If you recall from my last Peak a Week writeup, I’m trying to hike at least one peak every week in 2010 to get exercise and explore the Bay Area. This week, Linus and I hiked Skyline Ridge Park. I had work meeting work down in Redwood City (going over our new county protocols), and afterward used the jaunt down the Peninsula as an excuse to explore some of the beautiful trails in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

There are so many hiking areas over in that area! Zooming around on Google Maps checking out where I would be for the meeting (I am still learning the Peninsula at this point), it seemed like there was park after park after open space preserve. I couldn’t narrow it down! I finally just picked one randomly. Skyline Ridge it was.

What a special hike. Linus and I did a 7 mile loop which goes by two pristine alpine ponds and hits a couple absolutely stunning views. It wasn’t too steep or too strenuous, but it was a great walk and you felt so isolated and alone in nature. This is a hike I’d absolutely love to bring Earl on sometime in the future.

Have I mentioned before that Earl sort of hates hiking? He considers it “just walking” and also “a waste of time.” That’s often the problem you run into when you date a mathematician- they tend to be so pragmatic! If I play my chips correctly I can luck out with getting Earl to agree to … oh… 1 or 2 hikes every six months. The rest of the time, I am happy to go with other friends (who actually ENJOY hiking) or don’t mind spending hours in the woods with my dog walking (or running) around solo. I just like getting out in the woods and getting exercise. To me, anything with such fresh air and such sweeping skyscapes could never be a waste of time! Conversely, reading an advanced algebra book for 4 hours straight could be a waste of time for me, so hey…

The drive up Route 35 (Skyline Boulevard) to get to this hike was an adventure itself. Such twisty, turny roads we have in California! They make the “twisty, turny” roads I grew up on in New England seem like drag strips. Sometimes we respond in the ambulance to calls up in these hills, although I have yet to go Code Three through a road like that. I think I would just put the lights and sirens on and still drive it safe and slow. You’d have to- the roads swerve and turn so much, you could never get any speed up!

Once we made it to the park, it was a very basic trailhead. My faithful buddy is ready to go.

We started with some subtle climbs through a lot of grasslands and Christmas tree “escapees” from a nearby Christmas tree farm.

Looking back you could see the parking lot where we started. It was a beautiful, clear afternoon.

Even in the “dead” of winter, the sides of the trail were peppered with wildflowers. I believe these are thistles?

This tree was even producing some fruit. I think it’s pears.

Yikes! Watch out, Linus!

A Christmas tree farm escapee.

After about two miles, we reached the first pond of the hike. This is Alpine Pond. Boy, was it silent and pristine. No wind, no street noise or other humans around. The only thing I saw moving were a couple ducks.

There was a visitor Educational Wilderness Center on the perimeter of the pond. They had some binocular stands set up so you could zoom in and look at wildlife on the pond, and also a bunch of displays talking about the area. I found out the area used to be filled with hog farming.

The setup of the pond was entirely handicap-accessible. If you are looking for somewhere to take disabled loved ones who want to enjoy the outdoors and wildness, this spot is highly recommended. You can drive to the visitor center at Alpine Pond on a dirt fireroads and the pond has several wheelchair access ramps, viewing spots and trails.

Can you tell the reflection vs. the actual?

We found some (rasp? olallie?)berries nearby. Was tempted, but figured it would be safer not to sample.

Upon leaving the visitor center, the trail climbed a but more and opened up, offering these gorgeous skyscapes of the Santa Cruz Mountains:

Linus was more interested in what was climbing around on the rocks than appreciating the view.

These poofy (germinating? Geeze I need to study up on some botany, it would really help me appreciate things on these hikes a whole lot more!) plants were blowing the puffy white material all over the trail. You could even see them floating through the air over the valley.

I also spotted two hawks circling over the valley, although they were too high and my camera not high quality enough to capture them correctly. Watching their swooping dives as they hunted was mesmerizing; Linus and I stood there for a long while just appreciating the poetic beauty of their elegant flight (flight of DEATH for some mouse… lol).

A few more miles, and we descended down to pond #2, this one called Horseshoe Lake. It was a little less picturesque than alpine pond, and felt somewhat less isolated (perhaps because it was nearer to the trailhead and also at a lower elevation? Not sure), however was still nice. I saw some fish jumping and ducks swimming.

At this point in the hike we were almost done (under a mile to go) so Linus and I attempted a self portrait. Linus was not really cooperating.




I give up!

When we got home I gave Linus a bath and thorough combing checking for ticks. I feel very adamantly that dogs should be allowed to run off leash in the woods (as long as pets are allowed off leash and also they remain under voice control), because that’s such a big part of their doggy nature, however I worry about ticks. Plus, if I ever bring Linus home with ticks on him, I get read a big riot act by Earl who despises them and thinks they’re very gross. So Woofer gets a very thorough checking in his scruff and ears, plus an all over combing and often a bath after every time I take him out in the woods. Despite his tick collar that I put on him for hikes (and also tick powder), I generally find about two buggers on him which promptly get flicked off if we’re still outside or flushed if not. Ticks are so awful. Do they have any net benefits to the eco system? Can we just exterminate them all with no negative results? I know one dog (and one boyfriend) who would be a lot happier did they not exist.

Regardless, this was a great hike and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re on the Peninsula and want gorgeous views, not *too challenging* and also seek the peaceful feeling of being alone in the wilderness.

In an effort to kick my butt back into shape, at the advice of a wise man on TGR, I am attempting to hike or run at least one peak or park every single week. The additional benefit of this exercise is that it has me learning about and discovering a plethora of cool places here in the San Francisco bay area (and eventually, beyond!), and of course getting my dog out for some fun and exercise in the woods. Yes. *ahem* Because… as you know, the dog allowed himself to get really fat and out of shape over the past year. The dog was a little more concerned with his career change than working out and the dog didn’t use his period of unemployment as well as he could have to exercise during his free time and stay healthy. Well, good for the dog (now), because now that the dog has a stable job that not only pays the bills but that he really loves, the dog is finally motivated to get back at it, utilize his time outside of work wisely, and to get healthy again. Yay, dog.

In a “getting out of a rut” workout advice thread someone posted over on TGR, one of our members suggested to hike a new peak every single week. This struck me as a BRILLIANT idea, and I have adopted as a goal moving forward. I plan to either hike or run these peaks and report about them here with photos and write up once I return. As often as possible, I will try to bring a friend along for company and conversation, and of course bring ze woof!

Here is my first “Peak a Week” Report, which was the towering Mount Sutro in San Francisco, a staggering 908 feet. Linus and I hiked Mt. Sutro with our friend Andrea, who is here from Germany. Andrea’s husband, Matthias, is Earl’s former coworker. Andrea is sorting through some visa/work study/internship issues right now from her German university, and until that comes through she is generally free in the days, which works out wonderfully with my oddball EMT schedule. It makes her the perfect hiking partner for a Tuesday morning hike!

Linus and I walked over to the UCSF area where Andrea and Matthias live. Mt. Sutro is located right behind UCSF. Despite having lived there for a few months and having been avid hikers in Germany (this couple has hiked all over the alps!) neither Andrea or Mattius have explored Mt. Sutro yet. Perfect!

We walked up Willard Ave and followed this beautiful staircase to the trailhead. San Francisco is filled with gorgeous staircases, which I am discovering and attempting to document here. This one off of Willard was covered in green moss and particularly enchanting.

The view from the staircase was sweeping. You can see downtown all the way to SOMA.

Once on the trail, it went up and up. Not at too steep a pace- this would be the perfect place to come for a woodland jog.

Looping through Eucalyptus groves. I’ve heard that Mount Sutro is so infrequently used because most citizens of San Francisco think it belongs to UCSF and is off limits. That’s unfortunate, because it’s such a peaceful, serene escape. Then again, the less people who use these trails the better condition they’re in and the more isolated they feel. We didn’t pass a single person on our hike through this little forest.

At the top, there was a little meadow. The meadow was underwhelming- you could say our summit was anticlimactic.

The meadow was mostly filled with dead plants- must be a lot nicer in the spring when everything is in bloom. Plus, there really was no view to be had because it was all blocked by trees. Linus had a good time, though!

Andrea smiling on the way down. I asked her if San Francisco’s “Mount Sutro” compared to anything she’d hiked in the Alps. She laughed.

We came across this little glen with a shrine inside.

It was pretty faded, so you couldn’t really read it, but appears to be an old Native American of some sort.

Look at all the green! These green vines completely filled this valley. Looking at this photo, can you believe you are in the middle of a city?

And back down! If you look to Linus’ left, you can see the wine barrel signpost. Wine barrel furniture adaptations are HUGE trend in this city. I’ve seen about a dozen just in our neighborhood. Sort of bourgeois chic.

Final view from the staircase. It turned into a very grey day! Our skyscape is so dull due to the overcast. Still, not a bad little urban hike and nice catching up with a friend. We capped of our day with some coffees and salads at Boulange de Cole. It was chilly and almost rainy by the afternoon so we had an enjoyable time parking ourselves in a cozy booth to warm up.

Coming up: Amy and I tackle Mount Tam, Linus and I at Skyline Ridge, Edgewood Park and then beyond. I found a few Bay Area hiking websites (this one and this one in particular are great resources; I’m sure there is some overlap, however between the two of them there are almost 500 hikes!). If I do a peak a week, I should be done exploring all the hiking around here in about 9 years. Shesh.

Yesterday being Winter Solstice, I figured it was time to take stock of how far I’d come this fall with my Fitness Challenge.

I ran a mile pace test today and was 10:39. While that doesn’t feel all that fast to me, it’s still a whopping 34 seconds off my last pace test in September.

Other results thus far:

Total pounds lost: 24
Inches lost off tummy: 4.5 (WOW!!!)
Inches lost off hips: 1
Inches lost off bustline: 3
Inches lost off thigh: 2.4 (each!)
Inches lost off wrist: no change
Inches lost off upper arm: N/A because didn’t take this metric back in September (but now I did, so I’ll have it documented for next time I record these stats).

My body fat %, oddly, stayed the same according to my home scale. That could be a glitch or it could be my diet is still poor. But either way, with the rest of the stats, I will take it!!

The best thing about these numbers is that I didn’t really make any major changes to get them. To be completely truthful, my diet is still pretty junky. I was just telling a story last night about how I was scarfing Taco Bell on my drive home from work I think mostly these positive results were more from just WORKING and doing physically hard, manual labor now as part of my daily job. Getting in and out (and in and out) of an ambulance is like doing a bunch of deep lunges. And picking up patients in the gurney is doing squats. Not to mention walking the halls of various hospitals (and they always keep the dialysis centers in the waaaaay back or in the basements, so many of my “bread and butter” calls have long walks involved!).

The other thing I changed is that I added lifting to my weekly routine. Earl and I have been meeting at the gym pretty regularly which I LOVE. We don’t do the same machines or anything, but for me just knowing that someone else is meeting you there is motivation to get up and go. I haven’t been nearly as consistent about lifting as I should; my goal was to go 3 times a week, and I had been pretty steady at just ONCE or twice for a while, but you know… I think even doing that has been enough to cause some changes.

Oh hey! Speaking of lifting, here are some more metrics I can document. These are the increases in my lifts since September: This is what I am at lifting for 3 sets of 10 reps, NOT MAX OUT:

Benchpress: @ 85, increase of 20lbs
Leg press: @ 230lbs, increase of 40lbs
Lat pull downs: N/A, because we just added these to my routine last week
Skull crushers: @30lbs, an increase of 10lbs
Shrugs with bar: @ 90lbs, increase of 70lbs (!!!!!)
Seated row: @ 80lbs, increase of 30lbs
Calve raise: @ 105, increase of 30lbs
Curls: @ 20lbs each hand, increase of 10lbs

So look at that. I am undeniably getting a lot stronger. That shrugs thing is CRAZY. I think it’s mainly because Earl (sometimes) lends me these little wrist grabber-y thingers that help you hold more weight. That way it apparently more your muscle strength maxing out and not your grip strength. I like those little grippers. I asked Earl for my own pair in my stocking this year, we’ll see what happens

On that note, I think I should add some grip strength stuff to my routine, mainly because grip strength is such a HUGE part of my daily job of being an EMT. We basically grab sheets and blankets and PULL. And it’s so, so important to have a locked down grip on the drawsheet because slippage could not only injure yourself, but also your partner and the patient.

As for my fitness-related goals from here on out, I am scaling back a bit on some things, and ramping up on others. At this point, I am not *so, so* concerned about the NUMBER weightwise, and am just going to be trying to get overall healthier and more fit. And while I do have a “goal” number which I would like to weigh under, I am not putting a time crunch on it, which is very contrary to how I have conducted myself previously. If it takes me until the spring, the summer, or heck even next fall to get there, so be it. I am not feeling any pressure or any rush. Here are my fitness goals for the upcoming year:

- weigh under 150lbs
- run 50 miles in a race
- bike 100 miles (have done this many times before, but sooo far away from where I am now!)
- pass the CPAT
- join a cycling club here in SF
- do yoga consistently
- lift 3x a week
- finish within the cutoff times for the Ohlone 50k
- hike or run a Peak a Week and report them here

Also, my Race Calendar for 2010 looks like this:

Feb: Woodside 10k
March: Pirates Cove 20k
May: Ohlone 50k (“A” race)
July: Headlands Marathon
October: Dirk Collins 50 miler (“A” race)

I picked mainly ultras and trail runs mostly because their registrations are so cheap! Coming from the world of triathlons, these races, often at $40 a pop, seem like a downright steal. Very refreshing And very within my budget!

I am so excited for the new year, happy with my progress, and proud of how far I’ve come. Bring on 2010!

As always, I am mega behind on uploading photos from my camera and catching my dear readers up on them and what I have been up to. Please accept my apologies, and I hope you enjoy the following smorgashboard, which dates alllllll the way back to Halloween! Ack

For Halloween, we threw a bit of an impromptu dinner party for our friends Matt and Amy, then we walked down over to Belvedere Street and hit up a bunch of spots on the party circuit.
Matt Preparing the drinks. We served Stone Fences, which are a mixture of whiskey and apple cider.

Dinner was great- we made pumpkin fritters from this recipe. Amy actually ended up cooking most of the fritters while I rushed around and got in my costume (Earl and I were running late coming from the gym).
Amy fries up some fritters

The (still steaming) fritters! They’re basically a thicker pumpkin pancake. Served with cinnamon sugar (optional maple syrup, for those with a fierce sweet tooth).

Even though Amy did most of the cooking, I somehow managed to pose taking credit for them in this photo. Doesn’t it look like *I* cooked them in this photo?

Amy and Matt getting ready to hit the down. Look at those abs on that woman! That is what being a semi-pro level triathlete will get you, apparently Amy is rocking my old latex cop uniform (a holdover from undergrad sorority days) which I coerced her into wearing.

The handsome knight of my heart and his unicorn steed. The “unicorn” didn’t last very long on the streets as he was a little overstimulated with everyone running around trick or treating. This was basically a pre-party walk! He got walked home and hung out while we hit the town.

Bustiers and pizza. Pepperoni, naturally.

Matt, Andrea and Mattius (Andrea was a tree, if you can’t tell)

Bearded lady! The theme of the first party we were at was Old-Timey Carnival. These people pulled out ALL the stops!

Here is the woman who gets shot out of the cannon.

En route to our second party, I was assaulted by a very naughty (and perverted) cookie monster! If you can’t tell, I was a dragon, same as last year.

By our third party of the evening, Amy and Matt had gone home and I had converted into a devilish dragon. The full-face dragon mask, while a lovely work of art, made it hard to consume beverages. Here we are with our ski friend Spencer, who is a music journalist and gets to interview all kinds of stars.

We were certainly tuckered out after this evening. Let’s slide right into Thanksgiving, shall we?

For Thanksgiving, we went out to my wonderful Aunt Mimi’s house in Pleasanton, CA. My friend Amy, who is from CT though going to Stamford for their PA program right now, came with us as she wasn’t going home to see her family.

I lobbied Amy to meet me at my Aunt’s house early, at 9:30am, so we could do this awesome 30 mile ride through Palomares Canyon loop.

Ride starts out on Foothill Drive- look at the peaceful serenity of this beautiful road! Who says there are no fall colors in California?

Amy’s self-portrait on the hill. She doesn’t even look like she’s breathing hard! This girl is a machine.

Amy spent a *LOT* of time waiting for me to get my out-of-shape butt up this hill. Eons. She was bored enough not only to mess around with taking self portraits, but also to take this amusing video:

On the way up Palomares Canyon, Amy (who is holding the camera) spots this sign. What does it MEAN? Looks like a drunk guy crossing the street, right?

At the summit! This is a long, slow climb. Amy actually got a flat tire here from parking in the gravel.

Back from our ride and showered up, we are greeted by quite a spread.

Hey! Down here! Lemme have some! I’ll take some! Don’t want that stuffing? Just a little crumb?

Post meal scritches lead to corgi grins.

Bellies full, Earl and I pile onto the couch to zonk out for a bit.

Mr. Drool Spot and I had an invigorating 2-hour jog along the ocean today. We found so many sand dollars! I just can’t run past those beauties, I have to stop and beachcomb a bit. Probably why it took two hours

As I wrote on Saturday, I threw an impromptu breakfast party Sunday morning for some of my long-lost ski friends who were staying with us and my friend Amy who came in from Stanford.  Amazingly, I pulled everything off (never cooked breakfast for that many people before) and it all came out well! Even Kevin, who claimed to “hate tomatoes” held good on his promise to at least try it, and he ended up liking it! (I thought this might be the case, as I “hate tomatoes” myself, yet love this dish).  I woke up at 7am to walk Linus to the market and get more food, then got started cooking… while three large guys caught Zzzz on the floor in my living room. As they woke up one by one I recruited them to help in the kitchen and put them to work peeling pomegranates and mashing basil for pesto.

I made the baked eggs in prosciutto-wrapped tomatoes recipe which I had cooked for Earl before, however as we had bacon in the house I subbed bacon for prosciutto. This worked out okay, though I did pre-cook the bacon on the Foreman beforehand and I think it could have been a little less cooked; it turned out pretty crunchy. Also, I think I liked the flavor of the prosciutto a tad more, however bacon tasted fine.

Ready to go in the oven- these are tomatoes hollowed out, then coated on the inside with a homemade pesto and wrapped in bacon.  Bake those for 10 minutes to roast the tomatoes a bit, then fill each with an egg and bake again for 10 more minutes.  Couldn’t be simpler!
Notice the pre-cooked bacon is not wrapping around the tomatoes very well. Another reason why not to pre-cook the bacon as much and also why prosciutto might work better- more supple. I also threw on some parm cheese into the tomatoes which you can see in the pic:

Your chef, with no makeup, messy hair, her glasses and rocking her pajamas and a hangover:

We are ready to eat!! Amy brought the OJ.

After 10 more minutes in the oven, here’s how they looked. This is for 10 minutes at 350*… if it were just Earl and I dining, I would go for 8 minutes as both of us like a runnier yolk… however with a bunch of people, tastes vary and I figured a harder yolk is safer… easier to err more towards “done” than “raw” when it comes to egg cooking times.

Plated! Served with a pomegranate seed and arugula simple salad. Turns out, 2/6 of my guests hated pomegranate seeds. Should have checked beforehand, I guess! What a waste of peeling effort

Linus got in on some tableside petting action.

Earl snapped a post-breakfast group shot. I love these people!! The last time we were all together was Straightline Ski Camp last Feb. We’re trying to plan another meet up soon- be it at Straightline Camp 2010, Argentina next summer (doubt I’ll have the $ to pull that one off) or even a long bike trip up the Lost Coast.

After breakfast, everyone packed up and Nick and I got ready to make the trek to Sacramento for the race. We went to the expo and got Nick registered, then had a pasta dinner at 5pm and went to bed pretty early. I did spend time making my Fan Extraordinaire sign (I actually love making signs to cheer people on, I think it’s a holdover from my days as a highschool cheerleader) while we watched bad cable before bed.

Here is Nick getting in “the zone” on the way to the Marathon Expo:

And here is a snap of the sign I made. It reads, “GO NICK, RUN FAST.” Simple enough instructions

Race morning, Nick left at 5am to catch the pre-race shuttle and I stumbled out of bed at 7am to go cheer. I planned to see him in three spots- mile 10, mile 18 and the finish. My plan worked and I did get to see him at each of those locations. We weren’t sure it would work because he wasn’t running with a phone or anything (he’s a Serious Runner… unlike me who races with cellphone in hand and tweeting the entire time… lol).
Nick during the race! He was literally running so fast it was hard to get a good pic! You can practically see the “zoom” lines coming from behind him.

Ninja on the course!

Nick was a bit bummed about his final time- 3:32. He’d been trying for Boston, which he needed 3:10 to get into. He went into this admittedly a bit undertrained (apparently he likes biking a lot more and has been mountain biking most weekends instead of doing long runs), and also the pretty cold temps (it was 32* at the start!) threw him off. Selfishly, I am a tad happy he didn’t get boston because it means he’ll be running a lot this next year and hopefully we can meet up for another marathon evil of me, I know.
Post-race shot. Don’t we look cold?! It was pretty freezing while cheering, and I was in a bulky fleece. The orange tree behind us is misleading!!

There was even a corgi spectator! This adorable guy was named Frodo Baggins. Such a great name for a corgi.

After the race we drove back to SF, stopping at a post-race nosh of In & Out. Then I dropped Nick off at the airport and headed directly to work. A shift had opened up which apparently they needed someone badly enough to offer DOUBLETIME THE ENTIRE SHIFT. Sweetness! I worked a 20-hour shift, from Sunday at 10pm to Monday at 6pm. I’m loving these open shifts at work, makes picking up a day really simple and earning some extra $$ pretty easy.

This week is super busy for us- tonight we have Earl’s company Christmas Party, tomorrow I picked up another shift at work from 6am-6pm, Thursday I’m doing a hike with my friend Andrea, and then I work Fri, Sat and Sunday 5am-5pm. Finally, on Sunday night we have our ambulance company Christmas Party, which I am ALSO psyched about! Also in the meantime I am trying to write a TON of Christmas cards and otherwise do errands for the upcoming holiday. I’m writing a tad over 50 cards this year, and I try to write a personal message on them all. I’ve been writing them between calls on the ambulance I normally crank out about 5 a shift.

May not look that great in the photo, but man o man does this SMELL SO GOOD.

Recipe found by E, courtesy of here. I am such a sucker for anything with rosemary in it (for that matter, anything with cheese in it!).

Sorry all I do lately is post about what we’re having for dinner. Frankly, it’s all I have the time (and inclination) to write about these days… classes rolling into finals, work, processing the new job, getting started at SFGH… I feel a tad overwrought. I do have about 12,000 photos to take off my camera and share with you, including a bunch from Halloween [yes Amy I am working on it!]. I’ll be happy when school is over (my last final is TOMORROW! woot!) after this weekend and I’ll have my Saturdays back again. I’ll also be happy when I have a set, predetermined, fleshed out schedule at my new job and know what my hours will be like. It’s hard for me when things are so up in the air. Working best on a set schedule, I tend to let everything go to pot when I can’t plan out my days.

In the meantime, I should just re-name this website whatwe’rehavingfordinner.com and call it a night.

Oh! Real quick- today I had a bunch of stuff to get done for my new job. I took a physical fitness test, agility test, drug test, auto-injector for nerve agent and organophosphate poisoning tutorial and exam, got fitted for and learned how to don and doff my PAPR suit with respirator, fitted for my N-95 mask and verified all of my immunizations.

After all that rigmarole (passed everything, phew), I took Linus on a nice little 4 mile trail run at Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve. The dog is now COVERED in TICKS!! He was wearing his tick collar and I also put flea and tick powder on him, but… to no avail. I’ve already taken SIX ticks off of him. Earl is going to kill me (he absolutely *hates* ticks). Hopefully smell of yummy soup will distract nerd from new tick infestation at our apartment.

Guess I should get Linus his own PAPR suit before I take him hiking. :-/

The PAPR I was fitted for looks just like this, only with bigger rubber gloves over the latex gloves and also in a very skin-tone flattering BRIGHT UGLY YELLOW:

You know, it was surprisingly hard to move around in it. I believe this was due to wearing shoes inside the big rubber boots and also having a double layer of latex gloves *inside* giant rubber gloves. Also, the chemtape was horrendously hard to manipulate without having it stick to your gloves. In the event of a HAZMAT incident I think you’d really need a partner to help each other get in and out of the suit.

The doctor did a test on me where he TURNED OFF MY RESPIRATOR while I was in the PAPR suit and let me stand there for a few minutes. This was to demonstrate how quickly 1.) the eye visor becomes steamed up and 2.) run out of oxygen in the case the respirator battery runs out of power or somehow gets disconnected. Basically, if that happens you must leave the scene because you’re of no use to any patient. Honestly at this point I am dubious how helpful I can be to any patient while wearing the freaking suit even if everything is hunky dory. It was *that* hard to maneuver in it. Well… I guess any time you’d be wearing a PAPR would probably be a load-and-go anyways, so all you really need to wear it for is to get in, get the patient, and GTFO; there wouldn’t be much need to dink around on scene in the suit…thankfully.

Frankly, if I was a patient and a bunch of EMS professionals showed up to help me donning PAPR suits I would be freaking terrified!! They should put flowers or peace signs on them or something.

Always so awesome when all these trailers to come out.

And hey- it’s premiere time!  Whoo

I have a midterm next week, so I might miss the MSP showing on Monday, however we will definitely be hitting up the TGR premiere at the Palace of Fine Arts next month.

Here’s the MSP flick, In Deep, which looks great:

And TGR’s Re:Session:

Here’s some of our crew partying down at the NYC TGR premiere. The exciting news is Mike is moving to SF so perhaps we can pay homage to this pic, this time sans-crutches.

Friday night I did something exciting. I was about three hours into a six-hour stretch of studying when, taking break to peruse the internet, I stumbled across this post. Inspiration hit- I had to make that bread! Dubbing it a “welcome home from work” present to Earl, I figured it would be nice to have fresh-baked bread smelling up the house when he walked in. Deep down, however, I was guilty of really making the bread for myself; *I* wanted the honeyspice bread, Earl be damned. Funny, the silly reasons you use to justify that which you desire.

I say “exciting” because I’ve never attempted to bake bread from scratch. It was a fun project which weaved nicely into my studying- make dough, let it rise for a couple hours while read another chapter, take a break to punch down and knead dough, do another chapter while letting it rise again. Then bake for an hour while finishing the reading. It was a wonderful incentive for me to power through the (tedious!) studying.

Kneading bread is harder than you’d think! The recipe I used calls for you to knead in increments of 5 and 10 minutes. Phew. I was tired after about 2 minutes! But, the results were stupendous- the bread was SOOO good. We had it with butter, more of it with cheese, I brought a bunch in to class on Saturday to share, and then this morning E and I killed off the last bit as toast with jam and butter for breakfast.

Waiting for the yeast to activate

the name of the bread is “honeyspice” … it has a lot of spices- cloves, coriander, ginger and cinnamon. I’ve never really cooked with coriander before, but man it smelled GOOD.

adding spices to the bread base

the dough:

knead, knead, knead

cover and let rise one hour (lol- just noticed my naked lady napkin here…haha… it’s from the Strip House in NYC… ah, days as a banker when I used to eat there all the time. heh. life is so different now!)

the chef is NOT above sampling the dough!

or, for that matter, licking the spoon (the chef is, apparently, above cleaning the mirrors)

after rising for 1 hour, you “punch” it down once. I don’t really get the point of this. Why do you need to punch it if you’re going to knead it again for another 5 minutes? :shrug: After delivering punch and more kneading, you let it rise again. I had the dough rising in the (turned off) oven because it was the warmest, un-breeziest place I could think of in the apartment

ta da! thar she is! while this was baking, the apartment smelled incredibly delicious. i don’t have a round baking pan, but this casserole dish did an adequate job. Bread came out a little funky shaped, but still edible.

we noshed it straight out of the oven with some butter… absolutely scrumptious

Leftover bread made for some yummy toast Monday morning

Monday am breakfast

Saturday I had class all day, then met Earl at the gym for lifting, after which we headed to Dolores Park to watch The Dark Knight under the stars with some friends. Because we got there late and due to the MASSIVE CROWD, we couldn’t find our friends. We set up a picnic with Linus, and were caught unawares when the sprinklers turned on. Aye!! Sadly, I spilled about half of my beer jumping away. This was not as bad, however, as the homeless guy near us who knocked over his ENTIRE CART filled with empty bottles and cans. They all rolled down the hill, making an enormous racket. I was somewhat surprised to see 20 people sitting around watching the movie get up and helped the homeless guy collect all his cans that had rolled away. Faith in humanity restored? Very nice gesture.

After the movie we grabbed more beer and hung out at our friend Matt’s house off the park. My tolerance must be low because of my diet and exercise kick, because man, I became kind of bombed after only a couple beers! We ended up staying out shooting the breeze until 2:00am, which was… not the smartest move because we had to wake up at 8am to head to the beach the following morning. Oof.

The crowd at the Dark Knight

The Dark Knight in Dolores Park

our little picnic… pre-sprinkler soaking

Linus getting comfy at Matt’s. Matt’s place could stand a woman’s touch some … decor :p

Sunday we headed to Gray Whale Cove with a two car loads of friends. I recruited two of them to come running with me up a mountain by the beach. Our “run” turned into more of a “hike” as it was basically straight up the mountain! I’d say we ran about… eh…. 30% of the time. Two hour hike, great views. Hanging out on the beach after the run was SO NICE. Fortunately, I wasn’t that hungover but I was enormously tired. I powered through some of my flashcards for school (about three chapters worth) and then pulled my Chugach Powder Guides hat down over my eyes and eagerly dove into a delectable two hour nap.

Something about falling asleep on a beach: plant the tired old dogs in the sand, listen to the waves crash, feel the caress of ocean breezes… so relaxing and indulgent. Easily one of my all-time favorite things. My nap was sadly disrupted when Earl woke me up with a scolding for not putting sunscreen on the back of my legs. Whaaaaa…? Huh?? I sleepily waved off his chiding, flopped over, and resumed snoring away. That is… until he decided to teach me a lesson by STUFFING ICE FROM THE COOLER DOWN MY SPORTS BRA aggggGGGgggghhhh

Kathleen and Julie check out the view on our run

Looking over to Montara State Beach from the mountain

we headed up, up, up to North Peak

Julie, looking out over towards Pacifica. It was so clear, we could see Sutro Tower all the back in San Francisco.

the three of us at the summit- we are sweaty and gross, but psyched! it took us just over an hour and a half to get to the top, and only half an hour to get back down

heading back down- a nice view of the trail we came up

there were so many wildflowers along the trail. these ones were as tall as us!

I have no idea how she did it, but when we got back to the beach, Julie still had enough energy to play frisbee AND smashball… whereas I opted to impersonate a log.

Kathleen caught up on her magazines

Linus, who did NOT come on the run/hike (I wasn’t all that sure about him handling the mileage- he hasn’t been running with me all that much lately other than short neighborhood jogs) did get plenty of exercise running around on the beach

we buried him in the sand! it’s so funny how he loves this

sand dog gets buried

look at this grin. Julie snapped this great shot

corgi smile

gee, being the center of all this attention sure makes me thirsty!

we also kept giving him ice chips as a snack and to help him stay cool

Linus LOVES the beach. Isn’t this a happy looking dog?

hugs at the beach

he kept digging in the sand trying to get his ball. so cute

dog vs. ball

i attempted to get artsy and take a self portrait in Earl’s sunglasses

Back in the city on Sunday night, still very gross from running and the beach (by this point I reeked and my hair had morphed into one giant dreadlock), we noshed at Big Mouth Burger which was FANtastic. Best burger place we’ve found in San Francisco, and TOTALLY worth getting off my diet for!

Scrumptious burger put the button on a great day

Big Mouth bacon blue-cheeseburger

Today I had my volunteer interview with another ER in San Francisco (I love the “little ER that could” where I currently volunteer, however it’s a very low-level trauma center and we do not have ER Technicians. As I’m hoping to become an ER Technician within the next year or so, I think it’s a good idea to gain some experience where I can work alongside them… and perhaps start making some contacts at a place where I will potentially be applying for a job). I passed my interview, which is a relief because I’ve heard it’s very competitive to get in there… and they are having a massive influx of volunteers- probably the economy and also everyone switching career paths into healthcare. Once my background check and TB Test results (again! agh… they wouldn’t accept my March TB Test results as it has to be within three months… blegh) come in I’ll be set to start.