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According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Rat heralds the beginning of a brand-new zodiac cycle.

Aw cripes. No wonder I jump from obsession to obsession to obsession. Born an Ares in the year of the rat on a leap year. The trifecta.

From Co-op America: Ten Strikes Against Nuclear Power

We arrived in L.A. safely yesterday, if somewhat delayed. The plane pulled away from the gate and stopped on the runway for a few minutes. The pilot came over the intercom to tell us that we needed to top up the plane's fuel tank. So after an extra 45 minutes we took off. The plane touched down about right on time and we grabbed our rental car to jet over to Kirsten's house. We wished Peebo and Mark a happy birthday. Then we commenced to eat and drink and celebrate.

We had a huge flurry of activity this weekend. Devon, Cowboy and I went snowshoeing with our friend Jami and her dog Shelby. We packed up the car and headed out to Government Camp about 8 AM on Saturday morning. We started out down the Trillium Lake loop trail shared by snowshoers and cross country skiers. We tramped along in mostly clear conditions for the better part of and hour and a half. The dogs romped around in the snow. They said hi to a lot of other hikers and skiers on the trail. Snow started falling on us about noon. Soon after, all three of us seemed to have problems with our boots and blister formation. We tramped back to the car in about an hour and then proceeded to compare blisters.
Dev went over to Julie's place to play cards with the girls on Saturday night. I ordered a large pizza from Pizza Hut (I know, I know!) to load up on some extra carbs and fat for the next day. A fellow Mazama Jeff Welter offered a place on his exploratory hike up Table Mountain in the Columbia River Gorge.
Unfortunately, I needed snowshoes. REI didn't have any. Three of my snowshoe owning friends weren't available by phone - big surprise at 5 PM on a Saturday. I did manage to catch Sue before she and Nate went out to celebrate a friend's birthday. And she had a pair of snowshoes for me to borrow. She even drove them over to my house for me.
Jeff picked me up on Sunday morning for the drive out to the Gorge. We met Laura at the Hot Springs lodge and headed up the trailhead. Great hike. Awesome conditions. We managed to avoid the normal wind at the summit of Table Mountain. Ten minutes after we left the summit, the wind started to howl. We descended quickly and safely and then drove back into town.
And then I fell into bed early and slept 10 hours.

I posted pictures of our Sunday snowboarding trip here. We had a lot of fun. The rain and warm temperatures on Friday and Saturday turns the snow icy. Cooper Spur power tills their slopes but the snow still felt fast and hard. We couldn't ask for a better day to practice on not-so-prime snow conditions. The sun shined all day. Some people rode their boards in t-shirts. And Dev and I got one step closer to black diamond snowboarding.

Sir Edmund Hillary passed on today at the age of 88. God speed.

I hiked Mt Defiance with a Mazamas group on Sunday. Twelve miles with 4800 feet of elevation gain, and most of the hike happened on snowshoes. I had eight hours of really good fun. The weather stayed nice for almost the entire hike. We got back to the cars just as daylight failed. No one got hurt. And the scenery dazzled.

I have a few pictures from our group photog Andrew posted here.

Pictures from New Years can be found here.
I haven't captioned most of the pictures yet.

A nice respite from winter rain greeted me for my ride this morning. I dispensed with the rain pants and booties for the first bike ride in two weeks. Chill but not cold; perfect temperatures for a spirited ride to work. Just the refresher of a morning commute I need every couple of weeks during the rainy season.

My radio silence will get a little bit longer this weekend. Dev and I rented a cabin in Lyle, Washington for the holiday weekend. I don't think Dev packed the computer, so I will be incommunicado via text, email and blog for almost five days. Brilliance. I hope to have some pictures to show and stories to share when I get back.

All the best to you for the New Year (if I don't see you until then). And may it bless all of us with bounty and bliss in equal measure!

A sobering opinion piece about the Iraq War, war in general and history as a guiding perspective here.

Quote of the day:

"In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit it is the first."

-- Ambrose Bierce

So very sore today. Two days after jaunting to the mountain for snowboarding I feel a little like I got beaten. I had a lot of fun Sunday with former coworker and friend John Hart. We drove up to the mountain Sunday morning. John and I traded quips the entire way. John's sister's boyfriend Nathan sat in the back and quietly observed us during the drive. We arrived at Timberline lodge to splendid early season conditions. While not fantastic snow, the resort had groomed the snow enough to make it rideable.

I practiced some basics on the bunny slope (Bruno) for about an hour. John and Nathan both patiently hung out nearby. They rode down the bunny slope, but didn't need near the practice I did. At about 10 AM we headed over to Pucci to make our first run down the slopes. We rode down the easy part of main run Pucci to join up with West Leg Road. I tried to practice rocking side to side from front edge to back. My bindings thwarted me. My toes strap cam buckles kept slipping.

On a snowboard, the bindings strap across the ankles and the toes of the rider. The bindings attach the rider's foot to the board. The ankle straps also allow the rider to lift to heel edge off the snow so said rider can focus riding on the toe edge of the board. The toe straps provide leverage in the opposite direction, mainly they allow the rider to lift the toe edge off of the snow so he can focus riding on the heel edge. For a beginner, the heel edge provides the easiest and fastest braking possible. The rider rocks onto the heel edge and rotates the snowboard so that it sits perpendicular to the direction of travel. The heel edge bites into the snow and the rider slows or stops.

A lack of working toe straps complicates this process.

I fought my way down West Leg Road to get to the Jeff Flood Express ski lift. I fell about 30 or 40 times on the way. We originally planned to ride the Pucci chairlift up. The Pucci chairlift crew needed maintenance to fix something when we got to the lift. So we mounted up and rode all the way down to the next lift. The top of the chairlift presented me with another shortish, steepish slope to the day lodge parking lot. I struggled and feel down this slope. I cursed. We went into the gift shop and I bought the only toe strap replacements the carried. Overpriced at $40. Jon and Nathan and I monopolized the public ski tune bench to change out my toe straps. Then we checked our boards at the ski check and grabbed lunch.

The post lunch riding proceeded much better. I fell far fewer times on the two post-lunch runs of the day. I fell harder because I carried more speed. I carried more speed because I had more control. I had more control because I had working toe straps. So I guess I can say I crashed less often but harder because I had working toe straps. John stayed with me most of the day. He said he just wanted to get his legs back under him after not riding last season at all. He seemed smooth and in control the entire time. I felt clumsy slow and awkward following behind him. But I felt a marked improvement between when I first set edge to snow at nine that morning and when we crawled into the day lodge around 3:15 or 3:30 that afternoon.

The drive home passed quickly and uneventfully. I feel sore in a couple of key places and bruised in a couple of others. I skipped crossfit last night because I got so beat up by the slopes.

I am ready to go back soon.

Quote from Cristopher Hitchens latest editorial:

We are about to have the annual culture war about the display of cribs, mangers, conifers, and other symbols on public land. Most of this argument is phony and tawdry and secondhand and has nothing whatever to do with "faith" as its protagonists understand it. The burning of a Yule log or the display of a Scandinavian tree is nothing more than paganism and the observance of a winter solstice; it makes no more acknowledgment of the Christian religion than I do. The fierce partisanship of the holly bush and mistletoe believers convicts them of nothing more than ignorance and simple-mindedness. They would have been just as pious under the reign of the Druids or the Vikings, and just as much attached to their bucolic icons. Everybody knows, furthermore, that there was no moving star in the east, that Quirinius was not the governor of Syria in the time of King Herod, that no worldwide tax census was conducted in that period of the rule of Augustus, and that no "stable" is mentioned even in any of the mutually contradictory books of the New Testament. So, to put a star on top of a pine tree or to arrange various farm animals around a crib is to be as accurate and inventive as that Japanese department store that, as urban legend has it, did its best to emulate the Christmas spirit by displaying a red-and-white bearded Santa snugly nailed to a crucifix.

Today is Day of the NInja.

'Nuff said.

Scientists found a potentially, completely mummified dinosaur recently. Possible mummified organs! So very cool!

The end of an era. A legend has passed. Iconic Daredevil Evel Knievel Dies at 69

Quote of note:

"No king or prince has lived a better life," he said in a May 2006 interview with The Associated Press. "You're looking at a guy who's really done it all. And there are things I wish I had done better, not only for me but for the ones I loved."

My new ride.

Got a snowboard, boots and bindings on Wednesday night. My friend John is coming over on Sunday to help me wax and clean me and Dev's snowboards. Then, if all goes well, next Sunday we will be flying down some white-covered hill for a few hours.

I cannot wait.

My favorite poster from the Bike Commute Challenge 2007 poster website.