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Guesstimate to perfection

Perpetta or Polpetta, or by any spelling in any dialect . . . the mouth watering, scrumptious and irresistible Italian meatball made an appearance at the Thomas house on our last visit. Blaine’s mom worked her magic and the house smelled amazing.   She doesn’t measure anything so I still struggle to get the exact flavor when I make them.  The long time family recipe and how to guesstimate to perfection was handed down to Jacklyn by her Aunt Raphaela, Granny’s sister, and she has it down pat.  It always amazes me how she doesn’t roll them into a ball yet in the end they are fried balls of deliciousness.

Jacklyn knocked out a pot of pasta sauce like it was an everyday occurrence and that was without sampling any of the wine.  Throw in some cooked pasta and a salad and we had ourselves a feast.  Granny joined us for dinner, which always makes eating Italian recipes handed down through the generations even more delicious.

If I had to call out a secret ingredient, other than love, it would have to be Crisco.  I’m not talking about the liquid kind.  I’m talking about the solid as a rock, stark white, worse thing on the planet for your arteries kind.  That’s right . . . 100% against mine and Blaine’s house rules, however, what happens in Hollister  . . . stays in Hollister.

The entire meal was very close to being a bust however, as Brutus was biding his time to make a move on the meatballs before they ever even made it to the frying pan.  No way was I going to let THAT happen.  So in a way, I take total credit for the wonderfully amazing dinner :)

Thanks for reading what I wrote and enjoy the pics.  Can’t you just smell them?

Shelia

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Tradition, alive and well in Roseville, CA.

Tomorrow we will say goodbye to the hospitality of the Jacobo family, Blaine’s sister Jade, her husband Danny and their three boys, Daniel, Lucca and Drew.  When we asked the boys last night what they wanted for dinner it was an overwhelming vote for Lasagna.  So we decided to surprise them with it tonight.  I made granny’s pasta sauce and Blaine, Jade and the boys put together the lasagna.

What makes it taste so darn good?  Smell so fantastic?  Impossible not to “taste test” so many times you almost are not even hungry when it finally hits the table?  I’m pretty sure my boys would eat the sauce like soup.  I believe it comes from Blaine’s great grandmother who first perfected the recipe in Piane Crati, Calabria, Italy and passed it down to granny who in turn taught Blaine’s mother Jacklyn, and on to her kids and now to the great-great grand kids.  If I close my eyes I can imagine a beautiful Italian mother, boiling tomatoes and chopping spices, each ingredient getting blended in one at a time and in a certain order.  When Blaine passed the secret recipe on to me it was made clear that the order was key, and I was sworn to secrecy.

My heart melts every time my son, Taylor, calls me up and says, “I need the recipe for Granny’s pasta sauce stat.”  I never tire of telling him the way to make it.  I know I didn’t earn any of the pride I felt tonight when Blaine’s nephews were right there in the kitchen in the middle of the action wanting to help put together the lasagna but I felt it anyway.  Just as I did when our one year old granddaughter, Emma, laid her hands on the ravioli roller last Christmas and helped Pop’s push out some perfect ravioli. Or when the boys dug their hands in the dough to make taralli.

The kitchen might be my favorite place in a home, and what I miss most about not having one.  It is so amazing when we come into the home of family or friends and are able to cook and have wonderful meals and conversation. Sharing great family recipes, preparing and consuming food is so great for the soul and makes me feel like I am home, wherever we may be.

Enjoy the photos of the process. I’d write more but the lasagna is calling.

Thank you for reading what I wrote,

Shelia

#tradition #lasagna

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We left Portland this morning and drove along the coast to Florence. Stopped for a nap on the beach and saw The Devils Punchbowl. Had dinner at Homegrown which was amazing and made a new friend, Joshua. He turned us on to our adventure for tomorrow, riding the sand dunes and dinner at Ona, can't wait!

#homegrown #florence

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Portland, OR

We really enjoyed our time in Portland.  As soon as we arrived and sat at a table in the Breakside Brewery Blaine announced we were moving there.  So apparently the plan is to spend July and August 2018 in Portland.  We had dinner at Pok Pok Thai which I highly recommend.  I even jumped way out of my “mild” box and had the Papaya Pok Pok (extremely spicy), the Ike’s Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings and the Kaeng Hang Leh Pork Belly & Shoulder Curry.  Everything was amazing.  Also while in Portland we took in a soccer match and ate at Tusk, another excellent choice.  Sit at the community table outside and get to know your neighbors.  We met two extremely interesting men sitting next to us.  They highly recommended the Domaine Serene Winery which has the #1 Pinot in the US but sadly we will have to catch that next year.  Good thing we are moving there for two months next year.

#breaksidebrewery #pok pok #tusk #portland

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Downtundra drew a straight flush today while rolling through Idaho.  Keep in mind we bought this truck brand new 13 months ago . . . 

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To sticker or not to sticker . . . that is the true question for the traveler.

You are either a sticker person or you are not.  When you are going through the airport and you see someone who has their luggage all tattooed up with stickers you have a reaction.  What is it?  If you are driving down the highway and a Range Rover passes you with a roof rack and the Thule is completely covered with stickers, what gut reaction does that give you?  I never really realized that people had such strong feelings about this topic until Blaine and I started tossing around the idea.

 It’s true that at first I was against it.  When it was first brought up, sitting around the table with friends, I had images of our brand new Tundra being dotted with tasteless stickers and my head exploded. We’ve approached friends that are couples and most of the time the female has a different opinion than the male and it doesn’t seem to be gender specific.  

Are there situations in which it is acceptable and situations where it is not.  Luggage ok, bumpers not ok?  Does the thought conjure up images from your childhood of that one friend who’s dad had the bumper of the family car obscured from site with ragidy old worn out, discolored and should have been discarded reminders of everywhere they had visited?  Yes, I know, run on sentence.

 Maybe that WAS your dad . . . maybe it’s you  . . . but I digress . . .

As I said, originally I was against the idea.  I may have been ok with dotting a Thule on the roof but putting stickers on our brand new Tundra or topper?  Over my dead body.  I was very happy when the topic died down.  But recently, Blaine resurrected it.  I held my breath as he once again started reaching out for the opinions of others.  This time, I think our dear friend Mitzi helped us meet in the middle.  She was so far on the side of no, no way, under no circumstance is it ok that I found myself trying to take the view of my husband, much to my dismay.

So we have a solution! We’ve decided to start collecting stickers on our travels in DownTundra.  However, the placement will be discrete.  We shall put them on the ends of the doors so that when the door is closed and we are going merrily down the road, no one but us will know they are there.  When we open the door, they will be visible and anyone wishing to engage in conversation at that time will be more than welcome.

Thanks to our many opinionated friends that helped with the thought process we now are the proud owners of our first sticker from Boulder, CO.  We made quite an event out of placing it but had a lot of fun in the process. Since then we picked up another one at Yellowstone National Forest yesterday and will be placing it very soon.

Thanks for reading what I wrote,

Shelia

#Boulder Stickers

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A trail of seeds Anyone that has ever been on a road trip with my husband knows he loves sunflower seeds.  It’s a truly amazing thing to watch.  We try to keep a bag in the truck when traveling from one location to another.  As soon as a container of some kind becomes available he requests the seeds.  Usually it is a plastic water bottle.    I know what your thinking, what’s the big deal .  . . but have you ever watched a baseball player in the dug out with a mouth full of tobacco?  The intense focus on the game and the non-stop habit of chewing and spitting.  So when Blaine is consuming sunflower seeds on the road, he likes to hold the water bottle in his hand and after each spitting of the shell into the bottle he tap tap taps it on the steering wheel.  Some of our drive times between cities can be over eight hours long.  Are you feeling me yet?  Reach hand in bag, pull out perfect amount of seeds, stuff into mouth ever so percisely, crack seed with teeth, spit shell into plastic bottle and then tap tap tap on the steering wheel . . . over and over and over. He also is not concerned with tossing them out the window or dropping them during a hike.  I continually tell him, “I’m pretty sure that constitutes littering.” And he never corrects me, but he never stops dropping the shells on the ground.  This has always been a source of discontent with me, until it recently very likely saved my life. Well that got your attention didn’t it?  We were making our rounds to the National Parks in AZ and UT in early March of this year and one of the more challenging hikes was Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park, UT.  Angel’s Landing and I had crossed paths previously back in 2013 when I made the mistake of researching it the night before Blaine and I were going to go hike it.  Too many people had fallen to their deaths and I chickened out before even leaving the hotel the morning of the hike.  It has been on my bucket list ever since and so I was determined to over come my fears this time around.  We were traveling with our friends from Germany that we met while living in Chicago.    Since Flo and Yessica have a baby girl, 10 months at the time, Emily was also along for our hikes.  The five of us made the climb up to the point where you have to decide to go forward or turn around.  Yessica and I stayed back with Emily while Flo and Blaine took the first turn.  At no point was I convinced that I could actually go through with it.  But the guys came back and then it became a challenge for Yessica and I to see if we could do it faster. Many times along the stupidly narrow, insanely high hike while holding onto chains and trying my best not to look down, I considered turning around.   I believe there were times that Yessica kept me putting one foot in front of the other and there were equally as many times that I kept her going as well.    Reaching the top was amazing, there wasn’t much room up there but the view was spectacular.  I felt like I had just summited Mount Everest. Coming back down was no less scary and dangerous.  We came to a spot, no one else was around and the chain suddenly wasn’t there any longer.  It had stopped and would start up again a few feet away . .  . somewhere.  But we couldn’t see over the edge and it was time to make a decision as to which way to go.  If we chose the wrong way, would there be no coming back?   And then the most blessed sentence came out of Yessica’s mouth.  “Look!!!!  Blaine’s sunflower seeds.  This is the way!!”  We both burst out laughing and still to this day I can’t believe that after all the heartache I had given Blaine about his bottle tap tap taping and his littering I would never be so happy to see that trail of seeds, leading me home safely. Thanks for reading what I wrote, Shelia

#zion national park #angels landing

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Downtundra is on the road again

Pulling out of Texas is a lot less emotional when I can take some of my family with me.  We left Saturday morning at 2:15am and did a cannon ball run all the way to Purgatory Ski Resort in Durango, CO.  Behind us was our son Beau, his wife Noelle and their 13 month old daughter Emma Grace.  We left early to give the baby as much sleep time as possible and she was a real champ for the entire 15 hour start to finish trip.  However, the long day of travel did take it’s toll on baby girl.  We are on our first full day here and Emma is still having a little trouble adjusting to the long ride, her new surroundings, the altitude and her dry sinuses.  

Our traveling friends, Sam and Jordan, had left on Friday and were here when we arrived and had already hit the slopes . . . well . . . Sam hit the slopes . . . Jordan attempted to hit them but had equipment malfunction.  Today we all got some time on the mountain, Noelle and I took turns watching Emma.  I’m sad to report that Noelle’s attempt to learn how to snow board did not go well and she ended up hitchhiking a ride on a snowmobile, which she proclaimed to be an even worse experience than trying to snowboard.  I however, was in hog heaven as I got to make a couple runs with Beau and I did not fall once (two runs down a green . . . but still).  There has been a lot of work going on in Celina on the house that we rent to Beau and Noelle so it’s really nice to be on vacation and just enjoy our time together for a while.  A break from the harsh realities of home ownership, if you will.

One of the best things about a snow vacation is all the great food we prepare in house.  Last night Jordan hooked us up with stuffed bell peppers and today Blaine has the house smelling amazing with his famous chili.  We have homemade ravioli in the freezer and everything we need to make Granny’s Pasta Sauce and most importantly I have all the fixings for my Mexican Martini. The sun was shining this morning which made for awesome skiing and now the snow is falling which makes for great fire in the fireplace watching.  Life is good my friends.  Stay tunes for our upcoming adventures in Purgatory, which is apparently in a lava pit?

Thanks for reading what I wrote,

Shelia

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Cows and Horses and Wives, Oh My . . .

As many of you know, Blaine is a triathlete.  That doesn't keep me from wanting/trying to swim, bike, run and hike with him.  As long as we are swimming laps, running on a track or even recently roller-skating, it's all good.  He is a captive audience.  Any sport that he can pull away from me, like hiking or biking . . . not so good.  While still in Tahoe we headed out for a six mile round trip hike to Ellis Peak.  No biggie, right?  Wrong. We didn't get to the trailhead until 4pm so immediately we are racing against sunset and immediately it is straight uphill and through the snow.  Blaine was pushing me hard to go faster and even run when there was flat ground.  I couldn’t even be grateful for the descents because I knew I would have to climb them on the way back.  This hike tested our marriage.  At one point I reminded him that I wasn't a cow and he couldn't herd me up the mountain.  At another point I threatened not to ever go hiking with him again.  (Not sure if he heard that because I hissed it under my breath).  I would see him stop up ahead, take an unrushed drink of water, view the scenery, take a leak, take a pic or two and I would think “awesome, a break” but as soon as I got within 20 feet of him he would take off again.  Then he would say, “just because you catch up to me, doesn’t mean you can slow down.”  At THAT point his life was in danger.  Had there been a cliff close by . . . I’m just saying  . . .

Of course my brain knew (from my college psychology classes) that his demeanor was due to his fear of not getting us both to the top and back out before darkness set in.  But still, he almost died that day and it wasn’t from a bear eating him or tripping on a tree root in the dark and cracking his head.  Toward the end of the hike I broke down and asked the most dreaded question . . . “how much farther is it?”  Blaine replied, “10 minutes, but I need it to be 7”.  As it was, I didn’t get to see a single view or take a single pic and we didn’t make it out before dark.  My phone was dead and Blaine was using his flashlight to get us out.

Fast forward to yesterday.  Same kind of pushing me but this time we are on a bike ride in Hanford, CA.  Blaine had to ride 30 miles, we both know I can ride 30 miles but not as fast as he wants to ride them.  So we head out, I figure I’ll just ride the same 10 mile loop close to Alicyn’s house that I rode last time I was in town.  I can do it once or twice or three times depending on how it’s going.  But Blaine had other ideas.  So I go dupe de do’ing along behind him at a whopping 16/17 mile an hour pace (into the wind and uphill, of course).  I figure I can draft and it was fairly easy to keep up but like I said, Blaine had other ideas.  He likes to either push me or he is trying to teach me that I can’t hang or he’s wanting so bad for me to be able to hang . . . I can’t really say for sure, but he moves to the left and points to his right, signaling me to come up along side of him.  This means, no drafting for Shelia.  I’m thinking in my head, because I can’t speak out loud at this pace, if he’s trying to see how long I can maintain this pace .  . . we’ve reached it.  Five miles, that’s it.  Then at one point I ask the 2nd most dreaded question, “I thought you were going to pull away?”  He replied, “Let’s go”.  Eventually I fell back behind him.  He holds out an apple in his right hand, a signal that I’m suppose to ride up beside him and take it from him and eat it.  Only he doesn’t slow down so I have to try and speed up.  I’m head down, low on my handlebars, peddling as fast as my little legs will carry me, not making any headway and he is just up ahead, holding out that damn apple and I yell at him, “I’m not a freaking horse, Blaine. You’re holding out that apple like it’s a carrot on a string.  SLOW DOWN!!!” Then once I got the apple, I now have only one hand on the handlebars and of course I slow down, while up ahead Blaine decides to cut through a long line of cars waiting for the red light and then back through them again and across the intersection.  The apple didn’t make it.  

Disclaimer: No husbands were injured in the making of these stories but if he doesn’t quit confusing me with farm animals I can’t make any promises about his future.

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Having spent almost five weeks living and training in Lake Tahoe, CA at 6k’ elevation or more, this article sheds an interesting light on how the body can react to low oxygen environments. Breathing during swimming workouts, mountain passes on road bikes, and up and down trail runs and hikes are all easier having adjusted to the environment. I can’t wait to see what the first few months back at sea level feel like.

#tri #training #triharder #outside

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A window of opportunity . . .

The greatest thing about this Nomad Year is the amount of time, extended time, we are able to spend with family and friends.  Being here in Tahoe for six weeks has allowed us to “live” here, invite our loved ones to come visit and really explore this beautiful setting that is Lake Tahoe.  I have dubbed it my most favorite place in the world.  It has everything, mountains, lakes, winter sports, summer sports, biking, hiking, swimming, basically anything you could want for with the best views for a backdrop.

 Having a home here these few weeks has afforded us the company of Blaine’s sister Jade and her family, our dear friend Adam and our new friend Lori.  Along with Mike and Cathy Breen and their daughters who have a place here.  Yet to come are our old friends Greg, Shane and his daughter Milla, and Erin, due to arrive tomorrow.  And next week we get together with Mason, his beautiful wife Jen and their new baby Hazel Mae. who also have a place here.

 You can really get to know someone when you spend hours on a hike or out exploring or they “live” with you a few days.  Our last visitor was Lori, she works with Blaine and we have hung out a few times when she came to Chicago.  But this past week when she was here we had a lot of girl time.  We were down by the water, I had just built a little tribute of rocks for the baby my son and daughter had miscarried before getting pregnant with Emma.  Lori and I were starting to make our way back to the car.  She stopped, turned around and said, “This has been really nice. I’ve enjoyed getting to spend some time with you and get to know you.”  It touched my heart and I realized how much it meant to my spirit to really connect with someone on a level that can only be reached by disconnecting from everyone and everything else.

 And we had done just that, disconnected.  We drove around to Tahoe City, had a hot drink, did some shopping, went on a hike, went exploring and a engaged in a LOT of talking.  This is something that would have never happened if it weren’t for the Nomad Year.  It has occurred to me that when you are always available, in one spot, even in close proximity to friends and family, you can go a long time without ever seeing them. . . even longer without really spending good quality time with them. When you are roaming around the Country and you settle for a short time there is only a window of opportunity for people to come connect with you, and they will.   When you spend that kind of time with people, friends become family and family become friends and it’s a beautiful thing.

 Thanks for reading what I wrote,

Shelia

Making butternut squash gnocchi, right before Lori passed out from altitude troubles.

Finished product.

View above Crystal Bay

Tribute to baby Hayden.

Just two disconnected souls :)

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Poles or No Poles . . .

. . . trekking poles that is.  This past year, for my birthday, Blaine gave me a pair of trekking poles.  I tried really hard to look excited but the only thing going through my mind was, “Aren’t these for senior citizens?” Blaine’s a smart cookie and he caught on to my pretense fairly quickly.  He said, “I see that you aren’t too excited about this gift but I promise you, you will use these and you will be glad you have them.”  

 Fast forward 8 months and we are in Lake Tahoe for 6 weeks and I plan to do a ton of hiking.  We decide to start off slow and do a 3 mile hike to Tahoe Vista Overlook and Blaine asks me if I’m going to bring my trekking poles.  I flinched and told him I didn’t think I would need them since it was such a short and easy hike.  But I decided to bring them along so I could see what they were all about and get used to carrying them.  So I jump out of the truck and unpack my poles and immediately am not impressed.  I can’t figure out how to make the three pieces that are dangling together by some kind of wire turn into one solid pole. Blaine comes to the rescue and soon we head up the trail.

 On our way up we pass several people coming down and guess what?  Not a single one has trekking poles.  Every time a person approached I felt a little embarrassed that I was using them and they weren’t.  I was secretly thinking, “My husband gave them to me.  I have to use them.”  But about half way up, when the path took a turn toward the sky and I figured out what they were good for, my attitude started to change.  Once I got the hang of it I learned how to divert half the work from my legs to my arms.  I could push and pull my way up the mountain.  It became obvious fairly quickly that, used properly, trekking poles aren’t for babies. It moves hiking out of the lower body workout into the full body workout and slowly but surely as the people passed us and they had no poles I went from feeling embarrassed to secretly thinking, “Look at you fools, you don’t know what you are missing”.

  Today, I headed out on what was suppose to be an 8 mile hike up to Martis Peak.  Blaine dropped me off at the trail head and then came back an hour later as he was going to run the trail and meet me at the top. Well, as things go with me, I got a little sidetracked and my 8 mile hike turned into an 11.5 mile hike. There is no doubt that without my trekking poles I would be a lot more miserable as I sit here typing this post. I used every muscle in my body to cover that distance and couldn’t be more appreciative of that very insightful gift from my husband 8 months ago.

Thanks for reading what I wrote . . . 

Shelia

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Sweeeeeet

Adam came into town this week and spent some time with us, 3 days to be exact. He and I go back almost 30 years now (oofa).. back when we were in high school together at Palma.

He came up for a tri mini-camp. Swim, run, bike, and swim as well as full diet introductions over the course of the week. Highlight was bike day, where we went out on a 35 mile route from Kings Beach to Truckee and back. 

It’s always great to catch up with old friends. Feels pretty good to share similar hobbies 30 years later in life. Cheers to ya, buddy. 

#sweet #palma #palmahigh #friends #bike #bikeride #chinquapin

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Time For a Hike

We bought a @natgeofound Lake Tahoe Basin topographic map. I realize being a n00b means I can easily be impressed but this thing is slick. Literally. It’s printed on plastic material which allows it to be waterproof and tear-resistant, which is good because I just keep opening it and looking at it.

So I’ve got this thing opened up. First thing I notice is the Tahoe Rim Trail. It’s a 165 mile loop trail around the Tahoe basin. This thing just begs you to hike it. How long would a 165 mile hike take anyway? Maybe we’ll have 30 days to get crazy at some point in the future.

But I digress. As the weekend approaches, Shelia and I are about to set foot on the trail. We have the gear, the location, and now the time ahead of us to spend some time in the Lake Tahoe forest. Staying in Kings Beach, we are 2 miles from the trailhead near Brockway Summit. There’s no better place to start..

#lake tahoe #tahoe #tahoe rim trail #maps #getoutside #hike #hiking #trail #natgeo #natgeomaps

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It’s been a hot minute since we have blogged.

We decided to jump on a quick flight to Dallas last week to see this little sweetheart. She hasn’t been feeling well and was in the hospital for a few nights. They have run various heart and brain tests to try to find out why she has what I would call a “disconnect” from reality.

They are short episodes (10-30 seconds) where she is unresponsive to touch and sound with no other physical symptoms. She comes back happy as a clam and none the wiser.

We’ve all got theories but the good news is all tests so far have been negative. Hopefully they’ll diagnose it soon.

#emmyg #emma #celina #dfw #family

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The Annika Ride - Sept 02

2016 marked the fourth time we were able to join friends and family to support Erin and her niece (Annika) in a charity ride around Lake Tahoe. It’s an event like no other, full of positive emotion, beauty, and love.

I still remember talking to Shelia in 2013 about supporting this effort. Neither of us had a bike, had ridden a bike since grade school, and had any clue how we were going to ride AROUND a lake. It was going to take an investment in time and money. It was going to take many days riding in the TX summer heat, grinding away on the bike. But we knew we had to be a part of it and so we first made the commitment to each other and then made the commitment to Erin.

That decision was one of the most important moments in our lives. We started a journey similar to the one we are on today, in search of something spiritual, emotional, and physical. We found all three. And all three have paid us back time and time again. There is no doubt in my mind that we wouldn’t be on our current endeavor if we hadn’t dove in, head first four years ago.

Because of this event, I am reminded of the importance of taking on new challenges. Because of this event, I am reminded that nothing worth having comes easy.

It’s funny how life finds a way to teach you the right lesson at the right time. When is your lesson? When is your time?

Information on the charity can be found here:

http://www.annikastrain.com/foundation/index.html

This year’s photos:

#aks #scu #gobroncos #broncos #friends #laketahoe #emeraldbay

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Bowling with the kids.

#made with tumblr #gif