Christmas

Christmas was fun. And--thanks to some of my presents, it's going to have lingering fun.

First up was Operation Ride Bike to Christmas (or 1/2 way at least). With presents loaded in a backpack, I was "Santa by CX bike". 3 hours later over snowpacked, icy, dirt, paved, and wet roads, I met my parents with the car. We finished the trip by car, to my sister's house.

Next was a family ice skate (I bonked badly and ended up eating most of my 9 year old niece's popcorn).

 Christmas day brought the most bestest gift ever. After coffee school, I have been pretty sad to not be able to practice my espresso and latte art skills. He Who Must Not Be Named fixed that. He got me everything I need to practice my skills-including milk! He is wonderful and I love him.

After eating too much we had a family Nordic ski. Turns out, the Powers/Trueblood family is competitive even on Christmas. The family relay race proved to be fun, funny, and dang hard--I don't think I have ever breathed that hard on Christmas- ever. Mike and Oma beat G, J (my nieces), and me by a hair and a wrong turn.  Great job!

The gifts keep giving. 

Thanks to my sister and to JH, I have a bike rack! Finally, I can car pool with people and no more dirty bikes in the car. 

Thanks to JH (again), I am working on my latte art--it needs help as I got rusty after 2+ weeks off. I've already gone through a gallon of organic milk-right down the drain. I need drinkers!!

Happy Holiday's!!

Winter Solstice

I've never celebrated the shortest day of the year and I've never celebrated the first day of winter.
This year was different.
We celebrated! Not only are the days going to start to get longer, but it gave us an excuse to get out and play in the snow on bikes.

It was fun. Very fun. I'll admit, I sucked at riding in the snow on the snowshoe track, but I can blame it on a weak light and the fact that JH and Meriwether were going too slow. :)

 

Thanks Meriwether for the photos!

Graduation

It's official. I have graduated Coffee School. I have to say, coffee school was the most fun school I've ever been to. Learning about what you're already into is pretty fun.

My #1 goal of coffee school was learn to make latte art. Goal accomplished.

For lunch, on the last day, we went to a restaurant that had a lot of wood inside. We need this wood at home!

The food was very good, and like the rest of the week, I ate way too much for lunch. I'm happy to be home now and ride that food off.

 The culmination of the day was a friendly competition. 10 min to prep, and serve 3 espresso drinks. Mocha, cappuccino, and espresso drink of your own choice. My espresso choice was espresso con panna. Mostly, I just wanted to use the whip cream dispenser.

 Graduation

  We left school with lots of fun goodies. I can't wait to start to use them at home to "dial in" my new knowledge.

ABC 2-4

I've been asked, probably a gazillion times, "what do you do at coffee school for 5 days"?
 The answer- A lot.
In no particular order-

Eat Lunch a various lunch locations-Montage is famous for Mac n' Cheese-my gluten free diet has gone so far out the door that I can't even see it anymore.

 Learn how to make espresso, steam milk, and eventually put them together to make something pretty.

Steamer anyone?

 The latte art is in it's beginning stages.

Eat lunch at more random locations that share space with this. I'm bringing 3 home for JH.

The entire goal of this trip, for me, was to learn how to make latte art. I'm getting there. I made this on my Birthday and that was a dang nice present.

 Eat birthday dinner at one of the various yummy restaurants in Portland.

 Learn how to cup coffee.
Learn how to properly brew coffee using several other-than-espresso methods.

 Visit coffee shops to see what they do and how they do it.

 Drink coffee.

One day left at Coffee School. I've had a really great time and have learned a ton. I leave school everyday smelling like coffee. I leave happy and I leave excited to come back.

ABC Day #1

Wow. Today was a cool day.
I'm in Portland taking a 5 day "coffee class" at the American Coffee and Barista School.

Woke up early, walked to Whole Foods for some breaky food, walked until I found a good looking coffee bar. Drank espresso then walked to school (all in the dark) where the breaky food was consumed along with more coffee.

Learned all about opening a coffee bar (none of the teachers have said coffee "shop" so I'm guessing the proper term is bar instead of shop), ate soup and 1/2 sandwich for lunch, then learned about espresso and how to pull a perfect shot of espresso. Yay I pulled my first shot on a "real" coffee bar machine. Did some testing of espresso, and did a lot of throwing out bitter or salty tasting espresso. I can't wait to practice more!!





Finished day 1 at Bally's for a short workout before walking back home (again in the dark. What Portland looks like, I have no idea.) Trader Joe's for food, sleep, and do it all again tomorrow. Can't wait!


 Coolest tamper I've ever seen.

Bday Celebration

Thursday nights are our usual steel*wool celebration nights. In the summer, they are a bike ride followed by gluten fest at the local pizza/beer place. Then the time changes, it gets cold, and we skip the bike ride and head straight to the gluten feasting.








 We tired something new this past Thursday. Thanks to He Who Must Not Be Named, we had an early AP birthday celebration. First Nordic skis (under the almost full moon), then gluten fest, all while be dressed in drag. 

 It did not disappoint. It was dang fun and I am so lucky to have friends who like to have fun while exercising and laughing at the same time.

Hip Flexors

This time of year is one of my favorite times to ride my bike. Riding on snow packed roads is quiet, peaceful, enjoyable, and sometimes quite challenging. However, I have a healing elbow and the thought of falling down on the snowy road (it's happened several times) and breaking my healing arm makes me ill. Thus, I'll have to wait another couple weeks before I can do my outside snow riding.

In the meantime, I've been having to come up with other activities to do while my 'bow heals. I've been going to the gym and actually lifting weights (gasp!), I've been riding the trainer, and today I busted out the snowshoes (no Nordic skiing yet due to the chance of falling down and lack of arm strength--another favorite activity put on hold).

It was actually fun--and a dang good workout. Breaking trail works over the hip flexors (they're still worked over and I'm sitting on the couch).

I saw 5 deer- 2 bucks and 3 ladies. Of course the phone wasn't wanting to work as a camera when one of the bucks was in the middle of the trail starting at me.

Looks like one of the Bucks got the better of this poor little tree.

Soon I'll be back to my snow riding and Nordic skiing, but for now, I'll enjoy different winter activities.