Happy Birthday (yesterday), Chris!!!

I’m officially over-the-hill. Turned 40 today. The good news is I don’t feel “middle-aged”, the bad news is I AM. Had a nice weekend. Friday night the family went to Red Robin for dinner. We go there for the “Mile High Mud Pie”. Its fun watching the kids tear into it like a school of piranhas. Yesterday I went snowboarding with a friend. Great snow, great company and my new Burton boots still rock. This morning the kids gave me a menu and let me order breakfast in bed. It was a very nice treat. Lots of nice phone calls. Shannon made sure I was sufficiently embarassed about my age at church. My home teacher brought me a plate of cookies and we had delicious dinner of fresh dungeness crab at some friends house tonight. Now I’ll put my Depends on and go to bed.

Floyd Landis, the Amish guy, won the Tour of California today.

The first (hopefully annual) Tour of California started last Sunday. I REALLY wanted to go catch a couple days of it, but it didn’t work out. It started with a time trial in downtown San Fran along a stretch of the bay that I rode to and from work every day. The next stage would have been spectacular to watch: started in Sausalito went up near the Muir Woods Redwood park then dropped down one of the most beautiful sections of PCH-1. Its a windy road along a grassy slope that meets the Pacific. They film tons of car commercials along this section. They went past our favorite beach in the bay area: Stinson Beach. That stage ended in Santa Rosa. Levi Leipheimer is a native of Santa Rosa. He won the time trial and the stage that ended in his home town. Overall the Americans are doing great. George Hincapie won the second stage. He is one of the leaders on the Discovery Channel team which was who Lance rode for last year. Floyd Landis, also a former teamate of Lance won the third stage. He is an interesting guy: grew up Amish and biked everywhere, on a whim he entered a bike race and on a clunker bike in jean cutoffs he won by 45 minutes. From there he started racing mountain bikes. Now he is the leader of the Swiss cycling team Phonak and making millions.

Today, the longest stage (131 miles), the race started in Monterey and ends in San Luis Obispo, another beautiful section that passes Pebble Beach, Carmel, Big Sur, Hearst Castle, etc. It ends in Redondo Beach on Sunday: 8 days, 600 miles, 16 professional teams. ESPN has an hour long summary every night at 10 PST.

Jordis Unga, my favorite singer from RockStar INXS has recorded an album with the house band from that show. It is supposed to be released next month. CBS is doing another RockStar this summer…they haven’t announced which band, yet. I nominate Rascal Flats.

Who has ever heard of going north to Canada in winter to escape the cold? That is what we did for President’s Day weekend. Since it was dropping into the teens in Portland I thought it would be even colder in Vancouver, but it was actually pleasant up there. We left Portland at noon on Friday and drove up to BC for a ski weekend and to see Shannon’s parents who have been in Mexico for a month and a half.

On Saturday I took the boys to one of the three local resorts. There was a ski race at the resort 5 miles up the road (Mt Seymour), so we went to the resort 12 miles away (Grouse Mountain). You park at the bottom of the mountain and take a tram up to the snow. On a clear day the views are spectacular. They don’t have a lot of runs, but for Dylan and Gavin’s abilities it was perfect. The snow was good and the temperature was comfortable. There weren’t many people there in the morning (Canada v. Sweden men’s hockey in Turin?), but around 2 PM it got really busy. Portland is lacking in good Chinese restaurants, Vancouver has an abundance, so we always try to hit the Golden Pearl or another fav when we are in town. Thanks for the birthday dinner Bob & Lois!

On Sunday we went to church, had a great pork roast, watched the Olympics and played games. The Europeans are schooling the North Americans in mens and womens hockey this time. What happened? Bode continues to struggle in mens downhill, but that was a spectacular one-legged recovery on Sunday! Lois taught me how to play Scrabble ~13 years ago. We usually get in a game or two. I got 50 points for 2 tiles: there was an “A” on the board, so I put an “X” (8 points) on a triple letter and a “U” on double word. (It counts, XU is a currency in Vietnam).

On Monday Shannon’s parents watched the children (THANKS!) while we went to Whistler/Blackcomb. It was a stellar day on one of the great mountains in the world. They have a MILE of vertical. The top of the mountain is over 5,000 ft above the base. The runs go on forever. They have almost all high speed quads and gondolas, so they can handle huge crowds. It wasn’t busy, so we never had more than 5 minutes in line. It will be the focal point of the 2010 Winter Olympics. They didn’t have any new snow, but it has stayed cold enough to keep it fresh. I got new snowboard boots (early B-day present): Burton Driver X. Wow! what a difference. It made the biggest difference of any piece of equipment ever. They are stiffer and have a high tech lacing system that is comfortable AND holds the heel down. It just had to think “turn” and it happened.

Note from Dylan: I found a fish. I named it sandy. Then Gavin, and I let him ( her ) go.

Shannon got two sets of Portland Winterhawk hockey tickets at the school auction last week. Dylan and I went a couple nights ago. He’s totally into it. For the last two games he has made posters to draw attention from the guy that flies the blimp around and drops gift certificates on the crowd. It didn’t work, but I did catch a stuffed, 30th anniversary commemorative puck for Dylan. They also sell foam pucks for $1 for “Huck-A-Puck”. Between the 2nd and 3rd periods they set three laundry baskets on the ice and you win $50-$250 if your puck makes it in. They have a “Teddy Bear Toss” every year and donate the stuffed animals to the children’s hospital and charity. It’s quite a sight to see all that flying into the rink. Last year Dylan and I made the JumboTron for a few seconds. He thought that was pretty cool. Oh, and they play hockey, too. They Winterhawks aren’t doing too well this season. They are a farm team for the Chicago Blackhawks. It’s mostly high school-aged kids from Canada trying to make it to the pros. They live with sponsor families and attend local high schools. Our school usually gets a few every year. Wednesday night they played the Tri-City Americans (SE WA). Probably not the most appropriate name for a team that is maybe 5% American. Their guys were much bigger and beat us 6-0.

Got my road bike tuned this week. It’s been hanging in the garage since October. In the winter I commute on my Novara Big Buzz. I got it two years ago because I found that I was wearing out wheels too fast. The volcanic rocks they sand the roads with here acts like sand paper and makes your brakes grind through your wheels. The Buzz has disc brakes, so the rotors are much cheaper than wheels to replace. I miss riding my Bianchi road bike. When I switch back to that later in the spring it will be like going from a Toyota Corolla to a Ferarri Testarosa. Shannon’s bike, my old Bianchi, is in the shop now. It’s getting a tune up and new stem that should make it fit her better.

Got a Blackberry from work last week. It’s a fun little toy, errr TOOL. I’m NOT going to let it turn into a “CrackBerry” and turn me into the guy that checks it every two minutes. It gives a little buzz every time you get an email, lets you send emails, has web access and works as a phone. It lets you stay informed, for example: I learned, while sitting in sunday school, that Cheney shot his hunting buddy 19 minutes after it was released to the press. Vital, important stuff. Jim Rome yesterday said that Cheney’s hunting buddy would have fared better if Cheney hadn’t strapped him to the roof of his truck to take him to the hospital.

Took the boys up skiing Friday night with some friends. The snow wasn’t as icy as I expected, but it took 2 1/2 hours for a 1 hour trip to get there because of rush hour traffic. Its fun to see them riding the chair with friends and improving their skills. Shannon and Gracie went to dinner and fell asleep watching a video.

Tyler Hamilton, a professional cyclist and former team mate of Lance Armstrong, lost his doping appeal to the highest sport arbitration body in the world. He is this clean-cut guy with a great reputation that has sworn his innocence and vowed to spend all his money proving he didn’t cheat. He won a gold medal in the Athens olympics in 2004. A drug test showed that he had transfused someone else’s blood to improve his endurance. The “B” sample was frozen, so they couldn’t verify the results. Then, amonth later in the Tour of Spain, he and a teammate tested positive for the same thing. The backup sample verified it, so he was eliminated from the race (he was on track to win) and banned from professional cycling for 2 years. The current ruling doubles his previous penalty, so he is out until 2008, which basically kills his cycling career.

Loving the Olympics. The half-pipe events need MUSIC, though. They have music blasting at the venue and most of the riders are rockin’ their iPods. At least tell us what they are listening to. Just saw that Bode Miller got DQ’d from the downhill combined. Bummer. He is kind of a Lance Armstrong-like figure: exceptionally talented American that dominated a European sport that doesn’t generate much interest in the US.

Rick told me it’s my turn to update the blog. I guess the big news is that it is sunny today and has been on and off for several days now. The sun seems to make a real difference in everyone’s affect! Oh the joy of sunshine! Last Monday Grace chose to stay home with Rick and Gavin and play baseball rather than go to hockey with Dylan. She has a friend that she loves to play with there and she chose the sun!

I’ve been busy running the kids around, knitting class and lunch with friends and my favorite girl (Grace). I’m kind of sad when I think about Grace going into first grade. I try to make the most of our time together but she wants friends 24/7. I’m trying to figure out what to do with my life next year and everyone tells me I’ll be busier than ever. I don’t see how but I’m sure it’s true. I went to a Local School meeting and came home excited about doing something for the community. With all the growth around Portland the school are being over crowded-not ours yet but it promises to be in the future if new schools aren’t built. So I’m on the committee to promote and pass the school bond. I’m sure there’s a lot of contraversy out there on the bond but the bottom line is if it doesn’t pass the schools will not be built. I’m working with some really great people and I feel like I’m doing something important…besides raising wonderful children.

I’ve also been in charge of the classroom art project in Gavin’s class for the auction. The kids painted self portraits on white tiles and I assembled them all on a large mirror. I’m crossing my fingers that they don’t fall off. It turned out pretty cute. If I’m room cordinater again next year I think I will pass the responsibilty to someone else.

Our church region is putting on a dance festival. We have a super high participation percentage of youth from our ward. They seem excited about it or at least compliant. It’s going to take a ton of time. I’me not super involved but will go to practices when necessary.

I’ve been out running a few times with friends I don’t ususally run with so I’m going faster and farther than my ususal since the half marathon. I kind of miss the 10 minute mile!

Anyway life is good!

Dylan loves hockey, drawing cartoon characters, play station, riding his bike, reading new books and scouts, playing ghosts and goblins on the piano
he’s excited about lacrosse, being the hockey goalie, snowboarding
He really doesn’t like the new math program at school, when we have too much work to do around the house

Gaviin loves piano, reading, playstation, football, friends,play station
He’s excited about baseball, skiing, drawing and playing new songs on the piano (In Dreams and star wars theme)
He goes with the flow when he doesn’t really like something so we don’t hear about it as much

Grace loves food (Especially desserts), watching TV, ballet, playing with friends and her brothers, eating out for lunch, dinner, swimming
She’s excited about trying out gymnastics, going to Disneyland, reading really anything
She doesn’t like cleaning up her room or waiting for anything

I love my kids! They are really in great spaces right now!! Let’s hope it lasts.

Happy Birthday, Max!! Feb 6th

Thursday I used some comp time and went snowboarding. The temperature had hovered in the upper 20′s all night and some forecasts called for rain in the upper elevations, so it could have been miserable. I went anyway since I have 3 passes to use before the season ends. It turned out to be a decent day. It snowed most of the day, but no rain. There was lots of powder of the “Cascade Concrete” variety. The snow was heavy and wet. I was soaking wet and my goggles were all fogged up, so I went into the lodge to dry off. There was hardly anyone there, so I was able to get in 8-10 runs/ hr. Mt Hood Meadows, where I went, has had >400″ of snow this season. It’s time for new snowboard boots. I’m still using the Airwalks I got ~12 years ago. I want to get something stiffer.

Today was another mellow Saturday. The kids all went to birthday parties. After Moab we had the Expedition detailed ($300). Less than 3 days later a neighbor cat somehow got in it and sprayed. So annoying. Trying to mask the smell hasn’t quite cut it. I rented a Rug Doctor to work on getting rid of it. Not a big cat fan.

GO HAWKS!!!