So much to update!

Wow, it's been a really busy week. And I'm so tired I can barely see straight. But I just wanted to say hey, I', still here...and I'll update as soon as I can. Probably tomorrow evening. If you want to see what I've been preparing for and then doing this last weekend, you can check out pictures here of the High Desert Omnium that the Bellas put on this year.

Wow, it was an insane amount of work...but well worth it.

Weekend visit with the 'rents

My parents were here for the weekend, and we had a really good time. They left Vancouver Thursday evening, camped in Washington then drove to Hood River and spent the day with Randal, Jen and Kai who'd been there that whole week. They arrived here around 6:00, which was nice. We had dinner, hung out...I got some nicce leg massages. Mmm. They really felt good. My legs are still quite tight. I think I'll ask my doc if for the next little while if I can go to PT for some therapeutic massage...they feel better.

Saturday morning we went to the lava river cave. We'd tried to go last year, but we didn't really have lights. Oops. Yea, you really do need headlamps or flashlights/lanterns. Anyway, we had a great time. I am claustrophobic, but I'm ok in...most of the cave. The ceiling is pretty far away. It's a great big huge round tube...like the name indicates! :) Here are my mom and dad in the cave. This is down towards the end. This is as far as I go. I tried to go farther, but I just couldn't do it. It only goes about 100 or 200 feet further, but for at least 50 feet you're crouched over like this. Ugh! I just can't!

Mom came back, but dad continued all the way to the end where the sand plug is. Here he is almost to the end of the really low part. He's basically crab walking. I shudder just remembering. I didn't even make it as far as he is now.
On our way out, here's our view of the entrance. It's about 2 miles round trip, but it takes a lot longer than it would to walk that up above. You're going slow, and having to watch your step quite a bit. It's so worth doing though! :) Doesn't cost anything if you have a NW Forest Pass. If you don't, you have to pay the one day fee.

Then we spent the rest of Saturday looking for a bike for my mom. She hasn't really biked in about 20 years, but wants to take it up again...for commuting and just riding around. Not mt biking or anything. When she and my dad were in Holland this summer my dad's cousin took them on a bike ride...my parents didn't realize that it was a 30 MILE RIDE!!!! And my mom ran into a tree! Hee hee hee. So she wants a "comfort bike" and I think this is the one she decided on:

Evidently bikes are cheaper here, so they're going to order in a medium and I'll bring it up the next time I go to Vancouver.

We had dinner at Hans...'cause they're closing at the end of the month and I've wanted to take my parents there for the german food for quite a while. It was yummy! I got the Jager schnitzel. Mmmmmm. Mom got the red snapper "schnitzel" which was very very tasty too.

Earthquake in Peru!

:( Sad news. There was a horrible earthquake in Peru today. It's so hard, cause it's an area I know now. It was a magnitude 8 (WOW!!!) earthquake centered in Ica and Pisco. There were something like 11 earthquakes after ranging from 5-6.3, which is already a big earthquake! Pisco is where the alcohol pisco is made, the national drink of Peru. Pisco is...was, a lovely little town surrounded by vineyards. Ica is a larger town in the middle of the desert. This is the oasis of Huacachina right outside Ica.
There's something like 510 dead so far. There were 200 buried in a church where they were attending a mass for a Pisco man that had died a month before. This is that church...not much of it left. A man outside his home in Pisco. Now just rubble. Something like 70% of this town of 68,000 residents was destroyed.

This is the Pan American Highway...we drove along this stretch! My thoughts are with everyone in the area. I loved Peru...and it's always just so weird to see somewhere you recently were in the news like that.

510 people. Wow, that's a lot. Magnitude 8 earthquakes only happen every 5-10 years and usually devastates more than one community near the epicenter. The scale only goes to 8 and is considered total destruction...on the Richter scale.

Happy Birthday to me! :)

Friday was my birthday, and it was nice while being quite uneventful. I took the day off and drove up to Cultus Lake to get a camping spot. We weren't going to go up until Sat morning... but I knew that we would not get a good spot on Saturday. Cultus Lake was completely full, but I found the PERFECT spot on Little Cultus. Right on the lake! It was so gorgeous I didn't want to come back to Bend! I did though, 'cause we were having a get together at O'Kanes at McMenamins.

Man, McMenamins has the WORST service in the history of Bend...maybe even the universe!!! They truly suck! It's too bad that the atmosphere at that bar/patio is so nice. I'd never go back... but unfortunately it's a great patio. Sigh. They do truly suck. SUCK!!!!!!!! It took 50 minutes for our burgers to come, we NEVER were asked at our table if we wanted drinks or food...they just ignored us and we had to go inside. Even when you went inside, you weren't guaranteed to get served! But there are servers all over the place! What the hell are they doing????? Then others ordered....after another 50 minutes the food still hasn't arrived. Turns out they didn't even place the order! So they said we could get it in 10 minutes...took 15, but that was ok...but it was the WRONG THING!!!!

McMenamins really truly really really really really really SUCK PIGGY WONKIES!!!!!!

Oh well, we still had fun. Then Saturday we headed up to the lake and had a great weekend. More of that later once I've uploaded pictures. I let Heidi take the camera on her ride...she'd forgotten her camera. We'll see what she took pictures of......
:)

12 Gauge Rage ROCKS!

Roller derby was this last Saturday. Their first bout of the season. Man, being there really made me mis skating! Oh well, some day....

12 Gauge Rage ROCKED! Last season they were in last place.This year they may just be the team to watch. They were skating against Moulin Bruise. April was amazing, as were many others on her team. They kicked ass! Look, can you see the scoreboard? At this point 12 Gauge was ahead 78 to 30. They won 116 to 6o. Whoohooo! :)

I didn't take many picutes of the action. I haven't figured out yet how to get my camera to take good action shots from farther away. They're always dark...and if I get that fixed they're really blurry! So you'll have to be satisfied with a couple fan shots. Here's Jimmy and myself. I did a "Jimmy shot"...but you'll have to look at my flickr site to see it! Hee hee hee.

And here's Sheila doing her Rock of Love shot. I LOVE Chris' face looking at his wife. Hee hee. I don't watch Rock of Love, but evidently one of the women did a pose like this...but her boobs were hanging out. I asked Sheila why she didn't fully replicate the pose...I guess she felt that roller derby was a family thing and therefor that pose was inappropriate! :)

It was a great night. Congrats 12 Gauge Rage!!!