Around the lake

Tyler actually had a Saturday off, so we decided to take a trip around the lake. The dogs enjoyed the trek too. Aspen and Moses had a great time checking out new places, and Aspen even went swimming. Moses is slowly getting better at catching the ball, but he's still a little uncoordinated because of how fast he's growing — case in point below:



Since we were on the North Shore around dinner time we stopped at Le Bistro — they have a great five-course dinner there, with a wine pairing. It's our favorite restaurant here. My only complaint is that it's too far away from the house, but that's probably a good thing for our checking accounts.

My crazy co-workers

January is almost over

I can't believe it'll be February on Sunday. This year is already speeding by us.

This past weekend Tyler, Quinn and I went riding on Heavenly. It's the first real snow Lake Tahoe has received since our series of storms over the holidays, so it was my first time on the mountain this season. Quinn took some pictures, which I'll post as soon as I get them. There's a pretty sweet one of Tyler getting some air, but what you don't see is the amazing crash that happened right after the jump.

Moses is recovering well. The hard part is going to be keeping him cooped for another week. He has cabin fever pretty bad.

Other than that, things are going well. The newspaper will become a three-day publication next week. So now we will print only on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with an e-newsletter on Monday mornings. The good thing about publishing three days a week is we should be able to provide better content since we'll have a little bit longer to report and write articles. And people advertising with us will have their ads out there longer too. The thing is we should probably change the newspaper's name since we won't be a daily paper anymore.

Colorado Hometown Newspapers

My friend and fellow journalist Mollie Foster has been working for Colorado Hometown Newspapers in Boulder County. She just sent me a link to her latest project. Right now she's driving an electric truck for work, and in the past she blogged about the transit system.

Facebook

I'm still not giving in quite yet.

Neutering and gastropexy

Moses before his surgery...



After his surgery...



Moses' manhood was taken from him today, and he also had gastropexy surgery. He has to take it easy for the next three weeks. The reason he had two surgeries is Great Danes are prone to bloat because of their deep chest cavities. Bloat occurs when the stomach twists and fills with gas. Bloat can be fatal if not corrected immediately.

To prevent this, the stomach can be attached to the body wall (gastropexy surgery). Here's what it looks like:

TDT reporter on the scene

My fellow co-worker Adam Jensen was on the scene in Zephyr Cove yesterday where he attempted to track down any witnesses who might have seen the arrest of the BART officer. Not even his snowboarding injury could stop him from getting the story.

Editor's note: He requested a black cast so I couldn't write on it. But I showed him when I bought a silver metallic Sharpe for the task!

Growing up

Before Tyler and I started dating, he planned on moving to Jamaica. He had a general idea of leaving Bellingham at the end of the summer in 2006, but hadn't set up a budget for himself. At the time I asked him why he didn't have a budget, to which he replied:

"I don't want to stop enjoying life."

As you all know, Tyler didn't move to Jamaica, but moved to Tahoe instead. Now we have two dogs and we're both working in our chosen professions. It's amazing what can happen in 2 1/2 years, and imagine what's to come.

And the future is very much on both our minds. Earlier this week Tyler called me to let me know he made it home from Phoenix. He also said that when I got back to Tahoe, we should come up with a budget for the next eight months to prepare for the Chicago move. You could imagine my surprise when I heard that statement, but I guess we all grow up eventually.

Phoenix trip

A Chihuly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Gardens.

My family flew to Phoenix for a holiday vacation this year, so I took a week off to go see them. My mom, dad, Zack and my grandma were there.

We found out Chihuly had a glass exhibit at the botanical gardens so my mom and I went to see it during the day time. When Tyler came down for a few days, we dragged everyone back to the gardens to see the glass lit up at night. Here are more pictures from the gardens:

I also went to the zoo with my brother and his girlfriend Kim. I thought this sight was kind of odd:



That is one wasted tiger...

I also got to see Todd, who is one of my good friends from Bellingham. All in all, it was a great trip.

Pack time

This picture was taken in July. I found it on my mom's laptop.

Happy New Year!

Tyler and I spent New Year's Eve at The Hungry Bear Restaurant again, but it was different from last year because I was working and not enjoying a wonderful meal with Tracy and Logan.

Executive Chef Stephen and Chef de Cuisine Tyler put together a fabulous menu that I wish you all could have enjoyed. (Tyler managed to shoot a few photos during the dinner service so you all could salivate later.)They started off the three course dinner with a golden herb consomme, served with a truffled leek wonton. And here are the wonderful choices they had for entrees:

Filet Trio

Each entree was done three ways. Starting from the left there's a 3 oz. filet of venison with a rosti potato and a lingonberry glaze. In the middle there's a buffalo filet with sweet potato fries with gremolata. And on the right there's a veal filet with sunchoke puree (sunflower root) and a ginger demi-glace.

Duck Trio

Starting from the top is a savory duck confit cannoli with a duck demi-glace and creme fraiche (this was sooooooo good!). A savoy cabbage purse is in the middle, which has braised duck inside with wild rice. At the bottom is a pan seared duck breast with cherry barbecue sauce.

Lobster Trio

At the bottom is a lobster en croute, which is a lobster shell stuffed with mashed potatoes, lobster and celery root bisque, with a puff pastry on top of it all. At the top right is a broiled half lobster napoleon (so it's layered) with avocado and corn. At the top left is the lobster parsnip raviolis with a warm tomato-basil vinaigrette.

To finish everything off they had a chocolate trio for desert with a molten chocolate cake, an espresso shake and a white chocolate mousse profiterole.

Editor's note: I neglected to use a lot of accent marks in this post because I was having issues with them.