Thursday, November 7, 2013

It's Not All Bad News

Although I am left feeling quite a bit uneasy about my decision to call a tech support to fix the virus on Phil's computer (and after a Google search, thinking I over paid... ok, WAY over paid), I decided, that it's not all bad news.

The company that helped me out, Niva Solutions Inc. seemed to be quite knowledgeable and helpful, and the two computer techs that I talked to seemed quite nice. Through their heavy Indian accents they assured me that everything was going to be ok and not to worry. Mike (yeah, don't think that was his real name) even went as far as telling me to get a cup of coffee, sit down and watch the computer screen as they fix everything.

After everything, I'm still a little confused as to what happened to the computer in the first place, what was fixed and how our computer got hacked any how.

Water under the bridge now. I'm just going to try to forget everything, be happy to know that we now have 24/7 lifetime computer tech support and a friend somewhere in India.

So it's really not all bad news. While our computer was being worked on, I sat in the kitchen and watched the computer with a cup of coffee and worried my ass off but to my surprise, I looked out the kitchen window, and THE BIRDS FINALLY FOUND THE BIRD FEEDER! It's been almost a month and I haven't seen a single one until today. I told my dad the day I hung the feeder, "feed them and they shall come..." and well, I was a little worried they wouldn't but they finally did. So that's good.
AND, to make it even better, I finished my first peyote cuff bracelet thanks to a half dozen YouTube videos and about 6 hours of my time. AND it came out even better then I had hoped. So that's also good.

So, yes, the day turned out to not be so bad, again, trying to forget how much I spent of getting this computer fixed, but, it IS fixed, we have birds eating from the feeder, I finished my bracelet AND now Phil's home from work, so maybe go climbing and blow off some steam...

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Sunday, November 3, 2013

How Did That Happen?

This blog post never made it to fruition. I was just browsing through some old posts and stumbled on this draft... it's from October 2010. Here it is.

I purchased my second vehicle last week. A 1995 Ford Ranger. Two doors, camper shell, manual. I would like to present David Douglas.

Here Fumie and I are sitting on the tail gate at Shelf Road, it's the only picture I could find of David.
My first car, a 1988 Toyota Camry was named by my dad. Lidia.  I bought Lidia from my friend Alyssa for $400. The back 2 doors didn't open but I thought, hey I always wanted a 2 door car. The speedometer didn't work, you just had to feel out what you thought 30 mph was or 70 mph was. Then the Avalon, yeah, my dad named her too, Phoebe. I went back to driving Lidia when the opportunity to but the ranger came along. When I bought the ranger I knew it needed a name pranto.

The name came after a visit to a pick-your-own pumpkin patch. Named after a dog.  The dog belonged to Jake the farmer, off of Hwy 34. Jake grows a lot of pumpkins, also veggies. Firewood... and apparently he naming genius when it comes to naming dogs. He named German shepherd David, now the name sake to my 95 Ranger. And the Doug just came naturally. David or Doug, both too good to be true, but with the help of my good and faithful friend, Cake, I mean Kate, we decided on David Douglas.

The Maiden Voyage


Last weekend I went on a spur of the moment trip up to Pingree. I wanted Ally to get her jollies out, as my dad says, and at the same time give myself a little vacation from the ranch. I packed haphazardly. Throwing everything into a box. Thinking.. humm... headlamp, check. Sleeping bag, check. Sleeping pad, check. Food, check. Warm clothes, check. With those few things I felt I pretty much had all my bases covered.

I was anxious to get out of here since I wanted to arrive with some day light left to set up camp. I made one trip to the truck, throwing in my box, Ally, and my hiking boots. Came back to the Hillcrest Trailer, looked around. Went into my room to grab a pillow, I mean if you're going to car camp, you may as well, right? Did my final go around and loaded up.

It's a beautiful drive to Pingree. Up through Buckhorn Canyon, left on 44 and about an hour later your looking at the Mummy Mountain Range.

I don't know how it happened, even with all that looking around, I forgot the box of food. Yes, all of it, well, all I had was a little beef jerky AND Ally's dog food (at least I brought that).

After a really rough night,* I called the day at Cirque Meadows, totaling a womping 6 miles. Prematurely headed back to the Ranch, and took a nap and ate some food. 

Well worth it? Always.


The rough night, it was the roughest night. In October it's already quite cold up in the mountains so Ally and I were seriously bundled up in out sleeping bags. I had on multiple layers of clothes and was totally cinched into my mummy bag. We were sleeping in the back of my truck, which you can't lock the shell, and were feeling really vulnerable. I was thinking, if someone wanted to come in here and give us a hard time, I would be totally trapped... well while we were going to sleep, we could hear some people a few sites down blasting Nine Inch Nails and System of a Down... not the most enchanting music to fall asleep too... and it just left me thinking, what if those are the people that I'm worried about and what if they decide to give me a hard time?

Well sometime after falling asleep, I don't know what time it was but I think I was dreaming it or it may of actually been happening. I hear foot steps outside of my truck. I jolted straight up as Ally begun to bark. Whatever I heard, she heard too. I tried looking out the window but saw nothing. I thought about letting Ally out to attack whatever it was we heard but decided against it on the off chance it was a moose or something.

I laid back down on my sleeping pad making sure my Leatherman tool was close at hand. Somehow I managed to go back to sleep. And nothing else ever became of the mysterious foot steps.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Red Kuri Souffle

Here it is. I got a carrot souffle recipe from Dave and Alisha a couple years back, chances are if you are reading this you have probably tried said souffle, being it is really easy to make and ALWAYS a crowd pleaser at pot lucks, it's my go-to dish.

Tonight Phil and I are going to a Dia de los Muertos party.... and I went climbing a little too long today at the Buttermilks, so I was scrambling to put something together for the pot luck. I thought, "Souffle!" Duh, it's your go-to dish like you just said, but we have no carrots! But we do have that kuri squash that I wanted to make soup with... and that's how it happened.

I can't tell you if it's good or not, I will have to wait till we get to the party to try it, but it smells good, looks good and chances are... it's going to be good!

If you want to try it at home, it's quite easy. All you need is:

1 red kuri squash (I boiled it because I felt pressed for time, but it would probably be better if you roasted it. Whatever way you get there, you want it easily squashed (haha, pun) with a fork)
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt (I never add this because I always use salted butter)

Put everything in a processor, grease a 9" glass pie dish, cook at 325 (don't forget to preheat) for about 50 minutes. And tah-dah! Souffle!

It always looks best right when you pull it out of the oven, after a little reading online, souffles fall. It's just want they do, so don't be upset when it happens. I read something about adding egg white powder to make the egg protein more hardy and make it more firm... I didn't do this but who cares what it looks like anyway as long as it tastes good! And I don't know if this one will or not*, but if you substitute the kuri for 1 lb. carrots you absolutely will not go wrong.

*OMG, yes, it's good.

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