Weekend photos set 1.

September on our minds...

Wow, September, eh? Well, that's just ducky with me - bring on the cooler weather! Autumn is my favorite season anyway so I'm pretty stoked. I guess that means we have an anniversary coming up! That's just nuts. September 29th will be our FOUR YEAR wedding anniversary?? That means Big Dog turns 5 this month too. Woof.
Speaking of flying time, I got to spend the weekend with my nieces, Hannah and McKenzie. McKenzie wanted me to take some photos of her for her senior portrait so we went galavanting about town shooting away. Saturday morning Paul and Hannah participated in the Annual Knoxville Marine Corp Mud Run so I took some photos there too. This was Hannah's first time and she did really well! It was a 5k with mud pits, hills, and some obstacles thrown in. Everyone looked to have a good time, though I was dissappointed at the lack of media coverage. A lot of people were asking if I was covering it since I was the only clean person running around with a camera... Maybe next year I'll get some folks together and go shoot the event ourselves... Or maybe I should just create my own event coverage company like Bird's Eye View. Hmmm...
I'll post some photos later on.

After the event we all got cleaned up and ran around town taking shots of Max (McKenzie). We dropped Hannah off at a friend of hers for a sleep over then headed to Buffalo Wild Wings at Turkey Creek for some football and a late lunch. Finished up the evening with some sunset pics and a cheesey sci-fi movie at the house.

Sunday was group shots after catching Hannah in her martial arts gloves and pink muay thai hand wraps, then off to visit with my parents for a bit. Dad got back to TN on Saturday after being stationed in NC to help out with some of the flooding and wind damage in Eastern NC towns. We had lunch and got to catch up a bit, which is always good.

So basically everyone is doing well, we're all healthy and doing our own things... Work is crazy busy as some project work is coming together plus all the effort in the merger with Progress Energy. Stace is working a full schedule at the Urb and squeezing in a trip to MO this week on top of a few small projects we have going on a la casa...

Not sure yet as to what our anniversary/holiday plans are yet, but we're working on them and will have them hammered out soon enough.

Hope everyone is doing wonderfully!
J.

Getting back to the basics...

So I've taken on the responsability of providing bread for our table. I'm tired of paying for huge baguettes that go unusable after just a day and end up being wasteful. I have been using the "no knead" recipe for several weeks and even using only half the recipe (which the dough lasts for around 2 weeks so you can make small loaves/bouelles) with a little planning you can have fresh bread with your dinner meal. Spectacular!

First, I'll give you the original youtube.com video as to how to make the dough:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFJZPm-_2-M&feature=related

and now photos of my last two loaves....

You can use oiled pans to shape the loaves but I like the bouelle. And you can pull a large or small amount from the dough you prepare. That way there is no waste. I think everyone should do this as there's really no reason not to if you care about what you eat. Or especially what you photograph. ;)
I will say that as hard as I try to come up with a VERY good meal, having it topped with a nice bread that was made in my home by my own hands is just a perfect bonus. I've used it as addons and also as the main course for sandwiches (blackend chicken with spinach leaves, sliced tomatoes and melted feta/blue cheese spread). Kind of a "fast food be damned" moment. I understand those moments - thank you Wendy's - but when you can counter them, it really means something.

2.12.2011 - The Rio Bravo Grouchos - muy tarde post, lo siento - Post 1

Justin: So after work on Friday Feb. 11th Stacey and I piled my backpack into the Kia and headed to Greenville, SC. You see I had a very early flight to catch the next morning and Greenville is around 100 miles from our house. We originally thought we'd just get up and drive straight to the airport, but I was concerned about Stace having to drive back all sleepy, so we got a hotel room. Interestingly enough, even with the hotel, the savings from flying out of Greenville versus Charlotte was worth it.
Where was I going, you ask? Well, I was on my way to Big Bend National Park in Texas to spend the week floating the Rio Bravo River! Stacey's Uncle Dale invited some of his friends, family, and myself to do a canoe trip on the Rio Grande (we call it the Rio Bravo as it's not too grand) as they did it a few years ago and thought it was about time for a repeat.

The flights were fine - smaller, unfilled planes and an easy layover in Dallas left me landing in Midland, TX with time to spare before the rest of the crew arrived. Midland is a tiny airport - about the size of Terminal A in most cities I'm used to. I hung around outside for about an hour before the convoy rolled up all Blackwater style... well, if Blackwater was a black BMW M3 with a big green canoe strapped across the top and a red Saturn Vue in close pursuit. Dale, Coy, Jim, Gary, and Lee rolled out with hearty greetings and stiff legs from their thousand mile road trip from Kansas City. The other car in the convoy had skipped this leg and was enroute to Marathon, where we would be staying the night at the legendary Gage Hotel. A few minutes later the rest of our crack team arrived from Seattle - Bob and Paul - from Michigan - Bill - and after procuring a rental for them we too were on the road.

First stop: Marathon and the historic Gage Hotel

So after a couple hours of enjoying the scenic view of dirty scrub, rusting machinery, and well, really nothing else, we rolled into the oasis that is the tiny town of Marathon. The town is a couple of blocks long with a few streets of homes and some small businesses and the Gage Hotel seemed to be the largest employer. I'll just give you this link so you can see it for yourself. The images are a little bit nicer than the place however th actual hotel is very nice... http://www.gagehotel.com/

Most of our rooms were in the new "villa" area. We all rested some then got cleaned up and went to their restaraunt for dinner. GOOD FOOD. I got the chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes and Stacey's brother, Lee, described it best: "That looks like a catcher's mitt!" No joke - it was huge.
That night was cold. Like in the 20s cold. Luckily there were heavy blankets in the room so other than just getting back to the room, it was pretty comfortable. After traveling all day and with a tummy full of good food, I slept like the proverbial rock.
Sunday morning we all gathered in the dining room for breakfast (very nice) and then rounded up our lil posse for the couple hours drive down to the park. It wasn't long out of Marathon when the scenery started to improve. Plateaus and buttes started rising up out of the ground in the distance, finally giving us something to look forward to.
Inside the park the speedlimit was 45, so it took a while to wind down and around to our outfitters - Far Flung Outfters http://ffoc.net/  - in Terlingua. We paid for our canoes and I bought a boggen as I had left mine in Charlotte and it was going to be still chilly at night. Now our convoy is big truck and trailer longer with a couple hours yet to the river.

More next post.

Photos from everyone: http://s1103.photobucket.com/albums/g474/RioGrande2011/

Food

Justin: I understand that I post articles of dinners to this blog and to Facebook. The reason I do is because cooking is new to me, personally. Growing up it's always been a second to most other occasions. You go to a friends party and watch The Game and there is food... But now it's me making The Food while there is a game. And I know the Mothers and Others that read this who are used to doing all the cooking in their households are thinking: "And???? What's the big deal? Yeah, I make that dish every Thursday". Well, I don't, so I'm basically guessing and just putting what I do out there; open to suggestion. Feel free to share recipes for me to try out!

The Ides of Pork 3.15.11

Justin: So Stacey found a very nice new butcher shop after a 5 mile run with our friend Sharon on Sunday and she brought home 2 very nice (huge) bone-in porkchops. I fixed them tonight.

Rubbed the chops with olive oil, heavy pepper, heavy garlic salt and chopped rosemary. Put them in a hot pan with a couple of tablespoons of hot olive oil and let them cook for 5 minutes on each side, adding

more rosemary with each flip. After the 10 mins I made sure they were nicely crispy and done and moved them to a plate with a couple of towels to rest.

Meanwhile I had 2 potatoes finishing in the oven. They started before the chops in the microwave for 10 minutes and I removed them and cut off their tops so I could dig out the middle. I had already fixed the

bacon before starting anything else, so it was drained and I crumbled two of the 3 pieces I made into a bowl with butter, the potato middles, cheddar cheese, pepper, NO SALT ( the bacon gave that),

chives, and some milk since I had no sour cream. I whipped all that together and then piled back into the taters to top with more cheese and the bits of the third piece of bacon then into the oven for a few

minutes. They finished up about as the chops finished resting and that cleared up the oven to use the broiler to finish off the crostinis. The steamed broccoli finished up about the same time after being in the

microwave under film in a bowl with water and butter and pepper for 9 minutes or so.

I'm finding that I'm beginning to really enjoy cooking and trying new recipes. Combine that with photographing a pretty plate and well, it's just fun.

A new post??

I swear there is a new post coming... Trips and foods.. and DAMN YOU FACEBOOK for killing the blog!

My Sunshine

How did I forget this?

So Justin and I went zip lining last Sunday at a place called Spookywoods about an hour away from here. And somehow in the excitement of a Halloween attraction, I forgot that zip line involved heights and a free fall of sorts and a faith in other people's equipment - all things that I don't like. So we end up on a tower about 40 feet up with me strapped into a harness and a dude that I've been asked to call Cap'n Crunch giving me a pep talk.

Justin (of course)was fine. I took 5 minutes to launch the firt time. I gibbered like an idiot making everyone else in our group so annoyed that they rocket-launched off the stands to get away from me. I required a pep talk and slight shove at each tower. And after 6 lines, I opted to head down to solid ground when we made it back to a tower with steps. FYI, no steps is quite the incentive to keep going.

To be honest, I enjoyed it in between my bouts of terror and I plan on going back. I'm getting too cautious in my 30s and it's not a fun way to live.

I wish we had photos or video but I was gripping the line too tightly to reach for my camera. Apparently my death grip was the only thing keeping me on the line.....

Race Day and Pumpkin Patch photos

A quick trip home and a long half-marathon!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

So tomorrow night Justin and I are going to a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show! 
Can you believe Justin has never seen it??  (Of course, in his mind, he thinks I'm nuts for having never seen The Matrix.)  We will be the losers in the audience with no costumes however because we are slackers this year.  :-)

Work is going well for both of us but is very busy.  I was told during my first week at Urban Ministry that I would spend the first year having my immune system attacked by every germ known to man.  So far that has been true.  It doesn't help that in the midst of the germ attack I have been trying to keep training for multiple races.  I managed to survive the Kansas City Half Marathon (with the help of an inhaler) a couple of weeks ago while my brother and Uncle Dale kicked my a** and ran the full.  This was a drop in the bucket for Dale who actually followed up the KC marathon by running the Niagara Falls marathon the following weekend.  Lee, running his 1st marathon, finished with a smile in a little over 4 1/2 hours.  And Jackson, the world's cutest child, was there at the finish line with his "Go Daddy Go!" cheer!

I was excited to get to go home and spend some time with everyone.  Jackson (and I don't mean to brag) is addictive to say the least.  He is changing so much and can say sentences and sing songs and I got to spend so much time with him this past trip.  We spent the Friday before the race hanging out at Crown Center and went to the Crayola store and a dinosaur exhibit at Union Station. He didn't quite understand the dinosaur exhibit but did enjoy roaring at the large dinosaur models. 

So now we're just in prep mode for the holidays - the one drawback of living away from our families is that we don't get quiet holidays at home so the travel plans are in process! I'm hoping for snow!

Enjoy the pictures!

couple more photos

A few from the trip

Ah, October!

Justin: So it's October - we've already had a few nights that reached down into the high 40s! Of course now we're back to high 80s, but at least we were given a small taste of Autumn... And it's football season! Whooo! ANNNND, of course being October, that means that Stace and I celebrated another anniversary! Number three, to be exact. We spent a few days in the mountains and in true Keeling-Irwin style, really none of our original plans worked out. Oh we still had a good time, just not in the order we had anticipated.
I took the Friday, Monday, Tues and Wednesday off before our anniversary and we loaded up that Saturday morning to take off into the mountains. The dogs were at the kennels, getting some love and their needed vaccination updates, so we were free to fly!

Hurdle Number 1: It was a nice leisurely two hour drive up to Asheville and just before turning off I26 to head down the last hour to Gorges State Park, we discovered that there had been a slight mis-communication and, well, Stace's boots were left at the house. /sigh. Okay, I'm not driving an extra 4-5 hours to recover old boots. So it was down to the outfitters there in Nantahalla to see what they had! Luckily, after much deliberation and sizings, Stace found a pair she really liked and we were off again. NEW BOOTS! Whoo!

Hurdle Number 2: Did I mention that Stace has been sick for several weeks? Not bed-ridden or anything like that, but some congestion and general fatigue that we were self-diagnosing as "bronchitis-esque". So we get to Gorges State Park and discover that even though we had already planned on taking things slow and leisurely, we were going to have to go even slower as she wasn't as well off as she had thought. No worries, our planned campsite was only like, 3 miles away, and we could rest then just run around as we wanted. Just needed to sign in and let the ranger know our plans...

Hurdle Number 3: Our planned campsite was under renovations and they were not letting people stay there.
/sigh. Okay, so not quite 5 miles away was another site on the other side of Rainbow Falls. Strenuous trail. Sites could be full. Ranger drove off saying encouraging statements like "Good luck" and "hope you don't get washed out".

Hurdle Number 4: Watching the regional weather the couple days before we left, we were seeing possible chances of 30 and 40% for rain in the area - which is a safe statement, considering the area is pretty much a rain forest. Yeah... That changed. A cold front was moving through and they were expecting as much as 6 inches of precip over the next couple days.
/sigh.

Well, we made it to the falls (which were pretty impressive) and then luckily it wasn't but a few 100 yards to a cool campsite. We got it all set up and even got to break in the camp stove I've had for over a year and never fired up. It's great! The name "JetBoil" says what it is, man. Probably took maybe 2 minutes to boil the water for our dinners. The tent went up just fine and we were pretty comfortable.

About 11pm the rain started.

Stace and I don't mind hiking or camping in the rain - seems to have happened more often then naught, actually. But except for the few moments the next morning it broke long enough for us to pack up and start heading out, it just never let up. We drove around for a while, checking out some small local markets, etc., and Stace called the Nantahalla Lodge to see if possibly we could switch reservations from Monday and Tuesday to Sunday and Monday... They let us! Whoohoo! So we went into Bryson City for a while and then headed up to the lodge and our cabin with views and a hottub!

Hurdle Number 5: Our first cabin had crappy views and was icky. This was reconciled with a couple phone calls and some housecleaning. Thanks Shawn! Next cabin ROCKED. We ran around the area, had some good food, saw some great sites, and got some needed rest.

Tuesday rolled around and after getting things thrown into the car (funny how neatly packed trips start out) we headed over to Robbinsville and The Joyce Kilmer Memorial National Forest. This was a really fun area with some incredible trees. We found a great little spot on Santeetlah Lake and made camp. No rain! Ha!

It was tough heading back to the Queen City... We really enjoyed Western North Carolina, as we always do and it has a special place with us.

Okay, now that the details of our trip are over, what else to tell you...
As with us all, it's just been so busy around here... Stace is still liking her job with The Urban Ministry Center and I'm still doing well with Duke Energy. We have gotten a new guy in to fill my old Hardware Engineer position so that helps my old team out as they are no longer doing every other week 24x7 oncall rotations... now at least it's every third week... Doesn't sound like much relief, but it's much better.
The pups are good. Porter turned 4 in September, if you can believe that. he's ust as big a goofball as ever. 97 pounds, we were told when we got him from the vet last. They also said he needed to lose 10lbs.
HA. Whatever, you quack.
Oscar is crotchity ever.

Stace has her half-marathon this weekend in Kansas City and she's way excited about seeing everyone. Wish I could go too, but just not going to happen this trip.

Hmm.. I know I'm leaving some things out... I'll think about it and include them in the next update.
Hope everyone is doing wonderfully and being safe.
J.

Stacey's photo-free news!

Hello everyone!

So I never have quite as pretty pictures as Justin but I'll try.  And I wait so long to post that there's too much to tell so forgive the list:

1 - NEW JOB!  I started at the Urban Ministry Center a month ago as their Director of Volunteer Services.  It's a completely new environment for me and one that I think I'm much more suited for.  There is a sincere lack of ego in the entire organization that I appreciate and this is definitely a new challenge for me.  My bosses are eager to have me bring their program up to speed with some new database software and more social media opportunities.  The Center is actually a homeless assistance center that offers basic services like laundry and showers but also houses counseling, addiction treatment and even an arts program.  It really is an amazing place. 

2 - TRAINING! - It's slow-going right now with the extreme heat we're having but I'm getting my mileage in.  I've got the KC Marathon in October (which I'll be running with my Uncle Dale and my brother Lee Mackenzie), the Dowd Y Half Marathon in November (running with super running buddy Sharon) and then the Kiawah Island Marathon in December (running with TNT coach Mike Finkelstein!). 

3 - PALE SMOKE! - No, that's no code for anything, it's the shade of grayish-blue that I finally settled on for the living room color.  After 3 years of looking, Justin no longer has to look at the garish teal wall that I was once so excited about.  I would like to say that the painting is done but I should have known better than to have started a paint job in 90+ degree temps.  We'll get it done soon though. 

4 - JUSTIN IS AWESOME! - Did I mention that my hubby recently got a promotion?  He's really flourishing at his new company and it makes me proud to see that he's finally being appreciated for his skill.

5 - SHORT HAIR! - Yeah, I chopped it and if I can ever get it styled as well as my stylist, I will post a picture.  I was a little nervouse because this is the shortest it has been since junior high but I kind of love it.  In fact, I'm cutting a couple more inches off next week at my hair appointment. 

6 - BOSTON CREAM PIE! - Okay, this is pure frivolity but this Ben & Jerry's flavor is amazing!!  Run to the store now and stock up because it's seasonal and will be gone soon and you will all be sad to have missed it.  :-)

So that's the quick run-down.  I will get better about posting.  I might even have photos soon.

Hope you're all well!

Stacey

Justin: A couple of photos.

Sunset on Lonesome Mountain

Some fresh cherries from the farmer's market and Stacey's favorite bowl

Be well.

Go West, (Not So) Young Man! Part 2

So our odiferous shuttle driver dropped us amigos tres off here at the lake where we would start winding our way around the left side. See the mountain just over Keith's head? That's Lonesome Mountain - some 11,300 feet high. Our original plan was to cross that plateau on the right side of it.

A few hours later we crossed into this view of Lonesome Mountain.

This is Becker Lake, at 10,000 feet where we made our first nights camp.

That is Becker Lake below us now, as we're working our way up to Albino Lake and on to Jasper Lake. That snow in the photo above is now on your right.

Albino Lake - still mostly frozen. Not a good sign considering it's only at 10,100 feet and we were planning on going to 11,000+ across the plateau... See that saddle in the upper right? That point is 10,300 feet.

This is Jasper Lake, just over that saddle I pointed out, with Paul and Keith as a slight scale. It's still about about a 1/10 of a mile from where they are standing down to the water's edge. See all that snow? Not good. Considering how slowly we've had to go and how much time we had left to cover a LOT of distance, we decided to go ahead and ditch the origianl plan and trek on down in elevation to a known trail that would wind us around for 20 miles or so and back to the truck.

This is around to the left and down from the Jasper Lake over to Golden Lake.

My rock star brother, Paul, finally across that 250 yard, hip-deep snow field. We know it's hip deep as I fell through a few times.

Looking down the valley with Golden Lake behind us. Those boulders on the left are mostly larger than our Xterra. No, really.

See? Find Paul and I bouldering with 45lb packs on.

Down the boulders and back up the other side.

A beautiful snowy tarn.

Sunset on Lonesome Mountain from our next camp

Nice spot for lunch, eh?

Directly behind Paul is where we were originally planning on being... See all that snow still up there?

Bullwinkle!!

Down in the tree line again - an incredible cedar forest.

Granite Lake.

Refilling our water. See those rapids? We discovered that we were supposed to cross those. Nope, not doing it. That's is all waist/chest deep snowmelt at 34 degrees. No chance risking hypothermia or worse, especially since we'd probably have to bail about 5 more miles down the trail down to another swollen stream. So yes, we had to bail up top because of too much snow, and we had to bail down low due to too much melted snow. Oh well.

After a very painful back-track up the mountain (read 900 feet in 3/10 of a mile), we headed towards a nearby trail head and were given a much needed and appreciated lift the some 20 miles back to the Xterra by a verynice couple from Florida. If you look into the cab you will notice a small hammock... There is a pomeranian in it.

Since our Absaroka trek got cut short, we decided to spend some time in Yellowstone.

Fairy Falls

The sulfer and other minerals from the hot springs are what cause the red/orange color.

Imperial Geyser - not looking so royal that day.

The blue and orange mist are reflections in the steam from the minerals in the water below.

The Grande Tetons!

We were going to go camp in this park in Bridger National Forest, however camping was prohibited due to bear activity. About 300 yeards down the road we saw this 2 or three year old black bear crossing.

Friday we spent a large amount of time driving around the Wind River Mountain Range. A very impressive range with several 13,000+ foot peaks, however they are simply not easily accessible. The closest trailhead to the treeline is 12 miles long, as opposed to the Absarokas where we were almost above tree line at that lake where we started.

I'm missing some photos... I'll dig around and post them later.