July 29, 2007:  Not a whole lot going on out our way, mostly just a catch up weekend for us.  Lisa worked all weekend and I did a few things around the house that I've been slacking on.  I cleaned up the Element, cleaned up the house, and did some various yardwork.  I also picked up some parts for the kayak racks to help keep my boat more stable, it doesn't seem to fit well with the Thule Rollercoaster.  Work was insane all week and will be next week as well.  Our camping trip will be a perfect way to end this coming week.  Everything is ready to go, even the footprint I made for the new tent.  I just finished updating the pictures of last week's trip in the kayak log so check them out.  The Mariner's just beat the A's 14-10 so I'm off to finish some yard work, have a good week. 

July 25, 2007:  So it just occured to me that I never really mentioned that we were going camping, so I guess I will now.  We made somewhat last minute plans to go camping on Ross Lake in the northern Cascades.  It was about a four hour drive to the boat launch at Hozomeen, WA that included going into and out of British Columbia and 39 miles on a dirt road.  We packed up the boats and paddled out to our campsite Friday afternoon in the rain.  We set up the tent in the rain and almost had to cook dinner in the rain but it let up for the evening.  Luckily it was just northwest rain, so basically very light, enough to get you wet but not enough to ruin your day.  It was a six mile paddle and we did have rain gear, skirts, and hats on so we stayed fairly dry, it really wasn't all that bad.  The campsites were great, nice level spots for the tent and a really nice food locker that ended up being a gear locker to keep our stuff dry.  Saturday we woke up at 10:30 am, unreal for camping, and paddled around the bay we were camping off of.  It was very overcast when we came in the afternoon before, 500 ft. cloud level, so we couldn't really see that we were surrounded by rock faced mountains, it looked like the alps!  We paddled up to this huge waterfall, had to be 10 stories tall, and tried to take pictures of each other without dropping the camera into the water.  It was tough to keep steady with the current created by the water and you can't really see how high up the canyon the waterfall starts but you can at least get the idea.  We ended up meeting the park ranger while stopping for a snack at one of the other campsites.  It turns out that he lived in Buffalo, NY for a long time and used to do a lot of camping in northern NY near where Lisa grew up, kind of funny.  We talked for a while and it's cool to have someone up there that will remember us when we visit again, which will hopefully be in a week or two.  It ended up raining most of the night Saturday but the new tent held up great, not a drop of water inside and the panels were dry as a bone.  We skipped cooking breakfast in the rain Sunday morning and paddled back to the truck for our drive home.  Since then we've been cleaning up the gear and getting it ready for our next trip, which we are hoping will be at the end of the month.  I'm still working on getting the time off, hopefully it won't be a problem.  So far the week has been nuts at work, as always I guess.  Lisa is working the weekend and I'll be catching up on stuff around the house.  We have to pick up a couple things for our camping gear collection, we're consolidating it down to just the things we need for up to a four day trip.  We were able to carry enough water for the whole trip so we didn't have to filter any from the lake, which was real nice because pumping gets very tiring.  So I guess that's about it for now, I'll be adding pictures to the Kayak Log in the 'Other Stuff' link to the left so check them out. 

July 22, 2007:  Camping was amazing, will write more this week! 

July 14, 2007:  Just did a few things around the house today while Lisa was at work.  I got the deck stairs stained and the landing finished like I was hoping to.  I also got a simple drip system set up for the plants on the deck.  The first batch died so this is hopefully going to help me keep the new ones alive.  I also updated some of the pictures in projects section.  I got a few more of the deck and some of the front yard too.  I'll probably write more later, Lisa just got home and we're gonna go out and grab something to eat. 

July 11, 2007:  Summer is here, started on the 4th of July, right on schedule.  We didn't do any huge trips or anything but we still had a great holiday week.  The weekend before the 4th we went mountain biking with Kim on Finn Hill, the trails that I broke my leg on last year.  It was a little scary but we had fun, it was Lisa's first time on trails like that, she did great and I think she might have actually liked it.  I say that because later in the week on one of her days off she packed her bike in the Element and hit one of the rail trails near our house for about 20 miles!  On the 4th a few people came over to chill out on the deck, grill and have a few drinks before we all figured out what to do for the fireworks.  Lisa worked until 5pm so we ended up riding our bikes down to the town common to watch the first local firework display.  It was only a couple mile ride and the display was actually very well done.  Next year we are going to try to get out on Lake Union with the kayaks, we'll have enough time to plan for it.  We both worked the rest of the week but had the weekend off.  Friday night we went out for a friends birthday and had a few drinks, well, Lisa had a few more than a few.  She got really sick but was mostly together by early Saturday morning when we had to meet the Rhodesian Ridgeback breeder that we are hoping to get a puppy from later this year.  They were awesome and the dogs were amazing, more than we could have ever expected.  We got to hang out and play with the dogs for most of the day and they even took us to a Lure Coursing event just up the road that one of their dogs was competing at.  I've seen it on television but never in person and never with Ridgebacks, it was really cool to watch, the dogs are so powerful and once that lure starts to move you better just let them run for it or you're going with them!  Hopefully everything works out and they have a litter this fall, if so we might have a new pup around the house by Christmas, it has been awefully lonely around there without one.  Other than all that we really have been doing much besides working.  I did mostly finish that hobby project I was working on but just got this one picture so far.  It came out even better than I expected, and is seriously about three times larger than the original truck was and only has a few of the original parts.  I've been doing more work on the sprinkler system, mostly just changing out more bad heads and adjusting stuff so it waters more evenly, I'm getting close.  I trimmed one of bushes near the front door that was really overgrown but I may have taken a bit more off than I planned.  It looks good but will take a little getting used to.  Late last week I also got started working on the foundation for the shed that we will be building at the end of the month.  I also got started on a set of steps for the deck that we orinally weren't sure we needed.  On the far side of the deck we got a huge piece of stone to use as the step but the area that leads off toward the garage and where the shed will be has nothing.  We've done enough jumping off that side to decide it was time to put in some steps.  It's quite a bit taller than the other side so we ended up with three steps and had just enough Ipe left to finish them.  Pictures of the shed progress are already up and I will add the steps to the deck page soon.  Anyway, that's about it for us for now, hopefully we'll be getting out for a short camping trip on Lisa's next weekend off, we'll see if we can get it together in time or not.  We picked up a new tent this weekend and set it up in the empty formal living room last night.  It's bright orange and you get a great view of it from the street, the neighbors probably think we're freaks, actually, I'm sure they already did so it's all good!  It's supposed to be 100 degrees here tomorrow and my work's annual water fight is scheduled for the afternoon, I have a water cannon that holds about a gallon of water but it looks like I might need a side arm too, this looks to be a serious competition!  Have a great week!