Christmas morning arrived and I decided to observe a little tradition in line with my Scots-Irish heritage and add some Bailey's to my coffee. Don, my father-in-law, said "Oh! I think we've got some of that around here." After five minutes of spelunking, an unopened bottle was found in a dusty rack in the kitchen. I've never seen this before, but the cream had turned to a kind of cheese: it was a solid mass. As we were wondering how long it must have been there, Kate, my mother-in-law, found a small bottle of Kahlua that was still about 1/3rd full. Alas, it, too, smelled fishy. That's when I noticed a sticker: "Marine Corps Mess." Don served as a Navy doctor during the Vietnam war, which meant the bottle was 35 years old. Love my sweet, tee-totaling in-laws, and the dedication it takes to carry a bottle of booze around from move to move over the years, especially without any intention to ever drink it. :)

Drove from Eugene to Florence on the Oregon coast at dawn today. Highway 126 winds along several creeks and rivers through the low slung coastal mountains, running mostly parallel to an old logging railroad. Through the intermittent rain I could see tall mossy trees covering the valley pass, and the occasional farm starting the day in the misty bogs. This is exactly why I really like the Pacific Northwest.

 

Florence is located at the mouth of the Siuslaw river, surrounded by huge, massive and long coastal sand dunes. I drove out to the tip of the south jetty, where the surf was equally massive and closed out. In the channel, though, long rollers slowly ran between the breakwaters. I was a little worried about being alone in a new spot, and the body of a large sea lion seemed like a bad sign. So I was happy to meet a local from Eugene named Clark, and the two of us decided to try the channel.

 

As I was climbing down the breakwater, a small wave suddenly surged up and drove my board into my chin. Fortunately, the 51 degree water numbed it pretty quickly and it wasn't until I was driving back to Eugene that I noticed some blood and that my teeth didn't line up. Ah well, should be better in the morning. The waves broke nicely into the channel, and the river flow took us back out to the lineup. I caught a few long rides and had a nice morning. Very fun.

 

Map here.

Live Search Maps has a cool route tool to measure distances. I traced out some daily runs here. Glad to see my regular run with Julia is just over 5 miles. I thought it was less, which means our pace is faster than I thought.

We've been running a little buzz campaign for Live Search, and it's starting to get some notice. One of my favorite comments was from co-worker outside the division: "We did this? It's way too edgy and I initially couldn't believe it came from Microsoft. Cool."

 

Sean Carver created this. I just made sure no one stopped it and approved budget as needed.

 

Check out the site: msdewey.com

Ms Dewey in Wikipedia