Got Bike?

Call me a little geeked out right now and indulge my storytelling...

As you may know, I have been riding the same mountain bike for about 17 years now. I have been dreaming of getting a new ride since before Mr Armstrong won his first Tour de France in 1999.

Since relocating to Pullman, this fever has kicked into high gear since my boss is an avid cyclist and there is a ton of good and challenging rides around here. Alas, with three kids and the cut in pay to come here I thought I was fresh out of what the French call luck.

My boss walks into the office last Friday and asks if I have seen the Lemond Poprad they have at the local shop (B & L Bicycles, very cool shop). I hadn't seen it, since I avoid that place like a recovering drunk avoids the corner bar. He coaxed me into checking it out at lunch, since there is a good (and cheap) pizza place right next door. We get there and I drool over it for long enough to make my cycling mad boss a little uncomfortable. It's in awesome shape, it's a 2007 and it only has about 300 miles on it. I swallow hard and look at the price, HOLY MOLY it's $1000! This bike goes for $1700 new, and it looks new for gawds sake! Oh wait, I do the stand over (certainly the top tube will be cleaving my block and tackle in half)...uh oh, the basics fit....

I play the really pathetic puppy dog with Amy over the weekend, helped I'm sure by the diesel powered flu that hit me Friday night.

She said YES!

I call Bryce and put a hold on the bike and I picked it up tonight, I'll be riding it to work tomorrow morning! The particulars; 2006 Lemond Poprad Disc, Shimano 105 components (46x39 upfront and 10 speed 12-27 in the back), Bontrager Satellite carbon forks, Bontrager Select Disc road Race wheels, and AVID BB7 disc brakes. The frame is set up to accept racks and fenders if I so desire, with prethreaded hooks in the back and on the forks. It's a US made steel frame and should be able to handle the dirt roads and trails all over the area.

I think, and I may be crazy thinking about the 4'+ of snow we had this winter, that this will be a year round machine. Thanks for letting me geek out and I will be sure to let you know how the ride turns out to be...

Schweitzer Trip 2008

First things first, the two days after I posted those pictures of our house and all the snow, we got another 25" of snow...Crazy...

So here are the pictures from our Schweitzer trip earlier this month. It's funny, but it was on this trip last year that Amy and I decided to make the move to Pullman. One thing this move did, was put within three hours of this awesome ski area. Paul, Karen, and Cooper flew up from Tahoe and Mom flew over from Seattle to join us this year. After the first day of skiing in a marshmallow, the weather turned around and we had a ball. The kids had a ton of fun at KinderKamp, Max and Coop skied together a lot and Tike was ready to join them by the end of the trip. We can't wait for next year, when Annika gets to learn how to ski!

Tike getting used to skiing with his Dad. GO COUGS!

Paul pretending to be an aeroplane

Max catching big air

Coop catching big air

Amy enjoying the view and the weather

Phil enjoying the view of Lake Pend Orielle

Hail, hail, the gang's all here

Skiing takes a lot out of the little fellas

By Way of Comparison

I've been told that this has been an unusual year for snow in Pullman. All I know for sure is that we have a TON of snow in our yard.





This is the odd snow drift that is crawling up the side of the house...

40 is the new 30

at least that's what 'they' tell me...I turned 40 on Friday and I celebrated by setting the timing systems and timing the Cougs first official indoor track meet of the 2008 season. I also started classes at WSU the week before, therefore I just beat my goal of getting back to school by the time I am 40. I am taking two World Civilization classes that are general education requirements in order to get a degree. I think I am the oldest person in either of my classes, instructors included. It's kinda odd to look around the class room and think that I might be older than half these kids parents! But the classes are interesting and challenging, it's makes for a very busy work week and all, but I am so glad to be back in school.

The snow just keeps coming. Today we were trying to go to Spokane to visit the Build a Bear Workshop, the kids got gift certs for Christmas, but the 10" of snow that we got put the kibosh on that trip. There was also the small problem of the road to Spokane being closed because of downed power lines. The kids were disappointed, as were Amy and I, but we will make it up there on another day.

For the record, this latest snow fall makes it around 60" (or 5') for the winter at our place. Yikes.

The Holidays

Christmas was spent in Pasco at the Graber Family Compound. It really isn't a compound of any sort, I just wanted to say that. We returned to Pullman on the 26th to find 2' of drifted snow in our driveway. I had to shovel the drive just to get the van out of the garage. Then we noticed the 6' snow drifts in the backyard. Needless to say, that snow is still around and doesn't look like it's going anywhere anytime soon.

Our neighbor came over whilst I was shoveling the driveway, and asked if I wanted to borrow his 20 year old snow blower (they just got a new one). Now, I am a lot of things, but I don't think that stupid is one of them, so I graciously accepted his offer. A couple of days later he just told me to keep it in our garage for the season, as he said, 'there are some years you don't need a snow blower in Pullman...this is not one of those years'.

By my estimates, we have received 40" of snow at our house since Thanksgiving, and more is falling tonight. On average, Pullman gets about 30" of snow a year.

I like being above average.

Santa!

Yes, Max is actually holding Annika to keep her from leaving Santa...

It snows a lot in Pullman...

I've been led to believe that this year is out of the ordinary, which may be true, but it doesn't change the fact that we have a 10'+ snow drift in our backyard.

There is a great sledding hill right at the base of this water tower, which you are seeing from our back yard.
Granted, we haven't shoveled the patio, but that is still a lot of snow.