Spring Breakers?!?! ...not so much.

Spring Break was a particularly mellow one this year.  We agreed to rein in any extra spending in favor of saving it for our trip to Italy.  I really missed our usual snow shoeing excursion up Bear Pass in the blazing spring sun.  The drippy grey weather did NOT lend itself to much outdoor fun.  And outdoor fun is what's FREE in our world right now....
I did take Willa out for a promised blueberry french toast breakfast at our favorite cafe to start the week off.  On my work days she came in with me and had fun hanging out.  But mostly the week was spent relaxing at home, finalizing trip stuff-getting all that info plugged into apps on my phone, reading, and puttering while Willa got in some good hard imaginary play time.
We did cram a lot into our last weekend before school started, though.  A fast but hardcore 5k run in 10 inches of new snow-uuuuugghh, dinner at our house with friends who ran the race, too, a nice family skate ski the next morning, and celebrating Miles's birthday.

Breaky at the Middle Way Cafe

We've switched to all-grain beer brewing....

....and it's a LOT of work!!!  But when the sample from the first gravity reading tastes great, you know that beer is gonna be PHENOMENAL!!!!!

Beautiful handmade mash paddle Miles's friend made

Snuggle time with kid and cat



Witness the FITNESS, yo!!!  I'm thrilled that Willa can join us for short runs now! Plus, her fitness fashion is to die from for!!!

She's horse-crazy.  Doing some leather-working on a saddle she made for one of her Breyer horses.

I love when Miles comes home from work early to run with me! 

Shopping day.  Having a little hot cocoa and a cookie at Jitters

She got to pick out a special outfit for Italy

Deep into world-building

BAM!  And then the snow hits.  Saturday's Shamrock shuffle race.  

Tostadas and margaritas with good friends!

And an uproariously funny game of Cards Against Humanity!  ALWAYS is!

Miles's birthday!  Willa gave him the raku trout- the 5th to finish off his collection.

There won't be many more days of this this season!  Taking it all in while we can!

Love to play with my hunny!

Extremely tall peanut-butter-cup cake that Willa and I made

The Birthday Boy chose homemade mac-n-cheese and filet mignone for his b'day dinner.

Oh, hi, sun.  Thanks for making an appearance on the last afternoon of Spring Break.  

V Day!

*GAAAHH!!  I never posted this!  better late then never....

V for velocity  virus vistaster VALENTINE'S DAY!!!  Yeah!  Let's start with Valentine's Day.  We decided to go easy this year, no big dinner out and no prezzies, since we'd rather save the money for fun over in Italy!  Plus, we rigged our trip so that we're there in wine country for our 12th wedding anniversary!  Romantic enough, yes?!  And an important milestone anniversary.  What better place to celebrate this beautiful thing we have...that impossibly continues to grow more deep with each passing year?  So, we opted to stay home for a family evening with Willa and get a nice pizza delivered.  And of course we got each other prezzies.  Miles sent a lovely bouquet of roses to my work and gave me a pair of unique copper earrings.  I splurged on a sensational bottle of Barbaresco...the female to Barolo's male.  Grapes from the Peimonte region in Italy.  The most gorgeous wine to ever cross my lips.  The pizza came in handy since we had no heat or hot water.

Let's back-track a day.  Thursday night, Willa and I get home from school.  I head straight to the bathroom with a full bladder.  The toilet seat was FREEZING.  Wait a sec....I still have my down coat on.  It's CHILLY in here....  Uh, oh.  Sure enough, I give the baseboards a feel, check the thermometer.  Ooo!  58 degrees!  I give Miles a heads up and call Karl with a K, our handy handyman.  Our boiler set up is in our crawl space/basement and only accessed though a trap door in the floor of our CLOSET(eye roll).  I get in there to remove the door and turn the light on for Karl's arrival.  Oh, My Fucking GOD.  There is a WATERFALL cascading from our Quietside heater.  There is a foot of water in the crawl space.  Things.....are floating everywhere.  I frantically call back Karl to let him know things are REALLY SNAFU and hurry up!!!!  Willa is in tears thinking the water is going to flood the WHOLE upstairs as well and is frightened when I put on my Xtra-tuffs to get down there and salvage what I can.  Fast forward a few hours, Karl has come and gone, the water shut off and now draining, a part will be ordered, wood stove is blazing, several space-heaters are set up around the house to keep things warm enough to not have pipes freeze and plants die, and Miles and I are hauling up nasty wet trash from the crawl space.  I tell myself it's just junk, a lot of it was going to be given to the Salvation Army anyway, too bad it got ruined.  All our important beloved stuff is upstairs anyway....  Then Miles upends a plastic bin that had tipped over and took on water.  It contained most of my photo albums. Pictures from my childhood up until about age 30....most of which I had taken.....DESTROYED.  Out of hundreds I saved maybe 40-50.  A decent cross-section of years.....but, MAN, it was still a blow.  And what.a.mess.  This vistaster was not taken well by all.

Our little family pizza and wine snuggle fest in our chilly house eased the pain on Valentines day.

Beauty in destruction?

The next morning we escaped headed into Eagle River early to drop Willa off at the Ski bus that would take her and a ton of other very happy kids to Alyeska for the day to have a downhill ski lesson.  Miles and I followed in the car.  We had beautiful clear weather for our day of skiing.  As soon as I got off the lift onto the slope, I killed it! I skied the BEST I have skied in my LIFE!  I think it's from all the skate skiing I've been doing...they seem to compliment each other.  I even took on a great deal of speed that I usually would have been freaked out about. I seem to have entered a "less fear" zone when it comes to velocity!  Willa enjoyed her morning lesson and skied with us for the rest of the day.

 And here we are on Sunday.  Still no heat or hot h2o.  Hoping our part will be delivered and installed  tomorrow.  Continuing to haul up trash and organize all that didn't get wet in the basement.  This has actually been a project on our to do NOW list for quite awhile. The basement has long been a catch-all and storage of all things What Should We Do With THIS?  I'm thinking if we are brutal in our choices, we can cut this shit down by 75%.  It would be a breath of fresh air.
We took a break to make the chocolate dipped strawberries we had promised Willa we could have for Valentines day.  Can't wait until they have cooled and solidified!
And as I have been sitting here, I've begun to feel a "pressure" slowly build in my chest.  That itchy solid feeling that usually signifies a chest cold coming on.
Yay for viruses?  That's all I need.  But the strawberries....that will make it all GOOD.  Right?

Continuing with my All Things Italy as well! ;)
Brings me joy.

Ski the Beach!

 ...The culmination of our skate skiing season with the Junior Nordic ski club. An afternoon of races for kids and adults alike. Races range from 1K to 15 K. It's a fun beach-themed shindig with lots of bathing suits, grass skirts, pink flamingos, colorful flower leis, food and  warm Gatorade punch.  This year it was a balmy 20° on race day but the sun was a-blazing and it felt much warmer.  That solar heat, unique to Alaskan winters, on my face, eyes closed and upturned toward the sun, felt incredible.

But, is was more like Ski the BITCH, for me this time around.  I wasn't planning on skiing the beach due this weird virus that I seem to have had for the past week and a half.  A strange feeling of itchy pressure in my chest but no productive cough. I've also been on a roller coaster of fatigue... feeling quite tired at times and fairly energized others. It's been like a brewing cold that never quite hits- like my body has been battling it and trying to keep it at bay. Up until Sunday morning I was planning on not skiing it with Miles and Willa, or even leaving the house that day, because I just didn't feel like I had the energy for it. But the day was SO gorgeous and beckoning... And after all, this is the ONE ski race I participate in each year. All my time spent helping to coach Junior Nordic, and the personal time I spend training on the hills culminates in this one 7K race for me. So...my ego got the better of me. I threw on my gear at the last minute, had a bowl of oatmeal and decided I was going to go for it. The Facebook invite for Ski the Beach said it started at 12 but they failed to mention  that the set up started at 12.  The actual race didn't start until two, so we found ourselves with two hours to spare but not wanting to go back home. We decided to head over to the Eagle River Alehouse for a light protein filled lunch. Miles and I split some spicy wings and Willa had her standard grilled cheese and fries.

Back at the ski chalet a little while later we picked out our  Hawaiian leis, registered for the race, and hung out with some friends until race time. Miles and I got in line with the 7K racers with Willa behind in the 3K section with her buddies from junior Nordic. The 15 K racers started a couple of minutes before us. When it was our turn, I patted Mile's arm and bid him a good race.   I had the usual excitement at the beginning, polling hard in the tracks until they opened up and I could start to get a good skate on, passing the slower people and trying to catch up with the faster. Fresh corduroy tracks laid and crisp wind in my face!  YES!

 10 minutes later I thought, "What in the HELL was I thinking?!?!".  That window of energy on the rollercoaster I had been riding slammed SHUT. I felt devoid of strength, the muscles in my legs suddenly rubbery. But it's not like I was dying or anything so I plugged on. MAN, it was grueling. Really brutal .  Looking back I realize that there's a lot of the race that I really don't remember! I guess it's kind of like those marathon or ultramarathon runners who, towards the end of the race, start really zoning out, if not hallucinating. While I certainly wasn't hallucinating, I felt that I had transported to the end of the marathon within only a few minutes of starting that ski race. The second half of the race went a little easier than the first because I was skiing on terrain that I'm very familiar with.  I know what's around every bend, and I know if I put a lot of power getting up some of those upcoming grueling hills I'm rewarded with a nice fast downhill glide to restore my breath. While I've really improved with my skate skiing uphill this season, the one thing I've noticed is that while I can ski up the hills quite quickly and even with a little bit of grace, I have to stop at the top because my heart is just pounding, my lungs are in overdrive. Just for a bit, mind you, and then I ride that welcome downhill as far as I can until I reach the next hill. I've also really embraced speed this year both with skate skiing and downhill skiing. When skate skiing on the steeper hills, I used a snowplow a little bit and drag my poles to slow down the descent.  This year something just... changed.  Nothing forced...just a shift in perception, I guess.My skis are straight, I tuck down, poles close in and out behind me and I'm flying down that hill with no fear.

Back when I was still duck-walking hills there was no need to stop at the top as it really didn't take my breath away so much.  But this year it's a different story with the power I'm putting into my form going up hill.  DANG, it's workout!  It really affected my race in that if I wanted to keep continuously skiing without stopping I had to revert back to duck walking up the hills and, yes, it made me feel like a rookie. There were a few top-of-the-hill pauses where I would look back to see who was behind me.  I could often see Miles in the distance and more than a few times I thought I should just stop for a couple of minutes, catch my breath, let him catch up and just finished the race together. But I decided to keep pushing despite how horrible I felt- something I would kind of look down on before I started entering races.   Where have you been all my life, Competitive Streak?!  Where did you come from?  And why did I let you compel me to do something potentially harmful to my body!?!  Well, at least I didn't DNF. I came in just under two minutes slower than last years time which had had me bummed out but then again, I was SICK.   I was 4th out of 7 women.  As I slid through the finish line looking forward to my post race cool-down which usually consists of just walking or slowly skiing a lap, I was immediately halted by some woman who desperately wanted my race bib right NOW.  We wrestled together for a minute trying to pry off that kooky, tight fitting, belly shirt from the 80's lookin' thing and once I was liberated Willa burst out of the Chalet to give me a big hug, report on her race, and as fast as she had appeared, she DISappeared. Willa really rocked her 3K, coming in 8th out of 23 kids.  She was so proud of  herself!  We are too!

I immediately went from feeling horrible to miserable.  My chest and throat felt like sandpaper and my limbs and core were quite shaky with exhaustion.  The warm Gatorade was welcome, indeed.  We went home to very lazy burger-and-mac dinner in front of Terminator 2.

Am I glad I did this race?  Yeah.  As long as it doesn't turn into walking pneumonia or something...  2 days later and my cough is only a little more productive...still tired.  Will I race again while feeling sick like this?  Jeezus Fuck, NO!

Junior Nordic may be coming to a close but the season's not over yet.  There's still a lot of skiing to be done and hopefully we'll get more snow. My goal is to continue working on endurance- trying to ski up those hills without having to stop and gasp at the top. To be able to get through that 7K route without stopping.

Miles at the finish

Riding the white...

Up high.....scenes and a vid from our first weekend of alpine skiing:

Willa and I are on the left....

Bringing In

These trees

-emissaries of the woods-

heavy with snow and frost

bend in gentle inclination toward protection...

an embracement

 and receiving of all

 who travel through

.....in beauty.

Willa so tiny

I'm helpless but to allow my soul to be split open wide and to drink of all that I see and feel in a place like this.  This beauty, varying and shifting in its sameness as we fly through it with hearts beating hard, breath coming cold, warm, cold, warm, bodies moving in power....     I can't get enough of this indigo world!  What an inebriant!

Thanksgiving weekend

 

Steam.....from the COOKIN'!!!!

 

1.     Which do you like better: hosting Thanksgiving at your home, or going elsewhere?

  We have never hosted Thanksgiving dinner thanks to FOOTBALL and the fact that we don’t have TV at our house.    End of story.  I would LOVE to host but people don’t want to come to our house because either they want to host at their house and/or they can’t watch football at ours.  Feh

2.     Describe your perfect bite?

A fork full of turkey, mashed potatoes, and a bit of stuffing all dipped in cranberry sauce

3.     White meat or dark?

 OPT?  Other People's Turkeys?  Dark.  I barely like turkey as it is and I find that white meat equates to eating a wool sock.

4.     Do you buy a fresh or frozen turkey? Organic? Free-range?

 Mile’s usually wins a frozen turkey each year at work.  Just the usual run of the mill turkey that we smoke and use for soup.  I would really like to brine, smoke and cook up an organic free range hen sometime.....I may have my chance on Christmas Day this year.  We are putting our feet down and refusing to go to anyone else's house.  They can come to OURS for once.  There's no friggin football on. 

5.     Stuffing with giblets or without?  

 I like pulling out the giblet bag and obnoxiously shoving them in the kids faces.  I used to give them to the dog…..

6.     Sweet potato pie or Pumpkin pie?

 Miles makes a killer pumpkin pie that even I like!  And then we pair it with my famous cranberry/apple pie.  Tradition!

7.     Anything you won’t eat at the Thanksgiving meal?

Turnips.  GGUUHHH, my family always used to make mashed turnips.  One of the few foods that will make me puke.

8.     Carve Mr. Gobble at the table or serve on a platter? 

At the table for chrissakes…a la Clark Griswold.

9.     What side dishes are a must-have in your family?

MASHED-FUCKIN-POTATOES or Momma aint happy.

10.  Do you stick with a particular menu from year to year, or do you mix it up? 

Up until about 4 years ago, when we started going to the T’s house for Turkey/Football day, we mixed it up every year.  Since we had not yet experienced a brined/smoked turkey, the family was HATIN’ on turkey so we made some  alternative dinners!  We did fondue with homemade won tons, shrimp, and veggies….with the traditional Thanksgiving  sides a couple years in a row.  One year we roasted some cute Cornish game hens and made stuffing with oysters.  Maybe a ham once……..

11.  Are leftovers a blessing or a curse? 

Turkey Soup on a cold Alaska night is always a blessing!  Just throw the mashed potatoes in and make it thicker!  Cranberry/turkey sammiches…What’s so cursey about that?

12.  Formal table or Chinet?

 Paper plates?  Really?  Not unless we had, like, 50 guests.  My momma taught me better than that.  Lazy, wasteful, tacky and did I say LAZY?

13.  Your menu:  If I got to host?!?!

Organic free range hen.  Miles would brine and smoke it.

My amazaballs oyster stuffing

MASHED-FUCKIN-PO-TA-TOES that Miles makes to perfection

My phenomenal cranberry chutney

My Brussel sprouts with craisins and Gorgonzola, a new family fav

         Miles's homemade bread with Willa’s homemade butter

 

 

White wine, a Gewurztraminer or pinot grigio….and, of course, red wine.  Marziano Abbona San Luigi Dolcetto di Dogliani, Piedmont, 2010

14.  Extended family, friends, both or just the immediate family for dinner? 
I would really enjoy having both!  My mom and Pops and some good friends! And folks who don't have families to celebrate with....

15.  Is Thanksgiving a religious or secular holiday in your home? 

Neither, but it’s a spiritual day.  Even if I just have to grab at the few quiet moments to inwardly give thanks and breathe in the wonder of it all….everything we are blessed with….  It’s also  a chance for me to help my children(well, it's just Willa now) find the grace in giving pause to be thankful.  A time of openly sharing what means the most to each of us, to acknowledged the TRUE origin of this holiday, to hold in reverence the native peoples of this land that have suffered at the hands of those who would conquer and destroy.  It IS a spiritual day….despite the eats, drinks, and screaming at the tube.

 

16.  After dinner, do you go to the latest movie or watch football on TV or just a turkey induced snooze?

Football before, during and after…..feh.  As much as I HATE when the chicks hang with the chicks and the guys hang with the guys at social events, this year while our men occupied the man cave, the women folk and children gathered about to play Scattegories.  We had a GREAT time, lots of laughing and silliness and some seriously creative answers!  So glad I stayed upstairs to play.  And I DID get in the obligatory after-turkey nap.

 

17.  Do you watch the Macy’s Parade?   

Haven’t watched it since I was a kid!  But EVERYTHING is so commercialized and corporatized anymore.....

18.  Christmas decorations up before or after?

The weekend after Thanksgiving is traditionally when we fuck up our backs hauling up the decs from the crawlspace.  By Sunday evening the tree is up, lit, and ornamentized and the rest of the house sporting our wacky mish-mash of holiday fare.

19.  Black Friday shopping or sleep in. 

 Fuck.Black.Friday.  You have to be a real douche to buy into that shit.  And even douchyer to go out on Thanksgiving!  What’s the popular meme this year?  ““Black Friday: Because only in America, people trample others for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have.”   Disgraceful.  Curmudgeonly rant over.

20.  Favorite Thanksgiving memory?

So many!  The year Miles dropped a pan of green bean almondine on the floor and implemented the 5 second rule-dude’s FAST!-and then later almost caught the dinner table on fine.  …not so much Miles’s fondest memory.  I thought it was a knee slapper, though!  And when we had T-Day dinner at home, we always had a blast at the post-gorge neighborhood sledding party!  Sad now that so many of the kids are over 18….and that the hosts of the sledding party have moved.  L sigh……

       
21.  Picture taker or memory maker?  BOTH!  My drunken antics sparklin’ personality and camera skills make for lovely memories both tangible and ethereal.   ~hic....

This years Thanksgiving was almost complete...with a cold bright morning to trek over to our friend's house in, a hearty workout on the ski trails, hot showers, Baileys and coffee, happy chatter, snuggling with my hunny, kids playing, cooking, eating, football, games and the yearly performance put on by the kids.  The only thing missing was Dylan.  Our first Thanksgiving without her.  Willa burst into tears at the dinner table when our friend mentioned Dylan during grace. She really struggled not to.  I saw the corners of her mouth quiver downward like they do when emotion is making it's way up...she turned her eyes to the ceiling in an attempt to stave off the tears while Todd spoke.  She glanced over at me and I offered a knowing smile....and that was it.  I walked Willa to the bathroom where she buried her head in my chest and let out what she had held in since her sister left.   I hope it was cathartic and clearing for her.  I hope Dylan knows how fortunate she is to have so much love around her.  And that she is missed.

Halibut and shrimp turkeys for the vegetarian in the group!

The formerly obligatory, eye-rollable, VERY chaotic and off-the-cuff yearly T-Day performance by the kids was actually enjoyable this year!  I can't believe they put together a really cute musical about 3 little turkeys AND included the token boy under 10 in the creativity!  The girls also choreographed a lovely dance to Katy Perry's Legendary Lovers.  Willa isn't your typical play dress up and shake her booty kind of kid....but the dance was so sweet...the kids so innocent...it was a struggle to hold in tears.

Three little turkeys terrified of the hungry farmer!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........................


The rest of our Thanksgiving weekend was spent skiing in wonderland, seeing the Nutcracker ballet in Anchorage, playing games in front of the warm fire, making cookies, putting winterlights up outside, finishing up  the inside decorations, and watching Christmas movies.  And snuggling.  Lots of that.

 

The Game of Life.....New York Life style!

 

My favorite Holiday movie....absolutely timeless and lovely and relevant today.