Breaking Ground and the Law

Sunday was a busy day for me, Mountain Bike Race, Rock Climbing, and Birthday Party, so many activities!

For the mountain biking I partook in my first ever cross country mountain bike race, which was actually the first time I have ever been mountain biking. That is not to say I have never been on a mountain bike, but it was the first time I have ever seen "Single Track". The race was a novel experience for me with 1700 ft of climbing on a 12 mile loop; it was the first time I was a better climber than most but a terrible going downhill with gravity. The mud was slippery and the hills were steep, but overall I felt like I gave it a good show taking 10th in the beginner class.


After returning from Blodgett, OR (near Corvallis) it was time time to meet up with the Barkers for some evening rock climbing. After much hmming and hawing it was decided that we would try out a crag in the Lake Oswego area, close to home but limited in size. As I was first to arrive I was unpleasantly surprised to see some clearly marked no trespassing / no rock climbing signs posted by the railroad. Cars hidden, ramifications discussed, we decided the signs were merely a waiver of liability by the railroad company. The rock was much better than anticipated, while limited, it was gratifying to climb 20 mins from home. No arrests were made, good times were had.


After returning home and feeding Kona, it was off to Bill's house to celebrate Greg's birthday and wish happy trails to Genevieve. Cake was had, songs were sung, and cheers sounded the room (no photos available at this time).

A day later it has been determined that were lucky to avoid imprisonment and or fines for our trespasses. Accompanied by the 21 mo old baby by the name of Hazel, I would like to see the officer that could have resisted her charms, I think it would have been a stern warning had the Lake'O PoPo found us.

This is What I Call Vacation

As much as I work, I never seem to have a proper vacation, but that is probably due to the fact that most of my vacation days are spent one at a time for things such as bike races and family events (mostly weddings it seems). So it was due that I take a vacation day (just one) to do something other than fly to a wedding or race a bike, don't worry I am taking two days this coming weekend for the latter and multiple days next fall for the former.

What did I do, I hung out with some friends and partook in the things they love to do, things I had loved in my teenage years. Shoot guns and climb rocks! Granted when I was a teen shooting guns it was at boyscout camp and when I was climbing rocks it was indoors, however these were still things that I loved to do. The biggest reason I didn't do them more were; I didn't have a gun (nor should I have had one)and I spent too much time on the ice to spend any time on the rocks.

And for those in the crowd that are against guns, let me say this. Not everyone owns a gun for crime, hunting, or self defense. Some people own guns for the sheer enjoyment of shooting at inanimate targets. There is a skill to target shooting and I have tremendous respect for biathletes, if you haven't done any target shooting, maybe you should try it. I wont be joining the NRA, I wont ask you to either, and I probably wont ever own a gun. However, I will be happy to buy rounds for my friends guns (Barkers I will bring a box next time).

So without any further ado the pictures...

Our gracious hosts (special thanks to Eryn's mom for the cabin)

Top roping a fun 5.8 "Under Duress", yep "Duress" was the second pitch and a much harder 5.9

Ky shooting a gun for the first time ever, she was successful in taking down a Diet Coke can

The Windy City

There is a reason they call it the windy city, it's windy, nothing clever just windy. Ky and I are back to Portland and back to work after our fabulous trip to visit the Martin family in their natural suburban habitat. Other than how windy it is there the other thing I learned about Chicago is that from a modestly high building (3-4 stories) you can see the horizon in any direction and there will be houses as far as the eye can see. Yup, it's suburbia by all definitions, including every chain restaurant man can think of.

So what did we do, pretty much everything. We experienced swings in weather from 70's and sunny to 30's with a side of blizzard. We walked the waterfront, went to the aquarium, took photos of Cloud Gate (a.k.a. The Bean), ate Chicago style deep dish pizza, got Chicago dogs, went to Lego Land, walked Navy Pier (really cold and windy), visited the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), and paid way too much for parking but accepted it.

So without any other words, here are some select photos. (More to Flickr eventually).

Mt Hood As we left Portland

Ky blowing out her birthday candles with my God Daughter, Charolette.

Ky doing her best Batman, next to Lego Batman

Chicago from 103 floors above the city

The Willis Tower observation boxes

Words can not describe stepping onto a sheet of glass 1000+ feet in the air

Abby says hello


Cloud Gate (a.k.a. The Bean) tourism photo

Oh yeah, we met Obama!

Sunset on Navy Pier

Still Blogging

First off, I would like to thank our sponsors of today's blog entry, without Crown and Coke this blog probably wouldn't be getting written. Before you get your hopes up, let me clarify on the last statement, I am sipping on a nice adult beverage as a desert while I write this post, I am not as they say, "under the influence".

Yep, Crown Royal is truly the king of whiskeys!

So sponsorships out of the way, what have I been up to since I have returned from Arizona and why haven't I been sharing it with the people of the Internet. Well to be honest, I didn't do a whole lot at the end of February and March has started off in similar fashion. A little bit of bike riding, a bit more work, and lots of looking for a better suited job.

For the last two Sundays, I have been attempting to race my bike. Not super successful on the racing aspect, however still encouraging for the benchmarking of how my training has been paying out. Today was not what I call a good day, I was dropped off the back of the pack in frantic climb up Lee Hill. I blame a handful of things for this, but mostly I blame not enough time training intervals. Last week, was a much better result, still dropping off the back of the field but much further in the race when my legs had nothing left to give. So for your viewing pleasure a photo from last week, don't worry Mom, the scraggly beard is already gone.



So what's next, A trip to Chicago to visit Judy and the family, meet Charlotte, see Chicago for the first time (not counting from 30k feet), and celebrate Ky's birthday. Bellow I have included a photo of the famous "Bean" it's what some may call Art and I call really amazingly cool. A huge reflective metal bean with a blemish free surface, how did they do that?


As far as Ky's Birthday goes, the celebration has been underway for 14 days now, as one of her friends refers the month of March as Ky's jubilee month. Thus, she has been pampering Ky with little gifts and treats. I fear that by the end of the month a trip to Chicago is going to seem pale in comparison. I wont tell you how old Ky is, she probably doesn't want it published, but I will tell you that she is bring home chocolate cake from work (work celebration tonight) and that she was born in the same year as Abby. So without further ado...

A Funny Thing Happened...

A funny thing happened today on our way to Multnomah Falls, not funny Ha Ha, but funny kind of weird. Anyone who rides out the Old Scenic Highway expects to have a mostly solitaire ride mixed in with a few Freds (club riders who don't realize they have no business on a race quality bike while wearing a Livestrong kit) and a couple cars every so often. On a glorious weekend such as this one, one would expect to have a moderate increase in cyclist and a little more than moderate increase in automobile traffic. Typically the imagery would be something along the lines as I have pictured bellow.

(Random person on a bike on the Scenic Highway)

Today, however, my riding companions and I were shocked to find ourselves in the middle of a Cat 1/2 friendly ride. It looked something more along like this...

(Cherry Pie Cat-3 Field, photo from Pat Malach of Oregon Cycling Action)

To say the least it was quite out of the ordinary to run into a couple dozen of the top riders from the Portland metro (including at least one local pro) having a friendly duke out on the highway. While we mixed in for a little while, we were more or less chauffeured to the back of the group and given the impression that we should stay more or less on the back where we wouldn't get in the way. While this may seem a bit strong, it is actually common procedure for visitors of a group ride to hang on the back out of the way. Either way we were thankful for the free draft, high speeds, and quick arrival to our destination. I must say it's refreshing to see how smoothly the top riders move in a tight group in comparison to the clown like carnage inducing hell that is cat-4 racing.

After a brief snack and arm stretch, we turned our bikes back towards Portland and began the slog back up to the top of Crown Point. Again to our pleasant surprise, we found ourselves feasting on another strange sight. A large caravan of Volkswagen Camper Vans and Buses along with some beautiful classics and some stranger less common vehicles. I think I counted around 20 VWs all worth taking a long glance at. Very Cool.

(Not from the group, but representative of what we saw)

Last but not least, I have had another job interview with similar results to the first one, no job offer. This one was with what I would consider to be my largest competitor in my current position.


While there was no job offer at the end of the interview, I was received very positively and I found out a couple weeks later, that shortly after my interview the position was put on hold due to "Business Needs." Typically when a job is put on hold due to business needs at large companies in the middle of interviews, it means there is a temporary hiring freeze. I have emailed with the job recruiter and she has indicated that she will be in touch with me once the freeze has been lifted so I am keeping a positive attitude on the mater and hoping for the best. So hopefully in the near future things will become Jobtastic!