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.

11th place in Cherry Creek Sneak

I ran the Cherry Creek Sneak 5k (3.1 mile) race this morning in 19 minutes, 11 seconds. That was good enough for 11th place overall, and 2nd in my age division (35-39 year old males). Apparently I'll receive a "commemorative award" by mail for being in the top 3 for my age group. That's also about 20 seconds faster than I ran the same race 8 years ago. Not a bad way to start a chilly April morning.

Gum and Sukrz

What do you get when a 4 (almost 5) year old boy, who is learning to spell phonetically, writes his own grocery list?

gum
sukrz

(a.k.a. "suckers")
What else could a growing boy like Andrew need???

Spring ride on Green Mountain

Yesterday I went for a bike ride after work on Green Mountain with Matt Good and his buddy Dom. It was a beautiful Spring day in Colorado with sunshine and 75 degrees, but the wind was howling at about 30+ mph. Riding uphill into the wind is a good workout. It's a good thing we got our ride in yesterday because by this afternoon, it's supposed to be raining and snowing.

Running uphill

I signed up for 2 races again this summer: the Mt. Evans Ascent in June and the Pikes Peak Ascent in August. I've been training all winter, but it's time to kick into high gear now and see if I can beat my times from last year!

Happy 2nd Birthday Elizabeth!

Elizabeth is 2 years old today - tax day - so her birthday is easy to remember. We had a party for her on Sunday with all of her grandparents plus her Uncle Jason and Aunt Jan. Most of her gifts were girly-girl things - necklackes, cute dresses, pink sunglasses, and lot of barrettes for her hair, which is shoulder length now and growing fast. Her Uncle Erik gave her a puffer-fish stuffed animal that makes a "boing" noise when it hits something. She had tons of fun with it last night; she picks it up, says "boing", then throws it down and giggles excitedly when it makes it's noise.

The duplex is rented

Yesterday we ended our quest to find renters - we signed a lease and collected a deposit from a family that will move in on May 1st. They have family living down the street, so we hope that means they stay for a while. It's quite a relief to know we don't have to answer the phone and show the house anymore - at least not for another year. And thanks to craigslist, it didn't cost us anything to advertise.

Adventures of Mr. Mom

Amy is on a business trip in Kentucky until Friday evening, so look out, kids, I'm Mr. Mom for the rest of the week! That's right - I have sole responsibility for waking, dressing, packing lunch, driving to day care and preschool, picking up from said locations, feeding again, playing games with, putting pajamas on, and tucking into bed -- for 2 kids. Of course, I get to enjoying playing with them for a short time each evening before bed. Tonight, I cooked up spaghetti, and let them watch Shrek 2 while I ate my own meal and cleaned up. Thank goodness for DVDs. Amy (bless her heart!) made a big batch of chili on Monday before she left, so I shouldn't need to cook dinner for the rest of the week.

Andrew is really sad that mommy isn't here and doesn't understand why he couldn't go with her. Hopefully he won't be scarred for life.

Easter weekend

We had a great Easter weekend, starting with egg decorating a few days ago. The Paas kit we bought had stickers and hats to dress up the eggs with; the photo below shows the result. On Saturday morning we enjoyed an Easter egg hunt for the kids at Barb & Dave Frommel's house. This was Elizabeth's first real chance to participate in the hunt, and she loved it. Saturday night, we had dinner with Jason & Lindy Kearns and Yoshi and Sandra Tagawa. Jason and his family are in town from Washington DC with their 3 kids for a spring break vacation. Jason and Yoshi are fraternity brothers, and I haven't seen them since Andrew was a few months old. It was great to catch up! On Sunday, of course the Easter bunny visited our house and Andrew and Liz had another chance to search for candy-filled eggs. Next was church, where Elizabeth got to show off her pretty dress.

Winter Park Ski Train

Amy, Andrew and I took a ride on the Winter Park Ski Train yesterday. (Elizabeth stayed with Grandma & Grandpa - she's not skiing quite yet.) Of course Andrew loved the train ride, and it's 29 tunnels each way, including the 6.2 mile Moffat tunnel under the continental divide. Amy and I loved not driving - or sitting in an I-70 traffic jam. To top it off, the snow and weather were both great.

Artwork & numbers

Here is a sample of Elizabeth's day care artwork.


And here is an example of Andrew's fascination with numbers and math.


Finally, here are some samples of Andrew's creative side. He is left-handed, after all.

One year with Elizabeth

Yesterday (March 6) is the one-year anniversary of Elizabeth's adoption day. It's almost hard to imagine now a time when she wasn't part of the family.

Walking, talking machine

It's been a while since I've posted an update on Elizabeth. A while back I posted a short video of some of her first, wobbly steps. A few months later, she's walking like a pro, and starting to talk, too. She's come a long way since she started the Ponseti treatment for her club feet!

Ski school

Yesterday, we put Andrew in ski school at Winter Park, hoping that would help him improve faster than we can teach him ourselves. We put him in Level 2, where they spend the day on the "magic carpet" - a tiny hill with a conveyor belt the kids stand on to get up the hill. Looks like it was a little too easy for him, so next time it'll definitely be Level 3, where they ride up a real ski run on a cart pulled by a snowmobile. His instructor said he spent a lot of the morning crying for mommy, but in the afternoon he calmed down and skied great - the best in his class.

This is Andrew's 3rd season on skis, but he's only been skiing a few days each season, and only a few runs per day. He started with a little rubber strap to keep his ski tips together, but we took that off this year and he's done great without it. He loves to go fast, he can do a snowplow (or as we call it, a pizza wedge), and he can turn fairly well. Amy and I took him for a run with us before his lesson started, and again after his lesson was over. He didn't want to go afterward, but he said he would go if we gave him a Pez candy afterward. He drives a hard bargain!

Landlords

For a few years now, off and on, Amy and I have been looking to invest in real estate. We actually signed a contract for a 4-plex a few years ago, and the very next day I got laid off from my job when StorePerform decided to ship all of their software development to India, and then we all moved to China for a while, so that deal fell through. (By the way, StorePerform is now bringing development back to the US. Ha ha!) Recently we made 2 offers on a duplex in Lakewood and the seller finally accepted our offer. With a little luck, we'll be able to lock in a decent mortgage rate and we'll be landlords in about a month.

Geek in training

I mean that in the nicest possible way. After all, I'm a geek myself! Andrew seems to have a gift for - or perhaps an obsession with - arithmetic. Almost every day, while in the midst of other activities like playing or eating, he'll start quoting arithmetic equations. "3 plus 3 plus 3 is nine", he'll say, followed by "1 plus 2 plus 3 plus for is .... 10!". At his preschool, he's writing a "math book", which consists of handwritten pages of math facts - mostly addition, I think. At home last night, our next door neighbor came over to play with him, and instead of playing with her he spent his time writing his own home version of the math book. At one point, he said, in a most serious tone of voice, "I love writing math books".

Let's hope this lands him a really good scholarship one day!

Mr. Mom's potty training

Amy and I decided to potty train Elizabeth. She's only 21 months old, but when she joined our family at 11 months old, she was already trained pretty well. In China, starting at just a few months old, they put children on the toilet at regular intervals and leave them there until they pee. When they start going, the adults whistle, and the Pavlovian effect takes hold. Pretty soon, they can set the kids on the pot, whistle, and viola - potty time!

We made Andrew go cold turkey (no more diapers - period) when he was 2 and a half years old. Over a 3-day weekend, he learned quickly that he didn't like being soaked in urine. We started the same technique on Elizabeth 2 days ago (except for overnight - she still needs a diaper then), with mixed results. To top it all off, Amy took off with some girlfriends for the weekend and left me in charge of potty patrol. Liz makes it to the toilet about half the time, but in a single 1-hour period this afternoon, I had to clean up 3 accidents - meaning 3 changes of clothes for Elizabeth, and me too.

C'est la vie!

Andrew the author

Andrew is quickly learning to write letters and words. The other day, entirely of his own initiative, he wrote the following on a piece of paper:

Ole Andrew can rit on the papr

Translation: Only Andrew can write on the paper

He's written several short letters recently - one to Santa, a few others to friends - but in those cases, mom or dad wrote the words first for him, and then he copied them down. In this case, he did it entirely on his own.

Thailand and Cambodia (May 19, 2002)

This is another installment in the series: 'Round the World Revisited. I sent this email from Thailand on May 19, 2002 during our 6 month journey around the world.

Hello, everyone. Here's our latest installment from
Thailand.

Bangkok - our first experience in Asia. We call it
"organized chaos". Lots of people say they don't like
it because it's too crazy, but that's exactly why we
DO like it! You never know what you're going to see
when you turn the corner. It might be a beautiful old
temple, a modern skyscraper, a shabby market selling
mystery foods, a horrible pile of rubbish, or dozens
of shops selling huge Buddha statues. Whatever it is,
though, there's sure to be tons of dogs roaming the
street and through the shops (remember to watch your
step).

Some observations on Thailand:

Food: Excellent! It's rare to find bad food here. Much
of it is nice and spicy, just how I like it. And
cheap, too. Coconut curry, Thai salad (Yam), and Pad
Thai are some of our favorites. It seems to be safe to
eat from dubious looking street vendors. At least, we
haven't had any problems yet. And there's food
everywhere. The most common Thai "restaurant" is a few
folding tables and chairs on a sidewalk, with a single
wok and surprisingly varied menu. At some places, we
saw carts selling roasted beetles, worms, crickets,
and even scorpions. It does a body good!

Transportation: roads are good, and Bangkok has modern
trains, good buses, and tons of taxis. They still
manually control the lights at many big intersections,
though. Public buses are cheap and reliable but
private ones (run by dubious tour companies) are often
delayed or broken down, and they stop way too often --
so the driver can collect a commision for bringing
tourists to a restaurant.

Plumbing: One thing they definitely have not mastered
is plumbing. They can't seem to connect two pipes
together, and often times our sink drains onto the
bathroom floor, sharing a floor drain with the shower.
In the (cheap) places we stay, we typically get a
sit-down toilet with a bucket to use for flushing. The
locals, though, normally have squat toilets.

Religion: Buddhism is prevalent. It's not quite what I
expected, though. Too superstitious. Every cab and bus
has a mini shrine hanging from the mirror or sitting
on the dash, and boats have ribbons made by monks
wrapped around their bows; this is to bring good luck.
(With the crazy way people drive here, they need it. )
Every shop and home has a spirit house (a small
shrine, usually on a pedestal) in which the spirits
live. Monks in their orange robes are omnipresent,
although talking on mobile phones and smoking call
into question their austerity. Apparently, one can be
ordained as a monk for as little as a week, then go
back to a normal life and add the honor to one's res

Language: Thai is a tough language for westerners.
Every syllable is spoken with one of 5 different tones
(low, medium, high, rising, or falling) and the
meaning of a word depends on its tone. Thus "Mai mai
mai mai mai" (with the correct tones) means "New wood
doesn't burn, does it?" Be careful how you say "thank
you" (khap kuhn khrap) or it may turn out to mean
something like "your mother was a hamster."

Massage: for about $4 per hour, you can get a great
massage here. The style they use is a mix between
"normal" massage, chiropractic, and accupressure.

Leeches: that's right -- worms that sink their teeth
into you and suck your blood. Really nasty buggers,
but apparently not really a danger. They seem to
prefer the taste of "farang" (westerners) over the
locals. Really creepy to find one squirming on your
body and chowing down when you didn't even feel it.

--------------------------------------------
Here's how we've been spending our time. After a few
days in Bangkok, we travelled south to the islands.
First on the west coast, we stopped in Krabi and
visited Wat Tam Seur, an amazing monastery and temple.
We climbed 1200 steps to a shrine perched on top of a
sheer vertical cliff.

Next stop Ko Lanta (Ko means island), where we went
diving at an absolutely beautiful site, Ko Ha. 80 feet
of visibility, great corals, and 4 octupus changing
colors before our eyes. Then we took a small boat to
the small island of Ko Hai, which is relatively
undiscovered with only 3 small resorts on a beautiful
beach with a great view of 3 huge limestone pinnacles
facing the island. From here we took a day trip to
Emerald cave, where we swam through a cave and emerged
on the other end inside a hidden lagoon surrounded on
all sides by vertical cliffs several hundred feet
tall.

We did an overnight tour of Phang Nga bay, which is
amazingly beautiful. It's filled with hundreds of tall
pinnacles rising up to a thousand feet straight out of
the bay. We spent the night at a muslim fishing
village built on "stilts" rising out of the bay next
to a small island. Out of 250 buildings, only 2 are on
land.

Before crossing the peninsula, we stopped for a few
days in Khao Sok national park, which is a thickly
forested area dominated by a large reservoir. This is
where we had our encounter with leeches. Other than
that, it was a really nice example of Asian jungle,
complete with bamboo, monkeys, and hornbills.

Now in the Gulf of Thailand, we spent several days on
Ko Tau, a nice little island with lots of good (and
cheap) diving.

After a short stopover in Bangkok, we travelled to
Angkor in Cambodia. This is the famous site of 8th to
14th century Khmer ruins. Getting there was a fiasco
in which we spent 14 hours travelling about 250 miles.
We spent 5 hours with 7 other people in the back of a
pickup truck on a terrible pot-holed, dusty road from
the Cambodia border to Siem Reap (the town near the
ruins). This is the Cambodian version of a bus. We
were supposed to be in a real bus, but our bus
supposedly was broken down (it was a scam all along --
there was no bus).

Despite all that, the pickup afforded a great view of
the Cambodian countryside and villages, which are
definitely third world. We saw men plowing their
fields with buffalo power, huge carts the size of a
U-haul being pushed by a dozen men, begging children
galore, whole families on a single moped, etc. So how
do you transport live pigs in Cambodia? Answer: tie it
upside down on a plank and strap it to the back of
your moped (legs kicking in the air). If you have
multiple pigs? Stuff 2 or 3 of them into a little
wicker cage and strap that to your moped.

Angkor is truly amazing -- words can't do it justice.
I would highly recommend it to anyone. It is the ruins
of an advanced civilization which build huge Hindu and
Buddhist stone temples with the finest artwork
imaginable. The largest and most famous temple, Angkor
Wat, is surrounded by a 600 foot wide moat. It's outer
wall is over 3 miles in perimeter, and it stands about
300 feet tall. Almost every square inch of stone is
covered in the highest quality carvings depicting
battles, Hindu epics, and everyday life. It's terrible
to think how wars have reduced this civilization to
such a primitive state.

That's all for now. Next up is northern Thailand and a
week or two in Laos. Hope everyone is doing well back
home!

Brad and Amy

Caucus

Amy and I just attended the Democratic caucus for our precinct. Four years ago, 12 people showed up for our precinct. This year, we had 74, and we had to park a half mile from the caucus site (Alameda High School) where about 30 different precincts caucused. Our precinct supported Obama over Clinton by more than a 2 to 1 margin. We don't know yet what the state-wide results are.

Van Halen

I spent Friday night at the Van Halen concert at Pepsi Center with some friends from high school & college - Dominic, Bryan and Steve.

The review
It was a damn good rock 'n' roll show. Depite the various shortcomings which I mention below, it was a great nostalgic blast for the fans of the original VH. There were only 2 hints of the Hagar era: a few guitar solo riffs lifted from 316 and the "5150" tattoo on Eddie's shirtless back. These guys still know how to entertain a crowd even if their stage show doesn't exhibit the manic excess it did back in the day.

The crowd
Ten seconds into the opening song, You Really Got Me, a drunk guy directly behind us took a dive into my buddy Bryan, causing a domino-like chain reaction of people falling and beer spilling. In the process he got his foot stuck in my seat (the kind with the seat bottom that flips up) and spent the next two minutes struggling to yank it out. After that he kept his drunk ass snugly in his own seat until he disappeared about half way through the show. The average age in the arena was about 35-40 years old, but there were a surprising number of teenagers, many of them with their parents. I'd say 75% of the fans were male; it was a definite sausage party.

The set list
The song list was the same as every other show on the tour, which is fine. The played all the hits and dug deep for some surprises like "Little Dreamer" and "Romeo Delight". Every album from the Roth era was represented, with the first album dominating. The true fans were not disappointed. The capped it off with an encore of 1984 and Jump. I was disappointed, just like the last 2 times I saw the band with Hagar, that nobody played keyboards (unless you count the sound stage guy). For "I'll Wait", "Jump" and "And the Cradle Will Rock", keyboard music appeared from the ether while Eddie stood there pretending to play guitar until it was time for the guitar solo.

The sound quality
In a word: disappointing. I don't think acoustics are a strong point at the Pepsi center. "The Can" is a more appropriate name for this place as a concert venue. The sounds were muffled and it was tough to hear the guitar through the din. It was loud, like you'd expect a VH concert to be, but it wasn't ear-splitting, AC/DC-circa-1990 volume I feared it might be. They didn't turn up the amps to 11 this time around, thankfully.

DLR
Diamond Dave still puts on a decent show for an over-the-hill rocker, but he certainly can't hold a tune - or a scream - like he used to. He also went into a silly rambling reminiscence of teenage party times for what seemed like 10 minutes, while strumming an acoustic guitar and eventually breaking into "Ice Cream Man".

Eddie
Ed is skinny and was shirtless all night. He actually looked like he was having fun. His guitar solo was nothing new. It's the same incoherent mix of recycled riffs from Eruption, Little Guitars, Cathedral, Mean Street, and 316 that he's been doing for decades. As a guy behind us said during the solo, "write something new, Ed". Those are some damn impressive riffs, though. And amazing to see how effortless he makes it look.

Alex
Grandpa Alex is looking old these days, but he can still keep the beat. He still wears his signature karate-style headband. His drum solo was a furious few mintues of arms and legs pounding the skins and cymbals as fast as humanly possible, but with very little apparent rhythm. The huge gong behind the drum set was just begging to see some action, but sadly went untouched throughout not only the solo, but the entire show.

Wolfgang
It's disappointing that Eddie tossed Michael Anthony aside like one his millions of cigarette butts. But I can't hold that against Eddie's son and competent new sidekick. The kid can play bass and sing backup with the best of 'em. Probably sings a lot better than Lee Roth these days. He could use some coaching on his stage presence, though. Not much going on there.

Sick as hell

I've spent the last week with flu-like symptoms, or a particularly strong cold. On several days, I didn't hardly do anything except sleep, and I haven't had much appetite. The doctor checked for strep, but that came back negative, so I suppose it's a virus. I went for a run last Sunday - the day before I started feeling sick - and I wonder if that did me in. It was a fairly nice January day for Denver, with temperatures in the upper 30s, and when I stepped out the front door to check the temperature, I didn't even feel a breeze, so I didn't cover my ears. That was a mistake, because there was a breeze, particularly on the run back home. My ears were freezing. Also, in addition to 20 minutes of easy jogging, I ran 1 very fast mile around the track at Green Mountain high school. That's 6 minutes of sprinting, and consequently, 6 minutes of pretty cold air pounding on my throat and bronchial tubes. It was my throat, bronchial tubes & ears that started bothering me the next day.

Cowboys with Blackberries

We took the kids on Friday to the National Western Stock Show and rodeo - a Colorado institution. There's no doubt this is the largest gathering of people in cowboy hats anywhere in the state. You can generally tell apart the folks that wear cowboy hats and boots for real, and the posers who dust them off once or twice a year so they can fit in with the crowd. It's amusing and incongruous to see cowboys chatting away on their cell phones and blackberries like a bunch of urban teenagers.

As for the kids, the Andrew enjoyed petting and feeding the baby goats and sheep, but Elizabeth was a little bit freaked out by all the critters. Andrew's favorite part of the night was when we bought him a bag of gummy worms.

Beaver Creek

I've been wanting to ski Beaver Creek for years, and finally had a good excuse to go on Saturday. My fraternity brother Eric Ianuzi was in town from Connecticut, mainly to ski, but also for an exhibit of 2 of his paintings at the DU art school. I joined Erid and another of our fraternity brothers, Rhidian Orr, on Saturday at Beaver Creek, which had about 4 feet of new snow this week. It was a near-epic ski day, with plenty of Colorado's famous powder. To top it off, Rhidian's wife got us $40 lift tickets - that's $52 less than the full price $92 tickets - ouch!

Powder day

I woke up at 5:30 this morning and checked the snow report. 7.5 inches of new snow and 12 inches in the last 48 hours at Winter Park. My work calendar was nearly empty of meetings (which is very unusual) so I decided to take a powder day. No, I didn't lie and take a sick day - just took a vacation day. Of course since I get PTO, a sick day is the same as a vacation day.

Amy and I had had a great time, and found some good powder stashes. A storm hit on the drive home, and a few miles from the house, I hit a patch of ice at a red light and bumped the car in front of me. Fortunately, he was driving a big ol' SUV with a solid bumper, and my 4Runner's bumper was the only part that got messed up. Nothing bad, no cops, no insurance claims.

Soda and fudge

Andrew's grandma made some fudge for Christmas, and Andrew has a new favorite food now! The other day, while grudgingly finishing his meal, he told us "I wish everything was made of soda and fudge." I couldn't help but point out that if his wish came true, he could never have ice cream.

Americanized Chinese Food

Since returning from China just over a year ago, I've purposely avoided the typical Chinese restaurants that cater to gringos. The reason is that real Chinese food isn't anything like the phony fare you find on the menu at those restaurants (sweet and sour pork, pu pu platter, General Tso's Chicken, etc.) - it's much better. I have gone out of my way on several occasions to drive down to Denver's China town (near Alameda and Federal) and found authentic Chinese grub at Superstar and King's Land, which satisfied my cravings for the good stuff.

There's a Szechuan restaurant near home at Garrison and 6th Ave, and I've been craving Sichuan (aka Szechuan) food for a while, so I thought I'd try it. Amy and I dragged the kids there on a last-minute whim on Friday night, and it was disappointing. Nothing on the menu that resembled the fantastic and spicy Sichuan food we had in China. Just your standard Americanized Chinese menu. Blah. The only redeeming thing about the place is that we learned that Sichuan means "4 streams" (Si meaning 4 - which we already knew, and chuan presumably meaning stream).

Anybody know where to find authentic Sichuan food in Denver???

5:05 on a treadmill

I'm still training to run a 5 minute mile, which is tough with snow and ice everywhere for the past several weeks. This morning, I ran a 5:05 mile on the treadmill at the gym, which is faster than I could run it outside, I'm sure, where I actually have to propel my body forward rather than just move my legs fast. Anybody know how to convert treadmill time to real time?

Australia (March 29, 2002)

This is another installment in the series: 'Round the World Revisited. I sent this email from Australia on March 29, 2002 during our 6 month journey around the world.

Greetings from Australia (Oz)!

Quiz: translate the following phrase from Australian
into English: "I've got tinnies in me eskie, mate!"
(answer at the end of this message)

First some observations about the differences between
New Zealand and Oz.

1. Northern Australia is hot! In fact, I dare say it's
freakin' hot! In Cairns and Darwin it seems to hover
around 99 degrees (that's 37 to the locals) with high
humidity. At night it gets all the way down to about
85. Southern NZ was getting a bit chilly by the time
we left.

2. Australia is swarming with 20-25 year old kids
running around in swimwear looking for cheap beer. And
the tourism infrastructure is really geared to cater
to them. The average NZ tourist is slightly more
mature and sober.

3. Prices. Food in Australia is dirt cheap, but cars
are not. We paid US$12 per day for a nice 4-door car
in NZ, but in Oz cars are running about US$30 per day
for a tiny Daihatsu with a squirrel cage for an
engine.

On to our adventures. We started in Cairns on the
north east coast, and did a 3 day live-aboard diving
trip on the great barrier reef. We also took the
advanced open water diving course. A great time,
except for the broken air conditioning on board the
ship (refer to #1 above). We did 8 dives plus
snorkelling, including a night dive, deep dive (28
meters/90 feet), and a boat/drift dive. Great marine
life -- colorful corals of every variety, giant clams,
white-tipped reef sharks, giant Maori wrasse
(friendly, approachable, and several hundred pounds),
turtles, etc. Visibility wasn't spectacular, but
decent.

Next was a few days' driving around the tropical
north, including the Wet Tropics World Heritage area
(rain forest preserve). It's fairly rare in that the
rain forest comes right down to the coast. We were
able to spot a wide variety of wildlife, including
crocodiles, cassowaries (huge flightless birds),
lizards, wallabies, brush turkeys, scrub fowl (build
huge ground nests 9 feet tall and 15 feet across),
giant yellow orb spiders (bigger across than your
hand), possums, pademelon (tiny marsupials) etc. But
no luck spotting the elusive Platypus.

Next stop Darwin, in north-central Australia (the
Northern territory, which is NOT a state, kind of like
the old territories of the western U.S). Our primary
aim here was to visit the huge Kakadu national park.
We're here at the end of the wet season, although this
has been a relatively dry season. We did a guided 3
day tour, and our guide was a real Aussie character,
ala "Crocodile Dundee" or Steve Irwin (the Crocodile
Hunter). He loved to hike around barefoot and had a
vast knowledge of "bush tucker" (outback foods),
aboriginal culture, and the flora and fauna. Plus he
told some great stories! The tour was great and we saw
some amazing country, with impressive sandstone
formations covered with lush vegetation, ancient
(10000+ year old) aboriginal rock art, and beautiful
water falls and swimming holes. We really got off the
beaten track where there were no trails, and he even
got us to follow him barefoot up a canyon
appropriately called the "garden of Eden" where we
climbed up a waterfall and took in the scenery. It
definitely wasn't your typical tour of 50 old farts
packed into a big tour bus.

We also did a 1-day tour at Litchfield Nat'l Park,
which was similar scenery and swimming, but much more
crowded. The highlight for me was seeing hundreds of
huge black bats -- flying foxes -- hanging from the
trees, and a little rock wallaby with a joey (that's a
baby) poking it's head out of her pouch.

Here's a question for you MBA types out there: how
does a pub give away free meals and free beer and
still make money? There's a bar in Darwin which gives
away free dinners 7 nights a week -- all you have to
do is get a ticket from any tour company. So 7 of us
from the Kakadu tour went for our free meal after our
tour, and were surprised that the food is actually
pretty good. Not only that, but after we sat down, the
bar tender brought 3 free pitchers ("jugs") of beer to
the table. By now we've had 3 free meals at this
joint. Not bad! There was a place in Cairns that had
free meals too -- they really compete to bring in the
partying crowd of young backpackers.

Next we're off to Katherine Gorge, where we'll do some
exploring before we begin a 4-day volunteer project
with Australian Conservation Trust. We'll be
revegetating an area of thermal pools (presumably
damaged from too many people visiting the area), and
hopefully meeting some great people. We've done
trail-building projects back home and the people we
meet are always interesting.

Quiz answer: "I have cans of beer in my ice box,
buddy!"

We hope all is well back in the USA! Happy Easter!

--Brad and Amy

6-year-old telemark skiing on moguls

At Mary Jane, it's not uncommon to find 6-year-olds skiing black runs. On Sunday, though, I saw a little guy cruising down a black run - moguls and all - wearing telemark skis. Kinda embarrassing when a first grader can free-hill ski as good or better than I can on the bumps. I like to think they have an unfair advantage due to their low center of gravity.

Amy, Andrew and I all went skiing at Winter Park on Sunday. This is actually the 3rd season that Andrew's been on skis, and he's doing great. He still likes us to hold onto his harness, but he doesn't realize that we're not assisting him at all - he's doing it all himself.

Preschool Holiday Concert

Andrew participated in his first ever performance on a stage: the Free Horizon Montessori School Holiday Concert. His combined Primary (pre-school) and Kindergarten class jammed the stage to sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Dreidel Song, and The Twelve Days of Christmas. In the audience, a few hundred parents with video cameras watched with smiling faces. Andrew sang well and enjoyed himself, even if he did get a bit lost during some of the verses, and fidgeted a bit. Good job, Andrew!

Explaining infinity to a 4-year-old

How do you explain the concept of infinity to a 4-year-old? I've been struggling with this for a few weeks now. Andrew can count to about 100 now, and he loves to shout out numbers that sound huge, like "five hundred thousand". Trying to outdo his friend Quentin in the big numbers game, he asked me, "what is the biggest number of all"? "Infinity," I told him. This leads to interesting conversations, such as:

Dad: "You would have to keep counting forever to count to infinity."
Andrew: "You mean until you die?"
Dad: "Well, uh, even longer than that."
Andrew: "What is infinity plus one?"
Dad: "That's also infinity. Infinity isn't a normal number. No matter how high you count, you can always count 1 number higher, so you'll never count to infinity. It's kinda complicated."

I find myself using that same explanation for other questions, such as "why is the day shorter in the winter?"

So now Andrew has a new phrase he likes to use. "It's kinda complicated..."

Belize

Dec 1: the journey

As always, Andrew thoroughly enjoyed the ride on the underground train at the airport. From there, the first leg of our flight took us through Dallas. Amy's secret seating scheme to reserve 3 seats but skip the middle seat served us well. We reserved an aisle seat, the opposite aisle seat, and the window seat, but not the middle seat; no one else got that unreserved middle seat, so it was ours! From Dallas to Belize City, we didn't get so lucky, until the couple across the aisle from us discovered that they lost their passports. Their loss was our gain - 2 extra seats on a flight that was otherwise completely full! Next was a 14-seat puddle jumper that took us 30 miles to the village of San Pedro on Amergris Caye - the smallest plane I've ever been in except for a short joy ride in a sail plane (glider). What is ambergris? A secretion from the intestines of a whale, once used to make perfume, and at the time, more valuable than gold. Next was a short taxi ride to the dock, followed by a boat ride through the dark to the Costa Maya Reef Resort, about 6 miles north from San Pedro. There aren't any real roads outside San Pedro, so boats are really the only way to get there.

Dec 2: relax
On Sunday we let the kids enjoy the pool and the sand, and we snorkeled around the resort's pier. A school of about 400 bonefish puttered around a sand flat just past the end of the pier, and hundreds of grunts hung out under the shade of the pier.

Dec 3: snorkel
Belize, just south of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, is a small country with only about 250,000 residents. It's home to the world's 2nd longest barrier reef, which sits about half a mile from the front door of our beach-front room. A nice spot for snorkeling called Mexico rocks is a short paddle on a sit-on-top kayak from the beach. Dozen of coral "heads" (small groups of coral) are separated by sand flats in about 10 feet of turquoise water. Amy and I spotted a large southern sting ray up close, and a large variety of smaller reef fish. Quite good snorkeling, though not the best I ever experienced. How did we do this with 2 small kids in tow? We left them with grandma and grandpa for a few hours.

Dec 4: snorkeling in Hol Chan marine reserve

Hol Chan is a reserve at the southern tip of the key. We joined a group of 4 others plus our guide. The first stop is a cut in the reef where we snorkel down one side, across the cut, and the back up the other side of the reef. Here we saw 2 large spotted eagle rays with about 8 feet of wing span. The graceful fish are amazing to watch. The next spot is known as shark/ray alley. Here the nurse sharks, southern sting rays, yellow fin snappers, and jacks are well accustomed to tour boats feeding them chum. I'm not really crazy about the idea of feeding wild animals, but the result here is an incredible and very memorable experience. We were actually able to reach out and touch the 3-6 foot long nurse sharks, while the rays were so tame they would swim straight to us and I could grab their wings.

Dec 5: diving; Andrew falls in the drink

On Wednesday morning we went for 2 dives. The first was a deep dive to 100 feet just outside the reef, starting with a swim through a short cave. The area has deep coral canyons, a wide variety of hard and soft corals, and a decent number of reef fish. The 2nd dive was in much shallower water maybe 1 mile from the heart of San Pedro. Once again the guide used food to lure the sharks and rays, and they were even tamer than yesterday. Here, you could easily reach out and grab a nurse shark by the tail and let it take you for a short ride. They didn't even try to get away when you swam toward them. One shark acted like a dog when we grabbed it, turned it upside down and rubbed its belly; the shark seemed to enjoy it! After the feeding frenzy, we swam around and saw a turtle and another spotted eagle ray, this time up close. Awesome. In the afternoon I cast Ron's fly rod from the end of the pier while Andrew watched. After one cast, I heard a big splash - Andrew had fallen right off the end, about 4 feet into the shallow ocean below. I immediately jumped in after him, and was proud when he popped up to the surface with his eyes wide, but didn't panic, tread water like a champ, and remained calm. Another man on the pier pulled him back up, and then Andrew was actually pretty excited about his little adventure, and went running to tell mommy all about it.

Dec 6: back to Mexico rocks

On Thursday we ventured back to the coral heads in front of our resort. This trip was better than the first, with brighter sunlight and a more aquatic life, including another nurse shark and another eagle ray, again up close and personal. Andrew and Elizabeth enjoyed the pool and the beach -yet again!

Dec 7: fishing in the lagoon

Ron (Amy's dad) and I ventured in a 2-man kayak out to the mangrove-surrounded lagoon on the west side of the island with 3 fly rods. Ron explored the lagoon 2 days before, and plotted his course on his GPS. Without it, you could easily get hopelessly lost in the narrow channels and confusing, small lagoons. I landed a small bonefish and small barracuda, and we spooked a school of large snook but weren't able to land any of them. As I paddled back, we trolled a fly and Ron landed a decent size barracuda which we kept for one of the maintenance men who worked at our resort and told us he liked barracuda. After paddling 10 miles with my bony butt on a hard plastic kayak seat, I was happy to be back on land.

One other thing: all of us endured mosquito and sand fly bites, but somehow Elizabeth was almost unaffected. While we had dozens of itchy bites, we could only find one spot on Elizabeth that appeared to be a bug bite. Lucky girl!

Day 8: from hot to cold

On Saturday we woke to our 7th consecutive beautiful, 80+ degree sunny morning overlooking clear blue ocean. 12 hours, 1 boat ride, and 3 airplane flights later, we landed in Denver in the middle of a snowstorm at 18 degrees Fahrenheit, scraping ice off the windshield.

Overall, Belize was great. The diving and snorkeling was great and very memorable, even if it didn't fully live up to the hype of being the world's greatest. Prices in Belize are high, since almost everything is imported. Groceries cost about double what they would at home.

The Costa Maya Reef Resort is above average, but not fantastic. The beach and pool were nice. The isolated location makes it quiet and relaxed, but with the next resort about half a mile away, you don't have a lot of choices - you're pretty much stuck with what they offer you. Food prices were high, some meals were good, and some were mediocre. Service was slow. Our room was spacious and adequate, but far from superb. The dishwasher was broken, although they did fix it, and the AC in one room didn't work.

Off to Belize

Amy, her parents, and our kids are all hopping aboard an airplane tomorrow morning and going to Belize for a week. We'll be staying on Ambergris Caye, and hope to spend time snorkeling, diving, fishing, and otherwise enjoying the beach. After this morning's 10 degree (F) temperature, I'm really looking forward to some warm weather.

Leaving NZ (March 14, 2002)

This is another installment in the series: 'Round the world, revisited. I sent this email on March 14, 2002 from New Zealand during our 6 month journey.

We are off to Aussie (as the Kiwis call Australia)
tomorrow so we thought we would give you an update on
the rest of our adventures in New Zealand.

Free Advice - Don't do a glacier hike in the pouring
rain. Although the waterfalls tumbling off the cliffs
are beautiful in the rain, the ice and river crossings
are treacherous. Not to mention that being soaked to
the bone isn't much fun either. Despite the rain we
did get to walk on the glacier and glimpse some of its
mysterious blue caves.

After the glacier we headed south through the lakes
region and went on a jet boat ride. Wanaka and
Queenstown are both set on huge lakes and are pretty
little towns. We then tried to go up to the Cascade
Saddle overlooking Mt. Aspiring and its glaciers. We
were again thwarted by rain (It may be rainy, but at
least it is windy) and ended up seeing the inside of
Cascade hut.

We continued south to Fiordland and the famous Milford
Sound. Before going to Milford we met up with some
friends from home, David and Heather Schutt. We also
spent a couple of days of relative luxury on an
overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound. The sound
(actually a fiord since it was carved by a glacier,
not a river) was really cool. It is much larger and
less traveled than Milford. The walls are nearly
vertical, thousands of feet tall, with more waterfalls
than I could count. Finally we got some good weather
for the cruise, a rarity on the West Coast.

After the cruise we drove over to Milford Sound which
is stunning as well. The constant drone of scenic
flights overhead only slightly diminishes the
enjoyment of the view. We hiked up Gertrude Saddle
for a better view and it was definitely one of the
highlights of the trip. Brad tried fishing on the
Eglington river and caught nothing after spotting only
a single fish on a mile of river.

We had to make sure and visit the third major island
of NZ and went over to Stewart Island for a couple of
days. We happened to be there at the opening of the
newest NZ national park, Rakiura. We got to see the
prime minister and Sir Edmund Hillary speak. The town
had all kinds of festivities for the occasion and we
had a good time. We also visited the nearby bird
sanctuary of Ulva Island. It was really amazing to
hear so many birds calling and the waves lapping and
the breeze through the leaves. We watched a Weka
(remember the Chicken-Duck) pull the moss off a 3 foot
section of log in search of food and a robin tried to
land on Amy and picked at both of our boots.

We drove through the Catlins (along the southeast
coast) where Brad finally caught a fish - a whopping 9
incher!!!. We spent a couple of nights in Dunedin.
The architecture there is really neat - mostly
Victorian. We also went on a tour where we saw
penguins, sea lions and fur seals up close - some as
close as 10 feet.

Now we are in Christchurch and will be off on the
plane in the next few hours.

Hope this email finds everyone well.

Brad and Amy

Kiwi Update (Feb. 26, 2002)

This is another installment in the series: 'Round the world, revisited. I sent this email on Feb 26, 2002 from New Zealand during our 6 month journey.

Howdy, y'all.

Before a summary of our recent travels, here's some
things we've noted about New Zealand.

1. Highways. There's not a single road in this country
which is straight or flat for more than about half a
kilometer, and they allow passing on 2-lane roads
around blind curves and hills. They also have nice
signs like "2 fatalities this month :-(" and my
favorite, "Dangerous drivers next 24 km".

2. It should be a requirement of all developed nations
that its citizens make a valiant attempt to keep
insects out of their homes. Not here, though. There
are horrible swarms of biting sandflies everywhere,
and everyone leaves windows wide open day and night.
No screens, either! The only screens we've found were
at the most basic 4-wall huts in the backcountry --
I'm talking 2 full days' hike to get there.

3. Plumbing. We've already talked about the toilets
(and thanks to the sharp folks who told us about the
half flush and full flush buttons). But separate
spigots for the hot and cold water? Makes it hard to
get warm water.

4. What do kiwis call a cooler (or ice chest)? A
"chilly bin".

5. What do kiwis call a small house or cottage? A
"bach". I asked if that's short for "bachelor pad" but
the guy I asked didn't know.

6. The weka bird. I like to call this thing a "chicken
duck". Looks like -- you guessed it --a cross between
a chicken and a duck. It's a native bird like the kiwi
but not as rare, and not nocturnal, either.

7. Genetic Engineering. Kiwis have taken a strong
stand against GE. It's everywhere: signs at farms
boast "GE free NZ" and much of the packaged food you
buy is clearly labeled "GE free".

And here's what we've been doing. Since our last
report, I caught a nice 18 inch rainbow trout on the
Tongariro river which we cooked for dinner. Caught a
few smaller rainbows there, too. From there, we drove
to Wellington, the nation's capital, where we toured
Parliament and watched a movie (they sell ice cream
and beer at the movies) to kill time before catching
the 1:30 am ferry to the south island. Once across, we
spent 2 days kayaking in Pelorus sound, which was
pretty remote and nice, but really windy -- we didn't
even have to paddle much for a few hours. We camped at
a bay which we had all to ourselves (except for a few
million sandflies - nasty little buggers) and even did
some paddling after dark, when the paddles cause the
"bio-luminescense" in the water to glow. Pretty cool.

Next we heard about an organization called Willing
Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF). Folks like us work a
half day on the farm in exchange for free room and
board. We needed a break from our adventure, so we
decided this would be a good way to settle down for a
few days and better meet some real kiwis. We stayed on
Tony Sparks' 10-acre farm on the west coast for 4
days. We herded cows, Amy shucked garlic, and we both
helped sand and varnish his interior walls. He's got a
4-year old daughter named Hana who was a lot of fun.
We also met his girlfriend and her 2 kids and heard
all about their soap opera lives in the small
community of a hundred or so people. We worked extra
one day so we could take a day off and go caving. We
hiked and rode inner tubes through a cave with a
stream running through it. The cave has tons of tiny
glow worms on its roof which glow like stars.

Next we went on a 5 day backcountry tramp. I attempted
to fish on the remote, upper Taipo river for 3 days,
but no luck here. Spotted a huge trout, probably 25
inches or more, but couldn't hook him, and then the
persistent rains every night made the water too murky
to spot any fish for the rest of the trip. Quite a
tough hike over unmarked trails, boulder-hopping up
and down river beds, and stream crossings. We used a
3-wire bridge, which is just that - 3 cables strung
across the river with V-shaped braces to stabilize it.
The 3-wire was probably 100 feet long. Also used a
cableway, which is a little cart hanging from a cable.
This thing was about 250 feet long and has a crank at
either side to get it across. Quite fun! At the end of
the trail, we hitched a ride back to our car (don't
worry, mom, I'm safe).

Since I had no luck fishing the river, I decided to
spend a few days at Lake Brunner and the surrounding
streams. More frustration for a day and half before I
finally landed a 22 inch brown trout from the lake at
sunset (using a woolly bugger for you flyfishers out
there). It might be the biggest fish I've ever caught.

From there, we traveled farther south on the west
coast to the tiny town of Okarito (no stores, no gas
station). We took a boat tour of the lagoon, learned
about the country's efforts to control the population
of the introduced possum and stoats, which kill kiwi
birds and destroy native forest. This is a great
little town. After we returned to the campground from
a few hours' hiking, we found a fresh-baked loaf of
bread waiting at our tent from the owner of the boat
tour company!

That's all for now. Tomorrow we do a full day of
hiking on Franz Joseph glacier.

Hope everyone is doing well back home.

--Brad and Amy

New Zealand week 2 (Feb 9, 2002)

This is another installment in the series: 'Round the world, revisited. Amy wrote this email on Feb 9, 2002 from New Zealand during our 6 month journey.

We've been here 2 weeks now and it has gone by very
fast. Brad is off fishing today leaving me to keep
you all informed.

First off - a number of you wrote to tell us that the
2 buttons on the toilet are for a half and full flush.
For the life of me I can't tell the difference of one
from the other. Some others have asked if the toilet
swirl the other way. Actually they don't seem to
swirl much at all. The water pretty much just goeas
straight down. The flushing mechanism definitely is
not as good as what we are used to.

From the Bay of Islands we travelled down to Rotorua
which is a big Maori cultural area and has lots of
thermal features. We went to a hangi which is kind of
like a Hawaiian Luau, but this was much less touristy.
We saw some traditional dances and songs and ate
traditional food. It was very good. We went to one
of the thermal areas which was neat, but nothing next
to Yellowstone. The one geyser they have they have to
puor soap into to reduce the surface tension of the
water to make it erupt.

Next we went on a proper tramp, 4 days three nights.
We went on the northern circuit in Tongariro national
park. It is one of the "Great Walks" which are some
of the most popular walks in NZ and are best marked and
have some of the nicer huts. We stayed in huts each
night which are basically cabins with bunks in them.
They have a gas heater and gas stoves so it is pretty
cushy for the backcountry. They are not as nice as
the winter huts in Colorado though, but better than a
tent for sure. One of the days of the hike was the
Tongariro Crossing which is supposed to be the best
one day hike in NZ. The day we crossed there were 300
people on the 10 mile stretch. It was crowded, but
not too bad. There are steaming volcanic craters,
lakes that filled old craters and lakes of various
shades due to the minerals in the soil. The rocks are
also various shades from black to red to yellow.
Really cool.

On the drive to Rotorua they were having updates of
the Super Bowl along with the news. They were calling
it the game that stops America. My condolances to
Jason Holschen.
[Editor's note: if I remember correctly, Jason's team the Saints lost that Superbowl]

Elizabeth's first day in day care

Amy started a part-time contract working on the Lawson HR/payroll system at Catholic Health Initiatives. She's excited for the chance to spend a few days a week interacting with adults, and the extra money will be nice, but we were a little worried about how Liz would react to being without mom for a full day. It turns out she hardly missed mom at all. I'm not sure if we should be relieved or concerned. I thought for sure she would go into hysterics when Amy left her at Kindercare, but she had no problems. Amy said the Liz wasn't even particularly excited to see her when she picked her up. I guess she must be having lots of fun at Kindercare.

Here's what her report said Elizabeth did on day 1:

• Went outside and got leaves and took them inside
• stacked soft blocks
• painted with water colors
• ate well @ lunch
• cryed [sic] while laying down for nap / woke up happy
• put foot braces on at 12:20 took off at 2:20
• colored with markers
• sang and danced

That's a busy day!

Mao: The Unknown Story

I just finished reading Mao: The Unknown Story, a biography of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. It is based on years of research including extensive interviews with many of Mao's inner circle. It's full of intriguing history, especially the close relationship between communist China and the Soviet Union. Ultimately, it's a story of an utterly evil megalomaniac who delighted in inflicting violence and suffering on other people and caused the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese.

Some of the book's revelations:

• Mao was never driven by ideology. The communist party was merely a convenient vehicle by which he could gain personal power.
• The so-called "Long March" of Mao and his band of communists in the 1930's, one of the most overblown myths of Mao's personality cult, was no heroic struggle. Rather, deals made between Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists and Stalin allowed Mao's army to proceed. Later in the march, Mao intentionally sacrificed a huge number of Red Army troops under the command of a rival for his power base, Chang Kuo-t'ao.
• In 1946, Mao and the Red Army were on their last ropes fighting the Nationalists in northern Manchuria, where they had only one remaining strong post in the city Harbin. The Nationalist Army was advancing with much superior strength, and Mao had become resigned to abandoning the city and resorting to guerrilla warfare. He was saved at the last minute by a most unlikely ally - the United States. The US put heavy pressure on the Nationalists to call a cease fire - at the very moment Chiang Kai-shek was on the verge of victory. Mao issue an order to disperse the troops and resort to guerrilla warfare on June 3, but rescinded it on June 5 when the cease-fire was declared. According to the author, this cease fire was probably the single most important decision affecting the outcome of the civil war, which of course the communists won.
• The Great Leap Forward, a 5 year economic plan from 1958 to 1963, caused the deaths of 38 million Chinese from starvation and overwork. As if that's not bad enough, these deaths were not the unintended consequence of failed economic policy. Mao caused the famine by selling most of the nation's crop to the Soviets and other allies in order to buy weapons, and especially nuclear weapon technology. Even when made fully aware of the mass famine across the country, Mao pushed to extract even more crops from the peasants.
• The reason Mao launched the brutal cultural revolution in 1966 was to purge his rivals in the party and in the Army, whose influence was becoming a threat to his totalitarian power. Even his closest and most loyal supporters were subjected to torture and imprisonment. Liu Shao Chi, one of the top party members, was imprisoned and tortured for 3 years until dying in prison in 1969. Amazingly, his death was not made public until after Mao's death, because Mao was so worried that it arouse sympathy for Liu.
• Over the course of Mao's rule, 70 million Chinese died at Mao's hands.
  

'Round the World Trip - Revisited

Back in 2002, Amy and I took 6 months off from work and traveled around the world. It was a life-changing experience, not to mention a lot of fun. During our travels we sent emails to friends and family, since this was before I had a blog - before just about anybody had a blog, I suppose. I decided it would be fun to dig up those old emails and post them here. Be looking for them over the coming days. Here is the first one we sent, on February 1, 2002.

New Zealand: week one

We arrived in Auckland on Saturday morning and spent 3
days in the city. Had a bit of trouble finding a room
since it's summer here, but it worked out ok after
some help from the tourist info center. The museum had
some great exhibits on Maori (indigenous people)
culture and history. On Sunday we took a ferry to
Ronitoto island, a 600-year old volcano, and hiked to
the top. Monday we took a cruise out in the harbor to
spot dolphins, and were able to follow a pod of about
20 dolphins as they rode the bow wave of our boat. We
had dinner in an English pub where everyone was
watching Cricket. Can't figure that sport out -- I'll
have to get a book and figure out the basics. We'd
like to catch a rugby match too, but the season
doesn't start til Feb 22, apparently.

Anyone know why NZ toilets have 2 buttons on the tank
to flush? We haven't figured it out yet either. Both
of them seem to do the same thing. Also, they call
bell peppers "capsicum" down here. Took us a while to
figure that out.

We decided to rent a car -- should be about the same
price as taking buses everywhere -- for NZ$28 per day
(about US$12). We drove norht on Tuesday, stopping in
one of the few remaining Kauri tree forests. These
huge trees are thousands of years old, and one
particular tree was 5.2 meters in diameter (that's 16
feet across). The forests here look really ancient,
like something out of Jurassic park -- probably all
the giant ferns. Next, we spent 2 days tramping
(that's Kiwi for "hiking") the coast. Didn't pass a
single person the first day. Had about 6 miles of
beautiful beach all to ourselves.

Now we're at the Bay of Islands, leaving tomorrow
morning for a 2-day sea kayak trip. Having a great
time!! Starting to develop a Kiwi accent of my own,
but that should wear off soon.

5:49 mile

I shaved 6 seconds off last weeks' pace and ran a mile in 5:49 this morning. It was the same course - 4 laps around the track at Green Mountain. If I improve by 6 seconds each week, that would get me to five minutes within a few months.

Grandpa's birthday

Amy and I are lucky to have all of our parents living within a short drive from home. My dad's 68th birthday was this week, and we got them all together at our house to celebrate with a steak dinner. We got a photo of them with the kids, too.

Happy birthday, Dean!

1 mile

How fast can I run 1 mile? I've been wondering that for a while now. After running a marathon at a pace of 7:35 per mile, surely I could run a single mile in 5 minutes, right? Wrong. I ran 4 laps around the track at Green Mountain High School this morning in 5:55. I'll be working on my mile speed in the coming months and see if I can break the 5 minute barrier.

Andrew's oddball ear trick

Andrew does this odd thing with his ears. He's done it for quite a while, but he's discovered that the other kids at preschool get a kick out of it, so now he's doing it more than ever.


It looks painful to me, but doesn't seem to bother him at all. Crazy kids these days.

Halloween 2007

Elizabeth enjoyed her first Halloween celebration yesterday. I don't know if she was real keen on the costume, but she loved the candy!