This Is Just a Test

but a really really important one!  only Nacho can know how important this little paper is to me today!

let's just say, it was that kind of day & this little piece of paper was the thing i needed!

Tweet

Thurs River Reading

Just a little higher & ALOT more windy, but still  no real worries!

Tweet

Jackson Hole

WARNING!  LOTS OF PICS!  i couldn't help myself!

sorry Moser, i just couldn't bring myself to type Jax Hole for the title.  and how i forgot to post the pics from our trip to Jackson Hole, WY at the beginning of Feb, i will never know.  but better waaay late than never right?  yeah right!  so here goes!

so this shot was actually taken a couple days into the trip. this arch is made entirely out of antlers.  i'm assuming Elk from the size but certainly could be deer.  the story i got from the dog sledding company (later) was that the boy scouts get to go out first each year & collect the antlers from the national park (Yellowstone  i'm assuming because i also didn't ask about that).  they assemble them into these arches (there are 4 in the town square).  amazing!

according to him, these arches are good for about 10 years - because the horns do deteriorate. when they start to look too weathered, they auction off the horns.  in many cases, the entire arch gets sold in one piece & relocated.  that's how the arch at the airport got there.  i was not able to take a picture of it because it is on the tarmac & you can't linger there - seems like a dumb place to put it then. hence this photo instead.

we spent our first 2 days doing the usual snowboarding at Jackson Hole Resort (aka Teton Village).

What a view!

i'd never been here before but heard plenty & so my expectations were pretty high.  were they met?  well, not really.  i'm not saying i wouldn't come here again, but it would not be my first choice.  maybe there just wasn't enough snow or maybe it's beyond my ability (which i don't think it is), but i was just very "meh" about it.  just not impressed.

one of the things that caught Korby & Nacho's eye was the sleeping indian in this photo.

i could not for the life of me see it.  believe me, Korby tried over and over and over and over and over...well you get it, but i just could not see it.  i'm sure you can.  so i took this photo in order to take it back to the room & look at it on the computer where i finally saw it.

well duh!  right there!  but when you are told multiple times "see that ridge..." then you might as well say "see that patch of snow".  on to better stuff!

on our 3rd day, the boys did a snow mobile tour in Yellowstone.  i skipped that for a reason you will see in a sec.  so i  had to rely on Nacho's photos from his camera phone.  to his credit he admitted, the phone just doesn't capture the true colors - they never do!

but not too bad.  they did get to see Old Faithful go off but no photo. sorry :(  however, they saw a bunch of bison!

they said it made them a little nervous when something that big is not intimidated at all by the snow mobiles.  but very cool nonetheless.

and if you didn't want to brave the elements on a snow mobile, apparently you could take a guided tour in one of these!

i think i will buy my old truck back from Nacho's company and trick it out like this for winter!

so what did i do while they were off galavanting & herding bison?  well, i got myself in some primo XC skiing!  i am in love with this activity people!

Cache Creek Trail was only a mile away from our condo.  so i got a nice hike up there & a nice hike back in addition to the 4 miles i xc'd that day!  this was my first solo adventure on true groomed trails & i could not have been better initiated!  i met some very nice people along the way and a lot of great dogs!  everyone had at least 1 dog with them & 99% of them were off leash (dogs & people), just running along while their owner(s) were skiing.  i soooooo need to move!

but here is the best part!  on our 4th day, the guys went back to board/ski on the mountain, but i had scheduled a little trip for myself.  A DOG SLEDDING TRIP!!!!  how cool is that you ask?  waaaaay cool!  first thing i want to say about this is exactly what they said to us before heading out:  everything/anything you've seen in movies/tv about dog sledding....don't believe.  the dogs they show you on tv/movies are typically Huskies or Malamutes & they are way bigger than these guys.  as they explained, and it makes sense, these dogs also compete in Iditarod races.  so like a human marathon, you want a fit/sleek competitor.  those Huskies/Malamutes, while very pretty, have been bred mostly for just that:  looks!  and are not built for this!  but on to the good stuff MUSH!

here is how it worked for us:  we did the Full Day trip (which i HIGHLY recommend).  there were 4 of us plus our guide Courtney.  so a mom & dad & their daughter, me & Courtney.  the mom and daughter were in 1 sled, then me, the dad & Courtney in the other.

here's the best photo i could find of Courtney & "dad" on our way to the springs

on the way out, i stood on the back with Courtney & "helped" drive.  a couple of times we got off the sled & ran while the dogs pulled uphill just so they didn't have to work as hard. "dad" got to lounge comfortably in the sled!  mom & daughter drove their sled all on their own - one driving while the other was in the sled.

wanna know something you don't see in these photos?  poop!  here's the thing, remember these dogs also are competitive racers.  so when racing they cannot stop to poop.  process that again:  they cannot stop to poop.  so when they gotta go, they gotta go while they are going!  put differently, they are going while they are going!  oh yeah!  so picture a dog at about a 12mph pace doing the big business.  i'm not kidding!  actually the drivers discourage it because most of the time, and if you own a dog you know this, they don't really need to GO, they are just marking.  so when one marks, they all feel the need to.  if they just let them do this as they like, this trip would never leave the station!  but don't worry, they didn't get punished or anything.  they would do their business while being corrected all while still trotting along!  it is something to be experienced to say the least!

we stopped for lunch at Granite Hot Springs where we all took a dip while the guides took care of the dogs then prepped our lunch.  sorry no photos but i only had my camera phone & if you know how bad i am with my phone, then you know why i would not dare take it in the pool with me!

 after about an hour of lounging in the hot springs, we sat down for an awesome beef stew lunch and some A-M-A-Z-I-N-G huckleberry cordials from The Huckleberry People.

and let me point out something very important here:  before the staff did any of the prepping for us humans, they took care of the furfriends first!  the dogs are their priority, not the people.  so they go over each dog checking their paws, rewarding them, getting them water & their food FIRST!

after lunch, we headed back home!  at this point we switched places, so i got to sit in the sled while "dad" helped drive.  we did stop along the way to take some pics.  in a very rare moment, i actually let Courtney take a picture of me, with the dogs of course!

they really aren't too much bigger than our boxers.  but i hope you can also see they are very happy!

and here's where i want to get on a soap box:  

so when i Googled reviews for Jackson Hole Iditarod Sled Dog Tours, there was this one person from Georgia that had terrible things to say about the company & the treatment of the dogs.  let me say, that person has no idea what a working dog is.  i grew up around hunting dogs my entire childhood & there's a big difference between the dog you keep in your purse & these guys.  they are bred specifically for this & this is what they live for.  as Courtney said, if a dog ever needs to be kept inside (for example an injury or really sick), they actually hate it.  they are very selective about what dogs get bred - unlike those puppy mills so many people get their purse dogs from.  also, when one of their dogs can no longer race or work, they become "greeters" back at the office.  they do not put dogs down because they can't work anymore.  so if you think these guys are mistreated, then you need an education!

does this guy look unhappy to you!

and the end of our trip brings me to housing!  JHISDT has over 200 dogs & this is how they house them.

this is genius!  those are cable spools for anyone who has never seen one.  in the winter, turned upright like this, they can get inside (yes inside) them & that keeps them off the ground.  their straw is changed out daily.  so AGAIN, these guys are treated very well!   in the summer, they turn the spools on their side so the dogs can not only get in them, but the flat becomes their roof & shade.  i showed this to my daddy & he's now hunting down spools for his dogs!

i'm still trying to figure out how to get this girl in my pocket & sneak her home!

i cannot say enough (obviously) about our guide Courtney & the tour.  it was the highlight of my trip.  remember how i said i was all "meh" about Jackson Hole?  well, not after this.  the XC skiing plus this MADE the trip for me.  i would come back to this in a heartbeat!  i'm now wanting to come back in summer when you can mountain bike as well!

and in yet another uncharacteristic move for me, here's a pic of me and Nacho on our last day.

Tweet

Wed River Reading

the official River Guage Reading

and a photo from the WebCam - that doesn't upload anymore I know I know

not to fear!  we are not supposed to flood flood.  so it's not predicted to come over the berm.....but you never know!

Tweet

Test Drive

Nacho taking the Boxer Lift for a test drive last Sunday.  if it will hold 140lbs, then it should hold a boxer just fine right?

Tweet

Night Tracks

finally able to use those cross country skis that i invested in last Fall!

a little spooky xc at night out in the open like that, but waaaay coool!

Tweet

Hem-ming No Way!

hemming a pair of pants.  sounds like a simple thing!  and it probably is unless YOU ARE ME.  i do not have  many talents but one of my best is making the simplest of task 10 times harder than it has to be.  i'm so good at over thinking things, if it were an Olympic event, i would be accused of doping.  and so goes hemming pants.
there are really only 2 things i've ever wanted to learn when it comes to sewing

• how to make a basic quilt
• how to hem a pair of pants

it is not for lack of googling or pinning plenty of how-to's.  it is because of mulling it over waaaay too long.  so nacho & i had a challenge this weekend:  he bet he could finish the dog lift before i hemmed these pants i've had for at least 2 years!  it was a trick!  and it worked! it got me off my butt & those pants hemmed.  and you know what?  it wasn't that bad!  are they perfect?  no!  could they be better?  yes!  BUT are they done?  definitely.
i started with a very short but insightful YouTube video.  i then promised myself not to think about it & just GO.  i'd already decided how much to take them up by simply putting them on & trying them out with 2 different heel height shoes yesterday (sorry no pic of that cuz it was super exciting).  i folded the fabric under & pinned it a number of times until i got it just right.  as she mentioned in the video, i then took the iron & ironed on this new/future hem line.
i took the plunge when i got out my seam ripper & broke the seal seam on this project (sorry for the blown out photo).

you can tell they used some sort of ribbon trim for the hem underneath. lovely but no one will see this so i wasn't too crushed to get rid of it.  it made sense a little later however.  

i unfolded everything & here you can see my new/future hem line in yellow.  as she said in the video, i determined the old hem line to be just under an inch, so i decided to just call it even & lob off 1" of fabric (the blue line). 

notice my 1" starts after the "ribbon".  what you don't see underneath is that's really where the fabric ends. it does not go to the far edge of the ribbon.  i decided to start my 1" from the edge of the fabric & not that ribbon trim.  and this is where i just had to jump.  without any 2nd, 3rd, or 4th guessing, i cut straight across at an 1" from the bottom.  you have no idea how much guts it took for me to do that.  i literally had to take a deep breadth and say "Go!"

after the drama was over, i simply sewed a Zigzag stitch to secure the edge from fraying like she mentioned in the video.

finally it was on to the reason we all came here...hem those babies!  so with my final hem line already ironed in place, and my raw edge secured with a zigzag stitch (that's the stitch you see below), i did a straight stitch all the way around to finish the hem.  and this is where i realize that ribbon was a nice finishing touch - you can see the raw edge to the left of that zigzag stitch below.  i know, it will be underneath, who will know?  but this people is how i over think into getting nothing done.  but this time, i will live with it & moved on!

and i was done!  except...i forgot these pants are lined (palm2forehead)!  this part i just estimated.  i figured i'd taken 1" off the pants, so 2" off the lining would be plenty.  and that gamble paid off.  i cut 1 1/2" off the lining fabric because i wanted to roll them under 1/4" then roll another 1/4" for a clean edge, even though it would not be seen, but you never know!  i finished that off with a zigzag stitch as well since the lining is a shinier, slicker fabric & more likely to fray.  apparently something about a zigzag stitch is good for securing those edges if you don't have a serger, which i don't.

and that, as they say, is a done hem!  not perfect, but done.  i only had a couple of glitches that, in true me fashion (ha no pun intended) almost tripped me up (my bobbin ran out of thread in the final stretches of my last lining & i'd accidentally cut through 2 layers of the pants fabric on one leg when trimming it), but i soldiered on!  and i now have a pair of 2-year old pants that can finally be worn.

and you know what that means.....now i have to make a quilt! hmmmm

Tweet

Fonzi say: Aaaaaa

so as i mentioned in the previous post, i made a little personal gift for us last night for Valentine's Day.  actually, we both made it.

i was inspired by a post earlier this week from Dina at Honey & Fritz.  the original post can be found here.  originally it was going to be a surprise, but my usual procrastination brought me to a better idea.  Nacho & i love to do puzzles, especially at Christmas time, so why not use a puzzle we'd actually done & why not have BOTH of us contribute to this little art project?  so Nacho pitched in while also managing dinner.
i started with a trip to HobbyLobby & bought an 8"x8" frame & a couple of pieces of white card stock for backing (i always buy an extra in case i mess up).  then i tried printing out a large lowercase "A" from MS Word.  that was not going well.  i know, i should not have used a word processing program to begin with, but it's what i know most.  i never could get the sizing or vertical spacing right.  when i got the letter the size i thought i wanted, it would not print on a single piece of paper.
enter, OpenOffice Draw!  i love OpenOffice.  1 because it's free, yes, but mostly because it doesn't have all that heft that the MS products have - nothing against MS products, i just don't need all the bells/whistles at home.  so in Draw, i just created a lowercase "A" using the text tool & was able to size & position it perfectly - Arial Black 24 btw!  i did practice runs with just an outlined A (like Erin's "M") then thought to color the "A" in (like Erin's "A").  after playing around with a couple of blues, i found the one i thought worked best with our puzzle pieces as a whole - blue8 in OpenOffice Draw.
the smartest thing i did:  i printed the color "A" out on regular paper & played with the layout.  glad i did this because i was waaay too anal about this.  i have no idea how Erin laid hers out, but it didn't need near as much attention as i was giving it.

tip:  you do not have to, nor do you really want to, cover every square inch of the "A" in puzzle pieces during the 1st layer.  as a matter of fact, some of that color showing through is nice!

and then i was off!  here is the official "a" printed on sturdy card stock so any glue would not warp the paper too badly (that's another tip!).

i'm not sure what Erin used to secure hers, but Mod Podge worked great for me & allowed me to brush it on instead of the strings that a glue gun can leave.  
another tip:  i actually MP'd a few pieces to one of my paper print outs just to get a feel for how it would brush on the puzzle pieces.  since this was going to create a useless puzzle that i'm not willing to donate anyway, might as well practice!
and so Nacho & i created the 1st layer!

i let it dry for a few minutes & held it up to make sure all pieces were secured.  success! then i just repeated with layers 2 and 3 - Erin has a lot more layers than i do, so use your own judgement!
the next 2 layers were a little less straightforward.  at times, i brushed the MP onto the back of the puzzle piece, at others onto the pieces that they would be sitting on.  it just depended on how the "standing" test went & if they held or not.
and in about 30 minutes i had a work of art!

and i am happy to say i don't think this will make it to the Pinterest Fail site!

Tweet

Happy DayAfterValenties Day!

so how was your VD?  wait, that's probably not something i want you to answer!  but mine was great thanks!  we typically buck the tradition of going out to eat because, well, i hate people & you can be sure to encounter them at dinner on Feb 14th!  instead, we stayed in & cooked for each other - i prefer that anyway!  i had planned to do a pork loin from my Ina Garten recipe book & Nacho was completely on board.  so on board, that he simply took over!

so i did what i do best.....i made cupcakes!

and ate half the batter - SALMONELLA BE DAMNED!!!
but also while Nacho handled most of the cooking, i worked on a little VD gift (hehe).  no not that kind, but this one does keep giving back!

not much to it but i'll give cred & some very abbreviated steps in a separate post!
and then we ate!

mmmm twas delish!  another excellent job by TheMan.  and then we exchanged gifts.  Nacho got me one of my faves, Fanny May DARK Chocolate Covered Cherries.  yes, i said Dark, not the regular stuff.  i could eat these til i puke!  romantic huh?  and i got him

yep!  those are 2 hair combs you see there! there was a 3rd blue one, but it went with Nacho to hockey practice this morning at which point he FINALLY RETURNED MINE!  i don't do anything without an ulterior motive! and finally, "Nacho made me" (aka i made a gift to me from him) a very special flower arrangement.

that there is nothing but Cherry Blow Pops!  my absolute favorite sucker.  normally you cannot buy a bag of just the Cherry, but apparently at Valentines you can and i jumped on it!  so the local hardware store can sigh a bit of relief that i won't be cleaning them out for a couple of weeks!

Tweet

Paper Chase

if it's not obvious to anyone but me, let me tell you, this office remodel is going to take a while.  the first place to start in any redo, is to go through what you have & get rid of what you don't want/need.  in the kitchen, that was easy!  the office?  not so much! 

yesterday Nacho & i committed to spending 1-2 hours going through as much of the paper as we could (without losing our minds) & getting rid of unnecessary stuff.  how do we accumulate so much when we do so much online?  what you see above is an ordinary recycle bin, a typical office garbage can, and an 8-gallon bucket full of paper from mostly 2 places:  our investment notebook & our 1 file cabinet/box. 
we started going paperless years ago.  we've differed about what to keep & what to throw away & we know the prevailing guidelines out there but we battle one important concept that most households probably don't:  Nacho works in Environmental where they live "cradle to the grave".  that means he throws NOTHING away at work.  we've spent the last 2 years debating how to handle this at home - we considered buying an all-in-one scanner/printer/fax so we could scan it all. but i have convinced him that we can just box it up & store it.  no need to purchase yet 1 more piece of technology that (a) takes up space, (b) we won't use after that initial scanning job, and (c) i'll be responsible for throwing in the river after the 1st time it doesn't work - I HATE TROUBLESHOOTING PRINTING DEVICES!  word to the wise:  your printer doesn't work....get rid of it & commit to saving a tree.  it may save your marriage!
so that is round 1 of sorting through the paper clutter.  i'm pretty sure there will be a round 2 and 3 at the very least!  who knows?  there might be an office under all that paper!

Tweet