I can see Mount St. Helens from my roof...

...and other things about this week.

For one, it has been positively fabulous weather, so as expected we've spent as much of it in the sun as possible, even going so far as chasing it up the side of our house and hanging out on the roof for a beer this past Monday.

However, most of our outside time was spent on the ground, working on the picnic table, hanging out in the garden and out on the gorge a bit. I had a field assignment for one of my classes and had to document a mass wasting event (i.e.: rockfall, mudslides etc.) what better excuse to take leave of the bike wheels this past weekend and go for a hike. It was especially exciting because we got to use our new forest pass and I got to see Eagle Creek without ice for the first time. It was a little different feeling some school pressure while hiking...I started rating rockfalls and trying to decide which one was cool enough to be photographed and featured as the required picture for my field report...nerd...I know, I know. I got over it eventually.

Otherwise, we've been sanding...a lot. I spent the majority of the weekend with the belt sander, the facial equivalent of a jock strap and the door that will be the table top for our soon to be picnic table. Joe started things off by useing a scraper to get the bulk of the paint off and then I took over--this worked extremly well onthe back side of the door. We seem to have a knack for making things more difficult for ourselves. The plans we have used as a base says something to the effect of...buy some 2x4's and bolt them together like so. But noooooo, we have to be "creative" let's get a door and some 2x6's and really fuck with ourselves, eh?! Actually, it has been very cool, but as always, has been a greater drain on time than we expected. We figured that sanding the door was going to be a challenge; the back side of the door (which will be the underside of the table top) went quite smoothly and without major error. The front (and more interesting) side of the door made up for that apparent ease by having another layer of some waxy substance that caused me to go through twice as many sanding belts. We also made the final cuts on the door and began to cut up the 2x6's for the benches. It's harder work than anticipated, but I'm just really looking forward to being able to bring dinner outside and not have to eat it off my lap. Also, it'll be nice to have when people come over, so hopefully it'll be ready before the next big group gathering (cross your fingers for OBF). I'll certainly have some more time on my hands as the quarter is ending. But here's a look at this weeks 'progress.'

We did have a bit of biking on Tuesday, checking out the local rose garden which is in full bloom and is positively intoxicating. After stopping to, er...smell the roses, we made some wide loops in the residential areas around it, just getting to know the neighborhood a bit more and admiring other peoples gardens etc.

And there were some sublime moments, like this one. We finally found a place to hang the hammock we acquired in Thailand. I have a feeling I'll be hanging out here quite a bit this coming summer...that is until the apples start dropping. For now it's a great place to spy on the goldfish and enjoy a book.

DIY revisted

While in Seattle over Cinco de Mayo we were finally able to gift our finished wine rack. It actually turned out quite well (I used some plastic wood to fill in the major scratch I gave it), the stain took to the wood nicely and the sanding, cutting, drilling and er...screwing we had done since my last post all went swimmingly. We spent two more afternoons drilling, sanding and staining and then let everything sit and dry in the shed for a few days. That just left screwing in the dowels, which took very little time and then some spot finishes and tying on a birthday bow. We finished just in time for Pat's birthday.

Now on to the summer 2007 project-to build a picnic table....

We started with a schematic from popular mechanics and then based on their construction changed it slightly to accommodate our imagined table. We took a trip to the rebuilding center which has the most enjoyable hodgepodge of building materials I have ever seen. When you approach the building from the parking lot you are met by a room that is half filled with doors...before we even made it to the scrap lumber Joe was envisioning a door table top. So we hung out with the doors for awhile trying to find one that struck us. The problem with trying to build a table out of a door (besides the fact that it's purpose is to be a DOOR), is all the design elements and differing types, closet doors, 1-panel doors, 2-panel doors, square panel doors (just imagine putting your plate on that type of surface). We did find a single panel door that might have done well, but the integrity of the main panel was questionable and there was no way it was going to fit in the trunk of the car. So we abandoned the doors to check out the lumber and eventually went home empty handed.

But a couple of weeks ago we went back determined (and with a bag of rope) and found a door which also did not fit in the trunk of the car, but looked very stylish riding on the roof, with every piece of rope we own tying it down. I imagine it was a source of great amusement to lookers on as we tied the door to the roof and then shimmied into our seats via the front windows. But we now have a very heavy and very cool door. Recently we went out to a local lumber yard and purchased some 2x6's for the benches and table supports (Douglas Fir)...which did fit in the trunk. And, we also bought some 'ginormous' bolts and screws which promise to hold the whole thing together.

Since it has been so nice we pulled out the door and I tried my patience sanding it for a little while. After a bit of rough sanding I realized out little sander was not going to get the job done anytime this decade and later that day I was helpfully reminded of the dangers of lead in paint by Andy, which means we need to add a respirator and a belt sander to our supply list. Luckily Joe has two respirators for work and his mom has two belt sanders. So we'll have to put off working on the table until we can make a trip up to Seattle to acquire the sander. Though, going to Seattle will afford us the opportunity to stop in at the Environmental Home Center to get some environmentally friendly stain and sealer to use on the table as well.

Weekends away!

I must start by saying we have had just gorgeous weather for the past week or so...sandal weather. My feet are free, once again, for the season. It has been a bit of time since my last update and I'd like to say it's because I'm so overwhelmingly busy, but that can't be right...although I'm beginning to understand how other couples in our cohort have every weekend until 2009 booked, as we've spent the last month's weekends either out of town or 'busy.'

Our first weekend out of town was to Washington for a biking loop that took a group of nine of us by bike (and two in our super support vehicle) from north of Seattle to the northern part of the peninsula and back around by way of Whidbey Island (partially by ferries-3 to be exact). We spent a lovely and relaxing Cinco de Mayo sipping margaritas by the fire and soaking our sore muscles in the hot tub after our first day of riding. The Peninsula offered beautiful terrain, tainted perhaps only by the uphills, which had me staring at the asphalt, so as to not watch the peak of the hill not getting any closer. The second day we had some rain and more hills. By the time we were entering recognizable territory I was feeling emotionally and physically drained. So I stopped. I had clocked 86 miles over two days. Some of our group went on about 10 more miles, I however, had a beer. It's fun to watch the miles accumulate but my bike computer also keeps track of statistics besides distance which can be both helpful and damning; my average speed for the entire trip was 14.6 mph (no doubt severely skewed by the high speed of 37.8 mph -on our longest downhill and the 3.5 mph I achieved while walking my bike up two of the more severe hills). All in all it was both challenging and fun with the low points being (1) realizing I was always the furthest behind, (2) my right knee hurting through half of day 1 and all of day 2; and the high points being (1) hanging out with my friends (er...watching them streak by me), (2) riding 86 miles in one go.

This past weekend we popped out to Chicago to be at the wedding of two of our good friends from DC. It was a bit of a whirlwind tour with my memory being dominated by our time on public transportation (or trying to find it...it's underground you see...). Actually, we were feeling pretty happy about our use of public transportation this weekend. We walked out our front door and about a mile to the light rail and between two trains arrived at the airport in about 45 minutes. Upon arriving in Chicago we hopped the "ell" and made many attempts to arrive at the station we had predetermined to be the one closest to the hostel we were staying at, but by some awful design of rail construction work were forced to make other plans, forgoing the transfer between trains in favor of a taxi (and instead of stopping at the hostel first, going straight to the dual bachelor and bachelorette party in downtown). The hostel we stayed at was about a mile from the wedding spot which was on the periphery of the Lincoln Park Zoo (where we spent most of the following day). I won't go into great detail about how we spent our time (meerkats and marmosets, oh my), but I will note that we were pathetically "Pacific Northwesters" when we set out for a light breakfast and coffee the next day. We bypassed two major coffee chains looking for something local. Some 7 or 8 blocks past the second one I mentioned that there may not be as strong of coffee tradition here...but we did, eventually, find a nice local cafe, which also served coffee.