Madelyn's Dance Recital

We are very pleased with Madelyn's success in her dance group. You can tell when she dances that she very much a leader and beautiful if I do say so myself. The color is a little weird because the back drop kept changing colors during the number making it near impossible to set a consistent white balance.

Calico Ghost Town

On our way back to Utah we stopped in the town of Calico, CA which is a ghost town that has always been a point of interest along road trips since I was a kid. Had to perpetuate the experience.

My Grandparents

These are my grandparents. He's 97 and she's 92. The photo was taken in the front yard of their So-Cal home of more than 50 years where they still live today. If you ever want to hear incredible piano playing, let me know and I'll burn you a copy of grandma's CD.

Disneyland

Photos from our recent trip to Disneyland (yeah I know it was nearly 2 months ago).

Eureka 105

Man! Who updates this page anyway?!?

Well, gotta share this one. On Sunday I completed my first century of the season. I'll double post here since you can read my new personal website as well.

... my goal for this year is 4 centuries. I had picked up a tour guide from the local bike shop and discovered there are a handful in and around the valley to chose from. First up was the Eureka 105 sponsored by the Bonnevile Cycling Club. The ride amounted to a trip around western Utah beginning at the north end of utah lake, traveling lakeside south to Elberta then west up and over Eureka onto Hwy 36 north through the small towns of Vernon, Faust picking up Hwy 73 to Fairfield, Cedar Fort before completing the loop back to the starting point.

You know you've really gotta love this sport once you hit 40 miles since that about when you start to realize those bike seats aren't designed for comfort. When you reach 70 miles you begin to feel just how painful "over 40" can be. Come 90 miles and you simply ache head to toe, the only option is to grin and bear it (intermixed with the occasional profane fliers). Reach 100 and you scream aloud having overcome the demons trying to strip you away from a more youthful form.

Great ride! Met a pelaton along the way and was able to hang with them in the flats. Easily averaged 23mph including a 5 minute contribution of my own to the cause. But our relationship wasn't meant to be. They dropped me on the climb into Eureka. From then on it was a solo effort but certainly enjoyed every excruciating minute of it all.

Addicted to PHP

I have been playing around with PHP and a SQL server. The way it works now is to take my cycling data in an XML format and upload select data to the SQL database. Then using PHP extract each ride and format a table and some graphs. Not much to look at visually but pretty fun to program and watch the numbers over time.

See the Cyclelog here. and let me know what you think.

Woodland Hills EMT's

So I'm out riding with my good neighbor Sean and we're climbing the hill in Woodland Hills; the goal being to ride until we reach the fire station at the top. In my opinion this hill isn't for the faint of heart though Lance undoubtedly would disagree. Putting opinions aside, Sean and I were giving the hill all we had to offer. About 50 yards prior to reaching the fire station I decide to push EVERYTHING into those pedals and overtake Sean. We reached our goal, right in front of the station and I felt like I was going to puke. Sean's words were, "You know you've given it your all when your puking up your lunch." At this point, I'm about to pass out, I'm light headed and can feel that I'm about to fall over. So I unclip from the bike, set it down and lie down on the ground, fully prostrate to allow my oxygen to normalize. As I'm lying there, I hear a few people calling over too me "Hey, are you alright?". It was the EMT's at the station, 5 or 6 of them, still in their uniforms coming to my aid. They told me they had a defibulator and could restart my heart if I needed. They were serious! I don't doubt for one second they would have saved me. But I was good, waved them off and then we all got a good chuckle out of the thought.