Lucy will you be my valentine?

Okay, so it's been a few weeks since I've last posted anything. I guess it's been busy for a February: there was Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, President's Day...

The roses Jerill got me for V-Day

On Valentine's Day, Jerill cooked me a made-to-order breakfast (really, I asked specifically for this). Fresh strawberries and pear with fresh vanilla-whipped cream atop belgian waffles and breakfast sausage. Delicious. That really made the whole day right there. Then, we drove off to pick up my Dad and took him to the Lucy: Human Origins exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. You may know that I majored in physical anthropology in college - I LOVE FOSSILS and the greatest, most significant, coolest, and literally THE mind-blowing fossil of all time is Lucy, the most complete Australopithecus afarensis fossil ever found to date.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afarensis

I seriously got a little choked up when I saw Lucy, her actual fossilized remains, because of how imporant she is to the field on Anthrolopogy, science in general and in some respects, theology. She is probably the most important figure we have for human history. My dad kept saying to me "look, there's grandma." And indeed, he was right. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed in the exhibit and I wasn't about to get out the cellphone camera either considering the armed guard was sitting right there!

Then, for Valentine's Day Dinner, we planned a fondue night, at home. Jerill went to Whole Foods Market the day before in order to purchase the "correct" ingredients for proper Swiss Fondue. Below is the photo-story of the Fondue Dinner...

The proper Swiss white wine and bread cut up just-so

Secret Ingredient: Kirsch (cherry brandy)

A little garlic rub in the pot, combine, melt gently, stir, viola! Fondue with bread and apples. Totally delicious.

Diane sent me some pictures of me and Scott at our last trial we ran on 2/21. All I can say about that trial is that I learned a lot about my shepherding-skills and my dog. To all those who think Scott is winding down at age 9, think again. He was ON FIRE with those sheep last weekend, running them so strongly that we put sheep all over the field. It was not pretty but now I know I just need to calibrate my voice to get a little more animation into my dog.

In trials, I think of Scott like he is car - on a "slow" day Scott runs like a Cadillac Escalade - very stylish, pretty to look at, but runs out of gas quickly. However, on Saturday, after getting him too excited about running for the woolies, he was running more like a Chevy Corvette - super powerful and capable but had a lot of play in the steering and fishtailed all over the place. So, I'll try to strive for an Audi quattro in my next trial - he'll run pretty, powerful yet stay in control.

Here is Scott and I heading to the post for our run. I'm actually smiling (yes, I can smile).

See, I told you my dog could run... look at him go!

He's smiling here... as you can guess, this is after our run when he was totally impressed with his performance. I could only laugh!

I call this shot "Just Chillin." This is what Scott looks like the night after a trial. He is totally relaxed and asleep, in his new doggie-bed. Sometimes, he will stretch and put all four feet directly up in the air.

This is my welcoming committee when I get home from work. Mattie is scared of baby-gates falling on her, so she steers clear of the gate - in this shot you can see the look of worry in her eyes that I'm going to knock the gate down on her when I step over it! The boys are just "de de dee" and eagerly wait for their dinner to be made.

40 Things

I was tagged by Diane to list out 40 things about myself on my blog. Here they are...

1. I am English and Austrian
2. My degree is in Anthropology
3. I like fruit cobbler – sometimes I’m known as a cobbler gobbler
4. My own first pet was George the cat – I’ve had him since 2002 and he’s 13 years old now
5. Lucky is my first “sport” dog – we did competitive flyball on Seattle’s Best Canines flyball team until I retired him last year
6. Mattie is my second “sport” dog – she has potential to do anything but she is best at obedience and herding
7. Scott is my third “sport dog” – he is a phenomenal herding dog and he is making me look good out there in the herding trial world! Thank you Diane for letting me have Scott!
8. My sister is older but much shorter than me – she is my little big sister.
9. My mom makes good English food; my Dad makes the best buttermilk pancakes
10. My father was in the Air Force and I lived in Idaho, England, Michigan and Washington by the time I was 4 years old.
11. I helped more than 1,800 people become volunteers at the Seattle Animal Shelter
12. I never read directions
13. I like jazz and big band music; I loathe country
14. I’m an excellent speller but cannot remember vocabulary definitions
15. I took Norwegian in college to fulfill my college foreign language requirement
16. I played flute in 6th grade and played piano and auxiliary percussion in high school band.
17. I am addicted to Vietnamese food
18. I have my own bowling ball and bowling shoes
19. In elementary school, for show-and-tell, my mom would bring my English Cocker Spaniels Judy and Sammy into class and I would talk about show dogs and cockers to my classmates
20. I let my dogs eat Cheetos right out of my mouth
21. My first car was a 1971 orange VW Bug
22. My favorite car I've ever owned was a 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX (227hp!)
23. My other cars I’ve personally owned: 1990 Toyota Tercel, 1994 Ford Escort, 2002 Honda CR-V, 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid
24. I used to show dogs in junior showmanship competitions at dog shows
25. My first job ever was at Dairy Queen in North Bend, making Blizzards at age 15
26. My employment history includes: Dairy Queen, a sandwich shop, an eye care clinic, a video store, Target, a cafeteria in college, a market research firm, a property and casualty insurance company, a health insurance company
27. I have been married for 6 years to Jerill
28. I always wanted to be a doctor, veterinarian or epidemiologist; I ended up in Marketing
29. My clothes closet is organized by clothing type and then by color; my Native American nickname is Princess Clothes-horse
30. In high school I asked a guy to the junior prom and he said “no”
31. In high school I played tennis and ran cross country
32. My 4 year old pastel calico cat GiGi sucks on the end of her tail almost every day
33. In 2001 I broke my pelvis and I now have the coolest scars on my hips
34. I have had to use a wheelchair, a walker and a cane to get around
35. I am learning how to alpine ski. I already know how to do cross-country skiing
36. I just bought a Nintendo Wii so I can bowl every night
37. I do not eat cooked green peas
38. My favorite colors are green and black
39. My favorite drink is Vodka tonic with a twist
40. I did the Seattle ½ marathon in under 4 hours

Whistler Trip

Jerill and I went to Whistler, British Columbia for a week to ski and relax. We hadn't had a real vacation like this since our honeymoon 6 years ago! It was a good trip. I went intertubing and watched a ski jump competition. I took 2 days of ski lessons at the Roxy Ski Camp for Women, and I went skiing on my own one day as well. I actually didn't fall that much and now, I'm a solid Green Run skier.

Here are some pictures of the professional Ski Jump competition I went to (they were doing qualifying runs for the real competition held the following day). I saw 40 of the world's best ski jumpers including the Swiss or Austrian dude that just got the World Record jump this year. It was actually a lot a fun and really something I probably won't see again for a long time.

Click on the movie below and see some a Dude FLY

I took a lot of movies but this one really sums up the feeling the best. Other still pictures I took of the event...

The vew from our condo...

Can you see the Dude flying through the air? This jump ramp is HUGE.


Apparently this guy is hot shit, so I took a pic. Can't remember who it is though - Austrian I think? He was sort of the star of the event.

This Dude just finished a sweet jump. We got to stand really close to where the Dudes finished their jump. This guy was whizzing by. Note the size of those skis!

While we were gone, Scott went to stay at his farm with Diane in Carnation. He got his sheep back for a whole week! Upon his return back to our house though, my mom gave him a new bed to sleep in (he was trying to squeeze into Lucky's bed and it wasn't really working out well for him). Here he is all snuggled up to the pellet stove and Xbox in his new bed!

And as you might recall, Mattie stayed at my mom's house (with Lucky too). And, during their stays, they were groomed. Thankfully, Mom did a great job and Mattie doesn't look like a Whippet/Coyote mix afterall - more like a Irish Wolfhound / Border Collie actually. She's such a cute dog. Her coat is SUPER soft right now - she feels like a bunny.

I liked this picture - it's posted at Whister describing Cross Country skiing. As you may know, Whistler will be hosting the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Jerill thoroughly enjoyed skiing on some of the runs that will be used in the races for the Games.

And, here is a pre-cooked vision of what we are eating for dinner tonight. I bought a couple pork loins and I rolled one in italian herbs and spices and the other I put a cherry-chipotle rub on it and then wrapped in a latticed-bacon blanket. It just came out of the oven so I'll let you know how it turned out!