Home Improvement

There are lots of renovations going on at our house. We are getting the "nice" half of our basement built out with a den and a family room. The den will have a powder room, closet, and egress certified windows so we can bill it as a bedroom. We also got new kitchen appliances -- refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher. We paid for installation for all three but when they delivered the refrigerator, I figured out how to hook up the water line in about an hour. Feeling frisky, I cancelled the intallation for the dishwasher because I figured I could do it myself.

This past Saturday, I installed the dishwasher. All I have to say is that the $140 Sears was asking for the install would have been well worth it. I ended up going to Home Depot six (6!) times befroe everything was working just right. The whole process put me in a foul mood for parts of two days. However, the dishwasher is working and is leak free. dgdf

Frost isn't walking yet but he can get around pretty fast. I think he isn't particularly interested in walking because he can crawl so effectively. I've started walking around with him the past couple of days and he seems to get a big kick out of that. He also loves playing the "chase" game. We started doing this game a month or so ago when we were about to change his diaper and he would take off crawling away. Now he tried to get us to play even when we aren't about to change his diaper. Over the last few weeks, he has gotten quite a bit more interactive in that he initiates play with us.

Nicholette Published!

Interweave Knits just called Nicholette to tell her that her crown patter had been accepted for publication. She is extremely excited. Here is a picture of Frost modeling the crown. We're keeping this photo around to show his girlfriends when he get older ...


The magazine is sending Nicholette yarn to knit two crowns and she has to get them done by the middle of December. That's a pretty tight deadline for a mom with two children.

First Post

Yesterday was Frost's first birthday. He got a few presents but had no clue about unwrapping them. Once we tore off the wrapping, he scattered the stacker pieces in short order. He banged on the bongo for a bit but I wonder if his drumming phase is over -- perhaps for the best for our long term sanity. Lily was very excited for Frost and she even made him a pinata that we whacked at after dinner.

It's been raining and raining all week. Sure, what do we expect, living in the Pacific Northwest, right? Well, it's been raining hard and steady. There was a break during the evening on Monday long enough to give all the trick-or-treaters an opportunity to score some loot. Lily was a very scary skeleton and she had a terrific time going door to door. Nicholette painted her face and it came out great.

I don't have a race this weekend and have been trying to take it easy on the riding this week. However, my co-worker and teammate Dave Gast and I got out today in a slight break in the rain for some intervals. For the last two, I let Dave get a gap then I tried to close it down before our marked finish. I found that worked out really well to motivate me to give it my all -- something I find difficult to do when I train solo. We still got pretty wet and Dave's feet got pretty cold.

Last Sunday I raced cyclocross at the Flying M Ranch in Yamhill, OR. It was the Halloween edition of the Cross Crusade series so I dressed up as jailbird Karl Rove. First up is a shot at the starting line. I can't recall what we're looking at. On the far left, you can see Bill Goritski, my teammate, dressed as a beer keg. Only moments after this picture whas taken, they moved the start line up 15 feet and I wasn't fast enough to keep my front row spot.

I've seen a few photos of myself from the race and in all of them, I have this pained expression. Well, cyclocross IS painful.

I had a really good race and scored my best finish of the year -- 8th place. I biffed over the barriers at the finish line and lost a place so I was tanalizingly close to 7th. The rider behind me in this last photo is a junior who started one minute behind our field. He is one of a trio of really strong juniors in Oregon.

I stole these photos from the Photofaction web site so credit where credit is due.