Life Post Mahwidge & Other Adventures

The Rabid Raccoon Destroyer

2012-02-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

Last night I woke up sick at 3am and tried to fall back asleep in our bedroom. Greg is on nights so Yorba and I are flying solo for the week. Despite the fact that California almost forgot to have a winter, it did rain quite hard last night which was a nice sound to listen to as i lounged on the couch watching 20 kids and counting at 4am. Other than the TV it was pitch black in the house and pitch black outside. All of a sudden my pitch black dog must have smelled the beast before i heard the beast because his ears perked up and he growled. Then, just as i'm watching my dog lay next to me on the couch, i hear the dog door flap open. Leaping off the couch, Yorba runs out the dog door barking and growling. I peel myself off the couch and call him back in out of the rain. He comes in and i shut the dog door. As i watch outside (the porch light is now on) i see a MASSIVE raccoon approaching our sliding door....that beast almost walked right into our house, uninvited!! Unbelievable!

Yorba wins the title of guard dog for the night...this from a service dog drop out who was released for being afraid of stuffed animals? How'daya like them apples.

Yorba's Christmas Pictures....

2012-01-03T21:22:00.000-08:00

Before you judge me for photographing my dog.....stuff your face with some food or something and then resume this visual extravaganza that is Yorba's Christmas Photo shoot

Yorba the dog, loving his life

Deep in thought...probably about peanut butter

Tyra Banks would be proud.

Planning how he's going to eat the popcorn off the tree when we're out the next day

Sweet Yorba Dog

Yorba tolerating Greg

Post-dog park bliss

I effing hate these boots

Goodmorning new friend!

2012-01-01T14:47:00.001-08:00

Our newest caffeine dealer.

Read to a dog

2011-12-20T18:48:00.001-08:00

Quiet night at the library...all the kids are out of school. But check out the cool sign we get when we're reading with kids (sorry it's facing the wrong way).

Maybe ill look for a book to read in tahoe at the cabin...any suggestions??

A year in the life of a dog....

2011-12-19T11:42:00.000-08:00

I think this is what people who don't have kids do with their time....well this and sleeping in. Both of which have been accomplished today. Enjoy this tribute to the world's greatest, sweetest dog!! What a tremendously awesome thing to be thankful for this Christmas.

Now....if we could just get some snow in Tahoe....

The food Dilemma again

2011-12-03T11:09:00.001-08:00

I normally avoid Fox News, but....

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/12/01/7-foods-should-never-eat/

Thankful a-to-z 2011

2011-11-26T17:54:00.001-08:00

Once again its time for thankful a-z with gregan beatilo. As always,double points for alliteration.
A: adam Ackerson ... sweetest boy I know with a Mohawk ... and ackersons in general.

B: the beaty family -- first thanksgiving all together since im not sure.

C: central america, specifically, costa rica, crossfit and crop shares -- oh and cream cheese.

D: definitely donuts, dock jumping, day dreams of beach houses in michigan, dvr

E: Eggs from local chickens...thanks "tough-chick" who lives the good life in Woodland CA

F: flannel sheets, david freese, french press coffee

G: the great salt lake contingency ... yes you guys are great indeed, gps-- where would I be without it? No seriously where would I be? And god babies ( see A for further details)

H: hot springs (sykes),

I: impossible without a map corn mazes

J: journey...we never stopped believing

K: kayaks...not tandem bc we value our marriage too much

L: legal love for everyone in several more states -- everyone deserves to have a beautiful mahwidge. And libraries

M: mahwidge ... seriously, lucky us and modern family which is currently the best show on television. ( slow down your neighbors ), and machu picchu

N: nutella, napa valley, npr

O: organic-- veggies with bugs and dirt

P: peru, patio heaters

Q: quetzals (the bird, not the currency)

R: roadtrips

S: the Subaru and the places it takes us (70k in 3 years) and salkantay (16k foot summit in Peru )

T: third year, Tahoe, and trifilos in general, therapy dogs

U: unbelievable camping in the Andes with unsurpassed landscapes and views

V: vibram five finger shoes

W: world series champions and " the whales vagina" aka san diego???? And watching a humming bird bathe on a Peruvian waterfall

X: eXtra foamy lattes, xi (the word that leads to scrabble victories),

Y: Yorba, most obviously the dog but now also the wine , Yosemite and yahtzee (greg is unstoppable these days)

Z: zillions of laughs ... too many to pin point

We hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving with at least 26 things to be thankful for!!

Mobile posts ... genius

2011-11-26T16:21:00.001-08:00

Blogger app for mobile posting?? Yes please.

current location: traffic -- barf-a-roni

Yorba's big day at school

2011-10-31T18:34:00.001-07:00

Yorba...... you got some 'splainin' to do

2011-10-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

such restraint to not eat it

I'm not sure if this was Yorba's doing...or the cats that torture Yorba

Our trip to Peru

2011-10-24T07:05:00.000-07:00

....reviving the blog since facebook is failing me.

...enjoy.

God Mama in the house

2011-06-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

A formal introduction to Adam Ackerson

Born 6/18/11 at 11:14pm

... and I'm lucky enough to be his God-mama!!!

Eating Local

2011-06-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

Our CSA started about 4 weeks ago and we've been enjoying our obscure veggies to the tune of...Kale, Arrugula, Zephers, Bok Choy, and every variety of lettuce you can imagine...these leafy greens are killin me!! We also started buying our chickens from Soul Food Farms, but unfortunately (or fortunately) we don't get to remove the head and feet ourselves as they recently invested in a machine to do it for them.....Eye candy awaits you.

Havin' a Ball

2011-06-14T19:15:00.001-07:00

Costa Rica, Day 4 :: " Where's Manfred?"

2011-04-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

....I Bet you thought i forgot....

Keep those low standards folks, and i promise you'll never be disappointed.

On Day 4 in Costa Rica, We spent the day exploring Monte Verde from sun up to sun down. Our day started at the Monte Verde Cloud Forest Reserve where we met up with our guide, Danilo. His english was impressive! In our group was an american couple and a german couple (Manfred and Reinada). We walked like .7 miles in 3 hours looking through binoculars and listening for birds. Our main objective: See quetzal.

Out of the two of us, who do you think was more excited about this bird watching expedition....I'll leave that to your pondering as i continue.

We were in the middle of looking at a hallowed out tree...at by looking at i mean taking turns sticking our heads inside and looking up to the sky. Everyone had a turn and then Manfred stuck his head in. Meanwhile, our guide Danilo heard the quetzal's call and took off up the hill...SPRINTING...yelling back to us.. ' COME. FOLLOW ME. LET'S RUN! FASTER'. As we all scurry up the stairs we see several other groups with their telescope out looking at a perched Quetzal. We stared, took turns taking pictures through the lens, and then took another turn. about 25 minutes had passed when all of a sudden we couldn't find Manfred. As we headed back down the hill, up walked Manfred who had missed all of the excitement while his head was stuck in the tree.

Here are some pictures of the birds we saw and the waterfall we stopped at. The birds, in order are the MotMot, Quetzal, and humming bird.

After leaving the cloud forest, we decided to walk back into town. On our way we stopped at a cheese factory for a little snack.

As we continued down the hill, we ran into Danilo and he offered us a ride into town. He shared that his wife had taken the bus to San Jose to have a baby.....I guess life goes on even in the midst of a birth....there are quetzal's to spot.

We ended up eating lunch at a soda...the best of the soda's we ate at on our whole trip. By this time, my spanish was getting better and i was getting more confident. I was able to order, converse, and also translate for another american tourist all in one sitting! There was a 15 month old little girl who came right up to us and put her arms up to be lifted onto my lap. She hung out and tried to steal all my money out of my wallet.

A quick break and then back to our tours. We headed out on a coffee tour with Victor at his coffee estate. Here are some pictures from our tour.

The day was topped off by a beautiful rainbow...of which we could see both ends touching the ground. It was brilliant! Our camera doesn't do it justice in the least.

The very last thing we did this night was eat at a costa-rican buffet. Greg had so much food on his plate that the man asked me [in spanish] if we were sharing....No, we're not sharing....we're just american.

What the duck ?!?!

2011-04-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

Pond Skimming :: greg goes for the gold....gets the cold.

2011-04-21T21:43:00.000-07:00

Costa Rica Day 3 :: "Pito means penis in spanish"

2011-04-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

We packed up and headed out of the Arenal backpackers resort to venture onto Monte Verde via Mountain bike-Boat-Taxi. We rode somewhere close to 40 kilometers around Lake Arenal which is a large man made lake providing hydro-electric energy to greater than 50% of Costa Rica. Our guide was classic "yahoo" material complete with attitude, dirty mouth, and enough smoke coming out his ass to lie about most any piece of natural history we encountered. He was a riot! I never caught his name and by the time i realized that I didn't know, it was too late to ask...don't you hate that? On the way to our starting destination, Captain what's his butt told us about several pieces of useful information including::

"Caballo means horse....its what we call crazy drivers on the road"

"Pito means penis in spanish...its also what we call the horn of the car" [upon further internet inspection it also is slang for whistle, and rolled tobacco...super]

"My last name Duran refers to my endurance in bed"

and countless stories starting with ... "This one time when i was drunk..."

Whats-his-butt yelled obscenities at every car that drove by because he knew all the locals....one car the size of a geo metra drove by with four adult men and a box of chickens inside. We did got to see a legit Toucan and some Howler monkeys in the trees which was pretty sweet. There were also many scenic stops where Greg's bike needed to be repaired ... Classic.

We had to cross several rivers, including the one pictured below. In the middle of crossing the river i looked up and asked why we didn't just ride on the bridge. What's-his-butt's reply?? "Oh, i guess this wasn't the river we had to cross". Awesome. The ride was very pretty--the clouds broke as we rounded the lake and all but the tip of the Arenal Volcano was exposed. Most spectacular! And waaaaaay better than taking a bus or a taxi for 3 hours. At the end of our biking tour we got on a boat to cross Lake Arenal where our taxi was waiting for us. On the way, a nicaraguan woman [and i use the term woman lightly as she was hardly post puberty] came LITERALLY out of the tall grasses [no houses, roads, life in site] and the boat driver pulled over.

Okay stop here...right off the bat, who has questions? i do.

First question, was this arranged?

Next question, if so, how? I can see the logistics discussion now.... "okay at approximately 12:20 i'm going to pull my boat over next to the 3 meters of grass on the mountain next to the hill with the sheep roaming in a counter clockwise progression three hop-skips from the school of trout."

...so anyways this teen mom nicaraguan chick with a child wrapped in a Dora the Explorer beach towel got onto our boat. Uhmm....??? No one spoke english so we have no idea what the heck was going on. She also got in our taxi/shuttle and the taxi driver dropped her off several miles down the road ... not at a house .... just on the side of the road. When we asked our Tico Rastafarian friend, he said he didn't know her but she said she lived down the road so he dropped her off.

Closing question: why did we PAY for this tour when we could have hitch hiked our way through? There's always next time.

We arrived in Monte Verde at our new home for the next two nights : Cabinas Valle Campanas where we were greeted first by Rambo :: the sweetest, laziest dog i'll ever meet.

Reina, the owner, invited us into her home for a brewed cup for coffee from her Chorreador with beans they grew on their property. Speaking of their property, its fab. We were on a slightly elevated backpackers budget and for $50 per night we were the proud residents of this two story private cabin with balcony. It was spectacular. There was a kitchen inside, sitting room, small table, and upstairs a bathroom and bedroom.

A friend showed up on top of the refridgerator

This is a view from our balcony

Reina and her family were awesome and i fell in love with a 4 year old girl named Nazareth (Nazzi) who dragged me into her play room and insisted i speak to her in my special ed preschool level spanish. They even showed us their sugar mill and made us sugar water from a large sugar cane. Why Hello, awesome machine! Why not ME?? I want a sugar water maker for my birthday.

We dined out that night in town -- which reminded me very much of Moab, Utah, except less of a strip, more of a circle. The waiter brought greg this homemade salsa which even HE thought was hot--this kid has no taste buds so thats sayin' something. Enjoyed day 3 x 4 billion to the power of infinity.

Snooze.

Costa Rica, Day 2 :: "I think i'm starting to feel a little bit pregnant"

2011-03-31T10:13:00.000-07:00

::::::::::SPOILER ALERT:::::::::::

I hate to ruin good cliff-hanger before we even get started, but there's nothing funny about ACTUALLY being pregnant....So let me just say that our three bedroom house still has an office if you catch my drift.

We woke up on Day two in our private canvas tent and wandered out into the common area of the hostel where we ordered breakfast. We browsed through a tour book while we sipped our coffee. Having missed 6 hours of the previous day we knew we had a lot to pack into our one day in La Fortuna/Arenal. The itinerary of the day that was decided upon was this:

10am-12pm La Fortuna Waterfall
12-1pm Lunch
1-4pm Hanging bridges in the rain forest
4-? Baldi hot springs [EcoThermals was booked for the night]

We took a cab to the La Fortuna water fall where we payed a hefty fee to hike up and down 500 stairs. This was one of very few places where we actually had to sign a waiver which read, and i quote:

"We are not responsible for bodily damage, injury, death or pregnancy [bolded] that may result from visiting the La Fortuna waterfall."

..... seriously ?? Do a lot of people file law suits for becoming pregnant at this tourist trap ?? We signed anyways ... even though i secretly decided that if i do get pregnant any time in the next several months I am blaming it on the waterfall. The first little bit was a smooth walk to and overlook of the water fall--it really was spectacular.

I got a little bit thirsty and stopped for a drink...

As week hiked down the 500 stairs, i started to understand why we signed a liability waiver. It was no easy hike to the bottom. Greg was obviously feeling the hike as well as he announced between huffs/puffs, "Man, I think I'm starting to feel a little bit pregnant". I nearly lost my shit.

I opted for a swim at the bottom. Greg, who is disinterested in cold water, opted to take pictures.

On our cab ride back our driver explained to us that he might be local, but he's not loco. Good to know.

Next we stopped for lunch at a local place that services "typical" food--known in Costa Rica as a "soda". It was here that we realized that Costa Ricans have a strong affinity to mayonnaise.

Next up was a trip to the hanging bridges in Arenal. Our guide's name was Richard and is currently studying law but gives tours on the weekends. He was able to show us lots of plants and animals that we otherwise would have walked right by including these:

Coati, Blue jeans frog, leaf cutter ants [otherwise referred to as the Costa Rican Army] and a Baby Pit-Viper.

We crossed several more suspension bridges until we came to one that looked like it might collapse at any minute. Our guide asked us how old we thought it was and we started guessing in the high 50's. It turns out it had been built two weeks prior and was staged for a US reality TV show filming. It was actually made of steel coils and totally safe, but made to look like immanent death. If anyone sees this on a TV show please let me know [maybe survivor? Amazing Race? The bachelor pad II??]...i'm dying to know.

Finally, we went to Baldi Hotsprings....VERY VERY VERY highly commercialized hot springs with water heated by the active Arenal Vocano. We wanted to go to Eco Thermales which only allows 100 people in per day but they were already full. So....The pools were very relaxing if you could mute out the sounds of the spanish techno music in the background. We managed to find some pools at the top of the resort that were very quiet and peaceful. But not before stopping at the water slides of death. We climbed 3 flights of stairs to get to the top of the water slides...there were two ways down. The fast and the Slow--can you guess which one I opted for? Greg? Lets just say we took different slides and he arrived in the hot pool below first. We went up again and this time we both took the fast slide down. Greg racked his testicles and I think my swimsuit is still stuck up my butt crack. We found something else to do after that little episode.

Overall an awesome day! The summary results are in :: If you go to costa rica in the future, wear protective clothing if you plan to visit the Baldi hotsprings. And we would highly recommend visiting the Hanging Bridges with a Guide....don't bother hiring a tour for La Fortuna waterfall because not even a guide can prevent the risk of unforeseen pregnancy.

Costa Rica, Day 1 :: Stuck in San Salvador

2011-03-29T22:54:00.000-07:00

This begins the epic blog series of our trip to Central America. Let me begin by saying that I could hardly get any work done on Friday because the ants in my pants were excessive. I made it through with time to get home, finish packing and get myself and Greg out the door. With Yorba at the Hilton Hotel and Resort for Dogs (no capacity determined) with Peggy and Jay, we were off for SFO. We got to Starbucks with 2 minutes to spare after filling the suby up with gas.

When we arrived at the airport, we learned that SFO has perhaps one of the least efficient designs of all international terminals in the united states. Or maybe it was just that it was midnight and I was a zombie after driving 90 minutes in the rain. Regardless, we got to our ticket counter only to find out that our flight was delayed and we would thus miss our connecting flight in the morning from San Salvador to San Jose.

Not the end of the world, but it did mean we missed 6 hours of our first day in CR and also that we would miss our transfer. As you may remember from our last blog update, we had hired a company to pick us up at the airport and bring us to the bus station and make sure we got on the right bus. I emailed the company at midnight to let them know of our delay, but as it turns out they could not refund our money or reschedule our service without 24 hours notice. I calmly [subjective adverb] explained to them that I understood there were policies to be followed but clearly this policy was incompatible when talking about airline flight delays...i mean seriously...how much strife and time would Americans save if we had 24 hours notice of our flight delays??!?!!? I hung up the phone, fell asleep in the San Salvador airport and decided we'd "Vamos a Ver" when we arrived in San Jose.

Upon entry into the San Jose airport I was immediately overheated like a terrible victim of menopause. Apparently knee high athletic socks, black fleece pants and a hoodie was not exactly tropical attire. Wardrobe change stat. Adding to my misery, I forgot that you're not allowed to flush toilet paper and subsequently flooded the bathroom floor. Central America 2. Meg 0.

A quick stop at the tourist desk revealed a bus that went to La Fortuna although it was not direct. We took a cab to the station ... completely forgetting to exchange our currency before we left. Arrival to the city bus station quickly revealed the need for Colones, the Costa Rican currency. I mustered up all the spanish I could to chat with a man regarding our dilemma. "Tengo Dollares. Necessito Colones." the Man looked at me like, "Amigo, what the HELL am I supposed to do about this. I was stumped. I could come up with nothing more than "Donde Estan los colones???" Through an ongoing series of gestures and spanglish and perhaps a whine or two, he pulled out his wallet and did a mini exchange for us.....not that i KNEW the exchange rate, but trust was all I had left. We got on the *Right* bus and even got seats.

When we arrived in La Fortuna, at the base of the Arenal Volcano, we trekked up to our hostel. Arenal Backpackers Resort where thankfully they still had our reservation held. We checked into the last room available which was a private tent in the tent city. For $30 a night, we were the proud residents of this:

We grabbed a quick dinner and sleep couldn't come soon enough. We had arrived and survived. Meg and Greg score 1.

Pura Vida!

2011-03-11T22:50:00.000-08:00

You know what I've been craving lately?? An Epic Journey. Now, what we're about to embark on is nothing close to that, but it will provide excessive adventure, ultimate relaxation and incredibly frizzy hair. We're going to Costa Rica.

Sans Cell Phones (Gasp)

Sans Angry Birds

Sans Facebook

And when we get home we'll be Sans dinero.

I got through about 7 lessons on Rossetta Stone which leaves me with the following phrases:

--Los Ninos Beben Leche. [the children drink milk]

--Las Muejeres Benen Cafe. [the women drink coffee]

--La Manzana es Roja. [the apple is red]

I also remember these phrases from Spanish II at CCHS:

--Zapatos, Zapatos....donde estan mis zapatos? [shoes, shoes, where are my shoes?]

--Me Gusta la Bibiloteca [i like the library]

--Vamos a ver [we'll just have to see]

--No comer a mochos [don't eat your boogers]

Here's the itinerary:

Friday: Drop off the Dog with Peggy, Jay, Nasin, Yumi, Tundra, and Marina (Did i get them all?!?!) where he will bask in the joy of sleeping in human beds, romping with 4 other dogs, and probably going for a swim or two. Greg and I both work, then we're off to the airport for our overnight flight....Get the Anti-histamines locked and loaded.

Saturday: Arrive in San Jose at 9:40am. A representative from Geckotrail Adventures will meet us (with a sign that says, TRIFILO...yeah totally vip) and take us to the Coca Cola bus station where we board a bus to Arenal. I hope there are chickens running loose on the bus, but i hear that there are not....too bad. Arrive at Arenal Backpackers Resort where we will sleep in a tent city! Probably will settle in and do some hiking/eating etc.

Sunday: We're off to hanging bridges and to explore the arenal volcano by foot. Hopefully we'll get to go to some hot springs that night that are heated by the volcano. I also plan to nap in a hammock.

Monday: We leave Arenal and head to Monteverde via Mountain Bikes. Its a 26 mile ride with an hour and a half bus ride. We'll have a tour guide in case I flip over my handle bars.

Tuesday: ZIP LINES through the Monteverde cloud forest! Perhaps a coffee tour? Unsure.

Wednesday we are playing by ear but at some point we will be going back to San Jose to stay at Casa 69--which may or may not be a gay resort which we noticed AFTER i booked it for the night, so we're just gonna roll with it. I figure it will be well styled and clean. Its also walking distance to the zoo.

Thursday: We get picked up in the morning for our 2 day rafting trip down the Pacuare River. We get to Mountain bike to the put in and then spend the day on the river, rappelling down waterfalls, and hiking. Our night is spent at the "Jungle Lodge" on the river which i hope means that a monkey [Mono] will bring me a banana for breakfast. If not, i'll likely throw a fit.

Friday: Another day on the river and then back to San Jose to Posada Nena, Casa Alegre, bed and breakfast which got excellent reviews in the Lonely Planet guide book.

Saturday: Back to SFO and reality--well actually I have another week off of work but greg doesn't.

Our main objectives of the trip include:

1. Not getting bed bugs

2. Showering at least twice

3. petting a jaguar

We'll let you know how it goes.

Hasta la Pasta

Who's cuter?

2011-02-07T19:11:00.000-08:00

don't eat cereal that changes the color of the milk

2011-01-20T20:13:00.001-08:00

We challenge you to shop under this rule for the next month and see what happens. As you pass by the Trix and the Cinnamon Toast Crunch, divert your eyes to the following delish non-milk color changing options. And these really stick to your gut too--i can make it through the morning without >30 gummy bears...

In other news, Greg just walked in the door for his 3 day weekend! Yorba and I have been flying solo since Sunday so we're glad to have him back in the house....we need someone to vacuum...JUST KIDDING! We're going skiing on Saturday and prepping for a bears win on Sunday.

New Years Committments

2011-01-18T22:00:00.001-08:00

An thus marks the 1 year mark of our lives sans red meat. We admit to eating bison with Brian Ackerson who wouldn't quit until we took a bite and we also indulged in some lamb on Greg's birthday in napa. My cholesterol is down (it was arguably borderline high this time last year) -- Rockin' the low LDL for 2011. Greg continues to stay committed to the no red meat and I do too....with exceptions. I am going to eat red meat on rare and special occasions and when I know where the meat came from and the farming practices surrounding it.

Moving forward with new resolutions, we have committed ourselves to buying more local foods. Living in rural California has its benefits...one of course being great wine and the other being lots of local produce. For better or worse our resolution includes ordering whole chickens which require us to cut the head and feet off. AAAAAND because greg won't agree to having chickens in the yard [and because yorba would likely find them to be a delicious snack] we can also get farm fresh eggs...if you've never tried them you're missing out. Its palatably different and exponentially better. for realz yo.

Check out the websites below to find out what farms we'll be buying produce and meat from this year....i guess we need to start figuring out how to cook with obscure vegetables.

http://www.eatwell.com/

http://www.soulfoodfarm.com/

Greg bought me a book that was written by the same guy who wrote the omnivour's dilemma. It has short tid-bits of information on what to eat and how to shop. We're trying to focus on one each grocery trip. So far we think we've mastered "Don't buy cereal that changes the color of your milk".

goodbye fruity pebbles.

Hasta count chocula.

Take care Oreo-o's (not that i'm even sure they make this food of the gods anymore, we'll miss you none-the-less)

We mourn you....and sometimes we cry into our bowls of bland cereal. Just kidding...we'll be highlighting our new favorites in the next blog.

The next tip will probably prove to be even more difficult: "Don't buy anything that has sugar as one of the first three ingredients."

God help me. I'm pretty sure this means that those oreo cookies with mint chocolate chip ice cream in the middle are out.

Shit.

Christmas et. al

2010-12-28T20:54:00.000-08:00

Well i'm not sure how Thanksgiving became Christmas, but alas....here is to what is likely my last blog of 2010.

Christmas festivities included (in order)
Cutting down a tree
decorating the house
Skiing in North Lake Tahoe
taking 3 weeks off work (megan)
Traveling to chicago (megan)
Working 1/2 days on Christmas and Christmas eve (Greg)
Fondue 4 course meal

snowshoeing in South Lake Tahoe

Let's start with a few pictures of us cutting down our Christmas tree from Silveyville Farms in Dixon, CA.

::Then we decorated the tree and the house::

We appreciated all the cards and snail mail this holiday season

Our friend meg turned 29 for the first time and we celebrated in Tahoe at the Hyatt Resort in Incline Village....highly recommend that hotel to any and everyone!

On Christmas Eve we went to mass where we even got seats...and then visited with good friends. We ate a frozen pizza for dinner which was obviously divine. Christmas Day, greg got home early at 11am and we started opening gifts...we loved everything we opened.

In between opening gifts we ate a 4 course fondue meal for the second year in a row. We didn't get pictures of the chocolate b/c i was too busy stuffing my fat face.

We headed to tahoe for some snowshoeing for the 2nd year in a row on the day after Christmas. We, obviously, had a terrible time, especially the dog.

We hope you had a great Christmas too. More updates on our New Years resolutions on our next posts.

Hasta 2010.

Thankful A-Z, 2nd Edition

2010-11-24T23:44:00.001-08:00

We have a lot to be thankful for, once again, this year. We will consolidate these things into a simple A-Z format for ease of reading and thought organization.

A : Awesome roommates & 18 months of mahwidge, Adventure races, and Argyle

B : blue bottle coffee, black bear diner

C : crossfit, chicken fingers and cherry coke

D : Draino (see great clog of 2010 post) and Dog Parks

E : Ethington/Fahrenbach nuptuals

F : Farm Fresh Fruits and Veggies and Fondue pots

G : Glee! Why Hello, inner show choir singer

H : Hilton Head Vacations, Hot Tubs, Hammocks, and Health insurance

I : Ice Cold Beer in the middle of July

J : Jim and Colleen Mruzik

K : Keen shoes, Kadleck/Thrall Nuptuals

L : Love

M : Mt Saint Vaca and other adventures and Mash-ups on Glee

N : Nice Neighbors

O : Ortho Rotation (aka easiest month for Greg ever)

P : Peggy Keefe (for giving us the best gift this year!), Puppy Buzzes and Point Reyes National Seashore

Q : Quick trips to Monterey to visit the Ackersons

R : REI garage sales

S : southwest airlines frequent flier miles, sectionals, ski season, safe deployment for Carrie Beaty

T : trampolines and take-out (the best thing Meg cooks)

U : Utah Visitors and the US postal service (seriously, how DO they deliver all that mail?)

V : Voting and Vowel Babies of 2010 : Emersyn Olmsted, Alice Pettus, Ainslee Beaty

W : Wikipedia--solving any discrepancies in conversation in this house and Wash-your-own-dog stations

X : Xcuses to dress in costume at least monthly

Y : yorba! Seriously, we L.O.V.E this dog

Z : Zero broken bones in 2010 (thus far)

We hope you have a terrific thanksgiving! No turkey this year....just a crock pot chicken at our house!

Why, Hello and Welcome, little one

2010-11-15T17:54:00.000-08:00

::This deserves its own post::

The Trifeatilo's welcome Ainslee Grace Beaty as the newest member of the Beaty Family. She's incredibly good looking--with family genes like ours, how could she be anything else--and made her appearance on Saturday November 13th at 4 something odd in the morning! Weighing in at 8#5oz.

I plan to monopolize her at the upcoming Beaty Family Christmas--just so everyone can be prepared. BACK OFF. eeh hem.... :) Ainslee, we love you already!!

Warning :: Glowing mama and Smitten papa snapshots ahead.

The great drain clog of 2010.

2010-11-15T17:42:00.001-08:00

Whoa man. An event worthy of the stacks of "A brief history of Plumbing Distasters" took place at 618 Kentucky this past week. For an unknown reason our drain clogged to the point of [almost] no return. If you think this story sucks, you shouldn't keep reading because it doesn't get funnier. So either lower your expectations, or we'll catch you next time.

The bathtub was clogged. Very clogged. Clogged to the point that greg took a shower at 4:45am and I had to stand in 4-5" his cold filthy water that same day at 8:30pm. My feet will never be the same. So in went a bottle of draino which happen to have on hand since we have a slow flow at least every 90 days. NOTHING...the draino had no effect whatsoever. So i went out to buy the big dogs--Extra strength draino--entire bottle into the tub--NO EFFECT. Next there is this pressurized canister of draino that is supposed to blast out any clog. Well, not our clog....not to mention that I dare not put my arm into this caustic pool of filth so each time i have to fiddle with the drain I put a garbage bag over my arm "A la the broken wrist of 1994" incident. Mind you, 36 hours have passed since our last showers. We head to Meg's house down the street before we have to call in "stanky" to work. Finally, overnight the draino takes effect and the tub is empty...leaving behind 8-10 oz. of black and brown CRAP. I go over to neighbor pete for advise and he quickly refers me to google "How to" where i learn how to remove to the drain cover which requires a screwdriver and channel locks....i'm TOTALLY IN.....i love tools. The drain cover comes off and i pour yet another bottle of draino into the drain which backs up immediately. Flushing with hot water, i follow the directions on the Draino. Tub RE-CLOGS with clean water and draino mixture. Turns out it was just a slow flow again...so after that drains i release the "foaming action draino"--and either that fixed it OR....we have no pipes left. We're still not sure. If our house starts to hydroplane next weekend I guess we'll know the answer.

In less gross, and perhaps more visually entertaining news, both Greg and I had veterans day off and took a trip to our favorite dog park where the Wine Tasting is Free and Yorba can chase a ball until he passes out--Cline winery. Here are some photos--of the dog of course.

Last week of school for me until a full week off for Thanksgiving. Greg switches to night float next week too.

He can't stand to be so far away from me while i drive.

2010-11-05T18:12:00.000-07:00

Happy flippin' halloween

2010-10-31T21:42:00.001-07:00

The Warrior Dash 10/30/10

2010-10-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Autumnal Updates

2010-10-21T20:56:00.000-07:00

1) Yorba passed his therapy dog test! Go Yorby!

2) Greg and I and Yorba went camping on the coast at Pt. Reyes National Seashore. We booked this campsite 3 months to the day in advance and drooled for the entire time thinking about camping on the edge of the United States. Absolutely Gorgeous!

3) Greg survived the Tough Mudder! An adventure challenge lasting 8 miles, up a ski mountain, with 18 military style obstacles!

4) AAaaaand the most amazing tomato soup recipe when made with ripe tomatoes from your neighbors garden!

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/229/Roasted-Tomato-and-Basil-Soup96723.shtml

Happy Birthday Yorby

2010-10-05T19:14:00.000-07:00

Oct 5, 2005 :: Megan and Greg first lay eyes on each other

Oct 5, 2008 :: Yorby is born, birth name Yule

Oct 5, 2010 :: Everyone celebrates with party hats and frosty paws

[yes greg tasted the frosty paws, too]

Below is a picture of Yorby with all of his gifts. He got presents all the way from his dog friends (and puppy raisers) in Sacramento!! Overwhelmed is an understatement.

To put the icing on the frosty paws cake, he got to run for a whole hour and a half with his dog friends Lassen and Bagram and his awesome dog walker, Jennifer!

Happy Birthday to our very best friend!

Three in the Nest

2010-09-08T18:55:00.001-07:00

We spent the labor day weekend hanging out at Spaulding Lake outside of Lake Tahoe. The campsite that Greg's co-residents' reserved was awesome and we scored the best tent site! There was even room for our Double Nest Hammock! Everyone brought their dogs and shared their food (with people and dogs) -- I made some killer dutch oven cheesy potatoes that will wake the dead! Erin even brought her 10 month old in a playpen. If there's any promise that my kid would be as cool as Erin's kid I would have 3 tomorrow...but mine would likely be terrors, so yorba is just fine instead. We hiked out to a smaller pool/lake but i'm not sure what it was called...it SHOULD be called, beautiful melted ice lakes on the rocks. The water was frigid but if you think that stopped our dog from swimming you have another thing comin'. He had three 1-hour swims in a period of less that 12 hours and he had what we called the "Swim hangover" until yesterday at about 7pm when he got his second wind. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Curious incident of the bill in the yard

2010-08-25T20:53:00.001-07:00

Dear Yorba,

You wouldn't happen to know anything about this 1/2 eaten $10 bill, would you? I'm not trying to point fingers, but we found this under the trampoline which is where you usually hang out. Anyways, if you know where the other 1/2 of the $10 bill is, could you please bring it in through the doggie door and just put it on the counter. I know you can reach the counter because you stole a piece of spicy chicken off of it the other night. Yeah, just right where you found the chicken is fine. If you happen to find it...uhm....later....if you know what I mean, don't bother bringing it back it at that point.

Love,

Megan

PS: You have a ton of really awesome redeeming qualities so don't let this bring you down. Plus you give me something to blog about that people are actually interested in....so thanks. And to quote home alone, "keep the change you filthy animal". :)

Monterey Fun!!

2010-07-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

Monterey fun will be an ongoing blog post for the next two years! For those who need a brief explanation, Anne [white] and Brian Ackerson got stationed there for the next two years! Brian was Greg's good friend from High School and Anne was my college roommate for all 4 years. They got married on October 8th, 2005 -- Greg and I both stood up in the wedding. This would be the fateful event (really, series of events) where Greg and I would meet!! Needless to say we're ecstatic that they're only 2.5 hrs away! They also had a baby girl Lo [okay her name is actually Lauren] about a year ago. She's cool too...she'll be cooler when she stops napping all day.

With Greg's schedule being so flexible, we've been heading down there to hang out with them on the weekends about once a month. Its awesome to have a place to stay and built in dog-sitters for when we want to go on a Mt. Bike ride -- errr....and to have great friends to hang out with :)

Last time we went down we took Yorba to the ocean where he went into this alternate state of complete and total bliss that we only see otherwise when you hit the sweet spot during a serious belly rub session.

When we first arrived at the beach we had to keep him on leash--there's a section of the beach for dogs that are off leash but you have to walk a bit. Here's a picture of Yorba DYING to get off leash!!

We brought his Frisbee [ thanks peggy ] and I swear he could have played all day!! ALL DAY!! He was SOOOO happy. He even met a few friends that he reluctantly shared his frisbee with--they didn't like to frolic in the water as much as he did though so it worked out in his favor.

Whenever we're out with Yorba people always tell us how handsome he is and what a cute face he has. It must be true if so many people say it out loud and it's nice to know that we're not just biased re: our best friend's good looks and charming demeanor!

Yorba also got to experience his first pup-cake. We had stopped in San Jose to see Grammy on our way down and she lives right by a cupcake shop. We bought cupcakes for Anne and Brian and bought Yorba and Miles a pup-cake. Now, Greg was still a little bitter that Anne had tricked him into drinking baby formula with his brownies the last time we were down, so he and I concocted a plan to get Anne to eat the pup cake. I started by leaving the cupcakes in the car and talking them up--how good they were, how they were famous for this one kind but "Uhmm i couldn't remember which kind" -- I went to the car, peeled off the wrapper of the pup cake and held it up to Anne's mouth saying, "MMmmmm this is one they are famous for". Without hesitation she took a bite and even started to say Mmmm...this is really rich! Then i said, Oh Crap...that was actually a PUP cake....she spit it out into the sink and scraped her tongue for the next 5 minutes under running water. :) Meg score 1.

While in Monterey, Greg and I also successfully rode our first single track Mt. Bike trail!! It was awesome and addicting! On our climb up the trail, however, greg rounded a corner and saw a bobcat and two bob-kittens! So awesome.

A couple of pictures of Yorba and his best buddy Ollie!! We love it when Ollie comes over because Yorba sleeps really well afterwards! :) PS: the photos are deceptive...they really do like each other!

Okay, that's all for tonight! Hope you enjoyed. Coming up next:: Greg's Birthday and Girls Camping Trip 2010.

Down South

2010-07-18T22:10:00.000-07:00

Quick blog post on our week long vacation. Quick because there isn't much to report. In the 5 days that we spent on Hilton Head island, our days went a lot like this: Sleep. Eat. Beach. Nap. Beer. Pool. Eat. Sleep. Repeat! We got to stay on the Shipmaster Plantation in a lovely 3 bed/3.5 bath condo in which we used 1 bed and 1 bath! We took full advantage of our screened in porch overlooking a green on the golf course. Much to my father's dismay we did not golf. We also did not play tennis. Two relative staples on HH island...whatever. I got a fabulous tan and gained 2 lbs.

Here are some pictures! Do not adjust your computer, there is no music.

Then we went off to Savannah for a night at the Ballastone Inn [ http://www.ballastone.com ] and an evening including ghost tours and mint juleps! So Savannah is way historic, which I typically don't enjoy if truth be told, but this place was awesome. I muchly much much enjoyed seeing all the history aspects of the city and hearing about underground tunnels to hospitals, spirits that still haunt hotels, and seeing the bench that forrest gump sat on and the steeple of the church where the feather fell from in the opening scene! Mint Juleps are fantastic and i think i can officially say "i have arrived" now that i've had one. Here are some Savannah pictures! The only thing we missed it her full glory was Paula Dean.

Overall it was an awesome trip! We flew back on the fourth of July so we didn't get to see fireworks, but we did see this awesome lightning storm out of our airplane window. Check it out!!

A big blog shout out to Peggy who watched our best friend while we were in Savannah. At least once daily, i said 'i miss yorba' but i knew that he was living the life and swimming every day on HIS vacation in Sacramento. It's so nice to know he's more than fine when we're away!!

More pictures and blog posts to come {peggy i know you're dying to see Yorba's latest beach photos...they're coming!!}

The Epic Journey

2010-07-16T16:10:00.000-07:00

I know there are lots of people [okay, really just my mom] who are waiting to see the vacation pictures....but this video is hot off the press and I thought you might enjoy it while you wait.

Summer Solstice Week

2010-06-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the rapidly increasing summer heat here in Cowtown CA. Wow it really got hot this week!! Yorba is probably wishing he was a blonde and also that his cheap-ass 'people' would turn the air on. It still cools down pretty nicely at night and windows and a fan does the trick to keep it in the low 70's in the house. With the days getting so long it makes for nice walks at night, trips to the park in the early evening, and even ice cream some nights.

Trifilo News for the week/weeks past include the following:

1) Yorba got a doggie door that fits in the sliding glass door and is easily removable. He loves it. He also loves his Kong ball (which greg [loudly] calls his KONK!) when we fill it with peanut butter and freeze it. He takes it under the trampoline in the shade and camps out for about 30-40 minutes.

2) I got a retractable clothes line and our dryer is now almost obsolete! Super fantastic.

3) I finished up my commitment with Easter Seals this week--from here on out I can work when I want to or NOT work when i want to. I'm finishing up at the Woodland School District this week and friday is my last day of work until August 2nd!!! How do people work all 12 months? it blows my mind.

4) Greg graduated from Intern year this week--which basically meant "Congratulations...now get back to work." There was a whole military ceremony with an awesome speaker and as we both sat there we were thinking about how much we love being in the air force and how much we are looking forward to the future and what it has in store for us! Here's a picture of Meg and Greg in front of the american flag--such nice form on that salute.

Check out the video of him and two of our friends graduating.

4.5) Anne and Brian trusted us to babysit Lauren this weekend. She spent saturday night with us and we had a ton of fun. She hung out in the hammock, jumped/played on the trampoline and enjoyed my lime green crocks. Her mom and dad got to go on a date to Napa for dinner and then to a winery the next day! It's so wonderful to have great friends so close--this is going to be a great 2 years!

5) Jenny Esker arrives in the Vacah on friday night [sans pete, much to his dismay] and stays for the weekend for Brother Michael's first mass n in Oakland! Besides churchly things, we have some shenanigans planned in downtown San Francisco including but not limited to drinking the largest martinis ever with a pint glass side-car.

6)We're off to Hilton head this Sunday for a week of fun and relaxing in the sun [thanks Deb and Tom!!]. Yorba is headed back to his [wonderful] puppy raiser's house in Sacramento where he'll certainly be spoiled by sleeping in their bed and swimming in their pool. He may not want to come home!!

Have a great week--see you on the flipside of hilton head!!

Success often lies on the other side of failure :: YORBA

2010-06-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

Last wednesday we got the call that Yorba was being released from CCI -- I was so excited that i almost pee'd the couch. I skyped with my mom and asked her if she thought dad was ready to be a grandpa. To those of you who know my mother you can imagine the high pitched excitement that came at my via inter-web video. I think she thought i meant that I was having a baby though i haven't a clue how she got that impression.

On Yorba's papers it says that he was released for "behavioral--fearful" and further discussion revealed that he was actually released for being fearful of stuffed animals ... really?

We picked yorba up on friday night after work and on the way home i got a flat tire [side note, but seriously? a flat tire??]. The next day we drove down to Monterey to hang out with Brian and Anne [and lauren and miles] Ackerson. Yorba made Miles feel like a real dog instead of the standard poodle that he is when he submitted in the contest for dominance. Savor it now Miles--this will be short lived.

The best part of having Yorba so far has been that we like to do the same things at night after work: lay on the couch, take naps, go to the park, walk to get ice cream, and jump on the trampline...which actually amazes me because i'm pretty sure he doesn't have knees.

Check out this video we made of Yorba--it's pretty spectacular!!

In other news, Greg and I did a pretty spectacular mountain bike ride last weekend while we were on the coast. It started at Waddell Beach just south of half moon bay and went to Berry Creek Falls which is in Big Basin State Park. It was a pretty steady climb for 5 miles and then you locked your bike and hiked the .5 miles to the falls. The ride out took 1/3 of the time it took us to get in and it was pretty much all downhill--overall a ride that left us feeling pretty tough and also very muddy. :) The subaru is enjoying its new accessory--a 4 bike hitch rack that swings out to let the dog out of the trunk. Right on.

Two more weeks of work and then we're off to hilton head where we will partake in adventures including but not limited to sleeping in, napping, drinking beer, laying on the beach, and getting massages. Awesome x infinity

Happy summer -- hope you like the new look of the blog!

Insert tail between legs ... and other news.

2010-04-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

Ooooooooooookay--it's mid-late april and i haven't blogged since January. Here are my top two excuses:

1) February was a short month. It hardly counts.

2) ...

Allow me to bullet the highlights by month. I'm going to need to consult my google calendar to remember everything--not surprisingly, this is not the first time google has pulled me through a jam.

FFFFFFEEEEEEEEEBBBBBBBBBruary

1) My Birthday!!! (okay i know we're jumping to the end of the month, but the entire first half was all in anticipation.) I turned 28 on 2/28 making this my golden birthday. Not surprisingly, half of you have no idea what this means or the significance. But ever since i can remember my mom has been counting down until I turned 28 on the 28th (as in, "Megan, only 17 more years until your golden birthday"). So she came out to spend the weekend and shower me with gifts!

We went to Berkeley where my mom stood in the middle of traffic taking pictures of VW buses and drugged up hippies playing guitars. She said she thinks she spotted some of her old friends amongst the tie dye. I got us out of there just in time to avoid a major flashback ala Puff the Magic Dragon on her guitar. :)

We went off to wine country where we enjoyed some wine at V.Sattui followed by dinner in Vacaville at Fuso. If YOU come to vacaville we'll likely take YOU to Fuso as well...it's one of about 4 restuarants we frequent in this town.

Just as soon as she was here, she was gone, sadly.

Greg shocked me by buying me flowers for my birthday...i have only received flowers on one other occasion so i was floored. The surprises kept coming as he called me out the car to help carry in my birthday present ... A 12 FOOT TRAMPOLINE that i've been wanting MY WHOLE LIFE.

The weekend after my actual birthday it was ....

MMMMMMMAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRch.

In March Jenny and Pete took a pilgramage across Nevada to visit Vacaville where they would meet real live Vacanese People and study the Vacah [va-CAH] Culture. Along with all of this, they would also participate in my birthday party at the Vacaville Gymnastics Center which we rented out. Little did Jenny know the she was destined for gold that night with Pete as her Slovic coach.

March also brought me a trip to Saint Louis for Colleen's Bridal shower! I had a blast seeing her and meeting her friends. The tea house that we rented out was quaint and charming times infinity. We also went to Dave and Buster's where I DDR'd with my mother in law and embarrassed colleen by saying "scrotum" in front of the waiter. Pretty much par for the course at a bachelorette party, wouldn't you say?

I had such a wild time in StL that I had to call in sick on monday--more like call in exhausted and not willing to work with your 2-3 year old child...

AAAAAPPPPPPPPPPRRRRRRRRRRRil:

The first and best thing to happen so far in April has been the birth of Kelly and Matt's little girl, Emersyn Luise Olmsted. Excuse me but how cute is that name??? Not too much cuter than the actual baby...or too much more perfect than kelly looked after giving birth--we should really hate her for that, right? And Matt is completely smitten from what I hear. What a happy little family!!

April also brought ICU/Cardiac team for greg...read as LOOOOONNNNGGGG days and 6 work days per week. He is very much looking forward to next month where he gets 10 days off in a row!!! Unheard of. We'll be heading back to the Lou for Colleen and Jim's wedding. We'll also get to see both of our parents, anne and brian and little Lo, and Kelly and matt and little Emersyn. Oh and don't forget a trip to the city museum with Chad, Tressie, Mike Taylor, and Kelly Trifilo.

Lastly, April brought Yorba's first report card. From what I can tell he's making solid C's. Apparently he can get rough with other dogs while playing but is easily called back. He also has been licking a lot while is indicative of stress (Awww....please let him out) so if he continues on this path they'll likely release him. Under Response to Correction he was marked "Low" but under Response to Praise he was marked "High". Under Ability to learn new tricks (or something similar to that) he was marked "Moderate". CCI will make cuts at the end of the month to make more room for matriculating puppies in May. Let's all keep our fingers crossed and tails wagging, okay?

Lastly--err, lastly AGAIN--we got a Mac this month and therefore are now available to Skype. Our name is Trifilos09 so hit us up!!! I can put the computer on the patio table and show you my backflip on the trampoline!

Oh yah, I have a blog...whoops.

2010-01-31T20:04:00.001-08:00

Well it's still January here in California, so we're still meeting our once a month blogging quota. 2010 got off to an insane start! Greg has been on OB all month and got to deliver 5 babies. I joke that the expectant mothers have no idea how often he drops things at home--but that said, all babies survived. The name of my game has been travel. I spent the first three weekends of January in Southern California--which sounded really fun until the last weekend when I was completely exhausted. Here's what we did each weekend:

1) Los Angeles: Greg held down the fort while I travelled to LA for a conference. I spent 3 full days in a theory class for Sensory Integration. Thrilling, as you can imagine. Well i learned a ton and it was cool to hear all the neuro again after 5 years in practice. It made a whole heck of a lot more sense now...which is saying something for a topic that still makes very little (research based) sense in general.

2) Palm Springs: This weekend Greg and I went together to visit Ryan and Carrie in Palm Springs for my Mom's 39th (you're welcome mom) birthday. We had a really great time eating and planning our next meal while eating the one before. Never a dull meal on a Beaty Family Vacation. Greg got schooled in golf (literally, Ryan gave him a lesson or two) while Carrie brought me to a masochistic Yoga class (i think i'm still sore). We visited the living desert (minus a date shake) and enjoyed the hot tub and the fabulous view of the mountains. It was a very relaxing trip we'd take again in a nano-second.

3) Back to L.A: This was the 2nd part of my conference and Greg came down with me on the hunt for Hills stars Lauren Conrad and LO. Saddened by his failure to contact the girls via personal cell phone, he spent his days poking around various museums while I sat in lectures. He went to the La Brea Tar Pits, Rodeo Drive, Getty Museum, and maybe another museum. Greg likes to read every placard in every museum we go to so I'm glad he was able to enjoy them sans my low attention span. We went to hollywood and did the walk of fame, visited some vintage stores, and ate at a fabulous thai restaurant. A nightcap at The Woods, a local bar, served up a mean s'mores martini which I enjoyed and then fell asleep on the way home. One gold mine that Greg found was the NY times "36 hours in ..." travel recommendations. We have used this in Portland and now in Los Angeles and have found some of the best off the beaten path, non-touristy attractions ever. Highly recommended.

4) This weekend I put us on Lock Down status. Friday night we DID end up going out to eat with our friends Tyler and Marwa, but I figured that this was sort of like lock down as it required less effort than actually cooking. Saturday morning called for sleeping in and anxiously awaiting the arrival of Yorba who we were dog-sitting this weekend. It was our last weekend "for sure" with Yorba--he could be ours in only 6 short weeks or he could not be ours at all. He turns in for advanced training on February 12th and if he makes it through, he'll stay until likely August 2010. We also hung out with our friends Lindsey and Aaron--enjoyed some great thai food, The Hangover, and some relaxing time in their hot tub in the yard. It was an awesome weekend.

Looking ahead to February we have several exciting things:

Greg starts inpatient peds at UC Davis in Sacramento
Megan makes her annual pilgrimage to SLC for Magna Main Street Pub Crawl
Megan celebrates her "Golden Birthday" and Mom is coming to CA to celebrate. (Greg's getting me a trampoline....please reinforce this notion)
Yorba turns in for advanced training and hopefully fails out quickly.
Ortho appointment which may yeild the OK for skiing!!!!

Enjoy the BEST MONTH OF THE YEAR! :)

Fa-rah-rah-rah-rah...rah rah rah rah.

2010-01-01T13:32:00.001-08:00

Christmas day was spent at David Grant Medical Center. Yorba and I went over to the hospital to visit some patients and bring some joy. Unfortunately there were a lot of really sick people with contact precautions who couldn't visit with our little therapy pup, but the two who did get to visit very much enjoyed themselves. Perhaps the nurses liked Yorba the best though! It was slow, so greg was able to spend about 5 hours, uninterrupted, with us--eating and watching movies. I REALLY wanted to have an asian Christmas dinner, but unfortunately, even the asian restaurants weren't open. We had burger king instead. Barf.

The day after real Christmas, we took off and went to Tahoe for a night to do some snowshoeing. It was awesome and b/c i'm sick of blogging, i'm going to let the photos tell the stories. Two things: First, we can't wait to go back and ski and second, this was Yorba's first time seeing snow!

One last thing: I (megan--and most likely greg by default) have given up red meat for 2010 in the interest of heart health! I have made one singular exception: I can eat hot dogs only when i'm in a baseball stadium. I'm sorry but i can't give that up. Period. Stop judging me.

Christmas!! (eve)!!!!

2009-12-31T18:43:00.000-08:00

Christmas came early this year secondary/thanks to Surgery at David Grant Medical center...this time greg is on the other end of the surgery, for which we are grateful. The trifeatilo's celebration began with some serious sleeping in and then me waking up excited as if it was Christmas morning. I wanted to go see what Santa had put in my stocking. Greg was not as enthusiagstic which of course was disappointing. He perked up when i reminded him that only those who believe, receive. Our stockings were FULL! Santa even somehow knew that Yorba was visiting.

Once the stockings had been opened we ate garbage eggs (everything you can imagine goes into one skillet). Looks gross in this photo, but believe me--it was delish. Or don't believe me--we didn't really ask anyways.

We got lots of sweet gifts! See below for a sampling!

This was a gift from Santa. The Tag said, "To Gregan Beatilo: For intended and unintended purposes.....the above photo is an obvious unintended purpose.

Wii sports resort! We (wii) also got Super Mario Brothers and The Biggest Loser work out!

Battery Powered Socks

My 3-1 WAAY better than a snuggie, snuggie.

Skis!!! Now all we need is Ortho Clearance!

We are proud to report that as of December 24th, 2009, we have officially used all kitchen appliances that we registered for! The last to be opened and used was the Fondue pot. Now, i don't want to brag, but i am kind of a fondue master. You may be asking what qualifies someone to call themselves this and i'll tell you: 1) I have been to Gejas Cafe in Chicago 3 times 2) I have a fondue cook book 3) I had a fondue birthday party when I was 13.

Here are some photos of our three course fondue meal which was incredibly awesome and way worth the time. It took us over 3 hours to eat dinner!! Yum.

Cheese Fondue with apples and bread!

Peanut oil with potatoes, scallops, and Filet Mignon

Chocolate with strawberries, marshmallows, and pound cake!

Overall it was the best Christmas (eve) ever. If you're wondering, I still want a trampoline for the back yard. Don't worry folks, there's still time. My birthday is in February.

Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?

2009-12-29T15:18:00.000-08:00

Greetings again. This blogging is becoming a monthly event -- which i can't decide if that's promising or if that is slacking. Whatever it is, that's what it is. HOWEVER, in an attempt to preserve my sanity and the sanity of readers, i'm breaking this holiday season down into several different posts. The first is called "Holiday Prep"--

Holiday Prep included the following in the Trifeatilo household:

1) Watching Elf and Love Actually--alternating nightly, weekly, monthly, and/or PRN. Our favorite quotes include:

Buddy the Elf, What's your favorite color?
Let's make work your favorite, yah, work's your new favorite.
Is there sugar in syrup? Then YES!
I'm a cotton headed ninny muggins.
She doesn't even know I exist, but even if she did she'd despise me. She's the coolest girl in school and everyone worships her because she's Heaven.
Love, actually, IS all around us.

2) Buying and decorating a Christmas Tree!

We had high hopes of cutting down our own tree, but it wasn't in the cards this year. So we went to lowes and impulsively bought the first tree we picked up. In our defense it is the most perfect tree on earth and fate brought us together. Sometimes the stars just align, friends. We opted for colored lights and random ornaments.

3) Sending Holiday greetings to friends and family. Hopefully you enjoyed our quasi-narcissistic holiday photo card--we can't help it if Chad and Tressie Zellner are photographic geniuses and make us look incredibly good looking in every photo. Blame them.

4) Baking Gingerbread men from scratch: This was a new endeavor for the trifilo household. Armed with a kitchenaid mixer and a new rolling pin, i set out to conquer the men made of gingerbread. I'd say it turned out well to very well. They were edible and cute. And one time, in the first batch, a leg broke off. I added some blood and made it an amputee/wounded gingerbread man.

Got SUCH a kick out of that that I had to make a second batch of ONLY massacred gingerbread men. Some people say i have too much time on my hands....well, maybe SOME people didn't take their holiday cheer pills this season....just sayin. Shield your eyes if you're opposed to reading a certain four lettered word....this next section is rated PG13.

That's all for today. More later on Christmas eve, Christmas day, and a trip to Tahoe!!

Thankful A thru Z

2009-11-29T21:50:00.000-08:00

We have lots more than 26 things to be thankful for--more like EleventyBILLION things, but honestly, we need to be concise if we hope to maintain any readers at all. Here are our A-Z of things we're thankful for....it was a collaborative effort, even if greg was falling asleep while i typed. Also, scroll to the bottom to see the before and after photos of our turkey! Its enough to make you want to become a veg-head.

A Ackerson, Lauren--even if she did ruin our wedding ;)

B Bed and Breakfasts...and breakfasts just in general.

C Coffee & Crockpots

D DVR--our newest addiction.

E Everyday love and all the ways it pops up around us

F Farmers Market--Local Tastes Better!

G Guests and Guestrooms

H Hairdryer....the OTHER heating system in the house

I ice cream, duh.

J Jobs--given the economic situation, we are grateful

K Kegs of Bells beer in a barn running dry

L Laundry "on-site" here in the new house...we're really growing up folks.

M Mahwidge--it's what bwings us togeddah today.

N Napa--right around the corner!

O Oregon--the best state ever.

P Pergola and Panamanians

Q quarters found in the laundry that add up to dollars that are used to spend on fun things!

R Relocating to new fun places--we recently have found ourselves with a major weather upgrade

S Sweatpants, Subarus and Sleep

T Tandem bicycles

U Underwater Adventures--Yay for scuba and snorkeling!

V Vacations!

W Wahoo Mountain Bikes

X Xrays--improving with each ortho appointment!

Y Yorba!!

Z Zero Degree sleeping bags...it's cold out there folks!

Happy T-giving...hope it went better for you than for this turkey:

Portland or Bust

2009-11-15T09:22:00.000-08:00

BLESSED BE THE NAME OF V.A. OUTPATIENT SURGERY...and the people all said AMEN! All i can say is that the rotation that Greg was on last month was send directly from the gods of relaxation, vacations, and general namaste. It was so nice to have what we referred to as a "normal" schedule where we get up at the same time, we eat breakfast at the same time, we leave at the same time to go to work, and we get home at the same (reasonable) time approximately 8 hours later. Nothing says fall better than that.

Because the schedule was so flexible, Greg was eligible to take some "leave" which in non-military persons know better as PTO. When you marry a man who grew up moving every two years, christmas-ing in Australia and weekend-ing in Thailand, it's not very often that you are able to travel somewhere that he hasn't been before. But he had never been to Portland (OR) and when we learned that it was within driving distance there was no question as to where we were going for the weekend.

So we loaded up the Subaru and took off on wednesday night after work. Driving five hours in the dark after a long day of working, put us about 2/3 of the way to our destination and smack dab in southern Oregon (Grant's Pass to be exact). We stayed at the Western hotel....but this wasn't just any western...it was the BEST WESTERN! We felt lucky to have found the BEST one during our travels...what are the odds?

The next morning, after a traumatizing trip through the drive through coffee shop (Greg has a severe phobia of drive thrus.....yes, seriously), we were off and driving in the rain towards the coast. When we arrived, the time was prime for some clam chowder and some window shopping. We purchased a chocolate covered twinkie and an octopus hat. Jenny Esker, if you're reading this, the latter purchase is your christmas present.

Then we checked into our bed and breakfast, The Arch Cape Inn where we were staying for the night. It was a great B&B with phenomenal food! The only complaint I have is that the walls are paper thin--and you're probably thinking...oh but it's an old house--well, it was actually built in 1994...so there's not really and excuse. You could hear people showing, using a hair dryer, opening and closing their doors....and in passing the Inn Keeper said something about it being really entertaining when honeymooners end up at the Inn.....i didn't know what he meant by that though.

The next morning we went into portland and rented a tandem bicycle. There are these great "carts" in downtown portland where you can get anything from thai food to a giant burrito to "bring your own food and we'll deep fry anything". We opted to get some greek food and rode the bike to a park that was designed by the same person that designed Central Park in NYC. Very pretty. Then it was more teamwork pedaling up hill to a dormant volcano park where we feasted our eyes on a view of the entire city.

The Saturday activity was obvious....saturday market, duh. we each got screen printed tshirts (greg's with a buddah, mine says "local tastes better" with veggies all over it), we also got a piece of art, and greg got a winter hat with ear flaps.

The trip ended with a halloween celebration with makeshift costumes (greg as a yahoo river guide and me as the octopus from finding nemo).

Lastly our blogging is sporadic because we're giant slackers -- and thats the only excuse we have.

FUN, all sorts of it.

2009-10-11T12:49:00.001-07:00

Scandia FUN

Friday night was date night around here and my competitive thermometer was scorching. Many-a-time we have passed the Scandia family fun center and many-a-time we laughed, thinking, who actually goes there? Well, I figured it was prime time to check it out. That's right friends, it was putt-putt time.

We first went out to dinner for indian food (my first time having indian food and boy oh boy did i love it) where we discussed the wagers:

If Megan won, Greg had to detail the inside of her car (He didn't know that she had just spilled coffee).

If Greg won, Megan had to wash the exterior of the jeep including tires and wheel-wells.

As we pulled up to the Scandia Fun Center, we donned our game faces.

The front nine went pretty well. Greg was winning and quite vocal about it. He even got a hole in one which really frosted my cookies. I maintained my composure as we headed into hole number 10. a long narrow incline and at the end, two barrier walls that if you hit, would send your ball back down to the tee. We had about 3 inches in which to sink the ball in order to get it up to the green. I teed off first and greg laughed as it took me 7 strokes to get up the incline--every time it rolled back down he snickered and my blood was boiling. Karma kicked his butt when it took him 15 tries to get up to the top. He slammed his putter a couple of times. This hole landed greg and I an 18 and a 9, respectively. I was up by 5.

The back nine secured me a clean car and greg a bruised ego. I even managed my own hole in one. Greg's saving grace, however, was on the 18th hole. There were four holes that you could sink into to end the game. One, was obviously much more skillful than the others. Greg sunk it in and a siren went off!!!! He won a free game of laser tag! But, let the record show, that I won by two. just sayin. Oh Scandia FUN center....you really are so FUN.

Wii FUN

Wii (we) have been having lots of fun playing our wii (wii). Marwa (wii name: mar-WHA?), Megan (Megtastic), and Meg (Meg) duked it out over a few bowls of ice cream one night. Check out pictures below. It was FUN.

Sailing FUN

Greg's intern class went sailing in the SF Bay last tuesday. They also got free ice cream in Sausalito. Greg sites his major accomplishment of the day as not falling off the boat. He said he had FUN.

Are you a Mathlete?

2009-09-27T21:39:00.000-07:00

It gets complicated...try to follow.

Long Commutes (4 days per week) + $3.11 gas prices (16 gallon tank) =

my new bike

__________________________________________________

Inpatient Medicine x 6 days per week + 1 night on call - sleep = Confused Greg

An actual conversation today when greg was inbetween waking & sleeping:

Me: Greg, you said to wake you up now

Greg: Okay, thanks. But what about the kidney function?

Me: What?

Greg: Mrs. Bentington's kidney function. What do you think we should do?

Me: ....uhmm....i don't know. What do YOU think we should do?

Greg: Let's plan to see her as an outpatient.

Me: Ok, good plan--i'm glad we talked about this.

Greg: .......

______________________________________________________

Generous Wedding gifts + reclaimed materials + 10 weeks waiting - $$$ =

Our New Family Room Furniture (finally)

_________________________________________

College Friends - greg (2* to call crappy call schedule) + california coast + cable-cars - rice-a-roni + Martinis =

The REAL San Francisco treat!

Can we keep him?

2009-09-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

Yorba has left us...but his hair remains. Our vacuum is doing its best but fur shows up in the strangest places. It's all over the coffee table, under the refrigerator, and on the couch which is particularly strange since he wasn't ALLOWED to go on the couch. Greg found him there once or twice when Yorba thought Greg had left the house but in fact he was just in the shower. Dogs are smart. Can we keep him?

Yorba, Greg, and I went out this past week to celebrate four months of marriage with a little sushi action (Yorba did not eat sushi...he's vegetarian). It was delish--we like Rock and Roll Sushi in Vacaville! Here's a picture of me and my boys. By the way, the other night I picked up the bag of treats and accidently said, "come here my love" and watched greg's heart break in front of my very eyes. He said, "I thought I was your love...this was my worst fear, that you would love the dog more than me"....a little dramatic if you want my opinion, but i have now reserved "my love" for my husband and "my dog" for yorba. All is well. We'll let you decide who you think is loved more in this house...a picture of me with both of my boys:

We also went to the Sacramento Zoo last weekend. It's a nice zoo--small--but manageable! They had a sumatra tiger which was neat to see! They also had some fun monkeys on this jungle gym and I felt like we were watching a circus performance minus the animal abuse part. They were a riot! We also saw an anteater. Greg had an epiphany during this particular zoo trip: He would be just as happy being a zookeeper as he is being a doctor. Equal interest. I think he'd have a better schedule as a zoologist so just for the record, I support this. I also think i might somehow be able to finagle a pet monkey out of that deal...maybe?

Its a pizza and "biggest loser" night....is that a terrible combination? I'm a terrible human being.

yum.

What up, Dog?

2009-09-09T22:16:00.000-07:00

Another week in paradise here in California! Our lives seem to be flourishing buds of socialization and livelyhood. Greg continues to be on night float (I've seen him for one.point.five hours in the last 36) and I am gainfully employed--part time...No need to rush into anything, you understand. But now that I have things to occupy my day, it really does fly by. I've gone from spending to making and for that our bank accounts are grateful.

This past weekend we went to Lake Almanor for Friday and Saturday nights to spend some time with Bob and Fernanda and just get away! It was very chilly which was very condusive to playing scrabble, reading trashy magazines (greg can't quit the habit), and trolling around downtown Chester. We scored a sweet wooden trunk for $35 buckarooskis at an antique store....which by the way, I have gradually become a little obsessed with lately--antique stores that is. But I digress....

In other news, our family room furniture FINALLY comes in next week (exciting) at which time I guess i'll have to put to rest my decorating side job and pick up that other part time gig I signed on for.

Slow Cooker Success! I made a potroast--or rather I placed a potroast in the crockpot and went to work. Why do more people not do this? Dinner is ready when you get home. Genius. Anyone have any other 8-hour slow cooker recipes that they'd like to share? I'd love to get my hands on some more good ones. I peeled Carrots for the stew. Then I put them down the garbage disposal. This, apparently, is a no-no. I did not realize this...although Greg was quick to remind me that both of our parents had experienced similar trials except with potato peels...i don't recall that. The kid hoards memories--his mind is a vault. Well, anyways, here I am stuck at home with a clogged garbage disposal. Instead of calling the landlord I decided to find an online/at-home remedy...and wouldn't you know it worked. I like to call it the fourth grade volcano principle...GENERALIZED--sounds like the title of a thesis huh? (masters degree here I come). Here's what you do should you find yourself in a similar predicament:

1c baking soda -- pour it down the disposal immediately followed by 2c of white vinegar...a mini volcanic explosion results. Let that sit for 10 minutes. Flush with two pots full of boiling water. Flick the garbage disposal on and wait for the "Whooshing", pipe-clearing noise. If it doesn't come, go to the bathroom and retrieve your plunger. Plunge away. Presto-chango...you just saved yourself the money you made at work today! Hip hip .....

Lastly, Yorba is here! He's ours all ours for about 12 days. We're deeply madly shamelessly in love with him. I took him to the grocery store today and everyone stopped to say hi to both of us. This made me realize that if i'm going to take yorba out in public I should probably look acceptable b/c people will, by default, also be looking at me. I think i'll probably just get some big sunglasses and wear a smock and try to pass as one of the Olson twins.

Have a fabtastic week.

Recent Local Happenings

2009-08-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

As I type, Greg is once again turning into a werewolf and howling at the David Grant Medical Center moon on night float. Recently night float "widowed", I find myself more anxious than ever to go back to work. Lots has happened this week. I'll make you a list with photos as appropriate:

1. I accepted a job today. I'll be working part time at the Woodland School District working in their early childhood program as an OT. The other "part time" will be with Easter Seals...more clinic based therapy birth-21. Now all that needs to happen is that my California licensure needs to come through. Hard to believe it's been in process for 2 1/2 months and it still hasn't come! Huge bummer.

2. We are dogsitting what will hopefully become our dog for 10 days starting next week! His name is Yorba and he is currently in the CCI (canine companion for independence) training program, slated to fail out--or as they call it, have a "change of career". Granting that he fails out, we will receive a very well trained one year old dog. CCI dogs are held to very strict standards and they only have a 35% pass rate. The dogs can't bark, can't play fetch, must obey commands on the first try, and can't release commands until the trainer says "release". Skills they must learn include turning lights on and off. Transporting things such as Cell phones from one room and brining it to the next, opening doors, etc etc etc. Needless to say, not many dogs meet this standard. The other 65% are change of career dogs and we're looking forward to having one as our own. We will get him certified through the delta society to be a "therapy dog" and i'll be able to bring him to work with me. Very exciting! He's 3/4 golden retriever and 1/4 black lab. He sheds like a beast so if anyone has any recommendations on remedying that, please let us know. WE'RE SO EXCITED! As bad as it sounds, we hope you'll join us in praying that he fails out :) hehe. (Yorba is on the right)

3. Minor Grill Explosion: We bought a grill for the backyard and got a steal on it. Having set it up ourselves, we were a bit nervous to fire it up in fear that we may have crossed our wires. We turned on the propane, hit the igniter switch....nothing.....no gas smell, no flame.....hit the igniter switch again....still nothing. We turn off the propane and re-connect the tube. Turn propane back on, turn on gas on burners, igniter switch...nothing.......nothing.....BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! Greg stumbles backwards onto the ground and i can immediately smell burning hair. I run over to greg to see if he's okay but all I can say is, "Do I still have eyebrows???????!!!????". I yell to him to turn off the propane and i run to the bathroom. I still have eyebrows but my head hair is fried. Greg was okay too. All we can figure is that there was an airbubble in the tube that the gas flows through and all of a sudden the gas came pouring out and ignited. From now on we will keep the lid closed while BBQing. Thank you.

4. Coastal Highway Trip. We travelled on Saturday and Sunday down the california coast. We first stopped in Monterey (where Anne and Brian will be moving in June 2010) and went to the aquarium there. I have never been to such a neat place! They have a "splash zone" where you can actually hold sea creatures. I held a starfish (three different kinds), a sea cucumber (SO COOL), and a little crab! We also saw a great white shark, penguin feedings, hammerhead shark, and a sea otter training session. Then we camped down near Big Sur--our first camping trip together since the "gregsleg" incident and it went really well. We love all our new camping gear (Thanks to everyone who shopped off the REI registry!). We woke up the next morning and went to pfiefer beach which was a gorgeous, non-advertised beach--there were sea caves galore and the surf crashed thru. It's hard to believe that the rock gave way to the water because it crashed into it for long enough. Says something about persistence! The 17 mile drive was also fabulous--something I'm sure I would have hated if my parents would have taken me on when I was little, but that I loved now. We saw sea-lions on the distant rocks! Finished it off with a trip to San Jose on the way back to have dinner with Uncle Bob and Fernanda and as an added bonus Uncle John and Carolyn were in town as well. It was great to see them!

(photos: You weren't supposed to take them out of the water, but greg said it would be OK just for a picture. We're sorry starfish if we made you gasp!)

Enjoy your week!

Lauren Elizabeth Ackerson ("Lo")

2009-08-25T21:38:00.001-07:00

Lauren Ackerson farts louder and stronger than any baby I've ever come across. It starts out with a smile and for just an instant you think to yourself...oh wow...she thinks my baby talk is funny. Then just as you realize that this has happened before...that no one really thinks your funny, including a 3 month old baby....just when you think to yourself, no it couldn't be...she JUST pooped 30 minutes ago....

A one sided smile out the right corner of her mouth. DIRECT EYE CONTACT. the lifting of the legs (yes both of them up in the air)....then the fart to end all infant farts...one that I blamed on Anne the first time I heard it thinking that nothing that audible could protrude from a smothered-in-pink baby girl. UNBELIEVABLE. Even after the 6th time it happened (the third time was on kelly's lap and Lauren blew a diaper out in the process...she's real sorry, i'm sure, kel..) I still was shocked, appauled, and yet somehow a little proud to know her. Apparently she has the bowels of her Dad and the lady-likeness of her mom -- needless to say my children will NEVER behave that way in front of company.

Here are some pictures from the weekend with Lo...I am in love with her--she is a great hanger-outer and she slept thru the night. What else can I ask for? On a side note...i became familiar with several pieces of mom-gear, but by far my favorite (perhaps because of the alliteration) is the Hooter Hider. Doesn't that sound like something Anne and I would have made up/lied about/purchased and hid in someone's backpack as a prank?

There is not a good picture of this, but Lo has the cutest chubalubka elephant rolls on her thighs! I could just stuff them in my cheeks and save them for later....EEE! so cute.

Our little house!

2009-08-20T16:18:00.000-07:00

Ahh...the return of my microsoft paint drawings--if you recall i also laid out my floorplan in the condo in chicago via microsoft paint. Once again, this is a rough drawing and is not at all to scale. Again i have taken less that mediocre pictures that are blurry and less than descriptive....

but we don't make fun of people who try their hardest....so stop laughing...no, really.

Let's start with the outside of the house:

As you can see, there is just a small porch with a bench. The mailbox is on the porch so our mailman terry walks up every day! The driveway flanks the side of the house.

Now lets go ahead and show the overall floor plan...this is where you're nice and don't laugh at my paint skills....agreed? Okay, then read on.

We'll continue with photos from the rooms of the house:

The family room...which is what you see when you walk in the front door and then directly thrugh a half wall is the kitchen at the rear of the house. Our family room is waiting for locally made furniture (entertainment center and storage cabinet) made with recycled barn wood and window panes. Those are not pictured.

Our kitchen table. IF we have more than us eating, it's generally outside! See photos of outside patio later..

Here are some photos of the office...which is the messiest most cluttered room in the house...we're struggling to orgainze!

Next up, the bathroom. Not much to say about this....real small and outdated. It's been working out nicely though. The red chair in the bathroom is what greg sits on to get ready in the morning. That will hopefully be moving back into the office once he is weightbearing 100%.

Next up...the guest room. Kristen Rietema christened this room last weekend! Our very first house guest. John and Kelly will join us at the end of september...very exciting.

Master Bedroom:

Lastly, our favorite part of the house. The outside deck and backyard.

Hope you enjoyed that little photo session...bringing life back to the blog! That's all for now.

Fly by Night...

2009-08-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

The excitement for the week is a change in schedule for the Beatilo household. Two weeks of night float has begun--From all I can gather, night float is where an otherwise normally functioning human being turns their schedule upsidedown and becomes nocturnal for the sole purpose of making sure nobody dies in the middle of the night at the hospital. That previously normally functioning person leaves at 5:45pm ands arrive home at 8 in the morning, only to eat and go to bed until about 3pm...upon which said person awakes and eats and leaves. Awesome. In case you have not yet figured it out, this person we refer to is Greg--good thing since i require at least 8 hours of sleep in a pitch black room without even an ounce of light leaking through the shades.

My life has been consumed with organizing and job hunting like its, well my job. I've applied for about 2 positions that ACTUALLY exist, and about 4 that don't. I'm still trying to convince Disabled Sports USA Far West that they need me to start and run their kayaking program in Sacramento. I will continue this effort as long as I can. Wedding photos (all 1,800 of them) are being organized into folders and sent off to parents for printing and book making as well as being uploaded to Snapfish for purchase--there are some really great ones...AND some really bad ones which you will probably never see since i'm not uploading them to snapfish. HA. I am also pecking away at these thank you notes--i think we're about 1/4 of the way through.

We also purchased a second car today which went surprisingly smoothly considering that large purchases tend to throw greg into an absolute anxiety attack. He smiled the whole time...i guess that may have had something to do with the fact that he won the "ro-sham-bow" and we got a jeep wrangler. My votes were for a smart car or for a hybrid....but i do admit that this jeep is fun and Greg promised we could cruise the costal highway in it so I'm on board! :)

These posts are getting pretty lame without pictures so i'll commit to posting some new ones of the house next time. Until then...

This blog is my blog, this blog is your blog...

2009-07-25T22:10:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are in our house--no longer surrounded by boxes, but now surrounded by stuff. It is an interesting juxtoposition of things we have too much of (ikea coffee tables) and things we don't have enough of (shelving and other furniture). The boxes have been emptied, but things still are scattered all over the house that haven't found homes yet. Like all of our games, wall hangings, resuable grocery bags and greg's clothes (In his defense, his dresser is on back order)...But most of all, we are overwhelmed by the generousity of our friends and family in regards to wedding presents and gift cards. I can say with all honest that I've been to bed bath and beyond M-F of this week and the sales people greet me with "Hello, again!" because of all the times i've gone to spend gift cards...believe it or don't that I still have dollars left to spend on there! Perhaps some new pillows?!?! To say the least we're grateful, and we HAVE started thank you notes...so don't get your undies in a bundle if you haven't received one yet. We promise they're coming! :)

I (megan) have been doing a lot of volunteering lately which means lots of time to play outside and recreate with people with disabilities. Today, for example, I rafted the south fork of the American River....jam packed with fun little rapids (a couple that sent me out of the boat! haha!) In other news, the job search has been blissfully unproductive and at times I abandon it all together....this will not last much longer though. I'm hoping my california licensure comes through soon! I've also been toying with the idea of getting my CTRS (certified therapeutic recreation specialist) certificate through a post-bac online program through University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Greg started a new rotation recently which is family medicine outpatient clinic. He is seeing his own patients--such a hotshot! In other news, he took off about 25 skin tags and two toe nails the other day as part of a dermatology clinic. Sweet. He's doing much better as far as mobility and has recently mastered the one legged hop around the house sans crutches. August 5th brings a doctors appointment, new films, and potentially getting the cast off and moving to a splint that can be removed for showers. This may or may not mean that he can bear weight on his leg. The starts PT rehab. We're on the up and up as far as that is concerned.

All in all, life is good. Our first house guest arrives on August 15th--THE kristen "Brownema" Rietema whos is coming out early to spend time with us before her google conference in san fran. I think we'll do some rafting and wine tasting! hip hip....

A little home in cow town, california, USA

2009-06-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

One bathroom. It has one bathroom. Ok? It has A bathroom. But, man that deck. The deck and yard is totally kickin!

Our new home (as of july 15th) at 618 Kentucky Street is SO cute. It's in a town called Vacaville which translates in English as "Cow town". There is a great downtown historic area with Creekside Park that hosts outdoor concerts every friday. There is also a seasonal farmers market that is within walking distance and lots of great restaurants and bars and a bike shop!

Our home is a 1940's bungalo/ranch house with a fenced yard and mature trees--three bedroom, one bath (as mentioned above), hardwood floors throughout, family room and kitchen with open floorplan, and No refrigerator. Yeah, that and the one bathroom....but THE YARD, my friends, the yard!!!! Out back there is a huge deck. Half covered, half not. We already have ordered a patio dining set with umbrella and an outdoor sectional! Wahhoooooo. We plan to live outside--hook up some speakers, a little mini fridge, "shrimp on the bar-bee", and hopefully one day a little one running around the yard (....don't get all excited....we're talking about a puppy.)

Inside the kitchen is updated but small. We will need to buy or rent a fridge but that's a task for later this week. There's also a washer and dryer in the kitchen area (sounds weird but its not too bad). The family room is small but again, good size for us. One bedroom is the largest and that will be our master--we just bought a new bedroom set tonight!! Hello grown ups, right? Another bedroom will be an office, and the last bedroom is yours! A guest room wouldn't be complete without guests so we can't wait for you to book your flight!

We'll post pictures when we get them. Like we said, not moving until July 15th so you'll have to wait right along with us! :)

Wedding Pics yo!

2009-06-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

The greatly anticipated (at least by Greg and I ... and my mom) wedding photos A'la Two Pair Photography. We can't rave about these folks enough. Should you ever need a photography team, these guys are your safest, funnest, and hottest bet (yeah thats right, i said it). To access the pictures:

Go to www.twopairphotography.com
Click "the site"
Click "clients"
type megangreg

and Enjoy!

The favs are your best bet for a viewer friendly synapsis of the day. There are a elevendy billion "negatives" which are also fab if you have several hours to devote or just want to scroll thru looking for a specific photo!

Yeehaw folks!

The best day EVER!

2009-06-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

We are finally feeling caught up in our own lives and now as we sit here (yes on a friday night) on the couch we're finally ready to tackle the task of blogging about our wedding. We can't possibly touch on all of the magic moments so we hope you'll forgive us for being concise!

Let us start by saying that in our opinion, we had the best wedding EVER and will most likely has never and WILL never be topped--please don't take that personally...we may be a little biased! I think the way we'll structure this is by bullet points of things we LOVED:

The weather: Wow, all that fog and rain burned off by about 11:30 in the morning and as the clouds broke, we saw a beautiful full sun and felt the warmth! We couldn't have asked for a nicer day in Southwest Michigan in May.
The NASH: The car that took us to the wedding was perhaps the sweetest automobile we could have imagined. Just a small touch that made the day really extra special!
The speeding ticket: ...that my mom got on the way to the church...yes seriously. We should have put her in the NASH. The cop showed up at the reception to validate her story! :)

Our priest: For only having met us twice, he did a really spectacular job of making the ceremony very personal and friendly for us and our family/friends. He also kept it at just about one hour for which we were very grateful!

The choir loft: This is where we stood as people processed out of the church. It was a great way to get a birds eye view of all of our guests.

Ice Cream at the Chocolate Cafe: We hope you guys enjoyed this as much as we did! It was awesome to go into an ice cream store in a wedding dress and suit and have our choice of whatever we wanted. Just for the record, Megan got cake batter and Greg got coffee ice cream. Yum yum yum!

The BARN!!: Oh wow, can we just say that Millcreek barn MADE the wedding. It really set the stage for our relaxed celebration and really slowed things down to let us savor the whole day! Plus the photos (ala twopairphotography) are going to rock thanks to the older barn on the property and all the unique touches.

The speeches: The father of the bride speech really kicked things off with reference to my Iowa upbringing leading up to a barn wedding! He did a really great job of welcoming everyone! Jenny left everyone wishing that she was THEIR best friend after her outgoing and humorous AND MEMORIZED (wow) speech. Dave's speech was hands down the best groomsman speech that we've ever heard...and we mean that sincerely. He pulled it together in no time flat and delivered it in a way that was funny and poking, but sincere and heartfelt. Nicely done, Doctor. Greg gave a short and sweet speech/toast to me (his bride) that nearly brought me to tears. I was so happy at that very moment to call him my husband! Finally, the song that the mother & uncle of the groom sang was gorgeous and led us right into dinner. Thanks to everyone who spoke and made us feel so special!

Bailey's and coffee...how good was that????!!!!??? yum.

The band: Did anyone else happen to notice that our band flippin' rocked the roof off the barn?!?! I think you may have considering that the dancefloor was full the whole night! We could not have predicted how they would get the party started and keep it rolling. Big huge shout out to "montage" out of grand rapids! PLUS, probably the thing i'll remember until the day I die is the fact that the band let me have a cowbell solo in the middle of a song. I felt like a rockstar bride! I am still raving about that.

The mustache's: Well, any wedding of ours would not be complete without ridiculous antics and costumes. A HUGE thanks to the Utah crowd for organizing mass mustache sporting and hat wearing. Fun was had by all!

The bonfire: Grammy Trifilo's favorite part of the whole night was the S'more's I do believe. This is thanks to none-other than the firemaster, Evan Fulford and his beautiful girlfriend Jessica Webb. They went above and beyond their duty of bringing firewood and included roasting sticks and S'mores goodies. I am so pleased that they remembered this detail that so carelessly slipped our minds. Yum Yum and thank you!

The shuttle bus: Dear drunken guests. Let us raise our glasses to the sober shuttle driver who so humbly drove us all back safely to our hotel--a feat that none of us could have accomplished on our own. And thanks for saving us a seat in the front so we didn't have to stand...that was really kind!

Those are obviously just the highlights of the evening for us. Here are a list of "snaphoos" that you may or may not have caught:

No knife at the cake table: In the chaos of set up which was very labor intensive, our cake knife did not make it to the cake table so when we arrived we had to improvise. A big shout out to Andrea Beaty who lent us her butter knife in a pinch. We love you andrea!

The Detour: OMG all of our directions were all of a sudden wrong when we got to Michigan...what can you do? We're glad everyone made it.

The wrong meat: We've gotten lots of compliments on the food (esp. the champaigne chicken) but you were supposed to receive a different meat...not sliced, but in steak form with crumbled cheese. We're making good on this offer by inviting all of you to california for steaks on the bar-bee.

We were thrilled to have all the people that we loved in one place at the same time. Thanks for everyone to travelled so far to be with us. We'll post the link to the professional pictures when we get them so stay tuned! A huge thanks to our most valued vendors:

Millcreek Barn http://www.millcreekbarn.com/.com
Two Pair Photography http://www.twopairphotograhy.com/
Stella Event Design http://www.stellaeventdesign.com/
Curt Wiser Productions/Montage http://www.wiserproductions.com/
CK Catering
With a Twist Bartending
Royal Excursions
Dee's specialty cakes

June 16th: The duck pond is closed today

2009-06-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

Today is June 16th--one month of post-marital bliss for Gregan Beatilo. I think everything is summed up quite nicely on the electronic marquee at Travis Air Force Base: "The duck pond is closed today". So much for fresh air and some afternoon practice with the crutches. Here are some answers and observations of things that you may have been wondering about since the injury. We will address this in a FAQ layout. Alas...a glimpse into the everyday of the Captain Doctor:

Q: Your leg sticks out about 3 feet in front of you. What's it like trying to get into your fabulous new subaru outback?

A: Our subaru outback is fabulous isn't it? Unfortunately, i will not be driving for several weeks and even more unfortunately, the only way I fit into said car is to sit sideways in the back seat with my leg propped on three pillows.

Q: I understand you're non-weightbearing on your right leg for 8-10 weeks. This must make it difficult to balance when standing at the toilet. How exactly do you manage your pee these days?
A: Two words: The Jug. I pee where-ever I please whether that be lounging on the couch or laying in my bed. Megan dumps my pee from the jug into the toilet. She's swell.

Q: Well, it's been a whole week...by now you must have tackled a shower....but how, Greg, how?!?!

A: After perusing all local targets, walmarts, and the BX, we've settled on a $10 lawn chair that fits nicely into the shower sideways. It serves its purpose as a piece of adaptive equipment prescribed by none other than my OT wife. Now you might think this chair sounds awful, but it beats last weeks contingency plan which included baby wipes and a sponge bath.

Q: Where are you living and how is the new place?

A: We're staying on base in TLF (temporary living facility) in a beautiful two bedroom furnished house. Our first TLF apartment was on the second floor which was not condusive to my skill level on crutches nor to Megan's strength level to carry me up several flights of stairs. They moved us to a first floor unit which has been much better. I really only spend time in three main places/positions: Laying on the couch, Sitting on the couch with legs propped on ottoman, or laying in bed with leg propped on three pillows. I also dabble with sitting on the toilet but still require assistance for this transfer and it's obviously the least comfortable of all options which is why i rarely sit there....see above post regarding pee jug.

Q: Are you still on narcotics and if so, what's the best part of being on heavy duty drugs?

A: (Greg's answer) Yes. After an entire week and one BM later I am still on Oxycodone every 4-6 hours. It causes weird dreams and makes my face flushed and sweaty about 45 min after I pop the meds but gives me a great excuse to be my usual space cadet self.

A: (Megan's answer) My favorite part of greg being on narcotics are the silly things he says. For example, today in a state of mid-awake/mid-asleep he told me that the apartment smelled like a combination of tulips and hotdogs.

This has been the longest week ever.....

2009-06-13T18:17:00.000-07:00

Is it really only Saturday? OH MY GOD--it has been a whirl-wind of a week. Greg graduated on Sunday (YAY GREG!!) He's officially a doctor and I couldn't be more proud of him and all our friends who made it through those four years--even if i thought i wanted to be a doctor, I don't think it would sign up for that! It was a great weekend with greg's parents and my parents and greg's sister Colleen (who unfortunately had a cold). We shipped greg off after graduation on a one way flight to sacramento, CA!

Greg started residency on monday (and I'll let him blog more about graduation and the start of residency later) and by tuesday afternoon I had a call from greg that went like this:

Greg: "Megan, Hi (pant pant). uHMM (pant pant)...how are you? (pant pant)"
Me: "I'm fine, what's wrong?"
Greg: "We'll I'm kind of (pant pant) in the emergency room"

To make a long story short (so you'll continue to read) Greg had completely fractured his Right Posterior Tibia (lower leg bone), fractured his Right Posterior fibula, and also slightly fractured his medial malliolus (that bump on the inside of your ankle)....Playing basketball with the other family medicine residents and attendings. One of the attendings went up to block Greg's layup and hit him in the face knocking him into the pole of the basketball hoop. Greg landed with his ankle twisted on the pole and heard the break.

So, just to rewind, I'm in chicago still dealing with the military issued packers and movers (that's a totally different oprah show friends to be blogged about later). Three weeks ago when I vowed "for sickness or in health" i didn't think that would be relevant two weeks later..but alas. Greg had surgery on thursday to put in a rod and several screws to secure his leg for healing. He was a champ and the surgery was "text book" according to the doctors. Now he's at home with me in California recovering painfully and slowly, but certainly continues to make progress in the right direction. Pain meds are good.

So that's where we are now. We PROMISE we'll eventually blog about the wedding, the honeymoon, and the move...or rather, Greg will while he's laid up on the couch one day. :)

Our spirits are up and we've decided it can really only get better at this point! Hope you're doing well too! Greg is looking for good book and movie suggestions since he's off his feet for a while. Feel free to reply to this post with your suggestions!

If there's one thing i learned in pre-school this year, it's that you have to share....

2009-06-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

Well, ever since May 16th we've been toying around more with phrases like "ours" and "we" and "us" and less of "me" and "Mine". Keeping in stride with this new found love of sharing, I have decided that.. MY blog will now be OUR blog. Okay that wasn't so bad after all.

So this is an open invitation to our friends and family across the country to keep up with our daily, weekly, monthly adventures. You can subscribe to our blog and receive an email when we write something new....isn't the internet great? Just to start us off, I'm going to post a couple of photos from the wedding. We are anxious to sit down and blog about our wedding, the honeymoon, and graduation as well--but first we're going to move to California!

Stay posted.

Agape (love), Pax (peace), and ridiculous stories!
Megan

"GOOD MORNING"

2008-12-23T19:01:00.000-08:00

I walk three point five blocks to the train every morning--right out of the building, cross franklin, cross wacker,cross canal. Just as i cross wacker and right before i cross the Chicago river each morning I see a bearded, well dressed man in three piece suit and tan trench coat. I would think that he worked on wall street or maybe in some corporate office or something....if he wasn't holding a stack of the "street wise". (http://www.streetwise.org/index.html) If you have time, please peruse the site, but if you don't I'll give you the general overview: People who are at risk for becoming homeless buy these magazines from the non-profit organization for a small fee. They sell them on the streets for profit. Hence, not a hand out, but a hand-up. I like it. Not 15 feet from him sits a man on a milk carton (again everyday) and he has a cup. I started to wonder who made more money the other day and resolved that eventually I would get up the courage to ask. It hasn't happened yet.

Anyways, back to my story....

So the sharply dressed streetwise vendor on the corner of washington and wacker has a booming advertizing voice. Not only that but he has better eye contact that anyone i have ever encountered in my life. He makes direct and sustained eye contact to everyone who walks by (even if they avoid his eyes like the plague) and confidently proclaims "GOOD MORNING". To everyone. Everyone who walks by this busy bustling intersection at 7:15am in the loop. THATS A LOT OF PEOPLE. So what do I do, every morning? I say good morning back. Sometimes i try to make it a game with myself to get in a loud "goodmorning" paired with direct eye contact before he can. I seldom succeed seeing as how i would have to yell from the north east corner before he could catch me half way between the north east and north west corner. At any rate, I always have a verbal exchange with him...every morning.

So after 3 months of a two-exchange conversation with this man, he threw in a third exchange and said "have a blessed day"...i said "you too"....figuring that i should have the last word. The next day, the usual goodmorning went on followed by me asking "how are you" (with sustained and direct eye contact). He said, "Blessed. My story is inside here" and he pointed to the streetwise.

I figure that if this continues, We'll be chatting over coffee by april. Which works out well b/c i could use some friends in chicago.

It's been a long time, long time....shouddin-a-leftcha...leftcha

2008-12-23T18:44:00.000-08:00

Well it's been too long since my last blog, but hey, thats why i made no promises when I started this thing. No hard feelings?

Well let's start with big news:

*I am betrothed. As of October, Greg and I decided that getting hitched was the thing to do and since then it's been all wedding planning all the time. We wanted a destination wedding but wanted to make sure all important people were in attendance so we didn't veer too far from Chicago...we're going into southwest Michigan (harbor country) which is a place that Greg and I wouldn't mind settling into once the military gig is over...

*....speaking of the military gig. Greg got his first choice and we have been assigned to Travis AFB for Greg's residence program. This means a big move in June 2009 until approximately 3 years after that. Travis AFB is in Fairfield, CA which is between San Fran and Sacramento...probably closest to Napa Valley (helloooooooo wine country!). Fairfield is also the home of the jelly belly factory. We're quite excited about moving (although not about the actual moving process)!

*R.I.P blue beetle with roof rack--Greg and I splurged and purchased a 2009 subaru outback! I miss the bug, but let me tell you how nice 4WD is in the snow and four doors is also a bonus when transporting adults. Greg tried to talk me into the cage that you can buy to keep the dog in the cargo/trunk area...i told him that we didn't have a dog.

*Lets see, any other life changes to note? I'm pretty sure not.

I don't negotiate with toddlers and pet wish lists

2008-09-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

SO i have this job. Every day I run around chasing 3 year olds trying to convince them that they want to do what I tell them to do. These things include such activities as cutting paper, sitting still, and writing their names. The problem is this: they're three. They don't like to do any of the previously named activities. In fact they don't even like leaving their mommies cuz they're really still just babies. But alas, off to school they go. It is at this time that i approach them and try to disguise whatever it is the end goal is into something fun. This week I tried pudding as my main media. Idea: make pudding, write name in pudding, avoid tears from toddlers. My plan worked approximately 7/10 times. This week it dawned on me that I'm letting toddlers run my life...hence the new mantra... I don't negotiate with toddlers.

On a completely different note, I want a pet walrus.

Traffic, Cigarettes, and home sweet home--Wanna see where I live?

2008-08-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am in Chicago. And when I say Chicago, i mean Chicago...as in the Loop. Steps away from the Chicago river, the Chicago Opera House, Union Station (train station), and right in the heart of the theater district (currently Dirty Dancing, Jersey Boys, and Wicked are the highlights). To see the map of where I live, click here: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=115466001805337481424.000454dae3c5469a7de19&ll=41.885442,-87.634034&spn=0.007572,0.013733&z=16

So, I live in a mid rise condo complex and I rent from a private owner who's name is Eric. I've never met Eric b/c i went through a real estate agent named Ginger. So thanks to Eric and Ginger I have my very own soft-loft layout condo on the 10th floor. If you're not familiar with a soft-loft layout, do not feel badly...i had no idea either. Basically, it means that i have a studio, but there are walls that section off a "bedroom" but with no door and the walls do not extend all the way to the ceiling. Speaking of the ceilings, they are really high and feature some sweet track lighting. So this seems like an appropriate time to insert a photo of the floor layout that I fashioned via Microsoft "paint"--high tech! Please note: the drawing is not to scale or are any of my wall lines straight in the drawing...i actually have straight walls... hehe

So as you can see, as you enter the condo, the first thing you run into is the laundry closet on your left. Now in my floor plan above, it looks like a room....it's not....that would be my poor paint skills.

The next thing you come to on the right is my bedroom space. It has room for a queen sized bed and a night stand. That's it. I have no dresser. Luckily one whole wall of my room is closets so all my clothes go on hangers. So far its working out very nicely. I got Greg's bed and he took mine because his bed wouldn't fit up the stairs of his apartment. This works in my favor as Greg's bed is elevendy-billion times more comfy than mine! :)

Continuing down the hall, you have the bathroom on the left side. It is also very small, but good enough for me. It has a shower/bath, sink, and toilet. Just the necessities. When you open the door it swings towards the tub and spans all of the open space that the bathroom has to offer. :)

Continuing in, you are now heading towards a wall of floor to ceiling windows including access to my porch. This immediate access to fresh (well city fresh anyways) air was probably the major deciding factor about this place. I have a good sized family room with a TV, two shelves, a couch, and a chair (all but the chair compliments of IKEA design). The couch at IKEA said brown. It's definitely purple/eggplant. So when you come to visit you can get excited about sleeping on the purple couch. I didn't splurge for the pull out sofa--so single visitors are all set on the couch, tandem visitors will enjoy the air mattress. The chair is courtesy of Mom Beaty's old family room set. We like to call it the "jimmy buffet" chair because it has a lovely (read as: GOD AWFUL) flowered print. I cannot afford a slip cover yet, BUT i did cover it with a black and white polka-dot sheet. You can still catch a glimpse of the print at the bottom where the sheet doesn't cover...Its the best I can do right now. The rug I got at urban outfitters and it actually has that eggplant color that goes with the couch in addition to black, off-white, and lime green accents. I'm loving the rug.

Head in the other direction we move into the kitchen. I bought a bar table with two stools that works nicely in the space and allows me to not eat on the couch (even though i usually choose to anyways). The best part of the kitchen is my dishwasher. Since my old dishwasher no longer exists (Jenny Esker) in my living space, it is nice to have this new replacement. I am officially spoiled and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to go back!

The porch is HUGE and long. I have a table and a couple of chairs out there but not much a view. That doesn't bother me very much. I don't mind seeing the El train and other buildings. I'm just happy to have an escape outside from my unit. I'd like to get a grill but it has to be gas and not charcoal, and frankly, it's not taking priority financially at the moment. Greg gave me his George Foreman though and if i open the porch sliding door i feel like I'm outside.

All in all, that is my 490 sq. feet. I really do love the space I live in. I have a gym in my building as well which is great...I'm actually working out. The only problem is that the loop is very business oriented and therefore, not much is open on the weekends. NOT EVEN THE STARBUCKS! But a short walk to state street or Michigan avenue yields endless options so it's not the end of the world.

Thanks for reading--Just let me know when you want to head over! :)

Tax-Home Address Drama

2008-07-13T18:24:00.001-07:00

I need an accountant. Thats all for now. Call with interest in becoming my new accountant. Must value tax loopholes and have information on taxhomeaddress stuff and per diem pay rates for contractors. Send resumes and cover letters to me via responding to this blog post.

PS: Still cold in the YooPee here. Loving life, livin the dream.

Out for now.

Super Duper Yooper Blog

2008-06-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

Quick blog from up here in the Yoo-Pee, friends. Up here, we're in a world all our own, free from the trolls down-state below the bridge in Lower Michigan. Up here its Saunas (pronounces sow-nuhs) and Pastys (Pah-stees). I wake up each morning to the sight of Lake Superior and life couldn't get any better. The kids are fantastic and I'm in love with a five year old boy named Estuardo...sorry greg.

In other news, I am very concerned that in my absence from Salt Lake City, Jen Milner may be getting close to beating my Wi-Fit hula record. Last I heard she was one hula away so by now my name could easily be mudd and off the charts completely. This troubles me immensely. I am trying to train on real life hula hooops here so that I can reclaim my super duper hula champion standing just as soon as humanly possible.

In addition, I have secured a place to live in Chicago downtown in the loop. My cross streets will be wells and washington and I am openly welcoming any visitors. The place is really tiny, probably between 500-550 sq. feet but it's a soft loft lay out with w/d, dishwasher, and porch. Life is good. I also accepted an OT position at a school in Rolling Meadows from Aug 2008-June 2009. Hopefully that will be fun.

Greg is coming to the U.P. this week and we are taking off to the porcupine mountains for a little while. We'll be visiting lake of the clouds for some boating and hiking and serious camping. It will be great to get out off of camp for a while and see the real world and talk to someone who doesn't live groundhog day everyday with me in Big Bay! :) I'll post some pics when I get them for added interest to my otherwise text-filled blog.

A trip through labyrinth canyon....SANS david bowie and all the muppets.

2008-05-26T12:15:00.001-07:00

Ever since I moved to Utah I've dreamed of paddling Labyrinth Canyon on the green river. It is above the confluence of the Colorado and the Green Rivers and is completely flat (no-rapids). I finally got a chance to do it right before my big move to Chicago. The map of my course is below:

I went with my friend Betsy who teaches for UVSC's outdoor recreation program...yeah...who knew you could major in recreation?!?!? If 0nly I would have known, I would have surely tried it out! Betsy needed another licensed river guide to make her trip legal, and I just happened to be free, so off we went. Below is a picture of Me and Betsy:

The trip started with a rig at UVSC which went very quickly to my surprise. We all got into 12 passenger vans and headed to Green River State Park, stopping briefly for fast food in the lovely city of Price, UT. A brief stop, but not breif enough for me to avoid leaving my flare covered Nalgene bottle at the KFC. Just as well I guess....new studies show they cause cancer. I'm basically doomed. We arrived at Green River State Park just before dark....in time to stroll down to the river to take a look and then retire for the night. The river was moving really fast which meant for short days with little paddling and lots of floating. Here is a picture of my camp set up and my ammo can. I LOVE my ammo can! :)

Day 1: Put In: Green River State Park

I awoke the next morning to a breakfast of bagels with obscene amounts of cream cheese--a beautiful start to this day. After a little run in with the ranger (RANGER DANGER!) we got started down river. My craft: A bright red sea kayak with a lovely rudder....the rudder was a new experience for me and i was ridiculed the whole trip by betsy who pet named them my "training wheels".... Hey whatever allows me to be the laziest is my kind of kayak accessory!

Today we travelled 30 river miles in 8 hours--A good indication of the water level. Our plan was to camp at Trin Alcove, a beautiful landmark in Labyrinth Canyon where the river tried to carve right, but ended up pushing through left instead. Because of its efforts, there is now a very cool narrow canyon that is picture perfect for camping. Unfortunately about a thousand other people beat us to it. I swear, we only saw 5 canoes, but there was a very large camp set up with approximately 12 tents and a HUGE kitchen....how did all of this gear come in only 5 canoes you ask? The only answer I have is that this is the camp of David Bowie and all the Muppets...there is just no other explanation. Because of the high water, camp sites are limited. Most campsites in this canyon are sand bar beaches..all of which were under water. We ended up pulling off to the side and bushwacking through trees that never seemed to end...until they did and ther was a great open meadow with many cacti in bloom and perfect views of the canyon walls. Sleep was very welcomed this night and we hit the sack early! Bushwacking pictures below:

Day 2:

After yesterdays long day on the river, we decided to make this a short day. We ate bacon (WOW awesome) and hashbrowns and packed up the boats. We floated about 12 river miles until we stopped for lunch. Deciding that our lunch spot was too pretty to leave, we decided to make this home for the night. Much less bush wacking here. I had the prime real estate campsite under an over-hung rock.

I spent the day reading my harry potter book and napping in the shade. I also got a chance to learn to make calzones with a camp stove...they were delish and REALLY super easy. We had a campfire tonight and brought out my "party glasses" aka refractor glasses which make pretty rainbows in the flames....we all had a very trippy experience and then retired to sleep. It was all fine until the middle of the night when we started to hear a girl yellling, "HELP HELP!!"... She was concerned that there was a cougar outside of her tent, which actually wasn't true. It was her dry bag whisping against her tent in the wind. Close call friends, close call. Note: Same girl shaved her legs in the river earlier this day....hrmm...

Day 3: Today we got back on the river and paddled about 15 river miles maybe? not sure. But at any rate, we went around the Bow knot which is a larget U-turn, essentially that is 8 miles around. Geologically speaking, in many hundreds of years, the river will probably cut through the rock wall and those 8 miles will be elminated from labyrinth canyon....when? we can't say. We did get a chance to hike to the top of the bow knot where we could see both sides of the river from a birds eye view. Very very pretty--we were also able to scout out a beautiful campsite from the top which we ended up sleeping at later that day.

My friend Ethan almost fell off a cliff on the hike down (he was hiking in flip flops...not recommended) but thanks to his self-proclaimed "Kitten Ninja" like reflexes, he was able to avoid this major fall and therefore allowed us to not have to evac him out of the canyon...THANKS ETHAN! It was warm enough today to swim for the first time which I took full advantage of. I even got a bath in the river with some lovely Doc. Bronners soap. Tingly!!

Day 4: We were headed out. We had about 10 miles left to paddle and folks were eager to get home so it went really fast. The boat ramp at the bottom holds the legendary "metal man" ranger, who I so desperately hoped to meet. He was not there however. This "metal man" is a Ranger for the BLM (or maybe its NPS) and apparently collects metal things that he believes to hold energy that control....well im not sure what he believes them to control because i never actually got to meet him. Word has it, even the BLM thinks he's totally cooky but they would never be able to find anyone else to live at Mineral Bottom year round....so he has some serious job security. On the way out of the canyon we also saw some sort of large bird of prey swoop down into the dessert and pick up a rattle snake it it's feet. It flew with the snake and gained some elevation and then dropped it, slamming it to the ground. The bird then circled around only to go back down to the desert floor to pick up, what imagine must have been lunch! SO COOL.

Overall, Great trip. I have to throw in one more picture of my best River hair EVER! No friends, that's not the wind...the air was stagnant as all get-out....that's pure river grease! :)