Last day of the season

Ski season, that is. And by "last day" I mean "last day as far as I know."

Skiing? On April 5th? Why yes, thank you. And it wasn't bad, either. The weather held out for the most part - a few icy flakes on occasion, but generally reasonable. And there were a few inches of new from last night's snow. It got a little slushy in the afternoon, but not as bad as it was the last time we went to Snoqualmie back in February. Which is good, 'cause I really don't need any more thumb injuries, thank you very much.

So, why after three great days of skiing at nice ski areas like Baker and Crystal did we head up to Snoqualmie again? Well, for one thing it's "free" since we've got passes. And for another it was the final make-up lesson for all those weekends lost to avalanche control. But it wasn't just a normal make-up lesson, no...it was also "Webbski Fun Weekend" or whatever. Which meant the kids got to wear numbers like they were in a race:



And race they did. At least once, anyway, in a double-slalom thing. Logan apparently won his race, thanks to his opponent falling down. But hey, a win is a win, right? Right!

And now that ski season is officially over, it's time to focus more on the bike. Like, oh, a lot more.

Cleaning out the phone...

Cell phone shot of the day, although I'm not sure what day it was...

---

Update: Just figured out when that was...well, roughly anyway: it was taken at Everett Memorial Stadium last summer during an Everett AquaSox game. So now you know.

Today's video

Not as good as the original, or the subsequent "I'm #$@&ing Ben Aflek" response, but what the hell...



And thanks to nephew Matt for pointing me to it!

It's baaaaack...

What's back, you ask? Why only the finest reality TV show of them all. No I'm not talking about that Survivor stuff or the Amazing Race or whatever, I'm talking about the only reality show on TV where the contestants are not just allowed, but required to beat the crap out of each other in order to win. That's right, it's time for a new season of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike. And to make it even better, rather than just bringing 16 guys to Vegas and breaking them in to teams of 8 this year they brought in 32 guys, paired them off, gave them 2 days to train and cut weight, and threw them in the ring with the winner of each fight staying on the show and the losers going home. This, as UFC President and reigning bald guy Dana White said, will "weed out the pussies" (or words to that effect...).

 

In last night's opener they showed 3 or 4 full fights and "highlights" of a couple more, ranging from a couple stand-up slug fests to a nice, boring wrestling match, with a couple of tap-outs, one knock-out, and a few decisions (like, oh, the boring wrestling match). The previews for next week's episode (the final 8 "qualifying" fights) looks good as well, with the overly dramatic announcer mentioning "the hardest knockout in Ultimate Fighter history" - complete with video of an abulance and audio of sobbing, moaning, and sirens. Woo hoo!

The end of the season

The next to the last day of the Chicken family ski season has come and gone. We spent Sunday and Monday at Baker, where Maya decided that she actually does like skiing and Paige remembered that, while it hurts, it is kind of fun. So today we got up early, left the house early, and drove the 8 bagillion miles (OK, so it only felt like that) to Crystal Mountain.

Paige and the kids hadn't been there before...I went for the Vertical Express for MS ski event back in February. It was a gorgeous day - sunny, cool but not cold, and there were very few people there...pretty much ideal conditions!

We started out on the Discovery chair, the Crystal bunny hill. Maya, as you can see from the photo, was excited.

Heck, even Paige and Logan seemed to be pretty psyched!

After a few runs on Discovery the kids were bored with it and even Paige was ready to move on to something a bit harder, so we headed over to the Chinoook Express six-pack chair, then moved on to the Forest Queen Express. This was the only mistake of the day...while the Queens run down from the top of the chair is rated a green circle, there's a pretty steep section of the hill, and Paige don't do the steep. She had to side-step down a chunk of it, but once she got to the bottom she did fine. The kids, meanwhile, rampaged their way down pretty much every hill in their way.

Once we got back down to the base we had lunch, then headed back up. While Paige stayed on the low runs from the top of Chinook Express, the kids and I headed back up to Forest Queen until they were worn out, then went back down to meet the wife. For our final run, Logan and I went up to the top - not all the way up to High Campbell, since we're not up for that double-diamond stuff, but up the Rainier Express to take in the view. And what a view it was! The mountain was out in full force, looking even more impressive than the crappy cell phone camera can communicate:

So, the up shot of three great ski days in one week?

1. Maya is now stoked on the skiing and ready for lessons next year
2. Paige is smitten with Crystal and is now stoked for next year's Vertical Express
3. My legs have been sore for pretty much a week.

In other words, everything's bitchin'!

Things I don't want to find on the beach

1. Oil-coated sea creatures
   
2. Dead, rotting sea lion (been there, done that, it stank)
3. Birds snared in 6-pack rings
   
4. Beached whale
5. Human head in a plastic bag

OK, the others would be bad, but the head in the bag thing would give me nightmares.

A fine weekend with one or two small faults

We start on Saturday, when I didn't post anything. Why? Well, 'cause I was sah-lammed. Got up, drove down to Gasworks with my bike and Dad's bike (the Sekai I'm selling, if you're interested), rode up to Bothell and back (only 30 miles, not the 40 I was supposed to ride), and didn't sell it 'cause the chick who claimed her boyfriend wanted to buy it never returned my call (fault #1). From there it was home, shower, swap out the bike rack for the ski rack, load the car, and head up to lovely Glacier, WA for two days of skiing at Mt. Baker.

Here we come to fault #2: the house we rented. We've rented properties through Mt. Baker Lodging for years. Basically, they provide property services for home owners in the various communities up there, market the houses, handle cleaning and maintenance, etc. Well, the house we rented, Snowline #26, sounded great: 3 bedrooms (we had some friends coming with us), hot tub, game room, no pets allowed, pretty dang perfect. Well, it wasn't.

First off, the big problem: The hot tub didn't work. Well, that's not quite true: technically it worked - it held water, and the water wasn't frozen. But it wasn't hot. 77 degrees is not hot. So we called. They sent out a guy. He did something. It didn't help. Now, I don't know about you, but after a day of skiing I'm sore. And a nice hot hot tub feels dang good. A warm shower is fine, but it's not the same.

The second problem with ol' Snowline #26 was the layout. It's weird. You enter, the hallway makes a "T", you go up two steps to the kitchen on the right, or down another hall to the dining room / living room on the left. There's one bedroom next to the living room, the other two are up stairs...through the kitchen. Weird. And, as with many homes we've rented up there, the lighting was less than ideal.

OK, enough bitching about the lodging. How was the snow, you ask? Well...you saw the picture I texted in yesterday, so you know it was white. And deep. And, in a word, awesome. They had something like 50" last week, so there was plenty of powder. Sunday Paige and the kids hung out on the handle tow at the Heather Meadows "upper lodge", although I did steal Logan away to do a couple runs on one of the chairs (since he's in 5th grade he gets to ski there for free).

The big news of Sunday was that Maya, who has previously had a hate-hate relationship with the skiing thing, had a blast. Logan helped her get a moderate grip on the snowplow / pizza stop, a bit of turning, and a whole bunch of speed. She was in heaven.

Today was even better, with again one fault. The fault? Forgetting to put on sunscreen. Ouch. It wasn't sunny most of the day...in fact, we woke up to several inches of snow down in the lowlands of Glacier (and 5" of new up at the ski area!). But it was sunny enough that without sunscreen my pasty redhead skin got torched, as did the girl's. But enough about that...back to the snow! There were even fewer people up there today, what with it being a Monday and all. The upper lodge was closed, and since the White Salmon handle tow is all of 100 feet long or something, Paige and Maya both bought lift tickets today and spent most of their time on Chair 7 where Logan discovered the joy of skiing through fresh, deep, powdery snow, something we don't really see up at Snoqualmie (there, when the snow is deep it tends to be heavy and stop you short).

So, all in all, in spite of the weird layout, the busted hot tub and the sunburn, a successful ski trip!

Ah, snow...

Missed yesterday because I was too busy. Today's excuse? Baker!

Weather

So it's cold here in Seattle. To quote from the KOMO weather page,

Believe it or not, Minneapolis was actually warmer than Seattle today, reaching 43 degrees while Seattle only reached 42. That 42 degrees, if it holds, would set the record making this the coldest high temperature for March 28th, breaking the previous record of 43 degrees.

Mr. Moe is doing his smug dance today. Or whatever dance it is when you laugh at the people who laughed at you for moving somewhere really cold when it's colder back where you came from than where you moved. Or something.

Now, this cold isn't a bad thing...it's been snowing. Not just down here in the city, but up in the mountains where it counts. And more importantly, at Mt. Baker where we Chickens will be spending a couple days. And by "snowing" I mean "an ass-load of snow". Like to the tune of 50 inches since Sunday (as of 2:00 this afternoon). Here's their snow report:

What an incredible week it has been at Mt. Baker, with more than 50 inches of new snow falling since Sunday, and temperatures very cold for the end of March! Forecasts are calling for continued moderate snowfall today and Saturday, with possible clearing on Sunday, and freezing levels staying below 1,000 feet.

Now, all this is well and good for the skiing, but I'm also in bike training. And I need to ride 40 miles tomorrow morning. Wonder what the forecast says? Let's jump back to KOMO and find out:

Saturday will be another mix of these rain and/or snow showers, with snow most likely above 300-500 feet, but accumulations an inch or less -- kind of like today, but not as widespread. Highs will try to reach the mid 40s, but will cool during any showers. On the other hand, sunbreaks should be more plentiful than today.

Hmm...not promising. What does Accuweather say? Mostly cloudy with showers, high 48. More importantly, the "hourly forecast calls for:

9 AM: Rain, 37
10 AM: Cloudy, 39
11 AM: Cloudy, 42
Noon: Cloudy, 44

Well, since I plan on riding from 9 to noon I guess I'll get wet, then dry out, and generally be cold. Lovely!

The wonder of th' internets

Some advice for you if you're trying to drop off the grid. Not sure if some of the items are legal...like, say, #5, "become a diplomat": somehow I think the IRS wouldn't take kindly to my suddenly declaring that I didn't have to pay taxes because the the Chicken household was an embassy of Namibia. Although the idea of a USSR passport and driver's license has a certain James Bond appeal...

Derby photos

I think I promised photos of Bout 1, Season 4 of the mighty Rat City Rollergirls, didn't I? Well, here's a link to the Picasa album:

RCRG S4B1

Personally, my favorite is this one, 'cause Dr. 5ive looks like a beatnik rather than a revolutionary. And Jinx, as always, just looks cute:

Wanna buy a bike?

I've got, um, 4 of them for sale...soon to be on Craigslist (maybe tomorrow), but here are the specs, from largest to smallest:

1. Sekai Grantour 2500 10-speed, circa 1980-ish. It was my Dad's bike, a bit too big for him, really, and it's been sitting in Mom's garage since probably the mid to late '80s. As far as I can tell it's got a 62cm frame (down-tube), with a 34" stand-over height. It's a 10-speed with the classic "fingertip shifters" that were all the rage back in the day. Here's a picture:
   
   
2. Fuji Royale 12-speed, early '80s model. I rode this in the mid to late '80s, toured the Oregon Coast and about half of England on it, but it's just too big. No idea what I was thinking back then, but clearly it wasn't "gee, if I stop fast and have to put both feet down I'm going to be in a LOT of pain". It's a 57cm frame, roughly, with a 33" standover height and a full touring setup (although the rear fender is missing):
   
   
3. Atami Grantour 10-speed, early '80s vintage. This was my bike before I went insane and got the Fuji, and even IT is a bit too big. Man, my legs must have shrunk. It's a 52cm frame with a 31.5" standover, fingertip shifters, fenders and a rear rack. There's currently no seat, but hey, I'd be glad to pull the seat off one of the other bikes for you if that would help.
   
   
4. And finally, the newest and smallest of the bikes is a Fuji Newest, maybe a 2005 model. It's all super-modern, 18 speeds (or maybe 21...I didn't count), those fancy-pants rapid-fire shifters on the brake levers, street-level camouflage (meaning it's gray...), etc. I bought this one off of Craigslist last month thinking it was the right size, but clearly my 18 years of mountain biking have warped my sense of size, 'cause it's way too short. The guy I bought it from billed it as a 49cm frame, but looking on the Fuji site (based purely on the frame color) I think it's really a 44. If only I could get it to breed with the Fuji Royale I might get a bike that's the right size...
   
   

Anyhow, if you're interested in any of these, let me know!

Doh!

Too distracted yesterday by my broken spoke (15 miles in to a 30 mile ride...fortunately it was all in-city and I could catch a bus home so Paige didn't have to rescue me) and retouching the Derby photos to get a post up yesterday. So, uh, now we're aiming for what, Blog 363? Not sure how many I've missed...

My ears are ringing

Why? 'cause tonight marked the start of my second-favorite sporting season (after Football, naturally): Roller Derby!

Haven't processed the photos yet (and there aren't a huge number 'cause I got there too late to get the choice trackside seat, and therefore many photos feature the shoulder of the guy in front of me), but will post a few tomorrow. Suffice it to say it was fun, it was loud, and both of the wrong teams won. Damn.

Album cover, take 3 or 4

So this one doesn't exactly follow the rules of the album cover meme, 'cause I got the band name from Tina's description of the smell of prenatal vitamins. But the album title and cover art do follow. Although admittedly I tweaked the coloring of the picture so it would look cooler...

Some advice for this Good Friday

Thanks to the Daily Telegraph and the Philipine Health Department, we now know that crucifixion is bad for you. But if you're going to do it, please bring plenty of water to make sure you stay hydrated. Oh, and don't forget to get a tetanus shot, and autoclave the nails you plan to use...

A post for Tina, the Gallivanting Monkey, on my experience as the dad of two kids

OK, so I was reading Gallivanting Monkey's latest post about weather to have a second kid or not. And in the comments section my friend (and Tina's) John commented that, and I quote,

"Exponentially more challenging, a harder challenge than you can imagine, no SERIOUSLY I'm not just being cute about that, also indescribably wonderful, also VERY VERY HARD."

Well, I had this great rebuttal comment all written out at work, but I didn't submit it for a while and apparently Blogger doesn't like that. Or is all attention-deficited or something. Anyway, it lost it and I didn't have time to re-write it. So then I came home and compared notes with Mrs. Chicken, wrote up the response and decided it was too long for a comment and to post it here instead. So, for what it's worth, here's my opinion on the difficulty of raising two kids as opposed to raising one: don't listen to John. Or, more accurately, listen to him, then listen to me, then make up your own dang mind. Here's our experience:

Having two is definitely not exponentially harder than one. Hell, it's not even linearly harder than one. Now clearly we are lucky: Logan was (and remains) a great first kid - he's smart, he self-entertains, he's secure in his place in the family, and he's generally willing to suck it up. And he was, from day one, excited to be a big brother and we had none of the sibling rivalry stuff. No stuffing the baby in a box and shipping it to Tanzania, no cutting off all her hair, heck, no complaining about having a new body in bed with Mom and Dad. I think this was a combination of who he is, how we raised him for the first 3 1/2 years of his life (co-sleeping, nursing for 2+ years, plenty of snuggling and other positive reinforcement of our love for him), and the fact that, at roughly 3 when we told him he was going to have a little sister, he could understand what was coming and work it in to his world view. It didn't hurt that he had friends in pre-school who also had little brothers or sisters.

Also lucky was the fact that they have genuine affection for each other. They are way closer than I was (or am) to either of my sisters (which isn’t surprising, since they’re 9 and 10 years older than me), and probably get along 80 to 90% of the time. Yes, they fight. Yes, she annoys him and he annoys them. But they work it out, and most of the time they get along great.

All of that leads up to my “not even linearly harder” comment. From day 1 Logan has been Maya’s entertainment. When she was a baby he played with her as a toy, kind of treating her like a stuffed animal (only without the “dragging her around the house by a leg” thing), and as she got older as a playmate. Sure, the first few time she exercised some individuality and didn’t go along with her brother’s grand schemes he’d get upset and break down, but once he realized that she wasn’t a robot things got better.

There is one drawback, at least in our family: the fact that she’s been entertained since day 1 makes Maya much less of an independent player than her brother. So on the days when he’s not around, or when he’d rather be building Legos or drawing comics or whatever, she’s often lost. Bored. Uninspired. In other words, the opposite of her brother who spent the first three and a half years of his life learning to entertain himself.

Which brings me to the final point in the whole thing: Whatever you do, don’t expect kid #2 to be another version of kid #1. If we are in any way typical, he or she will be the exact opposite in many, many ways. In our case, where Logan was quiet, Maya was loud. Where he is generally even-tempered, she can freakin' GO OFF. The list goes on and on. And it’s all good, ‘cause they complement each other well. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t find myself thinking “why does this bother her? It doesn’t bother her brother…”

NERDS! But in an entertaining way...

Nerdiness #1: This weekend is Norwescon, the Northwest Science Fiction Convention. It's going on, as it has since time immemorial (or at least he mid-80s), in glorious SeaTac Washington. In my geeky youth days I went a couple times but a) I wasn't old enough to drink, b) I didn't drink when it was offered (OK, I might have had a beer), and c) I neither rented a room nor hooked up with anyone. Basically I hung out with my friends, listened to some authors and/or speakers, and played games. So now it's Norwescon 31 and my friend Eric, with whom I went lo these many years ago, e-mails me to say "I'm feeling geeky...anyone want to go?" Tempting, but I have to ride the bike.

Nerdiness #2: Patrick Rothfus, author of "The Name of the Wind" (a book you should read immediately if not sooner), is supposedly going to be at Norwescon. Which makes sense, since that's his audience. And he's in town anyway on a book tour. So I'm on his Facebook page and see a link to a post in his blog, and there's this YouTube video called "The Guild". Which totally depicts the modern version of the nerd I was in High School. Or, rather, the uber-nerds I encountered in High School at conventions like Norwescon and DragonFlight (where I may or may not have encountered Steve Chicken over a hotly contested Car Wars tournament). The key difference: we holed up in Eric's basement to slay orcs and whatnot. So there was some f2f...and you couldn't play all day 'cause your Mom would still expect you to mow the lawn.

Anyhow, without further ado, here's episode 1 of "The Guild"

What a difference a day makes...

Here, a day late and a dollar short, is the post I meant to write yesterday...

So I rode both Sunday and Monday, my first moderately serious back-to-back training days. The schedule said 40 miles Saturday and Sunday, but with Paige's birthday madness and my need to watch the kids, Saturday was a no-go. So I figured "Hey, I could drive up to Mom's house on Sunday, check the fit on my old road bikes, then ride home. Then Monday after work I could ride back over there, get the car, and go home!" Genius, right? Well, sort of...

Sunday:

The first problem is that it's not 40 miles from Mom's to my house. It's like 33 or so. But hey, I'm off the training plan anyway, and that's farther than I've ridden so far, so what the heck. The second problem is that I waste a bunch of time and don't get out of the house until 11:10. I'd been aiming for 10:30. Crap. I have to be home by 3:30 so Paige can take Maya to a Girl Scout Cookie site-sale and not have to drag Logan along. "Hmm," I thought, "guess I'll have to push it a bit."

I make it to Mom's in good time (around noon, I think), clean out her roof drains, try out the bikes (both too tall...did my legs shrink, or did I just not care if I racked myself on the cross-bar when I was in High School?), chat with Mom, and hit the road. The first two miles from Mom's house are great: Pretty much straight down hill, not a lot of work, and a chance to get up some serious speed. Being 41 and careful, rather than 18 and nuts like I was the last time I rode this hill, I only topped out at around 35. Still a rush, but not completely out of control. From the foot of the hill I headed west to catch the Lake Washington Loop bike trail, rolling up and down minor hills from Coal Creek to Renton. In Renton things got a bit sketchy, since I wasn't exactly sure what the route was (and, apparently, delivery trucks don't like bikes in Renton 'cause they all honked at me). Eventually I found my way to Rainier Avenue and headed north toward Seward Park.

To this point I'd been making pretty good time, averaging around 15mph on the flats and down hills. Rainier is a bit more hilly, but I still kept the pace up, although I did slow to a pseudo-crawl on the last climb before the drop back to the lake at Seward Park. From there it was flat and smooth up the lake to Leshi (with a brief pit stop at the 20-mile mark), and I was able to keep up the pace. But all things must come to an end, and the nice flat Lakeshore Drive (Lakeview? One of those...) ends and it's time to climb. I chose to go up Madrona, which is long and moderately steep, but also straight. I gear down to the "not quite granny gear" (because my rear deraileur is mis-adjusted and won't stay in the lowest climbing gear) and crank away. And sweat. Lots and lots of sweat.

I finally reach the top of the hill, coast down through a neighborhood or two, and make it to the Arboretum. Which provides another great downhill run, although not as long or as steep as the descent from Mom's so I only hit 27 or so. Still, I'm making good time and cranking away. Across the Montlake bridge, down the Burke Gilman trail to Fremont, then north and up the hill home. I make it there around 3:20, pound some water, take a shower, and collapse in a heap on the couch. Whew!

Monday:

I wake up Monday still exhausted. Not a good sign. And my quads hurt a lot. Not as bad as the day after the one spinning class I've ever taken in my life (which resulted in charley horses so massive I had to take a day off of work because I couldn't go down the stairs...), but still pretty bad. But I shower, gear up, eat, and hit the road. Not to ride in, mind you, just to the bus...which goes well - the legs don't seem to mind riding as much as they do walking. Weird.

I spend most of Monday at work fluctuating between "oh my God I'm tired" and "wow, my legs really hurt." Neither of which is giving me much hope of making it to Mom's in one piece. So I begin revising the plan. First to go: the full route. My initial plan was to ride to Fremont from downtown, then basically repeat Sunday's route in reverse: University, Arboretum, Seward Park, Renton, Coal Creek, then up the hill. I figured this would be 30 miles or so. But 30 miles mid-day and 30 miles chasing darkness are two different things, and I don't think I can safely leave work at 2:30 or whatever. So I opt to cut off the north loop. I'll just head to I-90, ride through the tunnel, then pick up the lake route from there. That'll be more like 25 miles.

Then the afternoon goes on and it's clear I won't get out at 3:30 or 4 either, so I cut out Renton altogether and in the end just do the straight I-90 shot across Mercer Island, then ride down to Coal Creek before beginning the loooong slog up hill. And long it is. Looking at the distance chart you can see that the speed drops like a rock as the elevation starts to climb. And looking at the time-series chart, it appears that the last 2.5 miles took about as long as the first 10, if not longer. Yowch. Definitely not an easy ascent, and I doubt I would have been much faster with fresh legs. Don't remember the hill being that long or that steep when I was a kid...must have grown since then.

The Graphic Evidence

Here's the distance chart for Sunday: High speed (blue, left scale), net altitude drop (green, right scale)...



Then there's Monday (same color/scale scheme, shorter distance), distance and time series:



Gotta love that speed drop at the end...

Best laid plans...

Man, I had plans for a fabulous post tonight, rife with charts and graphs and, perhaps, lots of laughs. But I'm tired and don't want to. So it will have to wait for tomorrow. Suffice it to say I biked yesterday and today with very different results. But you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the evidence.