Happy Holidays

Christmas at the Fisher's house was nice.  Good times with family, good food, wii disc golf, and the boys were very happy.

Sunday, I snapped this while out for a run around the US Naval Academy.

Monday, we went to the Hirschhorn Museum of Modern Art in DC

Thomas and Alex nearly caused cardiac arrest at this glass and mirror piece

Really was a fun time

H is for Henry

We capped it off with a viewing of Night at the Museum II with Ben Stiller in the IMAX theatre at the Museum of Natural History (largest screen in the world).

Snowstorm 09

Street Talk

Old & New

Thanksgiving 2009

This Thanksgiving was especially nice.  We went up to State College to spend the holiday with my family.  A couple of rounds of disc golf, a family hike, a little shopping (Wegmans), great food, and playing football made for a nice break.

Stumpjumper Marathon 29'er SS

Built this up tonight, just in time for a the Sixth Annual Thanksgiving morning ride at Tussey Mountain in Rothrock State Forest near State College, PA.  Decidedly better built than the Gary Fishers, On-Ones, and the Salsas that recently preceded it (note the use of plural form) - we'll have to see how she rides. 

The Specialized features some nice tube-shaping, detailing, and perfect welds.

One seatstay goes all the way from the drops to the seattube thereby completely eliminating a weld and therefore a heat stress point.

The chainstays are over an inch shorter than the Salsa frames and it came with a large diameter Thomson setback seatpost.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Scouting is Fun

Thomas was recognized for selling the most popcorn in his Pack.  The patch is cool but he really wanted the real bow and arrow set that he also earned. 

The next morning our Pack picked up food for the local food bank in the Whittier neighborhood.  We filled up a pick-up truck load and dropped it off at the food bank.  While unloading our truck there were over a dozen other pick-up trucks rolling in from other scouts - pretty amazing.

The annual Scouting for Food one-day collection provides the vast majority of the food bank's food for the entire YEAR.

Selma RIP

After some spectacular riding the Selma has succumbed to the Frederick Watershed.

She took a little of me with her.

Some fond memories remain.

We'll send it back to the boys at Salsa and see what they say.  Unlike before, this one was largely pilot error.

New Frederick Science Center

Tonight was the Grand Opening for the new Frederick elementary science center. There was a big turnout for the planetarium shows and a number of other cool things to see.

This 55 gallon oil drum offers a very lucid illustration of where the oil ends up going.

Thomas uses a microscope

There was even a display featuring cycling.

Giant Slide

A friend told us about a giant slide owned by Mt. Tabor Church in Rocky Ridge, MD.  This  place is full of old-school fun - no rounded plastic, no ground up tires, no cyanide-laced wood - just metal, wood, and sawdust.  Free.

Parkway Bike Safety Rodeo Oct. 10th

More kids are riding their bikes to school this year than ever so we thought it would be a good idea to have a bike safety rodeo at Parkway Elementary School. This is a FREE event focusing on bike safety and bike handling sponsored by State Farm Agent, Darius Mark and the Bike Doctor of Frederick.

• bike inspection

• helmet inspection

• bike safety quiz

• sign reading

• skill stations

• challenges

Please stop by anytime tomorrow between noon and 4:00pm – bring your children, their bikes, and their helmets (we have plenty of loaner helmets). Questions call: 301-418-6370
Parkway Elementary School is located at: 300 Carroll Parkway Frederick, MD 21701

Sunday while Thomas and I were are out hiking in the Shed we come upon a single track of hoof prints on Viper. We were hiking up the trail toward Gambrill Park Road and the tracks were in the opposite direction toward Blue. The prints were surprisingly small. I was interested by these and what they meant so Thomas and I payed attention to them - studied them. A lone rider, on a small horse, going one direction with no turnaround. There were the usual rocks turned and deep holes were the soil was soft. I kept hoping that we would see prints in the other direction, a sign that the rider had been thwarted by the rock sections below and wouldn't be back. No such luck.

After taking turns calling out dozens of prints, Thomas turns to me and says "I think that someone was riding a horse back here because there is no way that a guy kept dropping his horsehoe on the ground this many times."

I had to agree.

Shroom Hunting