Carmen's New Friends...

Carmen and Bailey

Carmen and Kirby

Carmen and Canyon

Carmen and Joachim Parbo, Danish National Cyclocross Champion

Joachim was in town (traveling the States doing clinics and races) conducting a local cyclocross clinic for the junior Rad Racing Team and we were invited. He's a really down to earth guy that we will be cheering for this coming Euro Cross season. It poured buckets during our clinic!

Carmen has come to live with us!

We are so lucky to have Carmen in our life now. Because she is so sweet and confident we can tell that she came from a loving family. We hope we can provide the same loving home for her. We spent our first weekend with Carmen doing a lot of fun things.

We walked downtown to the Olympia Art Walk.

We walked to the neighborhood bakery for coffee.

We made our annual trip to Shelton's Oyster Fest (Eric and Dad enjoying a microbrew after having just eaten oyster fritters; Carmen not pictured).

Pumpkin carver at Oyster Fest.

2007 Cyclocross season begins!

Last Sunday was our first cyclocross race of the 2007 Seattle Series. It was cold, rainy, and muddy - perfect for a season opener. The muddier the better...really.

Brandee with Valley teammate Jason after their race.

Brandee (on right) clearing the barriers.

Eric during his race! We are both racing on single speed bikes this season.

Close up of some of the mud on the course. Gotta love that mud!

In Memorium of loved ones...

It's been a roller coaster of emotions this week. My Grandma Josephine Era passed away on October 1st after a lengthy and painful battle with cancer. She was such a strong woman, even up to the very end. I will miss her humor, love, politcal views, opinions on Seattle sports teams, and her amazing pies, even though she always thought her pies didn't turn out very well. She raised a great family and always put others first. I will miss her dearly...

Grandma, me, and Maggie

The puppies that we saved ended up having a coccidia parasite and the little runt girl who we named "Little Girl" and the shelter named "Mildred or Millie" wasn't strong enough to fight the infection and passed away (the other pups are doing pretty good). Millie was so sweet and we were going to adopt her if she got better. We fell in love with her during our short time with her.

Eric holding Little Girl Millie


It comforts me to think of Grandma holding Millie on her lap in heaven.

Puppies!!!

While sampling wastewater treatment plants in the Yakima area last week, I came across a litter of seven puppies at the town of Mabton plant. Weird huh? Mabton's animal services consists of several outdoor cages were they put stray or unwanted dogs. If no one claims them within in a few days, they "put them down" by shooting them! Can you believe that? I also noticed that all the dogs at Mabton were neglected. Their water bowls were missing or dry and their food was just thrown at their cages. Appalling!

I had to visit the plant several times for sampling and each time these puppies pulled at my heart strings. I finally asked about them and the staff told me they were planning to put them all down. So, I made room in my work van, acquired some boxes, put the pups in the boxes, and took them home with me to Olympia!

So for two days I had seven very needy puppies. They kept me up most of the nights and I was constantly cleaning up poop and chasing them around. Fortunately, Eric, my mom, and our friends and neighbors were supportive and kept me sane. We were able to find a really nice no-kill shelter in Ocean Shores (NorthBeach PAWs) where my mom and I took them on Saturday. The pups are now doing really great!

Eric holding a wet puppy. The pups needed a bath because they were covered in dirt and poop. Our neighbors, Jeff and Merey, graciously helped us with a late night puppy washing brigade.

The puppies did so good with their baths!

Drying and warming up the pups after their baths.

Here are the clean and cuddly pups!

These two were the only short hairs. They also looked different from the other five long-haired puppies.

Here are the pups at the PAWs shelter. They were being curious about an adult dog who was barking at the puppies.

Here's one of the long-hair pups with a new collar. They all got collars, names, and shots that same day I dropped them off. I really hope they get good homes. They are awesome pups! Message here: Spay and neuter your animals and volunteer or donate to your local shelter.

For the love of dogs...

It's been all about the dogs since we moved into our new place. We've been watching our friends dogs while they've gone on vacations. This has been good practice for us. It's really funny because Eric and I were talking about what kind of dog we would get and Eric mentioned Golden Retriever among a few other breeds and I like Corgis. So, one Sunday afternoon while riding our bikes, we met a family up at the Steilacoom dog park. They had this great dog, Carmen, who is half Golden and half Corgi. They said they were looking for a new home for her since they are both being deployed to Iraq soon. They brought her down to our house last weekend for a trial visit. Things went really great. So, it looks like Carmen will be coming to be a part of our family in early October! We are really, really, really excited and happy :)

Meet Carmen:

She's a super sweetheart and really well trained already!

This is Bailey, our neighbors dog. She stays with us often.

This is Canyon, our friends dog, who also has stayed with us. Here Eric is firing him "Trump Style" for eating Eric's precious salt bagel while Eric turned his back for just a minute!

Evolution of a Spare Bedroom

Finally, some pictures of our house... This set of three pictures shows the "remodeling" of the spare bedroom. It was a big task, but we finished in time for Besty's August visit.

Eric showing his frustration at the damaged walls (He's pretending to fence with the walls using a utility knife)

Two layers of pigmented shelac and 2.5 big tubs of spackle later...


Here's the finished room. Perfect for Betsy's visit!