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As our anniversary gift to each other, Jim & I purchased an actual one-of-a-kind piece of art from the artist herself. It's a beautiful painting called, appropriately, “I Like to Ride My Bicycle.”
We admired these paintings last month at Venti's, our favorite bar in Salem. There were several of them on display, and we really liked them. What's not to love about awesome bike paintings? Then, the following week, we went hiking with a group of friends & their friends. As we got talking to these friends-of-friends, we discovered that Nikki was the artist who did these fabulous bike paintings! Small world, huh? We already loved the paintings, and then were eager to support a new friend.
So we picked out this one to hang on the orange wall of our dining room. And it's entirely appropriate because “dining room” is just the name of the room. Really, it's a bike shop that just happens to have a dining room table in it. Nikki brought over a bunch of paintings tonight to hold up against the wall & to see which worked best in the room. The colors of this one worked the best, and of course we love the image of two bikes. A perfect anniversary gift!
I encourage you to come visit the Allen Fine Art Collection, by appointment only, to view this stunning piece of art. Our doorman, Chester, will show you in.
I planted seeds in my garden last Saturday, and after a pleasant week followed by a very warm weekend, most everything has sprouted. Still waiting on carrots and chives to pop up their little heads.
But today I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of big, strong zucchini leaves. Lettuce, spinach & broccoli all poked out of the ground just days after they went in. Little sprigs of dill also showed up today. I think there's a cucumber ~ but it could also be a weed. Hard to tell at this point! Those little sprouts are so new and alien, I'm loathe to pull anything out of the ground right now because I can't tell the difference between veggies and weeds.
I've been home since Thursday, sick with the flu. Tired and miserable. No fun at all.
But it was nice to watch my garden come to life this week!
Here's the finish from Jim's race today. He rode really strong & came in 9th. Nice job!
You can see him about 7 seconds into the video. He's got red sleeves & shorts. His shirt is mostly gray with a black strip down the side. His helmet and bike are both black:
I had my first race (race? Well, run) of the season this morning. It was the Hippie Chick Quarter Marathon. Yeah, a quarter marathon isn't really that long- about 6.8 miles. My training buddy and I had originally signed up to do the half marathon, but last week decided our training wasn't quite up to snuff & changed to the quarter.
Despite the short distance, it was really fun! The whole course was inside Champoeg State Park, a beautiful place on the river & home to Oregon's first platted town. It was also an interesting run because it is only open to women. It's also a really desirable race, and when registration opened up a couple of months ago, the race filled up in something like 6 hours. I was lucky to get in!
Beth & I saw my friends Jeannie and Tiffany at the park, and so the four of us did the run together. I felt great the whole run! Even on the hills ~ I actually kind of like the hills because I get to use different, fresh climbing muscles. It's like a little nap for my tired running muscles.
Beth's husband & baby boy, Eli, drove over and watched the race. Jim rode the 30 miles to the park on his bike, along with Jeannie's husband and our friend Stuart. We saw them on the route & waved. Hi! Always great to have spectators.
I sprinted to the end, like always. Wheee! Instead of a medal, they gave us these really cool copper necklaces. And at the end, there was free Jamba Juice and Cinnabons and soup. And, since it was early in the morning - mimosas. :) I don't like the mimosas, but it amuses me that they were there.
It was a great morning. The day stayed fun, too. Jim & Chester & I went to the Saturday Market. It was finally a nice weekend, so all the vendors were there. Had some food, bought some stuff. Came home and took a nice snooze. Then got up & planted a bunch of seeds in my garden. Go little seeds!! Rode our bikes down and had dinner at Word of Mouth Neighborhood Bistro, and it was pretty good. Went to Lowe's, bought more yard stuff (hooray for new gloves!). Now we're home and might settle in to watch a movie.
It was a good day! Oh- and sunny & 70. Incredible!
Tomorrow we're going to Jim's bike race in Eugene. It should be another awesome day...
Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged!
I've been freakishly busy lately. All with really fun stuff, but it gets exhausting sometimes, and all I do is arrive home & go to bed. :-)
Last night was First Wednesday in downtown Salem. I love First Wednesday! It's so rare that downtown shops are open at night, and even rarer that there are actually people milling about.
The rain stopped yesterday afternoon, so I rode my bike downtown. There were lots of people out and about. Bands playing on street corners and in doorwells. Painters doing their thing outside. New art exhibits. I wandered around & looked at all that stuff.
Chatted with some friends I ran into. Petted some doggies.
Hitched a ride on a horse-drawn carriage and learned a little history lesson from Hazel, who was guiding the horse-drawn downtown tour. It was great! I worked with Hazel this summer on Salem Heritage Network & am glad to know her. She's a big supporter of Salem & has worked on some incredible projects, including the Carousel, the new bike/pedestrian bridge, and saving old houses from demolition.
Then I headed back to The Bike Peddler, our favorite local bike shop. They recently expanded into the storefront next door, doubling their space, and held a grand opening celebration. The local band Le Nunes played a show inside the shop. Instead of a strobe light, they turned on a bunch of blinky bike lights from the bike display beside them. That was silly & awesome. The show was great, and it was an interesting mix of people - kind of weird to be at a local show with all the “bike people” instead of the usual “local music” people.
Rode back home in the dark with Jim. It was a pretty awesome night, for a Wednesday!
UPDATE 4/12/09: When I found the tire yesterday evening, I rolled it out onto the sidewalk and left it there. I had a hunch about my weird neighborhood, and I was totally right. This morning? The tire was gone...!
I've found a lot of weird things in the shrubs that surround my property - toys, clothes, dirty diapers, hypodermic needles, bottles, food, balls. A 19” TV.
But I think today's find tops it. I went to turn on the water faucet on the front of the house, which is hidden behind some shrubs, and as I leaned in, I saw this:
It's a tire. A big one. That appears to have rolled straight from the road into the shrubs and come to rest against the porch.
I'm assuming somebody would notice that they lost their wheel....
Anyway. I was turning on the water to wet down my garden, which I just finished prepping for planting tomorrow! Here it is, new and expanded!
You can't really tell, but at the far end of each of those rows is a blueberry bush. I planted them last fall & they seem to be thriving! Yay!
The demolition of the Oregon State Hospital has just begun, one block from my home.
I know the building is old, decrepit, condemed and full of painful memories. But I can't help feeling remorse for what is being lost and anger toward the years of apathy and neglect that left it in this state, leading to the destruction that is now taking place in my neighborhood.
This is the furthest end of the south wing of the J Building. The entire south wing will be gone next week.
This is the southwest corner of the building, where the wing connects with the front portion. Everything to the right of this area will be destroyed. Everything to the left will be saved and renovated. This old portion will contain a museum and a memorial area for the hundreds of unclaimed remains that are on the property.
The tower will stay.
It was sunny this weekend! Hooray! I know it's too early to believe that spring is here, but it's nice to get these sunny interludes that remind us the gray will - eventually - give way to beautiful blue days.
Joe & Rickey were in town from Seattle, staying at our place so they could go see “Wicked” in Portland. I saw the musical a few weeks ago. It wasn't brilliant, but it was entertaining & impressive. J&R enjoyed it, too.
Saturday we went for a bike ride, with the goal of ending up at E.Z. Orchards for fresh donuts. Our friends Stuart and Mackenzie, both new bike riders, joined us. It was a gorgeous day- a little cold, in the 40s warming up to the 50s - but it was sunny, and that makes all the difference. We did 27 miles. I haven't been riding much yet this season (see above re: rain, cold), so it's nice to be back on the bike. I love rolling past all the beautiful farms and homes and middle of nowhere.
We bought a used Traeger grill (it's like a combo bbq & smoker, and it uses wood pellets instead of gas or charcoal).It's awesome & our burgers tonight were yummy.
We also picked up a bunch of compost, some fencing and posts. The soil in my garden was up to 64 degrees today! That means it's ready to put a lot of the seeds in the ground. Hooray! We're going to rototill up some more grass tomorrow evening to make a bigger garden this year. Alas, it will be fenced to keep out (hopefully) the silly nutria.
We stayed at a friend's house waaay too late last night (well, way too late for us), so I'm sleepy today. Off to bed with me. 'night!
Click here to see some more meow meows...
I made some LOL cats. They iz funnie...
At the Holiday Market in December, I met an artist who made these incredible metal garden markers. I talked to her, and she said that she could make any that I wanted. So after I bought a bunch of seeds last month, I contacted the artist, and she made 17 of these cool metal markers for me. (Like I have room in my garden for 17 varieties, ha!) But here are a couple of them:
Aren't they awesome? I'm excited to get my garden planted! (As soon as it stops snowing, perhaps?)
Like when it's snowing out (yay! & brrrr), but then I read this page, “Hey, Steff, what's up?” of rambling nothingness that I wrote about my boring daily life in the summer of 2003.
The fruit trees were nice, and spending time with my brother & visits with my sister is something I miss. And it was warm! Oh, it was warm. As I read about super early morning walks, Mi Patio margaritas, riding the stinking bus, Haji Baba, and Brody, I can feel the oppresive heat, and I sorta miss it. I do love being warm.
But ya know what? I get to go there in 4 days! It may not be 100 degrees, and Brody won't be there, but Chris will! And Rachel will be there visiting, too. And Dad & Jenny, and Jessi and Greg & Angie. And it will be warmer than here (if it starts snowing in Tucson, I'll hop on the nearest plane and come home in a huff!).
Tho, I guess I've forgotten that I was nearly always cold in Arizona, too: “Are you cold right now? Yes, yes I am. Stoopid air conditioner, anyway. Grrr.”
We've been kickin' around the idea of getting a new car for quite some time. In September, we test drove a tiny electric Zap Car. A few months later, we test drove a big, tanklike Volvo. Nothing really struck us as a good replacement for the Acura and/or Audi.
But we finally found it: Our perfect little reliable car- The Mini Cooper!
We traded in the good 'ole Acura (208,000 miles) for this 2007 Mini (11,200 miles). It's cute, it's fun, it's easy to park, it's adorable, and it gets super duper gas mileage. I love it!
It's basically a miniature version of our Audi. They're both silver station wagons, one's just much larger than the other:
They're both very good cars. :-)
I went to my first bike race of the season today, and watched Jim woosh around for 44 miles in the rain and the cold and the muck. It was fun! I didn't see him when he crossed the finish line, and afterwards it was very obvious why I didn't recognize him:
He was coated in mud! (Even his glasses, which he promptly removed, of course.)
I asked our friend Missy to take a photo of me & the Muddy Mountain Man Racer, and this is what happened....
Oh, ick!
Here's Jim & his buddy Michael after the race:
We had a fun day, though, and we'll be doing it again next week!
Although I put my garden to bed around November, I had to leave one little patch happy & growing: The carrots.
I planted them a little late, and they were still kind of small. But they continued to grow a little bit despite the cold, and I had been told that they would begin growing again in the spring. In January, I pulled up a small one just to see how it was doing, and it looked like a carrot! I was very pleased. :) I left them in the ground to get big & healthy.
When we came back from our Idaho trip in January ... horrors! The NUTRIA had come back & eaten every last carrot! I was so frustrated.
So, I've been researching how to keep nutria out of the garden, and it seems the only that likely will work is to surround the garden with 2 feet of chicken wire, with another foot of it underground. Sigh. This will totally disrupt the aesthetic qualities and ease of use of my adorable little garden. But I guess having an ugly garden full of veggies is better than a cute garden full of empty holes!
The Year 2009: Steph vs. The Nutria
Hello, Blog! It's been awhile, and I apologize. January flew by!
We went to Bend with some friends, and snowshoed and hiked in the snow and sizzled in the hot tub and played with the puppies. Visited many breweries, had a wonderful time. Bought some snowshoes.
We went to Idaho, too. Had Christmas- twice! Enjoyed some snow, played some Wii, painted Kim's wall, played with Bre, the usual.
My friends and I formed a knitting circle, called The Knotty Girls. We're learning, slowly.
I started training for another half-marathon: The Hippie Chick half in May. Yay!
This month we're maybe not traveling, unless I make it up to Seattle for yet another Christmas, and to see Joe's little puppy and Jessi's big chickens!
OK, off to work on my fuzzy brown scarf!
I did a lot of fun stuff last year! Some highlights:
-Rang in New Years in Phoenix at Chris's house, at the end of a trip that included: San Francisco, San Diego, Yuma, Mesa, and Phoenix.
-I became an office manager.
-Jim took up bike racing, and I happily spent many Sundays cheering him on.
-We finally finished the walls in the living/dining rooms.
-Hosted a baby shower for Melissa, and was excited to welcome sweet little Oscar into the world.
-Our nephew, Justin, came to stay with us twice!
-Saw Rufus Wainwright in concert ~ again.
-Saw Barak Obama in Salem!
-Chester became a pretty good dog.
-Planted my first garden! And fell deeply in love with that little patch of ground.
-Bought a Kitchen-Aid mixer, and fell deeply in love with that big hunk of metal.
-Ran several 5ks, 10ks, and one half-marathon:
-The half-marathon was with Jessi during a fabulous trip to Vancouver, BC
-The best 5k was the one that Jim ran with me!
-Rode in several event rides and team triathlons:
-Did the Beaver Freezer Tri with Stefanie & Beth.
-Did the Hagg Lake Tri ~ Boys vs. Girls! (Go boys, sigh!)
-Rode the Peach of a Century with a buncha good friends.
-Rachel & Chris & Lindsey visited.
-Frantically planned my 10-year high school reunion, in a mere 3 months!
-Attended my high school reunion, and it was great.
-Socialized all summer with the arts & historical ladies of town, and helped found the Salem Heritage Network.
-Went to the beachhouse with Jim's family, and with my family. Spent time in Depoe Bay with Jesse & Kurstin. Yay Ocean!
-Went to Vegas for Joe's 28th birthday on 08-08-08.
-Planned & pulled off the 34th Annual LGPI Conference. Phew!
-Created a library in my living room.
-Several visits with Joe/Rickey & Jessi/Jerry!
-Jim had an incredible finish in the Twilight Criterium in Boise. Jim had an incredible crash in the Idaho State Championship the next day. I learned all about road rash.
-Obama won the election!!
-Snow!!!!!!!