Team Fortress 2 (TF2)

My gaming fix has been coming from TF2.  If you're wondering what that is, here's your chance.  Free weekend to try it out this weekend, June 20-22, 2008.

And the new pyro unlocks come on Thursday.  Be sure to check out the new sniper video.

Bicycling

Last week I went to a class with the wife and built bike buckets.  I've used em twice already to make trips to the grocery store.  They're cheap and work great.

I even have a nice set of instructions on how to build them, what parts you need to buy, etc.  If you're lazy you can buy em for $25 each here in Portland.

So I haven't driven in over a month.  I just checked and now my truck battery is dead.  Need to renew plates, get oil change, and get gas which is pushing $5 for diesel now.  26 gallon tank.  I'm really contemplating on selling it.

UPDATE - 2008.07.03

I scanned the handouts into PDFs if you want to try building your own.  Get them here.

Watching the Tour Divide

I've been watching(?) by the tour divide race (web|blog) by following along in Google maps.  It's a race down the continental divide.  Reading the race reports is partly cool.  The real cool is that they're using a GPS device called SPOT to track their progress.

So you can follow along as well from the leaderboard, or here's a link to a full blown Google map so you can pan, scan, view satellite, terrain, etc.

Fathers Day

Called my Dad.  Doin' alright.  But his heart is having problems again.  New meds.  I need to stay on the bike.

Heidi's Dad drove up.  We did the Gondola ride.

First we go up the hill.

Great view at the top - Heidi and her mom on the right.

Then we ride back down.

That was enough effort for the day.  We headed over to the new Deschutes Brewery in Portland.  Awesome woodwork inside.  New favorite fish and chips is here.  Beat out Henry's.  And the beer is damn good.

Here's a red that drinks like a Guinness and you can only get it at the pub.

I'm in heaven.

Later