Bucket

Yesterday was a very tough day around the house. We had to say goodbye to Christine's long time best friend, companion, and pet, Bucket.

Ever since Christine rescued him from the Humane Society, he's led the best life a dog could ask for. Christine was as good a dog parent as there ever was. From lifesaving bloat surgery to joint replacement surgery, money was never an object when it came to getting the best care possible for Bucket.

He was such a loving and playful dog. There's so many things I'm going to miss: I loved the little "grumble" sounds he would make when he enjoyed the attention you were giving him. I loved the way he would get all excited about walks, and carry his own leash. I loved how he would sleep in our walk-in closet like it was his own little bedroom. Even up to his last day, he still loved to play catch with the tennis ball.

He had a good last day with lots of loving, peanut butter filled bones, and a steak dinner. He will be greatly missed.

Calculus Love

I snagged this from someone else's LiveJournal (who I don't even know). It's a bit of a stretch, but I thought some of my nerdier friends would get a kick out of it:


Even though there are many variables, we already know the answer is simple

---

It still pales in comparison to this equation:

Yum

One of the things I like about traveling for work is the food. I'm forced to eat out so I try to find some nice restaurants, and San Jose doesn't l let me down.

I found the Faultline Brewing Copmany the first time I came out last year, and it's since been a required stop for me. They brew several really good beers, and their food never fails to please me. Check it out if you're in town.

Today I tried a French place called Emile's. My plan was to not have seafood today, but when they told me the daily special was macadamia encrusted halibut I couldn't refuse. It was a pretty small portion so I didn't feel guilty about ordering dessert, and boy was that the right decision. I had an almond tuille with house made vanilla ice cream, garnished with fresh raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and a rhubarb and strawberry compote. It was placed on a plate with passion fruit and raspberry sauce, where the raspberry sauce was swirled into the passion fruit sauce in what looked like a fractal pattern. Super cool, and extremely yummy! (And the Medeira wine I had with it wasn't too shabby either.)

Lookout Mountain

Yesterday was the annual hill climb race up Lookout Mountain. I didn't scare anyone with my climbing prowess, but I was pleased with my results.

For once, my category got to start a little later in the morning (10AM) which gave me the time to get there early to register and warm up. This, more than most other races, requires a good warmup. I ended up warming up for 40 minutes, but I think I should have gone a little longer. I was a little worried about getting all my extra stuff in the car and getting to the line in time for a good starting position. I still ended up starting near the back of the pack, which isn't a huge deal on this race but it still added probably 10 seconds to my time.

Partway up I got a really bad side cramp and had to let up a bit. I hadn't been looking at my heart rate during the race, but afterwords I can see why I was hurting. My heart rate was pegged between 180 and 190 the whole time. One of the cool things about this race is that having all those fast riders around makes me go that much harder.

Last year my time up Lookout was 24:10. Last week when I rode it as training my time was 22:40. Yesterday my time was 21:48. A personal best, and an excellent year-to-year improvement (almost 10%). I love knowing that training works. :)