Snow Dog

Ready for a neighborhood cruise in the snow in her new boots. She hates when I put them on, but as soon as we get outside she's in a full-on sprint.

Snow lovers: You're Welcome!

Snowiest December in 50 years. Why should you thank me, you ask?

1. I sold all of my xc ski gear.
2. I have not bought my snowblower yet.
3. I have no snowboard trips lined up.
4. I had to drive 650 miles last weekend (12-14 inches of snow on Sunday alone).

So, snow lovers, bow to my weather-changing powers. Note to those in need of rain: send me a postcard and I will show up to your area and set up my tent. It will start pouring before I get the rain fly attached, or your money back.

Good Neighbors

Minnesota and Wisconsin got rocked by a blizzard this weekend. We were out of town, and when we got home yesterday we arrived to a snow-free driveway. Our neighbor Jim is the greatest. The guy is in his 80's and he cleared our driveway. Also the only guy I know with a custom built fairing for his snowblower, complete with a coffee holder. Awesome.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family.

Eagle

Unfortunately I couldn't take a photo as I was driving, but a huge bald eagle was flying above me on my way home for lunch. My office is in a house on Long Lake in the northern Twin Cities metro. The eagles fly above the lake where Rice Creek empties out, looking for fish. In the winter, deer walk across the lake on the ice and come up to my office window. I don't miss working downtown at all.


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Family Guy

FPA-I know you're a fan of the show. I can set you up with some of these if you want once I get final approval from Fox and we have some in stock. (2 more designs on my design blog, not sure which 2 will make final cut).

Google Images

So yesterday I linked a photo of Evel Knievel that I found on Google Images. Brad tells me that's not the image that appeared on the post. It looked correct on my system, and I didn't see the image he described, but if any of you did, sorry about that. Post has been deleted. Last time I post a photo using a URL link.

St Louis

This was the first time I've been to St. Louis since the mid-1980's. The cab ride from the airport was depressing. This is a hardcore looking town, which was confirmed when I read in the paper yesterday that it was America's most dangerous city in 2006 (bumped down to number 2 this year by Detroit). The baseball stadium looks pretty cool though. You can see right onto the field from the street as you drive by. Hotel was pretty nice, with this view from the lobby of Busch Stadium and the Gateway Arch.

I told you not to call me here...

A few hotels I've stayed at you had to nail down the furniture to keep the roaches from moving it. Then there's the other side of the coin. When you've got a toilet phone, you know you're in a good hotel.

Famous Dog

My phone camera really sucks, so I apologize for the picture quality. I'm in St. Louis for the Anheuser-Busch licensing summit. We went to the Clydesdale stable for a group photo when this little guy came up and said hi to me. You may have seen him on tv, riding in the horse-drawn beer wagon in those commercials they run during the holidays. Pretty friendly dog.

Went to Beer School this afternoon. Perhaps the most important thing I learned is that AB is more than Bud Light. I had unlimited Stella Artois after class and during dinner. Also learned that Amber Bock pairs well with chocolate cake. Made it through the first leg of the post-dinner pub crawl, but after getting 2 hours of sleep last night and my travel delays this morning, I was too tired to soldier on. My room at the Westin is too nice to ignore, so I'm hanging here and hitting the hay early. Tomorrow I get a VIP tour of the AB design archives. Over 150 years of advertising and marketing design at my disposal for product design. Sweet. I've only been here half a day, but man do they take care of you here.

NWA MSP WTF

Got up at 5:00am, hauled ass to the airport only to find my 7:20 flight is delayed at least 2 hours for "unscheduled maintenance". At least I'm not stuck on the plane on the tarmac like we were in January in Seattle. We sat on the plane for close to 2 hours before being allowed to go back to the gate. When I was a kid I thought air travel was glamorous. Turns out it's worse than riding the bus.

Google Earth Flight Simulator

Where am I?

For a free app, this is pretty kick ass. Google Earth Flight Simulator. It's an Easter Egg hidden in the latest version of Google Earth. To access it for the first time on your Mac, open Google Earth (make sure you have latest version) and then hit option+apple+a or shift+apple+a (can't remember 100% which it is right now). You have your choice of an F-16 or a single-engine prop. You have a list of airports to choose from, or, before entering the flight simulator, select an area in Google Earth and when you enter the flight sim you will be flying over that position. Cities with 3D buildings are cool to fly over (Manhattan is pretty cool). Controls are pretty touchy and I have yet to land without crashing, but it's pretty fun. Update: Actually, I've managed to land 3 times in a row now without crashing. Not really sure it was on the runway or not, but hey, I didn't crash. It helps to place some push pins that mark the runways on the Google Earth map before entering the simulator mode. It makes finding the airport much easier, especially without any radio or GPS navigation aids. You can also use the line tool to create a glide path.

Grumpy's CX

B race start, Grumpy's CX at the Velodrome.

Velodrome CX

Birchwood/Crossniacs in action at the Velodrome CX on Sunday. We brought Zoe and Owen with. It was Owen's first race. He slept through it all, and I didn't get any pictures of him. Bad dad. Anyway, Guy kicked ass, crushing the holeshot and leading the entire race to take first. Andy was in 3rd the whole race until the mud bog attacked, knocking him down to a still very respectable 6th place. Not sure how Eric(?) did in the C race, but he looked like he was having fun. One of these days I will get some sleep and have time to ride again.

Crazy Dog

Sometimes she looks completely psycho, but anyone who has ever met her knows otherwise. Goofball.

Workout

Sleep Intervals: On a couch or chair, curl up into a ball and drift off. While asleep, wake up to the crying of your baby every 2-3 minutes. Do 6-10 of these starting a new one every 3-5 minutes after warming up. Heart rate will vary from resting rate to Zone 4. Cool down by watching Italian soccer highlights, stretch.

Things change when you have a baby. I haven't ridden for 3 weeks. I'm gonna try to run and ride a bit next week. Sleep would be great too.

Autumn

First hard-freeze of the year overnight. The leaves are dropping so fast it sounds like it's raining.
It's time for a new camera. The batteries last about 10 minutes and then die. Managed a couple of shots before the shutdown.

Week 1

Jen wants to take his picture with the gorilla to see how much he grows. So, here's the first one, at 1 week old.
Zoe is really into Owen. She can't see into the bassinet but her nose comes right to the edge. Anytime Owen makes a sound, Zoe goes over to check him out, then she comes to get me to let me know he's doing something. She's snuck in a few face licks when Owen's been on my lap. She's a good big sister.

Home!

We finally got to bring Owen home last night. If felt so good to not have to go back to the hospital today (especially not having to walk through the cloud of cigarette smoke to get in the main entrance). I will miss the nurses who took great care of us, but not the chairs I had to sleep on. Thanks to the doctors, too, but we all know the nurses do the gruntwork.

Oct 21st

Sunday has been a good day for Owen. His IV was removed last night and he's been eating better. Jen was discharged yesterday but we spent the night at the hospital so we could feed him and hang out. The doctor didn't do rounds until after Jen was initially sent home, so we don't know when Owen can come home, but we should have a better idea later this afternoon/early evening after the doctor is by.

Zoe is going crazy, wondering why we haven't been home and why I keep coming and going. She got to smell a baby blanket yesterday and was pretty excited. I'm sure they will be best friends.