The Tucson Kennel Club

Grand Canyon

2010-09-06T23:40:00.001-04:00

Pics of the Labor Day trip to the Grand Canyon

Aaron went shopping for new boots tonight..

2010-08-05T00:13:00.002-04:00

Look at Robin's new boots :)

The first AZ camping trip of the season

2010-06-13T20:41:00.006-04:00

After recovering from the stress and chaos of selling the house in Esmont, we finally turned our attention to enjoying some of what drew us here in the first place - the Arizona back-country.

This weekend we headed out to the Pinaleño Mountains with some good friends for a little camping adventure.
On Saturday, Robin and I set out to do a 10 mile hike. As we were heading up the trail, we ran into the campground host, who informed us that there were "a few trees down on the trail." We thanked him and continued on. About two miles later, we finally called it quits. Imagine climbing a jungle gym uphill for two miles through briars. That was our hike.

Logs everywhere. It was kind of fun for awhile. I was able to pretend I was some kind of mountain-man Parkour guy. Then I realized we were traipsing through primo rattlesnake territory.. So staying up on the logs became more about dodging snakes (that we never actually encountered) than just having fun.
Anyway - a few more pics of the day:

PODS in action. Very cool stuff..

2010-04-02T15:18:00.002-04:00

Maybe there is something worse than poison ivy...

2010-03-24T20:53:00.004-04:00

Lazy dogs

2009-12-21T07:53:00.003-05:00

21.5 inches and counting

2009-12-19T08:04:00.011-05:00

It started snowing around 4PM yesterday. The forecast calls for another 10-12", but it also said we'd only have about 10" by now ;)

This looks like a good opportunity to use all of that dusty outdoor gear that I brought from Colorado.

Maybe a little of this:

And a little of this:

But hopefully none of this :

(Broke my elbow once sledding in CO. Talk about PAIN!)

And I'm sure a fair amount of this :(

Looks like fun :)

I liked this..

2009-12-08T19:32:00.002-05:00

Look what we found in the chicken coop today!

2009-09-29T21:04:00.002-04:00

Thoughts on turning 40..

2009-08-16T22:08:00.002-04:00

The calendar says I'm 40 but my mind still says 20 and sometimes even five - like when I have a bad cold and I get all whiny and petulant. Oh well.

All in all not an unpleasant experience. If my 40s are anything like my 30s were compared to my 20s then I'm really looking forward to it. That was a crazy sentence wasn't it :)

How did I celebrate? That seems to be the big question of the day...

1. I mowed the yard. It needed it and like vacuuming, I derive some perverse pleasure from creating order on horizontal surfaces. Plus I'm really busy at work right now so this was my only chance for probably the next week or so.

2. I rode the new BMW. Hard. I really, really like this bike. I enjoyed the hell out of the F650 (which is now on eBay if anyone's interested) but the 1100 is a lot more like my first bike (an R100). Anyway - I'm starting to construct a list of farkles (BMW-speak for upgrades) and assorted bits needed for maintenance. Enough to keep a constant layer of grease under my fingernails. That's a good thing by the way.

3. I finished installing my new kayak pulley system. This thing is attached to the side of the shed and it lets me haul the kayak up and off the ground away from all the creepy critters we have in central VA.

4. I saw District 9. F*ck*ng amazing film. Best SF I've seen in years. All kinds of subtle social commentary on how we treat outsiders plus some of the best action and effects I've ever seen. Simply amazing. Go see it. Don't wait for it to come to Netflix.

5. Finally, Robin and I went to dinner at The Local in Belmont. Great restaurant. Great food. We actually got an outside table which is a first. Sunday night seems to be the key. Two giant hunks of raw tuna and some amazing french fries followed up by blackberry cobbler. Yum.

Now it's time to write a few thousand words and then it's off to bed. Not a bad start to my 40's. Not at all.

Oops

2009-08-09T21:00:00.004-04:00

Sometimes mindless surfing on the Internet really pays off.

Case in point: Last weekend I was noodling around on eBay, like I sometimes do, and I came across an interesting item - a black 1999 BMW R1100GS. In Washington DC.

That's kind of close to home.

The auction had two days left and the price was still low. I stared at it for awhile and then went on to other things. Then, later that afternoon, I jumped online again and did a bit of research about that vintage and model. It turns out the 1100GS is a highly desirable bike.

Uh oh.

I sent the owner a question about the the transmission (the primary weak point of that design) and he responded that it had already been replaced under warranty.

Hmmmm.

The next day, after thinking about it all night, I approached Robin about the idea of a new bike to replace the bike I hardly ride. She was cool with the idea.

Sold.

A few seconds after that discussion, I placed a purely speculative bid. I set it in low enough that I could be outbid by someone who really wanted the bike, but high enough that I could conceivably get lucky.

By now you know where this is going. I got lucky. Here it is:

Now - anyone out there want to buy a nicely farkled '03 F650GS?

R.I.P. Little J (1992-2007)

2009-07-25T12:25:00.005-04:00

Today marks Jed's last trip to the New River. He passed away in the summer of 2007 after 16 adventure filled years. As a puppy, I often took him to the river to fish, swim, and hang out with friends. It was always a good time for both of us and I'm happy I was able to return him to a place filled with so many good memories.

Dinner @ Paul's

2009-06-27T19:40:00.002-04:00

My mom didn't like her picture.

Dogs, Chickens, Writing, and the Flu

2009-05-25T17:37:00.005-04:00

Dogs - We adopted Juno. She's a cool dog and she keeps Titan occupied. Enough said. See the previous post for a picture of her.

Chickens - Robin has been building a chicken yard down near the garden. I'll post some pictures when it's finished. It's basically a 12x24 enclosure where the chickens can run free w/o fear of predators. The coop will go in the yard. That is where the eggs will be produced. Fun stuff.

Writing - I'm writing a lot. Tons. But it never feels like enough. I'm about 20K words into the rewrite of Self Arrest and so far it's looking like a much better book than the last version. I just with it didn't take so damned long to write a good story. Oh well. ETA for a strong first draft is some time in July.

Flu - I got a bit freaked about the H1N1 thing last month. Freaked enough that I made Robin take face masks on her trip to Colorado. Then I turned around and traveled to H1N1 ground zero - San Diego. And like clockwork, Friday night I came down with a raging case of the flu. I've been on my butt all weekend, delirious and hacking up a storm. My fever oscillated all over the place Friday night through early Sunday along with all the typical body aches, etc. I'm feeling a little better today although my chest is still really sore. I don't know if it was H1N1. Maybe. Maybe not. Whatever it was, it kicked my ass across the yard.

That's it. Time to go grill up some tuna steaks and pop open a Fat Tire. It's memorial day after all.

The Chicken Tractor

2009-05-09T14:00:00.003-04:00

The chickens are out!

After a week of rain and being stuck inside with four dogs and six chickens, the clouds finally lifted this morning. I locked the dogs outside and set to work getting the chickens ready to move.

As you can see below, we're holding our chickens in a slightly modified dog crate until they're old enough to go into their coop (which we have yet to build). The neat thing about the crate is there no floor. This gives them easy access to the ground where they can eat grass, bugs, and whatever else they want - all from the relatively secure confines of their kennel. It's not safe enough for overnight use - a raccoon would just lift it up and go under, but for a few hours during the day, it's perfect.

Meet Juno

2009-05-06T20:23:00.005-04:00

Juno joined the kennel a few weeks ago after her owners were unable to care for her any longer. She's great with kids, dogs, cats, people, etc. Only one year old, she's 111lbs of rambunctious puppy insanity!

Moving on up..

2009-04-26T19:09:00.003-04:00

Today I walked onto the porch to check on the chickens and noticed one of them sitting on top of his water bottle, peering over the edge of his home. It would have taken just a small hop to get out of his box and into the greater dog kennel.

Damn. Time for a bigger home. I had been hoping to wait until next weekend to do the upgrade, but that was not to be.

Out came the box cutters, the zip ties, and the scissors.

An hour later I was covered in chicken crap, feathers, and sweat. But I was done. Behold the new chicken castle:

Now they have full run of the entire dog kennel. Their old box has been chopped up and turned into dog barriers. Not that I think they would stop a really determined dog, but our dogs are kind of dumb, so I think they'll be ok. Just in case - I'll close the door when I'm not around so the chicks are on the porch by themselves.

Other than chickens, I've been really busy with writing, life, and work. I'm holding down the fort for a few days while Robin makes a pilgrimage to Boulder. Neither of us has been back since we moved and I'm looking forward to a trip report!

Trying out this twitter thing...

2009-04-09T20:53:00.006-04:00

Not that Twitter....

This twitter - or more precisely, these twitterers (is that even a word?):

When Robin and I first started talking about moving to the country, we fantasized about having our own flock of chickens. "Wouldn't it be cool," we said, "to have fresh eggs from our own birds."As it usually does, life got in the way. We had some ducks for awhile but had to get rid of them because they didn't fly and were easy meals for the dogs. Then we got into the Great Dane rescue thing, which is still going on.

Finally, after four years, we have fulfilled our quest to have our own chickens - or chicks as they are called right now. This evening Robin and I drove up to a farm near Charlottesville and purchased six little Americanas. Two yellow and four dark. We spent the next hour or so setting up a little home for them in the basement - where they'll live until they get a little bigger and we can build a coop for them.

They're really cool little birds. You can hear them twittering (or peeping) throughout the house. It seems the air conditioning ducts in the basement are great sound conductors.

The Americanas are supposed to lay blue eggs, which sounds fun. I've never had a blue egg before. Well - maybe once or twice. Anyway - that will be in about 4-5 months, once they reach maturity. To make things even more interesting, we got a mix of baby roosters (I can never remember what they are called) and pullets (baby hens). But we don't know the mix. Hopefully it's not five roosters to one hen. That would be unfair to her.

Speaking of that - I just learned the other days that chickens acutally have sex. I must have been out sick the day in biology class when the teacher explained it, but I always assumed they reproduced in a manner similar to fish. Sounds crazy doesn't it. But with the eggs on the outside of the chicken - how do they get fertilized? I had a mental image of the rooster coming by after the eggs were layed and spraying them or something and then relying on some sort of super-osmotic process to occur. Turns out they do it the old fashioned way - or something very close to it according to this link.

You learn something new every day:)

Goat Therapy

2009-03-31T21:19:00.005-04:00

It's always interesting to see how people deal with stress. Some smoke. Some exercise. Some sit in the lotus position and chant "Om mani padme hum." Robin however, has found a new path to inner peace - baby goats.

How did she discover the therapeutic power of baby goats? Good question but it requires a bit of backstory...

We have a friend who works at a farm a few miles from our house. It's not your typical farm though - it's more of a giant playground where having fun and trying new things is just as important as taking care of the animals and the property. The farm has a bunch of animals - rabbits, donkeys, peacocks, guineas, and of course the subject of this post - goats.

Occasionally the owners lease out space to other farmers. This winter they chose to lease some space for a fellow farmer with a bunch of goats. There have been goats on this farm for awhile. They're like pets - a little bit standoffish - but still quite entertaining. To keep the population in check, they had their male goats neutered. You know where this is going.

The visiting goats were not pets. They were not neutered. Uh oh.

Last week three of the female pet goats gave birth to five baby pet goats. Robin found out about it and decided to go check them out. And as you can see below, she's hooked...

Boot shopping country style

2009-03-28T20:33:00.004-04:00

There are a lot of good things about country life.. the peace & quiet, the spring peepers, clear night skies (earthhour is today BTW)...

One of the major downsides however is shopping. The country attitude seems to be "if you can't buy it at the dollar store, you don't really need it." Unfortunately you can't always find what you need at the dollar store (actually we bought some soap there today).. And one of those things is hiking boots.

Recently Robin discovered that her favorite online store - Sierra Trading Post - had gotten in a large stock of her favorite boots. So she decided to order a few pairs. Then a few more. And then a few more. By the time she was done she had ordered 49 (yes - FORTY NINE) pairs of hiking boots. They came to our house in little cardboard coffins - just big enough to hold 7 pairs of boots each.

A picture is necessary to illustrate the volume of boots in our house. Note this is not the boot department at REI. This is our dining room.

This is true dedication to boot shopping!

It's been awhile...

2009-03-22T19:58:00.006-04:00

Wow. What a busy few weeks..

First - we got DSL! Yay. It rocks. We have the 10Mbs connection, which is ridiculously fast compared to what we had before. I tore down the WildBlue dish the night we got the DSL hookup - I was that excited. The wait sure sucked, but man is it worth it!

On the writing front I've been busy planning for the rewrite of Self Arrest. I had submitted it an agency in NYC back in December, who then turned around and asked for an exclusive. Exciting times. Alas - they passed, but not without giving me some feedback which pretty much matched my misgivings about the book.. Now it's just a matter of applying the changes and then sending it out again. Writing is always better the second time.

My parents came down for the weekend and we had a really good time. I got my mom set up with her new computer - an Asus Eee PC 1000H - and she really likes it. Now she can finally decommission the POS Windows 98 box I gave her about 10 years ago.

My dad took the GS for a spin and had a good time. He's got an old R90/6 in his garage that's been in pieces for as long as I can remember, so he got to spend some time in the saddle.

Here's a pic of him coming back into the driveway after a spin down Rt. 6.

This afternoon as I was writing, Robin called me out to look at her garden. She moved it down below the pond to get better water access. In the process, she decided to go from one big plot to a bunch of small ones..

Here's the result:

The funny thing is we do have graves in our yard (at least according to the plat from the 50s) - about 20 feet to the right of where she's standing..

That's it for now.

Mexico good. Virginia Bad.

2009-02-15T19:35:00.004-05:00

It's been another crazy week, but this time in a good way. Last Saturday, Robin and I boarded a plane at Dulles and headed south for a week in Tulum, Mexico.

The first few days were spent in a little place called Hemingway's. Here's a view from the front door:

The wind was blowing like crazy at first, making it feel cold and gritty. In a bid to escape the incessant scouring, we took a day trip to the ruins at Coba. Temple-climbing and copious walking ensued. The coolest part was when we climbed the main pyramid and were able to survey the surrounding country side.

On the very last day we made it to the main ruins at Tulum. It was tour-bus central but still very impressive. We managed to capture this shot of a happy iguana basking in the sun.

All in all it was a great week! My life (and Robin's) during the weeks leading up to our trip was hectic beyond belief, and we both enjoyed the fact that while in Tulum, the toughest decision of the day was Mojito or Margarita? If only the rest of life could be that simple...

Crazy busy..

2009-02-01T18:30:00.003-05:00

It's been a crazy few weeks since I last posted..

First, we got a new car - a 2007 Toyota Prius. Here it is:

We weren't planning to get a new car. In fact I really loved my old Golf TDI. It was a diesel after all - and it was fun and quirky. The good news is my dad is going to buy the Golf and he gets a new transmission in the deal :) Oh well.

In other news, Robin and I took full advantage of the 60F day here in Esmont and put the lower front roof onto the wood shed. We bolted a bunch of stuff together, added six new rafters, face nailed, toe nailed, etc. I project we're about a day - maybe a day and a half - away from being in a position to put plywood & shingles up on top of the rafters and have a proper roof. No more blue tarp flapping in the wind. Yay! We also got the side bits up on the wood holding section of the shed. Basically 2x4s that are nailed horizontally over the wire fencing that Robin so thoughtfully installed while I was in MD last weekend. Thanks again Robin :)

I've also been in a flurry of writing. The Self Arrest manuscript is in purgatory in NYC being read by an agent.. so in the meantime I've been blazing through the next novel. As of today I'm about 44,500 words in. I'm hoping to hit 50,000 before the end of this week.

That's it. I'm tired as hell from all of the construction work today. It's time to get cleaned up now. I think dinner will be a grilled cheese sandwich and a Fat Tire beer. Yum.

Oh yeah - one more thing - I took the GS for a ride today - the first one since it got so cold last month. To my great surprise, I did actually remember how to ride. Even better, the bike didn't explode from the re-wiring job I did on the HID lights and the new saddle bags I got for Christmas didn't fall off. I will consider that success.

That's all.

Damn. One more thing. No DSL yet in Esmont. Embarq sucks.

No wonder Titan thinks he's a person

2009-01-18T12:02:00.003-05:00

Having some fun with Titan...

And this is our latest foster. Her name is Sadie. We pulled her from the Orange County animal shelter on Friday afternoon. She seems to get along with all of our dogs as well as the cats.

You can do amazing things with a little bit of lumber and a lot of patience

2009-01-04T21:25:00.006-05:00

About a year ago, Robin and I decided we wanted to build a shed to keep our wood dry. We heat our house through a combination of wood and propane, so we typically have a lot of wood lying around. For the past couple of years, we've been using blue tarps. At one point we had 3 tarps covering our wood. We also had a tarp covering our garden tractor. And there are of course always random other tarps covering other stuff in our yard. It's a country thing. If you don't know what to do with something you "throw a tarp over it."

So - a wood shed would cut down on some of the tarpage. And maybe - just maybe - we could put the tractor in the shed and reduce the numbers even further. An idea was born. A slightly bigger wood shed. With a place to put the tractor.

Idea in hand, we coordinated with our neighbor who had the hole-digging contraption hooked to his tractor and had some holes dug. Step one was complete.

Then, I got another tractor. A lawn mower actually, but it's technically a tractor.

Uhoh.

Maybe we can make the shed a little bit bigger. Back to the drawing board.

So - to make a long story short, we dug some new holes and filled in some old ones and finally started building this thing. The pace has really picked up over the past few months though, and just this weekend we finished putting up the rafters over the main (center) section.

Here's the whole thing. It's 28 feet wide with an 8 foot deep section on each end and a 14 foot deep section in the center. Wood goes on the far right (where the little poison ivy covered wood pile is). Farm machinery goes in the center (where Robin is working). Farm implements go on the left. Implements means tools by the way.

Here's Robin attaching a rafter.

We're on track to complete construction some time in the summer of 2010. Unless we get another tractor.

Rocky has a new friend

2008-12-29T22:19:00.005-05:00

So I'm sitting here in the living room with my laptop, getting ready to write, when out of the corner of my eye I notice Rocky stroll into the room. He's heading towards the wood stove and I figure he just wants to curl up and get warm, so I dismiss him and focus back on the computer.

A few seconds later however, I hear furious purring from behind my screen. Curious, I close the lid to see this:

It seems he's taken a liking to the stuffed camel we got Titan for Christmas.

Cats are strange.

It pays to actuall read the ticket stub when you go to the movies

2008-12-14T21:01:00.003-05:00

Tonight Robin and I were in Charlottesville and we decided to go see "The Day The Earth Stood Still," which I had been eagerly awaiting. We were running a little late - about 15 minutes, and we figured we'd miss the trailers and the little roller coaster video that all the theaters seem to show right before the movie starts.

Anyway, we got to the theater and bought our tickets. We grabbed some popcorn and raced in to find our seats. The movie appeared to be well underway, which seemed odd since we should have been only a few minutes late. Oh well, we figured. Maybe it started off with a bang.

So we sat and watched. Then the movie ended. 30 minutes later. Huh?

We gathered up our stuff and left the theater where we ran into my friend Don. Introductions were made and he asked how we liked the movie. I commented it was too short - that there was no character development, etc. He raised an eyebrow (I think he liked it). Then I mentioned we came in a few minutes late. He asked when. I said "5:45." He laughed and said the movie started at "4:30."

Uh oh.

It seems the movie was showing in two theaters and in my rush to get in, I picked the wrong one.

We said a hurried goodbye to Don and raced down the hall to the correct theater where we sat down to watch the middle third of the movie.

After about 20 minutes, we caught up to the point where we started watching. At that point, I recalled there was another showing at 7:00. We could catch the beginning of the movie (and the trailers) I suggested to Robin, half joking. She said Ok.

So off we went to the first, wrong, theater, where we slipped in and watched the first 30 minutes of the movie. Once again, we caught up to the point where we had come in earlier, and then we promptly stood up and walked out. We got some looks.

So - the lesson for the day is to always always check your ticket stub. Even in crappy Charlottesville theatres. There just may be two shows playing.

Overall, the movie wasn't that good. It was a decent adaptation of a somewhat crappy (but thought provoking) 50's sci-fi flick, but I'd wait for the DVD.

Other than that, the weekend was pretty calm. We did a bunch of work on the shed. Yesterday we put up the ridge board, which for those of you like me who are building-skill challenged, is the board at the apex of a roof. It went up pretty easily. Today we attached two rafters to the ridge board. The whole process turned out a whole lot easier than I expected. After the frustration getting the poles sunk and constructing the frame of the building, the roof is cruising right along.

And tonight, we arrived home to find a load of split wood in the driveway! Yay! We were running on reserves, having borrowed some from a neighbor.. And now we have a structure under which to stack it. Bonus.

That's it for now. I'm off to put together a partial manuscript package for an agent who wants to read a little more of Self Arrest. More on that later :)

Sad day :(

2008-12-09T23:35:00.003-05:00

My grandmother Mimi passed away over the weekend. She was surrounded by her children and several of her grandchildren at the time of her passing, and I understand it was very peaceful.

Today we attended her viewing in Richmond. I was a little apprehensive about seeing her this last time, however I was pleasantly surprised by the sense of closure I came away with. It was really comforting to see all of my family as well as her many friends gathered in one room, celebrating her life and reminiscing about how she touched us all.

That's all for now. My brother and his family just pulled in from North Carolina.. gotta go get everyone settled..

This is not staged

2008-11-30T08:16:00.002-05:00

I came down the stairs the other day and found all four dogs parallel to each other. I've seen this between two dogs before, but never all four!

Good ride today

2008-11-09T20:26:00.004-05:00

We've had really great weather for the past week - 70s during the day and mostly sunny. Unfortunately, I've been busy @ work and the whole time change thing has really cut into my whole riding to work plan (too many deer out and about around dusk 4.30-5.30 - prime commute time : ( )..

Anyway - I managed to grab a quick ride up to the vet’s office yesterday to pick up some Frontline for our foster Dane, Tiki. Just enough of a ride to try out my new boots..

Oh yeah - my new boots.. Up until yesterday, I was wearing my Caterpillar Wellingtons. They're good boots - steel toe and all, but not that hot for riding.. Flexy and no real ankle or shin protection to speak of. They would definitely come off with very little effort in a crash.. So, about two weeks ago I began to shop around for a better pair. After lots and lots and lots of obsessive research, I decided to go with a pair of entry-level motocross boots. They give great all around protection, are waterproof, and they're also extremely comfortable for riding. I considered trials boots and dual-sport specific boots, but the protection just didn't seem adequate. The holy grail is a boot that is comfortable for riding and walking, looks good enough to wear to the office, and doesn't cost a bazillion dollars.. Unfortunately - that boot really is a holy grail. The bottom line when riding a motorcycle is you need motorcycle-specific gear. Protection from crush (bike going over feet), impact (stones & crap bouncing into you from the road), and abrasion (sliding down the highway or trail) is something you just can't dismiss. Seeing how much Robin has suffered over the past couple of years, first with her stress fracture, and more recently with her radial metatarsal fracture really made me thing long and hard about the whole foot safety issue.

Enough words - here is a picture of the boots that I bought - O'Neal Elements:

I took them for a long ride today - about 100 miles.. Over to Waynesboro and back.. Some twisties and some highway.. They did great!

The other new piece of gear is my new pair of Olympia Cold Throttle gloves. They're nice winter gloves with a thin palm that works great with the heated grips on the Dakar.. No picture necessary - they're just gloves:)

Other than work and trying to spend time on the bike, I've been working on my next book. My plan right now is to have the first draft done (~100K words) by the end of February or so. I'm trying for 1K words/day.. I like the whole concept that I've come up with this time. It's another thriller, but bigger and more complex than anything I've tried to date. We'll see:) Meanwhile, I'm waiting to hear back from the agent who's been looking at Self Arrest for the past few weeks.

That's all for tonight.

Woooooooohooooooooooooooo!

2008-11-04T23:48:00.002-05:00

I've been sitting here for the past five minutes trying to write something profound, but the champagne I just drank is making it kind of impossible.

Busy weekend

2008-11-01T20:56:00.003-04:00

It's been a busy day.. The morning started with a nice breakfast at Donna's Place in Scottsville. Biscuits and Gravy for me.. scrambled eggs, bacon, and a biscuit for Robin. Then it was off to the Augusta co-op and Paulette's to get some parts for the shed.

Oh yeah - the shed. We've been working on this wood & tractor shed for a few months now - bit by bit. It's been through a several redesigns as we figured out what we really wanted to do with it, but today we finally got all of the posts in the ground and it looks like we're ready to start putting up the horizontal support structures for the roof. Yay!

We worked on that until about three, at which point it was time for a break.

Realizing I only had three hours of daylight left, I dashed inside and pulled on my riding gear. Then I took off for a nice ride in the twisties. I had some fun on the way back, practicing emergency stops from 50MPH. My comfort level with the new bike has gone way up since the first couple of rides. One of my requirements for this bike was ABS and when I first got it, I was leery about engaging it - not quite sure how it would feel. Well - that fear is gone - or at least under control. The ABS is a good thing and I've got a good feel when it will kick in - pretty much all the time for the rear - and only when the ground is slippery for the front.

Anyway - after my ride, Robin and I climbed up on the roof and I cleaned the gutters while she swept the chimney. Yep - Robin is the chimney sweep of the household. She's really good at it.

After that - we spent the next hour hauling wood and splitting kindling - getting ready for the cool evenings we're supposed to have this coming week.

Then - as darkness fell, we gave up and came inside. I dragged the woodstove away from the wall and took the pipes off so I could clean out all of the creosote. Then, I cleaned out the chimney clean-out. That's the place where all of the creosote and crap goes when you sweep the chimney.

Anyway - that done - I loaded the wood stove with some fresh kindling and sparked up a fire. The woodstove rocks.

That's all for now :)

Lots going on..

2008-10-19T19:17:00.004-04:00

It's been awhile since I last posted.... here are the highlights...

Out of the eight query letters I send for my latest novel, I received six rejections, 1 no-reply, and ONE positive response. I'll take it. About a week ago I sent my entire manuscript out to an agent (of the one positive response) in LA for a 1 month exclusive read. I don't know what will come of it, but it's progress. I made it out of at least one slush pile :)

That said - I have started work on my next novel. It's another thriller - but even bigger and more ambitious than the last. Right now I'm in the brainstorming phase, coming up with a handful of outlines that I can write to.. I expect to transition to actual writing over the next 2 weeks. I'm looking forward to the process again - nothing compares to the satisfaction of taking something that exists purely in your head and bringing it to life. Nothing.

What else?

I finally got my motorcycle license! I was able to score a walk-in spot at the local MSF course a few weeks back. Three days later I went to the DMV, paid my $12, and got my 'M' stamp. Yay!

Since then, I've ridden to work once and done a bunch of smallish trips. Until today. This morning I went out for a nice 111 mile loop. I hit dirt roads, small 2-lane country roads, 4 lane country roads, superslab (I-64), and town.. Quite a day!

Here's a pic of the bike at the mid-point - on the Blue Ridge Parkway near the junction with 64:

So far, I'm having a blast with the bike. I've spent lots and lots and lots of time fiddling with it, making it my own... So far I've:

- Changed the oil & filter
- Changed the air filter
- Added a PathBlazer headlight modulator
- Added Hyperlites LED brake flashers
- Reversed the rear tire (doh! The previous owner had mounted it backwards!)
- Put in a fresh new Iridium spark plug (and man what a difference!)

That's probably it for mods for now. The next step is to ride ride ride! For Christmas I'm hoping to get a set of Pelican 1550s, which I'll mount on my racks - giving me hard, lockable panniers.

That's about it... Until next time..

Dear John McCain

2008-10-07T21:46:00.004-04:00

John,

I have some bad news for you, my friend. From the first time you turned to the camera and addressed me in your 2000 debate with George Bush, I knew we had a special connection. Never before, and certainly never since, has anyone called me "my friend" with such frequency and conviction. It has been truly remarkable.

Alas, my friend, it is time for me to move on. I have a new friend, you see. One who does not pander. One who does not lie. One who does not embody all that is wrong with the American political system.

We are friends no longer.

Motorcycle fun

2008-09-10T22:53:00.006-04:00

If you live anywhere near the east coast, you'll know we had a bit of weather over the weekend. Being the freak I am about my new bike, I decided to put it in the shed to protect it from flying stuff & falling branches. This seemed like a good idea.

Until I tried to get it out....

After much deliberation I realized I needed a bit of assistance...

And tonight - the first of my gear started arriving - my new Shoei Hornet DS.. Here I am surfing the net safely.

Gear for the bike

2008-09-07T13:38:00.005-04:00

After agonizing over riding gear for the past week, I finally made some big purchases at 2:30 this morning.

Let's work from the top down...

Helmet: Shoei Hornet DS. DS stands for Dual Sport. This fits in perfectly with my mid-life crisis self image as a dual-sport rider :) Seriously though, the helmet is built to work well both on and off road. I'll primarily ride on the road with it, but I have aspirations of going off road at some point - specifically to Tierra del Fuego in a couple of years. It's got great venting, it's white, so very visible, and it's very light. And it's both DOT and Snell rated of course so it meets all of the current safety standards. It gets great reviews on advrider.com and f650.com and seems to be the helmet of choice for people riding my style of bike. I looked at cheaper helmets in an attempt to save a few $$, but the Scorpion hurt my head and the HJC just wouldn't fit. So back to Shoei (I had one many years ago and it fit really well). I did almost buy a Shoei TZ-R (regular street helmet), but for only an extra $100 I was able to get into the DS model, which is what I really wanted. The bottom line is when it comes to helmets - get what fits and what you will wear. Period. That's what I did.

Jacket: Olympia Motorsports Airglide II. You know how the guys working on the side of the road wear these really bright yellow/green vests and jackets? Well - that's me now. The Airglide II is a really nice 3 season armored jacked with 500d Cordura, mesh, and a waterproof liner. It also gets great reviews and it's my best tool to make myself visible to the other idiots on the road. I originally looked at the Phantom one-piece suit and the AST jacket, but both were overkill for what I needed. Not to mention $$$$$.

Note: Brilliant marketing, huh? The pic just screams adventure. Worked on me.

Pants: TourMaster Quest. Not much to say. They're black and they're armored in the knees and the hips. This is one area where I chose to save some $$. If I end up riding alot, I'll probably go back and buy the Olympia Airglide pants for another $190. These will suffice for now, though.

Gloves: First Gear Mesh Sport Glove. Nice gloves. Very armored and almost gauntlet length. Safe on a budget.

Boots: For now I'll wear my work boots. They're leather wellingtons and they're bombproof. I have my eye on a pair of Sidis though. Christmas.

That's it for now. Gear should start arriving around the middle of the week.. License should happen within the next week and a half.. Then off I go :)

The F650GS Dakar has arrived in Esmont!

2008-09-04T22:32:00.005-04:00

It's definitely strange - and a I have to admit - a little bit intimidating - to own a motorcycle again. My last bike was a 1000cc Smoke red 1980 BMWR100S that I owned between the ages of 23 and 25. I sold it when I moved to Italy - and always regretted letting it go. It was a beautiful machine. Several years later, in Colorado, I came into possession of another 1980 R100S, but I could not obtain a title for it and ended up selling it to a guy who exported it to Mexico.

I hadn't even thought about bikes until I ran across a late model red Triumph Scrambler this spring. I liked it. A lot. I started entertaining ideas of buying an old bike and restoring it over the winter - maybe an old Triump or an old BMW or even an old BSA. That lasted about a week before I realized the lack of a heated garage and the lack of the right tools would make restoration a ridiculously expensive and uncomfortable task.

On to modern bikes.

For awhile, I flirted with the idea of Royal Enfield Bullet 500. Enfields were manufactured in the UK up until the late 50's, when the entire factory was sold to a company in Madras, India. The new Royal Enfield company in India has been manufacturing the same bike from the same assembly lines ever since - truly a NOS machine (New Old Stock). The idea was intriguing until I spoke with some people who had ridden them. After hearing endless comments about the weak breaks, the lack of power, and the general lack of comfort of the Enfield, I shelved that idea.

There I sat, unsure how to proceed, for about a month...

Then, one day, while leaving Bodo's, I met a guy with a bumblebee 1998 R1100GS. It was a beautiful machine - truly stunning. He had just come from a farm near Scottsville (about 6 miles from my house) after riding in the dirt all morning and he had a giant smile on his face from the experience.

I've always like the GS but I never felt I could afford one. And I certainly didn't want something as big as the 1100 or the new 1200 - as I always felt the R100S was way more bike than I needed. So - off to Google for some research....

Lo and behold - the F650GS Dakar. Exactly what I was looking for. Under 400lbs dry, 650cc single cylinder, ABS, heated grips, and a HUGE enthusiast community. I was sold.

To make a long story short - I spent the next three weeks obsessively watching auctions on ebay, trolling craigslist, f650.com, advrider.com, ibmwr.com, and a host of other sites in search of the perfect bike, before finding the machine that I eventually purchased.

And now - it's home. It needs to be registered and titled. I need to get my moto license renewed and buy a bunch of gear. Then I can ride :)

Meet my new '03 BMW 650GS Dakar

2008-08-25T22:49:00.002-04:00

I'm picking it up in Chattanooga this weekend :)

Not Slot. Alot.

2008-08-22T21:05:00.001-04:00

Goddamn iPhone trying to tell me what I'm trying to type.

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Panting Dog

2008-08-22T21:03:00.001-04:00

Great danes pant slot. Especially Titan.

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The moment of truth

2008-08-03T10:22:00.002-04:00

Life has been crazy the past two and a half weeks. First, I was in a huge push to finish my book. Then, I spent a week in Arizona. Then, to top it all off, I got sucked into proposal writing at work. Needless to say, I have not been able to carve out any time for writing or writing-related activities.

Until today.

I just sent off my first two query letters for Self Arrest. I've submitted to two agents so far - both in California. One is a medium-sized agency and one is enormous, with ties to film and TV. Realistically, the odds are stacked way against me. But, you never know.

I've targeted about 20 agencies in total for submittal, as well as a handful of publishers. I'll be sending stuff out over the next week or two and preparing one of the walls of my office to host the coming onslaught of rejection letters. It's a humbling experience to work on something for close to two years and then throw it over the wall for a total stranger to judge in the span of a minute or less, but it's the way this business works.

You can follow the sage here - I'll be posting alot as the process evolves.

Other than that, life has been pretty boring recently. Robin and I are going to the beach in late September, which should be a lot of fun. At the end of that week, we'll go to her 20 year high school reunion up in PA. I don't know what to expect from that, but I'm looking forward to meeting more people from her past!

The dogs are all doing fine. Titan hurt his leg a few days ago while running through the woods, but seems to be doing much better now. We're due to take him in to the vets tomorrow AM, but I'm hoping that he's well enough not to go. Vets (and X-Rays) are $$$$. So far, so good.

That's it for now.

Waiting...

2008-07-23T09:57:00.001-04:00

I'm sitting in a hotel in Sierra Vista, AZ right now, waiting for my ride to a work conference. Wearing a suit. In Arizona. It's going to be a long day.

I've got to find a way to write full time. Long flights, bad hotels, and late nights working after long days are definitely not part of my life plan.

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The End.

2008-07-13T21:48:00.003-04:00

I've been looking forward to typing that for a while now. Tonight I finally had the opportunity.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you'll know that I decided to rewrite the last 1/3 of my latest novel. I first finished the story late last fall. But, I never liked the ending. It was complex, weak, and just not very satisfying. I spent a few months trying to fix it, but around March, I finally concluded it would be better to scrap it and start over. This was a really tough decision. The last third of the book represents about 20 thousand words - or about 100 or so printed pages.
It's not the kind of decision that I wanted to make given how much effort I had invested in writing it the first time and then trying to salvage it.

I decided I had nothing to lose, except weekends, lunch hours, and late nights.

The last few weeks have been frantic as I watched the list of remaining chapters dwindle. Then, this weekend I saw an opportunity to make a final push for the finish line. I've spent a good twenty hours or so since Friday writing the last five chapters from scratch (again). And I like them. I really, really like them.

Anyway. I have what I feel is a solid second draft. Parts have been externally reviewed.The story "works" now. I have two or three small tweaks I want to make, but they're all at the micro level vs. the macro level - so no problem. I'll also run it through the grammar checker and wring out any remaining instances of passive voice - the bane of my writing existence.

The big task for the coming weeks will be shopping it around. I need to find representation to get this thing out into the world where others can see it (and hopefully buy it :) ). The timing for this is very good. I'm tired of writing and I'm really looking forward to focusing on sales and marketing activities for a few weeks. They don't require nearly as much thought.

That doesn't mean I won't be writing though. I've got three or four good ideas for my next book that I'll be exploring meanwhile. But that's the fun part for me - looking at the kernel of a story and trying to imagine what it can be, if told properly:)

Unfortunate but true...

2008-07-13T10:17:00.002-04:00

Mission Accomplished

2008-07-12T09:32:00.003-04:00

Part of living in the country is accepting the fact that people dump animals. It happens. A lot. That's how we got our lab, Hardware and our country-cat Tumbleweed.

Last week I went up to Old Green Mountain to take a walk. As I arrived, I noticed three kittens sitting on the fence. Three kittens that obviously didn't belong there.

I did my walk, then went home and told Robin about them. It was obvious someone had dumped them - right on the corner of Porters & Esmont Rd. But - we already have two cats. So I decided to rescue them and take them to the SPCA in town.

Flash forward a few days.

Two kittens are gone. One remains. One little monster.

I've put in about 3 hours this week trying to catch this guy. I've tried tuna. I've tried talking to him. I've tried laying down and singing to him (don't laugh). I even tried using a trap (one of the nice ones that doesn't hurt the animal of course). No dice.

Well - this morning, my neighbor, Fred shows up - cat in hand. Milk was evidently the key.

And now - here's the cat - I just call him Cat. I don't want to get too attached.

I'm going to take him up to the CVille SPCA this morning. Hopefully they can find a home for him. I'll rest a little better knowing he's got a steady supply of water and food and is not going to get eaten by a fox or something (do foxes even eat cats?).. Anway - mission accomplished!

Packing for a roadtrip with a broken foot

2008-07-12T09:28:00.003-04:00

Robin's off on a road trip this weekend.... It's funny how packing changes when you have a broken foot...

Note the two right shoes...

Lied to once again... (The joys of dealing with Embarq)

2008-06-30T22:52:00.003-04:00

Back around the beginning of May I was told by a reputable source at Embarq that we would have DSL in our little village within "30 to 60 days."

Flash forward about 45 days...

A little over two weeks ago, I went in to the Embarq store in town to see if we were really on track. They told me "Two weeks and you'll be online."

Guess what. They lied. Again. Two weeks came and went. No DSL.

I went in today to find out what was up. Now they are saying December 31st at the earliest.

What the hell is up with this lame phone company? For FOUR years they've been promising broadband down here. FOUR years. I was Thirty Four years old when I first heard someone at Embarq (then Sprint) say "You'll have DSL by the end of the year." I should have learned by now. Maybe they'll get it in before I turn forty. Wouldn't that be cool.

Lamest phone company ever. I am not dancing a jig. In fact, I may just give the dog a kick instead. Just kidding of course. But I will curse every Embarq truck I pass for the next thirty days. And then I'll go back in and ask when DSL is coming...

I can't recall the last time I needed ice cream AND bullets

2008-06-15T12:43:00.003-04:00

Convenience store, Esmont-style!

And another thing...

2008-06-12T21:07:00.003-04:00

Meet Robin. And.. meet Titan - our blue Dane. Titan likes to bark. For some reason he likes to start around 3.30. AM. This is problematic because Robin is a very light sleeper. Sunday night Titan started barking. At 3.30. Robin, wanting some peace and quiet, sprang from bed and raced down shut him down. At 3.30. In the dark.

Now - note the two pieces of aluminum holding her up. Then note the little blue boot on her left foot.

To make a long story short - we spent Monday morning in the UVA Medical Center Emergency room. She was poked, squeezed, and x-rayed and finally diagnosed with a fractured foot.

Crap.

Robin is active. Actually, active is not nearly strong enough to describe her lifestyle. During the summer months (right about now), she will start gardening, building, weeding, hiking, or whatever around 9AM and usually finish at 9PM or whenever she collapses from exhaustion.

Uh-oh.

That's all for now... I expect the next few weeks to be pretty busy as we adjust to life with the broken foot. Hopefully she'll get a solid cast next week, which will allow her to ditch the crutches and at least get around the yard. Until then, she's zooming (actually putting) around on the tractor, going from plant to plant and garden to flowerbed. It works.

Too much going on, too lazy to post

2008-06-12T12:16:00.003-04:00

It's been a busy week and I haven't felt like I've had time to do much blogging.. Here's a summary of what's been going on:

Went on a river trip with some guys from work. Caught lots of fish. Drank lots of bourbon and Tequila. Yum.
Struggled with a single chapter of Self Arrest. I needed a break, so I let things slide for a week or so. It seems to have worked as the past couple of days have been really productive. It seems counter-intuitive, but sometimes to write more I have to write less. Go figure.
Saw our foster, Brady, go to a new home. It was a sad day because she was a great dog, but it's really nice to be back to 3. And oh yeah, Tumbleweed has decided we're his best friends again. This after not being present in our yard for months. Strange cat.

That's it for now. I'm @Greenberry's drinking a lukewarm iced coffee and editing chapter fifty two. Only eight more to go before I can start submitting this thing. Soon.

Mem day weekend 2008

2008-05-24T13:12:00.004-04:00

It's Memorial Day weekend, 2008, and I'm spending it in Morehead City with Adrian. Jess is out of town, so it's a good time to do the single guy thing. What is the single guy thing you ask?

Beer
Grand Theft Auto IV on the Playstation 3
Working on bikes
Playing with computers

And oh yeah, some of the following:

Writing (not enough due to the list above)
Exercising (cycling & walking)

So far I've accomplished the entire first list and #2 from the second list. I'm going to write some today and get out for a walk in the evening (if it ever stops raining). Tomorrow is fishing (got an NC license today) and lunch with Nancy and another bike ride. Then Monday - back to VA.

A couple days before I came down here, I got the call the Adrian needed new pedals and tires for his bike. So, I brought along some tools. Unfortunately, the bike had quite a bit of rust and it needed a new chain and a bunch of other crap as well - things I didn't bring tools for. And to make it more interesting - the front derailleur was shot. Yesterday we got all the necessary bits (except for the front D) and got it all figured out and in running shape. It should save Adrian some $$ on gas now.

It's also been a busy time with computers.. Since I arrived, I have been having trouble with holding a wireless connection unless I was right beside the router. Something's seriously wrong with that, though, since the house is small. After upgrading the router firmware and dorking around with it for far too long (and noticing that they're only getting about 1.1MB/s through testmy.net) I decided a new router was in order. Happy birthday Adrian. They now have a new Linksys WRT54G2 router and they're pulling 5MB/s. Nice. However, my computer still bombed out as I left the room. Well - this presented another unique buying opportunity. Since we're getting DSL in Esmont soon, I've been planning on upgrading our router to an 802.11n version (going from 54MB/s to 300MB/s).. But our computers at home are all 54g. And to upgrade my Mac internally would be like $400. Screw that. After a litttle googling, I found a D-Link USB 802.11n doodad for $79. Now I can surf @ Adrian's and I'm ready for the upgrade @home w/o spending megabucks. And last, but not least - while I was troubleshooting the network connection on Adrian's desktop, I noticed that the computer was running like paint drying on a humid August day. Adrian said it had always been like that. Out of curiosity, I right clicked on 'My Computer' and almost fell out of my chair when I saw that it only had 256MB RAM. Holy crap. Needless to say, it now has 2GB of RAM for VERY little $$.

That's enough writing for now. Time to mosy across the street for my daily Baskin Robbins Rocky Road fix. Then some writing. Or maybe some GTA4 and then some writing.

Writing fuel

2008-05-13T12:09:00.006-04:00

Greenberry's has free soup today. Corn chowder. Yum.

I only had about 40 minutes to write, but I've managed to grind out about 350 new and original words - always a good thing.

Unfortunately, it's time to go back to work. I hate going back to work when I'm on a roll. Really, really, really hate it.

In related news - I purchased 5 tickets for tonight's MegaMillions drawing (currently at $166 Million, 101 Million cash option). I fully expect that with my winnings, I'll be able to take one long lunch break starting tomorrow.

No, we didn't hit a tree

2008-05-05T20:24:00.001-04:00

Although it looks like we have a tree running through the car, what really happened was a trip to Lowe's. It's amazing what you can fit inside a Honda Element.

Dancing a jig

2008-05-03T20:05:00.003-04:00

The other day, on the way to work, I stopped in at the Esmont Post Office to get the mail. Judy was working the counter, and I was a bit early, and the mail wasn't out yet. Since I'm expecting a package, I asked her if we had anything. She said no, and then asked if I had gotten her voicemail. As anyone who knows me will attest, I don't check the home voicemail. Ever. So no, I hadn't gotten it.

That was unfortunate, because she had called to tell me that Embarq is bringing DSL to Esmont within the next couple of months. I literally danced a jig in the post office at this news. It may have been Irish - I don't actually know if there is any other kind. You see, when Robin and I first moved to the hinterlands, we both worked at home. For a technology company. That means we needed reliable, high speed internet.

The saga begins.

Back in Colorado, we had cable modem service through Comcast. Say what you want about Comcast, but it only flaked out once in the two years that we had it. It was great. We both worked at home, we had Vonage, I played games. The world was happy and shiny and filled with high mountains and good Indian food and very very fast downloads.

Then we came to Virginia. We have hills and something called "hollers" instead of mountains. The only Indian food until recently was mediocre at best (until recently - Thank you Royal Indian in Hollymead!) and most importantly, we had no high speed internet. At the time, Sprint (now Embarq), told us "oh, you'll have DSL within a year."

Naive city folk that we were, we believed them.

Then they told us "We'll sell you ISDN service until DSL becomes available."

"Ok," I thought. Never mind that ISDN was the crap early 90's service I relied on in Sardinia way back in 1995. "Sign us up. Have our lines active when we arrive in Virginia," I told the friendly Sprint man about a month before we moved.

Jump forward to November of '04. The moving truck pulls up, and we spill out and stumble around in shock. We very quickly realize that Sprint has made no moves towards installing ISDN at our house. And to top it off, it will be at least a month before they can do anything. Hmmm. We're screwed. We quickly but a dial up router from Amazon and limp along with that and frequent trips to town until Sprint gets their act together.

Flash forward a few years. We finally got our ISDN working. We've been paying alot for it - and I mean A LOT - but it's adequate for Robin to do her job, especially since she's not sharing it with me anymore. We even got Wildblue satellite service to allow for fast downloads and more natural web browsing - never mind the crap latency.

With the intro of DSL service to Esmont, we'll finally have the internet experience that I had in 1998. One more step, along with the new lawn mower, that makes life a little bit better in the country. Now, if only I could find a way to fuel my car with grass clippings and compost...

Not Since College

2008-04-26T07:15:00.004-04:00

It's been an embarrassingly long time since I've seen my weight begin with something other than a "2".

Until today, that is:

That's 90.49kg - or 14.25 stone for those of you from the UK.

I topped out at 236.5 in September, 2006. There was no getting around it - I was fat. People addressed me as "big guy."

The whole weight thing kind of snuck up on me.. I was 175ish when I went to college (age 17). About 205 by the end of college (age 22). After my first year in the "adult world", 215 (age 23/24). There I hovered for most of my late 20s/early 30s. Then I worked at home for a year - zoomed straight up to the mid 230s (age 36ish).

Enough was enough. I tried gyms. I tried stupid diets with ominous sounding names like "The Zone," or "Sugar Busters," or "The Paleolithic Diet." I even tried some more benign sounding diets like "The South Beach Diet." Doesn't that sound cool? I love South Beach. Topless women, Cuban food, white sand, and blue water. What could be better? In reality, The South Beach diet is all about pretending that cauliflower is mashed potatoes. Bugger that. Cauliflower is vile. And there were definitely no topless women.

So - back to basics. Eat less. Exercise more. Do it consistently.

The last part is the crucial. If you eat nothing all day and then binge on Ben & Jerry's, you'll get fat. If you run a marathon one weekend, but the other 51 weekends of the year you sit on your ass, you'll get fat. That's just the way your body works.

I was looking for something that I could integrate into my daily existence. I chose walking. It's what we do, after all. We walk. It's only in modern times that we spend our days tied to a desk. Our ancestors spent their days in the fields or on the plains trying to catch their food. They walked. A lot. They were thin.

I also wanted some way to track what I ate to make sure I was doing it consistently. Since I'm a computer geek - I of course looked for software. I chose a package called Calorie King . It's available for the Mac and the PC. That's key. It also has a really well maintained food database (although they still don't have Five Guys yet).

The other tools were pretty simple:

GPS. I already had one - a Garmin ForeRunner 305
A food scale - $30 digital model at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. You'd be surprised at how small one serving of ice cream really is.
A short term goal. Robin and I decided to walk a 50K last Spring - it gave me some reason to get out and walk every day, burning it into my routine.

Finally, I went online and figured out my BMR. BMR stands for Base Metabolic Rate. Calorie King can do it for you, but I wanted to get several other opinions. Google it - there are a ton of calculators out there. The bottom line is for my height, sex, and activity level, I need about 2400 calories per day to maintain 180lbs. Starting at 236.6, I set the limit at 1850/day. You're supposed to drop 300/day from your consumption to lose 1-2lbs a week. I didn't always hit this target, but obviously I hit it enough times to drop some lbs.

Overall, it's been an really easy process. I still eat what I want, although by increasing my exercise level (cycling is now my primary sport), I find that my body craves healthier stuff. I tend to keep my calories around 1850-2100/day - and I don't freak out if I have a day where I eat more (a party or big dinner out for example).. As long as I stay consistent with other stuff, it's all good.

Benefits so far:

236.5 - 199.5 = 37 lbs gone
Went from snug size 38 pants to size 34
I can fit into all kinds of clothes that had mysteriously "shrunk" over the years. Haha. Shrunk. The ways we deceive ourselves.
Haven't heard "hey, big guy" for quite some time.
Exercise, whether hiking with Robin, walking, or riding the bike is actually fun. Novel concept. I even picked up a new sport (unicycling).
Cholesterol, etc. has gone way, way down into the healthy zone.

That's it. Next stop 180.

The eternal burning inferno of the Synopsis (AKA synopsis hell)

2008-04-17T12:48:00.004-04:00

In preparation to start shopping my novel around, I began assembling a package of material to accompany the query letter. Agents/Publishers generally want one or more of several things:

A bio explaining why you are qualified to write the story
A synopsis (anywhere from 1 line to 10-15 pages)
The first 10 pages
Nothing

#1, #3, and #4 are easy. #3 though - that's a killer.

Imagine taking a 350 page story down to one line. One paragraph. One page. Ten pages.

That's what I've been doing for the past week or so - a bit every day. I've gotten some really good editorial direction from my Mom (also a struggling author, but a little further down the road). Today I just finished up the one pager.

This has been an eye-opening experience. I've discovered a couple of good holes in my overall plot, as well as a couple of characters that I need to move around, embellish, etc.

This should also solve the problem I encountered when I met an editor from Penguin who asked me "So, what's your book about?" I sort of hemmed and hawed for a minute without really telling her. I couldn't at that point because it was all too fuzzy. Not anymore.

Now - back to the fun stuff - editing the existing pieces and making the corrections/writing new chapters where necessary.

Almost there.

2008-04-14T12:49:00.002-04:00

These Are some happy Danes!

Visiting Mimi

2008-04-12T11:07:00.002-04:00

Sick Dane

2008-04-11T21:36:00.005-04:00

Titan is sick. Around 4PM today he stopped moving, tucked his tail, and began to hide under the big pine tree in the back yard. This is not normal Titan behavior - not by a long shot. He's not showing any of the signs of bloat.. No sign of a snakebite or an insect sting either.

Here he is crashed out in the living room:

Sad dog :(

Hopefully he will get better as the night goes on. More later.

Green Paint

2008-04-04T18:29:00.005-04:00

One of my big complaints since moving to the country has been how much time I spend cutting grass. We have a total of five acres, about 2.5 of which are grass. Lots of hills. Lots of obstacles. It takes me about 4 - 4.5 hours to cut the grass. That's a problem because I have other things I'd rather be doing than sitting on my tractor all weekend every weekend. It got so bad last summer that I cut 1/2 one week and the other half the following week. The yard looked like crap pretty much the whole summer.

Not to knock our tractor - when we moved here we ponied up and bought a shiny new John Deere L120. At the time it seemed like more than enough. Three summers later I realize that it's not and I've been dreading getting back on the thing.

So.. I've been doing some research on Zero Turns and walk behinds. I like the zero turn and they can zip along at about 9.5MPH. That's REALLY fast in mowing terms. Our current tractor tops out at 4.5 - probably more like 3 considering our yard is kind of hilly and I'm scared of going too fast in many places. I don't want to end up a lawn tractor stastic, you know.

Zero turns are expensive. I could get a new consumer grade Deere for a little under 4K. I could get a new Troy-Bilt for about $500 less. I wanted a Deere. So I started looking at walk behinds. They can go about 7/7.5 MPH. Hmmm. And they're a LOT less than a zero turn. A lot less. Plus, with the doodad that attaches to the back, it's kind of like you're riding a jetski in your yard.

So, without further ado - meet "Cuzco", my new, very lightly used (56hrs) John Deere HD45 Commercial Walk Behind!

Woohoo!

I stopped at Virginia Tractor (formerly known as Piedmont Equipment) on the way home from work and took a spin through through the used section. There he was. The perfect tractor. Low hours. Hydostatic transmission, nice clean paint, the works. I drove it (more like rode it) around the parking lot a few times. It turns FAST. It goes FAST. Like, nuclear rocket fast.

After pondering it for a few minutes and spending some time on the phone with Robin, I decided to go for it!

Cuzco arrives Wednesday. I'm cutting grass next weekend and I'm excited about it. Cool.

Update! The tractor arrived. Holy crap. This tractor rules. I've taken it out a few times this week and I have to say that it was worth every penny. I'm able to cut a lot of places that the L120 couldn't touch - the area below the pond, etc. I'm very very happy with this machine!

The daily grind

2008-04-03T23:10:00.003-04:00

I've been working on my current novel, Self Arrest, for almost two years now. During this time, I've experienced spectacular bursts of productivity and creativity punctuated by agonizing spells of apathy and procrastination. Writing is hard. Really really hard.

I'm happy to say, though, that I can finally see some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. I've been writing (editing, actually) consistently for at least 45 minutes/day since a few weeks before the winter holidays. I've purged storylines, completely rewritten at least fifty percent of the book, switched word processors (buy Scrivener here - you can thank me later), killed off characters, and then brought them back to life. It's been quite a journey.

At this point, I have about 12-15 chapters left to finish editing and then I can start shopping it around. Fingers are crossed. The shrine to the publishing gods has been constructed and I'm waiting for the UPS guy to deliver the incense and the little gold Buddah dude. It can't hurt.

When I first started the project, I had only the vaguest idea of where I wanted it to go. It's been incredibly rewarding to see the story mature into something far more interesting (I think) than the original concept.

I expet that my lunch hours for the next month or so will be spent at Greenberry's, hunched over my grungy MacBook while I gut this last bit out. It should be fun.

So I bought a unicycle

2008-03-30T18:59:00.011-04:00

Several years ago at the Banff Mountain Film Festival, I saw a video of some guys riding a unicycle down a volcano in Mexico. Cool, I thought. Then I promptly forgot about it.

Flash forward to a few weeks ago at the Banff festival in Charlottesville. Another unicycling video. This time I didn't forget. Quite the contrary.

A week after the show, the UPS guy turned into our driveway, sending the dogs into a frenzy of barking and posturing. I went out to meet him and he handed me a box that looked far too small for what I had ordered. Like a kid on Christmas morning, I tore it open, not even waiting for him to get back into his truck,

Inside was a shiny new 26" Torker LX unicycle. Just like this one:

Minimal assembly required, of course.

Flash to today. I've been playing with my new toy for a about a week now. Here's what I've learned so far:

Staying upright for five feet is a BIG deal
Level ground is good
Shin guards are your best friend
It's a hell of a workout
It's going to be awhile before I'm featured at the Banff Mountain Film Festival

Here are a couple of shots that Robin took this afternoon. Obviously a bit more practice may be required.

What Not to Watch

2008-03-28T20:21:00.005-04:00

It seems Robin and I have developed a new Friday night ritual.

It's called "What Not To Wear" and I'd have to rank it right up there with smoking in terms of addictive properties. We stumbled across it one evening while searching for something new to watch. The whole premise is that the hosts - Stacey and Clinton - take a person who doesn't know how to dress, give them $5000, and then school them in the art of looking fine.

Sounds dull. Sounds like a chick show. Wrong.

There's no end to the strange stuff people wear. Absolutely no end. And it's quite amusing to see them throw out their entire wardrobe.

Now, here's where it gets strange. Today I went to Greenberry's for a coffee and an hour of writing. It was not meant to be, however. Every woman that walked through the door received the "What Not to Wear" treatment. Out of the fifteen or twenty women that came in for coffee, I'd say that maybe two or three would pass the Clinton and Stacey test.

Strange. But kind of fun. And in no way good for my writing productivity.

Anyway. Its friday night and a new episode just came on. More later.