Barenaked Ladies Concert

Katie has been a fan of Canadian band Barenaked Ladies for some time and attended their concerts when she lived in Canada. I was never as much of a fan because I didn't know much about their music and I consider their name to be egregious false advertising. However they were coming to Boise so we jointly decided we would attend. It would be my first "big name" concert visit in nine years! However I was saddened to learn they probably wouldn't be playing the only song of theirs I knew - Be My Yoko Ono.

The concert venue was an open grassy area at the Idaho Botanical Garden which meant that weather would be a concern. The weather forecast for Friday was uncertain and despite it not being very warm (temperatures were in the low 50s) it did stay dry! After a quick dinner at Pie Hole, we arrived just after 7pm as opening act Serena Ryder was beginning her performance. After being amazed by how busy the place was (the show was sold out) we found a decent spot on the grass. We ended up right near an old coworker of mine from Micron so the two of us caught up for a few minutes.

I wasn't a big fan of Serena Ryder's set but The Barenaked Ladies put on a great show. They started playing at about 8pm and played nearly two hours - more than most headline acts I've seen. I recognized a few of the songs but I think my favorite part was their improvised song honoring Boise which mixed vocal saxophone impressions with lyrics related to geological facts the band gleaned from the interpretive signs on nearby Table Rock.

On the way home the rain finally came... perfect timing!!


Serena Ryder performing with Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies


Concert venue


Barenaked Ladies early in their set


Barenaked Ladies onstage


Encore performance

Office Move

My company has been doing some hiring lately and we outgrew our old office and phone system. We were literally hiring people with no place for them to sit nor a phone extension available! With the commercial real estate market being bad the company was able to get a good deal on a much bigger building. On April 30 we moved over there and we're finally starting to settle in!


Old building


Old desk. Note the snazzy Haworth Zody ergonomic chair.


New building. If you look really hard you can see the logo of Cypress Semiconductor, the former occupant of the building.


New desk


Bonus at the new building: A fridge full of free pop! Yes, that is champagne on the door!

Company Picnic

Katie's company had their annual office picnic on Saturday at Eagle Island State Park. Despite all of the crummy weather lately it actually turned out to be a nice day! I got to meet more of Katie's co-workers and many of their children while enjoying the hot dogs and other fare. Katie submitted two dessert items (brownies and oatmeal creme pies) for judging... hopefully she will be declared victorious!


Entrance to the day-use area


Shelter with Richard manning the grill


Lake at Eagle Island State Park

Grape Mountain Kayak/Hike

Last Spring, I intended to kayak across Arrowrock Reservoir and hike Grape Mountain. However, shortly after leaving shore I discovered my kayak was leaking and aborted the trip (I ended up hiking Shaw Mountain). Within a week I had repaired the kayak but I never returned to the peak - until this past Saturday!

I got a late start (shocking for me, I know) but I was on the water around noon. The water was a little choppy due to wind but it was nothing my fine craft couldn't handle. The constant splashing did provide extra motivation to paddle faster! Within a short time I had reached the far shore, but in a rocky, steep area which was kind of annoying to "de-kayak" in. After some scouting, I moved the kayak into a sandier spot downriver and cached the kayak in some conveniently placed deadfall.

From the cache spot, I embarked on a brisk hike up the steep lower aspects of the peak's southwest ridge. Immediately I noticed the arrowleaf balsamroot was flowering on the lower slopes - another sign of Spring! Below the ridge top, I spotted a half dozen elk grazing - however upon hitting the ridge their numbers were actually at least two dozen. Certainly the most elk I've spooked at once! Besides the elk, I later managed to spot blue grouse, chukar, and even a blue heron on the day.

Once on the ridge top, the hike became much gentler and a very pleasant ridgewalk up to the summit. Views were great and aside from the roads near the summit, this area seems to get very little use. The summit itself I had visited in 2007 (via a different route from the east) and I got to sign the summit register again. Due to wind and my late arrival, I didn't stay too long on top.

I descended via a different ridge (west ridge) which was much more shorter but also much steeper. The last few hundred feet above the reservoir were actually kind of obnoxious... steep, sandy, and loose. From the reservoir I worked my way over to the kayak so I could complete the round trip. Thankfully the kayak was in top shape and makes me want to find more peaks which I can hike in this manner!

Trip statistics: 1 mile kayaked, 8 miles hiked, 3150' elevation gain, 5.25 hours

Grape Mountain Pictures!

Idahosummits Spring 2010 Climb

The Idahosummits Message Board regularly arranges group climbs of various peaks in Idaho's central mountains. For various reasons (weather and living out of state) I've never attended one of these climbs. However everything finally came together for the Spring 2010 climb.

After some dithering, the group decided to climb Little Sister in the Lemhi Range on April 17. Dan and I made the drive over in my trusty Escape. There were some concerns about snow but once we got to eastern Idaho it was obvious that snow levels would be high enough to give us a good camping experience. Upon reaching the campsite (and finding John, Dave, and Steve already there) we were blown away by how great it was... fairly flat and with lots of room! Others gradually rolled in (Margo, Margie, Dave, and Alex from Pocatello, Jeff from Boise, Rob from Rupert) in the late afternoon. Steve made us an excellent salmon dinner which was followed up by good times around the campfire. Many of us were meeting each other for the first time so it was a good time to get acquainted and to tell various stories accrued over years of hiking. At about 11pm, everyone went to bed... however I don't think anyone slept too well due to the various noises (including my car alarm at one point) that persisted all night. Overnight, Matt and Michael (from Boise) and Russ (from Preston) also arrived. By morning we had 14 people at the trailhead!

We started getting ready about 6:30am and at this point it was sprinkling rain and snowing up high. Not the best climbing weather! We took our group photo then headed up the peak, first across sagebrush slopes and eventually into forest. It was nice brisk climb and we did a good job staying together as a group. We were getting snowed upon for awhile, but as we got higher it abated and the weather started to look more promising. About halfway up we put on snowshoes and followed the trail set by the early group (mostly John!) all the way to the top. As we got near the summit, the clouds totally broke and we were welcomed to the summit under blue skies!

The summit views were outstanding with all of the Spring snow still in place. Shortly after arriving, the early group returned to the summit (after their climb of Big Sister) which resulted in a total of 11 people on top - possibly a record for that peak! Eventually the wind started to pick up which motivated us to head down. The descent through the snow was a little bit slick as the snow had softened up quite a bit in the sun. After fighting fatigue for a bit, I found a rhythm and made a steady descent to the truck and beer!

We had a great time relaxing at camp in the sun before we finally headed out. Seven of us (most of the Boise crew) ate at Pickle's Place in Arco before finishing the drive home. In short, this was a great trip - thank you everyone!

Trip statistics: 3800' elevation gain, 5.75 miles, 7.75 hours

Idahosummits Spring 2010 Climb Pictures!

Dan's Trip Report
John's Trip Report
Margo's Trip Report
Matt's Trip Report
Dave's Trip Report
Jeff's Pictures
GPS Track

Cervidae Peak Hike

For a quick Spring hike I opted to climb nearby Cervidae Peak (which I also climbed last Fall). It would be my fourth time up the peak and the fourth time using a different route. This time I climbed from the Mores Creek Bridge which is actually a very enjoyable route. I saw lots of deer and chukars on the ascent - wildlife always makes a hike more exciting!

The trip was uneventful although the day was cloudier than I had hoped. After reaching the summit and reading through the register, I noticed that the previous entry was from BSU star football player Richie Brockel!

Trip statistics: 5 miles, 2350' elevation gain, 3 hours

Cervidae Peak Pictures!

Happy Easter!

We hope everyone had a great Easter! Being the non-religious people that we are are, we didn't attend church or anything like that. However we did hard-boil some eggs and color them as part of the secular holiday tradition. Since we're nerds, we also had a little Easter egg hunt with the colored eggs :-)

Once that was over, I made a rare appearance in the kitchen and deviled the eggs. For dinner, Katie made a nice meal consisting of ham, roasted potatoes, green beans, and dinner rolls. Yum!

The day also involved the first yard mowing of the year and preparing our taxes (argh!). My only complaint is that it wasn't about 20 degrees warmer!


Freshly colored eggs!


Deviled eggs!

Recent Happenings

Lately our respective jobs have been really busy so there's been a lot of working going on. We have managed to see a couple of movies, Crazy Heart and Green Zone. We found them both to be very good movies but very different - Crazy Heart was certainly my favorite of the two.

Last week I had some kind of stomach virus and had to stay home on Wednesday. Sadly most of my sick day was spent either in the bathroom or asleep somewhere. Fortunately it had mostly blown over by Thursday and I could resume my normal routine. However it's been a week and I still don't feel quite the same...

Last weekend I spent both days attending the Boise Code Camp as part of my never-ending professional development agenda. While it cost me a weekend, it was definitely worth it. While I was off being an uber-nerd, Katie spent Saturday with some friends watching various Corey Haim movies in memory of the recently departed teen icon. Katie reported that the movies they watched weren't very good which validated my decision to not go!

That's about all from here. Despite some snow today, we're excited about Spring (well, except for the yardwork part...)!

Danskin Mountains Hike

Since the weather has started warming up and the snow line has been receding, Dan and I decided to arrange a weekend trip. Since Dan wasn't available until late morning we opted for a quick hike near Boise, specifically Peak 5160+ in the Danskin Mountains. This is actually a fun area for Spring hiking... very open with wildlife and actually quiescent since ATV season doesn't start until April 10.

Our hike was uneventful and we got to spend lots of time leisurely hiking and catching up on things. We did see our share of wildlife... birds of prey, chukars, deer, and elk. The promised sunny weather didn't materialize but it was still a great first hike of Spring!

Trip statistics: 5.5 miles, 2150' elevation gain, 3.5 hours
Danskin Mountains Hike Pictures!
GPS Track

Happy Pi Day!

Ian used to make us aware of Pi Day, so in his honor we decided to actually celebrate this overlooked occasion. Katie said she would be making a pie and I got to choose what kind - so I chose key lime! As expected, it was amazing and the highlight of an otherwise subdued Pi Day. We hope all of our readers also had a great Pi Day!

Tennessee Visit

After my business trip in Raleigh, I flew to Nashville Friday night. Not surprisingly, the flight was filled with spring breakers departing the various universities in the Raleigh area. After arriving in Nashville, renting a Yaris, and driving to Winchester, I arrived at my Grandma's house at about 12:45am. My Mom was there too as she is helping my Grandma in her recovery from a recent knee replacement (her recovery is progressing nicely). After talking with my Mom for a bit, we both went to bed.

While at my Grandma's I got to spend time with my Grandma, Mom, Aunt Joy, and cousin Logan. I also took care of a few things around the house and also checked out some vintage slides from the 60s and 70s that I hadn't seen before. Also, my Mom had just gotten a new laptop and after setting that up I accompanied her on wi-fi expeditions to area hotspots Krystal and McDonalds. Other highlights included playing tennis (for the first time in at least five years) with Logan and driving my Grandma's new Prius. The Prius was a novel driving experience, mostly because it has that newfangled push-button ignition.

On Monday afternoon I had to drive back to Nashville to catch a flight back to Boise. The flight was uneventful but I was disappointed to find the temperature about 20 degrees cooler in Boise! After arriving at 11:30pm, it was off to bed and work on Tuesday.

Tennessee Visit Pictures!

Business Trip

My boss arranged a trip for several of the software developers at the Boise office to meet our counterparts at corporate headquarters in Raleigh. As part of the group chosen to travel, I was able to go on my first ever business trip! We left Boise around mid-day Wednesday and got to Raleigh just after 8pm. On the flight out of Boise we were on the same flight as Olympic biathlete Sara Studebaker who was returning to Lake Placid for more training. I'm particularly glad I didn't check a bag - not only did I save $25 in fees but the two people who checked their bags both had them miss our connection in Chicago!

Thursday we spent most of the day at the Morrisville office in a meeting with the software developers and managers from Raleigh. It was actually a very interesting and beneficial meeting as we gained a much better understanding of what really goes on from a technical perspective and how us Boiseonians could benefit from all of the software investment being made at the corporate level. I was very impressed to find a fridge stocked with free pop, great people to work with, and a generally nice office environment. After being in a conference room all day, we adjourned around 4pm to get ready for dinner. We had a nice meal at Firebirds - I had the coconut shrimp which were very good and discovered my new favorite beer: Duck Rabbit Milk Stout. It's like a light stout but with extra creaminess that I've never experienced in a beer. That stuff was so good - I wish I could somehow take some home!

Friday morning we had more meetings which included some other Raleigh staff where they explained some of their technology at the hardware/firmware level and their testing strategies. Once again, all good stuff for us to better understand the company we now work for. We also got a tour of their facility which included some interesting equipment, such as electric meter calibration gear, electro-static discharge (ESD) test equipment, an x-ray machine for identifying component failures, and even an anechoic chamber (used for RF testing). Pretty darn cool stuff! Afterwards, we picked up lunch at a Chick-Fil-A which was actually the first time several of the group had eaten there. After lunch we took a brief tour of the headquarters in Raleigh where most of the my division's management is located. We then drove around town a little before heading toward the airport to catch our various flights.

However I did not go to the airport - I scheduled a late (7:45pm) flight to Nashville so I could spend some time with my family in Tennessee. I was dropped off at the hotel and John, a friend from college and resident of Cary, NC, picked me up from the hotel just after 4pm. I got to meet his girlfriend Crystal and catch up on everything. We had a small dinner at a nearby O'Charleys before I was dropped off at the airport. From there, it was on to Tennessee for a brief family visit!


Morrisville Office


Fridge full of free pop (refilled every day)


Sensus Office in Raleigh

Craters of the Moon Snowshoe

Matt and I decided to go snowshoeing on the 27th. Weather around the state wasn't looking good so we decided upon Craters of the Moon National Monument which seemed to have the most promising forecast. Craters of the Moon is a volcanic area in eastern Idaho with lots of interesting volcanic formations, open terrain, and groomed winter trails. The lava fields, normally black in summer, was instead bright white with snow!

I met Matt just after 6am and then suddenly realized I left my snowshoes at home. D'oh! After driving back to my house to get them we ended up leaving Boise 45 minutes later than we had planned. The drive across the state was a little bit snowy at first but once we got to the Camas Prairie the weather turned into high broken clouds - about the best we could hope for! We parked at the visitor's center and began snowshoeing the groomed road just before 10am. We made good progress and were quickly at the end of the groomed road and had to start breaking our own trail toward the formations we were planning on climbing.

Overall the snow conditions were decent... usually there was a supporting layer underneath a few inches of soft stuff. Some areas were total sugar which was frustrating... but in roughly two hours we attained the summit of Broken Top. After taking in the view, we headed down and over to Big Cinder Butte, the highest volcanic feature in the park. Big Cinder Butte is a neat spot with a commanding view of the surrounding area. The weather appeared to be deteriorating so we quickly descended through the beautiful limber pine forest and headed up Half Cone, a minor summit near Big Cinder Butte. After relaxing on Half Cone for a few minutes it was almost 3pm and with still worsening weather we had to start heading home. The snowshoe back to the car was long and somewhat tiring and we got back to the vehicle under a light snowfall at about 6pm.

When we were roughly a quarter mile from returning to the groomed road, Matt had one of his snowshoes totally fall apart. We were both lucky this happened where it did - if it had happened far from the road we would have had a serious problem likely requiring some Bear Grylls-style improvisation!

A final footnote is that I was stupid and neglected to apply sunscreen because it wasn't sunny... needless to say my red face was the source of comedy at work on Monday. Once again I'm reminded that the red man reaction is not satisfaction!

Trip statistics: 13 miles, 1600' elevation gain, 8 hours

Craters of the Moon Snowshoe Pictures!
Matt's Trip Report

In Memory of Grandpa Dow

Last week I learned that my grandfather had passed away at his home in Tennessee at the age of 86. Always of sound mind, his body gradually failed him as he battled Parkinson's Disease. I'm sad that I will no longer see my Grandpa but his passing does remind me of all of the great memories he left me with.

I have a bounty of fond memories from summer vacations spent at my grandparents' house in Tennessee. Grandpa taught me how to fish which became a highlight of summer. Of course, he would proceed to gut whatever I caught (usually bream or catfish) as I recoiled in horror! I used to love to watch my Grandpa operate his ham radio station (call sign: K4VR) and to play with his radios, learning how they worked and listening to all kinds of interesting transmissions on the HF bands. Those experiences motivated me to eventually become a licensed ham at age 17 (call sign: KF4LAJ). Grandpa was also a famous backseat driver and I fondly remember learning to drive around Winchester while getting rather aggressive suggestions about what I could or should be doing! I would be remiss to not mention his love of seafood (OK, food in general) and his passion for cleaning his plate at every single meal. Every time I clean my plate (which actually seems like most of the time these days!) I can't help but think that he would be proud!

Besides my personal memories, I would also like to share some of many great pictures of Grandpa from my collection. Grandpa, we love you and miss you!

Pictures of Grandpa Dow!

Chimney Peak Snowshoe

Dan invited me on a snowshoeing trip to Chimney Peak in the Soldier Mountains. John also joined in and we left from Boise just after 6:30am. After driving through snow flurries outside of Mountain Home, we popped out into daylight on the Camas Prairie just before 8am. By 8:20am we were on our way.

Dan knew the route since he had been on the peak before. John is in great shape and was willing to lead most of the way and did a great job - I nominate him for an award for excellence in trail breaking! We made good progress and were on the summit just after noon. It was a tad bit windy and cold on the summit so we didn't stay on top too long.

The area is a mecca for snowmobilers but surprisingly we only saw two the whole day - both right near the summit. When we returned to the trailhead there were probably a dozen trailers in the parking lot. On the way back we encountered the Kite Soldiers Snow Kite event (hosted by Snowkite Soliders) which was pretty neat to check out.

Trip statistics: 9 miles, 2100' elevation gain, 5.75 hours

Chimney Peak Pictures!

John's Trip Report
Dan's Trip Report