i had some people over for fondue over the weekend. i think it went quite well and i made a new oil-based fondue that i think went over quite well. i’m looking forward to doing fondue again some time soon.

i have been playing with the new studio lights that i made and i’ve come to realize that these lights run a lot hotter than i was expecting. jen helped me take a few test shots to see how it would work out. looks like i’m going to have to play a little more with this set up before i will get it done.

jen prefers me smiling in my pictures, but i’m not such a fan of the posed smiling.

jimmy, josh, and i went out biking at arastradero preserve in the palo alto hills. originally jimmy wanted to bike quicksilver (aka the hill of hell) but i protested strongly. i could not have quicksilver be the first ride of the season for me. it was just too much, too soon. jimmy then found this place and i’ve been meaning to go check it out.

the terrain is varied here, you get some decent climbs and then some nice single track downhills. i loved the downhill stretches of the trail, but i felt they were a little too short. i could have gone downhill all day long.

some statistics on the ride:
i think we did about 7 miles today.
my average speed was 7mph.
my top speed was 22 mph.
total trip length was about 1.5 hours.

it was a great introductory ride and i had a lot of fun. i actually look forward to going biking again. i may have to start up my weekday biking again. that’s going to be painful, though, because that means that i’ll have to be getting into work really early. i had a blast, though.

there’s something about mountain biking that just gives me a sense of freedom. free to be away from all of my worries. free to be away from civilization (well, except for my camera). and free to just enjoy the simple things in life.

i was mesmerized by the tall grass waving to and fro in the wind. it was like waves of sea crashing in the lush green foothills. amazing, really.

the trail was a little muddy in some places, though, and at the end of the ride i surveyed the damage. it was pretty tame, not too bad. i didn’t take any spills either, so i was pretty happy about that.

i have to say, though. jimmy is just an OX. he can chug up those hills without flinching, whereas i was heaving and about to cough up a lung.

after the ride, we went and got pearl tea at tapioca express in cupertino. we parked next to this car where there was a pair of feet propped up against the windshield and some shoes outside the car. very odd, i tell you.