Flying W Things

Great Spots

This barely qualifies as original content but what the heck. Have you seen the new Dick's Sporting Goods commercials starring Lance Armstrong as a store manager? Hi Larious.

Best lines: "Brad?" (duh) and "Like the blacksmith to the forge, let iron sharpen iron"

Best lines: "The marathon was the hardest thing I've ever done" and "Feed the warrior 20 pounds!"

Long time readers will know that I have run hot and cold on Lance Armstrong. I am in absolute awe of his cycling ability, but after reading his book "It's Not About the Bike" I was less impressed with the man. However...

After he ran the New York marathon in 2006 he was quoted saying that it was the hardest thing he'd ever done. Ever! Here's a guy who won seven consecutive Tours de France. My mind cannot even begin to fathom what riding two days of that race would be like. And here he is, saying that this thing that I have done compares to that. (Granted, his marathon times are in the neighborhood of 3 hours and I have never seen the sunny side of 4:30. Still.) To hear an elite athlete say that - well, it's gratifying. So he's back on my good guy list, sorta. Plus the commercials are hilarious.

2007 In Review

What happened to 2007? What happened in 2007?

January

Katy came with me to CES (thanks to Katy's mom for watching the kids). We walked the show floor together by day and lived it up like the rock stars we are by night. Okay, so if you don't believe that we did go and see Mamma Mia. And I bought my official Gadget of 2007 - an XM receiver/mp3 player. (Which I still love.)

February

We took a weekend trip to Yosemite and hit one of the few snowy weekends in the mountains. I got to show off my super-manly tire chain installation-fu and we had a great time playing in the snow. Claire and Cam also had their first experience skiing and snowboarding, respectively, at Badger Pass. The weather was not great - blowing snow - but we all had fun.

March

March was Cam's first Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Unfortunately Katy and I had tickets to see a matinee of Wicked with a group of friends that day. I tried to figure out a way to do both things but it just wasn't possible, and in the end I went with Katy to the show. I'll tell you though, it was killing me.

Before we left I gave Cam one of my Pinewood Derby medals (of course I knew where they were) and told him to put it in his pocket for good luck and as a reminder that I was thinking about him and the car we made together. The second we were out of the show I called home to see how it went.

Turned out that it was some good and some bad - he blew away the competition in his den but then in turn was blown away by the older kids' cars in the finals. Apparently there was some trouble with a wheel falling out between heats. (I'm sure that didn't have anything to do with the fact that I was gluing them in place approximately 30 seconds before we had to check in the car the day before...)

April and May

Katy and I turned 40 last year. We had a joint birthday party at a small bowling alley. We had a great time! Unfortunately we did not think to get a photograph of the two of us at said party. Whoops.

Here's a shot of the smoker's lounge, aka the sidewalk in front of the bowling alley:

June

Katy's folks celebrated 45 years of marriage this summer by taking us all on a cruise to Alaska. Cruising may not be for everybody but I certainly enjoyed myself. I really got into the swing of it with dinner - I quickly mastered the art of ordering a filet on the side along with whatever else I was having, and on the last night I ate seven lobster tails. It really wasn't my fault, the waiter just kept bringing them out.

We took a really cool side trip to see the Mendenhall Glacier. Wow. It really is a river of ice.

July

July found us in Oklahoma City for my baby sister's wedding. I got to walk her down the aisle, which meant that I enjoyed the reception knowing that it didn't matter if I spilled a bunch of food on my suit - it was rented! (Sadly all our pictures are blurry.)

August

I took the kids to their first MLB games this summer. Cameron is more of an NL guy, Claire is an Angels fan. We'll see who gets a jersey first...

The kids started 3rd grade. Holy smokes!

September

Katy came along on another trade show trip - this time to Amsterdam for IBC. We went a few days early and saw the sights of Amsterdam, including some really old churches, the Anne Frank house, lots of paintings, and loads and loads of charming architecture and friendly locals. (A HUGE thanks to Katy's mom for watching the kids for this trip, too. I think we've used up our babysitter/travel credits for a while.) Funniest moment - a waitress spilled a beer into my crotch and then embarrassed herself further by reflexively reaching out to dry it off. Free beers!

There are still a few windmills in Holland:

October

I finally got a correct diagnosis on a problem I'd been having with my Triumph since late spring. Sadly for my wallet, it needs transmission work. (What this really means is "replacement" because there's no way on earth I'm going to try to rebuild a transmission for a car that I actually intend to drive.) Parts were ordered, unfortunately until recently I've had very little time to work on it.

Wildfires swirled all around us but the worst we experienced was horrible air quality - the kids got a couple of "smoke days" off from school it was so bad.

November and December

Aren't you sick of reading this dreck yet?

Pre-Starbucks Coffee Propaganda

Do you remember the Coffee Achiever commercials?