Lousy Steve Pool. I think he screwed up the weather forcast all last week. So much for the rain. We took it to our advantage though and managed to get out quite a few times this week. Yesterday Robin and Eric hike-a-biked up to Poo Poo point(seriously) and had an epic ride from there. Today I went on a fabulous road ride.

My jersey is not correct- "simply out of shape" would be a better logo!

Yesterday's Ether, I mean Easter, brunch turned out well. Everything was done cooking at the same time, I didn't burn anything, didn't have to get KFC takeout...so based on that criteria alone I consider it a success.

Tonight we had a big turnout for the Tuesday Night Training. Robin, Cliff, Richard and even Jerry showed up. Good times.

Photos from the weekend:

Friday night we did a little training...didn't get home till 4am.



Saturday Carol showed us how to make dim sum, meat pies and wanton soup:



Today turned out to be nice and sunny so we rode the SVT for 25 miles or so. Eric showed us how NOT to do a wheelie and Robin set a land speed record for changing a tire (not!).

Here Robin and Eric are pondering how to raft the flooded river:



View of Mt. Si:



Self portrait:

Last weekend we flew to Michigan, primarily for my dad's retirement party, but also to visit with family and friends. Like all trips back home, this one was non-stop and yet we still didn't get to do all the things we wanted to. I'll have to save Xochimilco's(world's best Mexican restaurant) and PizzaPapalis for another time.

Here's my Grandma Helen and brother Darryl:



And here's Dad, all ready for retirement:

Photos from our busy weekend.

Eric and I racing Colinoba 3, an urban fun run in Seattle:



A group of us went to the international district for dim sum, then out for milk tea:



Eric and Robin braved the rain for a paddle on Lake Sammamish:

Today Jerry, Eric and I rode the Tapeworm trail in Renton. It was our first time there and the trail definitely lived up to it's name-plenty of tight, twisty singletrack punctuated by roots and logpiles.

We spent last Saturday in Vancouver with Jerry and Stacy. We checked out an exhibit at the Vancouver Museum, shopped on Robson and grabbed a pint at one of the downtown pubs. I can't wait to go back! The shot below was taken at Stanley Park.

Slight change of plans. Ok a major change of plans- we are staying in Seattle for at least a few months longer. Our weekend scouting trip to Chicago made us realize that it was the wrong move. Long story. So Eric is in a temporary position and that will buy us a few months to clear our heads and figure out what we really want to do.

*SIGH*

It's official- we're moving to Chicago! More details to come...

Big news coming soon...

Who needs 5 and 10K runs? Eric and I chose yesterday's Capitol Peaks Fat Ass as our first running race ever...a 25K (17 mile) trail run with 2500' of elevation gain! A long time ago I had planned on training for it, but between the holidays and being sick I had removed it from my calendar. Then this week I get an email from Shannon asking if I'm going to try it. Hmmm, should I? Considering the fact that I've never run more than 5 miles consecutively all signs pointed to no. Then Robin asked Eric about it and somehow we agreed to run.

So we met Robin at 6am, picked up Jerry and 6:45 and drove to Olympia. Icy roads made us late for the start- about 2 minutes after we parked the whole pack ran past the car....oops. Not a big deal though, we weren't there to win or anything. So we quickly registered and started to chase the main group up the trail. The first 6 miles were uphill (who starts a race on an uphill??), and unfortunately within a few miles Robin's previously-injured ankle was acting up again. Eric told Jerry and I go on ahead if we were feeling OK. Jerry and I ran ahead, with the trail getting progressively steeper on the way to Capitol Peak. Eventually we slowed to a walk because the climb was too steep and snowy. We passed up several people on that hill climb alone. I wasn't planning on being competitive at all but it sure was fun to pass people! At the aid station we hung a right and continued up the iced-over trail to the radio towers. The cold wind was brutal! After that we eased into some rolling hills and then finally a nice downhill section. I am glad that Jerry had the course map so I knew exactly how far we had gone. The last 4.7 miles were extremely tough for me-including the long downhill part on wet clay. I managed to tough it out for most part and 5 minutes from the end we saw Shannon and dog Buddy cheering us on. The finish line was a very welcome sight.

We finished in 4:04, which was great considering the trail was complely covered in snow, ice or mud (only a couple dry sections on the entire course) and the fact that I rarely run. Eric and Robin came in a hour or so later. I had a great time and am looking forward to my next race!

Here's a photo courtesy of Shannon (click for larger image):

Here is Daisy doing her best Donald Trump impersonation. Note the comb-over.

Jerry, Duncan, Julie, Eric and I took advantage of all this white fluffy stuff and snowshoed on Saturday. We did a nice uphill climb followed by a lot of slipping and sliding on the way down. Great idea Duncan!

WOW- we received about 7 inches of snow overnight! Not a strange occurance for most of you, but it's rare for us. I'm still debating whether or not I should attempt the morning commute. Evening commuters actually abandoned their cars and walked home to avoid the ice. The pic below is from a DOT cam right near our house.The 2nd pic is our neighborhood.

We had a pretty nice weekend. On Friday we saw the movie Blood Diamond, which was excellent. Leonardo di Caprio has come a long way since Titanic.

On Saturday Robin, Eric and I went for a 2 hour mountain bike ride. I haven't ridden since September and it felt great. Later that day I gave Daisy a bath. She expects me to bring out the hair dryer to warm her up, and even holds out her wings so I can dry the undersides of them.



Today we had Dim Sum for breakfast then decided to go snowshoeing with Jerry and Robin. What started out as a 3 hour tour turned into a 6 hour odyssey. First the eastbound lanes of 90 were closed for avalanche control, so we sat in the car for 2 hours. Then we finally got to shoeshoe for a couple hours. The snow was pretty wet but we still had a good time. Then on the way home the westbound lanes were closed, so we had dinner at the Pancake House to kill some time. Click to enlarge photo.

I also posted some photos from Christmas, click here to see them.

**New Diet Craze is Sweeping the Seattle Metropolitan Area**

"I'm the only person who's lost weight over the holidays, thanks to my new diet plan called the stomach flu." Karyn Abraham, satisfied customer

For a free 4-day trial, simply drink out of my water glass and the germs will instantly transfer to you. Barf bag not included. Full-blown sickness available for $15.00, roughly the cost of an office visit co-pay.

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.