Insight into Nina’s Life

I mentioned in my previous blog entry how badly I am hooked to the Astronomy. The universes around us are so fascinating that I decided to create a separate blog for my Astronomy hobby and it can be found here: Amateur Astronomer Notes.

This blog will exist as well; providing a window to my daily life. Since the Astronomy is such a special science topic, I wanted to keep it separate from other updates.

Lately I have become so very badly hooked to the astronomy and astrophotography. My ongoing astronomy class at UAA is one of the best university courses I have ever taken, and Professor Veh is making a very interesting topic so fascinating that there are no words to describe.

So I have been spending lots of time outside with my starfinder, notebook and compass. My Valentine’s day adventure was to pack dog & photo gear into the car and head to Goldendale in southern Washington. A long roadtrip of over 200 miles went well and imade it on time to the observatory when it opened at 19:00. The 24″ Cassegrain reflective telescope was a great tool for observing the sky. However, clouds came too early and I couldn’t get to my list of nebulae that I would have liked to see…. Well, next time.

But at least I saw a very beautiful and bright Venus, Andromeda galaxy and binary stars in Orion.

My old, faithful hiking digi camera decided to quit today …. Well, it has had some problems lately – not surprised though since the camera has been going through quite a bit. Everything from avalanches to being dropped on the rocks. 

One of the pics looked like below – so it was time to get a new, small Canon for my leisure shootings…. 

Not exactly what I was hoping for ....

We have been lucky here in Seattle area this weekend – the weather has been awesome, so sunny and warm. I have spent most of my weekend outside; riding my mountain bike yesterday and hiking Noble Knob Trail near Mt Rainier today. 

Noble Knob is one of the popular trails in the state, and also one of the rare trails nearby that I hadn’t hiked before. I try to avoid these busy routes so that’s why this spot has been forever on my to-do list. I had a great plan to make it to the trail head before the sunrise but as you can probably guess, both Tassu and myself slept in. Well, Tassu sleeps always when he has a chance. 

However, we made it there somewhat early in the morning, and were first hikers of the day. The forest road up to the trail head was a real experience again. This time the sign warned about the road’s unsuitability for trailers and inexperienced mountain drivers. It was a rough ride for small Audi but we made it, and no visible fluid leaks, and no new scratches. 

Views from the trail were spectacular. Even though I have been on the summit of Mt Rainier so many times, it always gets me fascinated and I start to plan a new climb up to the Rainier. Yep, it will happen soon again although Rainier has been classified as the most dangerous mountain in North America. The last issue of Backpacker magazine listed most dangerous or challenging outdoors experiences in the USA, and in the same issue they also cover the dangers of Rainier. 

Nothing new in the article though – Rainier is a tall mountain, and accessible for number of wanna-be climbers who are not prepared for killer storms, crevasses, avalanches and the elevation gain – nor have needed skills or stamina to climb such a mountain. 

Rainier looks calm and friendly – if a mountain can look friendly – but up there, there is a real wilderness and nature’s laws apply.

Tassu and I made it up to the Noble Knob somewhat quickly, in less than a couple of hours even though we stopped several times to take pictures, and Tassu tried to catch chipmunks. On our way up we probably saw more chipmunks in a couple of hours than we have seen in the whole summer. So beagle’s nose was kept very occupied as well as we discussed about chipmunk chasing a few times … Tassu was very tempted to play with those little critters. 

However, Tassu also showed today how smart he can be. On our way down, we started to meet other hikers as well as some mountain bikers. I was very proud of my little beagle who stepped aside when I said so, and let people and other dogs pass us. Similarly, he also seems to know words up, down, right and left. Sometimes I am very surprised how many things he actually can do. 

I could almost wish that everybody tried to train their four-legged, furry friends even a little bit. Most of the time we meet only nice, well-behaving dogs and their owners on trails. Today the only not-so-nice surprise was a mountain biker dude with his big retriever. The dog didn’t know a whole lot about the discipline but was running here and there. Also Tassu and I got scared when this pony-size dog rushed from the bushes towards us. Nothing happened and nobody got hurt so everything ended well.

However, it takes quite a bit time to train a dog to be off leash while the owner is on a bike. Although Tassu follows me pretty well and listens to me, I wouldn’t even think about taking him with me while riding my bikes.  

Dog can easily get distracted by other things – such as chipmunks. Or he may run under the bike or something. So there are bunch of reasons why my dog doesn’t do biking with me. 

But overall, a perfect day in paradise. Some pictures below.

Greetings from our Sunday hike up to Noble Knob!
It’s another perfect day in paradise. More pictures later.

Nina & Tassu

I snapped a couple of pics through the plane’s window while approaching Seattle earlier this week.

I can’t stop loving this place!

I am on my way back home from Atlanta, had a quick layover in rainy Chicago!

This rainy morning made me feel a bit homey – right now I am kinda excited about the new season. But will definitely hate the rain when it seriously hits my lovely Pacific Northwest.

Labor Day has always been the official end for the summer. And now it really feels like the fall is just behind the corner.
My maple tree has more yellowish leaves that kindly wave me as first thing in the morning like saying “hi, fall with its colors is coming”. This morning was rather chilly and I was happy to wrap a woolen sweater around my shoulders when I took Tassu out.

I was practising soccer this afternoon and decided to grab an ice coffee at Starbucks. Ice coffee is a good way to keep believing in continuing summer!

However, Starbucks kindly brought me back to the reality: Pumpkin Cheesecake! Pumpkin cheesecake is the seasonal specialty, usually available only in the fall so this must be it…. Summer is officially over.

Welcome chilly weather, red, yellow&brown leaves, rain and crisp mornings!
Better to start to look for my cool weather and rain gear. And start to plan a trip to somewhere sunny&warm!

This week has been a busy one with all the work I had to do in Toronto. Long days, no sleep, so no wonder that I have been dog tired since I got home. This week’s workouts have been limited to a couple of quick gym visits, playing a bit soccer and teaching an easy beginners’ spinning class, so not a whole lot of activities. 

I should take my mountain bike out still this morning though. 

My friends from Nevada came to town last night, and we had a great time, really enjoyed the dinner. Today we will see the Shrek musical in the 5th Avenue Theater. The musical has been the topic of discussions here in Seattle, so my expectations are somewhat high. 

It was somewhat chilly last night when we walked back to my friends’ hotel, definitely started to feel like the fall is coming. This morning, when Tassu and I went out for a quick walk, I saw the first leaves that have started to turn lightly yellowish. And in addition to everything, Sports Authority started the skiing gear sale – trying to get rid of the 2008 models before filling the shelves with new 2009 gear. 

Four seasons are a great thing but I would still hope to be able to enjoy the sunshine and not-so-rainy weather for a little bit longer!

Some of you have been asking about my work out schedules and training programs for the various activities that I do.

Finally I am trying to post updates on my workout schedules to the blog, just to give you an idea what I am doing training-wise. In general, my guiding principle for work outs is variety – I can’t even think about sticking with the one sports forever, nor spending hours a day at the gym. The gym workout is more like a way to gain strength for various other activities that  I like to do than just a way to get bigger.

Anyways, right now my gym workout is pretty much like this:

After the warm up, three sets of

30 x push ups

40 x squats

400 m run

50 x ab crunches

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another three sets of

12 x dumbbell biceps curl

walking lunges

12 x lat pull down

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6 min run sprints (occasionally on a bike); usually 45s sprint, 15s recovery

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and the last set, three times again:

50 x ab crunches

40 x step ups (noth sides) on knee high level, with or without weights; depends on a day

40 x reverse a crunches

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Today will be a gym day, tomorrow an easy gym day with stretching and abs workout.