High Mountain Park, or the Other-other White Meat?

We went up the hill into the mountains for the first time today... Wow! We've been missing some beautiful scenery only 15 min away! It was nice to be among the tall pines, and smell that awesome evergreen smell. It was a crowded little town, with tons of little league baseball games in progress, but it was on the small, quaint, ski-town level. We can't wait to show our summer visitors the infinite view from the mountain road pull-off just a little further up the road. Amazing. We'll definitely be going back more often!

We got tacos from a local tiny restaurant there, which interestingly enough had a slight slope to it. Yes, the building itself leaned, as if the earth had settled and was now out of level. It's weird to stand inside somewhere and feel yourself being pulled by gravity to one side... Maybe this disturbance in the universe is enough to throw off people's brains, their thoughts, their accuracy on the job? You be the judge. Anyway, I ordered 1 beef and 4 chicken items to go (tacos, taquitos, etc). What I received was 5 beef (or was it pork?) items. As the hungry two of us sat down to feast at the park (the kids had McD's miles before that so it was just us two), we realized the lack of chicken-esque meat in any of our mexi-treats. "Maybe it's just all dark meat" we supposed, trying to believe they really hadn't gotten our order 80% incorrect! Nope, that's definitely darker than any chicken I've seen. So I went back and got more food for free, brought it back to the park and we finally ate -- effectively doubling my personal quota of beef (or pork?) for the week! Ang was just happy to eat real poultry after the mix-up!

Dressed Up

Here are the kiddos wearing their new Easter clothes, thanks to Grandma! They are all so excited to get new clothes. So, a spontaneous fashion show erupted in our living room prompting us to take pictures... with scraggly hair, mismatched socks and all! (the black & white makes it all better!)

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No significant dirtbike stories to pass along. Just the usual "roosting" of sand and sagebrush, and my sparse commuter traffic that consisted of a single dog today (a tan Chow) that tried to intercept me in front of his house, but a handful of throttle put it in the rearview mirror.

Riders of the High Desert

Here's some eyewitness photos of Laney riding with and without training wheels. You can see Gib was ready to go on a biking expedition, while Mya was happy to push the utter limits of the tricycle (I kid you not, she tries to jump that thing on and off the dropoff edges of the sidewalk...she's nuts). And then we have the picture of the big race down the driveway, where speed demon Mya actually won on a tricycle! And then we have loungewear Gibson, riding the silver/purple trike in his jammies and no shoes. Nice.

I love the look of concentration on Laney's face.

Laney on 2 wheels!

What a great day - after visiting friends at Edwards AFB (the Allens & the Porters), and getting some sun at the park there, we ran some errands in Palmdale, grabbed fabulous Thai "to go" from a fabulous hole-in-the-wall place called Vanda's Thai, in Lake Los Angeles. Yum. Yellow curry w/ shrimp (our personal favorite/addiction)--it's to die for!

Anyways, after dinner, we go outside and the kids ride around in the driveway in the last few minutes of sun. Then after hosing off the dusty cars in the dark, the kids ride again, making wet tracks around the driveway. What fun. Then Laney, as if on queue at almost exactly 8:00pm (known as "bedtime" around here), asks me, "Dad can I learn to ride without training wheels?" This has come up several times recently, but always at bedtime or right before we leave for church or some other inopportune time. So I say ok lets do it--my friend Drew and I noticed today at the get-together while the kids were cruising the sidewalks that Laney was riding mostly on the 2 main wheels and didn't really use the training wheels. So we went for it. And she got it! Pretty quick too--only a little bit of instruction on how to steer to keep the bike upright, catching yourself with your feet and how to push off to start out. I think she's been ready for awhile now, since she picked it up in like 5 minutes.

So we've got one proud little 7 yr old in the house now. It looks like no-training-wheels "fever" is catching to the younger ones... but we'll have to play that by ear since I'm not sure if their "walk" can match their "talk."

Sadie Upright... and a Riding Story

Here she is... Sadie sitting up, grabbing stuff, and now starting to stand. She actually let go of the chair while standing, with no regard for life or limb (or her 2 teeth).

Tonight we also just instituted a chore-charting system to add some sanity, structure, and just to get things done around here! They actually were quite excited to get started on this... there are round plastic tags that have a chore picture, and each kid has their name with a column of pegs underneath it. When they complete the chore, they turn the tag around. There are also behavior tags, and pick-a-privilege that we determine, that they can pick from when they do the required work. There's also a "rewards contract" that lets the kids know what is expected of them and what the reward for completion will be. I'm thinking it will work well when they whine to my about why they don't get to do {privilege} and I just point to the pegboard and say, "did you do your work?" It's a simple setup called PEGS from Family Tools company. We'll keep you posted on how it goes.

That's it. Happy Friday! *****Oh, wait!!... a quick riding story for those who care...

Ok, coming home from work today via the usual dirt roads & sandy trails. I pick a new path I had scoped out on GoogleEarth. I know about the dry creekbed washes that intersect the route home 5 to 10 times. I know about the part of this new jeeptrail route that snakes around the biggest wash. What I don't know about is up ahead. I'm about 2 miles from home, the setting sun to my back and I've just accelerated out of the winding sandy part to what is a straight section of narrow dirt backroad that I can see clearly. Problem is, the sun to my back is casting no shadows on the dips & bumps ahead of me, but the bike's suspension is great at absorbing them at 20-30 mph and I just lean my weight way back toward the rear fender when I cross the mushy sand parts. Ok, 2 miles from home I said. Accelerating back up to around 30 mph. Standing up for a better view angle to cope with the lack of shadow information I talked about. Then I see it, at 30 mph. A black horizontal line in the dirt that starts to grow as I get closer--a ditch, a gully, a squared-off creek wash! Yikes. I hit the rear brake and start skidding to hopefully roll across at a crawl but I'm already up on it, still going about 15-20 mph, and I ain't gonna be slow enough! The edges of the wash are silty gray dirt, but the edges are squared off pretty good, and it's about 3 feet across, with no "lip" on the near side for me to get air and hop across. All this I realize as I'm skidding towards being a dusty heap at the opposite bank, so I hear Tim's wise guidance in my head and my right hand acts--"GAS IT!" I lean back and pull on the bars, but I still hit at full force into the opposite bank - not directly purpendicular, but pretty darn close. The forks compress way way down, then the front continues forward on the trail, and the back end quickly dives and hits the same spot and rebounds like a young stallion bucking off a pesky cowpoke--me. My lower section gets a memorable jolt from the upward thrusting seat, and I get a nice chiropractic crackety-crack through my middle aged bones. The sun behind me casts a comical shadow of the slow-motion event, as I see me feet go out spread eagle, and lots of daylight between my butt and the bike. I see a sage bush that's probably going to break my fall, but suddenly I'm back on the bike's seat, feet on the pegs and basically centered on the trail again. Woah. I ride another 1/2 mile prior to taking my first breath and blinking my eyes. Thank you Lord!

So I learned: don't race down new roads you've never explored before. And consider the sun angle & shadows or lack there of. Hopefully I don't have regular stories like this to pass along! Hey Chip, I've been scoping out some "play areas" for riding when you come this summer... think you can tame the beast?...the '87 RM250 awaits! You'll probably find yourself dumping the front end over in the sand time and time again like me until you learn to not weight the front wheel when you slow down or turn in the sand. <-- another free riding tip from someone who knows little about it! Bring your motocross helmet if you remember, unless you wanna wear an old street Shoei.
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Blood-red Fish Meat... and other Birthday Cake Themes

Yep. The Lane-ster is seven, which is pronounced see-Yet'-tay around these parts. So during the weeks leading up to her big day, Laney ensured by regular correspondence that we (her parents) would not forget, or worse, mismanage/mis-plan this momentous event. So, like a seasoned General Contractor for This Old House, she laid out schedules, flowsheets, diagrams, and sketches for the event and for the cake. The theme for the cake? A shark. A detailed blueprint was submitted to the Parental Board nearly a month in advance. So rising to the challenge and recognizing the size of this project, Ang focused on Shark Authenticity for the cake. So after some excellent baking work, some reclarification of mission objectives, and some skilled frosting application, Ang created the Shark De Authentique... complete with tannish skin, scary eyes and white shark teeth, and of course, a red-velvet "bloody meat" interior. It was breathtaking, on so many levels (in fact, I'm feeling another wave right now). As you can see here, the resemblance to a real dead shark on an aluminum slab is uncanny! All in all, it was a fun day, and each day since then, Laney has reminded me, "hey Dad, I'm still seven everyday!"

To fully honor Laney's special day, I thought it appropriate for us to get a new family bike to ride around. (And by us, I mean "me"... and by family, I mean "personal"... and by around, I mean "to work most of the time.")

So here it is, the '07 Husqvarna TE-250. So these days, I ride around for a living. Yes, riding is my career now. Besides that, it just so happens that my ride occasionally (and by that I mean daily) stops by this place I like to call "my place of employment" to which they pay me a paycheck for my professional riding career. Sometimes I stick around the "place of employment" for 10 hours, but it's just part of the rider thing... it has nothing to do with that "job" that people think I have. Yep. I swear.

When will the dust settle?

Ok... we're well into "getting settled" mode, but life still seems to be flying! I guess that's life with 4 growing kids. Probably need to get used to it! ;) It's a good flying, though!

So here I have for your viewing pleasure, the "getting here" in review:

...From the green of the warm season in Alaska, enjoyed by Laney & Mya with Coach Marci (they tell me that dark green stuff is called grass). I often open digital photos to rediscover colors not in the tannish-brownish family. My friend Tracy says we'll get our "desert eyes" which I guess means that brown starts to look more green. Hmmm.

...To the slightly-smaller Sadie standing on the counter under Tim's watchful eye (mid December right before we all got sick just prior to our flight to Chicago... sorry for all the dirty laundry!).

...To Gib wondering "where they're taking all my stuff?" (it all got here quite safe, sound & intact, thankfully!)

...To an awesome 3 weeks in Chicago at the Logan House. Hey, you wanna guarantee a happenin' holiday season?...just throw in some gi-normous crayons!

It's great to finally be here! Can't wait to start having visitors! Bring your sandals.

D-d-d-dialup

Dialup. It's the new broadband. Haven't you heard?

Yep... me and my big ideas... livin' in the country, 5 acres of dirt playground mecca, 15 minute commute, blah blah blah. But only now do I learn the DSL line doesn't stretch this way yet. When will it? If you can tell me this, I might be able to schedule you in to our summer motocross camp with a 5% discount. ;)

But seriously, we are actually online now so that's cool... and thankfully we have cellphones, and unlimited access via PeoplePC, so I can basically leave this thing connected at (hold on to your hats...) 28.8 kbps... they tell me 'k' equals kilo... meaning "a lot". And that means... fast!

Well, here are 2 recent pics... one of Sadie & me hangin' out in our new living room. And one of Gib with his new birthday R/C quad from Aunt Janna (thank you!!).

More to come! Now excuse me, I'd like to watch the little hourglass icon again.