Something I really hate

I haven't been up to too much exciting stuff lately, so I'm left to write about something that annoyed me not once but twice today -- there is a car parked outside my apartment that has an over-sensitive alarm. Even worse, it always tends to go off super-late at night or super-early in the morning, right when you're trying to get in those sleep cycles. I hate it. Tonight I decided to leave a note on the person's car, and ironically, I didn't set the alarm off when I lifted the car's wiper blade. What a stupid, stupid invention and public nuisance. It's bad enough that nary a day goes by where I don't hear an alarm from my office (frequently I hear 5-10 per day). Does anyone even care that these things don't have a very high correlation to break-ins? Can't we come up with a better invention to deter thieves? Grrr....

Exit skiing, enter snowboarding

This weekend I think I made a rather significant transformation. For the last 20+ years of my life, I have been exclusively a skier. Now, after finally dipping my feet in the snowboarding stream, I proclaim myself ready to jump in with both feet (attached to a board).

Tracy and I went to Colorado for a few days; she for an interview, and I to figure out if this is some place I might want to move to. We stayed with one of my good friends from Brazil, Rafael, who moved there last year. On Saturday, the three of us participated in a group lesson for beginner snowboarders at Copper Mountain. Although it was a bit too slow-paced for my tastes, I did end up with about an hour at the end of the afternoon to see what I was really made of. After a few successful runs down the bunny hill, I ended my afternoon by (unintentionally) plowing into a woman at the bottom of the hill as I tried to keep my momentum going as long as possible. Reminded me of an early downhill skiing memory.

I have decided that, wherever I am two winters from now (which will surely be closer to a ski area than San Diego is), I will rent snowboarding equipment for the season and quite possibly get a season pass to a nearby area, in hopes of teaching myself to snowboard as well as I ski. There. It's in writing.

An unsuccessful basketball campaign

Tonight was the last game of the season for our rec league basketball team, and we finished a perfectly horrible 0-8. The team is primarily made up of the guys I work with -- an affable if not athletic bunch -- and it was the first time I played in an organized league with guys I knew since college. I had a great time, despite the fact that we came away winless, and I was constantly reminded of how much my skills have diminished over the years -- what a shame! I'm hoping to participate in this league again in the future...

A few days back in Seattle

This past weekend, I decided to make a last-minute trip to Seattle to take a sailing course and become certified to charter a sailboat anywhere in the world. One of the nicest perks of owning a boat is that I am able to take courses at cost of materials on a space-available basis. So, rather than paying the $580 member rate (or $1100 non-member rate), I was able get in the class for basically nothing. What a deal!

After some pre-trip planning on Friday night, we set sail on Saturday morning -- three other students and an instructor. After not having sailed for about four months, it was so very nice to be back on the water. I even had the pleasure of sailing on a new boat -- a 38-foot Dufour. Owning a boat pretty much means that I don't get to sail on other people's boats too often.

The trip was an overnight trip that stressed the skills needed to successfully charter an unfamiliar boat in an unfamiliar location. We ended up circumnavigating Bainbridge Island and anchoring for the night in picturesque Manzanita Bay, before returning to Shilshole on Sunday afternoon in time for my flight back. Aside from about 20 minutes of light rain mixed with hail, it was a pretty dry (albeit cold) weekend with a mix of clouds and sun, and reminded me just how much I enjoy sailing in Puget Sound. Admittedly, I missed the San Diego warmth, but the wonderful scenery and bountiful wildlife (we actually witnessed a bald eagle chasing a seagull a few hundred yards offshore) made it all very worth it.

Here is a link to some pictures one of the other students took during the trip.