Bryce is becoming quite the young man. He now has six teeth - four on top and two on the bottom. He also gets up on his hands and knees regularly, although he doesn't actually crawl. He still prefers the army crawl, which is probably a better bet if he needs to sneak behind enemy lines anyway. He likes to get on his hands and knees when he is watching out the back door. He'll rock back and forth a bit, but he remains quite stationary.

I finally went on another mountain bike ride last Saturday. It was the first time I rode since munching it in June while riding Downieville. I was worried that my wrist might not be happy since I still have occasional shooting pains when I tweak it wrong, but it was actually all good. We rode the Hole in the Ground trail, which I haven't done since 2004. It was about like I remember it. A lot of uphill and some great and technical stuff along the way. I'm definitely a better rider than I was the last time I hit this trail, which made it a lot more fun.

I'm basically all caught up on my blogging. This means that I can neglect the blog for several months. Ha! Actually, I'm going to blog one more time to share all sorts of wonderful and uninteresting information about my flytrap. And I need to fix the top of the page again so that the linking works. Hopefully tonight while mommy is partying.

My body hates me. It has every reason to. Short of subjecting it to the viewing of a Harry Potter movie, I've been pretty rough with it lately.

It started a couple of weeks ago when I decided to pound pavement and go for a good old-fashioned run. I've been working out very regularly on our elliptical exercising device, but in anticipation of an upcoming physical exam I decided to take a run lest a different variety of muscles are used between the different activities. The answer is "yes". I realized that about 15 feet into my run. Apparently the elliptical doesn't really require use of your quadriceps, strangely enough. I think the run clocked in at about 5 miles. Every step was a special treat. I felt like a pretty big pansy.

I only relate the next part of my story because of the entertainment value it may provide, although it is germane. My legs increased in soreness quite a bit over the next few days. One morning I got up to get the twins out of bed. I was carrying both of them down the stairs when I slipped a couple of steps from the bottom. I was able to hold onto Jaxon, but Mason took a little spill. He bumped his head and scratched his arm a little, but wasn't too upset by the ordeal. I, on the other hand, took quite a bit of meat off the inside of my left arm and off my left ankle. This was in addition to the general soreness of landing on your back and sliding down the stairs while carrying an extra 50 lbs. of weight.

So, next I went with R., D., M., J. and C. (J.'s friend) to Downieville for some mountain biking action. We rode the Big Boulder trail, which was all okay. The weather was a mixture of warm and cold with scattered showers. While coming down the first big downhill stretch after the first big climb, I incorrectly negotiated a little crop of rocks and ended up over the handlebars and on my stomach. Other than having the wind knocked-out of me I didn't notice any significant pain. I had some minor gashes in my arm (properly packed with dirt, so no biggie). My pinky hurt where my ring crunched it. When I started riding I started to feel some pain in my left hand. I finished the ride without further incident, but continued to feel some pain in my hand.

Over the next couple of days the pain in my hand failed to decrease and even increased a bit. I had difficulty bending my hand very much in any direction and it hurt to pick-up or pinch things using my thumb. I also began to notice some swelling in my wrist. The following Monday while pulling on my pants I felt a pop in my hand. I suddenly had dramatically improved use of my hand, although it was still sore. Based on my extensive medical training, I think that I dislocated my carpometacarpal joint. Anyway, I think that I'm recovering from that, although I still have some soreness in my thumb.

So, as I was recovering from all that stuff, the day of my physical exam (mentioned previously) came around. The exam wasn't overly difficult. Highlights included push-ups using my gimpy hand, sprinting 300 meters and then immediately running 1.5 miles in the late morning heat. I handily passed the physical exam but it will be a few weeks before I find out about the accompanying written exam.

**** NOTE FROM THE EDITOR ****

7/22/09 - The above post was written on 6/22/09 but was never published. I'm posting it now in it's original form and will follow-up with a separate post imminently.

I've finally stopped crying long enough to post something. Last weeks American Idol was absolutely horrible. We went from the highest of highs (so long, MJC!) to the lowest of lows. And there were still half a dozen other people that could have gone first. I mean, Adam was the obvious choice, but there was also Allison and Lil. Admittedly, after that it gets a little harder to decide. But still, there was Adam and Allison!

News is always exciting with the kids. Bryce had his well-baby checkup today and came in at 95th percentile for weight, 95th percentile for height and a pathetic 75th percentile for head size. Sadly, he's pretty much outgrown his infant car seat, but he still needs to fit in it for two more months. We might be able to adapt foot binding techniques to make do until the switch.

Bryce has also started rolling over. He still needs to figure out what to do with that arm, which is always a bigger challenge than the actual rolling over. We told him that once he can roll completely over, including getting past the arm obstacle, that we'll take him to Outback for dinner. That seems to be motivating him.

Speaking of eating, we've had to be careful about where we leave lotion in the house because Mason eats it. I haven't been able to bring myself to taste it to see what the appeal is, but he seems to think it's pretty outstanding. I keep thinking he'll get a taste and then spew it in disgust, but this is not the case. He eats it like it's candy. And he likes candy.

As Bryce gets bigger we've started to bring out the old infant toys like the doorway jumper, the activity center with accompanying walker device and Bumbo baby seat. Although the kids have nearly a quarter of a million dollars worth of toys, they fight like mad over the stupid baby toys. Then again, they seem to like fighting in general. They regularly brawl over doodle pads even though there are usually three or four on the floor at any time. But they all have to have the same one. I'm not sure whether to discourage this behavior or build my own toddler octagon.

We've also been enjoying a broken faucet in our kitchen. A piece broke, which means that we can turn it on fairly easily, but to turn it off you have to use a screwdriver. I was able to find the part online, but it's going to take a week to get it. It's sitting in Mequite, TX right now. Doing nothing.

I went on my first mountain biking ride on Saturday. I got a call from Emilie's dad while I was on a walk with Chase and ended up going on a quick ride on the Keystone/Rancho loop. I don't think I've been on the Keystone trail for at least three years - maybe four. It was a nice way to start the season. Weather was incredible so all was good.

And finally, we went to Emilie's parents house for Easter. A good time was had by all except that allergies were a big issue. I thought I was going to die and even Emilie and Chase were affected (not by my allergies - they had their own). Anyway, the food was great and Mason and Chase fed carrots to the horses. According to Emilie, Mason almost wet himself with excitement when the horse ate the carrots. I was hanging out in the car with Jaxon, so I missed it. Bummer.

Talk about absolute craziness! Okay, I will.

Thursday morning someone posted a listing on craigslist that said simply "bike found". The listing basically just said that "one of the neighbors had one left on his yard" and to contact the poster with details identifying the missing bike. I contacted the guy and, shockingly, he responded later that day that he indeed had my bike! Emilie went over and picked it up before I even got home from work.

Nothing had been done to the bike and all pieces were intact. The seat had been lowered all the way and the chain was a mangled mess. After raising the seat and putting the chain back in place it seemed to be pretty much exactly as it was. The contents of the seat bag had been removed, but the only stuff in there was a spare tube, a tube tool and a bandanna. Less than $5 worth of stuff in total. They took my bandanna but left the bike computer, strangely.

My theory is that it was stolen by a teenager that tried to make a quick getaway.He dropped the seat and took off. The bike would have been in the highest gear when he took it, which would have made a quick getaway impossible. He started messing with the gears to try to shift into a lower gear, but ended up derailing the chain. He panicked, dropped the bike and took off. It makes you nervous to stop and try to fix the chain on a stolen bike right in front of the owner's house, you know?

Anyway, the guy who found the bike had apparently been putting signs up and I never saw them. Finally the neighbor put a message on craigslist. I had been checking craigslist everyday, but hadn't checked it yet that morning. Emilie's dad saw it and tipped us off to the posting. The guy lives right around the corner from us - probably the equivalent of about three houses away. And he had the bike for the whole week.

I never thought in a million years that I was going to see that bike again. I rode to work yesterday and took my sweet time, savoring the sweet ride of a bike redeemed.

Last week was quite the roller coaster of a week. It started off pretty rotten on Tuesday night. I rode my bike to work and, as usual, put my bike on the porch and headed inside to help Emilie with the kids. The kids were fed, readied for bed and I went outside to put my bike in the garage. I was devastated to find my bike missing. Of course, I was an idiot for not putting my bike in the garage immediately after getting home. More than anything is the horrible feeling of having someone maliciously come on your property and violate your personal belongings.

As horrible as I felt about the theft of my bike, the next few days were sobering. Of course, the following day was the 7th anniversary of 9/11. Immediately following that Hurricane Ike devastated parts of Texas and Louisiana. I wanted to be more miserable about losing my bike, by it's really pretty pathetic to worry about a bike when you think about the suffering of people who lost family on 9/11 or people who lost so much in the hurricane.

The week improved as it wore on. Emilie and I went to see Brian Regan at the Silver Legacy. He's absolutely hilarious and very clean. It was a fun show to go to.

We went to Emilie's parent's house on Sunday for dinner. Chase wanted to hang out with the horses, but he apparently is very allergic to alfalfa. As his eyes became watery and his nose started to run he also has flies swarming to him, which made him absolutely miserable. When his frustration became too great he would go into the house, but only for a few minutes before deciding he wanted to be with the horses again. And thus the cycle continued.

He got his first ride on a horse (pictures forthcoming). That's not even the best part. A pigeon somehow ended up in the horses drinking water and end up drowning. If a suicidal pigeon doesn't make you feel better then maybe you should ask what's wrong with you.

So, I'm not very hopeful that I'll ever get my bike back and I doubt I'll be able to buy another one for quite a while. Still, in Emilie and the kids I have everything I need. The rest is just stuff.

Things have been quite exciting at the Carpenter's. In no particular order, here are the highlights from the past week or so.

Most importantly, the Barnet family was in town for the 4th of July weekend. They stopped by for a bit last Saturday. The past few times they've been in Reno we've been dealing with one conflict or another (usually our kids are sick), so it was particularly nice to see them.

We had a BBQ with Mike and my parents at my parent's house for the 4th of July. My contribution to the festivities was ice cream made with the new ice cream maker that Emilie recently acquired at Target. I've never made ice cream before and due to a misunderstanding between Emilie and I the process became complicated. I tried using the recipe that came with the maker, but this involved ingredients we didn't have. It also involved cooking up some kind of concoction and cooling it for several hours before finally churning and freezing it. Ultimately, the ice cream turned out okay and was completed right on time. I'll be looking for an easier way for next time...

We took the kids to see the fireworks over in Sparks. Rather than fight with traffic and crowds we ended up watching the show from the Baldini's parking lot. It actually worked out perfectly. The view was good, we listened to the audio on the radio and the babies slept in their seats. Chase was very interested for the first half of the show but then began to lose interest. At one point he tripped and skinned his knee, causing it to bleed. We cleaned it up and put a bandage on it and from then on he was far more interested in the bandage than the fireworks. Mason woke up and seemed to enjoy watching the show for a little bit. Jaxon also woke up but was so tired that he kept falling asleep while I was holding him. Chase declared that the fireworks were both "awesome" and "pretty".

I rode my bike to work a couple of days last week. I rode on Wednesday the 2nd and also on Thursday the 3rd. In addition to riding to work I also made a trip to my dad's shop, which is about another 3.7 miles. All in all I rode about 14 miles on Thursday, which may not seem like a big deal, but imagine doing it when your gut is full of an Ancho Chile BBQ Burrito from Qdoba right in the middle of the riding. I am happy to report that I lived through the experience.

My cranks have been making an obnoxious noise for the past year or two. I've never been able to pinpoint the source so on the 4th I took my bike over to High Sierra Cycling to have them check it out. It turns out my bottom bracket was loose. They fixed it up and now a major source of annoyance has been eliminated. Sadly I haven't had a good chance to ride my bike since it was fixed. Between the heat and the smoke I've abstained from riding to work.

Stay tuned to hear our tales of bird feeders! squirrels! new homes! and so much more! (not necessarily in that order)!

I rode my bike to work again on Friday. It's been so smoky that the first day I woke up and could see mountains I jumped at the chance. It was actually a very good ride to and from work - not too hot and not too windy.

Saturday morning I got a call from Emilie's dad inviting me to go riding. It was the first ride I went on this year and I don't even remember the last time I went last year. It's definitely been about a year since my last real ride. We rode the Tunnel Creek trail (Tahoe Rim Trail from the meadows to Tunnel Creek Rd.). We only went one way, but it was still a pretty good ride - especially since I haven't been for so long. I rode this trail once about four years back as an out-and-back. It's definitely a great trail, but there were a TON of people hiking and riding. It made it a little annoying. While waiting for one large group of people to get ahead of us we decided to try riding the TRT "stairs". I didn't take any pictures of my own but I found a few pictures of this section on the internet so that you can imagine what it's like: look here and here. I almost chickened out but after seeing a few others successfully ride it I gave it a shot and actually made it! I was glad that I pushed myself to try something difficult - it was definitely rewarding.

On Saturday night we attended the big 3-0 birthday party for Sam. Unfortunately, we arrived a little late and had to leave early but we were able to attend sans children thanks to my mom. It was a fun little party. I have to admit that I was a little depressed, though. I hadn't seen Sam very recently and I have to say he's changed a lot since the last time I saw him. I didn't realize how old he looked until I went back and looked at a picture I took at the party.

That picture of Sam is completely fabricated. You can see the original here. I'm just afraid that unless I do stuff like this Sam won't ever come see my page :(