Ode to Nespresso CitiZ

Finally, after three and a half years of being a roommate, my brother Sergio has made a significant contribution to the household. That contribution, the new peace in my life, is the Nespresso CitiZ with Milk machine.

Nespresso is like the Apple of the coffee world. The CitiZ with Milk is like a shiny, new Macbook Pro. The machine has an incredible design and delivers a superb product. You should see the creama on the espresso shot. Oh, the crema! The milk frother can make for a cappuccino or latte in about 30 seconds.

Nespresso came into our lives by fate. When Sergio and I were in New Zealand in February, we stayed at guest house on a winery that had the CitiZ with Milk. It took no time for us to grab an espresso capsule out of the cabinet and witness the magic. We ran through all of the available capsules halfway through our stay -- probably averaging three to four espresso drinks each per day -- and had to find the owners with tails between our legs to ask for more capsules to get us through the remaining days. It was as if we got into the cookie jar before dinner.

Now that we have our a Nespresso machine at home, we can indulge! See the glory in these photos.

Look at that crema!

Look at that foam!

Making an almond milk latte.

The best part of waking up is Nespresso in my cup.

Julian y Sergio Debut in Tacoma

For, oh, the last three years, I've seen a slow evolution of Julian and Sergio's music, from musical critiques (all the time) to learning how to play guitar (2+ years) to writing songs (1+ years) and rehearsing them (6+ months). The boys made the fruits of these efforts available for a small audience Friday night at Anthem in Tacoma as Julian y Sergio. They played all originals, including a couple of songs from Julian's band, The Shrines. Somewhere around Sergio's busy travel schedule, I'm hoping to see another show soon!

Photos by Amanda...

Good seeing Michael Rowley and Jaclyn at the show!

Me and Sergio y Julian musical guest Hannah Mendenhall.

Senior consumes music best when accompanied by vino.

I voted beer.

This dude was feeling it.

Sergio and Rowley discussing either photography or music or music photography after the show.

I joined Amanda and Jaclyn for Happy Hour at The Social after the show.

Mt. Rainier Summit in the Bag

Sweet victory! On August 12, I summited Mt. Rainier, reaching 14,410 feet. I'm still in a bit of disbelief that the whole thing went down.

Before I turned 30, I planned to own a home, have a master's degree and have a good job. I hoped to be married (and lucked out there.) I didn't have Mt. Rainier in the game plan mostly because I didn't think I would ever have time to prepare myself for such an adventure. Finding a steady men's soccer team seemed like enough of a challenge.

Of course, my job is in the mountaineering business, so that was the catalyst. Whereas a Mt. Rainier summit climb is deservedly a bucket list for many people -- especially for people who live out of state -- I work with people who summit the mountain weekly for their job or for their love of the mountains and the convenience of Paradise being 45 minutes from the office. The opportunity presented itself through coworkers a few weeks back and I went for it. My Mt. Adams summit the previous week was a good training exercise.

My friend and Whittaker Mountaineering store manager Brian led the group. We hiked four miles and 4,000 feet to Camp Muir on a Friday and camped in the snow there and stayed at Muir all day on Saturday. We took the extra day to acclimatize, rest and wait for a second group that our rentals manager Katie was bringing up the hill. We "woke up" at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday to get dressed for the summit climb, another 4,000 feet of climbing. We took the classic Disappointment Cleaver route, which involved several crevasse crossings at Ingraham Flats, a scramble up the Cleaver and a hell of a lot of switchbacks and more crevasse crossings up to Rainier's crater and 14,410. Here are the photos, and there's a video below as well. Thanks for loaning the GoPro, Scott!

Hiking the Muir snowfield.

Andy with Rick Flair sunglasses and Mt. Adams in the background.

Camp Muir from our camping spot in the snow.

The back side of Camp Muir.

Our base camp.

Camp Muir at rush hour (when guided climbs are coming or going).

We climbed in the dark, so I only got a couple photos on the ascent after sunrise. Through the night, the view was spectacular with clear skies and bright stars.

We summited at 7:15 a.m., after six hours of climbing. Here's a view walking into Rainier's crater.

Brian at the summit.

Walking down on the descent.

Mt. Adams Summit in the Bag

Check Mt. Adams off the list. Now I know what it's like sucking wind at 12,280 feet!

Mt. Adams is the second tallest mountain in Washington, behind Rainier. We took the non-technical South Spur route, gaining 7,000 feet of elevation in a 12-mile, single-day roundtrip. It was a natural stair-climber!

Our start wasn't ideal. Traffic south on I-5 just plain sucked and we didn't get to the campground north of While Salmon, WA, until 11 p.m., a few hours later than we would have liked. We "slept" for a short time through the windy night and woke up for an alpine start at 3:30 a.m., hitting the trail at 4 a.m.

Barely awake:

We took breaks every hour for 15 minutes to let our legs rest and eat. You can really blow through calories climbing. I ate four Snickers bars, four Clif Bars, a half-pound of beef jerky and a half-pound of dried mangos and drank three liters of water over the course of the day.

Scott at a break:

We shed some layers and put on more suntan lotion at sunrise during our third break of the day. Yes, I wore plenty of suntan lotion!

My shadow at sunrise:

Mt. St. Helens in the distance with Mt. Adams' shadow at left:

Looking up at the challenge ahead, about one-third of the way up:

Break time, again:

The hardest part of the climb was between the lunch counter, where many climbers camp, and the false summit. We had been climbing for a few hours and those steps just burned, even with crampons. It was also a bit defeating. Once we got to the false summit, we saw we had another 1,000 feet or so to go.

The view looking up from the false summit:

Mt. Hood from the false summit:

I got a second-wind on the way up to the true summit, and we reached the top in about seven hours. The sky was clear and there was no wind. You really couldn't ask for better conditions.

The summit:

Mike was happy to be at the top:

So was I, with Rainier in the background:

The guys peeing at the top, Rainier at left:

Mt. St. Helens from the summit:

Mt. Hood from the summit:

Of course, the ascent is only half the climb. Walking back down is usually no fun, but Adams had some insane snow slides -- hundreds of feet long -- that made the descent fast and fun...

...but not without injury. Scott destroyed his pinky finger on the first glissade.

Me with the GoPro before a glissade.

Scott's GoPro footage edit, as posted at Cascade Gravity Research:

We made good time on the way down, taking half the time. We had a better commute heading north, and I crashed hard when I got home. I had a couple small blisters on my feet, but no sunburn and little soreness. Overall, it was a successful climb!

House Painted, Mission Accomplished

In this summer of ongoing home improvements, I'm glad to say that the biggest, most expensive project is complete... We got our house painted!

You may have caught on Facebook that I discovered a French-Canadian named Henry Choiniere first owned our house via the Tacoma Public Library Northwest Room. His permit request to build a "cottage" at our address was published in the Tacoma Daily Ledger on Jan. 11, 1903. The house was completed in 1904.

Because his last name is so unique, Amanda also figured out that Mr. Choiniere is her boss's great-grandfather. Cool, huh? Through that family we received the above photo, which I'm guessing someone took between world wars. What a difference time and new paint makes.

I like this photo because it helps tell the story of the house and gives us some design ideas. We oddly don't have a fireplace (which sucks) but I can see where it was and know that it was removed where a closet in our room was added. We're already planning to build a front porch in the next couple years, and the fact that the house once had a porch just reinforces the plan and how we'd set the pillars. We've talked about removing our chain-link fence eventually (not all that classy) and it'd be neat to replicate the old wire fence.

Now on to more before-and-afters of the new paint color compared to what we inherited.

Here's Daisha and Amanda in front of the house in March 2009 when we were closing on it. That front door was awful (and not very energy efficient)!

Here's the "Before" with the new front door installed:

After:

As I wrote previously, the color choice was a soul-searching endeavor, but we're happy we landed with Cress Green. I was in shock and had some buyer's remorse when I first saw the color because it was SO different. After a day, I got used to it and was really happy with the outcome. The trim color made a huge difference, too.

We outsourced the job because I wanted it done right, and our nearby neighbor, school teacher and two-decade painting veteran John was able and willing to take on the work for us. I felt good enough building the fence while the house was getting prepped and painted.

Corner view before painting:

After:

The garage before, with some broken trim:

After:

One final note on house color: You can't please everyone. We asked for the of at least a dozen people about color and received a dozen different recommendations. That helped us narrow colors down but didn't make the final decision easier.

House color is like cake. Everyone likes cake but has different opinions about which flavor, frosting and combinations of the two are best. Amanda and I decided it was our party and we wanted our cake Cress Green. I like to think Mr. Choiniere would have approved of the color or been polite enough to just take ice cream without further comment.