According to this month’s Paste magazine, the lead singer of the coolest band in the country and his brother (also in the band) were raised Mormon. That explains alot about the song “Intervention”.

Tomorrow night on PBS is the first of a two part documentary on Mormons. The American Experience on Monday and Frontline on Tuesday. They were made with the cooperation of the church leaders, but the church leaders had no control over editorial content, so it promises to be an equal opportunity offender.

The Canucks start second round Stanley Cup Playoffs tonight against the Ducks. Dylan is HOOKED.

Last year I had all these big cycling plans to mark turning 40. The two biggest were thwarted by trying to register too late: RAMROD and LOTOJA. This year is off to a good start. I “won” a spot for RAMROD, the Pacific Northwest’s Premier, One-Day, Ultramarathon Cycling Event. Thousands sign up and they hold a lottery to choose 800 riders. RAMROD stands for Ride Around Mt Rainer In One Day. It’s 150 miles with 10,000(!!!) ft of climbing. It’s Thursday July 26th, so I have plenty of time to prepare. The weather turned beautiful this week. Today it’s sunny and in the 70s. I rode my bike to work all week. Early in the week I got beat going up the big hill on my way home. At least it was by a couple of sponsored racers in their matching uniforms. Things got better as the week progressed. I smoked some guy at the stop light as “You Know My Name” by Chris Cornell queued up on the iPod. He tried to catch me, but ultimately failed.
Next month is Reach the Beach: 100 miles. Dylan is going to ride the last 25 with me on a tandom.
June is Tour de Blast: 83 miles up Mt St Helens.
July is RAMROD.
Finally, I’m hoping to do LOTOJA (Logan to Jackson) in September, which would be my first competitive cycling event, not counting a small bike/ run in Colorado 16 years ago.

This is what happened to Mt Rainer National Park last Fall: Rainer

We spent spring break in UT this year. A cold front and decent storm freshened up the ski slopes for us. I went up Wednesday and had 8″ of powder (or as the Subaru from New Hampshire’s license plate said: “POWDAH”). The base under the fresh stuff was good except for one run that had 8″ of powder on top of DIRT. I smacked my tailbone pretty good on that. Friday we took the kids and met Margo and her two youngest at Brighton. Grace and Will took a two hour lesson in the morning. The snow was great, especially for this late in the season. The young ‘uns are really picking it up. Dylan snowboards and Gavin and Grace ski.

LA cousins sent us model rockets for Christmas, so we brought those along. I took the boys to the Bonneville Salt Flats to launch them. Gavin’s went first and shot up hundreds of feet, landing ~40 yards away. Dylan accidentally pulled the electronic fuse out of his, so we drove into Wendover, NV to look for a firework fuse. Couldn’t find any, so we tried rope and matches. Didn’t work. Back in SLC we picked up a few motors and fuses to try another time. Great fun.

Growing up, Bountiful had “the Bubble”: an outdoor pool in summer and a covered pool in winter. Guess it popped too many times, it’s gone, but they really did a nice job with the replacement. Brand new skating rink, new pools, climbing walls, huge fitness center. Grace confirmed that she CAN do ANYTHING. It was her 3rd time on skates and she was going on one skate, hopping and spinning.

After a decade of searching, Margo and family found the perfect home a mile north of their home of 24 years. It’s beautiful and GINORMOUS 10,000 sq ft!!! 6 garages (already full), rooms for all 5 children and a few to spare, on 2 acres, amazing kitchen, etc.

We finally got to watch Jake play lacrosse. Dude’s got MAD SKiLLs.

We went to Gen’l Conf at the conference center, but it turned out to be the session when they re-dedicated the Tabernacle. Still a cool place to visit.

Great to see Papa and Grandma, cousins, aunts and uncles and build a snowman in the backyard.