Kitty's Scratch Pad

First Day of School...

So I am a little behind.  Here is the first day of school photo...

I gave up...

I wanted so badly to be creative and make my own calling cards but alas...  I gave in and ordered them off of the Crane Website.  They have a very decent selection of tasteful options.  I went with the Limon Green square ones but I also really like both the Espresso Vertical and the Cambridge Blue.

FACES

On page 60 of October's Gourmet Magazine, a new line of tableware created by the man himself, Ferran Adria, is mentioned.  It took a little digging but I was able to find more information and it is safe to say I am more than intrigued.  "FACES is a collection of products for the kitchen and table developed by a team of designers directed by Ferran Adria, the most recognized chef in the world."

The tattooed cutlery is intricate and gorgeous.

What's the skinny?

Found this today on Reuters...

I think it is great - Alex's theory is it will never fly in Paris...

do you have a card?

My friend Andrea inspired me...  I found some great looking calling cards on Crane but I just couldn't swallow paying that much for something I didn't do.  I like to be crafty but sometimes it can be my downfall.  Why pay for something when you can just make it.  The problem is, I don't have a ton of time.  Good thing I got rid of my sewing machine or else we would be in real trouble. 

I got to work on Publisher and came up with some designs I liked.  I am still not thrilled with the "logo" but I will keep working on it.  At least for now, my purse is not empty and I won't have to "borrow" someones cocktail napkin to write down my information.  The real problem I am having is paper.  It is darn hard to find two color paper.  The color scheme I want is this:

What I didn't realize is that it is next to impossible to find thick two color cardstock you can print yourself.  I am hoping I won't have to order 1,000 in order to get what I want...  For now here are the samples:

My friend Jones

So this was written by my friend Jones - we were rafting buddies before we became roommates and now he is off in Zurich and I am pretty sure he is never coming home.

So they gave me a car! Let the adventures begin!

Friday night I decided that I would guzzle some Moosehead in a Canadian bar in Paris called the Moose. I got off work, parked my car and hopped the subway to Paris.

Well, I didn’t meet any Canadians. Met a few Australians, some Americans and a couple 16 year old French girls that wanted to take me home, but the Canucks were no where to be found. Regardless, the place had an excellent décor consisting of a moose mural, snowshoes nailed to the ceiling and hockey stick foot rests at the bar. After getting sufficiently tuned, I hopped on the subway and headed for home.

I went back to where I parked my car and found that someone had set up some lovely booths where my car once was. Now I’ve learned a little French, but I couldn’t exactly call up the police and ask them where they had towed my car, nor was I about to stumble into the street and attempt to flag down a policeman and spittle gin in his face while asking him for a ride so I could in turn drive home drunk. I decided it would be best to walk home. It was only 5 or 10 miles. Some would call it a tranquil walk… I thought it was long. I arrived at my apartment with a mouth parched like the sands of the Sahara and went to bed.

I had wonderful dreams of Smurfs and other happy stuff, but when I awoke I remembered that I need to find the company car and my laptop that was in the trunk. Doh. The receptionist at my apartment was kind enough to call both the Police Municipale and the Police Nationale to see where they might have taken my car. The police said they knew nothing of my car, but said they might have moved it and if I was unable to find it I should call them back and report it stolen. Huh... they might have moved it. “So basically you’re telling me that I should comb the five miles surrounding where my car used to be and then if I don’t find it I should call you back?” “Oui.”

Now, I had only had my car for two days, and although I knew what kind of car it was there are only 200,000 other grey Peugeot 307’s in Paris and the surrounding areas and I didn’t know the license plate number. Sweet.

Luckily, one of my coworkers was able to give me a ride back to where my car once was so I could begin my search. For the next hour, I wandered the streets of St. Germain en Laye clicking my keyless entry at every grey car on the street hoping that the headlights would flash.

I found it!! It seems the police had moved my car about three streets over and had given me a parking ticket for 11 Euro. I was so excited I went and had beer for breakfast.

P.S.- I haven’t quit smoking.

"Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet."

Ptarmagin Ridge - 2004

August 16, 2004

So up until last year I had an annual trip up Skyline Divide in the Mt. Baker/Snoqualmie National Forest. Probably one of the best “bang for your buck” hikes there is in my opinion. My favorite guide book, “Don’t waste your time in the North Cascades”, mentions multiple times that this is a great trail. It even goes as far as to recommend this instead of wasting your time on some other well known but not so great hikes.
So I pack up – knowing there is no water to be found on the trail – I fill up 3 liters and pack some trail mix, beef jerky and make plans to stop for lunch on our way up. Alex has agreed to tag along on my favorite and much missed trek. We meet up at 8:00 in the morning. I showed up with coffee and we were off. We made a pit stop in Everett to drop off the booger with my Mom and then headed north. I took the Hwy 20 exit and raced my way to Hwy nine – if only we had taken the Audi…the windy road would have been so much more fun!! We stopped at the Everybody Store in Van Zandt for some grub to take with us on the hike. This is a must if you are heading to Baker. This is one of the most random stores out there – you can get everything from signature cheese to local handmade jewelry, some interesting wine and meade, harmonicas available in all keys, and really crappy espresso. We ordered a couple of sandwiches and while waiting, couldn’t help but notice the Apple “Classic” sitting behind the counter…we had to ask. Apparently it keeps their “lists” for them and just crashed two days earlier. I don’t know if Alex has some sort of sign on his head that says “Computer Geek” or what but they immediately inquired as to whether he could fix it? The effort was heroic but in the end futile. Sometimes you just have to let go…my god people!!!! After what seemed like an eternity, we finally got our sandwiches and a bunch of homemade jerky and salami and super jalapeno Gouda that was super Gouda!!!
We made it to the Ranger Station and I renewed my annual forest pass…grrrrrrr. Found Glacier Creek road and headed left at the fork. I drove about 4.5 miles until all of the sudden – there was no road…hmmmm…this is different. I don’t remember a bridge sitting on the side of the road? We decided we would have to pick a different hike. I had never done Ptarmigan Ridge so we headed back down to the Hwy. We stopped to see and yes…there right at the beginning of the road a BIG ASS YELLOW sign saying ROAD CLOSED. How do you suppose someone put up a sign in a matter of 15 minutes??? I swear that wasn’t there when we turned up the road? Oops…
We drove up to Artist’s Point and parked. It has been a while since I have been up that far. It was a super beautiful day and we were on the trail by 12:45. Not too bad for such a luggish start. The trail is heavily traveled but the views are incredible – almost start to finish Mt. Shuksan is in plain view - huge sweeping meadows and plenty of wildflowers. For the first mile the trail is littered with people not so outdoorsy walking a little ways to get some better views – we are talking miniature poodles and all! Pretty funny really – wouldn’t that be cool if some oversized Marmot or Snafflehound popped out and ate the Chihuahua? Once you get to the actual trailhead the crowds although still heavy are much more manageable. The trail heads down a bit into Swift Creek and Wells Creek – the sound of the rushing water falling down the big walls of volcanic rock adds to the already overwhelmed senses. It really is beautiful – geology major’s dream come true!! You meander past Table Mountain and then back up to a Ridge which you follow for another four miles – finally getting to the Coleman Pinnacle – which isn’t really much of a pinnacle? But there it is in plain view – Mt. Baker. Majestic and bold – the only thing you can do is sit there in awe. We looked off to the right and noticed the trail sort of continued up to what looked to be a scramble to the top of a little peak – I later found out that is one more mile to Camp Kiser. We chose to head down a bit towards a beautiful glacier lake – the ground was covered in clay and volcanic pebbles and it continued to get more and more mushy as we approached the lake. We turned around and headed back to the car from there – munching on wild blueberries along the way. As we got about half way we looked up to our left and saw the local mountain goat herd grazing high above. Pretty cool! After six hours we made it back to the car and I put my flip-flops on in record time. It was a great hike – not too difficult elevation wise – just long. I immediately headed West and straight to Railroad Ave in Bellingham for some Don Julio and a couple burritos, one potato (of course) and one Carne Asada…YUM!!!
We sang our way home and proceeded to immediately pass out – I don’t even remember my head hitting the pillow! Next time we will bring the tent and camp at the lake – I bet the stars are amazing…

Yosemite 2004 - TR

TR Yosemite - October 1-4, 2004

After 53 threads of email and a couple weeks of planning the day had finally arrived! I crawled out of bed after bashing my alarm clock three times - "is it really time to get up already?????" Dragging myself to the shower and then doing one last check of what I packed - backpack, check - toothbrush, check - hiking shoes, check - Fen, check. We grabbed two bagels, the keys and hopped in the car to school. Big hugs and kisses and I was off to meet up with Alex at his place.
Side bar: I was informed earlier in the week that coffee is a diuretic so it would be ill-advised to drink any prior to flying.SHIT!
I was ready to go - Alex hadn't quite finished packing. Hmmmm.shocking! ;-) Previously quoted by Peyman - "Alex will be streaming media to his laptop over a portable satellite dish that runs off of usb, I think." To his credit, the laptop actually stayed behind! We had intended to get on the road around eight - the nice thing about having our own private pilot - departure is generally a negotiable thing - especially when the weather is as beautiful as Friday was. We picked up Peyman and we were on our way to Paine Field. We finished pre-flight and packed the plane in time to get airborne sometime around 10:00. The weather was truly unbelievable - we veered East to avoid the Seattle air traffic and got an amazing shot of the rolling foothills leading into the Cascades. Due to the stunning weather and no real time we needed to be anywhere - we followed each mountain on our way down to our final destination, Mariposa Yosemite. Rainier was first and definitely the most impressive. We flew just West and less than a mile from the mountain. It was really cool being able to see Muir from the air - you could almost see into each crevasse as we flew over them. Next was of course Mt. St. Helens. We decided to take our chances with the Volcano gods and do a fly by. We stayed about five miles from the mountain but we were able to get a really good glimpse of the crater.
Side bar: 2,549 Meters (8,364 feet (9,677 feet before May 18, 1980) We flew by Mt. St. Helens at approximately 11,000 feet around 11:00 - A small explosive eruption happened around noon.
We headed towards Mt. Hood and then Bachelor and Shasta. We stopped off for fuel in Red Bluff, CA and made our final descent into Mariposa around 2:30 or so. We loaded up the car and headed to the first burger stand we could find. Happy Burgers with WiFi was the spot. For all I cared I could have been eating cardboard after hours of nothing but sour patch kids and some cashews - unfortunately that was pretty much what the burger ended up tasting like. Alex was smart and got his smothered with Guacamole - at least the lack of flavor was covered up by avocadoes and chilies. Last stop before the park was the grocery store to load up on snacks for our hike the next day - tons of beef jerky and trail mix. After a couple of wrong turns we were finally on our way to the park and our cabins in Camp Curry. We met up with Peyman's brother Nima and their parents who drove up earlier that day from LA and their friend Ben who drove over the previous day. Dinner was pizza in the Village - it was nice to be out of the plane and carry on normal conversation without a headset. We all called it an early night in hopes of some good rest for the next days big adventure.
The alarm went off around 7:00 and we were up and ready to go - I am pretty sure we got everyone on the shuttle and at the trail head by 7:45. Alex, Peyman, Nima and their parents all set out to conquer Half Dome. The trail starts at Happy Isles Nature Center (4035 ft). The route would be 17+ miles round trip. The decision was to do the Mist Trail on the way up and connect with the John Muir trail and eventually the Half Dome trail. I had packed as light as I could while still feeling comfortable bringing my ten essentials just in case. The first mile was a cake walk - one last pit stop and we started up the stairs. We looked back and Peyman and Nima's parents had already slowed down too much to keep up. We headed the rest of the way with just the four of us. The first set of stairs up to Vernal Falls is a long ascent up a manmade staircase carved into the rock - these steps were pretty easy but definitely long. The Mist Trail isn't just a clever name - but you needed to be reminded why since it was so late in the season. I am sure in the spring on a hot day the Mist coming off the falls is a welcome shower after a long haul up those stairs. Nevada falls is a longer ascent and this time I really knew just how damn short my legs are. Some of these steps literally came up to my tummy. I felt like a Hobbit climbing my way to Mordor - Crimeny!!! I finally reached the top of the falls and found the rest of the crew sitting on the smooth rock overlooking the falls and snacking on some food. YUM!! Nourishment and water. We continued up until we reached the intersection of the Muir and Mist trail - 4.5 miles to Half Dome! That seemed fast! The next part was a pretty nice meandering trail with some gradual uphill but nothing too crazy. I was moving a lot slower than the rest but kept my pace and moved along knowing I would meet up with them soon. We got to a lookout a mile or so before the cable lines and stopped again for some food and rest. The final push was a bit of a bitch - the last section to the cables are a set of very narrow switch backs littered with people going up and down. There is little room for passing but at this point the rest and slow pace were fine with me since my feet were getting tired. When we reached the cables the clouds had started to move in a lot faster. Big ominous, dark clouds. A couple of rain drops and my stomach starting feeling a little uneasy. I couldn't believe my gut was telling me to not go the final 400 feet after all this way! What to do???? Alex a.k.a. Weather Boy lied down and carefully watched the clouds for patterns in movement. He determined we would be fine but of course.no guarantees. Shit. What do you do when you heart tells you one thing and your gut tells you something completely opposite? You drop your pack and haul ass up the cables - at the first sign of drops you immediately turn back. It didn't seem like a full-proof plan but I figured what the hell. Dropping the packs was very helpful and getting up the cables was a nice change of pace. Actually using my arms instead of my legs to muscle my way up was kind of fun. I don't recommend it to anyone with a fear of heights but it sure was cool. I finally got up after waiting in line and it was so incredible! I am really not sure if words can describe the feeling of standing on top of something so geologically immense - the beauty was awe-inspiring and the expansive views were deafening to the soul. It really was worth all of the risk. We stayed up long enough to watch those traitorous clouds head past us and the sun to shine down. Peyman and Nima took some victory pictures and then we started our descent. The original plan was to take the John Muir trail back down in hopes of saving our knees - the problem with this was, by the time we reached the intersection of the two trails it was 5:00. The Muir trail was 4 miles back to the trail head while the Mist trail was 2.5 miles. That final 1.5 miles was impossible in my mind to do. I knew we were running out of daylight and I also knew my legs were running out of time before they would eventually call mutiny and stop working altogether. We made the decision to take the Mist trail back. Cursing the whole way down the stairs my stomach starting screaming for food - I suddenly started having these really weird cravings for French Toast and eggs. In reality I would have loved to have eaten anything other than trail mix, beef jerky and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We finally got back down and on the Shuttle by around 7:00. All in all it was one of the coolest and more challenging hikes I have ever done. I would recommend an earlier start than we had only to
1. Avoid the crowds up the cables and
2. Have time to take the Muir trail down for a change in scenery and pace.

We crawled to the cabin and straight to the shower. I was dreaming for the past four hours about this moment - a hot shower...I was deeply saddened when all of my expectations came crashing down like the cold water hitting my back. It was the most depressing shower I had ever taken! Oh well. The next important order of business was finding food. We rushed to the cafeteria only to find that the buffet was just closing. We were like a group of vultures diving down for the last remains of what food was left after probably sitting under heat lamps for the past five hours. We didn’t care - it was food and it didn’t matter. We crawled back to the cabin again, and found the bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
We had left the option open for climbing depending on how we felt physically the next day. Not one of us felt the energy to climb let alone put our feet inside climbing shoes. After sleeping in, we met up at Peyman and Nima’s parents cabin and had some toast, cheese and bread. We were all pretty tired and sore. We decided to split up - Peyman, Nima, their parents and Ben all stayed in the Valley to site see and take pictures. Alex and I decided to drive to the West side and check out the Merced Grove off of Tioga Pass. It was a nice drive and a chance to see El Capitan from below. The hike in and out of the grove is very short - approximately 3 miles - but it is backwards...downhill first and up at the end - Owie!!! The Sequoias were great. Standing underneath the giants made me feel like I was inside a Tim Burton film. The roots spread and appeared like huge fingers grabbing onto the ground. You could see burn marks from fires - because of the size they looked like small scratches rather than huge scars.
We headed back to the camp for lunch and met up with the rest of the crew. We had lunch at the Taqueria and got a chance to see some of the pictures Peyman took of the valley - very cool! After Peyman chased a Buck in hopes of a good picture just beside the outside eating area we decided to split up again for the afternoon. The others spent the remainder of the afternoon and early evening driving up to Glacier Point for more photo ops. The rest of the afternoon Alex and I decided to be lazy and park our butts on the Adirondack chairs on the porch and read our books. Earlier the previous day I noticed Alex had been reading the same exact book as me - nice... So like complete dorks - Alex and I sat for over four hours drinking and reading - taking in the scenery and people watching. We finished the wine from the previous night - then we decided that Margaritas sounded yummy - after that some coffee. Not a bad way to spend a lazy afternoon if you ask me.
We met up with everyone else at the Mountain Room in the Yosemite Lodge - got our names on the list and headed next door for some cocktails while we waited for our table. The drinks were awful but luckily the wait wasn’t all that bad. We sat down and proceeded to enjoy our best meal of the trip. It was nice to sit with great company, good wine and laugh our way through a good meal. The topper to the evening was heading back to the lounge where they have an open fire pit and Smores kits! Oh yeah!!! Smores made your way under a roof with a bar only a few feet away! A very delicious end to a very rewarding and long weekend.
The next morning we prepared for our departure. We packed everything up and had one last breakfast with Peyman and Nima’s parents. They kept us fed for three days straight and were so wonderful and hospitable.
Earlier the day before Alex had a great idea - let’s refuel in Bend and take a tour of the Lancair factory (www.lancair.com). We called in the morning and were able to let them know we would be coming. Our drive back to the airport was short and we fueled and finished pre-flight quickly. I think we were all ready to get home to our own showers and our own beds. We flew into Bend and taxied right up to the factory. The Lancair Columbia 400 was just approved to ship only a little while ago. They are now producing one new airplane every two days. It was really impressive seeing the start to finish process of a small airplane factory. Making an airplane is almost like making a kayak. The body is made of a composite material - we were walked through the entire factory from the freezer to the molds to the assembly line where they put in the carpet and seats. It was even more fun sitting in the cockpit imagining how efficient - 280 mph - we could get to all of the cool destinations without having to refuel. Plush leather interior - a super streamlined cockpit - removable back seats for larger cargo storage (think skis and snowboards) - where do I sign up???
We finished the tour, refueled and started back towards Paine. We were able to swing directly over Smith Rock. It was amazing to see how small the rock looked from the air. Completely different. We got back to Paine Field around five and got back to Seattle around six. Alex and I grabbed some food in the International District - I cannot remember the name of the place but it was right on Jackson sort of kitty-corner to the Seattle Deli. All I know is the entire place was empty and they spent more on their interior and dinnerware than most restaurants in Seattle. The weird thing was the place was in the back of a strip mall on Jackson? I was convinced it was a mafia front. We finished dinner and took off. I was sooooo excited for a HOT shower and vegetation before having to face the real world again. What a great trip! Next time I would like to check out El Capitan and maybe plan it around some rafting on the Tuolumne too...and oh yeah...some climbing! Until then...

Anyone seen a kid around???

A great friend of mine has been managing a community board I belong to for all of my outdoor pursuits.  It has been a huge task that he has paid for himself and is now considering a revamp.  I am planning to post some old trip reports in order to log my previous adventures.  This is more for me but some of them, although long, are sort of funny...

December 9, 2005

I have lost Fen before - twice actually at REI. It is a little disheartening to turn around and find that you have completely misplaced your own child... It isn't really misplacing them. Especially at REI. He finds something more interesting than standing by me while I try to make a decision about whether hiking socks are better than skiing socks. Both times he immediately found the first "official" looking person and told them he was lost. Both times I got that dreadful yet relieving page over the loudspeaker, "Kat Korab, please come to the register in shoes". I frantically hurried to find him chumming up to the cute girl who turned out to be the one he reported to. Typical...

This time was really no different except...we were at Mt. Baker. So the playing field was a little larger and the elements were definitely colder. This time I was a little more panicked than before. I was sure he would be found in a tree well (where we generally find him playing by the way - he uses them as forts so he can launch snowballs at unsuspecting strangers in the lift ticket line) but this time he would be a little icicle man. We were up with some friends of ours and their son is beginning to snowboard. Just as good for Fen because we cannot seem to get him off of Chair 2 right now. I tried this time to branch out and head under the chair and around the back so at least we could look at some different scenery. Louis took a little time strapping in and Fen was losing patience. He took off but apparently didn't follow our direction and went the usual way. When I realized I had lost him I wasn't sure which way to go. Did he listen to me and go under the chair? Of course not - why would he? He went the normal way. Louis was doing a good job linking his turns but I wished we could go faster so we could meet Fen at the chair. I was worried. The lifts would be closing soon and who knows what then? We got to the chair and there was no sign of Fen. We went up again and this time we looked everywhere. We could sort of see this kid hiking up the far hill back to the lodge with skis on his back - maybe it was Fen? I sent Louis to the lodge and just then Alex came down. I told him Fen was lost and he took a run to find him. As I started walking toward the crest of the hill I looked to the right at the rope tow. There was this kid who looked very familiar going up and down it. Hmmmm... Just as I started walking toward the rope tow to investigate and ask the lift ops if they had seen the booger they asked, "are you Kat?". Thank goodness!!! Fen did not see us at the lift line so he hoofed it back up the hill to find someone. He stopped at the rope tow and told the guys he had lost his mom. They kept him there and there is where I found him.

After a humiliating visit to the office to cancel the dispatch for a lost mom - we took off back down the mountain. I guess walkie talkies are in order...

The Great White North

Our plan was to head to Squamish, BC for the long weekend.  We hit the road a couple of hours later than I had hoped and it took 5.5 hours to get to the campsite which ended up being completely full (first come first serve).  We moved to plan B and drove another 30km to Whistler and stayed two nights at the newly rennovated Hilton.  Luckily, we did load our bikes and we had plenty of fun riding around town.  Alex discovered the green runs off of the chairlift while Fen and I relaxed a little.  Fen got really into the mini-terrain park just off of one of the bike routes near the daily parking lot.  I joined in the fun and tried my tires at some of the features including a small ramp and narrow bridge thingy.  I keep wondering how much longer I am going to be able to follow my kid into things like this...

On Sunday afternoon we headed back to Squamish and found a campsite.  We did a short hike over to Shannon Falls - BC's third largest waterfall measuring over 300 meters - and Fen played Lord of the Rings the entire way.  On Monday morning, we did a little bouldering just under the Chief at a rock called the Titanic.  Unfortunately, Alex had a small fall and we cut our climbing session a little short to get back to the car and get him some ice.

I always find it hard to go to Canada and not come back thinking and laughing about Bob and Doug McKenzie.  I still think that is one of the best ideas for a Halloween costume...

All in all, it turned out to be a nice trip.  Here are some photos...