Post-Unicorn Cookie Bliss

1.11.2009

kissing ponies

Here is the "post" part:
Ed had to literally drag me out of the house today. Lazy crept into my psyche and body and completely took over the system.

It's a good thing I listen to Ed most of the time ... because today ended up being quite the satisfying and wonderful day out on the bike, out in January, out on singletrack, out feeling aLive in the body, out on the ponies!



We got a really late start to the day, seeing as we didn't crawl out of bed until an absurdly late hour in the morning. Ah-well. Such is life, eh?

Why were we so tired this morning? Well, I don't know about Ed, but as for myself:
The "Unicorn Cookie" part (look at the unicorn pix to understand):

THANK you, to the most inspired, inspiring, powerful and full-of-LIFE women I know. I'm lucky to be in your presence.

Sometimes I just wonder.....

And most of the time I just think: My girlfriends kick some serious bootay -- and I'm the luckiest woman on earth to be included in their fantastic world. Gratitude in inexplicable amounts.

Jj

What the?

What's this?



Why, it's a whole heard of Unicorns, running through my kitchen! Unicorn COOKIES that is!!

And, I know you're all wondering what Tonka is up to today. Ready? he's up to this:


Which leads to this:


Hope everyone is having a great day!

Jj

All BooBoo All The Time

I know you're all just dying to know how Tonka (aka BooBoo) spends his winter hours.

Are you ready for this?


His most common state of being. BooBoo says: "Shhhh. I'm sleeping. I can hear you taking pictures. Go AWAY!" ... as he SNORES.

And, apparently, he's moved IN... INTO my down coat!

BooBoo says: "It's MY HOUSE." He rarely leaves this space now ... in the down coat, next to the heater.... Is he COLD with all that fur he has on? I mean... really?

For pure entertainment purposes, he seems to like the Dryer -- after we've dried the clothing.

BooBoo says: "You turn this thing On and Off for a reason right?"
Is he trying to tell us something?

How about this?

He says: "Mom, you can't see me. I'm hiding in the box, sleeping. No, I didn't bust the seams of the box ... it came like that. Mom, you can't see me. Go away!"



BooBoo says: "I am a BIRD! I am a Magpie!! Ma, go away! I am a BIRD!"


BooBoo says: "I am the prince. Take more pictures of me."

And last but not least:
BooBoo says: "Look at me, I'm dancing! I'm flying! I'm dancing! Ma ... go away!"

There. BooBoo's world.

Jj

Days 15 and 16!

Day 15:
Many of you will be disappointed to know that I spent the 15th day of my vacation actually working, ALL DAY, from home... in my pj's, coffee in hand. After thinking about the deadline looming for Monday afternoon, I decided that I would have a better first day back at work if I could get a real handle on everything I needed to have done for my first day back. So, since it was bitter-ffin' cold and I was tired and slow and feeling very still inside, I just sat down and got at least 2 days worth of work DONE. And you know what, that was VERY satisfying.


The same mountains that I've been taking pictures of all week ... ghostly today, beautiful today.

So on to Day 16, the LAST day of vacation ... this vacation ;-)
Having sat at the desk all day yesterday, my last thought of the day as I started to fall asleep last night was this: "I want to get up in the morning, hopefully it's snowed a bunch, get on the bike and go bike to breakfast downtown Evergreen, then go to the bakery and be outside on the pony, in the cold and snow and whatever else the universe brings." That was my thought. And then I passed out cold.

So what did Ed and I do today?

Tonka wondering what he did in his previous life to be placed in a family like ours.

We got up, and it had snowed only an inch or so; it was bitter cold ... and we saddled up the ponies and rode to breakfast!


We took another route down into town, and ended up at the One World Cafe for breakfast! It was a bit of a cold ride down, and I certainly didn't wear the correct mittens.

Ed at breakfast, drinking coffee, discussing with me our plan for the ride after we eat... which was difficult, by the way, with a FULL belly.

After breakfast we kept on riding, uphill, away from home ;-) We explored a few more back-roads in hopes of finding the base/start of a long forgotten (never even used?) road that we happened to 'accidentally' stumble upon in the woods the other day. It shows up on maps (faintly), but the bottom of the road is a bit invisible.

See Ed ride the Pony. See, also, the saddle between the big mtn and the littler mtn? There is a Ghost Road (dirt and not maintained) in there --- that I WANT -- and I want to ride on it, and I want to know where it starts. We already know where it ends ... and I like it there!

So, up we went, in the freezing cold. We searched and explored and dead-ended ourselves on private property once again. ARGH! So we rode back home, up the hills, through the video store, through the liquor store (again) and back up the last hill, in the sunshine, to our home. And that was the last ride of my vacation.

Then I took a nap in front of the fire.

Jj
And the fire burns inside like never before.
See the Ghost Kitty and Ghost Jeny? It was a very mysteriously lit day.

Day 14!!

Well, my current thoughts sound like this: "I only have 2 more days left? I have to go into the o f f i c e (and actually hit a rather big deadline Monday afternoon) in 2 more days?" Oh-man.

So. In light of that thought (which I started to have this morning), Ed and I made the most of the brilliantly warm day, January 2, 2009.

One of the higher moments, both Inside MyMtbSelf and Out:

I'm noticing that truthfully, this mountain and it's surrounding grandeur are showing up in pretty much ALL of my pictures. Same set of massive objects and mind-blowing views ... different perspective each time. And, each time I think to myself: not a bad view to revisit on a daily basis. Not a bad view at all.


We started the day with an enormous breakfast. I will not go into details, but consider our adventures for the rest of the day an effort to compensate for that breakfast. It was LOVELY. (Super interesting stuff to read about, eh? I'm sure this is why you visit ;-0).

After brekki Ed and I scoped out previous exploratory routes in-around-through-above Evergreen proper, and decided upon ONE goal: to hook up: Home, Downtown, some random stupid-steep far-away roads, ONE PRIME PIECE OF UNmtbTRAVELED SINGLE TRACK, figure it out from there, then home from the other direction. One Big Loop.

CHECK. ;-) Done, and in spades, with very, very few pictures ... and I'm sure only a few seconds worth of "sneakyness"-attack.

Somewhere in the the first 1/3 of our exploration, we found (to our very deeply merry surprise), at the 'end' of an otherwise dirty and steep road, the following:

a.) COWGIRLS: hehehehe...... even SpaceCowgirls!!
b.) How many people do we know who would jump with glee and giddyness at such a sign? Oooohhhyeah....

While this lit me on absolute FIRE, we are till trying to figure out what, exactly, they were being so open to sharing. That said, it still allowed us to complete the Giant Hookup and we were blessed with some very, very special (all downhill) this:


and this:

Note: The single track was NOT right behind that lovely sign. There was some pretty confusing, sneaky, convoluted, typically EdandJeny-style MtbAction getting from there to there... but still: It's possible. And THAT made my day ;-)

The snow looks... soft and slippery. The cool thing was: it wasn't. It was tacky, and only in small sections. How odd!!! LOVELY little sneak attack to our day -- one of 3 ;-)

At the bottom of the Sneaky Trail, which I have now named Windless Cove, we bombed down to a familiar little town, and climbed our slow ponies up, up, up (passed by 4 roadies no less) to the top ... whereupon we snuck across the Big Road and delighted ourselves with another little dirty single track connector trail. Ohmygawd. It's just too perfect of a thing to do. No pictures, sorry.

Then the liquor store and the bike shop (just to say hi) on the way to our third little sneak attack (no pictures).... and then the climb home -- from the opposite direction from when we left.

Perfect.

All in all, it was just a LOVELY day to be outside wandering and exploring around in the sunshine and warmth ... in shorts. I think we hit a measly 23 miles, 3,500' up ... quite a bit of 'back roads', a solid amount of 'untraveled' old dirt roads, and a luscious amount of single track just as icing on the cake ... and in the middle of the cake ;-)

Siiiigggghhhh!!!!

Jj

Days 12 and 13 -- one big, long 2 days

Oohhhhboy.

Day 12, last day of 2008:
Nice, late sleep in (again).
Lovely breakfast.
Lots of kitty time.
Then...... ON with the riding clothes, saddle up the ponies, and off to the bakery!!!!!!! I simply cannot think of a better way to motivate myself to get on my bike when I am feeling lazy... riding to the bakery is just such a perfect crime ... since there is a significant amount of required climbing to get back up out of Evergreen and back up to the house. I swear... this might be my training regimen for this winter.

The view from the apex of the ride:


The view in the other direction (so beautiful):


Never mind that the bakery was actually CLOSED when we got there (ugh -- no UNICORN COOKIES!!!) ... we had to make do with another bakery that was slightly unsatisfying. The climb home was lovely, tho!

So, of course, this day was New Years EVE! So, what did we do for NYE? We went and hung out with the crew in Golden ... such a lovely evening, complete with missing dogs, ridiculous amounts of wine and scotch (ew), and delicious food. Pix of most of the crew here: (I somehow managed to fail to get a picture of Anthony, our gracious host and organizer)



Day 13, New Years Day!
I slept.
We hiked.
We talked.
Life is good and we're off to a good start for 2009.

Jj