Tour de Cure: Over
I completed the Tour de Cure today. I led the team from the sweep position again and we all finished in good time. After the ride the ADA provided a BBQ, massages, music, and kids entertainment.
I had a great time on and after the ride, and am already looking forward to the 120K next year!
The Rose Parade
Tonight was the Rose Parade in Portland. This is a huge parade (which is currently going on outside my window (at 10:10pm). We grabbed dinner at the Deschuetes Pub, and then headed over to S.W Park to catch the warm up of the parade. As the even got underway, we realized that we were about a block too far West, and decided to migrate East a bit so that we wouldn’t miss all the marching bands. The marching bands were especially important because just yesterday Ruby was telling us that she wanted one… at her birthday party. Staying up until 10pm and watching them out on the street seemed to be an acceptable consolation for her (thank goodness). Unfortunately, Miles doesn’t deal well with over stimulation and sleep deprivation, so its looking like another long bedtime for him and Vick.
Portland, OR. I Love This Town
Our first night here, and already I’m in love. We had to go to Whole Foods to get some diapers (see my last post for details). On the way back we decided to meander through the Pearl district. We ran into what looked like a street fair, except for that there was a man on a stage giving a pretty elaborate toast.
We asked some nearby standers-by what was up, and they gave us the full lowdown. It seems that this was a dedication for the smallest park in history. To the casual eye, this park looked like a sidewalk, but it did have a neat water feature.
In any case this momentous event was enough of an excuse for Portlandites to celebrate. And celebrate they did, in grand style. Free beer style. After our new friends got done explaining the why, and the what, I headed over to the free beer table to order up what turned out to be a very tasty local beer (name forthcoming).
I enjoyed that, while Ruby enjoyed holding her complementary Izzy (I didn’t want her getting all sugared up), and then we darted back to the car to move it.
Good Ride, at Great Cost
I had a good ride today. Tom P. (my boss), and Adrian B (new SETI PI) started out the ride with me from HP in Palo Alto. We made good (but not good enough) time over to Woodside where we met up with Carl P (who graciously waited 30 minutes for us to arrive). We rode Canada road to Skyline, and up Polhemus. Adrian left us at the bottom of the Polhemus loop, and Carl left 8 miles later at Woodside. Tom and I raced back to the cars at HP in what seemed like record time. Now that I’ve done the whole course, I feel quite a bit more comfortable with the upcoming ride. Here are the stats:
- Distance 43.29
- Time 3:35:31
- Avg Speed 12:05
- Max Speed 38.21
- Trip Climb 2,299’
Now for the cost. As I mentioned in the last article, Ruby was not pleased with my night on the town. She was also quite upset about my going on a ride, and wasn’t shy about showing her displeasure in the most creative ways. At Woodside, I called Vick to check in, and things were distinctly not okay. I didn’t really have space to talk, and she didn’t have time, so I pedaled onward, hoping for the best. At the half way point I called again and Vick was in tears. Apparently Ruby had been acting out in every demonic way possible, at one point intentionally smashing her brothers fingers in our bathroom trashcan.
When I finally arrived home, Ruby was peacefully drawing on the workroom floor, and Vick was standing on the other side of the sliding glass door. Apparently, when Ruby heard I was coming home, everything was fine. We had a very calm and loving talk about how her choices impacted our family, and then headed out to Whole Foods to pickup lunch and dinner.
By the time I arrived at Whole Foods, both kids were sleeping. I loaded Miles up on my back (still sleeping) and got Ru into a conveniently discarded cart, and did the shopping. Miles transfered back into the carseat (still sleeping, a small miracle) and then back onto my back at home (still sleeping, a large miracle).
Ruby was back to herself, though quite tired, and fell asleep by 7:30. Unfortunately, our day was not over then. Miles pretty much refused to sleep until 10:30, and Ruby woke twice with night terrors.
Thankfully by 10:45 all of us were in bed and sleeping. I don’t believe that I’ve ever been so glad to have a day behind me. Today is a new day, and we are all looking forward to some family time.
A Night on the Town
Last year, around my birthday, Wes and I hatched a plan to go out for burgers and beer, and then catch a movie. It didn’t come together until Saturday night, and even then, the plan had to be modified. I left the house at 6:45 in order to meet Wes at Thirsty Bear by 7:30. Ruby had a total meltdown about my going out. I tried to remind her that she wanted to leave me for a sleepover the next night, but I don’t think her sense of empathy is developed enough to really appreciate the comparison. After what I thought was a successful negotiation with her, I was out the door.
At 3rd and Howard (half a block from Thirsty Bear) Wes called to get directions. As he was only a block away, I hung out on the corner to wait. Perhaps the highlight of the night was when I saw Wes barreling down the sidewalk on his unicycle. He had a big old grin on his face as he wound his way through the crowd.
We had an IPA (which was fantastic) and headed over to the garage to drop off the unicycle in my trunk. We made it into the theater moments before the movie started (Iron Man) and got pretty great seats. Wes pulled out two beers from his jacket, and the movie was on. I got through about the neck of my bottle before I realized that a two hour movie and two beers were not a good combination.
Iron Man was a fantastic slugfest. If you’re in the mood for a super-action movie with great [mechanical]hand to hand fighting, this is the flick for you.
We got out of the theater around 11 and I was feeling pretty tired, so we decided, in the interest of safety, to get an espresso. Bad idea! I made it home safely, but didn’t get to sleep until 4:30am. Unfortunately Ruby and Miles (who also had a late night) didn’t want to sleep in, and at 6:30 I was up and at em.
I sucked it up and dealt, since it was my bad choice, but at 9:30 when my bike ride started, I was not sure if I was going to be able to finish.
…Continued in the next article.
Crazy Day, Great Ride, Tired Dad
I had intended to wake up with the cows this morning and get in a good long ride before the sun started to heat our little green ball up. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans for me. As soon as I fired up my e-mail I noticed something distinctly wrong. The mail server was down. Way down, no ssh, no ping, no traffic through the firewall to it. DOWN.
Normally a server down doesn’t seem so scary, but this thing is built like a tank with more redundancy and power than 10 mail servers would need. So for it to be down, I thought, something really serious must have happened.
Still dead set on getting my ride in, I geared up and headed over to SETI to set things straight. I expected to be about five minutes. When I arrived I discovered that an HVAC failure had brought the ambient temperature up to 102, and the mail server, smart fella that he is, decided to call it quits rather than burn up. I’m actually quite glad that it made that call, because ordering new hardware would have taken quite a bit longer. 5 hrs later I was on the road again.
So now its noon, and I’m thinking “Not too late to ride, I’ll just get on my…” whoosh, I get hit with a wall of heat as I leave the building. “… on second thought…” I called Vick to rendezvous for lunch (I still hadn’t eaten breakfast), she and the Logan contingent were downtown, just finishing up the street fair, and were about to head out for bagels. After lunch we headed home to wait out the heat (which I should mention was quite a bit cooler than the last few days, at 86). At 4 I put Ruby down for a nap, and spotting my window, hopped on the bike and headed out. I had intended to ride all the way to the beginning of the Tour de Cure course, then ride the course, then ride home. That would have been ~60 miles, and seemed like a great idea at the time.
The ride was a scorcher, and fast, and I made some poor pacing choices. This lead to my sputtering out at mile 30. Not feeling too bad about my progress, I gave Vick a call and had her bring the kids out for a hike.
An hour or so later they showed up, and we had a nice hour long hike by the reservoir. Pooped, and happy we all loaded into the car and headed home. Miles and Ru are soundly sleeping, no doubt dreaming of their action packed weekend, Vick is on her way in, and I’m just about to make one last check on the server before turning in myself.
What a great weekend
Wow, this was easily the best weekend I’ve had in a while. Saturday, I took my final test ride (21 miles) and purchased my new bike (see earlier posts). Then headed home for a quick lunch. After lunch the Logans came over and we caravaned up to the Maker Faire. It was much bigger this year, and we didn’t have nearly enough time to see it all. Almost everyone was sad to leave, but we were exhausted and cold.
On Sunday, Ruby and I woke up early and puttered around for a while doing crafts and e-mail, and then made coffee for momma. Then we kicked into high gear in order to get to Cafe Fanny and still be on time to Logan Fredenburg’s birthday party. We had a wonderful, if slightly nippy brunch. Ruby of course had a “scoop egg” and was very confused when I told her that she would have to say “soft boiled” when she ordered.
The birthday party was held at a great park in the Berkeley Hills which features a huge S shaped concrete slide. You grab a piece of cardboard at the bottom, climb the steps to the top, and whiz on down at close to the speed of sound. Ruby (you guessed it) wanted to go down alone. It took Vick and I almost half the party to concede. At one point a mother came over, with Ruby in tow, to chastise us for leaving her unattended. Thank god we live in a state who’s populous is dedicated to protecting us and our children from ourselves. Sheesh. Anyway, we continued to have fun until about 4 when our bellies called us away from the festivities. We stopped at Vick’s favorite Mexican place (Picante) for an early dinner. Even though Ruby was falling asleep on the way over, she managed to chatter and sing all the way home.
When we got home, everyone was awake and in good spirits. We decided to try a family book time, and all climbed into Ruby’s bed for two stories (The Napping House and Reckless Ruby). Miles mostly wanted to jump, so I jumped him and Vick read. After books, Ruby fell right to sleep, and Miles gave up the ghost a few minutes later.
Exhausted and happy, Vick and I cleaned up the house and collapsed into our Poangs to watch last week’s episode of Lost.