the eric update - day 2060: last day of cross country skiing.

we've already established that cross-country skiing is odin's favorite winter sport, which he loves even more than - gasp - hockey!

so, we're all a little sad that today was the last day of practice. but i suppose we can take some solace in that fact that that means that spring is coming.

since i'm the guy who can be counted on to have a camera handy and folks were happy with pictures i took on the first day of lessons, i was asked if i'd take a group picture of the inaugural 2010 snowflake cross country ski club crew.

i was more than happy to oblige.

more photos coming soon

on the odds of rolling two successive yahtzees in two rolls ( or life in the driftless region ).

so, mister koppa ( proprietor of the heavy duty press ) and i ended an exciting evening for two middle-aged guys by playing a round of yahtzee.

it came down to the final two turns of dice rolling and neither of us had rolled an "any yahtzee" ( defined as all five dice have the same value during a player's turn of three rolls of 5 dice).

mister koppa got a yahtzee in two rolls on his turn and i promptly responded with a yahtzee in two rolls on my turn. neither of us had ever seen anything like that happen. ever. and it made me wonder what the odds were of it happening.

most of the yahtzee probability sites seem to agree that the odds of rolling an any yahtzee after two rolls is 1.3% or about 1 in 75 turns, which means you might rightly expect to get a yahtzee on two rolls about every 6 games ( with 13 turns per game ).

but what are the odds of rolling two successive yahtzees in two rolls? isn't it 1.3%*1.3% or 0.02% or 1 in 5,000 turns?

if so, that's just another night of improbability in the driftless region. and, yes, i won.

odin makes the westby times!

some longtime followers of odin's adventures may recall odin in parents magazine and mothering magazine and "above the fold" in the vernon county broadcaster.

and now, some of the pictures i took of him cross country skiing lessons made section B1 of the westby times! w00t!

the infamous note for our wisconsin state senator, left on the organic valley rideshare van.

left for dan kapanke on our organic valley rideshare van.

i truly hope we get more notes like this in the future.

the eric update - day 2044: hanging out at the 2010 snowflake ski jumping competition!

just like we did in 2007 and last year odin and i had a blast hanging out at the snowflake ski club ( the very same place he goes for cross country skiing lessons ( and here ). this year, we missed the continental cup competition which was held on friday night, but we did catch the distance jumping which even featured an amazing 12 year old, trevor edlund who hails from saint paul minnesota.



it's big fun. if you're ever in the area during the competition, you should definitely check it out.

you can click on each image for a brief description.

this year, i took the opportunity to shoot some video!

here's the amazing 12 year oldm trevor edlund, who hails from saint paul minnesota. i think he went 116 meters on this jump.

on his second jump revor went 119 meters on this jump, which is longer than an american football field.

and on this jump, trevor flew 123 meters!

the winds were magical and a norwegian ( wish i knew his name ) broke the 87 year hill record with this 132 meter jump. technically it doesn't count because he didn't land standing, but the crowd stlll went wild.

the norwegian that broke the hill record in this video but didn't "stand it" gives it another attempt. he comes close with this 125 meter jump but didn't break it. clearly he's a crowd favorite. wish i knew his name.

each year, we climb up the looooooong climb to the very top of the ski jump. it's a slippery trek and each year i swear i'm never going to to it again. you do get a nice view of the skiers launching into the air.

as you might imagine, when people jump a longer distance than a football field, sometimes they crash.

the eric update - day 2039: scenes from cross country skiing.

well, its officially official. odin has, at least for this year, abandonded his first love winter sport love - hockey - for cross country skiing.



he's love, love, loving it. he says maybe next year he'll be interested i hockey again :-)

the case of the disappearing chromatophores.

we've had a fish tank with two humble goldfish for nearly ten years. soon after putting both fish the in the tank, one of the fish lost all its color which we thought little of since its not unusual for goldfish to change/shift color over their lives.

the usual explanation offered for a goldfish completely losing its color typically cites the fact that goldfish are born with fixed number of chromatophores and if the chromatophores are thinly distributed on the surface of the scales, they can lose color completely as the goldfish grows in size.

sadly, the white goldfish died a few months ago so we promptly got another brilliant orange and red companion to keep him company ( quit laughing, in the wild, goldfish swim and live in groups so why wouldn't they want company in a tank? ).

lo and behold, after being in the tank for a few months, the new goldfish quickly and nearly completely lost all his color even though he didn't grow substantially over that time. although it's a small sample size, it makes me wonder if the both of the white goldfish changed their color in response to the other fish in the tank.