FYI – This site is undergoing some construction.  I have been working on a new theme/design for this website as well as building in some new content and features.

The design may intermittently seem incomplete and certain content may appear broken until I get everything ironed out.

Stay tuned…

I forgot to post up this one.  From a MBM ride earlier in July on the Ginny Trail with Ryan and Dave:

The last couple times we attempted this trail we started late forcing us to descend early due to lack of daylight.  We were again pushing it this time for daylight, yet crested the top just in time to catch the sunset.

BTW, other MBM postings are over at our still in progress project site: cotw.

Our garden has not only made a come-back from hail damage this season, but has started to produce! Here’s what we picked just this morning:

We have been enjoying mini-strawberries, banana peppers, zucchini, squash, cucumber, and various herbs.  Tomatoes and tomatillos are on their way. Don’t think the broccoli survived.  The watermelon plant is growing, but I don’t see any watermelon yet.

Woot!

Two summers ago JJ and I went for a mountain bike ride up the Old Flowers jeep road.  The highlight of this ride was that on the way down we were flying along when all of a sudden J’s tire rear blew out with a vengeance.  Upon inspection we found a full utility razor blade lodged in his rear tire.  Somehow a razor blade was on the trail, probably falling off some jeep or truck, and J happened to ride over it just so that it sliced the tire wide open.

Fortunately at the time we were close to the bottom, made a crude repair with a new tube and my handy athletic tape to patch the sidewall… good enough to get back to the car.

We laughed about the event saying “Man, that’ll never happen again!”  What are the odds of picking up a razor blade!?!

Yesterday was bike to work day in Fort Collins.  Yes, I biked to work…. took the road bike for speed (I’m always late).  On my way home, I was heading west on Drake between Timberline and Lemay.  I was heads down and cruising at a good ~20mph pace.  I caught the glimpse of two razor blades for a split second before POW, CLANK, Pah-CHING …  and quickly came to a stop.  A razor blade lodged in my back tire, hit the rear brake caliper and shot out the sided.  My sidewall was slashed wide open and it nicked the tube.  Fortunately I was able to patch the tube, had CO2 with me, and used the ‘ol dollar bill trick to patch the sidewall.  It was good enough to get home.

The amount of broken glass and goat-heads are bad enough in the Fort, now watch out for razor blades!

This weekend is our neighborhood’s annual communtiy garage sale.  Just scored myself a mint condition phil wood bottom bracket including the tool, and an ultegra rear derailleur for $2 each.  We have some cool neighbors!  K8 and Tamar of course bought a bunch of clothes…

Welp, my web hosting company went under.  I lost a year and some change worth of posts, some page work, and a few other things (all my links disappeared, tag cloud, etc.).  Sucks, but not much I could do.  I consider myself lucky to have a raw SQL dump from the beginning of 2008, and a back up of the design from a few months ago.

After months of procrastination and no time… finally got around to the fun journey of upgrading an older WordPress SQL dump, importing, and re-building things.  I think I can even restore the missing content manually since I was able to grab a cached page from google!  (smart thinking eh!?)  Only a handful of posts to re-create.

My new hosting is awesome and the new built-in WordPress install is nifty!  Although I’m not sure I like the new 2.7* WordPress, seems to becoming more and more cluttered.

Back from Mallorca, Spain!!! What a friggin’ vacation…

Click on the picture or here to go to the flickr photo set.

Big thanks to Mom & Dad, Mr. John Fujii for their help, encouragement, and support to make this happen.

Thanks to Natalia, her family, Miguel, Nata’s Tios, and everyone else that made this such a wonderful experience above and beyond anything we could have anticipated.

Vacation Theme Song: Island in the Sun (weezer)

Ian & K8′s list – Impressions of Mallorca:

• People drive like bats out of hell (even the old people), every other aspect of life is in slow motion.
• Paint (lines) on the roads are just “guidelines” – mainly for tourists.
• The whole difference in personal space always takes getting used to.
• I think I might like olives
• The most common pretty boy haircut is a styled, over-gelled mohawk, or faux-hawk
• English is in. Any clothing with a logo in English is like wearing Diesel or Gucci around here… Sometimes it was unclear if one knew what they were wearing. Like a t-shirt that says “ugly” on it, or big bold “American Eagle” logo… seriously.
• Everyone wears thin flip-flops
• Vegetarian’s nightmare – lots of yummy pork products, pastes, cured, or a whole leg quarter right on yer plate.
• Brands like Reef, Miss Sixty, RipCurl, QuickSilver etc.. are EXPENSIVE… like $90 US beans for a pair of Reef flip flops.
• How the hell do you use the bede?
• Lemon jelly mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
• A can of coke is like $4 US beans
• Round-abouts = scary

– Wed – Day 0 –

• Arrival in Palma – got situated at the house then headed downtown for some sights.
• Saw castle up top overlooking the city.
• Went downtown to el centro by the water and walked around. Saw a 400+ year old olive tree, the cathedral.
• Had tapas down by the water.
• Late night dinner at a sea side restaurant over looking the bay and cathedral.

– Thrus – Day 1 –

• Visit “Es Trenc” beach and restaurant with Natalia and Miguel
• German naked guy at the beach was nasty character
• Lunch at Es Trenc restaurant, had some awesome paella, couldn’t do the gambas though.
• Dinner with Natalia and Miguel at restaurant “Tanto Amore” – sweet late night Italian place.

– Fri – Day 2 –

• Late start – went to Soller, a pretty little pueblo en las montanas
• On the way, drove up over the Sierra Tramuntana (la parte central)
• Hit the beach at Porto de Soller
• Back in Palma, went to the centro comercial (mall).
• Had yummy pasta & sauce at Nata’s that her mom made us

– Sat – Day 3 –

• Heading to Colonia to Nata’s parent’s house
• On the way (sort of), went to Calobra, a beautiful beach between cliffs in the north/northwest part of the Sierra Tramuntana. Crazy switch backs to get up there… amazing view.
• From the beach, on the way to the house, stopped at Pollenca, a little village with cool stairway, 2000+ year old Roman bridge, maze of streets.
• Dinner with the whole family at night
• Saw a late night festival with dancers dressed up in traditional Mallorquin attire, twirling around, fun music, and the clickers!

– Sun – Day 4 –

• Up late from partying the night before. Went to amazing beach , Ca Na Clara, near the house. Rocky, secluded, paradise.
• Afternoon lunch with the family
• Drove to Cabo de Formentor – amazing view from the top of a rock protrusion jutting out into the sea. Lighthouse…
• Natalia and Miguel went out for their last night together. K8 and I made dinner at the house. Family had returned to Palma.

– Mon – Day 5 –

• Was cloudy and rainy. Back to Palma for the day to go shopping!
• Ian bought tons of shit
• Dinner at conveyor belt all you can eat sushi restaurant, sweet!

– Tues – Day 6 –

• After breakfast, went to outdoor market in a nearby village
• Back to Ca Na Clara, rocky beach paradise
• Back to Colonia for a great, quiet, late night dinner of Salad and everything else in the fridge

– Wed – Day 7 –

• Went to beach in Porto de Alcudia
• Shopped around in Alcudia afterwords
• Dinner by the sea in Colonia at another nice Italian restaurant. Gnocchi was fantastic!

– Thurs – Day 8 –

• Closed up Colonia, left for beach in the trees.
• Had a blast, rented a paddle boat, got stung by a friggin’ jelly fish
• Dinner with family in super fancy, modern restaurant. Food was amazing.