Finally!!!!

We are house-sitting/dog-sitting up in the NW hills. We woke up this morning and it was snowing! It snowed for a couple of hours and we have a couple inches. We were supposed to do some yard work today. Not sure how well raking will go with the snow.


Chase misses all the snow in VT :(



Pacha in his jacket!

Seattle

We took a trip to Seattle this past weekend to see our good friend Taryn. We got there in time to see Taryn finish her 3v3 Ultimate Frisbee tournament. Then we went out to a vegan Thai restaurant (yum!), watched one of Taryn's housemates play some jazz at a little bar, then headed out for a couple drinks.

Sunday morning we had brunch with all her housemates, huevos rancheros (below). It was the best breakfast I've had in a long time.




Then we went for a short hike that overlooked the ocean. Seattle is pretty amazing. It's a lot like Portland only bigger and it's on the ocean. Gorgeous.

Sometimes we do stuff like this

Skateboarding with Chase. Only one near wipeout.





Molly, Chase and Pacha overlooking Portland from the Pittock Mansion. Mt Hood is in the background somewhere. And the sun is out!

WFR

WFR - Pronounced "woofer" is the acronym for Wilderness First Responder. If you're an outdoorsy person you may have heard of this certification. It's common and sometimes mandatory for people employed as guides, outdoor instructors etc to have their WFR cert. I have been putting off the class for about 5 years now with my excuses being that it's an expensive course and that I didn't have time to take it. The courses are offered all over the country (and world) at different places such as a college, outdoor center or NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) headquarters. Being unemployed, I do have a lot of free time these days, although it's not as much as you would think. Anyway, for Christmas I asked my family to help chip in for the cost of the course. Now that I'm living in a city, the class is offered more often and I can still sleep at home instead of in a dingy cabin with the additional cost of housing that is sometimes built in to the course cost.

So I took the class. It was offered across town at a place called TrackersPDX. We spent 10 days learning what to do in medical emergencies (or potential emergencies). We covered everything: wounds, fractures, dislocations, respiratory problems, neurological problems, heat problems, cold problems, drowning, CPR, lightning strikes, shock, cardiac arrest, splinters, sunburn and other issues that I can't think of right now. There were 30 of us in the class and we spent a lot of time in the classroom and a lot of time acting out scenarios. We switched off acting as the patient and as the rescuers. I can't give away all the secrets but as a patient I acted out asthma attacks, grand mal seizures (pouring my water bottle on my crotch before hand to portray my incontinence), unresponsiveness and having an amputated thumb. I will say that my acting skills are peaking.

After 9 days of class we had a day of testing, both written and a practical session. I passed but I think it was one of the most challenging tests I've ever taken. Being in charge of people in medical emergencies is stressful. I'll leave it at that.