Happy Fathers' Day

Dad?

I Don't Want to Worry About Dying

Well you can keep tomorrow; after tonight we're not going to need it.
...
We used to dream; now we worry about dying.
...
I don't want to worry about dying; I just want to worry about those sunshine girls.


With lyrics like that, it's no wonder I like the Japandroids. While influences like "your sister" are a little too specific to reach my sisterless demographic (perhaps influences such as "your mom" would be more far reaching (hi, mom; hope the title of this blog didn't scare you)). Anyway, I heard this Canadian duo live on KEXP (you can listen on-line, try it) this week. I used to get all my new music from snowboarding videos, now I hear most of it on KEXP (it's like NPR but for music, no commercials just the occasional pledge drive).

Next post, why I no longer like microbreweries. I'll give you a hint: 10^-9breweries.

one year from today

I'm in Wisconsin for a few days visiting my family. We went wedding dress shopping for my sister yesterday. Her wedding is exactly one year away from today! Anyway, she found the one and here we are toasting her success. We also found a bridesmaid dress that we like and are going back today to look at it again. Hopefully we will finalize that too!


mom, me and Rachel

Gus and the Furry 5K

That's Gus. We dog sat him over the weekend. He is a chiweenie - a cross between a Chihuahua and a Dachshund. And he is just a pup, so we had our hands full! For the most part Nollie and Gus got along. Gus was not a fan of Mike and barked at him every time he came into the room. However, there wasn't much Gus didn't bark at....a leaf, the wind, Mike's stache. Thursday night Mike and I went to the Neko Case concert at the Paramount so Steve came over to watch the little ones. He took them to the Barking Dog and sat outside for dinner. I was off of work on Friday so I stayed home to referee all the games of wrestling and tug. Saturday we went to the dog park. And today I took the dogs down to Seward Park to walk the Furry 5K. My friend Jen walked Gus and I walked Nollie. Here are some photos of the big event!


at the starting line


Jen and Gus


Look at the smile on Nollie's face!


Nollie

More Pictures from the Holden Bin

From bottom to top and left to right: Buckhorn Mtn., Copper Basin, Copper Mtn., Big Dipper, Cracked lens hood, Uncracked lens hood.


Reprint of Holden Village night shot.


Night skyline looking up Railroad Creek valley.


Below are some views from the Lady of the Lake II on the ride back to Fields Point Landing, in general chronological order.

First things first, a beer and a cinnamon roll from the Stehekin bakery (thanks Don and Cragg).

Because It's Still A Garage

Changing the oil with mini-ramp collapsed.

Biking for Beer

Yesterday Sarah and I rode with a group of friends to the Redhook Brewery in Woodinville.


The posse met up at Matthews Beach Park on Lake Washington and is ready to roll.


Matt and Claire pose at the entrance to the brewery, while others' concern they'll run out of beer leaves no time for pictures, as they head straight to the bar.


Clockwise from lower left: Liney, Armin, Michelle, Chris, Jeff, Matt, Claire, and Sarah. Can you guess who drove to Matthews Beach to start the ride? I'll give you a hint, they're not wearing fancy jerseys (or riding fancy road bikes).


I call the following collection of pictures: " "Where were you?" "I was taking pictures." "You were taking a crap weren't you?" [pause] "Yes, I was taking a fat crap in the woods." (I guess you had to be there.)"


Any questions?


In western Washington Mt. Rainier is like the eyes of a painting that always seem follow you around the room.

I did ride all they way home. Sarah drove back from Matthews Beach to get to a shoe sale before it ended. Then we capped it off with a Barking Dog happy hour. A bike ride with beer at both ends, not a bad Sunday.

Kendall Peak Lakes

Nollie and I decided to go hiking yesterday. We started at the remaining pile of snow from this year's Holy Oly Quarterpipe, which was at Summit West if you recall (refresh your memory of 2008's event here). Nollie ran around like an idiot not realizing there was 6 or so hours of hiking remaining, and I tried to decide where we were going to go hiking. It was the warmest day of the year with pass temperatures in around 76 degrees around noon. Through trying to avoid avalanche prone areas, forest service road closures, and long drives, we decided on Kendall Peak Lakes. The first half of the hike had hot temperatures and patchy snow. I don't know if Nollie is really out of shape or was too hot or just pretending, but she was dragging ass and only carried her pack for about a mile. Then I strapped all her stuff to my bag, and she was happy to follow close behind. The last half of the hike turned into a snowshoe expedition. Nollie stayed close behind the whole way, though I could tell she was growing impatient with my photographic exploits on the way up and the way down. For safety's concern, we got to the general area of the lakes but stayed away since everything was covered in snow. Instead, we snowshoed off a little higher to see a great view of Mt. Rainier peaking above the Central Cascade skyline. I don't know if you've heard the song Seattle by Perry Como, but yesterday I did see the bluest skies and the greenest trees I've ever seen in my life. Photographic documentation below.


Nollie on one of her many lay down in the snow to cool off breaks.


Kendall Peak Trail No. 1344.



"The bluest skies you've ever seen are [near] Seattle. And the [trees] the greenest green, [near] Seattle."


Kendall Peak(-ish). Don't ask me which is what. Different maps were saying different things, but I don't need a map to tell me it's pretty.


Do I wanna what?


Gold Creek Valley, Keechelus Lake, Central Cascades, and Mt. Rainier in the distance.


See? Mt. Rainier.


Oh yeah, I was there too. And don't look surprised, you should know Memorial Day kicks off mustache season.



These shots cost us an extra half hour. Thankfully, the sun sets sometime after 9p.


OK, seriously. Put your stoopid camera away, and let's go home already.

Hart Lake Hike

Despite my need to do laundry, since my work stay has been extended at least 4 days at Holden, I hiked to Hart Lake. The timing of it did not allow for any good pictures of the lake, especially since my hiking cohorts were more concerned about the fact they could get ice cream in the village tonight for the first time since we arrived. Needless to say, they hot-footed it on back for ice cream, and I had to stick with them until within a reasonably safe self-hiking distance to stop for pictures.


Glacier carved valley.


Black and white mountains as observed during the mining days.


Colored version of mountains as observed today.

Additionally, today began a large May youth weekend at the village. With the influx of about 275 high school age teens, the population of the village increased about 1000% right after lunch and things move at a quicker, louder pace. And I feel old.

A Common Sight

Today they served dinner outside, and a young buck and three doe were curious and came to see what was going on. At one point someone started laughing boisterously, a noise I would have thought would startle the deer, but one just go more curious and came closer to investigate, eventually getting too close. I snapped this picture after the fact while walking back to one of the "lodges" just to show this common sight in Holden. When a black bear comes by, though, they get scared/chased out of the village immediately. A black bear was looking through the garbage cans on the porch in the background earlier this week. However, no food is allowed in outside garbage, and an electric fences "guards" the compost piles outside the village.

Back to Holden

Drinks on the Links

It's that time of year again.....DOTL started last night.
We played short a few people, but we still posted awesome numbers.
We are currently in second place.

My Tiny Alaskan Adventure

I spent a few days in Anchorage, AK for a work conference where I gave a presentation on PCP. One of our outings was a glacier cruise on Prince William Sound. It was beautiful and the best part of my trip. Although Moose's Tooth was good too.

US Open Cup

The game last night was so much fun!
It didn't rain very much. Just sprinkles.
The stadium was small (only holds about 3900 fans) so we got to see some up close action.
The Sounders won 4-1.
Le Toux played awesome.
And look at how close I got to my boy Brad Evans!

Sounders til I die!

I went to my first Seattle Sounders FC game on Saturday.

We won 2-0 against the San Jose Earthquakes.

Tomorrow night we're going to the US Open Cup play-in game against Real Salt Lake.

Should be fun. But it looks like rain.

Sunsets

The sun sets on the Olympics and Puget Sound from Golden Gardens.



The sun sets on Matt's 20's.

Nice Face

Sarah and I have this saying that is usually reserved for talking about Nollie but sometimes accidentally slips out in public or around friends:



"Nice face."

I apologize if we've ever said this to you.

It was raining in the mountains (and Seattle) when I woke up this morning, so I decided to stay in the city before our traditional Easter Tex-Mex meal. To get some exercise I went out to the garage for some Easter skateboarding. I realized that I don't think we've posted any pictures since the mini-ramp was completed some time ago (though it still needs masonite on the decks), so I brought the camera out with me.


Rock to fakie. Note the slats from our bed on the far railing protecting my bike. With a fancy Tempurpedic mattress you can't use slats or you will void the 20-year warranty. You have to have a solid foundation (i.e. no box springs); thus, we sleep on 3/4" plywood from Home Depot. Or was it Lowe's?


Coming into a frontside 50-50. Remember the frontside/backside lesson from earlier?


Coming out of a feeble (stall) to fakie, I think. It could have been coming in or out or to fakie or not; either way, I can do a feeble (stall) to fakie.


Coming into a feeble (stall) to ass.


This may just look like a blurry picture of an extention ladder on the wall, but it's more than that. This picture demonstrates that I did not break any of the glass in our fisheye lens, even though I cracked its lens hood on the above feeble (stall) to ass. I later confirmed the flash still works, too, after fixing the battery door and putting all the batteries back in off the mini-ramp and garage floor.