Timing n' stuff

My good friend Eric Ewing came to Seattle yesterday from Spokane to time the skate for MS event today. I helped him time the event and earned a little money as well as learned the system even more so that I will be ready for the trip to Colorado in two weeks to time the Kona Global 24 hour mountain bike race. It was really good seeing Eric again (went to the OR coast with him and his family) after we were done today we all went to the Seattle Center and watched Abigael play in the fountain and Eric bought her some ride tickets so that she could go on the carnnie rides. Abigael was so exhausted that she fell alseep on the couch this evening with her bottle in her mouth and petting the cat. My leg seems to be healing up? It still hurts but it's either less and less or I am just getting used to the pain. I have a doc appt on the 6th will know more then. The team is meeting this week and I will be handing over the Captain's position, there is just no way to run the team effectively, goto school full time and raise Abigael. It will be hard to turn over my baby but it is for the best. I can concentrate on healing, training and learning. Pictures of sweet Abigael to be posted soon!

It's over!!!

Well the weekend is over and I am still alive and mentally stable!! The weekend started with the many hundred question psychological and personal history test for Seattle Fire Department. While at the psych test canadites were scheduled for employment interviews. I originally was scheduled to have my interview on Sept. 9th at 9am!! I will be in Colorado helping my friend Eric Ewing, who works for Miliseconds Timing, time the Kona Global 24 hour mountain bike race that weekend from Sep 7-10. I was able to change my interview date to Sep 16th at 8am with no problems! The psych test was 4 part and consisted of many personal history questions and the a personality exam that was 434 questions long!! All in all the test was about 700 questions long and took about 3 1/2 hours! I left the test pretty drained but confident about the test.
Saturday night we took Christie's mom out to dinner. We wanted to take her to experience a true west coast Northwest tradition, SUSHI!! We took Pat to Shiki, which means four seasons in Japenese. Shiki is in my opinion THE best sushi resturant in Seattle! I have really grow to know the family owned and operated resturant as it is located right next door to the Counterbalance Bicycle shop. Ken Yamamoto is a master chef and super nice guy! We had a sushi combo plate, salmon teriyaki with tempura (breaded fryed vegetables) plate, rice, and some extra nigiri (tuna, salmon, yellow fin tuna sushi) and some extra tuna rolls!! We ate and enjoyed every last melt in your mouth piece of food! Pat tried just about every thing and really liked the salmon sushi the best. It was quite comical to watch her use chop sticks but she did it! Abigael sipped miso soup straight from the bowl and ate her rice. Se tried a few small pieces of sushi, she didn't like it, oh well?!
Which led to Sunday. I have been dreading and looking forward to Sunday for over a month. Why, you ask? Sunday was the day our cycling team AVA/Counterbalance Bicycles racing hosted our team event, Sprints to Nowhere. The team met at Workshop 30 at the Sandpointe complex around 9:30 and we started setting up. Every thing and everyone gelled and it all came together!! We were more than ready to go at our 2pm openning time and we waited for the racer to flood in to race indoors on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.... We had a ton of messengers and bicycle enthusiasts turn out for the event and all told we had 23 racers show up to throw down on the rollers!! Only a small handful of non AVA/CBB racers showed up, PROPS to Recycled Cycles Racing and Byrnes for coming out to support our race!!! Every racer waled away with atleast a $20 to $40 prize top prizes were $100 plus! Beer flowed thanks to Bike Works and Anthony Vega of AVA Real estate!! Every team member and friend of the team helped to break down and by 9pm polo was on in the building!! Thanks everyone from team members to sponsors who helped make it happen!! It was tons of fun!!!

I feel drained but at peace with no dread. We basically lost our ass on our event but that's ok because it was a first year event and a learning experience!

"The Bike Room"

A view from outside the door


Right side


Center view


Left side


Center floor


Clutter I don't see any clutter? I see organized chaos! But not clutter! This is the small, roughly 6' by 6', closet known in my house as The Bike Room. Granted not all bike and bike related things are stored in here, just not enough room, but there are other things in here not bike related that take up space. Like the water heater, the file cabinet for the apartment manager, and our cleaning supplies. It is always in varying states of cleanliness and organization. This is in response to The Old Bag's "clutter" post http://oldbag.blogspot.com/2006/08/clutter.html you have a long way to go before you get here! The best part is Christie dosen't mind as long as it stays in the room and the light is turned off when I' m done!

Time to blow off some steam...

We're off to the Oregon coast. Lincoln City to be exact. We are going to spend the next 4 1/2 day with our good friends from Spokane Eric and Nickie Ewing and their three boys. We have been looking forward to this for quite some time. Christie REALLY needs to blow off some steam and DE-STRESS. I have a Dr.'s appointment this morning and I will be getting some x-rays as well as a how I am doing in my recovery from the doc.

It's almost here the one year anniversary...

Less than an hour till the one year anniversary of what I have come to call, "It's what happens when you bring a Bicycle to a Car fight." in reference to my still healing broken leg. I thought about going to the scene of the accident but I decided, "Naaaww, I'm good" no need to mourn. What's done is done....

These pictures are from last year after the accident:
Coming up to the intersection

Looking left up hill, the direction which the car that hit me came from.

I got a packet from Seattle Fire Dept today which included the fire department employment application and a scheduled time for the written Psychological Exam. I have to have the application filled out and turned in by August 21st and my psych exam is 1pm on the 19th of August. They also state there will be a timed PRACTICE CPAT (Candidate Physical Aptitude Test) exam mid September. So what does this all mean? Not really sure I thought they might sit on the list till 2007 but sounds like they might want to push a class through this fall?!?! Probably won't have the real CPAT till Oct? Either way I am out once I get to the Medical. When it rains it pours....

Dead Baby Downhill and Messenger Challenge tonight

So the race that changed my life forever is tonight. I will be attending just so I can hopefully show some people that the race is not worth what I have had to deal with for the past year! This is one of the last photos of me with leg intact, CLUELESS!

Photo courtesy of Morrispost.com

I wish everyone racing tonight a safe and fun time. http://www.deadbabybikes.org/raceshit/racenow.htm

PS Crutches SUCK!!

Tomorrow I will go out to 40th Ave SW and SW Morgan St and have a moment of silence to mark the ONE YEAR anniversary of get demolished by a car!!