Monday night Chris was in town to help with the novice racing clinic at PIR, so he came by and we went over to McMenamins, grabbed some food and caught up.  The biggest news?  On  Sunday night he got engaged!  I’m really excited for them, as Chris and Karey are one of my favorite couples and Chris is one of my close friends.  The wedding likely won’t be until summer 2010, but a weekend-long bachelor party consisting of camping and lots of biking is already stewing in Chris’ mind.  So much so that we may have to do a “rehearsal” bachelor camping trip this summer sometime.

Monday morning I went with Chris on a ride and wanted to give him a tour of the West Hills/Skyline area.  I took him up or down most of the major roads in the West Hills:

Up Thompson, down Springville, up Old Germantown, down Kaiser, up Old Corneilius Pass, down backside Logie Trail, right back up backside Logie Trail, then down the front side of Logie Trial, through Jackson Quarry, up Mason Hill, and eventually looped back through the flats for a nice 60 mile loop.  The elevation profile would look like a heart rate graph of someone dying – big ups and downs followed by a flatline.  Luckily we survived the ride.

After the ride and some lunch, we went out to fly Chris’ kite.  I’d been excited to try it out after hearing of fun in Eugene with it.  This isn’t just any kite – it’s a 3 meter kite used to train for kiteboarding.

It’s small compared to the actual kites used on the water, but massive compared to your standard kite.  It’s a lot of fun, and you’re actually flying the kite, rather than holding onto a line while it hangs up there.  You can steer it, make it dive, and do all sorts of interesting things with it.

With decent wind it’s quite the full-body workout, and will drag you around with a good gust.

After Chris left, I went to get the car from Pat.  Here’s a better picture than the one from the other day:

It’s a little less red than the picture looks, and more of a red/orange.  I think the official color is called burnt rust.  I got insurance set up today, so now I need to finish off the title & registration stuff and get that in the mail tomorrow.

Today I spent the day babysitting again, and the day went by in a hurry.  Tomorrow will be more apartment hunting and job prep.  Friday will likely be a repeat of my ride through Portland delivering fliers to bike shops – different fliers this time.  Saturday and Sunday will include some riding, but that’s about as far as I’ve gotten in planning the weekend.  Then comes Monday and the start of a new job.