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A few weeks ago Jessica and I woke up early and headed south to Mt St Helens with a 10 mile trail in our sights. She promptly fell asleep in the car as I drove south. We knew that the skies were cloudy and the forecast didn’t look that great but we were hoping that the skies were clear. They didn’t.

We drove through the clouds to visitors center and got a few photos through breaks in the fog. When we reached the visitors center we parked the car and walked over to the park map. We looked into the distance and saw a herd of elk - nobody was around for miles so we spent 10 minutes watching them and listening to them call back and forth to each other. It was pretty damn cool - the pictures really don’t it justice because they were a good quarter mile away and the camera had problems picking up the light.

Jessica recorded a few videos which you can see below. Make sure you turn the volume up so you can hear them calling.

Hopefully, when we return the clouds will be gone and I’ll actually be able to see the mountain. If you want to check out the rest of the pictures you can find them in the gallery

Tags: camera, elk, gallery, hiking, Jessica, Mt St Helens, photos, trip, washington

Billy Madison said it best “Back to school! Back to school, to prove to Dad that I’m not a fool! I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don’t get in a fight! Ohhhh, back to school! Back to school! Back to school! Well, here goes nothing!”

Jessica is done with classes and I have no pending deployments so it’s time to head back to school. I took a DANTES test today on world religions and I’ll find out in a few weeks how bad I failed. When I do fail it will reaffirm the need to take a humanities course and one math course to get my associates degree.

I registered for a US History class today and I’ll start the online portion of that as soon as my book arrives in the mail. If that goes well, I’ll register for some actual sit in a seat and stare at a professor class that will start in the middle of Oct. I’m looking at taking “The Problem of Evil” and “Business and Society.” I want to work on an economics degree but the most convenient school only offers it as a minor. If I really want to make it work I can always go to UW and transfer the needed credits. Why business and economics in light of our poorly performing financial sector? They obviously suck at what they are doing and it might be time for some fresh input or… the title of your degree really doesn’t matter it just means that you won’t get cut in the first round of resume sorting.

The interesting bit of my education is that I won’t be getting my credits from one institution. I’m going to try and knock out prerequisite and some general education all online at school “A” while I take classes that actually interest me in front of a real live talking person at school “B.” We live in a wired society and its all possible now. They’ll probably keep me on midshift for a while so I know that I’ll have adequate time to do my schoolwork. Even if they shift me to days I’ll still have ample time to work. I need to keep the distractions minimal - I need to moderate goofing off. Its all good if it comes in the right sized doses.

Tags: college, degree, education, Jessica, work

Irregardless of which way you add up the numbers, I’m going to spend a long time away from work. I have a bunch of leave available and I decided, hey, why not take a bunch of it all in one giant go? I won’t be traveling far from home during the duration of my leave but I’ll have plenty of time away from work to goof around. I only have a few goals while I’m on leave

1. enjoy my time away from work
2. avoid thinking of work
3. goof off whenever possible
4. read a book or two
5. study
6. hang out with Jessica
7. hang out with my parents (who will be here from the 6th-12th)
8. wear all of the dogs out
9. Train for snowboarding season (its right around the corner - hooray!!!!)
10. Go to the Mariners game on the 9th (my birthday coincidentally)

None of the goals are monumental and all are achievable. The only ones that will take a little bit of willpower to achieve are numbers five and nine.

I’m going to study for a few CLEP tests while I’m on leave so that when I return to work I can enroll in school. Due to the manning situation at work (we don’t have enough manning at work) I’ll still be on mid-shift for the next few months. The current schedule looks like I will be working nights until Thanksgiving. It could be drawn out longer but we’ll see what happens when we have people return from this current rotation to the desert. As a military member we sacrifice, this is my current sacrifice; I work a shift that nobody else wants because I’m the only guy that can do it. It messes with my personal life and its going to mess with it further when I enroll in classes in late September. I should have plenty of time to do my homework at night but some of my classes are going to be during the evening. There is no way that I can avoid that - oh well, gotta get my education finished sooner or later.

Training for snowboarding season means a tweak in my workout regimen. I’ll target all of the flexors and core muscles in my body while doubling my lower body workout. I lift legs once every 5 days and do cardio every other day. I’m planning on doing a two day leg lifting split that will have me doing one day of ridiculously heavy lifting followed by another day of endurance lifting. I’m not worried about the heavy lifting - I’m worried about the endurance lifting. Simply put, its going to hurt - alot.

I should have a busy, and hopefully relaxing, month ahead of me.There are times when it’s great to be a government employee - thank god for paid leave.

Tags: birthday, cardio, Duke, family, fun, goofing off, gym, homework, Jessica, John, leave, life, snowboarding, squat, study

The stationary bicycle has been my preferred form of cardio for quite some time. The first time I got on it I thought I wasn’t going to make it but I figured out how to get my rythm and I figured out how to use the up and down stroke to reduce muscle fatigue (foot straps are an invaluable tool when riding) Yesterday, I had a little too much energy at 5AM and I didn’t have anything that I interested me in the few hours before I was going to sleep. So, I did what any other unstable person might do, I chugged a pre-workout drink and headed to the gym. My current regimine consists of alternating 4 and 5 day lifting cycles. The current day in my program was legs

My workout consisted of
Squats - 20×225lbs 10×275lbs
Leg press - 40×275lbs
Calf raises - 50×135lbs
Medicine ball lunges - 60ea
Medicine ball bridges
Side bridges
Three point bridges

I’m not moving around a bunch of weight because I’m not trying to pack on muscle - I’m just trying to stay a lean mean fighting machine.

If I’m feeling especially ornery I’ll go for some deadlifts. They are quite hard on my back so I tend to shy away from them. After my workout I hit the stationary bike and did 15 miles in 37 minutes while climbing 2400ft of elevation. (If I did my math right I maintained a near constant speed of 24mph - not too shabby) Needless to say - I nearly killed myself. I was amped up from the workout when I got home but I knew my body had nothing left in the tanks. I’m sure parts of my body think there is a disconnect between muscles and brain. I should have stopped working out when I was done lifting, I should have given in to the pain, and I should have not set the stationary bike on level 14. There are days when I’m amazed by the amount of drive that is hiding deep inside me.

It was quite an odd feeling when I woke (at 1400)- I wasn’t really sore. I was simply wore out - still. I downed a bunch of cereal and couple of bananas and waited for it to kick in. I was dragging until 0030 this morning when I finally started to get out of the slump (I work nights at the moment).

Previously that day Jessica and I took our bikes out for the first time this year. She has an old Roadmaster mens bike, its a “wal-mart” special thats 2-3 inches too tall, and I have a Giant Sedona, a trail/city bike, that allows me to do a little of anything. I got it a 6-7 years ago for roughly $400 because I knew someone that worked at the bike shop. It was the cheapest entry level “non-walmart” bike I could afford at the time. I feel bad for her because she doesn’t know how easy I’ve got it compared to her. If you’ve ever ridden on a cheap bike and moved to a higher quality bike you’ll understand exactly how much easier of a ride you’ll get. I’m sure that if I rode her bike, which I couldn’t because its too darn small, that I would have burned 25% more energy just trying to get the darn thing moving. I forgot how much I liked to get out and just feel the wind in my face while hearing the ratchet of the chain as I rode around.

As a kid my bike was my primary form of transport until I was old enough to drive the Plymouth Voyager (the model with the monstrous, earth rotation altering, 2.2L I4 generating an amazing 96hp complete with fake wood paneling). I only had a heavy ass “roadmaster” type bike at the time and probably did no more than 20 miles on any given day. I rode that darn bike everywhere. I’ve never owned a road bike but I’m thinking next year - next year I might try and get one. I can always pick up a used bike on Craigslist or I can just wait until the end of the season and try to pick up one on clearance. I’ve got to get back on the road more often. I’d like her to come along with me but I know that I’ve got to get her a better bike first - she’s never going to make it if she is trying to keep up on her bike. I’d like to ride from our house to Sunrise point on Rainier (its only 83 miles away with a 5900 foot change in elevation - childs play…. or not) next year. We’ve got a lot of training to do in the off-season if we’re going to make it.

Tags: bike, car, gym, Jessica, Rainier, workout

Jessica and I joined Jeff and Leanne at a campground near Ocean Shores, WA for a few days of camping and relaxation. The weather didn’t completely cooperate with us as we spent much of the time huddling around the campfire shivering but at least we didn’t have to deal with any rain. The camping trip had the added benefit of being miles away from the airshow at McChord. Even if we didn’t watch the airshow we would have been unable to avoid the crowds in the local area - the turnstiles recorded 340k attendees - yikes!

We spent a little time out at the beach and out on the jetties - Jessica saw a porpoise in the distance and was excited -

Here’s a few more photos from the weekend

If you want to see any of the other photos feel free to check them out in the gallery. All in all it was a good trip - the worst part was our sub-par air mattress that is still extracting revenge on my shoulders and neck.

Tags: air force, airshow, camping, gallery, Jessica, leave, photos

I’ve dealt with it in the past and I didn’t expect to deal with it again - but - its happened. I have a spastic dog. Fireworks are illegal in the state of Washington - save for a span of about 36 hours around the fourth of July and new years. Despite the fact that fireworks are always illegal in the city of our residence, it doesn’t deter the ingrates that live here.

One of our dogs doesn’t react well to the explosions and he tends to freak out. On the third of July - when fireworks were illegal in the entire state - we had our first jailbreak. Lick had pushed the gate open and took Duke along with him for a run. Luckily for us, they ran into a yard a quarter mile down the road and were wrangled by some extremely nice people. They were just pulling into their driveway when they saw them. They stopped and opened up the rear door and the dogs hopped right in. They called the numbers on the tags and eventually we got the word from Leanne that our dogs were out. When we pulled up we saw two stressed but extremely happy dogs. We had only been gone for an hour or two so we were obviously concerned as to how they escaped and whether they would escape again.

We left again on the fourth to go down to a BBQ. Prior to leaving we locked the dogs in the kennel complete with a 7 foot tall fence. We also shut the front gate so if they made it past the first line of defense we hoped that they wouldn’t make it past a second. A few hours after we left we received a phone call from the same nice people that caught our dogs on the third - they had Lick but didn’t have Duke. We left immediately and Jessica dropped me off at the front gate where I found my dog in the back yard alone and distressed that he couldn’t get out. I took at look and couldn’t find any spot where he dug to get out - he jumped the fence - he jumped a 7 foot fence. Jessica returned with Lick and we stuck both in the back of the car and took them to her parents house where they had kennels complete with floor to ceiling fences. They made it through the night without issue. When we returned home I added another three feet to part of the fence to prevent further jailbreaks.

We brought them back today and stuck them in the yard hoping that the majority of fireworks were over. We had to run out to the grocery store to grab a few things and came home an hour later to find only one dog in the back yard. Jessica didn’t react well to the discovery. I put Duke in my car and started driving around the neighborhood. She drove off in her car and started searching all of the side streets in a two mile radius.

I couldn’t see anything from my car so I dropped it off at home and started by walking streets with Duke in tow. I gave up after a few miles knowing that the odds of finding him were low - really low. I came home and looked up the animal control and humane society phone numbers. I called both only to receive recordings. Jessica came back after some time and was still stressed because we had no leads - there was nothing that we could do.

Luckily someone found him. We got a call and drove a few miles away to find him in the car of a pair of extremely nice people. The guy, who was much larger that I am, was quite surprised by how hard it was to control Lick. He didn’t think it was dog - he thought he had a pony.

At the moment, both dogs are sitting at my feet and are quite happy to be in such proximity to us. Tomorrow I’m going to fully enclose the kennel - we’re going to hope that the fireworks stop and that I can contain our spastic dog.

Tags: cage, dogs, Duke, humor, Jessica, Licorice, life

I mentioned that we were going to be busy as heck this weekend and I was lucky enough to have enough time to upload a few photos. I’m not in either photo - mainly because I feel that even though I look fantastic I am extremely unphotogenic. Jessica is looking fantastic in each of the photos below - the first is at her graduation with Rachel and the second is at Jenny’s wedding (as if you couldn’t figure it out from the attire).

Jessica had something to say about it and you can read it at her blog

Tags: busy, gallery, Jessica, photos, wedding, weekend

This is going to be a taxing weekend. I get out of work early to eat dinner with Jessica’s family (who recently joked that I might as well call them in-laws - you can draw whatever conclusion you wish from that remark) prior to her graduation ceremony from Bates (technical school) where she is working on a Biotechnology associates degree. She gets to walk today but she still has about 6 weeks left of school. She should be done with the biology portion in the next week or two but she has a few other classes to finish up the degree. I’ve been quite unhappy with the way she describes how the program is ran. I often feel that they are just jerking the students around and delaying classes and projects so they can eek out more tuition. She hasn’t been paying the tuition but her parents have - and I’m sure they hope it reaps large dividends.

Directly - and I mean directly - after her graduation she’s off to the edge of Ranier National park for Jenny’s (her best friend) wedding. She’ll play the role of bridesmaid for the event. She’ll miss the rehearsal but she’s had some experience in the role so I’m sure she’ll be fine winging it. I’ll leave Saturday afternoon to head to the ceremony. I’ll have to leave afterwards as I am on standby on this three day weekend. Why a three day weekend? My base (home of the 62AW) has recently gone 62 days without a DUI and Monday has been declared a “down” day. It’s not really a down day because they’ve scheduled work for the flight line and I have a part to deliver so that it can get done. So, its not a three day weekend for everyone.

Sunday will probably spent at her parents house for fathers day. They’ve (her parents) tried to coerce her into preparing dinner - she’s thinking about ribs - and I’m thinking that it sounds like an excellent idea.

The next two weekends are surprisingly empty of plans but after that we’ve got the 4th, then two weeks of nothing, and then a camping trip to somewhere near a massive salty body of water. Its going to be a busy summer and this weekend is going to be one of the busiest.

Tags: busy, graduation, Jessica, military, plans, summer, USAF, wedding, weekend, work

We traded dogs - yet again. We thought that Violet was going to be happy out here but it turns out that she only thrives when living in the pack. We packed the two dogs in the car the other day and took them down to her parents house while we were at Kayla’s birthday party (Jessica’s niece). The closer we got to her parents house the more we could see the change in Violets behavior. By the time we got to the house the dog was as happy as we had seen her in weeks. At our house she simply hid out in the kennel and wouldn’t come out - I guess she was so used to the kennel with the rest of the pack that when she was given the opportunity to roam alone in our yard she freaked out. We ended up with Lick (Licorice) - he’s a little bit bigger than Duke and he knows how to play fetch. He looks like he is going to be a pretty good fit. We haven’t brought the dogs in the house for any amount of time but we will when Jessica finally puts the rest of the stuff in the living room in its place. There are times when I think that she is stalling so that I’ll take care of it. (she denies this vehemently) She knows that it drives me crazy when stuff is out in the open - I think she is plotting my demise. She isn’t on my life insurance policy yet so I don’t know why she is trying to get such a big head start.

Tags: birthday, dogs, Duke, house, Jessica, Licorice, life, Violet

We started with two dogs and traded one back in - she wasn’t a bad dog - she was just ridiculously lazy. We’re back to two of them and I forgot how much I missed having dogs. I moved away from my parents house years ago and that was the last time I had really spent any length of time around a dog. My last pet was a bit of a nut job and was banished to an outdoor existence after tearing the house apart for the last time - certain members of my family did not want to put the dog outside or place it in a kennel when we left home. She had a “bit” of separation anxiety and proceeded to destroy anything she could find - you know - dads shoes, any scrap of paper she can grab, the Christmas tree.

Our dogs live in a massive backyard and have plenty of room to roam. Violet, the dog we got in the trade deal, is a little skittish (still) and won’t roam far from the kennel area. She’ll get used to it in time but its a change of environment. She has a unique and disgusting habit - she burgles turds. Yes, after she or the other dog leaves uhh… waste behind she will collect it and place it in her dog house. Apparently, she has been doing this for years. I really don’t know why a dog would collect turds aside from eating them which is a bit odd - dogs normally go for cat crap, horse crap, pig crap, cow crap, and well - essentially any other crap but their own. You may not notice it when you look at the dogs in this picture but Duke and Violet are trouble - I just don’t know how much trouble they are going to be - yet.

I’ve got a few videos of the two dogs in action and they may only be interesting if you really like dogs. You may want to check them out because you can see the scale of the yard that I get the “opportunity” to mow.

Then again, you may just watch the videos if you’re bored and you’ve got a high speed internet connection. Whatever reason - here they are.

Tags: chores, dogs, Duke, funny, house, humor, Jessica, poop, trouble, Violet, work