So long! So overdue!

I should stop procrastinating on my posts, so that they all aren't titled with such titles. A goal.
Anyhow, we've just come back from a wonderful, wonderful 4 days in San Francisco. So fun! God, I enjoyed the whole bit (except for Thursday afternoon, when we were walking back from the Ferry Terminal, and it was hot, and I was wearing a black turtleneck, and we had a meeting to go to, and I was anxious for that, and I hadn't gotten much sleep, and I was hungry, and, and, and.....).

In any case, what a Fun City. Can't wait to go back. Here are two small pictures:

Winter Wonderland

We went up to Glen Alps today to play in the new snow that's been falling! Also, we bought cross-country touring boots last spring for a song, and wanted to try them out. Jim's are great; mine pinch my feet (why did I buy women's instead of men's??), so we didn't get all that far. Still, it was fun to get up there and see the mountains covered in snow, although they were a bit windswept. Then we came home, Jim changed the oil (thanks!), and went to see the new James Bond movie. O, Daniel Craig...

Energy Audit

Nothing like neglecting the old "to do" list and starting right with the fresh stuff. Yesterday afternoon I had my energy audit performed. I set up my laptop at the kitchen table and actually got some work done at the same time, which I was very proud of. The energy audit took about 3 hours, and involved the auditor walking around the outside of the house and looking at every single room, closet, and corner of the house, taking notes and drawing up a floor plan. He measured every window and noted the location of every light switch. He poked around in the attic, he visited the garage. Then he set up a blower/sucker contraption to the front door, which Luna thought was very intriguing. It's a vinyl piece of material stretched over adjustable frame that fits within the door frame so it's airtight, or mostly. Must be pretty darn close to airtight, since that's the whole point. The vinyl has a special hole for a large fan (about 2.5 feet in diameter) that is hooked up to a computer, and basically it takes readings on how much air loss the house has when the fan is sucking air out of the house. The auditor performed the test and then left the fan on as we walked around the house, feeling all the drafty places where we've been essentially throwing money away by heating the outdoors. The fireplace could have knocked you over, the draft was so severe (not even the main chamber itself, but these weird vents on the side of the chimney). The light switches blow air, as do the electrical outlets. The attic door is like a (cold) hair dryer. All the windows, even the vinyl window in the bedroom that I thought was new. The light in the upstairs bathroom, which the auditor said probably wasn't even insulated. (Which means we've potentially been pumping hot, humid shower air up into the space above the ceiling and below the roof...not good.) It was quite astonishing to me how drafty it all is.

The audit cost $400, $325 of which is reimbursed by the state program. We'll end up with a report that lists potential energy saving improvements we could do to the house, and supposedly it will be ranked in order of cost effectiveness. Re-insulating the attic? Probably pretty high on the list. Increasing the thickness of the outside walls by pulling off the house siding and adding extra insulation and wood? Probably not too high on the list. The state program will reimburse up to $10,000 of improvements, so long as they're on the list and help our house get from it's current energy star rating (auditor said we might rank a 2 star out of 5) to a higher rating. I don't think that's going to be a problem. I think the problem will be deciding where to stop. Is this when we decide to re-do the second story, push out the wall that is currently over the middle of the garage, and add a real pitch to the roof? And re-do all the siding? If we decided to do that, it would obviously be more than $10,000, but we'd likely get $10,000 toward that work, and we'd be in construction mode anyway...that kind of thinking. I need to relax until this report shows up and then let my mind wander on all the possibilities, but it is certainly an exciting prospect nonetheless.

Don't worry, I'll keep you posted (har, har).

Quite neglected

..you are. My apologies! For the love of lists and the lack of time I'm feeling now, I thought I'd present a list of topics I'd like to post about (and hopefully will in the near future):
- my utterly fantastic and gorgeous new clutch, whose name is Bess (I didn't even make that up, that's the model name!);
- the joy I got out of receiving great birthday presents from The Roommate, all within the 2008 Birthday Budget, and how good it feels to have a birthday budget in general;
- (potential) work excitement;
- birthday weekend at the fox farm;
- general excitement regarding what is to be soon regarded as My Year of Culture: a membership to the Anch. Museum and season tickets (you-pick) to the Anch. Concert Association;
- All Things Loon Related;
- I'm sorry, did I mention the purse yet?
- Reading a book that my newly-93-year-old grandmother has enjoyed so much that she read twice (and which I could hardly get to the end of);
- Halibut fishing girls weekend!
- Taiko drumming
- The visit by the in laws;
- the anniversary;
- Luna's third birthday;
- Rowing on Trail Lake;
- Biking up Hatcher Pass;
- Head of the Kenai;
- MS 150 bike ride;
- observing Grandpa Bob's passing;
- energy audits;
- Montana, Omaha, North Carolina, San Fransisco, Italy, Deadhorse by motorcycle, Australia! (a.k.a. trips planned in the next 13 months)

I suppose that is all for now. Good pictures coming soon, and a fulfillment of a birthday resolution to blog more (here's at'cha, Captain Colossal)!

Love,
B's Knees

Got It

Yesterday I took (and passed) my motorcycle road test - Hoorah! Jim and I went over to the DMV after work the day before and practiced doing the figure-8s and u-turns and quick stops, which was infinitely helpful to me. I now have a brand new drivers license with a really crappy picture, since I didn't want to smile and show off my braces that I'll only have for ONE MORE YEAR!! Instead of looking like a closed-mouth smile, though, it looks as though I've got this tired, I've-just-been-pulled-over smirk on. At least it will be accurate if I ever am pulled over!

On Top of the World!

Here are some quick recent photos from our trip up to the top of Jumbo Mine in Kennicott - can you believe people used to mine copper out of these mountains, waaaaaaay up here??


Kelly, Jim, and Erika on the way to the top. This is right before we start climbing the talus slope.
The talus slope going up. Can you find Erika in this picture?
Erika at the top of the talus slope. There is still maybe 300 more vertical feet up before reaching the mine. The Jumbo Mine! It is, of course, collapsed. But you're looking at the bunkhouse and tram beginnings:
From the ridge above the mine, we looked down onto this spectacular rock glacier. That's the Kennecott and Root glaciers beyond (Kennecott is dark; Root is light):

All the parks in the world...

...and this jerk had to walk into mine.
Jessy and I went running yesterday at Bicentennial Park, which is full of bears and moose and runners and mountain bikers and horses and other people and animals generally recreating. It's well traveled, but still gets a good dose of car break-ins at the trailhead and such. Jessy and I noticed a dog, a Chow mix, hanging around the trailhead when we left for our run, but there were several other cars in the lot, and a number of people milling around, loading or unloading themselves and their gear from their vehicles. When we came back from our run, an hour later, the dog was still there, and there were considerably fewer vehicles: just my bike, Jessy's truck, a big van, and a Subaru. Jessy knows the guy with the van, he was out biking with his Airedale. The Subaru appeared vacant.

Anyhow, this dog was obviously hanging around, not very friendly, very skittish, and very skinny. No tags. No collar. And Chows are notorious for being biters. So we were hesitant to try to touch him. We decided to call animal control, since it looked quite likely that someone had come and dropped their unwanted pet off at the trailhead.

While Jessy was on hold with information, the guy with the van came back. We described the situation to him, and he agreed with our plan of action. He had some dog treats, and was trying to lure the Chow into his van, because none of us thought it would be a good idea to try and pick the dog up (strange dog, biting breed, etc). As the dog was almost getting into the van, this man appears, exclaiming "What, are you trying to steal my dog?" in a very accusatory tone. We all were surprised, explained the situation, and expressed our relief that the Chow had an owner. Apparently, this guy had been sleeping in his car and just let his uncollared, untagged, unidentified dog wander around while he slept. He even said that his dog had bitten people for less than what we were doing, so he was glad the dog didn't bite us. Um, yeah, me too! Why would you let your unidentified, uncollared, biting dog wander around while you sleep in your car at a trailhead?!?!?! Call me crazy, but you're the guy in the wrong, buddy!

He was so peeved and indignant that it just turned me right off. I thought of all sorts of nasty things to say to him as I rode home, but since I was too late, I thought I'd just write it in this post. Some people!!!

Takin' the lead

I've been put in stroke seat of the boat for the last 5 practices (each practice of the season thus far), which means I'm leading the boat for rhythm, rate, and technique. It's been a very interesting experience. Typically, I row 6 seat. The boat is set up with every other rower being a port or starboard, and the 8 seat (stroke) is port. So 8, 6, 4, and 2 seats are port; 7, 5, 3, and bow (1) are starboard. In 6 seat, I can support the stroke seat by not rushing and by minimizing the rush that might be coming up from the bow of the boat. I can carry the rhythm of stroke seat back into the bow by mirroring stroke seat's movements as closely as I can. I can also apply a lot of power, since the middle four seats of the boat are the most stable, and I can really "stand up on it" and not worry so much about affecting the set (the keel balance) of the boat.
In stroke seat, there's more pressure. I've always liked 6 seat because it seems to be more of a behind-the-scenes seat than the stroke seat. A good stroke has to be confident in their technique, power, timing, and stamina, because there's no getting sloppy in stroke seat. If you're sloppy, the boat falls apart. If you're in any other seat and are sloppy, the other seats can absorb and compensate for you.
The team's typical stroke seat is away for 6 weeks, on a cross-country RV trip. She's great, and I love rowing 6 seat behind her. But while she's gone, the coach is trying me out at stroke. He has given me good pointers and plenty of encouragement, and I agree with his thought that the team needs to be developing strokes for multiple boats. Our typical stroke is in her early 40s. Racing categories are by age, and it would be great if the team had a seasoned stroke for the 50-plus-rowers as well as the 30-somethings. We only have one or two 20-somethings, so they row with us old gals. I suppose I'm being groomed for this 30-something stroke seat.
The biggest problem with this that I see is that I'm facing the coxswain the whole time. Often, I'm helping a new coxswain or rower sitting in as cox to call out the drills, make turns, and keep everyone in line. The problem comes that if the boat isn't being as attentive as I think they should be (I realize this is relative), then I get snappy. And I end up taking that feeling out on the coxswain. Really, we all know how to set the boat, we all know how to hit particular stroke ratings, and we all know when we're not doing those two things. But somehow it takes the cox to remind everyone of those duties before people start paying attention and actually doing them. I have to remind myself that not everyone on the team is in it for the same reasons that I am, and honestly, that not everyone on the team knows what it feels like to have a crew working together that feels quick and light, like flying across the surface of the water. That's the goal. That's the feeling we're working toward.

Reality is easier at 6:45 am

The six month body fat report is in, and the results are looking good! Very good: 22.76%. I had a different technician this time, one who really knew her stuff and was very helpful. No way had I blown out all my air last time - last time, I had a water weight reading of 0.2 kg. The first time I did it this morning, it was 0.2 kg, and then the tech told me to blow air bubbles under water until I had nothing left. She also had me configured slightly differently in the metal cage. My final water weight reading? 1.6 kg! Quite a bit of difference.

Anyhow, I'm psyched! We had this great conversation about BMI and what a crock it is, and got to discussing rowing, and organic foods, and how she's moving to Corvallis soon, and on and on. An overall much better experience than last time! She encouraged me to do it again at the end of the rowing season. At $35 a pop, I'm not sure I want to do this too often, but I think twice a year is reasonable.

Certainly a nice way to start off the day!

New York celebrates MHC

The first night, Mom and I went to the American Museum of Natural History, to attend a celebration for MHC. I love that the college logo is projected past the blue whale! Saturday night I skipped the group dinner and went out to Brooklyn to visit the Big Brother. Odd that Brooklyn seemed like "reality" after what I'd been eyeballing in Manhattan! People were wearing color!
Here's the BQE at night:
And my first NYC rat!
The conclusion of the trip? Art is everywhere.

New York Art Weekend, continued

Our group, outside a private gallery of Dutch masters, on Madison Ave (aren't the flowering trees great?): Looking up Madison Avenue:
The foyer at Christie's - loved this!
MHC class of '64, patiently waiting for our tour of the Greek and Roman galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:One-third of the group, having a tour of the Roman works by one of the department curators at the Metropolitan (that's a porphry bathtub!):
Dinner at the home of the tour organizer, MHC class of '64:
Look at all of these Uncommon Women!

Art Adventure, MoHo Style

I am dying to provide a New York Art Weekend Update. However, until I am able to compare notes with Mom and others in the group, I'm going to have to just post some photos from my amazing visit. Incredible, incredible, incredible. I've been on a cloud for weeks!

The first thing Mom and I did when I arrived was eat lunch. I felt as though I were in a movie! It was 75 degrees and we were in this wonderful West Village cafe:
Then we wandered around the West Village, which I loved. Here are some of my observations:
Look! Over there! Architecture!

This is the park memorial for the Stonewall protests:

And here is the Palazzo, which we happened upon, that I had just read about in Vanity Fair (the big pink building top):

Here is the view from the sofabed where Mom and I stayed (in a suite! with a view of the East River!):

The following morning, we met the group at the Whist Club (where they apparently still do play whist! Who knew?):
Ladies lunching (well, coffee at 10 am):

Obviously, we had no idea what we were in for....

Luna Update

On with the joys of dog ownership...
One week ago, Luna got up for breakfast as usual. She went outside to the front yard to "do her business" also as usual, and went tearing across the (fenced) yard after a dog that was being walked down the street (also usual). The not so usual part is that in the process of tearing across the yard, she managed to tear her left hind "ring toe" nail off the nailbed. This was not such a pretty sight when she came back inside. I wasn't too keen on another trip to urgent care, so I waited 40 minutes until the vet clinic opened for the day, and fortunately they could see her that morning. She was sedated (this makes it the third time I've signed a wonderful "if your dog dies under sedation it's not our fault" waiver) and they shaved her toe and removed the torn toenail. It looks terrible, like the tip of a red marker instead of a toenail - essentially, it's just raw quick with no nail on top. She had to wear this little bootie for the first few days (tore it off once tearing around the yard again), and has caused it to resume bleeding all over the floor only a few times. Can't wait to see how much of the $230 vet bill the pet insurance folks will cover!
(I'd attach a photo, but am afraid it would be too gross.)

Motorcyclin'!

Jim has been very patient with me and even counseled me through a meltdown last week (I was driving around with the choke out and it turns out that's not so good if you don't want to stall all the time). We're just back now from a trip across town, where I unsuccessfully tried to show off my cool getup to two pals (neither of whom were home). Oh well, it was still grand!

Here's the First Big Trip: home to Point Woronzof weekend before last.
Safety First!

North Carolina

I've recently returned from a bit of a family reunion in North Carolina. I was there for a socioeconomic training course, and in the meantime was able to visit with my grandmother, parents, brother, and brother's gay wife (sorry, Vanessa. Had to spill the beans.)


The transportation between the designated hotel (which I didn't stay at) and the campus where the course was being held was via the Bio Bus - a 1970-something Mercedes Troop Transport bus with these fantastic folding seats. There's a Durham outfit that runs shuttles that had found the bus in someone's old barn with only 15,000 miles on it or something similarly outrageous. They converted it to Biodiesel and voila! we were riding in style. It really was a great way to transport 17 people.

In the meantime, I had this little beaut:

While there, we celebrated Dad's 60th birthday party. He was appropriately humble:
Grandma Bess was looking chipper and likely thinking "60? Try 90, you whippersnapper."All in all, an excellent trip. I was able to enjoy some true springtime weather, see my family whom I adore, and even learn a thing or two. I was also lucky enough to wedge college pal Jennie and new pal Alexis/Loocie into the back seat of my sweet ride:

Wonders in White

After my last session at the DDS, and my shock at how stained my rubber bands were, I decided maybe I should take a wee lesson and work a bit on not staining my new bands quite so quickly. True: I drink coffee. I am not about to stop, so I've taken to developing a bit of a slurp to try and get the coffee past my front teeth and onto my tongue. So far, pretty good. If I put cream in it, I can drink it through a straw (thanks for the tip, ERVA!).

I also drink wine, and prefer red. I thought this might be a good time to explore white wine, since just looking at a glass of deep red wine is enough to make me grip my toothbrush. So far, I've tried chardonnay and sauvignon blanc. The chardonnay gave me a headache, twice. No more chardonnay for me. Sauvignon blanc seems to be a bit more to my liking, though. I need to learn some wine vocabulary so I can accurately describe what it is I like and don't!

More to come, I'm sure.

Week 5 of Braces

I'm sorry I haven't been better about posting my mouth updates. Today I went to the DDS to have some wires clipped that had come loose, as well as have the rubber bands in the front brackets changed for new bands that aren't curry-colored. Here is how things looked when I returned:Now, I don't know why my mouth looks enormous, and why my lips look like sausages, but I'm grateful to Jim for taking the picture all the same. I love how you can really see the difference between the coffee-and-curry-colored rubber bands on the bottom teeth and my new clear bands on the top. Of course my teeth still look crooked, but it's progress from this:Not to mention - my front teeth on top? The ones I see disappearing in photographs? Look how much of an arch they're coming into:(remember, we're looking at the top teeth, not the still-very-crooked bottom teeth). My DDS was completely enthusiastic with how fast things were moving. I wish I had a copy of his pictures; one is from inside my mouth looking up at the top front teeth - they are very, very crooked in that shot. The teeth actually angle into the mouth, instead of angling out as they are supposed to (and as they will!).
This is, I believe, the first week when I can really, definitely, see progress. Hooray!

On another note, my book club is reading Bridge of Sighs and discussing it this Friday; I'm 2/3 of the way through and wanting to skip work to stay home and read it...so it's off to bed and book for me!

Luna Can't Reach her Mulva

Oh, poor The Loon. Her mulva is in terrible shape, somehow, and she can't reach it to clean it, so it's driving her bananas. Completely distressing her. I can't assign a better word than "distressing" to her condition. She will be fine, doing normal Loon things (like begging, or lying next to the fire) when suddenly she will JOLT! and ZIP! and go tearing around the room as though her bottom (or mulva) is on fire. She'll do this for a few minutes and then collapse, exhausted, onto the rug.

Dogs have this charming anatomical feature known as anal glands, where they store identifying scents that also help lubricate things along in the rear caboose. Typically, dogs are able to express (don't you love that) these glands through their normal course of play, sniffing, etcetera. Active running is supposed to be good for expression. Sometimes, however, certain doggies perhaps aren't exposed to enough expressionism, and they require forcible expression. Don't you wish this could be performed on stodgy old conservatives, forced expression? Say, prolonged exposure to The Vagina Monologues or a lecture on Mapplethorpe’s nudes? By the end of the series, the subject would certainly be begging to express themselves in whatever media they saw most fitting.

Well, dogs yearn to express through stinky old glands, apparently. So this is what I thought must be bothering the poor Loon. My friend tried to express them (can you imagine the scene? include rubber gloves and vaseline.) but was unsuccessful; in fact, she thought they didn't require expression. Yesterday morning, this topic was most obviously on The Loon's mind. She was so distressed, in fact, that I called in late to work (isn't my DOG a DEPENDENT?!) and phoned the vet for an appointment, post haste. We were booked for 9 am. Good.

Seeing as it was 7:00 in the morning, and it would have taken me a full 60 minutes to drive to work, drive home, pick up The Loon, and drive to the vet (not to mention driving The Loon home and returning to work), I decided to spend some QT with said distressed dog. She immediately went back to bed. I decided to peel an acorn squash for a vindaloo recipe I was planning for that evening.

Unbeknownst to me, my disposall, El Badger, does not like squash. He revolted and spewed chopped squash peel all over the inside of the lower cabinet. I truly felt like the Domestic Goddess when I was pulling out the seventy or so cleaning products (and pet stain removal products) from under the sink, wishing I'd had the foresight to store this myriad of chemicals in a nice tidy bucket. I successfully dismantled the plastic drain piping and scraped out the offending squash, but then became perplexed at the prospect of fitting it all back together again. So I left it. Best The Roommate supervise my effort and give a nice quality-control sign-off on the work, lest I assume I've done it correctly and then run the dishwasher (all over the floor).

(Did I mention that the night before, as I was diligently flossing my teeth, the bottom wire of my braces came unconnected to the last bracket?)

So The Loon and I traipsed off to the vet, where we learned that she is plenty expressed. Instead, she has an irritated mulva. Oh, Poor Loon! I don't even like to imagine, and I have seen it up close. Good thing I love my dog, since I'm cleaning things I never imagined I would clean...(okay, at some point I fantasized that I would have a dog, and I tried to imagine all the downsides to that - and this was pretty close to one of the downsides.).

To wrap it all up, the ortho technician snapped my wire back on in less than 30 seconds, and I managed to fit all the plastic drain pipe back together at the end of the day when I returned home from work. But it was remarkably exhausting, doing all of that. Most of all, emotional trauma resulting from concern that my dog was not adequately expressing herself!

Read into it what you like, people....should have read my horoscope for the day.

Five Hundred More Days to Go?

Day one with braces wasn't bad. That night for dinner, I ate soup that had noodles and meatballs. It was canned soup, so the meatballs and noodles were pretty soft, and it went well. I also ate a bunch of banana cream pudding. By a bunch, I mean a whole box. I think that's four servings, but who cares? It was fantastic.

So, flossing - wow. I mean, WOW. It took me 30 minutes to brush my teeth and floss that first night. I have to thread the floss behind the arch wire (the horizontal wire that goes across the front of my teeth and is mounted to the brackets by tiny rubber bands) and floss the tooth, then pull the floss out, go to the next tooth, and re-thread. Not so bad in the front, but when you're trying to hold your mouth open, lips back, and thread floss behind a wire on your last molar, it's a little tricky. I definitely want to be doing this, too, since bad oral hygiene with braces will leave marks on my teeth.

So, I woke up on day two and was thrilled that I had been able to sleep well. The only problem was that I couldn't chew. Not at all. My bite surfaces are so tender that I had to mash my scrambled eggs to the roof of my mouth with my tongue before I could swallow. And then, when I brushed and flossed, a disgusting amount of egg came out of my mouth.

I've spent the last four days eating yogurt, applesauce, and pureed soup (butternut squash, tomato, carrot, creamed corn, etc). Last night I spent a few hours completely lusting after the smorgasbord of sushi and sashimi that was spread at Trinity's birthday party. I did manage to have a few bites of white king sashimi, but it was a bit of a waste on me. I made major damage to the pot of miso soup, though!

Conclusion: so far, so good. I've been getting great positive reinforcement from everyone, and no one has decided I'm such a dork that they can't be my friend anymore (juvenile but very real fear).

Oh, and it's -10 degrees outside. Braces make my mouth very, very cold when I'm breathing with my mouth open!

Day 1

Well, I did it! Today is day one with metal mouth. I have ceramic mounts on the top center, which I'm really pleased with. They're not as obvious as I feared they might be.
The installation was easy - it took about an hour and a half, but it wasn't painful, just strange. I had several contraptions in my mouth to remove saliva and keep my lips away from my teeth.
So far, no pain - just a bit achey. The wires really highlight the crookedness!