Baker Crib 05-06

It's been a great few days. Right now it's nice outside. I just rode in on my R6 and it was really warm. My hands didn't even get cold. I can't wait for the sun to start showing itself a bit more. Yesterday I did my 2nd Capoeira class. Here's a video that looks similar to one of our classes:


Last weekend it was Tom's bday so we all headed up to Mt.Baker to ride in style at the Mt.Baker Crib. It came complete with all the necessities: hot-tub and bar for après-ski, lots of comfy couches, and 15 of our friends. Mottie wore the pink bunny-suit on Sunday and we had a ton of great food. I've posted pics here.

In case you have a minute checkout this hilarious site Phil sent me: http://narniarapbattle.com. Check out the two movies … Start with “The Narnia Rap”, then watch the response, “Lazy Monday”

Powerplant Music

I was looking around for DJ Kevin Shiu tracks and the only one I could find appears to be hosted on Powerplant Music. They have a bunch of downloadable MP3s and artist bios. Download Morgan and Kevin's release Acid Brownies and two others, Toobin, and Let you Go. Also make sure to get the Powerplant music mix here by John Morgan. Interestingly John is working for Electronic Arts on their video-game soundtracks such as SSX3. These guys are from Van and you can catch them spinning at Lotus this month. Here's the flyer.

Mountain safety

With all the snow ski-resorts are receiving this week it's important to remember some simple off-piste safety tips. Baker has posted a pretty good list of things to remember. I suggest reading through their Mountain Safety tips. For mountain weather conditions in Washington the best places to read are the following links from the NORTHWEST WEATHER & AVALANCHE CENTER:

• Current mountain weather forecast
• Current avalanche forecast
• Avalanche ratings explained

Tomorrow is Tom's birthday. This weekend to celebrate we're heading to a cabin in Glacier near Mt.Baker. Saturday and Sunday should be great days to ride. The above mountain weather forcast says that the northern part of WA should receive moderate snowfall at lower freezing levels. This should mean light and fluffy powder for the weekend!

72" of snow

What a weekend! The PNW has received a huge amount of precipitation and the mountains are overloaded from over 72" of snowfall. Mt.Baker is closed until Wednesday because of dangerous conditions. The ski-patrol is having trouble blasting the slopes to keep up with all the snow they have received.

Saturday Tom, Kelsey, Chad, Alan, Dan and I hit Stevens Pass for some fresh tracks. The snow was super heavy and thick but it was 4-5 feet deep in places. This is fairly dangerous as its almost impossible to move when you fall in the snow. It was a good day though as we stuck together and found some very nice lines.

Sunday we had our first dry day in weeks! Seattle was unable to make a new record for most periodic days of rain. This was my chance to get out on my bike and I rode the R6 downtown to Queen Anne, Greenlake and Gasworks park in North Lake Union. I took a lot of pictures with my new camera including a panoramic shot from Gasworks park. It was a great day which ended by meeting Cam's parents at Ray's boathouse for dinner.

Crazy Weather

You can tell things aren't that exciting when I'm blogging about the weather... but actually it is kind of cool. Sunday morning at 6am I awoke to a crack, CRACK, CRUNCH. It was really windy but upon looking outside I didn't see any damage. When daylight broke I walked out behind my house to find a tree had split in half. The damage covered about 200 feet from the base of the tree. Luckily I don't have any rotting trees next to my house but there is a house quite near where the tree fell. Here's a pic:

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I'm enjoying my new camera and took some shots to practice using colour filters during a game of Settlers of Catan the other day. I'm also working out quite a bit and will be starting Capoeira soon. The group I am beginning with is the same group I saw practicing in Vancouver a couple of summers ago.

NYE 2006

Happy new year everyone! 2005 was a year to remember for me and it went out with a bang. Christina was amazing and secured me with 9 discounted tickets to the Waldorf 'Get Together' party in Vancouver. Shawn, Launie, Cam, George, Tom, Ryan, Chelsea and, of course, Amanda came out to celebrate with us. The night started off with dinner at the Cactus Club on Robson, then after meeting up at Shawn's we jumped in a limo to the club. The music was great and we had an awesome time. My favorite set was downstairs in the Tiki lounge with Kevin Shiu. He's a resident of Vancouver who's noted as one of the best by big names such as Digweed and Tiesto. Amanda and I met a lot of people and hope to see them again sometime. The place shut-down around 3am and we headed out to continue the day in true new-years style. Unfortunately we ended up in a pretty seedy neighborhood trying to find a place to continue the party but by this time our crew was 20 strong and we kept the good vibe going nevertheless. By 8am we left the last party and discussed old times and new friends until we finally passed out around noon for a few hours. George was stellar driving back to Seattle and after a quick hot-tub George, Cam, Amanda and I finally called it a day. What had started only 36 hours earlier seemed to have lasted days. This definitely goes down in history as the craziest new years yet. It was a suitable end to 2005. The collective has posted a lot of pics on Tom's site here.

As much as I live for the moment I think we all need to remember our past and learn from our experiences. I'd like to call out some of the most significant events in my life during 2005.

• Amanda moved to Seattle: Amanda was accepted into Dental Hygeine, moved back into my place in Kirkland and started the end of the beginning of her career. She completed her first quarter with flying colours. This is huge for our future and I can't be happier about it.
• My Oma concured heart surgery: I flew to the Netherlands the day before my Oma went in for a quadruple bypass. Now the pain she's been feeling for years is gone and she's able to get around on her own again at the age of 84. I am amazed in her will to live. Sitting in ICU teaches one a lot about life and death.
• I travelled on my first business trip: Tech-ed Orlando was a great experience. I finally have a face to put on the customers for whom I've been developing Visual Studio 2005. I had a chance to bring back a lot of feedback to my group for the next version of our product.
• I survived my first crash: Crashing my motorcycle in a front-end tuck at the Pacific Raceways taught me once again that wearing full-gear can prevent injuries in a crash. I also learned how to fix a motorcycle and got back on the track to prove to myself that I can stay shiny-side-up.
• I learned to surf: One of my lifelong dreams has been to travel to Hawaii and surf the warm waves. Amanda and I visited the island of Oahu and I rode some waves out there. Later in 2005 I travelled to West-port and went surfing on my biggest waves yet.

That's the short-list but one thing that links them all together is the friends and family which are there to support me throughout it all. I wish everyone a healthy and active 2006.