Northwest by Midwest

Blog moved

2007-12-14T23:19:00.001-08:00

I'm moving the blog off of blogger onto my own domain. You can find it here. I've not figured out a way to have blogger forward you to the new domain (especially those of you subscribed using feed readers). You'll have to updated your RSS feed to the new location.

Aunt June, Part 1

2007-10-19T14:53:00.001-07:00

My Aunt June passed last week Thursday (2007.10.11). My fathers' older sister by 10 years born June Glos in 1943, not sure of the date. 64 years.

From right to left, my grandfather Glenn, my grandmother Edna, holding aunt June, my great-grandmother and grandfather, and my grandfathers' brother George.

Even though I just got back from Europe and 19 days of vacation work was considerate enough when I needed to back to the Midwest for a week for some unpaid time off to spend some time with family. I flew out on Friday and returned late Thursday night. There was no official memorial service. Rather than morbidly stand around a dead body, her children (3) decided to have the body cremated and instead have a gathering over the weekend; more on that in Part 2.

I don't have too many memories of her. She moved away before I was born and there really wasn't any family get together's on the Glos side, which I would come to find out later was due to a family spat between my Grandfather and his brother.

I spent two months in her home in Tampa Bay, Florida one brutally hot summer between sophomore and junior year in high school (summer of 1987). Later after her husband passed, she and my cousin Carol (June's youngest daughter) moved back up to Illinois from Jackson, Mississippi. My Dad and I drove/flew? down there and helped them move back in 2 trucks, my dad driving one and me the other. My most vivid memory is of either Carol or June harping on me that I drove the U-Haul too close to the center line.

At the time I was going to college full time and working full time so I still didn't get to know my Aunt very well. I do recall that she was very opinionated and she let you know how she felt. It was also always kind of weird to here her call my Dad her little brother. He was, you just never think of your Dad as somebody's little brother.

As time passed life went on and we never really kept up with one another accept for through my Dad. Last I had heard she had suffered a stroke about 6 months ago, lost the ability to speak, and then finally passed on, although there was a heart attack mixed in there as well.

The Glos family curses that I know of are alcohol, smoking, and what appears to be heart disease. So some genetic and some lifestyle. I don't remember her being a drinker, but of all my family members, it appears the I am the only one who has been able to veer away from the smoking habit. My Dad swears that the smoking is what eventually did the deed, also killing his older brother Glen Jr, and he loves to recite the story of his first heart attack at 43 years old (yea that young) when the doctor leaned over in his ear just after stenting his heart via angioplasty and said, "Quit smoking or die". He quit the next day for good.

I was there when my Uncle, Glen Jr (nicknamed Chip), passed. It wasn't a pretty sight and I can still remember it like yesterday. If you need a reason to quit smoking, go watch someone die from it. The black liquid he coughed up in his final last breaths will be etched in my mind until the day I die. My father took it pretty hard and from my phone conversations over the phone, he was angry and hurt that June never stopped the habit either.

I was second guessing myself. Do I go? Do I stay? I'm out of vacation. I didn't know June all that well but my Dad sure could use me. I made the choice. Gotta go. No kicking yourself later for, "I should've". And money, well... that's all well and good but 10 years from now you're going to remember being there for family, not what you did at work and why you didn't go.

After a nice conversation with my employer Edith and my direct boss Jill, who both reinforced and encouraged me to go, I made arrangements not really knowing at the time whether there was a service or what was going on. Luckily, you can lessen the cost of airline flights by calling directly and getting a bereavement fare, but you have to have the funeral home name and address, funeral directors name, and name of the deceased so that they can check up on you.

So I arrived in Chicago O'Hare airport on Friday at around 7PM CST. It took me 2 hours just to get out of the there with the rental car, what a nightmare. Standing in the Avis line for 45 minutes and the funny thing is that it's normal. Every Friday the agent told me. Well why don't you guys staff for the this then?

More later...

Morning Bike Commute

2007-10-09T22:18:00.001-07:00

Sore butt when I took off from the house this morning from the commute home last night and not having ridden in 2 months. My mind was playing games. Telling me that it would be so much easier to just drive to work. But then I think about my weight and my family history of heart disease and then I see this gorgeous sunrise. I stopped and took a picture. Once I got to work I was glad I rode even if I am 10 minutes slower than I was 2 months ago. It feels great. It's a strange play between motivation prior and enjoyment afterwards; even when you know you'll feel good when it's over it's hard to take that first step... but the rewards are worth it.

Later.

Home Sweet Home

2007-09-28T03:26:00.001-07:00

It's 3 am as I type this. We got in around 10 pm last night and went straight to bed. 25 hours of travel to get home and neither of us slept so we were pretty exhausted. Should help the jet lag. Not complaining because 5 hours of sleep the first night should be pretty good. The next three days until work week should be a haze of napping and getting things back together after having being gone so long.

Later.

Munich (oder München)

2007-09-25T08:24:00.001-07:00

Posting from a coffee shop in downtown Munich. The San Francisco Coffee Company actually as strange as that may sound. Sneaking in a post whilst Heidi grabs us some beverages. The Internet still proves to be elusive whilst traveling at hotels we've stayed at and I've ended up paying 19 Euro for a 1 month connection to T-Mobil. The hour by hour and minute by minute charges just seem to be price gouging.

The coaching by horse and carriage for two days was a great way to see the country-side and the highlight of our trip. I have many pictures and video to share.

We're doing Munich for 3 nights and two days. Yesterday we did the Oktoberfest tents! What a blast. Today was our first day of bad weather. It's been raining all day so we spent the afternoon in the Deutsches Museum, basically the equivalent of the Smithsonian.

Tomorrow we take the train back to Vienna and fly out Thursday morning.

Later!

Forest house at the lake

2007-09-20T14:18:00.001-07:00

We've arrived at the hotel "Forsthaus am See", forest house at the lake, tonight in Feldafing, Germany, about 45 min southwest of Munich. Tomorrow Andreas picks us up for the Coaching trip and so this is the reason we are here as this is close to his stables. It's quite the vacation area for well-to-do Munich citizens though. Many million dollar mansions along the lake. It reminds me of Lake Geneva, WI, the spot of rich Chicagoans to vacation. Although I think the lake here is just a little deeper, and the view of the mountains (not sure which ones they are) on the horizon is quite spectacular. My guess is we are headed in that direction tomorrow. Should be interesting.

What I've gleaned in 1/2 day:

There's a path that appears to go around the lake used by pedestrians and bikes. Larger than the Lake Geneva one.
The vegetation is much more like back in WI/IL than OR. Less pine and more deciduous. I can imagine when the leaves change here in a few weeks it will be beautiful. This is in contrast to Baden-Baden, north of the Black Forest, which was more like OR, with many pine and they also grow Pinot Noir grapes for wine as well there.
You gotta be rich to live here.
Looks like you could create some nice singletrack for MTBing. :)
More use of German. The woman who picked us up at the trainstation, Bahnhof, English wasn't very good and we rely more on our German as we approach the less tourist area. I had to order most everything today and communicate in German but don't let that scare you off. Most know enough English to get by. Partly I'm fueling my own desire to speak another language since I feel ignorant that I only know one.
Cool tempuratures. Jackets at night. Jeans and long-sleeves during the day. The driver said she hasn't seen the lake frozen in years though so probably quite temperate like Oregon and UN-like the Midwest.

Quick Hello

2007-09-19T02:05:00.001-07:00

I am feeling lazy so just wanted to let you know we are alive and well here and enjoying the city of Rothenburg. Today is our last full day here and we'll be doing abit of shopping. We plan to pickup a nice Black Forest cuckoo clock as a reminder of the trip. Also a stop at the famous German Christmas store, Kathe Wohlfart, of which there are shops all over Europe. I guess this town is their company headquarters.

I'll leave you with two shots taken yesterday. The first is apparently a world famous part of this town where the old inner castle wall meets the newer outer castle wall.

The second is of a more humorous note. A "Packer Backer". Here in Germany. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Wisconsin and Germany are fairly well linked and my old home territory. So for your enjoyment is a Green Bay Packers fan sporting is hat... (and perhaps even a Harley-Davidson t-shirt although I'm not sure - try zooming in and see what you think). I don't think he saw me taking his photo.

Later.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

2007-09-17T14:12:00.001-07:00

We are in Rothenburg now. We are here for 4 nights. As I type it is the 2nd night, just after 10 pm (although to post this may take awhile to type...).

What a beautiful city. Rothenburg is an old medieval town surrounded by a castle wall. We decided to spend a few extra days here to just relax. It can be a pain to pack the bags every other day to go off to a new town, and basically waste some of your day traveling, and we would rather just enjoy the stay awhile.

The hotel we are staying at, the Kosterstuble, is beyond words. Just take a look.

We finally found some WiFi. It's at the hotel, free and not great but better than paying 8 Euro for 1 hour. Everytime I tried an upload a batch of photo's to flickr they bounce so I'm left to only loading up a few at a time for the blog posts. I'll have to wait to get home to upload them all.

We went on this very fun Night Watchman's Tour the first night where we learned all about the town from a unique perspective. The guy giving the tour has been doing it for 15 years or something. He dressed the part, dressed in a cloaked robe with halberd in one hand and candlelit lantern in the other. He gave the tour in English, albeit German accent, and interspersed it with some very funny commentary. He even has a DVD if your interested, including some clips on the web if your interested in hearing his voice, maybe we'll pick up a copy while we are here.

The food at our hotel is good and we had a nice dinner the first night here outside. Afterwards we went to this cool, Lord of the Rings, Hobbit-like place for drinks. I'm enjoying this drink called Radler. It's a mixture of beer and lemonade.

Today we did more exploring. Up to the top of the 200 foot tower in the center of town. We did the full 1.5 mile hike around the town on the castle wall, which is where I took the photo at the top of the post. Also toured the Town Vaults and saw some dungeons, armor, etc. Went through a couple of old churches and looked at things that were built, made or constructed bake in the 1400-1500s. This stuff is old and it gives you an appreciation for what people were able to achieve so long ago.

I have to say that even though the Euro is stronger than the dollar, some things seem substantially cheaper here. 4 drinks at the bar and our bill is only 12-14 Euro. I can get two scoops of ice cream in a sugar cone for 1 Euro. And that's what we've been doing alot of. Stopping at a small cafe. Heidi has coffee and I have hot chocolate or tea along with a baked good (and there's so many baked goods here).

We've had beautiful weather since we've been here. Tonight was the first time it has rained and it only did so for about an hour after dinner. We retired early tonight to just do some reading and more relaxing.

Tomorrow we need to do some laundry. Then Heidi's going to get a manicure. I on the other hand am going to see the best museum in the world of torture devices. It's called the Medieval Crime Museum or Kriminalmuseum. Also take a look at a craftsman museum by going through a house built in 1270. That's old.

I'll leave you with this photo of the fountain in Market Platz.

In medieval times the fountain provided water to the populace. Notice the the pipes coming from the mouths of the faces on all four sides. You'd move the metal rail you see so that the water would go into your bucket. Also if you look at the yellow building on the right, you'll see what looks like a board sticking out almost at the top. It's the old pulley used to haul grain, salt, etc, to the top of the building. Every building here has these relics. They stored about a years worth of dried goods here to keep it out of the rain, the roads used to be muddy and filthy (yes both animal and human waste) and for use in times of defense when the castle was under siege.

Danke schon!

Baden-Baden: 2 nights / 1 day

2007-09-16T14:15:00.001-07:00

We arrived at 7pm at the train station and had a short 15 minute bus ride into town.

Our hotel was at the top of the hill next to the church. It was quite a hike after 10 hours on the train. 75 steps at least when I stopped counting up stairs. But the streets were all cobblestone and narrow. Since the church bells ring every 15 minutes from 6 am to 10 pm, I was afraid sleeping would be difficult. It wasn't and I think we've now made the conversation to European time. We took no naps the next day.

The room we had for two nights was nice. The bathroom was a very welcome upgrade from the one we had in Vienna. At least it didn't smell... Unlike the other toilets, this one was very American in that the water hole (or whatever it's called) was at the back. All the ones in Vienna were at the front. Why? Dunno. The only downside was that it was on the 3rd floor and those 50lb bags were getting heavy after all that hiking to just the hotel. The Frau had no problem taking Heidi's bag up and she looked thin and wiry, not even 100 lbs soaking wet.

Breakfast was good. Meats, cheese, bread, jam, butter. Heidi is enjoying the coffee. I'm liking the hot chocolate. The Germans must like their sweets because the hot chocolate is always available at cafe's etc, usually 3-4 versions, with whipped cream, without, spiked with Rum, etc.

We had awoken late and rushed downstairs to eat so afterwards we took showers and didn't get out to enjoy the day until 11:30. The previous day of travel and shaking out the last bits of jet lag had us starting the day late but felling really good. It's vacation anyway and we weren't on any timeline to begin with.

We strolled around town and through a very cool garden. Like our parks only less cut grass and more tree, foliage and trails. It was right next to a private palace with large intimidating castle-like walls. Would have been cool to go inside but is was closed to the public.

There's two baths in Baden-Baden. And old school Roman style bath, called Friedrichsbad, which supposedly takes 3 hours to get through. There's umpteen (17 I think) different stages - water at 38C then a shower, then water at 58C etc. Heidi expressed some concern because a few of the stages involved mixing men and women together... nude. Yes. Nudity is not a problem here. There was also a newer bath, called Carcalla, with similar stages but you were a swimsuit. Both baths are actually steeped in history as is the town. It's built on an old Roman settlement and the baths are on top of hot mineral springs.

We settled on Carcalla and Heidi immediately signed up for a 50 minute massage. While she got her message, I toured the old Roman ruins. Previously a Roman soldier bath house had existed here and it was interesting to see how they heated the floor, etc. I joined Heidi after here message. The entire bath house was very cool. Many different showers, whirlpools, aroma steam rooms, and even and all nude area with steam log cabins. After a couple hours we left feeling like jelly. Very relaxed and at ease.

We were now ready for some dinner and settled on this nice restaurant we came across. With the streets small and the buildings right next to the street, the building are usually square around the block and have a passageway to the middle of the building with a garden, fountain, etc. It's very private and very nice. This place had tables set up there. Food was great. I'd add specifics but I don't have the information near me now. I took a few photos as well.

After that we stopped for some ice cream, strolled some more and then stopped a bar. We got to know the bartender Chris, who is originally German, now lives in Miami, Florida, but has been here for two years visiting family in Baden-Baden. More on the beers later but we found some interesting information about Budweiser and Lowenbrau.

As we were leaving town this morning a couple commented on our large rucksacks as we had them on our backs walking down the 75 stairs to get to the bus station. I commented that my German wasn't so good but that yes, we were on our way to the train station (Bahnhof). We stopped and then had a 10 minute conversation with them. Hans and Margaret were on their way home from church. My guess would be their 60s/70s. Margaret could not speak any English but Hans was pretty good so we proceeded to have a conversation in half German and half English. We told them we were on our honeymoon and headed to Rothenburg. Hans said they had honeymooned their years ago and that we would love it. Margaret was commenting on our hair color and eye color and saying how beautiful she thought Heidi was. When I looked over I could see tears welling up in her eyes which made me almost tear up. It was a very warm nice conversation and of course Heidi loved it.

We can't wait to come back here to walk the Lichtentaler Allee, see the Casino, and go the the Friedrichsbad.

I'm running out of time waiting for the train so until then...

Tschuss!

Train Ride

2007-09-15T02:54:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a long day. We rode from Vienna to Baden-Baden. 11 Hours door-to-door but went from the far side of Austria to the opposite side of Germany. The trains are super fast though going close to 200km/hour. We made fast time and it wasn't like US trains. We sat comfortably and drank beer and ate food.

Baden-Baden is an old small town with cobblestone streets and old buildings. Once we arrived around 8pm we showered then went out for dinner and strolled through the pedestrian only streets.

The Internet has been elusive here. I had to pay 8 Euro just to use 1 hour of WiFi here at the Hotel am Makt. I have many pictures and would love to intersperse them through my posts but don't have the time nor bandwidth.

Today we have plans to spend a few hours in a Roman bath. It should be interesting.

Tomorrow we head to Rothenburg for a few days.

Spater.

Vienna: Day 2

2007-09-15T02:11:00.001-07:00

Up at a decent hour today for breakfast of meat, cheese, bread and various jams. There was a little bit of sliced fruit. Apples and grapes. One does wonder how Austrians get their daily servings of fruit and vegetables though with such a heavy meat and cheese diet.

Today was a long tour of the Hapsburg residence. In particular the Hofburg Palace and the Imperial Apartments (Kaiserappartements). They had audioguides in English which was nice. Although the Rick Steves guidebook made it seem like you could do this museum plus another 2 or 3, we were tired after 3 hours of walking and listening. I guess our idea of a vacation includes alot of relaxation time. Not that it wasn't cool checking out all the royal silver and porcelain collections (and that means collection after numerous collection - seems like one for everyday of the year for umpteen years). We also got to learn all about the Empress Sisi and toured all the Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Sisi rooms. One for the Large Salon, another for the Small Salon, and so on... These were certainly "wish-I-were-God" royal rooms. Throughout the tour we were not allowed to take photo or I'd have snapped a few inside.

After the tour, we had lunch at the Hofburg and relaxed for awhile taking in the sun. It's been cool here, no shorts and a jacket at night (50-60s), but when the suns shines down it feels good. Either we were tired or a little jet lagged still so we headed back to the hotel for a nap and to rest up for the evening.

We got all dressed up that night and headed out to see a Classical music concert in and old old room. It was great. The acoustics were really good and the players were great as well, although I'm sure listening to it in Vienna added to the ambience of the evening.

Afterwards we had dinner at a Beisl. These unique Vienesse taverns are all over. I originally thought they were part of some chain ala-Starbucks but not so. I must also add that it's nice to have to ask for the bill and not be bothered every second to know if you want more food or drink or are ready to leave.

We wrapped up the evening with dessert at Sacher which is supposed to be the place to have Vienna dessert called the Sacher tort. Not bad. Wierd to hear techno in the place. Reminded me of a martini bar.

We also spent some time trying to figure out where to go next. We only booked 2 nights in Vienna (or Wien as it's called here) so we needed to figure out where to go next. We checked into staying an additional night but our hotel has no rooms, at least not one with a bathroom. Also, we have noticed the terrible smell coming from our bathroom. The shredder toilett, while environmentally friendly and European, may be a little lacking in American standards.

Gruss Got and Gudent Abend!

Vienna: Day 1 (Long day)

2007-09-15T02:09:00.001-07:00

Long day. Ride and shine, Portland Standard Time at 4:30 am. 4 hours to ORD. 2.5 hours wait. 8 hours to Vienna. Add in the extra 9 hours and you lose a whole day. Leave Tue morning from the Pacific coast and arrive Wed morning in Vienna.

Flight from ORD to VIE was surprisingly good. I got a kick out of the flight attendants red uniforms. Of course, a majority were blondes with strong Austrian accents.

The food was also surprisingly good. We were happily presented with a menu. With two separate times to be served.

We used real silverware on real plates. Gotta love the recycling impact.

Cool movie, music, games were available in each headrest. Saw Shrek 3 and Spiderman 3.

Once we landed it was time a little struggle to get out of the airport. Luckily most signs are in both German and English. We waited forever to get the 3 day pass for the transit system here in Vienna and then got confused trying to figure out if we should take the express CAT train, the bus, the S-Bahn or U-Bahn. We did meet a couple interesting English speakers. A woman from Chicago who was on some kind of spiritual journey through Czech Republic and another from England. Once we found and boarded the correct train we couldn't help but notice all the graffiti. In fact, it wasn't until later that evening that I really found the vibe of this town.

We were also struggling with out choice of travel bags a little. We decided to use the Rick Steves bags. They have no rollers and are meant to be used like a backpack. Well I could see Heidi was struggling and I felt bad. Once we were on the cobblestones in Vienna I can see the point where rollers might be no good but they sure would have been handy in the airports.

We did get a cool room. It's in the old old old part of Vienna. The one that used to be surrounded by castle walls. So you know it's old. I felt like I was in an episode of the Bourne Identity.

Then we went strolling around around. The architecture is very cool. Lots of statues and ornamental things on buildings. The roads are non-symmetrical, narrow and a mixture of pavement and cobblestone - including the bike lanes!

We just wandered and ran across some interesting stuff.

After walking abit we got hungry. We happened across this place called Trzesniewski. THis is a Vienna specialty; finger sandwiches. You basically walk up and pick out what appears to be a single slice of bread covered in a spread of different kinds. Cheap. Fast. And damn good! Check out the little sandwiches and small 1/4 liter of beer served in a little mug!

We then walked some more and found our way to this large old church called St. Stephens.

We noted it was interesting the woman begging with their children right at the entrance and exit from the church.

Then our jet lag started to catch up. We headed back to the hotel at 2pm and crashed for 4 hours, showered, and headed back out for dinner and some drinks.

We were recommended the Ofenloch and ran into this nice couple. We were actually seated next to them in the same booth you see below. Very friendly and helped us with a couple sights to see. Their English was bad but that gave me plenty of practice with my German.

After that we headed over to Brezel-Gwolb for some after dinner relaxing. Had this cool beer called the Raudel? which was beer mixed with fruit juice. Heidi had the local Vienna white wine. The interior was old and built upon Roman ruins.

After that is back to the hotel to sleep. What a long day. Just after midnight here and it's only 3pm back home.

Auf Wiedersehen.

End of the Beach Weekend

2007-09-11T05:22:00.001-07:00

Hope you had a great time at the beach. We did. Couldn't ask for better weather. We had the whole house to ourselves on Sunday night.

It took my all of last night to upload the photo's of the weekend and we are heading out the door now to catch the bus to catch the train to the airport and off to Vienna, Austria. See ya soon!

Later.

Vacation: Day 6, Thursday Sep 6

2007-09-07T00:22:00.005-07:00

Mt. Saint Helens. Wow. Another long day in car.

More later.

Heard an owl hooting tonight outside the house... way cool.

Later.

Vacation: Day 5, Wednesday Sep 5

2007-09-07T00:22:00.003-07:00

Tour Guide. Columbia Gorge. Multanomah Falls. Hood River. Mt. Hood. Timberline. 10 hours - 250+ miles. Tiring day.

Update to come.

Later.

Vacation: Day 4, Tuesday Sep 4

2007-09-07T00:22:00.001-07:00

Out the door at 10 to get to Husum, WA. Location of the Riverdrifters White Salmon River run meeting location. Class 3 and 4 rapids.

Whitewater rafting. Dinner with father after he arrives in town.

Update placeholder.

Later.

Vacation: Day 3, Monday Sep 3

2007-09-06T23:53:00.001-07:00

Hangover recovery day. Wake up easy. Yogurt and granola fuels a bicycle ride. I take Ray on a tour of Portland for 20 miles which included the Esplanade and Terwilliger. The final test was a ride up the steep grade outside my house which he did quite well.

Ryan enjoyed an afternoon nap.

Afterwards we introduced New Seasons and local organic food. Followed by a picnic at the top of Council Crest.

Later that evening we grilled out and went to bed early so we could hit the rapids refreshed the next day.

Later.

Vacation: Day 2, Sunday Sep 2

2007-09-06T23:44:00.001-07:00

Ray and Ryan flew into PDX at 11:00 am. Went solo since Heidi was running a little behind and was tired from the previous day. Hopped on the 9:45 bus to downtown, grabbed the Max train to the airport. Flight was early by 20 minutes but that was fine since I got there in plenty of time. From there we got the rental car and I drove them back to our house, taking the Fremont bridge so they could get a good view of the city, hills, and other bridges. We dropped off their bags and had a beer on the back deck.

From there we headed downtown to get some lunch. First stop, Rogue brewery in the Pearl. Had the Kobe Beef hotdog that the Willamette Week was bragging about. Didn't think it was anything special; neither did Ryan. We hung out at Rogue for a few hours just enjoying the afternoon sun and good beer. One memorable beer was the Snakebite, a combo of cider and Dead Guy Ale.

Next stop was OBA for happy hour. The hostess however was weird. We needed to wait for a table outside so she asked us for our phone number (strange thing #1). She told us 15 minutes so we grabbed a seat at the bar. We get a call two minutes later (strange thing #2) before we even order drinks from a phone number with an area code of 232 (strange thing #3). Then when we go outside to grab the table she tells us someone sat down walking by without waiting in line. How about kicking them out of the table? (strange thing #4) We gave up and went elsewhere.

Right down from OBA is Manzana where we easily grabbed at table outside and stayed for a drink.

After Manzana came Henry's. Ray was looking forward to Celis White. On tap. Along with 100+ other beers. Ryan seemed to appreciate the ice trough along the bar and became a Hefeweizen fan by the end of the day. They both dug the Halibut Fish & Chips, which I sill consider to be the best in town.

It was getting dark by now and we had quite a few beers in us. We started heading towards Old Towne and got distracted along the way. First by the gay bar party scene happening in front of the bar with all the red lights (? name). They had the road blocked off and were chargin $5 cover. We could see two guys in their underwear dancing together without going in. They got a kick out of the Portland gay scene regardless. Another distraction, Sparticus. Rabbit ears. Gun oil. Too funny.

Distracted again into a bike bar. We each took turns posing on the bike we weren't supposed to when the waitress wasn't looking. Two bands played. War Wagon was the first which didn't turn out too bad. The following bad sucked bad... From there, Heidi and Ryan lost wind. Ryan falling asleep at the table and Heidi was tired as well so they grabbed a cab and Ray and I left for Voodoo donut.... which I couldn't seem to find in my condition and so we ended up at Thirsty Lion Pub where we enjoyed the weird albeit much appreciated requirement that Oregon bars have food when they sell liquor; all the way to closing time. The home-fried chips (way good) and chicken strips were a life saver. We had to wait 20 minutes before we caught the last running bus home so we decided to check out the strip club across the street... the worst I've ever been to so we decided my Dad owed us $10 ($5 ea in cover) because we saved him the trouble.

When we got back, Ryan was fast asleep. Long day.

Later

Vacation: Day 1, Saturday Sep 1

2007-09-05T18:40:00.001-07:00

Errands. Dishes, bank, website, haircut, phone calls, laundry. With friends and family arriving all week, I needed to get this stuff done. Heidi had to go to Eugene for the day because her good friends' father passed away and the memorial service was that day. This left me with ample time to do all the above and some extra time to do a few rewards. Treated myself to a all beef hotdog picked up from Edelweiss and some baked goods (carrot cake and chocolate crackle cookies) from the local bakery.

Tried to take it easy because I figured the next day was going to be a big one with my two friends Ray and Ryan flying in and I haven't seen them in 1 1/2 years.

Later

Vacation: Day 0, Friday Aug 31

2007-09-02T08:03:00.001-07:00

Day 0 because it's not really a true vacation day. Had to work until 1PM. It still counts because the excitement is there at the start of an entire month of doing what you would do if you didn't have to work.

Great day for a round trip bike commute to work. The 2 1/2 hour, 40 mile round trip is becomes more enjoyable when it's paired with a 5 hour work day and sunshine. Sometimes I need to pinch myself that views like this are available most everyday. Mount Hood pokes through the clouds and overlooks houses on the Columbia river channel.

After a shower it's still early afternoon. Heidi gets off work early too because of the Labor Day weekend and she's got a great boss. After a few beers enjoyed on the back deck we decide it's time to try Apizza Scholls, a small family run pizza joint. We'd heard it was good but what we experienced blew us away. Great beers and awesome pizza. They take special care to make the dough each day and cook it in special ovens over 600 degrees. That ended up with a perfectly crispy pizza. They didn't open until 5PM and this was the line to get into the place at quarter to.

We spent a good 2 hours there and decided to end the day by relaxing at home. The day certainly seemed longer with the shortened work day. I could get used to this...

Later

Beach Weekend: Directions

2007-08-31T15:52:00.001-07:00

Here's the address to the houses for the beach weekend:

851 Happy Camp Rd, Netarts, OR 97143

Here's directions directly from the Portland Airport.

Here's a direct link to the beach house on google maps. From there you can click on the 'To Here' link and get directions door to door from your location.

And for the ultra-lazy, here's and embedded map:

View Larger Map

Later

Weekend Cocktails

2007-08-30T06:56:00.001-07:00

Here's what we got cooking:

Case (11 we drank 1!) of Barbera from Remy Wines (pronounced like Hanna-Barbera)
1/2 Case (6) of Sangiovese from Remy Wines
1/2 Case of Pinot Noir (Oregon grape!)
1/2 Case of Pinot Gris
2 Cases of Prosecco (better than Champagne) for toasts, Mimosa's and Belini's!
1 keg of Widmer Hefeweizen

That's it! You'll notice there's no hard liquor. So if you are a mixed drink, hard alcohol junkie, feel free to bring you own bottle. I'm also not sure what we're doing yet for soda's - so make sure you bring your mixer. I know my friends and I will be purchasing some bottles of all sorts of local brew for sampling so you won't be alone. The above is just some stuff we love and wanted to make sure our friends and family could taste!

We had to try the Barbera from Remy Wine last night. This was our favorite from the wine tour we went on during Memorial Day Weekend.

Heidi calls it a 'big red'. My Neanderthal, beer drinking self just calls it real real good. It's like no other red wine I've tasted and it's damn good!

I think that's a picture of her on the wine bottle? She's a private wine maker that makes small batches. She also uses a glass cork. Better for the environment, not only available from Portugal (current cork bark), etc. And that's what Oregonians like.

Later!

What did I do this weekend?

2007-08-12T23:46:00.001-07:00

Another weekend passes. Strange how you have all these plans to get things done and end up asking yourself on Sunday night, "What did I do this weekend?".

Friday Heidi and I got our marriage license. Afterwards we stopped at Lucky Lab. Good brew. Cheap and moderately good eats. Drinking beer and eating food on the dog friendly back patio of the old sheetmetal warehouse was cozy. Afterwards as Heidi met up with her friend Cassandra, I drove back to into work thinking I might be able to help finalize the release. Guess it was easier to help by phone. Just missing the announcement by 1/2 hour and no one there I drank a beer in an empty, partially sunlit office and then left.

Saturday brought meal planning and a trip to New Seasons. Hopefully we can stick with the plan. After a nap, it was mow the lawn, increase the size of the fire pit, and finish setting up the new WRT350N router. Interesting to see how the remote attached storage, FTP, and media streaming works out. It states, "And you can get to your files from anywhere in the world through the Internet", but I think that just means access via FTP. After dinner by the fire I saw an awesome streak of a meteor, from the Perseid meteor shower, including a vapor trail across the night sky. Weird that being only 5 minutes from downtown and you can still see stars. Best viewing is supposed to be tonight.

Today we were up early for the Bridge Pedal. It still amazes me that this city closes down expressways for bicycles; 20,000 of them. Both the 405 and I-5 bridges close so that we can ride over them. We did the 24 mile, 8 bridge. I'm hoping to do the 10 bridge next year. Perhaps on a tandem. Heidi did well without much training; riding downtown this time (finally!) and almost making it back home. She had to stop on the climb up Terwilliger whilst I quickly pedaled home to get the truck and come back and get her. Not bad though for 30 miles and probably around 2000 feet of climbing for someone who never rides.

After the bridge pedal we hung around the Bite of Oregon for a couple of hours. Picked up a couple of CD from two good bands and sipped down a couple beers.

So the question is, is it going to be a keg of Hefeweizen or Okto for the Beach Weekend?

Later.

Beach Weekend Food

2007-08-07T23:04:00.001-07:00

We figure we'll be feeding about 25ish people Fri night, Sat morning. Around 60ish people during the afternoon/evening on Sat. And 25ish Sun morning.

Friday Night

With people coming at various times we figured we just pickup some ready to bake pizza's to toss in the oven. Might be nice to pickup some dough/sauce/toppings for homemade ones as an option.

Saturday Morning Breakfast

You'll have options. Option A: Yogurt, granola, fresh fruit. Option B: French Toast made with cinnamon swirl bread, bacon, and champagne and OJ for mimosa's. All ingredients organic and picked up from New Seasons our favorite local organic grocery store.

Saturday Afternoon/Evening

I wanted to do a pig roast but apparently they only know how to do them Hawaiian style out here. While that would be cool, I doubt the property owners would want us digging a large pit Fri night to cook a pig in.

However we did run across a great guy who moved here from Texas named Charles. We spotted him a few Saturdays in a parking lot where he had a Texas style BBQ setup. We stopped and had some beef brisket, corn on the cob and started talking. He does catering on weekends and if he's not doing that then he sets up in the parking lot for folks to drive by, stop in and order. He has a normal job during the week and does this on weekends.

So Saturday, Charles, will be cooking us up some great BBQ.

3 meats:

BBQ Chicken
Pull Pork Sandwiches
Brisket

Sides

Smoked corn on the cob
Potato salad
Cole slaw
Texas beans
Corn bread

Dessert

Heidi's friend Lisa just opened a cupcake bakery in the trendy downtown area of Portland, the Pearl District, called Cupcake Jones. She'll be baking us 60 jumbo filled and 100 mini cupcakes. A whole variety, heavy on the downtown chocolate brown and carrot cake.

Sunday Morning

Most folks will be leaving this morning to head home. We figured there would be enough leftovers from Sat breakfast, cold pizza, and BBQ to have a breakfast at the houses. Either that or we could head into town.

Sunday Night & Mon Morning

More leftovers and fend for yourself. There will be only one house and I'm not sure who's staying Sunday night except me and Heidi! But you're more than welcome if you don't have to be to work on Monday.

Drinks

We will be picking up a case of Sparkling Wine and a case of Oregon Wine (maybe two or a mixture of red and white - although Pinot Noir is the big thing here). For beer, I'm thinking of getting a keg. Of what I'm not sure yet. Something from around here. The short list right now is something from Raccoon Lodge Blonde Bock or Seasonal, Widmer Hefeweizen, and Deschutes Brewery (Bend, OR) Black Butte Porter or Seasonal. Although a keg only serves 200 beers, which I don't think will cover everyone. Not to mention the small party which will no doubt occur on Friday night. For that we'll have to BYOB and fill the rest out with bottles or your own personal favorite.

What else?

That should cover it. Of course, if you see something we are missing, feel free to bring it. You may also have snacks or whatever you want to bring. The kitchen is fully stocked with pots, pans, silverware, cooking utensils, etc. So bring what you like and we'll figure it out.

Later.

Oregon Beach Reconnaissance

2007-08-02T13:33:00.001-07:00

Part 1 - Eugene, Florence & Yachats
Part 2 - Netarts
Part 3 - Drive Home

Part 1 - Eugene, Florence & Yachats

After a Friday night at the 20th Oregon Brewfest we got a late start getting to the beach on Saturday. We've been wanting to do some recon on the houses we're renting for the party in September. Another excuse to go was that Zach (Coin of the Realm) was playing at the Drift Inn again Saturday night in Yachats. We didn't get to the beach until 4 PM; a 2 hour drive to Eugene where we stopped and had lunch with Olivia, then a 1 hour drive from Eugene to Florence.

Florence has some great sand dunes. Need to check this out someday. They've got ATV and dune buggy rentals or you can even try sand boarding. After we checked into the B&B, we opted for walking over 1 large dune and laying on the beach which was surprisingly warm. Make that hot (seemed alot hotter than 74).

After that we headed to Drift Inn for some music and food. Ate way too much again here... again. Can't go wrong with the Marionberry cobbler al a mode.

We gorged again in the morning with the 5 course breakfast. Edwin K B&B. Great food. Decor a little girlyish (example: note the teddy bear below). Great storytelling from Marv. Interesting bathroom with no door. Nice showerhead and whirlpool.

Part 2 - Netarts

The drive from Florence to Netarts is mostly highway 101. This is a national scenic route and I can't stop saying enough about how great the coast drive is. It gets even better when you drive off 101 and head towards Netarts.

We came across a deer in the middle of the road in Netarts Bay.

The 3 houses are right next to each other and right up on the beach. Here's the view of the houses from the beach.

Looks like there's going to be plenty of parking and the houses themselves are actually on pylons.

The houses are right at the mouth of Netarts Bay. Here's a look west to the Pacific Ocean.

And a little 360 degree video (the wind was strong that day)

A small 1/4 mile walk up the beach you can see Three Arch Rocks.

People were flying kites...

And boogie boarding

We came across multiple fire pits along the beach and I've yet to do this so I'm looking forward to a nice beach bonfire that weekend. You'll also find a stream coming straight out of the side of the mountain and onto the beach.

I think we're going to have a good time that weekend.

Part 3 - Netarts to Portland

On our way home to Portland. The final leg of this journey, we stopped in Tillamook and picked up some smoked salmon and beef jerky at Debbie D's. You can stop here as well (or during the weekend since Tillamook is only 8 mi / 14 min away).

Later.

Independence Day

2007-07-05T00:44:00.001-07:00

Get up late. 11am. Out the door and on the Eastbank Esplanade at 1pm. 2nd ride this year for Heidi. 10 miles. 1 hour. Hot day. Home, shower, eat, relax, and then on the bus to the Blues Fest by 4:30pm. Good music. Ok food. Bad beer. Miller only (why?). Stay for fireworks. Not bad. Wait over 1 hour for bus to get home. The #54 passes our stop because it's crammed full. We make it on the #56. It has to pass up 2 stops full of people because we were the last ones allowed on. Full. What's up with that Trimet? Heidi promises next year we'll ride bikes down. While we wait get to meet some interesting people. Guy born in Iran, made into Iraqi citizen but says he's from Israel. (is he clear on this?) Watch a vocal shouting match ensue between 2 American Indian girls, talking and looking like there from the South side of Chicaho, and a handicap woman over her complaint of their smoking - a Portland man comes to her defense - kinda. He would like them to stop with the foul language in front of his daughter. A drunk nineteen year old girl holds up a 12 inch American flag to cars passing by. Eventually she and her 2 friends grow tired of waiting and call friends for a pickup. As I sit and contemplate how it sucked to wait for the bus (I could've drove, should've rode my bike etc...), I realize that the best parts of life are happening here in front of me. Meeting new people and experiencing life.

We look down on the blues fest from the Hawthorne bridge.

Boats in the Willamette River in front of the festival.

It wouldn't be Portland if there wasn't some political statement to make.

Always a Starbucks in sight - even on a hot day and look at the line!

Yoga? At a Blues Festival?

This guy rocked. Sean Carney Band.

Getting crowded on the other side of the festival.

What a great harmonica player. Mike Tracy. Kept calling himself a nobody from Eugene. Very impressive. How about the pants on the guitarist?

Tugboat moves the fireworks barge into place on the river.

Not sure what they raised the bridge for. It is cool to see it happen though.

Fireworks!

Happy 4th. Later.

Weekend Update 2007.06.30

2007-07-02T06:56:00.001-07:00

Relaxing. Time spent with our hobby - food and drink. Red wine, pasta, Italian sausage on the grill, crunchy garlic Romano bread in the toaster over. In bed by 10pm. Up at 5am, can't sleep. Cinnamon swirl french toast and bacon. Nap at noon for 2 1/2 hours to recover. Do dishes, mow lawn, dig a fire pit, and make run to grocery store. Saturday night its homemade Sangria, went overboard and cooked up some nice tenderloin on Friday on the grill. Does it truly cost $22.95/lb or is that because we bought it at New Seasons? Wrapped in bacon with corn on the cob, grilled vegetables and some hashbrowns. Have our first backyard fire. Sunday. Read the paper, spiced chai and leftover cinnamon swirl bread toast. Make run to Heidi's boss' mothers' house to pickup firewood. Unload firewood. Margarita's, taco bowl, chips, salsa - the roses grow naturally around here...

Florence Rhody Days

2007-05-28T14:27:00.001-07:00

So last weekend (May 19th) we attended the 100th Annual Rhody Days in Florence, Oregon (3 hours SW of Portland). Florence is a small town on the coast of Oregon straight West from Eugene. "Rhody" stands for Rhododendron which grows naturally and abundantly here in Oregon. Why they are celebrating the plant I have no idea. It really just becomes an excuse to have a party and a chance to show off your motorcycle. Bikes of all kinds lined the streets. Mostly Harley-Davidson bikes of course. It was cool to see all the Harley riders. Unlike Milwaukee, I don't see as many out here, and made me miss working there.

They also had a parade, which didn't involve floats or marching bands but old cars parading down main street. There were alot of great looking cars. I even saw Ray's old car. One guy gave it some gas down the street, we could only hear the engine rev (not sure if he left skids marks or just revved it) anyway when he got to us this cop motioned him over and gave him a ticket. The crowd "boo'd" him pretty loudly. Note the 'SMOKING' license plate.

Of course the highlight of the parade and the logging truck.

I'm surprised there wasn't a tree hugger strapped to the log somewhere...

We were down in Eugene visiting Heidi's parents that Saturday. Found a great chocolate shake (love 'em) place on the way to the coast. Going to have to bring the bike next time and try out some of the trails around Eugene. Looks like mostly paved trails but they do have a mountain bike club to check out as well. Also need to check out more of the breweries down here.

Later.

Wedding Invitations

2007-05-18T07:13:00.001-07:00

Well all the wedding invitations should be on their way. The paper ones anyway. There are many people I didn't have addresses for, only emails. I'd still like to invite people to come via email as well if that isn't considered too lame...

We sent out just around 60 total invites. Built the invitations ourselves. Heidi ordered 60-odd photos from the picture I took the weekend we were in Newport. She then bought magnet sheets and stuck the pictures to them. I did my (very minor) part and cut them down to size.

Once the magnets were done we had all the supplies to create an invitation. Magnet, paper invitation, string to wrap the invite in, stamps, return address labels, and return rsvp via a postcard of Oregon.

All the ideas, work, and prep goes to Heidi. If it was up to me I would've just emailed everyone. I helped cut magnets and stuck stamps and return address labels on the envelopes but that was it (and probably gave unwanted advice). It turned out great I thought though and all the credit is hers.

Later.

Celebration information

2007-04-29T16:22:00.001-07:00

Rather than just put information here that may get stale, we thought it might be a better idea to put up a website with information on the upcoming wedding celebration in September.

It can be accessed from both http://www.ricknheidi.com/ or http://www.rickglos.com/wedding/.

Later.

Weekend in Newport

2007-04-02T22:32:00.001-07:00

We spent this past weekend in Newport, OR. A few months back Heidi mentioned that it would be cool to go to the beach and do some whale watching. Never seen a live whale before. The great lakes don't have fish that large.

Luckily I had Friday off work because new office furniture was being installed. Drove down Friday afternoon. Note that government hybrid car - very crunchy granola.

Love to stay at Bed & Breakfast instead of hotels. The Newport Belle B&B is a riverboat. It never leaves the dock but it's still cool to have spent 2 nights sleeping, technically, on the ocean. It's amazing how high the boats rise and fall each day, twice a day, because of the high and low tide.

It was a pretty simple room. Queen bed and a private bath with a shower.

We had read before hand that Zach and the band, formally known as the Pieces of Eight, were playing at the Drift Inn. We saw these guys back in November when we came to the beach for my birthday. They are just as good and even better with the bass player on hand this time. Drift Inn food, Fish & Chips, was just as good as before. They also have great desserts. Marrionberry cobbler. To die for. At the end of their show I talked to Zach abit; new CD in July, changing their name to '? of the Realm', and they do play private parties. Perhaps they might be willing to play at this gig on the coast in September where two people are going to have a celebration party ... to celebrate a non-wedding wedding. [For those reading into this, yes, we have 3 beach houses rented right next to each other - weekend after Labor Day (weekend of Sept 8th, 2007) - book your flights - stay the week]

The next day we had a nice home cooked breakfast and headed out to Depoe Bay to try and catch some whales. It was overcast and raining. Visibility not so good. According to the guy at the whale watch center we could only see about 1/2 mile out (you can 12-13 miles out on a clear day). So may hope was trashed. We watched a video on how to spot The Blow, when they come up for air, it looks like your breath on a cold day - the vapor hangs in the air for abit, even if it's windy. I got bored watching and went to the top of the center to read some on the history of the town Depoe Bay.

Then I watched some amazing ship navigation as they to entered the Bay. Full throttle to prevent being washed up against rocks. I guess it's world's smallest harbor.

Suddenly I overheard someone saying they saw The Blow. I rushed over and sure enough. I saw a few different whales doing The Blow. Then to top it off I saw The Dive. Basically the tail of the whale just before it dives down for food. Heidi missed it but luckily we got to see another a few minutes later. Very cool. So next year I want to see these guys up close. Time for a boat ride.

Afterwards we headed back into Newport for some tourist walking around on the docks.

I guess these guys, sea lions, like to lay around all day. They're protected species so no one can do anything about it. And there's plenty of free food in a fishing harbor. You can also see them above on the rocks if you look hard enough. I missed em the first time I looked until I heard em barking. Yep. Sounds like dogs.

Stopped and had some mead (pretty good actually) and bought some local micro brews.

After a rainy morning, the sun came out for the rest of the afternoon and it turned into a beautiful day. This little place called The Coffee House serves a great spiced chai and awesome crunchy granola (organic, etc) breakfasts'.

We went out to the Yaquina lighthouse.

And then walked down off the cliff to the waters edge to check out the tidepools. Very cool. I saw starfish (sea star as it's now called - it's not a fish! - whatever), sea urchins, sea anemones, and all sorts of other stuff I have no idea what it was... where were the bluegill, crappy, walleye, crayfish and northern?

That kind of exploration and adventure generates some thirst. So we parked the car at the B&B and walked over to the Rogue brewery. On the way there, we saw their new distillery and decided to stop in since it had a nice view facing the harbor. We had fun chatting up the bartender (an old surfer from Hawaii) and a fisherman (who spends months at sea on huge 250ft+ ships in the Bering Sea - off Alaska).

Hungry we finally stopped at Local Ocean for some fresh Roasted Garlic & Dungeness Crab soup, Mako Shark taco's and some Rogue ale. Then zonked out back at the B&B.

Sunday was beautiful again. After breakfast and another spiced chai tea at The Coffee House, we were going to head to the Aquarium. However, since I had to be back at the office in the afternoon to finish up the move, and we only had a couple hours we decided to walk up and down the beach instead. So here comes a few gushy romantic shots.

You can make fun of me in person in September when you come out here.

Later.

Weekend - Mar 23rd - 25th

2007-03-26T20:54:00.001-07:00

It’s Moroccan food. I sort remember coming here back in 1997 with Ray when we visited Portland. You don’t sit in chairs. You sit on padded pillows basically around a table (called traditional seating) and eat with your fingers, there is no silverware. It’s a 5 course dinner and all you have to choose is the main course. We got something ‘Chicken Lemon and Olives’ and ‘Couscous Marrakesh’, which was lamb over semolina grains and vegetables. All the food was excellent and the price reasonable as well ($17.50 ea) for all that food.

They also have a belly dancer that comes out to entertain you. She was better than the dancer we saw a few weeks back at Alexis. She even got the crowd into it, inviting individual women to get up and dance with her. The first girl did well, then she moved towards us and Heidi became the 2^nd girl. Heidi has some good moves; she said she’s taken a couple belly dancing lessons. Time for a private show.

Saturday I went a saw the movie 300. I almost walked out in the first 30 minutes because it seemed so corny. The last 1hr+ made up for it though. Once I got passed the fact that it was based on a comic book.

Sunday I rode my first XC MTB race of the season. Horning’s Hustle. I’ll save that for the next post.

Later.

Getting my gaming geek on…

2007-03-24T07:35:00.001-07:00

Lately I've been immersed in Vanguard, a massively multiplayer on-line role playing game, MMORPG, for my non-gaming readers. The difficulty level is a lot like Everquest and yet it has some of the nice questing and UI customization of World of Warcraft. I play a Necro (currently level 29) on the Gulgrethor server if you are interested at all.

One of the things I enjoy most about it is using the Voice over IP program Ventrilo. Right before joining the game, simply log into a central Ventrilo server with the rest of your friends and you can communicate as if you were in person. That's how I talk with my Dad. Some guys go fishing or hunting with their Dads. Some don't bond with their Dad at all. I game with my Dad. And it's a good way to keep in touch with back home, which I do miss from time to time.

The other interesting thing is the kind of people you get to meet. Since we've been gaming for a long time together, we've built up a swath of friends over the years, and you get to talk with them over Ventrilo – from all over the world. In these games your friends form these distinct groups called guilds. Then usually members of the same guild group together while they game. No different from say your bicycling friends that may form a team and/or go ride together. Some of the folks I've known for a few years now are from Norway and Australia. Or guys that I meet at work and become long term friends with and help you get jobs at companies they work at like Harley-Davidson (Hi Kevin!).

It can seem like a small world sometimes.

My Dad has asked me to fly out and spend some time with him at Gen Con, an annual mecca for gaming nerds. It is being held August 16-19, 2007. I'm not sure if I can swing that since I'll be taking off most of the month of September.

One of the podcasts I was listening to from Scott Hanselman is about Board Gaming for Programmers. Not Sorry! or monopoly. As he explains during the show, those games are American style games where the object is to eliminate your opponents and other players are left twiddling their thumbs while the last two duke it out. Not so in these type of games and I guess the resurgence has come from Germany. One of the guys Scott interviews is his CTO and boss, Chris Brooks. Who I guess is part owner of a board game company and also helps run a site called BoardGameGeek.com.

Then yesterday, Heidi sends me an email about this local event called Gamestorm 9, which is taking place right here in Portland from Mar 30^th - Apr 1^st, 21,000 square feet of geeks playing board games, miniatures, etc. And guess who's a major player in the event… boardgamegeek. I might check it out next weekend.

It is a small world sometimes and strange how you can meet people from your job world in your non-job world.

Later.

Catching up…

2007-03-18T18:02:00.001-07:00

It's been some time since I've posted. Not that I haven't meant to it's just hard to find the time sometimes.

Not an exciting weekend. The weather was great. Low 70's and sunny… er, I mean cold, rainy and overcast (don't want the locals to throw me out). Took it easy Friday. Saturday mowed the lawn, mowing the lawn in mid March!, cooked out on the grill all weekend. Did some Vanguard gaming with the old man. Finally got some time to wash my bike and install some fenders. It's built up quite abit of grime over the last few months. Especially brake dust. I'm really disliking caliper brakes. In wet weather you really have to watch it going down some of the hills around here. Numerous times I've had the rear brake not be much help stopping and had to rely on my front brakes exclusively in wet weather. Been eyeing up a new bike for commuting. Disc brakes, fenders, and some nice waterproof panniers.

Where's the rain?

Later.

Book Review: Programming Windows Workflow Foundation

2007-02-27T16:53:00.001-08:00

Programming Windows Workflow Foundation: Practical WF Techniques and Examples using XAML and C# - A-

Loved the fact that the book concentrated on examples and gave a well rounded look at what's involved with Workflow Foundation. Great job breaking down the Tracking Services, Persistence Services and how you could tie them together using the SharedConnectionWorkflowCommitWorkBatchService. The only weaknesses were that the examples were hard to follow plus with the typos it was even more difficult; I had to download the source code to follow along, and would've been nice if the book built upon the previous examples. It did … sort of but might've been nice to build an actual mini-application. Everything was basically a console app. Definitely recommend if you're going to be working with Workflows.

Rockstar Supernova Returns - so what?

2007-02-18T13:26:00.001-08:00

Over the summer I got hooked by Heidi into watching Rockstar Supernova. Storm Large who is from Portland was why. So we found out via a friend that Storm was coming to play in town at her old hang out Dante's, a local bar and venue that hosts quite a few bands. I guess back in the day, Storm used to play here every Wednesday night, even in her PJ's when she felt like it according to Heidi.

So Storm was coming to play under a secret band name called, Strokejob - tickets $15. Reason she was in town was because Supernova was playing at the Coliseum. So let's skip Supernova and check her out.

We started off with some dinner at this Greek restaurant called Alexis. I'm amazed at the differences between Greek and Italian food seeing as they are so close to one another. The food was great. Plus they had a belly dancer. What more could you ask for. Some old memories of belly dancers tell me I think I was here 9 years ago when Ray and I visited Jen but I'm not quite sure...

Dinner at Alexis (Greek)

Back across the street at Dante's the show was sold out. Glad we got tickets. Storm put on a pretty good show. Not really rock n' roll but she has a great voice. Nice tattoo's too. Unfortunately most of her songs are covers or variations of covers where she sings the lyrics to one song over the music of another. It was cool seeing Magni, Toby and Dilana from the T.V. show there is well. Heidi got a picture with Toby and the venue was soo small. Only like 100 people or so could fit in their so it was pretty cool.

Inside of Dante's (everything's in red)

The star of the show though for me was the 2nd band that opened up called Kleveland. So good I picked up their CD. Real rock n' roll. 3 people. Chick on vocals and lead guitar, and 2 guys on bass and drums. She rocked. A mix of Joan Jett and the singer from the Pretender's. Cool. I know you would've appreciated it Ray...

Later.

Bad Weather Good Weather

2007-02-18T12:45:00.001-08:00

I've been feeling a lucky that our weather has been so good. Back home and even further east the weather has been crappy. From the news I can see below 0 degree F weather. Then you see how upstate New York is getting pounded with 10 feet of snow...

Well hopefully for you guys you can pull out of this funk. It was 60 degrees here yesterday... yea yea, it says rain - sure. We had a few clouds roll by and drop some rain. In between the sunshine...

Later

Engagement

2007-02-11T15:12:00.001-08:00

Sorry it's been awhile since I posted. Just got back from Arizona. Part business, part pleasure. Heidi and I were planning a nice weekend at the Oregon coast to celebrate our having lived together for 1 year since I moved out from Milwaukee, WI. At the same time at work I got elected to go to some Visual Studio Team System Deep Dive training in Phoenix, AZ. So we thought... why not make it a long weekend in Arizona?

View off the back porch in Prescott

Unbeknownst to Heidi, I secretly have been planning to ask her to marry me and decided that would be a great weekend to do it. 1 year since making the big move and living together for a year.

Soaking up some sun...

So on Friday after we arrived, we drove up to Prescott where I was able to find a nice house to rent for the weekend. It was on a golf course but this is their off season (I'm not a golfer). I wanted a place with a fireplace, a nice hot tub, and an HDTV. Because of the time of year, everything in Phoenix was like $350+ per night and that was for just a simple hotel room. So for $200 a night we got this whole executive house with a great master bedroom and bath, a gas fireplace, HDTV, full kitchen with marble counter top and great views.

We picked up some groceries in town and I cooked up a steak and lobster with mashed taters, caramelized onions, mushrooms, and spinach (which we would later forget and leave sitting on the counter - my Mom would be tsk tsk'ing us for not having vegetables).

And right before dinner I got down on one knee and asked... she said yes!

Being a hambone after cooking a romantic dinner.

The big smile right after I asked her! See the ring?

I'm not into shopping for jewelry. Even buying the stuff I can count on one hand. There's this cool jewelry shop in downtown Portland called Maloy's that only sells vintage jewelry and diamonds. So the diamond Heidi has is from like 1920, custom cut by a tradesman (not laser cut in some mfg plant), and because its vintage its environmentally friendly.

Enjoying a relaxing bath without having your knees stick out.

Later.

2nd & 3rd Time Downhill Skiing

2007-01-16T15:28:00.001-08:00

Heidi had MLK Day off so I took a vacation day and we headed out to Bend, OR for a weekend at Mt Bachelor. A friend of Heidi's made arrangements for a group of us to stay at a town house only 15 miles from the resort. 4 couples and 1 extra guy (9 of us) stayed in a very nice 3 BR, 3 Bath, gas fireplace townhouse. 2 of the bedrooms were setup nicely with a seperate showers and jet-tubs - almost like having 2 master bedrooms. We weren't lucky enough to nab one of those. In fact, since we were the 'new' couple we ended up sleeping on the Aero mattress with sleeping bags in the loft. No complaints here though ~ it only cost $50 for the weekend!

So how was the skiing? Well on Saturday everyone wanted to sleep in. Bend is about 3-4 hours south of Portland. It's only ~180 miles but you have to go over a mountain pass to get there. You can go down through Salem, OR or over Mt Hood. I don't know what the pass near Salem is called. It makes the drive a little stressful going over a mountain pass in the winter. Not that the truck can't handle it but you don't want to make a mistake, slide on ice or packed snow, and go off the road. That could be a huge, deadly mistake depending on where that happens.

Day 1 - Saturday

Anyway, it was about 11:30 before we were up and had eaten breakfast. We split the meals up with each couple taking a turn making breakfast or dinner. A few people were going snow shoeing, which I was getting tired of. A couple others were going cross country skiing, which I really want to try but driving all this way and being so close to the mountain I felt would be a waste if we didn't go skiing.

Check out the snow - 2x the height of my truck.

View of some of the runs from the parking lot.

Mt Bachelor has no lights so we needed to be off the mountain by 4:30. This still gave us 4 hours to check things out. We headed up Saturday together to check out prices and perhaps even ski. The staff wasn't too helpful and we ended up paying an arm and a leg for a lift ticket, ski rental and 90 minute lessons. I'm still not totally sure of the damages but I think it was ~$130 ($28 rental, $50 lessons, $50 lift ticket). Pretty expense for 4 hours of skiing but ah well. How often do you get this chance?

This was our second lesson. The instructors were breaking all the students into groups based on levels (1, 2, 3, and 4). After talking with them and explaining what we did last weekend at Skibowl, they believed I was a 4 and Heidi was 2. Which meant splitting us up. Kind of a drag, but at least we would be getting applicable lessons. Luckily I was the only level 4 so I got 90 minutes of one on one lessons which would prove priceless for the skiing the next day.

View from the top of the beginner run. Broken Top mountain to the right, 3 sisters on left.

We basically went up and down the beginner slope a few times and worked on my turns. Then graduated to some blue runs and kept working on turns ~ how to point your body downhill, keep your arms up, put your weight on the right ski, etc etc.

Afterwards Heidi and I went inside for some hot chocolate and water, did a couple runs together on the begineer run, and then called it a day at 4 ish

The views were phenomenal. I kept thinking how lucky I was to see this. How many people in the this country never get a chance to see nature and terrain like this?

View of Broken Top mountain.

Day 2 - Sunday

We got up good and early on Sunday. 7 am and were at the mountain at 8 am. It was a guy only session of skiing and snowboarding. 1 of the guys got sick so it ended up being the 4 of us. 2 snowboarders and 2 skiiers. Of course, everyone was pertty experienced except me, this being my 3rd time. I was a little nervous about slowing them down.

This was the cheaper day ~ $28 rental and luckily one of the guys picked up tickets in advance at GI joes turning a normal $58 dollar lift ticket into $42.

We did about 8 runs before lunch. I fell a few times on the first run but I started getting the hang of it. I was concerned about having to ski by myself all day but, although they had to wait for me a few times, I was able to keep up with the other guys.

The lessons I had the day before paid off. Although the runs were long, my legs were more relaxed and I wasn't getting as tired at the previous weekend. They were still getting tired and I had to stop a few times to rest. It takes about 10-15 minutes to ski down one of these runs.

We headed into the lodge and lunch to watch the end of the Bears vs Seahawks. What a great game and watching the Bears win it in OT with most of the people in the lodge cheering for the Seahawks was great. I did hear one other table cheering for the Bears. One of the four guys I was with is originally from Deerfield so he was cheering for the Bears with me.

Just before we went into lunch one of the guys on a snowboard crashed on his tailbone, was hurting, and wasn't sure he could continue. The other snowboarder was getting tired and they decided to call it a day and go home.

This is where it got interesting. The other skier wanted to keep going so I decided to stay behind and we ended up skiing right to the end of the day. He wanted to go to the top of the mountain. Most of the runs start at 7,000 feet and I was a little nervous but figured this was a chance to see some great views at 9,000 feet of elevation. It was totally barren. Rocks, wind, ice and snow; we're past the treeline up here... There was a sign warning you getting on the lift that the wind was blowing 50 mph up there and the windchill was -40! It was cold at the top. But the view was awesome. I was scared as hell. I started going down just trying to concentrate on one turn at a time. It was a long way down. The runs I did earlier looked like baby runs up there. The cars were just small dots in the parking lot down below. I fell and slide a couple times but made it down. The other guy was staying near me and keeping an eye on me which I appreciated. I can't wait to try it again. What an adrenaline rush.

9,000 feet - atop Mt Bachelor looking south

About 4/5 of the way down from the summit - my hands were freezing taking these 4 shots

3 Sisters and Broken Top

After celebrating with a few beers I went to bed early totally exhausted having skied all day. Not as exhausted as a duo 12 hour mountain bike race but still exhausted. The next day we drove home looking forward to sleeping in a real bed. Looking forward to doing that again!

Later.

Snow?

2007-01-16T08:58:00.001-08:00

So I woke up this morning to snow in Portland. I figured, no big deal. Heidi asked me to drive her into work. No problem I said with a little chest puffing out... I'll show these Portlanders how to drive in snow. :)

Well the trip to Heidi's office takes about 10 minutes. So 20 minutes round trip. It took me 1 hour 15 minutes today! Not that my truck couldn't handle it but all the traffic out there.

Any little snow really brings this city to its knees. I saw 3 Metro buses, a recycling truck and a delivery truck all stuck in the same spot. Trying to go uphill. I saw multiple cars skid backwards and go sideways. Only the vehicles with 4 wheel drive are able to navigate.

Also, the big thing around here are tire chains. I did see a few cars and even a truck with chains on.

And there's no snow plows whatsoever... so all the snow just builds up. It's been snowing since 5am according to the news. When I took Heidi to work we had about 2 inches of snow and now that I'm home it looks closer to 3 and it's still snowing...

I'm not even bothering to try and get to work. I'd make it fine but traffic would take me hours upon hours to get there. I also see on the news right now that both I-5 and I-84 are completely blocked!

Time to build a snowman!

1st Time Downhill Skiing

2007-01-10T23:20:00.001-08:00

So last weekend was my first time downhill skiing out here. I think only the third time in my life skiing, so I'm definitely a beginner - but does skiing on hill in Southern Wisconsin really count as skiing?

View from my first and only run of the day down the beginner/easy lower bowl run

Mt.Hood has 3 places to choose from for downhill skiing (a fourth if you include a place called Summit, an extreme beginners area) Skibowl, Mt. Hood Meadows, and Timberline. From what I've learned, Skibowl is the reasonable priced, night skiing skiing location; Timberline is the historical locale, and Meadows is where the good skiers go because it's on the back side of Mt. Hood where the snow is less wet and has better powder.

When in SE Wisco you head to Alpine Valley. Let's compare the numbers to Skibowl - the 'cheap' ski area on Mt. Hood.

	Alpine Valley	Skibowl
Base Elevation	1,020	3,500
Summit Elevation	1,260	5,027
Vertical Drop	388	1,500
Avg. Snowfall	80"	300"
Skiable Area	90ac.	960ac.
Total Runs	20	65
Total Lifts	12	8

Shot of Alpine Valley's main run

Shot of lower bowl run at Skibowl - note how the run disappears into the clouds!

Now I'm not trying to be a snob here I'm just trying to get a sense at the immense size of this place. 960 acres and 1500 feet of vertical drop. The pictures just don't do it any justice. And I'm not even at the big guys. Meadows has 2,150 skiable acres and has a vertical drop of 2,777 feet! That's a long time to be skiing downhill.

Now I know why my legs were burning from being tense when I did my first 'real' run.

It started to get excited driving up to the mountain when I passed under the sign stating "Chains or Traction Tires Required". The mountain had gotten 12-18 inches of fresh powder in the early hours of the morning and it was just finishing up snowing. Thankfully I bought those traction tires 1 year ago before moving out here. The snow is a wet snow and packs down into ice when the vehicles drive on it. It's weird to see people pulling over to put chains on their tires. Even the semi's have to do it.

It's really beautiful...

You can't even read the road sign. Gov't Camp and Skibowl coming up.

Look at this van stuck right in the entrance to Skibowl. I just came in via the other entrance.

We got there around 11am, purchased some lessons, got our rental skis and then spent the next 1.5 hours getting taught how to turn, snow plow, and ride the tow rope.

Our ski instructor is showing us something here... The guy in the orange hat and his girlfriend are from Wisconsin... hunting clothes doesn't surprise me.

The View from the top of the bunny hill and ski rope tow...

Heidi learning how to turn.

After the class, the instructor said I was ready to go on a real ski run but that I should go with an instructor. Heidi said she wasn't ready. Well I wasn't coming all this way and spending my money to ride on bunny hills. So I headed up to the 1st lift.

To get to the top of this mountain you take two lifts. The first takes you to the center of the slope and is where the easy run is. Then you can take another lift up to the top for the hard stuff. I didn't do that of course. I was trying just to do the easy one. The ski instructor told me it'd take 1 hour to go down the run so I had no idea what to expect.

This is the second lift up to the top of the mountain.

Check out this warming hut and watering hole on top of the run!

The daunting view down to the lodge. It's steeper than it looks here!

Well it took me only 10 minutes to do the run and I only wiped out once although I did lose a ski on one of my turns but I think that was because of the rental equipment. My legs were tense the whole time and I had to stop once because they burned so bad. Don't know if that's normal or I suck.

I can't describe how cool it was. The view from up here was beautiful. I can only imagine what Mt. Hood must've looked like if the cloud cover wasn't so thick.

I'll be doing this again. But for now - I'm heading to Mt. Bachelor for a ski weekend which is another mountain about 3 1/2 - 4 hours SE of Portland. It's on the east side of the Cascade range which means the snow is more powder like.

Until then - Later.

New Years Day

2007-01-01T20:36:00.001-08:00

We went up to Mirror Lake on Mt. Hood to do some snowshoeing today. The hike was billed as an easy one. I thought otherwise. We basically had to climb about 1000 feet from 3500 to 4500 feet. Don't get me wrong though the view was worth the effort. Although I couldn't help think as we walked along the trail and switchbacks that it would make a kick ass mountain bike trail! With studded tires I think I could've had a go at it too. It took us about 2:15 round trip to do the hike.

Afterwards we hit up the Mt. Hood brewery for some food and drink. Man what a surprise. They had good beer and great food. I did the burger and vegetarian chili but next time I'm doing their pizza. All the stuff is homemade. A couple next to us ordered dessert and that looked awesome too... The traffic was a little busy coming down off the mountain because of the 3-day holiday weekend.

Check out the mountain stream, with waterfall, right next to where we parked! (the picture does it no justice)

Pretty pacific northwest girl...

The trail was basically cut into the side of the mountain.

Check out these switchbacks... memories of some 12 hour races come to my mind...

The view from the top. I ran out of batteries... There's still more climbing if you want but we finished up with a loop of Mirror Lake and a quick descent.

Good way to spend New Years Day. Hope yours was good too.

Later

New Years Eve 2006

2007-01-01T20:18:00.001-08:00

We took it easy this new years' and stayed at home since we were heading up to the mountain the next day. When I stay at home for New Years Eve I like to cook a nice dinner. We picked up some steaks and lobster tail and I got ready to work my magic in the kitchen.

I put on the chef hat and made some mashed potatoes and caramelized mushrooms to go with the grilled steak and lobster. We popped open a bottle of champagne and had ourselves a little candlite dinner.

My Dad is a New Year's day baby. So I often like to spend time with him gaming and wish him a happy birthday. We hooked up over Ventrilo for a couple of hours and did some Titan Quest after dinner.

He got offline about 10 minutes before midnight CST and so we watched some tv to celebrate the new years in my old time zone. We still had a couple of hours before the PST new years so we popped in Miracle on 34th Street (1947); what a great movie, watched the ball drop at midnight on tv and then I called Ray to wish him a happy new years too...

Hope you had a great new years!

Later.

Student Loan Finally Done

2006-12-30T09:39:00.001-08:00

Well after 10 years I can now celebrate. No more $330 per month payments for my student loan ever again!

So for morbid curiosity I was wondering... How much did my education cost me?

Sallie Mae did not make the gathering of this information easy btw. I had to copy/paste from the history, 6 months at a crack for 10 years of data, into Excel. I guess they didn't want me to know how much blood money was extracted from me for my education.

Principle	$18,900.00
Interest	$10,645.80
Total Amount Repaid	$29,545.80

That doesn't count all the expenses. Although those loans did help me pay for tuition, books and housing; I do believe those loans did not cover all the expense (although my memory is getting a little foggy in that area since it was 10 years ago). Also there was 1.5 years (of a 4 year degree - it took 4 years real time) of local community college classes paid for out of pocket that's is not in those numbers.

So was it worth $30k? Would I do it again? Yea I think so. I don't think it is fair or right but having that silly piece of paper opens doors that are unjustifiably closed sometimes if you don't have it. And salary wise, I've probably more than made up the loss.

It does seem like a lot of money though...

Later

Shutdown a remote server

2006-12-28T17:02:00.001-08:00

Often at work I need to reboot a remote server. I remember this being something that I worked on at Harley-Davidson as well. Recently, I've been logging into the machine using terminal services and then selecting Start --> Restart and entering in a reason and clicking OK. Takes about 2-3 minutes depending on fast the machine decides to respond.

There's got to be a better way to do this... and there is.

On WinXP and Windows Server 2003 there's the command line tool shutdown.exe.

From the command line (Start-->Run-->type 'cmd' and hit enter) type:

shutdown -r -m \\YourBuddiesPcName

-r = Shutdown and restart the computer

-m = Remote computer to shutdown/restart/abort

To automate it, stick it into a command file (cmd), create shortcuts on your desktop, use SlickRun, or create a PowerShell alias.

Later

Automate it...

2006-12-27T10:01:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I get shit at work because I attempt to automate things. I do it to save time and mental anguish and most importantly - to free myself up to do other things. Maybe that's reading or learning about a new technology or getting more stuff done in an 8 hour day then the guy sitting next to me because he's doing all his stuff manually and mistake prone.

My old boss, John Barry, was from South Africa. He told this joke [and I'm going to butcher it...] about a guy who would run past this woman's house everyday pushing his bike. One day the woman asks, "Why don't you get on the bike and ride it instead of pushing it?". The guy replies, "Because I don't have time to learn."

Do you go through your day, pushing buttons like a monkey because you don't have time to learn a better way of doing it? You know if you just take the extra time to do something better, faster, in a more automated way - imagine how much time you will save, and imagine how that time will accumulate for each little thing you do. Just like investing your money and compound interest.

I'm sure you do some of this already in your daily life... you use a dish washer, a garage door opener, the microwave, a washer, a dryer... all these things you use so that you can free time up to do things you want to.

There was a good post the other day by Jeffrey Snover, the Powershell Architect on this:

the next [time] you find yourself thinking about how to do something that you've done before, you should take it as an opportunity to invest a little bit and automation the activity so that you don't have to think about it again.

And that's the point. He also references this guy called Alfred Whitehead:

Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.

When I moved to Oregon, I changed how I did my finances drastically. Instead of downloading stuff into MS Money, entering in receipts, tracking everything, etc... I automated it. I ditched Money. Only use the banks' website. Bills are auto-deducted and paid. Money is auto-transferred into savings accounts, spending accounts, etc. I spend little or no thought on this anymore. Maybe 10 minutes per month... freeing up time to do other things.

Now I still enjoy boiling the water on the stove to make tea. Sure it's faster in the microwave. And it doesn't mean I want to do laundry the old fashioned way - some things, boiling water for tea, cooking at home instead of going to McDonald's, are more comforting...

Later.

XNA Game Studio

2006-12-17T21:26:00.001-08:00

I've been wanting to check out Microsoft's XNA Game Studio for awhile now so I spent a couple of hours tonight checking it out. Basically it's a hobbyist release of Visual Studio (C# Express) with a 'Framework' that sits on top of the .NET 2.0 libraries. This XNA Framework wraps the DirectX libraries with managed code and you get a bunch of classes like Game, GameTime, GameWindow, BoundingBox, blah blah blah.

It shows alot of promise. I was able to follow along the tutorial and basically make an image bounce around on the screen like a ping-pong ball. As a business app developer it's cool seeing the C# code, how little it takes, to get this to work using objects I normally don't see like Vector, Sprite, and Texture. I wonder if someday we'll get to inject some of this kind of code into business apps as the younger generation (where gaming is more... accepted as a norm) gets older and doesn't mind some of the fancier graphics in the app - where it may even enhance it.

Bottom line here is that although they have a great 'arcade' game framework - it's not yet ready for prime time.

It doesn't have any UI classes...

There's a few posts on the XNA Framework message boards from MS employees stating that they aren't releasing any in V1. Seeing how cool the WPF stuff is using XAML, it would be cool if they could incorporate the XAML/WPF stuff with this...

Anyway I'll have to keep looking/researching... My Dad and I have been talking about a creating a game for years and I even did some work a couple years back on a web based version. My biggest hurdle is how to represent a game board that can contain lots and lots of hexes (200 x 200, etc); once I figure that out...

Later.

Mt Hood Sunrise

2006-12-08T06:52:00.001-08:00

So yesterday morning on my ride to work, Mt. Hood was looking beautiful with gorgeous sunrise coming up behind her. It took a few pictures on top of the I-5 bridge heading north over the Columbia River (into Vancouver, Washington).

These pics don't do it any justice. It looks so much larger in person. It's hard to see because of the light, but you can make out the snow on the mountain already.

Northwest Christmas Tree

2006-12-04T07:25:00.001-08:00

So this is how you get a Christmas Tree in the Pacific Northwest.

You could go down to the vendors and buy your tree off a lot. Or you could go out to a Christmas tree farm and cut one yourself with a saw they give you. Or you could do what we did. You buy a $5 permit from the U.S. Forest Service and you head up into the mountains and cut down a Christmas Tree for yourself!

Here's Mt. Hood towering in the background as we head up to get our tree.

It's only a 1 hour drive from Portland to Mt. Hood. So within about 30 minutes we were gaining elevation and starting to see signs of snow. It started with ice below, when we stopped at the Ranger Station to buy the $5 permit, get a map, and buy the annual snow park pass ($15).

Basically you end up drive a forest service road up into the mountains and look for a Christmas tree. We chose a road and started driving. I had no idea what to expect. Thank god I had the 4x4. This isn't a nice plowed two way road. This is a gravel road, snowed over, full of potholes, only one lane wide, and huge drop cliff drop offs down to mountain streams... if you make a mistake here you're not just going to need a tow truck.

But wow. It was beautiful. All over the place there were mountain streams, waterfalls, just coming out of nowhere!

We were probably going like 5 miles per hour because of the snow, treacherous road, and because I kept stopping every 1/2 mile to take a picture of something. But we were making good progress. I was a little worried we would have trouble finding a tree because everything I saw at the lower elevation was so large. The higher we got the better it started to look but the more dangerous it became. We finally found a spot though. And the truck made it like a champ.

The most dangerous part was trying to turn around on that one lane fireroad. They do have little turn around's but the snow was deep and the road just had ruts in it from tire tracks. I was afraid we might get stuck. No worries though. I think the truck was loving it. And the view up here was spectacular. Mountain stream rushing by down below, sun shining, and all by yourself up here.

But we did find a tree finally. I and cut it down with a bow saw, recommended by the employee at A-Boy hardware store. I felt kind of bad doing it. But then Heidi cheered me up by saying well at least we weren't supporting the chemical spraying, gas guzzling, big tree farming companies. And like a good deer hunter, she held up the prize.

Of course after a hard day's work like that you have to settle down for some hot chocolate.

And in the Northwest that means Big Train hot chocolate (the make the BEST spiced chai) [check out the boiling milk on the campstove to the left], some Snickerdoodle cookies and the best part, gingerbread tea cake from the local bakery.

Then when you get home you can hang up your ornaments on your wild northwest Christmas tree. Fun. Can't wait until next year. Later. Oh yea. Merry Xmas.

Book Review: The Historian

2006-12-02T06:45:00.001-08:00

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - C-

The question I ask myself is how can I give this book a C- when I stayed up until almost 3 am just to finish it. On a work night no less.

I finished this book the same weekend we went to the beach. We did alot of reading that weekend and Sunday it sucked me in enough to finish it. Perhaps I was just wanting to be done. At 676 pages of fairly small print on large pages it is quite a long read.

I have two major problems with this book. One was the overuse of descriptions of places and things that had no relevance on the story. She was describing them in such detail that I found myself almost skimming over those paragraphs towards the end. I mean I was reading them but so fast sometimes not taking it all in. And after being bombarded so many times with so many details, like the color and size of some dome on some historical building, it was driving me crazy.

The other problem, and this is sort of a spoiler, was the ease at which they dispatched Dracula at the end. All that reading, a guy alive for 500+ years, and they take him out with 4 people in a small room... it was anti-climatic and it sucked.

Later

Remote Desktop Connection (Terminal Services Client 6.0) for Windows XP

2006-12-01T09:54:00.001-08:00

I'm a big fan of using RDC or TS, whichever you choose to call it. Just hit Windows + R, type 'mstsc', and there you are. Instant access to other machines as if you were sitting right in front of that machine. I use it at home to connect to the other computer without leaving mine and use it at the office to connect to our servers. I find it better than using the web-based version as well.

So if you too are a user of terminal services you might want to get the new release from MS. You can get it here.

If you have multiple monitors, it now supports spanning of multiple desktops.

So, this version

Becomes this version

Enjoy! Later.

Thanksgiving

2006-11-27T21:00:00.001-08:00

How to impress your girlfriends' parents at Thanksgiving:

You go out and drink on the back porch with the host, a big, burly, lumberjack, Santa Claus looking fellow who's house is perched in the foothills of the Cascades. Now the host, Heidi's uncle, is a whiskey drinkin' man. You're not really, but what the hell? So after a couple glasses of red wine with dinner you find yourself outside at night with the host, the father of your girlfriend, and another guy, all over 55, sipping on shots of Jim Beam, Jack Daniel's, and Seagram's VO Gold. At least that's the last thing you remember... Sure you have a foggy memory of drinking a bottle of Arrogant Bastard Ale and reading the label off the bottle to the family in the living room late that evening. And you kind of remember that once you make it back to the home of your girlfriends' parents house at midnight, you had to run outside and puke. This all comes back to you as you peel yourself off the living room floor at 5:10am in the morning, pillow and blanket in hand (which were so tenderly given to you after you passed out on the floor) and swagger over the hide-a-bed. Later that day before going out to lunch, your girlfriend and her father try to help you out by giving you a couple of Rolaids tablets to chew on and wash down with some whatever. After a statement of, "oh boy, that didn't go down good", you run out the sliding glass door for the 2nd time in the last 12 hours and fertilize the lawn a little bit more.

Yea... [in my best Lumbergh impersonation]

Anyway. So besides my drunken story that I'm hoping will generate laughter and stories down the road, I had a pretty good time at Thanksgiving this year. We drove down to Heidi's parent's place for a couple days, leaving on Thursday and coming back Saturday. Thanksgiving was actually at her relatives house in the cascades, only a dozen or so miles from the mountain bike race in Oakridge I did earlier this summer. I learned at dinner that you can't drink the water in the mountains there because it contains arsenic. So even though you can use it to do dishes or take a shower, you have to drink bottled water. I got a little, overserved, that night and paid for it the rest of the weekend. Honestly, I'd rather have pain inflicted on me than be nauseous like that. I can count on one hand the number of times I've puked in my life; and 2 of those events were from drinking hard liquor. I just thought those dry heaves all those years ago was because it was Yukon Jack and I was barely 16. I guess hard liquor and I don't agree with each other.

We went out to watch the "Civil War" game Friday afternoon between, Oregon State and Oregon. A hard fought game that Oregon State barely won and came down to the last play. I suffered through it only being able to eat french fries even though my burger was looking good. I just couldn't stomach it.

That Friday night we went out for Sushi, which is very good on the west coast here, and Eugene has a good spot called Sushi Station, with a couple of additional girls meeting up with us. Even though I love sushi, I stuck to the cooked stuff, chicken teriyaki as my main course, because I didn't think I could hold it down. I did sneak in a few tastes though.

We took it easy the rest of the weekend. I was still kind of hurtin on Sunday even... played a bunch of Battlefield 2142 with the old man over Ventrilo.

Later

B-Day Weekend

2006-11-19T14:44:00.001-08:00

What a great weekend. I took Friday off work and Heidi and I drove down during the afternoon. When we arrived at the Heceta Head Lighthouse, after a short 3 hour drive, it was raining hard. Because of the rain it was hard to appreciate the view of the ocean from the road as it S-curved all over to get there. I was hoping it wasn't going to rain all weekend but if it did, enjoy it anyway.

Our room was excellent. This is my 3rd stay in a bed & breakfast and I'm liking them over hotels. We had our own bathroom. The bed was a cool four poster bed high off the ground. It had a step stool to get into it. We stayed in Victoria's Room. It was supposed to be haunted. There was this guest log with a bunch of entries from people who saw ghosts, or just proposed marriage, or just had a great weekend. We didn't write anything in it. I will say that although I was hoping to see something ghostly I didn't. But I did have strange dreams both Friday and Saturday night which the log did mention people had.

Here's a view of the lighthouse from the lightkeepers house (the bed and breakfast). It's just a short 5 minute walk away. Like the nice white picket fence?

So after we settled in the room Friday we checked out the house and then went out for dinner in the small town of Yachats (YAH-hots) about 11 miles north of the lighthouse B&B. Chicken pot pie, a guy playing guitar, and a fireplace. Later that night it was a flashlight walk up to the lighthouse.

The next morning, and this is the best part of a B&B, you get to have a nice breakfast. This place goes way over the top and the breakfast is seven (7) courses! It takes about 1 hour 30 minutes and it's well worth it. It's also nice getting to talk to the people staying there. It feels more comfortable than the antiseptic feeling of staying in a hotel chain.

Here's the table we all ate at. Those cold disks are called 'chargers'. Which I never knew until that weekend...

Thankfully it was a nice sunny day so we drove about 1/2 mile south to the Sea Lion Caves. They were all out enjoying the day so there were none to see in the cave. We did see several out in the water though.

After that we picked up some cheese, crackers, and sausage and settled on the couch at the lighthouse and did some reading in the afternoon in front of the fireplace. This was the view out the window...

Later that evening we went back into Yachats for dinner. We found this really cool place called the Drift Inn for some fish and chips. They have live music every night. We ended up buying the CD for the 3 guys playing that night. Ukrainian music. The guy playing the violin was great. I find out later that it's a family affair. His dad plays the guitar and made, that's right, hand-made, the violin, that his son is playing. Their website isn't up yet but perhaps it'll be someday and this link, Zach Konowalchuk & the Pieces of Eight, will be active. I took a little video.

The next morning we had another great 7 course breakfast, took a little tour of the house to learn about the history and then headed home. We drove up the coast abit, which I'm always completely awed at. I guess when you grow up living in WI/IL you can't help but marvel at the waterfalls shooting out the side of mountain into the ocean. Hopefully Heidi doesn't get tired of me shouting, "Holy sh*t, look at that! Way cool."

We stopped at a state park along the way, I forget the name, to look for whales and learn about the local history. I liked the "Bear Country" sign... of course it doesn't say anything about the Cougar / Mountain Lion population. .. They think the disappearance of one of the cats at the lighthouse is due to one...

As usual more pics here. I took some movies which I'll upload as well.

Later

Endurox vs Chocolate Milk

2006-11-17T09:14:00.001-08:00

I came across this news article today. Study: Chocolate milk good for athletes. That's surprising. I know I did mention coming across something like this in a previous post. I'll paraphrase some of the article in case the link goes dead.

But a group of scientists recently discovered that one of the most effective drinks to help athletes recover after exercise is the same thing moms across America have been giving their kids for years. A simple glass of chocolate milk.

To be forthright, the study by the scientists from Indiana University was supported in part by the Dairy and Nutrition Council.

Still, their findings are compelling.
The small group of fit athletes who took part in the study were asked to work out strenuously on a stationery bicycle, then drink low-fat chocolate milk, a fluid-replacement drink like Gatorade and a carbohydrate replacement drink like Endurox R4. A few hours later, they were asked to cycle again until they reached exhaustion.
The test was repeated three times — once with each kind of drink — and the data showed that the cyclists were able to go between 49 and 54 percent longer on the second stint after drinking chocolate milk than when they drank the carbohydrate drink. The difference between the milk and the fluid-replacement drink was not significant.
"My way of explaining it is, there's really nothing magic about the powder in a can that you mix with water," cycling coach Scott Saifer said of the carbohydrate drink. "It's water, carbs, proteins, maybe minerals and electrolytes. What's in chocolate milk? The same thing. There's no reason it shouldn't be as good for recovery as a carb drink."

Butch, Ray, Ryan, and myself can all swear by Endurox. We've all used it, and we've all gone out a purchased those big plastic bins that cost anywhere from $30 - $50 bucks depending on the size. Next time after my ride, instead of reaching for the bin of Endurox I think I'm going to read into the cooler and mix myself some chocolate milk instead.

After all... don't we all want to go longer?

Later.

High Winds

2006-11-15T16:05:00.001-08:00

Great. Well hopefully I don't get blown off the I-5 bridge into the Columbia River tonight during the ride home from work. I might have to walk my bike across.

...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM PST THIS AFTERNOON...SOUTH WINDS 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS 45 TO 55 MPH ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE THIS AFTERNOON AHEAD OF AN APPROACHING COLD FRONT. WIND GUSTS TO 53 MPH HAVE BEEN RECORDED AT THE PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.

Later

Update:

Well it took me an extra 30 minutes on the ride. Winds practically made me go backwards during the ride south as they slammed into me. Once I made it downtown and into the west hills, with 5 miles to go, I finally found some shelter but those 15 miles... where I would normally be going 18-20 mph i was 8-9 mph. I was also able to ride the bridge.

I was thinking why did I do this when I had multiple offers to drive me home? Proof it could be done? Bravado? Stubborn? Mental toughness training? Beating mother nature? Maybe just stupid.

Turkey-Day Lunch

2006-11-14T13:16:00.001-08:00

We had turkey, mash potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, rolls and three different pies; marionberry, apple, and pumpkin (with Cool Whip) brought in for lunch today. Brought in from Fred Meyer (grocery store chain). We also got a nice $500 extra put in our pay envelopes today (before tax). Nice on both accounts. Now I just need to stay awake (hmm... I guess tryptophan is more a myth than reality).

Later

35th Birthday

2006-11-09T06:43:00.001-08:00

Today is my 35th birthday. Gone through quite a change from where I was living to now. While I think one can learn from history, I don't think it's good to dwell on the past. There's certainly nothing you can do about it. I'm not feeling real introspective at the moment so I'll just leave it at this. There isn't a thing I would change about my past. It's made me who I am. I think life presents you with opportunities; it's like a path with forks leading to different endings. It's about the journey not the destination. I'm certainly excited about the path I've chosen. I got a great girl and live in a cool city... and I'm going to the beach this weekend!

Later

Voting

2006-11-07T06:54:00.001-08:00

Today is Tuesday and time to vote. Oregon and Washington do things a little different. You vote only by mail. Two weeks ago we received two big pamphlets. One contained pictures and text about each candidate. The other contained a printed statement about each measure to be voted on as well as short 500 word statements either in favor or opposition to the measure. It only costs $500 to place your statement in the pamphlets and the pamphlets are fully paid for by this so it costs the state nothing to send out these voter materials. You then just mark up your selects by coloring in the circles (like a scantron test sheet) and either drop it in the mail or at a drop box.

It took me about 2 hours to go through everything last night. I have to say I find this very rewarding. In Wisco and Illinios you stand in line for hours jsut to get to a voter booth and then have no idea who some of the candidates are or what certain measures are unless you have watched a bunch of commercials or tried to do homework on the issues before hand. And good luck finding non-biased material on what you were voting on.

Check out how one person spelled out the word DUH in their Argument in Favor...

I can remember a few times where I just plain walked away because it was 7pm at night after I had gotten home from work and had dinner and now I had to go stand in sub freezing tempuratures for 3 hours in a line to vote. Let alone find a damn parking spot. Lame.

Also, there's no 'party line' voting here. In WI/IL you can just check off the 'Republican' or 'Democrat' or 'Libertarian' box right at the top and skip voting for each candidate. Not here. You have to make your choices. Another cool thing is that citizens can get measures put on the ballet by getting some number of signatures completely bypassing the legislature. Truelly government by the people and I think other states should take note.

Later

Earthquake

2006-11-06T09:17:00.001-08:00

We had a magnitude 2.6 earthquake here last night. Around 9:30 PM PST. That's what I heard on the news anyway. We were eating a late dinner and watching TV and didn't feel a thing. Earthquakes though... wow. Now that's truly not Midwest. From the Oregonian:

Small quake shakes Portland metro area

Monday, November 06, 2006
The Portland area was hit by a small earthquake at 9:34 p.m. Sunday that rattled houses throughout the city.
The magnitude 2.6 quake occurred about 10 miles beneath the earth's surface under the center of the city, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Reports came from throughout the city from residents who felt the earthquake. Some in Northeast Portland felt a marked shaking. The quake also was felt in the West and Southwest areas, as well as downtown.

Later

Happy Halloween

2006-10-31T13:04:00.001-08:00

We carved some pumpkins a week ago. The spider turned out pretty cool I think - not too hard to do when you are just following a pattern. Heidi's kitty turned out good as well.

Heidi and I went out for Halloween this past Saturday. She went as Marilyn Monroe and I went as a "Milton Waddams" from Office Space.

She did a really good job.

In a surprising turn of events. The geek gets the girl.

Later.

Oregon is Skateboarding Mecca

2006-10-23T20:28:00.001-07:00

Just got done watching a DVR'd episode of Oregon Field Guide (episode 1803). I guess Oregon is the Skateboarding mecca. People come here from Hawaii, California, and around the world to skate here. Primarily because of the concrete skate parks. It all started with a park built illegally under the Burnside Bridge. My buddy at work has mentioned he used to skate there. I guess guys carrying concrete bags built the place so they could skate even when it was raining and to this day it's still squating on the land but the city lets it be. Even towns with small populations, like Burns, Oregon with less than 2,000 people have concrete skate parks. The guys that build the parks now go all over the world to build them. The coolest part was watching guys skate down Mt. Tabor slalom style - now that looked like fun.

IE7 Released Today...

2006-10-18T18:15:00.001-07:00

If you're not using Firefox then you should be getting IE7 now...

HOWTO: Find all classes that implement an interface

2006-10-18T16:12:00.001-07:00

So I'm coding along and I run into this nice error:

SideBarList control must contain an IButtonControl with ID SideBarButton in every item template, this maybe include ItemTemplate, EditItemTemplate, SelectedItemTemplate or AlternatingItemTemplate if they exist.

Now the question is. Just how do I find all the classes that implement IButtonControl. Just from memory I know there's the LinkButton and Button. I'd forgotten about ImageButton. I tried googling, both the web and groups. Point is, there's no easy way using either Visual Studio 2005 or the MSDN Library.

Thankfully there's Lutz Roeder's Reflector to the rescue.

This handy tool will let you see all the classes (classes you have loaded into the tool) that implement the interface either directly or indirectly.

Lazy Weekend

2006-10-16T13:04:00.001-07:00

Heidi went to Sisters, OR to visit a childhood friend for the weekend and I proceeded to have a nice lazy weekend.

I caught up on my Lost episodes. 16 of em. Well if you count the 2 for this season that's 18 episodes in total. It sounds crazy (maybe it is) but it wasn't that hard. Ever drink beer and watch football all Sunday? Anyway. Kevin, if you're reading, we have some talking to do...

Heidi spent the majority of Sunday napping (I did join in for abit) so I got pretty deep into the The Historian. It was a slow start but it's getting really good now. Maybe it was more because i was reading like 2 pages at a time before passing out right before bed. What a nasty guy Vlad the Impaler was. Cool.

Later.

Best Friday Ever?

2006-10-16T12:53:00.001-07:00

So when I awoke Friday I had no idea how great the day was going to turn out. Nice cycle into work. Then in the morning my girlfriend makes reservations to go to the coast for my birthday. We're staying in this nice bed & breakfast, Heceta Head Lighthouse, that was the old lightkeeper's house. We get a free tour of the lighthouse and I guess there's even a ghost in thrown into the mix. Supposedly the room we're staying in... Finally at lunch, because our company had the highest sale ever, we had Mexican and Corona's. That's right, every employee (about 25-ish of us) we're in the 1 large conference room eating taco's, chips & salsa, burrito's and washing it down with a cold beer. At work. Did I mention how cool the Pacific Northwest is?

The beauty of Portland

2006-10-12T06:57:00.001-07:00

Here's five shots stitched together at the top of the I-5 bridge over the Columbia looking East to Mt. Hood. I promised a shot 2 weeks ago but it was so foggy that all you saw was white out... that was kind of eerie but a photo wouldn't of done it any justice

Cold ride, beautiful sunrise

2006-10-12T06:53:00.001-07:00

It was a cold ride in to work Tuesday morning. 45. Not as cold as it's going to get back home though. It's harder getting up when it's dark outside. Makes it easy to say... "nah I don't feel like it". That's what happened to me last week. Skipped riding the whole week. This week is a different story. Since I've somehow gained 10 pounds since moving out here I feel commited now to getting that weight back off. I can definately tell when I ride.

Mt Hood at sunrise overlooking the Columbia river. This is the view from atop of the I-5 Bridge.

So I'm wondering what to do about the cold feet... Sure I have booties. Those are OK but sometimes my feet still get cold. I could wrap my feet in a plastic bag then put the booties on. Or also put when of those heat packets on the top of my foot, then put the bootie on. But that feels so wasteful. Throw away two packets everytime I ride in the winter months? I wonder if a pair of winter/cold weather cycling shoes would do it? They are expensive and only a couple of manufactures make them though. SIDI makes a pair. Amazon has em. My size (43) well.

Kind of blurry but there's what's left of Mt. St. Helen's on the horizon there to the left (North) as you're going of the Columbia on the I-5...

Later

Weekend Update

2006-10-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

I already forgot what I did for dinner on Friday. I know we went out somewhere, came home, and I pretty much was out by like 10:30pm.

Saturday I went to a LAN party with a buddy at work. Basically a bunch of people (8 of us) get together and play PC games over the network. The guy's house was about 1 hour south in the town of Salem, OR. He had cleared out the living room and we setup our PC's on tables in the living room and kitchen and started gaming. We played F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon, Company of Heroes, Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2, and Call of Juarez. Back in the early 90's when my Dad got me doing this they were called 'War-gamer weekends' because we'd start Friday night, stay up all night into Saturday until we passed out sometime late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. The other 6 guys I got to know were pretty cool. They get together once a month so I may partake in some of that.

Sunday we went out for brunch at MacAdams Bar & Grill (make your own bloody mary bar), ran some errands, and watched football. It was supposed to be a nice day but it ended up raining (a light sprinkle mind you) most of the day. That's when I did most of the book readin'. Nice to see the Bears kickin butt again. 5-0. There's a Bears fan club bar down the road from where we live that we need to check out.

Later.

Book Review: Already Dead

2006-10-08T17:22:00.001-07:00

Already Dead by Charlie Huston - A-

It's been a long time since I read a book. Don't think I've made time since the last one I finished in July. I guess that's not very long but it seems like a long time.

I poured myself into this one. The reading was light and easy. It's also about vampires and this is October and Halloween is on it's way so there you are... I got the shipment from Amazon with a couple books in it on Wednesday night. I picked up the book Thursday night to read it and, without trying too hard, had it read by today, Sunday.

It's a rated R novel. Beware. And if you don't like vampire stories, beware. The main character, Joe, is a detective sort of. And a vampire. He lives in New York. I find the story of how the author explains the vampire exists to be kind of interesting and that keeps me going until the actually story of why I'm reading about this particular vampire kicks in. I have only read one other vampire book. Interview with a Vampire. Long before it was a movie actually. I actually read all of Anne Rice's books in the Vampire Chronicles series up to #5 Memnoch the Devil.

Anyway, good book. Not a top ten. Maybe a top ten for vampire books though. We'll see. Next I'm going to tackle The Historian.

Weekend Update

2006-10-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

I guess I was feeling 'midwestern'. Check out the food I ate. Friday we went out for dinner at Cheesecake factory. They have a kick butt meatloaf with mashed potatoes. Heidi went down to visit her parents Sat and Sun. Sat night I cooked up some London Broil with mashed taters. Sunday morning it was hashbrowns, bacon, eggs. And then Sunday night it was pork loin... with mashed taters. I think I have my quota of mashed taters in for awhile. I also think I'm picking up a new hobby. Cooking. I guess if you like to eating it's a natural progression.

Did some gaming. Company of Heroes - completed the campaign - it was 15 missions. Awesome game. I also did some online play. 2 wins 2 loses. Also played some F.E.A.R. online for some fast and furious FPS action.

It was great watching the Chicago Bears trounce the Seahawks 37-6 on Sunday! Heidi even tried rooting for her home team... which was cute but wasn't helping because the Bears just kept scoring points. It's great to finally see the offense helping out the defense. Hopefully things will keep up and it'll be a great season.

Got 80 miles on the bike last week. Let's see if I can keep it up. It hasn't started raining yet although I'm waiting for the impending doom they keep predicting. This time of year is my favorite. Fall. Football. Halloween. My B-Day. Thanksgiving. Christmas.

New PC

2006-09-28T12:51:00.001-07:00

I've been long overdue for a new PC. I think the last one I built was in Jan of 2003 and if you're a gamer, you're usually getting a new rig every 2 1/2 years, not counting graphics card upgrades, etc. along the way. So last Friday I spec'd it out and ordered up all the parts from newegg. And when I got home from work yesterday it was like Christmas. 3 boxes of goodies on my doorstep.

I didn't think the price was too bad. The machine is pretty close to one of the best you can build atm. Short of RAID or a small step in a better processor. But the RAM, Video, HDD are the best. For now anyway... wait 6 months.

We had dinner at a tappas restaurant so I didn't get started building until about 7:30pm but I had it all together and loading the OS by 10pm. I'm already amazed at how fast the hard drive is. WinXP SP2 was thrown down in about 15 minutes.

Looking forward to installing some games and seeing how they look.

Here's the specs on the PC (for future reference):

Product Description	Total Price
DISCOUNT FOR COMBO #8823	($25.00)
Item #: COM

COOLER MASTER Ammo 533 RC-533-SWN1 Black/Silver Aluminum+Plastic front bezel; SECC chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail	$74.99
Item #: N82E16811119098
ViewSonic VA1912wb Black 19" 8ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail	$214.99
Item #: N82E16824116373


ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail	$209.99
Item #: N82E16813131028
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600 - Retail	$319.99
Item #: N82E16819115003
COOLER MASTER SAF-S12-E1 120 x 120 x 25mm SuperFlo Cooling Fan - Retail	$7.99
Item #: N82E16811999072
ASUS EAX1900XT/2DHTV/512 Radeon X1900XT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail	$346.99
Item #: N82E16814121554
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400 - Retail	$299.00
Item #: N82E16820145590
NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3550A - OEM	$29.99
Item #: N82E16827152058
COOLER MASTER RS-550-ACLY-SLI ATX12V/ EPS12V 550W Power Supply - Retail	$119.99
Item #: N82E16817171009
Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM	$229.99
Item #: N82E16822136012



Subtotal	$1,828.91
Shipping	$46.17
Total	$1,875.08

Weather

2006-09-26T14:40:00.001-07:00

I can't help but gloat right now over the weather difference back home to here. Now I may be crying in a couple months but hey... it's nice out right now!

It was dark on the start of the ride this morning, and I had to wear the headlamp for the first time this year, but the sun was beautiful as it rose up next to Mt. Hood. I forgot the camera at home. I'll try and remember to catch a shot going over the I-5 bridge on Friday morning.

Riding and buying Liquor

2006-09-25T21:39:00.001-07:00

Rode home tonight. First time in a few weeks. Maybe like 6-7 I think. Anyway. Beautiful day. 84 - sunny. Must've been alot of bugs out because I ate quite a few. Noticed I was pretty slow climbing the hills too. Pushing the low gears at low reps.

Normally I'm a beer or wine drinker. Last week we had a stretch of cooler weather and a couple days of rain. Well there's nothing like a Tuaca and Hot Apple Cider. Mmmm. Do you know in Oregon and Washington you cannot buy hard alcohol at the grocery store? What a pain in the ass. You can buy beer and wine but you have to go to a liqour store to buy the hard stuff. And the liqour store is only open until 7pm. Not only that but you can't buy beer or wine at the liqour store. So you are forced to make two trips... saving gas and good for the environment my ass.

Which is faster? Loading XML from disk or from SQL Server?

2006-09-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

I'm going to geek out on you for a minute. I may start doing this abit more from time to time. Anyway...

We had an interesting discussion at work. Which is faster? Loading an xml document from hard disk or loading it from SQL Server. I had assumed it would be faster to load from HDD but never one to assume - I decided to let science do the work.

So I built up a little console app. It simply displays the time after loading an xml file from either hard disk or sql server.

Bottom line? Based on my tests, loading from disk is 4x faster. Even if sql server has your query cached, so it doesn't have to pull the data from disk, it's still 4x faster to load from HDD. Why? Because of all the API's you have to pass that data through just to get the data across the wire. In fact, I gave sql server the benefit of the doubt, loading the xml file into a table with only 1 column and 1 row, running the query over and over so it was cached, and finally the data is sitting local to the same machine the app is on. If the data was buried in a large table on a remote sql server, I'm sure the local copy would be even faster.

Load from HDD console output:

Starting ... [9/25/2006 9:33:56 AM]
Finished ... [9/25/2006 9:33:56 AM]
Elapsed time: 00:00:00.0156253

5 attempts:

00:00:00.0156253
00:00:00
00:00:00.0156253
00:00:00
00:00:00.0156253

Load from SQL Server console output:

Starting ... [9/25/2006 9:34:40 AM]
Finished ... [9/25/2006 9:34:40 AM]
Elapsed time: 00:00:00.0937518

5 attempts:

00:00:00.0781265
00:00:00.0625012
00:00:00.0937518
00:00:00.0781265
00:00:00.0781265

C# code:

   1:  using System;

   2:  using System.Collections.Generic;

   3:  using System.Text;

   4:  using System.Xml;

   5:  using System.Data.SqlClient;

6:

   7:  namespace LoadXml

   8:  {

   9:      class Program

  10:      {

  11:          static void Main(string[] args)

  12:          {

  13:              DateTime startTime = DateTime.Now;

  14:              Console.WriteLine("Starting ... [{0}]", startTime);

15:

  16:              //LoadFromDisk();

17:

  18:              LoadFromSqlServer();

19:

  20:              DateTime endTime = DateTime.Now;

  21:              Console.WriteLine("Finished ... [{0}]", endTime);

  22:              TimeSpan timeSpan = endTime - startTime;

  23:              Console.WriteLine("Elapsed time: {0}", timeSpan);

  24:          }

25:

  26:          private static void LoadFromSqlServer()

  27:          {

  28:              XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();

29:

  30:              using (SqlConnection sqlConnection = new SqlConnection(@"Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=tempdb;Integrated Security=SSPI;"))

  31:              {

  32:                  SqlCommand sqlCommand = new SqlCommand("select [xmldocument] from [dbo].[sqlxml]", sqlConnection);

33:

  34:                  sqlConnection.Open();

35:

  36:                  // use a reader since it's the fastest way to read data from sql server

  37:                  SqlDataReader sqlDataReader = sqlCommand.ExecuteReader();

38:

  39:                  sqlDataReader.Read();

40:

  41:                  // use column ordinal instead of column name for faster access

  42:                  string xmlString = sqlDataReader[0].ToString();

43:

  44:                  xmlDocument.LoadXml(xmlString);

  45:              }

  46:          }

47:

  48:          private static void LoadFromDisk()

  49:          {

  50:              XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();

  51:              xmlDocument.Load("Sample.xml");

  52:          }

  53:      }

  54:  }

XML file:

 1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
 2 <books>
 3     <book>
 4         <author>Carson</author>
 5         <price format="dollar">31.95</price>
 6         <pubdate>05/01/2001</pubdate>
 7     </book>
 8     <pubinfo>
 9         <publisher>MSPress</publisher>
10         <state>WA</state>
11     </pubinfo>
12 </books>

SQL Server Script to create the table and data:

 1 /* Create the table in tempdb and load the xml into it */
 2 use [tempdb]
 3 go
 4 
 5 if  exists (select * from sys.objects where object_id = object_id(N'[dbo].[sqlxml]') and type in (N'u'))
 6 drop table [dbo].[sqlxml]
 7 go
 8 
 9 create table [sqlxml]
10 (
11     [xmldocument] nvarchar(2000) not null
12 )
13 
14 insert into
15     [sqlxml]
16     (
17     [xmldocument]
18     )
19 values
20     (
21 '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
22 <books>
23     <book>
24         <author>Carson</author>
25         <price format="dollar">31.95</price>
26         <pubdate>05/01/2001</pubdate>
27     </book>
28     <pubinfo>
29         <publisher>MSPress</publisher>
30         <state>WA</state>
31     </pubinfo>
32 </books>'
33     )

Friday Night Fish Fry at a Packers Bar

2006-09-18T22:12:00.001-07:00

Based on some advice from the Green Bay girl last weekend, we tried out the local packer transplant hangout, the Corbett Fish House. Around here they call fish fry's "Fish and Chips" (like we're in Great Britain or something). Actually maybe that's what they call it in the New England. Maybe Kevin can confirm that?

So we walk in and I start taking pictures because I can't stop laughing. The owner is a Wisconsin transplant (I forget which city). There's a large Green Bay Packer flag hanging from the ceiling and all sorts of Green Bay paraphernalia hanging all over the place. Towards the back near the bar there's an office that looks like a shrine. The only thing missing was packer shirts and jackets on all the patrons. The staff had green and gold shirts on. But that might also be related to the University of Oregon Ducks. Which are followed with strange type of madness around here... (get a real team people).

So how about the food? Good beer. Widmer Brothers Hefeweizen (the beer that started Ray and my beer snobbery 10 years ago). Real Midwest fish fry although with a Northwest spin - Gluten free and environmentally friendly (no overfished species). Deep fried cheese curds (of course). Heidi had the perch. I took on the Walleye. Pretty good although I will say I prefer the fish without the skin which these still had on 'em. In fact it's pretty hard to run across fish fry's with the skin on back home.

It was no Seibert's but still pretty good for being 2200 miles away (btw, if you're reading this and still live in Wisco and have never done Seibert's you should... best I've ever had - if you don't like fish the stuffed shrimp are awesome. Just ask Ryan er "Frank the Tank" - just watched that last night buddy!).

Chicago style pizza?

2006-09-17T03:24:00.000-07:00

So Thursday after work I decided to hit up a joint on the way home called BJ's Pizza and Grill. Heidi was going out with one of her girlfriends so I thought I'd see how this place was. They billed themselves as Chicago style pizza. They brew their own beer and they're also a chain. All locations on the west coast though. Got there before happy hour ended so $2 beer and 1/2 price personal pizza. Chicago style... NOT. A deep dish Chicago style pizza usually involves 1 large sausage patty that covers the entire top of the pizza. One of the most famous is Gino's East. Usually you can only eat one slice. Hence the name and having 1 piece of "pie". Now if you are going to bill yourself as Chicago Pizza don't you think you should do it right or don't do it? Maybe it's the name. Chicago 'style' or 'essense' of Chicago. The beer was good but I won't be back for the pizza. I'm also still looking for a place that has Italian Beefs...

Movie Review: The Island

2006-09-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

The Island (2005) B-

I was going to give this one a C+ but I liked the story was kind of interesting. Matrix-like. Although one of the few times I figured it out before the plot gave it too me. I thought the people were food. But close enough.

Recharge the batteries

2006-09-11T21:11:00.001-07:00

Took it easy and hung around the house this weekend.

Did some gaming. Finished F.E.A.R. (FPS) Completed the first campaign (1/5) in HOMM (turned-based strategy). Tried the demo of Company of Heroes (WW2 RTS) which comes out tomorrow (Tuesday 9/12).

Opening weekend football on Sunday. This was one of those times where you notice you live on the west coast now. Football is on at 10 am. With the pre-game there's no more waiting for game-time. It's on from rise to rest. Went out to a local pub, Macadam Grill, for bloody mary bar and brunch and watch all the games. Another thing that's funny out here is that you'd expect to have a bunch of Seattle fans. Not so. Many people that live here are transplants. Plus there's no real 'Pro' team. So at the pub there were all sorts of different jersey's. Browns. Vikings. Chiefs. And of course a 4 girls with Packers shirts. I talked to one of them at the bloody marry bar. They were from Green Bay and moved here a few years back. I told her I just moved from Milwaukee and she gave me some names of some local bars that are Packer hangouts that also have authentic fish fry's, including fresh water fish. Of course I had to mention that I was a Bears fan. And my heart was so saddened to have the Bears shutout the Packers in the season opener (/kidding of course). I can just imagine the gloom around the Harley offices on Monday...

It was also really wierd to have football on before you even get off work! I know it was a Monday night double-header but to have a game on at 4PM? Hey, guess that's a reason to hit up happy hour!

One thing that is cool around this area is that even though you "aren't from around here" you never here that. Everyone welcomes you. Even though I spent the last 10 years living in Wisco I would still never be considered "from around here" back there. I think it's alot like that in the central/eastern states. It just seems less... entrenched here. It's hard to describe.

Later.

Dave Matthews

2006-09-07T22:49:00.001-07:00

Check out that venue... the Gorge Amphitheater. It's like what Alpine Valley would be if it was set at the edge of a cliff. It took about 4-5 hours to get here. The high desert in the middle of Washington State. I cannot believe the terrain that mother nature has created on this side of the continent. Just awesome...

Movie Review: Dark Water

2006-09-07T22:44:00.001-07:00

Dark Water (2005) C-

Sigh... not sure why I put these movies in my Netflix queue. Don't waste your time.

Oregon Bicycling

2006-09-06T21:28:00.000-07:00

Training tips

A recent study by a kinesiology professor at Indiana University found that cyclists who drank 2% chocolate milk after a hard ride were able to do better in a subsequent exercise session than riders who drank Endurox R4, and as well as those who drank Gatorade.

There's this building I ride past when I ride my bike to/from work that has a unique logo on it. I thought it might have something to do with bike messengers or something.

Anyway it turns out that it's a non-profit organization for riding bikes in Oregon. I guess Oregon wants to be to bicycling what Maine is to lobster.

They have 2 rides this year. A 3-day weekend ride that covers 141 miles and a week long ride that covers 490+ miles. Looks like they are single events and I missed the 3-day ride. The week-long one starts this weekend. Kind of short notice but I'm going to pencil the weekend one in for next year for sure.

Movie Review: The Yards

2006-09-06T12:41:00.001-07:00

The Yards (2000) B-

I liked the performances from the actors but I thought the ending of the story had no closure... perhaps that's a little cliche but I wanted to know what happened with the lead character.

Spa night, Trailer parks, and the High Desert

2006-09-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

Monday night I treated Heidi to a couples massage. Included was 30 mimutes of massage and then 30 minutes in the sauna and/or jazuzzi. Never really done it before but I figured if she can ride 45 miles then I can go to a spa.

The place was pretty cool. One private room with a massage table and a door to a huge bathroom with a shower, sink, toilet, jacuzzi and sauna. While one of us got a massage the other got to enjoy the bathroom toys.

Not much else going on this week. Took Friday off for a 4 day Labor-day weekend. We are going out to camp and see Dave Matthews on the eastern side of the Washington (Heidi is a huge fan). I'm betting that's going to be like one huge dead-head concert.

I built a poor man's bike cabinet outside. The house is only 800 square feet with no garage. So where do you put the bikes? I had em inside but it was getting cramped. So I mounted em against the side of the house and covered em with a tarp. Yep and before ya' know it we'll be moving into a trailer park... Next year we'll hopefully invest in a nice shed.

So the weekend before last, that'd be two weeks ago, we went camping out at the Prineville Resevouir. What's really cool about Oregon is the different climates. You got rain-forest, ocean, mountains, and on the eastern side of the mountains you got the high desert. So I camped in the high desert. It was very Arizona-ish. Not Phoenix but alot like the Prescott area that my Mom lives near.

These first two shots are using the camera's built in stitching.

Prineville Resevoir At Sunrise

Prineville Resevoir At Sunset

These next three are an experiment using normal shots and then using a 3rd party stitching program, called autostitch, to put them together. This allows any camera to do landscapes or large shot pictures. I think I like them better. The program is a little rough around the edges because you have to run it from the command line but it does a good job. I also think I like having the black areas around the picture where you can see that multiple photo's where stitched together.

Prineville Resevoir At Sunset 1

Prineville Resevoir At Sunset 2

Prineville Resevoir At Sunset 3

Anyway, time to run. We're off to Dave Matthews. Took Friday off to enjoy the weekend. It's beautiful out right now...

Team Fortress 2

2006-08-31T08:30:00.000-07:00

I can't wait... look what's on the horizon.

I can see some league play in the future...

Wine Tour

2006-08-27T19:34:00.001-07:00

The Willamette Valley, the river that runs north/south here into the Columbia, is very fertile land. I guess some ungodly amount of the United States grass seed is grown here. Plus grapes. Lots of em. Including this finicky one called the Pinot Noir. What do I know though? I'm a beer conisseour not a wine one. In fact this was my first time. Yes. A virgin.

So we had to get up this morning at like 5 am to drive an hour south to Salem, OR for a wine tasting tour by bicycle. Cool idea eh? Heidi actually set it up (even cooler) and she's been training for it all summer. She's been saying the whole time "30 miles, I have to get ready to ride 30 miles". I guess they usually have a long and a short route. I never bothered to go to the website and check. So when she picks up the regstration packet I start reading and the short route is 45 miles! And she only starting riding a bike this year! Her longest ride was the bridge pedal two weeks ago at 26 miles. This is almost double! I'm thinking "Wholly sh*t. She's going to die out there." But I just try and play it cool so it doesn't freak her out. I can tell she's a little worried though but she always tries to make the best of it. And for that well... I'm here aren't I?

Anyway, there were quite alot of people there today. 180+ in fact. I was actually surprised at the number of tandems. Pretty cool.

The short route basically was and out and back. Out to 1 winery and back to the starting winery. We tasted some wine and I had Heidi all faked out thinking I'd done it before. When we got back to the starting winery and did our second tasting I told her this was my first time and she was all surprised. Anyway there just all sour grapes right?

They had 2 water stops plus served lunch at the 1st winery. At the finish they served a whole BBQ and more wine. This was top notch food too. All very good and all this for just $65 bucks. Not bad.

So how'd Heidi do? Well after a lot of mental struggling throughout the day. We kind of thought I should ride ahead and get the truck and come back for her. At the first winery we were at 22 miles. She started faltering a little though. The hill climbs were taking their toll and it was hot. High 90's. She was getting baked going 3-4 mph up some of the hills with the sun beating down and the pavement reflecting that heat back up. I bet it was 100+. I felt really bad for her. Anway we decided to take it in steps. I would also ride in front so she could draft. This was her first time doing that and she did it very well. I had to keep looking back in case she fell off to slow down but I think it went well. Anway she made it to 30 miles no problem. So she thought, "Let's just try and see how far I can get." So we start riding the 15 miles back. At about 33 I thought she was cooked. The heat. The sweat. The hills. And she ended up walking, her first time ever, up 1 of the hills. This was definately her "wall". Well, she kept going. After leaving at 8 am we rolled into the winery at 3 pm and she had completed a 45 mile ride. Well done I must say. There's alot of people out there who couldn't do that, nor wouldn't even attempt it, or would have bitched and moaned the whole way. I can't say enough about how impressed I was.

Of course we can't stop there can we? Next year we need to do the 70 miler because it adds an additional winery and a ferry ride across the Willamette. She's in bed sleeping right now totally exhausted (it's 6:30 pm) - poor thing. Maybe I should schedule it now and tell her it's only 45 miles...

Pics here. I'm too tired to style this.

Good morning

2006-08-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

Edit: This was supposed to be posted yesterday morning at like 6 am but since i've switched to the blogger beta things are a little peculiar...

Couldn't sleep this morning. Was up about an hour ago. Just got done playing the F.E.A.R. demo. I had goose bumps it was that scary. Very well done. Definately going to play the full version. I've been spending most of my summer playing Galactic Civilizations 2 (what little time I do spend on the PC(hey... it's summer after all)); ole fashioned turn-based strategy space epic. Only 3 games but they have been epic. Actually ranked 64th. My legs are trashed, mostly the thighs. 40 miles Wed. Went to the gym Thu with Heidi (first time since I've been here). 40 miles Fri. I must've overdone it at the gym because I can barely walk. Hopefully they'll be back to normal for the Wine tasting ride tomorrow. The meatloaf special at Cheesecake Factory last night made up for the pain though. Well that and the peice of Godiva chocolate cheesecake at home later!

Milwaukee named 'Drunkest City'

2006-08-25T08:22:00.001-07:00

I see my old home town is now famous. America's Drunkest City by Forbes.com. Nice.

Movie Review: Quills

2006-08-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

Quills (2000) C+

Can't say I really knew much about the Marquis de Sade. Didn't know that's where the term sadism orginated... Had a good group of actors like Kate Winslet and Joaquin Phoenix. I guess I was kind of in shock during the first 30 minutes from the sex and violence. One wonders whether early 1800s France was really so brutal and sexual. The story eventually got interesting but I still had that bad taste from the beginning... Heidi couldn't watch it because of the 2-3 rape scenes. You really get to see how bad women were treated all those years ago. I don't really see how the critics all loved it.

Test your bandwidth.

2006-08-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

How fast is your internet connection? Very cool Flash site for testing your bandwidth. Click on the image to test.

Portland Bridge Pedal - 2006

2006-08-17T07:04:00.000-07:00

Portland Bridge Pedal 2006

Bridges of Portland

This past Sunday, Aug 13th, Heidi and I did the Portland Bridge Pedal. It's the second largest group ride in the country and over 18,000 riders were there. I guess only New York does a larger ride. The cool part about the ride going over the bridges. Since Portland lies on a river, the Willamette, and the city stretches out on both sides you have alot of bridges. Then there's also the Columbia that the Willamette tees into which adds even more. We did the 8-bridge, 26 mile ride (there was a 36 miler and a 15 miler). It was also a prep for the upcoming 30 miler for Heidi. We did the following bridges:

Hawthorne
Ross Island
Marquam
Burnside
Broadway
Fremont
St. Johns
Steel

The highlight was going over the Marquam, Fremont and St Johns bridges. The Marquam and Fremont are Interstates. They actually closed down the interstate for 4 hours Sunday morning so that 18,000 riders could pour over them. They also had tents setup on those bridges with bands playing, bike shops with mechanics, people taking pictures, etc... Heidi did well for her first time at this distance. Although she questioned it when we were in a headwind heading up to St. Johns which had a long flat ride to the north. This was a group ride, not a race, and most of the people were extremely nice. There were a few people riding like they thought they were in a race though. I girl, who should of been riding out to the left, was passing slower riders on the right. Came up behind Heidi on a hill climb and said "on your right". Now most beginners do not understand this yet. And many actually veer into the direction you call out. I've joked in the past with my friends that it's almost better not to call out the side you are passing on because that way the ride won't veer into your path. So anyway we were about 1/2 way up this hill climb. Heidi had a great cadence but she was starting to hurt abit. I was there just trying to support her and the other beginners riding slowly up the hill when this chick comes along. Heidi heard what she said and bobbled to the right. The chick goes again, "on your right, were you at?" and shrugs her shoulders as she was panting herself up the hill. Well I lit into her. "It's a group ride not a race! Ride to the right. These are beginners!" At least no profanities were said for the kids around. She didn't respond and kept going up the hill. A guy next to me goes "Thank you" to me. Anyway. Other than that it was a great ride.

View of the Marquam Bridge (notice the tents and people on top) during the Bridge Pedal. Photo taken from the Ross Island Bridge.

Aww... look at the sweet couple atop Marquam

Video going over the Marquam Bridge

Movie Review: The Dukes of Hazzard

2006-08-15T13:13:00.000-07:00

The Dukes of Hazzard. Um. Worst movie ever. Don't waste your time. I like Sean William Scott too. Too bad.

Movie Review : U Turn

2006-08-15T13:09:00.000-07:00

I watched U-Turn the other night and while is was bizarre, violent, and well just plain funny, movie; I liked it. The same, in my mind, as Pulp Fiction, which I commented on the other day. It was, In fact, less violent. Heidi did not watch it nor did she like it from overhearing the sound from the other room. I would bet that a great number of women probably don't like this movie but like Pulp Fiction. Is it Pulp Fictions' good marketing or what? I don't understand.

Hottest Day of the Year Ride

2006-08-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Aug 6th, we did a group ride called the Hottest Day of the Year Ride. 800 riders of varying levels all got together to do a ride for charity. It was the first one. It wasn't all that hot, maybe 80-85 degrees. Sun was out and it was a beautiful day. I guess they have a Coldest Day of the Year Ride as well which is where the name must come from. You could ride a 40 miler or a 15 miler. I did the 15 miler with Heidi. We used it as a prep ride for the upcoming 30 mile Winery Tour. (there's alot of wineries out here). It was fun to see so many people out and to get a chance to ride some streets and see some different areas of Portland. At the end of the ride you got a sundae (choice of ice cream, banana, crushed peanuts, strawberries, chocolate syrup, etc) and a squirt gun. Yea, everyone was standing around having a big squirt gun fight.

Starting Line

Make your sundae at the end of the ride. Or get a beer right there at the Rogue Brewery

Check out all the bikes! Bike parking at the end of the ride...

2006-08-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

Perfect summer weather

Perfect summer weather in Portland.

It's hard to believe how great the weather is out here. When they said they get 3 months of great weather for July, August, and September they weren't kidding. It's got that San Diego, low humidity, perfect 72 degree weather feeling to it. It makes it great for for riding the morning 20 mile ride into work and then getting off at noon and taking my time to ride home...

2006-08-09T07:08:00.000-07:00

Heidi's got me hooked on Rockstar Supernova. Reality show tryouts for a rock band. One of the people on there, Storm Large, is from here in Portland. She's actually pretty good. In fact, I think it's going to come down between her and the guy from Iceland. Although I think the guy from Iceland will win I think the band would do better to have a chick like Storm fronting their band. I guess she plays around here in a band called 'Storm Large and The Balls'. Last night she had a t-shirt on that said "Got Balls?". I wonder how many other people knew what she was referring to.

Also finished watched the 3rd season of the Soprano's last night. Awesome. I was watching the first few minutes of all the episodes because I remember that they eventually took out the twin towers from the start of the show and couldn't remember when. Turns out it was the last episode, 13, from season 3 that the twin towers finally disappeared from the intro. Just in case there is ever a question in Trivial Pursuit. Know we know...

2006-08-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

Abandonware DOS Games

A co-worker passed this url along to me. Abandonia.com. This stuff brings back alot of memories. My Dad and I were just talking the other day about playing old games like Ascendancy, Master of Magic, Fields of Glory, Lords of the Realm, ... I could go on and on. I bet my Dad still has some of these on floppy...

2006-08-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

Weekend Project - Picnic Table

built a table

I made a picnic table over the weekend. Inspired by Ryan's hot tub project, Heidi's comments about wanting a table for the deck, and knowning that if I screwed up as Ryan says, "cut a few boards wrong no big deal--about $10.00 worth of fire wood." About $75 worth of wolmanized wood and fasteners. 2 trips to the Home Depot (there's no Menards out here). 6 hours of labor; although I'd say 2 of it was figuring it out. The table top was easy. Then came the legs. I wanted them to criss-cross. So I looked it up on the net and found out about the lap joint. All I have is a circular saw. And I had no idea that you could lower the deck and use it to make those cuts. Of course it meant multiple passes (5.5 inches worth at about 1/4 inch per pass) so my forearms got a heck of a workout. That saw got alot of use considering the lap joint, 45 degree cuts for the table support, and all the normal cuts. Now we have a table that only I can lift cause it's heavy as hell. Ah well. It will last forever.

Enjoying the table with a little steak and wine

mmm... steak, mashed taters, and coleslaw

2006-08-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

Oakridge XC Race - Sun July 27th 2006

Hills Creek Lake

Not sure if I mentioned this before but they've instituted 1/2 Summer Friday's at work (2nd one so far). So Heidi took a 1/2 off and we headed down to Oakridge, OR for my first XC MTB race. It took about 3 hours to get there. It's in the foothills of the Cascade Mtns southeast of Portland. We decided to do some camping too. Getting there Friday night was an adventure. There's been some really hot weather here lately. In fact the weekend ended up being a scorcher with Fri, Sat, and Sun all being just over or right near 100 degrees out. So Heidi picked a campsite on the water. That's another interesting story. There's really no natural lakes around here either. The way lakes get made is dams are built and then the water fills in the valley and they call it a reservoir. The other thing is that the water is cold. Ice cold. It's snow melt basically that pours down out of the mountains. So even though its like 95 degrees out the water is still cold and you can hardly stand it. Accept for the man-made lakes where it gets a least of fighting chance of warming up. But then again the weather never really gets too hot around here. So there you are, stuck in this loop of seasons.

Camping in the Pacific Northwest

Anyway, back to my train of thought. The campsite was on the opposite side of this man-made lake called Hills Creek Lake. Looking at the map we decided to go left around it. The road suddenly turned from 2 lane to 1 lane and then to gravel. We stopped and sure enough. The map had a dotted line for the road. I had the truck so screw it lets see where this leads. It was a pretty cool drive along the lake with the mountains looming up over it. The road was basically cut into the side like a single track trail. You could even see some parts that had been washed away in prior years.

Finally we got to the camp ground which was actually located on the river that fed the lake. So no swimming because it was shallow, cold, and rocky. It was nice to go to sleep each night and hear the water rushing over the rocks though. Like having a rapids in your backyard. That night was a scorcher and humid. And humidity is usually never part of the equation out here. Plus we forgot the mosquito spray. Heidi had a travel size one which we used to spray her down and I tried to rub off some of it onto my skin. Well that had little affect because they damn near carried me away and I was left itching for days afterwards.

Saturday I went to pre-ride the course. We had stopped at the bike store on Friday night to chat with the locals and since I had no idea where the trail head was I stopped in there. After getting directions, and meeting yet another guy from Wisconsin (Stevens Point), I headed out. The single track was cool to start with. It followed along this mountain river on the right. So as you were winding through single track you could hear the rush of water. The singletrack was very smooth. Not very tight so basically you could just blast through it. I prefer the tighter stuff with some technical obsticales like rocks or logs but this had none of that. I did hear later that other courses do. Anyway after that I slammed into the section they call The Wall. Basically 2 miles of a gravel climb to the top of the mountain... /sigh. Good god I had to walk a couple sections because I just couldnt breath anymore. I found out later that the climb was 2.25 miles over 1100 feet which means a grade of 13%. Ouch. Once at the top it dipped into some singletrack along the ridge which was cool and then blasted down some switchbacks along the side of the mountain. Now again, I hate to sound like a broken record here but why don't they make the single-track more fun? Blasting down the mountain you just took 30 minutes to climb is not fun. Needless to say I wasn't too excited. It shot me out onto some rode where I pretended like I was in the Tour de France and blasted down that an intersection. I had just done 11 miles in 1.5 hours and I didn't want to burn myself out. I also felt kind of lost so I called Heidi. She knew where I was and I was close to where I had started. It was basically a loop. Another .5 miles ride would've brought me back to where I started.

We went swimming later that day at Hills Creek Lake. Heidi got stung by a bee so I spent the afternoon killing any bees that approached. It was a little cooler that night and after we cooked up dinner (chicken and pasta sound familiar?) we had a campfire, some smores and went to sleep. Oh there was this strange noise, we lit the lantern and this huge beetle, like 2 inches, was flying around and then landed on the latern. When I poked it with a stick it made a loud sound so I squashed it... Later I'd wish I'd saved it and tried to identify it.

Race Director Course Tour

The race started that morning at 10 am. It wasn't to organized. The promoter led us around on the bikes to show us where we started and finished. The start had all of us take off in one mass group, Beginers, Sport, Singlespeed, all age groups. Then the Pro / Semi-Pro / Elite / Experts took off about 30 minutes after us. The race started about 10:30, 30 minutes late. A breakaway formed right from the start and I sat at the back of that. Once we hit the gravel road I couldn't hang as they were pushing a fast pace so I got caught in no mans land between the pack and the breakaway for about 1 mile. We hit that section of singletrack along the stream and I still couldn't catch my breath. I wasn't making up ground but not losing it either. I caught a couple guys and then a couple caught me. Then we hit the Wall. This time I tried to really focus on my breathing. Last time I think I mentally quit. I was able to get almost to the top but finally my legs and lower back were just burning so bad I had to stop. The heat was like a sauna. I heard later that a number of folks needed help. It was 95+ and the sun was beating on that climb. When I started walking I got passed by a few riders even though it was only about 100 feet of walking. 2 were women. Awesome. I also took a Clif Shot because I just didn't have any energy. The top of the Wall was at the one hour mark. Unknown to me I had ridden to high up the Wall the previous day. There was a white van with water about 375 feet short of the top and we (the sport / beginner class) were sent into a single track section there. The Pro guys had to go all the way up and also do a second lap (but only to our height the 2nd time). I grabbed a water from the van and dumped it over my head and entered the single track behind the 2nd girl that passed me. I remember thinking she was going to slow me down. Right. She took off. I was scared. Normally I have no problem with descents and can make up ground. Well this was different. basically the single-track was cut into the side of this mountain. It was like being on the side of a cliff with and endless drop. After a few minutes I settled down and started feeling good. Maybe it was the Clif Shot or maybe it was being out of the heat (or both) but I started really enjoying this section of singletrack. I was laughing out load and thinking how fun it was and if my old buddies back home could enjoy this. It was really different. Ferns, green trees, moss, everywhere. And once in awhile the single track would come out into the open and the view was amazing looking across these vast expanses to other mountain peaks. You felt like you were in the clouds. I was getting the flow of it. And starting to catch glimpses of other riders ahead. On a fast switchback descent I caught and passed two guys. It dumped us on some fireroad where I caught one of the girls. Then we hit that pavement section and I was really feeling the power return to my legs. The return leg was 2 miles of gravel, double-track type road with lots of ruts. Shitty riding basically. Great for my style. The girl that got away in the single track was stuggling up a short steep climb and I passed like she was standing still. I hammered it down the gravel and passed two more guys. I was all alone the last mile and just kept pounding into the finish. I ended up 8th. It was only 14 miles and just over an hour (1 hour 25 minutes) - I wonder if I would have done better had it been even longer. I think some of the end of the race was people popping and me feeling better. These are some things I think about to trying a 12 hour solo around here which the seem to have alot of.

Wow. Long story...

Chris Isaak Concert - Sun July 27th 2006

We raced back on Sunday to see Chris Isaak at the Portland Zoo. Hot day but great show.

I'm spent. Sorry for the lack of updates.

2006-07-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

Portland Mountain Bike Short Track Series - Race #2

Portland Mountain Bike Short Track Series - Race #2

Had a bad start. Picked the wrong gear and slipped a pedal which had me mid-pack before the first turn. I was able to make up about 10 spots before the single track. This time they added alot of single-track which I liked. Unfortunately about 1/2 through the race I did an endo over the log after having cleared it on the 4 previous laps no problem. So lose about 4-5 spots getting up and putting my chain back on the front ring. I was pretty gassed after that and could hear the announcer saying something about the race leader. I looked back and could see him only a few turns behind me so I was about to get lapped. It was the last lap so I rode abit harder so he couldn't. Not sure if that guy is always that fast or what. Results - 17th out of 47. Stayed awhile to watch the Pro / Elite field. These guys are fast. One guy Shannon Skerritt, seemed to run away with it. I hear he's the guy that does the Cyclocross training classes. Anyway. We'll see how I do tonight after having the race down in Oakridge.

2006-07-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hawthorne Boulevard

Music and Dancing on Hawthorne

I guess Hawthorne Street is this well known area in Portland for being well... very Portland. Hippies. Gay / Lesbians. Local shops. There was supposed to be this event called 2^nd Thursday going on last week. We went but even the businesses had no idea what the hell we were talking about. Had a couple beers at the Bridgeport Ale House. Good wheat summer special beer. Heidi invited Craig along. Nice guy. He's on crutches, well not the hospital kind, those kind that people use for when they are permanently disabled. Which he is. Something with his hip. Anyway I had fun teasing her later that she invited someone along to a Boulevard / sidewalk with tons of walking and the guy can't really go but more than 2 blocks... /sigh. He knows alot about the area. I guess Hawthorne was originally a pretty seedy area and then lesbian couples moved into the area and since then it's been an all hippie, free thinking zone. Craig wasn't up for the walking so Heidi and I walked for abit then decided to head over to this Italian Jazz joint, of which the name escapes me, for some meatballs and pasta. The best meatballs in Portland I guess. They weren't bad. The jazz was downstairs but we didn't go because we were belly up to the bar and Justin and his girlfriend met up with us. I switched to some Hoegaarden and then finished Heidi's wine for her. I guess I had some higher expectations for this street. Going to have to check it out again some other time.