Mouse in the house!

I finally saved one from the killer kitty! Can you see the mouse in this picture? It's sitting against the wall behind my bike tire and the cat scratch post. Next to the baseboard heater...that tiny dark lump? These three pictures are from my phone, so the quality isn't fabulous.Well, this tiny mouse has been trapped/stuck in my house for at least 3 days. Tuesday evening I came around the corner to go upstairs...and there, sitting on the front door mat was this little mouse. Unlike some other people, my first reaction was "Awww, it's so cute! I wonder if I can keep it?" I like rodents. I'd LOVE to have a rat. They're so smart and can be very affectionate. Anyway, this is a wild mouse and knowing that they can carry diseases I knew I needed to try and get it out. But I also had to keep it away from the killer kitty!

I saw him several times over the next 2 days. He's a fast little bugger and I couldn't catch him! I'd leave the front door open, but every time he went that way one of the cats would appear to come inside and he'd turn around back under the couch or behind the tv.

Finally last night at about 11:00 I heard Loki in the kitchen making very...unusual sounds. I went to check it out and there she is with the poor little mousie in her mouth! I grabbed her tail and she dropped the mouse, who seemed just fine. I locked her up and managed to trap it.

Took it outside and let it go. Job well done! Can't wait to see what Loki brings home tonight.

A few weeks ago I went hiking with my friends Sheila and April. Neither had been up to Tumal Falls, so that's where we went. It was beautiful, but as we got higher the snow fields stopped us and we had to turn around.

These are the lower falls

Here we are at the lower falls lookout ~ Sheila, Chandra, April I was just making sure that we weren't going to get lost! :)

April and Sheila by some of the upper falls

The Amazing Dame Deviant, aka April. I have NO idea what she was looking at, but it's such a perfect picture!! :)

Last night we had a good-bye party for Amy Hammond, the president of the Bend Bellas. She's moving to Shreveport Louisianna for a job. She bought this really cute house for $90,000!!! That same house would be about $350,000 here in Bend, minimum! Sheesh. She doesn't actually leave until July 19th but this was the "official" executive committee farewell.

Today it's been raining, but hopefully it'll taper off enough that I can go for a ride with Sheila after work. She got a brand new bike, so I'm helping her break it in. :)

I screwed up!

I took pictures over the weekend, but I was using a camera that was unfamiliar to me. It was set to take pictures at a very high resolution. So in trying to reduce them to under 50 kb (which is what BlogSpot requires) they're now distorted...or pixelated (is that a word?). So...I'll post some here, but they're bad! I didn't take my camera on my Sunday hike, so I'll have to wait for others to send me theirs.


This was the view on the drive up. It's a narrow, twisty road with steep dropoffs on the side. Not that you can really tell, but the sky was an amazing blue.














This is a campground I came accross. The view in the other direction was amazing. Right out over the valley.

The view from about 1/2 way up.

These two are of the Independent Mine ruins.

:( They SO don't look as it is in real life! I'm so mad at myself for screwing them up!

That gives you a taste. These were such great pictures! :( Oh well, I won't be making the same mistake twice. I'm a pretty smart cookie you know. Not enough to avoid this problem in the first place, but........

Hiking and biking

I'll have pictures to go with this...as soon as I figure out how to download from this camera! Busy weekend. Saturday morning I was up and on the road by 6:45 a.m.. I went out to pre-ride a trail that I was possibly going to lead a Bend Bella Cyclist ride on next weekend. My friend Heidi is leading the "spirited" ride (intermediate/advanced) and wanted to do the Lookout Mountain trail out past Prineville about 25 miles. I'm leading the "conversational" ride (beginner/intermediate) and I thought that if there was an easier loop out there it'd be fun to go to the same place. So I went out to try the independent Mine trail.

It was a beautiful drive. Just beautiful. The trail is about a 12 mile drive up into the Ochoco National Forest. Beautiful scenery, fun trail. But yea....not a conversational ride! :) :) It was a great ride and I definitely recommend it...but I don't our beginners would be really happy with me. It's a truly beautiful area though and I highly recommend it. I was by myself, but met a couple bikers up there which was nice. The other big problem with that trail night now is all the blowdown (hmm, is that supposed to be one word?). These weren't ride-able logs! These ones were two feet off the ground and four feet thick. On a couple I really struggled to get my bike over and then scramble over myself! There was another one around every corner. So on the ascent I was constantly stopping and getting over the logs. On the descent I couldn't comfortably get any speed for fear of what was around the next corner. It was still tons of fun though! :)

Got home around noon, showered and went down to Bend Pride with a couple friends. Much better than last year! Except maybe for the bellydancer guy. I guess he was great...but sorry, I just couldn't get into it! We went out for dinner and then went to the Grove for the "after party" but had to leave early since I'd been up early, I was tired and I had to get up early Sunday to go hiking. Saw some friends that I hadn't seen in months. So all in all, a great day.

Sunday I went with about 6 others to hike Cone and Iron Mountain. If you haven't hiked it, you should! It's on the other side of Santiam on the way to Sweet Home. It was so beautiful. Just incredible. Wildflowers and butterflies everywhere. I tested out my new daypack for Peru, trekking poles and my new hiking boots. Everything seems to be working and fitting well so far... We had lunch up on top of Iron Mountain at the forestry lookout building. Have I said that it was amazing?

On our way back at about 3:00 we stopped in Sisters for some ice cream...well, the others had ice cream; I had sherbert. I don't really like ice cream. I know, I'm odd. I don't particularly like chocolate either, so there! It was HOT out, so the ice cream/sherbert hit the spot. Evidently I need to be doing a LOT more hiking! Biking and swimming are great... but they're not really getting me in shape for hiking. I think I'm going to have to be out there hiking every weekend between now and September!

I was supposed to go to Ultimate Frisbee tonight...but after today my knees and surprisingly, hips, need a few hours rest! :)

Killer kitties

So it seems that I have a cat with the taste for blood! I have two cats: Dread, an 18 lb 12 year old orange male and Loki, a tiny 9 month old female. Last week I came home, stepped through the door and noticed two of their toys on the living room carpet. The cats were sitting on either side just waiting for my praise. Turns out they weren't toys. One was a poor little mouse. Lying next to the mouse, perfectly parallel was a dead lizard! With part of his tail missing (which I found three days later when vacuuming! Yuck). Lying there. Side by side. Not only did they catch a mouse, but a lizard too! Sheesh.

Two nights ago I was working on my laptop and Loki was playing at my feet. With a toy...or so I though. Again, turns out to be a mouse! This one was still alive, but didn't last that way. Then last night she brings in another lizard! Dead again. She's a sneaky one, evidently! Sigh. I'm going to have to get her a bell. Otherwise the mouse and lizard population will be non-existent in my neighbourhood. Some might think that's a good thing. Not me. I like lizards and mice.

That's my killer kitty for ya! Here's a picture of her beating up on Dread.

But that's what I get for naming her Loki! And here's one of her eating her feet. She's an odd one.

Getting started...

So you're supposed to just jump right in to learn things, right? So that's what I'm doing! I'm going to Peru in September, and several of my friends have asked if I have a blog to keep them updated on my adventures. I didn't...but I do now!

The trip I'm taking is a 3 week backpacking trip to Machu Piccu in Peru.

I can't wait to see it in person. I'm going with my mom and her hiking group, The Blister Sisters, a group of mostly retired ladies...who can hike circles around me! After Machu Piccu we're going to see the Nazca Lines. I'm also really looking forward to those. I find all the therories about them fascinating.