Mike Check One Two One Two

STP 2014 went phenomenally! The whole team felt great at the halfway point in Centralia and the day after we finished in Portland too! All that training really paid off. Also, I realized it made a lot of difference in comfort having rest stops and food/water supplied to us. It was a well sponsored and supported ride. We also got to see a news making sunset on the ride back to Seattle that Sunday.

Looks like my first Century ride was also my second! Coming up next is a century ride for the Gigantic Bicycle Festival in Snoqualmie and then the local Tough Mudder and that's it for the big summer event plans. Now THAT'S some adult summer fun. Challenges!

Moving along

Spring/Summer has been pretty good so far. The good part of Spring weather this year seemed to come earlier than last year. We didn't really plant anything in the garden because we are in the process of selling the house.


I've been doing a lot of cycling to prepare for the STP (Seattle to Portland) bike ride this year. It's coming up in less than 30 days and I feel *sort* of prepared. I've done a few 70 mile rides and felt good enough to keep going, and good enough the next day to get back in the saddle, so I feel pretty confident about doing 200 miles. All the bicycle training I've been doing has been taking time away from me and my wife doing more things together, though. We have not even taken the canoe out for it's first voyage for the year. The training will stop in July though, so I'm also looking forward to taking it more easy on the cycling.


I am finding it amazing the distance one can go on a bicycle. It feels like a world of possibilities opening up. It seems we can go anywhere on a bike, as long as there's enough time to do it at an average of 14 mph.


The weather has been great up here in the NorthWest. I think the highest temp has been about 80 degrees so far. I'm looking forward to the next few months too.

Springing it springingly

Welcome to Spring! The clouds cleared up for a little bit so we did some yard cleanup and planting.

Here's some recent photos from our runnings arounds

A recent art installation in Redmond, on the newly paved rail-trail through the center of town.
This tree in the Totem Lake area (North Kirkland) don't give a dang about your 'streets' and 'civilization'.
If you ever get a chance to visit the Getty museum and villa in the Los Angeles area, do so. I had no idea how amazing this museum, and the partner villa on the coast, would be until we saw them.
And here are a few different views of the lower Yosemite falls in the Yosemite valley. Yosemite National Park was amazing. I've never seen an operation like this, and I didn't really see much of the park at all. A working village in the heart of a national park was amazing to see. It was like an American version of Rivendell.

Woo! Conan! Yesterday we sat in the audience for last night's episode of Conan! Surreal.

Bi-Polar Vortex

Is winter over yet? Certainly not for my family and friends in the East coast. Stay warm and off the ice, my peeples.
Also, space-cat!