RyanSpoon.com

Warning: as the title suggests, this is not a tech-related blog post… and at the risk of upsetting readers, I do that from time to time!

Today, longtime friend Steuart Martens and I competed in the 2008 Golden Gate Triathlon. It is a relatively overlooked Bay Area triathlon considering that it is sandwiched between Wildflower and the San Jose International (both very big events). The course was brutally difficult - but it must be the most beautiful event in the continental United States:

- Swim: Occurs in the San Francisco Bay. You swim towards parallel to the shore, with Alcatraz behind you and the Golden Gate / Bay Bridges in the distance (depending on the direction)

- Bike: Almost entirely uphill. You go from sea-level to high in the Presidio - well above the Golden Gate’s entrance. 90% of the bike is done is gear 1-1.

- Run: Along Chrissy Field and up to the Golden Gate Bridge… which includes scaling very steep steps.

Notice the beRecruited swim caps (and the shameless promotion)! We will both be wearing these during our upcoming Alcatraz swim at the end of July (will be #6 for me). Congratulations to Steuart, who placed 6th overall and won the swim leg:

More pictures after the jump

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When my dog Manny was diagnosed with Legg-Perthes Disease last year, there was little information available on the web about the disease, it’s impact and the necessary surgery. So I documented the entire process (both Manny’s experience and mine) on MyDogManny.com. I made the site in the hope that it might help other dogs and dog-owners overcome the debilitating and commonly misunderstood disease.

I receive emails like the one below every couple weeks. This one arrived yesterday and really demonstrated the power of the internet and of content.

I just wanted to extend my heartfelt thanks for all the work and time you put into your website (mydogmanny.com) and chronicling your dogs’ progression through FHO surgery.

We recently went through the same experience with our own dog. We were on the fence regarding the surgery, as our pet is older. Your experience convinced us that she could get through this, and the surgery was a huge success!

Without your site to encourage us, we probably would have put her down. Thank you so much for the help and encouragement that your experience lent to us. We are looking forward to many more good years with our beloved little fur ball Peawee, a toy mix we rescued from a shelter.

Sending good vibes to you today - you rock!

Manny:

Yesterday, we took an unbelievable snowmobile tour in Vail. I had never snowmobiled before - so we decided to take a 4 hour tour with Nova Guides (one of the big guide companies in Vail Valley). They took us out in groups of 8 and we had over 80 miles of national forest track available to ride.

The tracks were about 20 minutes past Minturn on route 24 (which before I-70 was the only way from Vail to Denver) - passing through Redcliff, an relatively recently abandoned mining town.

Here are some of the photos from atop the tracks at about 12,000 feet. You can see Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Vail and some other local chutes. The highlight of the trip (other than riding around powder at 50+ mph) was seeing one of the riders in our group fall off his snowmobile and subsequently have it roll 400 yards down a bank of waist-high powder.

The first video shows the view atop the mountain. The second is of the fallen snowmobile.

True story and a certain sign that

1) Something is wrong
2) You spend far too much time on the internet
3) You spend far too much time working on the internet

I was told that, in my sleep last night, I emphatically said:

“No! You can’t do that unless you login!!”

Uh oh…. Speaking of which, I am getting slight tumblr envy. I really enjoy good tumblr-users’ blogs. Rich, routinely updated, highly visual.

I still believe there is a ton of money to be made by bringing Dunkin Donuts out to California (there are enough east coast transplants in LA, San Jose and San Francisco)… but until someone pulls together enough money to do so, I will continue to use the only resource better than Amazon - my mother!

any time you get a package of dunkin donuts, life is grand!

When the Burger King “The King” got wildly popular last Halloween and, while moving some stuff around the house today, I came by the mask and found out what the real Whopper Freak out is.

(By the way, if you haven’t seen the Whopper Freak out commercials - they are hysterical)

Videos after the jump
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Manny had an active weekend - running on the Embarcadero in his Patriots jersey, enjoying a big victory against the Jaguars, and then roaming around Aquatic Park and Fort Mason early this morning. I agree with Manny - today’s Chargers vs. Colts game couldn’t have gone better for Patriots fans: the two teams played a very physical game, neither was impressive, and we get to play Philip Rivers next weekend. The line opened at 15.5 points - massive.