Still...

...still alive...still busy...

Tomorrow will be office-y type work. Monday, Slav and I are heading south for California. I'm looking forward to knitting and reading on the train ride. The sweater is getting closer and closer as I get more and more worried about the fit and the amount of yarn remaining. I got Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses at Grass Roots, the lovely independent bookstore in Corvallis, and am excited to finally read some of his work.

Tour news:
I got stung twice by a bee (or something) when it flew down my shirt while I was biking.
Mama, your veggie chili recipe is a hit, and my menu in general needs little tweaking (YAY!).
We got to snuggle baby bulls.

Crazy and Hot Life

Life has been crazy and hot here in Portland.
I thought it was supposed to be temperate here, but it's HOT! 90's and 100's hot. Though the humidity can't compete with Michigan, so I'm not too upset about it. Also, popsicles help.
The crazy part has been prepping for the bike tours. Clients will be arriving tomorrow!! I am excited, but tired from all the preparations which have taken lots of hours. I think the tours this year are going to be even better than last year, and we really have a lot of great things to offer the people who have decided to come out and go for a spin with us this summer. In addition to that, I am going to be working with what looks to be a great team of people to help pull the whole thing off. Stories and pictures to come...

In the meantime, here are some pictures from a Mt. St. Helens hike that Beth and I took in an attempt to escape the heat. That was pretty much a failure even though there was still snow at our hike's summit. The hot air is everywhere, and the snow was melting into rivers. Luckily, the hike itself was not a failure. We had great views of the volcano the throughout the hike and spent a fair bit of time making attempts at flower and scat ID. Fun, fun.

me in a hammy pose at the bridge at the edge of the volcano blast zone

Beth attempting a flower ID along the trail

two wacky hikers posing at the trail junction sign

Beth looking across the the Mt St Helens - That is smoke from the current eruption coming out of the left side of the crater base.