As impressive as the Americas Cup boats were a few weeks ago, I am even more impressed by Moth sailors. The people who drive these boats must be some of the smartest athletes in the world. They understand lift in two directions (up and forward) and can make it all work at speeds approaching the sound barrier.

Here’s a short video of these guys in action. Even if your knowledge of sailing is minimal, the boats will blow you away. Engineering geeks, pay close attention to how the foils work.

Update: Here’s Adam Sadowski of Synn Labs talking about how they created this amazing machine:

I definitely did not have the appropriate mountain bike if I was truly going to follow through on my Ken Putney domination plan. As of Friday, I officially have more bike than I know what to do with. This will change, I promise.

In case you don’t know this already, I’m not good at every outdoor sport. Shocking, I know. Take downhill skiing, for example. I just can’t seem to crack the mystery of snow, bumps, trees and gravity. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy my blue squares and black diamonds. I just don’t see myself getting much better than that in my lifetime. (To be fair, the sport is %$*! expensive. At $75/day, I just can’t afford to go often enough to improve my skills. That’s another rant for another time, though.)

I also happen to suck at mountain biking. I haven’t given it a fair shake yet, and I’m still confident that with more practice I could actually get pretty good at it. I mentioned in a previous post that Nick and I let Ken take us on a tour of Galbraith mountain last weekend. The 45-minute climb on the fire road lulled me into thinking that I might actually be making some progress. The sweet view of Bellingham from the top was the icing on my confidence. We dropped off the other side of the mountain, though, and double amnesia kicked in: I forgot how confident I was, and worse, I forgot how to ride a bike. The smallest rock or root on the trail caused instant, irrational fears that danger and catastrophe were around the next corner. 

At a rest break, Ken declared that it was great to finally be better than me at something.

Whoa...seriously? Was that a challenge?! Because, knowing you, it couldn’t have been an innocent statement of fact.

I never had the opportunity to straighten out this ambiguity, because Ken was off again, demonstrating just how much BETTER HE WAS THAN ME. Ghaaahhh!

By the time Nick and I were driving home, I was already plotting my Ken-domination plan. First step, hook up with the army of expert mountain bike coaches at the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance. Nick reminded me gleefully that I would need to be patient and practice a LOT. To that end, I adopted a new mountain biking motto:

Today, Joanne and I did a skill-building ride with the club at Saint Edwards State Park and Big Finn Hill Park. (Susannah, an old sailing acquaintance and wife of one of my law professors, also happened to be on the ride. Small world!) We practiced for two and a half hours in mud and rain, over slippery roots, around twisties, and over logs and drops. I learned that when you’re going uphill over bumpy terrain, it pays to get your boobs down, close to the handlebar, and cock your wrists a little. (Ken doesn’t have boobs, so I’m already one step ahead of him here.) I can now ride over bumps that I struggled with before. Victory! I also tried some drops that scared me a few weeks ago when Nick and I were there. My foot slipped off the pedal on one of the drops and drew blood when it knocked me in the shin. The blood mixed with mud definitely looked hardcore. Victory!

The whoopdy-do, skinny bridge, piles of logs, and tight switchbacks still elude me. I figure with more practice and a few more tips that I won’t be batting an eye at them either.

At the end of the ride, we were completely covered with mud, but still smiling

Three kills in two days means someone has restocked their bird feeder. We weren’t amused until we spied our little girl wandering around the house tonight - totally oblivious to the trail of feathers stuck to her chin. A good laugh at the least.

Friday was our friend Lessli’s birthday - and a perfect day to visit Putney-ville (aka Bellingham). After a crazy amount of partying on Friday night (crazy for a pregnant birthday girl, at any rate!), we went to bed with dreams of mountain bikes in our heads. The next morning we fueled ourselves with a hearty breakfast of orange waffles, strawberries/blueberries, orange juice, coffee and tea. Then Ken loaded us up in his Jeep and drug us off to go mountain biking on Galbraith. Actually, to be completely candid about who was dragging who, Nick and I drug Ken up the mountain and Ken pretty much drug all of us back down the mountain.

When we got back home, Chloe was just waking from her nap. She’s a few years away from hucking. In the mean time, she’s got us all beat when it comes to biking style. Zebra stripes! I only wish I was so cool!

Oh yes! That’s right! With Keith’s expert assistance, Nick and I finally entered the 1970s last week. Our kitchen now sports a modern Bosch dishwasher!

It was no small feat to install it. First, we had to bring our plumbing up to code by installing an air gap. Then we needed a power source. (Thanks Rod!) Finally, we needed to install it. It was this last step that gave us the most trouble. See...the tiles in our kitchen are built on top of the original floor. That makes the space between the floor and the counter just a wee bit too small.

“I think we can take a bit off here and make it fit!”

All good house projects involve messes. This one was no exception. Keith used a router and chisel to carve away a bit of the plywood supporting the counter.

Three trips to the hardware store later (all house projects require three trips) and our dishwasher was installed! Hooray!

I was completely taken aback when I saw the first signs of spring today. I usually love seeing these little flowers pop out of the ground, but today all I could think was HELLO! it’s only January! Who gave the crocuses the go ahead to peek above the ground already? I know it’s been warm around here, but don’t be fooled! Old Man Winter could be back next week and you wouldn’t like that, now would you?