Mike Munhall

Yeeeeha. The Katt has bucked. Again.

Part I of this post is at my Blogger site (soon to be retired). I tried Blogger but found it lacking in some areas. It's really a fantastic service, but I want the ability to categorize, add permanent pages and search. I'll try WordPress for a while and see how it goes. I'd like to keep my site free, so TypePad and the others are out for now.

What I'm finding right now with WordPress is that the wysiwyg editor is a bit flaky (in Firefox in OSX, anyway). I'm having to bounce back and forth between the HTML editor and the wysiwyg editor to get the posts right. I can deal with that, though.

RonK and I spent a long weekend on the western slope, biking in Fruita, Colorado with Team Big Butt. TBB, if you're wondering, is a group of fantastically kind and welcoming guys that bike all over the state. And they're good bikers, too.

Ron's back was really bothering him, so a typical conversation this weekend went something like this:

Mike: "Hey, Ron. How you feelin'?"
Ron: "I think I'm good. Really good, in fact. A little tight, but OH, MY GOD! OH!!! OH!!! OH, GOD THAT HURTS! OH, MAN. OH, CHRIST, KILL ME NOW! PLEASE! OOOOOOOOH!"
Mike: "Ah. Much better than yesterday, I see."

He made it through the entire weekend though. What a trooper.

The trip started at 7:00 a.m. on Friday at Ron's house where we packed up the car and hit the road. We met some of TBB at John's house, then started the drive to Fruita around 9:00. We arrived at the campsite at 2:00 and quickly got the bikes ready for a couple trips around the lake. There was only one technical part of that ride, a steep hill with really soft dirt and a quick corner at the bottom. And of course, Ron and I both ate dirt and acquired matching scrapes on our legs. We ended the day after 12 miles and only a few scrapes and bruises. Not a bad way to start the weekend.

Saturday was the big ride for me and Ron. We started with Horsethief Loop. I'm telling ya, if you ever have a chance to make it out to Fruita, you must ride this trail. It's 8 miles of technically challenging (but rideable) singletrack. The trail winds it's way through the red cliffs and canyons of western Colorado and the Colorado River. We still had a little ride left in us after Horsethief, so we finished the day with the 4 mile Rustler's Loop, a beginner's singletrack with some nice climbs and super fun rolling, winding singletrack at the end.I somehow missed the ride on Sunday, maybe because I slept late or maybe because TBB left early. Regardless, the guys were getting ready to leave when I was just getting hydrated and fed, and I didn't think that I was going to be able to survive the Book Cliffs ride they had planned without appropriate preparation. Too bad, too. I was amped to get back out there. So, I lounged around the campsite all day, caught up on some reading and rode around the lake a bit.

Ron and I headed back Sunday night since he was hurting and I was looking forward to having an entire Monday to myself. On the way back, Ron ran over a couple shredded tires in the road and caused quite a ruckus (yeah… I said ruckus). It scared the piss out of us and did some damage to his new car. Like every other day on the trip, it ended with a few scrapes and bruises (this time for the car), but everyone survived.

Dorrie and I have been making some improvements to our digs over the last few months. The pictures are below, but first the story…

It starts with the bed. We replaced our mattress and box spring almost a year ago. Our old frame wasn't big enough to fit the larger size set, so we used a gift certificate from uncle Ted and aunt Diane to buy this really kick ass bed. Each of these beds is built to order (custom stain and headboard fabric or leather) so we were expecting it to be delivered three months after we ordered it. Well, it turns out that the bed was destroyed during shipping, so they had to do it all over and we didn't get the bed until six months after we ordered it. Nevertheless, it arrived. Eventually.

While we were waiting on the bed, we threw a small party (the purpose of the party had nothing to do with our wait on the bed). The party gave us a reason to do a little decorating — something we had been neglecting — to make a better impression on our guests. We decided to hang some framed photography (mine, my dad's and other's). You can see the photography in some of the photos below.

So, we have artwork on the walls and the new bed, but our favorite improvement is the armoire that we bought to hide the television and the other electronic devices that were sitting on a table in a nook in the living room. I should have taken a "before" photo to show what the nook liked like before the armoire. The difference it makes is stunning. This piece of furniture was a steal. The retail price was $1600. It was on sale for $800 (everything must go!), but we found a lightly damaged unit and paid $450.

The armoire, it turns out, came with another unexpected bonus. We had planned on storing the old table in the garage, but the table found a new home in the dining area. It's new purpose is a bar to keep our wine and decanters. And, as an added bonus to the, um, bonus… finding a new home for wine made more space on the kitchen counter for other things.

Bored yet? If you aren't my mother, you probably haven't even made it this far so there isn't really much reason to even ask. Whatever. Here's the bed:

And the armoire:

And the bonus:

Dorrie and I spent a week at uncle Ted and aunt Diane's house in British Columbia a bit earlier in the year than usual. Normally, we are in B.C. in November or December. The spring trip was just as nice, of course. We were expecting more rain, though. We love rain.

We brought our friend Jen with us. This was the first time Dorrie and I spent any time in the house with someone else. Jen is a great person to vacation with (introverts are really good at staying out of each other's way). We all had a good time together.

On our first trip to the house a couple years ago, we ran out of propane (which is the fuel source for nearly everything in the house). On the next trip the fridge stopped working and all of our groceries went bad. On that same trip we ran out of propane on the grill just when our steaks were about half way done. This trip was no different as far as minor annoyances go. We couldn't get the heater to run, the garbage disposal quit working and there was no sound when playing DVDs. A quick call to a couple of Ted and Diane's "people" got all of the problems resolved lickety split. As usual.

My intention on this trip was to shoot exclusively with the Hasselblad. Unfortunately, the only lens I have for that camera crapped out on my second roll of film. I had no choice but to revert to the digital Nikon for the rest of the trip (which was nearly all of it). Since I've photographed the area so much, I wasn't as motivated to photograph as I usually am. I still got a few good shots that will make nice prints. Would have been better if I had the big camera though.

We didn't discover or do anything new on this trip. We visited the same beaches (China, Mystic, French), hiked the same trails (China, Mystic, French, Ewok), went the same restaurants (Point No Point, Vista 18, 17 Mile House) and shopped the same stores (Roger's Chocolates, Munro's Books). Dorrie made some fantastic meals (pasta with pesto, garlic and dill salmon, roast chicken, beef roast). I read, but did not finish any books (Dark Tower VII, Q & A Way in Chess).

I have no complaints about this vacation. Looking forward to the annual fishing trip this summer.