Tent time.

So a couple of weeks ago I was telling Christine that I really needed to get up at the crack of dawn and go hunt yard sales for a big family tent and a 2 burner camp stove. You may remember that we posted some pictures of Jamie in my backpacking tent. Well, that's much too small for all of us to camp out it comfortably. And my backpacking stove, well, it's good for boiling a pot of water but not much else. No sooner had I said it, I checked the classifieds and there I saw "Large tent $70, camp stove $20. Call XXX-XXXX". So I called and went right out and picked it up. I ended up getting both for $80.

When I got home I set it up in the yard. Well, as advertised it is a LARGE tent! Not quite yurt sized but probably the next best thing. We ended up leaving it in the yard for about a week. The weather was still cool and it was a great place to hang out.

Outside in the yard:



Inside the tent, room for lawn chairs, plenty of toys and plenty of sleeping pads:



Jamie at Play:


Jamie at Work:


False perspective makes Jamie's head look huge:


Why do I put up with you people?


Okay, I guess you are pretty funny after all!

1 Month

Wow. I haven't updated in a while. It's been almost exactly a month since I had my big wreck. Things are mostly back to normal. All the pretty colors have faded away. I've started back doing road riding and swimming to get myself back into some semblance of physical shape. A month off really does exact a toll on your conditioning. It's really only been in the last week or so that I have been able to do anything strenuous. I hope to do an actual trail ride this week. Hopefully everything will be in good working order by Father's Day weekend, two weeks from now. I'd really like to race in the MD State Championship downhill race at Wisp. There was a race this weekend, but common sense (common sense being Christine for the most part) told me to take another couple of weeks to get back into the swing of things.

Lot's of new pictures of the boy to post, but I'll give them their own entries.

Injury update.

Yeah it still hurts. I followed up with my regular Dr. and got x-rays and had some other tests done. Nothing broken, nothing wrong, except for the bruises of course.

Here's a little time lapse imagery of the bruises:

Day 0 + 2 hours. Tis only a flesh wound!



Day 3. Hmmmm, should I see a Dr?



Day 7. Oh yeah!

Back


Side


Them's sure is pretty colors!

Philly Cheese Steak!

This week, I attended the Society of Tribological and Lubrication Engineers annual meeting in Philadelphia and gave a presentation. Since Philly is so close, we decided to pack up the truck and make a family trip out of it. Christine and Jamie roamed the city while I was in meetings all day. From the sound of it, it seems like they had lots of fun. Jamie apparently really enjoyed seeing the Rodin Museum. We stayed right down town, one block from the state house. We were just a few blocks from Chinatown so we ate really really well stuffing ourselves with Vietnamese Pho, summer rolls, bubble tea and the occasional Philly Cheese Steak sandwich.

Here's the view from our hotel window (19 floors up). That's William Penn on the state house dome.



Philadelphia is the city of Brotherly Love and they play it up.

Here's Christine and Jamie in Love Park:



Even the graffiti artists feel the love (even if their grammar is atrocious):



Jamie loved the luxurious accommodations:



He has been so good all week. The last two nights, he has slept all the way through the night. 10 pm to 7 am. Wow! We did hear him wake up and start talking to himself in the middle of the night, but he puts himself back to sleep now. His latest thing is to make fart/raspberry noises (I taught him how myself) and he loves to practice. Spit flies everywhere. It's a laugh riot! He's a real trooper when it comes to getting pushed around in his stroller, too. It would be hard to ask for a better baby.

In front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art:

Kinetic Sculpture Race

This year marked the third year in a row that we've gone to Baltimore to check out the Kinetic Sculpture Race in Baltimore. Robena, Phil, and Twyla came up to visit and watch the race. Good times were had by all.

Breaking Newz: World's Most Tolerant Cat Used as Pacifier.

Yeah, it took a while to pick all the hair out of his mouth....

Go Boy Go!

Could little Jamie be a future tour champion? Here he is doing a little stationary cycling. I think he needs to work a little on his cadence but other than that, good form all around (well except for that terrible posture).



He was actually sweating up a storm after his "workout".