Shaping it

Did another Mt Wire today. Took the "Thrones Direct" route, then scuried up the ravine to give the dogs a break from the heat (heat? you say, this close to November?) Well the ambient was an unseasonal warm of at least 75 and the route is a west-facing, afternoon-sun catcher. This view is a gimps of the now defunct airport beacon at the summit.

Alexi is a great backbacker. Loves the ride up, then out-and-about at the top.
No so enamored with the impeding beautiful sunset, Alexi turns his back on it and explores more intersting things, like rocks and.....
"Hey, wait! What that up there?????"

Alexi discovers the airport beacon tower and is suddenly enthralled.It became difficult to keep him off it as the ladder was just too inviting.

Speaking of attractive nuisances for mischievous hands, Alexi is taking to crawling up on things. He just figured out how to climb up on a chair. And you know where that extends....

Distracted for a second, I turned around to see him up on the table, getting set to stand up and walk-the-plank.

We need to get that sibling for him, yesterday. cuz he needs a play pall pronto.

T, her Peo, and the cap of the funk

Talia (aka the "T") retains a deep attachment to Theo (aka, in T vernacular, "Peo").
This relation ship between T and Theo developed nearly two years ago when Rolf and Andi stayed with us for a few months. The had renters that needed their house before they were set to leave to the east coast for Rolf's Nurse Anesthetist School. So to help our friends out of a financial pinch. They either would have to rent some other place for themselves to stay a few months, or go out early and try to live on shoestring budget before the jobs and school loans kicked in. So what do friends do for friends in a bind??? .......Come On In, Stay a While!

Their recent visit was short but sweet. Prior to the wedding, we organized a gathering of the old core of compadres. Everyone together and lots of kids running around now (sorry no pics, forgot my camera).

Party wound down on early for a Saturday night. I guess we getting to be old-folk now, feeling that 9:30 is seeming just-a-bit late. Only late night parties for Christy and I are the pee-puke-n-poop parties occasionally held by Alexi in the wee hours of the morning. Lately we have been blessed with a good nights sleep, with goober seldom rising before 6:30-7.

Andi is incredible in her fashion sense. She gave a cute/goofy looking hat to Alexi which he loved. Somehow the color was just right to bring out facial features.

Alexi in heaven: His "new" used cell phone, a cool hat, .......and strip of drool across chin. YEA!

Andy and Rolf's brief visit

Good friends Andy and Rolf came back to SLC for a wedding. Originally Salt Lakers, they have been back east in Providence, RI, for a few years, while Rolf finishes up training as a Nurse Anesthetist. Luckily, we were able to convince them to stay with us, allowing us to enjoy their good company.

Their darling little girl, Talia, gave us a glimpse of what Alexi will soon be like, all chatter and lots of questions. Here we have The T demonstrating how she is going to send herself to Africa, in a cardboard box. To her regret, she did not quite fit, so we had to find some other activity besides the shipping business.

To wear out the T'zer, we took the family on a walk in the foothills. We went to one of my nearby favorites, the shoreline trail up behind research park.
My good friend, and fellow blogger, James was able to join us.

We all go back years. To our days in college when we used to run trips with the Outdoor Program at the U. It was nice have a beautiful day for reminiscences of the "good ol days." The views of the mountains behind us were an aid to our mental reflections.

more pics of Gobblers Knob

A few weeks back we hiked Gobblers knob with Alexi. One of the guys on the trip, got some pretty good shots that seem to beg posting. Here is a beauty of Mt Raymond.Golden Aspens Dribbling Downslope.

Minature Girl Angry with Her Owner

Alexi Still up for MORE, DADY, MORE.
Crazed Lunatic Photographer in Self Portrait

...thanks Michael for the good pics.

Reflector towers

"Hey papa, you gonna teach me how to ski this year?"
"Papa, we need to break down those barriers. That chain link fence that keeps us cooped up. Get me out there this season"

....Well, If I am to get him out, I need to get out. Need to get in some training.

Took the man up to the reflector towers yesterday.
Extricated from the backpack at the top, Alexi stumbled around and collected rocks.

This is one of my standard get-out-and-get-in-shape routes. Its is a quickie, but a goodie. Start at base in Research Park. Hike to top (the red fire-tower) and back down in one hour is good fitness goal.With Alexi on my back, I definitely did not achieve this goal. The added weight slowed me to 56 min in the 2000 ft climb to the peak. Going down was also slow at 30+ min.

"Papa, you gonna have to do better than that!"

You know what This means.....

Snow: the start of the Ski season is upon us. Here a pic from the back porch of the valley house.
We were up at the cabin this weekend trying to get over the hump in the fixer-ups plans. One of the two-room remodel is done (no pics yet) and the second room framing is underway.

Alexi is so impressed with daddies tool-time toys in the basement, he just had to get himself a project too.
Alexi's favorite project of late is the Tupperware Challenge. He love to crawl in the drawer and make himself comfortable. Then he proceeds to: pull lid off container, put lid back on container, ....chuck container over shoulder. Repeat.

Last Crest Tr Ride of Season

The forecast is for snow this weekend. Big storm a coming and may drop feets-o-snow in mountains. This called for an emergency bike ride up in the mountains, before high altitude trails become snowbound.

When I say emergency ride I mean Emergency Ride. Christy had organized the Third Annual October-Emergency "Burr-cold/Break-bone" Bike-fest. This is a gathering of her work-mates from the Emergency Department and it us usually always filled with adventure (Two years ago Christy mangled the bones of her right foot). They let me tag along, in the plurality of mascot/photographer/Mr-fix-it.

For us, this ride is usually one of the seasonal end-caps for getting the high altidude trails. With snow in the forecast, this ride would be no exception to this rule. Below we have the intrepid bikers after the 2700 foot climb up Spiro trail to the top of Peyuke Hill, which is named for the rather involuntary reflex that originates in the gut after such a grueling climb.

All of my trip attributes were in full showing this trip. Two of us qualified as mascots this trip, as the rest were ED associated persons. The photo above is courtesy of moi. And yes, Mr-fix-it came in handy. One of the bikes at about 10 miles into our 30 mile ride decided to eat its own derailer. As any biker knows, this cannibalistic condition is the catastrophic conclusion of a chain-suck calamity.

With the tension adjust delimiter sheared off, the derailer became "a code," in the ER vernacular. Because none of us had a spare derailer in their back pockets (I did have a spare drop out, though), it was time to amputate the part and make the ride a "Fix-ey." Took us a while to find the right gear cog combination that would allow strait chaining with the right tension. The best seemed to be the small ring up front and a middle ring in rear. Thinking our fix-it work accomplished, the rider jumped on the ride and proceeded down the trail. But 20 feet later, the anaerobic futile cycling started happening with his legs because a damaged chain-link gave out.

Link replacement therapy was instituted and bike elicited a positive response. But full remission was illusion. A few miles later, bouts of episodic gear jumping caused schizophrenic under-empowerment to the complete annoyance of the rider. To cap it off, the small ring decapitated its bolts and fell rattling to the inside. More gear-to-chain matching was attempted and a less than adequate gear combo was made using the crank arm's center ring. Near the top of the downhill, the chain broke again. Since the rider was so close to top and then it would be nearly downhill all the way to the car, the drive train was declared D.O.A. It would be one big 2000 ft coaster, all the way to the bottom.

Baring the occasional (or not so occasional), uncooperative bike, the ride was fantastic. Beautiful fall colors and a perfect mild temperature. A great end to rides high in the Wasatch.

Because it was during the middle of the week, we had daycare for Alexi.

Picking him up from daycare can be quite interesting. Here we have him in a bee costume, which at first glance, appears to be a large afro hair-do.

From the apprehensive expression on boogers face, I am not sure he knows what to think of this new look.

Lacerations onto water

My hands are sore as I try to type this (OUCH!) I have lacerations on most digits. My right pointer finger is a smashed throbber. And the same hand has a nice scabby hole in its middle finger. So, you might ask, what have I been doing this last weekend???

Well, it was a not-too-exciting weekend of misty, drizzly rain. A good weekend to work inside, on the renovations we have been planning up at the cabin. We need to buff out the cabin to allow us to list it as a vacation rental. The service we are using (mount majestic) has us pushing a listing a little beyond its current status, thus we need to make renovations to get it up to the billing.

We painted and furnished the two bedrooms in the basement (easy), but the other half of the basement is unfinished concrete and cinder-block (Ugh!). So, to make it more hommey, we have set out to finish the basement with drywall and wood floors. Two rooms will be made (game room and workspace). Covering the cinder-block/cement requires framing. And doing a damp basement with fur studs is just asking for rot trouble, thus I turned to metal framing. It is pretty much the same price as wood, but cannot rot and will not conduct moisture. It has its attributes (easy to size/assemble with tin-snips and drywall screws) and its drawbacks (sharp, vicious finger-cutting edges). Then theres learning to hang drywall and puddying up a perfectly smooth joint. And floor, "easy" to assemble click-in-place laminate flooring. Requiring a big "wee bit" of hammering to get tight junctions (ouch! my thumb!).

While I was torturing my hands and creating chronic back pain in the basement, Alexi and Moma were having fun upstairs. Well, as much fun as one can having to keep a young one locked-up inside, out of the rain. Patience is not turning out to be one of Alexi's innate skills. boredom on his part (and probably Christy's too), found them taking a hike in the rain. Getting back rather wet, a bathtime fine-time was in order.


Booger-brains is really after my heart, cuz he really digs water. Fifteen minutes of bath time is not enough for Water Boy. He could spend hours splashing away. These are fine attributes that bode well for making him a good kayaker. In fact, taking him to the community pool at Fairmont Park is a super treat for him. Its all splash, splash, splash and bubbles, bubbles, bubbles. Half hour later his teeth are chattering and he his still is all-smiles, pointing for me to take him to this thing, or that. Like bathtime, he protest the ending. Crying and squirming he is extracted from the water.Here we have mid-funtime joy of splashing it up. (Notty-bits are covered here cuz his private parts are ....to remain private). Lately he has taken to throwing water (among other things). Why if he had paint instead of water, he'd be a regular Jackson Pollock, ....budding artist he is. He specializes on shocking presentations, lately he points or grabs something he is not supposed to have, then look at you with that mischievous "what-ya-gonna-do-about-it?" look. If we are not quick enough to intercept, it is usually followed by hucking the thing down hard on the floor. (Ha, Ha, He, He).

Lets just say, the house is not as organized and tidy as is used to be.

On to other scary things, Halloween is coming. We just got him an alligator suit at Costco. He looks quite cute in it, but we have no pictures yet. We'll get plenty of that at Halloween. But scary things are happening now already. I was saving the pic where I made the edit of a vanity clover leaf and this is what I got.....

Initially I thought my computer had become possessed by deamons, but careful analytical research reveal this supernatural effect was due to saving as CMYK (problem solved by saving RGB).

But the CMYK is ......CREEEEPY SMURF MONSTER!!!

Emily Smoak boy

Went over to Chris and Emily's to see their new born boy, James Smoak

cute little pickle.  Quiet little sleeper, only half opened one eye as Alexi was held up to look at him.  Alexi's response was a similar silent contemplation, he just popped two fingers (ring and middle in mouth) and made a few sighs.

NEWS FLASH:  Hopkins Family Start Paperwork on # 2.

So, a little more than complete disinterest from Alexi, we're gonna take that as a good sign.  Cuz this time next year (or a few months earlier), there is gonna be another one in da house competing for attention. 

 

gobblers knob

Here we are 14 days out and no repeat episodes of Passing Out with no Breathing. That is lucky 7's. (7+7 = 14). If a pair of dice could have set of 7's then that is what I rolled. Thank goodness all is well on the Hopkins home front.

Speaking of 7, in the world out side my home, the number 7 is not so auspicious in its associations today. Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 777 points today. Thats a 7 % drop. Largest ever. And it was due to news on Wall Street that the party is over. Congress rejected the Bail-out Plan at 700 billion dollars (read: Shameless charity gift to an already pathetically rich set of Americans). But alas, no quick-fix hang-over drug for them. Party is over. Got pay your dues from your times in excess. ....Hey, we all must pay the piper in someway, someday. Hopefully the next "get-even-richer" scheme to come out of Washington will at least make some attempt to directly address those of us who are struggling to meet our mortgages.

OK, no more digressing into the current state of economic peril. It will fix itself. Lets get back to my personal peril, now long gone and fixed itself, I hope. Alexi has been great. All seems to be well and that Febrile Seizure thing (or whatever it was) is a thing of the past.

Feeling confident and going for the luck of the 7's, I ventured to take Alexi on a long hike yesterday. We started of the hike at the Alexander basin trail head at about 7,000 feet. Shouldering the boy in the backpack, I felt pretty strong for the first 2,000 ft. But the last 1,000 to make the summit of Gobblers Knob was steep and hard. Especially since I had 35 lbs on my back. (Alexi at 25 ish lbs and another 10 or so in water, food, and gear. Hey, double 35 and you get a lucky 70 lbs!!?).

We summited to glorious weather. Beautiful clouds accentuating the sky to earth view. The picture taking was stunning. Here we have a labmate of mine, Christian, taking a pic of his visiting beauty from Denmark, named Ea. In the background was the peak bagger extraordinare, Angella, the S.O. of my other labmate, Michael (not shown). Michael, who is a rabbid outdoor hiker, has infected Angella with peak grabbing addiction. Since she started hiking a month and a half ago, she has 16 summits underfoot. And this one was no exception, because she is standing on the tippy top, where the summit marker embeds in stone.
Allas, Alexi was less than enamored of the view. He fell asleep as we neared the summit and slept at the peak for 5-10 min while we had a snack break.
He was missing out on a great 360 view, But this was a fortunate bliss blessing for me. As we started contemplating to go, Booger woke up and became enthralled with the cliff edges around us. He could not keep himself away from my favorite winter pastime -- that of launching my meat from the lips of the cliffs, into ephemeral ease of hang-time space. It became a bit of a chore has he squirmed in my hands to be let down, only to charge right off towards the precipices surroundng us.

Wrestling him back into the backpack, we headed down towards the pass between Mt Raymond and Gobblers. Then a long traverse back to the car, with brilliant yellow aspens and ruby-orange oaks greeting us on the decent.

All in all it was a long one. 3000 ft up, and down (regrettably, no easy sliding down on skis). It took us over 5 hrs. Or in Alexi terms, 3 sets of diapers, two "ba-ba" (bottle), and half a PB&J to make the full trip. .....So me legs is a bit sore today.