Where's the laundry?

Before leaving for work the other day, I asked Tyler if he could fold the clothes. He sleepily answered me and said he would.

When I got home that evening, I saw that none of the clothes were folded. I asked him why he didn't do it.

"I couldn't find them," he said.

I guess I shouldn't hide them in the dryer like that.

The steep hike to the top

Tyler and Aspen make their way up the Stagecoach Express on foot.

The other day, Tyler had an idea that it'd be fun to walk to the top of the ski lift and snowboard down. Since the lift was shut down last week, I thought it sounded like a fun time. So on Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. we set off on our mission to tackle the 1,400 ft climb.

Right away I decided I was stopping at every pole that was holding up the lift. It was difficult, and I kept counting down how many poles were left before the top. Gradually the numbers began to decrease and we finally made it to the top. The hike was fun — when we reached the top. We snowboarded down with Aspen running right behind us, dodging patches of unearthed rocks the whole way down.

Later in the afternoon, we took some cheese and a bottle of wine we bought in Napa down to the lake. It was so nice to lay in the sun and relax after such a productive morning.

To the Lost Coast and back again

Aspen takes a breather from her beach adventures.

On Saturday night, we all drove to the Lost Coast for a camping trip, close to where the drive-through redwood tree is. It was time we all saw the ocean and took a few days off to get away from the Tahoe scene. On Sunday we were pretty lazy — laying in the sun, taking walks and playing cribbage.

The next day we decided to kick off the hiking season with a 10 mile hike. All was well until we discovered Aspen's tick infestation when we stopped for lunch. We headed back to camp, but then decided to follow the creek to the beach and walk that way back to camp (since it was tick free). When we headed down the creek, the brush was a tad bit overgrown, and we had to squirm are way through some trees. When we reached the end of the creek, we unfortunately found a rocky cliff and a waterfall in the way of our path down to the beach. So we turned around and headed back to the trail and eventually stumbled the rest of the way home. As a result, we all slept well after that escapade.

On Tuesday, we decided to swing through Napa Valley on the way back to the hill, stopping at some of our favorite wineries and now new favorites: St. Clement, Silver Oak, Clos Du Val, and Cliff Lede. Then we made our way — grubby, smelly camping close and all — and ate at The Farm at the Carneros Inn, where Tyler became excited about food again. We made it back home in time to all shower (including Aspen) and unpack before hitting the bed for some sleep to prepare us for re-entry into the working world.

Currently Tyler and I are battling the tick situation aggressively, and now we have Frontline on our side.

Driven by fear

Check out this New Yorker article — it outlines the state of the newspaper industry.