Orcas Island here we come!!

For a celebration of Valentine's Day Janelle and I were able to get away for a few days to the gorgeous Orcas Island in the San Juans. After hitting the ferry ride from Anacortes, WA we cruised the Island to settle into our room at the Inn at Ship Bay. We had a great view out our back porch, just check out the panorama picture above!! Nice weather followed us this weekend as we were able to cruise by quite a few of the local beaches an highlights. We managed to motivate ourselves enough to hike most of the way up the side of Mount Constitution, the highest point in the island chain and in the middle of the Washington's 4th largest state park, Moran State Park. We did not have the energy to make it to the top (we will be back to conquer you mountain!!) we did get quite high up into the treeline to get some gorgeous shots of the island scenery. A nice workout and some relaxation time to boot. Another fun adventure led us to the local Camp Orkila where Janelle had done her retreat when in the 6th grade, a mere 18 years ago. The cabin where she stayed still stands proudly, "Wapato" RULES!! While there we encountered some very bold deer who were none too shy in willing to pose with Janelle for a few pics. I had a great time, as you likely can see, trying out all of the settings on the new camera we received as an early wedding present from my brother John and sister-in-law Amy. Thanks again guys, the camera is awesome!! I always have a good time riding the ferry and cruising the Northwest wilderness that I have such an affinity towards. I am looking forward to some more hiking, camping, and exploring this summer with friends and family. That's all for now onward and upward as we continue rolling along.....

Bonsai!!!

So my newest interest these days is looking into try my hand at the ancient art of Bonsai. 'Bonsai' is Japanese and is 'roughly' translated to mean 'pot planted' as referring to the unique tray-like pot used in traditional bonsai forms. The general idea it to take various tree, shrub, and bush species and adapt them to a miniature version mimicking what we see in real life. As I am always looking for ways to experiment in my own life and garden I thought this sounded like a lot of fun. I wanted to use native plants to keep things local if at all possible and save some $$, the traditional trees and seeds can cost bank!! I am planning to use some wild-growing plants from my own yard, ones I would pull anyway so I see it as another form of recycling and a cheap source of materials. First trial is up and running. By generous donation, my lab mate Gail gave me a small Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) growing up next to her garden that she has planned to remove for years. I have re-potted the plant after extensive root clipping and started pruning the top to generate a shape I like. If the plant continues to grow I plan to do some wiring in the future to train the limbs into interesting shapes. There is almost no, or certainly very few, examples I have been able to find of using this tree for bonsai so this a true experiment. Next few weeks will also see me planting my new seedlings in preparation for going into my garden for the summer. Anticipated plantings include radishes, pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, and possibly lettuce. Growing stuff is fun!!

This weekend Janelle and I plan to head to the islands as we have reservations for Saturday and Sunday night for a fun hotel on Orcas Island in the San Juans. It will be a great opportunity to get away for a few days and spend some some time celebrating Valentine's Day and our engagement that happened 1 year ago on that date. We are looking into some park explorations, window shopping, and other low-key activities. I am certainly hoping that some significant sleeping in will also be on the menu for the weekend. It is always nice to take a ferry trip and we will get the opportunity to use the new digital camera that John and Amy gave us as an early wedding present, thanks guys!! The pictures you see here are actually some of the first I have taken with the new gadget, more to come for sure.

Look at that, another post in as many days...who knew?!? Maybe if I keep them shorter and more manageable they will happen more frequently. The possibilities seem endless... ;-)

Seriously it has been this long?!? Maybe I am just not cut out for the blogging lifestyle, only time will tell I guess. ;-) I am certainly going to try and keep it up to date starting this spring and into the summer of 2009. Lots on the horizon as the men's volleyball scene is getting cranked up, I am planning for my wedding in April, and getting excited for the outdoor growing season with all of my new gardening plans. More to come as I slowly fill in the pieces here.

The summer is rolling along here in the Northwest as we enter July, where does all the time go? In any case my outdoor plans in terms of the v-ball have been slightly derailed as I managed to sprain the heck out of my ankle in the final game, on the final night, of my indoor men's 6's league. Luckily we managed to win the league one more time. However the prognosis is me being out of action for ~3weeks. It will be 2 of those weeks this weekend. Most of the swelling and color has been eliminated and the pain is minimal which is always a good sign. That also means no indoor soccer for the meantime while I let the ankle heal. However, I did manage to get in a few tournaments prior to the injury. The first was another reverse coed event with buddy Jen McIntosh. We had planned to play for quite a while so great to have an opportunity to do so. We played great in pool going 2-1 and should have gone 3-0. In any case we split down due to points and the way our pool ran. We dropped the ball in the silver bracket going 1-2-BBQ. Great time though with a sweet girl and her adorable son, Conner, running the park ragged the entire day. My serve was on most of the day and I felt pretty good about my play on the whole. It also did not rain the entire time which sure was a nice thing.. ;-) Following this event I held the first Madman summer tournament of the season with a HUGE success. I hit my all-time high for entries with 44 participating teams. This included one of the larger Northwest women's brackets I have seen in quite a while with 20 ladies teams on the field for the day!! Great success all the way around and I was able to dish out over $1100 in cash prizes, not too shabby. I dragged Alan Wittren out of retirement to act as my partner for this one. We had a great time. Much like last tournament we went 2-1 in pool, went up this time in the split, and then proceeded to 1-2-BBQ to end the day somewhere in the bottom of the upper bracket. another great day though with some of the best weather of the year, a HUGE turnout, my mother surprising me by showing up for a visit, and a chance to hang out with Alan's great family including wife Vikki, daughter Micheal Ann, and newly arrived son Dax. One of these days I might even mix in a little more winning to the day as well!! In any case a great time for all. More to come as I am one the mend, have friend's weddings in the mix, have a trip to see the family in CO, and am planning for the 10th annual JWI event to top off the summer!!

Sports Update:

Indoor Soccer: 6-2-0 (First Place)
Men's Indoor 6's: 31-5 (League Champs!!)

Summer Tournaments:
June 9th: Reverse Coed with Chantelle Kadlec 4th Place (5-3 overall)
June 15th: Reverse Coed with Jen McIntosh (2-3 overall)
June 23rd: Men's 2's with Alan Wittren (2-3 overall)
--------June 24th Ankle Injury-----------