• Cool Rides
• Bicycle Adventures
• Escape Adventures
• Gordon’s Guide

From this Forbes article on Everest deaths: one in ten mountain climbers die trying to summit, and those who successfully summit have a one in twenty chance of dying on the way down.

Humans living in higher altitudes acclimatize by increasing the number of red blood cells, thereby increasing the capacity for oxygen and carbon dioxide movement within the body.

Fun facts were inspired by a recent Mount Adams climb.

• Google maps mashup of the current huge I-5 construction project
• Blog
• Flickr photostream

Go WSDOT! You must have some pretty smart cookies on the payroll.

Eva also blogged about this trip, and put our photos up on Flickr.

The country itself was of course amazing; unlike anything I’d ever experienced.

Now it’s on to OSCON, just for today. I’m pretty stoked to dig into some advanced Vim scripting techniques as well as Haskell. If you’re here, drop me a line.

1. Completed the GRE with a decent math score
2. Downloaded transactions directly into my FLOSS money management software

You know I’ll sleep well tonight!

According to Robert Heinlein,

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Thanks to Dad for the quote, sent to me many years ago.

My bonus mother Georgia Monsen passed away this afternoon, in peace, surrounded by the love of her friends and family. Thank you for your prayers and understanding as I work through this difficult time!

Many people have mentioned that they don’t know what they should do or say around someone that is dying, or their family/friends. Well, I felt the same way when I walked in and saw Geo on her death bed, believe it or not. The title of this post links to a very good booklet on this topic.

Also, it’s fine to discuss the topic with me. Your calls and/or emails are always welcome.

I’ll miss you, Geo.

I hope you’ll join in me in a boycott of world-famous Cougar Gold cheese this holiday season, until they get their act together and stop using milk from cows that receive rBGH*! How long do we have to wait for organic Cougar Gold?

*recombinant bovine growth hormone

Eva and I had a nice overnighter this weekend at Tonga Ridge. The trail was surrounded by tons of ripe blueberries, of which we harvested a liter. Few mosquitoes. Many yellow jackets. However, these yellow jackets were quite tame, not like the mean ones I’m used to. Once we got used to the background humming of millions of yellow jackets, the trip was quite nice!