Ohboyohboyohboy!

I am currently feeling a little bit guilty and a whole lotta  excited.  After much agonizing over if I should get an additional camera I reached a decision. 

First, a bit of background.  I love my dSLR, it is great, it takes amazing pictures and I love the control it give me.  However, I am realizing that it is a tad big to always have with me.  Hence, I miss a lot of opportunities for taking good pictures.  Namely while I am off running or biking or something of that sort.  Not to mention I would be crushed if something bad were to happen to my little friend.  This made me realize that it might be useful to own a little point and shoot that I could cart around with me, you know, for those moments when you wish you had a camera. 

This realization lead to a lot of agonizing over the many options available.  Trying to determine what was important to me - long range zoom, size, cost, picture quality, etc...  Matt laughed at me on a nightly basis as I scoured the net to read reviews and look at pictures that different models took.  I took multiple trips to the camera store to hold and play with the models I was considering.  Asked multiple peoples opinion.  I wanted this camera to be perfect, a match made in camera heaven.  

For awhile I was thinking that I wanted a super zoom camera,  I fell out of love with that idea.  Next up I decided that I wanted something small and cheap.  Less to worry about if I should fall off my bike and crush it (I have been known to have issues staying attached to my bike).   In the end I went big, I figured I would be most likely to use a camera that I really liked.  I am now the proud owner of the Canon S95.  I am pretty excited!

This new development has implications for you dear blog reader, you will get more pictures to compliment the text.  Hopefully this will make things more fun!

Jacks the Animal

Maybe Jacks should apply for a name change - Animal.  Seriously, our unassuming black lab is a hunting machine.  You would never guess it when you see him.  He is a super sweet, cuddly and fun loving dog.  He loves everyone and everything.  The thought of him ever hurting anything is absurd.  He wouldn't harm a fly, well okay, he does love to kill flies.  But you get the idea...

This Sunday Matt and Jacks hit the woods in hopes of bagging a few Pheasants and were met with success, they got the limit!  Jacks even managed to catch a bird of his own and bring it back to Matt.  This was somewhat problematic as the bird was still alive and flapping and Matt couldn't get Jacks far enough away to kill it.  That particular bird managed to get away with its life, two other birds were not as fortunate. 

What the?!?

Hood ornament



And this is the car it was on...



Weekend Activites

This past weekend provided us with perfect fall weather, the type of days that make this my favorite season - chilly with a lot of sun.  As far as I am concerned it doesn't get much better!  Saturday morning Matt got up early and took Jacks for some pheasant hunting, they didn't have any luck.  I rolled out of bed later in the morning and rode my bike into town to go shopping at the market where Matt met-up with me and we had lunch. 

Bike path into town

Saturday afternoon we took our mountain bikes to Capitol Forest and went for a ride.  It was essentially a grind up followed by a really fun downhill.  Every time I get out on my bike I wonder why I don't do it more, I enjoy it so much. Sunday found us at the same trail head except this time we were running.  All in all it was a great weekend!
  

Busy day at the market



Pepper stand



Lonesome Dove

One word to describe this book - amazing!  I wasn't sure how much I was going to enjoy this book give the western theme, turns out that was a needless worry.  I don't care what genera you enjoy I suggest you read this book.  Did I mention it won the Pulitzer Prize? 

For those of you that don't know what it is about:

The Hat Creek outfit (cowboys) lead a heard of cattle from Texas to Montana.  There you have it, the general gist of the book.  Of course there is a lot more to the story (at just under 900 pages there should be) but you will have to read it to find out. 

Happy Reading!

Pheasant Hunting = Success





We had pheasant for dinner last night!  Matt works for the state and due to the current budget woes they are subject to ~1 furlow day/month.  Yesterday was that furlow day and Matt took full advantage of the break in the weather to get Jacks out pheasant hunting.  Since I didn't get the day off I cannot say much more then they came home happy and wet with their winnings. 



Well deserved nap

From what I can gather pheasant hunting around here is a zoo.  The pheasants in our area are put and take.  Meaning 3 times a week farm raised pheasants are released into designated hunting areas.  The following day mass amounts of people line up to try and shoot their limit (2).  It sounds frustrating at best...

Smothered Grouse (or Pheasant)

1. Skin, wash and quarter the bird
2. Preheat oven to 350
3. Chop-up onions, celery and carrot - saute in butter until tender
4. Once tender put the veggies in a shallow baking pan
5. Mix flour and a little salt in a brown paper bag.  Shake the meat pieces in the bag 2 at a time until coated
6. Melt butter in the same pan the veggies were cooked in and brown your meat on both sides
7. Put browned meat on top of veggies
8. Add a small amount of liquid to the bottom of the baking dish
1. I used chicken stock; Matt recommends wine
9. Cover with parchment paper and bake for 1 hour or until meat is tender
10. Server over rice

Hobby Quandary

Sigh...there are just too many things I would like to do during any given day.  I am somewhat envious of people that have a singular passion, something they can pursue with undivided attention.  Me, I am more like a fly on a fart - I can so easily switch directions it is ridiculous.  This trend is somewhat counterproductive towards really becoming accomplished at something.  I fall under the category of "doer of many, master of none". 

I suppose this isn't awful, it is just it lends itself to my always feeling somewhat disappointed.  Disappointed because I didn't do my best at something because I didn't give it my full attention.  Disappointed because I did focus my full attention on something and it came at the cost of not doing other things.  As you can see this isn't exactly a quandary I can solve, either way I find myself somewhat displeased. 

Why you ask am I bringing this up?  Well, I spent the better part of my summer running and loving every minute of it.  However, now that summer is coming to a close I find myself reflecting back on the things I wish I had done more of - namely climbing.  I can tell you the last time I touched rock - it was the debacle in the Tetons.  Since then nothing, nada, zilch. 

I have been running forever, at this point it is a part of who I am.  I started in 7th grade and have never stopped.  Sure, there were times when I wanted nothing to do with it.  After college running held no appeal for me, however, after a year of not running something happened, I couldn't wait to lace my shoes up and get out.  I guess I just needed a brief respite.  None the less, I don't think that running is my passion.  It is just an activity that I am hardwired to do.

Climbing or better put - mountain activities.  I think that may be where my true passion is.  It is the thing I dream about, the thing running gets me in shape to do. Hopefully I can figure out a way to better share my time among activities.

Upcoming events:

• Matt and I are meeting some friends at Smith Rock this month for a weekend of climbing!
• Capitol Peak Fat Ass
• Orca's Island 50k

Banned Books

One thing that never ceases to amaze me are banned books.  Seriously, who do these holier than though people think they are?  What gives them the right to remove perfectly good, if not fantastic literature from children's grasp because they are too repressed to see the value in it.

I really would like to rant and rave about this, however, I suppose that isn't very productive.  Instead I will say that I hope people can stop for a moment and see how repressive they are being.   What happened to parents having control over their kids?  Now the answer seems to be that the material needs to be removed from the library so their child doesn't have access to it.  Okay, so maybe I indulged in a little ranting...

If you are interested in checking out a list of Banned Books click the link.

Hunting

It appears that Matt is not so good about updating our joint blog.  So, I will update it for him:

Early elk archery = FAIL
Early deer archery = FAIL
Opening day Pheasant  - FAIL
Trout fishing - 2 (cut and rainbow), no pictures to prove it...

Maybe now he will update it himself...