My 20

So I haven't updated this thing in a while. Anyone who is still visiting checking for updates might wonder where I've been since my last post in 2007. The answer is www.facebook.com.


I may switch back to this blog at some point, but you guys outta check this deal out. It's an incredible networking website.

Garage

So we finally got a builder out and started on the garage project. Hoping to be done around late May - early June.

O Holy Awesomeness

I'm not sure how long I'll have this file up here, but for the last few Christmases I keep coming back to this guy, and it's still funny. Maybe it staged, maybe it's the second coming of the star wars kid from a few years.... don't much care.
http://www.robofpatton.com/Someguy-OHolyNight.mp3


And if you enjoyed that...
http://view.break.com/396808

The Frogs in the Hollow Logs

Back in the college years, my roommate Chewy always had this huge VHS camera and was always filming college life. Chewy recorded about five VHS tapes worth of random stuff going on at college. Chewy loaned me these tapes for safe keeping after decided to all but move to Japan for close to a decade ("Dam you Chewy, dam you" -Bear). So the tapes have stayed in my possession for some time, and I've ripped and edited some of them into "short" viewable clips like this one. More will be coming in the future.

Sadly only a few choice moments landed on these tapes, but the Destruction of the Log remains one of my favorites. So for those of you with any Calvin ties, perhaps you will appreciate our boys BeeJ and Chewbs tearing up the once proud, the once not torn and not burned, the once phallic symbol of a tree, The Log. (this video is pretty hefty in size so it may a while to load, and it not be up here long) For those of you who feel the uncontrollable urge to correct others' spelling/grammar, I know "starring" is incorrect. So have some popcorn and enjoy.

Lookin out my back door

Before I talk about anything that's been going on in the last few weeks, I want to mention that Melis gave birth to our beautiful daughter Cadence, via emergency c-section, Saturday 6/16/07, at 5:37am. We couldn't be happier.

That being said, around the same time, Melis and I got some guys to start working on a backyard project we've been planing. We're putting in new stairs, retaining walls, drainage, pavers, garden and BBQ area, and in a year or two a garage. The slide show below show images of our backyard starting with the way it was, and ending with how they are now.

Tie his kangaroo down

Chewy has video... Go to his blog entry.
Or just push play.

Gold.

A lot has happened since the beginning of the 2006-2007 49er's season. Just barely missing the playoffs, we showed a glimmer of our true capacity. We beat the Seattle seahawks twice, and would've taken the NFC west if we could've just played them one more time. Melis and I attended one of the more memorable games when the Niners beat the seahawks at The Stick (in November '06; pictured). There we got to see the greatest receiver (likely best player) who has ever played the game, The Flash, #80, Jerry Rice, officially retire and catch one final touchdown pass from the highest rated QB (career) is league history #8 Steve Young. Then Melis and I came back to Seattle to see our boys beat the hawks AGAIN at Qwest field when nobody thought they could. It was awesome.

Since the 2003 destruction of the roster by John York and Terry Donahue, my Niners have simply been bad. I wanted them to hunker down and endure the gauntlet they've had to run without tarnish the greatness they've achieved. It could've been worse but they did not come out unscathed. We were shutout for the first time in decades, ending the longest streak in NFL history. We had no quantifiable receivers for the first time since Freddie Solomon in 1975. We let the bass-ackwards AFC cruise into the NFC's limelight.

But that is all over. The 49ers have put their foot down and drawn a line in the sand. We will surrender this far and no further! We will give some instead of taking it! We will push back and make the league realize the threat we are. The respect is back, the management is back, the hype is back, the roster is back, the talent is back, the fans... never left. This season we're hunting for birds, goats, tigers, steel workers, regular-sized giants, pirates, browns who don't understand color, norsemen and cats.

Sourdough Sam has a gigantic, pointy, gold-plated pick-axe for each of ya.

As we review our weaponry we have a QB ready to become a premier passer, deep threats at WR and TE, the best RB in the conference, a solid Kicker and great special teams, and a MONSTER, biggest-sleeper-in-the-league defense. We have drafted well (ILB Patrick Willis, OT-Joe Staley, etc.) and played free agency well (WR-Darrell Jackson, shutdown CB-Nate Clements, WR-Ashlie Lelie, etc.). The squatter seahawks have had the NFC West on LOAN from us. The 49ers ARE the NFC West, it's OUR division, and OUR conference, there is red and gold ALL OVER that title, and we coming for it.

T-minus 30

My gorgeous wife Melis is 8 months pregnant with our daughter. And I'm nervous and excited and nervous. So in honor of all that, here's a shot from last week.

Are you joking?

So I haven't posted any personal political opinions in a while, and I haven't pissed of any of my friends recently so I figure I'm due. ;)

Being a conservative guy living in a lamentably, blue state, can be enlightening sometimes. However, I can't understand why the Democrats have decided to surrender Iraq to the terrorists busy killing innocents, by attempting to withdraw our troops from Iraq. Fortunately enough level heads are going to prevent an override of the President's veto, but can someone explain this to me....

Why do the liberals want to withdraw? I get that they oppose going (although it was absolutely the right thing to do), but we're there now and they want us to leave. Here's what I've come up with, and please feel free to volunteer other ideas here.

Support for Surrender / Troop Withdrawl
-It puts more pressure on Iraq to solidify their own security
-It saves American lives (short term anyway)
-It saves American money; money for the war would go someplace else.

Opposition for Surrender / Troop Withdrawl
-Iraq is overwhelmed and becomes a breeding ground for terrorism to spread to the US (again) and the world (again) and more lives are lost.
-Thousands, probably millions of Iraqis die, who still support their elected Democratic government
-A precedent and guideline for the terrorists to complete their objectives.
-The terrorist state that the President sacrificed so much political capital to destroy for the safety of the world is restored.


Frankly, when the liberals and the terrorists agree that the US should withdraw... shouldn't alarm bells be going off in people's heads? Doesn't that bother anyone on the left? I mean, shouldn't we do the opposite of what the terrorist want? For example, let's say the terrorists want ____ to kill more people... Therefore we should not give them ____. In this case, the terrorists (and the liberals) want us to surrender Iraq. So shouldn't we NOT surrender Iraq?

So I must ask, why surrender? It doesn't make sense.

My Hand

Shots from our recent trip in Mich... and yes I noticed the images are being cut off... and some rotated right.

Who's Yo Daddy

I've really slacked on this blog recently but that's party because Melissa and I found out a few months back that we gonna get a visit from the stork. We found out that we're going to have a girl. She's be our first child, a first grandchild to five, a first great-grandchild to two, and a fourth great-grandchild to another two. We're pretty stoked.

My First STP

So last July me and some buddies of mine did the Seattle To Portland (STP), and it was so much fun. The STP, is a 200 mile bike ride from Seattle, WA to Portland, OR. In 2006 over 9,000 riders made the trip, of all age groups, some make the trip in one day but the majority do it in two days. The beauty about this trip is EVERYTHING is taken care of. There are cops holding off traffic at every major intersection and most minor intersections, support and escort vehicles (health and bike repair), and there are even thick rugs over the rugged railroad tracks. There are a ton of places to stop along the way so you can take it at your own pace. At the official stops (every 25 miles or less) there is free food, water, powerade, bathrooms, space to rest, and it's all easy to find with the signs and support staff waving you on. You can get the same stuff at the unoffical stops (every 5-10 miles) but it's not free.

I love it because you just keep eating through this whole thing, but you're burning calories so fast you never really get full.

I've gone on bike trips before but never really travelled from one city to another like this. So when Jesse first suggested the idea, it seemed a little intimidating. But it was cake. Anyone can do this thing because you can really take it at your own pace. I found my road bike online for around $200 on Craigslist. It's a nice deep blue, 3 year-old, lightweight steel, pretty rare Swedish-made Ochsner, streaker of bicycle machinery.

Day 1
I arrived at Husky Stadium late to the startign line (held up by traffic), and found the guys Jesse, Pawan, IHOP, Amiko, Clemen (Jesse's buddy from Chicago) and Sam (also traveled out here from Chicago to do the STP), all of them waiting for me. So I scrambled to get my tags on, tossed my bag on the truck to Centralia, jumped on my bike, and lined up at the starting line (they launch waves of 100 or so every ten mintues between 5-8am). I was still strapping in, zipping up, and securing lose items until a mile or two down the road. But after I did, I fired up some ZZ Top on the MP3 player and I found myself on the road with my buddies and nothing to do but pedal.

It was awesome.

There was a lot of passing on day one (read Rob being passed), but to start out we crossed the UW bridge and headed south along Lake Washington and into the lowlands towards Kent/Auburn. It was a beautiful sunny day in the low 80s, with no himidity, so you barely broke sweat. I ended up chatting and trading bad jokes with a complete stranger; Jim a police officer from Lynnwood. In daily life you just can't start talking with strangers on the street about their job as a police office, or thier 4month old daughter, and football, and socitey, etc. But when you're in a pack of people all moving towards the same goal, I love that feeling.

Speaking of unity, I have a big Bush-Cheney '04 sticker on my helmet that I got when the President was campaigning back in Michigan. So I got an extra thrill outta smiling-waving at the sign-carrying wacko liberals on the side of the road, that read "Bush is a terrorist", "happy people are evil", "I hate everything American but don't you DARE question my patriotism!", "Bush blew up the twin towers", you know, the usual lefty blather. But wacha gonna do, it's Seattle.

For those of you who are still reading... The first stop was at the 50mile mark, and it was a sea of bikes. There were 9,000 riders in this thing but it was really well coordinated. They channeled all the riders to open parking, and explained where everything was within a few seconds of entering the parking lot. Repairs, Bathrooms, First Aid, Sandwiches, water, power bars, fruit, cookies, and samples of all kinds of promo bike stuff.

There were seven in our group, and we kind of all decided that we'd all go at our own pace and meetup where we could. It's really tough keeping more than three riders together because everyone has different speeds they want to go on an uphill, downhill or whatever. The climber in our group goes to Jeff "IHOP". That guy bikes up Captiol Hill everyday coming back form work. He and his girl Amiko both were definitely the most fit for this thing.

Most of day one was in the bloated bike lane, but there was this 10-15 miles stretch of this beautiful jogging path off the road, which was really relaxing. What's cool about making the trip on a bike versus driving it that you get up close and personal with the scenery. You can smell and touch things as you go by.

We arrived in Centralia Community College, cleverly located in Centralia, WA in the mid-late afternoon. There were a handful of people along the side of the rode cheering the riders on. You rode directly into the courtyard area of the college, and there was food, showers, music, tons of tents, a police-patrolled corral for the bikes, repair/parts shop. One guy in our group arrived an hour or two after the first of us did, so we walked over to the local mexican bar in Centralia. It reminded me a LOT of this college bar called The Cantina that my college buddies and I used to meet at on Thursday nights back in Grand Rapids, MI. We got the same chips and the same salsa and bean dip, and the same beer. After the last of our group arrived, we all headed out to our respective "hosts" place to crash. It's free to camp, crash in the local church gym on cots, or you can pay some I think it was $20 and have someone pick you up, drive you to their place, and give you a place to sack out. Some of them give you dinner/breakfast (like Jesse and Pawan's host). Others had a pool, tennis court, deck with amazing view (like me, Jeff, Jesse's Chicago Buddy (damit), and Sam). I wish I had my camera then.

Day 2
Woke up around 7am and got a ride back to the college from our host and we met the rest of the group, and headed out around 7:20am. It was about upper 60s, and morning fog was beginning to break away. About 10 miles down the road at the next town, we found a church that had all-you-can eat thick blueberry pancakes, eggs, sausages, OJ, coffee, for $10. Those pancakes were sooo good. THOSE folks smiled at my Bush-Cheney '04 sticker on my helmet.

The first 1/2 of day two was really hilly. After 20 miles or so, you kind of knew what the road was going to do. Downhills are a great reward/rest for most of the trip but every time you got a downhill, you knew the same incline was right around the corner.

By about 12pm all that was over, and we got to the Columbia River crossing on the Lewis and Clark Bridge. The bridge was maybe a mile and a half long so cops had to block traffic and escort us over in groups. I reached my top speed of the trip at 38.5mph coming down the other side. While the real bikers I know laugh at this speed, I've never gone that fast before on a bike so it was a thrill.

Then we cruised southeast on Oregon Highway 30 along the Columbia River side into a handful of small towns the rest of the day into Portland. By mid day two we were all pretty scattered out but we still caught up at different stops and we all arrived at the finish line in Portland. The finish line party there was awesome (see images from the blogs below), just like the day one finish there were showers massages, and tons of free food with live bands, big DJ booth welcoming in all the riders, to this welcome ramp you ride down just before you cross the line. There were approximately 200-300 at the finish line welcoming all the riders in looking for their family and friends. It was great.

And we celebrated at the Henry Winehard's really nice bar/restaurant in downtown Portland and drove home. Actually they drove home (we opted to not take the bus and rent our own ride) and dropped me off back at the UW parking lot where my bike and backpack were waiting for me. Melis picked me up and I slept real good that night.

So that was my first STP, here are some other blogs, images, and other cool stuff I've found.

STP Route Map
Eric Gunnerson
Tony Chor
Bike Hugger
C. Chase Taylor
atomicmoo

summer is half over, but my beer mug is half full

Rob and PC4301. My job is still going well, which I am really grateful for. The last few jobs I had in Michgan had their own perks (especially Audio Designs a few months before it imploded), but I'm glad to be doing the white-collar bit again... like I'm meant to.


Recently we took a 1.5 hour drive out to Jim Haley's (Melissa's co-worker) cabin about 15 miles around Rockport State Park. Jim Haley is a mean, crouchety, old dude with no sense of humor. Just kidding; Jim and his wife are awesome. They invite co-workers and their families every year for a BBQ. It's really beautiful up there in the Cascades. Their place is near the Skagit River which you can hear bubbling by, underneath a million-and-one, 50'-80' tall, redwood-sequoia-whatever-they-ares. Here's Melis enjoying her surroundings with a beer and a burger. You can see Jim in the background, he's the Santa Claus-lookin' dude in red.


We love our view. We're always worrying that developers are going to build condominiums right in front of us... as they inevitably will. So we're trying to enjoy it while we've got it. If you click on the image you can see some gliders/para-sailers a mile or two out.


Trevor, Krista, and their dog long-pee Louie came to the BBQ. Krista works with Melis at The Herald and Trevor studying to be a nurse and training for a 7000 ft two day climb up Mount Rainer... And Louie can pee for a real long time. They live in Everett about 10 blocks away from us. It's been real cool getting to know 'em.


Juding from the lighting on these pictures you might not know it, but we got ourselves a new camera. The Olympus 720SW, it's pocketsize-small at 3.6" wide X .75" deep, sports 7.0 megapix, can be droppped from 5ft without "internal damage", take pictures up to 10ft underwater, digital image stabilization, and other cool stuff. Now I need to figure out how to use it.


This summer really has been killer. After living out in Washington for over a year and a half, Melis and I are pretty well connected to life out here. We're still working on the house and are about ready to move forward with the backyard plans in 2-3 weeks. The garage has become a little tricky what with the city regulations, but things will work out one way or the other. Oh yeah, I did the STP (Seattle to Portland) bike ride, which was SO MUCH FUN!!! I'll post more about that and other stuff later. A few weeks back we saw Pearl Jam at The Gorge with our esteemd associates Sarah and Andy who moved out here from Boston. My Uncle Pat and Aunt Sharon also reacently moved out here from California. These are the guys who I always brag about because they've got the greatest BBQ in the world. The Greatest. And they're opening a restaurant up here. More later.

1st Quarter Action

So I haven't posted in a bit and my CPU crashed... so here are some quick clips from the last few months...

- Andy and I saw Aerosmith in Tacoma, just a killer show. Until the tour was called off, they've been doing a "rockin' blues" kinda tour. And we're planning to go see Pearl Jam at The Gorge this summer with the girls. I'll probably have more about that.
- Over Xmas Doug and Jane took a bunch of us to Silcox Hut on Mount Hood. Here are some pics of the trip and some unrelated general Xmas shots.
- Derek and Kruse got engaged more info here. Even more Kruse and Derek pics, here.
- The Seahawks lost to Pittsburg in Super Bowl Forty las February. Some quick thoughts about that: the Niners are a record 5-0 in the Superbowl, the Seahawks got handed a playoff spot with the NFC West, and arguably the NFC conference title. Pittsburg's QB had a Super Low 29 point something rating, and the NFL #1 ranked offense found a way to grasp deafeat from the jaws of victory. And the Niners are a record 5-0 in the big game.
- We got new windows on the house. Never in my life would it think this is actually news.... but I've got an over-developed sense of humor these days.
- I completed a Neworking night class a Bellevue Community College and passed my CompTia Network+ exam, so I've got my elective certs out of the way. Now I just need 3 Microsoft certs and I'm an Microsoft Certified Systems Analyst (MCSA).
- I joined a public flag-football league and it is FUNpublic (see our team photo and record). We're a solid 2-1 right now, but we're gonna take it all.
- Me and a group of four other guys from my Saturday poker squad decided we’re going to do the Seattle-to-Portland bike thing. It’s a two day ride of 200 miles, that happens every year, and I'm really looking forward to it. I thought I was actually pretty hard core for doing the STP, until I ran into the website of a few neighborhood buddies of mine (Doug Rickett and Bob Medikar back in San Jose, who biked across the entire freakin United States of America. That's hard core; props to my old buddy Doug.
- Melis and I took a relaxing trip up to the San Juan islands right near Canada. pics here. That was a great getaway with just the two of us.
- My buddy Jason, from Idaho dropped by for a weekend.
- On a downer/thankful note... Myles, a good friend of mine got into a real nasty wreck around mid-April. He was at a stop on a two-land highway, waiting to make a left turn. A loaded big rig hit him from behind, smashing the rear half of the Dodge Neon he was in, which pushed Myles and the Neon into the other lane where he was T-Boned by oncoming traffic. Myles was knocked unconsious, and sustained some serious brusing, and there's seeing evidence of more bone damage, but all things considered he was very lucky. See some pics of what's left of the Neon right here.
- And Melis is thinking about a new line of work. Journalism is something she's really good at, and will probably continue to do at one form or another. But we're on a happiness hunt for my girl, and fortunately she's a lot smarter than I am, so I'm sure she'll figure out what the good Lord has in store for her.
- I've been insanely busy at work, it's lotsa job security which is always welcome... but it's a bit stressful with the commute and the lack of free time. Of course I ought to enjoy my time before kids ever show up... Speaking of kids CONGRATULATIONS TO GORDO AND TRACE!! (Rob lights a cigar)
- And my 49ers drafted Vernon Davis, with the 6th overall pick. Vernon Davis #85 is a fast-as-light TE from Maryland. I thought we had TE pretty well secured with Eric "I've been to the ProBowl" Johnson, but whatever. And while I'm on the subject, I'm feeling much better about the Niners these days. Yeah, it's the offseason (although mini-camp started today), but we signed Trent Dilfer, have 3-4 really good, Niner-quality, guys on the O-Line, about 10 unproven receivers (so maybe 4 decent to good options), a big TE for a target, and John York is distancing himself from the day-to-day operations of the team. Yeah, Alex had a bad season, even for a rookie...but Joe Montana's vision and accuracy, Michael Vick's elusiveness, and Steve Young's arm could not have done better in the hell-hole of a situation we were in last year (also owner John York's fault). We WILL be back, and the Faithful Retribution shall return to cities like Seattle, Chicago, Green Bay, and Dallas. Speaking of Seattle, the Niners seahawks situation has the makings of a great rivalry.... more coming.
- Oh yeah, I'm starting a fantasy football team in June-July so if you want in let me know.

(Placeholder)

This is a placeholder.... and I'm very proud of it

cuz it's His timing

So I got baptised a short while back. Never been before. I've learned that the act does not save you, it simply a public declaration of your faith. And since the Internet is pretty public, I thought a blog entry was appropriate:


It's tough beliving in God. Especially in the Seattle area. And it's even harder living the way God wants you to live. I can't begin to count the times I've screwed it up. But I'm not alone.

And it's so rediculously cool to be forgiven. To not have guilt. And it's comforting to have hope, that a new life of pure happiness is right around the corner. That the creator of the universe and I can be really tight. There is no price I need to pay to get this forgiveness, and nothing I can do to earn it. I just need to accept it.

That's cool.

I've heard a lot of people say that religion and Christianity are a crutch or a weakness. Some type of artificial, flowery, realtionship we create out of an evolved psychological or emotional urge that human have hard-wired into them. Like hunger, we feel hungry, so we need to eat. We feel empty, so we invent the idea of an all-powerful god who cares. And those critics could be right. When we die, maybe that's it. But if I'm wrong and God really isn't there, nothing is lost or gained. But if I'm right, then it's gonna be off the hook. Eternity isn't the type of things that I'm comfortable being "middle-of-the-road" on. So I don't want there to be any confusion about who I'm lining up my life with.

So that's why I got baptised.

like trying to swim with an anvil

Those of you that know me, (and many who don't), know I like those San Francisco 49ers. So when Melis and I moved out here to Seattle in October of 2004, I was really excited to have much greater access (i.e. radio, TV coverage, etc.) It's amazing how much the networks, TV-commentators, and the NFL in general, care only for teams on the East Coast and Midwest. For example, you'll hear the weekly profession of unbridled and love to Brett Farve. Is anyone else sick of this? He's just had his worst season ever and everyone is saying, "Wow, what a warrior", "He's the best I've ever seen". HIS RATING THIS SEASON WAS 70.9!! AND HIS CAREER IS 86.0!!! So he's tough and starts a lot of games, big deal, how many rings does he have... ONE!!!!

...Gooossssfraaaba... rant over...

Anyway, so until the division in re-alligned, the Niners and the seahawks play each other every year, and Qwest stadium is a really nice place to watch a football game. Props to the good folks of Washington for paying the taxes to build a nice place like that. And last month on December 11th, was the first opportunity. We had a great crowd of 23 family and friends at the game. The Niners didn't quite perform like.... well, they didn't quite perform at all... but considering the black cloud that's been hovering over this franchise since 2003, we're doing good. And we WILL be back. No matter how long the acting-owner dr. john york keeps us down, we WILL be back.

Anyhow, here are some pictures of the game...
http://www.robofpatton.com/12102005/

the dam fertility of it all

Recently a lot of our friends have been having babies, so I thought I'd light a cigar for all the mommas and the pappas, to congratulate the lot of 'em right here.

Molly Ludema (don't have a picture just yet)

Colin Sundin (don't have a picture just yet)

Katelyn Yavanian

Aiden Holmgren

Congrats!

Turkey Termination Day

So, my in-laws have this interesting thing, that's quickly becoming a tradition... on the second year. It's called (see title), and it's just what it sounds like. Doug and Jane have a nice place on a huge lot our in the Snohomish Valley of Washington State. And once a year they slaughter aroudn 10-15 turkeys for Thanksgiving. I say, any animal that is that loud, ugly, with that bad a temper, and tastes that good, deserves an axe. But before you eat these guys, you've got to really wash out their gutted body, and before you do that you've got to disembowl them, and before that you've got to pull every feather, and before that you've got to cut off their legs, and before that you've got to boil the entire bird in a scaulding pot of water, feathers, and blood, but before all of that you've got to chop their heads on the block. And that's really where the interesting part is in this whole process. These dam things really do run around with their heads cut off. They move and react as though their heads area atached, when they're not. It's puzzling, exciting, horrific, and I think very worth the time. When they get the axe. they spasm, hold still for maybe a minute, then smove around some more.

Now I posteed a few videos of this thing, but I've heard a lot of people are having trouble opening it. So email me, if you're interested, and I'l get them to ya.

More coming,

-Rob

the route

I wanted to post some video of our new home and my daily routine, like a buddy of mine asked. I still plan to, but in the mean time, here are some stills from the daily commute into Kirkland.

It's ALIIIIVE!!!!!!.... for now

Hiya folks,

Just wanted to give this blog thing a test...more comin'.