Tom: March 2009 Archives

On Saturday Timber and I hit the road in search of wildflowers. Last year at about this time we went to do a hike in Pinnacles National Monument with Tom J and Dan, and on our way there Tom J told us about a good place for wildflowers near Paicines, CA. So that is where we headed on Saturday. We drove from Paicines to Mercy Hot Springs and over to Highway 5. From there we went back north and back home to SJ. It was a fun drive and we saw lots of wildflowers and a variety of landscapes. On that one drive it seemed like we went from California to South Dakota, to the Badlands of Montana, to Nevada, and back. I don't know the names of all the wildflowers that we saw, but I will post the photos shortly and post a link.

In case you haven't heard, Skype just released an iPhone app.  That means that any place that you can get a wifi connection you can now use Skype on your iPhone or iPod Touch.  So if you have crappy cell coverage in your house like I do you may find this useful.  Also, if you are traveling outside the coverage area for your phone you can use the Skype iPhone app to make phone calls from coffee shops, hotels, or any place that has decent wifi speed.  Of course to call land lines from Skype you have to have SkypeOut, but I think a lot of people will find this useful.  I played around with it a little bit and it seems alright.

Citizen Garden Episode 11: Whither Ma.gnolia? from Larry Halff on Vimeo.
If you use ma.gnolia.com for sharing links and bookmarks, as you already know, your data is hosed. It is a bummer that this happened to them, but I think they would agree that while it is unfortunate that this problem happened to them they have learned from it and hopefully everyone else out there that runs a web service can learn from it.

All work and no play makes Tom a dull boy. And I have indeed been very dull pretty much since I joined Tinyprints. I have not done much on the weekends other than rest. And with the remainder of the snowboarding season in jeopardy it was time for action! Timber and I (and Wookie) got up early this past Saturday and headed to Sugarbowl. The conditions were bright and sunny with lots of snow. The snow was hard packed with the groomed runs being the best. Spring conditions have pretty much started. As the afternoon wore on the snow started to soften up and get a bit better. Once we were done snowboarding for the day we went to our hotel (the Inn at Truckee) and checked in. We stayed there primarily for two reasons. (1) They allowed dogs. (2) It was closer than Reno. And lastly, we would have preferred to stay at the Cedar House Sport Hotel, but they charge and extra $50 for dogs. The cheapo in me just can't go for that. The Inn at Truckee was ok, but not super. If we were going without Wookie we probably would have stayed somewhere else. On Sunday we went to Northstar with the intention of snowboarding, but Timber's heel was not feeling so good, so we decided to scrap snowboarding for the day and took our time driving back home to San Jose. On our way back we stopped in Old Town Sacramento and the area around the state Capital. All in all it was a good trip. We need to get away from it all a little more often.

I want to do this when Tioga Pass first opens. At that point it won't be open to cars yet, and it should make for a great bike ride. I'm just not sure how long the ride will be exactly, and I know I have to train for it because I could not do it right now.