dave.ross.name

Garter stitch baby blanket

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:07:11 -0800

I just completed this garter stitch blanket for a friend with a two month old and delivered it last night. The fabric is super soft and I'm happy with how it came out.

Winter camping on Mt. Hood

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:47:36 -0800

"Adventure on your own frontier" was the motto of the summer camp I went to for many years and this weekend, thanks to Jason proposing a winter camping trip on Mt. Hood, I got a healthy dose of that. Jason showed me some of the tricks of winter camping which I hadn't done since some family trips back when I was kid. After celebrating Jason's 30th birthday at a bar with friends the night before we got a late start on Friday. We drove up a snowy road past Laurance Lake near Parkdale and got to the trailhead we were looking for, the Subaru did great. Snowshoeing and skinning the five miles up to Elk Cove at around 5500 feet took a long time; Jason and Sam stayed out in front. We arrived at the meadow well after dark and found a spot for camp. Jason got dinner going and I dug out a pad for our tent. The sky above was filled with stars, we didn't see any other lights except planes. In fact we didn't see anyone the entire weekend.

Saturday dawned sunny and calm. We lazed about getting ready in the morning, enjoying our amazing campsite, surrounded by snow-covered Barrett Spur and Mt. Hood. With much lighter packs we hiked up to the ridge and then climbed the ridge to about 7000'. We ditched the packs and hiked further, finding a lookout over the Ladd Glacier. Then it was time for some turns down the mountain, Jason on his telemark skis, me on the snowboard for my first backcountry descent.

All too soon we turned to hike back up to the ridge where we soaked up the sun and lingered. We then skied back to camp down the steeper east side of Barrett Spur where the snow had been in the shade for a while and gotten quite firm. We both managed to ski to the edge of camp which was fun.

So far everything couldn't have really gone any better. Sunday however brought the real adventure. I proposed we go back a different way and Jason eagerly agreed. So we hauled all our stuff up the ridge again and then skied down to our car off-trail. We definitely took the shortest route but predictably we ran in to some very steep terrain. First some icy snowfields in an open forest. I had to find some softer snow in the trees to dig my boots in to on the descent. Sam reluctantly followed me down. Then we quickly found ourselves in even worse shape in a dense forest with lots of downfall and completely icy underfoot. We both were relieved when we got on a gentler slope. There was still some slogging through deep snow between a creek and a clearcut field with young trees before we reached the car. What a trip!

Turns out the adventure wasn't quite over. I was driving the Subaru back down the snowy, icy road and within a few hundred yards of the pavement drove it off to the snowbank on the left, thankfully not the slope down to the creek on the right. It was pretty far off in the snow and it took Jason and I two hours or so of the day's last light to dig it out and get back on the road. I thought we were going to be hiking out of there for a while. Rolling in to Parkdale we enjoyed beer and nachos to celebrate getting out there for some adventure.

More photos on Facebook and check out Jason's excellent shots!

Wine Country ride

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:45:08 -0800

Gorgeous ride in wine country on a sunny Saturday in February!

My "iPad"

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:50:44 -0800

Since I am not Stephen Colbert or Steve Jobs I don't yet have an iPad, but I am planning to modify some of my apps for the device and possibly develop some new ones so I wanted to create a mock-up to help with the interface design process. I was planning to do this on my own from Apple's site but of course someone already did it and I just printed these plans, cut and folded!

Sun worshipping

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:33:46 -0800

Like most Portlanders my dog is a sun-worshipper this time of year. We're enjoying a window of spring-like conditions.

Pocket Creek cross-country ski

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:59:45 -0800

Beautiful day out on the mountain, went on a six mile cross-country ski loop from the Pocket Creek Sno-Park with Jason, Elvira and Sam. Tried a new Musher's wax on Sam's feet, think it helped but it was also pretty warm. We all enjoyed soaking up the sun and getting some exercise, and as bonus stopped in Hood River on the way home to see a friend's three-week old baby.

Inaugural 2010 Sisyphean Jersey ride

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:14:42 -0800

Enjoyed the first group ride of the year, showing off our new team jerseys. Good to be back on the bike with these guys.

Whimsy Animals Japanese video

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:31:08 -0800

Whimsy Animals was recently featured on another Japanese website from which I was able to get the automatically translated snippet, "It is the one item which you recommend to the iPhone fathers of world." Not bad, best part is this super cute video.

Happy New Year!

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:28:13 -0800

2009 was an eventful and rich year for me with many blessings, first among them my friends and family. In the early, cold, short days of the year I started road biking with a group of people I now count among my good friends. We tackled an insane ride in April and mountain biked around Mount Hood in July. I completed my second triathlon, ran the Wildwood trail, ran around Mount Hood in a day, started cross-country skiing and went camping in an amazing wilderness.

On the business front I started developing apps for the iPhone (and iPod Touch). I am now selling four apps on the iTunes store with more to come. Wish me luck and tell your friends.

I wish you all the best in health and happiness for 2010.

Dave

More snowplay, this time with canines!

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:15:51 -0800

Boy Scout Ridge from White River West Snopark.

more photos

Stenson ski trip

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:55:13 -0800

In what I hope will be an annual tradition I joined the Stensons and some friends for a four day stay up at Government Camp. We had a rainy first few days which didn't surprise the locals but the Alaskans had not skied in the rain before. It got colder Monday, bringing some fresh snow to play in. Thanks Jason and Elvira for planning such a fun getaway!

more photos

Whimsy in Japan

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:51:31 -0800

I guess this website is popular in Japan because yesterday they mentioned my iPhone app Whimsy which resulted in 732 downloads in Japan for the day after only accruing twenty downloads total in that region since launching on the App Store. Whimsy is a free version of my Whimsy Animals app that has a dozen of the sixty animal puzzles in the paid version. Hopefully this will drive a few paid sales of Whimsy Animals.

The downloads pushed Whimsy to the #3 ranking free kids app and #34 free game and #108 free app overall in the Japan iTunes store. I couldn't make much sense of the review, some online translators claim to work for Japanese to English but here's the translation of a new 5-star user review in Japan for Whimsy: "It was very popular in the son. Furthermore type many in should have become the shank." I think his kid liked it and maybe with a few more animals it could become the "shank".

Chapter 18: Aging Effects

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:06:37 -0800

Mom and I have worked through four chapters of Derek Lea's book Creative Photoshop over the past week. We've learned lots of new techniques and have been inspired.

Chapter 14: Real World Collage

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 11:49:13 -0800

Our snowy day project from Woods Gap

Chapter 5 of Creative Photoshop

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:52:03 -0800

More rainy day Photoshop work from Derek Lea's book. Lots of pen tool drawing to "trace" this photograph.