2009...........is here already! Part 1

Time really do fly!!!

Before I realized, 2008 has fly by and 2009 is here.............and my last blog post was in Nov 2008.................lazy lazy lazy :P

Well I am trying to get my first rough rough draft for my first paper out......so I really shouldn't be doing this.......so i am just going to post a couple of pictures up.......of what I did in the last month of 2008 :)

Let's start with Christmas............and then i might go back to Thanksgiving and then move forward to new years.....we will see

Christmas 2008

My Squaw Pass was blacked out...........so no skiing for me........and of course we got record crazy snow fall..............well BTE, DT and CS all got to enjoy that while i stayed at home and made my very first Turkey. Well it is actually a team effort.....BTE made the stuffing and stuffed the Turkey to its fullest! It is a 14 pounder!!!




OK.... really need to get back to my paper.............As Susan (BTE's sis) said.............10 mins a day as least and it won't seems as much of a drag

More to come about Christmas

Life is good~~~~!

Have you ever been at a point where you look around yourself and you realized...............LIFE IS GOOD!!! So good that you are afraid to say it out loud cause you think that if you do so, you might jinx yourself?

I have to tell you, I am there....................I am at a point in my life where I can finally say Life is pretty good. And Yes.... I don't really want to say it out loud because I don't want this to go away.....but I really want to thank all the people that helped make this happen.

Three day climbin trip~~~~

Mono Lake

It might seems like my life right now is all fun and not much work......cause BTE and I went away again this past weekend :)......but I like to think of it as we both worked really hard and we deserve every single bit of it ...................

Last week...... I worked really hard to finish all the fish processing that needed to be done so i could have Friday (Nevada day) off........so we can head out mid day off to the eastern Sierra.

We left at around 1pm and headed for our "hopefully the weather will get nicer" climbing trip. The weather prediction was not looking too great with rain and possible snow falls, but we decided to go for it anywaz and see what life has in store.........we figured we will have fun either way

Headed to Owens River Gorge.........we passed by Topaz Lake, Mono Lake, Crowley Lake and Mammoth Lake.............and a few places that we have been before.......... (I should give credit to AC because she was the one that reminded me I should make an effort of remembering all the places I have been to and so I did)

On the way to the Gorge.... We stop at Owens Valley and soaked into this hot tube that was in the middle of a wide field............just out in the open there.... ready and warm..............and then we just camped around the corner in the GT (or now newly named as the freedom mobile)



Sat morning when we drove out we saw maybe three rainbows..... They were beautiful...............Then we headed to the Middle Gorge and hike down a little bit until we hit the bottom. The view is breathtaking. It is always seeing places like this that reminded how wonderful my life is....and how privileged I should feel.....

Walking down to the middle Gorge

The weather totally worked out for us... It was a bit rainy in the morning of Sat but as we started climbing the sun came out. We did about 4 climbs and the the clouds started to come in and we hiked out............the first day was a perfect warm up day for me since i have only climbed outdoor 2 times before this and have never belayed a lead climber. Btw, BTW is a great teacher :)


We went to the town of Bishop Sat night to restock our supplies....and then drove to our camping spot. It was dark out there so I didn't know where we were. But in the morning when I woke up. This was what i saw..............it was beautiful

A view out from our door

Then on Sunday.... we went to the upper Gorge to try a few more climbs. We had to hike down this really steep trail to get down to the bottom of the Gorge. See the picture following. Basically, we hiked along that ridge line all the way to the bottom.

A view of the upper Gorge

I had so much fun climbing. I feel like i have definitely improved. I have learned to trust my body, my arms and my legs more. I have learned how to use more of my toe edge. I have also tried moves that i didn't know I had it in me. I made a couple of climbs in one go and I have also learned how to clean a route which was really fun. I was a little scared belaying a lead climber but BTE made it really easy for me and was really good with useful pointers and instructions.......

Here are some examples of my proud climbs......I am looking forward to do this again............Can't wait!!!

A much needed extended relaxing long weekend!!!

A panoramic view of Donner Lake on a lovely Friday afternoon

This all started last week Wednesday.............I had one of the most amazing weekend (or extended weekend) I have had for a while.......................Work was put aside mostly........and Fun was all in place

Wednesday: I took the morning off to clean my room and run some errands, then I was in "nice dinner" mode. BTE suggested a few days before to take me out to a nice dinner for my belated bday celebration since i was in Lake Mead back then. Anna and I spent perhaps a good two hours the night before to pick out an amazing outfit for the night. I have always wanted to try this American tapas bar BITE in Incline Village, so BTE took me there.

I am not sure what American Tapas is but they definitely followed the theme of small plates. They are famous for their slider (small burgers) so we ordered the Ahi sliders and that was pretty tasty. Although I would suggest that they should bake their own buns.



Then we ordered couple others small plates. Kaffir lime leaf crab cake with a tarragon and cucumber emulsion, Tequila garlic prawns with cilantro creme fraiche and Sweet potatoes fries with creole maple mustard.


We had a couple of drinks, two desserts and a lot of wonderful conversations that night.......but of course I forgot to take a foto at the restaurant so we had to do it at home



Thursday: I had to work in the morning at the Keys. The water was so cold but the lake was calm and nice. I was checking my temperature loggers and my hydroacuostic receivers all morning. With the water level so low, it was really hard for us to go around without getting caught with milfoil and other objects, but we managed to get everything we wanted to do by around 3pm. Afterwards, BTE took me to this amazing cabin in the woods. It is called the Lost Trail Lodge. (sorry forgot to take picture again, but they have a pretty good website). The lodge is amazingly beautiful. It was Twin Peaks, a catering company based out of King Beach, annual party. There was lots of good food and great music. Thanks BTE for inviting me and Mike and Liz for having me there :).


Friday: After a much needed sleep in and some wonderful breakfast provided by Mike and Liz, BTE and I said our goodbye and headed for Donner Summit. Yes, Climbing!!! I am not sure if anyone read a post I had a while back about my accident on the slope, but we decided to try again and this time we headed for Donner Summit. The weather was perfect for climbing. There wasn't a lot of people there which was great for slow climber like me cause usually there would be. I tried two route but did not make any of them. Well next time I tell myself, I will only get better :)

BTE repelling down after setting up the top rope

Saturday: We woke up real early this morning to get ready to head to the ski swap!!! Everyone that i have talked to has told me that if i don't ski or snowboard in the winter, I will be bored to death. So Anna, BTE, Brad and I headed to the ski swap in hopes of finding some affordable equipments for the winter to come. I was so glad that BTE was there cause I have no clue in terms of what to get and he was the master. So i basically just walked around in circles while BTE picked out all the stuff I need for me and all i had to do was pay....and Pay i did..... I dropped $600.... Can you believe that??? Anywaz, 3 hours and 600 bucks later, I am now the proud owner of 2 pairs of ski, semi-new ski boat, poles, gloves and some warm socks. I guess all I have to do now is to get a ski pass and learn how to ski

Sunday: The Do stuff crew which that day consist of MW, JS, JM, K?, AS and Me went hiking from Spooner Lake to Marllete Lake. The weather was so nice. I couldn't believe that it was already late Oct. The hike was about 4.5 miles one way with some slight uphills. It was full of fall Aspens along the trail. The only thing I would complain about was that we had to share the trail with horse riders which means that there was alot of horse deposit on the ground :(.





It was so hard for me to get back into work mode on Monday.... but work must go on!!! And i guess it is those busy days that make the not so busy days so much fun and enjoyable :) Looking forward to another long weekend like this :)

Lake Mead-- An invasive species party

I know I have disappeared for about a month.... Sorry, that also implied that I had an extremely busy and eventful month :) which was awesome!!!

Well first of all, in the beginning of Oct.... It was our lab's long awaited Lake Mead trip.... which means we headed to Les Vegas!!! Well yeah for work not for fun.... It was fun too but work was hard.

A little background on Lake Mead.....It is the largest man-made reservoir in the U.S.. It spans across two state, Nevada and Arizona. The water is impounded by the famous Hoover Dam......

Why were we there??? We wanted to collect some quagga mussels to run some survival experiments.... Our question was "Can quagga mussels survive in Lake Tahoe water?".

How did we collect those quagga mussels??? We rented a house boat, yes a HOUSE BOAT (with a water slide at the back) there for 10 days and just pull ponars like there is no tomorrow.

** a little side note. Sorry about the lack of pictures. I did get a new camera but I lost all my Lake Mead picture while I was trying to download them onto my laptop... I am really sad :(, so all photos in this post are generous donation from Dr.MW **




Here is our main crew- minus MW and JU trying to figure out where we should park our Deluxe house boat



I have to say, Lake Mead is an invasive species party! We found Quagga mussels growing on live Asian clams... with New Zealand mudsnail motoring around them..... The foto above is a perfect example of little quagge mussels growing on big quagga mussels




During the trip, it was also my bday...... ( I wonder why I looked so mad in this foto??? ) MW and AC made me a cake!!! I was so happy. We went out to the strip one night (sorry lost all my foto) and I have to say what they did to Vegas is incredible none the least, but how wasteful......all the lights, water and resources................I just can't quite understand.


Anywaz................at the end of this.......................I have to say I love my job...........I am grateful for the opportunity to see the world....................

Some random field fotos

Field Pride (the LeConte is on the left)



Invasion..............................





A perfect picture of the Keys



A baby Sculpin




Some Corbicula for breakfast?

Best of the West Rib Cook off.....

I am a loyal reader of Yum Sugar..... that is pretty much the first and last website i check everyday and night.... and one of my favourite part is the listing of all the food related event happening around the States......However, living in Toronto before I never actually had the chance to attend any of the listed events... until this past week!

Well I guess is also because I now live in the States :)......

anywaz, I went to the Best of the West Rib Cook off this past week..... well the reason i wrote this past week is because i actually went twice :P..........Well partly because i love ribs... but it is also because I went with two different group of friends and they all wanted to go and I just can't say no to that :)

I have never seen so much meat, BBQ sauces and bones piling around like that...............it was totally a carnivore's heaven or as BTE would say..... "It is the burning man of ribs!!!"..............In combination of the two days of my attendance, I think I managed to taste about 8 different store..... I think my personal favourite for BBQ sauce was Famous Dave's devil's spit and my favourite rib was Rasta Joe I like their Island Fire BBQ sauce too....but the celery seed addition in the Famous Dave's sauce ultimately won my heart.......

I have this say I was a little overwhelmed by the experience.... the big crowd at a hot summer reno/sparks night......but if you like some messy, sticky finger experience and lots of meat.... I definitely recommend it. However, if you can try to go on a weekday..... way more enjoyable, I have to say

Sorry about the pictureless posting lately..... still on the hunt of a camera...... hopefully I will find one soon :)