Making like bunnies -- snowshoe hares that is

Yet again my desire to do an interesting feature for the newspaper prompted me to get a brilliant idea -- take the family snowshoeing! 

We had been on snowshoes before, mostly for fun and not any great distance. But this time it would be for real, three plus miles around a Cascade mountain lake. I did the research and we all showed up: Brian, me, Jessica and Josh. No way were we getting Travis out there. 

The snow was not overly deep but it snowed heavily most of the time. It took us more than three hours to circle the lake and I thought my legs might drop off. Brian thought I had packed snacks for the journey, and SURPRISE! it never occurred to me. So the Hypoglycemic Holes nearly perished from lack of food and we all wished we had brought more water. 

But we made it and it was worth it. The lake was beautiful and quiet and for half our trip we had the trail to ourselves. 

Got some good photos too. Always a plus. 

Looking back on a year's work

A few photos from my year at the
newspaper. lph

As the holidays approached this year we were so not ready. Both Brian and I had big projects going on at work so we had no extra time off, in fact we both logged many extra hours during the Christmas/New Years block of time.

Brian is working on developing new security systems for his company and it's a lot of training, meetings and stress. At my job I've got one staffer on medical leave, one getting ready for medical leave and a major overall and change of the systems we use to produce the paper. It's gotten so bad I lay awake at night thinking about all things I should have gotten done that day, things I need to get done, and things I might have forgotten.

I need a vacation. The majority of the year was not so bad. I still manage the newsroom, write editorials and columns and occasional news stories. I also continue to take photos when needed, which I enjoy. Earlier this year the paper was given a General Excellence Award from the Socieity of Professional Journalists, something that made me proud because it judged the paper on its entire content, not just bits and pieces. In the bits and pieces realm, however, I was given awards for Best Editorial and Best Column as well.

On my honor...

Josh (far left, in case you didn't recognize him) is in 7th grade now and still in Boy Scouts. The troop is pretty small; most boys seem to quit Scouts before middle school -- just not cool.

He and Brian went on a winter campout with the group to Pine Mountain. They star-gazed and reinforced a bunch of outdoor skills. The adults slept in a cabin-tent with a stove. Big surprise, huh?

Anniversary

October 18 was our 4th wedding anniversary. We had no particular plans (and little money) so celebrations seemed bleak at best. Then our friend Keith offered to let us use 'room credit' he had with an inn in Seaside. We jumped at the chance and had a nice quiet three-day weekend with tolerable weather that we didn't hesitate to venture out into. Our friends Brandi and Jason are expecting their first child and we were excited to visit them and hear about their plans.