The teams left off last week in Switzerland. At the end of each leg of the race the teams have to stay at the Pit Stop for 12 hours before they continue on racing. The first team to arrive was the first team to leave. It was the mother and son team, they found out that they needed to fly to Munich, Germany. When they landed in Germany, the had to drive to the village of Ruhpolding and ride a cable car to the top of a mountain.

The challenge that one team member had to perform was to paraglide 6,000 ft down from the mountain. The wind conditions had to be just right before they could do the paraglide, and only one team could go at a time. They were all anxiously waiting for the wind to die down, and for the 1st team to take off. It was taking forever. They were all getting frustrated at how long it might take to get through this challenge. In the clue it said something about how they could choose to take the trail down the mountain on foot instead of doing the paraglide. Of course it would take a long time and might be a difficult hike down. They had to decide if they wanted to wait and take a chance on the wind conditions improving or just take off on foot. It was was a big decision. It turned out that all of the teams except one took off on foot. The one older guy Mel, was afraid to risk the hike, he hurt his groin during the cheese wheel challenge the day before. He was up on the mountaintop by himself just waiting for the ok to glide down. He was really stressed out, he didn't want to blow the race for he and his son. Finally his luck turned and he and the instructor were able to take off. When he landed they were in pretty good position. There were people still making the hike down. His gamble paid off.

At the bottom of the mountain they got their next clue instructing them to drive 25 miles to Schonau Am Konigsee. When they got there, the clue said they had to choose a task to perform. The choices were Balancing Dolly or Austrian Folly. For Balancing Dolly the teams had to ride Segways and follow a 2 mile course. For Austrian Folley they had to throw pies at their teammates face until they get one with cherry filling. They didn't know the target was their partners face until after they chose and went inside the pie tent.

Once they completed the challenge they had to race to the Pit Stop for this leg of the race. Brother and sister team, Victor and Tammy were 1st.The last team to arrive was Linda and Steve, the married couple. The lady got lost coming down the mountain and put their team way behind the others. They really wanted to race and see the world. They were pretty bummed about being eliminated.

Another weekend over too soon

I just got home from Ryan's house. I went over and had pizza with him and Bella. The girls had already eaten and were busy watching the Oscars on tv. After we ate we went out in the backyard and played around for a little while. Bella had us sing to her garden. She sang too, it was funny. She introduced us to an audience or to the garden, and said we would be singing a song. She wasn't impressed with the first 2 songs I did, Paul Revere, and California Girls, but she seemed ok with Friends in low places. She always makes me smile and brightens up my day.

Earlier today I went out to Lake Pleasant with my canoe. The weather was great, so there were tons of people out using the lake too. I'm really anxious to start hitting the lakes to the North, up around Flagstaff. I want to fish for trout in a mountain lake from the canoe.

This is what I look at when I go up and down the stairs at home.

Yesterday when I was coming home I saw one of those hot air balloons that I see all of the time up here. It was really low so I drove over to where I could get a better look. I found the spot where it launched off from. I was surprised that it was right there so close to the freeway. That's the Norterra shopping center in the background. I'm going to check into taking a ride. It looks like fun.

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The Amazing Race

A new season of my favorite tv show, The Amazing Race started up again last night. The All-Star basketball game was on too, so I recorded the Race and watched it tonight. They started out at a military base in Los Alamitos, California. The first place they were off to was Locarno, Switzerland. The 11 teams had to fly to either Milan or Zurich, then take trains to Switzerland. After spending the night in Locarno they found out what the 1st challenge was going to be. The clue said "who has nerves of steel", they have to decide which team member is going to do the challange before they find out what the challenge is. The challenge was to bungee jump off of Verzasca Dam which is 70 stories high. 007 jumped off this dam in Goldeneye, it's the 2nd highest bungee in the world.

After the bungee jump they had to take a train to Interlaken, Switzerland. The challenge there was to climb up a hill and bring down 4 round blocks of cheese that weigh 50 lbs each using these wooden things. I guess the locals use the wooden things and carry the cheese on their backs with them. Most of the players fell and broke the wooden carriers on the way up the hill or going down. They had to carry the cheese themselves or some scooted down on their fannies. One guy was able to bring 3 down at once and his wife had the 4th so they made ok time.

When the teams finished the challenge with the cheese wheels, they had to run through the town to find the Pit Stop where Phil was. The 1st team to get there was the mother \ deaf son team.

It was a really close race for 10th and last place. They were both running to the Pit Stop but one team was just a little faster. Jennifer and Preston were the last team to arrive and were out of the race. It looked like next week they were going to Germany. I love watching this show because it's fun for me to see all the cool places they get to go. It's also fun to watch them race. They have to do the challenges, make decisions, and work together as a teams. I would love to get out and see more of the world.

Book Sale

Every year there is a huge book sale at the State Fairgrounds. The advertisements said there were 600,000 books for sale between the $1 - $5. I went last year and got some pretty good books so I wanted to go again this year. There was a pretty big line but I made it inside in about 30 minutes. As soon as I walked in I saw Darin. We both found books we wanted. There were tons of people. Some were filling shopping carts, they probably have plans to re-sale them. I saw a truck in the parking lot that had a bookstore logo on it from Tubac Arizona, which is way down South of Tucson. I was thinking about meeting up with a couple of guys at the All-Star block party downtown, but I decided to pass. I kind of wore myself out shopping for books for 2 hours. How nerdy am I?

NBA All-Star Weekend

The NBA All-Stars are in town. Today after work I went and checked out the block party. I didn't stay too long, I had to get back and catch the bus.

I got this shot from the cafeteria on the 10th floor. You can see some of the All-Star festivities going on around US Airways Center. And you can't miss Chase Field where the Dbacks will be gettin it on in a couple of months.

This is the Orpheum Theatre. It originally opened in 1929. My building and the Orpheum are attached, they share a wall. I took the pic at the bottom because I think the atrium is really cool. But in the photo you can kind of see the brick wall on the left. There's a glass staircase that leads to a door in the brick wall that goes to the theatre. I should take some more pictures of the atrium and the ground floor, it's pretty neat looking.

Snow

I figured I would do a quick blog entry to mention my good day since Morg was clearly uninterested.

From the freeway I could see some snow on the mountains to the North. It's a little too close to home, but it looks pretty. When I got to Anthem I stopped and climbed up a hill to get a better view. I got my dress shoes muddy, but it was a nice little hike. I sat down and watched the sunset for a little while. It was a nice end to a pretty good day.

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Good Day

Yesterday was a good day. I picked up Ryan and Bella and then drove down to 19th Ave \ Camelback to a Park and Ride lot for the Light Rail. We waited a few minutes for the train to come then hopped on.

I think the ride was about 30 minutes down to the ball park. By the time we got there the train was pretty full, lots of people were standing up. There were quite a few people there for Fan Fest. I read later that about 10,000 people showed up for the event. When we walked in the first person we saw was Bobby Freeman, the organ player. He had his pictures there on the table ready to autograph but didn't seem to be getting too much love from the fans. I even waited till his back was turned to take a picture of him. Oh well there was lots more to see.


Bella made friends with Baxter and they posed for a picture together.

We walked through the dugout and got to go back to the teams locker room. That was pretty exciting. It's a pretty long tunnel between the dugout and locker room. Down there they had 2 batting cages, an exercise bike, a padded table to get stretched out on.

Em, Nate and the boys have been in town the past few days. Nate's company flew them out to look for a house. They are moving here in about 2 weeks. They said they looked at tons of places and found one they really liked. They made an offer on it. They came up to see us yesterday evening. I brought them by to see my house and we went to the park to ride the train and play around. We stayed at the park until dark, and from there we went to Ryan's house for dinner. The 3 kids had a blast running and playing with eachother. I'm glad they decided to move back.

Is it the weekend yet?

I'm going to the ballpark on Saturday because the D-backs are having Fan Fest. There are going to be lots of players there for autographs and photos, plus I want to walk around the field and see the stadium from that perspective. The season will be starting in 2 months, April 6th is the home opener taking on the Rockies. I'm thinking about getting a season ticket package this year. I don't know how much money I spent going to all those games last season, but I know it adds up. They have half, and partial season ticket packages. The half package 42 games, and the partial one is 28 games. I heard that on Saturday you can get a map or something with all the available seats so you can check them out and pick the ones you want. There might even be deals or specials going on.

I've been wanting to ride the new light rail and Saturday might be a good time to do it. I could park somewhere and ride it downtown to the ballpark. All of this was on my mind today, so tonight I went around the corner from where I catch the bus and got a few pics of the light rail coming down 1st Ave.

What A Game

Big Ben and the Steelers pulled it off, but man it was a good game. Other than the game, the weekend wasn't too exciting. I went and saw a couple movies, The Uninvited and Slumdog Millionaire. Today I went to the DMV and got a new drivers license with the motorcycle endorsement. One step closer to ridin.