Touring Wine Country

Last weekend was my a-dec mentor Anne's birthday. In true Anne fashion, she rented a Blimo (bus limo) and treated her friends to a wine tour. We visited Rex Hill Vineyards, WillaKenzie Estate, Sokol Blosser, Erath Winery, and The Four Graces. The Blimo took as from point to point, covering quite a bit of ground and allowing us to keep our BAC up in between stops.

I think my favorite stop was The Four Graces. They had a bit of a French flair and the winery is named for the owners' four daughters. The owners also have a son, and so as not to leave him out, the reserve refers to him as the keeper of the four graces. It's all very sweet, and the vineyard is all about sustainable farming and everything good. They even had shirts printed on American Apparel, so I had to buy one.

The entire day was fantastic, and I'm just honored to have been included. Thanks Anne!

More Mud Run

Oregon Velo, a sports photography company, covered the Mudslinger 10K run. They set up photographers along the trail and took pictures of everyone as they ran by. This is really cool because now I have pictures of me as I get muddy, not just before and after. The pictures also show just how crazy the conditions were.



I'm not sure which is my favorite, but I'm hoping to support the photographer by buying a mouse pad or something with one of these pictures on it. Any input would be appreciated.

Before I ran the race, I created this Google map. I didn't find the one the Mudslinger people provided all that helpful for gauging the terrain. Once I had mapped it out on Google, I was able to fully appreciate and mentally prepare for how drastic the slopes of the run were going to be. You'll notice almost all of the elevation gains and losses occur over relatively short distances. It was tough going up and fun coming down. Compare the forced smiles in the first two pictures to the clearly real smiles in the second two pictures.

Mud Run

Well the weekend after we were in San Antonio, things didn't slow down.

Friday night I spent some time at Nick's house playing games with Nick, Nate, Dan, and some others. It was good fun. We played Chez Geek and Zombie Flux card games until fairly late in the evening. It was definitely late considering what was waiting for Dan and I the next morning.

We, Betsey, Dan, and I, woke up that Saturday morning to snow falling in the middle of April. Very Strange. Dan was staying with us because he and I were running a race. My first race. After traveling over some snow covered scenery, we arrived in Blodgett and were joined by Thomas, another work friend. We registered, we talked, and before I knew it, the starting gun had fired.

For a first race, this one was a bit of an odd choice. The race was mud and gravel most of the way, with 400 feet of elevation climb through trails on BLM land. I thoroughly enjoyed coming back down the trail. I finished, which is all I was going for, but it also made me realize how much I need to improve. I was so happy at the end of the race, and I still feel very proud for having completed it.



My next 10K is coming up shortly. I'm looking forward to it of course, but somehow, I imagine, nothing will feel like completing this first one.

San Antonio Pictures

The River Walk runs under the Streets of San Antonio. This shot is from street level.


The Alamo.


Almost more impressive: The Alamo Koi.


The River Walk is lined with many historic buildings. This one is riddled with gun shot fired at the last remnants of the Mexican army as they held out inside the building.


Cute little ducklings are everywhere.


The tower of the Americas was visible from at least one location along the River Walk.


Safety railing, as seen here, is rare along the waterway.


The River Walk creates a tropic like paradise in the middle of down town San Antonio.

There are a few more pictures available on our Flickr account.

Rembering San Antonio

We spent the Friday the 11th through Monday the 14th in San Antonio, Texas with Betsey's parents and sister.

Friday morning at 3AM we woke up to catch our 6AM flight out of Portland. I find Portland airport to be so easy for getting in and out of compared to other airports. I'm not alone, Conde Nast and the TSA have named it number one (See December 2007 bullets). We enjoyed a unhealthy breakfast at Wendy's that tasted fantastic. Our Continental plane was on time, and I slept all the way to Houston, Texas. I missed food service, and under normal circumstances, that's no big deal, but on Continental the food is actually award winning. Breakfast was Honey Nut Cheerios, a cranberry muffin, 2% milk, and raisins. Then, after a half hour jump from Houston, we stayed at Drury Inn in San Antonio where we saw this one: "Highest in Guest Satisfaction Among Mid-Scale Hotels Chains with Limited Service". Come on! With awards like that, who isn't going to get one? Awards are no longer impressive. That being said, the Drury was really good, three free drinks every night. Maybe awards matter a little.

We were in San Antonio, primarily, to see Frank Jennings, the Frank Jennings, my great-uncle-in-law, and coiner of the term Aerospace (no kidding!). Unfortunately, the day we left he fell down some stairs, so all of our visits were in hospital. The fall may have made him dizzy, but he still had all his wits about him. He's great to talk with. His wife treated us to a great little authentic Filipino restaurant/market.

Our hotel was right on the San Antonio River Walk, which is basically an American Venice for like 10 city blocks. It's really really cool. Lots of restaurants and bars. No safety precautions. It's amazing more people don't fall in.

The River Walk goes right up to the Alamo. The Alamo is strange. Hardly preserved at all until recently, it's been used as a storehouse among other things. The "preserved" grounds are largely rebuilt. It's worth seeing if you're in San Antonio anyway, but really the River Walk would be a bigger draw for me. Also, they have friggin' huge koi.

Of course we took pictures of all this, but we haven't web-sized them or anything. We'll try to post later.

No Foolin'

If I'd posted this yesterday, it could have been mistaken as a joke. I ran 4 miles for the first time yesterday. Quite the accomplishment. That puts me two miles from my top goal. I'm only a little sore today, so that's very good. I need to find a better way to stretch my ankle and Achilles before running because that's where I feel the most stress during and after my run.

I've picked up a side project at home using a spare component or two we had laying around and a donation from a friend. Hopefully, we'll have a working DVR shortly, but right now it keeps crashing. Still, it's been a refreshing reminder course on some of the ins and outs of one distribution of Linux.

Not too much else to report on. March was pretty slow. April should be a lot busier, so there should be more to write about.

"My pen floods the pages while the children are crying"