I'm published!
Okay, it's for work, but still - check it out!

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Rat heralds the beginning of a brand-new zodiac cycle.

Aw cripes. No wonder I jump from obsession to obsession to obsession. Born an Ares in the year of the rat on a leap year. The trifecta.

From Co-op America: Ten Strikes Against Nuclear Power

We arrived in L.A. safely yesterday, if somewhat delayed. The plane pulled away from the gate and stopped on the runway for a few minutes. The pilot came over the intercom to tell us that we needed to top up the plane's fuel tank. So after an extra 45 minutes we took off. The plane touched down about right on time and we grabbed our rental car to jet over to Kirsten's house. We wished Peebo and Mark a happy birthday. Then we commenced to eat and drink and celebrate.

We had a huge flurry of activity this weekend. Devon, Cowboy and I went snowshoeing with our friend Jami and her dog Shelby. We packed up the car and headed out to Government Camp about 8 AM on Saturday morning. We started out down the Trillium Lake loop trail shared by snowshoers and cross country skiers. We tramped along in mostly clear conditions for the better part of and hour and a half. The dogs romped around in the snow. They said hi to a lot of other hikers and skiers on the trail. Snow started falling on us about noon. Soon after, all three of us seemed to have problems with our boots and blister formation. We tramped back to the car in about an hour and then proceeded to compare blisters.
Dev went over to Julie's place to play cards with the girls on Saturday night. I ordered a large pizza from Pizza Hut (I know, I know!) to load up on some extra carbs and fat for the next day. A fellow Mazama Jeff Welter offered a place on his exploratory hike up Table Mountain in the Columbia River Gorge.
Unfortunately, I needed snowshoes. REI didn't have any. Three of my snowshoe owning friends weren't available by phone - big surprise at 5 PM on a Saturday. I did manage to catch Sue before she and Nate went out to celebrate a friend's birthday. And she had a pair of snowshoes for me to borrow. She even drove them over to my house for me.
Jeff picked me up on Sunday morning for the drive out to the Gorge. We met Laura at the Hot Springs lodge and headed up the trailhead. Great hike. Awesome conditions. We managed to avoid the normal wind at the summit of Table Mountain. Ten minutes after we left the summit, the wind started to howl. We descended quickly and safely and then drove back into town.
And then I fell into bed early and slept 10 hours.

I posted pictures of our Sunday snowboarding trip here. We had a lot of fun. The rain and warm temperatures on Friday and Saturday turns the snow icy. Cooper Spur power tills their slopes but the snow still felt fast and hard. We couldn't ask for a better day to practice on not-so-prime snow conditions. The sun shined all day. Some people rode their boards in t-shirts. And Dev and I got one step closer to black diamond snowboarding.

Sir Edmund Hillary passed on today at the age of 88. God speed.

I hiked Mt Defiance with a Mazamas group on Sunday. Twelve miles with 4800 feet of elevation gain, and most of the hike happened on snowshoes. I had eight hours of really good fun. The weather stayed nice for almost the entire hike. We got back to the cars just as daylight failed. No one got hurt. And the scenery dazzled.

I have a few pictures from our group photog Andrew posted here.

Pictures from New Years can be found here.
I haven't captioned most of the pictures yet.

A nice respite from winter rain greeted me for my ride this morning. I dispensed with the rain pants and booties for the first bike ride in two weeks. Chill but not cold; perfect temperatures for a spirited ride to work. Just the refresher of a morning commute I need every couple of weeks during the rainy season.