At the Rink

Clearly I am shirking my blogging responsibilities in 2009. I’ve been procrastinating posting a couple of slideshows in the hopes that I would actually write something up about them. That hasn’t worked too well. Admitting that I have a problem is the first step. Recruiting guest bloggers may be the second. For now we’ll just have to settle for the captions in the slideshows…

DC Roller Derby

Harper's Ferry Hike

I do have to make two quick notes:

• Get to the Roller Derby early (like 45 minutes before the match starts) and grab your food and drinks. The line to get through security stretched from the DC Armory back to the metro… and the concessions lines were even worse, hopefully they’ll have more security and concessions personnel next time.
• As for the Harper’s Ferry hike… we never did find the trailhead despite walking past where it was supposed to be once and driving past it twice. I assume that it may actually be the path directly out of the parking lot (despite the guidebook saying 0.3 miles up the road).  

¡Olé!

It was an improbable run—especially considering we still don't know how we ended up making the playoffs—but after four years in the league 60-Finger Sanchez won the volleyball championship... and we have the t-shirts to prove it!


We entered last week's match and saw that we were tied for fourth (the last playoff spot) with one other team. Our matchup was against the 3rd Place Buddha Pat while the other team faced off against a 2-19 team. We figured we needed to go 3-0. We went 0-3. And yet miraculously we had an email from Sportsplex the next day announcing that we'd made the playoffs. We can only assume the other team forfeited their 10pm games and we'd won the head to head matchup to break the tie.

In the semi-finals we faced off against the 1st place Block Heads. Thanks to the best all around team play we've had, we managed to win the first two matches to advance to the championship game (where we'd lost last season). Our opponents in the finals? Buddha Pat. The team we'd gone 0-3 against the week before. We lost the first game in a close contest, then opened the second game strong on a 10-3 run. But they called time out and rallied all the way back to lead 19-16. We fought back to win the second game and even the match at 1-1 to force a tie-breaking game to 15. It was back and forth to 10-10 and then they broke it open to get a 14-11 match point. We managed to win a long rally to get the serve back and close the gap to 14-12. Despite the pressure of a single fault ending our season, Sara served four straight points for us to take the decisive match 16-14... and to claim our first t-shirts. Did the mention the t-shirts :-)

Side-view Century

Usually when a biker gets hit by a car, the biker takes more damage than the car. Thankfully, I was the rare exception to that in my head-on collision with a pick-up truck about 40 miles into my Century ride. I’d like to think I was just that determined to finish the 100 miles, but it probably had more to do with getting hit by the one part of the truck which would give way before my arm did—the side mirror.

Even before the collision it was an eventful morning. No more than five miles in I discovered the flaw in my plan to pre-hydrate for the race. I felt the call of nature and had another 22 miles until the sanctioned rest stop. The problem is this area is not populated enough to have a gas station or restaurant I could pop into, but populated enough to have fences and houses discouraging me from stopping just anywhere. By mile 13 I knew there was no way I was making it all the way to the rest stop and my standards for a bathroom had diminished considerably—from isolated woodland to anywhere without a fence. I was seriously considering Tour-de-France-style (i.e. while riding) but figured I wasn’t skilled enough to stay on the bike let alone avoid pissing off the neighbors (or on myself). So you can imagine my joy when I found a ten foot gap in the fence above a dry culvert with a few trees beyond. I practically leapt off my bike and ran to the first tree. I was safe. And then I looked up. Directly above my “urinal” was a wriggling mass of bees. But by now I was… committed. And vulnerable. As the first bee flew from the tree and landed on me I prayed that my yellow and black jersey would convince it that I was a friend. My disguise worked as the other bees left me alone. By the end I felt so comfortable with my new friends I decided to document them. What I hadn’t anticipated was… the camera flash. Needless to say I ran back to the bike even faster than I had run from it.

After that everything was perfect until the fateful curve I took at 11:00. As the truck and I approached the curve on Meyerstown Road I could see that he was turning farther and farther into my lane. At first I assumed he was just taking a tight turn and I hugged the right side of my lane. By now he was entirely in my lane and I assumed he was trying to scare me (I’ve heard bikers aren’t well loved in these parts). But when he didn’t veer off I was sure he was trying to run me down. Before I had a chance to abandon the road altogether and careen into the fence, there was a thunderous (to me anyway) smash as the side mirror exploded off of my arm and shattered on the road. Somehow I managed to keep a grip on my bike and coast to a stop. Apparently the driver hadn’t noticed me biking towards him, and it did seem from his reaction that he was oblivious rather than malicious. I was shaken up but otherwise uninjured and after a discussion with the driver I cruised to the next rest stop powered mostly by adrenaline. I’m sure the mirror-less driver and I were both considerably more vigilant after that.

Thankfully the second fifty miles started with seeing my family at the midway point and were mostly memorable for the bucolic scenery, the delicious food served at the rest stops, and my amazement that I felt as strong at mile 85 as I had at mile 45, despite having never ridden more than 65 miles. I even sprinted the last two miles in an effort to finish in under 6 hours and 30 minutes on the bike (I did succeed even though my bike computer kept counting an additional two seconds once I had stopped!). Despite the close calls described above it was a fantastic experience that I would recommend to anyone and when combined with all the post-ride celebrations it was one of the best days of my life. Thank you to everyone who supported me in accomplishing this (specifically the Potomac Peddlers Touring Club for putting this Historic Back Roads Century on, Darren for inspiration, my family for support, Mimsi for many of these photos, and of course my post-ride masseuse—I am not even sore today!).

PPTC Historic Back Roads Century at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

“And I would bike 100 miles”

Well that’s the plan anyway, and I am now officially registered for my first Century ride on September 21^st. My training has consisted of biking to work (20 miles round-trip) 2-3 times a week since May and then doing increasingly longer rides with the Potomac Pedalers each weekend for the past month. Below is a map I will update with my training rides and then finally the Century itself:

Century Training Rides at EveryTrail
Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Even without riding it yet, the Century has been worth it simply because it got me biking to work (well the Century and Darren showing me the direct route). If you live close enough you should definitely try biking to work, and if you don’t live close enough… move! Humor me for a moment with my bike-to-work spiel:

• No gas: In addition to the monetary and environmental savings, there’s just a rush you get arriving at work knowing that the trip was completely on your own power

• No traffic: It takes me 10 minutes longer to bike each way than it does to drive, and few things uplift the soul more than biking across the 14^th St. bridge next to a line of stopped cars

• Free exercise: Since it only takes 20 minutes longer to bike I get a 20 mile workout in 20 minutes

• Time outdoors: Even with most of my commute in an urban setting, I still get a couple of miles along the Potomac with views of all the monuments

• Free parking: Once I’ve biked to work, I can easily get to any events in the city (happy hours, Artomatic, Fringe, Jazz in the Sculpture Garden etc.) and have free rock star parking wherever I go

And the three most common arguments against biking debunked:

• “I live too far”: You can always pick a parking lot that is close enough to bike from and drive your bike there and still get most of the benefits

• “I’d get to work all sweaty”: If you have a shower at work then you are pretty much out of excuses, but even if you don’t, as long as you can keep a change of clothes at work, some deodorant, and a towel to wipe down with, sweat’s not a problem

• “What if it rains?”: If it’s raining on the way to work, wear rain gear, don’t bike that day, or think of it as extra sweat you wipe down before changing at work. If you get caught in the rain on the way home… well it’s the way home, who cares? If you do care then you can take your bike on metro (outside of rush hour) or put it on the front of a bus, or worst case leave it locked up at work and taxi home

Most importantly though, wear a helmet. As you can see from our photo from the Safety is Sexy blog, “You’d look hotter in a helmet” anyway.

Notes to Jon:

• Hunter’s Head Tavern in Upperville, VA is a great post-ride or date spot with covered outdoor seating and delicious (and reasonably priced) organic meals with ingredients from the owner’s farm.
  


• There’s a dog on Box Factory Rd near Berryville that loves to chase bikes. It’s unnerving but, at least in our experience yesterday, he was more interested in chasing than attacking. I believe the Century goes along this route so hopefully he won’t be in an attacking mood on the 21^st (or at least all the faster riders will have tired him out for me!)

60-Finger Salute

Congratulations to 60-Finger Sanchez (Mary's volleyball team that I've been subbing for) for not only making it to the playoffs for the first time in their storied franchise history but for advancing all the way to the championship game (what happened after that is sort of irrelevant). The victorious season was not without consequences though as both Mary and Aaron now share matching fractured ankles :-( I believe Sanchez plans to revel in this season's success and regroup for another run at the championship in the fall. In the mean time we've got plenty of work to do to get Casual Sets into the playoffs in our Wednesday league on the Mall. While I won't claim any credit for being the reason that Sanchez got to the championship game this season, I also won't take any blame for the discovery yesterday that my former softball team (Raising Arizona) is now suddenly in first place in the Congressional League... the year after I stopped playing!

Enjoy a few of Mary and Sara's photos from the Pat Powers clinic and Sanchez's run at the title (note how I move so fast that the camera can't even keep up with me :-p) Ole!

Ba'rack Climbing in Franklin, WV

I missed out on Jeff's Obama fundraiser but it was worth it for a perfect day of climbing out in Franklin, WV. My two month layoff definitely showed as I had to "take" on Belly of the Whale and realized I wasn't ready to lead Jump Start but I made it up both and I felt great flashing Anchors Away. Most importantly my finger and foot injuries weren't a problem, so I am all clear to get out and do some more climbing!

The 500 Club at Fenway South

We’ve got it easy. Jump on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, grab free parking (or worst case $2), buy cheap food from the vendors in front of Pickles Pub, and scalp prime seats to the game for well less than face value. That’s the routine for most of the nine games that the Sox play here at Fenway South each season. Really I feel bad for the fans in Boston, the families we meet at each game who have realized they can fly the whole family down for a weekend of Sox games in Charm City for less than it would cost them to stay at home and watch. That’s the great thing about Fenway South, it’s not just geographically-challenged fans like Jeffrey and me making the O’s feel like they have 9 extra road games a year, the seats around us are usually filled with extended families of vacationing New Englanders. Ironically, I’m pretty sure we get to see more Sox games than they do each year.

I got an early start on my Sox watching this year with the trip in April to Yankee Stadium. That was quite an experience. I was in section 39 of the bleachers out in right field. It’s the home of the “Bleacher Creatures” and many of the Yankee fans there wore “Section 39” t-shirts. The “Roll Call” originates in this section, where the fans chant each player’s name during the top of the first inning until they get some acknowledgment from that player and move on to the next. The few Sox fans (at our game exactly 4 in the whole section) are generally welcomed with a collective chant of “Ass-Hole… Ass-Hole” as we walk to our seats (or in any way move around or draw attention to ourselves). When YMCA plays on the sound system, they encircle a Sox fan and sing “Why are you gay?” Nonetheless, I proudly wore my Sox cap the entire time.

That’s not as bold as it seems because of one important development in recent years: the bleachers are now alcohol-free. The Yankee fans I was with told me stories of the good old days when a Sox fan would be ruthlessly confronted by the chanting fans and often kicked out of the bleachers by security “for their own safety”. The situation has mellowed and I never felt any genuine hostility. That’s probably because I was with several Yankees fans, cheered for the Sox but not excessively loudly, and because two vocal Sox fans a few rows in front of me did an excellent job of drawing all the wrath in their direction. At one point the fan behind me tapped me on my back and asked “How is it that everyone is leaving you alone?” Even the Ass-Hole chant I got en route to my seat died half-heartedly after a couple of rounds. Even still I was a bit nervous as Joel took a photo of me after the game in front of the Yankees logo… giving a big thumbs down. With some drunken Yanks fans around I’d likely have been taking a rather different route out of (well over) the bleachers. It probably helped my cause that the Damn Yankees had crushed my Sox that night and everyone (but me) was feeling festive… But scoreboard aside it was a fun trip to Yankee Stadium and I thank Joel for organizing it. I especially enjoyed learning about the boltbus service which I rode home from Penn Station NYC to Metro Center D.C. for $15 (it could have been $1 if I booked far enough in advance)

I expected a better result for the Sox on May 13^th at the Fenway South season opener. After all Jeffrey and I had never witnessed a Sox defeat there since our tradition began a couple of years ago. I should have known something was amiss when we had to pay face value for our tickets ($50/$50 for Sec. 34 Row JJ Seat 5 - Home Plate) and for once there actually seemed to be a few more Orioles fans than Red Sox fans (quite literally, we usually outnumber them considerably). Beckett got shelled, Manny stayed stuck on 498 HRs, and—other than it marking our first defeat—the most memorable thing about the game was that someone had followed through on the idea of a Fenway South poster that Jeffrey and I had often discussed but never executed.

Two weeks later the Sox were back in town on Friday May 30^th. I made the mistake of assuming that $55 tickets would have to be good seats and snagged them for $20 a piece ($55/$20 Sec. 43 Row J Seat 8 - Press Box). They weren’t horrible (behind home plate next to the press boxes) but they were considerably farther away than we were used to. I did determine that it is easier to scalp tickets for the weekend games for some reason as there were far more sellers in the designated scalping area than there had been for our Tuesday night game on the 13^th. Our seats may have been worse but the results were much better. It took 13 innings but the Sox finally broke it open and Papelbon locked down the 5-2 win… probably because by that time we had moved all the way down to the second row behind the plate. After managing only a single HR in the past two weeks, Manny was still stuck on #499 and stayed that way through this game.

We nearly skipped Saturday’s game. The forecast was for storms and Sarah was having a dinner party. We went anyway. We might not have forgiven ourselves if we didn’t. The evening started well, with second row seats just past third base for $30 ($32/$30 Sec. 62 Row BBB Seat 8 - 3rd Base), and it kept getting better. No rain ever came, the Sox won again, and everything was completely overshadowed by Manny finally crushing HR #500 in front of as noisy a crowd as he’d have found at Fenway (North). After taking photos of nearly every pitch Manny had seen for the past two days, the one pitch he finally got a hold of turned out to be the one that my focally-challenged camera managed to blur. But we were there for the memorable moment, probably the most historic sports moment Jeffrey or I have witnessed (though I did see Big Mac’s final four homers in his record-setting 1998 campaign—that might have won out had Barry not broken* that record only a few years later). Fans were so excited we were literally clamoring for the ball girl to toss us the piece of trash that Manny had dropped on his way into the dugout (we assumed it was a sunflower seed bag or somesuch—the zoom on my camera revealed it was only a crushed muddy cup that had gotten stuck to his cleat)

At this moment the Sox hold the best record in the AL East with a 7 game lead over the last place Os and Yankees. Hopefully that’s how things will look at Fenway South when the Sox return to finish the season series in the middle of August. Until then, Go Sox!

Dosvedanya Yankee Stadium

Joel is leaving the East Coast and the Yankees are moving out of Yankee Stadium (they're going to the new stadium right next door). That made it the perfect time to finally catch a game at Yankee Stadium and of course that game needed to be a Sox/Yankees game. I have plenty to say about the experience of being one of four Sox fans surrounded by a horde of chanting "bleacher creatures"... but unfortunately that will all have to wait until I return from Russia since I leave in less than 12 hours and have just barely packed. For now I will just have to give you this picture worth 1000 words... or at least two words... and those words of course are "Yankees Suck!"

Hopefully the next post is from Russia!

Paintball Haiku

Mission Accomplished:
I didn't eat any paint...
But that shot still hurt!

National Mall and Nationals Park

Spring weather may not have arrived last weekend, but that didn’t stop the arrival of the Cherry Blossoms, the kite festival, Opening Night at the Nationals new stadium and (as I had to take metro to see all of those) the tourists.

At the kite festival the weather was colder and less windy than last year (not an ideal combination for kites), but Ann and I persevered and by some measure this year was even more successful; that measure would be the ability to fully unwind the kite string (with the kite in the air), which I accomplished twice Saturday vs. once in 2007. Despite flying last year’s model, I was happy to see my 3-D pirate ship kite received an ample share of compliments (it may be developing a bit of an ego).

Thanks to Joel I scored a ticket to the Nats opening night game on Sunday (as opposed to the game on April 7^th that I bought tickets for thinking it was the home opener. Doh. Seriously who has a one game series on March 30^th!?!). They rolled out the red carpet for us… to stand on while we waited in the metal detector lines (which had better have been a one-night deal on account of POTUS first-pitching). We explored the stadium and my initial impression was favorable, but as I’ve analyzed it I don’t know why (probably it was the atmosphere of being there for opening night). Nationals Park doesn’t have the unique touches of some of the new stadiums, or any interesting landmarks in the background—like the Bromo-Seltzer tower which used to be visible (bottom of link) at Camden Yards. The food and drink policy is the same as RFK where you can bring food and one sealed bottle of water in, but there are currently no vendors outside the stadium (at the metro entrance at least) which is a disappointment. And just like so many games at RFK, around the sixth inning I found myself futilely hoping that a pretzel vendor would walk by. Regardless it was an exciting night at Nationals Park, capped by Ryan Zimmerman’s walk-off HR. I was grateful to Joel to be there and I will give the stadium another chance on Monday with those tickets that I thought were for opening night!

Notes to Jon:

• In case any of the random people who came up and asked where I got my kite stumble across my blog (or more likely so I have an answer when they ask next year). Ann found Whistle Stop Hobbies in Old Town Alexandria for us last year.
  
  
• They did include local restaurants inside the stadium but the prices are marked up accordingly ($8.25 for a cup of—admittedly delicious—gumbo from Cantina Marina and $7 for Five Guys fries). That didn’t keep the lines from being out of control…until they cleared the area for fireworks. Rumor has it that Five Guys will be putting in a custom kitchen soon to increase efficiency and also lowering the price on the fries to $6. Hopefully Cantina Marina will increase the size of the gumbo cup.
  
  
• George Washington won the first President's Race at Nationals Park (while Teddy abandoned the race to dance in Center Field)
  
  
• Metro worked well for the game, we took the yellow line from Crystal City to the green line at L’Enfant. And most importantly we didn’t lose any keys!
  
  
• Although it has nothing to do with this post, I did go to Jammin’ Java on Monday to hear Eva Castillo and I need someplace to make a note of how delicious the Sausage Tomatillo Chili is so that I remember to get a bowl of it next time I am there.

Green Cards and Visas

That's right. I'll be appearing a little more manly around the climbing gym from now on. No longer do I have to wear a hot pink card on my harness. Tonight I finally took my lead climbing test (and passed) so that I can now wear a more fashion-friendly green card and climb like a man (well an 80s man I suppose since the card is day-glo green). I think it may mean that I can climb in new parts of the gym that don't have top-ropes set up, and also likely take falls that will hurt more... but the important thing is that I can look like a man while doing it! Hopefully my climbing doesn't suffer as a result, since women are better natural climbers...

Now if only applying for my visa to Russia next month were as easy...

If it's 2001 in Ethiopia... what year is it at this bowling alley!?!

In the biggest how-did-I-miss-that since I learned about the rock slide on a local Shenandoah Hike, I was introduced to this place tonight:

Bowling shoes +
2 games +
1/4 pound cheeseburger (with pickle wedge) +
fries +
16oz Coke (fine, it was a Pepsi) =
$11.75

... in 2008 ...

... 3 miles from my house ...

... no waiting ...

Out of respect to those who shared its secret location with me, I am not at liberty to divulge any more details or photos.

I found it not a moment too soon though... because both my sister and my mom have been beating me at Wii Bowling (which is not surprising since I failed to break 100 in my first game tonight).

One Note to Jon:

• When I return on a Friday or Saturday night for the 8pm Cosmic Bowling, have one person show up by 7:15, buy shoes and bowl a game. Once you've got the lane you can hold it all night as your friends show up.

Yellow paint doesn't taste as good as you'd expect...

...and other lessons from paintball:

• Wear kneepads

• Play in the winter when layers absorb the impact
  
  
• Check with Alexandra if you want a funny caption; her comment on this photo, "Big Bird shat in your mouth!"
  
  
• Best bet I've heard in a long time was agreed upon at post-paintball dinner. King declares he and his wife don't ever want kids. Joel tells King they'll change their minds. They establish the bet which is hereby witnesseth and recordedeth: Each New Year's Day, starting on January 1st 2009, $10 will be owed. If King has no children (biological or adopted), Joel will pay King. If King has a child, thenceforth King will pay Joel. This agreement shall be in effect so long as they both shall live.
  
  

Almost Heavenly

My triple-header Thursday night (lecture, climbing, and party-at-the-soon-departed Dr. Dremo's) kicked off with a lecture entitled "How I killed Pluto, and why it had it coming" by Michael Brown. Actually Michael's team discovered Eris, a (now-classified-as-dwarf) planet that was bigger than Pluto and touched off the whole reclassification brouhaha (as he put it, "Pluto was just collateral damage"). This was my second favorite lecture in the Carnegie Institution for Science's (free) Capital Science Lecture series (the first was last year's lecture by Steven Squyres on the Mars Rovers). Thanks to the wonders of the interweb, those of you who missed the lecture due to the snow or other asundry* excuses—which is all of you, since I went alone—can now watch it in their archives (along with the lecture by Michael Gazzaniga that I wrote about in October—but sadly not last year's Mars Rover lecture)

*Need to have a sidebar about whether asundry is a word or not. The dictionary says it isn't, but a remarkable number of people, myself included, (mis?)use the phrase "various and asundry". Many people use the apparently correct "various and sundry", but I want to know why I, and so many others, have it wrong...

I'm sure one reason I especially enjoyed the lecture is because Pluto's deplanetification is somewhat near and dear to me. Some of you may remember my psychic trivia ability, but for those who don't, "I'll digress very quickly because that's what I do best... except for the quickly part" (one of Michael's jokes that I enjoyed and felt was a good one for me). At a Fado's Pub Quiz in late 2004 the question was asked "What is the smallest planet?". Now what kind of question is that? In 2004 everyone knew Pluto was the smallest planet (In the world I choose to believe in at least). So... this must be a trick question, thought I. I then preceded to spend the next 20 minutes convincing my team that Mercury was the smallest planet because a) if the answer was Pluto it wouldn't be a trivia question and b) I vaguely remembered an article in the 90s about how Pluto wasn't technically considered a Planet anymore. My team went along with me and we lost those points. But as we all know now, I was not wrong... I was prescient. Incidentally, the next month, when I spent 20 minutes arguing (correctly, this time) that Titan was a moon of Saturn and not Jupiter (based on the Cassini-Huygens probe article I'd read that day!) my team wouldn't believe me based on my Plutonic reputation and we lost points again.

Here are some notes from the lecture:

• If the trivia question, "What is the ninth largest celestial body orbiting the Sun?" ever comes up, answer Eris (pending future discoveries... which Michael predicts, actually).

• If you are photographing the stars to find new bodies... be sure to take a second picture of the same sky later on.
  

• Eris is named after the Greek Goddess of Discord and Strife (because of the astronomical debate that ensued?)
  

• Michael had the most to gain from Pluto staying a planet (along with Eris), he'd have been the only living person to discover a planet... and even he thinks the right decision was made. His argument was that if you take away one of the current 8 planets the whole solar system feels the impact and if you take away anything else then no one notices (although he thinks the "planet" classification is basically aesthetic, and the right classification is something like "big things - Jupiter thru Neptune", "medium things - Mercury thru Mars", "small things between Mars and Jupiter" and "small things beyond Neptune")

• Many more that I may post later but won't bore you with now (after all if you are intrigued you should probably go watch the whole lecture online).

And in other "Heavenly" news, I kicked off the 2008 ski season with a trip back to one of the runs I grew up skiing on at Liberty Mountain. Enjoy the slideshow and notes below:

• MLK Weekend is a great weekend to ski locally (Liberty or Whitetail). Two years running there have been virtually no lines, presumably because everyone goes long on that weekend (the 22° high might have contributed as well)
  
  
• "The South Pole" was open at the base of the back side and served burgers, hot dogs and chicken sandwiches along with chips and hot chocolate, which seemed to satisfy the group and saved us a trip back to the front of the mountain

• I liked the 160cm parabolic skis I rented, but didn't get to try them on moguls and I think the edges might have been a problem on ice

• Camera batteries die almost instantly in cold weather... but will work again for a few more shots each time the camera is warmed up
  

• For Apres Ski at McKee's Tavern, order the French Onion Soup (if you can handle soup for $8.50) and stay away from the Crab and Artichoke Dip!

Call to the post

Saturday was my fourth trip to the Gold Cup (of either the International or Virginia varieties). For this annual tradition Jeffrey once again obtained a prime spot on the North Rail. By now, Jeffrey nearly has this process as well refined as our trips up to Fenway South… er Camden Yards for the Sox/O’s games. The only change I’d recommend for next year is to not bury the meat and cheese bags at the bottom of an ice filled cooler. My hands are numb right now just thinking of fishing them out. Everything else fell into place as it has in past years: food, parking passes, bow ties, and betting. Looking at the photos one might even get confused as to which year they were taken!

2006	2007

While I wasn’t nearly as successful as Jeffrey (who picked correctly in 6 of the 7 races – oftentimes placing two bets on the winning horse – and walked away with $52), it was easily my winningest year as well. Fly Past, Bon Fleur, and Orpington won three consecutive races for me and helped me to $7 in prize money (all of which, for tax purposes, has “officially” been returned to the original owners of course). I have a feeling I actually won more than that but some of it may have been embezzled by our bookie who would repeatedly declare the winnings and then apologize that she’d miscalculated when later handing me a dollar or two less… but we still love her (and she has priority deck privileges)

A few final notes for next year:

• Don’t bet on horses whose names start with “Fields of…”. Fields of Autumn failed me, as did my big time sleeper pick Fields of Omagh (winner of the 2005 cup – he was a sleeper because that fact isn’t listed on his entry which only shows 2006 and 2007 results).
• Don’t bet on a jockey who has just won a race and is then added as a last minute substitution to the next race. Robert Walsh rode Seeyouattheevent to victory in the International Gold Cup (when my money was on Fields of Omagh), and then proceeded to lead his horse off the course after suckering me into putting my money on him in the final race!
• Bet with Jeffrey who seems enamored of jockey Jeff Murphy and horses bred by Morris Farms.
• Make sure the bowtie is right side up if it has horses or other objects with obvious right-side-up-edness on it (unless you remember to tell people who point it out that you wear it that way for luck).
• When it’s time to remember how to tie a bow tie next year… watch this video…

… unless that isn’t necessary anymore now that the bowtie has become part of my official Red Sox playoff watching attire (damn baseball superstitions!)

These shoes were made for skydiving

If I start an official life list I can now cross skydiving off of it. My friend Mary went for a casual tandem skydive three months ago... and now some 50 jumps, several thousand dollars, and a certification later she convinced Darren, Jenn and I to give it a shot. While I don't see myself joining the Real World: Drop Zone (as we decided to call the wacky drama filled hookup hangar) that has consumed Mary's weekends ever since, I could definitely be convinced to jump again (though after seeing the hard landing by one of the AFF students on our load, I'm thinking that original plan of taking the six hour class and jumping solo might not have been the best way to start).

Jenn got her video guy but we ultimately had to split up into two loads. Darren went with jumpmaster Nick, while Mary tried a threeway with a couple of the girls who'd also got hooked this summer. They went up on "otter load 7" which allowed us to photograph their landings before Jenn and I took off on "otter load 9". Jenn also had Nick as her jumpmaster, and Elmo was her videographer (who even got some video and photos of me!). Mario was my jumpmaster and had me go through the process of watching the altimeter, waving off and then pulling our chute. I loved the transition from the wind rushing past my face at 120 MPH to absolute silence when the chute opens.

I also realized that my REI attic sale Keens have lived quite a full life since I got them in June: trekking across West Africa, kicking it in Class V Whitewater, and now free-falling for over a mile. I wonder what adventure they will have next...

Here's the video that Jenn got. Most of it is of her, but you get an idea of what the experience is like and you can see me jump out of the plane around 3:32 left and then around 0:24 left you see me land in the background (rainbow chute)...

The Gauley Lama

Posting some photos from this weekend’s adventures on the fall Gauley. This was Linny’s 5^th year planning the trip (Thanks Linny!) and my fourth trip in the area with Songer Whitewater, but it was our first time together. It won’t be the last. While each of my trips has been fun, this trip easily wins for most fun on the river. It probably didn’t hurt that I had a team of strong and zany raftmates (Viva la Banjos!), under the guidance of the man who we named “The Gauley Lama” (you can call him Fred), and a waterproof camera to capture everything (thanks Darren).

As the Banjos prepare to take on...	... the Upper Gauley

This was my second time on the Upper Gauley, but first time in the fall (when they release the Summerville Dam). I still agree with our guide from June that the low water Gauley in a 4 person High Adventure raft is more technically challenging than the Fall Gauley. It was a lot more peaceful too since we were the only rafts in the river in June compared to the “Mall Parking Lot” feel of waiting to drop into the Class Vs in the fall. But it’s hard to beat the fun of riding the big water, and we found plenty of fun ways to occupy the time while we waited (back flip anyone?). Next year we want to try the Upper Gauley in the High Adventure rafts and go on a Sunday instead of a Saturday.

I can meditate in mid-air...	... but I can't pull off the back flip like Dave

Swim Report: Kelly pulled a “Kelly” and was launched from the boat at a seemingly innocuous time as we bumped into a rock along one of the edges of Lost Paddle Rapids (thankfully another boat was right there to grab her so she didn’t have to swim the rest of the 1/3 mile class V rapid). We all got tossed (including Fred) at the Fuzzy Box of Kittens (aka Surprise), though I managed to be the last man standing in the raft before it went face down. Since the guides always try to flip here, I’ll see if I can attempt the guide’s move of climbing onto the back of the raft as it flips next year.

Other notes I want to remember for next year:

- A good guide makes all the difference (a bad one nearly ruined the trip for some of my raftmates last year). We’ve enjoyed Fred, Hobbit, and Doug with Songer.

- Take the route 60 cut across to route 19 even though Songer doesn’t suggest that in their directions (there’s a Kroger in a town about halfway along 60 – or else take a left on 19 and head back down to the Wal-mart – did I actually just advocate going to Wal-mart?!?)

- The waterproof Olympus worked great in the Sports setting on a sunny day like we had.

- The high was in the mid-60s and the water temp was in the high 50s/low 60s. I was grateful for the wetsuit, and my River Fox socks, but the water felt a lot warmer than I expected (much warmer than our trip at the end of June).

- Try to hit the top of Pillow Rock with your paddle as you go past, this was the one bit of fun that the Gauley Lama left out.

Safety Knots

I'll take a quick break from chronicling my trip to West Africa (I'll keep updating the entry below this) to bring you this public service announcement: Always tie safety knots at both ends of a rope you rappel down - or better yet tie the two ends together in a double fisherman's knot. Note to Jon - learn how to tie a double fisherman's knot!



You might not want to read this mom. We climbed Juliet's Balcony at Great Falls VA this morning and decided to rappel down. This was nearly a "very bad idea". I made it down to the balcony without incident and then threw the ropes down the rest of the way. Robert pointed out I needed to verify both ends had reached the ground. I'm pretty sure they did (it was hard to tell from the angle where I was at - not that that's a good excuse) but when you rappel the ropes can feed through your belay device at different speeds as I found out when one of the ends fed right up through my hand and out the belay device, essentially meaning there was nothing holding the other end of the rope I was hanging from. I caught the rope but it was out of the device and I was now dangling from the end of a rope with nothing to hold me up. Thankfully I was only about 5 feet from the bottom at this point and was able to fall safely (except for some nasty rope burn). When Garrick from Sportrock came by later and rappelled down the same rope he pulled the entire rope back to the top and tied the double fisherman's knot between the two ends before coming down. I should probably take the outdoor safety class :-) Good thing I just got a gift certificate for a free class!

The climbing went well though after I shook off the nerves from my (mini) fall. I did a couple of 5.7s and a 5.10c which clearly was mis-rated (or I used some holds which weren't intended for it). Garrick had climbed it before me and rated it a 5.8 so we'll go with that, and modify the name from Randomly Vicious to (Not So) Randomly Vicious. I think the difference is that we climbed a bit up the flake to the left of the intended face at the bottom (though Yvonne definitely climbed the intended route once) and perhaps too far to the right at the top. Either way it was a fun climb and I definitely recommend it if you are looking for a 5.8 level climb.


My day outdoors on Sunday was a tad safer, with an easy hike out to Raven Rocks WV. It is a 5.5 mile out and back hike with a great view and lunch spot in the middle, where we discovered some climbers on one of the cliff faces. I'll have to investigate the area online more and see about doing some climbing out there. I do think I'd have to rappel down though...