Too Fast...

Kaden is growing up too fast! At five months he has two teeth, has been rolling over for months and is starting to show signs of crawling. The picture above is from earlier this week and is where I find him more often than not now when left to his own devices. He rolls from his back to his stomach, then gets up on all fours and rocks. His legs are going, but his hands aren't quite there yet. When he does work it out I'd imagine he'll be a handful trucking all over the house. I'd do well to pick up the baby gate sooner than later.

Development numéro deux, he is sitting up on his own now. I guess plopping him down in the bumbo once in a while is helping. At first he could really only do it with two hands on the ground in front of him. Even then he would lose his balance and fall to the left or right. Lately he can take one hand off the ground and remain upright and also self correct when he leans too far forward.

And finally it is a bit of old news now, but he has been consuming solid food since the beginning of August. He went from rice cereal to an assortment of vegetables in no time. He is now comfortable enough with it to make a mess every night. He has only upended one container of carrots into his lap, but he is always happy to grab for the spoon or stick his hands in his mouth. That means bath time every night, which works perfectly into his bed time schedule.

My only fear is missing out on something. Now that Crystal and I are both back at work we try to maximize our time spent with our little man in the evenings and on weekends. I guess if he crawls at the babysitters first it won't be that devastating, but I'll cross my fingers and hope that it is at home with us.

Shakedown at Surry Part 2

Sunday brought the thrilling conclusion of our cycling tale. After a night of drinking and eating with friends sleep came easy, but not comfortably. I foresee a sleeping pad of some sort in my future, but for this trip I slept on the earth. Breakfast was less elegant than the grilled chicken I cooked up for dinner the night before, but instant coffee and pastries still hit the spot. We bid Grant and Erin farewell and were two wheels rolling soon after. Russ, Mike and I decided on a more southerly route for our return home. It took us through a lot of remote farm country that was a nice contrast to the constant that is Rt. 5. The rest is in the pictures...

Sleeping on the ground makes me feel old.

One last shot with Grant before we roll out.

Grant & Erin: American Gothic edition

Two wheels rolling.

Turkeys!

Lost?...Just a little bit.

First break of the day.

To refuel.

Cutting through Petersburg National Battlefield.

Old Towne Petersburg.

The trip back was slightly shorter (58mi vs. 62mi), but we finished in Colonial Heights and caught a ride and some lunch back to Grant's in the Northside. All in it was it was the most I have ever ridden in two days. I had never camped between rides either, we tried it on our last trip to Cumberland County, but were too pooped to proceed. Cycling goals aside all 120 miles were spent with my good friends in Pants Richmond. Hopefully the years that Russ is away from Richmond pass quickly, because he will be missed on the bike and off.

Shakedown at Surry Part 1

As mentioned on this very bee-log the farewell to Russ tour took off this past weekend for Surry, VA. Many miles were pedaled, laughs were had and we wished our friend goodbye and good luck Pants Richmond style. The route we took was last graced by our pants in 2007 when we did the same ride with the same cast. Since then the capital to capital trail has gotten closer to Richmond, but there is still plenty of road to ride on. The rest is in the pictures...

Russ's Pics | Grant's Pics | My Pics

TWR at 7:30am

Stop to take a seat on Rt 5.

Landon

Grant

Mike

Russ

The whole crew

On the ferry to Surry

I'm on a boat!

Gulls

Watching the gulls

An album cover group shot is mandatory

Reflection on life

Russ goes for swim

The water was warm

We followed up the ride with camping at Chippokes Plantation State Park. Lisa, Erin and Matt soon joined us for dinner and late night chatter. Matt helped us carb load for the next day and we were off to bed early. A big camp fire would have been nice, but having a cooler full of food and change of clothes brought by car to us was just as nice. Next up is the return to Richmond, see you soon.

Double Dose of Ride

It is rare these days that I get to take two rides that aren't separated by the vast gully of the weekdays. This holiday weekend I did just that. Grant and I, in preparing for the coming Shakedown at Surry*, rode east of downtown one day and west of west another.

Fort Harrison (28.33 mi) | (Pictures)
This is a well known ride amongst our crew that usually reminds me of unbearable heat. The route is a tour de geographical areas, in that it starts amongst skyscrapers and loops out to farm country. I say I associate it with heat because most of the Ft. Harrison rides I have done have been mid-summer sweat fest. Saturday was not the norm, the weather was crisp and cool in the early morning and by the time we wrapped up post 11am it was just starting to get warm. While this is not a route that bears repeating too frequently, it should not be missed as a point of habit. The climb out of the Bottom offers some incredible views of the city and the park that marks the half way point is a canopy of shade that offers a nice historical back drop.

Rockville (27.41 mi)
Yet another well worn ride for the pants syndicate, riding west of the West End is where we got our road riding start years ago. Now educated, graduated and grown up we can look back on it with not so rosy colored glasses. The old loop just doesn't have the spark that other rides around Richmond offer. That is unless you find ways to give it life. Grant hit up Google maps and spiced up the ride with some super country roads and a two mile gravel bit that was remote as remote can be. Think corn fields on both flanks and out of the way huntin' dog breeders. The weather leaned toward cool, but not cold and the miles felt easy on the legs. Additional map based additions to this ride might bare even tastier fruit. We shall see.

*What I lovingly refer to as the Shakedown at Surry is really a farewell ride to fellow Pants Richmond member Russ. He is off to serve in South Korea for a number of years and as such will no longer be riding with us. To see him off we have a camping ride planned for this coming weekend to nether regions of Surry, VA.

Rusted Proto-Drake

What sounds like sophomoric sex slang is actually my newest flying mount by way of Ulduar's ten man hard modes. The Rusted Proto-Drake is my reward for completing Glory of the Ulduar Raider Friday night. A task that I got started a month behind on and took the entire summer to complete. Granted if my focus had been solely on this achievement I probably could have done it months ago. The time constraints of a daily 6:30am Kaden wake up call don't really lend themselves to post 12:30am raiding with my ten man group. Thankfully there is no uber achievement in ToC 10 man, so my desire for a third 310% speed mount can wait until Icecrown Citadel. A Proto-Frostwyrm maybe?

Saturday night I learned that I no longer have das juice in the arena. To be fair I had a loose association with les juice in the past on my mage, but I was probably being carried. Apparently I can't even be carried these days. In my mix of Hateful and Deadly I tried to get carried to a Furious totem by my friend and possible* season 6 gladiator the Chort. All I needed was a 700 personal rating. Easy enough if the Chort's rating wasn't putting us against folks who would rather see my face on the business end of their boots. I would get rolled in seconds and he would almost solo the two folks rolling me. After about 4 to 5 plays of the same song I decided to get off the merry go round. Hey the Deadly totem can be bought for honor, perfect!

To wrap my WoW things up, I am toying with the idea of leveling my mage again. He is already 71 from the last time I toyed with said idea, but now I need a herbing alt. Tooling around on a ground mount in Northrend might sound fun to some, but I'd rather pick my flowers from the sky. It will most likely take a while (see Appendix 16.3: I Had a Baby), but I figure I can keep my Shaman swimming in flask for a while before I have to hit the auction house.

*I say possible because Chort might or might not have been screwed over by the recent arena calculation that has apparently gone horribly wrong. He will find out soon and when he does I will post here about it.

On the Stove

I have been trying a bunch of new recipes and experimenting in the kitchen as of late. I've not been talking about those topics here on the bee log. Not for lack of interest in writing about cooking, but because I generally have plenty of other geeky topics to expound on. Today is a new day though, so have at ye cooking post...

French Toast
I love this breakfast treat and Crystal adores it. Oddly enough we never have it for breakfast, but for dinner instead. It is pretty straight forward: cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, eggs and milk for the wet mix. The key is using a good bread. I avoid plain Jane sliced wheat and white breads in favor of soft loafs. Challah and various French breads work really well. The best one I have found to date is a Mexican/Spanish style bread that is soft, but also has a buttery flavor to it. Topping good french toast requires maple syrup and butter, so having the butter already present from the get go seems to make it that much better. The name of the bread escapes me for the moment, but I will post back here when it does not.

Meatballs
Last week I got a craving for meatballs, not wacky hijinks from the late 70's, but the food. I could go on about why they are great, but that is like ginning up the virtues of oxygen. The recipe I found online was fairly straight forward: ground beef, bread crumbs, onions, salt, pepper and water. Mix it up, ball it up, broil it up and simmer in your sauce. The fun thing was finding yet another use for the now legendary 5 minute sauce. I have been using it for a funky fo-chicken parmesan for the past year and now it is snuggling up to meatballs and wheat pasta on our dinning room table.

Meatloaf
In the same vein as the meatballs, I rolled up some meatloaf early this week. Same basic ingredients with the addition of an egg to help it bind. Some how we lost our loaf pan so when it came to actually baking the meat mixture I had concocted I was at a loss. In steps the glass baking dish and it's 40 minutes to loafy heaven. This main course, while tasty, also served as a big red arrow pointing to one of my deficiencies. Sides, I don't really do sides. Sure I grill up some zucchini and squash on occasion and I've been known to whip up some smashed potatoes, but for the most part I don't make good sides. It did not occur to me until it was too late, but it is hard to make a meal out of just meatloaf. So I scrounged up some egg noodles, buttered, salted and peppered them to taste and vowed to right my side dish wrongs. Next weeks menu, meatloaf with asparagus and orzo on the side.

Stir Fry
Asian cuisine has always been out of my wheel house in terms of cooking. Love to eat it, but I have never approached it in my kitchen. About three weeks ago on my trip to the grocery store I went down the international food aisle to get pasta. Real international I know. As I passed the Asian ingrediants I got a wild hair to experiment. So I picked up some stir fry noodles, teriyaki sauce, chicken and an onion. Fast forward to me making a fairly tasty teriyaki stir fry that's only short coming was a lack of variety. It was food enough to warrant repeating, but this time with water chestnuts and steak as a sub for the chicken. I chose a bad steak, but the idea was getting iteratively better. Next up more veggies and a tweaking of the sauce.

Farwell to Hard Content*

While normal Ulduar has created a moderate enough challenge for most raiding guilds the hard modes have been a true measure for only the elite of the elite. When we last left this topic, WoW Progress was lending some numerical insight into the 25 man raiding scene. A quick update, 20,067 guilds have completed the Siege of Ulduar to date and only 755 of those guilds have gone as far as unlocking Algalon's room, with only 268 actually doing the deed. How does revisiting this topic warrant a new post? Only 1.3% of all the guilds who are even taking Ulduar half serious have killed all of the bosses offered within. Yet today marks the fifth week of Trial of the Crusader.

At a certain point raid schedules will have no incentive to keep going back to Ulduar. Gear in the 245 and 258 ilevel range offered up for no trash and limited attempts will eventually cause a tipping point for most of the community. To date even the most casual of guilds have cleared all four boss encounters offered. Tonight Anubarak will be offered up as a final sacrifice to the casual Gods and then it is game on for the actual progression race. Trial of the Grand Crusader is the five man heroic equivalent of normal ToC and promises to offer an actual challenge.

The catch is a limit of 50 attempts (read wipes) per week. So that means you could spend 50 attempts on the Northrend Beasts or get to Anubarak unphased and put in 50 on him. Or anywhere in between. After clearing the instance once on normal easy mode and then spending your 50 attempts however the hard core raiding Gods see fit on heroic modes, you are still left with a good chunk of the raid week intact. For my guild that means heading back to Ulduar to work on hard modes via the new raid lockout extension feature. Eventually, my guess is, we won't be able to sustain it.

Why burn calories going after ilevel 239 gear when the equivalent or better upgrades simply fall out of the sky. Sure there is the thrill of progression that some of us feel (myself included), but most guilds that have a casual core (ours) aren't interested in old progression for sub par gear. The crux being that if your guild is hard core enough to actually care about going back to Ulduar, to tie it up with a neat little bow. You've probably already done so.

Guild Progression
Speaking of the salad days of Ulduar, we have been going back to try hard modes in the weeks leading up to ToGC. We recently downed Lose Your Illusion in what has been a tough Summer of low attendance raiding. It felt good to actually put a hurting on a boss that has been just out of reach for us for going on two months. Our ten man has unlocked Algalon and set out to conqueror him twice now without success. It is a tough fight made even harder by the one hour limit per week. It takes it from rough going to viciously brutal in 60 minutes flat.