One Year Anniversary

It's hard to celebrate someone's death, but in this case death was good. It meant no more poking and prodding by doctors and medical specialists, no more having to deal with ungrateful/spoiled family members and it meant going to sleep - forever. It's hards to let someone go, but it's also hard to hold onto them when they're suffering... Miss you Grandma!

Minnie Regina Thomas

Minnie Regina Thomas, 92, of Boise passed away Oct. 23, 2008. At her request, no services will be held. Private inurnment will be at Cloverdale Memorial Park. Arrangements are under the direction of Cloverdale Funeral Home.

Minnie was born Nov. 1, 1915 at St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise, Idaho. She was the daughter of Emmerensa Schanche McCurry and Arlis McCurry. She attended elementary school in Boise and secondary schools in Boise Junior College, University of Idaho, where she was a member of Alpha Phi Sorority, and University of California at Berkeley. She was elected the first campus queen at Boise Junior College. She earned a BA degree in English at the University of Idaho and a Masters degree in Reading Education at Boise State University (known then as Boise State College).

Sept. 4, 1940, Minnie married Kenneth V. Thomas. Two sons, Donald L. Thomas and James A. Thomas were born to them. Minnie taught reading at every grade level - K through twelve - and graduate courses for teachers at the state's three universities and the University of Santa Clara, Calif. She was reading consultant for the Boise School District and held workshops throughout Idaho. In 1978, she was invited and held a workshop on reading in Bloomsburg State College, Pa. Her first teaching position was in Homedale High School where she made lifetime friends.

Upon her retirement, Minnie was elected to serve on the Boise School Board where she served a six year term. In 1978, her name appeared in the edition of "World's Who's Who of Women" and her name was also included in "Who's Who Biographical Record" of school district officials. She attended the World Congress of Reading in Vienna, Austria in 1974. Ken and Minnie traveled extensively in Europe and the U.S. The Citizen Ambassador Program invited Minnie to participate in a delegation to go to Russia and the Czech Republic to assist in round table discussions regarding reading and special education programs in the area of learning disabilities. She received a letter from Joan C. Stoner Ed. D. Learning Disabilities Specialist from the Menninger Clinic to visit China and participate as a team member. Due to Mr. Thomas' poor health, she was unable to attend the meetings.

The Juvenile Justice System hired Minnie to evaluate grants written by various college and universities on the subject of reading. The Idaho Statesman honored Minnie as their Distinguished Citizen of the Week, December 30, 1984. Minnie belonged to many professional groups until she retired. She continued to attend Women of Rotary, where she served as president, Alpha Phi alumnae and Assistance League where she received the Peg McCurdy award for outstanding service. Minnie was an avid weaver and her weaving was exhibited in Sun Valley at the Idaho Artists Convention. She also demonstrated weaving at the Art in the Park.

Her husband Kenneth V. Thomas and son Donald L. Thomas preceded her in death. Survivors include a son, James A. Thomas, an architect who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, grandsons Nathan A. Thomas, Mark Thomas (wife Kari and great-granddaughters Alexa and Hailey), Scott Thomas, and granddaughter Angela Thomas (husband Ryan Smith). There were also many nieces and nephews. Minnie will be truly missed by her family and friends. She had a magnetic quality that drew people to her caring and witty attitude. She was also a wonderful listener, but wasn't afraid to voice her opinions. We love you Grandma - you will be in our hearts forever!

Barack Obama in Boise!

This past Tuesday morning, I awoke to the sound of the radio alarm tuned into 94.9. Rolled over and pretended it wasn't time to get up. Then I heard something that perked up my tired ears - Barack Obama was going to be in Boise this Saturday, February 2! Are you kidding me?!?! Idaho is as red as the repub states come! To hear that a Democrat candidate for the President of the United States was coming to MY TOWN was like music to my blue ears!

For the rest of the week, I patiently waited for the what time/where announcement of Obama's visit. I got my answer on Thursday - Obama would be at the Taco Bell Arena (speaking of corporate sell-outs...) Saturday morning. Doors would open at 7:00 am and his speech would start at 8:30 am.

Friday night, the man and I had the talk - we were going to hear Obama and be a part of this historical event!

Saturday morning came and I did not want to get out of bed. Our dear, precious little Scarlet likes me so much that she sleeps either on or next to my feet. When I move, she starts to purr and then wants to be pet. Needless to say, I did not get much sleep, but I'm sure she did! Mustering all the inner strength I had, I got up at 7am and got dressed. After a shot of joe and a quick blueberry thing, we headed down to Julia Davis.

After parking, we began the trek over to the Arena. Right before the bridge, we passed a couple going the opposite direction. They mentioned hand bags were not allowed - damn! We had to turn around to put my purse back in the car before setting on our trek again.

As we crossed over the BSU Friendship bridge, we saw it... the long line of Blues moving slowly from the Business building all the way to the Arena. What a great turnout! I couldn't believe so many people showed up!!

We hopped in line and joined the walk. As we got close to the entrance, I could hear people yelling. Oh great, what kind of protesters showed up this time... The man and I were trying to figure out if the shouts were from protesters or supporters when we saw someone from the Obama crew talk to a mother in front of us who had her son with her. Her expression changed and I wanted to know what the guy told her. Then it became apparent. Abortion protesters with huge bloody fetus signs were right by the entrance. I figured out that the guy had forewarned the mother to shield her son's eyes. I was very upset and outraged! There were children attending this event, from young toddlers to teenagers. I understand the pro-lifers want to get their point across, but I don't think children should be exposed to such gruesome images!

I had to look away as we passed by, and of course this brought on comments such as, "You can look away, but it won't change the fact that this candidate endorses this type of violence... yadda yadda yadda." Deep breath / sigh of relief once we got inside the doors. Then the second trek began... finding a seat. With no success, we settled on a standing position on the Balcony. I could see over the lady's head in front of me - a clear shot of the big screen and the stage.

Music was playing and the Arena was absolutely PACKED!!! Then it began... My favorite past governor Cecil D. Andrus took the stage. He got the crowd going with his endorsement of Barack. Then he introduced Barack. What happened next was a wonderful speech from an honest man.

He spoke of change, he spoke of hope, he talked of the current situation America is in right now - touching on all the hot topics. He addressed the comments made by his critics with outright honesty. I won't go into all of the details because his speech can probably be found on YouTube or his website. But I will say that I agreed with his points and I plan to be out on Super Tuesday to show my support.

Why not Hillary? She's a woman and I am a woman; however, she played it safe. Like the majority of the Senate, she voted for the war in Iraq. If she believed it was an unjust cause, she would have stood up for that belief despite the chances of becoming unpopular. I don't want my president to stick to the middle of the road in order to please everyone else. I want my president to recognize that things suck right now and we need to make a change. Change that starts at the bottom, from the people.

Au Revoir Mon Ami

This picture illustrates one of my happier moments with my lost friend - butterfly chain. Yes, she was technically known as a 'Daisy Chain', but she was always a butterfly chain to me.

Last Saturday, I experienced what climbers refer to as an "Epic Repel" at the City of Rocks on the Classic Route of the Lost Arrow. It was a wonderful 5.7 climb with great holds and views of the City. I was able to use Butterfly after I finished the first pitch and then gave the Beauance a belay as he ascended the 2nd and final pitch of the climb.

After we were both at the summit, and ready to make our repel descent, we had to make the decision of who would go down first. Since this would be a hanging repel, there could be some chances of something going wrong, so the person who went first would have to clear the way. So down he went as I waited at the top. Before the Beauance went down, he ran through what I would need to do in order to get ready for the repel. As soon as I heard, "Off Repel", I set to work preparing myself.

Everything was set, and it was time to go over the edge and down to the ground. I lowered myself and decided to move my lockers to the lower chain link. Unfortunately, as I did this my weight was transferred from the repel to my daisy chain. Ordinarily, this would not have been a show-stopping situation, but with only 2-3 feet of rock wall ahead of me, I ended up lowering myself too low and was unable to unlock the beaner from the daisy chain. And so the epic repel began...

During the next 45 minutes to 1 hour of hanging from the top of the Lost Spire, I had to figure out how to detach myself from the daisy chain since I had given up all hope of getting the daisy chain unclipped from the chains. I tried to reverse repel to get myself higher, but at the end of climbing 6 routes my arms were tired so I didn't have the strength. I had some extra beaners clipped to my harness, so I was able to "climb" up the daisy chain in order to get the locking beaner off of my harness. Whew! Now I just had to get the beaners off and then repel down. The first beaner was fine with my plan, but when it came to getting off the second beaner, I ran into issues. It wouldn't come off the daisy chain's link! I struggled for a while and then FINALLY I was free and ready to repel down!!

The repel was nothing compared to what I had endured on that rock. During my epic "hang time", I had the Beauance put me on fireman so my hands would be free to undo the beaners. In the end, this countered against me each time I tried to get higher on the rock. I did end up slipping a couple of times and swung across the rock which scraped me up pretty bad. Also split the skin from the thumb nail during the numerous times I was trying to unclip.

I was able to get a parting shot of my beloved butterfly chain as she blew in the wind at the summit of the Lost Arrow rock. I felt awful leaving her, but I felt more awful being stuck to her on that rock! I hope someone finds her and gives her a good home... she's a hard worker and knows how to do her job [sniff, sniff].

I'll always remember you Butterfly Chain! You were my first and no other will be able to replace you in my memories!!

Other than losing my fair-weathered friend, the City was a wonderful weekend adventure! We did two great climbs on Tommy Knocker Wall: Lady J, 5.8 with 2 stars and Tommy Knocker, 5.10a with 2 stars. After Tommy Knocker, we headed over to Mushroom Rock and did two more climbs: North Face Left, 5.7 with 2 stars and North Face Right, 5.9 with 2 stars. Interesting note about these two climbs... the guide book showed there would be chains at the top of the climb for us to use; however, those chains were NOT there so the Beauance had to use some chains at the way top of the rock (these chains weren't even in the book). This caused some MAJOR drag on the way down, but was doable :-)

The weekend was full of adventures, lessons, and relaxing time spent with the most wonderful man in the history of the world! Can't wait to head down there for next year's climbing season!

I Run the Body Electric - Robie 2007

As I prepare for this weekend's Lava Rama 9.5 mile trail race, I can't help but look back and reminisce on this year's Robie Creek Half Marathon.

The Preparation
I initially didn't think I'd run the race this year, but since the Beau had never run Robie, I thought I'd give it another go. After all, it wasn't THAT bad :-) So January came along and we began the training regimine of weekly runs and long runs on the weekend. Since we didn't want to burn out on running, we also were able to mix in some cross training with mountain biking, cross country skiing, telemark skiing (me) and snowboarding (him).

Then the BIG day came, February 19 - Registration Day. Talk about the hardest and worst part of the race! I was sooooo emotionally drained after approximately 7 hours spent trying to register online for the race; it was horrible! Good news: both the Beau and I got in - hooray! So the training regimine continued until race day on April 21st.

The Climax
OMG, race day was here before we knew it! We awoke Saturday morning with excitement and had a little race prefunc with some toasted wheat bagels slathered with peanut butter and sliced bananas. The tunes were on full blast as donned our race clothes and pinned on our numbers. I got in a few sit ups to wake up the core and then got some dancing in to Interpol's "Evil" and The Strokes "Reptilia". Then it was time to hit the road.

We arrived at the race and were greeted with other racers and a line-up of port-a-potties that came in handy to contain the pre-race jitters. Ran into some good friends and then it was 15 minutes before the high noon start, a.k.a time to Gu. We ran into our photog friends, snapped a couple of pre-race shots and then it was time to go. We waited in agony at the start, as the dueling guitar players did their thing. FINALLY, it was GO TIME!!

The start of this race always kills me because I feel like we're a bunch of cooped up mice who are racing within a maze to find the cheese. After the maze, we were able to get some room and head up Shenandoah. Before I knew it, we were at the first cattle guard and then on our way to the dirt and steepness of the the second cattle guard. The Beau and I were able to run together for a couple of miles, but then he switched into his billie goat ways and attacked the uphill of Robie as I stuck to my wonderful pace. As I neared the summit, I could sense Temptation Table. I kept running up the summit and past the temptation, but not before I caught a glimpse of all the goodies and some dude's ball sac. Good times.

Hooray, the summit had arrive and I downed my second Gu before heading down the backside of the summit. I took the downhill in stride, but unfortunately, my stomach contents got severly jostled and I had to do some deep breathing techniques to make it through the last part of the race without the thrill of upchucking on the coarse. As I neared mile 12, I decided it was time to kick it up a notch so I put Cold's "Stupid Girl" on replay and switched gears. Before I knew it, the Finish Line loomed ahead and it was time to go turbo to the end. I was so happy to cross that finish line and see my man there holding a cold glass of beer! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to down the brew just yet, so we headed over to Robie Creek and walked around in the cold water to sooth our muscles.

We ended up staying a bit for the after-party and then got in line for the buses. Then we caught a ride with Dan the Man to the Crapshakmobile and headed home.

The Celebration
Oh no, it wasn't over yet! We got home and immediately called Serenity Retreat to book a room for soothing relaxation. We got there, took a much needed shower, soaked in the hot tub and then sweat it out in the sauna. That was a most wonderful treat for all the hard work. Then it was off to pick up a pizza and have a tasty salad. Whew!

The Results
The race results were in and I was very proud of the Beau! It was his first time running Robie and he did it in 2 hours flat (chip time). I made it in 2 hours and 4 minutes. I was really happy that I beat my last time by 9 minutes!! It goes to show that women DO get better with age!

Owl Rock, Arches and Moab

Pre-Arches
After we wrapped up our Horseshoe Canyon hike, we headed on down to the Arches National Park area to find a camping spot for the night. Since it was after 5:00pm on a Saturday night, there was ABSOLUTELY no BLM camping spots. So we continued down the road found a turnoff for Castle Rock and ended up finding an awesome campground that was free; hooray!

We set up camp on and headed out on a hike before getting dinner ready. Before eating the bountiful camp-stove cooked dinner, we toasted the day's adventures and read our climbing book for the next day's big adventure: Owl Rock. As I read the description, I grew more excited and thought it would be hard to sleep. But considering how much we had hiked, my head hit the pillow and I didn't wake up until I heard a dreadful sound: lots of rain and wind. CRAPPY PAPPY! We got back to sleep and crossed our fingers that the rain would stop for our big Sunday climb.

Hooray! Our wish came true and the rain had stopped. Unfortunately, the overcast skies didn't promise that we had seen the end of the day's rain. Solution: pack up quickly and have a quick bite in the car as we drove to our Owl Rock climb in Arches.



While we were packing up camp, the Beau had noticed an interesting artifact peaking from beneath the red sand. Upon closer inspection the artifact was unearthed. We did our best to figure out what it was and what purpose it served, but no luck. So we buried the artifact so it would rest in peace until another curious camper discovered it :-)

Arches Arrival
We arrived at Arches and made our way to Balance Rock and finally Owl Rock. The skies were threatening our ascent, but our will prevailed. The Beau got on his harness, shoes, gathered his awesome climbing rack and got climbing up the crack. It didn't look like such a bad climb, so when he asked if I was ready, I yelled "YES"!

Owl Rock proved to be VERY challenging for me for multiple reasons:
- I haven't been climbing like a good girl
- I had to retrieve all of the pieces that had been placed by the Beau
- I was climbing on Sandstone; a rock I had never climbed before
- I like the whine

I did the best I could to make it up that crack! My body twisted and turned in ways I thought were inconceivable and then I reach a point where I was out of breath and could go no further. I yelled and yelled up to the Beau and he didn't seem to hear me. I told him I wanted down. No answer. I yelled up to him, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE?" His reply, "Waiting for you to climb up." I was ABSOLUTELY flabbergasted!!! He was not going to let me quit and he was telling me "NO"?!?!?! Well, since I had no choice, I bucked up and set to climbing. I was sooooo out of breath when I reached the top, but was very thankful that the Beau didn't let me quit. As I looked out over Arches, I was very happy :-)

The next task was to get down. After a quick rappel refresh, I headed down first and the Beau followed. We were grinning from ear-to-ear at our accomplishment and then the rain began to fall. Talk about PERFECT timing!!

After we gathered our gear, we did the tourist-y things and checked out all of the amazing arches the park had to offer. The Beau ended up falling off the ledge on the way back from the delicate arch, but then he used his mad climbing skills to get back up. Whew :-D

I also got to touch the bottom of another famous arch and that made me feel pretty cool as well. On the way back to the car, the Beau ended up getting attacked by a wet hand monster, but he evaded danger yet again after the wet hand monster evaporated - beware of wet hand monsters!!

After the park, we headed to our hotel in Moab, took a much needed shower, and headed out for some brew and grub. There's nothing like being clean, eating a great dinner and downing a couple of beers. After dinner, we looked out the window and witnessed an amazing downpour; a downpour of rain that we had to walk through to get to the hotel. Soakin' good times. Other than the rain, dinner was a perfect ending to a perfect day.

Horshoe Canyon Hiking

Friday night, we ended up setting up camp on BLM land at the Horseshoe Canyon trail head to the Great Wall. I was REALLY excited for this hike because we were going to be seeing some amazing petroglyphs.

We awoke Saturday morning, had breakfast, got our water ready for the hike and set out on the 6.5 mile hike into Horseshoe Canyon. The trail was awesome and the site, sounds, smells in the canyon were unlike anything I had ever seen before.

The hike took over 4 hours and we ended up seeing about 5 different walls with paintings left by the Anasazi people. Along the way were cute lizards, flowering cacti, and beautiful blue skies.

Maple Canyon Climbing

Ogden Nights
Utah Adventure 2007 started Wednesday night as we headed down to Ogden, UT for our sleep over before heading out to Maple Canyon on Thursday. We arrived in Ogden pretty late; much later due to my misdirection (I was too stubborn to call Motel 6 for directions). After we ended up at the WRONG Motel 6, we called the number and found out the hotel was exits away. As we backtracked to the correct exit, the craziest thing happened! The hotel exit number mentioned in the message DID NOT EXIST!! So, I gave another stab at which exit we should take and was correct... WHEW!

The hotel was kind of freaky, but at least we had a good place to rest our weary bones before the next day's trek. I was sad the next morning when I found out there wasn't a dryer in the room - yes, I have become very spoiled when I travel for work :-) Called the front desk and found out they did have a hotel, but someone took it with them. So sad... had to start the dirty hair days a bit early. That was the start of me becoming a nappy-haired ho for the weekend!!

We stopped at Denny's before heading out and saw something that could only be found in Utah (refer to picture). What is this LDS? And why would the drinks need to be friendly for them? Hmmmmmm...


Maple Canyon Drive
On the way to Maple Canyon, we got to drive through Salt Lake City. Talk about a dreary town, filled with smog and impaling posts at practically every square mile! I was so disappointed to see how far the houses are creeping up the beautiful hillsides and how much of the natural resources are being consumed by heavy machinery digging into the mountainsides. Oh well, what should I have expected?!?!

We finally hit the exit for Maple Canyon and we were sooooo close! Fountain Green is the town that guards Maple Canyon and we got to pass many a sheep farm and turkey farms! At that point, I just wanted to plunk down, buy a ranch, get some sheep and goats and stay there!! But we travelled on...

Maple Canyon Arrival
When we arrived at the canyon entrance, our jaws dropped in amazement at how awesome the canyon walls were! The heights and cobble stoned appearance was like nothing we had ever seen! We drove on and picked out a campsite before grabbing our climbing gear and hitting the planned routes! We headed out to The Schoolroom wall and the beau set out climbing the first climb of the day! When he got down, I was told that I would need to clean the route as I climbed up... something I hadn't done since Smith Rock last May! Wowza time sure flies by fast!

I had a rough time getting started since I hadn't been hitting the climbing gym or the cliffs like a good climbing girl should do. I made it to the top just fine and cleaned the route like a rusty pro... hooray! We ended up climbing the rest of the 4 routes on that wall: Crunchy Bug 5.7, Massengale the Moose 5.8, Grease Bunny 5.7, Drowning Baby Fish 5.7, Chocolate Doobie 5.7. My favorite route was the last one on the wall: Chocolate Doobie 5.7. I was dead tired by that time, huffing like a fat chick running for the last twinkie, but I made it. Nothing like grabbing some great jugs and trying to make it over a small overhang when your arms and legs are pure jelly :-)

Of course the beau had to do 2 more climbs: Redemption of Madonna 5.9- and The Big Kahuna 5.10b (named after the HUGE rock in the climb). As long as I was anchored in to the tree, it was all good! The beau ended up seeing the most amazing rock formation - check it out!

After we ended the climbs, we headed out on our bikes to a hike in Box Canyon. Um yeah... let's just say we got a little confused on WHERE exactly the canyon was, so we did a pre-hike before the actual canyon. When we made it to the REAL Box Canyon, we had another jaw drop moment... such amazing walls!! I ended up making out a silhouette of King Kooba as we made our way through the canyon. At one point, we saw some ice that was spilling over a canyon wall lip. The hike was worth it, but the uphill ride back to our campsite left me VERY breathless and schweaty - the elevation there was a lot higher than what we were used to :-)

We ended up being the only people who were camping in the canyon and the star-filled skies were beautiful. The hobo dinner cooked over the fire accompanied by good beer topped off a VERY adventurous day.

Utah Adventure 2007

Last weekend, the beau and I set off on a plethora of adventures in Utah. I had previously visited Utah and have spent many hours in the SLC airport waiting for a connection flight, but have never had a chance to check out the natural wonders of Utah.

The extended weekend of adventures was awesome, but since we had to fit everything in it became exhausting at times :-)

Roll Call:
Hotel in Ogden
Climbing and biking in Maple Canyon
Hiking in Horseshoe Canyon to view the Great Wall
Climbing Owl Rock and tons of hiking in Arches National Park
Hotel/Restaurant in Moab
3 amazing nights of camping!!

Valentine's Day Beer Hunt

On the eve of Valentine's Day (a.k.a 2-year anniversary), I am on the East Coast, just miles away from Boston proper. Not a place to be when my love is many, many miles away. Now, what is a girl to do for her man when she is time zones away? Send him on a Beer Hunt!!

Below are the instructions for how the Beer Hunt is to be conducted... Remember to have fun and wait to drink the beer until after all the beer has been found!! Let the beer hunt begin!

1. Find the beer hunt basket. It is atop the biggest pile of my cluttered mess - I know how much you LOVE clutter!! After you find the beer hunt basket, you can begin the official beer hunt.

2. Find the first beer bottle at the grapes of wrath scene; also known as the home of the killer, ground bees.

3. Find the second beer bottle behind the backyard bushes you have worked so hard to trim down so each branch looks so mossy and beautiful.

4. Find the third beer bottle behind the unit you pushed to get fixed after surviving 2 summers of heat stroke.

5. Find the fourth beer bottle under the big, blue meat scorcher that now rests across from the ivy.

6. Find the fifth beer bottle behind your long, yellow lake adventurer... on the end, by the headboard we used to bang against the wall in your old apartment.

7. Find the sixth and final beer bottle in the holder for all your manly tools.

Once all 6 of the beer bottles have been collected, put them in order from #1 to #6 and follow the next steps.
1. Take off the outer layer of plastic wrap on each of the bottles.
2. Gather all 6 pieces of paper and put them in order - 3 rows and 2 columns:
1 - 2
3 - 4
5 - 6
3. Once all the pieces have been put together, secure them in-place with tape (3rd drawer down)
4. Turn the whole paper over and read all I have to say to you... You can re-read it if you like, but know that I mean every word!!
5. Open the coldest beer and toast us and our wonderful two years together!!
6. Save beer for me so we can toast together Friday, after midnight :-D

LUV - U - Scout! Heart - Scamp

GASP!

I just realized today that the number one killer in the world is death... This profound thought came out during a conversation with the Beau when I said the froggy was going to die from death unless he had some crickets. I don't know how one person can handle so many genius ideas, but I somehow manage to get by...