Remember this from Sesame Street? Click on the arrow to play...

We hope that everyone had a great Christmas. Eric and I are spending the holidays with my family in Greenville, SC. We're having a great time hanging out with family, playing with my nephew and stuffing ourselves silly with cookies and treats! I'll post some pics later this week.

There's an ass for every toilet seat.
-Ralph Rzepka a.k.a Dad

Ok, so tonight we went window shopping at Bellevue Square. Ever heard of a store called JZ Rose? Neat stuff, but once I saw the price tags I nearly choked. That ugly 5x7 brocade pillow? $395. How about the taxidermied chicken? $1700. Oh, and the frog-shaped ceramic umbrella holder? Try $15,000. Please refer to the quote above.

I can stop whining- our power was turned back on today :)

I don't know how the pioneers did it. Our power has been off for almost 4 days and we are going nuts. There was a huge windstorm on Thursday night and it knocked out electricity throughout the Seattle metropolitan area. Our city is one of the last to have power, due to the large number of downed trees. Lousy trees.

We owe Jerry and Stacy BIG TIME- they have graciously allowed us and even the birds to stay over this weekend. Thank you for feeding us, entertaining us and for letting us use your laundry!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Friday night we decorated gingerbread cookies with Jerry and Stacy. As you can see below I'm not terribly skilled in cookie decorating.

Saturday was the 2nd annual Cortez Christmas party, complete with karaoke. Eric stepped up to sing LL Cool J's classic "Mama Said Knock You Out". He was actually pretty good.

Today we put up the tree. Bird tree, that is. We bought this as a gift to ourselves. Daisy is constantly climbing on the couch so this looked like a good solution. We also had Dim Sum for breakfast with Robin and Carol.

Our pictures are now online! Click here to check them out.

We made it back to Seattle last night. Our trip was incredible and we have a lot of photos to share with everyone. Be patient- we have over 500 to sort through! I'll start posting them this week while Eric's out of town.

Hello from Costa Rica! Our trip has been awesome so far! It is sunny and warm, and we just trekked in the jungle today and saw wild Toucans! I will write more later this week!

Holy Schnikes! My dad just received his 40 year award at Ford. I think they should give him a free Mustang for that kind of service!



Well, we leave in a few hours for C.R. We are armed with 3 memory cards, so I'll have a lot of photos to post when we return.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last weekend, Julie, Ryan and Keiran came out to visit. We spent time at the market, checked out shops in Fremont and Ballard, and just hung out at home. It's amazing to see how much Keiran has grown since the last time we saw him. At age two his favorite hobbies include watching Mary Poppins and playing with his stuffed animals. Here's a shot of Julie and Eric in Seattle:




The countdown has begun- we leave for Costa Rica in 8 days!

It's raining men, cats and dogs, and pretty much anything else you can think of right now. Combined with the wind it sounds like a giant carwash. Rainy season is officially here! Too bad all this precipitation isn't in the form of snow :(

Last weekend we tried to see Borat with Jerry and Stacy, but every theater was sold out. As a last resort we rented a Jet-Li flick. On Saturday we went out to eat with J&S then met up with some Michigan AR folks at Acme Bowl. I bowled my worst game ever (note to self- 2006 bowling quota has been met). Sunday was partially dry so Eric and I managed to squeeze in a hike at Tiger.

I've been mentally compiling a short list of races,events and trips for 2007. Better write them down before I forget:

*Capital Peaks 25K- January
*Some off road duathlon that Jerry told me about-March?
*Sea Otter MTB race-April. Kind of a stretch b/c it's in California.
*Big Muddy Rogaine- May (Memorial Day weekend)
*Vashon Island off-road triathlon (we'll see how the swimming part goes before signing up)
*Labor Day weekend-Moab trip??
*Iceman Cometh MTB race-November. It's in Michgan but well worth the trip.

Trick-or-treating must not be very popular anymore- we only had a dozen or so kids stop by on Halloween. Bummer. Now we have 4 bags of candy that need to be eaten.

Last night we went to Cliff and Natalie's wedding at the Fisher Plaza (home to tv and radio stations). Their ceremony and reception took place on actual TV sets! The whole thing was very cool and unique. Here's a shot of Eric and Robin paying homage to Steve Pool, Seattle's most unreliable weatherman:

This is so dumb that I had to share it.

Que Bueno! Vamos a Costa Rica!

After weeks of haggling, we have officially booked our vacation...to Costa Rica! Yippee!

Last night was the 2nd annual Halloween party...here are some pictures (some are stolen from Jerry)...

Yesterday morning we hiked up to Kendall Catwalk with Jerry. Getting up at 5:30 on a Saturday was rough, but the scenery more than made up for it. Fall foliage was at it's peak- the hillsides were just covered in red, orange and yellow hues. Every time we rounded a corner there was another spectacular view.

Click here for photos...

YEAHHHHHHHHH! The Detroit Tigers are going to the World Series!!!!!

I call today's post "Randomness"

Item #1 (Circa 1997)
Ah, memories from Michigan State. The naked man happens to be a friend of ours.



Item #2: Quiz the coach.
What did you do tonight? We went Costco, ate out, and planned our scavenger hunt.
Today's pet peeve? Being called "amigo" at Mexican restaurants.
Today's lunch? A frickin' Lean Cuisine
Today's close call? Almost running out of gas on the way to work. Tried to calculate how many miles might be left after the low fuel light comes on.

Item #3: The Detroit Tigers
-They're one game away from the World Series. Hell yeah.

Fall is definitely in the air in the Northwest. Eric and I walked around the neighborhood tonight and enjoyed the sights and smells of autumn weather. We're taking in as much as we can before the rainy season starts!

Last weekend we rode around town and ended up at the fish hatchery; a big crowd had gathered to watch the salmon swim upsteam. It's such a neat thing to see- by the time they reach the hatchery they're pretty beat, but they're still trying so hard to jump up the fish ladder.

Right now we've got a lot of things on our plate. Currently our biggest task is planning our vacation in November. We both have the time off...but we haven't picked a destination yet! We've got it narrowed down to either Australia (again) or Belize/Guatemala. South America sounds great and the flights are much cheaper, but you have to pay a lot of money to stay in a relatively safe location, and you can't really go off on your own. When you add that up, we can go all the way to Oz and camp and pay the same amount of money. Oh yeah, we don't have to worry about being kidnapped either. Regardless, we need to make up our mind soon before ticket prices get any higher!

Time to sign off-the highly anticipated season premiere of Lost is on in a few minutes. We cannot wait! :) Check back tomorrow for commentary...

I know, I know...I haven't updated the site in a while. Usually this means nothing exciting has happened, but lately I've just been too busy to post. Here's a quick update:

-Last week I went to Atlanta for a tradeshow (Medtrade). I surprised myself and had a good time. I flew in early and met up with my parents at Darryl's house in Greenville for a couple days. It was great to see everyone, especially my nephew Kaden. Here's a shot of Becky, Kaden, Darryl and myself:



-This weekend we went down to Oakridge, OR for the Wicked 24 hour race. Eric was a last minute addition to Robin, Scott and Yumay's team. From what I hear the course was brutal and unfortunately Yumay and Eric dropped out around 4am. Carol and I acted as the team support crew and probably got about an hour of sleep that night. I had a great time meeting some new friends and even managed to squeeze in a trail run on Saturday afternoon. Here's the team leaving the kayak transition area:




That's about it...

Eric's car was on it's last leg, so today we bought a Ford Escape! We really needed something reliable and it's a great car for commuting. I'll post a pic later this week. Other than that, our weekend was pretty tame.

Labor Day weekend was absolutely action-packed. It went something like this:

-Friday night was dinner at Roger and Yumay's. In addition to pork chops, risotto and mass quantities of deep-fried zuchinni which was already a ton of food, Carol and Yumay also brought out the hot pot. In a nutshell you take a portable burner and put it on your table, boil up some chicken broth (I'm sure you can use other kinds), then cook a bunch of miscellaneous ingredients in it, kind of like a fondue. It's a pretty neat idea and you could improvise on your stovetop if you didn't have an actual "hot pot". I particularly liked the tofu- I think I'll have to buy some this week.

-On Saturday we actually slept in. It was great-Daisy was courteous and didn't squak until about 8am. Later in the morning we met Robin and Don for a 55-ish mile road ride around Lake Washington. Roughly halfway through the ride we stopped for a big lunch and a few miles later, a slurpee. I did learn a lesson that day- just when you think you're fast, you're not. Somewhere in the U-district we got passed by a another rider. Normally this isn't a big deal, except this rider had only one leg. No prosthetic leg either- his amputation was way up on the hip. Very inspiring. Later that night Jerry and Stacy came over for some fondue.

-Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. We got up way too early and met Shannon, Mike and the gang for a hike on the Olympic Peninsula. The hike up to Mt. Ellinore may have been short, but it was also really steep and just kicked the crap out of my already tired legs. The summit rewarded us with great views despite the haze from nearby forest fires. Click here for some photos.

-Today we went car shopping. Eric's car is on it's last leg and we definitely need to replace it. I have to say the overall experience was a bit frustrating. You can't just look or take a test ride at a dealership without the salesman being overly pushy and asking ten times if you want to buy it. Needless to say we came home empty-handed-maybe we'll have better luck later this week.

On another note, we were totally shocked and saddened to hear about Steve Irwin's death. He may have been cheesy but he really did a lot for conservation in Australia. Very tragic :(

Last weekend we actually got out of town and went camping! We haven't camped all summer and it was starting to bother us...I think I heard our tent crying out in the garage. After work on Friday we dropped Daisy off at the bird sitter and headed up to the North Cascades National Park. That evening we stayed at Rockport state park, which is full of tall trees with moss hanging from them-very beautiful. Oh yes, the park had hot showers too, which are always welcome after a long hike. So much for roughing it!

The next morning we headed up to Sahale Peak. We stopped short of the glacier and sat down for lunch with a great 360 view of rugged peaks. There was quite a bit of wildlife on the trail and we even saw a mountain goat with a kid in tow.

Later that night we had an excellent dinner at the "world famous" Buffalo Run cafe (well, only famous in that corner of the world) and made s'mores over the campfire. I had a good time buring marshmallows over the fire too :)

Click here for some photos from the hike.

What a great weekend. It was nice to just hike for once and not stress out over training.

Our '06 adventure racing season is officially over- we'd rather go on a 2-week vacation instead of doing the Wicked 24 hour race. So it looks like we'll take the next month to relax and then start gearing up for winter sports. I'm hoping for a lot of snow so I can XC ski race this winter.

This wasn't the most exciting weekend ever, but we still had a good time. We went shopping on Saturday and watched the movie Castaway later that evening. After the movie we decided being stranded on an island would be cool, but only for about a month. And with a few ammenities like a knife and a tent...

Today we slept in (till 8 mind you) and tried out a yoga tape we checked out from the library. Well, the tape was a bit advanced (headstands are a bit out of our league) so we scrapped that and went down to the XXX Rootbeer's 55-57 Chevy car show. There were a lot of cars but nothing compares to the Woodward Dream Cruise going on in Detroit this weekend, where hundreds of thousands of people bring out their classic cars and have a huge party. My dad and I went to the very first Dream Cruise in his '78 Mustang, back before it was a huge event. I guess it's gotten a lot bigger- I think there were over a million people there last year. For you non-Michiganders, Woodward Avenue was a popular place for kids to cruise and drag race back in the 60's and 70's.

In keeping with the 50's theme we had lunch at the BurgerMaster drive-in off the 520. The joint was packed- we didn't get our usual spot underneath the awning today. When the waitress came up I kind of chuckled- she was using a wireless palm pilot-type gadget to take our order. So much for an authentic 50's atmosphere!

Later in the afternoon we hiked up to Poo Poo point so Eric could see the paragliders take off. It was getting late in the day and we really moved fast to get up there before sunset. Eric really wants to do a tandem flight now which is fine as long as I don't have to go too. Heights are OK, but not when strapped to glorified kite.

Now onto another workweek...

The past week's been really busy. Joe and Jamie came to visit at the tail end of their honeymoon, so Eric took last Tuesday off and played tour guide. It was really nice to have them over-you guys can come out and visit anytime you want!

Last weekend was great. We did dim sum on Saturday and then picked up our new kitchen worktable. If you've been to our house you'd know that we have absolutely no storage or counter space. Our new table solves both problems and best of all it was really cheap! Sunday was our 2 year anniversary. Being totally non-traditional, we woke up at 5:45am to go on a long bike ride, then totally wolfed down dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Later that night we picked up a Boston Cream Pie (saw one on a TV show and it looked really good), and even cut the cake with our wedding cake knife.

I just added some photos from yesterday's hike. The contrast is way off on them due to varying light conditions...someday I'll figure out how to take those shots correctly!

Click here for the pictures!

Today we did a hike up in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness with Kim and Jerry. What started out as a 3-5 hour hike ended up turning into a 7-hour adventure.

We started at 8am in the Alpental parking lot (ski area) and headed up the trail to Snow Lake. Unlike our last trip up there, the lake was completely thawed out with no snow in sight. After a brief photo op we then went around Snow and up to Gem Lake. These high alpine lakes are gorgeous- the clearest water you've ever seen in a shade that resembles blue Windex. We had a quick snack at Gem then strategized our next destination, Chair Lake. Unforunately for us there is no trail to the pass and the route looked decidely sketchy with steep boulder fields . In true adventure racing spirit we pressed on, first completely bushwhacking through the forest then crossing the first of many scree and snow areas. The first part was fine, then we scrambled up a steep meadow-like area and finally reached Chair Lake, which was high enough in elevation to still have big patches of snow on it. We all dared Eric to jump in, but after sticking his hand in the water he decided against it. Bummer. We then crossed more scree and snow, then climbed up another extremely steep meadow to reach the saddle. Yippee- the hard part is over, right? Wrong! There was another massive boulder field to cross before reaching the trail back down to the car. That section was uneventful, although I had a slight delay after a rock hit my ankle bone :( So when we reached lake Matakwa (sp?) Eric was so hot that he took off his shirt and jumped in the water! It must've been super cold-as soon as he hit the water he was already on his way back to the shore! The remainder of the hike was hot and rocky and seemed like an eternity. Pretty much all we talked about is how badly we wanted a Slurpee. We stopped at Denny Creek (a rocky area with lots of pools to sit in) to wash our faces and then finished the trail with no major incidents (except for Eric hurting his knee). We were so happy to see the car!

Here are couple pics, I'll post more tomorrow on the photo site:

We just got back from a weekend in Michigan. The main reason we flew home was for Joe and Jamie's wedding, which was at the St. John center in Plymouth. Both the ceremony and reception were beautiful!

The other reason I went back to Michigan was for my 10-year high school reunion. It was actually a lot of fun and I had a great time catching up with old friends.

Here's a shot of Eric and I at the wedding:

Last weekend Robin, Eric and I raced in the Seattle Night and Day Challenge.

The race started at 4pm in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. The first 8 hours were on foot and we travelled all the way down to Sodo (of course stopping for milk tea in the international district), over to Beacon Hill and back up through Madison Park. Did I mention it was HOT out? It was probably the hottest day of the year, and of course we were out at the hottest part of the day. Eric and I kept cool by running through sprinklers along the course :) One of the strangest things we saw was a dog standing on the roof of a house- I have no idea how it got up there.

Despite the urban setting our route did not have many food stops along the way. When I finally convinced the guys it was time to eat, we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere with no food in sight (only Ethiopian restarants). It was by sheer luck that Jerry called and offered to bring us food. Yea! We met up with him and Stacy around 10pm for an impromptu meal of burgers and fries. That was the best meal I've had in a long time.

After the snack we trudged back up to the race headquarters and changed into our bike clothes-it was time for the 8 hour bike portion of the race. The bike section was tricky because there were a ton of cars downtown and no one expected to see a group of road riders that late at night. The bike route took us up the Queen Anne hill (with an awesome view of the city), over to Ballard and through the U-district, then finally going around Lake Union and back to the finish line. We eventually rolled in around 7:15am, just as the hot sun was starting to come out again. We put in some serious miles over 16 hours! No wonder we're all sore and tired today!

Last Tuesday night's training consisted of a bike nav course at Taylor Mountain. This was my first time navigating and I think I did Ok for most part. Here we are studying the map board:

Today we hiked up to Granite Peak. It was a pretty steep trail but the views were great.

It's hard to believe this is only 30 miles from our house!

I think we're volunteering at the Trioba 12 hour adventure race this weekend. We have a cheesy surprise up our sleeves for this...

Looking ahead:
-Robin, Eric and I are teaming up to do the Seattle Night and Day Challenge on the 22nd. We're in the 16 hour duathalon division.
-We're heading back to Michigan the following weekend to attend a wedding and my 10-year high school reunion (yikes!).

Here's a Raid video clip from one of Boise's TV stations. It's pretty cool (note-you have to watch a short commercial before the clip begins).

Raid Video Clip

Today a big group of us went to the International district for Dim Sum, which was awesome as usual. We had alot of Dim Sum first-timers today, and it's always interesting to see them try and figure out what some of the foods are. Mike Cortez was even brave enough to try the chicken feet. No thanks!

There was some sort of street fair going on with an appearance by the Seahawk's mascot, Blitz. Eric told me to do a Heisman tropy pose, which I didn't know how to do so I asked Blitz and he just shrugged his shoulders. Some mascot!

Later that afternoon Eric and I went to the Mariners/Tigers game (thanks for the tickets Stacy). Unfortunately Detroit lost by one run...

Over the weekend we re-traced part of last year's Trioba 12 hour race by heading up to Mirror Lake. It was great but half the trail was still covered in snow. On the 4th we went for a long ride then over to our neighbor's BBQ for the remainder of the evening.

What a nice weekend! The sun is out, temps are around 80 degrees...

This morning we went kayaking on Lake Sammamish, then picked up some paint for our great room. Here's a shot of our house with our garden in full bloom.

I just added a few photos from the Bend, Or trip here.

Summer has arrived- it's 90 degrees here today. Not quite as hot as Moab, Utah, where several of our teammates and friends are participating in the Eco Primal Quest. PQ is a 10 day non-stop expedition race, approximately 400 miles and is absolutely brutal. We wish them the best of luck!

Last weekend we went to Bend, OR with Jerry and Stacy. We had an AWESOME weekend. I'll post pictures later tonight.

Tuesday night training resumes tomorrow with a hike up to Poo Poo point, around the back of Tiger and down the NW Timber trail. Meet at 6:30 in the lower Tiger lot off exit 20. Come prepared for the heat!

We're still in recovery mode after last week's race. It's funny, after doing such a big international event we're not too excited about any other races this summer. Wah. Call us spoiled if you want- we like doing races with helicopters and tv crews and tons of international racers :)

Neither of us have written up a race report, but here are a few tidbits to tide you over:
-Race was approx 270K (approx 167 miles), over 36 hours.
-We lost a teammate 24 hours before we were slated to leave Seattle, but found a replacement just a few hours later.
-We canoed a class 3 river...in an inflatable boat. And yes, we did fall out once. It all happened so fast and we were a little shaken up afterwards. However,we did manage to finish that 8 mile section and Eric did a great job of steering through the rest of the rapids. Woo hoo! We had a perma-grin for the rest of the day.
-We did a 900 ft rappel. It was awesome.
-We passed up 4 teams on the last canoe section to finish 23rd. The top 20 teams were all pretty much sponsored pro teams, so we're really happy with our finish.

-Karyn

Some race photos have been posted! click here for our personal ones.

Also, there are some shots of us on www.sleepmonsters.com:

-Race Start. Click on the photo that says Missing Link under it for a larger image. Click here to see it.

-Inline Skate. Click on the photo that says Mergeo.com (it's really us). I'm towing Eric with my fleece coat. Click here to see it.

-Whitewater canoe section. Click on the Missing Link photo for a larger image. Click here to see it.

We're back from the Raid! Too exhausted to do a race report- check back tomorrow or Wednesday. Here's a shot of the team at race check-in:

Check out this neat site- you can translate any webpage into one of several different languages...
http://babelfish.altavista.com/

I probably won't be posting again till next weekend; we're busy getting ready for the Raid. Our most current (and somewhat last minute) project is making a sail to use on the flatwater paddling section. We hope to test it out on Tuesday.

We'll post a race report once we get back in town.

Last night Jerry set up a short bike orienteering course for us at Taylor Mountain. It was fun but involved a lot of bushwhacking through thorn bushes (thanks Jerry). Eric, Richard and I teamed up, here are some pics:

Running through the underbrush:

Richard:


Getting a CP on top of a boulder:

This is our team for the Raid (L-R: Me, Steve, Eric and Richard). I can't believe the race is less than 2 weeks away!

We had a soggy but fun weekend. In true Pacific Northwest style, our Memorial Day weekend included a lot of rain and snow. So much for barbeques, beaches and swimming!

Robin had set up a training weekend down in Oregon. After work on Friday Eric and I swung by Robin's house, loaded his gear in the Rover and then drove to Seatac to pick up Jodie, who flew in from Salt Lake City. We would be joined by Shannon the next morning. The four of us spent the night at Scott's(who by the way summitted Mt. Everest last year!), and woke early the next morning for our ropes lesson at Lewis and Clark State Park. We met our instructor around 8:30 and hiked up to the rock face where we'd be ascending and rappeling. Unfortunately with six of us we really only got in one turn on the ropes each. That's OK though, most of all I wanted to learn rapelling with a figure 8 and a shunt- it was much easier than using an ATC. I think now I'll be pretty comfortable with whatever the Raid organizers throw at us in Idaho. Ascending was suprisingly easy to do but it sure wore out my forearms! You can see some pictures here.After the lesson and lunch we started our drive up to Mt. Adams in search of a campsite for the night. After the tents were set up Scott, Shannon and Robin went off for a mountain bike ride while Jodie and I built an awesome fire. This was quite a feat because everything was sopping wet from the steady rainfall. Kudos to us!

On Saturday morning we packed up our gear for the Mt. Adams climb. Our packs were pretty full as we carried crampons, ice axes and snowshoes in addition to food, water and extra clothing. We had to hike a few miles up the road just to get to the trailhead; low snow levels had left the main road impassable. By the time we hit the trailhead we were pretty much soaked! Ugh. We put on the snowhoes just a little while later and that make trekking through the snow so much easier. Much to our suprise the sun even paid us a short visit (just long enough to give us a sunburn), then made a hasty retreat behind snow-laden clouds. The snow was falling hard enough to cause some safety concerns, so we turned back after a few hours. By the time we reached camp all we could think about was hot food and a hot shower, neither of which we could get at our primitive campsite. So...we cleaned up as best we could, found a great Mexican restaurant for dinner, and then rode our bikes for a couple hours. That night we crashed at Scott's house again because no one wanted to sleep in a cold, wet tent. We stayed up pretty late yakking, looking at Scott's Everest pictures, and trying to figure out exactly how many Longaberger baskets were in his house (like 200??). This morning we slept in, had a great breakfast and drove back up to Seattle.

Yeah, the weather was crummy but we made the best of it and had a great time. I think next year's Memorial Day outing should be in Moab though!

We hardly took any pictures because our camera battery only had like 8 minutes left on it :( Click here to see them.

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday! Turning 28 is no fun (my dad says wait till I turn 60...). Eric had planned a nice dinner downtown, but since it was a weeknight we couldn't stay out very late. I took a rain check for an upcoming weekend and instead we went on a hike with the team. Near the end Eric produced a Hostess cupcake with a birthday candle in it. It was a fun alternative to a traditional cake.

So, we just received an update for the X-Adventure race we're doing in June. These updates include the addition of snowshoes as mandatory gear on the trekking section, and basically a warning about the canoe section. It sounds like the rivers are high and fast right now due to melting snow. The race management is advising teams to skip that section if they're not extremely confident in technical whitewater paddling (class 3 rapids). Now, I think we're a strong bunch but definitely not well versed in reading rivers; we'll have to make that call once we get to the race. Last year's "whitewater" section was totally flat water, so we'll see.

We had a pretty good weekend. It sure was nice to sleep in for once :) Some highlights:
-I'm happy to report that the rain held off until just now (8pm on Sunday). I was supposed to rain both days.
-We saw The DaVinci Code on Friday night. It was OK...I thought the movie left out a lot of details and the casting kind of sucked. Tom Hanks definitely wouldn't be my first pick for Robert Langdon's character.
-On Saturday we putzed around, did a little hike and had Jerry and Stacy over later than evening.
-Today I did a 25-30 mile ride on the Iron Horse (not exactly sure how far I went), then joined Eric and Roger for a 2-hour paddle on Lake Sammamish.

All good things must come to an end, which unfortunately is the case with our nice sunny weather. I guess in a way it's good because our plants could really use the water. I'm sure the nice weather will return...in a month or two.

Tonight we're watching The DaVinci Code with Jerry and Stacy, but the rest of the weekend is up in the air. I'm hoping the rain holds off so I can do another mountain bike ride at Tiger. Last Tuesday's singletrack ride was awesome!!

We just got back from the Big Muddy rogaine in the Oregon "desert" (Yes, Oregon has something that resembles a desert). For those of you who don't know what a rogaine is, take a parcel of land and put X number of checkpoints on it, then teams try to get as many of those checkpoints in X number of hours. Jerry, Eric and myself signed up for the 24-hour course. Robin was a last-minute addition as his own teammates dropped out unexpectedly.

We left Issaquah around 5pm, stopped in Yakima for a Miner's burger (note to self- don't try to eat a salad in the car), and finally arrived at the race venue around 11:30pm. Man, it was COLD out! I don't think any of us slept well that night due to snoring, cold temps or those birds chirping at 3am. The next morning we woke up at our leisure (the event didn't start till 11am) and slowly assembled our race packs after a light breakfast. The race start was the most anti-climatic one I've ever experienced- it was not chaotic like an adventure race. This race was so long that people just kind of meandered to their first CP. The whole scene was kind of funny.

Both the terrain and weather were very unforgiving- temps were in the mid 80's with no clouds during the day, and hovered around freezing at night. The terrain consisted of lava rocks, more lava rocks and even more lava rocks. You really had to watch your footing on the hillsides to avoid slipping.

All in all we spent about 19-20 hours out on the course. Some points of interest:
-The scenery was really neat. Yeah, it was mostly dry and brown, but it was sure nice to see something other than evergreens.
-All of those off-camber hillside traverses were tough to navigate, but it was really cool and somewhat fun at the same time.
-Watching the harvest moon rise.
-Eric and I totally freaking out over...running water. Around 3am Eric thought he heard "something" and panicked, causing me to panic as well. Robin and Jerry thought we were crazy.
-Eric propping me up when I fell asleep...while walking down the trail. 'Nuf said.
-Spending an hour or so trying to find one of the easiest CP's on the course. Doh! If only we had stopped gabbing and concentrated on the course...
-Great teamates- Jerry, Robin and Eric were a blast to race with.

Click here for the pictures!

I just uploaded some pics from the past week's outdoor pursuits. Click here to see them. They're labeled 5/4 and 5/6.

Just got back from a 3-hour hike with Jerry and Robin. Here's a group shot from the top of Tiger 2:



Click on the photo for a better view.

Who wants to hike/run tomorrow (Thursday)?

I was thinking of hiking up to Poo Poo point, over on the railroad grade to Tiger 3, then down the Tiger mountain trail. We can cover 10-15 miles depending on the route.

Let's meet at the Exit 20 lower parking lot around 6:15. Don't forget the lights.

I can't believe that tomorrow is May 1st already. It sure seems like the year is flying by, doesn't it? I totally forgot that I'm going to be 28 this month...yuck.

Moving on...

We're really wiped out from the weekend. On Friday we met up with Robin to go on a hike and ride. At 10pm. Duncan let us park at his place and from there we rode up the Iron Horse trail for an hour or two. We stopped at a fire road and stashed the bikes in some underbrush, then did a 2 hour hike up the trail. The hike was pretty uneventful but slightly challenging due to the heavier-than-normal packs we were all carrying. Call me a chicken, but I'm not very fond of being out in the dark and tried to walk in between Eric and Robin whenever I got the chance. Anyway, by the time we got back it was about 3am. We had a pretty good time. I think Robin has a 12-hour training session planned for next weekend! If we don't do the ropes class then we'll probably join him. I'll make sure I bring more of "the best brownies ever" for that outing.

After about 3 hours of sleep (my internal alarm clock goes off at 6:30 regardless of the day) we crawled out of bed and loaded the kayak on the car- we were taking crazy Tony Catanzaro for his first paddle ever. He and Eric teamed up in a tandem (just in case kayaking wasn't his thing) and I used Eric's boat. I almost always paddle with Eric in a tandem and it's hard to tell exactly how much I contribute to the overall speed. Well, I must not contribute much because I was moving glacially slow. Looks like I've got some work to do before the Mountains to Sound race, which has a 12-mile kayak section. I have finally mastered the rudder though and I'm pretty happy about that. We tooled around Union Bay, watched some sea planes take off and then had an awesome lunch at the Jolly Roger in Ballard.

Later that night was Jerry's birthday party. Most of the Missing Link team had assembled to eat Mexican food, play poker and laugh our butts off.


Today we just played catch up by doing laundry, grocery shopping and hanging out with the birds.

I think we just had one of our busiest weekends to date. Eric, Jerry and Stacy manned our "yard sale" on Saturday. Since we don't live on a street garage sales aren't really a possiblity for us. Eric rose to the challenge and snagged a patch of grass right on the main road...and we made a couple hundred dollars, probably due to the great location :) While all this ruckus was going on I teamed up with Robin to do the Street Scramble around the U-District. We rode the 3-hour course on mountain bikes and it was a lot of fun.

Today Eric woke at 5:30 to support Jerry at his 50K race. He basically rode alongside him for the entire 50K, passing him water, GU packets, and words of encouragement as necessary. I also rode about 25 miles of the trail and met them at the finish line. On the way home I stopped to walk a friend's dog that I was pet-sitting and then Eric and I headed out for a 2 hour hike. Of course after that there's always a ton of errands like grocery shopping and 2 loads of workout-related laundry. Now it's about 10pm and I'm SO ready for bed!

Oh, I forgot to mention that it was 70 degrees today! Eric actually got sunburned and I have a head-start on my weird tan lines for the summer (lines from gloves, shorts, socks and sleeves). The weather is supposed to stick around for another week or so- perfect for training :) I've logged 14 hours in the past 7 days and I'd like to do at least that many this week.

Have a great week everyone!

Last night we hiked up to Poo Poo point (yes, that's really the name) in hopes of watching the paragliders take off. Unfortunately the sun had just set when we reached the top and all the gliders had landed already. Doh! Eric really wants to try paragliding but I don't think I could get up the nerve to do it! At one point a large Barred owl landed in front of us and started hooting. We should've asked him how many licks it took to reach the center of a Tootsie pop.

We've going to be really busy the next few days:
-Thursday- Kayaking with Robin
-Friday- Mariners vs.Detroit Tigers ball game
-Saturday- Garage sale, bike orienteering course(?)
-Sunday- Support crew for Jerry's ultra

It's officially that time of year...when the rest of the country is warming up and we're still in the 40's. Yuck.

We didn't do a whole lot this weekend. We went bowling on Saturday with some friends and then canoed on Sunday. My ankle is really hurting so I tried to keep off it as much as possible, but I hope to get running again later this week.

Quiz:
In the last 24 hours, have you:

-Have acquired a rash from stinging nettle?
-Endo'd into a pit of mud?
-Run over a mouse or two?
-Stayed out 'till midnight, then proceded to take a nap after work today?

If you can answer "yes" to 2 or more of those questions then you probably raced the Beast at Soaring Eagle Park! It was a good start to the '06 season. The course was tough but we had a great time and enjoyed each other's company. The next race is May 2nd at SeaTac!

*Click here for pictures*

Last night Shannon and I did a good 2 hour trail run at Tiger. The weather is finally starting to warm up, which means it's consistently in the 50's. I never thought I would consider 55 degrees "warm"! I would do just about anything to have one day of 80 degree weather :)

Tomorrow night is the Beast race- Shannon, Kim, Marna and I racing together, and Eric and Jerry make up another team. Check back later in the week for a write-up and some pictures.

Another weekend has flown by. I think all companies should have one 3-day weekend a month.

On Saturday Eric, Kim and I did a long hike and run at Tiger. The rain started about a half hour into the trek but we still had a good time (despite being soaked). Later that night Eric and I saw Lucky Number Slevin; it was pretty good despite so-so reviews.

Today we went to Pike Place specifically for clam chowder from the Market Grill. We putzed around there for a while then picked up a few things from REI. I managed to fit in a short ride today as well.

Hike on Saturday:

9 am at Tiger (exit 20 trailhead)-we're hoping to do 15 miles or so.

Call if you're coming...

What a gorgeous day outside...here's Daisy on the front porch.

Last night was our team training night at Tiger mountain. We had a huge group and some new faces this time- I think the nice weather drew everyone outdoors. In between all the talking and catching up, we managed a 2 hour run/hike on the Iverson and Northwest Timber trail. Everyone had a great time.

Not much is new with us lately. We've been really busy with work and spend the weekends unwinding...and training of course :) I can't believe it's April already- summer is going to be here before we know it.

Hey everyone!!!

I am trying yet another format for our webpage- a blog! This will be much easier for me to maintain.

Let's hope I can get this up and running sometime soon...

-Karyn