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Friday, January 31, 2020

2020 Vision : January wrap-up


You know how much I love a project... and you know I love making lists. Because I wanted to do something special for 2020 I came up with the idea of my "2020 Vision" -- twenty lists of twenty things each. They're a mix of easy and difficult things, but all things I want to get done. And I'm happy to report that I'm doing pretty well for my first month. Sure, some of the lists haven't been started yet. But I feel happy with my progress so far.

Let's start with great news: I've completed one of the lists!

20 Crowns in Duolingo -- completed 1/25/20
I've gotten into the habit of spending 5-10 minutes on Duo practicing Spanish every morning. As of today I've got a 27 crowns and a 26-day streak going. In related news, I've shifted my "Spanish!" task in 101 things in 1001 days from the vague "I've got a Rosetta Stone course" to "Reach checkpoint 2 in Duo".

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Now for the "bad" news: I haven't started several of the lists. I say "bad" because I knew some of them wouldn't start until later in the year. Still, full disclosure here.

20 swims. The Ballard Pool should reopen soon; I hope to get at least one swim in in February!
20 sketches. I had originally thought about starting this on February 1; however something else has won that spot! Looking at March for this.
20 paintings. I want to do this mostly in the summer; so we'll try it then. That said, wouldn't it be fun to paint the Northern Lights?
20 embroidery stitches. Just learned that February is National Embroidery Month. (Who knew??? DMC knew.) So I'll work on an embroidery project next month and start my stitch sampler, too.
20 songs on the uke. Sigh. I miss playing. Not sure why I can't seem to make myself pick it up again!
20 new things in my portfolio. I've actually produced some things I'm really proud of this month at work; I just need to document them and add them to my portfolio.
20 Thames Path posts. I will start writing these in February -- they'll start publishing in March!
20 hours volunteered. I'm going to pick a race to volunteer at with the Magnuson Series as a kick start; though that race probably won't be till March.

And now for the "works in progress" -- these make me feel like I'm getting stuff done!
20 hikes
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20 bike rides
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20 runs at least 5K long
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20 new recipes
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20 new adventures
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20 books read
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20 crafty blog posts
5
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20 new skills
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20 movies 
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20 hours of stitching acanthus 
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20 things off my 101 list (yes, this one is a "cheat" and double dipping, but when else will I get those things done?
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Did you set goals for 2020? How are they going? We'll see if I can keep moving forward!

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Hike of the Week: Snowshoeing at Mount Rainier

attempted action usie ... actually took a screenshot!
Last January we were registered for a snowshoe trip to Mount Rainier National Park that had to be cancelled because of the government shutdown. REI rallied (of course!) and we spent a really fun day out at Lanham Lake instead. We enjoyed it so much that we bought heavily discounted snowshoes in the end-of-season REI Garage Sale!

I saw that the trip was being offered again for 2020 and signed Wil and I up as a Christmas present. Saturday morning we reported bright and early to the Issaquah REI, ready for fun despite the nasty weather forecast.

I love REI trips -- we just need to show up and someone else deals with transportation, planning/revising the route based on conditions, guiding, and instruction, as well as providing a lunch. And what a lunch! We stopped en route at the completely essential Cottage Bakery in Eatonville for pastries and to collect our lunches (bagel sandwiches, chips, and a great cookie).


Then we arrived at Narada Falls, where we strapped on our gaiters and snowshoes, lengthened our poles, and had a little chat about snowshoes.


Then we immediately climbed a very steep path out of the parking lot. It was only later that I realized it was steep because we had to climb up to get on top of the deep, deep snow.

Our group of 12 hiked out to the Reflection Lakes, stopping here and there to talk about snow, snow safety, and snowshoe techniques. And on we clacked and crunched.



The weather was pretty great -- we'd actually seen the mountain on our drive up, and though we didn't have a lot of views of her, because we were mainly in the trees, we stayed dry all day with only two very tiny snow flurries. Glorious!


We alternated between trail that had been broken and the deep, wet snow. We carefully followed the signs pointing us to "Reflection Lakes Avoiding Avalanche Chute". Because, well, duh.

We got to the lake and had it mostly to ourselves.


Rachel marked out a "do not cross this" line so that we didn't wander out onto the ice...



While we took a break alternating between eating lunch, shooing away the aggressive little birds, and just relaxing.




hello... I'd quite like to steal your lunch
All too soon it was time to head back. We caught the tiniest sliver of the Mountain through the trees -- we'd been so lucky with the weather!


We decided to cut the trail by descending down a steep powder slope, which was really scary and hard for me. I just don't trust the poles and snowshoes enough. But I made it down, only falling once. Rachel, one of our guides, hung out with me while I inched down the hill. She also took a fine photo of the two of us!


The final scary bit was that last hill to the parking lot. On the way out I mentioned to Rachel that my plan was to take my snowshoes off and just sit my way down it. When we actually reached it, Richard (our other guide) told everyone to stretch out, take off their snowshoes, and walk carefully down the snow steps he dug out. It was only at the bottom that I noticed that it was higher than the roof of the nearby "Comfort Station". STEEP.

Happy and tired, we all piled back into the van for the ride home -- another great day out on our snowshoes!



Wednesday, January 29, 2020

January OMG complete: Sashiko mat

I'm happy to report that my first OMG of 2020 is complete! I set a goal to start work on a sashiko placemat kit I picked up in Japan last year. Here's where I was at the beginning of the month:


Over the course of the month I filled in the lines. I decided to try and work in a traditional manner, making long sweeps back and forth across the fabric:


And here's where I am now!


It still needs a good iron, but the stitching is done. I'm sure that having this check-in, this accountability, is what kept me moving along.

That's why I love these One Monthly Goal check-ins -- you can find out more at the Elm Street Quilts blog, and see how the other participants fared on their OMGs!



Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Travel Tuesday : Valley of the Kings

We got up early, went to breakfast, and we went over to the front entrance -- right at 7 -- to meet Hamdi, our hard-sell taxi driver we'd arranged to go to the Valley of the Kings with after he drove us into Luxor the previous day. Imagine our surprise when Hamdi turned up with another driver as well and told us we'd be going with him. Nice. We figured that he'd gotten a higher amount from the other group and would have ditched us in a heartbeat. So we rather unhappily climbed in the other car. It was fine, of course. He stopped along the way for us to buy water and made sure we didn't get too fleeced. Then drove us quickly and safely to the Valley of the Kings.


I'm not sure what I expected -- but there's an attractive visitor's center and a not too chaotic ticket window. You buy a ticket that gives you entrance to 3 tombs for 60 LE. You can then buy additional entry tickets to Tutankhamun (100 LE) and Ramses VI (50 LE). We bought Tut tix and then set off. I had picked out some tombs to visit -- unfortunately 2 of my 3 were either closed or required a supplemental ticket. oh well.




At one point two guards beckoned me over to take a photo. This was a terrible idea... because I knew at the end they would want a tip. And they had machine guns. But it was fine and there were handshakes and thumbs up and big smiles. And machine guns.


We started off in Tut's tomb -- a deep, angled walkway down, then a small room. There's a red quartzite sarcophagus -- massive and perfect and beautiful -- and the outermost gilded wooden coffin (we saw the other 2 in Cairo). In a smaller case on the other side of the chamber rests his mummy, looking very frail, with spindly toes peeking out from the too-short covering. Some very nice painting on the walls -- a chubby young Tut with his wife, for example. It's one of the smallest tombs in the valley, but special because of Tut, and because the mummy is there. The tickets are overpriced at 100 LE, but it did keep the crowds down.



Tried to go to Ramses VI, but it needed an extra ticket so we decided to think about it. Moved on to Seti I. Closed. (So sad, because it had lovely crocodile and hippo paintings.) Tried some others. Ramses III? Closed. Amenhotep II? Closed. Sigh. Went to Seti II largely because it was open. Pretty paintings, nice carving (the walkway starts as carvings but then just goes on as paintings -- as if they were either running out of time or of interest. Some of the painting is really just sketches in red paint -- sometimes added to with black paint. Pretty cool. The guards in the tombs follow you around, calling out names or things in the carvings. "Cartouche. Osiris. Crocodile." and then expect a tip. This "walking wallet" thing is tiring.



Then we went "next door" to the tomb of Tawosret / Sethnakht -- a double tomb of sorts. Two big burial chambers... a little like train carriages. Really nice paintings -- have they been restored (repainted?). Lots of stars on the ceiling. Pretty.



For our final tomb we went to Ramses VII Big tomb, lovely painting, etc. Clearly the heat was getting to me at this point. Decided therefore to skip the Ramses VI tomb -- we had been in the Valley nearly 2 hours already.

So to the exit and the gauntlet of vendors. Everything so cheap -- but almost all of it crap. So tiresome. But it's their livelihood, I know.


Then back to the car and to Deir al-Bahri, aka the Temple of Hatshepsut. Her temple is beautiful -- looks fantastic and modern.



Most of it has been rebuilt using modern stone. But there are some beautiful reliefs carved on the terraces... including the bringing of trees to her garden, a couple of which "survive" (or linger as dead stumps) near the ticket gate. Lots of annoying touts -- taking pictures of people with their camera and then refusing to return them till they are given a tip. We didn't fall for it, of course.

the bringing of trees!

sadly, it's a tiny stump that they're hoping will re-grow...







 I love when you can see the pain still on the statues:





Super hot there, and we finished the water. As we braved the tourist gauntlet, one clever vendor had posted a large price list for his cold drinks. That's all I want, really. I'm happy to pay over the odds, but not to be fleeced all the freaking time. Really. So we bought Coke Light and water and guzzled it.

Then back in the taxi -- where the driver encouraged us to go to an alabaster factory (we said no). We didn't have time (or, by that point, ENERGY) to go to the Ramesseum, so we just went to the Colossi of Memnon to snap a couple of pictures and then headed back to the hotel.




We asked the driver to take us somewhere to buy water and soda and he stopped at a place in Karnak, not far from the hotel. We loaded up, even buying two expensive bottles of mineral water (12 LE each, when soda is only 5).

Spent the rest of the afternoon lolling by the pool and reading trashy books. I had finished "The Host", and got most of the way through the horribly written "Atlantis Code".

In the evening, we took a shuttle into town and went to the Kings Head pub. Wil had a Heineken while I made the grievous error of ordering a whisky sour. I mean, I wouldn't order that in a proper English pub, so what was I thinking? I suspect they had never made one before ... it was lemon juice (not lemonade, just sour lemon juice), and a splash of whisky. So nasty, almost undrinkable. Totally my fault.


Then a wander through Luxor in the dark, and we walked home along the corniche. So many cruise ships! Moored 4 deep. Are any of them going to move? Weird. Spent the whole walk fending off taxis, carriages, and felluccas. Tiresome.


Walking through Karnak village, we stopped to buy soda. The kid tried to charge us 10 each for the soda, so we started to walk out. We quickly dropped to 10 total.


Some little lad followed us for blocks and blocks, shouting "Hello! Money!" over and over. Really annoying. Then back to the hotel. Did I mention I burned my legs really badly? Idiot.