake Tahoe with his Daddy and got to see his first fireworks, which he loved! (Which started an hour and a half after regular bedtime, eek!)

It all started out rather quietly for me, as The Hub took The Tank up two days earlier in the hybrid, while I logged in another two days at work. The quiet nights at home were a nice treat, taking full advantage I; battered and sauted up some local organic eggplant (yum!), did my new yoga video, and of course knit.





Then I caught the bus, to the train, to another bus, to yet another bus, to finally meet the family Truckee. Though this sounds complicated, it was all really UNstressful, as I was not traveling with a toddler, nor was I having to do the 5 hours of driving. So it was nap and knitville for me!

Truckee then was a whirl of Fourth celebrations (parades, picnics, open houses and lake splashing) and home improvement preparations. (The rental house master bath has been hurtin' for certain for years now.) But the Home Despot delivery should arrive there today and the contractor (slash old mountain biking buddy) starts work tomorrow! Aside from the cranky shouting match I initiated with the husband after wiping out in the Home Depot parking lot, skinning a knee, losing my son's helium balloon and flashing my panties to the general public, it was an awesomely fun AND productive weekend! Hope y'all had just as much fun, but slightly better traction!

Oh! And if you want to enter the easiest contest ever to win some yarn, go give KnittyK8 a book recommendation!

Out Of My Comfort Zone

Last weekend right as the thunderstorms hit CA, we took Tank Boy camping for the first time. I'm not a big "car camper", I admit, it seems silly to me to drive somewhere relatively close and pretend you don't have a house with a kitchen and a bathroom at your immediate disposal. (Backpacking is different, and so is camping as a cheap method of lodging...) Anywhoo, it was actually quite pleasant (after the quick rain, lightning and thunder passed) as we were camping in a Redwood grove with loads of other families that we knew. And Tank Boy loved it. One of the highlights for him was definitely this:

a lady bug swarm.

I did enjoy this:


and this:


Which was basically sitting on my rump with good friends and knitting. And speaking of knitting, I'm almost finished with this cute girlie sweater for my niece, shown here on a reluctant Tankster...


And backtracking to those thunderstorms, the Hoop family is lookin' into a move. I'm frankly a little freaked out by the fire danger here, the Hoop Ranch quite a ways from the nearest fire hydrant, surrounded by 6 acres of dry grass and brush, and at the top of a steep uncleared ridge. Eeep. We'll keep you posted, but send wet rainy thoughts our way in the mean time. Thanks!

Bears, Bikes, Bums, and Bidding Adieu

A friend of mine sent me this little awareness test thingy. You gotta give it a try and then come on back...

All I gotta say is its a good thing I'm on the bike! And speaking of bicycles, I've got some catching up to do! Two weekends ago I got to go on a girlie's weekend trip, for some road biking in the SF Bay Area. No one was more surprised than I to find out that the plan was to bike 80 miles in two days. 80 frickin miles!

And, unlike some of the other gals, this was pretty much "off the couch" for me. Which makes for a rotten sore bum. AND a great jump start on the bicycling season! So now the bike is out, she's tuned, air filled and ready to go, therefore I've started in on the once a week challenge. (Which I read about somewhere online, but now cannot find for the life o' me.) Anywhoo, I have officially biked to and from work one day a week, for two whole weeks! Woot woot! Its very good motivation to get out the door early, as it has been hitting the 90's here by midmorning. Phew!

And speaking of getting out the door, and therefore leaving, we are facing a sad day tomorrow. Tank Boy's best friend, T Man, is moving across the country. Poor Tankster has no idea what "moving away" means yet.

We love you, T Man and send you off with best wishes but heavy hearts.