Photo/Slide Project

One of the projects I have been meaning to get rolling on is scanning all these prints and slides from my folks and Amy's folks. This is one of the first pictures I pulled out of the box, last year for Dad's memorial service, and I am still amazed by this photo every time I look at it.

So this winter I will be starting to scan and log all these (over 1200) slides and prints. I am logging a lot of the details with the goal having a database of all of these photos for future reference, be it within the family or for some other use. Any guidance from any of you would be greatly appreciated if you have ever undertaken a similar project...

September and October...

Good golly, I could have waited longer between postings but then I would have forgotten how to do this...The last six weeks have been a little crazy round these parts, as Amy and I have been coaching both Max and Tycho's soccer teams for the fall season. The first rule of parks and rec soccer is HAVE FUN! In fact, I think that is the only rule. We have had a really good time doing this, this was our second season coaching the boys, and we can't wait for the sping season to come around. In addition to coaching these teams, I have been hip deep in French 101 four days a week as well. My words of wisdom on this...DO NOT wait until you are over 40 to learn a foriegn language...This has been a whole lot harder than I thought it was going to be, fortunately I have a built in tutor in Amy (degree in French from WSU)...Thank heavens for that...Here are the kids getting down to it at the City PLayfields after one of Tycho's games.

Annika is three! We celebrated at a place called Winger's (think a less polished Red Robin, but that have free popcorn and the kids love that)

Annika says...Hey everybody, I'm three!!

Lopez Island 2008

Sorry about the delay in getting these pictures up...Consider this the NBC Olympic Broadcast version of the Lopez Pictures...On the air long after the results are known around the world...

From this small group...

You get ALL these people...

Riding Up Hills...

I felt better on the bike today than I have at anytime in the last five years. I rode in the long way this morning and there is a mile long hill towards the end of the ride that I watch my time on.

Hold on, back up, back in the old days, when Lee and I or Mike and I would ride all over the Eastside, I could climb hills like a mountain goat. I loved climbing the hills on my bike, the bigger and the steeper the better. Inglewood Hill Road was a fave, as was 24th from 40th to 132nd, and of course 51st and 70th.

FWIW - 70th was the first King of the Mountains points back when they had the Road Nationals in Redmond, the other points were had at the top of the hill on 116th above the soccer fields.

Anywho, the first time I timed myself coming up this particular hill I was getting up in about 6 minutes and the best time I had managed before this morning was 5:15, I made it in under 5 minutes today! (4:48). It may not sound like much to you, but for me to see an improvement in my climbing ability like that is HUGE. You'd be surprised how much having one lung can hamper your ability to put the large muscle groups into hard labor.

Then at lunch I decided to ride halfway to Moscow and back, it's a 12 mile ride, and on the way back onto campus I decided to try to climb the steepest hill on campus, College Street from Riverview to Spokane, it's about a quarter mile from bottom to Spokane at a 24% grade! This is a street that is too steep to open in the winter and the sidewalks have stairs on them. For you folks in Seattle, it's like riding up Madison from First to Second down by Pioneer Square. I felt like I was going to explode, but I was able to make it to the top and back to Bohler in one piece.

After that, the ride home after work up Larry Street and it's 5% grade was a piece of cake. Or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it...

Dr. Horrible!

The best thing on the internet is happening RIGHT NOW! can be had on iTunes or just wait for the DVD...

Musical Ramblings

I find myself in the kitchen, doing dishes and baking cookies if you must know, and I have the iPod spooling through my music collection. Two songs came up consecutively, 'Baba O'Riley' by The Who followed by 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen. Both of these songs are outstanding in their own rights, stand outs from an era (the 70's) that is more remembered for disco and folk rock than anything else. Baba O'Riley has the outstanding electric piano opening, the trademark Daltrey scream, the infamous '...teenage wasteland..." chorus, and Townshends guitar riffs. I know that it was a formative song in my musical education, I played the vinyl version of Who's Next endlessly on that old turntable we had in the basement. I also understand the import of these formative songs and the impressions that they leave in our subconscious. All those things considered, the raw power of that song hit me as a physical presence as I stood in the kitchen. When the opening verse of Bohemian Rhapsody came out of the speakers, you know the one, 'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?...' and I saw the other side of the raw power of Baba O'Riley. The complexity of the Queen arrangement was something that was really eye-opening to me. I understood rock and roll to be pretty straight forward, verse chorus verse, I didn't know anything about intros and bridges and outros (it could be accurately stated that I still don't) so this song came totally out of the blue. The lyrics add another layer of complexity that I didn't really come to understand until much later in life. Music is such a powerful medium, it carries the power of the olfactory in that a song can transport to a time and place just like smell. Music carries a great emotional weight as we can all remember people, places, happenings, as if they happened yesterday when we hear a given song. I have always placed an inordinate value on music and lyrics in my life, just ask anyone who had to listen to me talk about Pink Floyd in the late 80s, but I think that music has that power to move people like no other medium. Go out today and LISTEN to one of your favorite songs, I mean LISTEN to it, don't just have it on in the background, really listen to it and let it move you.

Random pictures from Pullman

The Space Capsule that Max and his team built during Camp Invention
The kids are ready to ride the Chipman Trail!
Playing with the gorilla pod and long shutter speeds on the 4th