I left for work late this morning, so I was forced to drive in. Well, I wouldn’t say “forced”, but gently encouraged I suppose. I hopped into the car to find a tangle of wires where our stereo used to be.

I am not a guy especially attached to objects. I wasn’t screaming out or punching the dashboard. “Damn” pretty much covered it. It probably helps that this stereo couldn’t actually play half of our collection without skipping, cost us about 80 dollars (with installation), and generally sucked anyways.

The real kick in the crotch is that I kept reaching for the controls all the way to work. I said to myself, “I can’t quite hear NPR.” “Is it still on?” No, there is no stereo anymore jerk.

Lessons learned? I own a garage. I need to start using it again. Oh, that and don’t blog about how great your neighbors are (kidding).

This year was about as non traditional of a Christmas as I’ve ever had. It was also one of the best.

Saturday my mom came up from Portland to spend the weekend with us. We all ate a lot and lounged around playing video games. My mom can still kick my ass at bowling on the Wii. I knew that Sunday was going to be bicycling oriented for me so I got some stuff at Home Depot to make a rear mud flap. There is a diagram with an easy and cheap solution on Alex Wetmore’s site.

Sunday morning Peter McKay picked me up for a ride with some of the SIR members. Amy and I were the only riders with gears on our bikes. It started off downtown(ish) Renton and went down to Flaming Geyser State Park out near Black Diamond. The whole loop ended up being just a bit over 100km. It was raining the entire time. I was squeezing water out of my gloves every couple of miles. My jacket worked wonders though and my upper body stayed relatively dry. I need to invest in some shoe covers and a different glove situation though. Both were pretty cold and wet by the end of the ride. Thanks goes to Peter for going out of his way to haul my butt over the hill to the ride and back. Everyone I met was pretty all around amazing and nice to be with. I am hoping to tag along to future rides with them.

The rest of Sunday was spent lounging in as many different comfortable positions as I could find. Despite his massive girth, Frankie managed to jump up on the coffee table and steal himself some roast. I can’t imagine the leg strength that kind of feat takes. To my stomach’s delight, Jane and my mom traded off cooking duties.

On Christmas Eve, our neighbors set up candles along our entire street including driveways. It was beautiful and made me really appreciate how great our neighborhood can be. Jane made Chicken Adobo (the link is making me hungry for more) and baked some cookies which I delivered, dancing around to keep warm.

Christmas morning we went over to see my buddy Terrance, who is fresh off of his second knee surgery. He is still in the walker / hobble stage at this point but he looked good. He has dealt with knee issues most of his adult life so we are all crossing our fingers that this procedure will do the trick. He always buys us goofy little gifts that end up being awesome. This year we received a “weather predictor”. It is hand blown glass with some red liquid in it and a dial on the bottom. I figure it can’t predict worse than the local news.

After that we went off to Tacoma to spend some time with Norman’s parents. They made Puerto Rican food along side some Hawaiian dishes. It was basically a mishmash of the wicked awesome and the fantastic. Wicked awesometastic, maybe. I am still full. We spent a little extra time in T-town enjoying ourselves and left just in time to hit some traffic. Apparently a half naked man was hitting cars on I-5 with his belt. The police shot and killed him. There is a holiday movie begging to be made in here.

This came in my inbox this morning along with a hundred other holiday junk. That is usually a one way ticket to my spam box but I thought I’d share this one. I think it displays the importance of just why Bunnyhawk’s are needed in a world filled with vicious, blood sucking, jerk bunnies. Yeah they are cute, but that is what they want you to think.

I got an early Christmas present this year from Jane. She bought me a Rapha classic softshell jacket that I was fawning over a while back. It came just in time too. I am sick of my old gear soaking through on longer rides here in the sunny Pacific Northwest. I’ve been able to test it out over the last couple of days and it is the bee’s knees. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Definitely. Thank you, Jane.

This came in my inbox this morning along with a hundred other holiday junk. That is usually a one way ticket to my spam box but I thought I’d share this one. I think it displays the importance of just why Bunnyhawk’s are needed in a world filled with vicious, blood sucking, jerk bunnies. Yeah they are cute, but that is what they want you to think.

I got an early Christmas present this year from Jane. She bought me a Rapha classic softshell jacket that I was fawning over a while back. It came just in time too. I am sick of my old gear soaking through on longer rides here in the sunny Pacific Northwest. I’ve been able to test it out over the last couple of days and it is the bee’s knees. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Definitely. Thank you, Jane.

This came in my inbox this morning along with a hundred other holiday junk. That is usually a one way ticket to my spam box but I thought I’d share this one. I think it displays the importance of just why Bunnyhawk’s are needed in a world filled with vicious, blood sucking, jerk bunnies. Yeah they are cute, but that is what they want you to think.

I got an early Christmas present this year from Jane. She bought me a Rapha classic softshell jacket that I was fawning over a while back. It came just in time too. I am sick of my old gear soaking through on longer rides here in the sunny Pacific Northwest. I’ve been able to test it out over the last couple of days and it is the bee’s knees. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Definitely. Thank you, Jane.

My right hand ring finger blisters as I write this. It is building a drum stick callus from that damn Rock Band game. I know that you are all (well… the two of you) sick of hearing about it. Too bad.

Friday night Norman invited us out to a post holiday party… uh… party. He works at PCC so it is a mix of young dirty hipsters and old dirty hippies. The person hosting the party decided that it would be a great idea to have it at a Chinese restaurant on 100th and Aurora. I suppose it is my fault for not letting that vital clue sink in. It was basically a karaoke bar with Chinese food. The regulars mixed with the employees like oil and water. The ladies wore sweat suits and the fellas wore prison tattoos. They dirty danced to Blondie and Pink Floyd alike. We left shortly after a couple of needed drinks.

After the party, Norman and Jeanie, a coworker of his, came over for an extremely loud and drunken Rock Band session. I kept trying to get to bed so I could get up early and bicycle with Joby, but they kept pulling me back in. It was sloppy but entertaining. I fell asleep at 2am.

I dragged myself out of bed at some ungodly hour to prepare myself for what was supposed to be a long’ish ride to Black Diamond with Joby. It sounded good on paper anyways. I pulled together all of my rain gear since it looked soggy outside and headed out with him. Here is the thing, rain I can deal with… I wasn’t really prepared for all the headwind we faced almost all of the way south. We had to work hard to keep 13-14 mph. Wind can humiliate a man on a bike. A spoke in my tire decided to loosen up all of the way, and of course it used the one tool that I didn’t have at the time. I apologized to Joby and asked to turn around half way into the loop. My wheel had a wobble and rubbed the left brake for the 30+ miles that we actually stayed out. Half of me has this “Forget it. Just tough it out” attitude and the other half says, “You could be at home under a blanket right now.” I know that once I start randonneuring I am going to have to listen to the first half a little more. I can handle the pain, it is the annoying little stuff that gets to me.

A bit later on Saturday Paul came over with Norman and Jane and helped us get ready for a party that we were having. Jane and Norman decided to have a mexican crafting party but I am pretty sure it was just an excuse to make a ton of enchiladas and drink. I am not complaining either way. Paul and I picked up and decorated a Christmas tree. Frankie has found a new home underneath it on the tree skirt.

People started to roll in around 8pm or so and we talked and made “god’s eye” crafts. Paul and Joby helped keep me sane with some light hearted conversation in which we coined the term “Nut Ninja”. “You won’t even see him coming. But he just did.”

Later on in the night we brought out the ever popular Rock Band. Sometimes a group of us would get together and start to really get the beats down and it would just feel amazing. It is hard to describe why a video game can feel so interactive (especially with a group of people) to someone who doesn’t get it. I think everyone that night got it though. It all makes sense once you see it come together.

Key moments were:

a) Rabia growling out Enter Sandman

b) Jane’s beautiful rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep” for our friend Erin

c) Jeanie belting out Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills” louder than I care to remember

This drawing took up most of my day. I couldn’t wait to see how it would end up. It is hard to make out the (stupid) amount of detail that I put into it, but you can get a better idea from the larger version on the main page.

I woke up at 2am yesterday morning with a pounding ear ache. It wouldn’t let me go back to bed so I spent a few hours before work on the couch watching X-Files. I have the ear issue once a year or so with a bad cold. I’ve had the ear troubles ever since I was a baby. If I wasn’t so sick of hospitals I might go see a doctor about them.

Last night was the night that we were going to Steve Hampsten’s house to see Chris’ new bicycle (unpainted but almost finished). I was pretty close to backing out since I wanted to get to bed pretty bad. When Chris called me I was all ready to give him the bad news but there was just something in his voice that prompted me to change my mind. I could tell he was excited (and he damn well should be).

I left for Artcore to around 5 to meet up with Chris and Joby. We rode out to Steve’s place off of Sand Point up north a ways. Burke Gilman is a different animal at night. Daytime is filled with college kids and roadie types. Nighttime is when the safety vest, super bright light crowd comes out. It is a carnival of geeks and freaks lit up like Christmas trees. I’m not sure where I fit in, but I love it all. We made it to the house after stuffing our bags with beer from the market.

Hampsten’s shop was awesome. I’m sure that he cleaned it up for the visit, but it was very well organized. There were loads of tools that I’d love to slice a finger or two off on. We proceeded to nerd out with bike talk and kept the beer flowing. I am very glad that I didn’t back out and I’m hoping to keep in touch with Steve in the future.

We went to go see The Golden Compass on Friday and it was a pretty solid movie. It wasn’t the Lord of the Rings that it aspired to be, but damned if it didn’t have polar bears in armor tearing the shit out of each other. Whitey wanted some armor too, so I was forced to oblige.

The rest of the weekend included pajama pants and Mass Effect. That is to say, I laid around the house and avoided any heavy labor. You know you are lounging too hard when your feet get sore from the coffee table.

Norman came over Saturday and we got a little bit of “band practice” in. The three of us have a Rock Band group called “Salmon Roebots”. Jane came up with our motto, “Spawning. Affirmative.” It has a very Pacific Northwestern feel to it, which is good because we mostly play Seattle in the game. I do my best Dave Grohl impressions so my hands usually end up pretty numb after a long session.

Mass Effect is a pretty amazing game except the combat can get ridiculously hard at times. I feel like pounding the controller against the television. Last night was a good example. Jane was watching me play a bit while reading her new addiction (FICO forums), and I was steaming from a particular section that I couldn’t get past. She probably thought I was being a dumb ass (and I was). That is, until Jane went into the kitchen to set up the coffee maker for the morning. She started screaming at it because the grinder was stuck and neither of us could get it out. If Frankie were a child, he would already be cussing. God forbid we ever actually have children.

About 2 years or so ago (keeping in mind that I’m terrible with time and dates… oh and names…), Jane and I picked up a wonderful 110 lb. lab from the Bellevue Humane Society named Shiska. He was an extra special animal who, despite his size, figured that he was a born lap dog. He enjoyed walks around the neighborhood, hanging out, and guarding his dad’s general leg area. Shiska sadly passed away earlier this year from a tumor in his chest (is there an echo in here?). He was a wonderful dog and this drawing doesn’t quite do him justice, but I’m trying. That’s all I’ve got. I love you buddy.

edit: p.s. – The paw is to scale.

Jane and I went in for my 3 month check up to see Dr. Goodman. I am happy to report that I am still cancer free.

Around the summer of 2006 I was diagnosed with a fourth stage (the last one) lymphoma. I got lots of straight talk and dire warnings about what was headed my way. You can’t ever really prepare for that kind of thing, but I wasn’t ever really scared for some reason. Maybe I was just naive. I went through six rounds of CHOPR treatment, followed by 3 more ICE treatments and an intense stem cell transplant (my own stem cells). The CHOPR was rough on me, but I was able to ride my bike between treatments with a little help from friends. The stem cell treatment got me about as close to death as I’ll ever want to be (short of actually dying).

A while back, Dr. Goodman mentioned to me that a woman wanted to talk to me over the phone. She was going to have the same type of treatment that I went through and wanted some support. To be honest, this was a little scary for me but I accepted. I have a hard time cheerleading the stem cell transplant since it pretty much wrecked my body at the time. The important part is though, it completely ruined the cancer. You have to deal with the awful to get the good. Life has always been that way.

We were in the doctor’s office talking about the fact that I had never received that call.

“I’m not sure I would of had anything positive to say about the experience. I felt like I was on my death bed,” I told Jane.

She said something like, “It was scary, but you never said that you felt like you were dying. I’m not sure what I would have done in your shoes. I say ‘I’m dying’ all the time like when…”

“Like when you have bad gas?”

“Exactly”