A personal piece of artwork reflecting a loved one or a memorable moment makes a fantastic, original and priceless gift. An original acrylic on canvas can be painted in about a month for $200 - $500 depending on the size of the canvas. Send me a photo and I’ll give you a quote within the day.

All I can say is that I am really excited and proud for many reasons. I don’t think I have ever felt this way about politics before.

(thanks amanda, for the link!)

Growing up near the AZ-Mexico border, my mom got one of these for my sister and I (water dog, aka axolotl salamander). Unfortunately, I just read that they are becoming extinct.

We had our water dog for a few months or maybe a year. I was about 10 years old or so and my sis was 5. (You could buy these all over the area at the time.) We were getting ready to move from the country to the city and my mom couldn’t swing taking the water dog with us so she tried to bury it outside, unbeknown to us kids. She later admitted that after she had buried the little amphibian, he dug his way out and she felt so guilty she scooped him up and put him back in his aquarium. I’m not sure if he lived too much longer after that. I wish I could remember his name.

“Legend has it that Xolotl — the dog-headed Aztec god of death, lightning and monstrosities — feared he was about to be banished or killed by other gods and changed into an axolotl to flee into Lake Xochimilco.”

So my sis is definitely the better writer in the family, but I think it is safe to say I am the better drawer (?!). Anyways, I thought I’d give writing a few graphic novels a try. Kit got me my awesome Wacom Tablet a little while back, and it is pretty addictive. It also provides the means for me to investigate a new artistic outlet. The graphic novels take a significant amount of time to complete, so bear with me. Here I am providing you with a sneak peak. More to come.

SQUIDboy & Batypus

::seeds::

The last few weeks have been pretty exciting.
4 weeks ago we took a trip to upstate New York to spend a couple of days at Whiteface ski resort with our friends Hillary and Matt. On the drive up there we had to go a bit out of our way to pick up the downhill bike Matt had bought from someone off Craigslist. This little detour had us driving through downtown NYC during Friday afternoon rush hour. It was a memorable experience to say the least but not one I ever plan to repeat.

As for Whiteface itself…. The trails there, especially the upper half of the mountain, were probably the hardest trails we have ever ridden, and we’ve ridden some pretty challenging terrain. The top half, was comprised primarily of very steep, never-ending rock gardens that required total focus and above-average bike-handling skills. The first day neither Shay or I were riding very well and just as I started to finally find my groove the mechaniclas hit. First it was a rear flat about 1/3 of the way down forcing me to carefully make my way down via fire-roads and ski-runs. Then the subsequent run I plowed into the front side of a rock and burped about half the air out of my front tire and once again having to cut my run short.

And that is how my day ended. Shay didn’t have any mechanical issues but definitely left the day feeling a bit frustrated. That night we replaced my rear tire as I had had previous problems with it and just didn’t want to risk any further flats.

Day 2 turned out to be much better. We did a couple of runs with Matt and Hillary and I was really falling into my rhythm and riding clean. After that Shay and I broke off and did our own thing so that we could stop and work on the sections that were really frustrating her. By the end of the day she was riding strong and we left on a positive note.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a local swimming hole and jumped off a 30 foot cliff into freezing cold water. It was quite refreshing.

Our time at Whiteface left us both with a new level of confidence and I think our riding has really stepped up a level. During our next trip out to “The Shed” everything seemed so much easier. Shay hit all the rock gardens that she had been struggling with before and we both started hitting more of the jumps.

Yesterday we returned to Wisp for another day of riding. The trails there for the most part aren’t very technical but that are fast and flowy with some pretty good man-made features including a set of 3 progressively larger drops at the very top. I had hit the first drop during our first trip but this time I hit all 3 without much hesitation. The transition on the largest drop isn’t really steep enough resulting in a pretty harsh landing so I only hit it once. Shay hit the first 2 drops along with every other drop the trails have to offer.

We’re hoping to make another trip out to Whiteface before the bike season ends in October but it’s not a definite yet.