Barry Bonds, a Road Race, and a suprise Playboy

This weekend started off with a trip to Safeco Field to watch Barry Bonds and the S.F. Giants visit the Mariners. My co-worker David invited me, and his girlfriend, Lori, and his Lori's nephew Jeremy joined us. Besides getting great seats (about 20 rows behind the third base dugout), we also got to see the alleged steroid abuser hit, which is always a treat (just ask ESPN, who broadcasts all of his at-bats live during SportsCenter). True to form, Barry hit a long home run to right field in his first at bat. However, in his second at bat he went down swinging, and with the Mariners up a run in the 9th inning with two outs, he came up again and went down looking, much to the delight of the 30,000+ fans in attendance. These fans surprised me by greeting Bonds with a chorus of boos, from an audience that *very* rarely does anything but cheer. Good for them.

Saturday morning got off to a very early start, as I prepared to run my first road race. I was a bit nervous, since I hadn't done running of any type for a few months, and outdoor running even longer ago than that. Thursday morning at the gym I attempted to run on the treadmill, but only succeeded in tweaking my hamstring. Is this a sign that I'm getting old? Maybe being a software developer isn't good for your body. Regardless, I still managed to complete my 5k in just over 30 minutes, much to my delight, and I wasn't in too much pain for the rest of the day. After the race, my group headed over to Fremont to watch the annual Solstice parade (the one with the nude cyclists) and also the USA/Italy World Cup match.

Also over the weekend, I began preparing my basement for being refinished, which involves removing all the 60's-era ceiling tiles (since many had been removed already during the replumbing). On Sunday afternoon, as I was getting to the last few tiles in the back room, I was greeted with a surprise. First, I found a crushed beer can in the rafters. Didn't think anything of it. Then I found some crumpled up newspaper from 1966. I figured that was "insulation" or something. Shortly thereafter, I found a page ripped out from a Playboy, and also an entire July 1968 issue of Playboy, in near pristine condition. Is this normal? Is it some secret tradition to leave items up with you put ceiling tiles on? Who knew Shel Silverstein wrote for Playboy in the 60's? Is it worth tearing off the tiles in my bedroom???

In other news, I have officially decided to make Sadie available for adoption. She's a great dog most of the time, and with proper training would probably be an ideal dog, but it's just too much responsibility for one person right now. She dictates everything I do, and I just haven't been sleeping enough since I got her. I feel better knowing that had I not fostered her, the shelter would have had a very tough decision to make during the first week I had her, when she came down with pneumonia. Needless to say, I wouldn't have let them put her down under any circumstances, but certainly not while she was in my care.

Road trip to CA

This past weekend, Tracy moved out of Seattle, en route for San Diego to begin her residency. I drove with her as far as Oakland, and we tried to use our three days to see as much interesting stuff as possible. Here's a transcript of our journey:

Our plan on Friday was to drive as far as we could, hopefully past Portland. Since we were towing a 1500-pound Uhaul and couldn't go faster than about 50 mph, we weren't too optimistic. When we didn't leave town till after 8pm, we were even less so. It was a slow go right from the start. Any minor grade on the highway caused us to slow down to 40-45, and by Tacoma, we both agreed that this wasn't the way to go. So, while Tracy had received a very good deal on the UHaul rental, we decided to drive back to Seattle, unpack the trailer, pack the boxes to ship via mail, and drive a full carload of stuff down the coast.

Saturday morning we awoke bright and early, in preparation for returning the UHaul to the rental place. By 8am, we were once again on the road southbound, except we were going a lot faster this time. In hindsight, we wouldn't have been able to do half the things we did had we been towing a trailer, and it would've taken just as long, if not longer, to reach our destination. By the early afternoon, we were past Portland and I decided that I had had enough of I-5, and recommended we take a backroad east, toward the Cascades and Crater Lake. Needless to say, this wasn't the most direct route, but that's what road trips are about, right? Central Oregon is very beautiful, with a volcanic history that caused the soil to be the color of dark mahogany, with evidence of dried lava all over the place. Along one of the Forest Service roads, we came across a hot springs and decided to take a dip. Tracy was a little nervous, since it was a clothing-optional area, but it turned out to be relatively harmless, and a good way to break up the drive. Once we were done, we hit the road toward Crater Lake, in the most indirect route imaginable. By 6pm, we were approaching the north entrance to the park, but a friendly gas station attendant warned us that the north entrance was still closed due to snow(!) and we'd have to go all the way around to the south entrance, adding another hour to our day. I was hoping we'd have a place to camp, but as we drove up the road to the south entrance, the snow deepened considerably (about 6-8 feet) to the point where it was pretty obvious the campgrounds wouldn't be open. Sure enough, when we entered the park, only the two park lodges were open, and we were forced to stay at one of those. It was nice having a bed after such a long drive, but it was a lot more expensive than we were expecting.

Sunday morning we awoke early again, hoping to get a glimpse of the lake before going on our way. There is a road that encircles the lake, but all but about a 1/2 mile was closed due to snow. Even so, we were able to get up to the ridgeline and see the lake in all its magnificent azure glory. We left the park and headed west toward the California coast, stopped along the way at some of the volcanic formations that created the Rogue River in Oregon. We also stopped at the magnetic vortex area of Gold Hill, Oregon, where the magnetic forces are so strong that a person could appear to lose a few inches in height by walking only a few feet (and the cameras tell the truth!). Even though I had read about it, I was still amazed. Following Gold Hill, we continued down Highway 199 to California, and the Redwood National and State Parks. A little different setting than central Oregon, but equally as beautiful. We camped out Sunday night at Patrick's Point State Park, in Trinidad.

Our goal on Monday was to get me to Oakland Airport in time for my 6:40pm flight. There were about 300 miles separating us, and we milked every last moment out of the day, as it turned out. We started the morning looking for two geocaches along the beach in Trinidad, to no avail. Then we got in the car and drove. And drove. And drove some more. The road took us through the Avenue of the Giants, home to a large concentration of very tall redwoods. It eventually took us through Napa valley and all the vineyards, before dropping us into the Bay Area freeways. Amazingly, we planned it just right to get me to the airport 45 minutes before my flight departed (that's perfect for me!). Our chief source of entertainment on the way down? Scanning through the radio stations trying to pick out the Jesus music as early in the song as possible. Yeah, there's no a whole lot out there.

After I departed, Tracy continued a little ways further to her relative's house, where she spent the night before driving down to San Diego the next day. She arrived safely, surely exhausted from all the miles (we covered 1200 just getting to Oakland), but she's got 3 whole days before she begins her actual residency orientation!

For all of my pictures from the trip, click here.

Graduation/Summer Party

Now that my deck was completed, I was ready to host my party. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for this Sunday went from bad to worse, and I feared having to entertain close to 40 people in the tight confines of my house. Accordingly, I went crazy trying to clean every square inch of it and open up as much floor space just in case everyone decided to come, and all at once.

Of course, even though Sunday morning was on-and-off showers, as soon as 1pm rolled around, the sun made an appearance (no sign of that in the forecast!). The rest of the afternoon stayed dry, and I was able to host the whole party outside. Good thing my house was nice and clean!

The new grill I got seems a little out of character for me. It's big and fancy, and it looks nice too. And it worked great. It's a good thing I've got such good friends, as I had plenty of help chopping, cutting, grilling, skewering, and prepping all the food that was available. It's hard to estimate how much food you need for a party that big, but in the end I didn't end up with that much leftover, and I don't think anyone went hungry. All in all, a great party!

For the rest of the pictures, including some from Tracy's graduation on Saturday, follow this link.

The patio is completed!

With this weekend's party fast approaching, I spent most free moments of non-rainy daylight finishing up my new deck. Finally, on Friday night, with help from Tracy, we completed the job. Here are the highlights:

Monday, May 15: I go to Dunn Lumber and order a whole lotta wood for a whole lotta money, strangely confident that I could complete this project without the help of a professional.



Friday, May 19: The wood is delivered to my house and left on a palette while I'm at work.

Saturday, May 20: My friend Adam and my Little Brother Vince come over and help me work on the deck for about 7-8 hours. My goal that day was to complete all the joist work, and get started on the decking in hopes of finishing that the next day. Fat chance. We get about half the joists done, but done well. Very thankful for their help, as there was no way I could've done it myself.




Sunday, May 21: I convince my friends Todd and Marie to hold the remaining joists while I nail them in. No decking yet.

Monday, May 22: I lay the first deckboard. It requires 20 screws, nearly half of which I strip on the way to their destination. This is not going to be as easy as I had hoped. I go on to lay 3 more deckboards.

Wednesday, May 24-Sunday, May 28: Andrew and his girlfriend are visiting, no work on the deck, which is just as well, since it was raining a lot of that time.

Monday, May 29 and Tuesday May 30: Naturally, as soon as my friends leave town, the weather clears up, and I'm able to get back 12 more boards down. Still have 8 to go. I've estimated each board to take 12 minutes if I don't "screw" up. Haha. "Screw" up.

Wednesday, May 31: Tracy makes a triumphant return, the rain starts again.

Thursday, June 1 and Friday, June 2: We scurry to get the deck done in advance of putting the grill together. Fortunately, Mother Nature couldn't have cooperated any better. Not surprisingly, Tracy is able to lay the last six boards flawlessly, without my help. Where was she when I needed her? ;-)

Read my next blog for what I did with the rest of my weekend!

This week in my life

This week has been predictably busy, from completing my deck, launching a website at work, preparing for the big party this Sunday, having some friends in town over Memorial Day weekend, and welcoming Tracy back from Europe. Over the course of the week, I realized two things: the people I like least in society are cops at the airport, and I have to be the luckiest crasher ever.

My ire for the police at the airport came from picking Tracy up at the airport. Now, I've never fully understood why these guys are necessary. I've commented before about how dull their life must be (what constitutes a "good day" for them?). When they take their misery out on me, it makes me pissy. Very pissy. I was trying to time it so that I could pick her up right after she got her bags from baggage claim, and when I neared the airport, it seemed I had guessed just right. She didn't have them yet, but I moved very slowly around the circle before I arrived at the Delta area, dodging a cop right before I stopped the car and began making space in the trunk. Before I could get the trunk open, the cop asked me if I was picking someone up, because if I wasn't, I had to go. If I wanted to make space in my car, I'd have to do that somewhere else. He also told me that I can't be driving in that lane, and swerving around him like he was a "traffic cone" was not a good move on my part. I explained that I had just gotten a call, and she'd be out any second...he didn't care. His job was to make my life as miserable as his. So I drove off, pissed, and tried calling Tracy to see if she had gotten her bags. Naturally, she didn't answer, which only made me more pissed. So I circled again and sure enough, the same cop was right near where I needed to be. I wasn't sure *exactly* where Tracy was, but I knew she was out there. Fortunately, I saw her before he could accost me a second time. In all my anger, I didn't give Tracy a proper warm welcome. Bad me. I hate those cops.

The next day, as I was biking into work, I made a stupid last-second decision in the parking lot to switch from riding on the sidewalk to riding in the street. I missed the ramp, and ended up crashing at a pretty high speed. Now, crashing on a bike is never fun, especially when you're going fast, clipped in, and especially when you're not wearing a helmet like the law, your mother, and your girlfriend say. However, I must thank my lucky stars that I ended up with only a minor scrape on one hand, and another on my shoulder (on which I skidded on the blacktop). My bike was a little messed up, but I eventually rode on to work, with a lucky smile on my face. I've fallen a lot in my life -- on skis, bikes, hikes,etc. -- and never had I had anything close to a serious injury (although I've certainly deserved one!). My initial reaction is always the same: curse myself for being such an idiot, and then laugh at how fortunate I am, while people stop to ask me if I'm alright. Why can't I be this lucky in the casino?