Tahoe is a weird town

Tahoe is a strange and wonderful place. A mix of beautiful nature and horribly planned developments and strip malls. New luxury homes and old log cabins. Super modern resorts and creepy abandoned carnivals.

"What?" you say. "Creepy abandoned carnivals?"

Yep:

Doesn't this look like it should be in a horror movie? Starring a clown zombies or something?

But just past the creepy abandoned carnival is this gorgeous view:

Oh, Tahoe. You are odd, but I love it here.

Who doesn't love new gear?

This is a face of pure joy and excitement.

Why? I just ordered a bike!

I went with the GT Sanction 2.0 from Joyride Cycles. It's purple. Dan is so jealous.

Best Friday evarrrrrrr!

Three Things Thursday - Question Edition

1. What should I do with my hair? Should I get bangs?

Right now my hair looks like this, but it's kind of a bizarre reddish color (thanks box dye!):

While sometimes I really like how I look with bangs,

My last haircut...not so much.

I have not got my hair cut since September because the last one was so bad. I'm now a little gun shy.

So what should I do? Bangs? No bangs? Embrace the whole magenta-hair-thing and dye my hair pink?

2. What should I bring to Orlando with me?

Besides Everclear.

I'm going to Harry Potter Land with the BLs for KJW's bachelorette bacchinalia. What do I bring? My family is not amusement park people. Or really vacation people. We went to Disneyland when I was four, but I literally don't remember anything about the trip other than sitting outside of Space Mountain because I was too small to go on it. I've also never been to Florida.

What do I bring? What are some amusement park essentials?

3. What are some good exercises that I can do throughout the day?

I am inspired by Rose's EXTREME OFFICE WORK OUTS and I want to start incorporating them throughout the day.

What should I try? Squats? Lunges? Bicep curls with my coffee mug?

Great news!

I get to move into my place a couple of days early! I'm moving in on Friday.

And...

Spring has definitely arrived in Tahoe! Daffodils!

Life's a beach

It was a beautiful day in Tahoe yesterday, so I took my dog-bff Lassen to Camp Rich for a walk on the beach. I hadn't been there since Katie and I had gone cross country skiing there, and there has been quite a change since then.

There's a beach!

Lassen enjoyed snarfelling the sand. A few times he snarfelled up too much sand and then sneezed sand all over my legs. Gross.

My socks do not match. Oh, well.

Spring must be here; boats are starting to appear on the lake.

There was a giant fallen tree. I made Lassen pose artfully in front of it, staring off into the distance. He was probably staring at some ducks.

Spring may be here, but there is still plenty of snow in the mountains!

Things to do when the weather sucks:

1. Go outside anyway. As a born and bred PNW-er, there are not many outdoor activities that I haven't done in the rain. Running, biking, swimming, kayaking, beach volleyball, hiking, camping...I've done all of them in the rain. In fact, I'm pretty confident that 80% of the times I've been camping, it's poured rain at least one of the nights.

Raining so hard in NorCal that this picture turned out blury.

Rainy hike in Hawaii.

It rained so hard the tent fell over in the middle of the night!

2. Watch awesome things on Netflix Instant. Specifically this- Nature: Wolverine: Chasing the Phantom. Ridiculous name, awesome movie. You won't regret watching this nature documentary, unless you hate awesome things. You may regret not being born a wolverine, though. Other awesome things on Netflix Instant: 30 Rock, Veronica Mars, and Dexter.

3. Plan your next trip. Either for realsies, or a dream trip. I've google mapped my route for "National Parks of the American Southwest" several times, as well as the timeline for my next trip to Santa Barbara.

A little of this...

A little of that.

3. Go beer tasting. Most reasonable size cities have at least one brewery. Fact: my home town has one, and also a population of 600. Go to a brewery and get the sampler. If the brewery is super small, they might give you a tour and explain everything you ever wanted to know about brewing. Fact: this will happen if you visit Golden Hills Brewing Company, and you will also be quite likely to run into my dad. Try the Ben's Brown.

Beer from Seabright Brewery in Santa Cruz, California from KJW and my California-to-Washington-Brewery-Camping-Road-Trip.

4. Go to the gym, work out your glams. Well, work out all of your muscles. You'll need them when the weather starts getting nice. When I was 15, I could squat 235 pounds. Now I can squat much less. But I am working on it

5. Write in your blog. Some certain people don't update your blogs enough! Start.

Save my money? That's just silly!

My tax refund came this week...that means one thing! It's time to buy a new bike.

While I love my Sobe colored-Cannondale hardtail,

I am sick of borrowing Dan's bikes when I want to ride something full suspension. Plus, he is 6'7". His bikes don't exactly fit me.

Shopping for bikes is so fun! Here are some top contenders:

GT Sanction 2.0: This is an older model, and I found a really good deal on this bike. Also, Dan has this bike, and I've ridden it quite a few times, so I have a pretty good idea of the feel. At least the feel of it a size or so too big.

Transition Covert: I've ridden this bike around a little (thanks cute scruffy guy from Alki Bike & Board in West Seattle!) and I really like the feel of it. It's definitely more expensive than the Sanction, but the company is based in Ferndale. I love supporting local businesses, though I guess Ferndale isn't technically local to me anymore. Plus, it comes in orange! (picture from here)

Banshee Spitfire: Dan has this bike as well (Does Dan have too many bikes? Possibly.) and I've ridden it both at Northstar andand around Santa Barbara. I like it a lot, and Dan can use his shady business dealings to get me a really good deal on one. (picture from here)

Anyone have any advice? Absolutely hate one of the bikes I'm considering? Any other suggestions?

Weekend Recap

In Picture Form:

First there was Girlie Wine Night with a lot of this:

Two Buck Chuck (here)

And this:

Fancy Gross Out Cheese (here)

And these:

(here)

Too much of the three previous items and too little sleep and too many:

Rainclouds (here)

Meant no

hiking (here) to Feather Falls.

Instead, we watched

(here)

And snuck in

Delicious, cheesy goodness (here)

There was still too much rain for hiking on Sunday so I watched

This show (here) is like a reunion of the cast of Veronica Mars.

Eventually, I dragged myself off the couch and laced up these:

My Adidas running shoes (here) which I don't exactly like.

And ran up and down a bunch of these

hills that feel much steeper than they look (here).

Lassen thought that I was crazy for running up and down the same hill over and over, but he enjoyed it anyway. It's amazing how sore a mile of hills vs. 4 miles of flat will make you! The stairs at work have been a slight challenge.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Happy Earth Day!

Being the dirty hippie that I am, I believe everyday is Earth Day, blah blah blah...

But in honor of Earth Day, here is the cheesiest Earth Day picture I could find:

Weird Weather

The weather has been so weird here lately!

Snow, sun, snow, sun, rain, fog, sun, rainbow, snow, sun, etc., etc...

I almost never know how to dress. I either am wearing too many layers and get sweaty, or I'm wearing flats and it starts snowing, or the sun comes out and I sweat off all my sunscreen and end up with a peel-y forehead.

Giant clouds were sitting right on the lake.

Oh hey there, bright sunshine.

Patches of blue sky among the ominous clouds.

These pictures were all taken in a twenty minute period.

Three Things Thursday - Zombie Edition

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted! Time flies when you're having fun.

1. I have been house sitting for a girl that I work with while she is in China. The best part of house sitting is this:

This is Lassen, swimming in the barely-above-freezing Lake Taco. Don't worry. He loves it.

Lassen loves the water!

2. It was my 27th birthday on Tuesday! That meant beer, cake, and more beer.

Terrible picture, delicious cake.

3. No internet + awesome bookshelf = a ton of reading. I went on a reading binge this weekend and read 4 books in three days. It was amazing.

• World War Z by Max Brooks: If you like post-apocalyptic fiction, zombies, and being scared, or preparing for the coming Zombie Apocalypse, you'll like this book. Note: do not read late at night the first night you spend all alone in a strange house in the middle of the woods.
• Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston: This is a great instruction manual for chopping off your own hand. Possibly a useful skill in the coming Zombie Apocalypse.
• Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris: The first book in the series that True Blood is based on. Enjoyable, smutty vampire romance. Useful if it's a Vampire Apocalypse instead of a Zombie Apocalypse.
• The Lost City of Z by David Grann: The Victorian Era- when men were men, women didn't have any fun, and everybody was really, really racist. Famed explorer/scientist/boat builder/gentleman Percy Fawcett disappears searching the Amazon jungle for the Lost City of Z. Made me realize I'd rather brave the Zombie Apocalypse than get lost in the Amazon Jungle.

Anyone else read any good books lately? Anybody else have a plan in mind for the Zombie Apocalypse?

Three Things Thursday- FML edition

Today is moving day...which I hate.

Today I had to go to the Lady Doctor...which I hate.

Today I got a flat tire (on moving day!)...which I hate.

Ugggghhhhh...and since my car is packed full of stuff (moving day), I couldn't even access my tire changing tools. Despite hating flat tires, I actually kind of like changing tires. But, due to the lack or access to tire changing implements and the fact that I was at work (and supposed to be working) I just said "eff this", called AAA and let them deal with it.

Luckily, Strawberry has a full size spare, so I can finish moving and then deal with getting the other tire fixed.

In cheerier news, this was in my parking lot at work this morning:

I'm not sure that I would let my hypothetical children be tested for autism in that creeper vehicle.

Don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes

This is out my office window...and it was about a 2 hour time lapse between the two.

A run around my neighborhood

It's snowing (snowing!) outside right now.

Yesterday, however, was a perfectly lovely day, and I took a run around my neighborhood (well, my neighborhood until tomorrow), with my camera. I found my camera charger! One nice thing about moving is that you find stuff you thought was long gone. I found my camera charger, two pairs of sunglasses, and a sweater dress!

I usually do a loop around part of my neighborhood that's about 2 miles, and then run along the bike path, out and back for a total of ~3.5 miles. I absolutely love this neighborhood, and hopefully will be moving back here in May, when I am done house sitting. Allison and I found an awesome place about a block away from where I currently live, but sadly, not on the Lake Taco side.

Here's the running tour of my neighborhood:

The Sierra and an old fashioned fence.

The snow has been melting, and the "meadow" is more of a swamp.

Upper Truckee Marsh. I saw a huge coyote here the other day!

This house has a sign on it that says "Luxury Living at It's Finest".

It makes me laugh every time I see it.

There's still a lot of snow.

Old fashioned boathouse on Lake Taco.

I love this neighborhood, and I think I'll keep running here, even if I end up living somewhere else.