The Bane of Blogging?

Am I the bane of Blogging? I’m about the least updating person I know! A few additions to our life:

1) JMB is working for Quantum Construction, Inc! Check us out at http://www.quantumci.com.  I’ll be doing marketing, safety, etc. Whatever they can find for me to do!

2) Bought a house in Burlington! No longer stranded in Lynnwood! I think that’s a tag somewhere on our blog, which I’ll have to find and change.

3) Baby is coming in October! That’s right, no Oktoberfest for me; gotta be able to drive to Everett at a moment’s notice!

4) Plenty of unpaid yardwork to do in Burlington…anyone interest?

5) No internet at the new place. Will have to call comcast (we’ve only taken 3 months to so far!).

-JMB

PS. Yes! Check out my company’s website at www.quantumci.com! Did I mention I’m the webmaster?

“There and Back Again”

Colorado was an adventure of nearly, though not quite, Tolkien-esque proportions and thus the use of the title (for those of you non-geeks, google it 🙂 )

Wow. April 8th. That first line was written on September 3rd. I just found this draft. Perhaps I should log in more often. Colorado in summary: Hiking easy trails, seeing pretty sights, climbing up Long Peak, nearly dying in a 30 year lightning storm on Long Peak, nearly summiting Longs Peak but turning around for weather, eating donuts, enjoying time with family. Enjoy the pictures:

Packing

Around the World Pose

Two and a Half Kiehl Men (I'm the Half)

Top of Copper Mountain, Gondola only (bikes locked at the bottom)

Check out my sweet hat!

Our turnaround point, just before the Narrows.

Climbing the Trough. 10 steps. Breath. Repeat.

Longs Peak from the distance. We'll stop here.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

-JMB

The Silver Lake Expedition

Silver Lake

Silver Lake is a georgeous lake perched just past Poodle Pass above Monte Cristo in the Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest. But, I get ahead of myself! Silver Lake is also about 5.5 miles from the trailhead, 4 miles of which is relatively easy as it first existed as a railroad, then as a gravel road, now as a washed gravel road turned trail (aka, instead of crossing the bridge that was wiped out, you cross a very large log the size of a bridge).

You can see our log/make-shift bridge in the background.

The trail led to the historic and closed town of Monte Cristo, which was founded for mining purposes.

Welcome to Monte Cristo!

Unfortunately (fortunately?) the trail didn’t stay as easy. On one hand, we had to haul our beavy packs up a steep narrow trail. On the other, there were a lot less people that far up than there were down at the Monte Cristo campground. After a really long hike, we crested Poodle Dog Pass to the lake. I was a little worried about the attack poodles and had my knife ready, but they didn’t make an appearance. When we arrived, a group (of about 8 people) was resting and enjoying the view, so we swept in and found the best campsite. The other group ended up with a higher up site with a better view.  After setting up our tent, minus the rain fly that we left at home for weight purposes (trusting the weatherman), we grabbed our food and went down to the lake to cook. It was one of the absolute best places we’ve ever eaten! Well, most restaurants don’t have the same number of mosquitoes, but the view was gorgeous!

After dinner, we settled down in our tent to avoid the mosquitoes and fell asleep around 7:30 to the sight of mountains and beautiful blue sky. It didn’t last. We woke from our nap around 10pm to the view of dark clouds rolling in from over the peak. That’s the last time I trust a weatherman. We pulled out the one emergency blanket we had with us and started using our emergency line to rig a tiny rainfly over the most vital points. Fortunately a wonderful guy from the larger group saw our predicament and donated an additional blanket to the cause (he offered two). If that wonderful guy is reading this, THANK YOU! We spent most of the night hearing our makeshift, metallic rainfly blowing in the wind, but the feared rain never came.

Our Campsite

Our spaceship, er, tent with makeshift rainfly

It was all downhill from there…literally. We packed up early the next morning and hiked down the mountain. The trail seemed much shorter heading out and we were happy to provide information on the trail to people we saw on the way, experts that we were! After a cheerful hike down (I spent a mile or two singing), we drove back to Lynnwood, indulged in cheeseburgers and prepared for the coming week.

Our Trip Down

Adios Mt Baker Snoqualmie National Forest!

-JMB

Wow! It’s been awhile!

Um, yes, it has been. A long while. It’s a good thing we haven’t really told anyone about this blog, or someone might have actually hiked up to Silver Lake to find us, well, not there.

There’s a lot to update, including: 1) Our successful trip up to, and return from Silver Lake; 2) Our trip to Colorado; 3) Our near death in Colorado; 4) Casa Bonita; 5) My recent obsession with Pete Bakes!; 6) Our nearly done Malbec; and finally 7) Skagit Speedway.

In the interest of me (JMB) going to be in approximately 4 minutes, I’ll start on the last one. Last night, we (that is, SKB, my parents, my sister, my very reluctant brother and I) went to go watch my brother-in-law (the wife of my sister, not my Texan BIL) race the Carl’s Towing car in the Hornet-class race at Skagit Speedway.

It was an eventful evening. We bought Widmer Hefe, Challenger Ridge Chardonnay, waaaaay overdone cheeseburgers (loaded with jalepenos), and french fries, then tried to do magic with napkins to keep the clouds of clay dust from covering our food and turning our drinks, well, into clay. It’s safe to say that I didn’t drink the bottom sludge of my hefe. Besides the food, there was plenty of people watching, from the well refined (I’m referring to our group, remember, we were drinking Chardonnay!), to the average, to the not so well refined (i.e., wife beaters with tatoos and carrharts, and you should have seen what her boyfriend was wearing!).

Oh, and there were car races too! That’s where the clay dust came from of course. There were plenty of wrecks but thankfully no real injuries, though one driver’s prosthetic leg did come off and drive his car into a wall (literally). Then the Hornets had their race. C, the BIL, won! See pics below of the races and our hero!

C in his racing attire. They were raising money for the Burned Children Foundation.

JMB and SKB wearing hoodies and sunglasses to keep out the dirt!

C and the Carl's Towing car with their trophy. Yeah, it's a bit blurry, sorry!

SKB thinking about racing...

Adios!

-JMB

Before…

Our living/dining room covered with camping gear...wait till SKB gets home!

Backpacks, sleeping bags, bed rolls, a tend, TOILET PAPER, emergency kits, two ponchos, and rejected items scattered all over the Nain (rug); cooking gear, directions, a map and a camera on the (made by SKB and I) coffee table; food (note the apples) on the kitchen table ($50 at the Mercantile); a water bottle, two water bladders and our packing list on the counter; *we’re going camping!*

Tomorrow we debut with a retirement breakfast for Marilyn, SKB’s previous (wonderful) supervisor, then take a 5.5 mile hike into Silverlake in the North Cascades. It’s supposed to be 80 degrees and gorgeous, so we’re looking forward to it! It’s our trial hike to get all of our gear situation and tried out before our hike up Long’s Peak in two and a half short weeks. I’m taking a break in the packing (and waiting for SKB to get home from work) to post a pre-trip blog.

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m all about the food, and while lunch is hiking food (PBJs and trail mix), I’d say that I’ve assembled a tasty meal for dinner and a basic, but delicious, meal for breakfast. Dinner will be a lentil/bean dip (courtesy of Tasty Bite), palak paneer (courtesy of some Indian food company), whole wheat flat bread, a veggie mix (yams, shallots, carrots, olive oil, salt & pepper and dried rosemary, accompanied with chardonnay bottled in tiny travel boxes (a surprise to SKB, I guess that means she shouldn’t read this) and finished with Hostess chocolate Donettes. Breakfast is oatmeal (not the envelopes) with Maui Gold Cane Sugar and walnuts, plus apples. Maybe I’ll save the Donettes for breakfast…

If you can’t get a hold of me by Monday, would someone mind hiking up to Silver Lake and carrying me home?

JMB

Happy Independence Day!

Yes, I know I’m two days early, but Sun Healthcare let me me have a few extra enjoys to celebrate the birth of our nation. Or, more correctly, the celebration of the Declaration of Independence (of the 13 existing colonies of Great Britain), as the Constitution that serves at the foundation of our country wasn’t signed until September 17th, 1787. Yes, I’m a huge fan of random facts.

SKB and I are currently entertaining our two young nieces, J and G, who are visiting from Taiwan and leave on the 12th. So far we’ve swam in the pool, cooked Malaysian-style satay (SKB vouches for the authenticity, though she says the peanut sauce was comfortably mild in comparison), baked Texas Sheet Cake (in two round pans instead of the Jelly Roll pan we don’t have) and put on a small concert with the guitar from my last post. Right now it’s Merlot (for me, not the girls), The Velveteen Rabbit movie (for the young girls) and cleaning (for SKB, can’t figure out what she’s cleaning at 11:15pm for Edit: SKB says she was folding laundry. Yay! Clean clothes!).  Tomorrow has a few surprises we haven’t quite planned, but it will include Texas Sheet Cake cupcake samples!

It’s looking like a busy weekend for us- A BBQ tomorrow with friends, hanging out with family after that. We’re thinking about squeezing in some shopping somewhere in the middle (see below), possibly a Sedro Woolley Rodeo, more BBQ, and who knows what else! Sunday is a day of rest (Thank you God! And I mean that), but we’re heading down to Lisa’s to check out her new place. And Monday, back to the grind! We were planning on a hike and camping from Saturday to Sunday, but in the interest of our sanity, we decided to postone, hopefully until the weekend of the 18th. We need to get in a practice hike before Long’s Peak, CO, the first week of August. And on the 11th, I got suckered (ok, that’s an exaggeration) into running a 5k in Mill Creek. I’m actually looking forward to that, but don’t tell anyone!

Oh, for the shopping: SKB and I have a curious dilemma; she just finished a 35 day Nutrisystem diet and I’m in the final week or so. And I’ve lost about 17 pounds (make that 14 after the 4th of July BBQs) and SKB is down about 16. And here’s the dilemma, neither of our pants fit! So, we need to get some shopping in sooner or later. And on that note, good night!

-JMB

in the beginning

Friends, Family, Random Googlers!

Welcome to life atypical! As you join us, we’ll delve in the the humorous, the strange and despite our title, the everyday. Plus, you’ll get updates on JMB and SKB. I was looking for a good way to start us off and thought about writing a summary of everything we’ve been up to and everything on our to-do list (learn spanish, {possibly} buy a car, finish reading The Grill Bible), but that’d likely bore the heck out of you and you’d never come back. Instead, my beautiful wife gave me a great excuse to post. You may (or may not) have heard that I’m taking guitar lessons with a coworker of SKB. I have a nice little guitar that my (wonderful) grandmother tracked down in her attic, fixed up and gave to me. Today, SKB surprised me with a brand new Cort guitar (See picture below)! It plays beautifully, and now I have a spare to play with SKB or with my little bro when he comes and hangs out. Thank you wife (did I mention how good looking she is?)!

In other news, our best friend Holly finished a half marathon on Saturday in 2 hour and 34 minutes! You rock Holly! We’re proud of you!

-JMB