I just thought I'd share a pic of my method of posting to the blog after a long day of work... 

Another picture from my bike ride. I didn't really take as many as I normally would. I wanted to avoid stopping too often on the bike ride...

I went for a long bike ride on Saturday down the springwater corridor that starts in Portland and continues through Gresham and all the way out to Boring. (I didn't make it past Gresham before weather convinced me to start heading back, about a 30mi ride roundtrip) I stopped and snapped a few pics on the ride, and was just surprised at some of the views I had out near the Powell Butte park area. I had really wanted to do some mountain biking on the park trails, but they are currently closed due to wet conditions. The nice thing is that this paved corridor trail is very close to the house and provides alot more natural scenery than riding in bike lanes on the road. 

I kept meaning to get a haircut. Hair was getting in my eyes when surfing in Costa Rica and more recently it was getting referred to as a "Mop." I've been pretty active with running and riding my bike, so I decided to go back to the "easy maintenance" haircut seen here for a while. Otherwise, I went out and shot some pool last night and am going to see a show at the Crystal Ballroom tonight. The Shins are playing a sold out show, so it should be a good time. 

Reflection...

Here's a pic of a something that has some good memories attached. Aptly named "Football of Destruction" this nerf football flew around the QA department of Interactive Magic while I was a tester there. During the period of notice of being laid off from the company, the testers still around put their signatures on it. The "signatures" are all game names we used. I was tossing the ball in the air a bit and reminded "Anubis" about having it. He asked me to take a pic and I thought it even better that I put it up here and try to send the link out to as many of the guys as possible...

Pictures are better than my memory...

Oh yeah, I went out friday night after mowing the yard. We headed downtown and I wound up getting offered to go to a show in the Crystal Ballroom here in Portland. It was a $10 show, part of a "I saw them when" series. The bands were ok (Ash opening for The Bravery), but the venue is a classic here and I had a pretty good time. More interesting than the show was the picture I was trying to catch with the lighting and the singer's shadow dancing across the wall of the Crystal...

Withdrawls...

It's been a while since I posted. It's also been a while since I've surfed. I'm in serious need of wave time and really want to be back in the water asap. The past few weeks have been big and nasty at the coast with most days having over 20ft combined seas with 13-20 ft swells and lots of wind. A good picture of this can be seen here: http://www.cannon-beach.net/webcam/gvwebcam_050329_66.jpg I have had some other things going on though. The week before last I spent the majority of in San Francisco at our company's annual User's Group meeting. As usual, it was a good time. This difference this year was my stress level. I had to give some presentations and I don't think I've ever been more nervous. I just didn't have the confidence in my knowledge of the subjects and was worried about getting caught on something that I "should" know. I'm tensing up thinking about it. I guess I did ok though. I hope to be better prepared next time around. Last week didn't have much of note. I managed to get some motivation and ride my bike one day and go for a lunch run where we got rained on. Friday I managed to mow our wet jungle of a lawn after work. I couldn't wait for it to completely dry, for fear of another shower. We we had some people over for a college basketball final four party on Saturday. Beer and lots of hotwings on the grill was a hit. I'm confident that my roomate has the best recipe for hotwings in existence. Once I found out the key ingredient is one of my favorite marinades...it all made sense. It was an all ages party and the pic here is of the youngest of the group checking out my hammock. Today I slacked and drove to work, but made up for it at lunch with a run along the waterfront on this beautiful day. Tonight is the final game between Illinois and UNC so we're headed over to the boss's house for pizza and game, which should be fun. Till next time...