Merry X-mas to me! I’m the happy owner of a brand new 2011 VW Golf TDI! I’ve been wanting to get a smaller car for some time as I’ve always liked the gas mileage, handling, and convenience (easier to park) of small cars. My first car was a little Honda Civic hatchback (Tahitian Green!) which I loved to drive. Even though my last two vehicles have been SUVs (Toyota 4-Runner presently and Chevy Blazer before that), I’ve always felt a bit guilty driving them. After all, 95+% of the driving I do is just to haul myself and perhaps one other person around. Burning large amounts of fossil fuels driving such a large and heavy hunk of steel around just seemed excessive. And let’s face it, big, top-heavy SUVs just aren’t very responsive and fun to drive. Of course, an SUV is really nice for many of the outdoor activities we do, but for the vast majority of driving that I regularly do, I yearned for a smaller, more environmentally friendly, and fun-to-drive car.

When the Honda CR-Z was introduced, I was really excited. It was the first small car in recent years that I found compelling. I really liked the styling of the CR-Z as well as the concept of a sport-hybrid – sporty performance coupled with hybrid efficiency. When I took it for a test drive, however, I found that there was quite a significant blind spot on the driver’s side. This is the kind of thing that I would have to deal with on a regular basis and would just grate on me over time. I also was disappointed with the mileage. Even though it’s a sport hybrid, I expected the highway mileage to at least be in the 40s considering the small size of the car (it’s a 2-seater). After all, the Prius’ mileage is in the 50s. Unfortunately, the CR-Z was only rated 31/37 mpg. Mainly for the blind spot issue, but also for the lackluster mileage, I decided to forgo the CR-Z.

The other vehicle I was considering was of course the Volkswagen Golf TDI. I really liked the styling (though not quite as much as the CR-Z) as well as the great mileage (30/42 mpg) and peppiness of the clean diesel engine. On the other hand, I had some doubts about getting a VW. My perception of the VW brand, particularly from a reliability standpoint, wasn’t the best, especially when compared to Honda and Toyota. After some digging, however, I found that while VW’s quality has been lacking in years past, things seem to have improved quite a bit in recent years.

I was also a bit leery about getting a diesel vehicle, particularly after reading about some TDI owners having serious issues with their high pressure fuel pumps. I went back and forth, and at one point was seriously considering the VW GTI which looks just like the Golf but has higher performance and cooler-looking wheels. The cost of the GTI and Golf TDI are about the same, and although the GTI gets appreciably worse mileage (24/33 mpg), it uses unleaded fuel which is currently cheaper than diesel. I was actually leaning towards the GTI until I found out that GTIs must use super unleaded gas. Super unleaded costs about as much as diesel, so the GTI’s relatively poor mileage tipped the scales back in favor of the TDI.

After some more thinking, I decided to go with the TDI. Most of the reported TDI problems were from a couple years ago so my thinking/hope is that VW has most likely already fixed this issue in the 2011 models. I also plan to take my car to a well regarded local VW mechanic (word on the net is that for TDIs, you really want it serviced by a mechanic highly experienced with VWs and TDIs) and will have him do an inspection of the HPFP prior to my warranty expiring. If there are any issues, I’ll just trade the car in for something else.

So I made the plunge and thus far, I’m loving this car! It has more power and handles waaaaay better than anything I’ve ever owned. The interior is very refined looking, one of the hallmarks of Volkswagens (and German cars in general). This is the first car I’ve owned with iPod integration and a Bluetooth phone connection, both of which are awesome! And it’s been a blast driving stick after many years of only driving automatics. The only problem thus far is that I find I’m often going much faster than I think – this car really wants to go! I definitely need to be better aware of that going forward.

Anyhow, here are some pics of my new ride.

Today was a very sad day as Judy and I made the heart-breaking decision to put Latte to sleep. As many of you may know, Latte’s health has been steadily declining for the last year or two. She was originally diagnosed with some kind of disc compression/degeneration issue which affected the nerves running to the rear part of her body. This caused her rear legs to become weaker, and she would often drag her rear legs when she walked. What was worse, her condition meant that she had less and less control over urinary and bowel functions (we’ve had Latte in diapers for the last 6 months or so which, believe me, is definitely not fun).

When Latte was first diagnosed with the problem, the vet prescribed steroids which were actually quite effective for several months (a side effect was that it ratcheted up Latte’s metabolism – she was always hungry!). Unfortunately, the steroids eventually began to lose their efficacy. We recently upped her steroid dosage by 50% which improved things for a few weeks, but her deteriorating condition soon negated any benefits of the higher steroid dosage. Latte’s leg dragging had gotten so bad that the nails in her rear legs had almost completely worn away (which I discovered one day after finding red streaks all over our carpet).

We decided to both be with Latte during her final moments. Latte gets very stressed out when she’s with strangers so we wanted to make sure she felt as comfortable as possible. The process is very humane. The vet first gives Latte a sedative shot which basically makes her slowly fall asleep. The second shot is the one that causes her bodily functions to shut down, and it works very quickly – within seconds after the second shot was administered, we knew that Latte was gone.

I have had many dogs throughout my life, but Latte was definitely the one I grew most attached to and she was the only one that ever had to be put down. This was quite possibly the saddest moment of my life, and Judy’s as well. It was a very tough decision, but we ultimately felt it was the right thing to do. Latte lived a happy and full 15 years which is quite a long time for a Cocker Spaniel. Judy and I have many fond memories of Latte and will always cherish them. Latte Cocker Spaniel Dog, aka Cocker Spaniel Dog, aka Latte Shaggy Dog, aka Barrel Dog (her torso was like a barrel, especially when she got a bit overweight), aka Dirty Rotten Scoundrel Dog, aka The Dog, aka Dog, will sorely be missed.

Lindsey’s surprise birthday gift to Judy was for Judy to meet Misty May who, with Keri Walsh, won Olympic gold medals in 2004 and 2008 in women’s beach volleyball. Misty was at a book signing for her new book Misty May, Digging Deep in Volleyball and in Life where Judy and Lindsey took the opportunity to meet Misty as well as to take a few photos with her.

Pics from Dave and Susan’s wedding and reception including a mesmerizing dance performance by Preston!

Pics from Ryan and Connie’s wedding and surprise announcement (Connie’s pregnant!).

Anyhow, the mix is too big for email (28 MB .aif file) so I’m posting it here so they (or anyone else for that matter) can download.

Here it is: Roger and Judy’s Reception Dance Mix

Yesterday, Judge Folsom finally made his ruling in our long-standing patent litigation case against Echostar. When I joined TiVo nearly 4-1/2 years ago, this case had already begun, and it was one of the main reasons I was so optimistic about TiVo’s future. Well, the wheels of justice turn a lot slower than I had expected, but they do turn, and fortunately the outcome is as I had hoped.

Who knows what shenanigans Charlie Ergen (Echostar’s CEO) has planned next, but this ruling is very significant and most analysts seem to agree that ol’ Charlie has just about run out of options. The market seems to agree with TiVo stock up nearly 50%.

You know things aren’t good when you can’t even lift an empty glass mug without feeling a shooting pain. With climbing injuries, I’ve learned the hard way that the best course of action is to entirely cease all climbing and to just let things heal. So I did the right thing and put my climbing gym membership on hold which meant no climbing for at least a month. Much to my dismay, the nature of the injury also meant no volleyball either since the act of passing or bumping the ball would hurt my arm (although strangely enough, it didn’t really hurt when hitting).

Despite depriving myself of climbing and volleyball, the healing process was aggravatingly slow. I ended up having to extend the hold on my climbing membership to two months. By mid-January, however, my arm was finally feeling better and I was optimistic that I would be back in action soon.

January marks the beginning of snowboarding season and I was happy that my climber’s elbow wouldn’t affect my ability to snowboard. Well, as (bad) luck would have it, I ended up spraining the MCL on my left knee during my very first snowboarding trip of the year. So just as my arm was almost healed, I screw up another part of my body.

A knee injury is actually much more annoying than an arm injury because it really limits your activity. In addition to not being able to climb or play volleyball, now I couldn’t snowboard, bike, or do almost any kind of cardio. @#$%’in A, dude! The only exercise that I could really do now was to lift weights.

Many people find lifting weights to be quite boring, but when healthy, I actually enjoy it, probably because I only do it once or twice a week amidst other activities. However, as I soon learned, when weight lifting is the only activity that I am doing, I quickly grow tired of it.

I soon began dreading going to the gym, and as a result began looking into alternative types of workouts. At Planet Granite, they have gymnastics rings set up. The rings are on adjustable length straps so you can vary how high or low the rings are to the ground. I started doing some basic exercises on the rings and was amazed at how much better of a workout it was.

Doing push-ups on rings is quite a bit harder than doing push-ups on the ground. It engages a whole bunch of stabilizing muscles including, much to my surprise, your abs. In fact, my abs were quite sore the day after doing ring push-ups. And dips? They’re way harder on rings.

One ring exercise that I was particularly attracted to was the “muscle-up” – yes, I know, I’m finally getting to the subject of this post. While it’s a very basic move for ring gymnasts, it’s something that most people, even athletes, have a hard time performing.

The first few times I tried it, it felt quite difficult – I couldn’t even come close to doing one! I became determined to do a muscle-up and decided to set a goal for myself to do one before summer (which in my mind was June). As it turns out, it didn’t take nearly that long as less than two weeks later I was able to do my first muscle-up. Proper technique is key, particularly the “false grip”, and it definitely helps to have the plethora of instructional vids on the web to refer to.

While I am now able to do a single muscle-up, I’m still not able to do multiple ones in a row. That’s my next goal. Eventually, I hope to work up to what these bad-ass chicks can do.

Mike recently graduated from SJSU with an Industrial Design degree so the group threw him a little celebration party. Photos courtesy of Charles.

For our wedding reception “first dance”, Judy and I decided to do something a bit different. Rather than the typical ballroom dance set to a mushy love song, we decided to inject some fun and liveliness into our first dance.

We decided to come up with our own routine set to an original music mix (GarageBand totally rocks!). Not being anything close to professional dancers, we scoured the internet for fun (and funny!) dance moves that weren’t too hard to do.

Judy is a huge Friends fan (she TiVos multiple episodes everyday) and we both thought Ross and Monica’s dance in “The Routine” episode was absolutely hilarious. If you haven’t seen it before, you really should. Here’s a clip on YouTube. We definitely wanted to incorporate elements from their dance into our routine.

YouTube turned out to be a great resource. We found great inspiration from Judson Laipply’s ‘Evolution of Dance‘ as well as this couple’s non-traditional wedding dance. We also pulled a few moves from the movie Hitch, particularly the scene where Albert (Kevin James) shows Hitch (Will Smith) his “dance moves”. Since we both grew up in the 80′s, we simply had to have some moves from Michael Jackson and M.C. Hammer. Thanks once again to YouTube, we had ready access to videos from both these artists.

Coming up with a routine, especially if you’re not a dancer, can be pretty hard, but what’s even harder is coming up with the music to match the routine. You’ve got to find the right music with the right beat, properly adjust fades and transitions, snip and clip songs to the right durations, and at times, add your own sounds and sound effects. Let me tell you, it can be quite time-consuming! Good thing I can be a bit OCD when it comes to creative pursuits.

So without further adieu, here are the video clips of the dance. Big thanks go out to Derek who captured the dance on video. Several others took video as well, but I think this is the best one since it is from straight on. I’m trying to acquire the other video clips and will post them when I get them.

Roger & Judy’s 1st Dance (medium quality, 39 MB)
Due to its reasonable file size, this one’s recommended for most people.

Roger & Judy’s 1st Dance (higher quality, 153 MB)
This file’s huge so it’s only recommended for those with super-fast internet connections.

UPDATE: I’ve added details of the music used in our dance as well as the accompanying dance moves.

Here’s a guide to all of our dance moves and the accompanying songs and sound effects:

Mirda Rock by Reggie Griffin & Technofunk
- Computer voice intro (“I am a computer, I have been programmed to dance”)

Clip from ‘It’s a Sin’ by The Pet Shop Boys
- The Robot

GarageBand sound effect
- Robot Rewind

Clip from ‘It’s a Sin’ by The Pet Shop Boys
- The Robot

Clip from ‘Another Part of Me’ by Michael Jackson
- Judy goes through hoop (my arms)

GarageBand sound effect
- Me as a puppet-master lifting up Judy’s arms

GarageBand thunder sound effect
- Me striking down Judy

‘Looking for the Perfect Beat’ by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force
- Judy: The Running Man
- Me: Rollin’ the pizza dough and the Q-Tip
- Judy: The Lawnmower (starting the lawnmower) and Goin’ Shoppin’ (taking things off the shelf and putting them in the cart)
- Me: Diggin’
- Egyptian arms
- Head slide
- The Sprinkler
- V-Eyes
- Judy tries to escape while I hop on my horse and swing the lasso.
- I lasso Judy and reel her in.

‘U Can’t Touch This’ by MC Hammer
- MC Hammer dance moves

‘Billie Jean’ by Michael Jackson
- Michael Jackson dance moves

‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson
- Michael Jackson dance moves

‘Trouble with Boys’ by Loretta
Here, we just reproduced the entire Ross & Monica dance from the Friends episode ‘The Routine’. It was a bit of a pain because the actual released song differs from the version in the Friends episode. I had to splice various portions of the song to line up with Ross & Monica’s routine. I even had to add a unique sound effect – the two beats where we “hip bump” each other (towards the end of the routine) is actually a GarageBand sound effect.