Weekend sans kids

Jon Christensen, my friend and co-worker at 3 different companies (BoldTech, StorePerform, and IP Commerce), got married this weekend near Vail, and Amy's parents agreed to take care of the kids for us for 2 nights. We took full advantage of our kid-less situation, starting with a lazy Saturday morning at home - something we can't do when our kids are up at 7 am or earlier. Then we packed the 4runner with camping gear and loaded our mountain bikes, and had a nice ride on the Colorado Trail going west from Copper Mountain part way up Searle pass. The bottom section of the trail was a rutted, bumpy mess thanks to all the horses that ride through, but the upper part was beautiful and great riding. Our next stop was Piney River Ranch just north of Vail - the site of the wedding. We both washed up, dressed up, and enjoyed the ceremony and reception with it's spectacular backdrop of Piney Lake, the glacially carved Piney river valley, and the impressively jagged Gore range. Early Sunday morning, I got in some altitude training by running about 6 miles round-trip from 9,300 ft elevation to about 11,500. After breakfast, Amy and I hiked up the valley to the cataracts on the Piney river. We arrived back at Ron and Dena's a little after 5:00 pm to pick up the kids and get dinner. One heckuva weekend.

I'm an uncle

A big congratulations to Amy's brother Jason and his wife Jan, who became proud parents today of a baby boy, Emerson Butler! They also succeeded in making me an uncle, and bringing Andrew and Elizabeth their first cousin. Here is Jason with the newborn boy.

11th Anniversary

Amy and I celebrated 11 happy years of marriage today with a nice dinner at 240 Union and a concert by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra at Red Rocks. I love you, Amy!

Camping and fireworks

For the long 4th of July weekend, we took the kids camping near Keystone. The trip got off to a rocky start on Thursday, which was a company holiday for me. With a customer deployment deadline of July 15, we ran into a snag with a supplier that I had to deal with on Thursday morning. Once I had my team working on the issue, we escaped to head up to the hills for two nights.

When we go camping, we do our best to avoid established campgrounds, most of which pack people way too close together and have all the charm of a trailer park. We picked nice spot next to a small stream, with no pit toilets or "rules & regulations" signs to be seen. Upon arrival, Andrew and Elizabeth grabbed their buckets and shovels and proceeded to get absolutely filthy, which is what you're supposed to do out in the woods. For dinner we grilled pork chops. Some advice, by the way - avoid the "light the bag" charcoal - unless you enjoy the taste of lighter fluid. (I knew this, but we couldn't find a small bag that wasn't the match-light kind.)

After dinner, we roasted marshmallows, and Andrew discovered the magic of a camp fire. He thoroughly enjoyed putting a stick into the coals then pulling it out to watch it glow and make smoke. (Last year, there was a fire ban throughout most of the state all summer, so we had to forego this most important ingredient of a proper camping trip.)

On the 4th, we snuck away from the camp site and took the kids to Keystone for the jumping castle, playground and some ice cream. At night, we enjoyed the fireworks display, which had Elizabeth fascinated and a bit scared at the same time. The next day, she called it "lightning McQueen" - a mix-up of lightning and the main character from the movie Cars.

We finished off our trip with a nice lunch in Breckenridge with my brother Erik, and a hike to Monarch lake. (By the way, three weeks after I popped into the bar where Erik bartends, he says people are still asking about his "twin" brother.)

Andrew's Lemonade Stand

Andrew has been obsessed with money lately - counting it, trading ones for tens, playing Monopoly even. From gifts and doing chores, he had amassed about $20, even after spending some on candy. He is now intent on having $100, so Amy helped him start toward that goal today by helping him set up a lemonade stand. Andrew bought $7 worth of lemons and sugar at the store - with his own money - and helped mom make the lemonade. Then they drove to the Green Mountain trailhead parking lot, where a bunch of thirsty hikers and bikers would hopefully shell out $1.50 for a small glass or $2.50 for a large. Andrew made the signs himself. The result:

Expenses: $7
Revenue: $25
Net profit: $18

Not a bad ROI for a few hours of labor.

Tour de Southeast Colorado

Amy's friend Sara Reid, whose family owns a cattle ranch near Ordway, Colo., invited us down this weekend to see the ranch and witness the calf branding. The ranch is only a few hours drive from Denver, but it's a world away. It's wide, wide open spaces out there. Turning off I-70 onto highway 71 at Limon, the sign says "Next services 75 miles". Sara's parents Janelle and John treated us to a fantastic meal when we arrived. Of course, beef was on the menu. On Saturday morning after another filling meal, we took Andrew and Elizabeth to see the animals, along with Sara's neice and nephew, Maggie and Shane, who are the same ages and Andrew and Elizabeth, respectively. Maggie was our tour guide, and the first stop was the chicken coop. They have a few dozen chicks that are several months old and the kids enjoyed chasing the around the coop. They also enjoyed sitting in the cab of the John Deere tractor, petting the horses, and feeding the cows some hay. Later in the morning we watched as the Reids and their friends roped, branded, immunized ear-tagged, and de-horned, a bunch of calves. I didn't realize the de-horned the little things - it looks painful. After the horn buds are off, they squirt a bit of linseed oil and turpentine on the wound to slow the bleeding and keep flies off. They used an old bottle chocolate syrup for the squirt bottle. Andrew got to ride a horse, which he thought was great. Elizabeth, who loves to point out horses - both in books and when she sees them for real - was a bit overwhelmed by the specter of a big horse at close range, and refused to get on one.

Andrew also may now fully realize the implications of what he's known for a few years - that beef comes from cows. As he asked more and more questions about what they do with the cows, we told him the brutal truth - that eventually they go to a place where people cut them into pieces so we can buy the meat at the store. He pondered that reality in silence for a minute, then went back to playing. He still eats meat.

Saturday afternoon we drove another 90 minutes or so to Pueblo - observing a whole lot of boarded-up store fronts and run down housing along the way. Once there we visited Amy's grandmother and great Aunt.

Bike to work

Today is bike to work day in Denver. I often ride my bike to the park-n-ride and put it on the bus, but this is the first time I've ridden to work since I moved to Lakewood. The main reason I don't ride more is because all the routes from my house to downtown involve some riding in traffic, which I like to avoid. I did find a route that's fairly direct and keeps me out of traffic most of the way, except for about a 1-mile stretch on Perry St, which I found out today doesn't have much traffic. I may just do this ride a bit more often.

Torn supraspintaus

I while back I wrote about getting an MRI to determine how much damage I had done to my shoulder. It turns out I have a "low grade partial tear" - about 20% - of my supraspinatus - a tendon in my rotator cuff. The doctor recommended more physical therapy before surgery. I was relieved to hear that because the recovery from arthroscopic shoulder surgery, as both he and the therapist explained, is long and painful: about 3 months before I could do anything substantial with my right arm, 6 months til I could be active, and up to year before I'd regain 95% of my original strenght. Ughh. No thanks. I'd much rather do the exercise every day for a year.

1 minute faster on Mt. Evans Ascent

Yesterday I ran in the Mt. Evans Ascent, 14.5 miles from Echo Lake at 10,600 feet elevation to the summit at 14,264 feet. My time this year was 2:24:17, or 9:57 per mile, which is 54 seconds faster than I ran the same race last year. Even though my time improved, it was a much more competitive race this year and I went from 21st place overall in 2007 to 43rd in 2008 (out of 360 people). Not bad, but I was hoping for a bigger improvement over last year's time. The overall winner was Matt Carpenter, who beat the previous course record by 4 minutes, and beat the 2nd place finisher by more than 12 minutes! That guy is a rock star of running.

I ran the first mile in 8 minutes, but wasn't feeling strong, my place slowed, and many people passed me. I improved in the second half of the race, at least compared to other racers, and was able to regain position by passing several people, including 5 people in the last half mile of the race - which is definitely my fondest memory of the race.

Before the race I had delusions about a top 10 finish, but I would have had to run at a pace of 8:25 per mile to do that. That's a minute and half faster, per mile! To do that would take a fundamentally different level of commitment to the sport, and/or different genetics than I was born with. I don't think I'm ready to commit the time it would take to get to that level.

5:48 mile

I while ago I set the goal (perhaps overly optimistically) of running a 5 minute mile. I hit 5:05 on a treadmill, and in November ran a 5:49 mile on a track. I tried again yesterday and ran a mile on the same track in 5:48. Most of my training recently has been for hills, distance and altitude, and I guess that doesn't necessarily translate into a faster mile.

The 5-year-old world traveler

A few days ago Andrew saw my sister, his Aunt Lynette, and they talked about Lynette's husband Jeff being in China. I wasn't there but here's what Lynette had to say about it.

When I told him on Saturday that Jeff is in China, he said, "Oh yea? Where in China?" I thought it was cute because I don't know of many 5 year olds that would ask where in China. I told him I wasn't sure of everywhere Jeff would be but he was starting and ending his trip in Beijing and Andrew said, "Oh I've been to Beijing".... like most 5 year olds would say about having been to Chuck E Cheese or something. It made me laugh.

Just your typical conversation with a five-year-old!

Backstage and 3rd row for Big Head Todd

Amy and I had a memorable experience at Red Rocks Amphitheatre yesterday - a backstage tour, access to the sound check, and 3rd row seats for Big Head Todd and the Monsters. Our tour included a glimpse of the cave-like backstage dressing rooms and the tunnel from backstage to the sound booth - scrawled with graffiti from decades of rock stars and their crews.

The show itself was fantastic: great performance, perfect sound. It was 2 full sets of BHTM - about 3 hours of music. Hazel Miller made a special appearance on several songs as did a horn section. The encore finally was an extra-bluesy cover of Joe Walsh's Rocky Mountain High. The band filmed the whole show for a DVD they'll release later this year.

The 3rd row seats made the performance unforgettable. If you've never sat up close before, I highly recommed getting general admission tickets to a show and arriving early to snatch the good seats. It's well worth it. Here are a few photos and brief video clip.

Sound check: Todd and Jeremy

Tunnel under the seats at Red Rocks

IP Commerce announces $17M funding

My employer, IP Commerce, announced the closing of our Series C capital raise of $17M, which was led by Venrock venture capital.

Altitude training

To prepare for the Mt. Evans Ascent race in 3 weeks, I did some altitude training yesterday. Here's a timeline:

• 4:59 am - wake up (I woke up on my own 1 minute before my alarm was set to go off)
• 5:20 am - leave the house after having a drink and a banana
• 6:30 am - arrive at Summit Lake on Mt. Evans (12,850 ft)
• 6:40 am - begin running. uphill. on the road. 5.5 miles to the summit
  
• 7:40 am - arrive at the summit (14,264 ft). Enjoy a few minutes of the spectacular view
• 7:50 am - start running back down (another 5.5 miles)
• 8:28 am - arrive back at Summit Lake
• 10:50 am - back home to watch the kids while Amy plays soccer

Hell of a way to start a Sunday!

Andrew's 5th birthday

We celebrated Andrew's 5th birthday today with about 20 of his friends plus their parents at Lions park in Golden. Andrew and Amy made a pinata from scratch, which was probably the highlight of the event. After several good whacks, it broke off it's string and our brave friend Mike Kappus held it up until Quentin, our next-door neighbor, gave it the fatal blow. Mom put a lot of time into the event, getting helium balloons, fixing food and drinks, and cooking 2 cakes.

Andrew winds up for the swing

Mike Kappus gets crazy

The frenzied aftermath

First harvest 2008

Yesterday (May 30) we harvested our first vegetables from our garden: some spinach. We had spinach salad with our spaghetti, which was Andrew's request for his birthday dinner.

Southern Colorado Vacation

We arrived home from a family vacation to southern Colorado, including the Sand Dunes, Pagosa Springs, Mesa Verde, and drives over the state's most spectacular passes after a spring snow storm. Here are the highlights.

May 16 Friday

First stop - about 8 pm (45 minutes into our journey) at a convenience store in Fairplay for a potty break. Andrew was wearing his rocket ship pajamas - mom put them on to prepare for him sleeping in the car. I told Andrew he could buy one item (within reason), and he chose a dozen Hostess donuts - chocolate, powdered sugar, and plain. Not a bad choice, since it was their post-breakfast dessert for the next 3 mornings. We arrived at our first destination - the Medano-Zapata Ranch near the Great Sand Dunes - at around 11 pm. The ranch is 100,000 acres owned by the Nature Conservancy bordering the National Park. The Conservancy just recently opened their lodge and guest house for nightly lodging. Amy and I are long-time Conservancy donors, and we had been interested in staying at the ranch, but until recently the only option was to join a multi-day naturalist workshop. It was perfect for us. Of the 3 nights we were there in the 6 room guest house, we had the whole place to ourselves except for 1 night. The house has a large living area and kitchen, with a panoramic view of the dunes and Sangre de Christo mountains; a beautiful spot to enjoy a meal.

May 17 Saturday

After breakfast we went straight to the dunes. A steady cool wind was blowing from the east, making it just cold enough that we all wore light jackets. Medano creek was running strong and cold on the edge of the dunes. After crossing, we didn't go too far into the dunes before we settled in a nice spot and the kids started playing with their buckets and shovels in 30-square-mile sandbox. We all ran down the dune faces a few times, too. I got a good workout doing laps up and down one steep dune. After a picnic lunch, we stopped at the visitor center, where Andrew earned his badge as a Junior Park Ranger. He beamed with pride for the next few days telling anyone who would listen that he was a Junior Park Ranger. While Andrew earned his badge with Mommy's help, I took Elizabeth on a short nature walk. We see several bugs (she calls all bugs "lady bugs"), some animal burrows, and I pointed out to her a pile of deer poo poo. She now excitedly points out to us every pile of deer poo poo she sees. After naps for me and the kids, we mosied over to the main ranch house, where a fairly tame herd of deer was feasting on the green grass, and the kids got a pretty close look at them.

May 18 Sunday

I started my day at 5:30 am, hitting the road for a short drive to a trailhead, and got some uphill altitude training in. I ran up the Zapata Lake trail from about 9000 to 11,300 feet elevation and back again. That's a hell of a way to spend a vacation, eh? After breakfast back at the ranch, we all piled into the truck and went back to the dunes! We did a short nature hike where the highlight for the kids was throwing rocks into a stream, and then on to the dunes again. Andrew told us he didn't want to go to the sand again, but we knew better and took him anyway. This time we went to the east side, where fewer people go because you need 4 wheel drive and partially deflated tires to get thru the sand. The great thing about this spot is that the creek here runs right into the bottom of the steepest dune around, one with about 300 feet of vertical rise straight from the creek. Amy and the kids played in the wet sand and creek while I scaled the dune and ran straight down again, leaping several times as far as I could to land in the soft sand. The sand makes an odd rumbling noise when you land in it - hard to describe. I then helped Andrew build a sand castle and moat while Amy took her turn leaping down the dune. After all that, it was nap time for the kids, so back to the ranch we went. Andrew now said he loves the sand dunes, despite telling us earlier that day that he didn't want to go back.

May 19 Monday

This morning we went on a bison tour. A ranch hand drove us out where we got up real close to some of the ranch bison, including several calves that were about 1 month old. We got up close but stayed in the car to watch. The animals are huge and unpredictable. The conservancy maintains them as an essentially wild herd, providing no feed. They do round up and sell many of them each year to slaughter, but they are increasing the herd size. Without any wolves, they don't have any predators. It surreal to see about 3 dozen bison at close range, with the dunes and the snow-capped peaks of the Sangres as a backdrop. After the tour, we packed up and headed toward Pagosa Springs. Andrew and Elizabeth napped for about an hour (ahh, sweet silence!). We listened to C.W. McCall's "Wolf Creek Pass" as we drove on Wolf Creek Pass and stopped at Treasure Falls. With a drop of about 100 feet and and creek swollen with snow melt, this is the most impressive waterfall I've seen in Colorado. The short hike from the road for a closer look is well worth it. We're now at the Pagosa Hot Springs, where the kids have the only thing required for kids to have a fun vacation: a pool.

May 20 Tuesday

Tuesday was a kid-centric day with most of the day spent in the hot springs pool. Amy and I took turns getting massages, so wasn't entirely kid-centered. The hot springs are right next to the San Juan river, which was probably 6 feet higher than normal due to snowmelt: high enough that they put up sandbags to keep the turbid and frigid water out of the hot tubs.

May 21 Wednesday

After a morning dip in the pool, we hit the road toward Mesa Verde, stopping at Durango on the way for lunch and a stop at the candy store. At this time of year, Mesa Verde lives up to its name, with vivid green spring growth everywhere. Andrew earned his 2nd Junior Park Ranger badge, and we all toured the Spruce Tree House ruin. We spent the next 3 nights at Kelly Place, an amazing B&B west of Cortez, nestled in the canyons underneath 10,000 foot Sleeping Ute mountain. There are several Anasazi ruins right on the property, including one very well restored pueblo and kiva (circular, underground room used for ceremonies). It also borders Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, where several more cliff dwellings are a short hike away. There was a group of about a dozen people here on a "vision quest"; after a few days banging on drums and various activities at Kelly Place, they all packed up for a week of backpacking in the Utah desert. They were really nice folks, and not nearly as weird as you might expect.

May 22 Thursday

We spent the whole day in Mesa Verde, starting with the ranger-led tour of Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in the park. Surprisingly, there is a winery and vinyard just up the road from us along McElmo creek - Guy Drew Vineyards. We stopped in for a tasting and bought half a case of wine. One of those bottles we promptly finished off back at the B&B while the kids napped. It was a cold rainy day, so enjoying some nice wine and a book was a great way to spend the afternoon.

May 23 Friday

Today we hiked a few miles into Canyons of the Ancients to see the cliff dwellings. They're certainly not as big or impressive as those at Mesa Verde, but the solitude - we were the only people there - makes it well worth the walk. Back at Kelly Place, we ate dinner and played games. They had an ancient Monopoly game without the board, so Andrew improvised a game - something like shopkeeper. He doled me out a stack of monopolymoney and then "sold" me various items and gave me change. So he got to exercise his math skills by calculating change, and he absolutely loved it. He insisted on playing again the next morning after breakfast!

May 24 Saturday

Today was a big driving day, but a beautiful one. The cold spring weather left fresh snow everywhere above about 8000 feet, and we spent a lot of time at these altitudes as we drove through Durango, over 2 passes to Silverton, then over Red Mountain pass to Ouray, and finally over McClure pass to Basalt and Glenwood Springs. If you've never been over these passes, they are absolutely spectacular. I also bought the most expensive gasoline I've ever bought - $4.29/gallon in Ouray. (Fortunately, and somewhat miraculously, I got 22 mpg in my 1995 Toyota 4Runner on this tank of gas - the best mileage I've ever gotten.) We spent the night with my dad at my parents' place in New Castle, and as usual, enjoyed great food and great company!

May 25 Sunday

We saw a bear! Driving home over Vail pass on Sunday evening, there was a handful of people stopped to look at something - a big black bear! Just a hundred yards off the road, the bear was grazing on vegetation. This is the first time I've seen a wild bear in Colorado. Pretty cool way to finish our vacation! (Unfortunately we didn't have a good zoom lens...)

Andrew's first girlfriend?

Andrew, who will be 5 years old on May 30, has a good friend in his preschool class named Ali. The other day, Andrew wrote a note that said

I am goen too mary Ali

Translation: I am going to marry Ali
Let's hope he waits a few more years before he ties the knot.

Shoulder MRI

Last fall while hiking with the kids and the DesMarteau family on Kenosha pass, Andrew asked me to carry him up on my shoulders, so I obliged. When I lifted him up, I messed up my right shoulder. The doctor suspects that I have a torn labrum, which is the soft tissue in the shoulder socket where tendons connect. After several months of exercises I regained strength, but every time I do something as simple as throw hard with my right arm, I re-aggravate it. Today I had an MR Arthrogram, and MRI with a dye injected into the shoulder joint to help show the injury. They start with CT scan, and then inject the dye. They had trouble getting the dye in the right spot so the had to repeat this about 6 times, jamming a needle into my shoulder each time. Then I spent about 20 minutes in the MRI. Now I'm left with a sore shoulder and wondering what the doc will tell me tomorrow. Most likely, I'll need arthroscopic surgery to repair it, and 2-3 months of recovery after that. I won't even be able to run for the first 1-2 months of recovery, so I'm planning to postpone surgery (if needed) til after the Pikes Peak Ascent in August.

7 weeks til the Mt. Evans ascent

I have 7 weeks until the Mt. Evans Ascent, which means it's time to kick my training into high gear. Today I ran for about an hour and 20 minutes at Elk Meadow Park, starting at 7600 feet and climbing to somewhere over 9000 feet. Yesterday, I went for long bike ride, with Andrew in tow in the double-wide trailer. The extra weight and drag makes the 400 vertical foot climb from Bear Creek Lake park to my house a good workout.