Day

It's my birthday today, at least for another 25 minutes anyway. It was good, I got out of the house for a 4+ hour stretch so I could drive to the nearest theater showing Gravity in 3D. The movie was excellent, but the downtime without some looming task or home project was even better. I had a whole tangent ready to go, a little tirade about my kid and the shit I do everyday, but it's not worth it and I'm tired. I love the little screaming demon and I really hoped his third birthday (pictured above) would mark the end of the terrible twos, but no. Still going and stronger than ever. Sometime I fantasize about 40-ish hours a week daycare, but I really don't want that for him. I'm here, he can be too. I could find a job, but I don't really want him to be a latchkey kid when there's no financial reason we would have to make that happen. I have very fond memories of having a parent to come home to at the end of my school day and I want him to have the same experience. Just gotta power through for a few more years. Fuck...

...then I'll be 40.

Kiddie Kayak

Been building this boat for the last few months. It's a 1/2 scale kayak perfect for Porter that will be an outrigger for my boat when it is done. More than anything it was an exercise in evaluating the hull design for my boat before jumping in. So far I'm pretty pleased with how it came out but I'm not making any final decisions until we drop it into the water. Conveniently enough, the monster and I are headed to the city pool with it in about an hour./

Round Two

Suzanne was looking to ride yesterday and was under the impression that Dungeness-Gold Creek was the place to go. It's been five years since my last visit to the particular trail and once again it totally kicked my fucking ass. Like down the block and around the corner kicked my ass...

Kicking and Screaming

Michele talked Suzanne and Morgan, a couple of very fit PAs we know, into dragging me along into the woods on Sunday. We hit up a section of the Adventure Route that I hadn't been on before starting at Eden Valley Rd and heading west. The ride started with ~500' of climbing right out of the gate through a whole load of switchbacks. I got left behind very quickly. My legs were fucking jello and my sit bones ached, but the ride was amazingly gorgeous with peekaboo views across the Strait to Vancouver Island and a forest moon of Endor on a speeder downhill run through the trees starting around mile 3. Feeling thoroughly worked just before mile 4 I pulled the plug and headed back to the car. Turns out my timing was pretty decent because I had only just loaded my bike and changed my shirt when my companions made their way out of the woods.  All in all it was good clean fun and having someone else around to help motivate my lazy ass is something I've been missing for quite a while now. 

7.5 miles, 1400' of climbing, 1 hour 12 minutes in motion. 

Shaking The Dust Off

A quick ride at Miller to start things going again. My overly sedentary life of late has been taking a toll and I'm hoping I can turn things around this spring.

I Don't Like Cats

Or dogs really, but Jubjub was alright. For the last fifteen years she's kept to herself, didn't like to be fucked with, hated traveling (but didn't freak out), and slept on our heads. Yeah, I liked Jubjub, maybe even loved her a bit (don't tell Michele). She died tonight. In a box. On the couch between Michele and I. She will be missed.

Fuck.

2012 - Year in Review

It's been another year. We bought a house, I worked on it, Porter got a year older and went from not talking to not shutting up (I'm not complaining, that's actually a good thing), we bought a beater truck, Michele continued to work her ass off, I set up the shop and built a handful of skateboards, we took a couple of trips, and had quite a few visitors. A lot happened this year.

This kid sure loves the beach, a visit to Salt Creek on New Years Day 2012 was how we kicked things off.

We traveled to Phoenix for Nana's 60th (my mom), Porter also got to meet Char for the first time on this trip (her husband whom we never met is where Porter got his name).

Many naps were attempted, not all were successful.

Dungeness Spit was a popular family destination.

Then we bought a house. I've left most of the projects out of this post, there have been many.

My brother Pat has come to visit once every couple of months. I always look forward to having him here.

Michele's aunt, uncle and cousin made the trip out from Ohio for about a week. It's not often we get to see Michele's extended family and it was nice to have them here.

Porter got sick once every few months, I often mistook it for him being uncharacteristically cuddly. He's still alive so I must be doing something right.

Almost every time Pat has come up, he's brought Kayla along. That's worked out nicely for me since she's the only person I've been able to con into mowing the lawn for me.

Probably not the best $1200 I've ever spent, but not so bad either. Makes going to the dump a lot easier and as I learned a number of years ago, hauling lumber and plywood sucks real bad in the Element.

Books on shelves. As nomadic as Michele and my life has been the last nine or so years, seeing books on shelves hit me pretty hard, in a good way.

Grandma (Michele's mom) made the trip out in July. Couldn't have picked a better time of year.

The shop has been slowly coming together.

Late September Porter hit two. 

Eddie, Star and Gavin came to visit for a little over three weeks. Many adventures were had.

I made this. I sit at Ikea tables no more.

The Monster does not fear monsters. I'm in a good place with that, it worries my wife.

Bringing it back to bicycles.

What can I say about Thanksgiving that I haven't already said. Most important holiday of the year.

Oh, and pie.

Tree from our own yard this year, and our first real tree since Spokane (I think).

Truck parade in Victoria with Paul and Sean. Easiest night I've ever spent in the same room as the boy. Still not a great night's sleep, but progress.

I think he's getting the true meaning of Christmas, loot.

So long 2012. Bring on the new year!