1. It’s no secret fall is my favorite time of year, however the past month has felt more like WINTER. Too dark, too dreary, too much rain, daylight savings kicked my butt, and my motivation for nearly everything has gone down the drain.

However, one thing that gets me jazzed every year is a holiday cup from Starbucks. It’s an instant nostalgic mood boost.

2. I know once the holiday festivities are over, and the days get even shorter I will want to permanently keep my head attached to my pillow. In an attempt to mitigate such behavior I have signed up for another spring half marathon. Training for one this past year during Jan/Feb/March was a helpful way to stay active. I also love having a goal to look forward to.

Having a focus and training regime for the upcoming winter will keep me from turning into Jabba the Hutt. I think this will be a new annual routine for me.

3. Since we’re on the topic of running, I went for a trail run recently. While it’s not normally my thing, I didn’t hate it. I enjoy running solo, but I won’t trail run solo, so I don’t trail run. (That and I don’t love giant hills.) My friend who will also be running the spring half marathon (his first one!) likes trail running, so I accompanied him on a 5 miler.

The run felt good, but the sight I came home to afterwards felt even better.

4. After a routine trip to Sprouts recently I noticed one of my back tires was low. I drove to Costco to fill it with some air, where I discovered the tire had a screw in it. Ooofff. I thankfully managed to drive to Discount Tire where I was jazzed to discover I had a warranty on my tires. I got a new tire for free, but I was bamboozled by the guy helping me.

He asked me when the last time I changed my wipers was. I told him it had been a looonnngg time, and that I knew how to do it, but I was being lazy. He told me he could make me a great deal, so I told him if he could replace them for under $20 I was in. He said he could, and I was shocked. He manipulated his computer to get the $50 pair for just $19, but they are AWFUL.

Note to self: not all wipers are created equal. At least I got a free $118 tire…

5. Speaking of saving money, I officially had to buy a new pair of Merrell’s. I bought a pair of Move Glove shoes in 2021 and beat the ever living life out of them. I refused to buy a new pair until the pair I had were shot, and I think having a hole in the heel I can fit multiple fingers through counts as getting my moneys worth.

6. Duncan and I are going to a candlelight Vivaldi concert in two weeks, and I am beyond excited. I had seen the candlelight concert ads for years, and always thought they were a scam. Then I had a friend who went to one, and she confirmed it was no only NOT a scam, but a wonderful experience.

The candles are most certainly not real, but the ambiance will still be lovely. I haven’t been to a classical concert since I lived in Europe.

7. Little free library boxes bring me so much joy. I recently commandeered THREE books (two of which I already wanted to read) from three different ones. I don’t know who first started this trend, but I am so thankful for the pockets of joy. Once I finish these three I will return them to another box, and the cycle will continue.

8. Speaking of books, I set a goal to read 25 books this year. Then that goal was bumped to 30, then 45, and then to 60. I have decided to leave the goal at 60, even though I have surpassed the goal (currently at 65 books.) This may not be many books for devout readers, but as someone who only recently got back into reading for hobby I am quite chuffed by this. My favorite books of the year thus far are:

• I’m Thinking of Ending Things – Iain Reid (Psychological)
• It Happened One Summer – Tessa Bailey (Romance)
• The Great Alone – Kristin Hannah (Emotional)
• Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal – Mary Roach (Science)
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz – Heather Morris (Historical)
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers – Mary Roach (Science)
• Educated – Tara Westover (Memoir)
• And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie (Mystery)
• The Women – Kristin Hannah (Historical Fiction)

9. I’m not one to collect many souvenirs, but one thing I try to get from every national park I visit is a pin. I’ve kept all my pins in a small box, and when I told my friend Caitlin this she offered to make me something to display them on. She hand sewed some felt pieces together, and it turned out so adorable.

The best part is that she gave it to me with a pin already in it. I didn’t get a pin in YOHO National Park back in September when she and I went, so she found me one online and bought it for me. What a pal, I am so thankful for her.

10. I ran a Turkey Trot this year against my better judgement. It was a 5k, and while 3.1 miles is a respectable distance to run, for me it’s my baseline. Because of this I don’t like paying to run a 5K. Paying for a 10K or higher pushes me to train longer miles, and therefor is justifiable to pay.

I digress.

This trot was only $20, so I decided to sign up after a friend told me he would be running it. I arrived early the day of the race to pick up my running bib, and the poor volunteers were deep in the storm of chaos. I registered the day prior, so I gave them grace when they couldn’t find the bib attached to my name. I assumed I didn’t have one because I signed up too close to the day of the race.

The woman helping me then handed me a random running bib, and with no further direction said “ok, here you go” (after expressing she could not find mine.) Thankfully I overheard another volunteer tell someone else the random bib’s were not attached to anyone, and we would just have to look up the numbers for results under anonymous runner.

OK, no big deal.

I run the race, and I end up quite proud of my time (29:56), and while I know my name won’t be on the results page I still want to see my number for my official chipped time. Lo and behold, the number I ran with was attached to a Mr. Mark Kimball. I decided to type my name in just to see, and SURE ENOUGH, there was a bib attached to my name and SOMEONE ELSE RAN WITH IT.

I am aware this is the epitome of what’s considered a “first world problem” (this is a confession posts after all), but I was admittedly bummed because I like collecting the running certificates with my name and my times. Duncan convinced me to reach out to the people who ran the event, and they were able to attach my name to the number I ran with and all was well in the world. It’s ok if you judge me for this confession.

Q: What’s your confession? Favorite books this year?

Believe it or not, there was a time in my blogging life where I blogged regularly. Every two to four days I had something to say on this space, but these days I am lucky to squeeze out one or two posts a month. I used to share my daily life happenings, but I have morphed into more of a “just hit some of the highlights” blogger.

Not to be confused with “just hit the positives,” sometimes highlights are the struggles too.

November and December move into a slower time of year for adventures and I don’t have many epic new hikes or travel escapades to share. My daily excitement comes from things like the size and frequency of my cats bowel movements, what ancient artifact I have pulled out of my moms attic to dispose of, and surviving the monotony of working in corporate retail.

I still like to throw in the reality of life amongst photos of mountains and new to me places, but the inspiration to write doesn’t strike as much as it does when I have something worthwhile to share.

While I haven’t traveled anywhere far in a long time because of my sweet fury child, I did have a surprisingly busy December. Each weekend of the month I had something scheduled starting with Duncan’s company Christmas party. Duncan has worked for the same company for nearly four years, but this was the first Christmas he decided to attend the Christmas party.

When he described the event to me I was stoked. I was hoping to see a plethora of plumbers letting loose with an open bar (call me crazy, but I love people watching those who have less of a filter from afar), but as it turned out the after party is where the real chaos ensues. Duncan and I are both in bed early folks, so we left before anyone got too rowdy.

The very next day, we went to my pal Caitlin’s house for a cookie decorating party.

When I say party, I mean it was Caitlin, her sister, and her nephew, plus me and Duncan. A small party. I couldn’t eat any of the cookies, but that didn’t stop me from decorating the above photographed handful. I think I’ve found my calling. Please note the cat cookie on the far left in the middle. I was trying to give this cat a realistic…orifice, but instead it looks like he needs a trip to the ER.

To round out this first weekend of the month, after cookies we took Little for his first of two Christmas themed car rides. I would say it was a success.

The second weekend of December was dedicated to exercise and gluttony. In an attempt to keep the holiday spirit alive I signed up for a Christmas themed 10k. I ran a Halloween themed 10k in October and loved the idea of running another holiday race. I didn’t dare show up to the start line without the proper attire, and I found the most perfect sweater to wear.

A moment of silence for the most beautiful sweater to exist.

I think I was more excited about this sweater than I was for the run itself. The run was beautiful, but COLD. (Go figure, it was cold in December.) I am loving getting back into running races because the community of runners is so fun and uplifting. Running is such a personal sport, but people come together to support the personal growth and accomplishments of each other as if we are a team.

I’m not a fast runner, but seeing small progress is always fun. I no longer run to chase faster times, but I do enjoy challenging myself. I ran this race in 1:01:13 with a 9:51 pace. I was quite chuffed.

Duncan was my number one support, and braved the cold to be there with me. After I was finished we made our way to my favorite GF bakery that was just around the corner (the runs in this town might be somewhat planned around the bakery too.) We each got a sweet and a savory, and this was the perfect end to the fun morning.

Weekend number THREE of the month was reserved for cultural refinement. I love classical music, I love listening to the combination of instruments, and I love Antonio Vivaldi. When I saw there was a local concert of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons I knew I wanted to go. The concert was also one of the candlelight concerts I have seen floating around the internet for years, but I always thought they were fake/a scam.

They are not fake, they are not a scam, and they are very enjoyable!

Annnddd for the last weekend of December I went for a lovely winter hike with Caitlin and Duncan. We brought a stove/fuel so that we could make a cuppa and enjoy the warmth of the dark beans outside. We hiked the Duckabush River Trail just to the viewpoint for a round trip total of around 7 miles. (It was very cold, but still a worthy outdoor adventure.)

Some other honorable mentions for December are: I read five books putting my yearly total at 70 books. My goal for this year is 60 books, but I anticipate I will surpass that. – I wore my cat sweater to work on Christmas Eve and it was the best day ever. After work I took Little for his second Christmas lights drive. – Christmas was calm, cool, and collected.

NYE was also calm, cool, and collected. Duncan and I went for a hike New Years Day, and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to ring in the new year!

On that note, I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season. I always enjoy mine, and I always enjoy when mine is over! Maybe this year I will blog more. (Probably not.)

Q: How was your holiday season? Are you ready when the holidays are over, or do you wish they lasted longer?

I have traveled to a handful of wonderful destinations in my life. Some of those places were big cities where I managed to get by with public transportation, but most of those places were not. Most of those places had me wanting to bop from city, to city, to city. This required renting a car, and I have driven in some relatively stressful situations (Rome, single back roads of Ireland/Scotland, sitting on broken glass in LA after a break-in, the autobahn…actually the autobahn is a blast to drive on), but nothing gives me more anxiety than the possibility of one specific situation.

A flat tire.

I have been blessed to drive in multiple countries and states with minimal car troubles (I had to put air in a tire once in a tiny town of Italy, but it was like a 6/10 on the stress scale), but the dreaded flat tire finally happened to me. In my own town. In my driveway. I’ve had punctured tires before, but nothing to the point I couldn’t immediately drive to the tire shop for a repair.

This time, my tire was so flat I didn’t dream of driving on it. Actually I did, but Duncan told me no.

I stumbled upon the above scene at 0750 on a Thursday, just ten minutes before I was meant to be at work. I shamefully have never changed a tire in my life, and I had no intention of calling AAA when the car was sitting safely in my driveway. I needed Duncan to help me change this tire, but I would have to wait for him to be off work later that day.

Instead of calling out entirely (which I will be doing next time), I rode my bike to work. I will not be doing that again. This entire situation caused more stress than it needed to, but I have a tendency to want to fix problems IMMEDIATELY. This was certainly a problem that could have waited for the following day, alas I did not want to wait.

Thank you to my hero Duncan, he showed me how to change the tire myself next time, though I don’t think I will be doing that.

My weak feeble arms could never in their wildest dreams be able to loosen those tire lug bolts. Duncan showed me how to use my foot to kick down on the arm of the tool to loosen them, but I hope to never have to attempt that. Duncan put the spare tire on for me, we took the flat to Discount Tire where they were able to fix the tire for free, and all was well again.

I had to rely on my knight in shining armor for this car problem, but I was able to redeem myself the following Monday.

I had an oil change scheduled where everything went according to plan, but my engine and cabin air filters were both in need of a swap. I have been wanting to change my own cabin air filter for YEARSSS now, so I finally decided it was time. I wasn’t familiar with the engine filter so I let them fix it for a whopping $70. I immediately watched a video on how to do this myself next time, and it’s just as easy as the cabin filter.

I bought a $20 replacement filter from the auto store, and managed to replace this all by myself! Well, I needed Duncan’s brute force again to get the glove box off, but overall IT WAS ALL ME OK! Toyota wanted $80 for this job, no way. Kick rocks Toyota! There are few things in life that bring me more joy than saving money, making money, or finding money (coins on the ground.)

And just like that my car is good as new. My anxiety about getting a flat tire however is still just as strong as ever (specifically in foreign countries.) Something about being stuck in an area you are not from with no cell service, and speaking an entirely different language makes my neck hairs stand up. I really hope I am not manifesting this problem by talking about it so much.

Q’s:

• Do you think a flat tire is a good reason to call out of work, assuming lives don’t depend on you?
• When’s the last time you had to change a tire?
• Have you ever changed your own cabin air filter?

We had an unseasonably long stretch of sunshine and blue skies at the end of January, and I was fortunate enough to convince my pal Caitlin to come with me on a Sunday hike. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, Caitlin and I love to hike, but we’ve both switched into winter mode (for me this means running, and for Caitlin it means baking.)

Not only have neither of us hiked much since September (we went together once in October, and twice in December), neither of us have climbed over 3k feet of elevation since…well honestly I don’t know when. Most of our 2024 hikes were in the 1700-2700 feet of elevation gain range, and while we likely did one or two hikes around 3k feet of gain, I can’t think of them.

All that to say, it only made sense that I choose a hike with over 3k feet of elevation gain for two people who haven’t hiked much lately.

I chose to hike Mount Si, a trail I used to frequent often when I first started hiking. I chose this trail because although the total elevation (4167ft) is questionable for winter (snow, ice), the trail head is directly off the freeway making it easy for my Toyota to drive to. I refuse to drive anywhere sketchy with possible snow, but with all the sunshine I knew I would make it.

Well, I mostly knew. I had a small bit of anxiety about ice because it never got above 30F while driving there, but clearly I’ve lived to tell the tale.

We arrived at the trail head around 0900, with plenty of parking spots available. This is a popular hike, but overall we had lots of moments without others. We took this hike much slower than I ever have before, and this made the entire climb enjoyable for me. I never once felt winded. The majority of the hike is in a forested canopy, but it was sunshine city once we reached the top.

Don’t let the blue sky fool you, it was COLD, COLD, COLD! There was an ever so slight dusting of snow at the top.

We sat to snack and savor the view while the sun attempted to warm the skin under my 850 down jacket. Not even this layer could keep me warm once my fingers got cold. Raynaud’s be damned, this didn’t stop me from climbing up some of the surrounding rocks for better 360 degree views. I noticed a sign that was completely covered in stickers, and after going back in time to read my first post about Mount Si (oh my gosh the NOSTALGIA!) I saw what the sign looked like way back in 2014!

Aside from the stickers I think the main difference is the photo quality. Yikes. As you can see the sign used to warn hikers about the Haystack Scramble, which is considered the “true summit” of Mount Si. You will never catch me going that extra bit, the flat ground summit is more than enough for me.

After stuffing my face with my summit potatoes, we made our way back down to the car.

I tend to stay fairly active year round, and I didn’t find myself too gassed by the end of this 8 mile trek. Ironically I was due to start half marathon training the very next day, but I planned to give myself a free pass (if needed) for the first day because this hike was more than enough conditioning. I woke up the next morning a bit sore, but I managed to run my scheduled 3 miles at a very moderate pace.

It wasn’t until Tuesday the DOMS really kicked in. That seems to be the normal for me. The day after using dormant muscles I am ok, but two days after I can barely walk down the stairs.

No regrets though, I finished my first week of half marathon training yesterday and I didn’t have to alter any of the training plan. I’m stoked we snuck this hike in when we did because I never have high hopes for winter hiking. My activity for the next 11 weeks will be finishing out my training plan, and then running my half. From there I will likely switch back into hiking mode.

Unless the sun comes out again, then all bets are off.

Q: Do you have an easy time ignoring when the sun comes out? Maybe it’s because I live somewhere with a good bit of grey (which I love), but when the sun comes out I feel like I HAVE to go outside.

Another year has passed which means another Valentine’s Day/birthday combo for Brittany has come and gone. My birthday is February 15 (the day after Valentine’s Day), and while I don’t need much on either day, I DO like to keep them separate. I told this to Duncan when we first started dating, and he jokingly referred to the two days as one calling them “Birthentines Day”, and it has stuck ever since.

While Valentine’s Day is a great excuse to gobble a brownie, and make a special meal, I tend to put most of my focus on my birthday. This year when Duncan asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, I told him I wanted to run a 5K…together…with him…he would be running too…as someone who doesn’t run. I thought for sure he would push back, but much to my surprise he agreed.

We cooked a delicious meal on Valentine’s Day, ate a giant brownie, and we were up and ready to go the following morning.

The beauty of my birthday falling on a Saturday this year is that I knew we would be able to find a 5k somewhere nearby. Because my birthday is the day after Valentine’s Day, I also knew we would be able to find a Valentine’s Day themed 5k. How perfect for Birthentines Day. I found a race about 45 minutes away from us, got really excited, but then discovered it was SOLD OUT!

Back to the drawing board.

I don’t love driving into Seattle these days, but I knew that might be my only option. I found a race with a 5k, and a 10k option on a looped track which felt too good to be true. I prefer running 10k if given the chance with organized races, so I was able to run the first 5k loop with Duncan and the second 5k loop solo. The run was called “Better Together”, and the website alluded to this being Valentine’s Day themed, so naturally I had to get us matching shirts.

Once we arrived at the park where the race was taking place I knew I might have been very, very wrong about this event. There were no other runners in sight. It turns out this park has “races” every two months or so, and because of this they use the same race bib’s for each run (meaning no themed bibs), some events are smaller than others, and there isn’t really much participation in the theme.

At least there wasn’t on this day.

Duncan and I were THE ONLY ONES WHO WORE ANYTHING THEMED. I was momentarily mortified, but honestly I got over it pretty quickly. We got our bib’s, walked around for a bit, and then lined up with the other 90 or so people (SMALL SMALL SMALL EVENT AHHH) to run. The only way to tell this was at all Valentine’s Day themed was the blow up photo op.

The run itself was nice, the park was a good change of scenery, and Duncan pushed himself more than I would have expected. I kept trying to get him to slow down because I didn’t want him to burn out, but he just kept flying. He was at the early stage of a multi day sickness, which makes his fight all the more impressive! I loved watching him push himself, and we finished his 5k with a 10:45 pace.

After I left him for my second lap I only had one goal: catch up to and beat the girl in front of me. I managed to pass her AND one other person. I finished my 10k 1st in my age group…because I was the only one in my age group. LOL, I love the little wins. We both paid an extra $6 to get a medal, and honestly the medals were very pretty.

Overall we had a good time, Duncan is willing to do another one (no promises on anytime soon) and we both have awesome new shirts to wear at any given moment. We may have been the only ones in Valentine’s themed clothes, but that just meant we got the most compliments.

We managed to get a compliment from the race photographer as we ran by him, and he took this whimsical shot of us. HAHA.

After the run we made our way to the best bakery in all the land. I had a free birthday reward, and I’m a sucker for all things free. This bakery is insanely busy every time we go, but I did not anticipate we would be fighting for scraps by getting there around 1300. They close at 1600, but when I say they had BARELY anything left I mean it.

My reward was good for a muffin or a cookie, and obviously I wanted the more expensive of the two. I ended up getting a muffin I would have never chosen if I’d had options, but they had literally ONE muffin left in the entire shop by the time it was my turn. This muffin turned out to be one of the most heavenly items I have ever consumed.

I’m not a peach gal, and despite the peach slices being huge in this muffin the overall flavor was superb. Well done Wren’s Nest. We were able to each get a savory item as well, and after properly entering into a food coma we made the drive back to my house so I could snuggle with my bestie the rest of the night.

This is the first birthday in a while I haven’t gone for a hike, but this was a fun change of pace. I’m officially on the downward slope to 40, which is the most mind boggling thought I have had in a long time. Somedays when I sit deep in my thoughts I truly feel like I just graduated high school. I am still 18 saying goodbye to all my friends I will never see again.

I am still 24 getting a job at Starbucks and discovering who I am slowly but surely. I am still 22 starting THIS BLOG having no idea I would still be scraping by with it 14 years later. I am still 28 and just letting go of the societal pressures of what it means to be successful, quitting a corporate job and moving to Yellowstone for 5 months. Life is weird. Memories are weird. But muffins are forever.

Q: We are all just overgrown children fumbling through life, right?

1. Back in January I posted about a hike I went on called Mount Si. I received a comment from an artist asking if she could paint one of the views in the photos I shared, and OBVIOUSLY I said please do. She created such a beautiful piece of art, I especially love the tree like frame she used.

You can see more of Lorna’s art on her blog. This is the link to her post with the below photo.

2. Some of my favorite pieces of art I own are those that were created for me by friends, including people I’ve met virtually. OR pieces that were purchased for me by others because the art made them think of me. This is such a special feeling. A lot of my art is centered around cats and nature.

Big surprise.

3. My job sometimes brings in brand reps to share information on products, and with these presentations often comes free swag. We haven’t had many reps come lately, but we did have a box of sample mix-matched Smartwool socks put out for us to dig through. I found two pairs of similar socks, the only difference was the pattern.

I am a sucker for anything free, even if I don’t match. Smartwool has been my go to sock brand for many years, and this was like Christmas morning for me.

4. A couple months ago I shared how I was able to change my own cabin air filter in my car to save me $80. This months car project was to replace my rear brake lights. Duncan showed me how the lights pull out into the trunk, and I bought a new set online for $6. I don’t even want to know what Toyota would have charged me for that job.

5. Nostalgia hit hard when I went to a friends house a couple weeks ago for a Nintendo 64 game night. I would consider myself a minimalist, and I am constantly purging things I do not use or need, but I will never give away my N64. I used to have sleepovers with my friends and we would stay up all hours of the night playing Mario Party, and that’s exactly what I played with my grown up friends.

I only had two controllers, and I was able to find two more online for $32…for both! They aren’t OG Nintendo controllers, but they worked great! I look forward to more N64 game nights as a sorta grown up.

6. I ordered a pressure washer for my mom this month, and Duncan and I tag teamed washing her backyard concrete patio. At first I was disappointed, I had no idea pressure washing was as time consuming as it was. I thought I could spray it like a hose and voilà! That was not the case, but it was worth the time it took to clean.

7. It’s no secret I will stop wherever I am to pick up loose change I find on the ground. I will stop a run, get off my bike, go to a self checkout station that I did not use – if there is a coin, I will grab it. Overtime this habit will pay off, and I can take a handful of rolls to the bank. My recent bank haul brought me $26. Some of that was from returned change after using cash, but a bulk of it was free found money!

8. I recently bought Little a party hat for the birthday celebration we will be having in two weeks. When browsing the selection at MudBay, the cashier told me for his birthday I could have a free salmon treat. I have been buying food at MudBay ever since I stopped feeding him prescription food a few years ago, and this company has been nothing short of wonderful.

Superb customer service for stressed out pet parents trying to find a good food option.

9. I ran a 12k St. Patrick’s Day themed run two weekends ago, and I took this opportunity to buy myself another themed cat shirt. I managed to find the exact same theme as the shirt I bought for my Valentine run, but when I saw there was rain in the forecast I regretted buying a cotton t-shirt for a 7.4 mile run. I ended up wearing a base layer under the shirt and it worked great.

What did not work great was the weather. It was raining, which isn’t a huge deal, but it was also cold and the wind was OUT OF CONTROL. Nearly two miles of this run was across a bridge, and something about a bridge with wind is like a magnet. The majority of this run was brutal, I was on the struggle bus, and when my watch hit 7.45 miles and I saw I wasn’t done yet I wanted to riot.

The course ended up being 7.86 miles on my watch (and on a handful of other peoples watches who sync’d with my Strava account), which isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of running, but I was ready to be done at mile 3 so this extra mileage sucked big fat doo doo. I finished with a 10:14 pace, and I had to fight for it.

10. On the topic of running, I am in week 9/12 of half marathon training and I am so over it. Don’t get me wrong, when I cross that finish line in April I will be proud of myself, but the last month of training has been a slog. I have had more fatigue than I would like after my runs, and I am starting to dread the mid week runs.

After the 12k I ran I can’t seem to get my body moving further than 1-2 miles which is obviously concerning.

I am cutting back on my weekday run distances and will try slowing things down on all my runs. Hopefully this will help, but I am ready to get back to running here and there when it feels right. I am discovering that I prefer the 10k distance for my longest run’s and I don’t think I need to do much more than that. I struggle with fueling once I up my milage, and I can’t eat bagels and peanut butter like all the other runners. I end up eating things that don’t sit well just for the calories, which then adds to the fatigue. Alas, it’s never ending trial and error.

Q: What’s your confession?

1. Back in January I posted about a hike I went on called Mount Si. I received a comment from an artist asking if she could paint one of the views in the photos I shared, and OBVIOUSLY I said please do. She created such a beautiful piece of art, I especially love the tree like frame she used.

You can see more of Lorna’s art on her blog. This is the link to her post with the below photo.

2. Some of my favorite pieces of art I own are those that were created for me by friends, including people I’ve met virtually. OR pieces that were purchased for me by others because the art made them think of me. This is such a special feeling. A lot of my art is centered around cats and nature.

Big surprise.

3. My job sometimes brings in brand reps to share information on products, and with these presentations often comes free swag. We haven’t had many reps come lately, but we did have a box of sample mix-matched Smartwool socks put out for us to dig through. I found two pairs of similar socks, the only difference was the pattern.

I am a sucker for anything free, even if I don’t match. Smartwool has been my go to sock brand for many years, and this was like Christmas morning for me.

4. A couple months ago I shared how I was able to change my own cabin air filter in my car to save me $80. This months car project was to replace my rear brake lights. Duncan showed me how the lights pull out into the trunk, and I bought a new set online for $6. I don’t even want to know what Toyota would have charged me for that job.

5. Nostalgia hit hard when I went to a friends house a couple weeks ago for a Nintendo 64 game night. I would consider myself a minimalist, and I am constantly purging things I do not use or need, but I will never give away my N64. I used to have sleepovers with my friends and we would stay up all hours of the night playing Mario Party, and that’s exactly what I played with my grown up friends.

I only had two controllers, and I was able to find two more online for $32…for both! They aren’t OG Nintendo controllers, but they worked great! I look forward to more N64 game nights as a sorta grown up.

6. I ordered a pressure washer for my mom this month, and Duncan and I tag teamed washing her backyard concrete patio. At first I was disappointed, I had no idea pressure washing was as time consuming as it was. I thought I could spray it like a hose and voilà! That was not the case, but it was worth the time it took to clean.

7. It’s no secret I will stop wherever I am to pick up loose change I find on the ground. I will stop a run, get off my bike, go to a self checkout station that I did not use – if there is a coin, I will grab it. Overtime this habit will pay off, and I can take a handful of rolls to the bank. My recent bank haul brought me $26. Some of that was from returned change after using cash, but a bulk of it was free found money!

8. I recently bought Little a party hat for the birthday celebration we will be having in two weeks. When browsing the selection at MudBay, the cashier told me for his birthday I could have a free salmon treat. I have been buying food at MudBay ever since I stopped feeding him prescription food a few years ago, and this company has been nothing short of wonderful.

Superb customer service for stressed out pet parents trying to find a good food option.

9. I ran a 12k St. Patrick’s Day themed run two weekends ago, and I took this opportunity to buy myself another themed cat shirt. I managed to find the exact same theme as the shirt I bought for my Valentine run, but when I saw there was rain in the forecast I regretted buying a cotton t-shirt for a 7.4 mile run. I ended up wearing a base layer under the shirt and it worked great.

What did not work great was the weather. It was raining, which isn’t a huge deal, but it was also cold and the wind was OUT OF CONTROL. Nearly two miles of this run was across a bridge, and something about a bridge with wind is like a magnet. The majority of this run was brutal, I was on the struggle bus, and when my watch hit 7.45 miles and I saw I wasn’t done yet I wanted to riot.

The course ended up being 7.86 miles on my watch (and on a handful of other peoples watches who sync’d with my Strava account), which isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of running, but I was ready to be done at mile 3 so this extra mileage sucked big fat doo doo. I finished with a 10:14 pace, and I had to fight for it.

10. On the topic of running, I am in week 9/12 of half marathon training and I am so over it. Don’t get me wrong, when I cross that finish line in April I will be proud of myself, but the last month of training has been a slog. I have had more fatigue than I would like after my runs, and I am starting to dread the mid week runs.

After the 12k I ran I can’t seem to get my body moving further than 1-2 miles which is obviously concerning.

I am cutting back on my weekday run distances and will try slowing things down on all my runs. Hopefully this will help, but I am ready to get back to running here and there when it feels right. I am discovering that I prefer the 10k distance for my longest run’s and I don’t think I need to do much more than that. I struggle with fueling once I up my milage, and I can’t eat bagels and peanut butter like all the other runners. I end up eating things that don’t sit well just for the calories, which then adds to the fatigue. Alas, it’s never ending trial and error.

Q: What’s your confession?

Last month we celebrated a very, very special birthday. My sweet (and spicy) cat Little turned 17 this year, and I am beyond blessed to have had so many years with my best friend. Truth be told, I never imagined we would get to this birthday. Little has been on a wild ride since he was 10 years old.

In January of 2018 he had emergency (life saving) surgery for a blocked urethra from a struvite crystal (sadly common for male cats.) In December of 2018 he was first diagnosed with early stage kidney disease. In November of 2020 he was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, and had to have a radioactive iodine treatment to complete cure it. In May of 2023 he had a vomit fest leading to a misdiagnosis of IBD, when in reality homie was severely constipated.

This resulted in months of steroids he did not need, and I completely overhauled his diet. I never believed he had IBD and after switching to a new vet I was affirmed in my belief.

In February of 2024 he took a trip to the ER (on my birthday) after five days without a BM. Three weeks later we were back in the ER for the same issue (we have since dialed in on this.) And most recently, in April of 2025 he had a double ear infection, but received a misdiagnosis of being BLIND…more on that in a minute.

So yeah, 17 is a big deal. Despite all the above listed ailments, overall he has lived a very healthy life. His kidney disease is chronic, but ironically this issue has been the least of our worries thus far (aside from contributing to constipation and nausea in his geriatric years.) If you have been a regular reader (or are a real life pal) you will know this cat is my world. Each day with him is a special gift I don’t take for granted.

When shit first hit the fan in 2018 there was no guarantee his emergency surgery would work. I knew we had to try despite the gargantuan price tag, and here we are seven years later. Worth every penny.

Admittedly I might be a bit too attached to my cat, and I have extreme separation anxiety after all the chaos we’ve been through lately. This makes his birthday celebrations extra special because I get to celebrate the wins. For his birthday this year he received a new floppy fish toy from Duncan, a new peacock feather from me, and various treats to snack on while us humans ate apple pie. He also donned a very special birthday boy hat, and he was a true sport about this one.

We also took a special birthday car ride, which is the same as a regular car ride, but with his party hat. He only wore it long enough for me to snap a photo, and then he lounged in the back taking in the sights as we slowwwllyy drove. After his misdiagnosis of having IBD I stopped letting him in the backyard incase the grass was aggravating his stomach.

Instead I took him in the car (sans vet carrier) to see if he would enjoy it, and the rest is history.

Although this celebration was mostly for me to have special memories, I would like to think he had a joyful time. During this day I noticed him scratching his ears and shaking his head, and I then noticed it happening each day after for about four days. I called my vet suspecting he had an ear infection, but unfortunately my vet was on vacation.

I was able to see the urgent care doctor on shift that same day, but because my cat is so incredibly spicy at the vet she was unable to handle him. He usually gets a big hit of gabapentin before we go, but I don’t think he had enough time for the drugs to kick in. This vet took him in the back room (despite me telling her I’d have better luck getting him out of his carrier if he stayed with me in the original room, but whatever) for ten minutes before finally let me come back to help.

She proceeded to tell me she did a vision test on him and that he was completely blind. Insert wtf emoji here. I knew he wasn’t blind, but I was so taken aback that I didn’t know what to say. She was about to send me home with nothing more than a quack diagnosis so I asked her if I could swab his ears for her, because I knew he wasn’t scratching his head due to detached retinas.

Sure enough, double ear infection.

The lesson here is to always be the advocate for your pet. Being a vet is HARD, I don’t deny that, but we know our pets better than anyone and I knew he had something wrong with his ears. Just to be sure, I came home that day and brought out the laser. The vet told me he likely still played with his toys because he could hear them, but I figured if he could hear light then he was a wizard.

He chased that laser like he was five years old.

Like I said, this cat has had quite the medical journey, but he is still plugging along bringing me more joy than I could ever imagine possible. Admittedly I have spent the past two years waiting for the next shoe to drop. I obsessively monitor his bathroom and eating habits, his energy levels, his mobility, and his overall demeanor. It seems just when things calm down something else happens, but I am trying my best to enjoy each day individually.

Anticipatory grief is rough. I find myself getting stuck in loops of sadness for when he is no longer with me all while he is very much still alive.

I don’t want to look back on this time and regret living too far in the future, so I will leave it at this: happy birthday to my geriatric feline, thank you for 17 amazing years thus far.

Q: Have you ever received a misdiagnoses from your vet? If you don’t have pets have you received one for yourself!? Anyone else have a bionic pet like mine who continues to survive everything thrown their way?

Last year I ran my 7th half marathon after a decade long hiatus from longer distances. I shared that experience here, as well as why I stopped running all together, and how I came back into it. Since that race I have been enjoying running races again, and I have run a few throughout the past year.

Running had been going well for me, so back in November I decided to sign up for half marathon number 8. I’ve had this idea in my head that I want to try and run at least one half marathon per year, but this year things didn’t go according to plan. In fact, things went pretty rough the final seven weeks of training all the way into race day.

But before I get into that, let’s talk about the day before the race.

One of my favorite things about running half marathons is choosing a new destination to visit. I had been to Wenatchee before, but I had never been to the area where the race was. Wenatchee is about 3.5 – 4 hours from where I live, in a much sunnier area of Washington. I was excited to get out of town for the first time since I went to Banff last September, even if just for one night.

Duncan and I left our area early enough to have some time to walk around Wenatchee, check into the hotel, get my race bib, and relax. Going into the race I took two days off work to rest my legs, but I ended up walking over 12,000 steps the day before the run because we were exploring. Oops.

While walking the historical downtown we passed by a pet store, and just as I was planning to walk by I noticed something inside.

Carlos the shop cat drew me in, and he was so precious I had to pet him. The store was adorable, and in the back they had a closed off room with a cat available for adoption. I had to say hello to her too. She was so sweet and I wish I could have taken her home. Put me in a shop with two cats and I am a happy gal.

This was clearly the highlight of the day before the run. We grabbed some food from Safeway, visited a natural food shop that was right across from the hotel, and walked part of the course before retiring for the evening. The following morning I woke up early enough to ensure I had a BM, coffee, and a banana before heading down to the race.

I had two pals running this race as well, one was my coworker, and one was a girl I went to high school with. Neither of them trained much for this, but both decided to YOLO and go for it. Having pals there to relish in the running spirit makes things more fun.

As I mentioned before, going into this race my training started to drag. I couldn’t get my long runs in without having to walk, I struggled to finish mid week runs due to fatigue, and my mindset was hogwash. I was not having a good time, my body was flaring up, and I was getting frustrated by how difficult it felt to run a very slow paced run.

By the time race day came around I had zero goals, and zero expectations. My only goal was to finish, and there was a moment during this race I didn’t think that was going to happen. I am usually in a good place mentally with my body and my autoimmune issues, but once in a while I get really angry at the lack of control I have over how I am going to feel.

This came to a head during the run, and it took me a week to accept that this was still a successful run even if it didnt go how I wanted it to.

I wish I could tell you what exactly happened, but that’s just it – there is never one specific reason why things go awry. I knew when this run felt hard at half a mile in that it was going to be a very long 13 miles. I definitely started the race too fast, but no faster than I have started every other race I have done the last year. By the time I got to mile 6 I was seriously contemplating a DNF.

The reality is that running is supposed to be fun. I am supposed to enjoy the challenge it brings, and for eight weeks I was dreading everything about it. I was struggling far more than I should have after three months of training, and I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I texted Duncan that I was having a rough time, and like the gem that he is he offered to come get me anywhere I needed.

I decided instead of quitting, I was going to allow myself to walk instead. I spent the entire second half of the race running and walking, running and walking.

I think had I not had two friends running this as well I just might have quit. I may never know, but having them there pushed me to keep going. The upside of walking is having the ability to take photos of the beautiful course. This really was an amazing area to run, and I would like to have a redo someday when my mindset is better.

My ego really hated the run/walk method, but there is no way I would have finished without it.

By the time I saw mile 13 I was beyond excited. I have never wanted something to be over so badly in my life, and I was so close to being done I could have cried. Duncan was there to welcome me across the finish line, and although this was a race I didn’t feel proud of initially, I think this should be the one I am the most proud of.

When I got back into running I was simply thankful I could run without having constant flare ups. I was thankful to be moving my body in a way that allowed me to quiet my anxiety, and to give a middle finger of sorts to my autoimmune disease. I never want to give up the things I enjoy, but I have to remember this means I need to keep my boundaries in place.

I let my boundaries slip while training for this race. My stress levels were through the roof, my heart wasn’t in it, I was fueling poorly, and I wasn’t listening to my body when it told me I needed to slow down. My biggest takeaway from this is that I need to remember why I run. I don’t run to PR in races, or to be fast (that will never happen), I run for longevity both physically and mentally.

After the race I met up with my pal from high school for brunch at Pybus Market. This was like a mini Pike Place and the food was great. Duncan and I spent the rest of the day driving around, and found our way to Leavenworth for a couple hours before heading home.

After this race I told myself running needed to take a back seat for a while, but of course that was short lived. I feel the need for a redo on this years half marathon, but not because I want a better time. I want a redo so I can actually enjoy the race even if I am walking. Who cares if I am the last one to cross the finish line, the point is to enjoy myself!

I wasn’t disappointed because I was slow, I was disappointed because I allowed myself to get so worked up mentally. There are going to be more runs/races in the future where things don’t go well, but that’s life and it’s ok. I can’t predict how I am going to feel everyday, but a finish is a finish. Being able to run or jog is a gift, and I don’t want to forget that.

I now have another shiny medal to add to my collection, and a happy memory of a furry friend named Carlos.

Q: Who else has had a pity party like this for themselves? Anyone…anyone…just me?

1. Welcome to another dump of information about what’s been going on in the world of Brittany lately. I don’t know how, but it’s already July. My life has been very simple these days. I use simple instead of boring because I am trying to be mindful of my verbiage.

Life isn’t boring just because it’s slower paced. It’s simply…simple.

2. Duncan and I celebrated another year of partnership at the end of April. We had planned to go to Leavenworth, but after driving that direction the weekend prior for my half marathon I didn’t want to drive that way all over again so soon. We decided to spend the day in Seattle instead, something I haven’t done since 2021.

We went to the Pacific Science Center, somewhere I grew up going often. Sadly this place is a shell of its former self. It wasn’t worth the price, but I did get photographic evidence of my Raynaud’s which was pretty funny. Note the color of my hands next to Duncan’s “normal blood flow” hands.

3. It’s no secret around here that I love coffee. After working in the coffee world for seven years I think it will forever be part of my inner being. With that said, I am starting to get more into tea as well. I have always been a big fan of peppermint tea, but I have been somewhat obsessed with learning more about herbs and flowers so I can make my own loose leaf blends of medicine in a cup.

Loose leaf blends make me feel like I’m brewing a potion. My inner child loves it.

4. Speaking of coffee and tea, a new cafe popped up in my town recently. Duncan and I decided to try it, and upon entering I immediately knew I was going to enjoy sitting inside. The ambiance was top notch. Plants EVERYWHERE. The coffee was good (Duncan said best espresso he has ever had), and we were there during happy hour so I got a gluten free slice of cake for 1/2 off!

OH, and they had so many board games to play!

5. My last haircut was back in October. I have not gone more than 5 months without a haircut since December of 2017. My hairstylist moved, and my backup hairstylist is no longer at my backup salon. A mix of overwhelm at the idea of finding a new stylist and stress in life has caused me to let my hair get to a length I cannot stand.

The feeling of it on my neck and ears makes me want to shave my head every single day.

6. I am surprised by how many hikes I have already managed to squeeze in since May started. Not all of them are blog worthy, some are worthy of their own post, and a few are worthy of just a snippet of information with some photos. I’ll share two of the latter.

I hiked to Lake Angeles with my pals Caitlin and Jackie on a very blustery day. This was my third time hiking here and it’s always a good time. Just over 7 miles, about 2300′ of elevation gain, and a beautiful lake at the end.

I also hiked to the plane wreck on the Tull Canyon Trail – somewhere I tried to hike to last summer, but missed the turn off. This wreck is extra sad because the plane was sent on a SAR mission to rescue people who had already crashed in ANOTHER plane. Five of eight in the Tull Canyon crash survived. There is good information here if you are interested in deep diving.

This trail is moderate until the turn off to Tull Canyon, then it gets steep. The hike was around 9 miles with 1500′ gain (all in one spot.)

7. I’m moderately ashamed to admit that I have been hyper aware of my skin lately. My face looks like it aged 10 years seemingly overnight. Stress is likely a big contributor to this, but I’m also getting older and that’s just life. With that said, if anyone has any skin care recommendations let me know.

The caveat is that the products have to be “clean.” I’d sooner let myself look 20 years older than use toxic products.

8. One of the perks of my job is having first dibs on all the gear people return. With a one year return policy, people return nearly new items all the time simply because they didn’t like them. Sometimes after just one or two uses. We then reprice the items that are still able to be sold and put them into our “garage sale” type area.

I was able to snag a two person tent recently for a FRACTION of the cost. The people who returned it literally used it once and thought it was too heavy (they likely wanted it for backpacking.) I set it up in my backyard to see how Little liked it. He approves.

9. Little and I are in a bit of a weird limbo. We switched to a new vet two years ago after some struggle with his vet of many years, and I just discovered a few weeks ago that our new vet is leaving the clinic. I am hoarding his medications like a squirrel preparing for winter because I am so overwhelmed to find a new vet.

We might just ride the wave for a while, and I will take him somewhere new in 6-8 months just to establish a relationship.

10. Duncan and I went for our first bike ride of the year last week. We parked the car at one end of an island nearby, and biked 7.5 miles to the other end for coffee and a baked good. The weather was perfect, and I hope to do this ride again soon. We then biked the 7.5 miles back for a 15 mile jaunt, and I stopped at probably six Little Free Libraries.

I commandeered two new to me books, and it was so fun to see what each little box of books contained.

Give me a good bike ride or a good hike with food and coffee mixed in and I am a happy gal.

Q: What’s your confession?

While hiking has alway been my go to adventure, I am finding it extra special these days. I am not traveling right now, and I really only like to bite off day trips. Going for full day hiking excursions has been a way for me to still feel like I am getting out in the world, while being able to come home at night and sleep next to my cat.

I tend to start spring with hikes I have done before, and then I will start sprinkling in new to me hikes as I go. My first new to me hike of the season was to Bridal Veil Falls and Lake Serene, a trail with a two for one. The trail starts at one spot, but eventually bifurcates into two separate trails.

One goes up steep stairs towards Lake Serene, while the other is not nearly as far, and takes you to a beautiful raging waterfall.

My pal Caitlin and I chose to do both trails (duh.) We started with Bridal Veil Falls because it was only two miles into the trail. This is a worthy stop, and even a worthy hike in and of itself if you are close to the area. The falls were spectacular, and we took our time soaking in the views.

I say this literally, as it’s nearly impossible not to get wet from the water hitting the nearby rocks.

The round trip hike to Bridal Veil Falls is 4 miles with around 1000′ of elevation gain making this a very mild trail for most people. We hiked to the falls, and then headed back towards the bifurcated path to continue on towards Lake Serene. Bridal Veil Falls is only half a mile from the split, and we were back on our journey in no time.

I’m glad we did the falls first, because once we started to head towards Lake Serene the trail started to get much more intense.

Admittedly I was on edge for the first half of this hike because there were so.many.slugs on this trail. Normally I can manage when I see them, but this path was narrow and there was one section I had to put my mid body close to one on a tree log. I panicked pretty badly, but Caitlin was patient with me. In case you weren’t aware, I have a phobia of slugs.

I know, it’s just as ridiculous as it sounds.

This phobia makes hiking in the PNW difficult at times, but I refuse to let it stop me. All that to say, when the trail starts off strong with a lot of big slugs all over the path my nervous system takes a long while to calm down. After we left the falls and began to climb the slug sightings lessened. Eventually we made it out of the forest, and I was rewarded for my incredibly bravery. LOL.

The trail from the falls to the opening of the trees has never ending stairs. I hate stairs on trails! I would rather walk up a steep incline than have to walk up stairs. Alas, it was worth it to get to the lake. Once we arrived we took our shoes and socks off, ate our snacks, and savored the view. Sadly it was slightly too cold to swim, but next time I go I will make sure I swim in Lake Serene.

Mostly because I won’t be going in early summer again, too many slugs. Will wait for the heat of August and then I can also swim.

We sat on what is referred to as “Lunch Rock” which is fitting for all the people there eating snacks. There was a group of teenage boys who showed up a bit after we did, and they all proceeded to pull out burgers they had picked up before coming on the hike. One of the boys said aloud to the others something along the lines of this was why he told them to bring a lunch.

We made our way back down to the car giving us a total of 8.8 miles with 2700′ of elevation gain between the two trails. We took 6 hours total, including all the sitting and savoring, making this a good full day hike (the drive to the trail is 2 hours from my house.) After the hike we had one thing on our minds: COFFEE.

We stopped at the infamous Espresso Chalet, which has become popular on social media for its amazing views. Rightfully so. I could take or leave the coffee though.

There are few things I enjoy more than a full day of adventure followed by either a coffee or a good meal. These are the moments that remind me I don’t have to go too far to fuel my desire for new experiences. Sometimes all it takes is a new trail in your home state to feel refreshed for the week.

Q: Does anyone else have a very bizarre, irrational phobia? The most common question I get when people discover I am afraid of slugs is: “what, are they going to catch you?”

Alternatively titled: A birthday to remember.

My dear pal Caitlin recently turned another year older. When I asked what she wanted to do for her birthday, she said she wanted to go for a hike. We didn’t necessarily want to go far from home, but we did want to do something new to us. We discovered there was a looped version of a trail we had both done many times, but neither of us had ever done the loop.

This was a no brainer as this trail would take us on new terrain, we would pass by a lake, and it would give us a solid 11 miles of hiking. We set out on the Mount Townsend Loop trail around 0930, and we had the trail to ourselves for nearly the entire first half of the hike. After a few miles we got to Silver Lake where we planned to stop and possibly swim.

It was here I decided to surprise Caitlin with a birthday cupcake.

It took me longer than expected to submerge my skin into the frigid water, but as always I am glad I did. Caitlin jumped in too, ate her cupcake, and we ate some food to prepare for the steeper sections. As we continued on towards the top of the loop the trail became familiar, and the sun felt significantly hotter.

This is when things started to get a little hairy. We had checked the temps before starting this hike because Caitlin wanted to bring her dog Poncho with us, and both of us saw that it was supposed to be a high of 65 or so. It turned out to be much warmer than this, and when Poncho started to slow down we worried it might have been because of the heat.

(Poncho has gone on many hikes with us, she is a seasoned hiker dog, so her slowing down is always cause for alarm.)

We managed to find a section of the trail with snow, and Poncho came back to life almost instantly. We were certain we were out of troubled waters, but we couldn’t have been more wrong. We blissfully savored the views from the summit of the loop without a second thought of the chaos to come.

We managed to get a bit of a way down the summit towards the back half of the loop when we started having troubles with Poncho again.

It started with her slowing down, and eventually she wouldn’t walk at all. She would sit and have little interest in continuing on, and we both still thought it was due to the heat. Caitlin would cover her fur in water, give her extra breaks to drink water, and eventually Poncho would start walking. This continued on until the stops got longer, and this is when both Caitlin and I started to worry.

We were still 3 or so miles from the car, it was getting later in the day, and Poncho did not want to move. Caitlin tried carrying her over her shoulders a few times, but ultimately Poncho was too heavy. We played a game of start stop and gave Poncho as many breaks as she needed, but during one of our breaks Caitlin noticed something was wrong with Ponchos paw pads.

We later learned that what had happened was essentially like the human version of a blister. Her entire paw pads on two of her paws were peeling off, leaving a tender layer of exposed skin underneath. We didn’t know this at the time, and all we were focused on was getting Poncho back to the car. After multiple hours we got to the end of the trail onto the gravel road where we still had a mile walk to the car. From here I let Caitlin stay with Poncho and I booked it to get her car.

I was on such high alert from the anxiety of my mental spiral that I had my bear spray in my hand the entire time. I was convinced a cougar, or a bear, (or a man lol) would find me walking alone and my wandering mind got the best of me.

I got the car, I drove back to the gals, and all was well in the world again. Poncho was down and out for a few days, but the vet wrapped her paws and gave her some happy drugs to help with the pain. She is good as new now, and thankfully Caitlin decided on the warm days of summer Poncho will stay home for these hikes. She also bought some doggy booties which I can’t wait to see her in.

This trail was beautiful, a 10/10 and likely one of my favorites in this area, but it was skewed by the scary moments with Poncho. Both Caitlin and I would like a redo. Caitlin will remember her 31st birthday likely forever, as the one where Poncho had a rough go. I skimmed over this day in a very brief blog post, but in the moment it was really scary.

We finished this hike around 1700, over eight hours after we started. Thankfully we both stayed calm and managed to get pupperoonie out safe and sound.

Q: Have you ever spent your birthday in a less than ideal situation? My most recent was 2024 when I had to take Little to the ER on my birthday. Thankfully birthday are less exciting the older I get.

1. I have to sneak these Early Morning Confessions posts into the mix when I have a lot to share, don’t have the mental bandwidth to make multiple separate posts, and am eons behind in my posting. Then again…who even cares/knows if I am “behind?” Does anyone even read this blog anymore? Beuller…Beuller…

2. Summer has been in full swing over here, and for me that means go, go, gooooinggg. I try to be mindful of how much I bite off per week to prevent any type of burn out/flair ups, but for the past few weeks I have been living the epitome of YOLO. From friends visiting town, to nice weather, to the FOMO of summer ending I have been trying to do it all.

Duncan and I have been trying to get out on our bikes more this year, and we have spent a few weekends going to an island near us where it’s safer to bike. We have biked here twice lately – one 15 miler and one 20 miler. In the middle of each ride we stopped to have a baked good and some coffee. It’s the little things for me, like finding a gluten free treat at a new to me coffee shop.

3. I went blueberry picking recently and came home with 3.5lbs of berries. I have since made two batches of muffins, and I cannot get enough. The first batch made 12 muffins, and I ate 9 of those within 3 days. Can’t stop, won’t stop with the muffins.

4. Good thing I have been hiking more than anything this summer (after those muffins), and I had a few back to back adventures this month. First I had a friend visiting who I met while working in Yellowstone. He is one of those hardcore masochists who never seem to run out of energy. We went for a 14 mile hike passing by one of my favorite alpine lakes.

We had a full 8 hour adventure and it was so lovely to catch up on life.

Next I went for a hike with a girl I met in Germany, she was one of my roommates! She has since moved to Olympia, and is close enough for occasional get togethers. I dragged Duncan with me on this one because she and he are two weirdo peas in a pod. Obviously I am also a part of this pod, but it’s always a special treat with I can combine people in my life smoothly.

We hiked Mount Storm King, giving us beautiful aerial views of Lake Crescent.

5. Something that really grinds my gears is when the egg carton is not evenly distributed with the remaining eggs. Like…when someone pulls from one side exclusively and the entire carton is off balance when you pick it up. If I stumble onto a carton like this in the fridge I will move the eggs around until they are well balanced within the carton.

6. Piggybacking off of confession #4, the same weekend of my Storm King/Lake Crescent hike I went back to Lake Crescent that Monday for a bike ride with a few of my coworkers/friends. We planned to bike this section of the Olympic Discovery Trail, and we managed a good 28 miles of fun. This time instead of an aerial view of the lake, I got to bike right next to the lake.

We stopped at a tiny yet grossly overpriced general store where I bought a canned version of Starbucks Nitro Cold Brew. It was delicious.

7. All this business (I have also been working more) has left me with minimal mental energy to read lately. I have managed to finish a few books this month, one of which delighted my entire soul. I read All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot, and I cannot wait to read each book that follows this one. What a joyful man. I laughed, I cried, I raged (the farmers of the 1930’s have no chill), and I learned a thing or to about veterinary medicine. 10/10.

8. While I have been active the last few weeks, I have made sure to prioritize quality time with my best pal. Call me crazy, but I can tell a difference in his well being when I am away from home for too long (hence why I don’t go far), and I prioritize spending time with him as much as possible.

9. Buckle up for this one, I am about to pop off. I would be remiss if I did not share with the public the chaos that is Black and Decker customer service. Yeah, I am about to be THAT PERSON. Last summer I bought a portable AC unit after decades without. I’m a Washingtonain, we don’t need AC. Alas, I decided to bite the bullet. I used the unit for around two months last summer and tucked her away.

Three months ago we got the unit back out, and she was acting like a basic fan. Blowing air, but not frigid air. After talking with Black and Decker customer service they advised me that the compressor was likely shot and they would send me a new one free of charge. EXCELLENT, what great service I thought.

A full month goes by and I finally receive a new unit. I immediately knew something was wrong when I saw how mangled the box was. I then saw someone else’s address on a shipping label elsewhere on the box, and when I opened the box I found a dirty unit that smelled of a woman’s perfume. It’s ok, I’m fine, it’s 90 degrees when I received the used replacement, but I know mistakes happen.

I call and get a new agent, he is clearly mortified and ensures me he will make it right and send me a new unit. Another month goes by, I am following up each week, and after my third follow up he informs me they don’t have my unit in stock, but they can send me an upgraded one. Ok, sure, fine, but maybe you could have let me know this instead of waiting for me to reach out?

I get the new unit, I open the box, and the HOSE THAT CONNECTS THE UNIT TO THE WINDOW (to blow out the hot air) IS BROKEN. At this point I can’t help but laugh, I don’t even know what is going on anymore. I tell them what happened, and they offer to send me a new hose. SURE, GREAT, that would be swell, by the time I get a working unit the summer will be over, but YES PLEASE.

Fast forward to two weeks ago, which is now over three months since this all started. I haven’t heard anything from them despite them telling me they would send me a tracking number for the hose. Then I suddenly see the package on my steps and I am pumped. Finally this will all be over, and I will be able to chill my bones in the hades heat of the summer. I open the box, and IT’S THE WRONG HOSE. The hose is still missing one of the end pieces, and the other end has a piece meant for a different unit.

I have reached out YET AGAIN, and they are sending me the “correct” hose. I ended up taping the broken hose to attempt to make it work in some way, but I have lost my ever loving mind at this point, and I will never be buying another Black and Decker item in my life. Thank you for listening. That is all.

10. My mom left her interior light on over the weekend recently, and when she went to start her car next her battery had died. Duncan and I decided we would change her battery ourselves (mostly Duncan), so we took the battery out of her car and took it to O’Reilly’s for them to test the battery. It was shot, so we bought a new one and Duncan put it in. Meanwhile I changed out her cabin air filter.

This was incredibly liberating, saving money always gets my serotonin flowing.

Alright. That’s enough for one post.

Q: What’s your confession?

I. Am. So. Behind. My posting has taken a back seat to anything and everything else in life. Which is absolutely fine, but when I have a handful of hikes I want to document in my online diary it’s much harder when I am months behind. The hike I want to share today is from July 27th, nearly two months ago. This is a hike I had heard about a few years ago, and finally got around to prioritizing.

Duncan and I set out to hike the Klahhane Ridge in Olympic National Park. I had been to this area of the park before (the Hurricane Ridge entrance), but only a couple of times. I had forgotten how breathtaking this part of the Olympics were, and no matter which hike you embark on from the Hurricane Ridge area you will see sweeping views of mountains and trees.

The Klahhane Ridge trail has two starting locations. The steeper and more direct route begins at the Switchback Trail. For a longer and more gradual trail to the ridge you can start from the Hurricane Ridge main parking lot. We chose the Switchback Trail, which only has maybe 5-8 parking spots, so it’s best to arrive early.

We arrived before 0730 and easily snagged a parking spot. We saw a few other hikers, but had the trail mostly to ourselves on the way up. The trail to the ridge from the parking lot is short, but once you are on the ridge there are multiple options for continuing on. My main goal was to hike this trail until we were able to see Lake Angeles.

We could have hiked all the way DOWN to Lake Angeles, but this means we would have had to go back up (obviously.)

The ridge itself is mild, but for someone like me who is afraid of thin trails with drop offs there were a few spots that gave me pause. I managed to get past them, and then we entered the back side of the ridge where there were open meadows with zero drop offs. We sat for some lunch before continuing on to where we could see Lake Angeles from above.

Overall the trail was very quiet which was surprising for a Sunday mid summer.

I would have loved to continue on to the bottom of the lake, but I have hiked to Lake Angeles many times before and ultimately did not need to see it again. It wasn’t worth the effort of going down and then back up. Although my ego always wants to “complete” a trail. This trail had multiple branch offs for somewhat of a choose your own adventure trail so I didn’t feel tooooo bad skipping the lake.

We turned around and walked a little bit on another trail before calling it a day and heading back to the car. We ended with just over 8 miles, and just under 3k feet of elevation gain for the day.

One of my favorite things to do when visiting a national park is checking out the visitor center. Sadly the Hurricane Ridge visitor center burned down in 2023, but they do have a smaller ranger station down the road. We stopped in here on the way out to browse the trinkets before heading back home. I don’t typically buy anything, I just like to look.

We ended the day filling up our bellies at Red Robin. Somehow this place doesn’t leave me feeling like a total bag of garbage after eating their food, and for that I go every so often. I can’t say the same for Duncan, but that’s likely because he drank a milkshake meant for two despite being sensitive to dairy. LOL. Alas, sometimes it’s worth the pain.

Q: Do you like national park visitor centers?

1. Time for another rapid fire, minimal transition post where I can brain and photo dump multiple things that have happened in my life the past couple months (we’ve had a lot of EMC posts lately.) This post will be cat heavy. Is that anything new though? I don’t think so.

Speaking of cats…has anyone been seeing the trend on social media where people are buying their cats a concrete slab? I try not to fall prey to these things, but I HAD TO TRY IT with Little. I bought a 16×16 concrete slab for just under $6 and hoped for the best. Naturally, my cat was beyond disinterested in this. It’s fun watching videos of other cats loving the slab, but mine barely even sniffed it. HA.

2. Duncan and I went to hike Mount Si recently, his first time. This hike is notorious for Canada Jay’s dive bombing hikers for their snacks. I’m not usually one to feed the wildlife, but look…us not feeding them won’t change a damn thing here. People will never stop. Instead, we can opt to feed them species appropriate snacks like bird seed.

Or, like in the photo below…we can pretend to feed them, only for them to see an empty hand. I call this photo: “disappointment.”

3. You won’t be able to tell from any of the photos in this post, but my hair is the longest it’s been since 2017. The downside of growing out a pixie cut is that it grows really wonky. I had a mullet/rat tail like section that was longer than the majority of my hair, and this week I’d had enough. I cut the mullet myself, only to ask my mom to help me. It’s not perfect, but at least most of my hair is “even.”

I will get a proper haircut eventually. LOL.

4. A while back I agreed to watch my friends kid so she and her sister could go to a concert. The time came, and I had a blast from the past evening. We started with perler beads, where I made the most beautiful creature known to man. Then I introduced her kid to the wonderful world of the N64 (I went easy on him.) And we ended the day with a jump on the trampoline. FULLY equipped with a net, just like the one I had as a kid.

Safety first.

5. My Garmin watch was acting a fool recently. The elevation gain on my hikes was constantly messed up, it was no longer accurately recording my distances for hikes or runs, and it was just all around spazzy. I contacted Garmin to see if there was anything I could do to help this, and they offered to send me a free exchange.

The watches they use for this are refurbished, but I figured anything was better than what I had.

The watch I received was as good as new initially. Unfortunately it had some pixelation issues, but they immediately fixed the problem and I’m getting another “new” to me watch. Black and Decker needs to take notes…(see number 9 in that post.)

6. Back in February Duncan bought tickets to see my favorite artist for my birthday. The time came, and we set off for the concert at the farm. While I LOVED seeing Gregory Alan Isakov, I don’t think the outdoor concert scene is for me. I was wildly distracted (and annoyed? even though it’s totally in their right?) by the people constantly walking around.

I was spoiled seeing Gregory for the first time with the Seattle Symphony (LOOK AT that baby child in that post, I wish I could go slap her and tell her to relax her freaking forehead in those photos. This is why my forehead is now wrinkled.) A background symphony is now my standard – inside, no one moves around, acoustics on POINT.

I still had a good time and I’m glad we went. Greg (we’ve met, so naturally we’re on a first name basis. We’re basically besties) was fantastic as always.

7. If you’ve been around here for a while you will remember this post from a year ago. The specific call out in that post is the hubcap story. I lost a hubcap, but it wasn’t the first time. Because this had happened before, when I saw a rogue Toyota Camry hubcap on the side of the road sometime around 2014 I picked it up and stored it for when I needed it.

I ended up needing it last year, and sadly I have since lost that replacement hubcap. I recently had to get a new tire (my third one this year wtf) and when they put the hubcap back on it must have been the final straw. When Duncan and I parked at the Gregory Alan Isakov concert I notice it was missing. That free hubcap lasted me a year, and I will call that a win.

I am back on the hunt for another rogue hubcap on the side of the road, wish me luck.

8. Recently at work we received a random one off Nalgene that we don’t typically carry. I already own a Nalgene, and I use it for hikes where a glass jar will not be a good idea (I exclusively drink and eat out of glass. Yes, I’m one of those.) Because of this I did not need another Nalgene. One is more than enough. However, this Nalgene was very cute and I made a comment about it to my coworker.

I expressed to him how much I liked it, but I didn’t need two Nalgene’s. He knew we likely wouldn’t be getting anymore of these and he decided to buy it for me. This made the Nalgene suddenly very special, and I am reminded of the magnitude of a small gesture. This made my day, and now I can just rotate between the two Nalgene’s I own. Or I can give my other one away. So many options.

9. I’m getting the itch again to sign up for a half marathon. I truly don’t know what is wrong with me. I swore after my last one I would not run another one for a WHILE. That one destroyed me not only physically, but mentally as well. Somehow after the summer season passes I tend to forget how much I abhor the last few weeks of training for a half.

I might try to start training earlier and run exclusively throughout the winter. Maybe that will help?

10. Last, but most certainly not least Duncan and I went on a triple date recently to Ziggy’s Cat Lounge. I went here once last year, and this time it was just the six of us in the room. We had a magical time, and I was reunited with two of their resident black cats. They recently got ANOTHER resident black cat (named Binx, how fitting), and they were all so sweet.

I managed to capture a photo of Duncan in his element…feeding wild animals (this is a call back to him being Snow White on Mt. Si with the bird.)

My favorite thing about this visit is that all of us own cats and are very happy with the cats we own. Sometimes cat owners just want to have coffee and socialize together in public…with other cats.

Q: What’s your confession?

Say that title five times fast…this hike was just as wild as the title of it. Let’s just jump right in! The goal of this hike was to get to Moose Lake, starting at the Obstruction Point trail head (in the Hurricane Ridge area) of Olympic National Park. My friend had warned me that the road down to the trail head was sketchy, but overall my anxiety meter stayed low.

The road to the trail head did have some steep drop-offs, but it wasn’t nearly as sketchy as I anticipated. I get the heebie jeebies driving (and hiking) on thin roads with steep drop-offs, but this one I could easily do again. Hiking down to Moose Lake…maybe not so much. I’m being overly dramatic because that’s who I am, but in all reality hiking DOWN at the beginning of the hike is absolutely not my scene.

I would much rather get the hard climb out of the way first, but I am still glad we did this hike. The first half of the trail from Grand Valley to Moose Lake is beautiful. Open plains, wide terrain, sweeping views of the Olympics, what more could I ask for? (Someone we passed said they saw a bear, but thankfully we didn’t see it.)

Caitlin and Duncan accompanied me on this hike, both of whom had hiked this one before. After the epic views started to get further away from us we began to descend more and more drastically. Going downhill for me is often harder than going uphill. I slip more, I use leg muscles that are often neglected, and it’s a bit of a mind game going down knowing you’ll have to go right back up.

We made it to the lake after a couple of hours and enjoyed some food while I debated if I was going to swim or not. I did not swim because I was being a big fat wimp, but I should have swam to waste more time before the suck fest began. I think most people go back up the same trail to keep this hike an out and back, but we wanted to do the loop version, so we continued on the trail.

From Moose Lake we headed towards Badger Valley. Aka hell on earth in that moment. The trail was a bit neglected in some areas, but nothing unmanageable. Once we hit the incline, I wasn’t sure we would ever get out of there. All three of us were tired to begin with on this hike, and climbing up was brutal (honestly the stats don’t even make this seem that hard, but man were we dying.)

It’s always nice to suffer with others when we are all in the same stage of suffering. After what felt like forever we came to an opening of Badger Valley and my goodness was it beautiful.

We couldn’t tell where the trail finished, but we just kept putting one foot in front of the other, passively complaining to each other (all the while laughing at our shared masochism), and daydreaming about what we would eat when we finished. Finally we made it to the top of the never ending incline and victory was ours.

We started this hike around 0945 and finished around 1645. Seven hours including breaks and stopping at the lake. Hard to say the full stats on this one because my watch officially shit the bed (I have since received a *new* refurbished version of my same watch for free, shout out to Garmin for being so great), but from Duncan’s watch this was 10.5 miles total with somewhere around 2800ft of gain…but like…all in one spot.

Which we all have done much worse, but some days the body just says “nah, not today.”

This is absolutely my favorite kind of type 2 fun. In the moment it can suck, but I LOVE finishing a hike like this. I will remember this one for a while. Thankful for two people who like to suffer with me. I won’t be going back to Moose Lake for a while, but I will likely explore some of the other trail possibilities from this trail head. Or maybe I’ll just go back to Moose Lake, it’s amazing how quickly I forget suffering.

Q: Where do you find a sense of accomplishment?

In October of 2021 I went for a hike with some of my pals that was somewhat difficult. I chalked this up to the fact that I was in peak fatigue week of my cycle, and I have been wanting to revisit this trail ever since. I had to show it who was boss after all. I managed to wrangle my pal Caitlin into doing this trail with me, and in typical Brittany fashion I wanted to do more than I had done the first time.

The trail starts at the Rachel Lake trail head. From here you hike to Rachel Lake (duh) where you can either decide to stop, or to continue on. If you decide to continue on you will eventually come to a fork in the road. Go to the left and you hit Rampart Lakes (this I what I did the first time, and then went back down.) Go to the right and you hit Lila Lake. I was unaware of Lila Lake the first time I did this hike, but once I knew she was an option I knew I wanted to go to Lila AND Rampart.

And of course Rachel, she is the first real beauty along the way.

I made sure to hike this trail during a high energy week of my cycle, but little did I know this would not make a difference. This was just as hard as it was the first time I hiked it, and it will be another couple years before I go again. The trail from the parking lot to Rachel Lake is non stop climbing over roots and stumps and big steps that were rough on the entire body going up and going down.

Parkour hiking aside, this was one of my favorite hikes of the season. We decided to go to Lila after Rachel, and this was all new terrain for me. The weather was perfect, the trail was quiet, and once we hit Rachel the rest was pretty easy. There was a bit more climbing, but overall the hard part was done.

The trail continues even further past Lila Lake, but this was a perfect spot for us to stop and eat lunch before continuing on. We dabbled with the idea of swimming at some point in the day, but we never ended up making that happen. We saw a few other hikers while sitting at Lila, but overall we had most of the trail to ourselves.

I typically preface the option of adding extra side quests to my hikes with a psychological spin. I say something like “let’s just get to X and if we are still feeling good we can shoot for Y too.” I say this knowing damn well the likelihood of us doing both are very high. Since Caitlin is my main hiking partner, she’s the one I usually say this too.

It’s typically more of a mind game thinking of the whole hike as one option, and breaking it up like this makes it easier to digest. Hence the psychological spin.

Most of the time Caitlin is game for whatever, but once in a while she is a bit more hesitant. She felt the fatigue after the climb up and was less enthusiastic than I was about continuing on to see Rampart Lakes (a network of many smaller lakes.) After it was all said and done she thanked me for pushing her because Rampart Lakes are equally beautiful.

We clocked 13 miles for the day with a little over 3000ft of elevation. The side quest to Lila Lake added about 3 miles to the total for the day, but it was more than worth it. I think of all the lakes for the day Lila was my favorite. I could have sat there all day snacking. After a full day we finally made our way back down.

My desire to do “just one more thing” is not restricted to hiking. When I am traveling I try to do as much as I can in one visit as well. I figure if I am visiting somewhere far from home I won’t likely return for a while (if ever), therefor I might as well maximize my time and see ALL THE THINGS.

Another perfect summer hike (we did this one mid September, I am way behind on my hike posts.) Thankful for all the beautiful places to explore just a few hours away from home.

Q: Are you like me when it comes to maximizing as many things possible in one trip?

1. As per usual I fell off the face of the blog for a month. Not because I didn’t have things I wanted to share, but I just couldn’t muster the motivation. I have two more summer hikes I want to share (because this is my online diary and I like to refer back to my posts after time has passed), but I cannot be bothered with those right now.

Instead all the things in between.

2. I’ll start with my most funny tidbit…for Halloween this year I decided I would go to my coworkers party. And by “I decided” I mean Duncan wanted to go. This is out of character for us both, but I happily agreed to go. I knew I wanted to do a couples costume, but after I couldn’t figure anything out Duncan suggested something I couldn’t say no to.

The party was meh, I wouldn’t do it again, and I likely won’t dress up again for a while, but this costume will go down in history as my favorite.

I also dressed up at work this year because I was able to recycle the costume I bought last year for a Halloween themed 10K run. Can you find me?

3. I am stoked to report I have a new vet for Little. If you’ve been here for a while you will know my most recent vet left the clinic we went to, and I was planning to ride the wave for a while without a vet. Duncan ended up helping my coworker/friend with some plumbing a few months ago, and my friends wife happens to be a vet.

We were able to hang out for a full afternoon and she later offered to do a home visit for him in order to legally prescribe him drugs. Little is an absolute tyrant at the vet, so this was such a blessing. She did want us to come in for some blood work (we did that this past Wednesday and she was so good with him), but she is willing to do simple stuff in the comfort of his own home.

This is a huge weight off my shoulders as I was worried what would happen next after he ran out of his meds.

4. Speaking of the black fur ball, I bought a window bird feeder over the summer specifically for him to watch the birds. He barely noticed it until just recently, and watching him watch the birds brings me so much joy. My friend Caitlin is a big bird fan, so I have been able to ask her to identify birds for me along the way, and I can now identify a handful on my own. This is adulting.

5. I recently discovered the “the five year stranger theory” which says something along the lines of: “in five years, most of the people you see every day will be strangers again.” I can’t stop thinking about this, and I often find myself thinking about people who have come and gone in my life. While this is a normal part of existence, sometimes I find it sad.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about friends I had when I was young, and how I no longer talk to any of them (I often miss my high school best friend, but I wonder if we would have anything in common these days.) I can’t remember the last time I talked to some of them, and of course in the moment we never realize it will be the last time. I look at some of my coworkers right now who I greatly enjoy being around, and I know in five years the reality of us still speaking is low.

Unless of course I am still working where I am working…

6. Which leads to me to this…I have been working at REI for five years. What in the world happened. When I moved back to America from Germany in 2020 I wanted a job that I would work for maybe 6 months while I figured my shit out. Five years later I am still there, and still figuring it out. LOL. In all reality I don’t want to move my cat, my job is flexible, and I get the workdays/hours I want. So it just works.

It was a bit of a running joke with two other girls who were hired with me that we were all going to hang on until we got our five year pin. We got our pins…and we are all very much still staying for a bit. LOL

7. Over the summer Duncan and I went to see my favorite artist Gregory Alan Isakov play beautiful music. During this concert we discovered a new to us artist named Dean Johnson, who happened to be Gregory’s opener for the night. We enjoyed him, he is local to Seattle, and my friend Caitlin adores him. Dean was playing a concert in Seattle recently so Duncan, Caitlin, and I went because tickets were cheap.

The concert was great, but he had way too many openers (three of them.) This caused the concert to run into the late hours of night, and we didn’t get home until after 1 a.m. I think it took me a full 24 hours to recover from being awake that long. This is also adulting.

8. I don’t frequent Goodwill, but after a recent visit I found two items I could not pass up. It was as if they were placed there just for me to find. Ironically I had to debate if I really needed them, because I don’t like having too much stuff, but in the end I am so glad I bought these.

9. If you are a Trader Joe’s fan I suggest you run, not walk, to buy yourself a bag of their Maple Brown Sugar flavored almonds. These are some of the most delicious almonds I have ever had. The experience of eating them reminds me of the scene from Willy Wonka where Violet chews a piece of gum that tastes like a full course meal.

The almonds taste like I’m eating a waffle. At first chew I taste the butter, and then the flavor morphs into pure maple syrup. Thankfully I don’t turn into a stick of butter like Violet turning into a blueberry…

10. Duncan and I ran a Turkey Trot this year. Last year I ran it solo, but this year I wranged him into doing it with me. He’s not a runner, but he did great! He insisted we take our photo after we ran, and the rain mixed with sweat had us looking like swamp creatures.

After we ran we of course ate a feast for dinner courtesy of Duncan’s mom. This was the first year in as long as I can remember where I didn’t cook 50% of the meal myself. It was a treat having someone else cook, and Duncan’s mom could give Gordon Ramsay a run for his money. All right, ta ta for now.

Q: What’s your confession? I think I need to start asking: “what’s your tidbit?” Doesn’t need to be a confession, most of my “confessions” are just random blobs of thought.