Winter Wunderland!

Just a quick post today, with some pictures from my XC skiing adventure with the pups and a couple friends on Saturday, when we got nearly a foot of snow at home and more in the mountains.  Paddington was just released from physical therapy last week, so she was very happy about being able to come along.  I picked up Arrelaine and Rachel in Boulder, and we headed up through Nederland and north along the Peak-to-Peak highway to the Sourdough trailhead.  The SuperVan did very well in the snow, helped along by all-wheel-drive and new tires, and Paddington's new ThunderShirt kept her from flipping out on the drive as she normally would, so all was sweetness and light.

We skied about 3 miles to a little bridge that marks a good turn-around point and stopped for lunch:

Unusually for Ellie (considering her chubbiness), she was shivering while we were stopped, so I took out my extra fleece and put it on her:

And after I finished eating, I put her on my lap and tried to warm her up while my butt went numb in the snow:

Paddington found Arrelaine's sandwich quite enticing, and made an effort to steal a bite while Arrelaine was looking the other way:

Then Arrelaine adjusted her rental ski boots and we headed back to the car.

On the way back down to Boulder, although almost everyone on the road had 4WD and it had stopped snowing, we went the whole 18 miles doing only 25mph, and even though I was just coasting along, a D-bag in an Audi tried to get me to rear-end him, so that was exciting.

Good night, good luck, win awards.

If you could fight anyone, who would you fight?

It used to be Sarah Palin, but now I'd fight this guy:

You can just tell he's a whiny, doughy little shit.

The New York Times published an article about this guy's major beef with same-sex marriage last week, and it's actually pretty impartial considering the subject material.  Some truly disgusting things have sprung from this man's delusional mind and filthy lying mouth:


“When you knock over a core pillar of society like marriage, and then try to redefine biblical views of marriage as bigotry, there will be consequences,” Mr. Brown warned last August in a fund-raising letter. “Will one of the consequences be a serious push to normalize pedophilia?” 

 I do not have the faintest idea how he makes that connection. How do you even begin to argue with something so blatantly slanderous and untrue?  Yeah, homosexuals and pedophiles are right there on the same page of the DSM, that makes perfect sense.  I'm sure he's thrown bestiality into the mix at some point as well.  It would make me feel a little less bad about humanity if I took apart this statement piece by piece, but that won't help anything.  Either this guy thinks that what he's saying is God's honest truth, in which case he needs serious medical help, or he is trying to manipulate the societal laws of this country for his own perverse reasons and therefore represents everything that is bad about everything, and his statements are merely meant to be inflammatory, not debatable.

And precisely what is the problem with same-sex marriage?

When the justices hear oral arguments in the case on Tuesday, Mr. Brown — unfazed by polls showing that a majority of Americans disagree with him — will be on the court’s marble steps, leading a march that he hopes will draw thousands who believe, as he does, that gay unions hurt children and threaten religious freedom. 

Oh, weird, there are no details on how exactly gay unions hurt children or threaten religious freedom, I guess we should believe that they 'just do'.  I mean, I guess I could see how the children of gay folks, who may be more inclined to see that gay men and women are fellow human beings and not 'abominations', would maybe realize that the ol' Bible got a few things wrong and may not be right about Adam and Eve either, or the age of the earth, etc., and oops, there goes another possible conservative christian zealot.

There is a whole mess of things keeping this poor guy up at night:

If same-sex marriage becomes a cultural norm, Mr. Brown warns, heterosexual couples will no longer have preference over gay men and lesbians in adoptions, schoolchildren will be taught that same-sex parenting is normal, and those who oppose it will be labeled bigots. Already he worries about his safety and that of his handful of employees, which is why there is a security lock on his office door. 

First, as we all know, there is a long history of gay men and women rising up at the slightest provocation and lynching every conservative christian they can get their hands on.  You won't hear it from the liberal media, but every mass shooting in the past five years has been perpetrated by a militant homosexual, angry that their mission of turning every schoolchild gay by 2015 isn't going as well as they'd hoped.

Oh wait, that's not the case at all.  I must be thinking of something THAT DOESN'T EXIST.

As to his fear that breeder couples will have to share the adoptable children of the world equally with the non-breeders, I have an argument that may sound mean, but hear me out: if you and your opposite-sex, married-in-the-eyes-of-God spouse cannot naturally conceive a child and/or cannot carry one to term, then what more solid proof do you need that your God does not intend for you to reproduce or to be a parent?  It seems like a pretty obvious message.  I'm not saying that non-fertile couples don't deserve to raise children, I'm just saying that you may be a hypocrite if you try to have it both ways.

Also, there is a very good reason why people who oppose the concept of same-sex parenting are labeled bigots: BECAUSE THEY ARE.  If it looks like a duck...
(I feel bad using the 'looks like a duck' expression about this particular bigot because I happen to like ducks quite a lot, but if the shoe fits...dammit, wait, I like shoes too.)

Anyway, back to my main point: if I could fight anyone, I'd fight this guy, because Jebus says that if I plant a boot into one of his cheeks, he has to turn the other one and I'd get to do it again, wooo!  I must, though, take some slight solace from the fact that on the matter of gay marriage, we're mainly just waiting for the bigots to die off, and in 10 years schoolkids will take it for granted and wonder what all the fuss was about in the first place.

Thanks for reading, and remember: super quiet, super awesome.

You want it which way?

What a weekend!  On Saturday Mike went for a long bike ride west of Boulder and I puttered around the house and hung out with the dogs, and in the evening we went to watch our friend/coworker do his emcee thing at the Saturday night karaoke session at Sushi Zanmai in Boulder.  I had offered to be the DD, so despite being stone cold sober I was coerced into singing a duet with Brian:

{Actually, the video upload isn't cooperating, so I'll have to try again at home.}

Amazingly, even though I haven't heard this song in years, I still remembered all the words and key changes.  What I didn't recall, however, was how far out of my voice range it is, and if I'd gone up an octave I would have been shrieking.  So, don't judge me too harshly ;)

When karaoke ended at midnight, we went to a few other bars in Boulder, and had our first opportunity to feel suuuuper old because all the other people we were with couldn't have been older than 24.  I'm going to retreat back to my book club and dinner parties now.

The bars in Colorado do a very odd thing: they close at 2:00am, but they start turning on the lights and moving people toward the doors at 1:45, regardless of whether or not you just bought your drink.  I remember the first time I went out in Ft. Collins, I was quite indignant about being kicked out before closing time and gave the bouncer a piece of my mind.  Now that I'm an old fuddy-duddy though, I didn't mind having an excuse to go home to bed.  Still, that kind of nonsense would never fly in Madison, and that is why UW is so much better than CU.  Boom.


On Sunday morning, Mike and I slept in until the ludicrous hour of 10:00am, and only when Ellie got hungry enough to assault us with her tail did we drag ourselves onto the couch for some Top Gear.  We stayed there until 3:30pm, then finally got our butts in gear and took the pups for a hike in the foothills.  It was incredibly windy that afternoon and threatening to rain, so we had the trail nearly to ourselves and Paddington and Ellie could run around like maniacs to their heart's content:

We also came across a friendly rock:

And then we went home for dinner.


Tonight I have my first beer-league recreational softball game, so we'll see how that goes!

Til then, remember: super quiet, super awesome.

Literally Climbing the Walls

Well, dear readers, in the past few weeks I have partooken ('partooken' is awesome for 'partaken in') the recreational sport of rock climbing at the Boulder Rock Climb gym.  A coworker of Mike's convinced him to try it out, and the weather here has been unamenable to mountain biking recently, so Mike dusted off his climbing gear and went.  I did not join him because that particular night was the very last of Stout Month at the Southern Sun, so I met Meg and Stevezie and a couple other friends there for dinner and drinks. 

Afterward, with a bit of a buzz on, I walked over to the BRC to spectate as Mike climbed with coworkers Brian, Joy and Jon.  The gym is pretty neat: lots of different-colored holds bolted to the concrete walls with colored tape showing which 'routes' to follow, and people on ropes lowering like spiders from the overhangs. 

Well, that evening whetted Mike's appetite for getting back into climbing, and the next Thursday I joined him and coworkers Brian, Joy, and Elyn at the gym after work.  I had (at Mike's prompting) bought a pair of climbing shoes for very cheap at an REI garage sale some four years previously, and Elyn loaned me her extra harness, and I wasn't required to belay anyone yet so I didn't need a belay device, so I was set to climb!  Mike checked my figure-8 knot on my harness and then we started the obligatory safety back-and-forth for climbing:
Climber: "On belay?"
Belayer:  "Belay on."
Climber:  "Climbing."
Belayer:  "Climb on."

My first climb was on a nice easy warm-up 5.6 route, but even so I was totally hooked.  Unfortunately, my nice discounted climbing shoes were much, MUCH too small, so I had to invest in a new pair that I could keep on for more than 3 minutes at a time.  I also bought a new harness and belay device.  Full disclosure: the shoes and the harness have matching color schemes, but it was unintentional.  For those of you who care, they are the Scarpa Helix shoes and Mammut Ophira Slide 3 harness and I highly recommend them both.

Here are some pictures from our most recent excursion this past Thursday!  We met Brian at the gym at 8:30 and climbed until they closed at 11, and then we were so ravenously hungry afterward we swung by the grocery store and got some mac'n'cheese for dinner.  Nothing like a box of Kraft at midnight!

Here's Brian using the auto-belay system to climb a 5.7 route:

Then Mike belayed Brian on a 5.8:

(Love the beefcake in the back.)

Then I, having warmed up on a few easier routes, gave a 5.10 a shot.  In this one I have only one hold to get to before I'm done, but I'm short so I have to kind of spring for it.  I missed on the first try and fell, but then I got back on and made it!

U-RAH!  On Wisconsin!

 Then it was my turn to belay Mike on the same 5.10, but unfortunately for you I am much less photogenic:

"Oops, I dropped him.  Turn off the camera."

Then Mike really went for it on a 5.11!

Overhangs are rough.

Black and white!  Artistic!

(Spider.)

And I had one more climb in me, so I finished the evening with a 5.9:

Look at that muscle definition!

Almost there!

So it turns out that climbing is a great activity for when the trails aren't ready to ride yet!  Maybe it will also give me some arm strength...

With any luck the next week of dry and warm-ish weather will get the trails dried out, and I can post some biking pictures!

Til then, good night, good luck, win awards.

Why Won't Darth Cheney Die Already?!

Happy Thursday!
I'm sure everyone has heard about the scathing column Maureen Dowd wrote in the NYT on Wednesday, but if you haven't had the opportunity to read it you can find it here.

"Grrr!"

Basically, Maureen wants us to be annoyed that pale, flaccid Dick has once again forcibly inserted himself into the public's attention.  That's right, he's mind-raping us, and I am extremely annoyed about it.  Who decided that this guy deserved a heart, anyway?  (It's not technically a 'new' heart, since he never had one in the first place.)  I would have sort-of supported his increased life span if it had been used to prosecute him for his war crimes and crimes against humanity, but apparently those god-complex doctors had other ideas and he's been given extra time to spout his unique brand of bile.

Mrs. Dowd claims that cold, slimy Dick is just as assured of his righteousness as he ever was.  How can this be?  Does he really, truly believe that his actions were good for the country that he served?  That all the deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan were worthwhile?  Or has he weighed his options and decided that at this point there's nothing to lose by staying the course?  In either case, he is a terrible, horrible human being pasty humanoid life form, and if anyone tries to give him another perfectly good internal organ, I will punch them in the Dick.

On a somewhat related note, the story of Dick's heart transplant had the somewhat surprising (for me) effect of causing me to rethink my status as an organ donor.  I am perfectly aware that no part of my consciousness will live on in my internal organs once I have gone to the Great Big Lift-Serviced Bike Park in the Sky (or, if I have been bad, the Never-Ending SingleSpeed CycloCross Smugfest).  I realize that there are lots of good people out there who will die without organ transplants, and, hell, I just might be in that position one day.  But I can't get over the idea that someone like Dick would get my lovely liver/spleen/heart/boobs/etc.  I know it's irrational!!  I know that!!  Aarrgh!

Anyway, I'm getting my driver's license renewed this year, so it may be a game-time decision.

Thanks for reading, and remember: super quiet, super awesome!

I Started This Blog Because I'm Lazy

Welcome to BikeReadCookRepeat!  This will be part stream-of-consciousness, part photo dump, part adventure travelogue, and part opportunity for me to take my extreme/controversial/silly/mundane views out for a walk.  It is also a way for me to get all my correspondence done with one easy post at any given time, and it's up to you, dear reader, to maintain interest in my musings.  Enjoy!