Rachel Diaz-Bastin and Eric Lundberg got married at 5pm at Cafe de La Paz in Berkeley in front of friends and family. It was a great time and we'll have pictures up soon. Thanks to everyone who could make it, we are super happy!
-eric and rachel

So I did the Marin Century ride today, which was quite an event. The longest ride I had done before was 45 miles up to the top of Mount Tam, so this was a change! Mostly it is just a long time to be riding a bike. There are several large hills on the route as you can see on the map and there was a bit of a cross wind and head wind from time to time. But, overall the weather was quite good. Sunny with a cool breeze most of the day as we were near the coast. The early morning views of valleys with clinging pieces of fog were classically Californian coast. There were 4 rest stops on the route, all with lots of good food and drink and restrooms. I had lunch part 1 at the second rest stop and lunch part 2 at the third rest stop. After about 60 miles my ass was starting to hurt - not surprisingly it continued to hurt more for the rest of the ride. My left calf threatened cramp up but never did. My right knee got a bit twingy after 80 miles and around 95 started to hurt if I put much force on it, so I mostly used my left leg to get me up the last big hill then coasted the rest of the way in. I thought it was interesting that I wasn't really slowed down by my cardio or my length strength but more due to the rest of me wearing out. That is to be expected I think since I didn't build up slowly to a 100 miles. The book The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling was pretty handy tool for figuring out what I needed to do to train, but I only had 6 weeks and there is only so much one can do. Oh and my right big toe had the outside edge go numb, but it's done that ever since that fateful backpacking trip in '98 so I was expecting it. I wore a lot of sunscreen but got a little bit burned on the back of my calves as the sun shifted around. I also had some king of bug fly into my shirt and get caught which involved me then pulling over and frantically trying to let said bug out as I could hear it buzzing around under my jersey. Eventually I got it to fly out of my sleeve! The total route was 106 miles with 6250' of elevation. From start to finish was about 9 hours for me. I was on my bike for 7 hours and 15 minutes, so lunch, rest stops, and bug removal definitely took up some time. My average speed was 14.3 MPH while I was on my bike. Definitely nice that they had a good spread of food when I finished (including free hagen-daz ice cream!) I certainly slept well that night. :)

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The bachelor party was a great success, quite a time was had by all and it was super relaxing. The short version is I picked up Cannata and Alan Thursday night around 8 at the Sacramento airport. We drove to the store to pick up some supplies - which was easier said than done. Despite the massive MASSIVE strip malls we found, we couldn't find any grocery stores. We eventually found and bought as many groceries as we could fit in the car with us, and headed back to the airport to pick up Archibald. At which point we actually had to find the house, which wasn't too bad with our multiple GPS units, but still harder than you would expect. For instance having two "Feather River Blvd"s within a few miles of each other that both intersect the road we were one was a bit of confusion to say the least - particularly when one led into a dead housing development project where they had built the roads but no houses. The directions once we got to the lake were a little dubious and some slight mis-turns ensued, driving down random dirt roads near midnight is all sorts of fun. We did make it to the house, and while poking around after midnight discovered someone else inside. If that doesn't sound like the start of a horror film I don't know what would! Turns out he is the tenant of the apartment in the house who as part of his agreement with the owner doesn't stay around when the place is rented out and hadn't heard that we were going to be there. A bit creepy but acceptable. We hung out on the deck and caught up, had some drinks and snacks and Cannata made friends with the local cat.

A decent lay in the next day and then some breakfast and exploring around the grounds. Had a lovely swim, cold but OK once you get used to the temp, and the plants grabbing at your feet. ;) Had some chicken jalapeno pepper jack sausages for lunch number one, sadly one of the sausages exploded melted white cheese all over Cannata's eye and face. Luckily he shut his eye in time and no lasting damage was suffered - expect, perhaps, to the sausage involved, which was savagely consumed moments later. A little while later Mike and Steve showed up and we had lunch proper and continued our relaxed plan of hanging out around the house. My cousin, Matt, made it up in the early evening, at which point we were only one car load of people short. That car load had been delayed by the construction on 5, all the entrances and exits were closed so they had to do some serious extra driving. They did eventually make it up and much rejoicing was had. There was plenty of food and booze and even talk of going to the strip club in Smartville labeled 'girls' which thankfully didn't happen (because honestly a strip club in a little town in the foothills has got to be a bit dodgier than most.) We turned in relatively early so we could have time to grab some breakfast before going rafting.

Which is what we did! Despite the desire of the rafting company to have everyone there at a certain time, they were pretty slow in actually doing anything once we were all there at said time. But we did get out on the water, get a few quick instructions from the guide, and head off down the river. It was a great day for rafting, super hot out, with a cold river to dunk into. Very pleasant. The rapids weren't too rough, just good fun! I think we were all amazed by the traffic on the river, tons and tons of rafts! We were in two boats of 5 which was slightly too bad, but given how packed those big rafts were, the two rafts were probably more fun for everyone. There was a pretty good spread for lunch, fancy DIY sandwiches, lemonade, cookies - good work for pulling up on the side of the river. Being the bachelor I got a bag of swag while we were setting up that included a water proof camera so there are some shots of us on the river, though not actually in the rapids because I was required to paddle. Speaking of paddling though I got demoted after lunch from my front position, I was apparently too distracted with the scenery and generally relaxing - ha ha! :) We finished the trip and helped carry all the gear up to the truck, maybe a hundred feet above the river. What was kind of amazing is several years ago the river was actually running almost that high. You can see in a couple of my pictures the large amount of exposed ground from the current river up to the vegetation line. That would have been pretty nuts to see! We picked up CDs of everyone going through the two bigger rapids and drove back to the house.

It was a long day and we didn't get there till about 8PM, luckily James had been guarding the place for us and making sure the hot tub worked - which was also probably extremely good for his back so everyone won! We perked ourselves up with some coffee and started in on dinner and drinks and hung out and chatted till a sold 3:30 in the morning. Up at 7:30 to see off the first wave and get a start on breakfast. After that the trip was basically over, we cleaned, made sure everyone had their commemorative mug, and headed out - all much more relaxed that when we arrived! :) An excellent bachelor party for sure!

Jake and I entered the 2008 Pacific Cost Brew off with a batch of American Brown Ale we had made about a month ago. The contest was held today, and while we didn't win anything it was a great time. Not to mention we got free t-shirts, tasting glasses, and the opportunity to try a variety of good beers. We are definitely at the low end of the brewers with our very lax production schedule, bottling instead of kegging, and doing partial mash instead of all grain. A couple of brewers had 7+ entries in kegs which was pretty impressive. Everyone was essentially an enthusiast and were all very supportive and encouraging of each others efforts.

The contest was held in Potrero Hill, with tables for the brewers, a couple of tents, a DJ, and surprisingly cooperative weather. We drove over around 12:30 to set up our booth and taste the other entries before the general public started in on them. Molly had made cookies as palate cleansers / bribes and Jake had made a nice label for our bottles so our table area looked pretty good, almost professional one might say. Poured beer till we ran out around 4:30 and the results were announced at 5. Definitely a good experience and hopefully one that we will repeat in the future.

A good day for all. We started letting the cats explore the deck with supervision and Chufi finally found the catnip plant. He was extremely, EXTREMELY, interested. Rachel and I had a nice dinner sitting out on our deck watching the sky change color and get more and more dramatic. Can't beat good food, company, a glass of wine, and an amazing sunset. The pictures speak for themselves I think.

A number of you have been wondering what our place looks like, so at long last I have pictures of a more or less clean apartment. The summary is we are on the bottom floor of a duplex built out over a canyon. It is an 800sf 1 bedroom, with a walk in closet and nice deck that is about 50 feet off the ground. Right in the trees for us!

I recently tried this Pinot Noir from Germany. I now know why the Germans are not renowned for their red wine. The bottle was the best part, with the raised glass painted monkey, a real classic. Sadly the wine tasted kind of like the monkey, which is a tasting note I don't particularly care for in my wine. Alas.

Grilled up a little of the mighty Mike Spencer catfish special. Super easy to do and tastes great. Get yerself some meat rub from whole foods, such as the Blackened Cajun or Jamaican BBQ (in the meat section, not the spice section) or if you aren't into shopping at Whole Paycheck, grab similar products off amazon (Cajun Jamaican.) Get some catfish fillets, which are great because they are cheap, environmentally friendly, and taste great. Lightly butter the fillets then totally cover in seasoning and grill on full heat 3 minutes a side. Very tasty. I tried to use tongs to get flip the fish which was a bad idea, you really want a spatula or more specialty fish grilling equipment. Thanks again to Mike Spencer!

I recently read The Kite Runnerafter hearing it was a good read from my friend Molly. Definitely not disappointed. It is pretty easy reading and I cruised through it in a couple of days, the characters were great, with good pacing and plot. I have no basis for deciding weather any of the portrayals of Afghanistan were accurate or not, but I did enjoy reading them as I know very little about that part of the world and even the fictionalized version is probably a step in the right direction for me. Anyway, a good read, recommended.