Updates

The Bees

Last Sunday I helped a new friend in RL with a bee issue.  I heard from him yesterday, and the bees are settled in the box, so now he's got a new established bee hive with nice accessible trays for harvesting honey. His house is amazing too; he's making it himself.  Learned a lot taking a tour.  Can't wait to start applying some of the lessons to our house, in particular the Rocket Mass Stoves.  More later. . . .

Shrek

The bike now has his official name.  He was named on a trip to WSS, just like Randy before him, and baptized (gotta cover all your bases) in Castle Creek.
Jean-Baptiste Shrek Johnson, commonly referred to as Shrek.
Rose actually named him right away, and we kind of put a pin in that name along with others, but eventually the others kept getting taken down, and Shrek was the only one left on the board, and it has grown on me.  I like him (Shrek).  Getting the original book on loan from the library to learn more about the Shrek world.
There are lots of reasons for the name, but learning Chinese lately has me thinking about the importance of Shrek 2 in my life.  Before Shrek 2 most American movies / TV shows were dubbed into French in Canada, with an accent that is, let's say politely, problematic for me and most French French speakers.  For Shrek 2, they used French actors, and really good ones.  I can't remember all of them, but Donkey was Jammel Debbouze, one of my favorite French comedians, and a perfect French version of Eddie Murphy.  Where Murphy pioneered black comedy for American white audiences, Debbouze has done the same thing in France for North African comedy.  He's hilarious.  You may know him from the mentally challenged store clerk in The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain, one of my top 5 movies of all time.

Anyway, I used to use Shrek 2 at FFCHS, where I taught in Colorado Springs.  I've probably seen the movie thirty or forty times.  The only movies I've seen even close to that many times are maybe The Holy Grail, and the ski movie we made a while ago: Deep.  And I still love it.
And Shrek, the bike, rocks.
Putting HED Big Deal wheels on the Trek Farley frame has resulted in a lightweight (29.5lbs), fast, agile fatbike.  The more I ride it, the more I love it.  And I'm fast on this bike.  Forget what you've heard about fabikes, if you take one with nice geometry, run it 1x, with carbon wheels, you've got a bike for less than 5k (which actually isn't much in the MTB world lately) that is freaky fast, and really fun and comfy too.

STRAVA

Most of you know this, but for those who don't: STRAVA is an app that uses GPS to track your bike ride, and then it uploads it and compares it to others who have ridden the same segments, among other features.  The result is a virtual scoreboard that ranks your specific segments, and tracks your cumulative progress.
For me, being a big gaming fan, this is sick.  There are some games, like Fallout III, like FIFA 12, that I've gotten hooked on just for the stat development.  It's cool to level up, and see your progress.
So to apply that mentality to the real world, it makes you push yourself to ride more, and to ride faster.  You can check it out for free.  Try it if you haven't already.

Rose

Rose had her first day at Level 2 gymnastics yesterday.  We tried soccer, she didn't really like it.  Dancing classes weren't any good in Billings.  But the Billings Gymnastics School is great, and Rose is really enjoying gymnastics.  Yesterday she climbed to the top of the rope.  It's in a big industrial hangar, so it's a tall rope.  Maybe 30'.  I couldn't ever do that, so I'm so amazed to see her to that.
Raising Rose really has me questioning the effect of cultural prejudices on gender roles.  She's stronger than I was at her age.  It's a fact.  How many girls are like that at this age, and lose it because of perceived cultural pressure?  What will happen with successive generations of cultural evolution in countries with increasing acceptance on developing female athletic excellence?  Can't wait to see. . .

The Smelter

Yokie used to work at the Laboratory at SMC.  Now she works at the Smelter. She's in charge of monitoring the pH levels of the water used in the process of turning tons and tons of rock into super expensive buckets of refined Palladium and Platinum.  Keeping the pH levels of this water down is a critical element of keeping the pollution low, something that SMC takes seriously and is very good at doing.  When I toured the smelter, it was really cool to hear everybody take pride in that aspect of their job.  And they are treating Yokie very well, so she's happy there.

Kip

Kip is the best dog ever.  He's almost always with me biking, so that means we're up to about 500 miles together.  Each one he's better behaved than the last.  He's forming a cool bro / sis bond with Rose too, so that's been fun to watch.  And other than his fart bombs, even Yokie loves him.