Tucson’s Bike Fest 2008 ended this past Sunday. The final event was a scavenger hunt for a good cause. And it started and ended at one of our coolest two-wheeled places, BICAS…

The 5th annual Alley Cat Bike Scavenger Hunt was a fundraiser for El Grupo Youth Cycling, and it attracted 134 riders. The cycling sleuths followed clues around Downtown Tucson to solve puzzles and win notoriety and modest prizes.

The winning team was an intrepid quartet that didn’t let flat tires and other mechanical difficulties get in the way. Two of the guys ran across the finish line carrying their wounded bikes. Their teammates soon followed…

But they had some brain work to do before they could claim their top finishers’ trophy. They had to assemble the puzzle pieces they’d found at the various checkpoints…

Their cycling speed and puzzle skills earned them the coveted Bike Scavenger Hunt trophy…

Yesterday was a total bicycle day in Downtown Tucson. The day started with the El Bike Swap de Tucson on Fourth Avenue. It’s one of the largest bicycle swap meets in the country…

The swap’s a good place for some great deals on bicycles, bike parts, and tools…

And it wouldn’t be a Tucson event without some unique entertainment. Here’s Louis showing off his impeccable balance…

and adding some polo to the mix…

ChromDB.org is home to an internationally renowned database for DNA researchers. Based at the University of Arizona’s BIO5 Institute, ChromDB includes information on more than 11,000 proteins from plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms.

The website’s research team wanted a new look and logo for the site. Since this is a database-driven site, its pages are dynamically generated. So, my job was to build templates that would work with the database output.

After the redesigned ChromDB website went live, database administrator Karla Gendler said, “We are very happy with the looks of it. There are still some features that we are going to add but I’m just happy that I don’t have to worry about website design anymore!”

Spring’s just about to give way to the summer heat. So, time to catch the chuparosa blooms before they fade away…

It’s been an especially good spring for new buds on the cactus. My prickly pear have been quite industrious…

The Desert Botanical Gardens’ Butterfly Pavilion is an enclosed structure designed to keep the fluttering insects in. The interplay of the the pavilion’s roof reflection and the pond caught my eye.

One of the many fluttering insects at the Desert Botanical Gardens’ Butterfly Pavilion. Catch this exhibit before it flies away in May.

A computer-phile friend just had a milestone birthday. So, I designed a card, complete with some birthday code…

Agaves at the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona.

Sampling a rose outside the Sun Bowl Amphitheatre in Sun City, Arizona.

From the Interstate 10 tunnel near Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.