So this weekend was the Beaver Freezer down in Corvallis. I was pretty psyched cos Trey and I had wanted to do it before, but forgot to sign up. So this year we signed up.

I did extensive training for the race, lots of pizza, steak and beer. I've been biking to work and running at lunch, so I figured I didn't have to really do any more training. Except for the swim, so I hopped in the pool twice to make sure I wouldn't drown.

I had signed up for the swim with a 500 yard time of 9:40, but in my two swims at the gym I did about 8:30, so I knew I'd have to pass people in the triathalon.

On Saturday my heat was about an hour before Trey's because he signed up with a 8 minute time. When the swim started I went out a bit too fast and was way out in the lead. I ended up lapping the people in my lane 2 times. And then I was the first one out of the pool. But I felt like dying so I slowly jogged to the bike and hopped on.

I rode about 3 miles and got a flat. I thought that since I had my super tire and the green slime in the tube that I'd be ok. But the slime didn't stop the flat. I kept trying to pump it up but it sounded like the valve was broken. I went for my spare tube in my saddle bag. And it wasn't there. So I sat for a few minutes and swore at everyone who rode by.

I walked back to the last intersection and got a ride from a lady in her truck. We picked up another biker who got a flat and we walked back to the beginning of the race. I stuck around to take pictures of Trey in his transition and finish of the jog. He kicked some ass and finished in 1 hour 15 minutes.

Last night I took my lead test with Scott at the gym. I went up first to get it over with. My hands have been weak the past while so I ended up falling off a juggie 2/3rds of the way up and launching Scott into the air. On my way down I landed on him and turned upside down. That was pretty cool, but it didn't get me the super green card. Everyone at the gym said it was the coolest fall they had seen, so there's that.

Ant season just started, I found out. I woke up today to see the little bastards running around the dirty dishes in my kitchen sink. Guess it's time to keep up on my dishes.

Ron and I found out that it's actually difficult to break TV screens. We took a load of concrete, dirt and assorted junk to the dump on Saturday, where a few TVs were hanging out - waiting for us. So we chucked large rocks and chunks of concrete at the screens. And they wouldn't break. It took on average 15 good shots to break a screen. I bet the TV sitting in my room would shatter if I threw a sock at it though. Sunday we tried to go mountain biking and saw my frame had a crack in the paint. Well, I thought it was paint, turned out my swing arm has a crack in it. Which wouldn't be too great for biking hard, I'd rather not walk out from a ride.

Last night after climbing I did some bench to work out some stuff. About 2 months ago I would struggle with 135 lbs (2 45 plates and the bar.) Then somehow it jumped up to 185 (45s with 25s - almost looks cool.) Last night I tried out 225 (45s 35s and 10s as my gym doesn't have 4 plates) and actually squeeked out one on my own. I think it took about 30 seconds to do one rep, but it counts. It's strange because when I was lifting after college I would work out all the time and never got one rep of 225 in, and I thought I was pretty strong. So now I'm drinking beer and eating pizza almost every night and can do it. I had a beer last night to celebrate. I'll be sure to have one tomorrow when the soreness kicks in.

The hot tub is now finally hot and bubbly. And the GFCI hasn't been tripped for like a week and a half - so all is well in the tub.

So my tub hasn't been getting super hot as of late, or ever. And the GFI breaker I put on the outside of the garage has been tripping a lot. I had the repair guy come over. And of course it's like when you take your car to the shop, it won't misbehave when the mechanic is around. I couldn't get the tub to trip while he was there. He tightened down all the wire screws and said that could be it. And then he adjusted the thermostat so it'll get hot in the tub. He warned that it might get too hot, like 110, if it's set to the max. Which is fine with me. As the GFI is still being tripped, I'm going to disconnect the bonding ground, as that might be doing it as well. If that fails, I'm just going to get a non GFI breaker and throw that on the wall. The tub comes with a GFI so everything should be ok. And I picked up like a million bags of packing peanuts for insulation. Turns out I really only need like 2 bags, so now I have a bunch of black garbage bags filled with crap that likes to float around and make my yard look even trashier.

The moving party. Dan, May, Maureen, Aimee and Ron's hand.

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The hot tub repair guy came out yesterday and hooked up the wiring on the tub. The jury rigged heater element I had put together wasn't going to work, so I had the repair guy install a new heater element with a high temp safety switch (for $350.) That kinda sucked. We filled the tub with water and after replacing a diode and a cam for the air control buttons he turned it on. And water was whirl and pooling all over the place. Unfortunetly it was also pooling from one of the two pumps. "Oh, that's not good" he said. My response was "Aw ***k, how much is that?" Turns out they are $350 also. Someone has a good racket going on. I had to stand there and look at my tub with it's pretty water while he told me I shouldn't use it until we get a new pump in it. Otherwise it might break the motor (with water and all), and that'd be another $300. But, he's got the part in stock and is coming out on Saturday to hook it up. The grand total of repairs for my $400 tub will be $1100. I'll have to stop giving away my cans and bottles and get the deposit myself. Ron and I are going to put in the french doors on the garage for the TV and fridge this Saturday. Hopefully in time for Super Bowl Sunday. I have a pic of the tub here

I guess it's been a while since I've put anything up here about the hot tub. Probably because I've been busy doing stuff for it. I had thought when I bought it that I'd just move it to some patch of grass, run a wire to it and fire it up. Turns out you have to do other stuff. After the tub was moved I ordered some gravel from Mt. Scott Fuel on Foster, which was delivered in a dump truck - that was pretty cool. I got 3 yards of clean gravel and my buddy Aimee helped me shovel it into a wheelbarrow and then dump it into the hole. We put pressure treated 2x8s into the ground to support the pavers for the tub as well. We ran over to Mt. Scott Fuel to get our first load of sand in Ron's truck and dumped that on top of the gravel. We got another 1/2 yard of sand into the truck and came back. While we were there we saw some guy in a Chevy S-10 get a whole yard of sand dumped into his rig. That was pretty funny, his suspension dropped about a foot. I was nice(ish) to Ron's truck and only did a half yard at a time, which was still about a half ton. It took about 3 hours to shovel, move, dump and level the 3 yards of gravel and yard of sand. I was pretty impressed with our work. Since it was early and I had a truck, we went back to Mt. Scott Fuel and picked up 1400 pounds worth of flagstone. It was supposed to be $0.28 a pound but we got it at $0.20, which was pretty nice. Next was the wiring. I had a 1/2 inch metal conduit from the house to the garage and I figured I'd be able to shove the 220 volt wiring through there. After Ron helped me cut the conduit with his Sawsall we found out it wouldn't fit. So I took the 16 pound sledgehammer to the driveway for fun since we were stuck. A week later I got a hold of a hammer drill and some bits from my buddy Mike. I drilled a new hole into the foundation of the garage and grew the existing hole in the house. From that my dad and I were able to shove a 3/4 inch PVC from the house to the garage. The next week I put up a subpanel box in the garage, with the help of Aimee. It took a few hours but I got the 220 hooked up to the subpanel and started on re-wiring the lighting and scary room of the garage. The next day I finished the wiring of the lights. It was a bit tricky as it was a 3 wire set-up with a new ground. There were two hot wires, one for the scary room and one that was switched for the light. I connected the switch, and a 2 plug outlet in a 4" box by the sub-panel in the garage. It was a bit tight with all of the grounds and wires, but I screwed it all in. That night I started to connect the 220 up to the main breaker box in my basement. I thought better of doing it alone and asked Ron to come over in case I got shocked or something. After turning off the main breaker I started pulling the 220 wiring into the box. That was a bit weird - I had to knock out the knockouts with a hammer and screwdriver which was about 1 inch from the fat hot wires coming from the street. A half hour later it was all done. I closed up the panel and ran to the garage to see the lights turn on. They didn't. I had forgotten to close the circuit on the subpanel. Still nothing. Damnit. Then I remembered that I hadn't closed the 50 amp circuit breaker in the basement. Now we had light. This week I continued working on the wiring. I started to drill holes into the studs in the garage to get a wire ready for the tub. But I was tired and ate pizza after drilling the holes. Turns out you need to have the circuit breaker at *least* 5 feet from the tub. So I drilled a hole right by the subpanel. Tuesday night I put up my new 50 amp GFCI circuit breaker on the outside of the hose and wired it up to the dead wire. Last night I attached the 220 wire from the subpanl to the GFCI and turned it all on. I tested the GFCI and it did what it was supposed to, so that's good. I finished up last night by filling in the hole by the conduit (covering the condiuit with a gutter so you can't cut through it.) And finished putting the pavers onto the 8x8 hot tub space. Then I ate some pizza.

Last night my climbing buddies, Ron, my dad and I moved the tub into the back yard. I was worried that it wouldn't make it back there, so the previous night Ron and I took my new 16 pound sledge hammer to the ground and made some more room. After a few beers last night we all went outside, lifted the tub up and were done in 10 minutes. This weekend I'm getting gravel and sand, then it's just the electricity and we're soaking.

After 3 more beers I finished the hole last night.