Nike Campus, south entrance

Full ride stats can be found here. I cycled Baseline from my place all the way out to Cedar Hills and back. It’s not the most fantastic route ever, and you spend most of that time sucking down car fumes, but the weather forecast was saying 30-40% chance of rain so I wanted to stay close to the max line in case it pours. (It didn’t).

I caught up on some work e-mail and did some work for the evening. What? I left early. It balances out, I guess.

I’ve also been doing laundry for the last 6 hours. I guess I shouldn’t wait close to 2 weeks before washing a load of whites, dark clothing, jeans and most of my cycling gear. Have a good night everyone.

-T

Tuesday Jan 19th –
I got my boards today! They came to the lab at the end of the day (LATE!), but at least I have them now. I was able to spend one hour on the initial bring up of the switching power supplies this evening. They all work and are within regulation tolerance (thank goodness). I’m fairly relieved that at least that portion of the board started up with no issues. Other subsystems aren’t working yet, but we’ll see how that goes. Obviously I can’t tell you what I’m working on, so we’ll just keep it high level. Though… if you want to sign your soul away to me, I mean… yeah , I’ll gladly take it in exchange for information

Wednesday Jan 20th –
I went to sleep at 3am this morning. I couldn’t sleep at all. Just worried about the project and why the storage controllers aren’t seen at all. Is it a manufacturing defect? Is it a design issue??? I commented on my Facebook page that I really need a sleep button so I can just zonk out. That would have been real nice.

5 cups of coffee, 1 tea and 1 soda got me through the day today. Yeah.

I spent half a day of debugging and I got one of the two storage controllers working this afternoon. The issue was due to some resistor stuffing options which is a relief. The lack of sleep from yesterday isn’t particularly helping either.

I left work at 5 and started to prep for the Wet Wednesday party at my place. Teanna and John came over. It was a small crowd but still fun. I made spaghetti with sausages. The tomato sauce was from the store, but I added a red bell pepper, 2 fresh tomatoes (coarsely diced), and a small pack of mushrooms, also coarsely diced and half an onion. It took a while to reduce the contents, but it turned out well. Dinner was served with a side salad and garlic bread. Yum!

The movie selection for the night was Seven Pounds. It was nice to just chill for the evening and get my mind off of work.

Thursday Jan 21st –
I got 8 hours of sleep! Yesterday night was definitely some “me time.” So I’m halfway functional this morning.

I was chatting with Jessica online. She commented that it would be a great day to go cycling – lucky you since you don’t have classes in the afternoon – but I was stuck at work instead. 30 minutes later, I decided, screw it. I needed some mental health time so I left work around 2:30. I figure that I’m waiting for responses overseas anyway and their work day doesn’t start until 5pm US time. I hopped on my bike and put in 30 miles in 1hr 45minutes. It was really nice outside – around 53 degrees. Eat your heart out Jess Ride stats can be found here.

I went back to work around 5 and worked in the lab until 10 or so. The only thing that I had the entire afternoon was just a Clif bar during the ride. Man. That is not good at all. I was the only person left in the entire building… it felt like the long work nights back in August again. I did manage to get 90% of the board working and functionally tested. Just one more part to check out in the morning. I have less than 24 hours to figure out what is wrong with this board.

I went home and ended up working until 3am Friday morning wondering what is causing the remaining board issues. I learned the hard way that I should pay more attention to my own energy levels as the schematic error was right in front of my face and I said “oh, that works!” instead. Shoot.

Friday Jan 22nd –
I managed to subscribe to the 5 hours of sleep work plan this evening. I do not recommend it, especially after a less than stellar week of sleeping habits.

I did get the board completely working before 10am!!! This will be a nice and short afternoon… I still need to finish packing. Packing seems to always take forever!

Today was Teanna’s last day at work. I organized a going away lunch at CPR. It was mostly co-workers that attended, but Jessica, John, David Z, and Reed showed up as well. Good times! Glad everyone could make it out there. Note to self: I still need to e-mail each person that has a photo with Teanna in it… I’ll hopefully get to that in a day or two.

I hung out with Jessica and we watched some Firefly. The plan is complete! I have you addicted to the TV show, now you should spread the addiction on to others! Maybe the movie will make more sense now. I did get some work completed this evening at Starbucks. There are lots of reviews left to finish up and the next two weeks will be super busy.

Saturday Jan 23rd –
I decided that I should try to invert my nights and days while I’m still in the US – I went to sleep around 5am this morning! I drove up to Skyline and saw the view of Beaverton and Hillsboro from the West Hills. It’s always a good calming place to check out. Definitely worth it.

This week would have been so much easier if I didn’t have to go to China. I guess I should stop complaining because I’m going regardless and it should be a good experience.
I woke up at noon. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually sunny outside. The weather forecast was calling for 40% chance of rain and cloudy conditions. I’ve lost all faith in the weatherman. I’m glad they are wrong on this occasion. I went on a 11.5 mile cycling ride and rounded out 100 miles for the month of January. That’s good for now… but I put in 150 in December, so that’s a regression, not an improvement and it’s definitely not aligning with my resolution to cycle over 3K+ miles for the year! I need to get it together… maybe find more time in just riding during the work DAY and just work at night when the Asia teams are awake and online. I should let my manager know this is my intention, I’m fairly sure that will be OK to do.

Found out someone decided to wake up at 4pm for the day. That’s just lazy For the record, I went to sleep at 5am too, and this was also after 22 hour day, and having little to no sleep for the week AND cycling twice this week.

I’m spending the night out in PDX and had dinner with the parents. My flight is early in the morning on Sunday.

No one has a wireless network that I can tap into at my parents place. So I was in a pinch to find SOME kind of connectivity and connection to the world. I discovered the wonders of internet access on my phone. Free for the next 30 days. $10/mo after the trial ends. The browser on the phone is limited in capability, and it doesn’t seem to store cookies well at all so I have to login after almost every page load on FB… it does a little bit better on GMail though.

Heritage Dr. Pepper - made with real sugar

I got my flight itinerary updated for my Shanghai trip. I’m currently traveling Sunday January 24th through Thursday Feb 4th. This should be an interesting experience.

I noticed that the cafeteria is now carrying the “Heritage” Dr. Pepper that is made with real sugar and it has an old school branding look to it. I personally still like the high fructose corn syrup version.

I did manage to finish up my performance review by 2pm. I didn’t have anything else to do for the day so I just left and went cycling for an hour. I got my ride fix, and it made up for missing it yesterday. It was mostly cloudy outside. It was around 46 degrees. Perfect. I posted the ride stats and route map. I spent the rest of the day shopping for stuff that I may need in China. It was one VERY relaxing day.

I found out that there’s an A-Team movie that’s coming out June 2010! I think i’m going to watch that
A-Team theatrical trailer: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808402981/video/17565315

-T

Tuesday Jan 12th -

Dynamics = fun

I did a dynamics problem this afternoon because I had nothing else to do I secretly still love that class.

I ended up prepping food in the evening and got the chicken ready for tomorrow’s party. I’m pretty sure I will not have time to do that tomorrow before the party and I am making sure I’m gonna be part taking in the party activities this time around I’m also glad that the number of people invited is substantially less… and way less chaos to deal with! (Sorry!)

-T

Wednesday Jan 13th –
Notable things for the day:

Garlic lemon chicken breasts

• Google Analytics report states that someone is still using dialup to visit my site! I feel sorry for ya since it may take a while to load the content and have it all rendered.
• I ordered the Linkin Park Minutes to Midnight album. It was weird to think the last physical album that I bought was over 10 years ago.
• The shared video memory for my work desktop is starting to crap out. I really should ask for a new work computer.

Wet Wednesday party at my place. Happy birthday Erik, Teanna, Jared and John! I made garlic lemon chicken breasts from a cooks.com recipe and served them with a side of rice. I think it turned out pretty well and it was good! Photos have been posted on Facebook.

-T

Thursday Jan 14th -
Went to lunch with Sue and David at Coyote Grill on Baseline. Had an interesting convo that went like:

• David (to Sue): What do you do?
• Sue: I work in HR.
• David (turns to me): So you brought the devil with you!.
• Me: Stunned, silent. Awkward.

Real nice, dude, real nice. LOL

Went to a CPR outing afterwork. Not happy. Keep your cool and move on, I guess. GRR.

-T

Friday Jan 15th -

At Blazer game w/Sue

I can tell you one common theme this week: the work day was boring. I’m still waiting for boards to arrive in the lab. I’ve been looking for any excuse to leave the office mid day ’cause I don’t have much to do at the moment. I guess I should enjoy that while it lasts for another 3 days – then it’s hardcore project time for the next 6-7 months.

Anyway, I checked my work e-mail late Thursday night and noticed some Blazer tickets were up for grabs vs the Orlando Magic in the RadiSys Suite. I got 2 tickets and took Sue to the game with me. It was a good! Blazers won 102-87. We went to Henry’s afterwards for a drink. I came home and watched a few hours of Firefly into the wee hours of the morning. Good times!

-T

Saturday Jan 16th -

Defrost heater

I got the new defrost heater installed in the freezer today. The heating element works like a charm in bypass mode. Now I just have to wait a few days to see if the coils automatically kick in. If it does, then great, all is solved with my freezer issues. If not, then perhaps the thermostat is busted, or the control logic really isn’t working. If the issue is the latter, I’m just planning on connecting wire leads to the control board and have a toggle switch for a manual bypass. We’ll see I guess. It does, however, remind me of a light saber.

AVATAR!!

-T

Sunday Jan 17th -

Axis and Allies

It was a good packed weekend spent with good company! Yeah, I noticed that my entries are a little short. I’m tired at at least I jotted down the highlights for the week. Good night.

-T

New cycling shoes!

Umm… went to WinCo to get a can of spaghetti sauce and fresh tomatoes. The wait time in line was insanely long for just purchasing two items. Anyway, came back and made spaghetti with fish meatballs (interesting combo). Jessica hung out while Kenny was at work and worked homework (haha!). We watched the first disc of Band of Brothers and Watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. Ginger cookies were made during the night too. I think they turned out pretty well!

Last thing: I got Jessica’s speedometer installed on the bike. We’re ready to start logging miles for the years to come!

I went to sleep around 2:00am. Around 2:30 I realized that I should start the dish washer because the next time that i’ll put anything into the dishwasher will be late Saturday night post party. I was awake for the next 30 minutes as I heard the thing go through the wash cycle. Note to self: next time I want to do the dishes, definitely wash them earlier in the evening.

-T

Saturday Jan 9th –
First cycling day of 2010! I’m running on 4 hours of sleep! (NAY!). My body clock told me to wake up at 7am. My alarm is set for 8am. I hit snooze until 8:30am. Crap.

Jessica, Erik and John met up at my place at 9am and we cycled around Hillsboro in the morning. The route was from my place out on to Evergreen Parkway, North on Glencoe, up and around Shadybrook to Mason Hill, Helvatia and back on Rock Creek. The route map can be found online. We met our target distance of 30 miles for the morning and averaged a good early season pace. It should be a piece of cake to finish Reach the Beach. (yes, even YOU can finish… no big deal). Some photos of the ride have been posted on to Facebook. There is an obligatory RTB style bike pose for the beginning of the year. Good times.

Everyone met back up at 1 for lunch at the Cornelius Pass Road house. Irene and Kenny also joined us. I got my default: the Communication Breakdown burger with tots and a ice tea. Good stuff. Afterward, Jessica, Kenny and I went to Performance Bike to get the remaining gear (front/rear lights, and a frame pump). On the way back I opened my mouth and said “Hey Five Guys is good, I can go for one.” Kenny pulled into the parking lot and I ordered a Little Hamburger with a regular fries. Mind you this is less than an hour since leaving CPR. I was still hungry. Scarfed down the burger, but the fries were a bit much. LOL.

Anyway, later that night we all went shopping at WinCo for food. I had a party at my place Saturday night and had 20 people over. it was crazy! Jessica helped me make dinner (thank you again). Dinner was a chicken and vegetable stir fry with egg flower soup on the side. John made some lemon bars which were pretty tasty too. The party pictures are posted on Facebook as well.

Still had people over past 11pm. I was ready to fall asleep. I ultimately told everyone “alright, i’m gonna kick everyone out… I need to sleep!” Sorry guys, but running on four hours of sleep isn’t great, especially when I should get a good nights sleep before driving down to Corvallis and back on Sunday.

The current plan for Sunday is to get up early in the morning and go cycling again. Hey, I have to get my cycling fix in. Then I’m driving Jessica’s bike down to Corvallis. (Yay! You get your bike!). Good night.

-T

Sunday Jan 10th –
Instead of hitting the snooze button, I apparently turned off my 8:30 alarm clock and only woke up to my 9:30am alarm. Oops. So much for the early morning cycling ride. Anyway, I prepped the car, checked the tire pressure and got the tank topped off. I reset my trip odometer for the day.

I picked up Jessica and her bike and we made a trip down to good ‘ol Cow town so she’d have a bike to ride around and train on the hills during her last term. (Hey, I can call Corvallis ‘Cow-town’ — I used to go to OSU!). Kenny met up with us at American Dream Pizza and we got a pesto base pie with onions and chicken. That was good! I took a quick tour around the campus. Dearborn hall still has that funky smell to it. The Valley Library was cool to see again, but I don’t miss studying in the 5th floor rotunda for hours and hours on end. Though, I did bring Jess to see it and she did seem impressed. (However, I thought you would have been around the entire library by now anyway!). Apperson Hall has now been renamed Kearny Hall and it looks completely different. That building was completely dilapidated when I was at OSU. Now, it’s quite awesome. The stairwell has been completely redesigned and a new central elevator has been installed. Kelly Engineering was the same. I walked into Covell 216 and snapped a picture. I don’t miss that classroom at all. Any of you that had classes in that room in the Spring, Summer or Fall can attest how hot and stuffy that room gets. Oh yeah, did I mention that building also smells funky too? Anyway, we drove back and Jessica helped me clean my place a little more (thanks again).

Later that night, I headed in to PDX and hung out with some people for a little while. I ended up at Papa Haydn with Sue at the end of the night. It was good to just catch up. The dessert was excellent. Sue got a berry cobbler, and I got a slice of dark chocolate cake.

I drove 230 miles today. It’s been a while since I’ve driven that much in a day (or even in 2-3 weeks time for that matter)! It’s been a great weekend… now off to sleep. I didn’t look at my performance review all weekend. I guess I’ll do that Monday.

-T

I managed to take 4400 photos / videos that total 12.5GB in 2009. My backup for the year spanned 3 DVD-Rs. As I have done in years past, I made one set for an on-site backup, and a second set for an off-site backup. (no, this is NOT overkill. You should have seen what i did with my film camera negatives — those are stored in Acid free books, and descant packs were used to keep the moisture constant ) Anyway, I did a file checksum compare between the original source file on the HDD, the first DVD-R backup set and the second DVD-R backup set to ensure there were no bit errors and the data integrity was solid. I also made sure that the DVD-R was readable on a second computer without issue. That part alone took 5 hours.

At 9pm my computer has a HDD auto-clone operation that kicks in every two days that copies everything from C drive to my D drive. I use the Casper software to do this. That took a few minutes to update. At 10pm I was finally able to copy the 2009 photos into my E drive which is powered on every once and a while when I need to do a quick digital backup without needing to burn stuff to media.

Oh yeah, I spent way too much time on Facebook while the backups were occurring. Too bad I didn’t go riding.

I registered for the following cycling rides today:

• Worst Day of the Year ride 2010 (Feb 14th) – 40 mile option
• LiveSTRONG Seattle 2010 – 100 mile option. Join my team at: http://seattle2010.livestrong.org/TIO
• Tour de Cure (Hillsboro) 2010 – 100 mile option. Join my team at: http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=7041&px=5551585

Monday Jan 4th – 1am: Tweeted to #FB: “1am. Still wide awake. I really should have tried to maintain a normal sleep schedule over the last few days… Need to be awake by 6!”

Well, 6am came by and waking up was an insane challenge. I had a 7am appointment at Kaiser (Mother Joseph Plaza campus), but I got the run around and the doc wasn’t in the office. That is not what I’m expecting when you have an appointment setup. So I had things rescheduled for 1pm that afternoon, but all the way over at the Kaiser Sunnybrook office in Clackamas. I took the afternoon off from work and drove all the way out there. A little inconvenient to drive out there, but I got medically cleared to resume cycling… thank goodness everything should be OK.

I went to Fred Meyer to pick up groceries and saw a car with plates that read “DR HRBL.” I took it as “Dr. Horrible” which made my day. Jill pointed out that it could be “Dr Herbal” … which kinda ruined the fun! Anyway, got food for the next few days. I made a tuna noodle casserole [recipe] for dinner. It was a quick and easy meal to make, and it was good. I would argue that the recipe only serves 2 people, not 4.

I went through Facebook in the evening hours and noticed I got tagged in Jessica’s vacation note. For the record, 10am is WAY too early to text while one is really wanting to sleep . Cycling plans for this Saturday with Jess is in progress.

Tuesday Jan 5th – 1:40am: Tweeted to #FB: “1:40am. Awake for the last hr & can’t sleep. Isn’t there a ’sleep mode’ for this mind?:(”

I really need to get the sleep schedule back on track. This is gonna hurt much more as the week progresses.

I looked at my Google Analytics report this morning and noted that the number search result that leads to my website is “Frootee stargate” and links to my blog entry in October 2009.

I’m pleased to announce that showing Dr. Horrible a few times over the summer months has taken hold in some of my friends… even when one is on vacation, and said person may have been watching it in the car as they were a passenger heading to their destination… ahem… Jessica.

I started watching Firefly again. Yeah, I think enough time has passed that I can enjoy watching the series again. The last binge was in August as noted in the entry titled “The last 3 Months” and subsequent drawings and collection of Firefly maquettes.

Cycling plans set for Saturday morning – 9am, 30+ mile ride around Hillsboro.
Plans set for Sunday too… this will be my second visit to Corvallis since graduation. Should be fun!

Wednesday Jan 6th – 1:00am: Tweeted to #FB: “Really? 1am. Why can’t I sleep?!? Three days straight of sitting in bed for 1+hr without falling a sleep. Crazy.”

I’m starting to think about getting a smart phone and a data plan. Maybe a Blackberry won’t be too bad after all. I’m gonna stay clear of the iPhone unless they can seriously increase the battery time. We’ll see what happens. It’s just a thought for now. It would be nice to be connected to the world and have access to information at your fingertips.

My refrigerator is on the fritz again. Its a 2003 General Electric GSS22WGPC side by side. The condenser coil in the back of the freezer is completely frozen over and the fridge section is getting close to 50 degrees. I spent the better part of the evening taking the food out and storing it in a ice chest so things won’t spoil. I removed the shelving from the freezer side and removed the back panel to the freezer. Spent a good 30 minutes aiming a hair dryer at the coil and got everything melted away. I didn’t have a chance to completely dismantle the freezer components and diagnose what is wrong, but at least this will get the fresh food section back in working order for a few weeks. Perhaps I’ll look at the components tomorrow night. Just need to do some research first. I did find a good forum and replacement parts website for some helpful advice from other consumers and repair guys:

Appliance Blog: http://www.applianceblog.com/mainforums/
Replacement parts: http://www.appliancepartspros.com/
Replacement parts (Sears): http://www.searspartsdirect.com/partsdirect/index.action
Exploded block diagram for my fridge: http://www.appliancepartspros.com/partsearch/model.aspx?model_id=5242135&diagram_id=22287624#d22287624

Thursday Jan 7th – I left work early today. There wasn’t much to do (and I’m thankful for that!)… though I still need to complete my performance review.

I took apart the freezer section once again. This time, I was on a mission to check what was wrong. It could have been one of three things: 1) the defrost heater , 2) the thermostat, or 3) the logic board. The logic board is the most expensive part… around $160. Visual inspection of the board didn’t show any signs of burns, or bulging caps. So that’s good. I’m hoping it’s item 1) or 2) since those cost MUCH less.

Anyway, I packed away all of the freezer food in a tote again and stored it outside with some ice. I proceeded to remove the shelving, then the back panel. Next came the ice maker motor, and the evaporator cover. The evaporator cooling fan was next to be removed. It covers and houses the access points for the defrost heater and thermostat that I was interested in. It took a bit of effort to disassemble as i had to squeeze myself into the freezer cavity. That was a bit awkward.

The thermostat tested OK and the wiring continuity was just fine. I tested the defrost heater last and found it open. It’s a resistive heating element, so it should have registered something on the ohm-meter, but didn’t. (In hind sight, I guess I could have checked the defrost heater FIRST without having to completely remove the freezer compartment components. Oh well). I found a replacement defrost heater from the Sears Part Direct website for $36 + $10 shipping. Not too bad I’d think — the closest part store that carried stock was deep in PDX, so $10 isn’t too much to pay for convenience. This is still cheaper than having a GE tech come out and shelling out $80 for just the diagnosis fee + parts + labor. I should get the part by next Thursday. Lets hope that fixes it.

I snapped a few pictures of the take apart and posted them onto facebook. If you don’t have an account, you can view them through this public link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2238986&id=19700626&l=3d5e1d27ba

To wind down the evening, I talked to mom for an hour and caught up on the week. She’s really worried that I’ll get cold in China… I keep telling her my jacket is warm enough; yes, I’ll be warm; and no, -4degC isn’t that cold with the gear that I’m bringing.

Rest in peace Mr. O’Halloran. You will be missed by all of your past and present students at Mt. Tabor M.S.

-T

Friday Dec 25th – Christmas day cycling – 18.3 miles, 1hr 10minutes. [Ride info]. Had dinner with the parents in PDX. Secured some black tea

Saturday Dec 26th – Went snowboarding at MHM after dark with Javier, Chad and Jim. The runs were well groomed. Photos have been posted on Facebook.

Later that night, I started to plan out the major cycling rides for 2010. Some invites have already been sent out on Facebook (sorry for all of the spam). The ride events that I plan on doing this year are listed below. Note that most of these rides are for a good cause, I encourage you to participate!

• Worst Day of the Year Ride – February 14th – Tentative – I will most likely volunteer as a ride along mechanic (~40 mi)
• Reach the Beach 2010 (American Lung Association)- May 15, 2010
• LiveSTRONG 2010 (Lance Armstrong Foundation) – Seattle – June 20, 2010 (Tentative, falls on Father’s day)
• Seattle to Portland 2010 – July 17-18, 2010
• Tour de Cure 2010 (American Diabetes Association) – July 31, 2010
• Portland Twilight Criterium (Just a spectator cycling event) – August 6, 2010 (Tentative date; official event not yet announced)
• Hottest Day of the Year Ride – Early August – Tentative – I will most likely volunteer as a ride along mechanic (~45 mi)
• Providence Bridge Pedal 2010 (Providence medical) – August 8, 2010
• Portland Century – Mid August – Tentative – I will most likely volunteer as a ride along mechanic (~60 / 100 mi)
• Tour de Vine – are we doing any rides in Oregon’s Wine country this year? Seth??

Of course, there will also be a bunch of random rides after work and on the weekends.

Sunday Dec 27th – Went cycling with Erik around HB. 22.11 miles. [Ride info]. I DID IT!!! Cycled 2509 miles for the year! I’ll put in more if the weather holds for the next few days. If not, we’ll start counting the new miles early January 2010!

• March 2009 – 107.29 miles (3/12 start)
• April 2009 – 340.03 miles
• May 2009 – 463.55 miles
• June 2009 – 530.47 miles… See More
• July 2009 – 464.37 miles
• August 2009 – 308.76 miles
• September 2009 – 106.40 miles
• October 2009 – 000.00 miles – wow, that is sad.
• November 2009 – 38.33 miles – that is sad too!
• December 2009 – 149.36 miles (12/12 – 12/27)

79 total rides for the year. 162.8 hours on my bike (6.8 days).
I need to fix those low mileage months in 2010

Went to dinner at Panera bread with Erik, Irene and David. I got the french onion sour dough bread bowl. That was pretty darn good.

Alright people, until next time! Ride on and stay safe!
-T

Monday Dec 21st – Had friends over for dinner. Received Blokus from Jessica! Played that and Fluxx in good company.

Jess helped with the cooking and photo taking for the night. Dinner consisted of a homemade chicken pot pie (chicken, green peas, celery, carrots) with biscuits, side salad and white rice. [Recipe #1, #2]. We made cake for Zier’s birthday. Served up some black tea with some ginger. General consensus: good stuff all around! Photos posted on Facebook… hopefully in chronological order between the two cameras. Cleaned up most of the kitchen afterwards. I think I used all of my plates and silverware this evening!

I’d like to thank everyone for coming! [Jessica, Kenny, Teanna, Whitty, Irene, Erik, Carla, John, Josie, Jared, David]

Tuesday Dec 22nd – Went on a 26.4 mile ride at 9am in the morning with Jessica. [Route]. We rode on the North side of US-26 and Jessica climbed her first big hill on the roadie. Congrats!

My bike was making noise all morning. I looked at it after wards and found out the noise was coming from between the shifter cable and the cable housing. I added some chain oil and it cleared right up.

I went to lunch at Helvatia Tavern with Jess, Kenny and Adam(?) post ride. I got the usual: the jumbo cheese burger with fries. I hung out and played Blokus over at Jess and Kenny’s place. We went to the Winter Wonderland over at PIR later that night (a few photos came out and made it to Facebook). We came back and watched Idiocracy, and played more Blokus. Miss Kitty feel asleep on my lap – couldn’t move. Poor Alaska wasn’t feeling well.

Wednesday Dec 23rd – Cleaned up the remaining large dishes from Monday’s party (yeah, I know…). Went on a short cycling ride with Jessica at 3:15p, but it was cut short by the fog [7miles for me, 9.5 for Jess]. Saw two cars that did not stop at the intersection even though we had the right of way, and saw one MVA on Dawson Creek and Brookwood – that was enough to call it good. [Route]. Came back and made more black tea to warm up. Drove Jess (and bike) home.

Headed out to Zier’s birthday dinner at Standford’s – ordered the Pan Roasted Garlic Chicken and house salad for dinner. For dessert, I got the a tripple berry cobbler. That was some good stuff!

Hung out with Jess later that evening. We continued our search for a second tin of black tea and failed. Oh well, you’ll get some tea of your own at some point . I made at least another 5 liters of it that night with the stash that I have. Watched Momento with Jess and Kenny while he was on break from his night shift. Roamed around downtown Hillsboro at 1am. Watched 50 First Dates and called it a night. Gonna miss you. Good luck, and I’ll see you again soon! And you’ll get your tea.

Thursday Dec 24th – Woke up from my 7am alarm again. I should really turn that off since I’m on vacation I looked outside and was surprised to see a light dusting of snow / ice / frost. That’s a good way to start off Christmas Eve day. Started laundry. Went for a Christmas Eve day cycling ride around HB. It was partly cloudy and around 41 degrees out, but my toes and ears were freakin’ cold! [Route].

Later at night, I wrote “Maybe I’ll feel better when I break 2500 cycling miles for the year. There are still a few days left in 2009 ” in my Google Talk status. Should be easy enough since I’m at 2470 miles already hehehe

Monday Dec 14th – One very slow day at work. Honestly didn’t do much until the last hour of the day … 6pm conference call that went until 7:20, not cool. Watched an episode of “Lie to Me” titled ‘Tractor Man’ – guest starring Felicia Day – with Jessica and Kenny. To be honest, the only reason that I’m watching this episode is just because Felicia Day is in it. Not sure if I’ll get into this series though. Reminded that LOST Season 6 premieres end of Jan 2010! Though I may be out of the country for that.

Tuesday Dec 15th – Lunch over at Swagath Indian Cuisine with the crew for Jessica and Dan’s last week before going back to school. Photos on Facebook. Went over to CPR to celebrate a work related project. Ended up staying late with a few co-workers for some more drinks, food and good conversations. Maybe a little too many drinks. Spent 5.5 hours there. Oops!

Wednesday Dec 16th – Worked from home today. Went cycling at 3pm for 11.5 miles when there was a sun break, but it ended up raining! Wet Wednesday Movie night over at my place! Watched Star Wars, and Terminal. Thankful for great friends! (lee, katherine, jessica, dan, cari – thanks for coming!) Made dinner for 6. Spaghetti with Italian sausage, fresh tomatoes, onions, green bell pepper, topped with parmesan, side salad and onion bread. Chopped up sausage, diced onion and minced garlic – browned with olive oil. Store bought spaghetti sauce, added diced green bell pepper and fresh tomatoes. Salad on side with cherry tomatoes and dressing.

Thursday Dec 17th – Thirsty Thursday over at Erik / Dan’s place. Last official one for the year. Kinda watched 12 Monkeys, Team America World Police. Played fluxx and cards. Photos on Facebook. Watched LOST with Jess for a few hours afterwards! Awesome show

Friday Dec 18th – Woke up after 4 hours of sleep. Oh man.. that hurt. Major stressing day, too much work to do, no time left. Went cycling with Jessica during lunch. Mother nature decided to be nice to all of us this Friday and kept it dry. I need to find out what is making a creaking sound on my bike on Monday. Actually finished the stuff that needed immediate attention. I started vacation at 3:30pm today! Driving up to Government camp and staying at a lodge tonight. Boarding Mt Hood Meadows Saturday and Sunday! Will post pics.

It’s been a fun week

-T

Sunday Dec 6th – Watched ‘Up’ at my place with Dan, Erik, Jessica and Kenny. Bought the Blu-Ray disc three weeks ago, never saw it in the theater either. But was pleasantly surprised at the plot. Good movie

Monday Dec 7th – Game night over at John’s place. Watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (got some new viewers too!). Might be my 15th time of watching that. I’ve lost count. Played Apples to Apples and Curses… the latter is one crazy, CRAZY game. Didn’t get a chance to play Fluxx though… next time.

Tuesday Dec 8th – I think I ended up having a late lunch that day and ate cafeteria food from work. Yuck. Hit up Bike Gallery and REI for some winter cycling gear after work with Erik. Gonna give this year round cycling a shot.

Wednesday Dec 9th – Lunch at Orenco Station Grill with Jessica. Good conversations at Starbucks. Wet Wednesday over at Erik/Dan’s place – watched ‘Death Proof’ in good company. Showed one episode of ‘The Guild’ and the “(Do you want to date my) Avatar” music video. Eh, not for all I guess.

Thursday Dec 10th – Tuna fish sandwiches for lunch @ Jessica’s. Yum I think I just worked this evening. Not a fun night I tell you.

Friday Dec 11th – Late lunch at Pho Tango with Erik. FINALLY started my paper work for getting a Visa into China for work in January. I should have done that sooner. Stupid weather forecasts say freezing rain and snow in PDX starting late Friday night. It never happened. Forecasts pushed back to Saturday. Left work early. Had last minute movie night my place. Watched ‘Breach’ and an episode of ‘Fringe’ with Jess. Made fried rice for company and an awesome chicken recipe (thanks Jessica!).

Saturday Dec 12th – Surprised to find it dry outside and very happy that the weatherman was wrong about the “ice storm” in Portland. Picked up winter cycling pants. Went with Jessica and Kenny to pick up Jess’ new bike at River City Bicycles and went for a short 23 mile ride. Tuned the front derailleur a little bit. Everything should shift a-OK now! Zier invited us over to watch Boondock Saints, then we hit up the theater that same night to watch Boondock Saints 2. Watching the first one in its entirety was a good idea… I’ve only seen bits and pieces of it.

Sunday Dec 13th – Yet again surprised to find that it was dry and not icy outside. Weather forecasts all wrong. Went on a 26 mile cycling ride. John joined up with me at the Evergreen theater around mile 10. 31 degrees at the start, 34 towards the end. Winter gear rocks.

HA! I didn’t think about work all weekend. This is wonderful. Thank you for an awesome week everyone!