Posts
As written in the 4/20 post here, Peg began her self-induced-AND-completely-appropriate unemployment from UBC in late-April. Even before the ink dried on the "don't the door hit you on the way out" papers, she had companies a-callin' to see if she would join their ranks.
One such company was Parexel, a pharmaceutical consulting company along the lines of her previous employers. It was this company's offer (role, compensation, etc.) that won out over the others she received. And as of today, she is now an employee of that company, visiting their Waltham, MA offices to do some internal meet-and-greets over the next several days, and plot out their plan for world domination. (Don't hold me to that last part... they are a big company, though.)
Awesome job, Peg... and you we're worried? Sheesh!
7.25.2011
7.20.2011
Home
Well, after living in places other than 350 Laramie Blvd. for nearly the last 12 or so months -- and with distances from said address varying from 50 yards to 7 time zones away -- I am glad to post this: We. Are. Home.
Don't get me wrong, we are thankful to have spent the last 7+ months in a home in the same neighborhood as ours. But as the adage goes, there's no place like home.
And of course, Hi Kristin.
Don't get me wrong, we are thankful to have spent the last 7+ months in a home in the same neighborhood as ours. But as the adage goes, there's no place like home.
And of course, Hi Kristin.
7.10.2011
Doing -- not having -- the Triple Bypass
There's a popular organized road ride out here called the Triple Bypass. It gets its play-on-words name due to the fact that the route riders take involves going over 3 heart-rate-elevating high mountain passes (the summit elevations are 11,140 ft., 11,990 ft., and 10, 560 ft.), has 10,990 feet of combined elevation gain, and is 120 miles in length. (A profile of the ride can be found here.) The ride is so popular that there's a lottery in place for entry, and the organizing club routinely receives more applications than the 3,500 available spaces.
I learned on Thursday that a friend who was signed up for it couldn't do it. After some last-minute phone calls and maneuvers to line up housing for us and Chamberlain, I was able to take his spot. I got up early yesterday morning and began pedaling my upward and westward with some friends at 6:50 am. I wouldn't reach the finish line, near Beaver Creek, until after putting in just under 8 hours of saddle time. While I was riding, though, Peggy and Chloe were checking out some hiking trails in the Vail area, and spending some time poolside at the Ritz sipping on Shirley Temples and the like. To be sure, all 3 of us had a great day.
I learned on Thursday that a friend who was signed up for it couldn't do it. After some last-minute phone calls and maneuvers to line up housing for us and Chamberlain, I was able to take his spot. I got up early yesterday morning and began pedaling my upward and westward with some friends at 6:50 am. I wouldn't reach the finish line, near Beaver Creek, until after putting in just under 8 hours of saddle time. While I was riding, though, Peggy and Chloe were checking out some hiking trails in the Vail area, and spending some time poolside at the Ritz sipping on Shirley Temples and the like. To be sure, all 3 of us had a great day.
7.02.2011
Disney: Done.
As mentioned in my last post, plans were for us to wrap up a very fun-busy June with a trip to California to visit Disneyland and Universal Studios. Well, we went. But it wasn't as fun as we had imagined or hoped.
On our first morning inside Disneyland, Chloe cried after 3 of the first 6 rides we did due to not liking one feature or another about them. Peggy and I were stunned, and sad... we were so hoping to have Chloe enjoy her time at the parks, and to be one of those kids who would want to go, go, go. But, as it turned out, we learned that amusement parks just aren't her thing.
For most of the rest of the week, we let her ride the rides she felt comfortable with (of which there were few) and eventually all 3 of us got kinda bored walking around the parks searching for something to do. Chloe was more excited about the prospect of spending a couple of hours at the hotel pool then going on some rides again, so that's what we did for an inordinate amount of time, considering we were 1 mile away from the happiest place on earth.
On our first morning inside Disneyland, Chloe cried after 3 of the first 6 rides we did due to not liking one feature or another about them. Peggy and I were stunned, and sad... we were so hoping to have Chloe enjoy her time at the parks, and to be one of those kids who would want to go, go, go. But, as it turned out, we learned that amusement parks just aren't her thing.
For most of the rest of the week, we let her ride the rides she felt comfortable with (of which there were few) and eventually all 3 of us got kinda bored walking around the parks searching for something to do. Chloe was more excited about the prospect of spending a couple of hours at the hotel pool then going on some rides again, so that's what we did for an inordinate amount of time, considering we were 1 mile away from the happiest place on earth.
6.21.2011
Latest Goings On
Despite my intentions of keeping this thing more up to date, June was a bad month to have that happen. Bad only because we had (and have) such a fun-n-busy month that my little blurbs here had to take a back seat. But it's currently a little before 7:00 this morning and I have some time to jot down some details about what's been going on over the last couple of weeks.
- Birthday & camping: On the first weekend of the month, friends (some as far away as IL) joined us for a little camping outing in Rocky Mountain National Park to celebrate my 40th birthday. It was such a wonderful, relaxing and fun time just sitting around with snow covered peaks in the background, elk walking through the campsite and family and friends nearby... not a bad way to close out one's fourth decade. (Picture to the right: Sprague Lake and environs.)
- Railroads, running and rafting: A couple days after the camping, my parents came out to visit for several days. They've seen Boulder already, so we spent most of the time with them out in the mountains: we took a mine tour in Breckenridge, a scenic train ride out of Leadville, and the highlight (at least for me)... a whitewater rafting trip. If was the first time doing rafting for my parents (mid-70s) and Chloe (8) and it was a pretty good introduction to the activity. For one, the river we rode had some pretty good Class III rapids on it... nothing too nutsy, but definitely plenty enough bouncing around to get some walls of water splashing into the raft at times. As for the water, it was moving pretty good and was frigid... due to the high snowpack and therefore prolonged melt-off, the river water had a good pace going and was only about 34° F. Accordingly, wetsuits were donned by all. It was about a 70 minute flo
at, and we all had a great time... my parents would consider doing it again (which is awesome!), though would want to try a longer trip on Class IIIs and in warmer water before considering some Class IVs.
Another reason we spent some time out in the mountains is that Peggy was signed up for a running race. For the months leading up to it, she had been training for the half-marathon option. During the last 2 weeks, though, she came down with some kind of cold or virus infection that left her really congested and she wasn't able to keep up with her training. All wasn't lost as the race organizers had a 10K option as well. Given she was still not 100% and not breathing the best, and over 4,000 feet higher in elevation that what she's used to, she opted to run that and was able to beat the time she set for herself (another "awesome!") 
(Pictures in this section, top to bottom: My Dad taking in the views during the train ride; KnPnC 900 feet underground in the Country Boy Mine; Peggy in the final steps of her 10K; and my Mom and Chloe prepping for some rafting.)
- Bike Racing and Fathers Day: And just this last weekend, we again found ourselves traveling to another part of the state so that I could take part in 3 days of bike racing. During this trip, we called Carbondale, CO home for a couple of nights so I could do a 12-mile time trial on Friday evening, a 45-minute criterium on Saturday, and 54-mile road race on Sunday. I won't go into details for each race; rather I finished near
mid-pack for the TT and road race, and near last in the criterium (the reason being I had to avoid a crash on the closing laps and lost contact with the lead pack.) During our stay out there, we also visited the hot springs pool in Glenwood Springs and had a great time. The main pool is quite impressive: it's 405 feet long and 100 feet wide, contains 1,071,000 gallons of water, and is kept at about 90° F.
With Peggy still in "Summer of Peggy" mode and Chloe not having anything going on the following day, we decided to spend an extra night out there, but switched hotels, staying in Snowmass Village so we could relax from a busy weekend and have a Fathers Day dinner in nearby Aspen. The relaxing was great... we spend some time pool- and hottub-side by ourselves and enjoyed the quiet. Then we headed into Aspen for dinner at a
restaurant that Peggy read about (and what she read about it was that Lance Armstrong frequents it, and has so recently.) As coincidence would have it, guess who was walking out as we were walking in? That brush with celebrity aside, it was a great night... the food was awesome, the service fantastic, and we spent a couple of hours together just laughing and having a great time. (Pictures in this section, top to bottom: Me before the start of the crit; Chloe and I at a wonderful Fathers Day dinner.)
Other Goings On...
- The Summer of Peggy now has an end date: July 24th. On the next day, she'll be an employee of Parexel, another pharmaceutical consulting company. She received an offer from them a couple of weeks ago. Not wanting to accept it as is (even though it was more than she expected) she counter-offered on three of the conditions and they were all approved! So, she has a little bit more than a month to work on her summer bucket list.
- Chloe completed a week of soccer camp that was led by the CU women's soccer team. It was fun to hear her talk about all of the skills her camp leaders had and she was SO excited to have the CU players sign her soccer ball.
- I know I've written a lot about the weather out here, but it still impresses us. After our stay in Snowmass Village, we were planning on doing some hiking at the nearby Maroon Bells. But a late-spring storm moved in, along with some fog and precipitation. The temperatures dropped quite a bit and we weren't prepared – or inclined – to walk around in such conditions so we drove home. The route we took took us over Independence Pass (12,095 ft), parts of which received a couple of inches of snow overnight, and some flurries were still coming down as we drove it. (Picture: some new-fallen snow on our way up and over Independence Pass.)
The Month of Fun isn't over.... in a few short days, we head to DisneyLand!
- Birthday & camping: On the first weekend of the month, friends (some as far away as IL) joined us for a little camping outing in Rocky Mountain National Park to celebrate my 40th birthday. It was such a wonderful, relaxing and fun time just sitting around with snow covered peaks in the background, elk walking through the campsite and family and friends nearby... not a bad way to close out one's fourth decade. (Picture to the right: Sprague Lake and environs.)
- Railroads, running and rafting: A couple days after the camping, my parents came out to visit for several days. They've seen Boulder already, so we spent most of the time with them out in the mountains: we took a mine tour in Breckenridge, a scenic train ride out of Leadville, and the highlight (at least for me)... a whitewater rafting trip. If was the first time doing rafting for my parents (mid-70s) and Chloe (8) and it was a pretty good introduction to the activity. For one, the river we rode had some pretty good Class III rapids on it... nothing too nutsy, but definitely plenty enough bouncing around to get some walls of water splashing into the raft at times. As for the water, it was moving pretty good and was frigid... due to the high snowpack and therefore prolonged melt-off, the river water had a good pace going and was only about 34° F. Accordingly, wetsuits were donned by all. It was about a 70 minute flo
at, and we all had a great time... my parents would consider doing it again (which is awesome!), though would want to try a longer trip on Class IIIs and in warmer water before considering some Class IVs.
Another reason we spent some time out in the mountains is that Peggy was signed up for a running race. For the months leading up to it, she had been training for the half-marathon option. During the last 2 weeks, though, she came down with some kind of cold or virus infection that left her really congested and she wasn't able to keep up with her training. All wasn't lost as the race organizers had a 10K option as well. Given she was still not 100% and not breathing the best, and over 4,000 feet higher in elevation that what she's used to, she opted to run that and was able to beat the time she set for herself (another "awesome!") 
(Pictures in this section, top to bottom: My Dad taking in the views during the train ride; KnPnC 900 feet underground in the Country Boy Mine; Peggy in the final steps of her 10K; and my Mom and Chloe prepping for some rafting.)- Bike Racing and Fathers Day: And just this last weekend, we again found ourselves traveling to another part of the state so that I could take part in 3 days of bike racing. During this trip, we called Carbondale, CO home for a couple of nights so I could do a 12-mile time trial on Friday evening, a 45-minute criterium on Saturday, and 54-mile road race on Sunday. I won't go into details for each race; rather I finished near
mid-pack for the TT and road race, and near last in the criterium (the reason being I had to avoid a crash on the closing laps and lost contact with the lead pack.) During our stay out there, we also visited the hot springs pool in Glenwood Springs and had a great time. The main pool is quite impressive: it's 405 feet long and 100 feet wide, contains 1,071,000 gallons of water, and is kept at about 90° F.With Peggy still in "Summer of Peggy" mode and Chloe not having anything going on the following day, we decided to spend an extra night out there, but switched hotels, staying in Snowmass Village so we could relax from a busy weekend and have a Fathers Day dinner in nearby Aspen. The relaxing was great... we spend some time pool- and hottub-side by ourselves and enjoyed the quiet. Then we headed into Aspen for dinner at a
restaurant that Peggy read about (and what she read about it was that Lance Armstrong frequents it, and has so recently.) As coincidence would have it, guess who was walking out as we were walking in? That brush with celebrity aside, it was a great night... the food was awesome, the service fantastic, and we spent a couple of hours together just laughing and having a great time. (Pictures in this section, top to bottom: Me before the start of the crit; Chloe and I at a wonderful Fathers Day dinner.)Other Goings On...
- The Summer of Peggy now has an end date: July 24th. On the next day, she'll be an employee of Parexel, another pharmaceutical consulting company. She received an offer from them a couple of weeks ago. Not wanting to accept it as is (even though it was more than she expected) she counter-offered on three of the conditions and they were all approved! So, she has a little bit more than a month to work on her summer bucket list.
- Chloe completed a week of soccer camp that was led by the CU women's soccer team. It was fun to hear her talk about all of the skills her camp leaders had and she was SO excited to have the CU players sign her soccer ball.
- I know I've written a lot about the weather out here, but it still impresses us. After our stay in Snowmass Village, we were planning on doing some hiking at the nearby Maroon Bells. But a late-spring storm moved in, along with some fog and precipitation. The temperatures dropped quite a bit and we weren't prepared – or inclined – to walk around in such conditions so we drove home. The route we took took us over Independence Pass (12,095 ft), parts of which received a couple of inches of snow overnight, and some flurries were still coming down as we drove it. (Picture: some new-fallen snow on our way up and over Independence Pass.)The Month of Fun isn't over.... in a few short days, we head to DisneyLand!
6.07.2011
*** New Feature ***
I'm not sure how many will find this feature useful, but because I post about once every 10 days, it might be useful for those who like to read my occasional posts but aren't always sure when to visit the blog to see if anything is new.
Anywho, on the right side of this page you'll see a place where you can enter your email address (it's under the "Follow by Email" text.) By doing so, you'll receive an email notice every time I post something new. It's a great way to stay up-to-date with the blog without having to have a Google account to be a "blog follower."
I hope you find this new feature useful.
Anywho, on the right side of this page you'll see a place where you can enter your email address (it's under the "Follow by Email" text.) By doing so, you'll receive an email notice every time I post something new. It's a great way to stay up-to-date with the blog without having to have a Google account to be a "blog follower."
I hope you find this new feature useful.
5.30.2011
Memorial Day Weekend Recap
Even though we've been here a little under 3 years, it's been our experience that there aren't too many weekends in Boulder that are as fun as Memorial Day Weekend: bike racing, road running, street festivals and BBQs were all on the schedule over these last 3 days.I had bike races on both Saturday and Sunday, a crit on the former and a road race on the latter. I came in 20th in the crit (out of 32 starters) which is a pretty pleasing result for me given that it was only my 1st crit in 2 years and that I was in the main pack up until the 2nd to last lap. As for the road race, I crossed the line in 35th place (out of 74 starters)... a so-so result as I was hoping for better.
We spent several hours on Sunday afternoon strolling through and enjoying both the Boulder Creek Festival and the BolderBoulder Fair, riding rides, checking out various booths, eating ice cream and enjoying the great weather.
Then on Monday morning, Chloe and I found ourselves among 54,000 or so others in the 33rd running of the BolderBoulder, a 10K race (for some) or run/walk (for many.) We were definitely in the second group, as were definitely more interested in the "fun" of the event versus the "fitness." Along the route there are bands (Blues Brothers and Elvis impersonators, for example), belly dancers and – Chloe's favorite – slip-n-slides. (You'll see in the picture below her hair looks wet; well, it isn't from sweat.) As we entered the CU Stadium together, Chloe began her sprint, I reacted and passed her, and she made a remarkable recovery to come back and tie me at the line (wink, wink). We both finished in 1:41:24.
(Pictures, from top to bottom: Chloe getting bungeed at the Boulder Creek Fest; me [red, white and blue kit] racing in the crit; another picture of Chloe on the bungee ride; Chloe at around 7K during the BolderBoulder.)
5.26.2011
2nd Grade Alpha and Omega
Today is Chloe's last day of school, and it made me think back to where we were for Chloe's 1st day of school this school year, and what she had to wear for it. So below I've posted pictures from those two points in time. Compare and contrast at your leisure.
5.22.2011
Spare Not A Hair
This morning Chloe and I participated in the "Give Hair With Care" fundraiser. I went with the straight razor shave again [insert "balding joke" here], and Chloe was quite adventurous and opted for a "pixie cut," losing about 8 inches of hair off the back.
Like last year, it was a great time spending time with the family, helping this worthwhile cause. This year, though, had the extra benefit of sharing the experience with Chloe in the chair next to me. Peggy and I are SO proud of her, and thankful for those who donated on Chloe's behalf.
Below are some before, during and after pictures.
Like last year, it was a great time spending time with the family, helping this worthwhile cause. This year, though, had the extra benefit of sharing the experience with Chloe in the chair next to me. Peggy and I are SO proud of her, and thankful for those who donated on Chloe's behalf.
Below are some before, during and after pictures.
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