Sermon from our worship service at Grace Bible Church of Bend. Teaching on “The New You” from Ephesians 4:17-24

Video can be found at  [vimeo.com]

Sermon Audio Ephesians-4.17-24.mp3

Spendings Superbowls Sundays likes everys others Sundays #onsofas #bobsandlucys #bassethound (Taken with instagram)

Yesterday, on a whim, we decided to swing over to the westside to see if the new Broken Top Bottle Shop (taking over the old Abbey Pub space) was open yet; I knew that they had been planning to open by this weekend but hadn’t seen any updates online about it, so at the very least we figured we’d drive by (and if not, try out the new Brother Jon’s Alehouse downtown).

Good thing we did, and our timing was perfect: they did in fact open just at 4:30pm—we got there about 4:45, saw that the paper covering the windows was down and a bunch of people were inside, apparently people were lined up outside waiting on them!

So, we stopped, got a table (there were four of us, and we were kid-free for the evening), and I’m pleased to say that not only was it busy but we had excellent beers, excellent food, and for only opening within the hour there were remarkably few opening day snags (and the few they had were completely understandable).

They have 10 or 12 good beers on tap, and are starting with a strong menu; among the four of us we had the pulled pork sandwich, Philly sandwich French dip, Caesar salad with salmon, and Reuben sandwich. They are going to be open 7 days a week (including today!) from 11 to 10pm I believe, so get down there and check them out.

Hi! How is everyone’s weekend going? Mine has been wonderful. I got a lot done around the house and blog yesterday. I added a new “Newsletter Sign-Up” over to the right in the side bar. You can also sign-up to receive my weekly newsletter *here*. It will be filled with gluten-free recipes, healthy lifestyle tips and ways to feel your best. Be sure to sign up and I’ll keep you up to date with my weekly tips and recipes.

Today is a treat type of day. It’s Sunday, the day that I’m most likely to bake some gluten-free cookies or make an elaborate dinner. However, today’s recipe and cookie review require almost no time in the kitchen. That’s right! You don’t have to bake your own gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. You can just pop into your local Trader Joe’s for a batch of their New Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies or you can blend up your own chocolate chip protein shake at home in your blender.

Serves 1 girl (or guy) who’s craving a chocolate chip cookie, but needs to drink a protein shake

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (whey or brown rice)

1 heaping tablespoon oats (rolled or quick-cook)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon butter extract

1/2 – 1 frozen banana cut into chunks

3-4 ice cubes

3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

pinch of sea salt

pinch of baking soda (optional, but it creates more of a cookie dough flavor)

1 tablespoon milk, semi or dark chocolate chips

Place all of the ingredients besides that chocolate chips in the blender and blend on high for one minute. Once the shake is well blended, add the chocolate chips and blend for about 15-20 seconds on medium speed. Enjoy your shake!

I have to start out this review by sharing that the cashier at Trader Joe’s informed me that these cookies are better than the regular flour chocolate chip cookies they sell. This made me happy to hear. I was also happy to read on the nutrition label that there are no weird ingredients: semi-sweet chocolate chips, rice flour, butter, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, baking soda, salt, xantham gum & water. Those are the exact ingredients that I use in my chocolate chip cookie recipe! Now I can have the convenience of a gluten-free chocolate chip cookie without having to go in the kitchen and bake up a batch myself.

Because these have regular sugar and chocolate chips, I consider these more of a special treat than an everyday type of snack. The calorie content is pretty low: 70 calories per cookie. Seeing that I eat at least a cookie’s worth of batter plus a few baked cookies when I bake them, the 70 calories for one cookie is a bargain compared to the amount of calories consumed when baking cookies.

The cookies taste amazing! They are crispy and have the perfect amount of sweetness, saltiness and crunch. I usually prefer soft and cake-like cookies, but these are right up there with the Nestle Tollhouse gluten-free version I bake at home. The only downside to these cookies is that they are addicting (is that a downside?) and you might be inclined to go back for seconds or thirds. One thing that I like about the packaging is that there are two plastic trays with seven cookies each sealed in plastic wrap. This means that if you open one bag, the other bag of cookies stays sealed and fresh.

I highly recommend these gluten-free cookies from Trader Joes to anyone – gluten-free or not.

Has anyone tried these cookies? What do you think?

Don’t forget that I’m hosting a giveaway contest once my Facebook & Twitter accounts hit 100 followers each. If you follow me on either social media sites, leave a comment *here* and you’ll be entered to win a batch of gluten-free cookies, NuNaturals Stevia & Artisana Nut Butter, plus an assortment of my favorite gluten-free protein bars.

Have fun today whether you’re watching the Super Bowl or just hanging out!

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carrrrrlos posted a photo:

carrrrrlos posted a photo:

carrrrrlos posted a photo:

carrrrrlos posted a photo:

You might not know that doctors’ businesses in the US are going bankrupt. Mine did.  Not me personally, but the business. Medicine is a cog in the economy like everything else. Lots of cogs are blowing out. I have a story, like everyone who goes bankrupt.

When I went to medical school I learned that doctors are pretty well respected. I think that most people live with a level of distrust for doctors…except their own. The other thing I learned was that if I lined up and kept my nose relatively clean (which I have not nearly always done) I would have job security in addition to respect and I could buy a nice house with a manicured yard and super linear shrubbery. I learned that I would work my ass off and I could expect to not make a nickel if I didn’t show up to work. No passive income to speak of.

Some of those lessons have changed. I have touched on the respect part above. Job security is not a given, although it is much better than many fields (but see below and above), and I still believe that there is always room at the top and I make my plan to be the best surgeon I can. I do indeed work hard and passive income is still hard to come by.

So my bankruptcy story has to do with a partner playing Jenga with our practice. He suddenly quit (not a typical partner move), defaulted on financial responsibilities, and those remaining got to watch the rather remarkable tumbling and destruction of a decade of work. I recently went to traffic school for a ticket (I got a warning one early morning from a really nice cop and the next day at the same time, place and channel we did a rerun. We both (kind of) had a laugh about it) and during the 6 hours of “class” we saw many slow-mo traffic-signal traffic-cam videos of car wrecks caused by drivers who were either a)inattentive or b)angry, I learned. Even though they are disturbing there is an irresistible modern dance feel to a car wreck that draws me to it. I catch my breath as the cars, which are usually stubbornly solo, find one another, finally. There is something beautiful in it. Anyway, I kept thinking that I was being reminded of something. Now I know that it is the demise of my business caused by inattention, resentments, assumptions. As I have lived through the process, I will indulge myself in another metaphor: it’s like when the charges go on a building being razed and the center gently drops to its knees and the arms of the building appear to rise in praise or supplication.

Even though I am making (up) something beautiful about this betrayal and embarrassment (I will take the liberty of claiming this blog as my attempt at beauty), I am here writing to get it out of me that I do feel exactly betrayed, pissed, and embarrassed. I am not looking for comfort, to hear its going to be ok (I know for sure it is more than ok, no matter what–for instance we have already been bought by a medium-sized (Ross not Macy’s) box store of a medical-practice-buying group and we didn’t miss a day of work–lots to be grateful for). I am letting myself have the feelings and I since I tell you about things like that, I am telling you about this. My (X)-partner? He knows his motives. I don’t. Don’t want to. I don’t think Karma is too worried about a little medical practice in Central Oregon, but who knows? I do. It’s not. At a minimum I will recommend that he not come here for a reference. His behavior is his problem (or reward depending on if you are me or him, I guess) and I am sure he will have an interesting and rewarding story about all this. My job, today, is to come to terms with rebuilding, remembering who I am instead of looking at what I do, and paying attention to these difficult feelings. Like with my little kiddo, if I pay attention and stay present when he is uncorking, he gets different in a bit. If he goes through uncorking alone or he sees me ignore it, it is actually damaging to him and he saves it as one of those millions of unfelt feelings that we store and eventually have to find an anesthetic for. It’s ironic that anesthesia means to have no feeling and in the world of our emotional selves it is feelings not felt that look for anesthesia, not the ones that we struggle through, feel fully and move on from. Those ones bounce away from us as harmless as the tire thrown bouncing down the road after a wreck.

Here are the Boulder Mountain Tour – Results.

Former Bend resident Lars Flora was second.

Bend’s Sarah Max was 11th.

Bonhoeffer’s been dogging me for decades and sometimes I do wish he’d back off, because he’s always reminding me that anything of value has a high price. I’m a tight-wad, I don’t like to pay high prices.

Perhaps you’ve not been introduced to Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Today is his birthday, and 106 years ago he entered the world, along with his twin sister, Sabine, in Breslau, Germany, bringing great joy to Paula and Karl Bonhoeffer, and eventually there would be eight children who had the most lovely and nurturing family a child could hope for. Above the west entrance of Westminster Abbey in London are 10 modern martyrs – Bonhoeffer’s statue is among them. In the briefest of words, Bonhoeffer was a theologian, a pastor, a writer, a Christian, a prophet, an anti-Nazi spy. He was executed on April 9, 1945 in a German concentration camp for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler, just days before liberation of that camp.

But I’d like to talk about why we should be concerned about Bonhoeffer in the 21st century.

Eric Metaxas has recently written an award winning biography of Bonhoeffer, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. I liked it better than the massive volume by Eberhard Bethge simply for its readability and style. Metaxas explains why we should care about Bonhoeffer:

Bonhoeffer’s relevance to us today is staggering, and I confess that when I began writing the book I had no idea I would stumble over so many powerful parallels to our own situation. For one thing, the story of Bonhoeffer is a primer on the burning issue of what the limits of the state are.

Exactly why is he relevant to such a degree that people are still writing biographies about him and giving talks and holding congresses? Germany in the 1930s and 40s is challenging to comprehend — the Nazi and Jewish issues, of course, the role of the church, and I wonder how to extrapolate from those times without finding a Nazi behind every overreaching government act.

The state of Bonhoeffer’s world was that the German Christian church looked the other way as Jews were being carted off for “resettlement in the East.” In Bonhoeffer’s last great work, Ethics, though unfinished he considered it his magnum opus, he rebukes the church for her grave offenses against humanity and allowing herself to be subjugated by the Nazi regime:

The church must confess that she has not proclaimed often or clearly enough her message of the one God who has revealed Himself for all time in Jesus Christ and who will tolerate no other gods beside Himself. She must confess her timidity, her evasiveness, her dangerous concessions…She was silent when she should have cried out because the blood of the innocent was crying aloud to heaven…She has not raised her voice on behalf of the victims and has not found ways to hasten to their aid. She is guilty of the deaths of the weakest and most defenseless brothers of the lord Jesus Christ…The church must confess that she has desired security, peace and quiet, possessions and honor…She has not borne witness to the truth of God…By her own silence she has rendered herself guilty of a failure to accept responsibility and to bravely defend a just cause. She has been unwilling to suffer for what she knows to be right. Thus the church is guilty of becoming a traitor to the Lordship of Christ. [Ethics, p.117]

Could this not have been written ten minutes ago, as Metaxes said in an interview?

What are today’s burning issues? I ask, as I seek to find Bonhoeffer’s relevance.

Abortion is one. I’m not comfortable addressing this contentious subject. Every person I know has been affected by this, either she has personally had an abortion or knows someone who has. And so who wants to go around telling a woman she is a negligent person, a selfish creature, a murderer? Not me.

I vaguely, then rather insistently, wondered if Bonhoeffer ever had an opinion on the topic of abortion or the right to life. I discovered in his book, Ethics, what I was looking for.

Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder. [Ethics, pp 175-6]

Bonhoeffer considered many facets of abortion, including the pastoral care that necessarily should be involved:

A great many motives may lead to an action of this kind; indeed in cases where it is an act of despair, performed in circumstances of extreme human or economic destitution and misery, the guilt may often lie rather with the community than with the individual. Precisely in this connection money may conceal many a wanton deed, while the poor man’s more reluctant lapse may far more easily be disclosed. All these considerations must no doubt have a quite decisive influence on our personal and pastoral attitude towards the person concerned, but they cannot in any way alter the fact of murder. [Ethics, p 176]

He further speaks to extreme cases:

…with regard to the killing of the fetus in cases where the mother is in danger of losing her life. If the child has its right to life from God, and is perhaps already capable of life, then the killing of the child, as an alternative to the presumed natural death of the mother, is surely a highly questionable action. The life of the mother is in the hand of God, but the life of the child is arbitrarily extinguished. The question whether the life of the mother or the life of the child is of greater value can hardly be a matter for a human decision. [Ethics, p 176 n. 12]

I’m amazed at the specific issues Bonhoeffer addresses with regard to abortion, and it all leaves me little room to wonder what Bonhoeffer would say today in the 21st century. As Eric Metaxas said, Bonhoeffer is staggeringly relevant. He further makes it clear that the right to life is not based on the qualities of the individual.

Life, created and preserved by God, possesses an inherent right, which is wholly independent of its social utility. The right to live is a matter of the essence and not of any values. In the sight of God there is no life that is not worth living. [Ethics, p. 163]

The distinction between life that is worth living and life that is not worth living must sooner or later destroy life itself. [Ethics, p. 164]

It would…be intolerably pharisaical if society were to treat the sick man as though he were a guilty man in order to put itself in the right at his expense. To kill the innocent would be, in the extreme sense, arbitrary. [Ethics, p. 165]

I read all this from Ethics just yesterday and my head fell into my hands and I wept. I almost didn’t want to know; silly, it’s not like Bonhoeffer’s opinion would change my mind, I had concluded when I was very young that abortion was an injustice. But have you ever experienced knowledge that suddenly unloads responsibility? It was this, and I wept, and I couldn’t even allow myself to grasp the entirety as I would have literally fallen to the ground from the weight of it.

I don’t want to become a radical, oh, at least not any more radical than I already am. It’s dangerous to be radical. It’s so much safer to be non-radical, at least on this side of Heaven. Bonhoeffer was a radical of sorts by all accounts, and he paid for it with his life, with a a piano wire around his neck as he dangled naked in the courtyard of the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp in Germany.

And yet he is my hero, and has been for two decades. Someone gave me The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer when I was in my early twenties, and that was my introduction to this compelling man. I read bits and pieces and the words just sat smoldering in the recesses of my mind for twenty years. I do gravitate to the edge of costliness, but to actually take the leap, like Bonhoeffer, is not fully in my nature.

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. [Cost of Discipleship]

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God. [Cost of Discipleship]

So from the beginning of my life as a committed Christian, I’ve had in the background of my thinking, always, the cost of discipleship, which is of course clear in the teachings of Jesus, but made so visible to me by Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer was continually accused of being a single-issue fanatic in his time. And why? He vehemently opposed Nazi interference in the church and so was stripped of his pastoral license and forbidden to speak in public or print or publish. He then helped Jews escape to Switzerland which led to his first arrest. Don’t we look back from our vantage point and not see this as fanatical at all? We are not allowed the privilege of seeing our present from a future viewpoint, and that’s why I spend all this time with Bonhoeffer, searching and probing for relevance and truth to help myself, and maybe spare myself from death of conscience.

But I’ve come to realize there are rarely single-issue fanatics. There is a vast underpinning of philosophies and moralities that find expression in a single-issue, and start digging and you will find the true breadth of it all. Bonhoeffer’s extensive writings demonstrate this theory, and the complexity of what appears to be a single-issue begs to be examined.

Five years ago, on the anniversary of Bonhoeffer’s execution, I wrote an essay exploring Bonhoeffer’s call to the church, a call to action for times when the state is involved in illegitimate actions. I said I’d write more later. And here it is, it took me a while. I quote again from Bonhoeffer’s writings in Ethics, scathing words to the church in his day relating to the Jews, but equally applicable and significant for the unborn in our day:

She was silent when she should have cried out because the blood of the innocent was crying aloud to heaven…She has not raised her voice on behalf of the victims and has not found ways to hasten to their aid. She is guilty of the deaths of the weakest and most defenseless brothers of the lord Jesus Christ. [Ethics]

Bonhoeffer, oh, could he have known that he would suffer to the last and to the fullest, with Christ and with the Jews? I do think he knew, and he intentionally chose the way of the cross.

If we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity… We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well as suffering.

The Psalmist was lamenting that he was despised and rejected of men, and that is an essential quality of the suffering of the cross. But this notion has ceased to be intelligible to a Christianity which can no longer see any difference between an ordinary human life and life committed to Christ. The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to the fullest. [Cost of Discipleship]

May I leave you with some resources for you to further examine the relevance of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to your world? Following are some links (which have been of immense help to me) to books, essays, videos, blogs, all of which either directly speak of Bonhoeffer, or involve current issues to which his principles could be applied.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas
National Prayer Breakfast, 2012, with Eric Metaxas (begin at 35 min. in)
Marco Rubio Pro-Life Speech at SBA event
Catholic Leaders Urge Parishioners to Denounce Mandate
Bonhoeffer Blog
Bonhoeffer Timeline
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Reading Room (links to all of Bonhoeffer’s works as well as books/writings about him)
God & Caesar by Dr. Laurence White
Bonhoeffer Blog Discussion Group @ Pebblechaser
Bonhoeffer Documentary
Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace – DVD
Hanged on a Twisted Cross – film

Technorati Tags: abortion, Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas, Ethics, Jewish question, Nazi Germany

I have to say, one style I wouldn’t have expected the big breweries to delve into (even as part of their smaller “craft” branches) is the relatively-new Wheat or Belgian IPA… but that’s exactly what Anheuser-Busch has done with their latest Shock Top release: Shock Top Wheat IPA, which I received a six-pack of this week.

This is slated to hit the shelves nationally on the 6th (Monday), and at first blush—it’s rather interesting and actually not bad at all. I’ll be drinking more and writing up review notes for it this weekend sometime.

(And no, I don’t automatically turn my nose up at macro-brewed brands remember—I’m a beer geek, not a beer snob, and I’m always interested in trying new beers—whether from A-B or the newest nanobrewery down the street.)

Some details from the press release:

The newest full-time addition to the Shock Top family, Shock Top Wheat IPA is a unique hybrid style that brings the refreshment and smoothness of a wheat beer and marries it with the crisp, hoppy bitterness of an India Pale Ale (IPA).

To create the new beer, brewmasters started with Shock Top’s signature recipe, adding citrusy Cascade and Magnum hops and dry hopping the beer for several days to give Wheat IPA the rich, hoppy aroma that is the signature of IPAs. Containing 5.8% alcohol by volume (ABV), Shock Top Wheat IPA will be sold nationwide in six- and 24-packs of 12-ounce bottles and on draught.

Which interestingly puts it at about the same level as Deschutes‘ Chainbreaker White IPA (just recently announced as the newest year-round addition to their bottled line-up).

More soon.

After 7 weeks, 4 days and 2 hours, we have finally left Florida for Alabama.

Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of frost. [...] Fifty degrees below zero stood for a bite of frost that hurt and that must be guarded against by the use of mittens, ear-flaps, warm moccasins, and thick socks.   

Summit standout runners Megan Fristoe and Ashley Maton will be taking their talents to Eugene.
“Summit duo among peaks in Oregon track class:

Welcome to Superbowl Weekend! Since I am not one bit interested in the Superbowl, I will be doing what a lot girls like to do when football games are on TV – reading magazines! I have never been a big sports fan and eating a bunch of chips and dip does not set well with my stomach anyway. So, I’ll be laying low, indulging in some girlie magazines and maybe cooking something in the kitchen. Speaking of cooking, I finally went to the grocery store today and stocked up on some much needed fresh produce. I feel like the only vegetables I ate over the past two weeks were either iceberg lettuce or steamed vegetables with dinner. I’m envisioning lots of green smoothies and salads in my future :)

I was excited to get back in the kitchen and whip up a healthy treat to share with you. Has anyone tried those Brookside dark chocolate pomegranate candies that they sell at Costco? I think I’ve seen them at Trader Joe’s too? Anyways, I wanted to combine them with some gluten-free Rice Crispies that I picked up at the store today. Here is your super-easy, quick gluten-free treat recipe:

Makes 8 cookies

1 cup gluten-free Rice Crispies cereal

2 Tablespoons chopped dried cherries

2 Tablespoons sliced almonds

2 Tablespoons brown rice syrup

1 Tablespoon honey (or brown rice syrup. I just like the flavor and the health benefits of honey)

1/4 cup almond butter (or your favorite nut butter)

2 Tablespoons organic brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 Brookside dark chocolate pomegranate or acai candies or Trader Joe’s Superfruit candies

Pinch of sea salt

In a medium size bowl, mix the Rice Crispies, dried cherries and sliced almonds.

I am the only one who thought Rice Crispies were already gluten-free? I guess there is malt extract in the regular variety? These new ones are made with brown rice too!

In a small saucepan or microwave-safe dish, combine the brown rice syrup, honey and almond butter. Heat over medium heat until it starts to bubble or microwave on high for roughly 30 seconds. Add the brown sugar, vanilla and salt and stir until smooth. Pour the mixture over the contents of the bowl and use a spatula or your hands to combine. Roll into 8 small balls and set on a piece of parchment paper. Push a chocolate covered candy into the center of each cookie. Allow to cool. Store in an airtight container for up to a week, but they might harden over time.

Okay, well I’m off to take Layla for her walk and get together with one of my friends here in Redmond. Have a great day and let me know if you try the new cookie recipe. It’s super easy and takes maybe 5-10 minutes!

*** Giveaway Alert ***

As you may know, I have Facebook and Twitter accounts set up for the blog. Once each account hits 100 followers, I will draw a number and send a gluten-free gift pack to the winner. It will include a batch of gluten-free cookies, NuNaturals Stevia, Artisiana nut butter and an assortment of my favorite gluten-free protein bars. I’ll even throw Layla in there too! Haha – that would never happen!!! All you have to do is *like* my Facebook and/or Twitter accounts and leave a comment below stating that you did so. Feel free to leave two comments if you follow both accounts. I’ll announce the winner here on the blog, Twitter and Facebook once the drawing takes place. Any questions, just ask!

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The Outdoor Retailer Trade Show is held twice a year in Salt Lake City. Over 1000 brands and 20,000 attendees converge to show and buy the next seasons gear. This is part three of a three-part article on some of the gear I found intriguing at the show. Most of the gear listed here is not set to be released until Fall of 2012, but some will be available sooner.

Part 1 (Gear)

Part 2 (Active)

In the Fall of 2012, 180s is going to release a full line of clothing. The clothing will feature their QuantumHeat Technology. This technology utilizes a combination of fibers and special chemicals to help you maintain heat and therefore, perform longer and better. QuantumHeat’s performance benefits include: amplifying light into heat, anti odor treatment, removes 100% of moisture from the skin every two seconds, captures body heat in the fabric, and has UPF protection from the sun. 180s will have baselayers, midlayers, protective layers, accessories, and gloves as part of their new line. I have highlighted the Radiate Mock LS Base Layer. The entire garment is made of QuantumHeat. It will have a compression fit to reduce muscle fatigue during and after activity. All the seams will be flatlocked for comfort. The Radiate will be made with raglan sleeves to help with movement. It will be out in the fall with the rest of the line and retail for $50.

Adidas the longtime footwear and athletic brand through its hat into the ring last year with Adidas Outdoor. I recently just finished writing up a review on the Terrex Gore-Tex Active Shell Jacket. In the Fall of 2012 Adidas is coming out with several new and intriguing products. The one I am highlighting here is the Terrex Frostzeit Jacket. The outer shell of the jacket is waterproof protecting the inner insulation. The inner insulation is a combination of 700+ fill down and Primaloft Sport in order to keep the down from getting damp when internal perspiration condenses on the inside of the shell. In order to protect the down, the Primaloft layer is on the outside up against the shell layer while the down is on the inside. Adidas uses an H-chamber construction to avoid cold bridges and to keep the down in place. The Frostzeit has been developed as a belay jacket, so it has two large inside pockets to store water bottles, gloves, or climbing shoes. The zipper can be opened from the bottom to provide room for belay devices and rope. There is also an insulated drop seat that can be folded down and serves as kidney protection when folded away. The hood is helmet-compatible and adjustable. On the outside, there are two hand warmer pockets and two chest pockets. The Frostzeit Jacket will be out in the Fall and will retail for $495.

Columbia will be introducing a new “Omni” technology to the world this fall. This technology is Omni-Wind. Columbia’s Omni-Wind Block technology enables a softshell to have complete windproof properties while still maintaining a high level of breathability. Omni-Wind is a membrane technology based on the Omni-Dry technology used in Columbia’s waterproof shells. Omni-Wind is very light and can be laminated to fleece or softshell. I have chosen to highlight the Triteca Softshell which will be out in the fall and features the new Omni-Wind technology. The Triteca will also use a combination of Omni-Heat and Omni-Wick Evap in the inner liner to strategically add heat retention or moisture transport depending on the location. Under the arms and on the shoulders, there are stretch panels for better mobility. It will also feature an adjustable hood, drop tail, waterproof zippers, and sleeve cuffs. The Triteca Softshell will be available in both men’s and women’s and will retail for $220.

Hi-Tec this fall has one of the more colorful pieces I have seen. They will have a line of down jackets in which the actual down has been dyed. The process actually dyes the down three times and is sorted each time making for a higher-quality product. The outer shell of the Timaru Down Hoodie is a 15D nylon mini ripstop fabric that has been silicone coated and is transparent to show the inner fill. The inner fill will be a 700+ loft down insulation for warmth and packability. You may ask is the dyeing process affects the insulation properties. I was reassured that it actually helps the lofting characteristics slightly by giving the down slightly more bulk. The Timaru will have two hand warmer pockets and an adjustable drawcord hem. It will be available in six colors in the fall and will retail for $190.

One of the tops I was most excited about at the show was the Ibex Shak Lite for the fall. The Sahk line has been around for years and been a top seller for Ibex. What has changed is that this fall the Shak will be sourced from 100 percent U.S. resources. The wool will still continue to be 21-micron as it was before but the sheep will be Rambouillet that comes from ranches in Montana. It will then be sent to South Carolina where it will be combed and scoured. Next it will head up to North Carolina to be spun into yarn and knit into fabric. The wool will then be sewn in California to be sewn together, making for a 100% made in USA product. Ibex will be using the Shak Lite line at first to see if it can handle the volume before adding more products. The Ibex Shak Lite ½ Zip will retail for $135. Here is a video about the ranch below.

This fall Icebreaker is going to continue the innovation of their Realfleece tops. The one that intrigues me most is the Realfleece Nano Jackets. Icebreaker will be using a nanotechnology to make the fabric water-resistant. The tiny nano particles attach themselves to the merino particles but do not clog the pores so the jacket will maintain its breathability. The nano particles have a ridged surface that reduces contact area and increases resistance to abrasions. Water, oil and mud simply run off, and any remaining dirt can be easily rinsed off with water. The technology used in Realfleece Nano is accredited by bluesign, an independent global standard for low-pollutant textiles, environmentally-friendly production and responsible management of resources. The jacket I have highlighted is the Icebreaker Kodiak Zip. It’s is the men’s version, and the women’s version is called the Arctic Zip. At the show, I watched as the top was squirted with water, and it just beaded up and fell off. Both tops will have brushed merino wool interiors and be 100% merino wool. They will be available in the fall, and I am not sure what they will retail for.

La Sportiva is also coming out with a clothing line this fall. La Sportiva has always been on the more technical side in their skis, running shoes, and climbing gear. This apparel line will be the same. La Sportiva will be launching a full line of technical mountaineering apparel. The new line will include hard shells, soft shells, insulating midlayers, and performance base layers. The clothing will be a good mix of fabrics to create very technical packages and to provide fast, light, and highly efficient clothing. The Storm Fighter Jacket that is pictured will be made of Gore-Tex Active Shell and will only weigh 316 g (11.1 oz). There will also be a matching pant out of the same fabric and weighing in at 514 g (18.1 oz). The whole line will be 48 pieces and available in the fall.

The brand Mountain Equipment is new to me, but it is not a new brand. Mountain Equipment is located in the UK and been building gear since 1961. More recently they have moved into the US market, and I stopped by their booth at the OR Show. I was definitely impressed by the level of design and workmanship in their line. They make some high-quality equipment and have carefully thought features. Examples would be a jacket collar that bows out allowing the user to have more room to breathe out rather than having it sit up against your mouth. Grippers on the inside of their hoods that will hold the hood in place when using a helmet. Making sure there warmest insulated pieces have no stitched through areas where warm air can escape, even along the front zipper. These features definitely impressed as did the jacket I chose to highlight, the Gasherbrum jacket. It will be updated in the fall with their new designed Full Dome HC Hood with EXL lining. The jacket has 380 g of 93/7 goose down with a minimum fill power of 750. It is box-wall baffle constructed from warmth. The Gasherbrum has two hand warmer pockets, an inner water bottle pocket, inner security pocket, and two way zipper. It is currently available, and the newly designed version will be out in the fall. I am not sure what US retail is.

This has been one of the most iconic pieces by Mountain Hardwear since its creation. Ed Viesturs among others used this suit to climb the world’s 8000-meter peaks. In the fall of 2012 Moutnain Hardwear will be releasing a completely redesigned suit. It will be lighter in weight and better functioning all around. Mountain Hardwear learned a lot while working on the Uli Steck Project and have transferred some of that knowledge over to the Absolute Zero Suit. The suit is a fully welded and watertight-baffle-contruction, waterproof-breathable Dry Q Elite, 800-fill goose down suit. It features improved components such as simpler hood adjustment, air-mask compatible collar, zonal construction, tab-free cuffs, and internal suspender system, and a re-invented rainbow seat for more convenient use. The Absolute Zero Suit is engineered for the highest peaks n the world to give climbers every advantage they need to get up and down safely. The Absolute Zero Suit will retail for $1250.

Outdoor Research is going 3.0 this fall. They are going to update their logo and make huge expansions to their clothing and accessory lines. One of the jackets I found most intriguing was the Lodestar jacket. The Lodestar is a mixture of fabrics, warmth where you need it and protection where it is needed. This jacket is one of a few jackets this fall to use Polartec Power Sheild High Loft fabric, a new to-market fabric technology. In the areas needed for weather protection the jacket uses Polartec Power Shield Pro. This creates a jacket with a good mix of warmth, protection, and breathability. It will not be ideal for the wettest days but anything else it will be great. The jacket will have one napoleon pocket, two hand warmer pockets and an internal zip pocket with audio out. The hood will be fully adjustable. Furthermore, coming out with the jacket will be pants made of the same mix of materials. The both will be available in the fall and will retail for $450 and $400.

If you have not heard of Salewa before you take the time to check them out. Salewa was actually founded in 1935 in Munich. It was not until the fall of 2006 that it made its way over to the US with the brands Dynafit and Silvretta. Salewa launched its shoe line to the US in the spring of 2010. Coming out later this year is the Pro Guide Boots. They are a 2-in-1 boot for mountain guides, mountain rescue teams, alpinists, and ice climbers. The innovative part of these boots is the flex system; the sole’s rigidity can be adjusted from flexible to absolutely stiff with just a touch of the control positioned on the heel. This gives climbers a comfortable and flexible sole for the approach, while during climbing it is rigid and precise, with or without crampons. The unique concept is the boots re available in two fits: performance and insulated plus fit. The performance fit will be tighter for more precision while the insulated plus will have more room for better thermal insulation. The upper of the boots is classic looking made with a 3mm-thick Perwanger leather equipped with Gore-Tex Duratherm XL insulation. The boots are crampon compatible and guaranteed for comfort like all their footwear. The Pro Guide Boots will retail for $499.

Another interesting wool piece coming out in the fall is the Smartwool PhD SmartLoft Divide Full Zip. The Divide will be a semi-form fit wool insulated top with zonal construction. The front chest panel will be SmartLoft Wool insulated with a nylon panel that has a DWR finish. The rest of the garment will be MerinoMax Double Jersey knit for warmth and breathability. The front zipper will be semi-locking and have a full draft flap. There will be a total of four pockets; a chest pocket with audio out, internal stash pocket, and two hand warmer pockets. The wrist cuff will have low-profile in-seam thumb loops for warmth and coverage when you need it. The SmartLoft Divide is one of the several carefully thought-out pieces with body mapped construction coming out in the fall. It will retail for $200.

Today is The Session‘s Diamond Anniversary! (Although technically it would be its “mensiversary” for the Latin and date geeks among you.) The Session is a monthly collaborative beer blogging event where a different host for each month suggests a topic, and on the first Friday of that month everyone who wants to participate writes about that topic. (As simple as that!) Our host then collects links to all the other Session posts for easy reading.

This month’s host is Kendall Jones of the Washington Beer Blog, and the topic he has selected is “Growlers Galore“:

These days people take growlers for granted. In my neck of the woods, growlers are a relatively new phenomenon. I don’t recall exactly when they appeared on the local beer scene but it could not have been more than eight or ten years ago. Maybe they existed in obscurity before. My memory fails me. Today growlers are everywhere. I think. Growlers are very common around the Pacific Northwest, anyway. I cannot speak to their popularity elsewhere. I’d love to know.

Tell us about your growler collection. Tell us why you love growlers or why you hate them. What is the most ridiculous growler you’ve ever seen? Tell us about your local growler filling station. Ever suffer a messy growler mishap? Anything related to growlers is acceptable.

I haven’t taken to collecting growlers in the same way that I would collect bottles, partially because I don’t have the room—indeed I did a major purge of my bottle “collection” about a year ago and I still really don’t have room for more—and partially because the growlers I have are a reusable commodity: I keep getting them refilled!

I only have a small number of growlers though: two from 10 Barrel Brewing, one a Rogue Dead Guy growler, one from Hopworks Urban Brewery, and one from Steelhead Brewing in Eugene. Those are my clean and reusable set, and all are the standard brown glass, half-gallon “jug” style without much fanfare; I have another fancier one from Southern Oregon Brewing with a ceramic flip top and metal handle that my brother gave me, but it’s not in good enough condition to fill unfortunately.

But for me these are “working” growlers: I’ve taken to always carrying one or two in the car with me on the off-chance that I’ll be near a brewery, and for the most part I’m unconcerned about the decor on the bottle. And fortunately that decor doesn’t matter as I live in a state (Oregon) that has lenient enough beer laws to allow breweries to fill any growler that comes in the door, even ones from other breweries (indeed, some breweries will fill just about any lidded container you bring in), unlike, say California or South Dakota that will only let you fill a growler if said growler is from that same brewery.

So I love having a growler on hand, but not for a collectible purpose, for me it’s almost entirely functional. Don’t get me wrong—having a Hopworks growler is cool but what’s even cooler is being able to fill it with fresh beer from Deschutes, or Brewers Union, or Barley Brown’s, or any number of other Oregon breweries anytime I’m in their neighborhood. It’s hard to beat that.