Cougar Mountain – Doughty Falls

A few Saturdays ago the rain died down enough to make going outside tolerable and Michelle and I went for a hike up Cougar Mountain. We’ve been a few times before up different trails around the mountain. This time out we started at the Wilderness Creek Trailhead and Hiked about 3 miles to Doughty falls. If you look at this pretty map, these locations might make more sense to you.

The hike was great. It was not steep enough to force us to take breaks to catch our breath, but it was steep enough to make us sweat and be thankfully for the clean shirts in the back of the car waiting for us after the hike. The trail meanders up and down a few hills ( 1300 feet of gain from low point to high point ) crossing over a number of streams with fun log bridges. One point we came upon a nice half log path over a muddy area. I made Michelle pose for a picture on the path.

The waterfall, like most water falls on Cougar mountain amount to what you see in your bathtub at home when you turn the water on and put a rock in the water. They are not that impressive, but they are in the middle of no where, and they give you something to hike too. Below is the massive rock with the not so massive water fall flowing over it.

We like the cougar mountain trail system because there are so many options to hike, and it’s not too far to drive to. Michelle and I look at our map, plan a spot to hike too, hike there, then work out a different route back; Brilliant. Check the link for the rest of the picture.

For Princess Jess – Hello Kitty Chain saw

If Princess Jess were a lumber jack I believe her chain saw would look like this. Tyler, maybe if you get Jess one of these she’ll go out and cut down all of the trees you don’t like.

Les, Loves me and Knows me

I am not the best typer | speller | writer ever. Honestly I am known for being a horrible writer and speller. I often leave out whole words or add in extras when I write things up. Occasionally my muse will strike, the stars will align, and the millions of small swimming things I sacrificed in the morning will have been welcomed by the gawds resulting in some brilliant and nearly perfect writing. The alignment of all of these things is very rare, it does happen and it has been Seen.

The great lover of Pudding Mr. Les, has seen this a few times, and very recently commented on it in the most loving way he can

Kevin is very bright, and when he slows down and gets tired, he can type quite coherently. I *think* the problem is that his brain goes at a completely different speed from his fingers, and his eyes go at a different speed again. Which generally means that much of what he types makes no sense at all, and even he can’t work out what he meant…

That’s my conclusion after what must be the best part of ten years

I think Les totally nailed it there. My brain and body are running at different speeds and it takes something special for them to line up right and work well. If the special is not there then it is all mess.

The below shots are a few shots of me and Les from London when CL and I went there in 2007.

Les has known me for the better part of a decade now; it sure does not seem like like it’s been that long. Les is a part of my email group, TechSanctuary. My group is one of the few stable and supportive things in my life; they’ve helped me through all kinds of stuff. I can’t thank everyone in the group enough for being a part of my life. Over the years I traveled all over the place and met almost everyone in the group in person. I feel very blessed to have such amazing friends in my life.

Kev Needs a Davy Crocket

I think I need a Davy Crocket. I totally need a portable 20 ton Nuclear missile launcher. It would look so brilliant mounted on top of a samurai, or on the side care of a motorcycle. I wonder if 10,000 REMs of Radiation would kill Zombies?

One of my Pocket Friends is Nearly Gone

I almost never leave home without a camera in my pocket; you never know when you might get a great picture, and I love taking pictures. Last year ( about 376 days ago ) I got a new camera (SD880IS) to replace my old camera (SD750). The new camera held out for well over 10,000 pictures, and has been a great memory capturing tool for me. I loved the big screen protected by plastic, the image stabilization, and the macro features of the SD880. It was a great point and click camera for me. It’s been very durable and made it through all kinds of falls and impacts. Notice the Scratches on the front, and the discolouration on the screen where the LCD is munged.

Over the weekend while Michelle and I were out hiking Cougar mountain my camera started to grind as the lens poked out of it’s little hole. I tried to ignore it but the sound was getting louder. The sound telling me it was time to replace the camera before it totally failed on me, like so many cameras have before. I had a list of new features I wanted in a camera and I had yet to see a camera the fit my list. Fate is often on my side and the next day Michelle and I were at Costco shopping and we ran into my next camera. The Canon SD980IS, with the touch screen, small profile, connections, and wide angle I wanted, plus the Canon name I have come to love.

Cameras are a huge tool for me, and I was not about to jump and buy a new one on impulse so I took a picture of the camera and went home and researched it for a bit. After some thinking and reading I decided the SD980IS is the camera for me so I went to Amazon and ordered it. My new baby should be happy in my pocket tomorrow, and my old Camera can head home with Trenton this weekend. I am all excited to go home Wednesday and find my new camera waiting for my on my desk to open.!! I hope I get more then a year out of this camera.

Hairs Cut y Ear Trim

In the keeping my hair short and not long theme I went in Friday and got my hair cut again. It was a brilliant Friday morning with an enormous full moon still visible in the sky lighting up my 6:50am walk to the salon. The end result of the hair cut was good looking hair, better eye brows, and still the spooky chin hairs I am growing out to Braid in the name of Kjell and his native land. You can see me looking hot below.

If you look a bit closer at my hotness you will notice a band aid on my passenger side ear. The band aid is covering a bloody mess. I blame myself for being so hot and conversationally stimulating. Joe got distracted by me and took a chuck out of my ear with some scissors. Apparently ears are ripe with blood gushing stuff because there was blood over the place. I wanted to super glue the wound shut but we had no super glue.The salon did have nail glue, same active ingredient, so we attempted to glued the hole shut as best we could and put a band aid over the hole.

When I got home I took the band aid off and let it breath and bleed for a bit until the hole sealed up. below is what my ear looked like when I got home from work with no band aid on it

Pretty much a bloody mess; Michelle cringed as she looked at, then she looked up how to get the blood that had dripped onto my fur coat out of the coat. At this point I had no clue where my ear was really cut or what the hole looked like. I am guessing it is cut where the blood looks like it is about to drip sideways. After a weekend of healing and some washing you can see where and how big the hole in my ear is. Not nearly as bad as the bloody mess would have you believe.

Too bad it gushes blood so much when the scab is off, other wise I would pick at the scab a bunch to give myself a great scar I could use to guilt Joe into more free hair cuts!!! Joe felt horrible, I could not stop laughing. Being me I can make anything Fun! – The things I do for a good story.

More Pictures – January Edition

I cleaned up all of my pictures posted over the last month or so and put then in cleaner buckets last night . So Far this year I have buckets for Michelle’s Painting Extravaganza, Trenton and Installing a Stereo and playing poker, Trenton and I repainting a motorcycle Trailer, Trenton and I doing house work, Me leaving my last job with a bunch of pictures from the new job, and a dinner date we had with the Clems. Looks to me like we need to add some Adventures in there. It’s almost the end of the month and we don’t have any Adventure Pictures. I think Must fix that soon – Maybe a good hike or road trip this weekend.

Michelle and I have been hitting the gym fairly the last few weeks. I am settling into a normal schedule where I get off work before 3. Being only 9 miles from home and not leaving during core traffic hours I’m able to get home in time for Michelle and I to go out for a good hour and change walk down the Tolt gas line trail near our house before it gets dark. Michelle adds a gym workout in the morning  to her daily routine, and I hit the gym after our walk. A few nights we’ve shared a sauna otherwise I head in alone and read my book. Either way I’ve been in the sauna almost every night for the last few weeks. It feels good to get back to it after taking a month off for the holidays.

Odd Roof

Michelle and I went out for a walk down the gas line trail near our house. We noticed an odd roof on a barn being built near the trail. I don’t think I love the roof; it looks too odd. What do you think? Click through for a slightly bigger version to get the full effect.

New Trailer – Ready for a Mission

Trenton is getting older and bigger and enjoys a bit more danger, we plan on spending a year ridding motorcycles, and Marty does not much experience ridding, so we’ve been spending more time ridding as a group lately. to help us along and make ridding simpler I bought a motorcycle trailer. I got a 3 rail ultra small very light weight trailer in horrible condition. Two weekends ago Trenton and I stood the trailer up on the garage in the fork lift and painted it with some Paint Over Rust (POR) paint. Took about an hour to prep / knock off all of the dirt and rust, then another hour to paint. Below are some before and after pictures

The POR paint takes a bit to dry so we left the Trailer hanging in the garage over night and dad stood it up against a tress for the next few weeks. The POR paint only took a week to come off my feet and arms. I painted in socks because I did not want to get my shoes painted. well my socks soaked up the paint and then became glued to my feet. I had to cut my socks off with some of my skin. good times. I also dripped a bit on my arms. I had black spots for a good week on my arms.

last Sunday Trenton and I finished off putting the plate and fender on the trailer. Next Friday I think we’ll go over and get trailer, fill it up with Bikes and go for a Ride some where. Below is a shot of Trenton bolting one of the fenders on. You can still see some blue on this shot. After Trenton finished with the fender I finished painting those sections, then Trenton put the plant on.

I am pleased with my trailer; 200$ on craigslist to buy it, 60$ to license it, and 30$ for the Plate. Not too bad.

The New Office – Microsoft

Michelle and Trenton came by Building 3 with me Sunday to see my tiny little space. While they were here they helped me carry my toy boxes up from the garage and dropped them off. After checking off my office I took them out back and showed them Lake bill. Then we drove over to the PO for dinner with the FAM.

I got into the office bright and early at 5:40 or so this morning and spent about 20 minutes cleaning up my area and unpacking a few of the toys from the boxes and putting them on my desk. Not going to be able to unload everything but I can unload some of them. I unloaded 2 boxes and I have one left that I’ll leave here in a corner until I get moved into something bigger. Below is my office setup as it is now.

The White board panel behind my second monitor has been removed since this picture was take so I can look through and talk to Tim better. Tomorrow I think I’ll bring in a 22” monitor to replace the 19” because it the 19” makes too much noise when it’s on. The noise will surely Drive my crazy and make me Sound like Les if I keep using it.