End of classes

The last week was finals week and it couldn't come soon enough. CD was very relieved to finish the semester. In the spirit of science, the Chemistry students challenged the Physics students to a game of kickball. It all happened last Saturday on the field at the student recreation center. It was a fun time, but unfortunately Physics was crushed by Chemistry 16-6.
On the field:


Both teams together (yay for science!):


After the game, CD worked on his finals while I headed to Stephanie and Craig's to hang out.
Craig and Stephanie:


It was really fun because they were decorating their Christmas tree:

Between Holidays

Well, our return from Hawaii was not easy. It was just such paradise that coming back to reality felt akward and surreal. CD and I both agreed that the feeling we had was very similar to being homesick. A weird feeling in your stomach, almost like butterflies, accompanied by longing to be somewhere else. In this case, Hawaii...
CD didn't wait around too long as the following weekend was the Army/Navy game in Baltimore. He flew out early Friday morning and enjoyed approximately 48 hours with his Dad, Uncle and cousins.
Justin, Dave, CD, Nathan and Jeff:


I tuned into the game early on Saturday (early on the left coast) and watched Navy spank Army for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, I missed the Navy parachutists landing on the 50 yard line:


It really seemed like a great game to attend; there was so much fervor! CD reported that they had a great time and hopefully we will get to see Jeff and his family in Ohio during the Christmas break.
Bonus pic! 17 year-old Nathan:

Hawai'i is AWESOME!

As the annual tradition continues of having Thanksgiving with our college friends, this year marked #15. We decided on Hawai'i because
a) we've been talking about it for years and
b) J's dad has a condo there (a sweet Punahele condo!)

A great time was had by all and here's the proof

We loved Hawai'i and can't wait to go back and explore some of the other islands!

Uber-busy

In a frenzy between Halloween and a visit to Colorado to see my family, we held a work-related potluck. It was a great success! I was surprised how many people came considering I was not very organized and didn't send out invitations until the Tuesday before Saturday.
My trip to Colorado was brief, but I had a great time. I arrived late on Thursday Nov. 8th after my flight got delayed leaving Arcata. SFO was socked in with fog and planes were having difficulty landing. It was great to arrive on my Dad's birthday.
On Friday, the celebration continued when we went to visit my grandparents in Greeley. We went out to lunch with them and my aunt Jeannette whom I hadn't seen since who knows how long. Her and I got to spend some time together and that was fun. She's a fellow knitter and we discussed projects, the rising price of yarn and how much we both enjoy the hobby. For some reason, I have no pics of any of these fun events. (Silly girl!)
That evening Dad and Patricia dropped me off in Erie where I spent the next couple of days with my sister and her family.
Here I am with William, Helen and Emily:


My sister and I:


The kids are growing so fast, everytime I see them I think how I've missed some chapters in their lives: new games and interests, more teeth lost and sold to the tooth fairy, new fun kid movies (that I luckily get to catch up on when I visit). This time it was Ratatouille- not bad. I really liked it the first time!
On Sunday I returned to Denver and spent Monday hanging with my Dad while he worked
Here's Patricia, my Dad and I:


Right before I left that evening I got a haircut by Patricia at her new hair salon "Medusa". Here's Patricia (seated), Maruca her daughter and I:

Halloween- my favorite holiday!

Fidel Castro and his bodyguard

Skunked and swept to sea, almost...

Christian and Bridge came to stay for the weekend.
They arrived Friday night and we enjoyed a nice dinner out, followed by a killer game of boggle at home. In the meantime, Blackjack ventured outside and under the deck where he encountered one of the local skunks. Yep, you guessed it, he got sprayed!
The next day we decided to head to the beach to see the large swells (it had been stormy earlier in the week), the forecast predicted 20-30ft waves. We thought maybe running around the beach would help Blackjack get rid of his smell. The skunk scent remained, but he made friends with lots of dogs.
Christian and Bridge took the lead walking out to the jetty (the warning signs must have washed out to sea!) At one point CD decided that he didn't have the right shoes on to navigate the large puddles, so we turned back to wait for them on the beach. I yelled out "I don't think this is a good idea!", meaning we shouldn't continue on the jetty. The waves were trying really hard to come up and over. Christian couldn't hear me over the ocean's roar and they continued.



By the time they came back they were soaked and freaked out. The waves had attacked and knocked them over. They were completely wet and glad to be alive, but the damage extended to wet cellphones and ripped pants. We headed home in defeat!



That afternoon, after showers and laundry, we ate some delicious Indian food take-out and proceeded to clean Blackjack. The recipe for getting rid of the skunk smell is: 1 quart hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda and 1 tsp liquid detergent. CD and Christian lathered up the dog:



I helped to dry him off:



It was great to see Christian and meet Bridge and the visit was really fun even if they got skunked and almost swept to sea! Hopefully next time they come, things will be a bit smoother :)
After they left on Sunday, we planted some bulbs for the Spring:



While digging in the dirt, this praying mantis stayed close by- so beautiful!

Pumpkins!

Last weekend I visited my first corn maze. It seems I was in sync with people celebrating Anna's birthday up in Seattle/Snohomish who also went to a corn maze on the same day. Coincidence??
While there we picked up some beautiful pumpkins. Nothing says fall like large squash!





Here's a little guest on the deck:



In the meantime we have been receiving carrots weekly form the CSA farm, but these were too funny not to post. I call them carrotlegs:


These became carrot ginger soup, yum!

Flying and Fall

It does seem that lately I only take time to update the blog on Fridays, probably because I have the day off and CD is at work and of course, I'm procrastinating household chores!
Last week sometime (Tuesday?) the weather was clear, so CD took me flying. It was really cool to see the coastline. I love the look of rivers and bodies of water in general from above (thank goodness for Google Earth!) We just cruised around the Bay for about a half hour, but that seemed plenty of time to admire the geography below.
Humboldt Bay:



This is the Samoa bridge which connects Eureka to Samoa and crosses Woodley Island where the marina is:



South of town, the Eel River is extremely low:



and another inlet:



Last weekend we took the last opportunity to hike and camp this season. People keep talking about the imminent snow approaching and by the temperatures we experienced I'm sure that any precipitation up in the Trinity Wilderness will be frozen.
We mostly drove up to see the changing colors in the trees, but were slightly disappointed because most trees are evergreens!



We hiked up a couple of miles up the Canyon Creek trail, but were most impressed by the campsites near the trailhead. This is Ripstein camp:



I love rocks and trees wearing their little moss sweaters:

Jason

Our good friend Jason came down for the weekend. He arrived on Thursday evening and met us in Arcata. We had gone to the Jambalaya to see Seattle band The Cops perform. There was an opening band, Machete from Eureka- was it metal? Not sure. Both bands were extremely loud!! On Friday Jason drove down to the Avenue of the Giants, unfortunately I had forgotten that I had training that afternoon (Certified in First Responder Operations now! woo hoo!)
Jason had brought us a nifty deck-warming gift: pot o' fire!



I don't really know what the official name is for this product, but basically a really nice ceramic container in which you burn an alcohol gel. Each can of gel-ol (I made that up!) lasts approximately 3 hours. It came in really handy on Friday night because the power was out for a few hours. The story: when I returned home from training the power was out and even though my stove is gas, the oven is controlled electronically. Anyway, how do you bake when the power is out? We had a great dinner at Avalon in downtown Eureka.
Saturday we slept in and then headed to the Arcata Community Forest for a walk in the woods. I have been here for several months now and have heard lots of good things about the community forest, but hadn't really checked it out. It's AWESOME!
The only danger is the weird hippies that may or may not pop out from the trees :)




After our little trek we headed to the Six Rivers Brewery for happy hour. We all enjoyed some Sasquatch- the strongest ale they make. CD was generous and stopped after one beer- we had to get home somehow.




That evening we decide to stay in and enjoy our time on the deck with the pot o' fire at our feet. We heard some rustling under the deck and assumed it was racoons. The next afternoon, after Jason had left to go back to Seattle, CD and I discovered the culprits: deer!
Here is the family of 5 deer by the tomato plants (by the way, none of the fruits on those tomato plants ripened, the summer is too cold here)

In sickness and health

The last two weekends we had planned to go camping- to the beach and to the mountains. We can feel the chill in the air and know that our camping weekends are limited and soon the cold and the rain will keep us home.
Unfortunately, the first weekend we packed the car up on Thursday night (even though I already felt a scratchy throat) and the plan was to pick CD up from work and we'd head north to Gold Bluffs Beach. When Friday arrived I felt worse and had to stay in bed for the rest of the weekend. I was confined to the couch, chicken soup, hot tea with lemon and honey. I didn't even want to knit. CD was visibly disappointed, but he went for a drive to Kneeland- a nearby town in the mountains and still enjoyed himself. When Monday came I reluctantly returned to work to discover that my boss had also spent the whole weekend sick. Bummer!
Then last weekend we packed up the car again and headed out on Friday afternoon. When we got to the beach we discovered that it was packed with people and families, so we drove home- defeated!



Still determined to go camping, we headed out on Saturday towards the mountains. We were curious about the New River and decided to take the road towards the town of Denny. The road follows the New River and CD had brought his fishing gear.

The New River:



CD fishing by the shore:



Denny wasn't really a town, more like a cluster of houses. We camped in a free campground (rustic sites) and later discovered another great campsite by the riverside that we hope to hit next time we camp there.

Richly colored Madrona Tree:

So. Cal friends & projects

Friends Tom and Ali came up for the weekend from San Diego. Tom brought his kayak and explored the area, including all places where he could put in a paddle! On Saturday we headed to Ferndale for "Bargain Lovers" sale. I thought it was more like junk sale, but it was still fun to wander around the victorian village. Once again CD and I found ourselves at the Blacksmith shop checking out some of their interesting housewares. Afterwards we headed to the beach at Centerville.

Now that the deck is done we are searching for some patio furniture, but have yet to find anything that we really like (and can afford!)
The summer has been quite generous to the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm we joined in the spring, including some beautiful sunflowers:


In the meantime I have been knitting some scarves for the Red Scarf Project (http://www.orphan.org/index.php?id=40). Time is running out, so if anyone is interested in sending some the deadline is Oct. 15th.
This one is called "magic" scarf: nothing too difficult, knitting and purling. Super easy and looks great; I specially love this yarn!


This is the irish hiking scarf mentioned in the red scarf project website. My first attempt at doing cables turned out great. My knitting group has complimented my work and I have to say the cables are really easy to make as long as you don't lose any stitches in the process (knock on wood!)

Labor Day Weekend

The labor day weekend was relaxing and enjoyable. Paige and Dave, CD's parents came to visit and we had a great time together. They arrived Saturday evening- just in time for dinner. We had some hamburgers, potato salad and corn on the cob. It was the perfect summer meal!
On Sunday, Dave and CD got to work on the railing for the stairs- the last step in finishing the deck. Paige and I hung out and visited on the deck.
Here are CD and Dave cutting the Trex:


Measure twice!


A done deal!


On Monday, we headed east to the Trinity river for some fishing. I didn't fish but I dipped into the cool water and lounged in the sun.

Here's Paige casting while the guys take a break:


That evening we headed to Cafe Larrupin for a delicious dinner.
I had to work on Tuesday, but because CD doesn't have any lectures on Tuesdays he was able to spend the morning with Page and Dave. They explored Old Town Eureka and the Eureka farmers market. That evening we drank some wine and played bridge- last night at camp. Paige and Dave left on Wednesday morning when we went to work.