Month: June 2026

Part of our winnings from the Pole Pedal Paddle was a gift certificate from Mountain Burger. I had a strawberry shake with my burger. Yum!

Last weekend we went bike packing on the Aufderheide Scenic Bikeway. We started at a cool covered bridge.

Here I am with Dad. Where is The Mother? This is a question we asked a lot. The answer was always – far behind.

It was cold.

The campground was very nice and had BIG trees.

In addition to being cold, it was rainy. We tried to dry our clothes, it did not work.

There was steam coming off the wet road in the warm sun in the morning.

It wore me out it.

This weekend was The Dalles Omnium. On the first day, we did a 22 mile road race. My bike computer said the max temperature was 104 deg F. It did not stop me from charging.

I ended up with third place.

I recovered with a raspberry sorbet.

The second day there was a time trial. My bike computer registered 102 deg today. It did not stop me from charging.

2nd place!

The Bigs tried a few new recipes. Thankfully they tried this one – Spinach and Herb–Stuffed Mushrooms with Blistered Cherry Tomatoes – the day I went to Jameson’s for dinner. I was happily eating gnocchi when this one rolled out. Phew.

They also made Pan-Seared Squid with Serrano Chile, Whole Spices, and Lime. I prefer the fried calamari you get as a restaurant appetizer.

Lastly they made Grilled Balsamic Chicken with Peaches and Basil. It was fine.

We busted out a bunch of new and different recipes and a ton of landscaping the past two weeks. We started with kimchi miso ramen.

We decided to stay home over the long weekend and tackle a project we’ve been putting off for a while. The front yard. The grass was full of weeds, ugly, and used lots of water. It had to go. This is what the yard looked like at the beginning of Memorial Day weekend.

The Bigs and I removed the sod by hand. Not fun, not efficient, and very hard.

At some point, I decided my skills would be better put to use making refreshing beverages for The Bigs as they worked away in the heat. I made blueberry basil limeade.

Refreshed, The Bigs were able to finish the sod and unload 4.5 yards of dirt.

We all looked like coalminers when we were done. For example.

There is no rest for The Emmett, so after a hard day of landscape, I made one pot shrimp piccata.

Day 2. We had a large pile of dirt and all the landscape places with rock were closed…

except one in the middle of nowhere. We bought some rocks. It seems weird to buy rocks but they had them and we needed them, so there you are.

Lifting all those rocks wasn’t enough physical activity, so we went out for a bike ride. We rode the Twin Bridges loop. It is a ~30 mile ride from Bend to Tumalo and back.

For dinner, Dad made Pork Belly Okonomiyaki (okonomiyaki is a savory Japanese pancake that roughly translates to “grilled how you like it”)

On Tuesday, it was back to school. I got a new road bike from the Horner Cycling crew and I just wanted to try it out, but it was my night to make dinner. I was very much the grumpy gourmet while preparing my fish taco dinner.

When the weekend rolled around again, The Bigs were ready to finish the yard. We got more rocks and made a wall.

We got a cool tree. A little gem spruce:

We are almost done. We still need to plant a bit more and mulch. But for now. Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Dad made a Shrimp Okonomiyaki after all this hard work.