Be The Pigeon

That's right, the answer is 833! I took my new GPS trainer on a mtn. bike ride today and now I know the answers to many of life's deepest questions. How tall WAS that hill? 1200 feet, baby, but with two loops at the top, it was 1700 feet vertical! How many calories did that hill burn? Yep, 833! I like that number. Now I can eat garbage the rest of the day and feel good about it! Was I really about to have a coronary? Yes. With an avg heart rate of 155 (including at rest), and peak at 176, I really was about to blow a gasket! Did I look ridiculous at my pathetically slow speed, getting passed by all whole came after me? The GPS was hazy on that one, but I have a hunch... Isn't it good to know? Of course. And now you know too. Seriously, this mountain bike stuff is SOOOO good. Coming down that hill (at 23.2 mph, since you asked) is adrenaline like nothing else. If you live in CO, you must go ride Hall Ranch. It truly is wonderful. Thanks for the bday present, Dad.

So for the last couple months, I've asked this question nearly every time I drive to Denver. Turns out the answer in this case is ONLY $200K! This is because CDOT has has a fairly robust restriping process going on. I was amazed when I saw that they removed the fogline stripes only to put new ones a foot away. Then, a few weeks later, I saw double stripes, followed by a removal of the new one. I figured this was typical government insanity. In case you live local and care where our tax dollars are going, here's the official response from my inquiry to CDOT. (Yes, none of you is surprised that I actually contacted CDOT about it, I'm sure!) The project in question is a striping project that is scheduled to be complete in the next couple of weeks. While we did remove and replace the stripes a couple of times, it was due to the fact that we removed the original striping, replaced it with temporary striping and then came back and put down the permanent striping. We have t...

You all probably heard about the goofy family that built their own airship balloon and whose little boy reportedly went for a trip in it. Now that he's safe, I can share my opinion. It looks like one of those Jiffy Pop things floating around in the sky! I bet The Onion could make a great headline out of this event.

My sister posted this on her blog, and I liked it enough to repost. Cool story.

So as to not sound like I'm just ranting all the time, I'll depart from recent topics for this episode. As Jolayne mentioned , we took the kids to the Air Force Academy last weekend. Whenever visiting a base or seeing a display, I'm in awe at the power of the US military. It's not because of the size of the guns they carry; it's because of what they teach. They teach lessons that much of America seems to have forgotten. There's much wrong in the military, as everywhere. But there's still some things they teach that are spot on. At the academies especially, they teach you to become better than you are. While at the visitors center, we came upon a display about the Honor Code. It's a simple code: We will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does. For some reason, it was a powerful thing for me to read. It reminded me of the honor code while I was at BYU. At the time, I often resented certain implications of the big-brother n...