Ice Cream in Winter

Ice Cream in Winter

This week it finally snowed! So, instead of grabbing a beer (inspired by Kim), grab a hot cocoa before the sun comes out. Oh wait, it's too late? Well then, grab whatever you want then and let's see what's been happening around these parts!

The snow was beautiful!
(Monday morning)



But it melted away really fast!
(Monday afternoon)


So we made ice cream to make up for it. 3 kinds of ice cream. Vanilla ice cream, peach frozen yogurt and mandarin sorbet! See what happens when  you get an ice cream maker for Christmas. I bet by Feb 7, we will be tired of it. BUT. It's SOOOO good! 






Mandarins at the ready. 


I got a letter from the NORTH POLE! Thanks Santa!

I went for a run in the valley where it is warm. Then to celebrate my run, I had a HUGE burrito. Actually, had is a little tame. More like I INHALED a huge burrito! I heart roach coaches!




Then I headed to the Bay Area, where I stayed at a friend's house. Here is little A, trying to put on her shoes. 


They actually went out of town and I stayed to mooch lodging off them, eat their food and catch up on Top Chef house sit. 


On Saturday I ran the Coyote Hills Half Marathon. More on that later. 


How was your week? Did it snow? Did you run? Have you ever made your own ice cream?
Winter?

Winter?

I just took these photos -- literally 5 minutes ago. Snow. In May. Can you believe it? And yes, I am back in California. In the snow. In May.




I took this one earlier today.


I noticed the weather in New Orleans was about 90 degrees today. How is the weather in YOUR neck of the woods?
Central Park in The Snow

Central Park in The Snow


 
I took this as the sun was going down and the snow was starting to fall. It reminds me of Christmas and so much more! You can see more NYC photos here.
Magic in The Air

Magic in The Air

As Kermit says, there is magic in the air. The magic in New Olreans is a little different than the magic at home, maybe becuase of the lack of cold and snow. However, decorations have been put up and people at work are going out for last minute Christmas dinners before we all fly away to our respective homes. I, for one, can't wait to go home and sit in a warm room with a view of the snow outside, drink coffee, chat with the Mom and Dad and watch...Christmas movies! I have been getting in the holiday spirit by watching clips on youtube. I have included one below for your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Too High To Get Over

Too High To Get Over


Climbing Mt Shasta is something that not everyone wants to do. Sometimes I wonder why people, myself included, subject themselves to such pain and misery. I usually wonder this as I am trudging up an almost 90 degree hill, wheezing from the lack of oxygen, and tired from climbing since before dawn. 
 
We started the first day in good spirits. At 6,900 ft, it is easy to be in good spirits! We hiked until Horse Camp, which is about 2 or 2.5 miles and is the last source of water (fresh from Shasta Mountain springs…delicious!). After Horse Camp, all you can do is melt snow for water. So, we filled up on water, said goodbye to Buffy, Sierra and Levi, who had hiked up with us to that point, and headed up the hill. 

From this point on, it was snow the whole way. No trail, just straight up the mountain in the snow.
After hiking about 6 hours, we reached Lake Helen, which was where we were going to stay the night. Lake Helen sits at about 10,400 ft and is pretty much the only flat spot on the mountain, which is probably why it is a good place to stop. We set up camp and started making dinner. Shortly after eating, we went to bed. 
We got up at 3 am to start the climb to the summit. Randy and Matt surged ahead, while Dad and I kept up the rear. I thought the day before was hard, but this climb REALLY WAS straight up! Wearing crampons and using our ice axes, we crept up the mountain, rest step by rest step, finally reaching the top about 6 hours later. Once we reached the summit (14,179 ft), we knew why we did this. From the top you can see Mt. Lassen, Oregon and much of the Cascade Range. The 360 view is amazing. The day was sunny and mostly clear and the mountains around us were beautiful. We also saw some sort of fighter plane that whooshed RIGHT past us as we were standing atop the mountain. It can’t get much better than this!
We were tired, hungry and burnt (sooooo burnt!) but now we still had to climb down. Luckily, you can climb part of the way down and the other half you can glissade, which is like riding a big slide down the mountain. You just sit in the snow and cruise down on your butt. It is cold and wet, but we got down to Lake Helen in about 2 hours. You cant beat that!! 
At Lake Helen, we packed up the tent, took half hour naps and tried to stay out of the sun, which was burning us up from the top and the bottom. From Lake Helen back to Horse Camp took a couple of hours; we didn’t get to glissade as much as we wanted, but we did hit a couple of slides, and so it made going down a little quicker. We got back to Bunny Flats (6,900 ft) and the car around 5, starved, burned, tired and sore, but glad we made it.
See Photos HERE.
Ore-GONE

Ore-GONE

We took a few days off a couple of weeks ago and went to Oregon...Portland, to be exact. It was 4 days of go, go, go...not much of a "relaxing" vacation, but very fun!!
The first few days we rented a car and pretty much covered the whole of north-western Oregon (and some of WA as well!!) The first day we went to the Columbia River Gorge and did some hiking. It was a little muddy, as it had just snowed the weekend before and had not totally thawed, but MAN was it nice to get outside, walk into the mountains and trees and to take a deep breath of fresh mountain air.
The next day we did a super-duper tour of Washington and Oregon... We started at Mt. St Helens, which was covered by fog, but was still a beautiful drive through the snowy mountains. I found my dream piece of land -- a plot up on the mountain overlooking the lake...only problem is that you could get a little eruption! Then we drove south and went through Warm Springs and Sisters, which are cute little mountain towns.
The next day, I re-introduced Mr L to the wonderful West Coast...we drove to the coast, went to the Columbia River Maritime Museum, which was pretty cool...Then to the shipwreck of the Peter Iredale, which has been stranded on the beach of Fort Stevens since 1906. We went house shopping in Cannon Beach (where the movie The Goonies was shot!!), just becuase it is so fun to dream of living in one of those beautiful homes on the beach...then we went to Tillamook, where there is a cheese factory. We ate free cheese and got out of there becuase it was packed (rainy Saturday, what did we expect).
We spent the next day exploring Portland, which is a very walker friendly town and has lots of fun places to eat and fun neighborhoods to explore. Tristan's recommendation of the Tin Shed for breakfast was probably our favorite place of all.

Now it is back to the old grindstone...and the flat plains of Iowa.
30 is Not So Bad After All!!!

30 is Not So Bad After All!!!

Last night I decided to do a "test run" - to run outside in the cold to see if I was going to do okay in Mass. If you don't already know, it snowed over a foot in the Boston and surrounding areas last weekend and the weather now is in the 20s...and I have less than two weeks until the race!! So...I decided to run outside last night. It was 30 degrees in Des Moines (with a windchill -- feels like -30! No, just kidding, it was in the teens with the windchill). My plan: Run 10 miles. I mapped out a route, I got off work early enough so it would be light outside. I went to my hotel and put on my test outfit: gloves, hat, pants, sweater and long socks.

I started off. The first mile was HORRIBLE!!! I knew I was never going to survive the cold of the race!! My lungs were on fire, my cheeks were numb, my feet hurt...I was running through snow and frozen grass. I decided that maybe I would only run 3 miles (the shortest loop I could do without just turningn around and giving up). I missed the treadmill for once.

At mile two, the wind was lesser (or I had gotten used to it?) and the sun started to set, leaving me with a nice view of the sunset. I hit a "hill" in the sidewalk -- great training for the race! It was getting better... By mile three, I decided to do another loop. It wasn't so bad afterall.

So, after my original thought that I was going to die, I decided that it may not be TOOOO bad after all. I hope!!! Pray for sun, that's all I can say!
Where Are My Pants?

Where Are My Pants?

I guess I have to drag out my long underwear for the race!!

I sure hope it doesnt snow...

Luckily in Iowa this week it is supposed to be up to the 30s and maybe 40s...so I will probably try to brave a practice run outside. Maybe.
January Ends

January Ends

January....almost over! Happy Birthday to Mr. L, Karen M and Brandon D!!! I miss you all!

This month has been pretty interesting -- I have been living in a place with snow, which I have not done in about 12 years. It has been fun having it around, although sometimes one gets tired of the semi trucks who drive 70 mph in the middle of a snowstorm and then you pass them a couple miles later jackknived on the side of the road...and tired of trying to figure out things to do inside!! But, we have balanced this with a few snow days at work -- yes, SNOW DAYS!!!

Also, there has been a little bit of traveling in order to get away for the weekend -- I went to Mass, which was not really much warmer, but I got to spend time with Mr L's family (sorry, grandma!). We also went to Boston and took a very small road trip to Vermont, which was beautiful. The houses with their gables and dormers (I am learning about these...) really are postcard perfect, especially with snow on them, which there was.

Mr L and I also met in Memphis last weekend and had a great day exploring the city. Unfortunately, Mr L got sick on the second day and so we did not get a chance to go to Graceland and see Elvis. Ah, well, next time, I suppose.

This weekend is the Superbowl, which I suppose I may watch, but am not really very interested in... However, Dad is back! Hurray for the return of Dad!! So we will probably hang out inside somewhere...and why not a loud sports bar, right? (or my couch perhaps...)

Goodbye January...and now we are one more step closer to spring....
Slippin' and A-Slidin'

Slippin' and A-Slidin'

Steering into the skid is something that when you are driving and skidding, your instincts rebel against. You go around a corner and you start to skid. You want to turn your wheel the opposite way to correct it. Wrong!

This morning when I got up there were 6 new inches of snow on the ground. The roads were half plowed; they had probably been done around 4 or 5 o’clock, but it was now 6 o’clock. I have a Pontiac G6. The ironic thing is this: For work we are only allowed to rent a compact car. Many people I work with are from Florida, Texas etc…places that never get snow. So, you have a bunch of novice snow drivers driving around in compact cars in 6 inches of snow.

So I drove to work…slipping and sliding the whole way here… but I got lots of practice at steering into the skid!