Idiot-A-Rod 2010  -  Jan 24th, 2010 10:46am

I'm tired, hungover, my knees are killing me and I'm pretty much covered from head to toe in pudding.  Today may not be so great, but you have to pay for glory and yesterdays Idiotarod was truly glorious.

Quick refresher: The Idiotarod is a 4 mile shopping cart race.  Carts must be found - not stolen and returned when your done in good condition.  Teams are made of 4 runners, 1 passenger, and each team has to choose a theme and decorate/dress up accordingly.  The actual race is separated into 4 legs.  At the end of each leg you check in, then after 20 or 30 minutes you check out and haul ass to the next stop.  In the middle and sometimes at the end of each leg is some crazy ass drinking challenge.  There's also a bonus challenge at some of the stops which knocks extra time off your total.  Sabotage and bribery are perfectly legit as the point is more to have fun than win, but everyone still gives it their all to come in first even if prizes are only given out for a bunch of randomm stuff like last place and best cart/theme.

Amy, Jon, McCoy, Cupp(broken hand and all), and myself reformed the same team from last year.  We've been looking forward to this for quite a while.  Lunchtime talks about names/themes have probably been going on since October.  After a lot of back and forth we finalize on a name: Section 8 and a cart design: A Tank.

I enlisted a couple of my friends Palmer and Wilson to help with the engineering this time - especially on the cannon.  I think our build of the shuttle last year was nothing short of miraculous, but it was a push to get it all done in 1 night.  This time we had a few weeks to put something more substantial together and we succeeded beyond all of our expectations.

"Tanky" was officially born on Sunday January 17th.  His creation required the following items both purchased and found around my garage:

• 1 Shopping cart (acquired with the help of my folks on Christmas day)
• 4 cardboard boxes
• 6ft of drain pipe
• 1 4" to 6" pipe converter fitting
• 10 small paint buckets
• 1 mortar mixing tub
• 4 foam core boards
• 1 garbage disposal mount
• 2 gold stars
• 1 license plate
• 1 fire extinguisher (bought in the middle of the night off a Craigs List post)
• 3 rolls of duct tape
• 12 glue sticks
• Zip ties
• Green, white, and black paint

Check out the pictures and I'm sure you'll agree that Tanky turned out absolutely brilliant.  Props to everyone on the team for putting their heart into it.  When we rolled up to the race yesterday we were already pleased with our design.  After about half the competitors came by just to say how much they loved our cart we were absolutely glowing.

Like last year, Jon had spent the night prior filling condoms with tapioca pudding.  New to our arsenal though were beer powered squirt guns and our secret weapon - a huge CO2 fire extinguisher hidden in the cannon of the tank.  Other competitors had water balloons, squirt guns, bags of watery fudge and their own secret weapons like skunk oil(unbelievably horrific stuff).  Fortunately, everything stayed pretty civil while we waited for the start of the race.

We wandered around admiring everyone's creations.  The Disco Pimps were back with their rendition of studio 51, the Chickens had their giant nest, the CUNTS returned in all new pink underthings and our friend and coworker Spohn even showed up with some kind of giant Christmas tree cart thing.  The amount of energy people put into this race is a testament to just how unbelievably fun it is. Random people who stumble into these proceedings are always dumbfounded.

All the runners on the team this year(myself included) have been training for various races for the past few months so when this thing kicked off I wasn't surprised to see us take an early lead.  I was a little surprised however at the sheer amount of pudding, water ballons, silly string, and whip cream that got thrown around.  We all looked like we had been in a war by the time the race was over.

Tanky fared pretty well for a while and the CO2 cannon was 11 kinds of awesome.  Anytime someone got in our way we just blasted them!  As things progressed though we lost 1 fender and track then the other.  The cannon also kept falling out which meant I had to carry it half the time.  Still it was much more sturdy than most of our competition.  The biggest issue we faced was weight.  There was a challenge where you had to push/carry the cart (passenger and all) through a sand volleyball court.  Between all the tank stuff and the fire extinguisher this was a nightmare. In the end I had to hold up the front of the tank while everyone else pushed completely burning out my legs in the process.

We kept in the first couple spots drinking hard and running harder throughout the race.  Being out front meant we had to figure out where to go though and the map this year was a Greek tragedy.  We kept going the long way or the wrong way alltogether.  All the running and the drinking took its toll on me and even though we ended up finishing first, I was running well behind the other guys and there is some debate as to whether or not we got disqualified at the finish line.

The best part of the race may very well have been the after party at the Bikini Lounge.  Camaraderie, booze, and lots of cute girls made for a really great time.  There was a 2nd after party at a house after the lounge but I was pretty gone by that point.  We bailed right after the awards ceremony (Dicso Pimps won best cart again grrr) and briefly took Tanky to the grocery store for some food.  When we finally made it to Amy's house for Jon Tencza's birthday party I was done.  In no shape to drive, I crashed out on the spare bed which brings me to where I am now - recovering on my couch typing this.

Amy, Jon, McCoy and Cupp - you guys are the best.  Thank you so much for carrying my ass on this one :)

Return To Sunrise  -  Jan 19th, 2010 3:16pm

I had such a good time skiing a few weeks back, when the opportunity to go again presented itself I jumped on it.  So this last Friday after work, Alek, Kellie, Cupp and me headed back up to Sunrise.

This time we weren't going it alone.  Kyle and 2 of his friends Anhill and Harry were going to meet us up at Alek's cabin.  We would also be putting in a full day plus night as the mountain would be open from 4:30-9:30 or until people started freezing solid.  Well... most of us would anyway.  Some folks had already decided the bar in the ski lodge was a better option for the evening.

Once everyone arrived, we decided to spend the night in the most preparatory way possible - drinking a case of beer and playing Super Mario Wii.  While absurdly fun, the decision proved to be less than sound in the morning.  Fortunately, skiing is a good motivator and everyone managed to packed up their gear and get moving without too much herding.  We arrived at the mountain just after 9 for and geared up for the day.

I spent most of the morning with Alek and Cupp who was snowboarding for the first time.  We would meet up with Kyle, Anhill and Harry later.  Kellie opted for the half day and would be chilling up at the lodge until ski-school started.  Cupp did really well that morning and went from the sliding down the bunny-hill to actually snowboarding on the main mountain in just a few hours.  Learning to board/ski is rough work though - so while he and a few others took a break, I took the opportunity to get a bunch of solid runs in.

I spent the remainder of the day alternating between hitting hard runs on my own and skiing with various packs.  It wasn't long though before the day was over and we headed into the lodge to eat and throw on more clothes for night skiing.  They only shut down for about a half hour so by 5:00 we were back out on the slopes.

This was what I was here for - skiing at night and I wasn't disappointed.  Even though it was getting really cold, there was no wind and the lights on the mountain made everything look absolutely incredible.  Only a few runs are open at night but it was enough - especially since I spent the bulk of it running down the ski-park.  Harry and I kept one upping each other run after run until we were both shooting off of the full 12ft ramp and making it past the flat-top.  Unfortunately before I could get any pics or video of this, we got the call that Cupp broke his hand.

I don't think anyone was surprised.  Cupp is kind of injury prone and he was worn out long before dark.  He kept saying each run would be his last.  Eventually he headed out on his own and that's when he took a hard fall on his arm and broke the boxer bone in his right hand.  We decided it would be best to wrap it up for the night and get him to the emergency room.  So we called it a game and headed out for the Showlow hospital.

In the end it was kind of fun.  Brian wasn't injured too badly so we left him there with Kellie while the rest of us grabbed some food at Wendy's.  He eventually got his X-rays and a temp cast/sling and we made our way back to the cabin to warm up and dry out.  Everyone was pretty wiped and crashed out early.  Alek and I stayed up for a while playing one of his his psychotically complicated board games, but even this didn't last long.

We packed up early the next morning, cleaned up the cabin and went out for breakfast before making the long drive back to phoenix.  They will have night skiing again in a couple weeks - I think I'm down for another round.

Preparing for Ragnar  -  Jan 12th, 2010 3:52pm

No, its not the name of some deity who will reign destruction upon us in 2012 - John Cusack has already done this.  Rather, The Ragnar Relay is a race I'll be running next month.

Much bigger than my last run, the Ragnar is a 200 mile relay race from Prescott to Mesa.  Each team consists of 12 members and each team member will run 3 legs of the race.  The remaining members are carted around in 2 vehicles which drop/pickup at the various hand-off points.  The whole shebang should take us around 36 hours to complete and I plan on being little more than a pool of goo at the end of this one.

Fortunately not all of the legs are even and I agreed to join this fiasco on the condition that I took the shortest of them.  A 5 mile up/downhill battle, then two 4 mile runs on fairly flat land. I'm probably more at fault for joining McCoy on this one than he is but I prefer to think of this as his doing as I sleep better at night.

I'm now running about 3 miles - 3 times a week.  This is a huge improvement from where I started on the 10k, but I feel like I need to get that up to about 5 miles a day before I'm good this time.  You can track my progress/damnation on my runkeeper page if you like.  Wish me luck :)

First Ski Trip Of 2010  -  Jan 12th, 2010 3:05pm

The last thing I need to post on to catch up the poor souls I subject to this site is my latest ski trip to Sunrise.

Looking back I'm amazed and saddened that I only squeezed in a single ski trip last year.  For something I love so much I spend surprisingly little time doing it -- I'm blaming Canada.

Though this trip was originally scheduled to have 132 people come with and all stay in Alek's cabin only 3 of us made it in the end.  Vince, Alek and myself... well ok - Alek's family was up there as well but they hung out in town while we goofed off on the slopes.  Really I can't say enough about Alek on this trip.  He provided an awesome place for us to stay, food in the morning/night, and great company on the slopes.  I definitely owe him one.

Thats not to leave out Vince - he is great to ski with.  Probably the only person I know who skis better than I do.  He'll ski any run and can go all day without needing to eat or go to the bathroom.  An invaluable skill when you can only be on the slopes from 9am-4pm.  The mountain also cooperated giving us great squeaky dry snow and a sunny albeit cool day.

Tried to take a couple videos on this trip but they turned out really craptacular.  Turns out that its downright impossible to ski well and hold a video camera.  I remember my dad doing that as a kid, he is a talented SOB.  Enjoy the pics and hopefully I'll see some of you out there this weekend on trip #2.

New Years Eve 2009  -  Jan 12th, 2010 2:54pm

I guess if I'm catching up, new years would be the next big event.  Well... actually there was a small party at Paul's place where I introduced everyone to the pig project but that's another story for another time.  For now lets focus on the night we killed ol Pinchy.

Tani and Vince decided to host new years eve this year.  Was kind of a combo party/house warming.  It was also the night that we decided to test out a series of fire extinguishers for the upcoming Idiotarod.  Turns out that fire extinguishers are awesome fun :)  Was also kind of an awesome fun night in general.  We had tons of food, enough alcohol to subdue a college dorm and the obligatory bag of fireworks.  We also had alcoholic pudding!

I'm not kidding here either.  This stuff was lethal.  The original thought was that it might be a good substitute for jello shots which were worn out at Halloween.  Turned out though that alcoholic pudding won't set but instead becomes an amazing liquid concoction kind of like eggnog.  Here is the recipe for those brave enough:

• 1 Package Instant Chocolate Fudge pudding mix
• Substitute 1/3 of the water for Vodka
• Substitute 1/3 of the water for Bailey's
• Mix, stash in the freezer, then serve in shot glasses

I should also warn you that its a good idea to have an air-hole in the container during transport.  My pudding vessel exploded as it warmed in my car and oozed 60 proof chocolate all over my truck.  What remained was really amazing though.

In addition to the pudding I also brought Pinchy - a lobster from the local grocery store who spent his last few hours on ice in a lunchbox.  Its likely that Abbey will hate me forever for cooking him up but man... steak and lobster is the flawlessly decadent way to ring in the new year.

The party ran until about 3am at which point we had all had enough.  Props to Tani and Vince on their beautiful new home and backyard, to Jeremy for finally having his first drink or 10, to Abbey for getting wicked drunk and making us all smile and to Kellie and McCoy who both made me feel like I made at least somebodies life better this last year.

Halloween 2009  -  Jan 11th, 2010 9:26pm

It took me a couple months, but I finally got around to organizing all the pictures and whatnot from this er... last years Halloween party.  I had hoped to top my previous party efforts and all I can say is mission accomplished.

Actually, I may have overshot the mark.  Songs have been sung, tales have been told and the whole affair has really transgressed into a mythical beast all its own.  Costumes, women, beer, fireworks, sodium-metal, mezcal, bacon, more women, sandwiches, Rock Band, a beer gun, a fire-pit, and tray up on tray of jello shots all mixed together in some sort of dark ritual.

I can tell you that Julie won the costume contest, and thanks to a rigged vote by Amy I actually got last place.  I can also say that the bacon on a stick was the hit food of the party.  What I can't or won't really tell you is much else.  Trust me, We are all better off this way.

To all who attended this madness thank you so much.  Was really one of the craziest nights ever.  For everyone who missed out I highly suggest showing up next year.  Who knows what we'll have to do to top this one but I'm certainly willing to try.

A Cold Day At Saguaro  -  Dec 20th, 2009 5:13pm

With all of the other silly crap I've done this year, I've been neglecting the local fisheries.  Even though its been cold and rainy, I took this last week off and couldn't resist heading out to Saguaro with my dad.

We both knew that fishing wasn't going to be epic, but since neither of us had been to Saguaro in many years we decided to make a day of it.  The 2 of us headed out Wednesday morning for what was a seriously cold day on the water.  We didn't leave early, maybe 7:30, and when we arrived there was only 1 other car/boat there.  Something kind of eerie/cool about having a lake all to yourself.

Saguaro is very close to town so if the weather isn't crappy its usually full of jet-skiers and Sunday boaters - not great fishing conditions.  In a way then, these kinds of days are the only way to fish the lake.  Times when no one else wants to be there.

We headed east down the canyons to get out of the wind right off the bat.  In the decade or so since I've been on the lake, things have changed quite a bit.  The lake has become much greener, trees and tall grasses have overgrown what used to be sandy beaches and flat camping areas.  It was also a lot smaller than I remember.  That phrase seems to keep haunting my trips to our lakes here.

The fishing wasn't much to speak of - only really had 1 bite all day.  With that few people though, the wildlife were out everywhere.  Herons, falcons, ducks, we even saw a brief fight between a bald eagle and a pair of red-tails.  The whole place was quite peaceful, something I'm sure happens there all too infrequently.

We did manage to get a few bites over by Butcher Jones Beach.  Almost certainly from trout they had dumped in the lake recently.  In the end, ever fearful of crowds :) - we headed in as the sun finally came out and a few more boats showed up.  A cold but amazing day on another majestic Arizona lake.

The Phoenix 10K  -  Nov 8th, 2009 6:18pm

Well the results are in and I officially survived!  This morning in just over an hour and 10 minutes I crossed the finish line of my first 10k.

It was an interesting experience to say the least.  Definitely one of the harder things I've done in my life.  Not so much the distance but going from not being able to run a mile non-stop to running a full 10k in just a 2 months.  Fortunately I had some friends to help push me along.  Thanks to Jon and McCoy for giving me some wise words and a swift kick in the ass when I needed it.

I suppose its worth saying that I managed 5k without missing a beat - something I'm proud to say I trained up to.  The last 5k though was just determination and will - there was no way I was ready for this and my body really started to give out around the 9k mark.  I've spent the last 8hrs on the couch drinking kool-aid and coding trying not to move much.  Maybe if I do one of these again some day I'll be in better shape.  I definitely have enjoyed running in the morning but not sure how I feel about the racing right now :)

Well here is a link to my race and some pics I took this morning.  Thanks again to everyone for all their encouragement and kind words.

A New Backyard  -  Oct 19th, 2009 8:34pm

I have had an ongoing battle with my backyard for several years now.  Each side has claimed victory at various times, but overall I was definitely loosing the war.  Fortunately my friend Jon is a landscape designer and with a lot of help and a good dose of cash I think I can finally say mission accomplished.

My hatred for this yard didn't begin right away.  It took several months of pulling out overgrown plants, a plague of beetles and a relentless battle with ants for control of my grass before I really began to seethe.  It was the bougainvilleas that really did me in though.  These devil plants grow like mad without food or water, are covered in sharp spines that can go through a tennis shoe and shed paper like flowers constantly that gather in every crevice of a yard.  Basically they are the most horrible plant ever conceived.

The yard was originally very green but over the last few years as I slowly killed off more and more of it, brown became the color of the day and it finally turned into just a big dust-bowl.  I've basically avoided opening my backdoor for the last year since I've been prepping for Jon's crew to come in and resurrect color in my yard.  I'm happy to say though that the dark days are over and I've been lounging around my backyard for the last week enjoying the huge new patio and the distinct lack of dirt or dead grass.  Check out the pics to see the transformation and I'll post some pics of the furniture as well as soon as I get a chance.

The Big Sandy Shootout  -  Oct 18th, 2009 8:59pm

A few months back I randomly stumbled upon this website for a machine gun and large caliber weapons shootout called The Big Sandy: http://www.mgshooters.com.

This last weekend a small group of us spent a day and a night at the bi-annual shindig and all I can say is wow.  The daytime shoot alone was worth the drive out there, and the opportunity to see and shoot the kind of firearms they had was simply awesome.  The night-time shootout was truly epic though and I was unprepared for the scale of it all.

To get to The Big Sandy you have to drive about 3 hours northwest of Phoenix.  A dirt road just outside of Wickenburg takes you to a parking lot at the bottom of a hill where you can camp and pay either the $200 shooter or the $25 dollar spectator fee.  On top of the hill is another parking lot bordered on 1 side by RV's and on the other by the actual shooting line.  The line itself is about 1500ft long and sectioned off into 25ft areas where folks setup their guns and shade tents.  They fire off the top of this hill down into a small valley where targets are setup.

Most of the people there were shooters as opposed to spectators.  There were only a few vendors and food and water while purchaseable were pretty sparse.  This was an affair for people who really loved to shoot and you could see the pride in peoples faces as they would talk about their guns to any interested party.  Everyone I met there was very friendly with the 1 exception of the RC plane guy who cussed constantly as he worked on the planes with a set of badly bandaged fingers.

I would have expected a more militant group, but these people had as much in common with hippies as weekend warriors.  They lit off fireworks all night, played disco music at lunch (not a joke) and generally had a great time out there in the desert.  There were a ton of vets who really cherished the weapons they maintained from wars they themselves fought in and the folks at the rental booth were only too happy to show me to load an M-16 and aim a 50cal.  Everyone was celebrating being free in an age where they confiscate your water at the airport and it was something we all noticed.

As expensive as these guns are to fire, people only shoot them for a few minutes each day and I was amazed how much time people spent unjamming their guns and working on them.  During the day, the line really only lit up when the target plane flew by.  I have some video below that shows just how nuts that was.  The night shoot on the other hand was a little more intense.  Between the fireworks, the flares and all the tracers, it was only a few minutes after dark before the whole hillside was on fire.  We were amazed that the whole desert didn't go up in flames.  I wish my camera could have captured the color and the intensity of the lightshow that night but its not even close.

There is not much else I can write which isn't in the pictures and videos below except to say thanks again to Kellie, Denny and McCoy who joined me on yet another crazy adventure.  Good friends make even a simple evening hanging out in a parking lot a great time :)

Oh and if your having any problem getting the videos to work just download VLC.