Quote of the Day: Never too late

It's never too late to be who you might have been.

-George Eliot

Dockside Grill at John Wayne Marina, Sequim Bay

Ummmmm Yummy! While vacationing in Port Townsend last weekend we took a side trip over to John Wayne Marina in Sequim Bay and decided to have an early dinner at the Dockside Grill located at the marina. Boy was I glad we did! Everything we had was great! There was not much in the way of vegetarian meals but I wanted seafood so ordered the seafood salad and Sinan was happy with the Fettuccine. We also had their Cheese Duo appetizer which had both baked brie and cambazola cheeses with tomato relish and baked garlic. Everything was good - Everything was too much so I could not try the desserts - although they looked absolutely wonderful! It is a little pricey and being a small place I would recommend a reservation - we lucked out in that we arrived right at 4:00 - early enough to beat the crowd.

Boat Haul Out - Afloat Again

Yep the boat is safely back in the water and nice and slippery in the water with her clean bottom and smooth prop. We were on Standby at the port for launching but they managed to get us in by about 10:00 right after the Hunter sailboat they tried to launch but because it was leaking too much they had to pull back up. The guys at Port of Port Townsend are great to watch - they are really quite masterful at pulling boats in and out in all sorts of conditions. When launching they lower the boat and wait with it in the slings until you are sure everything is ok.
And the guys at Gold Star Marine get a - well they get a Gold Star! they did a fine job working through my various tasks - I had asked them to install a battery box for a third battery I had and they did more than that - cleaning up a rats nest of wiring and hooking the battery up - they had missed one part of the connection though which they quickly made right at the dock. I am quite happy with the care they took of Attitudes and plan to bring her up for the next big job once I save enough pennies!
After getting up at the crack of dawn today we did not feel like going far - We only went as far as Point Hudson Marina at the other end of town and after a trip to town for a beer and bookstore we have spent the afternoon reading and relaxing. I have the stove cranked up and am heating up some grub then I expect to get back to some heavy reading and sleeping.

Kabul

I have been trying to get my spousal unit to come with me to the Kabul Restaurant in Seattle for quite some time now. He is a rather strict vegetarian and always has the response that Kabul would be a very meat centric place.
But I have been running in to it pretty much every time I search for Vegetarian Fare in Seattle and have been curious to go there. So off we went.

Excellent Food! A little pricey but not too bad. They have a very good vegetarian section on the menu but I notice they also had a variety of carnivore fare!
I'd go back... 

New Restaurant: Coffee Social in Spokane

Congratulations to Matt and Rachel on the opening of their new restaurant. Coffee Social at 113 W. Indiana, Spokane WA if you are in the area check it out. It looks great! They serve organic fair trade food and coffee. I am looking forward to making it over there and checking it out myself. Leave a comment if you go!

Ugly Fish??

One of the fish mags I enjoy is a British magazine: Practical Fishkeeping - They have a web presence and on their latest update they have an article about 10 Ugly Fish - Now most I agree are quite hideous but this one I think is cute!!

I liked the guys comment:
Ogcocephalus darwini (Picture: Niranjan, Creative Commons). In the same order as the anglers, comes this beauty - the Galapagos Batfish, Ogcocephalus darwini. While not in the same horror show category as it's cousins, it still looks like it should have a good shave before it tries make-up again.

Boat haul Out - Back at Work

Well we where back at work today.
The boat is up in Port Townsend in the care of GoldStar Marine. I called them today and the bottom paint was complete plus they replaced a couple through hulls that where going bad. They still have an engine maintenance to do and the hatch to replace plus a few minor things I asked them to check out.
So far I am happy with them, haven't seen their work yet but they recommended my not having them do a few things I had on my list as being too expensive. I appreciate their not trying to do a wallet cleanse on me when they had the opportunity!
The haul out was pretty painless. We got it out on Monday shortly after arriving in Port Townsend. It turns out that the Port had had a couple cancellations and so where able to pull us out right after we got there. That of course made for a frantic bit getting our stuff together and getting ready to go. I had been looking forward to a relaxing afternoon wandering around Port Townsend. But it was good to get it up on land early so they could get the painting done before the weather turned.
I am still hoping for a vacation next week with Boat in water. We'll see how that turns out.

Boat Haul Out - Part One

Well we just made the slowest trip to Port LUDLOW that I have ever made I think. (Instead of Port Townsend as planned!) I imagine the propeller is a big ball of barnacles or something because we just could not make any headway - Tried sailing for a while and the wind was great but from right in front so hard to make headway. We had the tide against us for much of the day also. - We decided to overnight in Ludlow and go to Pt Townsend in the morning. The Haul Out is scheduled for 2:30 on Tuesday so we have plenty of time.

Other than the frustration with the engine smoking from the propeller load and the slow progress it was a nice day. Sunny with a good wind. We did have a nice long and pretty good sail. I really worked up a sweat tacking. We saw porpoises at Point No Point and got to watch the other boaters, cruise ships and wildlife.

Port Ludlow is a nice place to lay over - way fancier than it used to be but this time of year there are not many people. We had a good dinner at the resort restaurant along with a couple drinks which I for one was ready for.

Boating Plans

well not much summer left but I finally made arrangements to take the boat up to Pt. Townsend for bottom paint. In fact I have a whole list of items to work on and am hoping I can get some of them completed. I have hired Goldstar Marine to do the work on the boat, it will be a nice change having someone else do it! So next week we head north.

New Fish: Threadfin rainbow fish, Iriatherina werneri

One of my 20 gallon tanks has been a tad neglected - The "neglect" was on purpose so I am not sure that is the correct term. In any case, It has in the last few months filled up with plants and cheery shrimp and somewhere in there a few Celestial pearl danios. The reason for the neglect and allowing it to become filled with plants was to allow the danios to breed and the shrimp to breed. It seems in both cases to have worked. The tank has a ton of shrimp and a couple new Celestial Pearl Danios.
But before the plants burst out of the tank I knew I had to clean things up and I really wanted to try some new fish. So First thing I caught about 30 of the shrimp and distributed them around to several of the other tanks and then started gradually weeding out the plants. Then it was off to the fishstore where after several rounds of the stock I finally decided to get 5 Threadfin Rainbow fish. I had been eyeing them for quite some time and figured they would make a good addition to the tank.

RSVP 2008

Ride Seattle Vancouver (BC) and Party!!
Boy this ride was HOT this year.... We had better than 90 degrees most of the day Friday and between 95 and 100 on Saturday!
Despite the heat - which I generally do not handle well - it was a fun ride. We had a great group we rode with and in general all of us where able to spend time riding together or apart as our speed and sociability level allowed.
The first day is about 105 miles and takes you up to Bellingham where we had a hotel room waiting. Greg (Social Director par excel-lance!!) had set up a dinner in the hotel that night for the group. The meal was fine - but not having to go anywhere to have it was the best thing! I managed a shower, soak in the hot tub and a little relaxation before walking over to dinner.
The next morning Greg had arranged for an early breakfast - again at the hotel. In years past I would get an espresso in Bellingham and then ride up to Lynden and have breakfast there at the Dutch Mamas(??). But with a group of us it was much easier to ride from the hotel after eating. We had a great day but boy was it hot - 95-100!! The heat of the hwy stretch felt like you where riding through an oven.

Mona's

Ok not sure what it was. The laid back bartender who took my order for a fruity drink in stride and brought me a very tasty Cosmo.... Something about the place is al right. Thumbs up from me!

RAMROD 2008

Don't bother googling RAMROD - you would be amazed at the hits you get by throwing that into a google search. Well probably you can imagine....
Anyway it is just about 1 week since I went off and rode RAMROD - despite my lack of training this year and certain knowledge that riding it would be a world of hurt I went on ahead and used the registration I had earned by working the ride as safety director last year. Last year the ride was a different ride - because of the flooding at Mt. Rainier and washed out roads we where not able to ride all the way around the park but instead did an elaborate out and back route that gave about the same mileage and I believe more climbing. From a personal note it worked out well for me as my recumbent and I caught a lift up to Crystal Mountain the night before and then I rode in to the ranger station at the base of the Sunrise climb to meet up with the ranger I would spend the day with. We drove up and back with the pack of riders and at the end of the day I got to hop on my recumbent and fly downhill to Enumclaw and the finish line without having to bother with all the little side climbing we sent the rest of the riders up.
This year though was different.... I started the year with good intentions - you know - loose weight ride regularly - I had my sights on a partial brevet series perhaps. All that got side tracked by a variety of work & personal issues and was brought to a screeching halt at the end of Feb. during a disastrous 100k "Populaire" where my tandem buddy and I DNFd with 4 flats and a broken pump. Less than a week later my understanding tandem partner and I decided that the 200k coming up was not going to happen. We have since then gotten back into the swing of things and in fact have done multiple century and metric centuries in preparation for RSVP coming up mid August. For that ride I am feeling fine. It is a nice 2 day ride a little over a century the first day and a relaxing second day. For RAMROD though well - One Day, 150 miles and 10000' no I was not ready.... My choices where simple - give up my registration or ride and hurt.... I decided that I would ride - take a small light and if need be finish in the dark!
Several of my ride buddies rode it this year but they where all actually trained up and in shape so I knew that I could only hope to hang with them during the dark morning hours and then party with them afterwards. As it happened I stayed with them very little. As the day wore on I found myself being passed by and s passing up many of the same riders over and over again. I had you see switched over to full Rando "get er done" mode where stops where as brief as possible... only long enough to allow a bit of food, refill the water bottles hit the head and leave. I would typically be in and out in minutes while the faster riders passing me would actually dawdle over their gatorade and chocolate croissant.... . By the Way: My thanks in this to Shane at the first major stop who got me my bagel and cream cheese while I filled my water bottles and hit the porta potty line thus bypassing a long food line. The important thing when one is off ones pace is to just not stop... keep on going - It is the typical turtle and the hare story. Although as a side note I recently heard a quote about climbing cyclists - Something about good climbers don't suffer less just suffer faster.
Anyway my tactics worked. I actually made decent time the first 100 miles and as usual slowed to a crawl on the long climb up Cayuse Pass. This year I lucked out in that I was late enough and the water was moderate enough that the climb was a little cooler than usual. I only had to stop once outside the deer creek water stop (which never comes soon enough!). At the top of cayuse I drank deep, filled my water bottles and then headed downhill with a light heart because now I was in my strong territory. I love that last 40 miles of mostly downhill and flat run back to the finish. This year I was quite happy to roll in just 14 hours after rolling out....

RAMROD

Thats ride around Mt Rainier One Day
It is 3:50AM and the alarm will go off at 4:00 plan to start at 5:00. Weather looks to be clear and cool. Ideal cycling day!

YeHa 100Miles

Well almost anyway but I didn't feel like staying in the saddle for the extra 4 miles to round it out by riding around and around the neighborhood....
Someone in the crazy group of cyclists I associate with decided that getting up at the crack of dawn July 5th and going for a 100 mile ride would be a good thing. So I hooked up with my Tandem buddy Max and we decided to join in the fun. As she put it - "A flat ride with a visit to a bakery, I'm in!"
So up I got at 5:45AM with the Greg, Ruth and Max meeting at my house at a little before 6:30. We then rode on down to the Montlake bridge to meet up with Barb. We then rode on down along Lake Washington to Renton and off towards Black Diamond Bakery for lunch. Then off to flaming geyser and back up along the lake .
At the end of the day we rolled back home with just under 100 miles. A good day!

Sometimes it's the little things....

Been feeling rather low the last few days.... Too many aches and pains and not enough hugs in my life or something.

Today I got to go in to a podiatrist to try to figure out what was causing the foot pain I have started having on the bicycle. It has gotten better since I moved my cleats back a quarter inch (!!) during rides but after the rides now I have severe pain on the outside of my foot/ankle. Mostly it has been on my left foot which is my "good" foot. My right which was smashed when Ginger my horse fell on me back in my teenage years has always been picky but was not the one that was really hurting this time. Anyway got in to see the Doc. and he asked lots of questions poked and prodded (ouch!) and took X-Rays of both feet.

While going over the X-Rays with me (don't you love the digital X-Ray technology that allows them to pull up the pics on a laptop in a few minutes!) he was amazed at the amount of damage in my right foot. Evidently it was fractured and dislocated across the ball of the foot and never correctly set. I remember they just treated the whole thing like a sprained ankle, wrapped the foot and gave me crutches. He mentioned that it was a good thing my exercise of choice was cycling that running or track would have been out. I said I did do track and gymnastics - his response: "After this injury?!" "Yep!" he said if he showed the X-Ray to his colleagues they would never believe the person with it had done sports afterwards....
But wait it gets better - he was curious whether I had kids and whether they where as active as I was. When I told him I had a 25 year old daughter he was shocked - when I said I was 50 he was quite surprised - Said he must have the age on the chart but I did not look or act 50.... SCORE!

Yep Little things... Made me feel good all day.

Oh and the foot? Shot of cortisone and a very good wrap job - oddly enough the tape is on the bottom of the foot and just slightly up the side and over the area behind the toes. It really feels better - I am hoping to get on the bike today and try it. Next week I go back for orthotics and hopefully he will teach me to wrap it myself. He had explanations for what was happening but it will probably be a bit of a trial and error getting the foot happy on the bike. He did not think I should curtail my activities so that is good enough for me.

Flying Wheels 100

We Did It!

100miles, minimal training, but still fun!
We even finished in plenty of time to enjoy the finish line festival.

Quote of the Day: You can't depend on your eyes...

"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
-Mark Twain

Quote of the Day: Point of No Return

"You get such a wonderful view from the Point of No Return."
-Moist von Lipwig

Quote of the Day: Gravity

"Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off."
-Terry Pratchett, "Small Gods" (1992)

Rainy Day Training

So today a small group of us headed up to Monroe to ride a hilly route from Monroe to Index and back. Of course being JUNE it was cold and rainy! So most of us decided that maybe if we headed south instead of East towards the mountain we would hit better weather. (My comment was I had not brought my passport so I did not think we could go far enough south...) At this point we lost the other tandem and a couple single bike riders who decided Index was really the way to go. The rest of us headed off towards Carnation by way of a little 4 mile climb up Lake Fontal Rd. and a screaming descent back down to Hwy 203 where we turned to head South some more. I quickly passed the fender-less bikes in the party to keep from eating all the mud and yuck they where throwing up from the increasingly wet and rainy road. And well it was flat and wet and a busy road and I did mention flat right? So I might have pushed the pace a tad - Up to 20+ Pretty soon I spun most of the group off the back so slowed a tad. Especially important that one slows down enough to keep the ride leader close when one does not know the route!
We soon hit our turnoff where we lost three more of or group... They decided the cold and rain was too much fun and they should get out of it before they had too much more...... At this point we headed up NE Cherry Valley Rd. We were down to Max and I on the tandem and Steve the ride Leader and Barb. We stayed together for a while but the single bikes soon out climbed us. Max and I enjoyed the climbing and really enjoyed the long descent afterwards down to Stillwater for a quick break and regroup. We decided to keep heading towards Carnation where Max and I would head off over Union Hill towards Redmond where I was thinking about leaving the bike at the Sammamish Valley cycle for its scheduled maintenance next week and we would call for rescue. Steve was thinking about heading off with us until Barb protested that she had to get back to Monroe! Oopsie! we had forgotten that bit. Steve immediately said not to worry he would hang with Barb. Off we headed (still going South - still rainy, but only a little mist now.) We almost immediately spun Barb off the back when she dropped her chain. We slowed down and let her catch up (I try to be a good paceline participant- and on the flats especially with a strong stoker you have to watch out that you don't ride the single bikes off the back.)
We had a cosy and warm stop at Sandy's(??) in Carnation where we got some warm drinks. We then headed off again this time across the valley where on the downhill by the old Carnation farms we snuck by at speed - Steve managed to jump onto our wheel but Barb wisely decided to save her breath.
Of course soon we where across the valley and Barb and Steve headed back towards Monroe - Max and I headed on up Union Hill - We kept waiting for the really hard part but it never really came. We stopped and took our rain jackets off on the way up. The rain of course had stopped.... Once in Redmond we stopped at the shop and Susan drove up with some dry clothes on and offered us a lift. No worries we where already wet - only had a little bit of flat trail and then a yucky hill back to my house....
So back at home we got almost exactly a 100k ride in.


For the Picasaweb pics:

Rainy Training

Quote of the Day: open mind

"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."
-Terry Pratchett

New Favorite Coffee

Our new favorite coffee is featured at Uptown Espresso and at Portage Bay Cafe. The coffee is Fonte and is a wonderfully flavourful organic coffee.

Sleep or Exercise?

I have had a great week!
Managed to get some exercise in every day. Even got up and made the o-dark hundred spin class Thursday morning. Great class but I was absolutely too tired to do much at work afterwards. Had to fight the urge to eat a zillion M&Ms and drink a bunch of coke which is my normal cure for being too sleepy at work. It helped that I told a co-worker to throw something at me if I went for the M&M stash.
So now I am finishing off the week with a telecomute day. I did not get up early and go to the gym (plan to hop on the bike later) but I am falling asleep!
How can I reach a point where I can exercise and not feel so tired?

Quote of the Day: thinking outside the box

"I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it."
-Terry Pratchett

Quote of the Day: Finish each day...

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quote of the Day: What lies behind...

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Back in the Saddle

It has been a tough year for me and cycling this past year. Between a variety of work and life events I had to more or less pull the plug on training for the Brevets I had hoped to do this year. My tandem buddy and I had attempted the SIR 100k and had planned on doing the 200k. But about that time life decided to smack me in the face and between little sleep and a tough course not to mention 4 flats we DNF'd. A week later I decided I needed to refocus my energies and pulled out of the 200k.
But now things are getting a little calmer and in a wild fit of insanity and probably lack of coffee a couple mornings back I got online and signed up for a 1 day STP. So this is it - I have just over a month to get in shape! I know I won't be at record breaking fitness level but what the heck I got lights!

At the Gym

OK I wanted to at least do a short ride. But it was POURING down rain in Seattle. So We met up with the RCC Mudflappers at Norms in Fremont and had dinner. I was good - One glass of white wine and a salad....

Then off to home where I tossed on the workout clothes and headed for the gym.
I did 20 minutes on the Elliptical Trainer and 35 Minutes on the recumbent cycle. I have decided that the recumbent stationary bikes are supremely uncomfortable and I will stay off them from now on! If I want indoor bent time I'll put my Bacchetta up on the trainer!

I feel good - Listened to an interesting book - "The Weight-Loss Diaries" by Courtney Rubin. Finished it on the drive home. I think I will go back to some of the Terry Pratchett Discworld books from now on.

Sunday Hike

Twas a great weekend for outdoor activities!
After the Hood Canal 200k (or in my case the 100k) on Saturday I was not up for anything strenuous on Sunday but I wanted to get out and do something so I suggested a short hike.
Over the last year or so I have collected various "short hikes around Seattle" type books and after dragging them out and looking through them settled on a 3+ mile easy hike by Tiger mountain. The hike was Hike 8: "Talus Rocks" in the book "Beyond Mount Si" by John Zilly. We drove up to the turn off and as predicted by the book we had to park down the road from the trailhead. That was no problem at all as the walk up was quite pleasant except for the rushing river freeway noise! At the trailhead we visited the facilities and perused the maps. There is a maze of trails leading off from there and of course we decided - well mostly my significant other decided that a different and shorter and flatter route was called for.
No problem as far as I was concerned since my feet where not to happy from the ride the day before.
We had a very pleasant ramble around the lake and a short jaunt down towards the swamp trail which lead us too near the freeway noise as far as I was concerned. I will definitely head back up there for more rambling.

RCC Hood Canal 200K

Great ride! - Left me seriously tired in fact.

The RCC group headed off for a 200k ride around Hood Canal. Wonderful ride, starts by catching the first ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island where we ride off and across the Island, Up to Port Gamble, Hood Canal Bridge then Quilcene arriving after 80miles and a climb over Mt. Walker at Hoodsport for lunch. Then on around to Union, Belfair and finally the Bremerton Ferry back home. Route Here

The ride was organized by the unstoppable RCC social Director "Buck-a-mile Sneed" and his wife "Lovey" They always do a great job putting the ride together and keeping everyone heading more or less in the right direction. The phrase herding cats often comes in to mind.... This year Greg has a line of rides on his the RCC calendar leading up to hopefully a successful RAMROD for some of us... (I do have a ticket to ride RAMROD this year but I am still keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to get enough training time in!)

Now I have not gotten any serious bike time in this year so I was not up for the whole 200k - I called up my tandem buddy Max and she signed on for a 100k of the ride. Since the plan was for some of us to share driving duties this worked out very well. I signed up to drive the ascent and unfortunately also the descent of Walker Pass (fairs fair - if you climb it you should get to descend it also....) plus I figured at Hoodsport we could take over driving duties for the rest of the trip that would give us right around 100K - In fact the odometer was just over 100K at 68 miles when we put the bike on the car in Hoodsport.

The trip was a great success - We felt great and thanks in part to Max's never ending cheerfulness and her willingness to push an undertrained captain around the course I had a wonderful ride! I was ready to get off the bike at Hoodsport as I was feeling the lack of time on the bike. She of course would probably have been ready for some more. I had no major mechanicals to worry over although the bike is overdue for some shop time. We did hit a raised plate hard at the Hood Canal bridge which I believe caused a few spokes to loosen on the rear wheel - Max heard a strange noise from the rear wheel after we got off 104 and where headed for Quilcene. She insisted that we look at the wheel before going down any more screaming descents.... I had a spoke wrench and tightened up the loose spokes. The wheel was fine otherwise.

At Hoodsport we had a fine lunch and then as we were now in charge of the SAG vehicle we made a stop at the Hoodsport Winery where we bought 7 bottles of wine! Then on to Union where Max bought a great T-shirt for her brother and a latte for me. We then headed up to catch the group who where making great time. We normally catch the 5:30 ferry at Bremerton but they managed to get in in time to catch the 4:15!

RIP

Sad weekend in the saltwater box.... I feel it is probably my fault but I am not really sure what happened. Friday I changed about a gallon of the water (this is a nano tank - 10 gallons) at the same time I topped off with some freshwater that was a very weak kalkwasser mix. Checked the salinity, tidied up a bit and left the tank a bit stirred up and murky but nothing abnormal.
The next morning my spotted prawn goby was out of his hole dead and the cleaner shrimp was not looking well. (I lost him two days later.)
I don't know what the deal was - The saltwater I used was aged and the right salinity and temp I am suspicious of the kalkwasser mix I mix it very very weak but I am worried that it causes too much of a PH change in a nano tank.
I still feel badly about the whole deal plus my pistol shrimp is now alone.
These guys are not new to the tank, the tank has been up and running for quite a while.
All a big bummer.
I did add an HOB filter with some carbon right after finding the goby but the cleaner shrimp never did recover.
Sometimes this hobby is really irritating!

Grook of the Day: A Word to the Wise

A WORD TO THE WISE
Let the world pass in its time-ridden race;
never get caught in its snare.
Remember, the only acceptable case
for being in any particular place
is having no business there.
-Piet Hein

Grook of the Day: Grook on Long-Winded Authors

GROOK ON LONG-WINDED AUTHORS
Long-winded writers I abhor,
and glib, prolific chatters;
give me the ones who tear and gnaw
their hair and pens to tatters:
who find their writing such a chore
they only write what matters.
-Piet Hein

Grook of the Day: Out of Time

OUT OF TIME
A holiday thought.
My old clock used to tell the time
and subdivide diurnity;
but now it's lost both hands and chime
and only tells eternity.
-Piet Hein

Grook of the Day: The Cure for Exhaustion

THE CURE FOR EXHAUSTION
Sometimes, exhausted
with toil and endeavour,
I wish I could sleep
for ever and ever;
but then this reflection
my longing allays:
I shall be doing it
one of these days.
-Piet Hein

Grook of the Day: Meeting the Eye

Meeting the Eye
You'll probably find
that it suits vour book
to be a bit cleverer
than you look.
Observe that the easiest
method by far
is to look a bit stupider
than you are.
-Piet Hein

Hot weather cycling

After snow in late April we now get 90s in May?!
Sinan and I got up early and tossed the tandem on the car and headed down to gasworks to join some RCC riders in a nice social ride. First down to the new Portage Bay Cafe for breakfast and then off to West Seattle for coffee. Pretty much all flat and good thing to because it was really hot! We came back by way of Fisherman's terminal and Fremont. Around about 25 miles in all.

Mom's Day

On the way to Mom's on a nice Sunday. Started off rainy up in Seattle but now we are nearing Tacoma it is sunny. I plan to do the normal things with Mom: help her with quicken, make sure her computer is up to date with patches and anti virus software and is backed up. I would really love to get her onto a Mac. It would save her from many of the annoyances that windows plagues her with! I may yet do it but it will not be a trivial change for her. She is still on windows 2000 and a very old version of quicken. At 86 she is not really up for large changes even for the better.

Grook of the Day: Problems

Problems

Problems worthy

of attack

prove their worth

by hitting back.

-Piet Hein

Spontaneous Fry Generating tank?!

OK Too Weird!

For the GSAS Auction I cleaned out and re-arranged several tanks. In the process I moved the tiny Celestial Pearl Danio's I had gotten as Fry from their 2 gallon tank to a newly fishless 20 gallon -
(Yes they love it but so do the shrimp! with no competition they are
multiplying like mad!! But that is another story)
- Anyway I did not get around to tearing down the fry tank and it has been sitting with moss, heater and a small filter since then. No light except for the window and pretty much ignored.

Today I happened to look in there and found fry!

What the heck!
I accused Esra of putting some spare fry in my tank until she pointed
out that they where probably the celestial pearl danio babies. I
thought they had been too young to lay eggs - guess not.......

Grook of the Day: T.T.T.

T. T. T.
Put up in a place
where it's easy to see
the cryptic admonishment
T. T. T.
When you feel how depressingly
slowly you climb,
it's well to remember that
Things Take Time.
-Piet Hein

Grook of the Day: ARS BREVIS

ARS BREVIS
There is
one art,
no more,
no less:
to do
all things
with art-
lessness.
-Piet Hein

Grook of the Day: Problems

Problems
Problems worthy
of attack
prove their worth
by hitting back.
-Piet Hein

Winning the Lottery

I wish.... 

I guess if I really wanted to win the lottery I would actually have to play it but hey with the odds being what they are maybe it is just as well I rarely indulge. Today though I was quite tempted. It was one of those days when just about anything would have been better than what I was doing. Not quite everything was going wrong but I am sure the other shoe will drop tomorrow.....

Ah well, the paychecks still don't bounce....

Grook of the Day: The Eternal Twins

The Eternal Twins
Taking fun
as simply fun
and earnestness
in earnest
shows how thoroughly
thou none
of the two
discernest.
-Piet Hein

Grook of the Day: Omniscience

Omniscience
Knowing what
thou knowest not
is in a sense
omniscience.
-Piet Hein

Ravena Varsity Cafe

Thanks for the burned banana nut pancakes and the ridiculously slow service. A tip: if your gonna take forever to get the food out, at least refill the coffee cups. Another tip: turning the burnt side down does not make over-crisped pancakes taste better.

Hopefully the next time we choose the Ravena Varsity Cafe for breakfast it will be back up to it's normal uninspired but edible standard.

Grook of the Day: Missing Link

Missing Link
Man's a kind
of Missing Link.
Fondly thinking
he can think.
-Piet Hein

Sunday Morning

I had hoped to get a decent sleep last night but unfortunately spent the night in a bizarre dream loosely based on some weird television (probably) and the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey.... Lots of death and destruction. Maybe not so much red wine before bed perhaps??

Anyway my morning started way too early after that when Sinan decided he was going to get up and rearrange his desk and computer and play his music - all before 7:00AM. Needless to say I was not a happy camper when I tossed the pillow off my head and got up. I still have not gotten a better mood really. Maybe I will take off to a garden store and see if that cheers me up.

Discus Fry

Wow! My discus have gone from emaciated (see 2D Discus) to the proud parents of ooodles of baby discus! They had been laying eggs for a little while and even hatching them out but they are in a community tank and I suspect the Bolivian rams where getting the fry. So I sold all the Bolivian Rams at the GSAS auction in mid April and sure enough the next batch of eggs hatched out and the fry survived. I took out the third discus so now that tank has the discus parents and babies, lots of plecos (too many actually), corries, and cardinal tetras. The fry are happily slurping up the slime on the parents and the parents are doing a great job protecting them from all.

What's with the weather?

OK we took the long drive back from Whistler today leaving the snow behind us - or so we thought! Turns out there was snow everywhere from Vancouver to Seattle..... This has been one strange year.

We got home fine despite the strange weather. Stopped in Vancouver at several bookstores and picked up a couple more batches of paperbacks to add to the collection.

The birds and fish are all fine of course and I found that the Discus have free swimming fry! I had taken out all the rams from that tank and put some slate in and I noticed they laid eggs before we left for the ski trip. They seem to be holding their own even though there are a number of corrys and bristle nose plecos in there with them. I took out the third discus to give them a little more chance at making it. So far the parents are doing a great job. They sure have come a ways since their emaciated discus days.

Looking out at Whistler Snow

Sitting here in the local free wireless coffee place at Whistler futzing with the blog and reading email. Thanks to the folks at Blenz for letting us sit here snarfing wireless and electricity and not coincidentally drink coffee and eat carrot cake.... Outside it has been snowing off and on and the webcam up top shows lots of new snow. Sinan and I are way to knackered to go out again today though. Jocelyn and Nick should have a great time in the new snow tomorrow.

Swoosh Swoosh

Second day at Whistler and we headed up Blackcomb mountain today. Conditions are decidedly spring skiing. There are sections of ice, sections of slush, the whole range....

Sinan had  a short day yesterday on Whistler mountain and had to go down to the village before us since he was having problems with altitude and breathing. I caught up with him back at the hotel after a couple more runs in the clouds. Whistler mountaintop was really whiteout conditions. It freaked me out several times since I could not see more than 10 feet in front of me. Luckily we were in areas where there where orange markers for the edge of the ski area so we just followed them down out of the clouds.

Anyway today we headed up Blackcomb and the weather was clearer we even got sunshine. Unfortunately the run down from the top started on a section of really bad ice and Sinan wore himself out fighting it. I was not too happy with it either and my butt is really unhappy with the hardness of the snow up here! After we made it down that bit we realized that Sinan was going to need rest and possibly a helicopter to get down! I finally sent off Nick and Jocelyn and got Sinan to get up and walk a bit. He started walking down so I kicked off my board and carried skies and board down behind him. Pretty soon Nick and Jocelyn came by again with Nick's friend who kindly put Sinan's skis on his pack and head off to where Sinan was. He got him to ski down some more and pretty soon we got down to a chair where we could head on down a cat track while the rest of them went up the chair. That began an epic cat track run/hike. We had to stop a lot and let Sinan's legs stop shaking and we alternated walking and riding/skiing. I did manage to perfect my goofy foot forward riding since my normal turns where towards the cliff and trees. I also managed to learn how to turn 360s on the snow..... Pretty cool. My legs at this point are pretty much worthless though. 

We did eventually make it down to a chair lift which could take us down to the bottom. We got off walked across the street and sat down in the bar and had water beer and veggie burgers. That helped a lot! Walking back tot the hotel was a bit of a trial but getting there and hitting the shower was heaven! 

"Minky" the Axolotl

This was the weekend of the GSAS auction - I was uncharacteristically restrained this year but I did well in my mission to revamp the boxes of water at the house. I got rid of all the Bolivian Rams I have raised up over the last few years - They are great fish and I highly recommend them! But I wanted to delve in to different species and I especially wanted to set up a tank for a mudskipper. I saw them a few weeks ago at a shop in West Seattle. I want to set up a species tank for one! One thing I could not resist though was a very cute little axolotl. He has been dubbed "Minky" by a friend who had pointed the species out to me some time back....

Tandem Jaunt

So it was a pretty busy weekend. Some of the gang from work hit the slopes on Friday and spent a very nice day snowboarding and skiing. I had a very good day, hardly fell at all except for one memorable tumble on a packed cat track which made me quite happy to have a helmet. Even with the helmet I came out of it slightly stunned and with a sore head. I of course accused Sinan of taking us up that run just to get rid of me. Dick explained to him that he should have invested in a breakaway helmet for me.
Anyway we had a great time and on the drive down I got a call from Max my tandem buddy. She wanted to know if we were riding the next day, Saturday. See we made plans (wine might have been involved) to do a 100k and 200k in early March. So some time on the bike was in order! We agreed that around noon was a great time to start out.
So Saturday after a bit of a lie in and some excellent oatmeal (plus some house cleaning but let’s not go there) we set off for an unknown distance on an unknown route. It was a beautiful spring day so the route gradually morphed into one with a maximum of lakeside riding eventually ending up as a south lake Washington loop route. Max was really feeling her oats and pushed the pace any time any racer boys had the temerity to get close or even worse pass us. I on the other hand was feeling the snowboarding I had done the day before. The legs were a little tired, but it was such a nice day it did not really matter and we flew down towards Seward park. In one of the route morphs we decided to do a south lake loop and so I made an abrupt turn to head up. In the turn I felt that strange out of control feel in the bike that told me that we had a flat. On stopping we found the rear tire soft but not flat so decided to pump it and go on. A few miles down the road in a busy Rainier avenue we had to stop and pump again at which point we knew we had to change the tire but decided to see if we could get to a more pleasant spot to do it. After a quick pump we went off and around the Renton airport and rolled to a stop in a Boeing walkway to change the tube. At this point I realized several things: only 1 of my two spares was the correct size, I was being particularly clutzy and my patch kit had migrated elsewhere. So between the being a clutzy and being extra careful I took forever to change that tube. In randonneur mode I could have had dinner and a nap in the time it took! No worries though no one was waiting for us or laughing at us so off we went…. Eventually….
After a quick stop for some supplies at target and a bathroom stop at Gene Coulin park we continued on around the lake when another turn and I felt that same squirelly feeling along with a sinking feeling about the lack of patches or spares…. No we had not missed a piece of glass this flat was due to a defect in the rubber near the stem. In any case we called for a pickup and started walking. Pretty soon an older gentleman came along and offered help. He had a patch kit and a lecture on being more prepared for us and pretty soon we were on our way…..