hoooray school

So I'm blogging as I watch the 3rd lecture in my return the time/money hole known as grad school. I can already tell I am going to have to work harder at getting into the mode of self motivation. Its mostly changing my mindset to realize that I am back in school and must budget time to devote to it. I forget that I need to find an additional couple hours every few days to watch lectures and that when I do.. I'm not done! There is still homework to work on, and now the I am essentially learning alone the only feedback I have that I understand what is being presented is myself. This may sound like an odd statement, but it is very useful to have someone you can sanity check with. The result is that I am spending more time than usual reviewing material trying to make sure I did not miss understand the theory and methods involved.

On unrealated topics, I was in Seattle ealier this month and have some pictures I want to post.. a lot of them. They are not very interesting.. landscapes and close ups of plants and stuff (I figured out why Seattle is called "The Emerald City"). I need to cull the herd so to speak and pick 3 or 4 of my favorites to share. They will come eventually. If you are curious what Seattle is like in early January the answer is very simple.. cold and wet. Coming from Phoenix the dreary weather was actually a refreshing change. Unfortunately, just as I was ready to go back home I did.. to find the exact same weather followed me and has decided to stick around for 2 weeks. Oh well.. such is life.
The storms where interesting.. lost half a tree in the backyard and about 30 shingles, but there have been no leaks up in the crawl space so I think everything will be alright.

Hello 2010

I like 2010. Its only been about 35 hours, but so far it has been a lot of fun. 2010 is also a fun number.. it eludes to patterns and codes. Every time I write it I want to continue the sequence.. 201000-10-20-30. I bet I could start a nice conspiracy theory or end of the world hysteria by using the sequence to pinpoint a date and then randomly correlate some event to it.

Christmas was.. well.. this blog is public so I'm not going into details. It wasn't bad, but a whole day in a small house with 9 people can get a little hectic, especially when 3 of those people only have a combined age of 17(7+6+4) and they recognize you as "Uncle Jungle Gym." On the gift front I once again managed to spoil my wife and I feel very good/proud about that. I have a great shot of her look of shock when she say her new camera. I don't think she will let me post it though.. maybe it will show up on her flickr account though.
I also was finally able to successfully maneuver my wish list into acquiring something very useful for the zombie apocalypse (see previously mentioned plans to start a dooms day theory).
I got a Springfield XD .40 cal. Its is the 4" Tactical version with a ported barrel.
It looks like this, except I have a green grip instead of all black.

I am very happy.

Turn left

On the way home today I decided to turn left. Normally I would turn right, but today that just seemed wrong. Turning left was very nice. It turned into a 20 minute ride up SR 87. It was a very nice70 degrees out, the sun was just setting, and I figured out the cruise control device on my Harley. Life is good.
I also reconfirmed that I need to move my highway pegs. They are definitely set for a shorter rider. BTW.. I no longer worry about the bike. There are still a few more things I need to adjust and tighten up if I was going for a longer ride, but I feel pretty comfortable on the bike now.
I was supposed to go to the gym tonight.. only the third time since football season started (my normal gym days where Monday and Thursday). I feel like my little motorcycle ride was a better use of my time.

I was in DC last week for work for a few days.. I forgot what a sharp wind can do when it is in the 30s. My lips are chapped but my bones where happily chilled. I will be heading up to Seattle in January and spending some time along the coast doing some work. Holler at me if you want anything from Forks. I can't guarantee I will have time to stop there, but it is along my route.

normal ol' update

Its been almost a month since my last post. As I write this I can remember at least 2 instances in the last few weeks where I said "I should post about this" but I can't remember what I was going to post about. Lame.

I've been riding the bike much more frequently. It is pretty entertaining, although I think I would enjoy the rids more if I finally broke down and took my bike into a shop and had them do a full inspection/service. I just don't feel confident in my 2 wheeled mechanics skills to just relax on the bike instead of trying to pay attention to every little detail of its operation trying to find something I missed. "Was that a pop from the engine when I let of the gas? Is that late firing in the cylinder? Should my shift linkage sound like that? Does the suspension feel right or do I need to add some pressure to the back?" I won't take the bike in though.. I will continue to suffer through the onslaught of second guessing myself instead of forking over the $3-400 (or $600 if I take it to the HD dealership).

Kristina and I completed our first "group ride" a week or so ago... it was less than stellar. I am not a great group rider yet. I locked up my tires (think small chirps not a long screech) stopping at a fresh yellow light because I didn't want to split us up. It was the very first light we hit and all we where doing was going to the end of the street to gas up. Not a tactically sound decision on my part.
Later in the ride I jumped out in front of a city bus. There was plenty of room for me.. but not enough room for Kristina. I figured she would pull in behind the bus, go around it, and catch up to me. She missed the window behind the bus because some guy was barreling down on her coming off the freeway off ramp and she was busy watching him. Once again, not a great tactical decision on my part. After that I let Kristina lead but neither of us had a great idea of where we were going (i.e is the Olive Garden on this corner or the next). I love you honey.. but lets not stop in the turning lane for a quick conference. If we pass the place we can always turn around. I don't want to make her sound reckless. Were we stopped was pretty safe since it was right at the end of a divided median so no oncoming traffic could have accidentally hit us (unless they where hopping the curb and driving through some trees). It just didn't feel right to me.

Yesterday was much better. We had another group ride with a friend from work and her sister (both on 1 bike). Since she has a small bike (500cc w/ a passenger) we made her lead so she could set the pace (especially on the freeway). I brought up the rear and generally spent most of the ride keeping people from creeping up on us (why do drivers think that 3 feet is a great distance to follow motorocycles). I only had 1 person try to merge in to me.. he only made it about 2 feet into my lane before he saw me even with his passenger door. I don't blame him though.. I saw where he looking and my wife does look damned good on her bike.