- The Utah trip in May is coming together very nicely. My plans to ride the Kokopelli Trail are moving forward full speed ahead. I have the maps for the trail, have read the guidebook that exists for it (trails this long have their own books) and although my original riding partner won't be joining me, I have two (possibly three) other great guys to come along for the journey. I'm really excited about this because I was considering skipping the Fruita singletrack section and the descent down Porcupine Rim in Moab if I was by myself for safety reasons. We'll be riding from Fruita, CO to Moab, UT on May 5-7. Can't wait!
- Careful observers of my race calendar on the right will notice a subtle change. It's the addition of four small lowercase letters in parentheses. Solo. After talking with other bikers, I've decided that it would be "easier" to solo the Round the Clock Spokane 24hrs race than it would be to do it as a two-person team. I've been told that with a two-person team you can never truly rest -- you're always either warming up or cooling down. And I don't care to do it as a four- or five-person team. So I'm going solo. Now, let's get one things straight, with this being my first attempt at something like this, I'm not planning on trying to ride for the full 24 hours. I am, instead, going to try and ride without any planned breaks for 10 to 12 hours, get a few hours nap in the middle of the night, then get back on the trail and hopefully put in another 6 hours or so in the morning. Yet another event in which I am going to be heavily reliant on Kristin's support. And cooking.
- I finally started playing Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords and the game is freaking brilliant. It's available for the PSP and DS and there is a playable demo available on PC. The game is a very fun, entertaining role-playing game in which all of the combat is carried out in what amounts to a roided-up version of Bejeweled. I suggest you go ahead and order it online, as it's very difficult to find in stores as Penny-Arcade clearly (and comically) demonstrates here.
- I missed the Peyton Manning episode of SNL this past weekend on account of work, but I did finally watch the main clips on NBC's website (they were taken off YouTube). I highly recommend watching the "United Way" skit Peyton did with a bunch of kids. It's one of the funnier SNL skits in years. Click here to watch it.
- Kristin reminded me of my "tradition" last night. For those who haven't read this blog long enough or who have simply chose to forget the trivial details of my life, I'll offer up this refresher. It started a couple years ago, but on the last night of a project -- usually a night in which I'm going to be up working till 3 or 4 in the morning -- I'll drive to the Krispy Kreme in Issaquah and get a dozen assorted donuts to snack on while I burn the midnight oil. I also stop in the adjacent Starbucks for a vente americano "with room". The expansion of my waste line prior to my increase in cycling has gotten me to dial back the Tradition to just every other book. Last night was an every-other-book's final night, so it was necessary to make the donut run (I have a funny story about donut runs, for another time) around 9:30pm. We got home at about 10pm and, here I sit, twelve hours later, with ten raspberry filled, iced kreme filled, and regular Krispy Kreme donuts doing a wicked tango in my stomach. I'm tempted to go for #11, a chocolate-frosted donut that Kristin has yet to eat (she picks out two) but I honestly feel as if doing so might kill me.
- We bought Casino Royale on DVD the other night. I said it back in December during the power failure, but I'll say it again now cause it bears repeating. This is the best Bond film ever. Not that I've actually watched any of the other Bond films in their entirety but I just know they couldn't possibly be this good. It's long, and you have to watch all of it to fully appreciate the complexity of the story, but it's a fabulous movie with a bit of everything in it.
- Kristin ran the Mercer Island Half-Marathon on Sunday and finished in a time of 2:00:32. She didn't beat the time she ran in January, but this race was a good bit hillier and had thousands of runners in it whereas the other race had maybe 150 people. Lots of traffic to run around and those familliar with Mercer Island know there's not room for thousands of people on those streets. On the other hand, the course winds through one of the ritziest neighborhoods in the country and past some absolutely incredible waterfront mansions. Kristin trained right through the race in preparation of the 50k run she's doing on April 22nd.
- Lastly, my sister Jessica reports that Stephen King's "Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower" is not the steeming pile of you-know-what I thought it was when I threw it down in frustration, yelling "I waited 18 years for THIS!!!" at the top of my lungs to the ceiling in my bedroom. She says, "Once you get about 150-200 pages into it, it gets really really good. I can hardly put it down." I checked the bookmark I left in it and, sure enough, it was on page 104 when I finally gave up in disgust. I'm still working my way through wonderfully dense "The Colony" about the Molokai leper colony, but I'll have to take Jess's word for it and give the DT7 book another try when I'm done. Kind of funny that I got her hooked on reading these books not even two years ago and now she's the one prodding me to finish the last one.
Well, that's about it for now. Time to make some coffee and get to work. Have a good day!
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