Riding the Crazy Train

Yep, it's hump day. We're half way thru the week and getting closer the weekend all of the time. Unfortunately, I have to go to Lost Wages this weekend for a trade show attended by more Rednecks and Bubbas than you can shake a stick at. Good times. I'm going to try to take some photos of the action so stay tuned!

Last night I went on the shop ride in North Boulder. We had a great turn out with 10 riders 8 on Single Speeds. With the trails in the hills snow covered and icy still we had to ride the prairie. We rode from the Neva Road parking lot through a maze of dusty trails, under hwy 36 up the hog back and back to the cars. At the top of the the hog back Whiskey Dave shared some of fine 14th batch whiskey. That'll warm you right up! h1.5 hours of riding and around 14 miles. The weather was great, 36 degrees and not much wind. I only had one small technical difficulty with my light going out about 2 miles from the car. No worries though, I used my jedi skills to navigate in the darkness. That's right, like the star wars kid, I too have jedi skills. We headed over to Maya Terrace for dinner and beers afterwards.

Speaking of drinking, I got the following update on the Mead from Eric:

"So I took the first taste of the mead we made in September...very dry and champagne-like. Very low sugar content. Yesterday was the second racking, it was about 4months since the first. All the peach chunks I added after the first rack had settled to the bottom amidst the 2 inches of yeast sediment. I ended up straining the peaches on the bottom, rinsed the yeast off, and am thinking they will be a good ice cream topping. We'll see. I think I am going to wait another 3-4 months before the final racking, and bottling process. I'll be sure to have you over....it's a two man job."

I asked Eric what he thought we should name it and his reply was "Peach Melomel for Ferries". Not sure what he was getting at there but I assume that this stuff is so good that even the most froofy of palates will be able to swill multiple pints of it. I'm looking forward to the bottle cracking in 8 months.

Washington

So last weekend Robert and I had the "pleasure" of going to WA for a business trip. I had to attend an event for a customer. All I can say is that I saw a 7 foot man dressed like a woman, a midget, a woman with a mustache thicker than I could ever grow, at least 20 mullets, the kicker for the Seattle Seahawks and more NASCAR fans than you can shake a stick at. 'Nuff said about that. Here are the fun highlights:

After an uneventful vendor party, Robert and I decided to check out Olympia and see what it had to offer for bars. We ended up visiting two really decent establishments 1) The 4th Ave Tavern where we had a nice local microbrew and discovered "Buck Hunter" (I really hope I don't look like that chick when I play it). and 2) The Spar Cafe a McMenamins pub that was remodeled from a historic brothel. We had a couple of Hammerhead IPA's and called it a night. If you've never been to a McMenamins pub you're missing out. Good micro brews brewed on site, a historical building or space it's in and some of the best fries you've ever had in your life. All of their pubs are about as friggin' cool as it gets. I want to be like those brothers.

Friday night we took it easy and went to "There Will be Blood". Wow. That's a great movie! I don't want to spoil it for everyone but... Are Eli and Paul brothers or the same person? Hmmmm. After the movie we went over to RAM brewery and watched the highlights of the X-Games. The snowmobile freestyle jumping was unbelievable. I'd hate to get crushed by one of those things.

Saturday night we stayed up in Seattle to catch a flight the next day. Naturally we had to see what was going on downtown. We walked from our hotel to a record store I've been wanting to check out for a longtime. Zion's Gate Records has got to be one of the best reggae record shops around. It was hard to contain myself and not buy everything! I bought 10+ records (total review coming soon....I did get an original Jamaica pressing of Peter Tosh "Wanted Dread or Alive"...) and had them shipped home. We went to four bars and a sushi restaurant for dinner:
1) Six Arms -- another Mcmenamins that didn't disappoint
2) The Pike Brewery -- Fine micro brews right in the heart of the Pike St. Market
3) Umi Sake House - The Soceye Salmon was off the hook. I also tried white salmon for the first time and it was OK, I probably wouldn't order it again. And washed it down with a 33oz can of Sapporo beer. I think I'll buy all my beer in 33oz cans from now on.
4) Nite Light bar -- Pretty much a hole with pool tables in it.
5) McMenamins Queen Anne -- Can't go wrong ending the night with a McMenamins.

A good way to end off a biz trip. Sunday was pretty much toast from traveling. It's always good to get back home!

I want to get on my bike more this week before I have to go on another biz trip. Rode my single speed at lunch time today and plan on the shop ride tomorrow. Looks like it's gonna be nasty!

Stock Show

For the second year in a row we went down to the National Western Stock Show in Denver. This time we brought both kids and attended the 7:30pm rodeo. There were a couple melt downs but overall it was a good time. Walking the cattle and horse areas made me realize that even though both my parents grew up on farms, I know nothing about raising livestock. The people showing live and breathe (literally) with their animals. If nothing else, it's a really good place for people watching....probably even better than the airport.

We had a sub par meal at the Cowboy cafe where the kids ate the biggest hot dogs I've ever seen, at least a half dollar thick and 16 inches long.

Unfortunately, most of our pictures turned out pretty bad. I did take a lot of the kids looking at animals and climbing on tractors but they aren't looking at the camera in any of them or I have some goofy person in the background staring me down (creepy). So I chose only to post this pic of the stage coaches at the rodeo:
Also not a great pic, but you get the point. The rodeo was pretty cool it started with a laser show with loud banging fire works to the Beef tune. Very loud for young ears. We saw some bucking bronco riding, calf roping and stage coaches before the kids had enough and were showering our neighbors in snacks and other assorted goodies. Next year will be better when both kids can walk more and stay up later.

Nice.

I know I usually post reggae stuff but this is pretty cool. The Black Crowes are finally releasing a new album after a 7 year hiatus. I can't wait to hear it! While I was adding their new single to the playlist on the left I ran across this cool music blog: http://fuelfriends.blogspot.com/.

In other news, the Nuggets are killing me. Half the team is hurt and they're barely hanging on at the top of the division. I wonder how many players they'll have available for the game on Wednesday. Check out Carmelo's blog, maybe he'll give us some insight on how long he's going to be out with his sprained ankle.

Today's Tuesday and usually I ride tonight but with the snow and cold I'm just not feeling up to it. Yep, I'm totally wussing out. I'll go next time...

Frigid Skiing

It was cold this weekend! 10 degrees on the hill and well below zero with the wind. We gotta get ski days in while we can! Work's got me down for a few weeks, so it's going to be a while before we get up again. Ab is skiing really well on her new skis and stealthy outfit:

Listen to the wind howl!! This was on Golden Eagle Run which is the downhill course at Beaver Creek. Trust me, it's a lot steeper than it appears on my cruddy video! After a few runs, we went on an undercover mission to see how Arjen was doing:Notice how his gloves are not in use, yet he has a giant smile on his face. I'm not worried about this kid ever getting cold! It won't be long and he'll be skiing down the big runs.

Time to escape

It's time to escape the rat race and go to the hills for some more snow riding. Here we are last weekend:
Thanks Casey for the great pic of me almost getting impailed by sharp bush branches. Hopefully the snow is just as deep this weekend! My bro has posted a report of last weekend's action as well.

Next week's looking like a barn burner of a work week complete with a retail grand opening of a customer in WA. Robert and I are hoping to catch a concert on Saturday night in Seattle... we'll see.

What kind of self repecting man...

orders a "venti" extra hot, half caff, fat free, sugar free, 3 pump vanilla latte in two cups? Wow, there's a reason there's a long line for coffee and you're it pal. Give me my black coffee in a LARGE cup and fill it to the brim...while you're at it, give me one of those apple fritters, the big one. I'm livin' the high life.

Omar gives me a ride to the airport

I got up early this morning to catch a cab to the Portland airport. There weren't any cabs available so I ended up getting a ride in a towncar. Generally it works out to be about the same cost as a cab but is a hell of a lot nicer ride. This ride didn't disappoint.

Omar was the driver. Usually the drivers don't talk much and when they do its in another language on the phone. Omar asked me where I flying to. I told him "Denver" and he immediately called me an enemy! Hmmm, why would he do that? "Are you a Blazers fan??" I asked hopefully. "Their biggest fan!!" he answered in his middle eastern accent. Relieved that he was refering to basketball with his enemy comment, we had a 25 minute conversation about the Blazers, Nuggets and NBA. This guy was an absolute fanatic about the game! The only suspect thing about Omar is that he is a big fan of Manu Ginoble.... I don't like that guy! Anyway, it was a good way to wake up on the ride over to the airport.

How do you stop on skiis??? Pizza!!!

Finally a weekend on snow. This weekend was a little different in that we had Arjen with us. We had been pumping him up about skiing since the end of last season. Ab took him up to Beaver Creek Friday to get fitted with boots and a helmet. He was ready to go Saturday morning:

Here I am putting his boots on...likely not the last time. He was psyched to go until we dropped him off with the instructors. Not a happy good bye! But we checked back a few minutes later and all was well. This meant we could hit the mountain!
Ab enjoying the bluebird day with great snow.
It's good to be back on the board again!

Ab and I made a few quick runs and then it was time to spy on our little man. We found that it wasn't easy to keep our distance as it was difficult to see inside the "Magic Carpet" learning area through the fence. No worries though, we could see that he was doing well so we got some lunch and hit the mountain again.

Beau, Jevan and Casey were at mid mountain taking a break drinking bloodies. We hooked up with them and decided to hit "Drop it like it's Hot" -- one of our favorite tree runs.

Jevan and Casey soaking up the rays.

We found plenty of powder in the trees.

We picked up Arjen from ski school and heard all about his days adventures. How do you stop on skiis?? Pizza! How do you go on skiis?? French Fries! He had a ball and couldn't wait for the next day. We headed back to home base to relax:

Nothing like a little hot tub action to relax sore muscles.

We went to the Gashouse for dinner and had some steaks. Decent food but not extrodinary. I think we were all really tired too. We went back to the house and watched an excellent movie picked out by Meggan: Eastern Promises. If you like movies about the Russian mafia and people getting their throats slit, this movie is for you. I would have much rather watched Bruce Willis in Live Free or Die Hard. Anyway, we got some good sleep before day 2 on the slopes.

Arjen had a hard time leaving us again in the morning but had a good time despite us not being there:

I think we have a powder hound in the making!

Ab, Beau and I met at the mid mountain lodge after some early runs. It was COLD! After a warm up of coffee and Doritos we made a run down Redtail:

Sorry about the F-bombs in this video. I couldn't resist posting it!

We decided to take a half day on the hill and try to beat traffic down the hill. Well, we missed most of the bad traffic but it gave our little man a nice rest:

Skiing is hard work!!

We're going up again this weekend for more....

Goin snow ridin'!!

Finally we're making a trip up to the high country this weekend to do a little snow slidin'. Conditions look great!!! Yeah, yeah. Beaver Creek is a little hoity toity but after those stuck up richer than rich folks go out for one run, they're done. I'm talking about no lines and lots of good snow baby!! This will also be the first time Arjen hits the snow on skiis...I think he's gonna be a big fan! More to come....

A new year, a fresh start

Can you believe that it's 2008? It seems like yesterday that we were partying down on the year 2000. Everything was supposed to change, get better, move forward. (Y2K??!!) I rang in the new millennium at my bro's new house with a Champagne fountain, a relatively new girlfriend and some of my best friends in the world... remember the after party where we all had our own room to dance in?? Guess you had to be there and those of you who were there will remember it forever!!

Why am I reminiscing you ask? Well, it looks like 2008 will be my new millennium. My work situation has changed and good friends have moved far away. We've also got bad news right away with my mom being diagnosed with cancer. I've come to accept that change and bad things happen whether you like it or not. Love, positive thoughts and caring actions keep us all moving forward and help us get through the bad moments in life. I'm the luckiest human alive to have such a tight loving family.

Wow. I'm getting a bit moooshy here... as long as I'm in a one love mood ... how about this:

Peace, and best of luck on 2008 everyone!!!

Make You Stronger It Will

I've been down and out with a nasty chest cold since New Year's Day. I even broke down and went to the doctor fearing that I might have bronchidous or some other infection. Yep, it was a sinus infection making my mucous a nice brown green tint. Nastiness! I'm a few days into my antibiotics and I feel a lot better. The bad thing is that the rest of my family now has it.

Arjen and I went to the Nuggz-76er game on Sunday. It was his first game and he did really well. The kid ate an entire Super Hotdog. I also introduced him to Pepsi (Mommy didn't like this at all!). His favorite parts were:

1) The blimps flying around the arena dropping coupons.

2) Carmelo Anthony

3) The railroad and trains outside the arena.

At least he liked one part of the actual game!

I decided to go on the shop ride yesterday even though I was just getting past coughing my lungs out. The ride was slated as being a single speed ride at either a) Boulder Valley Ranch or b) the Ghetto trails around Lyons. Due to the muddy conditions in Boulder, we all decided to stick around Lyons. I thought it would be an easy spin around the trails of Lyons but it turned into an epic Lyons town ride. We started the ride with a short hill climb to one of the quarries that surround town. It was a burner! It wasn't long before I saw the group powering ahead and fading into the dark up the hill and I was climbing by myself. At one point Dave waited and said "Make you stronger it will!" Yes Jedi Dave, it will and it did. I don't mind always chasing the group, it definitely gives me a fitness level to strive for.

The rest of the ride went up, down and around town. We estimated that the ride was between 15 and 20 miles by the time we made it to Oskar's for some beers. Not bad for a mid winter night ride. Good times!

The Christmas Chronicles

We definitely had challenges getting back to Iowa for Christmas. Our original flight (a direct flight) to Moline was canceled due to low visibility in Moline. According to the crack team of United customer service agents on their 800 number, we were not going to be able to get on a different flight for another 3 days. Nice, real nice. So like the rest of the adventurous holiday travelers with canceled flights, we stood in line to talk to someone who could actually help us.

It turns out that we could fly standby on a flight to Chicago (about 3 hours by car from our destination) but it was taking off in 20 minutes and it was on the complete other side of the concourse. Great, now we get to run. The kids thought it was hilarious. Ab was pushing Sage in the stroller and I carried Arjen. At one point Arjen was laughing historically and said "my underwear is falling off!!". Sure enough, his pants were coming off but there was no time to stop. The other travelers were definitely getting some entertainment out of this.

We arrived at the gate to find that the flight had been delayed for another 2 hours. Wow, at least we got a workout in! Nothing to do now but wait:
I'm pretty sure they put the moving sidewalks in the airport to simply entertain kids. We must have done 40 laps while waiting for the flight that we might not get on. Luckily, there were a bunch of people that didn't make it for this flight and we were able to get on. The unlucky part was that it was now 9:00pm (waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay past bedtime) and we weren't due to get into Chicago until after midnight.

We arrived in Chicago (the black hole of travel) with two cranky kids, no luggage and a reservation at the Hilton attached to the airport. We didn't get to bed until 1:30 am. The next morning, uncle Bruce and uncle Dave picked us up for the journey to Iowa. The airport was nice enough to lone us a puke encrusted car seat for Arjen to sit in. An hour into the trip we had to make a pit stop:

Ah, the beautiful scenery of Illinois. We even got to stop at an "Oasis" which consisted of a McDonald's, Subway and a gas station.

On the way, we decided that we should stop by the Moline airport (since it was on our way) to see if our luggage had magically appeared there. No dice. Onward to Ab's parent's house. We arrived around dinner time and had Happy Joe's Pizza. They have some interesting creations including but not limiting to: BLT pizza, sauerkraut pizza and taco pizza.

The next day (Christmas Eve) Ab's mom took us over to a friend's house who had turned their garage into a train diorama. Arjen was ecstatic:

We also had the bi-annual Christmas cookie decoration extravaganza at Grandma's house with the cousins:

Santa even came to visit. Did you know that Santa can play the guitar? He played three tunes and gave each of the kids a present.

Santa Rocks!

Christmas Day we went over to Dave and Michelle's (Ab's sister) house for lots of food and some sledding action down their big hill:

The orange tobaggons were the fastest and went the most straight.

Zach, Matt and I at the bottom. Notice my super sweet snow gear I picked up at the local farm store.


Ab and Arjen rocking the tube down the hill.

Dave gave us rides back up the hill with his snowmobile.

We sledded for about 5 straight hours until the sun went down. Good Times! I had a lot of photos of the festivities inside, but photos of opening presents and eating are really not all that interesting to look at.

Even though we didn't receive our bags until Christmas Eve, the pain and suffering of travel was well worth it once we got there. I think we'll take a hard look at making the drive next time around...