The 56 Mile Half Century

Well it was hot, long, tiring, and AWESOME! I finished the 50 mile route (+6 due to a wrong turn) of the Seattle Century. I got to ride with some really fun people. Everyone seemed like they were having a good time, even though the road directions didn't match the map and a few of us got lost (I saw more than one person checking the ride map which wasn't very accurate). I was 3 minutes under my goal time of 4 hours. I was completely exhausted when it was over, it still hurts to walk up or down stairs. To give everyone a rough idea of the course. It started in Magnuson Park (near the University of Washingtion), went north west through Bothell, east into Woodinville, south into Redmond, then Bellevue, I took a wrong turn here and went east into Issaquah, then west along I-90 along the water over Mercer Island (horrible hills), and finally back into Seattle and north back to Magnuson Park. Whew! Here are the stats that I tracked (since I'm a data nerd):

• Total Ride Distance: 56 miles
• Total Ride Time: Just under 4 hours
• Average Pace: 14.1 mph
• Max Speed: 29 mph
• Approximate Number of Calories Burned (calculated): 3,000 (I'm still hungry)
• Starting Temp: 72
• Ending Temp: 89ish (felt like 110)

Overall it was a great experience and I'm going to start training harder for the next event. More distance riding and faster time. Oh, pictures will be coming at some time, I haven't even seen them yet.

Melting in Washington

Another weekend behind us and I'm already looking forward to the next! Friday night we were over at Tim & Lindsay's eating delicious, veggie-loaded, homemade lasagna while watching The Daily Show. It was a nice relaxing evening before Nick's riding in the Seattle Century on Saturday (I'll let him blog about that!). Saturday Nick and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 5:30 a.m. so we could get to Magnuson Park by 7 a.m. With very few instructions and even less signage we found his check-in area, bought him a souvenir jersey and he left the "starting line" at about 8 a.m. I concurred my fear of bridges and drove across the 520 bridge to park at Marymoor Park so I could meet Nick at about the 21 mile mark. Once there I realized I needed to pay to park, so I drove to an ATM, then bought a coffee, drove back to the park, paid my parking fee and had just picked a spot to sit down and wait for Nick when he rounded the corner - 45 minutes ahead of schedule! He rested a bit and then took off, while I yet again concurred my fear, drove back across the bridge and parked at Magnuson Park. This time I waited for several hours; finished my book and had Tim & Lindsay join me to cheer Nick across the "finish line". He rolled in at about 1 p.m., ate some food and then we headed home to roast in our house a bit. While Nick rested, Tim & Lindsay and I watched Taking Chance - a fantastic movie based on a true story (check it out at http://www.hbo.com/films/takingchance/). As soon as the movie finished we headed out to watch Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince. It's the first Harry Pottery movie that's made me realize I might need to read the books so I can really understand what's going on! Sunday, Nick and I bought the materials needed to plant our two new trees in the backyard and then headed for Tim & Lindsay's to hang out by the pool for the afternoon so we could try to keep a little bit cool. It was wonderful to soak in the pool, read and eat another lovely dinner! So ends another weekend filled with activities. We are so excited to be leaving bright and early on Thursday morning for my family's annual vacation to St. Maries, ID, on the St. Joe River. I'm looking forward to spending 4 days soaking in the lake and beating the heat!

What About the Little Man?

Our dryer was recently on the fritz and so we called a national repair company, A&E Factory Service, that Maytag recommended for servicing appliances. We ended up having two appointments, the first went quite well and the second not so much. The technician didn't show up until 3 hours after our 4 hour window, never called to notify us he would be late and never returned our message. When I called the company to talk with them about the situation I explained to them that due to my husband's loss of income for wasting 4 hours of his day, their technician's lack of communication and the inconvenience of the situation I felt I should not have to pay the remaining $35 of my bill. They explained to me that while they were sorry about the situation they did not reimburse for lost wages, time or inconvenience. My only recourse was to have the company file a complaint against the technician. Nick did find a link to Maytag's website and I left a complaint with the company. After all of that the technician was kind enough to waive the $35, leading me to question my actions. The situation led Nick and I to wonder, "what does the 'little man' do when trying to make their voice heard at a large corporation?". There are many local news investigation teams that go the extra mile to try and make the little man's voice heard and for some they do achieve some kind of compensation or apology. It does make you wonder, what happened to the company that, when they made a mistake or had an unhappy customer, would do whatever it took to make sure they kept their customer and righted their wrong? Whatever happened to "the customer is always right" (at least some of the time)? Somewhere along the way companies have lost the ability to say, "I'm sorry, we made a mistake". When you run into these situations it makes you realize how important it is to support small, local businesses. The "little man" companies are there to serve the "little man" and they know that their business is dependant on making sure their customers are satisfied and keep coming back. The next time you have a situation where you might have to work with a large corporation, maybe do a little research to find a local company that will thank you for your business and do whatever they can to make sure you come back.

Mt. Rainier Hike

We kept saying that we needed to go for a backpacking trip and finally after too many seasons of procrastinating we loaded our packs, cooler and hiking gear and set off for Mount Rainier. We joined our friends, Tim & Lindsay, on July 10th - after battling Seattle traffic for 4 hours - at Mt. Rainier White River Campground. We spent the evening setting up camp and figuring out our hiking plan for the next day. We stayed up late enjoying the fire, smells of the forest and having a grand time. Saturday morning we woke up bright and early, ate a hearty breakfast, made lunches, loaded up our packs and headed for Bouillon Basin. We hiked approximately 13 miles, gained about 1560 feet in elevation, saw some amazing views of Mt. Rainier, suffered some bruises, sunburn and sore feet. There was one tricky section of the trail that was pretty scary for me, but by facing with my back towards the down slope and looking up the cliff, I managed to make it around the corner and down the very rocky, steep section. Thanks for encouraging me everyone! :-) The dogs did amazingly on the first day; they enjoyed playing in Snow Lake towards the end of the hike and playing in several of the snow drifts we came across. We ended the day by sponge-bathing in the sinks in the restrooms at the campground and sitting by the fire roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

Day two Nick was very sore and decided to sit out our hike and we almost didn't hike either due to the fog, wind and very cold temperatures. However, with reassurances from the ranger Tim, Lindsay and I decided to go ahead and stick with our hike of Sourdough Gap. This trail was pretty disconcerting for me as it was pretty much single file and we had to walk with the dogs behind us; cliff edge to the left or right and straight up on the other side. However, the views once we got up through the fog were unbelievable! You could see the valley filled with fog, the slopes covered in wildflowers, pine trees and snow in spots. We made great time as we climbed through the trees and ended up near Sheep Lake where the dogs enjoyed a romp in the water and we had a nice little rest. We decided to go ahead and continue hiking up to another lake, Crystal Lake, and eat lunch there before heading back to the parking lot. We came to the peak of Sourdough Gap and the trail abruptly ended in a sharp curve with a continuation onto the Pacific Crest Trail. We decided to keep going and ended up having to cross the snow slope of death. Essentially there was a steep drop off that was covered in snow and the way across it was to step in the other peoples' footprints. I was utterly terrified, but started across the slope with Jack following; about 1/2 way across Jack decided to try and pass me and started sliding down the slope. Immediately my panic level skyrocketed and I completely froze in place; Lindsay came back to where I was, took Jack from me and coaxed me across (THANK YOU LINS!!). We arrived at another peaked corner with no views of the lake in site and starting to enter National Park land; we decided to turn back around and eat lunch at Sheep Lake and then head back. Our hike out was excellent with great views of the valley again as we descended back into the fog; when we got back to the parking lot we were greeted by fog, wind and cold temperatures. We all parted ways and headed home to warm showers, soft beds and lots of rest. We had a great time and are looking forward to the next adventure!

Weekend Fun

It was explained to me that the biggest thing to blog about is what you do on the weekends; while, I'm a few days late, I shall go ahead and fill in everyone about the things we did this last weekend!

The guys, Nick & Tim, had been begging Lindsay and I to have a night of computer gaming time so we acquiesced. Friday night Lindsay and I went and watched The Proposal and the guys played their hearts out until after 3 a.m. A bit after Lindsay and I collapsed. Saturday we slept in until some ridiculous hour, ate brunch and then decided to spend the afternoon at a park. The park we discovered was quite fantastic. http://www.everettwa.org/default.aspx?ID=541 Nestled in north Everett, this gem of a park was a great find! The three-tiered, 28-acre park provides spectacular views, trails, tennis courts, the Lewis and Clark Native Garden, an off-leash dog area and safe access to a saltwater beach (this is the statement description on the website). I will agree that there were spectacular views, a lovely trail, an off-leash dog area and tennis courts. We did not explore enough to find the Native Garden, but regarding the safe access to a saltwater beach is a little sketchy. There was a huge amount of driftwood on the beach, the waves were quite large and the off-leash dog area is on the end of one of the beach areas with very limited accessability if the tide is roaring in. Olive (Tim & Lindsay's dog) was very brave and decided to join another dog in chasing a ball out into the sound; some of the waves were overwhelming to her, but she did quite well. Jack, on the other hand, was his usual wussy self and only got wet up to his belly before chickening out and staying close to shore. The waves were great to watch and we will be back; maybe on a calmer day and after checking tide times! The evening was spent with more computer game time and playing of the Wii until our arms were too tired.

On Sunday I followed the good housewife role and while Nick went for a bike fitting and hair cut I blazed through the house cleaning, doing laundry, etc. I then proceeded to work outside mowing, weeding, pruning, watering and then convincing Nick to rototill the next section of our backyard as we plod forward in our outdoor "remodeling" project. The guys came on Monday and cut down 2 trees and pruned another. I went and bought two trees (today 7/21) to replace one and plant another in a different spot. Someday (hopefully soon!) we'll have a backyard and we'll invite people over for a BBQ!

There it is folks! Our first weekend blog; hope you enjoyed and stay tuned for more exciting Tomczek adventures.

A Strange Day in Tech

Well as if today wasn't strange enough. Besides the fact that it's Friday and I really don't want to be working (probably why I'm writing this now), I ran across one of the strangest links I have ever seen from Wired.com. I had to read it twice. "Augmented Reality Hobo Signs? There's and App for That". Apparently someone has made an app that allows a Hobo to use their iPhone to view virtual hobo signs. Well, atleast we know where people's priorities are. "I don't have a house, and I'm crossing the country in a train car, but at least I still have my iPhone." And if that wasn't enough, I headed over to Wired's home page and saw this article "Power Your Car With Pee". Really??? After reading those articles it's time to go home. The day is done. Although I can see the next Hobo iPhone app. You could turn on your iPhone and see a real time map of all the pee powered cars within a 1 mile radius. Wow, I can't believe I could actually put all of those words in a sentance. How many times can you remember seeing "Hobo", "iPhone", and "pee powered car" in one sentence. Today is a good day! Oh, and I really wish I could have found an image with a urinal on the side of a car (There is one of a guy peeing in his car, but I couldn't do it...).

Tour de France 2009

For those of you that are not complete cycle nuts and don't already know, the Tour de France is in full swing, full swing being stage 11 of 21. Now if you don't read the news Lance Armstrong is back in this one and his entire team, Astana, is doing AWESOME! Lance is in 3rd, Alberto Contador, his teammate, is in 2nd, Levi Leipheimer another teammate is in 4th, and yet another Astana teammate, Andreas Kloden, is in 6th. If you haven't caught any of the tour you need to get up early (You can catch the last few miles if you start watching at 7ish). You can watch it in the Versus network (they replay it later in the day I believe). If you don't then head to the Tour de France 2009 site and in the upper right they have a live video link (it's the Versus network again if your in the US, but there are other world wide sites). Fun stuff! It's a great year to be cycling!