you drink beer with the rest of the development team during a Friday afternoon meeting after shipping the new release. Ummm... why didn't I move here sooner?

Fun night at the Aladdin last night watching a taping of a live radio show called Live Wire. The show consisted of a group of people that did comedy skits in front of microphones and in-between they would spend 10-15 minutes introducing different acts. Kind of like watching an old Jim Hensen muppet show episode. They even had mock balconies overlooking the stage that I mentioned to Heidi would've been funny if they put the two old guys up there cracking jokes. As for the venue it was basically a theater stage - very similar to old theaters back in Milwaukee and Chicago were you might go see a play or opera or as in most cases - a live band. Ray and I have seen Tesla, Drivin' n' Cryin', and kick a$$ bands like Hollyfaith that no one has ever heard about in venues like this. Most of the crowd was 30+. They served beer, wine, pizza, homemade sweets, and clif bars. All good stuff and for a reasonable price. Only $10 for the show and it lasted just over 2 hours. They record the show as a podcast (mp3 file you can download and listen too) and then replay it over the air on Oregon Public Radio - or you can go to the website to download and listen to the show. It was so good in fact that I'm already looking forward to going to the next one - looks like almost every month they have em. I should mention that one of the acts was a 2 guys on guitar - M. Ward. They were very good. Oh and Happy St. Patrick's day. Too bad they don't dye the rivers green here.... Edit [2006-03-20]: One thing I forgot to mention is that we headed to this place called Bernie's Southern Bistro afterwards. They had awesome fried chicken (boneless skinless breast - can cut it with a fork it was so tender) and homemade mac n' cheese. Mmmm...

I've had this sore throat the past few days so I've stayed off the bike. This morning I figured I'd ride into work. Set the alarm, jump out of bed, start getting ready, and sure enough - my front tire is flat. I used the bike last night to go to the grocery store and somehow I must've flatted during that minor 1/2 mile round trip. There was a nice tear in the side wall of my cyclocross tires so putting a new tube in is going to be NFG - the tire is done... /sigh So I decided to order some commuting tires from Nashbar. These babies are from Europe and not normally available here and have gotten rave reviews on mtbr for being difficult to flat. Some guys stated he's ridden em through broken glass, nails, thorns... Sold.

Made the first trip to Mt. Hood this past weekend (Mar 11th) on Saturday. We rented some snow shoes and did abit of walking... a shitload. On our way through the last town before getting to the wilderness we stopped at a donut shop because they had good donuts and really because I needed to purchase a $15 Sno*pass, which is the cost of an annual parking permit basically. In the donut shop Heidi says, "How about a Maple bar their really good." "Um, wtf is a maple bar?" Basically it's a long john with maple flavored frosting. Not bad. And I guess I learned the local lingo for a long john donut. After a short drive we hit the Tillium Lake Trailhead parking lot. The trailhead sign said the loop was 3.5 miles... try more like 7-8 miles. It took us a little over 2 hours and Heidi was spent - even I had a sore ankle (however I do think it was because of the new boots purchased the day before). Trillium Lake is at about 4000 feet of elevation. After the walk we drove up to this ski resort called Timberline which is at 6000 feet. LOTS of snow. Tire chains or traction tires required. We had a couple beers and dinner at the ski lodge and then drove back to Portland.

You can check out the rest of the photo's here. The slideshow actually is a pretty good tool.

Last weekend (Mar 3rd & 4th) Heidi and I spent the weekend at the Salishan resort along the Pacific coast. Fireplace in the room, nice king size bed, room service breakfast...

Some interesting things.

• Ran into a group of seals while walking along the beach.
• Houses are not far from falling into the ocean because it is eroding the shoreline.
• The houses seem to be built on sand!
• Heidi keeps alot of travel sized tissues in her glove compartment.
• There's basically saying you're going to die if you go in the water.
• The ?kelp? looks like a giant whip from Indiana Jones movies and feels like a piece of rubber - it's squishy (like that word?).
• They still clear cut the forest in some areas and it's ugly when they do that.
• Met a strange guy at a local watering hole on Sat night who bragged about his son and his money, recommended a great place to eat on Sunday and then we saw him walking down the main highway hitchhiking the next day - huh?
• Had some great Chai Tea (I'm getting hooked on this stuff...) at the Clipper Ship Coffee Co. They use a mix made by Big Train. Beats Starbucks by a long shot. Highly recommended