Our friend Norman was in D.C. for the last week or so for the inauguration. We don’t tend to spend very long at a time without him, so he has been missed. There were a few positives to spring up from the absensce though, namely his mixer and Le Creuset doufeu.

I’ve been itching to cook with it myself for awhile now, but I was slacking on finding a dish that really called for it. To be honest, you can cook whatever you want in it, but it supposedly really shines at slow cooking foods (especially meats) straight off the stove top. You can place water and/or ice in the tray that is molded in to the lid. It helps the dish retain moisture and tons of flavor.

I made a “Zazzy” Jambalaya last night that was freaking fantastic. Note: the extra zazz comes from the heart.

Jane and I have been fighting some sort of throat based cold all week. It started Saturday and hasn’t really let up since. We are both feeling a touch better today, but it is still there. I lost my voice for about a day and sounded like a 13 year old when I attempted to say anything before clearing my throat. Nobody (aside from Jane) gets tongue kisses from me until I drop this nonsense. That is just the way it has to be.

As soon as Norman gets back, we are going to start “training” on some Expert level Rock Band. One of the local dive bars around here has dedicated Rock Band nights, and we plan on destroying the competition. We aren’t expert on all songs (or even most of them), but they ones we know… we can rule. The regulars at Goldie’s on Airport Way had better watch their backs.

I am on day five of my mini snow vacation and am starting to get cabin fever.

Part of me wants to enjoy the (much needed) days off, and the other part of me knows that the month is quickly coming to a close with no weather relief in sight. I have exactly 9 days left to complete a 200k ride and I don’t know if I can do it. I haven’t had any vacation or sick time left at work so I’ve been trying to get them in on weekends. There was only one weekend this month that was “warm” enough to ride without facing ice and snow. Worst case senario, Chris and I start over in the new year.

We only have 3 left so this is looking like a disappointment.

Still, not all is bad. Jane and I have holed up for an intense amount of video games, cooking, and painting. I couldn’t ask for a more calm and beautiful week.

Norman and I managed to sneak in a trip up to West Seattle for groceries on Saturday. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea though. It was a complete madhouse. We got what we came for though, and have been cooking amazing meals ever since. I am pretty positive that I’ll end up fatter than I was a week ago. Oh well…

There will be a party at our house on November 1st around 7pm for Jane’s 31st birthday. She is going to have a childish video game party to celebrate getting old. That is why I love her. Everyone is invited to come over for some Korean BBQ and beer. I expect you all to be there or else I will hunt you down for making my lady sad. Do it.

I’ve been moving stuff over to a new hosting server so things may be out of place and wonky for a couple of days. I haven’t been happy with my old host since I started it (and paid for a year…) so I am just getting around to moving it. Every other day the database hosting my blog would crash for an hour or so at a time. Instead of helping me, the company tried to talk me into upgrading my package with no guarantees that it would fix anything. I haven’t had any problems with other sites that I’ve built so I knew it was time to move on.

I made a conscious effort to spend this last weekend with the wife. I’ve spent so much time on the bike, I knew that I haven’t gone out on a date in a while.

With that in mind, we made dinner reservations to Cremont in the Madrona neighborhood. It is a charming little French restaurant set up inside of an older house. I had a “Flintstones” style lamb shank meal and Jane had a halibut dish. Everything was incredible. My eyes kept rolling over every time I tried something new. We had a wonderful evening despite some of the obnoxious yuppies close by.

“You brought Italian wine to a French restaurant!?” I’m sure there is no greater crime. You can have your hands cut off in countries for less.

Earlier in the day we went out for some coffee and were hailed as the most fashionable people in all of Fremont. Apparently we had “matching” outfits on (we both were wearing red).

“Look at you two,” the barista said. “I want to stick you up on the pastries case and display you guys.”

Awesome.

I finally replaced my Rock Band drum kit at Best Buy Saturday. Somehow we managed to impulse buy a freakin’ PS3 along with it. I’ve been waiting for the high definition format war to finish before I bought a player… and now I have one. We had to search around a bit to find a copy of Planet Earth in BluRay format, but man was it worth it.

God I am a nerd.

Sunday turned out to be just amazing weather wise. I had to drag Jane out of bed to get on her STP training ride. Thank goodness we went out though. It was about as perfect of a bicycling day as you can ask for in Seattle.

Boo, Emily, Jane and I took a stroll around Lake Washington. The ladies made comments about my butt all day and I egged them on to tackle the hills. Good times were had by all.

I took the single speed out again. I’ve really been enjoying it, but I need to get a different seat for the longer rides. I could swap out the Brooks off my Salsa when needed, but that would be a hassle. I should get another Brooks for the IF, but I’m concerned about getting the leather treatment stuff on my butt when I ride in my “normal” clothes. Anyone have any ideas? I’d rather not have to ride on a saddle cover if possible.

Here is a drawing of Norman’s bike that I’ve been working on. It seems like it took forever to draw. I really need to hook up a mouse to the laptop when I work on it…

Saturday Joby and I got up at 7am to ride around Camano Island with a group of SIR members. The weather threatened snow, so I was a bit nervous going into it. It turned out to be a gorgeous (if cold) morning and it is one of my favorite routes to date. Even with the clouds, you could see most of the mountain ranges on all sides.

I got to speak to a few new (to me) members along the way. One guy tried to talk me into signing up for the Cascade 1200k. I tried to explain to him that my legs probably aren’t ready for 800 miles over 4 days when I haven’t even completed an actual event with the group. He wasn’t cutting me any slack though.
“It isn’t until June,” he explained.
“Oh yeah, plenty of time…”

Honestly though, everyone has been extremely nice and talkative. I’m sure it would be easy to dismiss someone a generation younger, in a ninja suit, with tattoos and odd piercings. I appreciate the open arms.

I have one more track on Rock Band’s Hard drum tour. I can tell that I am getting better, but the game is making me work for it.

I’ve suddenly come into a run of great work over the last week so I’ve been frantically typing up legal documents with the help of the Graphic Artist’s Guild (the website URL kills me). I haven’t taken the steps to protect my work in the past and now that I’m doing a “real” job, it is time to get serious. It kind of saddens me how easy it is to lose rights to your own work without preventative measures. Expect a new website (not mine, a client’s), and possibly a new logo for another in the not too distant future.

I was going to complain that it has been too cold lately, but that is pretty relative to what I am used to. It is obviously colder than San Diego, and definitely colder than it needs to be, but nothing near what a lot of cities get. Seattle can be pretty soggy, but the temperature stays in a lovely range all year round. It isn’t usually colder than 40, and is rarely warmer than 80. There are exceptions of course, but not too often.

Saturday was spent amongst the nerds at the Science Fiction Museum. We’ve had tickets since last year and it was literally the last day that we would be able to use them. My company’s holiday party was there and I wasn’t able to stay longer than half an hour thanks to a little chemo sickness. A lot of the gear and costumes just prove to me how talented the lighting people are in Hollywood. Most of the stuff looks horribly fake but shows up beautifully on screen. I just don’t retain the same nerd passions I had when I was younger. 10 years ago that museum would be heaven. These days, I am just trying to make sure that we don’t end up with a ticket by staying over our 2 hour limit.

Our friend Erin is leaving for Eugene to help her sister who is about to have a baby. We threw a party for her since it was relatively close to her birthday anyways. We played stupid amounts of Rock Band and enjoyed the company.

This nonsense is kind of all over the map. Sorry. Get off my back. I will post something real with pretty drawings soon’ish.

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

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.

I went out for a shorter than expect bike ride with Chris this weekend. The original plan was for an all day event on Vashon Island that would have probably murdered my calves. It got whittled down to some hill training in West Seattle. We left about 9, and it started off just beautiful. The sun wasn’t out (it is November after all… in Seattle), but the temperature was comfortable and the clouds weren’t too opposing. My legs felt good on the climbs, and we were getting some coffee at the top in no time. The plan was to grab some coffee and head back out to some local streets that we know are painful. I still have plenty of chocolate to work off.

The clouds decided to open up on us. Typically when it rains here, it is just a soggy, warm constant drizzle. Saturday morning though, it rained hard.

Chris’ bike decided it had enough, and started to blow out inner tubes. “Forget about fixing me,” it said to us. “I will ruin you on the wet descents.” We heeded its warning and decided to go get the car. I got home, squeegeed myself off, and went back to pick Chris up. It was then and there that I decided to lay on my ass for the rest of the weekend. And lay on it I did.

Friday night, Jane and I picked up a couple of games and spent some more time on the Rock Band demo. We picked up Assassin’s Creed and Super Mario Galaxy. They are both so amazing that I’ve had trouble splitting time between the two. Going to work this morning was the toughest thing I’ve had to do all month. Jane broke from her usual gaming ranks and tried her hand at Creed. In no time she was pouncing unsuspecting victims and scaling rooftops. She is a real special girl, let me tell you.
So special in fact, she woke up with me this morning and took an hour’s worth of buses to get out to Best Buy in Bellevue. She is sitting in line, as I type this, for Rock Band. It is cold and raining right now, so I feel for her. I am sure this is off the charts on some sort of nerd scale somewhere. Hey, at least it isn’t to see a George Lucas movie. Don’t get me started on that guy.

Wednesday night we are going to drive down to Portland, hook up with my mother, and start our descent to Sacramento. My cousin invited us last year around this time. It sounded like a great idea at the time, but I am kind of regretting what I am sure will be a traffic filled nightmare of a commute. I love her to death, but this is going to be a really long weekend. I wonder if we can’t fit the Rock Band drum kit in the trunk… nevermind.

I’ve been thinking a lot about all the junk I want to buy. I don’t really need any of it (although I can argue a good bit), but boy do I want me some goods.

Rapha

If I were to get the hots for sporting apparel, I’d have a rager for Rapha. They are a British cycling company making ridiculously overpriced but beautiful gear. My god, take a look at this jersey. No bright colors and no gaudy corporate logos. The best thing about it? They make their jerseys with wonderful, time tested wool. Just don’t look at the price, it won’t do any good to think about it too hard.

Softshell Jacket? Amazing
Grand Tour Gloves? Dear god, stop me please.

Video Games

I’m not sure when I picked back up the video game bug, but it is in full swing right now. I go through spurts, where I play non stop for months and then don’t touch the machine for the rest of the year. It seems like there is an endless stream of amazing gaming right now though. I know the holidays are always like this, but it just feels especially potent this year. There are no fewer than 4 games that I want to purchase right now. Not only do I not really have the money, but I wouldn’t have the time to invest in all of that action anyways.

Super Mario Galaxy is getting reviews that I can’t ignore.
Assassins Creed came out this week, and Veronica Mars is doing a voice over. That automatically pushes the game into the “must buy” pile as far as Jane is concerned.
Call of Duty 4 came out a few weeks ago, and I’ve seen nothing but amazing things about it.
Mass Effect comes out next week on top of all of that.
This is, of course, nothing to say regarding all of the games I already have and have been on a short sighted achievement hunt with. I’m not sure when I started to care about 360’s achievement system, but it hit Jane and I hard.