Quick script to remind you to stretch

Late last week, I hurt myself a little bit doing hang clean and jerks.  I over-extended my arm when bringing weight down between reps.  I think it had more to do with limited mobility, the fact that I drive a desk all day long and how I sleep with my arms curled up on my chest.

My coaches said my front rack needed work and I needed more mobility in triceps.  So, at home, I've been working on my front rack and triceps stretches.  But at work, I needed to make sure I did something too.  So, I wrote a quick little script to remind me to stretch every so often, with a pop-up window and an alert sound.

As a prerequisite, other than the normal packages installed in an Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop install, the
vorbis-tools package.

Find your desired alert sound.  You can find many sounds in
/usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/
/usr/share/sounds/gnome/default/alerts/

Create the file, stretch_reminder.sh using your favorite text editor.  Step it up and use vi!

#!/bin/bash

# Alert with sound and popup to remind you to stretch

ogg123 /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready.ogg &

zenity --warning --display=:0.0 --text="It's time to stretch." 

exit 0

Schedule the script in your crontab

$ crontab -e

and then enter the following line
*/30 8-17 * * * /path/to/your/script/stretch_reminder.sh > /dev/null >&1

The crontab entry as written will run every thirty minutes, between 8am and 5pm and won't email you success (or failure) notices each time it runs.

This script has been running all week long for me at work and its been great. I do a few stretches for my forearm, right there in my chair and by the end of the week, I was almost as good as new.  I didn't miss any CrossFit time and I was able to get through my days without pain!

Could I Be A Paid Blogger?

Ahh, the irony.  Just last week (or maybe the week before), I got an email asking if I wanted to blog for Eden's Fantasy, an online adult retailer.  That same week, my wife, whose blog does bring in some income, was asked if she would be willing to review gear for Seattle Backpackers Magazine or had any gear that needed repairing at Rainy Pass Repair, a leading Gore-Tex and gear repair company located in Seattle.
While Heather has a far greater reach online than I do, I think that somehow, we got the marketing demographics all messed up. Sure, there is a place for adult toys in my life, but I'm not sure I'm going to write about it online.  But the outdoors, I'd be super happy to try out new gear and share my experiences.  And when she mentioned gear repair, I was able to jump up and grab my hardshell pants and show her where I had a rip in the cargo pocket and in my seat.
Maybe the outdoor gear reviews were just the Internetz helping combine two of my resolutions, dates with Heather and get outdoors at least once a month. I'm not sure if she's accepted those offers or not, but I think that she should!
I turned down the Eden's Fanstasy blogging opportunity, too. So, I'm still not a paid blogger and rest assured that the toys that get written about here will be geeky or classic toys.

Starting the Paleo 30 Day Challenge

Today, I'm starting the 30 Day Paleo Challenge.  Our CrossFit box, Cascade CrossFit, is challenging its members to eat strict paleo for 30 days.  Well, as I say often during a WOD, "I can do anything for x more minutes," the same thing applies here. I can eat strict paleo for 30 days.
I've been eating pretty clean, paleo/primal for a while now and have made it a new habit.  I have 4 cheats that I've got to figure out what I'm going to during this challenge.

1. Protein shake - After CrossFit, I have a Muscle Milk protein shake. Its convenient, because I put the powder in a bottle the night before and use water from the box. I shake it while I walk out to my car and drink on the way to the park and ride.  I get that post-workout protein and nutrition.  I'm searching the web for some protein shakes I can blend at home before I go. There's going to be a lot of bananas, dates and almond milk in my future.
2. Blueberry Crisp Clif Bars - On the way to CrossFit in the morning, I eat half a Clif bar.  It helps pre-fuel me for the day's WOD.  I'm going to switch to Lara bars for the challenge.
3. Oatmeal - This one is tough. I've been eating oatmeal for breakfast for years.  It helped me reduce my cholesterol and I lost about 10 pounds by just making that switch for breakfast.  Its also convenient, because I don't eat until I get to the office.  I'm going to try Paleo Butternut Squash Porridge and the Morning Glory Muffins I made.  I've made enough that should last me for breakfasts for the week and will take them to work. If anybody has any good breakfast suggestions that are non-egg and easy to take to work or prepare, please leave them in the comments! 
4. Greek yogurt - I like the consistency of the greek yogurt and its been an easy way to round out my breakfast at work.  Since dairy isn't paleo, its out.  I'm hoping with squash and fresh berries and coconut milk that keeps me sated through the morning.

The rest of the meals, I've got covered. Lunch has some leftovers from our pretty paleo dinners. I've got almonds and apples for snacks.  Dinners are at home and paleo.  I think that breakfast has been the hardest thing to switch to paleo.

Wish me luck!

Just a Wednesday dinner

This week, Heather and I worked it out that I would cook dinner on Wednesday and Friday.  About mid-day Wednesday, she called me to say that she was going to make a stop at Fred Meyer, and if I needed anything, which I did.  It was all there in our shared Remember The Milk groceries list, so she said she would get it all too.  I was planning to shop after work, so it was nice that she was able to combine it to her trip.
Except she hardly shops at Fred Meyer at all and had to look all over the store for the things on my list. She told me last night that it took her past all kinds of processed foods, which she found to be really gross, as we've made big changes to the way we eat in our house.  I was grateful that she picked up the things we had on the grocery list - it was a great collaboration.
She did, however, get what I asked for on my list.  I had cut and paste some ingredients right from the recipe and didn't know how expensive they were.  I probably would have downgraded the steak from boneless rib-eye to something a little more affordable, but she went ahead and got it for me.  It was a nice steak and made Wednesday dinner quite nice.

Pan-seared rib-eye steaks with porcini and rosemary rub and roasted acorn squash with pomegranates and roasted pumpkin seeds. Photo by Heather.

Growing up, I hated squash, with a passion.  I think it stems from how the microwave was so popular in the late 70's and 80's.  You can microwave squash and its "done" in about 15 minutes.  Or you can roast it in an oven for about an hour plus time for pre-heating. The time investment is worth it.  I've grown to love roasted butter nut squash, so I decided to branch out and try a recipe from Sunset Magazine.
As we're eating Paleo-ish and I really enjoy cooking and am quite the recipe clipper, I'm always on the lookout for recipes that just happen to also be paleo.  The Roast Squash with Pomegranates, Honey and Roasted Pumpkin seeds had all the right stuff, and Heather had bought some pomegranates at Costco, so I decided to give it a try.  I'd never eaten delicata squash before and unfortunately, my grocery store was out of it.  It might be an earlier winter squash.  But I made it with acorn squash instead and it was great.  In fact, as a testament to how good it was, Kid 2 actually had seconds of the squash!
As Heather and I were talking about the steak she bought (at $10 per pound), she said that she would just season it with salt and pepper and cook it.  But I had a recipe from the Seattle Times for a porcini and rosemary rub for the steak.  Again, this recipe was paleo out of the box and was pretty easy to prepare.  It did require some marination time, but since I was making a later dinner so the kids could get home from swim practice, I had extra time.
The steak is quite simple to prepare. I ground the porcini mushrooms into a powder in our spice grinder (yes, we have a dedicated spice grinder, with a washable tub) and mixed it with finely chopped rosemary.  With a little salt and pepper, it became a rub for the steak. And a tasty, tasty rub it was.  Then, the steaks were pan fried.  We like our meat on the rare side so I did 6 - 8 minutes per side plus some time for resting afterwards.
The steak was a hit and luckily there were leftovers, so Kid 1 and I both had a pretty fancy lunch the next day at school and work!
I'm willing to bet that the rub would work well with a less expensive, marbled cut of steak. As I have enough dried porcini mushrooms to repeat this, I just might try it out.  Or if you have any good suggestions to use porcini mushrooms, leave them in the comments!

Resolutions 2013

It's that time of year when people make New Year's Resolutions. The past few years, I've not made any resolutions. I've realized that its not about setting a goal or objective, but these resolutions are about making a new habit.  Sure, they start with a goal (lose weight, get my finances in order), but whats really important is creating a new habit.

Goals and New Habits for 2013

1. Master Double Unders - Last year I started CrossFit and I couldn't do a single unassisted pull up. I worked on them after working out and after 4 months, I could do 10 unassisted, un-interrupted. And if there are more in a WOD, I can continue, breaking them up into smaller sets.  This year, I'm going to master Double Unders (goal). Most of the time when I get a double under, or maybe 2, I mess up the next one because I'm surprised.  So, I'm going to practice Double Unders 3 times a week (new habit).
2. Stay hydrated (goal).  Because I'm doing working so hard in CrossFit, I need to drink lots of water.  I'm going to drink 3 quarts of water a day (resolution). I've got this pretty well ingrained and I carry a quart water bottle with me all the time.
3. Get my digital life in order (pretty generic goal).  I want to make sure I have good backups of my data and will rely on cloud storage for this.  I do want to make sure I can share my media with the devices within my house. (Not sure where the habits are here - we'll have to see how this one goes).
4. Update my blog regularly (goal). I'm writing about once a month now (it feels less than that) and I'd like to write at least two times a month. I don't feel that I can commit to weekly.
5. Get outside to nature (hiking, snowshoeing, camping, backpacking) (goal) once a month (habit).
6. Eat more fish (goal).  We've started eating paleo (habit to continue) but at least once a week (new habit) I want to eat fish.  Fish are a lean meat too!
7. Schedule monthly (or more frequent) date nights with Heather (habit).  Ironically, we met for coffee last night. What a way to kick of this new habit. 
8. Get our finances in line.  Heather and I need to work on the specifics of this one, because this is one we'll have to take on together.  If I were the King of the Universe, we'd have a budget that we stick to and a plan to pay down our debt.

As I was writing my list of resolutions, I realized that there were some good habits that I started in 2012. As a result I've identified several habits that I want to maintain.

Habits to Maintain

• CrossFit - I currently go 4 days a week (and run at least one of the other days). Its made such a difference in my fitness level and I'm going to continue this.
• Reading
• Continue to eat paleo-ish. Cheat only when its really worth it.  Its related to CrossFit. I'm feel so much better when I'm fueling myself properly.
• Maintain inbox zero - It is the digital and managing all the inputs is crucial.  It doesn't mean I'm going to read every message, but I'm going to rely heavily on filters, Gmail's Priority Inbox, and my to do list (get it out of the inbox and on to the list to do it at the right time).  This goes hand in hand with GTD, which I've blogged about many times already.

What new habits do you want to make in 2013?

DailyMile, I'm moving on

I'm a big believer in collecting data to track performance and for making decisions. I've been doing the same thing with my fitness activities, which up until a few months ago, was primarily running.  I would track my routes, distances and times on DailyMile.

Recently, I started CrossFit and my ideas of fitness have changed from simply distance, rate and time (though its a great basis for motion).  Fitness for me now includes:

1. Cardio-vascular and cardio respiratory endurance 
2. Stamina
3. Strength
4. Flexibility
5. Power 
6. Speed 
7. Coordination
8. Agility 
9. Balance
10. Accuracy

DailyMile is a great site, but it can't track these.  I've started Olympic lifting and kettle bell work and my progress includes increasing the weight on these exercises.  In just a few months, I've gone from not being able to do a pull-up on my own to where I can do 5 pull-ups after a WOD!

It's not that Daily Mile is a bad site, but I want to track more than just distance, rate and time.  Its a great site if you are a runner, walker, rower, biker - any of those distance and time kind of sports.  DM is great, I found the community quite motivating to keep me running regularly.

As a CrossFitter, I need to track more than that.  I've started tracking my performance and improvement with Beyond The WhiteBoard.  I have a community of CrossFitters at my gym, Cascade CrossFit and the people who come to the 6am session.

On BTW, I can not only track my activities, but also my hydration, sleep and nutrition.  It doesn't have the same social component as DM, but I can still push my updates to Twitter. 

I'm not walking away entirely from DM, I still run 2 days a week, so I'll double post those (and hopefully not push them to Twitter) and when we do some distance based WOD, I'll probably post those too.

DailyMile has been great, but its time for me to move on.

Scotch Eggs - they can be breakfast food

Recently, we've been changing our diet to one with a more paleo-ish leaning.  While it's a change to dump the pasta, beans, rice, its not that big of a deal. Sure, I cheat and still eat oatmeal, but instead of filler carbs, I've got to eat filler vegetables.  We've discovered kale and I think its great and am a little bummed if we don't eat kale at least once a week.  But that's not the topic I want to write about today.

I've been surfing the web checking out paleo recipe sites and have seen mention of Scotch Eggs. Evidently, they're a common treat at UK convenience stores and picnic fare. I've never seen them in the US, but when you wrap things in meat, they can only get better.  As they're supposed to be breaded and deep-fried, I had to change a few things to make them paleo friendly.

Last night, I hard boiled the eggs and made my sausage mixture. It took a while to wrap the eggs in the sausage and don't forget, they need to be peeled first.  The scotch eggs need to refrigerate for at least an hour, but I let them chill overnight.

Scotch eggs waiting to chill - picture by Heather

This is the recipe I started from, but didn't want to use any grains.  As its a baked recipe, I could avoid some of the additional fats.  I'd seen fried cauliflower used as a substitute for bread crumbs, so I decided I'd give that a try as well as finely chopped almonds as the "breading."

I took a head of cauliflower and chopped it finely with the food processor. In a pan with butter and olive oil (yes, I was channeling Ree Drummond here), I fried up the cauliflower crumbs. They browned nicely and had a good crispness.

The three on the right side are with fried cauliflower, the two in the back with almond crumbs and the white ones on the left are with raw cauliflower. I decided to try that and see how they'd brown in the oven.

After 20+ minutes of baking (and they might have been a little red on the inside), I had a tray of Scotch Eggs.

They were pretty big and almost a meal in itself.  We ate them warm for breakfast and when the kids came home from swim practice, they polished the remaining 4 off!

There went my lunch plans for Monday. Scotch Eggs seem like a good paleo lunch and portable food.

I made my own sausage mixture of ground pork and turkey and spices (from the recipe) but I think that this could be made with chorizo or with some kind of chopped up bacon "sausage."  I'm going to have to check out what sausages might be available that I could use for a different flavoring outer shell.

Forging Elite Fitness - I am a Crossfitter

I have started CrossFit. At the beginning of July, my wife and I went through Cascade Crossfit's fundamentals course and though it smoked me and I was sore after every session, I wanted to come back for more.  So after a vacation in New York City, I signed up.  And in order to make sure I get to work on time, I attend the 6am session!

I really like CrossFit. The idea of functional fitness really attractive, but the old soldier in me finds it rather motivating.  First thing in the morning, pushing your self with a team of supportive people, that just cannot be beat.

Some Things I Really Like

1. Every day is different. This won't get boring, but I'll get stronger. The coaches will be able to find a set of muscles and pair it with some exercises that will make it stronger.
2. I find CrossFit exercises incredibly motivating.  Some of them remind me of the "punishments" my Platoon Sergeant's would meet out on my soldiers when they messed up. Now, I pay someone to tell me to do them. What a great place!
3. Just because I've lead a fairly sedentary life for the last 12 years, doesn't mean I can't do CrossFit. Every workout can be modified - I can't do hand stand push-ups, but by putting my feet up on a block and pushing vertically, I can work the same muscles with a lesser load.  Someday I'll do handstand pushups, someday.
4. There is a core of 6 AM'ers who come every day there is a session. When there is a group of people expecting me to be there, it helps cement the commitment.  It's like being part of a team.
5. With the paleo-ish changes we are making to our diet, I'm eating better with far more vegetables taking the place of empty carbs and with all this exercise, I'm drinking much more water than I usually would.  I've even gone as far as to carry a 1 liter bottle in my messenger bag with me all the time and have even been known to refill it from my water glass at a restaurant.
6. After going for 5 sessions, I'm already more fit.

A Few Things I Don't Like

1. I drink less coffee.  I really enjoy the taste of coffee and when I was working from home, I'd easily have 8 shots of espresso in a day.  Now, because I go straight to work from CrossFit, I don't get to enjoy my espresso machine as often.  And when I get to work, I don't drink coffee because I so need to rehydrate with water!
2. It changes the way I do my morning chores.  I've got to make sure the dishwasher is emptied and Heather's coffee maker is preppedbefore I go to bed, with a lunch made (that I all too often forget) and some clothes selected for work the next day.
3. I don't see my family as much in the morning.  Being a 6 AM'er, I'm out of the house by 5:35am, CrossFit and then straight to my van pool.

I really enjoy CrossFit and look forward to the next session.  With the kids' swimming starting up next month, I'm going to have to make some tweaks to get it all in, maybe some evening sessions, but none of it is insurmountable.

If you find this kind of stuff motivating, you should check out CrossFit, too.  You can find CrossFit all over or if you're close to Issaquah, check out Cascasde Crossfit. And if you're on DailyMile, you can follow my workouts there too!

Cooking without Heather

If you read my wife's blog or follow her on Twitter, you've probably read that we're making some changes to our diet.  As she puts it we're eating Paleo-ish. Our house has no bread in it and our consumption of 2 gallons of milk every 3 days has been replaced with almond and/or coconut milk. Since we're not using grains as filler, we've been eating many more vegetables to take their place.

It was a big change in our diet and though I've not totally removed grains (I still eat my oatmeal for breakfast and have had a few slices of pizza and some beer), I do feel just as good if not better.  And my recent cholesterol test has shown significant improvement as well.

But a few weeks ago, my wife went on a trip to Harley-Davidson's corporate headquarters with other women bloggers.

As you know, I enjoy cooking, so I planned out our meals. That was important considering I still had to work and the kids had summer league swim meets each night.  But I tried to stay true to the paleo-ish diet we were taking on.

Day 1

Cumin Crusted Salmon Summer Salad (recipe on AllRecipes.com) with Apricot Brulee from Health-Bent

I found the recipe for the salmon years ago in a newspaper insert and have made it several times. Its a nice combination of salmon and salad. The citrus dressing gives the meal a light, bright summery taste.  To make this all the more vegetable-y, I added a diced red pepper to it.  It was fast to make, in fact, I prepared it in two batches. The first was for Kid3 and me, who ate earlier, followed by Kids 1 and 2 who were at swim practice and got home later.

The brulee was fun to make because I got to use my kitchen torch (in fact, that's a theme that carried through from the original poster's blog as well).  What also made it neat was that I was able to use some of Heather's organic, alternative sweeteners, in this case, coconut sugar.

Coconut sugar is much like brown sugar, though not as moist and not quite as sweet.  I'm not sure of any other nutritional differences from regular (likely beet) sugar...

Day 2

Smoked Tri-Tip with a Coffee-Spice rub and Chipotle Coleslaw from Sunset Magazine

The weather was great and we were going to have a picnic dinner at the swim meet that night, so I decided to smoke tri-tip.  I had the time, because I was working from home while Heather was travelling, but I didn't pay enough attention to the tri-tip. I followed the recipe and smoked them for 2 hours, but that was too much for the tri-tip steaks. I think the recipe was intending larger tri-tips (or a more attentive cook).

When they came out, they were well done, but luckily not overly dry.  At the last minute, I made some Chipotle Guacamole to help them slide down.  Nice and smokey and the coffee flavor was great to get in the evening as opposed to just the morning with my espresso.

Day 3

Day 3 was a busy day. Not only was there work, the ferrying to activities and the swim meet, but Heather was returning home this afternoon.  It was Kid3's turn for a swim meet, but we just weren't going to be able to be home to make a healthy lunch.

I asked Kid1 what Mom would do and he suggested some healthy options (subtracting the mayo and sauces) for lunch at Burger King.  Surprisingly, BK had added some yummy (and bordering on not bad for you) menu choices of salads and sweet potato fries.  It kept me in the paleo-ish arena and I wish I was indulgent enough for the bacon sundae.  They also had wifi which was great for getting some work done while I was out.

After picking Heather up, I packaged dinner so we could eat at the swim meet. We got to the swim meet for his last event but didn't eat there. Keeping to the paleo-ish diet, we had

1. More smoked tri-tip
2. Left over Chipotle Coleslaw
3. A Syrian roasted red pepper vegetable dip
4. Watermelon Salad with Vidalia-Onion Vinaigrette 

Not as much a hit, but I got credit for lots of vegetables, especially as veggies served as the dip transport mechanism.  In my house, I'm the only one who really likes savory watermelon salads. Kid2 will eat them, because she loves anything that has to do with watermelon, but that salad wasn't well accepted. Nor was the dip.

Oh, well, you win some, you lose some.

A Recent Business Trip

I tried to keep up the good diet on a recent business trip. Instead of going to the Waffle House or one of several fried chicken restaurants, I shopped at Publix market.  I think I was able to get healthier options than at a restaurant at about the same or less than I would have paid eating out.  I wonder how often expense reports have grocery store receipts submitted with them!

Lesson's learned Backpacking

Many people will wander the Earth to find themselves, go through some rite of passage. A little over a month ago, my son and I went backpacking on the Taylor River, and I learned a few things.

• Some things are better at re-energizing a kid than others. Grabbing a quick snack, stopping for lunch, going to the bathroom and even changing his socks, were far more motivating than sitting down and taking a break. Maybe its the dread of putting the pack back on when you're resting, but some stops put a bigger spring in his step than others. 
• Don't doubt your kids' cababilities. They can probably go further than you give them credit for. My 10 year old son carried a 28 pound backpack for 6 miles on Day 1 and 11 miles on Day 2 of our trip. And I didn't cut him much slack - he carried his stuff as well as some of our common gear. While we did eat the food he was carrying first, he still carried the tent poles and the rain fly (both pretty important in the state of Washington). And on top of all that he brought a full set of clean clothes for day 2 which is an oddity when we're at home with his full closet. 
• We all know already that kids love sticks, often to parents' chagrin. Along the way, Kid3 picked up a "sharp stick" that became one of the most important pieces of "gear" my kid carried. He used it when scrambling up steep slopes, it was a pointer for the map. You can even see it in his hand in the picture below. We even turned around a short distance to go get it when it was left behind. Once. The final time it was lost, we realized it after about 15 minutes of walking. But it wasn't that traumatic of a loss. 

• I did try to make this a learning exercise for Kid3 and teach him how to live in the outdoors. As we were hiking, I shared with him how to not attract animals to our campsite and how hanging a bear bag is a great activity. Usually, hanging a bear bag takes many attempts, so it serves as after dinner entertainment and to warm you up before you go to bed. Not so with my football playing son. On the third throw, he had it over the branch. And when we needed to lower it to get our toothbrushes, he just decided to re-hang it with similar ease. Take football players backpacking with you. 
• You don't need as much stuff as you think. On this trip I carried as much weight as I do on a day hike (I pack heavy) and I had more food, parts of a tent and a sleeping bag. I didn't carry as many backup pieces of clothing and relied on my water filter quite a bit. On a typical day hike, I'll carry 3 - 4 liters of water, but this trip, we each carried 1 liter and an empty water bottle. We did refill several times during the trip, but that's easy as water is so plentiful in the Pacific Northwest. 
• This was the first trip I went on with my new backpack, the REI Mars. My daypack is pretty simple and is about 13 years old. There have been quite a lot of improvements in backpacks, in particular the now common stretchy mesh pockets on the side of the packs. They're perfect for holding water bottles and easy to get the water bottle while walking. I stayed so much more hydrated on this trip than other trips. 
• I really love being outdoors, rain or shine. We were lucky that Day 1 was a great day - not too hot, but still sunny. On Day 2, the clouds never quite cleared and by 10AM it was starting to sprinkle on us. We were generating enough body heat hiking that we didn't stop to put any wet weather gear on for several hours The rain didn't matter, it was just so great to be in the outdoors. 

It's good to just get out and walk around.

Child Safety, mobile phones and T-Mobile

Earlier this week, I went to an event a the downtown Seattle T-Mobile store, hosted by Jenny, and learned about how T-Mobile uses their technology to help parents keep their children safe. It's especially pertinent because school is wrapping up for my kids. With no school, I'm not always guaranteed that on Monday at 9:30 AM they'll be at school. They now have the time to go other places and given that they're older (the oldest is learning to drive), they have more ability to go more places.

There was no tear gas at this party and still Carly was not there. Hey, I can hope right? But I did get to meet lots of other cool bloggers, some of them for the first time in real life and enjoy some nice snacks, including cupcakes!

After a long day at work, my phone died and there were no more photos for me.

T-Moble has several cool apps for keeping your kid, their phone and their account safe.  They demo'd a Google Latitude like FamilyWhere that works for non-smart (dumb ole) phones.

They also had a really slick web based tool  to limit account usage, using a slider bar to allocate minute, messages to the different phones on your families account. You can even use it to provide basic filtering (kid, teen, adult) to the phone's internet access.

And unlike my phone provider, these were services on the whole families account and most were free!

I rely heavily on similar third party tools, not those provided by my carrier.  This allows me to maintain the functionality provided by the tool and switch providers, which I've done in order to get the phone I want.


Like many good social media events, there were swag bags and prizes. My house now has more screaming, flying monkeys!  Kid3 won a raffle prize, a cupcake making kit, pizza gift card and ToysRUs gift card (a good prize for us) and did a happy dance. I'll be doing a happy dance when he makes us cupcakes!

All in all, Jenny threw a good party and I learned some about T-Mobile! A good night was had by all, and my carrier has some competition.

Taylor River Backpacking

Last weekend, Kid 3 and I went backpacking up the the Taylor River, near the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River. It was a great weekend and we saw great sights and had a good time together. I'm glad that he's interested in it and I can foster a love for the outdoors.

Plus, backpacking is a good fitness activity. He carried a 20 pound pack, mine was 38 pounds and we walked 17.3 miles!  It was an excellent activity because he's trying to make a weight cut off for tackle football (we don't want him squashed by middle schoolers).

Trip planning was kind of tough - I really wanted to go to an alpine lake and I was familiar with some places in Snoqualmie Pass, but all these were above 3000' and there was still snow there. I wanted this trip to be a good experience for Kid3, so I wanted to not camp in the snow. I called the Forest Service and they recommended the Middle Forks area.

Surprisingly, I did not have a map of this area, it was the one local map sheet I didn't have. The area is covered in lakes and the elevation was below the snow level and its less than 30 miles from my home!  Call your Forest Rangers, they really know the area and can give all kinds of suggestions.  Aside from actually going on this trip, calling the Ranger was the best thing I did.

Saturday morning, we left the house at 8:30 on the way to the trail head.  Though it was close, the last 12 miles were on one of the worst roads I'd been on in a long time. The pot holes were easily 4 to 6 inches deep and required threading your way through them. I spent a lot of time driving on the wrong side of the road, but that was where the road was the best! And to further complicate matters, I was driving my MINI, which isn't known for its ground clearance.  But, I never bottomed out once. Nor did I ever get out of first gear, either.

Kid3 and I shouldered our pack almost at the trail head as the signs were a little misleading.  The road is closed at the trail head, but the signs announcing it make is seem like its right where the signs are.  It was only an extra quarter mile, so it wasn't a big deal.

We started crossing the Taylor River bridge and the gentle uphill, so slight we barely noticed it, hike into the woods.  We took our time and I showed Kid3 how to read the map and terrain associate using the river. We missed the trail to Marten Lake, but we were headed to Lipsy Lake and Otter Falls, thinking we'd make camp there.

We ran into a few other day hikers and they were seemed excited that we were going to do a father-son overnight.  In fact, we ran into one of my co-workers, his wife and dogs and we hiked with them for a while.  Some other hikers took our picture at Marten Creek Bridge (which was good, because I'm terrible at taking self photos, but I did have my mini tripod).

We hiked on to Lipsy Lake and did find the cut off at about 3.5 miles. There is a hard to find sign (did not see this), but we could hear the falls and someone had marked the area with some mylar balloons.  Its a short, uphill (about 400') cross country movement, but you can't get lost.  Just go uphill towards the sound of the water.   As I walked up, I started to see what I thought was the normal gray Washington sky. I could hear lots of rushing water, but I had no idea where it was and knew that I wasn't that much higher above the lake.  As the trees thinned and opened up above the lake, the gray I was seeing was a gigantic exposed granite slope with the water flowing down it. It was just beautiful.

Can you imagine otters sliding down this? Its like a giant slip and slide.  Look closely on the left, there is a group of 3 or 4 people, so you can get an idea of the scale.  It's easy to get to, so we decided that we'd have to return here with the rest of our family. Maybe they wouldn't stay overnight, but we had to share this with them.

We were thinking we'd make camp at Lipsy Lake, but decided to push on a little further, to check out Big Creek Falls.  The forest on the far side of Lipsy Lake is pretty dense and the terrain is pretty steep, so there weren't many good places for a tent. Plus, the lake was crowded! This weekend was a beautiful one and so there were lots of day hikers and dogs swimming in the lake. Sure I had a water filter, but I didn't want to test it on the stirred up silt of the lake.

We started on the 2 miles to Big Creek Falls and I was starting to scope out camping spots.  The Taylor River starts to pull away from the trail and the area between is a little flatter, so I was able to find a few spots that we could camp at.  I saw one and decided that it was the spot and unbeknownst to me, Kid3 made a mark in the trail so that we could find it again. It turned out to be useful and was a good landmark even on our return trip.

Big Creek Falls is less of a water fall than Otter Falls, and more of fast water crashing over rocks under neath a cement bridge, wide enough for large trucks. It was a strange place to find this type of a bridge, 5   miles in.  Evidently its left overs from a previous day, when there were ambitious plans to develop the area.

We set up our tent with a nice view of the creek right out the door, refilled our water and enjoyed a nice snack of cheese and crackers.  After picking our way across the creek, we tried to get down to the Taylor River itself. It turns out, our exploration found ourselves in a network of streams and some rather dense foliage, so it wasn't as simple as "keep Big Creek on our right side" to get back and find camp. We explored and climbed over fallen trees and under thorny branches, but never made it to the river.  We were exploring a little light, so we turned back.

We played a few games of chess, both of which I lost and then got started on dinner.  Dinner was dehydrated chicken pasta alfredo and green beans, both of which were surprisingly good.  I think that food tastes better in the out doors.

Kid3 was getting excited about getting into the tent, so before we did that, we hung our food and other good smelling things in a bear bag.  Usually, hanging a bear bag is an activity that will 1) kill some time, 2) provide some entertainment and 3) if you're cold, warm you up.  Football is paying off, Kid3 threw the cord and carabiner over the branch in just 3 tries. It was quick and easy. And in fact, instead of lowering the bear bag to put our toothbrushes in it later than night, we just pulled it down and he threw it back up there.

We got settled in the tent, a little early, so we played some more chess and planned out our next day.  We had missed the trail to Marten Lake and we thought that we might try to find that on the way out, so I plotted its location in my GPS.  We also thought about going to Lake Snoqualmie and Kid3 came up with a plan that we'd get up at 2 AM and start on the trail. Early to bed, early to rise!

The sun was quickly setting, but it was still light outside and he asked me, "is the tent bright because its white or that there is still sunlight outside."  A few hours later, when one of our rolling around woke us up, it was totally dark in the tent, "I can't even see with my eyes open." It was a new moon that night, so there was no illumination other than the stars.

I took advantage of this trip to teach Kid3 LNT principles (he carried out his own bio-waste), some map reading and terrain association, how to cross streams safely, among other things.  We both went to the "bathroom" before we went to sleep and refilled our water bottles so we'd have fresh water in the morning.  We kept our flashlight and headlamp in the little pockets of the tent and made sure that our sleeping bags weren't brushing the wall of the tent, to avoid getting wet from condensation.

But with all my expertise, I was the one who had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom again (I guess I was keeping well hydrated).  Even with my headlamp, the fact that I wasn't wearing my contacts made it rather hard to see.  But I made it to our designated spot and back to the tent, with out tripping or getting too cold.  I did wake Kid3 up to let him know I was going out, but he didn't wake up when I came back in!

We woke up the next morning, at about 6:30 because of the sunlight.  We made our breakfast skillet and started to pack up. By 8:15, we were on the trail, loaded packs and a spring in our step. Because we got an early start, we decided that we'd try for Lake Snoqualmie.

I knew that we'd have to add about 1800' in elevation in about 2 miles; a little steep (and much steeper than we'd done the previous day). I knew that we'd have to turn around by noon to ensure we got back home in time to make sure my wife didn't worrry about us.  As we went up and up, we came across a pretty large, fast moving stream. This stream wasn't on the map (the latest revision is 10 years old), nor were the switch backs that went up to avoid the stream.  Our movement started to slow, because of the elevation gain and the increased number of blowdowns across the trail.

We were still keeping a good pace, considering the trail conditions and our load, but it became apparent that we wouldn't make it to Lake Snoqualmie.  In a lightly sprinkling rain, we turned around and headed back down the trail, after going almost 2 miles up the trail.  We talked about how we could get to Lake Snoqualmie in a three day trip (or as I learned later, its a shorter approach from the Skykomish side).

We did stop for buffalo chicken wraps for lunch, to change into dry socks, but on the way out, we covered 11 miles! I was impressed by Kid3's endurance and we talked about what we could do for our next trip and that he needed some real boots, with better tread, support and water resistance than the shoes he was wearing.

He had fun and seemed to be interested in going again! I had a great time on the trip and look forward to backpacking with him again.  We'll get to Lake Snoqualmie one of these days.

You can see more of the photos from our trip on Flickr.

Trail Information: Otter and Big Creek Falls

Red Eye Flights are great and stink at the same time

I've done some work related travel to the Mid-West recently. My trips start from Seattle and end in smaller towns, not the big hubs like Atlanta or Chicago, so I'm destined to have a layover and a connecting flight.  Red eye flights have some advantages, but they also come with some disadvantages.

The Good

1. Security lines are shorter at the airport
2. You can sleep your way across the country (you'd be asleep anyways at home)
3. You miss less time with your family.
4. It doesn't matter the quality of your hotel bed, you'll be so tired you'll sleep anywhere.
5. If you're a frequent flyer (which I'm not), you're more likely to get upgraded.
6. Sunrise viewed from a plane is beautiful.
7. Because you spend one night on the plane, you need to bring fewer clothes and save on a hotel bill.
8. Good reason to expense a non-stop flow of coffee drinks.

The Bad

1. Its really hard to sleep on a plane. This can mitigate the benefit of #2 above
2. By the end of the day at your destination, you're wiped out.
3. When you show up at work in the morning, people expect you to be rested, which you are not.
4. Makes for some long days.
5. You miss out on the snacks and drinks because you're asleep.
6. Once you get home, not only do you have to catch up on the home things you missed, but sleep too.

What do you think - red eye or not?

Easter (was a week ago)

Easter was a week ago and I'm finally blogging about it.

Most of the time, when planning a celebratory meal, my planning process is like this: "Oh, that sounds good, I'll make that." And I repeat that. Several times.  At the end of the meal, we're all stuffed and have tons of leftovers.  And then I start mentally calculating how many sticks of butter or dozens of eggs or cups of cream were in that meal.

This year, I attempted to put some sanity in the Easter brunch.  A few days before Easter I sent my menu ideas to my family and asked if there was anything else that they wanted.  In my efforts to simplify, I replaced Eggs Benedict with just poached eggs.  That was my big simplification.

But the emails started to come in (actually, I don't think I've ever been on an email thread with my wife and kids that had as much discussion). Restoring Eggs Benedict was a common theme, which evidently even boiled over to IRL discussions between my wife and kids during carpools.  I did forget a few important things, strawberries and shrimp cocktail and my wife has to have her breakfast sausage.  So, I added those items and got confirmation from our oldest son that he'd make cinnamon rolls.  It was going to be a good one.

Even our 10 year old got into it.  Upon hearing that our oldest was going to make cinnamon rolls, he asked if he could make something. I tasked him with chocolate fondue.

If you follow my wife on Twitter or Instagram, you've probably already seen some of the pictures. For those that haven't, start drooling.

@unitedstatesofmotherhood on Instagram

I had attempted to smoke bacon the day before, after letting my pork belly cure for a week.  I was trying to cold smoke it, but my smoker does not make much smoke at less than 150 degrees. So I ended up neither cold smoking or hot smoking my pork belly and it really came out more like salt cured ham.  While it was a failure, I'll be trying that one again, but hot smoking it.  I really want to be able to say I've made my own bacon.

We barely made a dent in the fruit salad and didn't even cut a slice of the blueberry coffee cake. So, after letting lunch settle, we went for a hike to Poo Poo Point.

Sunset on flickr

The views was quite beautiful and we walked down after sunset, needing headlamps for the last 45 minutes or so. 

All in all, it was a very enjoyable Easter day.

My own brand of awesome

My friend Whit is going to get to do something pretty awesome: interview the cast of the Avengers. But even more awesome, he's going to get to interview Scarlett Johansson, who plays the Black Widow in the movie. But she's Scarlett Johansson in real life. And he'll get to ask her questions and talk to her. I bet if it were me, I'd say something to the effect of "Buh, uhm, yeah, well."

Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, image courtesy Popoholic www.popoholic.com

So, I'm making my own brand of awesome.

A few weeks ago my wife said that we shouldn't eat bacon and deli meat because of the nitrites (or nitrates, I don't know which - don't talk bad about bacon).  Respecting my wife, I took that to heart and considered it. And decided to make my own.

Two weekends ago, I brined nice big turkey breast and then mesquite smoked it.  I sliced it as thin as I could, to make my own deli meat. Its a little thicker than I'd like it to me, but it has a nice smoked flavor and isn't dried out.  It ended up even costing less than deli counter meat, working out to about $6 per pound after I cut it off the bones.

This weekend, I'm taking it one step further. I left work early on Friday so that I could make it to my local butcher, Fischer's Meats and buy an uncured pork belly.  Yes, I'm going to cure and smoke my own bacon. Try that on for size, Scarlett and Whit!

It will take several days, almost a week, for the pork belly to cure.  I'm salt curing it with a little brown sugar and rubbed sage (and no nitrates). Next weekend, I'll smoke it, slowly with hickory.

Don't you like to rub your belly?

Can you see the awesomeness?

I'll keep you posted on how it develops.

Whit, you should ask Scarlett if she likes bacon.

And I must send out thanks to my neighbor JH, who gave me a jump start when my battery was dead Friday when I left work early to get to the butcher before it closed.  He drove to the park and ride where my car was, jump started my battery and I made it to the butcher with less than 10 minutes to spare.

Conspiracy Theories (or My Kids Watch Too Much TV)

Early this morning, as we're driving along a dark rural road, a cop waved us to a stop. His car was blocking the road, lights flashing, flares spread in the road. We could see some lights and some activity on the hill, but nothing in particular.

I rolled down my window as he approached. "Do you know how to get around," he asked?

I asked how far was the road closed and confirmed I knew how to get by.

As we drove away my daughter said, "He didn't tell us why the road was closed."

"Maybe there was a plane crash," my son suggested. We had been watching The Event on Hulu last week.

"Maybe there was a pack of rabid deer," my daughter said.

We'll never know. By the time we returned from swim practice, the road was open and there were no debris, tree limbs or even evidence of flares. Their cleaners made it all disappear.

If I should disappear too, you'll know I was on to something.  Or its just another 4 month gap between posts.

Tear Gas, Holiday Shopping and the T-Mobile Girl

Two Tuesdays ago, a priest, a pregnant teen and an old lady all get pepper sprayed. Sounds like the start of a bad joke, doesn't it. Well, though its mostly true (some of the initial headlines included a priest, but I can't find it now), I wasn't there. I was braving the crowds, cops and chemical agents to go see Carly Foukes.  If you don't recognize the name, maybe the picture will help.

If the pink and white dress doesn't help, she's the T-Mobile girl. T-Mobile and Kristin from Our Ordinary Life was hosting bloggers at a Holiday Tips and Tricks event at the downtown Seattle store.

Unfortunately, Carly must not know how to avoid tear gas exposure, as she wasn't there. And she's probably not as hot with streams of mucus running from her cute little nose, crying and gasping for air through those red lips.

While nibbling on snacks from a veggie tray, I learned about some of the mobile hot spot devices that T-Mobile sells and some great tips when purchasing a new phone or carrier.

• What does my rate plan cover?
• What kind of speeds/data am I getting?
• How much will my monthly payments be and/or other charges?
• What’s the exchange/return policy?
• Is my/my recipient’s home and workplace covered by your network?
• What are roaming charges?
• What are your warranty/insurance policies

There were some fun activities, it wasn't just all about tips.  It was a good thing I paid attention, because I did pretty well in the quiz and got a few HTC coupons.  T-Mobile has increased smart phone users 40% not 60% (I used my family as an example, our usage increased 60% over the last year, so I guess we're not normal).

Another Android user and I went head to head against two iPhone users on a MyTouch phone.  The iPhone users did pretty well with the T-Mobile customized Android version, the Android users prevailed, way to go Tara (I couldn't remember my Facebook password which I had changed the day before).  But really, you can switch easily from iPhone to Android.

My sexy wife, Heather, won a shiny new Android phone. I don't think she'll switch to it (we're locked into AT&T) and until there is an Android Instagram app, she's not interested in switching. And as long as she keeps on taking pictures of her cool shoes, I'm happy that she's got Instagram, too!

Though the likelihood of me switching to T-Mobile is low, it was a fun event. It was good to catch up with Carol and meet The Happy Girl. Even if Carly wasn't there.

Though I didn't get compensated, I did get a bag of swag. I have a flying, squealing, slingshot T-Mobile monkey now!

A great weekend

Its been quite awhile since I've last posted but this was a great weekend that I should share about. And for those of you who follow my wife on Twitter, there was no Sir Mix A Lot in my life this weekend.

It started out like just about any other weekend, waking at 4:45 AM to take the kids to swim practice. But kid 1 went to watch the Girls State Swim Meet, so he didn't need a ride back afterwards.  Kid 2 and I stopped at a ski swap and after we checked it out, we went back with Heather and Kid 3, who had been at home.

We got some snow pants for kid 2 (yes, the one who had been there with me, but I'm no good for clothing selection, evidently).

Kid 2 got her ears pierced twice more in each ear (read: 4 more holes in her head) and contrary to how it was when they were first pierced, no tears.

After that we hung out and got lunch at a sushi place and then did some more clothes shopping for kid 2. It really was a lot of clothes shopping, but it was great to be out with a part of my family.

After hanging out at the library (where I read back issues of Backpacker magazine), we linked up with Kid 1 and got dinner at La Costa, the Mexican restaurant in Issaquah.

For some reason (kids these days) moccasins are popular, worn with sweat pants, both of which we shopped for for Kid1.

We probably spent too much money, but I knew what Sunday held. Free cupcakes and a Williams-Sonoma techniques class (Thanksgiving side dishes).

After explaining to Kid3 all of the things we'd have to eat today, we set out into the world. After some good side dishes, the rest of the family caught up with us and we went to Trophy Cupcakes for a Google Places party. For the low price of writing a few reviews on some Chromebooks, we got cupcakes and t-shirts, Google Places tattoos and pens. It was yummy and filling.

On the way out, Heather saw the Skillet truck and we made a 3 point turn (u-turns are not legal in Washington) and got chicken and waffles. With five of us, we could try almost all the different topping options. And boy, was it good!

I can't recall the last time I had tbat much good food all in one day!

When I got home, I got the bug to cook myself. So, dinner was biscuits and gravy, bruschetta, and Brussels sprouts with pancetta. None of these things go together but they were all individually very good. Weird combination but good.

All in all, a busy weekend but one that we did a lot of stuff in. It was really nice to be able to spend some time with my family, relaxing and having fun!

I really hate plumbing, but I don't have a leaky faucet anymore

For a while (I will not say how long, to not incriminate myself) our backyard hose faucet has been leaking.  Not dripping but leaking.  I've replaced the gaskets inside of it, but last night, I decided that I should replace the hose bib.

I did my research online. I found videos on how to replace them, articles on how to troubleshoot whats wrong with them. I even found the manufacturer's website of my very own  frost free hose bib. I took a trip to Home Depot to see what they looked like and what type of replacements they had.

This was supposed to be a simple, unscrew the hose bib and screw a new one on, exercise.  If it were that, do you think I'd be blogging about it?

Thus prepared, at about 4pm on Saturday afternoon, I shut the water off, affixed a wrench to my faucet and gave it a turn. It turned alright, but it wasn't unscrewing. Someplace, inside the wall one pipe was turning inside another.  Not exactly what I wanted.

I checked with one of my rather handy neighbors, Dave, and he indicated that he had not done any work on that particular faucet, but warned me about the CPVC piping our builder used and how its starting to get brittle.

At this point, I was starting to feel chicken and ready to call a plumber.  My wife convinced me that they would start by cutting a hole in the wall and that I should do that too (which was also Dave's recommendation).  I hemmed and hawed for a while, because I wasn't sure what I'd find on the other side of the wall board. Underneath the kitchen sink. Behind a mess of supply pipes for the sink and an electrical outlet.  My super handy wife remembered that we we had a set of architectural drawings of the house (why, I do not know) and she pulled them out and we pored over them, and then I started cutting.

With my luck, I cut a hole that was almost centered on a 2x4 in the wall.  While that will make it easy to replace that piece of wallboard, it made it really hard to get my arm through there, but I did it.  And I found the male fitting that the hose bib was connected to.  I held it steady while Heather "lefty looseied" it outside, until there was a snap.  And the faucet was off.  With a small, torsional sheared portion of CPVC pipe.  However, the female end of the faucet was too big to fit through the hole in the siding, so we were not really better off.

It came to me that the old faucet was garbage anyways, so I cut it in half.  Then I could see the problem.  The builder's plumber (insert all kinds of curse words here), used a plumbing cement to secure the threaded fixture.  No wonder it wouldn't budge.  And they weren't supposed to do that, either.

With some tool assistance from Dave and his neighbor I started to couple a fresh end to my broken pipe.  I'd done PVC work before, but outside irrigation, where you can be a little sloppy. The standards are higher when you're inside your house.  All was good and we affixed the new faucet to the threaded end.  This was a challenge in itself, relaying messages through a child, coupled with the fact that it was really hard to screw it on.  [To those experienced with plumbing, do you see the warning signs of cross-threading? I wasn't that experienced, then.]

We turned on the water, which resulted in me frantically telling Heather to turn it off, when I discovered the leak, spraying water inside the wall.  She responded that she didn't know how. I don't think I got my 6'2" frame out of the kitchen cabinet that quickly any other time...

We re-tightened things and still there was a leak.  We tried loosening it and there was a cracking sound.  No broken pipe this time, but a sloppy glue job (remember what I said about irrigation) failed and the male end broke free of my rebuilt pipe.  It was late and I was getting tired and we're not really any closer to having the water fixed.

Heather convinced me to call it a night, but I cut a larger hole in the wall and could see evidence that the faucet was cross-threaded. Which also explained why it wasn't perpendicular to the wall, either when we tightened it once before.

So, all night long, I'm visualizing how I'm going to fix it in the morning.  Needless to say, I didn't sleep well. Plumbing doesn't make for sweet dreams. I really needed the water back on, because I needed to wash clothes for my first day at my new job!

Home Depot opened at 7 am and with a little assistance from Heather (I did wake her up), we got the cross-threaded end off and I went to buy a new one.  I got a little wiser this time and bought enough connectors to do the whole job over again (if I hadn't done it enough already).

Bim, bam boom, it was all put together again.

And there was a tiny drop of water forming at the end of the threads.  But why? I used the teflon tape, like the guy at Home Depot said...  I called my Dad for some plumbing advice and when he didn't answer at home, I called him on his cell phone. Still no answer. I called home again and realized that they weren't there, its their anniversary weekend!  My first messages were about plumbing, not anniversary wishes, so I rectified that. I kept hoping the water would stop dripping and dry up and headed to my kids' swim team audit.

Five hours later, I stopped at Home Depot and Roger in the plumbing section asked if I used teflon tape and sealant.  As you already know, I did not and we had a great chat about it and I was on my home again (trip #4) with sealant.

Bim, bam, boom. Faucet off, re-taped, threads glopped up with sealant.  Faucet screwed 2-1/2 rotations on (1 more rotation, because we needed it closer to the wall) and there are no more drops forming.

I've got some ultra-sensitive water test paper (read: toilet paper) around the fitting and I've checked it a few times and so far we're good.

Because of Heather (and some good support from neighbors and Home Depot employees), we saved the cost of a plumbers visit, but I still hate plumbing!!!

Boys Weekend

Last weekend (actually, starting Thursday morning), Heather and the two older kids went to a swim meet in Boise.  I dropped them at the airport and they were gone until Monday morning, leaving Kid 3 and me at home.

In the days before they left, I asked Kid 3 what he'd like to eat while they were gone. Just to see if Heather was paying attention, I even told him I wanted to know, "so Mom can make us the food and put it in the freezer for us."  Now, if you know (or read my wife's blog), you can bet she sure doesn't do that. I'm self-sufficient when it comes to feeding myself or my family.  And more than that, I enjoy cooking.

That said, Kid 3 and I played tether ball, rode bikes, went for walks, played Xbox and ate.  And ate.

Kid 3 realized that we were not eating healthy, but he recognized that we were eating well.  He figured out that we had the right headset so he could talk with his friends on Xbox Live and I heard him more than once recounting his meals to his friends.  Yes, it fed my ego, but I thought it was pretty cool.

He kept track in his head, as he is oft to do, of how many bad meals we ate. He knew that we took the Cooking Light recipe and made it with more butter (you get a better sear on your steak that way). He know that the box of Hot Tamales with the movie wasn't a good snack.  He knew that bacon two mornings in a row and then coddled eggs the next day tastes good, but isn't healthy.  But I think he liked them.

We definitely had fun cooking together. And eating.