Adam C. Hegedus

A couple times a year, Carrie takes the girls to see her parents, and gives me a couple days to get out on the bike. For this I am very grateful! Today I had the opportunity of riding the new Allegrippis Trail system at Lake Raystown. This turned out to be one of the most fun rides I’ve had. The trails were cut by the Army Corps of Engineers, IMBA, and a bunch of volunteers. They did an amazing job. Here’s what we did:

The trails were in unbelievable condition. There were maybe 3 or 4 muddy spots all day, and it was raining lightly. From the moment we started, we saw that the trails were nicely packed, super fast and full of little rollers that made it look like a pump track. There were so many bumps and jumps coupled with quick turns that I’ll admit… I found myself off the trail (and my bike) on more than one occasion.

We started out on Buck. Quick, flat, and fun. Turned onto Doe, which was more of the same. Then we started some climbing on Sleek Dog. Right off the bat we got into the bumps and dips. This is fun stuff. You get a lot of momentum going and even though you’re climbing, you have so much momentum that it carries you up a bunch of it. The first ‘Most Difficult’ trail was the Hydro Loop, which dipped down to the lake with more dips and rollers. Then it got interesting. From there we turned onto Osprey, Sidewinder and Ray’s Revenge. This had some tough climbing, but it was well worth it. Generally speaking, you can’t always go down, sooner or later you have to go up.

After a quick snack at the top of Ray’s (terrific view of the lake from there), we finished up with a really fast roller coaster ride down Ridge, Grippis, and Allie. Then back down Buck to the car.

All in all, these are great trails. Not too technical. Very few rocks or logs, not like we are used to here in State College. But don’t let this deter you. What these trails lack in technicality, they more than make up for in fun factor. This is mountain biking at it’s best. Fast, fun, beautiful trails. This may be my new favorite ride. If you’re interested, you can check out more details here.

Consider these trails to be highly recommended… Enjoy!!

Make no mistake, this wasn’t the NCAA tourney, it was the NIT.

And I couldn’t be prouder.

This week was a bit of a whirlwind. It started with Maggie going to Philly with Carrie (I stayed home with Clara, who was sick) to see Dr. Storm at CHOP (www.chop.edu) about her head. That turned in to a lumbar puncture, which turned into surgery on her brain to install a shunt.

The surgery process started yesterday at about 12:45. Maggie hadn’t eaten anything all day. She went in to surgery at about 3 and was done in an hour and a half.

We first saw her in the PICU, and she was sleeping. There was a small incision on her abdomen and another on her head. The surgeon did such a good job that he hardly shaved any hair and there will be minimal scarring. Which gets me to the point of this post.
Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia is the best hospital I have ever been to. Ever. Period. From the moment we walked in the door, we always knew what was going on, were always met by smiling faces, and were set at ease immediately. Everything about this place is amazing. We were never alone in the icu, and had really great nurses.
It goes to show you that quality care does exist. It is alive and well and confined within the walls of a teaching hospital in downtown Philadelphia, PA.

And in the off chance that maggie’s nurse, Mary Jo, ever reads this, you are truly appreciated by Maggie, Carrie and I. You picked the right carreer. Thank you.

Ok, forget about who won and who lost for a minute… Election day is a day when the media breaks out cool technology. I know that Tim Russert was all about the white board, and he was great with it, but CNN brought out the big guns this year:

Folks… in case you missed it, she was not in that studio. That’s incredible technology.

I’ve been working on a new product that is soon to be released, and I found that I was constantly working on trying to figure out my E4X problems in Flex. So I wrote up a quick Air app that makes testing a bit easier. I thought I’d share it… so here you go.

In case you don’t have it, you’ll need to install the Adobe Air runtime. You can get it here. I hope someone else out there can use it. Let me know what you think.