I can see Russia from my house!

I don't cotton to this argument

Man decorates basement with $10 worth of Sharpie - Latest News - Kentucky.com

Man decorates basement with $10 worth of Sharpie - Latest News - Kentucky.com

This is frakkin awesome! I want to do this in our new house!

Happy Birthday Bagginses!!

Today is the day Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were born. They happen to share their birthdays with some other famous people:

Joan Jett
Scott Baio
Tommy Lasorda
Me!
Andrea Bocelli

Careers

Cycle Oregon Debrief

From Cycle Oregon

So I just spent the last seven days doing the vaunted Cycle Oregon! This was the 21st annual Cycle Oregon, but my first. My father has done C.O. at least 10 times, each time inviting me to go. Thanks to Gretchen's more flexible schedule, I was able to take a week off to enjoy the experience.

Day 1: Elgin to Union (45.4 miles)

The first day - I was a little bit jittery. We had spent the night in Elgin, Oregon, a small town (the first of many) hosting 2200 cyclists on the grounds of its elementary school. After slathering on cold Chamois Butt'r, we were off for a short day of level roads. The coolest thing about this day was the mint compost that we passed along the way. Apparently, the local economy relies on wheat and mint: the latter of which is steamed to extract the saleable mint oil. This leaves a black compost which is turned back into the soil. What is cool is that the stacks of black compost smells *wonderful*!, like fresh dirt and toothpaste.

We ended the day in Union, OR - once again at the local high school.

Day 2: Union to Baker City (68 miles - in my case)

Day 2 we spent doing some hills through some open range country. I was surprised to find myself becoming emotional as we descended from the hilly rimrock into cultivated farmland. Forgive me, but I think I experienced something akin to joy as I came down the hill at 35 mph and took in the great vistas of Eastern Oregon. Of course, I would normally not want to spend much time in this place, but being out in the open air - moving much slower than the average car-borne tourist- made the little details pop. One thing that stood out were the fences that were comprised of split rails, shaped into spindles with a spokeshave and fitted carefully into other rails at 90 degrees in order to make fenceposts.

I decided to shave off a couple of miles from this trip - only logging 68 miles for the day.

Day 3 – September 9: Baker City to Halfway

So day three was pretty cool. The highlight of the day was doing the 7% grade before coming down into Halfway Oregon (formerly Half.com, Oregon)

This climb was grueling, especially for me, who had only trained on the rollers of Ridegfield, WA. I did get the idea to use an iPod to pace myself up the hill, which I would later use to great effect.

Day 4 – September 10: Hells Canyon Option

Day 4 was a rest day. Some of us went up the Hells Canyon route, but I decided to go into A-fib the night before and spent the day chilling out instead. We hung out with our new friends Samer and Danielle. The 2nd night in Halfway we listened to Karaoke from Hell before turning in. There were some surprisingly good (and bad) singers that pulled from the C.O. pool as well as the local population.

Day 5 – September 11: Halfway to Wallowa Lake

Oh. My. God.

Both the hardest day and the best day at once. We rode out of Halfway about 7:30 am and spent the next 10 hours laboring up 3 mountain passes. According to the altimiter Samer lent me, we did over 7330 ft. of vertical climbing over 85 miles. We trudged up 3 major peaks. I did learn something from the previous big climb: bring music! KMFDM, DJ Tiesto and Daft Punk got me cranking up the hills and able to ignore my own labored breathing. I honestly thought I would have to SAG home this day, but surprised myself by making it the entire 85 miles to Wallowa lake.

Day 6 – September 12: Joseph/Enterprise Loop

So this was a quasi-rest day. We cycled into Joseph and spent a few hours learning about Old Chief Joseph, whose grave we visited. A very interesting day, to say the least. We rode into Joseph and had a kicking hamburger at The Stubborn Mule. It was so good that we came back later that night to enjoy Ribeyes with the gang. We also celebrated our new friends' birthday. Happy birthday Megan!

Day 7 – September 13: Wallowa Lake to Elgin

So the last day was 58 miles, mostly downhill. I felt tougher today than I did when I started, though the final climb took a lot out of me. I think this is definitely something that I want to do every year, assuming my lovely wife wants to let me go that long. I'm glad my Dad invited me and I had a great time! I totaled approximately 320 miles!