Out shooting birds with my dad's 500mm:



I was very lucky to be able to get the bald eagle shot at all. Pops shoots at the Granite Dells all the time and we came up to the water at a spot where he wasn't expecting to find any birds. I happened to turn my head and saw two large birds not twenty feet away on the rocks right by the shore. I didn't see the white heads so I thought that they were geese or something. I (stupidly) said "hey, pops!" and pointed and the birds spooked when he moved to look. That's when we realized what they were but neither of us was ready to catch them in flight. Fortunately, one of the pair flew several hundred yards away and perched where we could shoot it.

I took the lesson to heart on the rest of the hike and just started shooting when I saw something interesting. No more courtesy notifications that I'd seen something. ;)

Pics from Steph and Badger's wedding:

Finally got some on-track video of me in the Exige:



So I finally have a Sears Point lap time: 2:02.24. I'm glad I was able to get a baseline prior to having the Nitrons installed.

I call this picture "off by one." It's a huge tree that fell last night onto the car parked directly in front of mine.

I'm spoiling myself just a little bit...

Dropped the Lotus off at Dietsch Werks today to have an RTD brace, Nitrons and a new steering rack installed. Rob assures me that it'll be ready for my track day on the 22nd at Sears Point....

W00t!

Well, it's been an interesting time lately. I suppose that this is a summary post.

I've got the Mustang back, with good tires and no horrible shaking at speed and everything. It's so nice to have the car back, especially at this particular time in my life. There's just some damned thing about the 'Stang that really helps me get through rough times in my life and, well, there are some very interesting life changes going on for me right now....Just not quite yet the time to mention - here - specifically what. Suffice it to say that I'm very appreciative right now of having a loud, obnoxious, tire roasting fire breather to drive.

I went down to southern California with a bunch of friends for the Psytribe Halloween party and wound up having a great time. The party itself was pretty good, without much dark trance (thank $god) but wasn't very heavily attended. The weather held though and it wasn't very cold at all...It was pretty nice being barefoot and shirtless in the dirt at 2am in November. (Damn, I'm a hippie...)

The best part of the long weekend for me was playing rock star in West Hollywood after the party. Six of us descended on the Hotel LeMontrose in full party gear, took over a suite we'd rented for two nights and proceeded to run up a huge room service tab. After sleeping in heavily we took advantage of the local liquor store and, well, prepared ourselves for dinner. We threw our dusty party clothes back on (since that's all we had) and took a cab to Matsuhisa.

Much like the staff at the hotel, the staff at Matsuhisa didn't blink an eye at us. Again like at the hotel, I'd argue that they gave us superior service in spite of our extravagant experience. In fact, despite generally being loud, American rock stars, we were certainly treated well by the staff of the but boy did we piss off the French couple who were sitting at the table next to us. To the point that they left very quickly, with food still left on their plates. It's not like we were breaking up the place or anything...We were just laughing and having a good time and besides, the woman gave me a look of naked, horrified disgust the moment we walked into the place. Obviously, our mere presence was enough to offend her and she didn't even let us get to the point of offending her with our behavior. Sorry lady, you can deal. I mean, come on, it's LA for god's sake! Get over it! Rock stars live there, eh?

I don't get my body sometimes. I just set a new personal best on bench press - 165 pounds - but I've LOST a pound since the last time I weighed myself. I just don't get my body. Fat is denser than muscle, right? And I didn't have any fat to lose to begin with, right? And I'm HUGE now compared to when I started, right?

Why can't I keep even a single pound on? I've even significantly increased both my overall food intake and the amount of protein in my diet to no lasting effect.

I feel great. I look great. Those are the primary goals so I'm satisfied with my progress but, man, I'm frustrated that I can't gain any weight. Nearly two years of lifting with a trainer now and I'm not even a single pound closer to my original goal (now officially a non-goal) of gaining ten pounds.

I've been playing with my poi again. Check this out, from the Psytribe Halloween party near San Diego last weekend:

Here's a sunset picture I took off the back deck during the northern California wildfires this past fall: