Busy Thanksgiving weekend

I took full advantage of the 4 day weekend to socialize with new friends, hike with Audrey, and get things done both at work and at home. Thursday I ate two Thanksgiving meals - one with some new faculty friends and the other at the house of the brother of an old friend. I had stayed with his family when I came out here to look for a house early this summer. Their 2 little girls are adorable and after dinner I ended up being a horse and jungle-gym for a few hours. At least I felt less guilty about eating 2 meals after getting that exercise!

Friday I went for a local hike with one of the new faculty members in my department, his wife, and their adorable 1-year old girl. She really likes dogs and had fun playing with Audrey. It felt really nice that they had asked me to be social with them. He is fairly quiet and when he talks he asks very direct questions, so I was not sure how friendly he had wanted to be. We have had some good talks about teaching issues though, and the hike was nice.

Saturday I went wine tasting with another new faculty member - actually in the same department as the wife I had hiked with Friday. The wineries have special hours and offers for Thanksgiving weekend - many had live music. Some had the tasting in the cellars so there was more room for the big event. The crowds really picked up in the later afternoon, including many people who had hired limos to take them around with friends. At least that prevents some drunk driving! Neither her nor I drink much so we did the 2-sips and dump the rest for almost all the wines we tasted - but it was still fun.











This lady is nice, and has a thing for Ann Taylor clothes as I do - I'm sure we'll go shopping together at some point though I really don't need anything and am all shopped out for the moment. She had gone to the outlet stores on Friday and apparently they also get into the after Thanksgiving sales - things were marked down way more than usual but only until 10am. Maybe next year I'll do that. This year I have gifts already from my trip to Cape Town.

This person is interesting - she is from Korea and was a hair away from going to the Olympics on their archery team. She gave me some tips for improving my push ups. Funny thing is she doesn't exercise anymore - and has very little interest in such things. In part I'm sure this is because she hurt her shoulder and has some back pain - but it is a shame. She is going home to Korea this December for the 1st time in 3 years - she is very excited.

We went to 6 wineries and a yummy bistro for lunch. One winery had great local products so I bought some as gifts. Another was located in a gorgeous setting. This pic is a view from it toward another one - I recall thinking this particular view looked like a painting - and that feeling is totally captured in this picture I found online.










I didn't bring my camera, unfortunately, but my friend did. She took the following pic of me indulging in a huge dessert at the bistro (I only managed to eat just less than half!):















She also got the following one of me opening the door at the place that had the wine we both liked the most. Unfortunately we couldn't buy it then - as it was a preview taste for wine that won't be released until spring.














Today I went hiking with Audrey again - this time to the highest peak in the coastal range (only about 4000 ft) which is about a 1/2 hour drive from home. I went there because there was snow - and Audrey loves to play in the snow! Unfortunately they don't maintain the road, so they close it at the snow level. That meant I had to hike up the road before joining trails to the summit. That ended up being good on the way down since it was dusk and getting dark fast. I did see a beautiful sunset over the mountains - unfortunately I forgot my camera again because the view was amazing. I could also see several of the large mountains in the Cascades - including 3 sisters, and I think Mt. Hood. There was another large peak between them I could see clearly as well.

This first pic shows Mary's peak from my valley, and the 2nd shows a view from the top - though it does not do justice to what I saw today...

No longer feeling guilty

Well, that period of feeling on top of things didn't last long! Turns out everyone scrambles toward the end of the quarter, in panic that they haven't accomplished enough yet - and all committee work seems to go full steam ahead! I've been working 12 hour days most days for the last 2 weeks, though I have still made some time for fun. I'm posting this from work on a Sunday night, though - and I do have more work to do before I can go home - I should get back to it!

The most exciting thing is that the classroom remodel committee was not only happy with my ideas about the changes to the large lecture hall I teach in, but they were practically willing to throw millions of dollars at me because they need a new prototype large lecture classroom - and I'm the one bringing forward ideas. And here I was worrying about how I was going to be able to improve our teaching spaces (one of the things they hoped I'd do when they hired me). Here is a pic of the room I currently teach in - it's a monster, about 266 seats and none of them comfortable - and many with poor visibility to the board.











Other than that, I've been taking a salsa class in town with a new friend (who is someone I work with and was hired at the same time as me - we actually had met once before that), have gone boutique shopping in Portland with someone who is the friend of one of my cousins in rural Alabama (what a coincidence!), done some more great hikes (including finally making it to the top of the big hill behind my house - it took 3 hours round trip - not bad), and been out to eat a few times (food here is still great!)

Busy - but no complaints here!

Feeling guilty

So this week has been far from typical. I think spending so long in school has finally paid off, because this kind of work is awesome. Monday we had a visitor in town who does research in the same field I do, so there were a lot of functions related to his visit for me to attend, including a lunch and a dinner. Of course I was expected to be there and have good conversations with this guy, which wasn't hard. Especially since we went to my favorite all veg restaurant for dinner, yum :) Then Tuesday I had my ballet class, and in the evening I had 2 hour salsa class. Work, did anyone say work? What?? Wednesday I slept in, took Audrey for a 1 h walk, and in the evening ate dinner at a microbrewery one block from my office - complete with a glass of wheat ale. Today also inspired me to finish getting my fish tank together and buy fish - there are now 4 goldfish in a 20 gallon tank in my office. I'll have name them soon - I'm just hoping they live through the night with the shock of being in a new environment.

Yes... I have been working... in fact I seem to be on track, and people seem quite happy with all that I've accomplished. I think the pace here is a bit less than it was at Ohio State, plus I think once you're full time they expect you to be going home to a family and not working so hard you'll burn out quickly. Since I have no family here, I can just work whenever. In fact, now that I've come home and given all the animals some much needed attention, I'm going to read another journal article before bed. Work is so tough! :)

I didn't blog about it, but not only did I hike in the cascades on Saturday, but Sunday I went west to the coast, and took a nice walk on the beach followed by a little drive up the coast and a nice dinner with an amazing view. I was joined by a new friend here and it was a very pleasant day. I even managed to get some work done in the evening - AFTER the sun had gone down and there was no more day to enjoy :)

Today's outing

Today I got some things done around the house - which was sorely needed, so I didn't get on the road as early as I would have liked. At least I did manage to go to the Cascades, hike, as well as get my chores done, so I will take it overall as a great success. I finally took all those clothes to donation - and I took care of the leaves in my front yard that had started to take over the driveway of both my neighbors :( They have been quite patient with me thus far but I didn't want to test that any further! I also did dishes and laundry and other sundry stuff that seems never ending...

Then I headed out of town. I stopped first at a bakery to pick up some lunch - I got a slice of fritatta that was very tasty! I want to try to make one of those - shouldn't be too hard. Hardest part for me will probably be remembering to look up then pick up the ingredients and remember to use them before they spoil!!

Audrey and I drove east toward the Cascade mountains and the tiny town of "sisters" that sits between two of the "sister" volcanoes that are some of the highest peaks in the state. Around 3pm I realized I'd need to find a place to hike because there were only ~2 good hours left before dusk. I stopped at the first spot to find that it was only a 1/4 mile trail - but it did have a great creek for Audrey to play in. We stayed only briefly in order to find a better trail.



















The 2nd trail I found was much longer, called "rooster rock". We never did find the rooster rock - according to the one set of people I met we went about 2/3 of the way up - but after 1 h of hiking I knew it would be wise to head back without making it to the end, least I find myself heading back in the dark. The trail wasn't very well used, and would not have been nice to hike at dusk. Apparently the view is worth it - in fact I found this online:

http://www.oregonphotos.com/TableRock-Pan.html

I may try the hike again someday - or maybe just push on up the road and find a new trail! There are way too many to choose from - I could probably never see them all. I got some nice pics on this hike, mostly of trees since that's about all I saw the whole time. I did have one odd experience - I kept seeing two people ahead of me, but then they would disappear. At first I thought I was seeing things - maybe it hadn't been a person - plus I was shocked because I hadn't heard or seen anyone the whole time and I wasn't walking fast so I doubted I could have possibly caught up to other hikers. Just when I was thinking I may need to start believing in ghosts (haha) I realized what they were doing - they were picking mushrooms! They kept going off the trail and bending over and such, which is why they kept popping out of sight. And that's also why they were going slow enough for me to catch up to them. Crazy locals :) People here are fun... We stopped back at the creek so Audrey could cool off - she seemed a bit hot from the hike. I actually took those pics on the way back. On my way home I stopped in a small town at an authentic looking Mexican place and had a big yummy burrito. Here are some pics I liked from the day (there's a woodpecker in one of them... maybe you can spot him?):





































I have to interject my blog right now with a random thing - my roommate is listening to some compilation album of uniquely American songs (so nice of this foreigner to try to learn our culture, but somewhat misguided effort, I think!) Currently playing is "home on the range" - oh Uncle Bob, I will never forget your lyric: "show me a home where the buffalo roam and I'll show you a dirty house" - I have quite the urge to sing along right now using those lyrics :)

Funny things around town

I've mentioned a bit before about what kind of town this is - but it really is something unique. I see something unique nearly every day. I've seen a few different people riding to school on unicycles, and the other day I saw someone riding a bike that had been jacked up so that the height of his seat was higher than the cars. It was at least double the height of a normal bike. I would have liked to see how he gets on and off of it!

Friday I took my dog to the meadows east of my neighborhood for a dusk walk (since I didn't want to head into the woods at dusk). We encountered a lady who was not only walking her dog, but also walking her parrot! The parrot's name was "Socrates" and apparently he doesn't like to come out of the trees to go home until dark, but he always comes down eventually. She was trying to coax him down early...

There are small things here and there around town that remind me that I'm in a very nature-oriented place. one of the funny things that I had noticed and liked even in March when I came here to interview was the signs to the building I work in. They are like signs at state parks, made from carved wood. They are like this kind of sign (except without the lower part that, I believe, shows elevation):

A mini-vacation: 16 hour one-day road trip!

Last Sunday I wanted to go to southern Oregon for a sheep herding competition so I could scope out the scene here and find a new trainer for Audrey. I left the house at 6am - totally unprecedented for me! It was about a 3.5 hour drive down there, so I decided to make a road trip of it and see a new part of the state while I was out and about. On the way down I stopped for gas and coffee - at both places they offered Audrey dog treats. People here are so friendly! The competition was nice - the people seemed friendly and gave me good information. It was in Ashland, OR, which is almost on the border with California. The setting for the competition was stunning - I included a picture below. Unfortunately my camera battery decided to die just then so I didn't get a full panorama nor did I get pics of the later parts of the day.











After the competition, I went a bit north to Medford for lunch and to see the big Harry and David store. Oddly enough I decided nothing there looked enticing because I'm quite spoiled with the good food here, so those fresh fruits and nuts were not remarkable to me anymore! They did have a huge pumpkin statue being carved with 3 giant pumpkins on top of each other like a totem poll - it was pretty cool. While I was at lunch some people told me about a nice dog park across the street so I decided to take Audrey to check it out. People there were very friendly and the dogs were too, but Audrey as usual wanted to play with me and not the other dogs so on our way we went.

We drove north on the Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Byway.
http://www.oregon.com/byways/rogue_umpqua.cfm
It was phenomenally beautiful and I will go again - many times in fact. This would be a place worth buying a little cabin someday. Audrey and I walked along the Rogue river (" one of the original eight rivers designated as "Wild and Scenic" by Congress in 1968 for its amazing beauty and wilderness"), and she swam in it. This river is good for rafting and kayaking - I will have to try it next summer! The rapids get too hard for me in places, but it has a dam, so if I stay above the dam I'll be fine. I don't have my own pics, I stole these from online:











Then we kept driving and stopped at Mill creek falls - we hiked to the falls. It was an amazingly beautiful day - sunny and clear, but it had been rainy the week before so the falls had a lot of water. They were breathtaking.















We continued driving and went to Crater lake. I didn't realize crater lake was formed from in the blown-off top of a volcano. Therefore it is at a high altitude and as we went higher and higher in the mountains we found snow. Audrey LOVES snow! I loved seeing her eyes get huge when I let her out of the car to play in it! It was very deep - I think at least 2 feet (deep considering I'd seen no signs of snow where I live!) and Audrey was jumping through it like a kangaroo leaving holes a few feet apart through the snow showing her hopping tracks. She tried to chase a bird but couldn't get much speed - it was pretty funny! She tossed her nose in it and rolled around - she was a very happy dog.

Crater lake itself is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. I can't wait to go back - though I think it's closed most of winter. It supposedly has some of the most pure waters in the world. It was extremely tranquil that day too, because it was off season and there was so much snow, so tourists weren't there. I wanted to stay longer, but it was already getting near dusk and I had a long drive home ahead of me, through icy mountain roads. They have winter snowshoe tours - maybe that can be my next trip there? Can't take Audrey on that one though, and she is a very good travel companion!











I got home exhausted around 10pm, but feeling like I had a real vacation that day. It was a very wonderful day!

A near-perfect day

Before I get started - I found out yesterday that a friend of mine just got her certification to box - I think that's awesome! Now she can spar for real, and possibly enter non-pro competitions!

Today was a really nice day. I started by taking a walk through the neighborhood with my house-mate's wife (who is visiting and must return to Taiwan this week - they are very sad!) Then I had a good and productive day at work during my best work hours - roughly 11am to 8pm. The day itself was nice because I got a lot of little things done making me feel that the tasks I need to do aren't so daunting. My class also went well - two students thanked me at the end of class for a good class! That felt great :) At the start of class I did the famous "pull a tablecloth out from under the dishes" trick. That's always fun. I have only done it before with a few things on the table. The demo guy set it up for me with china, a wine glass, a vase of silk flowers and a burning candle! That certainly added to the flare!

At the end of the day I came home with energy to spare - which seems rare these days. I was able to play the piano a bit which I did a lot when I unpacked it the first week I was here (I missed it over the summer!) but had neglected the last two weeks. I then decided to work on a puzzle in front of a fire. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful at starting a fire. I was too optimistic and didn't build a good enough base - especially considering the wood was damp. I will keep a few pieces inside from now on so they are easier to burn. I spent so much time with the fire that I ended up not working on the puzzle either! Then I had a late dinner consisting of a hearty version of miso soup that I made this weekend, and this absolutely delicious brie I got at the food co-op with rice crackers.

It's now time for me to get to bed early - and read a research paper in bed which will certainly send me into a sound slumber :)

Good night!