January 31, 2009

Skiing Sal

Sal has been up skiing a few times this year.  Veep took him Friday and shot some video.  I just got the new iLife '09 with the new version of iMovie and was inspired to experiment.  Mushy snow, nice and slow for learning.

BTW, the song is from my brother's new album (CJ3).  Go to his site to pre-order.





Back in the Saddle

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I finally gave up on any new snow or getting any meaningful exercise on the trainer and got back on the road.  I rode the Hangman loop Friday morning and Saturday afternoon.  I've got some Schwalbe Marathon Winter studs in the mail, should arrive Monday (in case any snow does decide to fall) and I'll be riding to work again.  I just wish work started later or finished earlier so that I'd see daylight during one ride or the other.  


January 27, 2009

Back to Blogging

Newton's first law of blogging has taken over these past few weeks and I've done little online living.  I figure if I don't end my little blog sabbatical soon I may as well scrap this little blog.  So, here is an update on what I've been doing instead of blogging for the past 4 weeks.


1.  We went to Boise for a few days right after Christmas.  In relative terms it was downright tropical.  It was fun to visit with family, which I haven't done in a while.  We got delayed for a few hours on the return trip due to another dump of snow.
2.  Like the rest of Spokane, I spent the dwindling days of December and the first week of the new year doing some snow shovel cross training.  I've got toned shoulders and a stronger lower back to show for it.  As I write, we are in the uglier stages of winter snow with rock hard, dirty brown ice berms all over the city streets.  We need more snow.  I made a little album of snow photos on the upper right, taken during the more pleasant powdery white, tree sloughing stages.
3.  I took a trip to Idaho Falls.  This was a mix of business and pleasure.  My first time skiing Grand Targhee was fun despite the lack of new snow.   I enoyed the deep bluebird skies and inversion that raised temps at the top to over 50 degrees, a fitting way to spend inauguration day.  Plus, not having experienced the epic dry powder they get, I have a ready excuse to go back.

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And you can't beat the scenery (unless perhaps you're on the Jackson side of the Tetons).

The heat made me thirsty.  I've decided that my favorite thirst quenching beverage for the week is ice cold Ruby Red Grapefruit juice.  It goes equally badly with everything.

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This run fixed the voice of Artemis in my head (from "It's Always Sunny" fame).  "Shakin' it at the coyote uh-g-lee."  How's that for free association.

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On this trip I also got to explore the boisterous hamlets of Idaho Falls and Rexburg.  One of the highlights was seeing the completely ironic band "Love You Long Time", which is apparently a local favorite. 

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Yes, even without blogging regularly, the camera phone has kept me ripe with useless photo fodder.

I was the only un-ironic person in the room.  And the only one besides my brother over the age of 24.

4.  The day before I left for the IF (as the locals call it), Veep and I scored some tickets to the Gonzaga game against USF.  It was the first home game at the McCarthy center that I've been to.  A consistently good local sports program is a good thing to have in town.  While it may not be worthy of its own "reasons I love Spokane" post, it is definitely something I appreciate, though admittedly not for everyone.  Veep was a good sport and was willing to stay to the bitter end despite a 30-point blow out.

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That's our view of the student section stomping out the beat to AC/DC's "Thunder."  Almost enough to make me miss Freshman year in college.

5.  I painted our bedroom a darker shade of green.  Few things are as demoralizing as building a home, handpicking the wall colors, paying to have the house painted, and then changing your mind about the color before you even move in.  Alas, it will probably not be the last time I paint either.  In fact, it definitely won't since the next painting assignment is awaiting as soon as I can catch my breath and have a little more time off work.  I have to admit, it does look a lot better.  Plus we ordered some new furniture which really lent some urgency to the job.  Plus I had a healthy buzz going for about three days.

6.  And once you start one "home improvement" project, others rear their heads and scream for attention.  The day I got back from my relaxing trip I had two immediate issues--a cracked dining room window (either from water in the wall, the cold temps, or the house settling--I can't decide which) and a stolen mailbox.  Yes, a stolen mailbox.  The window is still under warranty, so isn't a big deal.  Fixing the underlying cause for the crack may be a bigger deal, we'll see.

The mailbox however, was a headache.  You know the economy is bad when people will pull a big locked metal box off its pole to just maybe find some mail that just maybe will be valuable enough or contain very specific sensitive information that they just might be able to make some money with it.  Sure, identity theft is a worry, but luckily all the sensitive mail we usually get--mortgage statement, credit card statements--had already come for the month.  It doesn't seem like the return could possibly be good enough to warrant a federal crime.  I still hope it was a bunch of dopey, bored high schoolers who ended up throwing it in a ditch somewhere.  And if you're reading this Mr. thief, we've already reported it to the police, post office, credit card companies and bank, so your chances of getting away with something if you in fact got anything worthwhile, are even less.

So I bought a cheap mailbox and retrofitted it to the pole they left in the ground.  It is a sad, humble little thing that will probably never draw a thief's attention, ironically.  Topping the list of things I don't like about Spokane would be "stolen mailboxes."

7.  This past weekend I skied at Mt. Spokane.  Rock had snow pack.  We need more snow.

Well, those are the highlights.  

To include one bike related thought, I have decided to do a little tour this summer when my parents return from China--Spokane to Boise.  It will be a good first multiday tour, about the right distance with several small towns along the way to give me several options for mileage and routes.  I'm thinking of primarily traveling down highway 95, but I want to study the map and see if there are any other routes with good scenery, less traffic, and not too steep of climbs.  I found an interesting map on the Idaho DOT site that actually tells how wide the shoulders are on the major roadways throughout the state--a nice resource (the link may take a few minutes to load).  If anyone happens upon this blog and has firsthand experience on a good biking route between Spokane and Boise, please let me know.  

Oh, and I smell another bike build in the near future.