Nothing's New

So how about something old.


Dang, was I ever cool? I seem to remember college differently.

Do you think they had '80's parties in the '70's, maybe just to guess how great flying cars were going to be? It seems there's been at least one every year since. Has any decade ever been more celebrated with the exception of when it was being lived (not inlcuding 1985, of course, which was awesome -- didn't the '80's give us the word awesome, too -- geez the '80's were so rad).

Rampant Spamments!

I noticed a recent comment to a post on our blog from a couple weeks ago, and I have to say I agree with Teri.



Though our blog has not been attacked to the degree of the BallardBoardBlog (someone should really take that prn magnet down), it's just great to see people and companies find ways to continue to annoy us (for example, I have this blog and a desire to use parentheticals).

At least they're saving trees, I guess. Just wanted to raise awareness about "spamments." The walkathon will be in April.



P.S. When you park on the left side of the street, be sure to check to street signs behind you, not in front of you.

Also, happy birthday, Steve.

Keep on rocking! Sorry for the funny looking arm Hellhound #1.

Of All The Pants...

pooping moments for the Swensons In Seattle, most, if not all, have belonged to Sarah as you can see in from the following. For example... And who could forget... See also... Not to mention... Then there's the ever famous... Almost forgot... Finally, on an unrelated note...

Then this happened...


Shapow! From the makers of... Just about you know what when I saw these at the Shoreline Central Market today. That place just keeps surprising me.

Degenerate

Well, people generally suspected since the early '90's that snowboarders were nothing but degenerates that sucked at skateboarding (which isn't saying much from the "mainstream" or "hardcore" angles). While the latter has been obvious from the days of attempting the ollie over plastic skateboard slide rails to prove to Jeff Somers that, yes, I actually was getting off the ground, the former can now be proven with a new technology called magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI for short.

I received the results of a recent MRI, prompted by a snowboarding incident. Leave it to the medical profession to freak-me-the-hell-out with phrases like "degenerative joint disease" which the internet clarifies to mean "arthritis." Well, duh. So MRIs have the magical capability to tell me that I'm old. While the next reference will do wonders for my street cred, it seems analogous to when on the Biggst Losr (intentionally spelled wrong for legal and Google reasons) they calculate peoples' internal age to be 59 when they're only 24 years old. Then people cry, get motivated, and go to the gym. So the internal age of my knee is somewhere around 86, though I have less than a month to claim I'm still in my 20's. So I cried, got drunk, sobered up, and did some upper body exercises in the basement, since my knee still hurts. More photographic evidence of internal age of my knee...


In the interest of full disclosure, this picture is from 10 years ago, and I suck at wakeboarding, too.

NW Camo

When I first moved out to the Pacific Northwest, and my brother still had ambitious snowboard filming aspirations, he would complain to me about not showing up very well in videos because of my NW camo. Seeing as how most of our riding is below the treeline, often within the trees, and under gray skies in the Evergreen State, his definition of northwest camouflage was any dark colored outerwear. So I showed him by later investing in a 3L Gore-Tex jacket that was actually camouflage. I know a large part of our readership contingent is in the midwest thinking "Well la tee da, fancy Gore-Tex for the fancy Pacific NW city boy!" Living in the Midwest, I used to think you would have to be stupid to pay the premium for Gore-Tex. Now that I ride the Pacific NW, I slowly learned to buy nothing but the best and never think twice about it (so long as it's 50% off -- hey, I'm still a Swenson). As a compromise to the straightup camo, I opted for a bright green head beacon.


You can see me just fine scoping it out against rare blue skies.

But this is more typical (note these photos were brightened significantly, too).

Dropping! Stevens Pass.

By some sordid twist of fate, my camouflage jacket needed warranty repairs, which ended up with me getting a bright orange jacket. Now I look like a pumpkin.

But I hope to look like a carrot by swimsuit season.

Brewcapades

Went to the Fremont Brewing Company on the way home from work yesterday. They don't have a bar or a restaurant, just a brewery. Apparently on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday they open their shipping/garage door and let people hang out inside the brewery and drink beer. It's pretty nice, as it is kid and dog friendly and you can order food to be delivered or bring you own. Nollie was there freaking out the shoeless kids running around on the concrete floor. The place was packed, too. Jolly Roger is still closed, but we didn't recognize any Jolly regulars there. I wonder where everyone else is going.

No pictures were taken, so here's some unrelated eye candy.


Me drinking beer at the Maui Brewing Company. Old hat (indirect beer reference).


Sometimes I like to dance while I hike.

Ride-Along

Strap in.

Lay some down on the cat track.


Launch said cat track.

Hang out in the back seat in the air because taking pictures.
Remember Peter's advice: "Don't forget the landing."


Landing successful. Proceed to slashing some pow.

Fin?

countdown to the 3-Day

Many of you already know that I have decided take on the incredibly huge challenge of participating in the 2010 Susan G. Komen Seattle 3-Day for the Cure.  On September 24-26, I'll be walking 60 miles over the course of three days and camping out at night with thousands of other women and men taking on this challenge with me.  The net proceeds from the Komen 3-Day for the Cure are invested in breast cancer research and community programs.  Komen for the Cure® works hard to build a future without breast cancer, and I plan on raising $2,300 to help bring us closer to that goal.

I will be walking with TEAM TRACY here in Seattle.  Our team captain is a survivor who was diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age.  Tracy has decided to make it her personal mission to raise as much money as she can to benefit breast cancer research and this will be her 4th 3-Day!  I feel that a few blisters and sore muscles will be worth it in order to help find a cure for this disease.  I hope you can help me!

Just follow the link to visit my personal fundraising web page and make a donation. You can also track my fundraising progress there.

Thank you for your support!  I will keep you posted on my progress as we get closer to the big day. Only 258 days to go!

Freezing Rain

Woke up to see freezing rain at Stevens this morning, so Phil and I (yes, that Phil) bagged plans for riding today, but weather should be nicer tomorrow. Freezing rain means there's time for blogging, so I guess I'll catch up on something that already happened.

We went to Maui in November by piggy-backing on my parents anniversary trip. I believe the e-mail from my dad read: "We have reserved a condo on the Hawaiian island of Maui (arrive 11/5, depart 11/11). You are invited to join us if you can find your way there."

Sarah thought it was a joke; I did not. Needless to say, we "found our way there."


Surf spots were either crowded or the surf was nonexistent. Since I've already been surfing to at least be able to say I've been surfing, I opted for the empty, beachside skatepark instead. Skateboarding in Maui is hot, even at 10a. The skatepark was fun, though. It had a decent mini-ramp and a kinked-ass pool with a shallow end that was about 2 to 2.5 feet tall and went to vert (that's a pretty tight transition).


Apparently that idiot from the car insurance commercials also vacations in Maui.


We did the uber-touristy road to Hana. Sarah's favorite part was the black sand beach on the way back.


I enjoyed swimming in some waterfall pools.


We also went to the uber-touristy Mt. Haleakala, but with a little effort you can lose about 99.9% of the crowds. Hiking down to a cindercone was a highlight.


We attended a luau on our last night in Maui. Sarah learned to do some sort of dance or something (I forget the name of it). Anyway, if you've never been to a luau, I've got two words for you: 1) butts and 2) coconuts.


Then the sun set on our vacation.



Look, Mom! New hat!

Swensons In Seattle

So my dad e-mailed me this picture.


Swensons in Snoose Junction Part Dieu.

I offer this rebuttal.


Swensons in Seattle.

See also.

It's Official

Finally made its way through the state government.

Mike Swenson, PE

The Definition of Pooping

After a 2-week hiatus from snowriding over the holidays, I finally got back at it. We celebrated New Years' Eve on Wisconsin time, in order to go to bed early and ride the poo at Stevens New Years' Day. We didn't get the dump we were hoping for, but it was still a fun day of groomers, off-piste breakable crusts (yes, multiple crusts: ask Steve about his arm dragging on the final run that involved crust layers at his armpit, elbow, and wrist), and park riding (which included some rails, a lay back method over 'The Waterfall', and an "oh shit, here comes knee surgery" flat landing - knees sore but OK).

After that marathon, we decided to make Baker a game time decision on Saturday because the snow levels and predictions kept waffling between rain and snow. Woke up at 0430: snow report not updated yet. Hit snooze twice. 0450: no word yet. Hit snooze twice. 0510: Baker 15" of new. Call Steve: "I'm in." 0550 depart for Baker.

Pictures from Mt. Baker yesterday: the definition of pooping.

Where's Waldo?


About 30 seconds after this picture Mother Nature literally pooped on me, releasing snow from tree branches right on my head.


Look at the size of the turd on Steve's face!

Being tired, having witnessed some instability in bounds and the 2-hour delayed opening of Chair 1 for avalanche control at Baker, and hearing reports of "shooting cracks" and "whoompfing," we scrapped plans for a day in the backcountry today. Avalanche danger is "only" "considerable," but it seemed like if we went where the snow was good it could be sketchy and if we went where it was safe it might be the layer cake Steve's arm experienced. See mom, it starts with planning at home, not with searching for your friends with an avalanche transceiver.

Time to work on the house.

Table Party and More

My friend Peter recently purchased a bed and no longer sleeps on a futon. In order to show him we are more grown up than him, we bought a dining room table.


New table and new room arrangement.

Then we threw a wine tasting party.

Peter (not pictured) must have been so jealous he went out shopping for a table and skipped out on our party. Our plan is working perfectly.

Our friends Mandy and Dave have a child, Emeline, which means their bedtime coincided with the start of our table party. We had pre-party with them to taste some beer. The first thing I learned this spring when they had their baby was stouts are good for breast feeding. Interesting.


Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout. This is a seriously dark, seriously good beer. Looks like a can of oil. In fact a review I found online described this beer as an oil changed for your liver.


The bottom of last year's cans said "Dark is the Absence of Light." Upon reading this I held my glass up to a light, but all I saw was black. This time I just drank it and did not break out any AC/DC.

The Ten Fidy is a seasonal, so Sarah has the Jolly Roger and now I have the Ten Fidy. Jolly Roger Christmas Ale has been seriously delayed in its release because the Maritime brewery is in the process of moving. Sarah was jonesing pretty hard, and it was finally released recently. Her first taste was this Thursday at the Barking Dog; good thing she had Friday off. I also scored at Barking Dog thanks to Steve (no, not my brother but the guy we think may be the owner). I saw him pour someone a glass of scotch from a bottle not on display. All I saw was "29" on the bottle. I asked him if my eyes were correct, and it was indeed a bottle of 29-year old Cragganmore. We got to talking about scotch. Before I new it the bottle was back out, and he poured me a complimentary taste. Thanks, Steve! Definitely the best I have had in a long time.

Much snowboarding has already been accomplished this year. Baker had over 200" of snowfall in November, which is good news for an El Nino year (typically a year that is warmer and drier for us). We were all pretty worried, and one meteorology professor and blogger answered the question of "Should I buy a season pass this year?" with "Do you feel lucky?" Well I have used my pass 8 times as of yesterday (and ridden 4 out of my 5 snowboards based on the varied conditions), and I surpassed the break even point before Christmas. So, yes, I feel very lucky (and, yes, I do "need" 5 snowboards, Sarah).


Peter on our first day riding at Stevens Pass (before he was a pretentious bed owner). It was a very good powder day. The second day was a much better pow day, though. How do I know this? I did not stop to take pictures the second day.


At the top of Old Reliable.

Also, I passed the PE exam. That's a relief.

It's Been A While

Things are busy, too busy for quality blogging; so from now on I'll try to keep it up-to-date, but simple, and give people what they want. Pictures.


Doggie in the Window

Mike & Sarah's Great American Brewery & Brewpub Tour

Have you seen Beer Wars? Not only has it strengthened our dislike for the big three (Anheuser-Busch, Coors and Miller), but it has also inspired us to visit as many breweries and brewpubs as we can in order to support micro brewers. We've been to many here in Washington and try to hit up whatever is local when we are on vacation. We are going to be keep a list here on the blog of all the ones we (either both or one of us) have visited.  I feel like I'm forgetting some........