Wedding Time

This past weekend saw Amy and I head over the hill to Medford again for another wedding (We apparently lack the ability to stay home for a weekend or pass any length of time greater than two weeks without attending nuptials). This one was for one of Amy’s lifelong friends and I must say that it was a really nice time with people, food, and adult beverages that set a lofty standard for such an event. The weather for the wedding day (Saturday) was really nice if you are a reptile or if you are water desiring to enter the gas phase, but as a Klamath Basin person I was basically “Melting like a toasted cheeser” (thanks, Hambino). The wedding was in a nicely air conditioned church, and it did cool off significantly for the reception which was held at Cedar Links Golf Course. The course was a great venue, and the delicious Kona pale cut the edge off the heat. They actually had enough of the pale on tap to get me to dance to a few fast songs, something I generally avoid for the sake of ladies with high blood pressure or a history of heart problems. Actually I dance like a hearing impaired river dancer with a smaller comprehension of what to do with my hands than Ricky Bobby in front of a microphone. Despite my archaic artistic interpretation of dance, Amy and I really had a solid time.

I only have one complaint and that is the DJ never played “Look at You Girl” (Chris LeDoux). All my Jr. High dance memories had to remain non-relived (maybe I should be thanking him really). He partially made up for it by playing “Tougher than the Rest” (LeDoux). I am really not a country music fan these days. I think the way Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban play non-rural-often-beachy-soft-rock-self-indulgent-garbage (NROBSRSIG) would cause Johnny Cash or Buck Owens to roll over in their graves. I think LeDoux was country music’s last real hope of returning to a day when simple, non-preachy, modest songs hit home for real country people in small towns or even big cities. It always seemed like he was just singing about himself and his life, similar to what Johnny Cash could do even though their music is worlds different. Chris Ledoux will definitely be missed. Wow can I ever digress? While I’m on the subject of music…

For those of you wanting to try some mellow and simple tunes that will make you want to quit your job and buy a ukulele, check out Little Joy. These guys meld old styles with new method to create a cool sound. The Strokes’ influence is subtle but definitely there. The Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti (cool name) is a founding member and the band's drummer. This is Canadian whiskey music, no chaser required. For those wanting something with a little more bite that might require some cheep beer to chase, I recommend getting something from The Black Keys. These guys really know how to grind out some tasty bluesy rock. Finally, for those looking for something a little further out there, I have been revisiting “The Moon and Antarctica” by Modest Mouse. Something about these songs takes you to a cold, foreign place (Aptly titled, then).

Now I will get back to the real world, outside of my media ramblings. On the morning before the wedding I went on the ride shown below in Figure 1. It was a nice and easy ride, one of those where you rack up some saddle time without killing the legs. Basically, I look at it as one of the best ways to actually wake up instead of just getting out of bed. Note that the ride is not exactly right but an approximation as the bike path does not show up in Map my Ride.



Figure 1 - My ride from 07/27/09

Note 1: Spell check will let you turn anything into a compound word with a hyphen, even if the combination makes no sense. Example: foot-snorkel. Usage: I was at the pool today, when I realized I had forgotten my foot-snorkel. Seriously, MS Word spelling and grammar is cool with this.

Listening to: Little Joy, The Black Keys, Flight of the Conchords, Foo Fighters “The Colour and the Shape”, Melefluent

Watching: Almost no TV

Important lesson learned: Do not pass out in a lawn chair at 2:00am (best estimate) as you will likely not wake up until 4:00am at which point you will be quite cold and have a sore neck.

Coming up: This next weekend has a company softball game as well as me staying home for a weekend finally!

Parting Question: How does blogging make you feel? (Ex: self-important, powerful, lame, awesome, like a talentless hack, like someone contributing to the demise of printed word, etc.)

Cycle Oregon Weekend

Cycling while out of shape and drinking the fermented juice of the grape.

This past weekend the wife and I made the trip up north to Monmouth Oregon for the Cycle Oregon Weekend. Despite a sore posterior and a serious case of JLS (Jelly Leg Syndrome for the non-medicals) at the end of day two, the weekend ride was a great time. The maps below show the day one route north and the day two route south. The Willamette Valley was beautiful as usual and the roads in Polk County are top notch. A little training probably would have been a good idea, as the end of day one made me rethink the last three months of ice cream and Xbox. Who knew the hills outside of Dallas could be a veritable Everest to a 220lb office jobber? I mean, I am an engineer who works with graphical representations of data on a daily basis, and I must say that the hills highlighted by a red box in Figure 1 qualify as false elevation propaganda. Sure, the old lady on the recumbent who blew by me doing 4 disagrees, but what does she know?


Figure 1 - Day one ride north of Monmouth


Figure 2 - Day two ride south of Monmouth

Highlight: After coming back to camp on day one and doing my best impression of a saddle soar frontiersmen walking around the campus of Western Oregon University, a group of us decided to taste some of the offerings of the wineries we had drooled our way by on the bikes earlier. We went to Firesteed Cellars, Cherry Hill Winery, and a place I somehow forget that had a German sounding name I think (thank you, Pinot Noir). All of these places had some excellent Pinot Noirs, but probably the most unique tasting was the Firesteed chardonnay.

Lowlight: Work on Monday made me develop an intense hate for my office chair, which through no fault of its own could not cure my ailing rear. We are starting to get along better now, but next year I am DEFINITELY going to train.

Coming up: The engineering firm I work for uses Autodesk Inventor CAD software. I will be posting some helpful information for Inventor Users in the future on this blog. I will also review the media I consume; including books, TV, movies, and albums. These reviews do not reflect the opinions of my parent company or my parents.

Reading: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Mark Twain), The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)

Watching: Californication, East Bound and Down, Weeds, Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia