Eyes up!

AFM last round. 10-1-11, just some notes.

2011-10-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

I was able to make it to the final round of the AFM schedule on October 1-2, 2011.

What a blast. Started the weekend, by driving the long way up to Willows thru the California countryside, and found an amazing road that I'm going to have to explore on my motorcycle. A single track climb up and over the mountain range, with no railings, and large canyons that would swallow your truck, and nobody would know. I don't think we saw another car in 60 miles.

After driving north on hwy 16 and connecting with Hwy 20, we turned off here, at a non-descript turn off into a grove of trees.

The road quickly turns to a single track, rolling thru the countryside.

Took a shot from one of the spots high above. You can see the road below. there was about 3 switch backs on this photo. fun ride.

Stopped to take a shot of this group of horses. You can also see the cracks in the ground. I think, not sure, that the fault lines may go thru this region...since there were a lot of these "cracks" in the ground for miles on end. pretty cool.

Near the end of our trip, we stopped here for a break, and I took some shots of the older Stonyford bridge, and then the new bridge. The water/terrain was pretty interesting. It made the water flow in two directions, horizontal and vertical, from the view I had on the bridge. The sun was setting nicely, and it couldn't have been more peaceful.

After a nice break, we made our way to Thunderhill raceway, only to find out we can not enter the track tonight, but must camp out, outside the gate. Oh well, we roll into town and get a room, just to make things easy. Adam, with the trailer, wouldn't be getting in till really late. Linked up with some other friends that were coming for the race weekend, and we had a great dinner and chilled.

Friday morning is trackday. with Zoom Zoom Trackday providers. One of the best groups to start with and progress with. One of their riders broke the track record this weekend. (1:49.6) pretty awesome.

The trackday went without a hitch, and I continued to gain speed in some of the corners I was working hard to progress on. Going in faster, deeper, later on the brakes. With the wind changing, we also had to take that into account, since on the front straight, I added about a hundred feet of "throttle" at the end of the front straight, into T1. mostly because the wind was so high, I could afford to go so far past my brake markers.

After a long day of great riding, and hanging out with friends, we set up our pits for the race weekend, moving closer to the track. After a hearty dinner, we were off to bed pretty early.

Saturday, we got up and teched our bikes, and then prepared ourselves, and I signed up for an extra race today, to run with my roommate Adam. Clubman Lightweight. This will be his one year anniversary, of being run over at this track, at the start of his 600superbike race last year. A year to the day on 10-3-2011. After spending 2 weeks in the ICU after being run over, after being knocked off his bike at the start, he has made a healthy (haha) recovery, and came back out to race. So I signed up to race in the same one, for support, and because I like to race. :D

Clubman Lightweight, gridded up, ready to go, 2 board is up, turns to the 1 board (minutes), goes sideways, GREEN FLAG!!!!

What a great race, got some good run in there, and chased down a few of the fast guys. I managed to set a PR for myself, at 2:04.5

Another quick shot at the grid, I think the green flag has flown and we're all initiating power.

I think this was my 650 Twins race on Sunday. Sunday was great. I managed 3 races and one solo race lasting 30 minutes +1 lap. I ran 33 minutes total, and clicked off 16 laps, and came in 7th. Not too shabby. Endurance races are the best, because you can just try new lines each time. I think it was about the same as almost running 3 races in a row. (each race is 6 laps).

Okay, lets get to some pro photos, taken by my friend Dito, at gotbluemilk.com He does phenomenal work, and always makes us look so good, and fast, when we're not. hahahaha

Here is a shot of me coming into T10. I was managing more and more speed, since it's a deceptively fast corner.

One final one, coming out of Turn 2, and playing around with the cameraman. :D

Hope you guys enjoyed. I'll put together a better race report and add it. :D

Had a phenomenal weekend, my roommate Adam completed his races, all of them, we both kept the bikes up, no crashes, some PR's, and lots of amazing friends.
My results:
Saturday Clubman Lightweight race: 9th place.
the first 2 Sunday races (races 2 and 3) were back to back, so after my cool down lap, I went right back out and gridded up for open twins.
650 Twins race: 17th place from 26th start.
Open Twins race: 10th place (Top Novice)
Formula IV race: 13th place (Top Novice)
Solo lightweight endurance race: 7th place.

couple trophies this weekend makes for a great race season ending. :)

Hawthorne ride videos. 9-9-11 to 9-11-11

2011-09-17T09:06:00.000-07:00

Got some more videos put together from last weekends motorcycle ride out to Hawthorne.

On our way out there, I took the fellas on a dirt road surprise. check the video. I edited down from about an hours long of videotaping. long dirt road, thru the sierras, some fun was had when one of the guys got a flat tire. So while they worked on the tire, we went across the road into the field and got to do some target shooting out in the wilds of Nevada.

enjoy.

Nakia, another of the fellas that was with us (he's on the Superhawk, filming in this video above at times). Also had a camera going on our run down 108 on the way to H.

enjoy. just some fun on the road.

For sure one of my most favorite and amazing weekends of riding in a long time.

the 108 incident! UBOB

2011-09-14T15:30:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend a bunch of friends of mine, myself and many other, new participants headed out into the Sierras of California for a weekend of riding motorcycles, catching up with friends, and drinking a lot of beer.

I'll preface by saying this weekend, rocked like none other. hahahaha

I do have to post this video first though. It's a video edit from our trip up the mountain on hwy 108 heading west, when we were suddenly met with wet roads and rain, and with a quick dip in temperatures...hail! yep, those stupid little needles digging into you. So as we're riding a few guys pull over to regroup, and make a decision. My plan: we're in this shit, we gotta get off the mtn, either forward or back. and I hate, absolutely HATE going backwards. hahaha just from hashing. so we press on, knowing we're near the summit and will soon drop fast.

We continued on, to what is now known to us as the 108 incident. hahaha

make no mistake, this was one of the most fun, exhilarating, dumb, insane, kick ass things we've all done at any one time. No complaints from any one of us...but I digress. watch the video.

not more than an hour later we were bombing the central valley at mach 5. (not for realz)

what a kickass weekend.

Sunday is trophy day! AFM races, Infineon Raceway, 7-10-11

2011-07-11T19:29:00.001-07:00

A great day of racing at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. One of the premier tracks of the U.S.A., host to many other races including, NASCAR, AMA, Indy Car Series. It has been almost 2 1/2 years since I raced at Infineon, much less ran on this track. So Friday I opted for a trackday and worked on getting the rust out. That went over very well, although by the end of the day I was sliding out of T2 pretty easily.

So into the pits, and new tires on the bike, and back out to scrub them in for the weekend.

Not much to say, my goal was to complete the races, get my feet wet again, and go as smoothly as possible. smooth = fast.

My race schedule was

Race 2 (650 Twins)

Race 10 (Open Twins)

Race 11 (Formula 4)

I'd be running back to back races. Race 2 went without a hitch, I didn't push it, and just picked the guy in front of me to reel in and try and pass. Successful race, and goals complete.

We had a lot of friends over to the pits this weekend, as the weather is amazing, and we bbq'd some dogs and burgers. With the evening races fast approaching, I readied the bike and went to watch the formula pacific races (premier race of the weekend). Just what I needed to get jazzed up for my races coming up.

Race 10: Open Twins (all motorcycles that are of a Twin cylinder nature. usually large bore ducati's. I run this race to run with fast bikes. Like a carrot dangling and enticing you to go faster and faster. haha great way to speed up.

It would prove a difficult race. After the green flag, I settled in behind a Duc and went at it. On lap 1 I saw a bike laying on the outside of T7 and dude on the inside K-wall. The race continued, but when I came back around there was a bike on the outside of the entrance to T7 and the rider towards the outside. First race stop. So back to the pits. Here we were made to wait for too long, before race control sent everyone back to their pits. Since the downed rider ended up being flown out to the e.r.

On Race start number 1, we all got around to T2, and as I crested on the right hander, I see bikes everywhere, 2 are on the ground sliding left, one has just landed, 3 bikes are riding in the dirt, and I'm weaving left and right, get through, and get back on the throttle hard. Race is on until red flags fly. Well, didn't take long...by T4 black flags were out, and red flag in T7. So there we sat again, then were shuffled into the pre-grid area.

Lets try this again. haha

On the 3rd restart I got the jump on one of the bikes going into T1, and held it for the shortened race of 4 laps. Eventually, the guy would not finish, crashing out instead.

It was a fun race, and I immediately gridded up for my next race, Formula 4. I was tired, it was hot, but hell, it's only 8 laps, and I did the same, went out, reeled them in, picked them off one at at a time, and got my feet wet.

After finishing up, I arrived to my pits to many friends and a cold PBR!!!

after checking my results, it appears that I won a trophy, for Top Novice in Open Twins. :D

A great day with a Sunday trophy!

Top Novice, Open Twins July 10th, 2011. :D

AFM races

2011-07-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

Been a while, but I'm getting a chance to go back at it.

This weekend at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma Co. my roommate and I will be making our long awaited (lol) ghetto comeback to racing. :D

Sunday Sunday Sunday!

Races:

650 Twins (Race 2), before lunch

Formula 4 (Race 10)

Open Twins (Race 11)

Yesterdays track day practice went very well, for shaking out the bugs and quirks on the bike.

battling an issue with my throttle tube, but I think buying a simple throttle grip will do.

NASCAR Sprint Cup 350 @ Infineon Raceway, 2011

2011-06-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

NASCAR's Toyota Savemart 350, at Infineon Raceway, June 26, 2011.

What can I say? After growing up watching "stock car" racing on Sundays, I lost touch with a sport that became mundane to me, what with all the left hand turns on oval tracks. All the drama didn't interest me, still doesn't, but damn....when it comes down to some fast and loud cars, plus a road course (Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, Ca.) I couldn't help it, and decided to go to my first NASCAR event. To be honest, I'm game to watch just about any kind of racing.

(A photo of the bike parked up the hill.

I had a chance to sit in a top fuel funny car, very cool.

And then Steph stood by this wheel for size reference. hahahaha)

For me, if you aren't bringing much with you, riding the motorcycle turned out to be the best. In California, you can lane share to the front of lines, so traffic didn't bug us. Go in thru Gate 1, and immediately turn to the left up the hill. You will see a sign that says "Motorcycle Parking starts here". Park your bike. :) we changed, and off we went to explore.

On the way out, we would ride down and out of Gate 1 as well, and CHP has the lanes well figured out, and honestly, we suffered no slowing due to traffic, thanks to the moto.

I live in an area where NASCAR events get a lot of flack. Racing motorcycles myself, I see why. All I hear is, "they only turn Left, what kind of racers are those" and " they can't turn right, how boring". haha So I called the one person I knew would be down. My friend Steph. Who's usually off mountaineering, and bagging peaks in the snow. We had actually talked about doing this almost 2 years ago. Finally we would be able to coordinate our schedules to go.

She's chinese, and a huge country music, bull riding fan (strange but cool, lol), and also wanted to go to a NASCAR event, so off we went.

I saw this old Ford Galaxie decked out for stock car racing. Very cool. Then we went over where Darryl Waltrip (I remember watching him race, and even remember when he retired) was getting ready to host the intro to the race weekend, with his co-hosts. We got in there and then yelled for the camera. Just look for the beer hats at the beginning of the race events. haha

much like other sports, I'd rather watch in person, and experience it in person.

and let me tell you, NASCAR was very cool. haha I'll go to see them at an oval track as well...hell, I remember watching Dale Earnhardt, King Richard Petty, the Allison's, C. Yarborough, etc... as a kid.

oh, Steph's a huge Car's fan, so we had to stop by the Car's tour trailer. They brought out Lightning McQueen (a remote control full size electric car), pretty cool actually.

Of course, this event would not have been complete, without our beer hats. hahahaha

we were foiled though, as they only sold bottles, but we used them as best we could.

A few photos of the pile up in T7 where we were sitting, after one of the restarts after a yellow flag. They were coming 2 and 3 deep into this turn bumping over the track corners.

1st place: Kurt Busch He dominated the lead throughout the race (76 of 110 laps). This was also Kurt's 1st road course win, in 22 years of racing.

2nd Place: Jeff Gordon, from Vallejo, Ca. just up the road. Probably why he has 5 wins at Infineon Raceway. He came from far behind to reel in the #99 car, and pass him with 2 laps left, for 2nd place.

3rd Place: Carl Edwards, matching his best finish here.

all in all, a great day. Near the end it felt as if it was dragging on some. Next time, I'd probably go and find other seating...which we did with 15 laps left. Turn 9 stretch, has a grassy open seating area. Probably would have been more comfortable here.

Beer Brewers, pay attention!!!!

2011-06-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

yes, that means you Kimchi guys especially. ;)

Beer Brewing Bender

probably one of the coolest things I've seen. hahaha

Bender rocks, not just cause he's "Hecho en Mexico".

Costa Rica, June 2011

2011-06-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

COSTA RICA!!! True to it's name, it is a very rich and lush coast. Flew down with the girl, and spent 9 days running around CR, in our rental.

Our first night was spent in San Jose, as we were pretty lacking of sleep for 2 days, due to work, etc... and I didn't want to have to be searching out a good place to stay after being up for 26 some hours. So we flew in, picked up the car, and had a reserved room at a nice hotel. Other than that, we had no other rooms or events reserved or planned. :)

After catching up on sleep (it is vacation after all) we got up super early, as it's hard to sleep any later than 5am for me here. hahaha or maybe cause I slept so much the first day. haha

We made our way towards Puntarena from San Jose (west to the pacific coast), and then turned south towards Manuel Antonio N.P. next to the town of Quepos.

The drive was uneventful, with lots of cool sights. I am a self professed speed (velocity) freak, but I can honestly say, that my average speed the entire time I was there, was no more than 80kph. hahaha PURA VIDA!!! Besides, the distance is so small in relation to what we are used to traveling here in the USA. I think it was a total of 180 miles from San Jose to Manuel Antonio, and we had 2 days to get there. :D

Our first free day of driving, we came south along the Pacific Coast, and would randomly pull into dirt roads where there were signs for hotels or restaurants, to explore it out. We found a cool little resort building near the end of this long dirt road on the beach, called Delfin Resort.

A little expensive for what I was looking for, but with the above view from our balcony, I figured, why not. Besides, my girl is on her first real trip outside the USA, ever....and first trip to Latin America....which as many know, can be very hard to adjust to. hahaha She did spectacular, and took it all in great stride.

The resort is located on "Playa Bejuco" about half way between Puntarenas and Quepos.

We relaxed, I ran on the beach, and then we swam the afternoon away in the pool with the poolside bar available for our drinks. The two chefs (both from New Orleans) cooked up some amazing Red Snapper, I think, but could care less, as the meal was phenomenal, and the macadamia nut brownie for desert was simply, mouthwatering.

After getting adjusted to the speed of the "Ticos", we were set to cruise down the coast. We drove down, to Quepos, a total of about 100km. (approx. 60 miles), taking our sweet time, stopping at shops and taking it all in. Very peaceful.

We stopped in Jaco, which is a beach resort town, and I have to say, I was not impressed. It felt much like.......well, much like Tijuana may sound to anyone who's heard the stories. Dirty, over run by obnoxious tourists, lots of prostitution and drugs in this town too. If you're into that, then this is your place. Including paying American prices for the most simplest of things. We stopped for a beer, and lunch, and kept moving. Definitely wouldn't stay here ever.

For reference, I was here 7 years earlier on my motorcycle, and we did not take this route, because these roads were all dirt/gravel roads along the Pacific coast. It would have added 5-6 hours for our day ride if we'd done it. Now, the route is paved, even the section from Quepos to Dominical, which used to take about 3 hours to drive 50km. Now, it took me 35 minutes. :)

I loved the dude walking his oxen/bulls across the road. Yielded for him, so I could get this shot. There was a little dog nipping at their heels to keep them moving, but he eluded my shot. haha

Once in Manuel Antonio, we took the day to explore the surrounding areas and figure out where we will stay. With some help from a friend of mine, and fellow hasher, Rotten Cherry, I had several places to check out and figure if we'd stay there. Even for it being the off season, prices were still high for me. Eventually, we made our way to the very bottom of the hill, to the beach, where the main N.P. area is. We talked the restaurant owner into renting us a room above the restaurant for $20 bucks a night. :D savings. no air conditioning though. that would cost another 20. but, we handled it for the weekend, and figured on the lodging savings we'd just apply it to drinks. :D

On one of the nights (we lost track of time, and days...seriously) haha, we stopped by this location, called "El Avion" for some drinks and to see the sights. My girl wanted to see monkeys. haha and they had a small family of howlers living next to the restaurant. Mission Accomplished. This airplane, which was dismantled and hauled up the mountain, was reassembled here on sight and the inside of this cargo plane has been turned into a mini club.

It holds some history, as this is one of two planes used to supply and fly in weapons during the now infamous "Iran-Contra" scandal of the 80's. The sister airplane was shot down in Nicaragua, and this one was abandoned at the Costa Rican airport when everyone bolted. Eventually bought for $3,000 dollars by the owners of this restaurant. The link above has more info and photos from the location.

Locals Only! nuff said. haha

The locals are pretty much beach kids running around giving surf lessons, renting wave runners, boogie boards, chairs and umbrellas. You want something, they'll find it for you. Most anything. ;)

Pretty cool peeps, but also you need to keep an eye on them. Opportunists at their best. haha but hey, it's a living, and $10 usd buys a lot of rice for them and their family. The majority of them still live at home, and probably always will. It's just a different life down here.

Speaking fluent spanish and not giving two shits about talking to anyone, went a long way, and we got a lot of local intel that would make our stay so much more comfortable.

Below, is my view from one of the days that I spent the entire day on the beach. Our little helper on this side of the beach (southern portion) was cool, and probably the slowest, happiest job on the planet. haha

He rented chairs and tents for beachgoers. $10 usd for the entire day. starting at 8am, to 5pm.

I didn't mind, the money was good for him, and I got two chairs, an umbrella, and when we were hungry for lunch I'd just tell the dude to hold my chairs, and that we were going to eat and would be back.

He just smiled and said, "pura vida", and then we'd come back.

Low tide in the morning.

High tide in the evening. Spent all day on the beach. Our cooler full of ice, rum, coke and a few beers. Perfect. I prefer shade on the beach, since I'm brown enough...hahahaha, so this was my perfect day.

Single lane bridge into the small town of Londres.

A day or so later, don't remember which one, since the days are melting into each other at this point, we decided to get off the beach, and let the sunburns heal for a day or so. doh!

My girl had 2 things that were a must for her to see. A waterfall and Monkeys. Well, today we would get the 2nd one done.

After reading through the instructions that Kelly gave us, they went something like this:

Go on the road to Quepos, you will see a road intersection with 3 signs. Londres to the left, Quepos to the right, and the Hospital ahead. Turn towards Londres. Go a long way till you get to the town, at the store, turn left....go some more kilometers, and you will see a huge rock, take the right side road at the Y. :D hahahaha at that point, we were 6km from the waterfalls. Stopping at the little store, we find out, the waterfall is on private land, and need a key to get into the gate. :(

The nice lady then says, no problem, it's only $5 usd, and just drive up there. One of our guides is up there with two tourists, on horses. It's at this point that I wonder if we'll pass in our rental.

A Hyundai Tucson, which I gotta say right now, is one of the most amazing off road vehicles I've driven. haha didn't need to use the on-the-fly 4x4, except once where I didn't want to take a chance on the landslide area, where there was water rushing down the road. the photo is blurry from all the jostling. hahaha but we made it.

It turned out better than we hoped, after realizing it cost the horseback riders $70 usd to do what we did on our own. $65 usd savings x2. not bad. :D Above, first photo is the riders slowly making their way down the steep slope. 2nd photo is the guide. cool guy, and he handed us the key, after I gave him the hand written note from the lady at the shop instructing him to give me the key. I love the little things that can be done in countries like this. haha back in the states, there is no way that would have happened for far too many fears.

A photo by my girl up the single track section. Sloppy, and since we're up in the mountain now, it's rainy, misty and a lot chillier than the 90 deg on the beach. I love it.

Also, we passed this little chihuahua that looked like he was perpetually stoned and smiling. hahaha

photos above. The first is the single track at a spot I stopped to check out the road and make sure we could pas. 2nd photo, is the land slide repair area. the water running down it didn't inspire confidence in the repair holding for long. haha. 3rd photo is of the waterfall. Amazing. We went swimming for a while. With this goal also accomplished, we made our way out to the road, and decided to take another drive.

p.s. I was a little nervous at the fact that I hadn't gassed up before heading up the mtn, and this is a photo my girl took after I let her know. She wasn't too thrilled, and began to worry. hahaha I told her we had just hit the reserve light, so we should be good. :D

There was one more thing that I wanted to do if I ever came back to Costa Rica, and that was to find the spot where I crashed 7 years ago, and go and check it out. call it closure of some sort.

So we drove south along the coast from Quepos to Dominical and turned east up into the mountains towards San Isidro.
Last time I was here, we had come out of San Jose on the motorcycles along the CR highway, and turned towards the coast at San Isidro. We heard the road was paved from Dominical south, and it was a dream. It wasn't even on the maps of Costa Rica, that's how new it was.

So we drove up past the town of Platanillo, approx. 20km from the coast, and I found it. My girl kept asking how I'd know where it was, and I simply said, I will know. It has been burned in my memory since the day it happened.

First photo was this past week, pointing at the spot where I crashed. The 2nd photo is on the day it happened, you can see the chunk of asphault missing, on the left hand curve where I was booking pretty hard. You can also see the slide where the bike hit and slid into the mountain side.

The road to Dominical in 2003, and the road to Dominical in 2011. haha I think I prefer it in 2003 when it was more of an adventure.

This is the photo I had taken by one of the kids of the family that helped me. They lived at the top of that turnoff where I took the above pics, and came down and assisted me. I showed the kids how to use the camera, and we shot this photo. May, 2003. :)

With that taken care of, we headed back to the beach of course. haha

While chilling on the beach, we talked to the guy who rented us the chairs, and were introduced to Billy, above, who runs the Hobie Cat that was sitting on the beach. for $25 bucks each, he'd take us out for about an hour and a half, with some ocean swimming. F it. sounds fine to me, so I helped him put the cat into the surf and off we went. :) Such a killer time. Find him when you are down there and take him up on the ride. Laid back dude, whom I don't think owns a t-shirt or shoes. hahahaha as everyday that we saw him, at least 5, he was only wearing board shorts the entire time. very cool.

Last on our list of possible things to do, was a zip line tour. Now, I imagine that you could show up at the sight (which is practically across from the Quepos Hospital) and ask for a tour there. We paid the amount at our hotel, and opted for full service on this day, our last tour day. The rest of the time, we'd spend it on the beach relaxing.

I have to say, it was very cool, with the longest cable being about 1000ft long and fast. :)

I'll find more photos and post them up. Since we bought the photos from them. Why not. They were very good photos, and freed us up to have a good time.

Largest visible Crocodiles in the World:

While Costa Rica can't boast of having the largest crocodiles in the world, the Nile Croc takes that one, they can boast of having the largest crocodiles visible to tourists at any given time, in the world. There is a large group of them, that nest/hang out below this bridge along the highway to Quepos from Puntarena. Trust me, you'll see it, as there is usually a group of tourists standing along the painfully narrow walkway, and short railing bending over the railing to see them. hahahaha I forgot to ask if anyone had ever fallen in.

The croc in the above pic had just slid into the water after the guide with the tourists in the first photo threw some bait into the water. That is my upper body shadow from the bridge for a quick reference. I'm 6' 4". :) It's about a 12 footer. a wee one. hahaha

Very cool stop on the way back to San Jose.

A photo of the more common types of bikes that run down here. Mostly 125 cc's. Since gas is very expensive, at about 5.80/gallon. Yep. haha It was still worth it to rent a car.

We stayed in San Jose the last night, as we had to be at the airport by 5am, for a 7am international flight. All went well, and we made it back to the states, without incident. All in all a blast.

A few thoughts: When renting a car, be ready to pay for insurance. It is in the small print of the online rental sights, including expedia. That is whom I went thru. I had initially rented a Daihatsu (one class smaller suv) but they didn't have it, so they upgraded to the Tucson. I would take the Tucson in a heartbeat again. Be sure to bring a credit card that has $5,000 dollars available to put on hold, if you don't want to pay for the insurance.

The cost of the rental may be as much as $500 dollars, for 10 days. Like we paid. But split between us, we didn't notice it much. If you go with 3 other friends, you'll fit well in it, and the cost is less per person.

Haggle all prices. Seriously, they will work their magic to get the most money, but things are not that expensive, so don't pay the first price. In the tourist areas, you may be hard pressed to haggle to much, but it is possible.

Directions are subjective, so be warned. hahaha It could be as inocuous as, "go 3 minutes that way, then turn right, go around the back and follow the road directo, directo.....and then turn left when you see "insert landmark here". " hahahaha most foreigners have a very hard time adapting...but it is possible. Just relax, and remember, that they are running at a far slower speed than any major city in the USA. I LOVED IT.

Being the beginning of the rainy season, the prices for lodging are about half. No need for reservations, as they will do what they can to get your business. And honestly, the rains were inconsequential to our entire trip.

With that, we spent 2 nights in the room with no A/C for $20 bucks a night. Always rent the rooms in the evening, since they drop the prices after 4pm to entice travelers. ;)

The Coco Beach Motel about 50 yards from the beach turned out to be the best bet. They never wavered on their price, which was set all day for $30 bucks with A/C and with hot water. for that extra $10 dollars, we happily shifted over there.

hope you all enjoy. feel free to comment. :)

Costa Rica.

2011-06-15T20:02:00.001-07:00

Off to Costa Rica tonight. overnight (midnite) flight to Houston, then hoping to arrive in San Jose sometime midday tomorrow. :D

9 days of sun and fun. adding some running into it too.

pics to come.

Memorial Day!

2011-05-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

is a time to remember our fallen.

Not to get a discount on your furniture. ffs

work work work

2011-01-25T09:12:00.001-08:00

Work has been busy, with lots of it. :)

a great thing in these "economic times" haha

Sitting in the San Jose airport, after my monthly dose of radiation and teriyaki chicken.

back to Texas for a few weeks.

post Championships meet and greet

2010-11-20T05:42:00.000-08:00

a quick photo of the brothers from Italia and Marcus after the finals were over. It's about 11:30pm, we went to the hotel, cleaned up and went back out, not to return till almost 7am from partying with the Polish team, the Slovenian team and all the US team.

more pics to come.

15th World Traditional Karate Championships....Brazil.

2010-11-12T14:21:00.000-08:00

Currently in Curitiba, Brazil, at the 15th World Traditional Karate Championships, with my buddy Marcus who is competing, along with the US team.

been a blast so far. tons of good stuff today, and many photos to follow. this stupid computer won~t allow me to upload photos or videos.

but here is a link to the Championships facebook page. they~re also streaming online the whole day.

tomorrow is the finals.
time to drink beer. hahaha

BRAZIL...but first LV.

2010-11-04T10:57:00.001-07:00

Leaving for Brazil tomorrow morning, with a brief stop in Austin, Tx.

I'll be heading out as the official AAFK US National Karate Team Medic.

so much to catch up on, but the adventures keep coming.

Hope to see the falls, and the Cristo while there.

Was just in Las Vegas last weekend, for the LVHHH RDR. Had a blast, spent 3 nights in Vegas, with the local H3 group.

and......

...a little bullriding. hahaha and plenty of PBR on tap.

A few of the Long Beach hashers and some SF hashers.

And the on-in for the fat boy recovery run on Sunday.

Trying to recover as fast as possible, before leaving for Brazil....tomorrow. :| hahaha

MIA

2010-10-05T22:17:00.001-07:00

man, so many trips since my last post.

apologies for the long lost post.

with my last laptop dying about a month ago, it really put a crimp in my postings.

But now, thanks to my latest (early) bday gifts, I'm now an official MAC user. haha

not sure what it entails, but it sure as hell seems a lot easier to use the mac than the pc.

pics to come.

stories to follow. :)

Oregon trip, Day 2 - Astoria.

2010-08-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

After a much needed straight 8 hours of sleep, I was up at 8am, in time to chat with A.J. before he headed off to work. So we talked about it, and Jason and I would stop by the shop, and I would get a chance to test ride the new Ducati Multistrada 1200 (with the 1198 motor in it). Sweet. Jason and I cooked up some food, got our things together, and headed out the door. After getting lost a bit, we made it to Motocorsa in Portland.

The new Multi is something else. It is super fun to ride, and with the on-the-fly electronic adjustment between multiple settings, such as "Enduro", "Sport", "Urban"...the bike electronically adjusts the Horsepower, Traction Control and Suspension. Enduro has 100hp, and I switched to the Sport version and gained an instant 50 hp. A nice kick in the pants, and got the front wheel up just a bit. :D It was a fun test ride. I just can't walk out of a dealership at the moment with a 21k bike (OTD). Sigh, I'd have to do with the test ride for now.

A few shots while at Motocorsa. On the left, is a table that A.J. made from spare parts for the cafe in the shop. It is probably one of the top Ducati shops in the USA, and I don't trust my bike fully to anyone but A.J. The center photo is of a nice Desmosedici, and also when someone purchases a new bike, this is the photo room. :) last photo is of a trick full exhaust system for the new Ducati Superbikes.

After talking it over with Jason, and going over the Oregon motorcycle specific state map (free at your local Oregon motorcycle dealerships), we decided we'd go to Astoria, Or. for lunch and then ride back via Washington, while A.J. finished up his work day.

We rode up to Astoria, first by getting out of Portland on hwy 26 westbound, and cut off at Hwy 47 north. This would be a phenomenal road. I have a lengthy video of it, and will try and edit it down to a good 10 min video for some good on the fly scenery.

We turned west on hwy 242 directly into Astoria, which is also known for a few of the movies that have been filmed here, maybe you've heard of them (Kindergarde Cop, The Goonies)

We stopped by the cannery, and had a Salmon burger, with a wasabi mayo side and som chips. I have to say that this was the juiciest, tenderest salmon I'd eaten in forever. So freaking good. It didn't help that we'd been on the road for about 2.5 hours already. But it went down perfect.

After letting lunch settle, and grabbing an espresso to avoid the ill-fated food coma, we decided to make our way back to Portland for tonights bbq. First a stop and a photo at the Astoria Bridge on the Oregon side. [A few quick facts about the Astoria bridge: Completed in 1966, it is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America. No pedestrians are allowed on the bridge except for the annual "Great Columbia Crossing" October 3rd, 2010 this year. The bridge was the last segment of hwy 101 to be built to connect Olympia, Washington with Los Angeles, Ca.] We'd decided to go over the Columbia River to Washington state, and ride back to the IH-5 on the Lewis and Clark trail.

First me....the bridge is near the mouth of the Columbia River that feeds into the inland, from the Pacific Ocean.

...then Jason.

We rode across the 6.5 kilometer long bridge and stopped for a quick photo. The weather is amazing and warm, actually hot in some places....and Portland was to be having a heat wave this weekend, in the 90's.

The section of hwy we rode on back to the IH-5 was about 65 miles long, and an absolute treat to ride on. At a quick pace we made ground quickly, while at the same time enjoying the amazing scenery that was our background for this spirited run back to the city.

We arrived back at A.J.'s house about a half hour after him, and busted out the PBR. After making our way to the supermarket, we purchased some of the thickest ribeyes I've seen, and slowly cooked them up with some of A.J.'s friends over for a great barbecue. Another succesful day, and our mileage today was 245 miles total.

Oregon Trip, Day 1:

2010-08-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

As mentioned before, I was up for a long time before making my run up to Portland. I was to meet Jason at A.J.'s house, and we'd be planning it to get there at about the same time.

Wednesday, I got up around noon, as I needed to find a new chain for the Ducati Multi, since the one on it right now is so stretched out, I can hear it clacking as I ride. No bueno!

After some phone calls, I find the chain, and also the sprockets, which come to find out...are more expensive than I thought.

On the Multi, the rear sprocket and sprocket carrier are 1 piece from Ducati. costing $251 bucks. holy hell! So after some talking, I found out I could buy a seperate sprocket carrier for $170, and a sprocket for $60 bucks....which is total of $230 dollars to replace the rear sprocket....and in the future, the only piece that I replace is the $60 dollar sprocket. So I chose this route.

After working all Wednesday night, I got home about 8am, put the chain on, and decided to wait on the sprockets till I got to Portland.

I threw the bags on the bike (this will be the first time I ride with hard bags on any bike), and headed out the door, about 10:20am. Start mileage: 22, 596

The plan is to bomb up the IH-5 and get to Portland as quickly as possible, and not fall asleep on the road. haha

The day was long, and even though I had my gas spots planned out, I was working with different readings on the dashboard to see how far I could go. The first gas stop was in Willows, Ca. at 144 miles. not to shabby. But I thought I could push it more. So on the next one, I was watching the "fuel remaining" reading on the dashboard....imagine my surprise when the bike said it had used 4.3 gallons of the 5.5 available, and suddenly sputtered just before cresting over a long uphill. Forcing me to dive across 2 lanes of traffic past some more than annoyed 18-wheeler drivers, I'm sure. haha

On the side of the road, I shook the bike, and kept getting it to turn on and go about a 1/10 of a mile at a time. I had run out of gas just before the sign that said, fuel = 1 mile. So I knew I was close. The bike finally wouldn't start, and I stood there for a bit, before beginning the arduous task of pushing my bike to the gas station. for shame. LOL

A guy on a harley stopped by, asked what was wrong, I simply said it was out of gas, and he told me about the next gas stop. Nice guy, but nothing he could do for me at the time, so we said our goodbyes. About 5 minutes later, a gentleman with his family stopped and asked if I was out of gas...I said yes, and he simply says "I got some you can have". Super awesome!!!! Sure enough, Dario had a 5 gallon tank in the trunk of his car. After grabbing a gallon, I shook his hand, he refused any money, and went along his way. There are still very cool people out there.

After fueling up at Hilt, Ca. I resumed my ride north. I didn't lose much time either, about 30 minutes total.

With the day getting long, and me getting tired, since I've been awake since the day before, around noon...I am ready to get off the bike. I make it into Portland, right after 6pm, and wind my way to my buddies house, by about 7pm. Jason had just arrived 20 minutes ealier, and A.J. had arrived from work, 5 minutes earlier. I don't think we could have planned it any better.

I arrived to a stout beer, and great friends. End mileage: 23,236 miles (total for today, 640 miles)

After getting the bikes settled in, we had more beer, a couple cheladas, and one of the best freaking burritos I've ever had from the local restaurant "Los Gorditos".

We ended up downtown somewhere, having a drink at a bar, where a friend of mine works, and I got to say hi to her as well. A great first day. I need sleep!!!

Oregon

2010-08-14T08:33:00.000-07:00

Soooo, Thursday morning finally rolled around, and after a long 12 hours of work, I got to the house, and put the new chain on the Multistrada. 30 minutes of work, the bags were already packed, which was perfect, as I just threw them on the bike, and off I go. 10am start time from S.F.

It was a long day of bombing straight north on IH-5 to just get to Portland. :) It finally got nice near the Oregon border, although unfortunately, while trying to check the distance of my gasoline, I ...................wait for it.......................ran out of gas. hahaha wtf?!

as soon as the bike died, I passed a sign that said, gasoline 1 mile. so the good thing is that I had no more than 1 mile to push my bike, so I had that going for me....which is nice.

After about pushing for a 1/4 mile, a dude on a harley pulls up, and asks what's wrong, I say no gas, and I thank him for stopping. Then a guy in a car, with his family stops, hops out, asks "out of gas?", I say "yes", and he returns with "I got 5 gallons in the trunk, grab some".

Nice. haha so I throw in a gallon of gas and get to the gas station. Time wasted? less than 30 minutes. Thank you Dario.

The rest of the way was without incident, and I got to my buddy's house 20 minutes after Jason did (from Seattle). We caught up, drank a bunch, and I passed out about midnight. seeing as how I was clicking over the 36 hours of no sleep, and it was starting to take a bit of toll on me. haha (I had been awake since Wed at noon, it was now Thursday midnight)

Day 2: Jason and I took our time in the morning, and rode to the Ducati shop, where I got to test ride the new Multistrada 1200. I gotta give this bike 2 thumbs way up. With an 1198 motor in it, and fly by wire suspension, traction control and Horsepower adjustments at a click of a button...I went from "urban mode" to "sport mode" in an instant. what a difference.

Jason and I then rode out to Astoria, Oregon for some lunch at the Cannery. I'll just say that the Salmon burger, with it's huge chunk of Salmon fillet was so damn good.

We rode over the Astoria bridge, after having ridden up Hwy 47 (an amazing road of twisties, canopies of tress, no traffic, and the occasional adrenaline pump when I would go into a turn too hot and on the brakes) hahaha so much fun.

Pictures are coming. Jason is taking pictures, and we're headed east today. as well as to the Multnomah Falls. Another thing to cross of my list. :)

back with photos in a few.

Oregon road trip - Today!

2010-08-12T06:18:00.000-07:00

Leaving after work for a ride up to Portland for a couple days, and then east on the bike. Which is completely dependent on getting the chain on and riveted. hahaha breaking the cardinal rule of never doing repairs or changes to your bike the day of, or night before, of a long distance ride.

but oh, well. before I say it's a simple change...I'll just say, the chain is ready to snake through the sprockets, and needs to be riveted and that is it.

Riding to Portland today, and meeting Jason there for some fun with my friends from Portland. should be good. I'll be back with photos, and yes, I've been slacking, thanks to a non-working computer (dropped my laptop from the bed hahaha) and now the screen doesn't work. :(

I think a new laptop is in my near future. along with many photos to come.
I see many monster energy drinks in my near future today. :D

work ends in 30 minutes.

brand new bag(s)...baby

2010-07-25T19:51:00.001-07:00

First I'll start with a couple of updated photos of the new ride. :D I recently had the suspension dialed in by Dave Moss at Catalyst Suspension in San Carlos. The bike used to push wide in curves, but now, it banks and turns and seems to float on a dime. Very good setup at the moment.

So a few months back, I scored some used hard luggage for the Multistrada for long distance trips, and so I don't have to haul my messenger bag everywhere I go (as it gets painful after about 500 miles).

Picked these up for about 300 bucks, used, scratched up, and had them prepped (sanded), as seen above with the old Ducati Red. I got them back the other day, and went to town with some primer and black gloss paint......

....and finally

some clear coat to match the bike. not to shabby for a garage rattle can job. The clear coat is about the best you can do with a rattle can, UPOL-#1 Clear. depending on how you spray it, you can give it a gloss look, or a wrinkled look.

Finally, I mounted the luggage rack and hardware to the bike (about 30 minutes of easy bolt on), and latched the bags on the bike to see how she stands.

She's looking pretty good...even with a nice wide ass. hahaha junk in the trunk. :D

Soon, heated grips, and a custom seat, so it doesn't feel like a plank after 200 miles.

Had to purchase new tires recently, with 6,000 miles on the current ones, after finding a screw in the rear tire when I got home from Nevada. Can't say enough great things about the Michellin Pilot Road 2 tires.

A day at the range..

2010-07-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday was pretty slow, and since I wasn't going to get a chance to go to Laguna Seca for the races this weekend, I figured I'd go and do something fun. :D Like shooting guns at the range. First stop, Jackson Arms, in South San Francisco.

Firing some rounds at the zombie targets...you know...just in case. HAHA Lin, on the right learning to fire the .45

After we were done, I got a call from my friend Will, who wanted to go to Bullseye range in Larkspur....so we threw the bicycles in the truck, and picked him up and tried to make it down to the ferry on time. Missed it by 5 min, so we just drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin Co. Traffic was horrible, being a Saturday and all, but we got there, fired another round of shells, and made our way back. Thru bumper to bumper traffic....took us an hour to go what normally takes 10 minutes. lame. but at least we'd gone shooting, and it was a good day.

Will checking his shots.

Great times instructing a newb shooter (Lindsey), and firing off a few rounds (200).
afterwards, we were starving...as shooting usually works up an appetite. So we stopped by the In & Out burger, and I got two cheeseburgers and tons of fries. :D a good day for sure.

SF Armory.

2010-07-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

I had a chance 2 days ago to stop by the old Armory in SF. 14th and Mission. The building, surprisingly enough, is pretty inocuous and slips your sight if you don't pay much attention to it. It is surprisingly bigger than what it appears while driving by it too. The building was built over Mission Creek, which still runs under it, and housed the National Guard, after being completed in 1914, in the style of an old Moorish Castle. It stayed in use until 1978, when it was designated as a historical site. Some much planned condos were put by the wayside, after they encountered much community resistance. Eventually, it was quietly sold to a company, which now leases it to it's current occupants.... Kink.com :D

Parking outside, with seemingly no entrance, and no signs anywhere.
The indoor photo is of a window, lining the side of the 39,000 square foot drill court. The windows housed anti-aircraft guns that could fire over the city and into the bay. pretty cool shit.

Underground/basement walk through shows, on the right, the indoor rifle range, which is pretty significant in size, and to the rear of that photo is Mission Creek.

On the left is a movie prop, used for...well.....you can distinguish, that that is a chainsaw belt, with tongues attached. :D haha Johnny Five, is alive!! There were underground horse stables, which have since been converted into movie sets.

I'll have to go back for the official tour, but it was still a great day to get inside such a historic building. As well, as touring along with it's current occupants. :D

Gold Coast, July 4th, 2010.

2010-07-22T13:32:00.000-07:00

So for a long time now, I've enjoyed just simply going on a motorcycle ride and finding an unassuming town and enjoying whatever little tidbits it has to offer. Whether it be enjoying a farmers market, a parade, a local show, etc... it's always fun to experience a bit of Americana on road trips.

So this July, I had about 5 days off, and figured a road trip was in order. The multi would be going on it's first west coast ride.

I had no real plan, but to ride north, maybe hit some of the fantastic roads that Norcal has to offer. I would end up taking 299 from Redding to Arcata which was fun enough, with light traffic. Not to shabby, but I still need to hit Hwy 36 with it's imposing 140 miles of twisties.

Since we were on a leisure ride, and no real plan, we simply got out of the bay area on the first day, slabbing it north to get some distance towards our destination...wherever that may be.

Spent the first night in a regular motel, in Anderson, Ca.

Then jammed it over 299 to the coast.

Along the way, we stopped for some gas and a pbr, and took a photo with this homage to a local legend. Bigfoot. :D

From Arcata, we rolled north along the coast on Hwy 1 towards Oregon.

We made a run through the Redwoods N.F. (note myself and the bike under the redwood) and stopped at the Trees of Mystery to check out this giant statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. :D with testicles and all. hahahaha

We passed into Oregon, without much fanfare, and stopped at the tallest bridge in Oregon. The Thomas Creek Bridge, at 345 feet.

..and walked around to some of the sights....this photo above, is about 500 ft above the water below. pretty deceiving unless you look closely. The reason the trail was closed, was due to the high amounts of poison oak along the trail...hahahaha didn't see the sign, before I went over the log blocking the way. Oh well, PO doesn't affect me. so it was all good.

With the day getting long, and it being super windy, we decided to go no further than Gold Coast, Oregon. I'd been thru here before, on my rides to Seattle, and found a nice cheap local motel to stop at. After getting settled in, we bought some drinks, and went down to the beach for a nice sunset. A bit chillier than socal, but still enjoyable nonetheless.

No one else on the beach, but with a nice sweatshirt, thanks to the Kimchi, it was just fine.
Especially while enjoying a Chelada on the coast. :)

The next day we decided to make the most of the trails in the area, and hike about. As well as to stick around Gold Coast, and enjoy the local 4th of July celebration. Which would start with an F-15 fly by at about 11:30am. That was cool to see, even though it was quick.

We rode around, and saw Arch rock, and then a few of these ginormous boulders, rocks, remnants of a bygone era........and the sheer size of them is impressive. That's me on the far right photo, down by the water.

After a nice day, sunny, yet windy, we headed down to the piers where the main festivities would be held. On lineup, was the Cajun band to play, the pie and watermelon eating contests, and the patriotic pooch show. hahaha As you can tell from the above photo, there is always one little dude, who doesn't care about what others think. He got out with the band playing and danced to his own tune. Much to the enjoyment of the entire crowd. That is how I hope my kid will be one day. Simply can't be bothered with what others think of his behavior, and about people looking/laughing in his general direction.

The patriotic pooch show went well, with many a different class of dog out there, and all the local kids trying to be in as many events as possible. The pie eating contest was held with great fanfare, and the little dudes (dancing dude included) went at it full throttle. hahaha

Finally, it was time for the fireworks, and they were stellar. Great to spend a good evening checking the fireworks, and enjoying a bit of rural America, in my opinion, every now and then. Reminds me of why this country is so great, and why I love it so much.

We took it easy that night, as it was 400 miles home the following morning. It went well, with a spirited ride down the 101 south into SF. With an obligatory stop to get a post-ride beer, at Zeitgeist. I went for 2 pbr, as that is how I roll. :D

great trip, great experience, and I can honestly say, this was one of the better July 4th's I've spent in a long while.

too much time away from the computer...is good, no?

2010-07-22T02:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't been able to get on here and update lately, but have had some good trips recently. My laptop is on the fritz, and hopefully getting it looked at tomorrow, and possibly fix it, so I can put up photos.

Recently rode out to Hawthorne, Nv. with a bunch of friends from the bay area, and spent 3 days in Nevada, riding and seeing sights, but more importantly, drinking and hanging out by the pool. :D

I have to talk about one thing while I'm at it....Saturday evening, after a good day of riding with several of the guys and gals, we were swimming and I was chatting with one of the ladies in the group. We were throwing stories back and forth, and somehow the story of myself being sent to a survival camp in Ontario at the tender age of 11 y/0 came up. Before I could finish, she asked "Was it Northwaters?"

I was like, "wtf?!" and then "no, but it was Langskib, the all boys camp" and she was in the sister camp (coed, but both run by the Northwaters group) What the hell?! out of nowhere. I've seen this lady a few times in our motorcycling groups and chatted here and there, but to randomly find out all of a sudden that she was at the same camps as myself only a few years after I was...was pretty rad and unexpected.

Needless to say, we talked a bunch and filled in each other with memories that either we couldn't remember, and were filling in spaces for each other, or just marveling at finding someone that had experienced the same thing. 27 years, and I had never met anyone else that had been to these camps. It was an intense 4 weeks of canoeing, camping, hunting, and learning to live in the bush, with little to no resources, while respecting the land and what it has to offer.

The camp had a few agreements with the local Ojibway Indians and for that, were allowed to use their land, and tried to instill the same philosophies to us. It pretty much defined the rest of my life and how I have been able to do just about anything I put my mind to. No complaints, no crying...just do it. Survive! Live! and if the world takes everything you own, away from you....you live with the certainty that you will survive and not fall apart.

eh.. it was crazy. but loads of fun to know/meet someone that had been there too.

after that we all drank heavily, ate tons of good food, and talked motorcycles for the rest of the night, before riding home in the morning.

I have many photos from the trip, and will get them uploaded asap, as well as a few fun videos. :D

Here is a teaser, from our Saturday. I decided to tag along with one group, and we rode to Bodie State Park/Ghost town.....and then we rode back to Lee Vinning for some lunch at Mono Cone (best burger, just east of Yosemite) and then we stopped in Nevada to toss a few rounds down range. :D

The Stinkin' Rose, SF. 7-6-10

2010-07-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

The Stinking Rose
325 Columbus Ave
San Francisco, Ca.
94133

So I've been in the bay area for about 5 years now, on and off, traveling back and forth, and out for contracts.....and probably about a year into being here, I heard of a restaurant named "The Stinkin' Rose". A restaurant that specialized in using Garlic as it's main, if not primary ingredient in all of it's dishes. As some of you may know, Gilroy is the self professed garlic capital of the world, and just south of San Jose, Ca. Each year they have a garlic festival, and you can smell it for miles and miles.

I had heard varying reviews, and one of them was that this place was overpriced and more hype than worth it. well, screw it, I really like Garlic, and wanted to try out this place, so, I finally made it out for some dinner, with Lindsey.

We started off with some roasted garlic cloves in olive oil sauce, with bread on the side. The garlic simply smushes onto the bread like butter.....garlicy butter. DELISHIOUS!!!!!!

Followed by a little Garlic and Fontina cheese fondue. Holy smokes, if nothing else, you have to get this. So good...I could have eaten 2 orders by myself...but I was saving myself for the Piece de resistance.

I ordered the Lamb Shank, in chianti sauce with farva beans, and a nice side of garlic mashed potatos, with cream spinach. I have to say right away, that the meat was so tender, soft and juicy, that I immediately seemed to go into a food coma when I began to eat it. hahahaha

Lamb can be weird to cook, and sometimes gets to dry. Not here. It was succulent, tasty, well complimented, and definitely a dish I could see myself eating a lot of. Needless to say I finished the whole thing, and we rolled out of this restaurant.

It's definitely somewhere that you will need a reservation on a busy weeknight, but we walked in about 7pm on a weekday, and they had plenty of tables available. It's surprisingly roomie inside, and there is a row of private tables, more suited for 2 people, but definitely will hold 4 people in a cozy and private setting, around the side. The waiters are a little tardy and innattentive...but not by much. Not enough to be a problem, that's for sure...and I personally like to be left alone when I'm eating, instead of having a waiter constantly by to ask, how I'm doing.

all in all a great dining experience in North Beach.

WORLD CUP FINAL!!!! Netherlands vs. Spain!

2010-07-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

Netherlands vs. Spain.

Some history real quick, Netherlands has been to the final 2 times in '74 and '78. Both times Netherlands lost. Spain has never been to the finals, but has been to the last 13 World Cups, which equals 52 years of playing world cup, in a row. (World Cup is every 4 years, for those that don't follow it. haha)

Spain is playing a good game, controlling, and keeping the ball the majority of the play so far. A few close calls, but who knows where this will go. I'm torn on who to root for, as the Spanish have always been disrespectful to the Mexican community, as if looking down from their pompous high horse. the netherlands, well, it would be cool if they finally won the WC, but honestly, from the first 30 minutes of play, I think the Spanish have outplayed them. There is already 5 yellow cards in the first 30 min of play. I foresee a red card and ejection to come in the second half. Possibly in the next 15 minutes. hahaha

I am happy to see new teams making it to the final, and not the same ones of the last decade.
The favorites are out, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, France and Italy....some of the heavy hitters, who as we know, some of them didn't even make it out of the first round....fu France! hahaha

back to the game....

July 4th weekend!

2010-07-06T01:12:00.000-07:00

Had a great weekend riding in Norcal and Souther Oregon for the July 4th weekend celebrations. Made a last minute decision to stay in the town we were stopped in, for the fireworks, and it worked out great.

Over 1000 miles
beautiful scenery, and roads.
fast, fun, twisties
Experienced a bit more of America, randomly spending July 4th in Gold Beach, Oregon. :D

pictures to come as soon as I download and organize them.

update:

2010-06-29T14:54:00.000-07:00

been offline for many days. so much going on.

had some good trips around the area lately.

World Cup fever is coming to an end soon.
So far USA, Mexico out. The two teams I was rooting for the most.

Spain just beat out Portugal, and Japan was axed by Paraguay in a very hard game, that went to penalty kicks after 1:20 hours of play.

be back with more soon.

oh, and Brownie, suck it. hahahaha

good day of games in the World Cup.

2010-06-18T14:09:00.000-07:00

Damn, there are some serious surprises going on in World Cup.

Too bad too many Americans think this game is boring...I absolutely love the World Cup. Brings out the best, worst of every countries team. hahaha

Surprises, Germany upset by Serbia. Holy Hell, that ref was handing out yellow cards as if they were candy, plus the red card that dropped the German team to 10 players, allowing Serbia to score soon after. Then the Germans were given the greatest gift you can receive in World Cup play....a penalty kick....and they botched it. what the hell?! hahahaha

USA ties in their match, in the second half....2-2, which was huge, since they were down by 2 through the first half. It keeps them in the game, but they have to play Algeria next week. Who probably won't be an easy team to match up against, seeing as how Algeria just tied with England 0-0 (they played hard, and both sides defended very well), that was a major blow for England. but then again, I'm okay with that. hahahaha

I really need to start recording these games...as usually there is 3 games per day. Starting at 4-4:30 in the morning, 2nd one at 11am, and 3rd one at 1-2pm. hahahaha doesn't help that I'm working nights in a row. oh well, it's World Cup....only happens every 4 years.

GGOOOOOLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-06-17T13:48:00.001-07:00

Mexico vs France

Mexico by 2 goals, one by penalty!

tied in 1st place with Uruguay in their group.

Tomorrow, USA takes on Slovenia for a key game to keep them in play.

watching the games on a 50 inch flat screen is the best!!!

R.T.O. relay race 6/3-4/2010

2010-06-07T20:31:00.001-07:00

Well, for the 2nd time, I participated in the Reno/Tahoe Odyssey relay race, around Lake Tahoe, starting in Reno. I hooked up with the same team as last year, all hashers, and this year we would be rocking the #69. haha

I drove up to Reno on Thursday and met the other hashers for dinner at Silverpeak. We figured we'd be meeting up at the start point in the morning, and then have breakfast. I would be in Van #2, which had 3 new legs for all of us. (last year, we were in Van #1).

My first leg would be #11 (5.5 mi), followed by #23 (6.2 mi) and #35 (7.5 mi) Some photos at the first van exchange. All the members are hashers, so it's pretty laid back. Ray (No Film) would go out first from this section.

A few hashers and the van painted up for identifiability. haha

Photo on the left was at a stop we made for Greg (Got Wood!?), on his running section.

Photo on the right is Joe (posterior), waiting for Mike to get in and tag off, so she could run the downhill of Geiger grade. This is during the final 6 stages of the race, and we all are running our final leg.

During my legs, I just told them to drive to the exchange point, and didn't need them to stop, except for the last leg, because it was near 90 degrees, and 7.5 miles. I had a hand water bottle, and it held me just fine the evening before, and that morning (around 3am).

The Reno Tahoe Odyssey Trail relay is a fun event that brought 153 relay teams together to run around the lake for a total of 178 miles. Our final time was 27 hr 47 min. an hour faster than the year before. My brother in law was kicking 6.5 min miles...hahaha he had the fastest times of our team.

This is one of the final photos at the ceremonial finish line, with the whole team. The final runner, fudgina, had just finished her leg. Included in the picture is Beaver Spit who broke her leg 2 weeks before the event, and needed an alternate to run for her (my brother in law). She was our team Captain.

Aluminum swing arm repaired

2010-06-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

So a few weeks ago I put up some photos of my faithful steed. I've ridden across the U.S. on her, especially the west coast. So I'm a little bit attached to her. So it was my dismay when she was damaged due to my carelesness. I called a friend of mine in Reno who welds and I figured I'd just take the swingarm off and have him repair it. So right before going to Reno, I decided to remove the swingarm. hahahaha 5 hours later, I had the swingarm off (doh!, a little longer than I expected), and was enroute to Reno in traffic (exactly what I was trying to avoid) hahaha
Before: After:

I took the entire rear of the M900 apart.

...and cleaned the hell out of everything. hmmm, don't think I've seen that part of the engine be any other color, other than black (covered in oil) haha

and in the end, she's all back together. I had barely gotten a little over 100 miles of scrub in time on my new tires, so I was itching to go out and ride.

I called Dave Moss at Catalyst Suspension, and rode down so he could dial in the bikes front forks, and rear shock. He made some measurements, and he dialed it in. Holy crap, the bike handles so much better now...it doesn't wallow on hard acceleration, and it tracks perfectly through corners under heavy acceleration. So I promptly rode home and got my other bike and came back to get that one dialed in. :D

Back on track!!!!!

2010-06-01T11:40:00.001-07:00

Well, as many of you know, I got the trackday fever again recently, and got to work on my racebike.

Well, Memorial day I got a chance to take her out (it has been a year, since I'd been on the track), and it felt amazing. The bike was running great, got her warmed up, and managed to not do any damage, and do well on the laptimes. The track: Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, Ca. (about 140 miles north of SF)

I've been here many times, but it had been a year since the last time I was here, and today was all about getting myself back up to track speed.

A few photos in the morning at our pits. I went up with several friends, Correne, Dave, Brian, Linda, Adam, Dave, Jeff and myself +1. :D We pitted together and that makes for a great day of hanging out with friends and pushing each other on the racetrack.

My first session out, was great, got up to a decent speed, and since I was also breaking in new slicks, I had to take it easy for a lap or two.

Dave and I went out together for the first session. He's on a Triumph Street Triple, while I'm on the SV 650s. We were managing the same times, and once my tires were scrubbed in, it was time to pick up the pace and drop him like a cheap habit. HAHAHA :D

The track was closed and evacuated temporarily when someone ate it coming out of T13 (the back S curves) and high sided, with the bike partially lying on the track. Fortunately, with the many crashes, no one was seriously hurt, nor required a trip to the hospital. That is amazing actually. hahaha so a quick photo of us waiting for the track to go green. It was getting warm, but no where near the 105 deg weather that can hit here in July and August.

A little salute to our favorite photographer, Dito. :D from gotbluemilk.com

all the photos from this one, down to the end are courtesy of one of the finest track photographers I know. Dito.

The day got good, and I picked up my speeds more and more. The goal was to get around the track, get a feel for my bike again, and see what my current running speed is. I always feel better with brand new tires, and today was no different. About mid-morning I started to drop my times, and was consistently in the 2:10 range. not horrible, but not where I wanted to be.

Dave and I played for a while on track, and then Adam and I went to dicing it up, and that carried my pace even faster. Especially since he is on an R6 and technically, should be pulling around the track way faster than me. :D It was good though, since I kept pace and it pulled me around the track that much faster.

In the end, a really fun day. It was Memorial Day, and I saw it fitting to go out and do something fun, and enjoy our freedoms that this amazing country offers us, with special thanks to all of our Military personnel worldwide.

more INK...left side started.

2010-05-16T20:56:00.001-07:00

So I finally got the appointment that I wanted with a guy in San Francisco, Tim Lehi at Blackeart Tattoo.

I had heard of Tim about 8 years ago, when living in Seattle. A friend of mine had a lot of tattoo work, and most of it had been done by Tim. He recommended him, and the work looked fantastic. Imagine my surprise when I walked into Blackheart one day, just looking at artist renditions, and asked if they knew of Tim Lehi...they in turn said to me that he worked there. hahaha what a coincedence. I had been going to the bar next door for a couple years now and never knew. geez.

anyway, I got a call that he had about 2 hours free on Saturday afternoon, after being put on the cancellation phone list, mostly because I live right here in SF.

So Saturday afternoon, I went in for some work to start the left arm. It is the female companion Foo Dog (Chinese Lion) of the one rendered on my right arm.

I'm pretty excited to see the work as it progresses and this piece took Tim a little under two hours to do. damn. :D

aluminum swingarm damage.

2010-05-12T18:05:00.000-07:00

So what does a $24.57 bolt do when it snaps?
Well, funny you should ask. If loosened, said bolt will allow the end cap of the chain adjusters to slip back and spin....consequently hitting the rear sprocket and chucking it into traffic somewhere....while at the same time ripping a chunk of the aluminum swingarm, outwardly with it.

Didn't even feel it happen while out riding. Was scrubbing in new tires, took a 111 mile quick trip here in the bay area shoreline area, and came home to this.

bummer. already lining up an Aluminum welder to repair it, and just need to get the parts. unbelievable that that 2 sided bolt is over $20 bucks.

It's PBR time.

Ducati M900 aluminum swingarm damage

DEAR BROWNIE, a Pirates blunder!!!

2010-05-07T18:01:00.000-07:00

DEAR BROWNIE, just thought you may not have seen this little gem yet. :D
It doesn't matter that the Pirates won, the only thing remembered from this game will be, Lasting Milledge, and his awesome blunder thinking the ball had left the field of play. HAHAHAHA doh!!!

edit: the more I thought of it, I wondered what would possess someone to let it slip their mind, to keep their eye on the ball. I mean, they get paid millions to play the game at top form, physically and mentally. I'm just saying, I learned these things while playing little league baseball. Never take you eye off the ball & no matter what you think the ball may be doing, you run it out. Always run it out. hahaha

at least Milledge was their for a good laugh for everyone that watched and his teammates too. hahaha

I do have to say, he handled it decently by admitting and owning up to it, and not making hugely lame excuses for what he did.
I wonder if he'll have to run laps, like we used to when we screwed up during little league games.

SV 650s repairs....she runs!!! 5-2-10

2010-05-03T11:04:00.001-07:00

It was a fine sunny weekend (not over yet, btw), so I decided, it was not a bad time to work on the SV. After the last trip to Infineon raceway to watch my roomate Adam, race in his first AFM race weekend, I wanted to be out on the track soooo badly.

So nothing more for me to do, than to start working on the race bike.

First: get her running. Problem with racing, and not too many trackdays is the length of time the race bike (not street legal) goes without running or being started.

So after dumping the turpentine (read: gasoline) out of the tank, and emptying the bowls in the flatslide carbs (race carburetors that allow faster and smoother flow of gasoline into the bike), I put new fuel in it, and changed out the spark plugs. She fired up, and ran. Warming her up, zip ties added, parts bolted on where they go, tires inflated....and then a few passes up and down the street to verify. hahahaha she is LOUD as hell, with some yoshimura straight pipes, and a Leo Vince exhaust can.

I pulled out the brand new Sharkskinz race plastics that I bought a little over 2 years ago, and have been lugging around with me since. Time to mock it up, and thanks to Calvin for lending me the front fairing stay to get'r done.

some photos as she takes shape. I think May 31st will be my first trackday and return to the track for the year 2010.

dammit. can't get the cell phone video to upload. anyone got any ideas how to?

BBQ in da hood! 4-30-2010

2010-05-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

So every Friday, at Surfside Liquors, the boys from the local black m.c. bring out their grill, and cook up some of the most delicious ribs I've tasted. That is saying a lot, especially, since a) it's not Texas b) it's California and c) I've never tasted ribs this good out here.

It's just a grill on the sidewalk in Hunters Point hood, next to the liquor store. With a few tables set out so the locals can play dominos. hahaha

most of my friends won't venture down here to buy beer or even the food, but F it, it's too good not too. and they're pretty cool actually.

Chicken and rib combo plate, $11. :D

Oh, and to add to the flavor, I had to pick up a 40oz of Old English and some orange juice for some "Brass Monkey" on such a fine, warm and sunny day. With the added warmth, it's good to have a coozie for your 40oz. so that it doesn't slip out of your hand. hahaha wetsuit for a 40 oz bottle.

Utah, Nevada portion of the trip...back to California. (April 2010)

2010-05-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it past New mexico, with a nights stay at the historic El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, NM. A lot of old movies were filmed in this region back in the day (northwest New Mexico).
After being denied entrance into "four corners" landmark, as it was gated up and under construction, we made our way west towards Utah.

Along the way, we stopped off to see this little heard of landmark, Mexican Hat.

After zipping by the hat, we drove our way out to Zion National Park.
After paying our entry fees, we made our way down through a mile long tunnel that takes you along the inside face of the mountain as seen on the first photo (a vent for fumes and probably construction access. Just head for the light at the end of the tunnel. It's when I found out that she has a bit of a claustrophobic side. :D

Saw some cars stopped, and this little fella was walking by on the road. It took him a bit, but I must have been scrambling in the truck to put the zoom lense on my camera, because, he had this inquisitive look on him when I looked up. hahaha

There were some cool structures and lines in the mountains through the park, truly breathtaking area. Wish we could have spent more days here.

While driving into the visitors center, I saw this old car, and approached the couple when we all parked. It's a 1970 3CV that they were driving up from Ushuaia, Argentina, with a final destination of Alaska...and then back home. The couple had been on the road for 2 years, and were just plugging along. You too can see them on their blog site.....not sure how google translator will work, but there is an option for it, as their blog is in spanish.

on the way out of the park, I saw this cool little wagon parked out in the middle of a well groomed field next to this tree. Didn't look like it was running, but the photo seemed like one to take.

I stopped at the road sign for the "Extraterrestrial Highway" (Hwy 375 thru Nevada) one funny sticker, "I don't masturbate, I just wash my d*ck really fast" HAHAHAHAHA dropped an on-on sticker in place, and we moved on.

One final stop in Hawthorne, Nv. before rounding our way into Reno for 2 days. I have seen this tow truck before, and really really want to buy it and restore it into a tow truck rat rodd. I think it would look sick, but alas, no room to store it at the moment. soon though, I hope.

Spent a nice 2 days in Reno with my sister and brother-in-law.

Pics from the trip through New Mexico

2010-05-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

I ran across several old cars throughout the trip. It always draws my attention, as I think of what brought that car to that particular location and what conditions made it stay there. history is all.

While in New Mexico, we made a stop near Alamogordo at the White Sands N.P.

I wanted a shot of my truck, with bike, against the white "sands".

LOL yes, there is a pistachio farm in New Mexico, which advertises the largetst pistachio EVAR!!! It's on the side of the road at McGinn's Pistachio tree farm.

random encounter in New Mexico

2010-05-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

So I know I've been lame and not updated too much lately, but I'm lurking trying to put some together. gonna post up a few moments in the last few weeks.

as you all know, I was in Texas for 2 weeks in charge of putting together the Texas Interhash 2010. 27 years of TXIH and we finally got a chance to host it, and it went spectacularly.

I will get back to that very soon, but meanwhile.....

On my drive back to California, from Texas, I was in the middle of New Mexico, and passed a guy on a bicycle riding the opposite directions.

It always amazes me to see people (men and women) out on the road, on a bicycle, with everything they needed strapped and loaded on the bike. So when I passed another bicyclist going my direction, a few miles up, I stopped to snap a few photos and to chat with the guy. Mostly, because I've ran across people on bicycles while on my very long motorcycle trips, and I've always wanted to chat with them. As it takes more fortitude and dedication to ride across countries over months, than it does to ride across them in days. :)

Todd, had left Florida 2 months earlier, and was making his way north to Colorado from New Mexico, and then was going to take a train back to Montana where his car was parked with family.

After snapping some shots, I chatted with Todd, and he was a cool dude, and said he had just stopped to talk to the other bicyclist that was going the opposite direction, and that he must have been having a bad day. He said, that the guy was in a pissy mood, albeit cordial, but Todd could tell it wasn't a kind day.

For Todd the day only got worse (from the email I got later on), he hit heavy head winds after we parted ways, and it was one of the worst days of his riding. Some pictures I took.

After which, we made our way on towards Gallup, NM.

enjoy.

busy busy

2010-04-30T04:04:00.001-07:00

man, I've been running ragged. so much to do. business and pleasure. :D so I can't complain.

I have a few days off as of this morning, and I'm planning on updating, and posting photos, for sure.

I think today, I will work on the race bike. After riding up to Infineon Raceway last weekend to watch my friends race with the AFM, I got the bug bad. No rushing into it, but I definitely want the bike running and up to speed for the next trackday available. :D Time to make the budget.
tires - $350
paint - $200
maintenance work - $100
steering damper - $400
trackdays - $250
raceday priceless (actually, not so priceless...hahahaha, about $500 for race weekend).

The multistrada just got out of the shop for regular maintenance and service, and she's running fresh. one little problem with the dashboard, but hoping that I can fix that today.

After which, Speakeasy brewery in BVHP for some afternoon beers.

repairs

2010-04-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

spending the morning defraging and spyware protecting my computer. lame.

but she is running way faster. :D

Great day at the races yesterday, AFM Rd 2 @ Infineon Raceway.

My roomate, Adam's first race weekend. He did well, finished up clubman well, and had 2 races on Sunday, when it counts.
I rode out on Sunday mid morning and immediately ran into everyone I know. hahahaha it was super fun, and got to catch up with loads of people. Watching the FP race and all others was uber cool, and of course got me thinking I want to be ON THE TRACK asap!!! haha

time to look at the SV and get her running just right. There is a trackday this coming Sunday that I might try to get into.

working

2010-04-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

wow, finally working this week. haha only had 2 days scheduled, but was cancelled on Tuesday. having this much time off and lots to do back in the city (SF) is not helping my working out.

time to knuckle up and get to it. Rock climbing gym membership is back on and I just joined the GGTC for some swimming help and to get set for July and my 2nd triathlon (graeagle tri)

pic of Pete taking on the New Mexico Stomper...

2010-04-18T06:36:00.001-07:00

in Colorado Springs, after the Salida Marathon weekend. hahaha

sorry, A-bomb, it's the only one I got, and picked it off this site. :D

I think at last count, he downed 6 of the 10 patties, the fries and most of the chili. They give you one hour to finish it, and you gotta let them know in advance, since making it takes up the entire grill at the original Kings Chef.

haha

update

2010-04-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

Well, made it as far as Reno, post TXIH craze.

a few updates, before I get home, and throw out some photos and stories.

TXIH went off great, with little to no hitches. Nothing that couldn't be solved on the spot. Everyone will get gimmee bags, as we're reprinting shirts, etc for them. :D 39 kegs of beer were drank.
My ballbuster destroyed people. I'm so happy.
Spread'm drove 9 hours from New Orleans on Friday evening to make it.
Ball buster injuries:
Buffy had corneal abrasion from the thorns in the brush.
Twinkletoes lacerated his toe (since he runs barefoot) and had to put on moccassins before finishing the run.
Padre, had 12.15 miles on his gps, and was scratched to hell and back and exhausted at the end.
Visa blew out his knee.

hahaha
wtf?! so many injuries.

Knuckledraggers put the Balls back into the Ballbuster trails!
We put the U in Hurt!!!

The Brass Monkey H3's skit to "all the single ladies" is priceless. I'll post video soon.

the drive back has been great. Taking my time, arrived in Reno yesterday, to some noise coming from the engine compartment, and today, I have a mechanic looking at it. I think one of the spark plug cables broke (they're more like individual plugs per spark plug) and they're replacing today.

Alamo City Humpin H3 - pre lube to the pre lube

2010-04-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

check

hahaha what a great time, short trail, as guamarhea balls laid it and made it back in before we'd gone out of the backyard. it's a live, pick up hash, with hares names picked out of a hat. Usually, only 5 min head start, and if the hare is caught, the next person takes over, with a 5 min head start.

all in all a fabulous time, more work and errands to do tomorrow. finalize the trail, and finish laying it. (yep, dead trail), but for these events it's just best to do it that way.

on on

Schedule of events - TXIH 2010

2010-04-07T06:20:00.000-07:00

Wednesday: April 7, 2010: Alamo City Humpin H3 run
Thursday: April 8, 2010: Bay Area Larrikins H3 run @ 6:30pm
Thursday: April 8, 2010: TXIH official pre-lube, Corpus Christi @ 8:30pm
Friday: April 9, 2010: KDH3 official ride to TXIH 11:00am
Friday: official start of TXIH 2010 @ Lake Corpus Christi, 12:00
Sunday: April 11, 2010: hope that we are all alive, that we drank all the beer, ate all the food, no snake bites, no bulls charging, not much blood lost, hangovers a'plenty, and KDH3 circle to send everyone home.

on on
I'll be off computer for the rest of the weekend, I hope. :D

pre lubes

2010-04-05T16:56:00.000-07:00

had a great run with the Austin H3, about 6.5 miles, after a few wrong way loops (Padre ran 11 miles, hahahahahahahaha), for a trail that was actually 5 miles long.

great weather in the mid 80's. but great run. the marks got scant near the end, and they ran out of beer in circle. for shame. hahaha but over all, I dug the run.

On On to San Antonio for the pre lube to the pre-lube, with the Alamo City Humpin' H3. :D

oh, and some costco runs, if we have time, not sure if we're going to have time....LOL

Austin H3 - today.

2010-04-04T09:55:00.001-07:00

Oh, and as an even more added bonus, I'm off to the Austin Hash this afternoon just south of the river. downtown.

should be fun, it's lightly sprinkling, and warm rain is awesome rain to run in.

on on

Ballbuster scouted.

2010-04-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

We were down at the KOA campground yesterday talking to the owners and finalizing some things for TXIH. Went on the property where we got permission to run, and scouted out the ballbuster trail. :D hahaha I'm not going to say how long it is, because I'd rather let people find out.

I'll just say, it's not as long as the 18 mile Tex-Mex bb. but it will do. between rattlesnakes, angry horny bulls, to brush thorns...I think they will have their share of stories on trial.

I did manage to make it so that 3 of the beer stops have more than two of the different trails meet up with some fishing for beer.

only 4 days until the Corpus prelube. Wed. I think that I'll be able to hash in San Antonio as an added bonus.

Expedition blog

2010-04-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

Reading up on a friend of mines, blog. He is trekking across the frozen tundra of Russia. Great guy, awesome hasher, and all around adventure maniac. hahaha

McAllen, Texas

2010-03-31T20:43:00.000-07:00

Finally made it home to McAllen. Lots to do, final preps for TXIH 2010 to be done. I'll be driving a lot in the next few days, having to be in Corpus Christi, then San Antonio, Austin, back to Corpus Christi, the campsite, etc.... should be fun. hahaha

flight out of Houston was delayed, so I went to Pappadeux's to have a snack, and when I came back there was hardly anyone in the waiting area. wtf?! so I ask the lady and she says, the plane is gone. WTF?!?!?! she calls them, they still have the door open, everyone is boarded already, and so they shuffle me down the rampway and I board. 1 minute later, we're backing out of the gate. HAHAHAHA that'll learn me to be impatient.

great to be near my home though.

onon
to TXIH

4 of 4...

2010-03-31T00:06:00.000-07:00

...another night in the pod (7 bed room). last night, so that's fine with me. and good money. especially as the rumor is that staff is working towards a strike. hahaha oh well.

It's why I like to keep myself linked to my travel company at all times. At a moments notice I can bail (actually, not bail, but go to another job), without much problem. Just like the job in Austin was.

Flying to Texas tomorrow, to see family, and finalize all the planning and leg work for TXIH 2010. Can't wait. So far our budget has been: $6,000 in beer, booze, refrig truck, etc...
Haberdashery is ordered, patches ordered, food ordered, entertainment secured, trails planned (just need to lay them), porta potties ordered...cause damn, there is some shittin' mofo's in the H3. haha

I think I'm going to be logging a lot of miles in the next week.

on on to Texas Interhash 2010.

Next race - May 9th

2010-03-30T05:59:00.001-07:00

Just signed up for my next Ultramarathon. Redwood 50k, in Oakland, Ca.
May 9th. I had to, it's the best way to get myself to run and train. hahahaha

this, along with, the two triathlons in July, should move me forward. I think I will try and sign up for the SF marathon as well. Missed it last year. :D

IAH 2011 or bust!!!

2010-03-30T01:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I made the executive decision to sign up for the IAH 2011 in Savannah, Georgia.
It's been too long (2005) since my last long distance ride to a hashing event, and this sounds about right. Clear across the country, with many awesome way points to stop at. The event is in mid-October, so not so sure how far north I will travel, but I will for certain get to ride some areas I have never ridden in the south east.

There are a few Knuckledraggers signed up so far, and we'll be converging on Savannah from all points on the map. Should be awesome. My last few trips to IAH (Costa Rica 2003) and (Toronto 2005) were amazing and super fun. I unfortunately missed Puerto Vallarta in 2007 due to some injuries from a motorcycle race crash....so I followed it up with a ride out and around the same areas, later the following year.

This should be a good time, and I'm looking forward to it. I have heard great things about Savannah.

work work work

2010-03-28T23:34:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of 4, and charge is asking if anyone wants an A day tomorrow (basically a day off, with pay) I think I get cancelled first for being relief position if no one wants one. eh. I'd rather work right before heading off to Texas, but if I don't, then it's off to the San Francisco H3 tomorrow night for some miles. :D

Squaw Valley Board Meeting! 3-6-10

2010-03-24T16:45:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, I drove out to Reno to see my sister and brother in law. Him and I managed to sneak away from the city to get some board time at Squaw Valley Ski resort (olympic location). I ran into my friend Emma out on the slopes after we threw a few texts back and forth. We also got to make a few runs down the mountain before we all went our way.

Photo #1: Myself and Chris. Photo #2: Chris, Emma and Myself.

Great fun, and the weather held out just fine for the entire day. Unfortunately, when we came to the lower end of the mountain, the snow sucked, and wasn't sticking. bleh. we decided to be done for the day and get back to town.

Space Cowboys were playing at the bar at the main resort, and that was pretty cool. Tons of people outside, having beers, listening to music and having a blast.

I enjoyed finally snowboarding Squaw Valley Resort during the day time. Not just night boarding.

A day at "The Wall"

2010-03-24T15:30:00.000-07:00

A quick shot of me with Oakland, the bay, the bay bridge and SF in the background.
It was a little hazy out, but warm and scenic. I had heard from my buddy Ben that they would be coming up here, so I figured why not come up and meet them. It took them a little longer as some of the girls riding were taking their sweet time. haha

photos: #1 Kurt and I. #2Katia and Myself. #3 Ben, Myself and Katia

While sitting around waiting, I saw a bike coming up from the other direction, and noticed it was red, and it was a hypermotard......then I immediately saw the rider had on a bright yellow jacket....and I know only one person that is that nerdy...Kurt. hahahaha I stood up, looked, the bike pulls in, points at me, and sure the hell enough, it was Kurt, one of my riding buddies, who happened to be coming up this way to go home (the long way). haha

so he hung out and we chatted for a while.

Ben and Katia rolled up on their respective bikes, we snapped a few photos and hung out, talking bikes and shooting the shit. It was a great time. Jeff ,another buddy of ours, happened to roll up, and stopped also.

The wall is a well known local bike hangout/stop, up in the Oakland Hills. You'll usually find some bikes at this spot, especially when the weather is awesome.

this is an addendum to one of my previous posts yesterday about spending the day riding and at the wall, in Oakland.

Sunny weather these last few days has gotten people out from behind their computers and out riding. It's great.

Last days in Colorado!

2010-03-24T02:01:00.000-07:00

Spent the last 2 days in Colorado taking it easy and tapering on the drinking. Brownie wanted to check into rehab, but we all know it's just for quitters who like to whine. So I think he just kept drinking.

On Sunday after the marathon, we got a moderately slow start back to the Springs. With two stops at some breweries, and then a stop at the Thunderbird Inn for a beer, some photos, and this rad painting of Willie Nelson. Very cool. The snow was coming down relentlessly, and we skirted over the pass without much problems.

That night, Brownie, Pete (who had just arrived in the Springs), and myself were going to the Black Sheep.....again....to see Stockholm Syndrome in concert.
The show was pretty good, and they packed them in. The opening band "These United States" were actually pretty good. Even though the singer was so out of breath. hahahaha as he stated, "we're not used to playing at these altitudes". Needless to say, we consumed quite a few tall boys, and I think Pete was pretty glazed over by the time we headed out, calling Katie to come get us at the Irish #4. :D

He passed out on the hard wood floor, which is when I realized how out of it he was. LOL

The next morning, we decided we'd get a quick run in, before heading over to Kings Chef for some breakfast/lunch. Over to Red Rock Canyon, with Blos, Pete, Nacheux and myself for a quick 4 miler. It was absolutely stunning. The snow had fallen all night, the sun was up, but it wasn't warm enough to melt the snow off the branches. It was like running in a winter wonderland. Very cool stuff.

After which, it was off to the Kings Chef for a bacon cheeseburger, with green chili on the side, + fries. :D finished it off, and earned my 2nd "Clean Plate Sticker" of the weekend. The Kings Chef is an iconic local diner, and they have the "New Mexico Stomper" which is a 5 lb hamburger (10 .5lb patties on two buns, covered in green chili, all the fixins and a side of fries. You get an hour to complete it, and nobody had done it.

Well Pete decided he was going to go for it the following day. Sadly, I'd be on a plane. He made a good run at it, but came up short. Don't blame him. That is a shit ton of food.

All in all a phenomenal weekend of drinking, partying, running and shenanigans. :D

Salida Marathon - Post lube (pub crawl)

2010-03-24T01:49:00.000-07:00

No rest for the wicked they say. :D after cleaning up we headed over to Moonlight Pizza for some of the most awesome pizza ever. A Large Caveman pizza later, and we are set to start drinking. We walked over to the start at the 1st St. Cafe. A tiny bar in the back was perfect for the hashers. There were a few pikes peak hashers already their waiting for us. Let the drinks flow. We took a couple of group photos along the way. Brownie and I were the hares, and we planned on hitting every bar in the tiny historic downtown of Salida, Co. :D

After watching Kerri (AWF), get absolutely hammered on a "delicious and delightful" drink that she got the bartender to concoct, we headed over to our second beer stop...sans Kerri. LOL she had to go to bed, and fight her own demons. :D more importantly, the headache. Some microbrews later, and we were gone, on to the next bar. The names escape me, but it was a whiskey bar. The owners were very cool, so we had 2 drinks at this bar.

Next stop, a country bar. hahahaha gotta have a country bar in the mix. This was fun, and the ladies were out on the dance floor dancing, along with Gordo and BLOS. :D

At some point, at the 5th bar, Bill shouted out that he'd never had Tehuaca (sp?), so Gordo promptly ordered us all a round. bleh!!! but, being non-whining hashers, we obliged, pounded it, and moved on to Jager Bombs. : LOL

Gordon was exceptionally gracious in his beer purchases. hahaha and it was a blast to meet some new people/hashers from Colorado. We managed to spend so much time at this bar, that the last 2 bars, were closed. So we decided to just close this bar down. Later, passed out in my bunk bed at the hostel, I couldn't help but smile as I realized how epic this weekend had been. The following day, we would drive back to Colorado Springs, and do a brewery tour on the way back.

on a side note: While running the last few miles of the marathon, I noticed some very grey and ominous looking clouds coming in. Sure enough, that night, the storm blew in, and by the next morning, it was cloudy, overcast, and snowing hard....for like 20 hours...all the way back to Colorado Springs. If this would have happened on race day, I'm remisce to say that I would have turned left at the stop sign, and run the 2 mile fun run, with the 10 year old kid that was out solo. HAHAHAHA

Salida Marathon - D-Day. March 13, 2010

2010-03-24T00:27:00.001-07:00

After crashing out about 10pm the night before at the hostel we were staying at, I woke up about 30 min before everyone, and was just running things through my brain, making sure I didn't forget anything in the prep before the race. yes, I know, anal, but hell, it was going to be a long 26.2 miles. :D

We got dressed, camelback ready, gear ready, time for a bit of food. Peanut butter, banana sandwich, some coffee and some light fun in the morning, as we made our way to the start, packet pick up, about 4 blocks away. After securing our numbers, we made our way across the railroad tracks for the start. Today was amazing, sunny, fresh, crisp air....good friends, good fun to be had, and I had a smile on my face as the race start was announced and we all started moving forward. the first few miles would be a straight climb, gradual, but noticeable.

My plan was to not check my gps until the first aid station. I ran with Nacheux and we kept each other company, as I got used to the thinner air, and the uphill battle. Spirits were high, and this is what I was expecting. So we pulled forward, lightly talking, but making forward progress all the time.

Some stats, before I go further.

Start elevation: 7,400 feet above sea level.

Peak: 9,100 feet above sea level.

Terrain: trail, rocky, uneven, snow, mud, water. :D

Finish time: 6 hour 47 min.

The group photo before the race started: myself, Nacheux, Kerri, Matt, Katie, Brownie and Gordon. Couldn't have asked for a more spectacular day to run in.

We climbed further and further, on the fire roads, so the going was good. Just making tracks on smooth even surface. We hit the first aid station, and it was about mile 3.9 or so. no biggie, 22 miles to go. :D got some water, and remembered to get some salt in me, as I tend to sweat out a lot of salt on my runs. lesson learned in Thailand where I bonked hard. The further up we went past the aid station that had the cut off to the trails, the more mud we encountered. At this point I didn't care what we ran through, I was making tracks. I was not so winded unless I went over my limit, so I kept an even and steady pace throughout.

I noticed I was able to recover quite easily, so I had that going for me. The nervouseness had worn off, and now it was about accomplishment. I would finish this race. No matter what.

I can't say enough good things about the trail, it was really cool. I do prefer to run trail races, as they present more of a challenge, and this race was proving to be the most difficult challenge I had to date. Even more so than my first Ultra marathon. Nacheux and I kept each others spirits high, snapping pics, and moving along. I don't think I stopped but 2 times, briefly, for photos, the rest of the time, it was non-stop movement forward. Otherwise, I would have gotten too comfortable and probably stopped for too long. With the sun out, a lot of the snow was turning to slush and mud. And with roughly 90 people trudging through here before me, it was messy.

Nacheux and I made it to Turret, Co. for the turnaround, and downed some much needed gatorade and some snacks. The way back was a climb out of Turret. When we made the aid station at about mile 18, they had PBR, so what did we do? We drank a PBR of course. hahaha

It was at this aid station that we were cutting off onto a rather small trail, which had thankfully been run with snow cats to get the snow packed and make it easier to traverse. I was using a lot of energy to stay upright in the thin ruts. And it was taking it's toll. I was tired, legs were burning, but surprisingly, I was not out of breath. I had to motivate hard to run the downhills, and then I would let gravity take over, and run at a good clip down the trail. The last 4 miles or so were almost all downhill, so Nacheux and I started to run a lot. I do well on the downhills, and that's usually where I make up time. I have to work on the uphills, hence a lot more hill repeats, as I want better movement up the trails.

About 1.5 miles from the end, one of the race coordinators was on his mtn bike and told us that we were 1.5 miles from the end, and had 17 minutes to finish, so we would have to run the last 1.5 miles. WTF?!?! for real? this was a blow to me, even though I knew I had to do it, it was going to be hard. I would run the downhills, and walk hard on the flats, but kept making myself run as much as I could, with the help of Nacheux encouraging me, and both of us helping each other.

When we finally hit the flat spot along the rail road tracks, I could see the end, and was just making time. Feeling like puking, I figured it was now or never. Run mofo, run!!!! I could faintly hear the others yelling at us from the other side of the river to run!!!! Trust me, I was doing the most running I could. hahahaha

We went over the tracks, and I think I yelled at Nacheux "where the f*ck is the finish line?"

hahahaha because we had to go under this bridge (below) and then around to the finish line.

I hear brownie yelling to power up and run it in, and so I did. I had just enough to sprint (I think) across the finish line. I forgot to click off my gps, but when I did, it said 6:58. hahahaha beat the cutoff by 2 minutes. The time would later be ammended to reflect where we actually came in, at 6:47, I think I was one stride in front of Nacheux at the finish line.

This was us running it in, and the photo finish at the line. I was beat, breathing hard, and about ready to collapse. and I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!! It was the greatest event I've done so far, and absolutely the hardest so far. I needed it, it has recharged me, and reminded me what it's like to push my body and to have fun along the way. I don't take these events so seriously, that I lose sight of the fun to be had. I don't have aspirations of being competitive, but hell, I love that I can finish it, spend time with friends and drink a ton of PBR. :D

Congrats to Brownie for his 12 place finish. And congrats to Katie for thrashing me, and yes, I paid up on our bet, and bought her a beer.

A much deserved PBR at the end. My appetite was shot, and I couldn't stomach food. It took me about 40 min to be able to eat some of the soup that they had. The hot food felt really good going into my stomach. After recooping a bit, I was able to walk back to the hostel with the rest of the group, to get cleaned up, as we had a pub crawl to go to....matter of fact, I was the hare. LOL

Taking a breather after the run, mud caked shoes are no longer new. haha

The course map outlined via gps and google earth. Take a look and let me know what y'all think.

My one and only special and most favorite of photos. HAHAHAHA Me running in front of Brownie. Yes, it happened, and yes, there is photographic proof. I think I'll have this one enlarged and framed and put in the center of the "Gaylord is awesome" Room. :D

Overall thoughts:

I need to log more miles. I have worked out a good plan to get more strength in my hill climbs, and am working on that. I have made the decision to sign up for the Avalon 50 miler in January 2011, and that is my goal at the moment.

I have signed up for some other races, including the New Orleans marathon in February 2011. It will be a good recovery run.

I have also decided I will run another 30 miler, or two in the bay area. Unfortunately the skyline 50k which would be a great run, falls on the dates that I am out of town in Texas.

I need to schedule 2 50km races before the end of the year. That is the short term goal.

on on

thank you Colorado.

Salida marathon - prelube March 11-12, 2010

2010-03-23T23:47:00.000-07:00

Well, the day finally arrived and I jetted off to Colorado Springs to meet up with a few hashers and get ready for the Salida "Run through time" Marathon, in...where else, Salida, Co.

Nacheux was there to pick me up, PBR in hand, righteous. After downing it, we stopped by her place to grab some stuff, and then we were off to Knob Hill (if I remember correctly) for some beers and to meet the rest of the PPH3 guys.

1st pic: myself, Meatgazer, Tonka Butt & Brownie.
Lots of PBR was drank here. I think we cleared 26 tall boys (24oz) of PBR. :D at the 1st bar, hahaha
3rd pic: The hashers in front of the wall of fame!

After which we rolled over to the Black Sheep to watch a band, that never arrived. We figure, as much as we can remember, that we left there about 11pm to the next bar. I think. :D maybe the Irish #4 bar?! who knows. I know I passed out in the truck, and then passed out at Katies, after stopping at the Kings Chef for dinner, passing out in the booth and telling Nacheux that we should leave.

Everyone had a blast at the Black Sheep, even though we didn't get to see the band.
The next day, I needed to get my legs loose, as I hadn't really run...in a while. haha
So Katie, Nacheux and myself went over to the Garden of the Gods, for a quick run, and to feel the altitude.

This is a pretty scenic section, where everyone comes to get a photo, so I obliged as well. You can see Pikes Peak (snow capped) in the background, and the small line going diagnoally to the right, is "the incline".

This was a good day to be out. We waited for wanker to be done with work so we could drive out to Salida.

I have to admit, I was getting a little nervous about the run. It had been weighing on my brain for a few weeks now. Especially since I didn't have the miles under me that I should have. Nonetheless, tenacity, stubborness and the will to keep moving forward would have to carry me through.

The Wall, Oakland Hills, Ca. 3-20-10

2010-03-23T23:20:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend was great. 3 days off, the weather was sunny and mid 60's to low 70's all weekend long. What better than to spend a few days exploring and getting outside. With a few runs over the weekend, I put in some miles and was happy about that. Saturday we rode out to "The Wall" in the Oakland Hills for some scenery and to run into a few friends.

Ran into Ben, Katia, Kurt and Jeff up there, as 2 of them were out riding and stopped in, and the other 2 were riding home from work, the long way. Good times, I enjoyed a nice chelada, great conversation, weather, and scenery. The ride home was spirited, as well as the jaunt across the bay bridge. :D as per usual.

A shot of the bike, right off the edge of "the wall", overlooking Oakland, the bay and SF.

Sunset in SF. (spring has returned)

2010-03-23T22:44:00.000-07:00

Friday night, last week, I had the day off and spent it with a good friend. We ran around town on the motorcycle and seeing the fog coming in, we went to Treasure Island to watch the sunset, and down a couple 40's on the rocks. Pretty cool site.
After a while, we got bored, and I decided we should try and make it to the other side of town and see what the sunset looked like from Ocean Beach. A quick ride across the city breaking minimum traffic laws and we were here. as seen in photo.

great time. great sunset, and so glad to see that Spring is back in the bay. :D

Snoop-a-loop, at the Fillmore, 3/3/10

2010-03-23T22:41:00.000-07:00

Went to see Snoop Dogg at the Fillmore in SF. He was 2 1/2 hours late for his start, and had a bunch of music and rappers jumping on and off stage before he came on. They played his movie "Malice in Wonderland", and I guess it was to make it seem like the concert was long, when in reality, he just played 50 minutes worth of a show when he finally came on.

Don't get me wrong, once he played, he rocked it...or is that rapped it...but damn, if I'd known that was his schtick, I woulda shown up 2 hours later. cool poster though, and at least I can say I saw Snoop D.O. double G.

Austin fun. Feb 27th, 2010

2010-03-23T22:33:00.000-07:00

What happens when you go out for drinks with co-workers on your last night in Austin? Well, for one, I realize that I went to a bbq truck on the corner of Red River and 7th st. mostly because I woke up with an empty plate of BBQ in my bed with me, and this picture in my phone. LOL

What's even better, is that I looked over on my mantel and saw this beautiful and probably priceless painting sitting there. wtf?! oh yeah, I remembered later, that I apparently bought this painting off the wall at Mugshots bar. HAHAHAHAHA I love Star Wars and this just looked right. The bartender made it so easy when he said he could just add it to my bartab. heh. how easy is that. :D 50 bucks later, this gem is now a part of my collection. LOL

what a great night out in Austin, with a fun crowd of co-workers. I think I have more pics somewhere about it too. I think I miss the going away parties and the welcome back parties the most.

The Tank!

2010-03-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

Doing his best Zoolander impression. hahahahaha This kid is getting huge. Hadn't seen my nephew since the day he was born. He's huge now. :D spent a good evening with them on the 2nd of March, right before flying back to SF, and right after finishing up my contract in Austin, Tx.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday...

2010-03-21T10:47:00.001-07:00

.....enjoying a free day off in SF today. It's a bit overcast with haze, but hell, still warm enough to go out and ride.

Having a blast the last 3 days off. Riding about the city. hit the wall yesterday in Oakland, and some lane splitting fun, chasing down bikes. :D

time to explore the city some more.

what neighborhood?!
(keep your mouth shut about the Castro, Brownie. Already checked it.) LOL

coffee is good.

New Orleans Marathon

2010-03-16T23:27:00.000-07:00

Registered for the New Orleans Marathon, February 2011. hahaha
no turning back.

this will be a good "recovery" run, as I am planning on signing up for the
Catalina 50miler....better known as the "Avalon 50", right around January 15-16, 2011. :D Which will be my first 50 miler.

Salida Marathon - Check

2010-03-16T11:52:00.001-07:00

Start time 9am, in Salida, Colorado

Running through time...and SNOW! wtf?! hahaha

Finish line pic, with our obligatory PBR. and a google earth gps mapping of our run.

That was the hardest race I've run...yet. :D But it was worth every bit of the pain, hangover, soreness.

I'll have a proper race report in a day or two. Have to get back to work, but feeling really good despite the race stats.

Start at: 7400 feet

Peak at: 9100 feet

Finished in: 6:47

Distance 26.3 miles

Between the altitude and minimal miles run, it all worked against me. But it was a perfect way to test myself and see what I can do. For now, I've decided to set my eyes on my first 50 miler in January 2011. Yes, I plan on doing some 30's before that, and another couple of marathons, but that will be my biggest leap in miles.

I think the biggest reason it was so fun and tolerable this weekend is that I did it with a good bunch of friends/retards. We drank a lot, we laughed a lot, and we ran a lot. Eating at Moonlight Pizza was phenomenal.

Earning 2 "Clean Plate Stickers" at Kings Chef in Colorado Springs was also a highlight of the visit.

Running through Red Rock Canyon and the Garden of the Gods was simply breathtaking. Especially with the fresh snow and sunny skies contrasted with the red canyon walls.

be back soon. with even more photos. :D

To Pop or not to Pop...it....

2010-03-11T01:51:00.000-08:00

stupid blister on the heel of my left foot. pretty good one too. got it, breaking in some new runners on a walk. bah. not what I want right before flying out to Colorado to trapse around in the snow and mountains for the Salida Marathon. hahaha

Flight leaves this morning, hoping to get out of work early for a couple hours of zzzz's.

looking forward to visiting Colorado again, it's been too long.

dammit, I promise to get pictures up soon. when I get back, I have a few days off, and I will sit down and post up from the trip to California, then Salt Lake City, back to Austin and some fun here in San Francisco...and and and.....then the Colorado pics. haha

be back in few days. ciao

Snowboarding the weekend away.

2010-03-07T17:47:00.000-08:00

Spent the weekend in Reno, and went up to Squaw Valley Olympic Mountain resort for some fun with my brother in law, while my sister is laid up resting. We had a great day and ran into some friends from the bay area. We were in line prior to the lifts opening, and kicked it over some crazy stuff. It's definitely more intense here than at, say, Northstar or Mt. Rose mountains.

A week ago C.R. Johnson was killed coming off one of the faces, and fell and hit his head on a rock. Breaking his helmet. He was a local, a pro, and X-games medalist, and seemed to be wearing all of his protection possible. Sometimes, shit just happens.

Nonetheless, we had a great time, and the weather was very cooperative.

Spent the weekend catching up with family, and Chris and I are signing up for two triathlons this year. the Graeagle Tri and the Donner Lake Triathlon. The first one is a repeat of what we did last year, after camping on the lake near Susanville last July 4th weekend. This year the plan is to actually swim properly (with training LOL) and also to bring road bikes. :D

The Donner Tri is about twice as long, but I think we can knock it out. We'll see. haha
The plan is also to sign up for the SF marathon and actually be sober enough to make it to the start. haha

as well as another ultra. we'll see if I go to 50 miles this year.

packing up to hit the road.

2010-03-02T01:48:00.000-08:00

It's strange, but anytime I know I'm coming to an end of a contract, I seem to get more accelerated in my purposes and in getting things done. The thing I have a hard time doing, is packing up. haha not cause there is a lot to do, but because it takes me a fairly short time to do, and I can be in and out of a residence I have in roughly 2 hours. so, I guess I procrastinate. But then again, if I had packed things up days ago, I'd be sitting around bored, and with nothing to do. get it? haha

but now I'm awake and nearly 4am, and thinking of what I can load up now in the truck, I'll load the motorcycle early this morning, get some coffee and start the arduous journey to McAllen, where I'll leave my stuff before flying to SF tomorrow morning super early.

I'm so used to going through larce city airports, that I need to remember, that going through security in McAllen, might take all of 10 minutes or less. haha

anyway, I'll be in Colorado in about 2 weeks for some running and beer. and apparently I'm haring a run. which is even cooler.

on on

BLAST OFF!!!

2010-02-27T07:03:00.000-08:00

Well, that rounds out a 4 month contract at Dell Childrens MC in Austin. I can't say enough good things about this hospital and it's staff in the Peds e.r. They are the most fun I've had in a job in more than 5 years. We worked hard, saw some crazy shit and partied harder, together, as a cohesive group from the same unit.
Most I have in California was random people getting to know each other, as the unit there tends to more isolation between staff, due to the nature of the childrens illness. (Usually, 1 RN per patient)

It's sunny outside this morning, as I took a deep breath and walked out of the hosp. We had a blast last night, loads of fun, with the wide range of patients. Lots of food on accountant of it being my last day, which was great. And a bunch of us went over to Amaya's Cafe for breakfast and beer.
The girls gave me a box of Frosted Flakes cereal, in honor of our conversation earlier that night about what breast milk tasted like, and since they had both nursed, they said they'd both tasted their own breast milk. hahaha in and of itself awesomely hot!!!! hahahha So I asked what it tasted like, and they said, mildly sweet milk.....kinda like the milk in a bowl of Frosted Flakes. hahahaha

The days are gonna fly over the next week. A supposed Full Moon Hash tonight in Austin, the regular AH3 tomorrow, and the guys from work wanna get some beers tonight, probably after the full moon H3.

it's going to be nice out, in Austin today. Gonna wake up early and see what's going on.

Dear Leuk,

2010-02-26T07:54:00.000-08:00

Skin so soft on her head
color is blue
vomit on bed
meds are given
no more twitching
just another day
working in the kitchin

bleh night at work.

countdown continues: 1

BRASS MONKEY H3

2010-02-25T07:01:00.000-08:00

HAHAHAHAHAHA this photo cracks me up so much. A few weekends ago with some great friends and hashers in Houston for the inaugaral Brass Monkey H3. goofing for the camera, I got this picture sent back with a messed up caption. LOL

Is it me, or

2010-02-25T06:54:00.001-08:00

...is it my imagination?

The over reactive white parents come to the e.r. at 5am with c/o of kid moaning. Kid looks phenomenal on arrival, and gets blood work.

Mexican family comes in, fevers and same chief complaint...and off you go with a "viral infection", no treatment other than tylenol and motrin.

weird, cause assuming that all those kids aren't sick, has bitten people in the ass before.

sunny day in Austin today, nice cool weather this morning, took a deep breath as I walked out the e.r. doors, as per usual, and was in a good mood today. jamming to some cool jams now, as I fight the sleep, jazzed up as I count down to 2 more shifts at work here in Austin.

This contract has been amazingly fun. Lots of people that I got to meet, and some fun and drunk times here. I'm going to miss the dim witted, window lickers that I work with here, as they were all super fun, annoying, helpful, funny and loudmouthed, all rolled up into one.

countdown on days to go: 2

Snowpocalypse?! or.....

2010-02-24T09:13:00.000-08:00

.....the storm that wasn't?!

Who knows, I heard about it, but never saw it. :(

From what friends were saying, it was snowing like crazy in Austin, blanketing the ground. hahaha strange for this area, but not unheard of. Unfortunately, by the time I flew back into town, it seems any proof of it was gone from the ground. There seemed to be a bit of "snow" on my windshield. but alas, no sign of it.

I heard all kinds of stories from friends who immediately called work to see if they were cancelled. Driving in the snow is not a habit around here, and people were freaking. Luckily I don't think there was too much to it, as crashes seemed light.

ah well, one more week here, then back out to Ca. for some work before flying to Colorado Springs for some beer drinking and slow running. :D hahaha

almost. time.

2010-02-23T05:30:00.000-08:00

flying back to Austin in about 5 hours. off of work in about 2 hours. some packing, some breakfast, and I promise I'll update photos tonight when I get home...hahaha after some much needed Texas BBQ and a good beer at Lovejoys.

training...oh yeah, some hill sprints tomorrow before work. where? well, somewhere in Austin that has more than a 500 ft elevation change....possible? not that i know of! hahaha

re-activated my membership to the SF climbing gym, as I'll be here more in March and can get some good workouts running to the gym and climbing.

sickest kid in the unit

2010-02-20T03:23:00.001-08:00

guess it's fine for me. as it has kept me busy all night till right about now. 9 hrs into my shift, and getting a chance to sit down. I kinda like it, but not so good for the kid.

anyway, I'm far behind on my updates and photos.

will do asap. got tons from SLC, where we had a blast.
photos from Austin and my trip out to the BMH3 in The Woodlands (Houston, Tx)

and I still need to book tickets to Colorado for the marathon in Salida. where to fly into?

I think I'll fly in a few days early to try and acclimate! hahahahaha not that it will do much good.
running and drinking beer, that will be the plan in Colorado.

My contract in Texas is just about up, and it's back to the bay area for more work. Finally signed up for a full schedule for the month of March at LPCH, which should be some good dough. Much needed for my shopping habit. lol

signing up for the SF marathon in a couple days as well.

back to work. :D

Austin Marathon

2010-02-13T10:42:00.001-08:00

couldn't get in, as it's sold out, as is the half. (for training purposes) hahahaha

went for drinks last night at Lovejoys with a co-worker and ran into Ass Gagger and Blos (colorado hasher) and we drank good and heavy. after which we grabbed some pizza and stumbled over to Mugshots for car bombs, tequila and PBR tall boys...as well as a photo booth shoot. hahaha

when he put on my female co-workers jacket and pranced/modeled around in it at Mugshots, that was f*cking hilarious.

long night, with harsh hangover. wtf?!?
but breakfast chilaquiles at Trudy's with some hair o' da dog made it all better.

time for a run

sprints

2010-02-10T14:46:00.000-08:00

Not much time to run today, so went out and ran sprints around Oakwood Cemetary. :)

into the new house for the next month, and it's definitely a better place.

need to start planning trip to Salida for the marathon...at which I will probably puke and finish last. but what the hell. hahahaha

beer, pizza, hashers and adventure. what could be better.

Brass Monkey H3 - in the Woodlands

2010-02-03T10:38:00.000-08:00

Well, screw it. I'm outta here. I was going to wait till tomorrow, but after the rousing fun we had with Net this morning, I'm all jacked up and ready to run.

so off to San Antonio for a run and some beer drinking.

meeting with KOA tomorrow afternoon.

Riding to Houston hopefully after that meeting.

BMH3 all weekend.

Sunday, ride home...maybe make the Austin H3.

Rock climbing, somewhere in there.

hahahaha

on on to another great weekend of ....uh...... training. :D

SLC rocks!!!....or should I say sucks?

2010-02-03T02:48:00.000-08:00

First and foremost I have to say. stay away from salt lake city. don't go. it sucks. the snow sucks and the people suck. :D

with that said. I landed in SLC and we went straight to the climbing gym. for a couple hours of climbing and to meet some of Jaspers friends.

After climbing it was out for dinner at Bayou's where we drank a lot of beer, and had shots of scotch prior to arriving. Not sure why everyone always cries about the 3.2 % beer alcohol content...it's not per can, it's per volume, and at 6k plus elevation, you are still going to get drunk. besides, there is Jack and Jim to help out. And little known truth is that you can get normal beer at liquor stores...it's just not cold. Hell, I throw my beer in the fridge anyway.

After a long night at the W lounge where Jasper got hit on by 3 dudes. hahahahaha I blame the shirt, or maybe it was his leadville finisher buckle that brought them in. Later, the girls tried to say he wouldn't stand around in jock strap, boots, and belt buckle with pinstripe gay shirt...he did. at his house. disturbing is the only word I have for that. hahahahaha we watched some movies while in the hot tub, and finally passed out about 4:30am.

After not making our snow shoe race, which was only a 10 k in a golf course, we decided to one up it.

Went for a 7 mile snow shoe hike in Mill Creek Canyon. An ascent for the first 4 miles..and 2:40 later,we were back at the truck. some amazing views up in the mountains. I felt surprisingly well, seeing as how I'm from the flat lands, and here I was in the 7k ft elevation range. I have better than average hopes for Salida. We did manage to find some moose tracks. That was cool.

Afterwards, we hit the hot tub again, and drank more pbr's. We ended up at some bar for a long time, and then back to the house.

Sunday, a lazy morning, and then we snowboarded the afternoon at Brighton. Some sick times with light snow falling all afternoon.

Monday was supposed to be a half day, but then the girls called and said they'd pick me up at 9am for a full day of snowboarding. hahaha apparently, they didn't believe that I could keep going at their local pace.
Snowboarded all day, and got some cool action photos.
After which, we went to the climbing gym and rounded out the day with a long session of climbing, followed by dinner.

My flight was out on Tuesday morning.

Like I said, SLC sucked, don't go there, Brighton does not have good snow, etc. Pics to come. :D haha

SLC

2010-01-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

here I come!!! time for some fun in Utah...is that an oxymoron? hahaha who knows.

flying out tomorrow after a few awesome days in the bay area. some fun last night at our motorcycle meet, saw a bunch of good friends. had a huge bike presence as the weather cleared up, and the streets dried up. lol yep, fair weather riders. pshhhh. it's ALWAYS riding weather. hahaha

one mishap on the way out, someone got frisky with the throttle making a right into the tunnel and highsided their bike into the tunnel. Hilarity ensued and he was fine. bike was rideable, in 1st gear, all the way home, no left side footpeg though, oil leaking from clutch master cylinder.

all in all a long night.

back with photos in a few days.

city bound

2010-01-21T05:36:00.000-08:00

flying west to San Francisco, for some running in the rain. Sounds like they've been having a deluge over there. goodbye warm (62 deg) and clear days in Austin.....for a couple weeks anyway. :D

Salida, Co.

2010-01-20T05:41:00.001-08:00

Salida marathon rego sent out. Yes, I upgraded from the half to the full. what the hell am I thinking?

fu brownie, fu. hahahahaha

Rain rain...so awesome.

2010-01-15T12:54:00.000-08:00

Raining cats and dogs in Austin today. Pretty nice, especially since it isn't really freezing cold either.

decisions decisions. lol

The carbon based maternal unit is enroute to Austin, gonna hang out and catch up. Should be fun, having dinner tonight with some co-workers, and then a country drive tomorrow. Hope it clears up a bit.

race rego's

2010-01-13T15:01:00.000-08:00

Sending out registration forms for hashes and races throughout.

Gonna try and do a couple of the warriordash events, even the one in Colorado, at the Copper Mtn Resort. :D

AFM Race license application is going out, and thinking I'll get my white plates this year.

BBQ

2010-01-11T17:55:00.000-08:00

After a few errands and washing clothes, I decided to go out for a quick ride around the area. Decided that I wanted to try out a new BBQ joint in Lockhart. I've been here before, but it's been too long.

Kreuz Market (Since 1900) is one of the first ones you come across when you first roll into Lockhart from the North. Distinguishable by the huge red barn building that it is housed in.

This sign is particularly helpful. LOL

runnin...with the Austin H3

2010-01-11T06:01:00.000-08:00

Running by the Capitol on 11th St.

Nice run to the start of the hash yesterday(about 2.5 miles), and then a good run through west Austin, (well, west of downtown). Not too bad, with the on after at the crown and anchor.

Good to see a bunch of people, and then ran home from their through the U.T. campus.

The sunset was nice, with the U.T. clocktower in the background. Some Hooters wings later, and all was right in the world. :D

Quake central...

2010-01-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I hate to say, I told yo so, but it seems that in the last 48 hours there has been some geological activity of sorts in the Bay Area. Mind you, no where near the severity of the bigger ones, but noteable nonetheless...and people are talking.
http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Maps/SF_Bay.html
The largest one in the last few days was a 4.1 which is mild by SF standards, but still enough to shake things up. With plenty of aftershocks occuring....I hope the bay area gets longer reprieve from a major shake up.

Smutt, it's those damned Sea Lions, they knew. :D LOL

aCHUMP H3

2010-01-07T06:17:00.000-08:00

Alamo City Humpin H3
Redneck Centerfold, Dark side of the moon, May the Foreskin be with You, Nipple me Elmo, Forest Hump, Cockarazzi, Freak on a leash, Brother Darryl, me and Done Dirt Cheap.

Good times in San Antonio last night with the Alamo City Humpin H3. Quick trail, live hare, lots of orange food and hot wings. Great circle and good times. Laid back, small hash which I enjoy for the entertainment without so much of the BS found in uber-large hash groups. :)

Basic power down downs, gorilla down downs, sit around the fire, accuse your friends of crap and drink under San Antonios flight path! LOL

18 DAYS!!!!!!

2010-01-06T09:02:00.000-08:00

Without a debit card. LOL Lost my card and reported it lost, and after ordering a new one, didn't think much of it...till today. Having to purchase flights and register for a few races, I needed the card.

It felt good to not have the card at all times, as it's so easy to spend money when one has it. Even though I haven't used a credit card for almost 2 years now.....the debit card is definitely a crutch.

Finally got a temporary one today, but working with cash is easier to budget oneself, and lends itself to less and less impulsive buys. :D which I've been known to do. haha

aCHUMPER's

2010-01-06T06:49:00.000-08:00

Wednesday off in Austin. I think I'll jet down to San Antonio and hit up the Alamo City Humpin Hash tonight. (aCHUMP H3). hahahaha

On another note: The one thing that sucks about living in the "ghetto" in SF and Austin, is the long waits for cabs. Come on, it's not that bad, it's daylight and all. haha Finally got a cab (in SF) to the airport, and the dude, gave me his card and said to call him direct when I need a cab in the neighborhood. Since he now knows where my place is and it isn't that bad. Cool guy, and drove like a cabbie should....FAST!!! :D

long flight yesterday, and funny to find it colder here than back in SF.

Got the race bike running...after lots of beer, shenanigans hahaha. Again, the issue being gasoline sitting in tank for too long. well, after draining it into a bucket, and attempting to put it into a gas can with a funnel, orange safety cone and a drunk hasher pouring, unsuspecting dolt holding the cone...success....with minor spillage. (read: minor spillage = all over Will's leg, shoe and arm) LOL

but the bike ran, and I tear assed up and down the street with it. fuck me it's loud!!! Full Yoshimura system and a Leo Vince exhaust can ftw!

I did finally put some gasoline stabilizer in the tank. hope that works. I am jonesing to take the bike on the track though.

giggiddy

2010-01-04T16:26:00.000-08:00

Phenomenal weekend, and today feels like Sunday evening. :D

Back to the case of PBR I found in my garage.

Fly back to Texas tomorrow, after 3 much needed days off in San Francisco.

I received an anonymous Christmas Day present from someone and now I can't for the life of me think of who it may be. How to find out who it was? Ideas? I have an address, no name on it, and the city is an acronym "S.L.C.", and the state is California, and the gift was a movie trilogy that I didn't tell too many people about.

hmmmmmm....back to my PBR.

New Message

2010-01-03T09:40:00.001-08:00

Sushine football cheladas friends ' BBQ only thing missing is some burnouts.....soon to be remedied. :D This Sunday turned out to be very nice. ';You can't say you've been drinking all day unless you start in the morning"

Lucky 13, S.F., moto meet

2010-01-02T05:37:00.000-08:00

Flew into S.F. and finally made one of the motorcycle meets....we held it at the Lucky 13 Bar, on Market. PBR tall cans, and then rounded it out with a few at Benders on the way home. Good night.

New Years Resolution(s)!

2010-01-02T01:41:00.001-08:00

Heh. Everyone makes these and they usually don't follow through. So I won't sit here and pontificate on doing a bunch of shit. I will however stay realistic.

1. I will drink a lot
2. I will run more
3. 2010 is the year that I train properly and diligently for the 100 mile race I want to run, either end of year, or in 2011.
4. At least 2 out of country trips....long trips. not including motorcycle rides out of country.
5. I will run with the hash house harriers more.

that's about good. hahahaha

Need to update 2010's events:
Bigfoot Snowshoe hash on 1/30/10
Warrior Dash Series, happening throughout the year, more of a party with hashers.
Race season is on it's way and need to get the dates. Hoping to race the bike at least 4 times this year.

eh...that's about good. :D