Take all of my money, please

Big moment yesterday: I think (hope!) I made the last of my big (expensive!) purchases.

I dropped by REI after work to get a new sleeping pad and a Spot, which is like a big SOS button in case anything goes horribly wrong. Of course I had to wander through the backpacks again, and yay, they finally had the backpack I've been looking for in the size that had been recommended. I tried it on and walked all around the store with it, and I'm glad I did because it's obvious now that the small is a much better fit for me than the medium. So now I've got to return the medium, but whatever -- it's not like I won't need to stop by REI a million more times between now and the hike (which is a month away from tomorrow!).

Last weekend I did a bunch of hiking with Camper. I found an awesome 8-mile loop around Tilden. And I think I figured out how to get from Redwood Regional to Lake Chabot, which should be about a 12- to 13-mile roundtrip hike. I'm thinking I'll try that one this weekend, or maybe finally tackle that 8-mile Briones hike, depending on how much time I have (and who wants to join me -- I wouldn't take Camper on a 12-mile hike, anyway).

In food news, tonight I tried another quinoa recipe that was much improved over the last ones. This time, I added the dried veggies (seasoned tomatoes and zucchini that I got at Berkeley Bowl) to the quinoa while it cooked, and the texture was much improved. Then I stirred in some olive oil, pine nuts, and a good pinch of salt. Very tasty! I did another batch with dried kale added after the quinoa was done (I figured kale wouldn't need as much cooking as the other veggies) and almonds instead of pine nuts. I only had a bite or two of that -- I'll eat the rest for lunch tomorrow -- but it tasted pretty good too.

Still SO MUCH TO DO to get ready for this hike. Yeesh. I'm not even going to make a list here because it'll just look overwhelming. Instead, my goal for the night: buy socks, underwear and sports bras online. Classy.