TRAVELS WITH MATTIE

 HAPPY WINTER EVERYBODY! We left our Santa Barbara cabin in early December after a great Fall quarter, spent a couple of days up in SLO with Yeti and Dad (and to celebrate a very special 1st birthday party with Brody, Hudson and Katelyn), then drove north and east over the mountains to Canepa Ranch. For the past few weeks Greg and I have fished, skied, climbed, gone to Christmas parties and non-Christmas party (including and epic birthday party that basically just involved me and Laura drinking way too much of everything right before my poor parents arrived), spaced out with family and friends, walked in the fresh snow, celebrated, decorated a Christmas tree (with Sid and Anni's help), chased Mattie down the train tracks, drank hot chocolate, froze our butts off at Pyramid Lake, worked on statistics 'n' stuff to get ready for next quarter, watched bald eagles over the ranch and generally just had a really easy, fun, relaxing winter break up here at our second home on th...

Hi everybody! ESPECIALLY a big 'HI' to Kevin and Dawn and kitties as they head out to their new home in Idaho. We're really looking forward to seeing you guys out there!  And now, a quick update: Greg has been here for the past 10 days already (and is staying for Thanksgiving hooray!), and we've made TONS of progress on Cabin v. 2.0. This is going to be quick, but here are some pictures and things: My wonderful neighbor Ann who lives in a cabin down the lane came over to help finish up the flooring. She even brought breakfast sandwiches. Thanks Ann!   We finished up the floor as best as we could, but had to wait for Greg to get here before we could  do the kitchen because we had to move the fridge and stuff. It was pretty gross. There were two dead mice under the oven.   Yeti and Dad came down for a visit on Veteran's Day and it was the best. We wandered around the river valley, Mattie got covered in stickers, we got a little lo...

DRUMMMMM ROLLLLLLLLL kapow!

Oh man, between school, cabin construction (and deconstruction), and trips north to see best buddies and parents, we've been busy! Here's a really quick update on the progress: Azul and Bella overseeing the electrical and plumbing work in the bathroom.  This flooring is gonna be the next to go. The bathroom got all framed and insulated and everything. This was the part I didn't do. Greg is the best and basically spend his entire 10-day "vacation" down here helping me do all kinds of  work on the cabin. Like bathroom concrete pouring and leveling, tile setting, shelf-making, etc. He's SUPER AWESOME!!! Milo helped too.   Concrete work is not all that fun.  It also turns out that when they say "Self Leveling Compound" it means that you have to manually level it, or else it will not be level.    My first tiling experience was a major success. It's not perfect, but it's pretty awesome.  It's ...

Hey everybody! ESPECIALLY a big shout out to Dawn In Recovery and the At-Home Medical Team of Kevin and Cats! We hope you're all doing well down there and feeling better all the time! It's been such a great week at the cabin. It's been hot but beautiful, quiet, productive, and I'm quickly reminded of why I love this little shack in the woods so dang much. It's just such a fantasyland. Orientation for the incoming Master's students started last week, and with it the annual calculus review workshop. SEVEN DAYS of intensive calculus. It's super fun, I love teaching it, it gets my brain all revved up before the real quarter starts, and is just kind of a great start to each year. The real deal starts next week with stats, and I'll be fearlessly (ha!) leading 85 new students through the course for 10 weeks. It's pretty exciting stuff, and Mattie and I are almost ready for it! Otherwise, lots of progress on some really cool cabin and/or crafty stuff. ...

It feels like doing artwork. Some fun sketches for my bathroom remodel project. We've been having FUN with the cabin. Now that it's ours we can really go crazy! Here are some updates on the "I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, but screw it" ongoing cabin bathroom remodel. I took out the dumb closet that crowded the whole bathroom and I didn't ever use anyway: BEFORE:                                         NOW: I took out a bunch of walls and cupboards and this crappy weird platform thing that was hiding what is actually a GORGEOUS old cast iron claw foot tub. It's gonna be reglazed and really awesome when this zany mostly DIY project is all done. BEFORE:   NOW (yeah, I know it still looks like a horror movie set):  I find and relocate frogs every day....

So, another summer of traveling and playing with Mattie has come to an end. It was a really special one, with new places, changes, people, adventures, mountains, deserts, lakes, fish, climbs, and love. How do you go about ending one of the best summers on the books? STEP 1. Start with another short backpacking trip with your awesome adventuring boyfriend. Fishing, osprey, hiking, really good freeze-dried food, great weather, trees and clear water. We weren't going to let sickness stop us, but Greg brought some medicine just in case: This is how you get a sick girlfriend to go backpacking. Mountain fashion at Marlette Lake. STEP 2. Leave the next day for an ALL-TIME backpacking trip with Yeti, Dad, and Greg - Dad's first since he almost checked out on us early!!!! - over Piute Pass. These are kind of out of order, but you get the general sense of awesomeness.  Dad crushed it, it was beautiful, the smoke generally stayed away, it was COLD, we had hot chocolate ...