Don and Sarah Wichern

Piggy Tails

2010-09-06T08:33:00.001-07:00

From the first time a mother holds her little girl in her arms she dreams of the day she can put her baby's hair in pig tails. Okay, maybe that's just me. Olivia's wild locks made the dream come true sooner than I expected with the help of some Velcro bows Xander picked out for her.

4 Generation Walk

2010-09-06T08:27:00.001-07:00

Sarah, Diane, Donna (Wheelchair), Joanne, Walyn (stroller), Megan, Lavell

Saturday Megan was in town and we decided to go on a walk with the babies, our mom, our grandmas, and her golden retriever Lavell. We walked a couple miles on the Ogden River parkway and had a great time.

Olivia

2010-09-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

Mom holding Olivia and here 3-day-younger cousin Walyn.
Grandma doesn't have the strangth in her arms to pick up Olivia but she entertains Olivia while she sits in her boppy.
Olivia asleep with her darling headband (which Don thinks is bound to misshape her head)

A Day at the Zoo

2010-09-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

Mom and I took Easton and Xander to the zoo for Easton's birtday. Here they show their love for the rhino.

Easton wanted to sit on the rhino's nose...not the best idea.
Here mom is sitting next to the boys at the bird show. We sat in the flight path and nearly got hit several times. Talk about up close and personal!
The boys posing at the entrance...excited to go in.

I loved the trip...minus the reptile house. I nearly threw up and had to leave and let mom finish the tour with the boys.

Xander's Summer

2010-09-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

Climbing rocks with Daddy.

Xander in full gear for scootering: goggles, helmet and hydration pack.

Helping out with dishes.

Warming himself in the sun after playing in the water.

Water gun fight with his cousin Easton in the back yard.

The Newest Wichern

2010-07-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

She's Here!!

Olivia Diane Wichern joined us Tuesday morning at 7:24. She was 8 lbs and 20 inches long and came with a surprising head of dark hair.

We weren't sure she was going to come on her own but contractions started Monday morning at 5 am and continued all day and night. I didn't want to wake Don up in the middle of the night if it wasn't the real thing so I held on until contractions were painful enough that I was going to the hospital to get an epidural whether I was in labor or not. We arrived at the hospital at 4:30. By then I was at 7 and the contractions were 2.5 to 3 minutes apart. The staff was great and I got the epidural between contractions and was happily numb before I needed to push. We called my mom who was able to make it to the hospital for the delivery and all went well.

Olivia seems healthy in every way. She eats well, has good coloring, and is surprisingly mellow compared to her older brother. Xander (for now) is intrigued by his little sister and excited to have a playmate. He asked her if she could walk and talk...he's going to have to be patient for his new playmate to grow up.

Pregnant Sarah...wait...which one is she?

2010-04-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

I had requests from friends and family living away to post pregnant pictures. This is one taken a month ago when I was 6 months pregnant. Can you tell which one is me and which one is my little sister Megan, due a couple days after me? (I'm on the right) My belly has grown since then and I plan to post another picture in the coming weeks.

So far my pregnancy has been good. My doctor always asks me how I'm feeling and my response is usually the same...pregnant...I feel pregnant. This means I don't sleep well, my back hurts a bit at night and often in the day, food settles funny sometimes, my hands and feet are a bit swollen at the end of the day, I feel too big for my surroundings, including my clothes at times and did I mention I'm tired? But I didn't expect anything less and I know that most women go through MUCH worse. My older sister just delivered and had a relatively easy pregnancy but a darling, yet colicky baby. My little sister in the picture waited 5 years to be pregnant and get this far and threw up daily and sometimes hourly for the first few months. She's better now but still throwing up upon occasion. My brother's wife recently announced that she too is pregnant to make all the Richardson kids to have baby's in 2010. She too has spent the majority of her first few months vomiting. Don's little sister just delivered her baby boy today (all is well with baby and mom). She is tiny, maybe 5 ft and has the same metabolism as Don making her a similar specimen of fatless muscle and bone. She suffered through gestational diabetes and worked on her feet as a hair dresser.

In any case, I feel lucky to have had such a relatively easy pregnancy so far. Not that it's easy, but I know it can be worse. I'm glad Don is very sympathetic and avoids comments to the nature of "buck up" or "women have been doing this for years" or "this will pass" and instead just acknowledges my discomfort and takes care of Xander so I can rest when I need to.

Country Live'n

2010-03-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

Don, Xander and I went to Jerome Idaho to visit my little sister, Megan, and her husband, Brian, this weekend. Xander was so excited to go he chatted in the car to himself for 2 hours of the 2 hr 45 min car ride up to their house and didn't take one nap the 3 days we were there.They live in a beautiful country home that they are almost done remodeling and this is the view from their back yard...not bad! My sister and her husband are not actually farm folk (Brian is a Lawyer and Megan is a dietitian) and there are not animals in the barn. The barn currently houses an apartment for my parents, a loft for parties, and wood working equipment on the main floor. All Don can think when he sees it is how many bikes would fit in there.
Megan arranged for Xander to feed a baby calf at her friend's house. Xander started feeding one calf but insisted on changing to this one in the picture. He was right in his selection. The first calf was so hungry it was tug-of-war to keep the bottle in our hands. The second calf, that Xander insisted we trade to, was so gentle he could feed the baby without my help.
Another country experience Xander got at the farm was playing with the farm dog Lavell (named after the BYU football coach Lavell Edwards...Brian is a bit nutty about BYU football) who is a young golden retriever. Xander was timid at first but was soon chasing Lavell, whom Xander calls "little bell," around the yard and playing games with him. It was nice to see another creature with as much energy as our little boy.

We ended the trip roasting hot dogs and marsh mellows in the back yard with some of Brian's family.

Xander's First Ski Trip

2010-03-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

Xander went skiing for the first time at Snowbird ski resort. He especially enjoyed the red helmet he rented at the ski lodge. I luckily still fit in my ski pants but the bunny hill is all the skiing I've seen this year. Xander started out skiing between our legs. After a couple runs he was ready to go on his own for short distances so mommy and daddy released him down the hill and caught him a few feet later. Don and I agreed that this was one of the most fun things we've ever done with Xander. He had such a good time and it was fun to see him enjoying it.

It's a Girl!

2010-01-31T20:39:00.001-08:00

Before going to my ultrasound appointment I asked Xander if I was having a baby sister or a baby brother. He told me it was a baby sister and he was right. We are expecting our baby girl July 1st.

My older sister gave birth to her little boy Gage just over a week ago. Xander got to meet him on Friday. When Gage started to cry he instinctively went to the rocking chair and held out his hands. He then sang , "Rock a Bye" (which consisted of just those words at a random soothing tune) as he rocked the new baby in his arms. When Gage got fussy Xander didn't want to give him up. He instead continued to sing and then put his finger to his mouth to gently say hush. I hope he's as good to his little sister. He has mentioned that we need running pants for the baby girl so he can go running with her.

Fun at the Marsh

2009-12-02T18:01:00.000-08:00

In September Don, Xander and I visited the Wicherns in Wisconsin. We celebrated Don's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary with a big family reunion on the Couch side of the family. In addition we had a family reunion on the Wichern side of the family. It was an event-full weekend.

These pictures are from a ride Don, Xander and I took back behind Don's uncle Tom's farm in a wildlife preserve. We borrowed Tom's Mule (6 wheel atv) to take the tour and we all had a blast. Xander didn't stop smiling the whole trip.

Recap

2009-10-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

With the move and the remodel Don and I have been very busy and in an attempt to catch up, I've just downloaded 3 months of pictures from my camera. Several of them are from San Jose and although we are happy with the move, it made me so sad to see them and think of the good times and fun people that aren't so close by anymore. Here's a recap of some of my favorites:Xander cheers daddy on at the San Jose mountain bike triathlonXander jumping on the bed with a sucker...who lets their child do that???
Xander running through the sprinklers in the front yard.Here Xander is sporting some sweet goggles his friend Hailey let him borrow at the fountain parkThis one is dark but if you magnify it you will see that Xander is watching "UP" at the local drive in in the back of our pick up (that stayed in CA)

Fun with (great) grandma

2009-08-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

The main perk of moving to Utah is well displayed in these four photos. Having family so close by has been wonderful. Mom has taken Xander almost constantly since we moved here so that Don and I could remodel the house. For a change of scenery, she took him to see great grandma and they had a blast. How many of you know a great-grandma that can (and will) ride stick horses with her grand kids? Xander's a lucky boy!

By the way....we've got lots of before and during pictures of the house and we'll post them all when we have the after shots in the next couple weeks.

Daddy and Xander Play in the Water

2009-07-10T15:06:00.001-07:00

Xander and Don decided to cool off one hot summer afternoon.
Xander decided daddy's head was hot.

And daddy dished it back.

Activities at Girl's Camp

2009-07-10T14:51:00.001-07:00

Here is the repelling wall. If you enlarge the image you'll see the people at the top and bottom of the wall in addition to the steel later you climb up to get back. You clip onto a safety rope to make the climb back.
The waterfront was below the camp at a bit of a hike down. At the waterfront they had a dock with canoes, kayaks, and sailboats.
We also did some rocking jumping...

And rock climbing...

And wall climbing. We had lots of fun but I didn't get more than 5-6 hrs sleep at night. I think I'm finally recovered.

Girl's Camp

2009-07-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

I spent last week at Camp Riche located near South Lake Tahoe. I was the cabin mom for the Level 3 girls age 14. I have never been so tired in my life but it was a lot of fun. You can see why from the pictures.

This is one of the 7 cabins we stayed in. They had wood bunks to put mats on and beautiful view from each one. There was also a main lodge, showers, and toilets a little hike up the hill.

I went with the girls on an overnight backpacking trip. Here we are setting up tents at our destination, Scott's lake. It was gorgeous and compared to the Uintah's, not too buggy.

The girls were all great to one another. Here we are hiking out. They all hiked together and the faster girls just went up and down the line to boost up the others. Great girls.

Here is the view you'd see from all of the cabins and lodge....amazing...and hardly any mosquitoes.

Kick'n it in Wisconsin

2009-06-07T17:11:00.001-07:00

Climbing Trees with Jake
Riding a bike with Dad
Getting to know his new Grandpa Dave
Not so sure about Great-Grandpa Monte yet, but....
...he loves Honey and Grandpa's toys! This rocker is just his size!

Afternoon Date in Madison

2009-06-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

Don showed me Madison one of the afternoons we were in Wisconsin. Madison is an isthmus between 2 lakes, Mendota and Monona. We ate lunch overlooking Monona and then walked to the Monona terrace to get some more views of the lake. The Monona terrace and convention center was designed by Wisconsin native Frank Llyod Wright in 1939 but did not pass legislation to be built until 1990. It's cool to see a Wright structure with modern materials.

The terrace is just down the street from the capitol building. The pictures don't do it justice but it was gorgeous. The original capitol building was destroyed in a fire in 1904 and the capitol that stands today was finished in 1915. There are W's all over the architecture making it feel like home for Don and I :).

Don's Birthday at Ella's Deli

2009-06-07T16:28:00.000-07:00

For Don's birthday Connie and Dave took us to Ella's Deli in Madison. Connie's brother Cliff used to manage the deli when the boys were little. It is amazing! The theme is Victorian carnival with animatronic toys all over the ceiling and glass top tables with games inside. Xander was enthralled and we had plenty to do as we searched the 21 page menu for our dinner selection. After dinner we all rode the carousel outside of the deli. I think we need one of these restaurants in Ogden by the children's museum. We all had a blast!

Oakland Temple Trip

2009-05-09T19:15:00.001-07:00

The primary took a trip to the Oakland temple. The Oakland temple is like the conference center in that it has terraces open to visitors on top. Xander had a fun time exploring the temple grounds and terraces. You can see the bay behind Don and Xander in the 2nd photo.

On the Podium

2009-04-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

Like I mentioned before, I decided to race in my first official mountain bike race this weekend. The Sea Otter Classic is the largest mountain bike event in the U.S. and offers lots of room for every racing ability. Having never done this before, I signed up for the Cat 3 men's cross country event. After signing up for the race, I found the article in the bike magazine offering a set of demo wheels to the first 50 respondents signed up for any race at Sea Otter. That's why my bike is sporting those fancy wheels. (See my post from last week.) The catch with the wheels was that I could use them for the race, but I had to send them back or buy them afterwards, unless I managed to get myself on the podium. If I got on the podium I could keep them. So I don't keep you all in suspense, I got on the podium! In fact, I won first!

I've included a blow-by-blow account later on so if you're a race fan you can plod your way through it, otherwise, enjoy the pictures!

Lining up for the race involved a lot of waiting. After I got to the staging area I found out everything was delayed by about 15 minutes, which doesn't sound too bad until you remember I was in the fourth heat.

Luckily, some other guys showed up to chat with while I was waiting. The heats were sent off in five minute intervals. So with the race starting at 1:30, I was supposed to start at 1:50, but didn't get to to until 2:05. It was a long 50 minutes standing in the sun.

Finally, my group got up to the front. The way it worked was you were only scored against your age group. Even though there were other heats, I was only racing agains the guys in my heat (ages 30-34.) There were about 60 of us in the age bracket.

And, here we go!

Unfortunately, for picture taking, the rest of the race was off on the trails, so I don't have any pictures until the medal ceremony. Through some strange communication breakdown, not everyone knew the ceremony was commencing when it did, so the podium looks a little empty. Just me and 2nd place. It really only was a race between us though... :)

Blow by blow: I spent more time than I should have over the week thinking about race strategy. Luckily, I had the chance to pre-ride the course a week before the race and had a good idea of where I wanted to be placed at various times in order to ensure I had a chance at getting on the podium. The race started out on the paved Laguna Seca raceway and turned on to a short fireroad uphill shortly thereafter. We then had a screaming fast 1 mile wide open downhill that funnelled into some 5 miles of swoopy single track trails. I knew going in that I wanted to be in the top five before hitting the single track because trying to pass through the pack on the narrow trails wouldn't be fun at all.

After the gun went off, I used the mile, mile and a half I had on the pavement to work my way to the front of the pack. I was in second place as we turned onto the dirt and another guy surged passed me as we climbed the fireroad to the top of the fast downhill. I'm not sure what happened at the top, but the guy in front suddenly pulled over leaving me following one other guy down this hill. We hit 40 mph at one point before getting to the single track, but I accomplished the first part of my plan by being in second going into the trees.

At this point, we started to catch up to some of the slower guys from the previous heat, and my being in second really payed off. The guy in first was able to work his way around the guys in our way with seeminly little effort, I wasn't sure what he was doing, but I just latched onto his back tire as we passed guy after guy. He'd get them to move over and we'd go right by them. About 2/3 of the way through this section of the course I manged to pass up the guy in front of me to take the lead. At this point I figured I would just ride my race and try to accept any challengers as they came along.

I was still in first coming out of the single track. I took the next climb at an agressive rate and, glancing over my shoulder, realized I was almost out of sight of the guys following me. I quickly passed another guy from a previous heat and shot down the next section of deep sand, pushing pretty hard because if those guys were anything like me then if they could see me they would keep pushing, but if I was out of sight they would have a lot more trouble catching me. I checked back again at the top of the next climb and didn't see anyone, so I backed off a little bit and just focused on passing the guys from the earlier heats.

Most of the rest of the race was anti-climatic, no one came up to challenge me. My calves started cramping at about the half-way point, but I kept it under control. With 3 miles to go, my only goal was not to crash or get a flat.

Coming around the final bend and heading into the shoot my hamstring started cramping and Curt and Pete said I looked a litte funny pedaling in, but I felt great because I knew I had taken it. No one had passed me the entire race.

To sum up, I thourghly enjoyed my first mountain bike race and I hope to be able to do a bunch more of them. It sure didn't hurt to win those wheels either. In fact, Sarah can't wait until I buy a new bike because now she wants this one. I guess she has a thing for orange, who knew.

Sea Otter Classic

2009-04-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

The Sea Otter Classic was a lot of fun this year. Curt, Pete and I went down on Friday to experience the expo.

Basically, every bike company and bike accessory company you can imagine shows up to show off their products and give stuff away. It's a cyclists dream to walk through the booths, lots of bikes to lust over... as well as few surprises.

Here is a picture of a custom full suspension tandem.

And here an Alaskan biker shows off his rigid frame fatty tire bike good for riding in the snow. The tires were seriously 6 inches around!

And here is Curt riding around on an Iso-truss bike. That's right, some kid at BYU took the research Sarah was working on for civil engineering and applied it to his bike and managed to get a company going. The bike is a carbon composite, extremely light and virtually indestructible. The advertisment is that the frame can be run over by a truck and take no damage. It's also pretty cool looking. The cables all run inside the truss system so you have solid cable runs which makes for much smoother shifting. Staring out at about a million dollars a frame, the bike is a little pricey for the average rider, but they are pretty amazing to see.

In addition to drooling over all the great bikes, we were able to pick up a bunch of gear and clothing for dirt cheap. I highly recommend the expo if you can make the time.

Easter at the Wicherns

2009-04-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

Xander went on an Easter egg hunt with his play group the Monday before Easter.

He was distracted by the basketball hoop and didn't make it past his first 2 eggs.

Here Xander and Don are ready for Easter Sunday at Church. Xander refused to let go of the sippy for the picture.

Sweet new wheels

2009-04-16T20:42:00.001-07:00

I'm trying something new this weekend, I'm going to race mountain bikes. I signed up for a race in the extremely awesome Sea Otter Classic, a four-day, 50'000 spectator event held yearly in Monterey, CA at the Laguna Seca raceway. They offer a slew of different venues for competition as well as a mouth-watering selection of bikes and bike accessories. I entered myself in the category 3 cross country race. It consists of one grueling 19 mile loop around the poison oak infested trails of the old Fort Ord.

Last week I read in mountain bike magazine that crank brothers had offerd to demo some of their very cool, very expensive wheels to the first 50 people who answered their add in the magazine. I emailed in and got one of the last pairs of wheels. I put them on my bike and plan on racing with them over the weekend.

As you can see, I'm going to need to get some suitably pumpking themed riding outfits to go with my halloween bike.

Snow Day in Utah

2009-02-19T07:49:00.000-08:00

After the big snow day on Tuesday, Mom, Xander, Easton and I went to play in the snow. It was above my knees and I wasn't sinking to the bottom!

The Observatory

2009-02-14T12:03:00.000-08:00

San Jose is a great place to pedal around on bikes. Situated, as it is, in a valley between the Diablo and Santa Cruz mountain ranges, the city provides easy access to an enormous amount of cycling scenery. In January, my buddy Scotty and I decided to brave one of the scenic climbs. We started at my house, descended Hassler hill and rode the 12 miles to the base of Mt. Hamilton road. What followed was a 25 mile, 3 peak climb totaling 6000 ft of elevation. Our goal was the Lick observatory located on top of Mt. Hamilton. Here you can see one of the smaller telescopes behind me.

Scotty is a collegiate shot-putting champion turned cyclist.

I can see San Jose in the distance behind me. I could hardly wait for the ride back down the hill.

At Mark and Ruth's

2009-02-14T11:58:00.000-08:00

While in Utah, Sarah Xander and I made it over to Mark and Ruth's for dinner on Friday night. Mike, Peter, Scott, Katri, and Spencer joined us making a large group of kids.

Here Xander gets his adrenaline high

The kids played pretty well together. Peter and Xander like to play rough and had a goodtime knocking each other around. Gwen got knocked around a couple times, but didn't seem to mind as l ong as she could play too.

Post Launch Training

2009-02-08T22:13:00.000-08:00

I just officially launched a product at work which means two things. First, I am now responsible for supporting the manufacturing staff with all the usual little problems that crop up as a product ramps up to full production, and second, I have a lot more time to exercise. My last week was pretty typical:

Monday - Bike to work (road bike), swim at lunch and run in the afternoon. Bike home. In total, about 9 miles on the bike, 1000 meters in the pool and 4-5 miles running.

Tuesday - Run to the club to swim, swim, run back to work. About 5 miles running and 1000 meters swimming.

Wednesday - Bike to work (mountain bike), ride trails at lunch, run in the afternoon. Got a ride home. In total, about 4 miles to work, 20 miles of trails and a 5 mile run.

Thursday - Planned on just swimming, but my friend wanted to run first. Ran on the treadmill and then swam. Ran about 4 miles on the treadmill, it had a 5k setting so I raced it in 18:16, the swam about 1000 meters.

Friday - Swam about 1000 meters.

I'm trying to get my base work in for the triathlon season which is starting up in about a month. Actually, there are some duathlons (usually running and biking) this month. I'm trying to talk some guys at work into heading up to some of the races with me. The first one will be near Sacramento and is a 2 mile run followed by 12 miles on a mountain bike followed by a 2 mile run.

I'm sorry Curt. Were you trying to clean your room?

2009-02-08T20:02:00.000-08:00

Last night Xander mistakenly took Curt's room for a dance party when really Curt was trying to clean his room while listening to music. This didn't stop Xander from continuing with his diaper booty dancing. Curt figured if you can't beat 'em join 'em and taught Xander some steller new moves.

Once the dancing wore off Xander found Curts head lamp which he imediatly wanted to wear and posed for the camera.

Later that night Xander bolted from his room (where Don and I were trying to put him to bed) and took a book in to read with Curt on the bean bag chair. Curt read "I love you through and through" at least 7 times before Xander let us take him into bed.

Skiing in Utah

2009-02-08T19:50:00.000-08:00

Don and I went skiing in Utah last week. The first day we had a ton of new powder. The first picture is at the top of the "little hike" up Hansens my dad took us on at the end of the day. "Little hikes" don't seem so little at the end of the day when you don't ski 3 times a week and you live at sea level, Dad! However, the powder was worth it and I'd do it again.

The second picture is of Don in the powder off of the John Paul lift. Good times!

Spaghetti Dinner

2009-01-20T18:44:00.000-08:00

Xander likes spaghetti. He likes to see it on his plate, on his fork, he likes slurping the noodles up, he likes it smeared all over his face. He pretty much likes spaghetti anywhere he can get it.

Xander at the Park

2009-01-18T19:21:00.000-08:00

Xander at Home

2009-01-18T18:51:00.001-08:00

Xander and friend Hannah (2.5) enjoy lunch together....my first babysitting gig in years. I survived but Xander started to bother Hannah with his wildness. He tugged at her shoes while she wanted to watch a show, threw green beans in her drink and balls at her head. After an hour or so with Xander, Hannah asked me if he could take a nap.

I made orange juice in the blender and Xander got foam on his lip. I had to take a picture.

Xander wanted to sit on the couch and put his feet up on the coffie table. Apparently this is as close as he got.

Christmas Part 1

2009-01-11T20:03:00.001-08:00

So Sarah and I have been extremely busy with the holidays and work. I've finally gotten some time to work on the videos I've been promising. I don't have many done yet, so I'm uploading one of the cuter present responses. Over the next little while, Sarah and I will upload more video.

Mom, he loves the hoodie. Whenever he sees it he brings it to us so we can help him put it on. Thank you.

Christmas Preparations

2008-12-23T21:14:00.000-08:00

Christmas wouldn't be complete without a christmas tree. Sarah and I and the boys went out searching for a huge tree that would fill our hearts with christmas cheer. Here you can see Josh, Curt, Xander and J showing off our selection.

Xander was quickly bored by the tree selection process and moved on to bigger and better things.

"Look, a broom!"

After getting the tree home we all pitched in to decorate it. These are the only images you'll see of the bottom half of the tree decorated. After finishing decorating, the ornaments were quickly removed from the bottom of the tree and scattered around the room.

Going up?

2008-12-22T19:13:00.000-08:00

As any rock climbing aficionado will tell you, the keys to rock climbing are finding a good starting point and planning the climb. Here Xander examines his options as he prepares to flash the bouldering wall at Planet Granite in Sunnyvale.

As he got a little higher he realized he needed a boost and dad was happy to help out.

Sarah and I and a couple of friends wanted to go climbing and the babysitter fell through. Happily, Xander was extremely entertained by the climbing gym. I think I'll get him a climbing harness and shoes for Christmas.

Cycling in Winter

2008-12-22T17:43:00.000-08:00

One nice advantage of living in San Jose is the long cycling season. The day after Thanksgiving Xander and I decided to ride around the hills in the south end of the valley. We had to get the bikes ready first so the lad volunteered to check the tire pressure.

We're both pretty safety conscious so we got on our helmets. Xander prefers jeans to my spandex, but hey, he'll get better taste as he gets older.

We rode a nice 10 mile loop. The advantage of the chair is that the lad can kick my butt when he's bored... so whenever I slow down I feel his little feet telling me to speed back up. He gets bored at anything below 18 mph which makes climbing hills kind of exhausting. He also loves it when I stand up, he starts swinging back and forth throwing the bike all over the place... so I can't stand up with him in the seat. Altogether, its fantastic going out on rides together.

Back from Michigan

2008-12-13T09:48:00.000-08:00

Michigan cold, California warm. My misadventures in Michigan continued when National was out of cars. You should always reserve a rental car---it doesn't mean you'll get one, but it does make you feel better when you berate the rental car company for their lack of rental cars. I arrived in Michigan on Tuesday night at 9:30 and National didn't have any cars to rent. Not a problem, I simply slid my bag over to the Hertz window, when to my surprise, the National attendent switched tags and came over to help me out. "Do you have any cars?", "Nope, all out." "Ok, I'll try avis" "We're all out too." "Does anyone have any cars?" "Nope, and we have a plane's worth of reservations coming in 30 minutes with no way to get them cars." "That sucks" "Sure does." "When can I get a car" "Tomorrow afternoon? If you're lucky" So I reserved a car at Nationa and Hertz and caught a cab to my hotel which happened to be withing spitting distance of the airport. Translation, I could have walked and saved myself the $15 minimum, but hey, Stryker was paying.

I was strongly reminded of my last trip to Michigan in January when they only car National had for me was a basic Ford Cobalt, no power locks, no extras, no ABS... WHAT!!! No anti-lock brakes on a rental car in Michigan, in the middle of winter, with record breaking snowfall occuring every other day? I had a blast spinning doughnuts in the hotel parking lot.

The next morning at breakfast National called and said they had a car ready. I hiked over and picked up an Avalon. Nice car. Yes, it had ABS. Not as fun for doughnuts, but there wasn't as much snow so everything seemed to balance out.