Richard Huff's Seattle Social Blog

I’m finally credentialed. In the same batch of mail that contained Tapas’ AKC pedigree certificate was my University of Washington diploma for a BA in Sociology. (The "With Distinction" refers to the honors program.) Yes, after a mere sixteen years, I finally have a four-year college degree. For all of you friends of mine that have graduate degrees, be forewarned: I’m catching up.

Jeff Smith and I met in Fremont this morning for the annual Oktoberfest Brew Ha Ha 5K. I've run the race at least three times, maybe four. The last two times I've noticed that they miscalculated the distance. 5K is roughly 3.1 miles, whereas the Brew Ha Ha 5K measures 2.9 miles. I guess it can't always be perfect.

This morning's race was also very warm -- the warmest I've ever experienced for a Seattle morning in late September. The heat radiated off the pavement of 34th Street like you'd expect on a mid-Summer day. Will there be an Indian summer this year?

Tapas' American Kennel Club (AKC) registration and pedigree certificate showed up over the weekend. He's now officially a pretentious puppy. But what's up with those names. Am I so ghetto that I didn't think to give Tapas three or four names? The use of "Little" or "Lil" in the names for nine of the fourteen listed ancestors also seems bizarre. It's stating the obvious, isn't it? A 3.5 lbs. dog doesn't need to be named "Little" or "Lil". But now I'm just mocking Tapas' family, so I'll lighten up.

There's always got to be a first for everything. I remember the first time I,... (Oh, that's really best left for another post. This post is about Confab.) My first time missing Confab was the episode we decided to take a year's worth of listener comments and roll them into what has been affectionately called "Confab 2.0". It's all in preparation for our one-year anniversary show, coming in November. We're still experimenting with the format, but it's heavily based on a particular comment that sums up most of the positive comments regarding the show. Said commenter described what they really liked about Confab as, "The conversation you overheard at a party and wished you were a part of." This particular "party" (the one I missed) included Allie Gerlach, John Kaufmann, Philip Shaw, Gavin Shearer, Jeff Smith, and Keith Vaitkus.

Take a listen and let us know what you think: http://www.confabshow.com/.

Our new web site will be launched in time for the anniversary show.

I've been remiss at keeping photos of Tapas updated on my blog. Well,...wait no longer. Tapas got a rain coat from a shop (Fideaux) in St. Helena, California while I was there for the 2006 Waves to Wine bike tour. Since the Seattle rainy season should start soon, Tapas has got to get used to wearing the coat. Is he fashionable, or what?

Through your generous support, the 2006 Waves to Wine MS 150 Bike Tour should be close to its goal of raising $870,000 for the Northern California Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. You helped me contribute over $600 $700 towards that goal, which is pretty incredible considering my late fundraising drive (beginning a mere week before the tour). The exact number of riders and dollars raised won't be announced for a couple more weeks, but last year there were about 1,300 riders and over $800,000 raised.

We started the first day of the ride in Napa, California at about 7:00 AM. Torea, her uncle (Richard) and me (Richard) set off through the nation's premier wine country while the morning fog receded. The sky was almost completely blue by 10:00 AM, and the temperature was perfect for riding. By the time we cranked through the first 30 miles of the day, I calculated that we could finish in record time. Little did I know that this year's new route delivered a very steep climb just before our conclusion in Santa Rosa.

In past years, we would start and finish both days in Santa Rosa. The first day would take us out the coastal route (a.k.a., the "waves"); the second day would cover the inland route (a.k.a., the "wine"). This year's tour would be more aptly called "Wine to Waves" since we rode the inland route first. We had tried to prepare for the new route by loading one of our Garmin Forerunner 305s with the route map. The plan was to use the 305's "training partner" feature as a guide. Building a map of the route for this purpose proved much more difficult than we had imagined, and getting the necessary elevation data was almost impossible. We tried a variety of Google Map mash-ups and National Geographic's Topo! State Series software to trace the route provided by the Waves to Wine staff. The resulting GPX files were converted to CRS files and uploaded to Torea's Forerunner. We were only successful at a combined course and elevation map for the first day's route. The second day's map contained only the course. For this reason, we decided to dedicate my Forerunner 305 to the acquisition of a empirical course and elevation dataset while physically on the ride. (Note to self: don't forget to charge your Forerunner in-between the first and second days.¹)

The monumental hill and extremely rough road leading into the last few miles of our first day slowed us down. We crossed the finish line at 4:34 PM, and promptly drank several glasses of the cold beer charitably bestowed by the New Belgium Brewery (makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale). Special mention is deserved for Torea's husband (Jeremy) and aunt, who supported us on this ride by meeting us at the finishes and transporting us to and from the hotels we stayed at during the tour. We enjoyed fine dining with them when we weren't riding or sleeping.

Day two began with a cold fog and another monumental hill. The first ten miles seemed like they were straight up. Advil may have helped relieve the pain from the prior day's ride, but did nothing to help the discouragement of such a difficult start. The coast was socked in with fog, which didn't burn off until the afternoon. The fog made our glasses useless, but I was cheering up and committed by the 30-mile mark. The sky became brilliant blue, and I put the SAG (Support And Gear) wagon² out of my mind. We were going to finish this ride, and finish it well. 400 ounces of water and six Advil into the ride, we crossed the finish line in Petaluma. The New Belgium Brewery truck welcomed us with open arms and full glasses. A woman with MS thanked us for our participation -- she recently regained her ability to walk as a result of treatment supported by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

A photo collection of our ride can be view by [clicking here].

None of us three suffered any bike malfunctions or flat tires during the ride. None of us three crashed. We were very, very lucky. I can't say as much for the numerous road kill animals on the bike route. Automobiles took the lives of nine squirrels, two blue birds, one possum, two racoons, four deer, one hawk, and countless snakes and frogs (at last count)³.

¹ Although the Garmin Forerunner 305 has superb battery life (estimated at ten hours), it won't be enough to stay alive for two day-long events between a recharge. Unfortunately, both Torea and I forgot to charge our Forerunners after the first day's ride. This meant that I only captured part of the second day's course. Luckily, someone else on the ride did capture and share their dataset for day two.

² The SAG wagon will pick up weary or hurt riders and take them to the finish. Most mechanical problems can be repaired on the course, but some breakdowns serious enough to necessitate the SAG wagon.

³ We made a game of keeping track since there were so many this year.