Melissa and I had our first "day off" today, so we drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park. After seeing some mountains and wildlife, we parked and started hiking up the continental divide up toward Specimen Mountain. Our hope was to see some long horn sheep near "the crater." After nearly an hour of sitting quietly enjoying the mountains, we gave up hope of seeing any sheep and just took some cool photos of the area. Here's a panorama that I crudely stitched together. It was breathtaking to say the least.

Wow. So that happened. July came and went before we could even look up! Be sure to check out The Adventures of Melvin to read a bit of a recap of our trip out here. My new job at VeloNews is freeking awesome. I had to earn my stripes by starting during the Tour de France, which meant 12+ hour days, including weekends. I can't believe that Melissa still likes me :) I spent the majority of my days monitoring live updates, news stories and videos... all coming in at various times. It was exhausting to be sure, but I love it. I work with a really cool group of guys that I'm sure I'll learn a lot from. It's wild to be a part of the industry and work around so many people that are like myself. It's not at all strange to be walking around in the afternoon in chamois. You can't beat that :)

Melissa has been hard at work at the Red Wagon Farm doing 12 hour days in the baking sun and spending her spare time doing experiments. Even though she's working harder than I am, she's really done a great job taking care of me. There's no way in the world that I could have gotten here without her love and support. She has taken care of me during ugly trips to the dentist, made me lunch and dinner, bought me surprises, you name it... she's been there for me.

Boulder is a pretty cool place, bike paths everywhere. I can do my five mile commute to work and only hit 1/2 mile of roads. So far we haven't had a ton of time to explore, but this weekend we're planning a trip into the mountains. It should be be beautiful! I'll try to get some photos and post them next week.

It's been a crazy adventure so far, but I'm loving it here. I still can't believe that I work for VeloNews :)

Be good...

The big news... wait for it... VeloNews just formally asked me to become their new web developer! Crazy. The best part is that Melissa is going to go with me!! We are going to pack everything up and head to Boulder in early July. I can't imagine a better opportunity for myself - I still can't believe it.

Anyway, y'all probably won't hear much from me for the next few weeks as we'll be busy with packing and saying goodbye to Maine. It will certainly be bittersweet, but it's the beginning of a very exciting adventure.

Wish us luck!

Well, I'm back in the Midwest for a few days. I flew into Minneapolis to meet up with my Mom, who was up there for my cousin Emily's second birthday party. My aunt Mary put together a great little party at the Teddy Bear Park in Stillwater, MN. The place was donated by some local philanthropists and has a lot of cool stuff for the little ones. There were a bunch of adorable kids there, but Emily was easily the most adorable of all. Mary employed me to run the camera. I blew through 197 pictures and maxed out the camera before the party was even over! I was pretty proud of the photo on the left and got some other cool ones. It was fun to run around trying to keep up with those little fireballs trying to capture the action.

All in all, I would call it a huge success! Afterward, we picked Jeff up at the airport and headed back to the 'kee. We've got a chill Sunday to relax and I'll be getting my third birthday cake this evening! Tomorrow we're heading to Rochester, MN to support my Dad through a surgery. It's going to be a tense few days, so please keep us in your prayers and send some positive thoughts our way. Hopefully I'll have good news to report on Wednesday!

Hmm... not much else to report. I officially launched the new Stellina Sport website on Friday, which is really exciting. Once I polish up the Westward Pictures site I'm taking a long break from freelancing. It's fun work, but it will be fun to just goof off in the evenings... maybe get back into doing some stained glass :)

Wow. It's been awhile since updating this thing. Lots of stuff going on right now, so here's a big photo recap for your viewing pleasure... or to help you kill time at work.

Where to start? We've been busy with lots of DIY projects. We needed a potrack, but the $100 ones at Home Depot just wouldn't do. So, I took a wire pantry shelf, some S-hooks, a few feet of chain and voila! The best part is the magnetic spice rack. I found some plastic workshop jars with magnetic lids that were just begging to be part of my Franken-rack. It actually turned out nice, and surprisingly hasn't gone crashing onto the stove in the middle of the night.

The next fun project was a little chalkboard made out of scrap lumber from Dave's (Melissa's Dad's) workshop. We found some chalkboard paint at the hardware store and after a few coats, we added some clearance kitchen drawer knobs for decoration, hung it up and it worked like a charm.

Now the interesting one. We'd been going for a month sans-silverware separator... imagine the horror! So, while walking home one day, we found a broken wooden drying rack - the kind with slats for plates. Needless to say, my wheels started turning and my pack rat mentality took over. I took the slats apart and glued them together to form usable boards. Then, using a cheapie miter box, I cut dado joints and formed them into separator that fit snugly in the drawer. (Melissa informed me of the type of joints I was using - she's a smarty) then using a couple of smaller pieces, I braced it from the front and back. Pretty cool for recycled garbage! Click here to see more in-progress pix on Melissa's site

What else? Oh yeah, the worm bin. Melissa met a guy who runs a vermicomposting business just south of here. The best part is that she traded her honey for a pound of red wiggler worms. We'd been talking about putting together a worm bin for awhile. Jeff and Sarah have a nice one that seemed to work well. So, she's been keeping them moist and feeding them everything from coffee grounds to watermelon, which they apparently love. We've got worms.

Last Saturday we helped Dave plant his garden. He tilled up a huge garden between the house and the new orchard which should feed an army over the summer. Tomatoes, beans, garlic, pumpkins, squash... you name it, it's in there. After planting, we watered the 19 new trees in the orchard. Once those things start producing in eight years, Dave and Peggy are going to be absolutely inundated with apples. Apparently, a fully mature tree will produce something like 30 bushels of apples a year. That's a lot of apples.

OK. Moving on... I had my first lobster cooking experience over Memorial Day weekend. After a lots of sunshine and gardening with Dave, Melissa's friends Hank and Jill put on a fun evening of steamers (that's steamed clams for all you Midwesterner's :) lobsters and one small paper towel fire. Fun stuff.

To finish off the weekend, we had a pretty chill Memorial Day. We went for a long walk around Casco Bay and the Old Port to enjoy the beautiful day. After getting back, Melissa got to try out her new cheese making equipment. She'd been talking about making cheese for quite some time, and I've been talking about eating cheese for an equally long time, so the climate seemed to be perfect. She decided to start with mozzarella since it only takes 1/2 hour. After mixing raw milk, citric acid and rennet, she brought it up to 88 degrees and separated the curds from the whey. Then after some stretching, kneading and adding salt... cheese! I must say - not because I have to - that it was the best mozzarella that I've ever had. We had a dinner of cheese, avocado and ripe tomatoes. Brilliant meal.

A'ight. That's about it for tonight. I'm blogged out... and if you've made it this far, you must be too. Stay tuned for some exciting news right on the horizon!

Be well.

Just look at that tough guy. A decent sized tree blew down during a storm last week. Jeff brought home his chaps, so I got to play lumberjack this afternoon. Melissa's brother, Matt, has a great t-shirt that says: "Milwaukee Tools, because nobody got a blister building a website." It was awesome to get my wussy hands outside and work on some blisters.

Jeff and Dad enjoying the day.

Here's a shot of some of the turkey vultures that roost behind the house. There are literally a couple hundred of these guys. With an eight foot wingspan, they are imposing and ugly as sin.

Saw a baby garter snake by the driveway... so of course I had to pick it up. Jeff took the shot in some pretty low light - not bad!

Quick update with some of my in-progress websites. Pretty cool stuff, if I do say so myself :) There are some really cool features here. Specifically, check out the zoom feature on the bike detail pages on the Stellina/Alan website, and the lightbox/bookmarking feature on the Westward Pictures site.

Stellina is the new importer of Alan Bicycles and Challenge Tires.

Westward Pictures creates and distributes stock HD footage.

Lots of good stuff on the horizon. I'm going to be working with Loveday on some more RideClean stuff, and I'm going to be doing some AJAX scripting on the KBS/Medifast site that should really stand out. Hopefully I get to work on some fun stuff while I'm home in the 'kee. It's great to be home, tho I'm sad to leave Melissa back in Portland. I'm sure that she'll keep herself busy with lots of gardening, knitting and other DIY projects.

That's about it for now - long day of flying. I managed to hit NYC, Atlanta and Omaha all in a few hours. Not bad for a $209 flight scheduled a week out! Stay tuned... there's lots more to come!

Headed back to good old Cherokee tomorrow. Jeff and I are meeting up in Omaha and driving in for some family time. Perhaps I will find a bit of time for a proper blog entry!

Well, I'm indoors safely waiting out my first nor'easter. Ugly. I'm up on the third floor and I can feel the whole building moving with the wind. It's been going for ten hours strong and it's supposed to last for a few days! We just got word that Melissa's hives blew over, so think positive thoughts that the bees are alright!

Melissa treated me to a surprise adventure on Sunday. All I knew was that I needed warm clothes and rubber boots! So, away we went. We arrived at Popham Beach, up by Bath just after noon. It was a bit on the chilly side, but that didn't stop us from picnicking, flying kites and wading through some very cold water. The rubber boots were great until the tide started coming in and we realized that our sandbar had become a desert island. We waded toward shore only to realize that our boots were about two inches too short! After that first shock, the water didn't seem that bad. It wasn't much over 45 degrees out, but it felt great to kick off the boots and walk barefoot in the sand.

If you haven't been to the beach in the Spring, I highly recommend it. I also highly recommend bringing a beautiful gal with you - especially one who makes rubber boots look good :)