After some initial deliberation, Shawna and I have signed up for this year's STP (Seattle to Portland) bike ride that takes place in mid-July. It's 209 miles total, which we're going to spread over two days on our mountain bikes. The halfway-point is in Centralia, WA, where we'll be sleeping on a gym floor along with many of the other 9,000 participants in the ride. Sounds like fun! (Doesn't it...?)

 

Neither one of us have done any cross-country biking before and at the moment 209 miles seems like a bit of a pipe dream, so we'll be trying to get into shape and learn our way around the sport by riding big miles every Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday for the next few months. Luckily the Northwest weather is getting into shape, too, so we hope to enjoy less rain and more sun on our backs as we pedal our aching legs and sore butts ever toward the STP!

 

- Jas

 

Rather than sitting home and moping

about the rain and clouds all winter, Shawna and I are committed to enjoying the long Northwest winters by partaking in numerous snowsports. Besides snowboarding like fiends, we also get out a few times for some snowshoeing and overnight snow camping.

 

I'm attaching some photos from our recent trip at just over 3,000 feet, on the shores of Lake Kecheelus at Snoqualmie Pass. Unfortunately, the weekend we'd planned to camp also turned out to be the weekend that the "Pineapple Express" rain storms decided to blow through the area. Fortunately we'd packed in some big plastic tarps and many pounds of Duraflame® brand fire logs to keep us dry and warm, so things were pleasant and comfy even though it poured several inches while we were up there.

 

It was a great weekend with a good-sized group of friends, and the surface of my right eyeball only took one direct hit with a high-speed snowball (see the pic, it's pretty funny). Not only is Shawna a trooper, but she actually likes hiking and camping in the snow, so the trip was really a lot of fun. For an added touch of luxury, some Chinook winds kicked up to defrost us during the hike back on Sunday afternoon! (For you out-of-towners, the Chinook are some oddly warm winter winds that come through every once in a while).

 

Take a browse through the attached video and photos to see us in action, and feel sorry for my bloody eyeball (which is healing nicely, thanks)!

 

Take care,

- Jas

 

 

 

As of this week -- more than three months after the December 15 wind storm -- we finally signed a contractor and they've started repairs on our tree-smashed roof. It's been a real ordeal, partly because our insurance adjuster moved back to Texas the same week we finally found a contractor who had an opening for us, and partly because both Shawna and I have been busy at work and have had to squeeze the phone calls, paperwork, permitting, and contractor visits into our schedule.

 

But things are finally rolling, so I can't complain too much. For the curious, the total damage dealt by those two trees ended up being over $12,000. Not bad for a couple of suburban pines, but let's hope their buddies back there in the "protected wetland" don't decide to follow suit. Every time the wind whips up we cross our fingers, say a little prayer, and stay the hell away from the back of the house.

 

- Jas

 

Like many areas in the US, Redmond has been getting some snow dumps in the last day or two. This has been great for snowboarding, but hasn’t been so great for folks driving on I-90 outside of Seattle. The pictures below both show snow "incidents" in the past couple days: the one on the left is me and my buds Champagne and Daniel after doing some after-work snowboarding at Snoqualmie pass off I-90, and the one on the right is from the sixty-car pileup (that’s right, 60 cars) that happened yesterday afternoon on I-90 during rush hour (MSNBC).

So I guess the snow is a mixed blessing, but I can’t wait for this weekend to come so we can hit the mountain and ride some more of that fluffy white mana from heaven. Assuming, of course, that another act of God doesn’t prevent us from getting up there…

  - Jas

 

Despite the dumb programming reference in the subject line of this initial blog entry, I’m not planning on talking much about programming here. Mainly I hope to offer:

 

1. General status reports about my life, and photos for family and friends who don’t live nearby
2. Small discussions about topics that interest me and might interest you
3. Dumb programming references and maybe an occasional discussion about gaming or programming

 

So if any of those sound vaguely interesting, check back now and again to say “hi”!

 

- Jas