The Impossible Thrill

New Zealand Week 1 - COMPLETE

2006-10-16T14:48:00.000-05:00

***Note - This post is now COMPLETE with the exception of a few photos that will be added later.***

So here it is, the trip I've been dreaming of for upwards of 2 years - a long trip to New Zealand. We have a total of 6 weeks there - we'll return after Thanksgiving weekend. For those of you wondering, yes, I had 6 weeks vacation saved up. The trick was getting my employer to agree to let me take it all at once!

Anyway, we flew to into Auckland via San Francisco. Just prior to customs at the Auckland airport, they inspected our tent to make sure it wasn't carrying any tagalong seeds or other things that might upset the NZ environment.

We stayed in Auckland one day at the Surf and Snow hostel (they call them "backpackers" in NZ) to get our bearings and construct a plan. We wanted to travel by hitchhiking whenever reasonable (NZ is very hitchhiker friendly) but we didn't think we'd have much luck hitching out of downtown Auckland, so we took a city bus to the smaller town of Waiwera, about an hour north of Auckland.

Hitching out of Waiwera turned out to be quite easy - it took only about 15 min to catch our first ride. Our goal was to make it to Kaitaia (in the far north of the North Island) that afternoon.

The guy on the left is Kyle. He was our third and final ride of the day, taking us from Whangarai all the way to Kaitaia. He was into fast cars, heavy metal, and partying. He said he was driving considerably slower than usual so we'd be comfortable. What a nice guy. I was especially thankful during the last 30 minutes or so, riding through the tight switchbacks of the Mangamuka.

After staying at a really dumpy backpackers in Kaitaia, we paid to take a bus tour to Ninety Mile beach. The bus drives on the sand, up the beach for about 1.5 hours at low tide. Before it turned inland for the return trip, it dropped Kat and I on the beach at Te Paki stream. We planned to do a 2 day hike (the Cape Reinga Walkway) that goes up the beach and around the cape. Here I'm observing an Australasian Gannet - don't know if he was ill, or just in a mellow mood.

After hiking up Ninety Mile beach, we reached a staircase taking us up and over Scott Point. This is the view looking back down towards Ninety Mile Beach.

Another view on top of Scott Point, this time looking North towards Twilight beach.

After hiking over Scott Point, then up the length of Twilight Beach, we made camp for the night in a small clearing. As you can probably tell, it was a little chillier than expected (we were hoping for warm sunny beach weather!) What you can't see in this photo, is just how windy it was (extremely windy).

Twilight Beach, near sunset.

Under an outcropping of rock (kind of like a shallow cave) near our camp at the North end of Twilight beach, at low tide. It was totally inaccessible at high tide.

View from inside shallow cave at N end of Twilight beach. Swallows were nesting in here, and were quite unhappy that we were poking around, so we didn't stay long.

The following day had us hiking overland from Twilight Beach, over some huge sand dunes. Continuing upward, we reached a landscape that was almost Martian-like in it's barren-ness ... all sand and rock, no vegetation to be seen anywhere. Tons of broken seashells though - not sure how they got up that high, whether birds flew them up there, or they arrived by some other means.
***insert photo of martian landscape***

If it had been low tide, we could have slid down a big sand dune and walked on the beach around a point, but the tide was rising and we didn't know what lie around the point, so we took the safer option and hiked around the point overland, down to TeWerahi Beach. Lunched at a grassy spot overlooking the beach (a light lunch, since Kat underestimated the amount of food to bring, so we were rationing.) We met a lone backpacker hiking in the other direction as we started hiking up the beach - the only other backpacker we saw on the trip - he had come from Tapotupotu Bay, our destination for the night. Found the top half of a Portugese Man-o-War jellyfish, but didn't take a picture because I didn't figure out what is was until later.

At the N end of the beach we couldn't find the trail - we had either lost it, or it picked up somewhere around the point, which was quickly being overtaken by the rising tide. After scouting around and still not picking up the trail, we decided to make a break for it, timing the waves and working our way around the point. We waded through some calf-deep water and picked our way around the rocky point, thankful to find the trail on the other side. A steep uphill section, and some hiking along a ridge led us to Cape Reinga - one of the northernmost points of NZ, and the place were the Tasman Sea collides with the Pacific Ocean.
***insert photo from ridge***
***insert photo of Cape Reinga***

The guide book said there was a shop selling food up at the Cape, but alas - None! From the lighthouse, the trail headed down to the gorgeous secluded little Sandy Bay - if the weather had been warmer it would have been a tropical paradise! Onward to Tapotupotu Bay (with some steep climbing and descending along the way), where there were a handful of fishermen off the point, and a nice sandy beach. We camped there for the night, I did some tidepooling, spotting a few starfish, anemones, snails, limpets, crabs, fun stuff like that.

The following morning, we broke camp and were picked up by another tour bus for the return trip to Kaitaia. The only other people on the tour bus were an Australian couple (who we would briefly, randomly bump into on a bus in Auckand several days from now) and Julie, a friendly British woman who was touring the country in a friends vintage 1960's Rover Mini. We were both heading to Bay of Islands the following day, so she offered us a ride which we gladly accepted - and surprisingly it did quite nicely with 3 people and our gear!

Kat and I spent the next 2 days in Paihia, a small town in the Bay of Islands, another gorgeous area. It has many sheltered bays and tons of little islands. We didn't do a ton of exploring, we mainly just chilled out a bit, did some laundry, and enjoyed a little downtime and the luxury of being in the same place for more than one night. We stayed at the Saltwater Lodge backpackers, which we highly recommend. It's a newer building, purpose built as a multistory backpackers. (The surest sign that it's a great place - one day, we hung our laundry outside, but forgot it in the rain - we later found our laundry neatly folded in the laundry room - some angel had taken it inside and folded it for us!)

The one thing we did in Bay of Islands was visit the Waitangi National Reserve, featuring the Treaty House. It was in this place in 1840 that the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the native Maori people and the British crown, effectively granting the Maori full equality as British subjects, while granting the Crown governing authority. Apparently there is much disagreement surrounding interpretation of this treaty today, along veins similar to disagreements surrounding treaties signed in the americas with native americans. Given her background in law and Native American rights issues, Kat found the treaty grounds to be absolutely fascinating - and I found them interesting in my own right.

This photo is of a huge war canoe, made using mostly traditional methods in 1940 to memorialize the Centennial of the treaty signing. You can't tell from this photo, but the canoe was made from 3 huge hollowed out Kauri trees, and seated somewhere well upwards of 100 people.

Bicycle Tour of Colorado - Recap

2006-07-02T01:25:00.001-05:00

So what can I say? BTC is a great experience, tons of work, the riding is not easy but you're rewarded with top-notch, jaw-dropping scenery and some long descents. The variety of scenery is staggering - epic mountain passes, river gorges, hot arid desertlike lowlands. Camping makes for a little more work pitching a tent at the end of a long ride, but it's worth it to sleep outdoors. If I could have changed anything, I would have gotten an earlier start each day so I could savor more of the scenic. Oh, and instead of spending the prior 6 weeks recovering from an injury, I'd try to be well and training instead :-)

Bicycle Tour of Colorado - Day 7 – Mancos to Pagosa Springs - 88mi

2006-07-01T01:05:00.000-05:00

Wicked traffic today. Many miles of roadway had rumble strips separating the shoulder from the road, and moderate to heavy traffic. At the end of the day, we learned that one rider was killed after getting hit by a truck. Tragic. This was an 80+ mile day … most of the great scenery was already behind us, and the traffic didn’t help. It was an OK ride, but not an exceptional capstone to an otherwise incredible trip. I arrived at Pagosa to find that my luggage was missing. Turns out that Gregg and Julie thought they’d do me a favor by grabbing my luggage for me, without telling me. I appreciate the thought – but please, never never grab someone elses luggage unless they’re expecting it – it tends to freak them out when they can’t find the luggage, or their friends!

Bicycle Tour of Colorado - Day 6 – Telluride to Mancos - 83mi

2006-06-30T01:05:00.000-05:00

Accidently packed my sunglasses into my baggage on the truck, and noticed to late, so I grabbed the only pair I saw in the lost and found – they fit, and did the trick even though they weren’t sport glasses. Should have been an easy day, but again the damn headwind on many of the downhills! Ugh. But it was a 50 mile long downhill, so I can't complain too much! Seriously, 50 miles downhill, how awesome is that?!? Rode alone much of the day – Jen had a 20 minute head start, and Gregg and Julie dropped me after meeting up and snapping a few photos. John was behind somewhere. Had my own personal best rest stop of the trip – stopped at a gas station and ate an ice cream drumstick under a shade tree a few miles before Aid station 3. There’s no shade at the aid stations today, and the sun was killer hot today. Finally got a crosswind/tailwind for the last 15 miles so they were ok even though there was some climbing. At camp, thunder, then rainstorm just after I got my tent set up. Took a shower in a stream under a bridge at camp – nice and cool, and no waiting in line! John arrived soaked and hailed on and quite cold. Got a beer and listened to local band playing Johnny Cash and Elvis covers – band sucked but songs were all foot tappers. Ate a seafood buffet at some restaurant. Chuckled at this old codger with an oxygen tank who was all pissed off that they weren’t bringing out more fish as fast as he wanted. Too funny. It took John so long to get his hamburger that he had to leave for his massage before his food arrived. Girls stayed at motel in Cortez, so we couldn’t hang out with them tonight. They get to ride extra miles just to get from Cortez to Mancos to start their ride tomorrow. Sucks to be them.

Bicycle Tour of Colorado - Day 5 – Day off in Telluride

2006-06-29T01:05:00.000-05:00

Slept in until 8:30. Rode up to head of canyon with hopes of hiking up to Brides Veil Falls, but rock slides had closed the trails for the day. So we rode back into town and picked up another trail which ended up being more like a 4x4 trail w/plots of real estate for sale up the hillside. Still OK, since it had a great view of the city below. Trail lunch of baguette, brie, and prusciutto – yum. Back into town, stopped at a sporting goods store, then I rode around town looking for a place to fly my kite – the giant heap of mine tailings would have been great, but it’s no-tresspassing. I swear even the dogs are more laid-back in CO. Read, napped. Grocery shopped then went up to the condo as a group and prepared an amazing dinner – beef , prok, salad (lettuce, orange/yellow pepper, blue cheese, pinenuts), potatoes, brocolli, white wine, chocolate ice cream – so delicious! Jen downloaded everyones photos to her camera, and we watched a slideshow of all the shots from the trip so far. Gondola ride back down over Telluride was stunning, with the town all lit up after dark.

Bicycle Tour of Colorado - Day 4 – Montrose to Telluride- 65mi

2006-06-28T01:05:00.000-05:00

Rode 17 mi paceline at slowish 14mph pace – boring, slow, not scenic, but important to save energy for the coming climb. Johns knee is still bumming him, Jen has bronchitis or pneumonia. Had a headwind for what seemed like all day. Climbed 3000 ft in first 36 miles – there was a headwind roaring down the pass, taunting us at every curve. Glad I had the 12-26 cassette, the 26 came in handy. Rained briefly at the top of the pass at Aid#2, but thankfully was dry for the descent, but still that headwind was dogging us. Pedalling to maintain 25mph on a downhill like that is just wrong. Climb up to Telluride wasn’t that bad, but traffic was truly nasty at times. Telluride is gorgeous with huge waterfall up at the head of the box canyon. Rode gondola, then second gondola, then still had to hike uphill to reach the girls huge condo. Ate awesome mexican food, shopped, and hung out in front of ice cream joint with a couple folks we met in the pool yesterday. Met Bob from St Paul who rides w/ Loon State team. Sleep at 10pm.

Bicycle Tour of Colorado - Day 3 – Gunnison to Montrose - 64mi

2006-06-27T01:05:00.000-05:00

Two smaller climbs today, and some downhill. Shorter day, slept in a little and got a late start. Jen/Julie left without us. Gregg pulled John and I for the first 9 miles at 20mph into a headwind – incredible. Ride started out winding around a lake/reservoir – amazing scenery. I dropped John on the second climb due to his bum knee but we regrouped at the top and rolled into Montrose together on the sweet descent. Gregg and I met the girls at their hotel pool, grabbed some lunch at some barn restaurant just down the block. I had beef stew that was just perfect. Why shower when you can use the pool? I’m having an OK time on the bike this trip, but every ride really seems like work for me – more work than it seems it should. I’m just not trained for this, and the climbs, mileage, and altitude are taking their toll. I’m having a great time hanging out with everyone, but getting on the bike in the morning isn’t something I look forward to. The scenery is great, but I look too forward to getting done riding every day. Sunburned my calves today – didn’t bother to put sunscreen on them this morning since I was all bundled up, but my knee warmers left my calves exposed and they paid for it. Bluegrass band tonight was fun, and wished Kat would have been here hanging out in the evening grass, talking with everyone and listening to the music. Tomorrow is an uphill ride into Telluride, then a day off!

Bicycle Tour of Colorado - Day 2 – Creede to Gunnison - 106mi

2006-06-26T01:05:00.000-05:00

Two words for today – Epic. Brutal. Rode first 20 miles in a loose paceline, after that Gregg and Julie rode off ahead. Wouldn’t see them again until camp tonight. Jen and I rode together some, but usually Jen was way out front, then me, then John somewhere behind, and we’d all catch up at the aid stations. Brutal climb up Slumgullion Pass (11,530'). A woman crashed in front of me on a descent – she was wobbling, out of control, then her right foot somehow came unclipped, then she started screaming that she was going to crash – she disappeared around a curve and lost it on some scree on the outside edge of the curve. She was pretty banged up – plenty of road rash but no broken bones. Lucky considering the vertical rock face she could have crashed straight into. She’ll be gun-shy for a while I bet. Got rained on, then hailed on. Made the stupid mistake of not putting additional clothes on until after I was *already* cold – I couldn’t warm up when I finally reached an aid station, and couldn’t stop shaking even after wrapped myself in a borrowed blanket. John caught me at that aid station, he decided to sag it in, I decided to keep going in an attempt to warm up. I learned later that fully 2/3 of the riders sagged it in today. Was shivering majorly, the shivers were transferred through my arms to the handlebars making for interesting bike handling until the pedaling warmed me back up, and I could feel the heat spreading from my upper legs on up my body. Twelve mile descent at about 30mph was welcome relief. Mileage approx 104 miles, average speed 13.8mph. Slow, but I did it. Groin was very sore. Got a massage, ate dinner at a grocery store (all restaurants in this small town were filled up.) Had a late hot shower. Tired, but had a tough time falling asleep.

Bicycle Tour of Colorado - Day 1 – Pagosa Springs to Creede - 65mi

2006-06-25T01:05:00.000-05:00

Climb out of Pagosa over Wolf Creek Pass (10,850') was a real bitch. I’m riding a 32 front/12-26 rear cluster, but this climb seemed much longer/harder than Vail Pass which I had done on a 42 front/12-23 rear cluster back in 2002. Of course back in 2002 I was fairly fit, and in the middle of Ironman training. This year, not so much – I’ve just spend about 6 weeks off the bike trying to recover from what appears to have been a hip flexor strain. The descent down the back side felt quite hairy – I’m not accustomed to 45mph descents, and my front wheel seemed to shimmy a little when I’d brake. Was very cashed out by the time we finally rolled into Creede. All the grassy spots were taken, so we ended up in the gravelly outfield, using rocks for tent stakes. John and Jen had taken off to get coffee w/out telling anyone – Julie was concerned, and I was miffed because we hauled all John’s stuff to the campsite to save him a spot while he was out jacking around. Giant blueberry cheesecake icecream wafflecone. Well deserved nap. Ride on the vintage firetruck shuttle. Silver mining museum. Way tired. LONG line for the shower trailer. Windy.

Steamboat snowboarding

2006-02-12T22:33:00.000-06:00

As you've probably noticed, I pretty much unplugged from the blogging world somewhere around New Years. Not that New Years had anything to do with it - I had a fabulous time on New Years Eve hanging with Kat and her family, and '06 has been treating me plenty fine so far!

I guess I got a little overwhelmed being out of town (or at least not home) for many many weekends in a row ... Xmas, New Years, visited my friend BS in Wisconsin, went winter camping up near Ely another weekend, the list goes on and on. But I've been around home a lot recently, getting a lot of work done around the place, so it's time for me to get back on the blogging wagon.

After being away for so long, it's tempting to try to write a ton and catch up, but instead I'm just going to write off January and jump in with my snowboarding trip from a week ago or so ...

Headed out to Steamboat with high school friends JK, BS, and his brother MS. I'd really been looking forward to this trip - my first opportunity to snowboard out West, and to do so on the cheap (mucho thanks to MS for hooking us up with his friend's condo!)

I flew out a day early to hang w/pwef on Sunday. We had a pretty laid back time ... weather was sunny, but there was still a cold bite to the air. Flew kites at a park within walking distance of their apartment, checked out Union Station (where the Ski Train will deliver you to/from a day of skiing at Winter Park for not too much money), dinner at Wynkoop Brewery (ok, but really nothing special).

The following day, Monday, we biked around a bit, up along the Cherry Creek bike path and back through downtown. The creek flows through a small valley/trench, maybe 10 feet below street level, and the trail runs alongside it. I suppose it compares to the trail along Minnehaha Creek, minus the trees, and with more homeless people and shopping carts - not particularily inviting, but better than nothing. The street along the creek is not bike friendly, and all bikes are expected to ride the trail - kind of sucky to be shunted to a below-street-level trail.

Later that afternoon MS picked me up, we met up with the guys at the airport, and we were off to Steamboat in our big rental SUV. That's right, SUV. I do hate them, but must confess that in this case it was a necessity - 4 dudes, all with ski/snowboard gear and several days' worth of junk. That vehicle was pretty packed.

The ground clearance also came in handy when we ran over a frozen deer carcass at highway speed - had we been in a vehicle with less ground clearance, we would have been toast! Arriving at the condo, it took us a while to realize that the rancid smell in the parking area was coming from us - apparently little bits of frozen deer had caught on the undercarriage and were thawing out. Gotta love that "new car-cass smell".

JK and BS had never been in the mountains before, and they were blown away - stunned - by the scenery along I-70 on the ride up. Impressive stuff.

Tuesday, we hit the hill mid-morning, 'round 10am or so. It had snowed plenty overnight, but the hills were already fairly bumpy from all the skiers by the time we hit them. Kind of a bummer. We found some relatively untouched snow on the runs under the lifts, and to the extreme sides of some runs, which was rad - hitting the powder delivered an instantaneous switch to silent, smooth carving - awesome.

But the wind and snow picked up again, resulting in near whiteout conditions on the upper reaches of the mountain. Made for difficult runs, not being able to see more than a few dozen feet in front of your face.

BS and JK were riding K2 Fatty "skiboards" which are really short and gave them some problems in the powdery conditions. Leaning back a bit more than usual seemed to be the key. JK was also having some issues with his ski boots being too tight, or having too much clothing tucked into them, or something, so he and MS called it quits while BS got in a few more runs. The weather cleared up a bit, and we were able to take in the view of the town and surrounding terrain from the top of the mountain. We ended up on quite a few black diamond runs as we made our way all the way down the mountain, and my legs were totally cashed by the time we made it down.

Wednesday, we took it easy. There was lots of fog on the mountain in the morning, and lift tickets are just too expensive unless you're going to board for the whole day. None of us had a full day's worth of energy in us anyway. So we busted out the Super Nintendo (old school) and later drove just outside town and hiked a short distance up to a frozen waterfall. Getting up was easier than getting down, and we had to glissade down on our butts for short distances. Fun.

Also did a little sledding on the hill alongside our condo - three was a sidewalk at the bottom, and it was pretty steep, but the snow was soft and wet, so we couldn't get going fast enough to hurt ourselves.

Hung out in the outdoor hottub later that night, and BS joined me in a "cleansing" ritual of jumping in a snowbank in swimming trunks before returning to the hottub. I missed the polar bear swim again this year, so I suppose this is the next best thing!

The sleeping arrangements were such that brothers BS and MS ended up sharing a king-size bed in the master bedroom. Sometime Wed night, MS awoke when he felt BS cuddling him and KISSING HIS BACK in his sleep. MS shared this with the rest of us in the morning, we ridiculed him terribly (what are friends for?) and MS emailed both their wives so they could share in the fun. Too crazy.

Thursday, the weather was more agreeable, it had stopped snowing, and we hit the slopes again, this time getting an early start in hopes of getting better snow. A middle aged guy with a season pass tried to jump in front of us (and the hundred-or-so people behind us) in the gondola line, and BS confronted him. He replied "Hey, I'm just going skiing, man." To which BS responded "Hey, it's your world man, we're just living in it!" He dropped into line behind us. Too funny.

Snow was excellent (at least by midwest standards) and I was having a great time carving it up. We took an early lunch, and that's when the trouble began. By the time we made it back to the top of the mountain, it was storming like crazy again - the worst so far - blowing, stinging snow and ice with poor visibility. Luckily we all had facemasks along, so we just toughed it out. They don't call that particulary peak "Storm Peak" for nothing!

Thankfully it subsided after an hour or so, by which time a lot of people had left the hill. The sun came out shortly thereafter, and there were many inches of fresh snow from the storm that just passed - it was go time.

JK was having a much better time with his boots today, and we all started getting a little more adventurous, heading into the woods along the side of the run. First the evergreen trees (spaced far apart) then the aspen grove (spaced *much* closer together). A total blast of a time - skiing in the trees has always been a fav of mine, and this afternoon in the trees totally made the trip. I love the feeling of throwing the board around, whipping around the trunks.

An incredible day, and a great way to end the trip!

Xmas 2005

2005-12-26T22:59:00.000-06:00

The original plan was to spend Xmas with some of Kat's family in their northern Twin Cities exurb. However, plans changed when my mom contacted me and explained that Grandpa may have had another minor stroke a few days earlier. He'd had a stroke a few years earlier, and has ungone a pretty strong recovery, but he's not getting any younger and (from what I'm told) he's really beginning to feel his mortality and get depressed, especially at times when his health is in question.

He went in for an MRI on the 22nd, but they wouldn't have any results until the following week, so Jojo and I decided we'd both go home for Xmas, mainly to be able to spend time with the grandparents.

Kat was a good sport about the change in plans, and opted to come along and meet my family for the first time. Kat would tell you she came along to meet my family, but I think she was motivated primarily by wanting an opportunity to sift through my parents old photo albums and dig up extremely embarassing photos of me as an awkward, retarded-looking child with a runty body and unforgiving hairstyles :-) Thankfully, my worst photo was probably still not as bad as the "flock-of-seagulls" hairstyle that Frick wore in some high school photos on display at my grandparent's place.

Anyway, whatever her motivation, Kat came along, met the family on my dad's side (everyone seemed to like her) and we all had a great time. In fact, I think Kat interacted better with my family than I do, and having her there gave me some incentive to interact with my cousins more than I normally would. This is a good thing since I sometimes feel like I don't have much in common with them, and tend to not engage them as much as I should. That's something I really need to work on.

As is my tradition in the winter months, I had thrown my sleds in the trunk and we made a few good sledding runs down Honeymoon Hill. Much of the snow had melted, and there was grass poking through in many spots, there was still enough snow for some killer speedy runs and had a blast. It was a holiday weekend, but we had the hill all to ourselves. Very cool. Yes, I'm thirty-something, and sledding is one of my favorite things in the world. Am I a child in a man's body? You be the judge.

Grandpa seems to be doing all right - apparently he's having more dizziness and balance problems than he normally would, but he's OK. But his hearing also seems worse and worse, and for some reason no one seems able to approach him about getting a hearing aid. So when he wasn't around, there was a big discussion about how to approach him about a hearing aid, what his reaction would be, how not offend him or make him go on the defensive. I have a hard time imagining that he would be that reluctant to get a hearing aid, PROVIDED that someone could demonstrate that it could improve his quality of life.

I think that's the key - they'd need to get him to a professional who could demonstrate that it would really improve his quality of life - and I think it could be a dramatic improvement. Sitting at the dinner table you can just see that he misses some parts of conversations and starts to unplug. And it's frustrating that my dad and my aunt are both unable or unsure how to approach him. Equally frustrating is that fact that I guess I don't know how to approach him either :-(

Anyway, after Xmas dinner we dug out the photo albums - and I do indeed look like a total retard in at least one photo - a photo that I hope never resurfaces again. Thankfully every little kid is bound to look cute in at least a few photos as well, and I think that held true for me as well.

So, I never did make it out to the ski-biking event

2005-12-18T22:22:00.000-06:00

Actually, I did make it out there, I just couldn't find the so-called "deer pen" area of Minnehaha Falls park once I got there. I biked around for a while looking for it, but eventually gave up and ended up going for a hike down by the river instead, hiking from the dog park at the south end, up to the falls proper.

Wish I'd had my camera, because the frozen falls were looking incredibly beautiful - I don't know if the lighting conditions were especially perfect or what, but the ice had this amazing greenish-bluish hue that lent them an otherworldly quality. Really quite striking.

So yeah, I didn't make it to the ski-biking, but I did find instructions online on how to build your own ski bike, for anyone who's interested in that.

Ski-biking fun this Saturday

2005-12-16T10:49:00.000-06:00

Forwarded by a friend ...

Come one come all to a day or an hour of fun at the deer pen.

Saturday Dec 17th we will sled and ski bike at the deer pen (the deer pen is the name they call the area below the minnehaha falls by the V.A. hospital) the time is High Noon (so about 12:30) it is fun for the whole family or just one person in the woods however you want it just show up and have fun hope to see yall there.

And I assume they're not talking about mass-production ski bikes either. To see what I mean, read this announcement from a similar event in Feb '05. Here's a video clip pulled from surlyblog as well.

Guess I know what I'll be doing between now and then - snagging some junk skis at goodwill, and figuring a way to lash 'em to my mtn bike. If I can't get that to work, I'll probably just show up with a sled instead - anything to have some fun sliding down the hill.

It was bound to happen

2005-12-13T23:19:00.000-06:00

Ever since the roads got sloppy around Thanksgiving, I've been riding my mtn bike (which, for the record, is nowhere near as much fun as the fixie for street riding!) I'm running 2.1" rubber on the mtn bike, and it feels SO sluggish. Plus, I think the stem on the mtn bike is a little too long for me, and it's never really felt dialed for me.

But anyway, the roads were clear of ice, snow and slush this morning, and a Big Snow was predicted for tonight, so I took the opportunity to ride the fix in to work today.

Just as I was leaving home around 7:30am, I realized I had taken my bike repair kit out of my messenger bag when I packed the bag to head to Duluth for the weekend. I was already out the door when I realized this, and in a lapse of judgement I decided to go without for today. After all, I've been commuting on the fix off-and-on without incident for several months. Surely today would be troublefree, like all the others, right?

Wrong.

The ride in to work was great - it was so much fun to be on the fixie again!

The ride home from work started out great as well, until I flatted just north of 50th St. Without my repair kit, my options were pretty limited. So I started the ~ 2 mile walk home, though Linden Hills and on to Uptown.

There used to be a bike shop in Linden Hills - where was it now that I needed it? They closed a year or two back, as I recall. I think there's some sort of health club in the space the shop used to occupy.

The walk home actually was fine - almost enjoyable - weather was pretty mild. I did have better things to do with my time, though. By the time I got home, dried off the bike, fixed the flat (removing the small shard of glass), ate a little dinner, and rode to While Foods for some groceries, most of the night had slipped away.

I lost one of my tire levers a while back, so I only have two - it makes a huge difference. Getting the bead off the rim with only 2 tire levers was a real struggle. Note to self - get more tire levers.

So here's hoping that I can go another few months without flatting - and that I'll be a little wiser next time and not leave my repair kit at home!

Winter Camping - Gooseberry to Split Rock

2005-12-12T23:54:00.000-06:00

Kat planned to visit friends in Duluth this weekend, and also do a little winter camping to try out her gear, and she invited me along.

Friday night was fun - while Kat visited w/a girlfriend, I had a chance to have dinner and catch up w/my friend Heidi, who I had last seen Grandma's marathon weekend. We met at Fitger's Brewhouse, and I enjoyed one of their great Blueberry Porters - yummy.

Heidi told us about a huge sale going on at Granite Gear in Two Harbors, so we stopped in on Saturday and snagging some incredible deals (I got a steal on an ultralight backpack, and also picked up a pair of super warm mittens that should be perfect for winter camping and winter riding - I don't think my fingers will ever be cold again!)

By the time we parked the car at Gooseberry Falls and hit the trail, it was a little later than planned - I think we got started around 2:30pm under overcast skies. It was fairly warm though, 20 degrees or so - pretty nice, actually. Plan was to hike northward to the Split Rock River.

Gooseberry river and falls were totally frozen over - very pretty.

Surprisingly, there was little snow, maybe an inch or so - definitely less than in Mpls. Despite this, trail conditions were still challenging in spots. There was just enough snow to conceal icy patches, which were frequent and often unexpected. We both fell down/over on numerous occasions - my backpack definitely saved me from a broken tailbone on at least one occasion.

Took a little over an hour to reach the first campsite, at Blueberry Hill. We debated pitching camp there, but I suggested we push on a little further, since I thought there was another campsite between Blueberry and Split Rock. We made a friendly wager on whether such a campsite actually existed ... and I lost. Hiked the remaining 3 miles to Split Rock without coming upon any other campsites :-( Light was fading fast, and even though the snow reflected available light and our eyes adjusted fairly well, we hiked the last 1/2 hr or so with our headlamps. Kat was a good sport about all of this - she had been looking forward to an easy hike/camp just to test out her gear, and she got more than she bargained for with me pressing to hike onward.

Once we hit the river, it would have been another 2 mile hike upstream to reach the first campsite, so we instead opted to pitch our tent out on the frozen river (but only after testing the ice to ensure that it was plenty solid - river ice is always questionable and can be thin in spots where the water rushes beneath it.) This is also a no-no since we were inside the State Park boundary, where camping is allowed only in designated campsites. But we rationalized our actions be telling ourselves that we were causing no damage to the soil, flora or fauna by pitching camp on the ice - no harm, no foul.

Cool ice formations at the few spots of open water

Ferns and moss clinging to rocks, still green despite the freezing temps

Pitched the tent, fired up the stove and fixed ourselves a bottle of hot chai, and crawled into our sleeping bags for a light dinner of jerky, trail mix, and tea. It was still so early! One thing I love about roughing it is the heightened appreciation for little things - like warm tea, good conversation - things that are so easily taken for granted during the hustle and bustle of the normal day-to-day.

Camp on frozen Split Rock River

Goose down is our friend

We both crashed, and I slept like a baby until around 5:30am. Kat noticed that the sky had cleared and the night sky was now full of stars, so we unzipped the bottom the tent door, poked just our heads outside (the rest of our bodies still toasty warm in our sleeping bags) and gazed up at the stars for a while. I really wish I could identify more constellations - for me, it's the Big Dipper, maybe the Little Dipper as well on a good night.

Breaking camp

Broke camp around 8, and hiked out to Hwy 61. Kat's plan was to start walking in the direction of Gooseberry while trying to hitch a ride - a plan that probably works quite well if you're a lone woman, but not quite as well when you have a dude with you. Quite a few vehicles passed us before a kind woman in a minivan picked us up.

So, who's your friend?

2005-12-05T18:33:00.000-06:00

Normally I maintain a pretty distinct separation between my private and public lives. I'm not quick to introduce people I date to friends or family, and when I do it's a pretty big step for me. That separation extends to this blog as well - I don't really post much about dating or relationships, since, well, it's private stuff, and you guys probably don't want to read about it anyway! Things that may seem important to me are almost certainly boring and mundane to outside observers - so normally I'll spare you all that.

However, a few posts ago, I alluded to a crazy good distracting situation in my dating life. So I'm going to make an exception here, because the situation is a little unique and more than a little exciting.

So. Not quite 5 years ago, I dated a woman very briefly. Her name was Kat. We had met online (can't remember whether I contacted her, or vice versa) and I thought she was really quite incredible. Super cute, beautiful smile, well-traveled, liberal, athletic, intelligent, outdoorsy. Pretty much the total package, as far as I was concerned!

The complication: The timing was all wrong. I had been recently dumped (and was still smarting a little from that experience). For her part, she wasn't interested in dating anyone seriously. She was a free spirit who tended to move around a lot, had every intention of remaining single, and had carefully constructed dating "rules" to ensure she wouldn't get too attached to anyone.

So, we talked on the phone a bunch, and had a few great dates before her "rules" kicked in. I challenged her on her rules, fought, and lost. I was pretty bummed out.

Soon thereafter, she moved north of the cities to help one of her siblings with a new baby. We saw one another on two subsequent occasions a few months later, as friends, before falling out of touch.

... several years pass ...

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I receive a charming yet very brief email from a woman on Match.com. You guessed it - it was Kat. Funny thing was, while she said I seemed familiar, she didn't recognize me. I didn't have a shaved head when we had first met years ago, so I suppose it's not too surprising that she didn't recognize me. But even so, I still give her a hard time about that :-)

We exchanged a few coy (and suggestive) emails, she immediately realized who I was (OK, I gave her a few hints, although she claims she didn't need them), we reconnected over the phone (it was amazing how many little details we remembered about one another!) and made plans for a date the following weekend.

Things moved pretty quickly - very quickly. Even though we hadn't talked for several years, there was an uncanny depth of familiarity. It was really something. That date found us (literally) talking all night and deciding to see each other exclusively. Pretty crazy - one day we hadn't seen each other for years, the next, we're clearing our social calendars for one another.

But as exciting as this was, there were some rocky moments. Kat had had a dating epiphany and tossed her dating rules out the window some time ago, but I failed to fully appreciate that it was still a Huge Step for her to date only one person. I said some things that betrayed a sense of hesitancy on my part (after all, I had been hurt by her before). Thankfully, she gave me the benefit of the doubt, and I think we've made it though that.

We spent most of this past weekend together, and had an incredibly fun time. Hung out at the Como Observatory Sat afternoon (effectively a fancy greenhouse with tons of ferns, moss, exotic plants and flowers, etc), took in a production of David Sedaris' "Santaland Diaries" at Bryant Lake Bowl (double date w/my friend Doug). Sunday morning, Kat woke us up before sunrise for a walk down by Lake Calhoun, then headed down to REI for a little shopping later in the day.

So, dear readers, that's a little background on Kat and I (and for the record, she's still the total package and then some!) No doubt you'll be seeing her name mentioned around these parts in the future.

Coach Said Not To

2005-12-03T09:25:00.000-06:00

Not to long ago, I checked out Coach Said Not To's first EP from the library, and was instantly hooked. They've been playing a handful of shows around town recently, but tonights show at the Turf Club was the first I was able to attend.

I had ridden my mtn bike out to St Paul, and when the bartender noticed me packing my helmet and jacket into my mess bag, he was like "hey, are you a winter rider? You can toss your bag back here if you like." Cool.

Invited a few friends, and figured I'd be lucky if I'd get one or two to show up. I was pleasantly surprised that Doug, Landon, Bjorn and his wife all showed, and we all had a great time.

Coach Said Not To ("Coach Told Me Not To" as Doug would say) played a solid set, although not quite what I expected. They had some great harmonies, and quirky stage presence, but just weren't quite as "rocking" as hoped for. They were constantly perched on the cusp of rocking out, but never quite going over the edge. Such teases.

Second band was Belles of Skin City. They played an extremely tight set, and their frontman's lyrical delivery needs to be seen to be appreciated. They also mixed things up a bit by swapping instruments between members from song to song.

Third band doesn't warrant mention, and we took off after about 2 songs from them. Landon rode back with me to uptown, despite it being a few miles out of his way. He was practicing fishtail-like rear-wheel fixie skids in the snow on the way, and I'm sure if I tried that on my fix I'd be on my ass in a blink. I need to get some skillz.

Back home, I smelled like a disgusting ashtray. Ugh. Really hope that St Paul's new mayor gets moving on a stronger smoking ban - it really can't come too soon.

Obey your noodly master

2005-12-01T23:05:00.000-06:00

OK, this post is a little past due.

When I made this costume I was so embarassed at how it turned out that I almost didn't wear it for halloween. But in the end I said "what the hell, I put time into this thing, who cares if nobody knows what is?" At first I couldn't get it to stay on my head, so I just took two of His noodly appendages and tied them under my chin - worked out great.

So I wore it on the ride (which was a total blast! - best halloween ride I've ever been on) and thankfully numerous people knew exactly what the costume was about, so it all worked out (except for the sore neck - hadn't planned on that!)

Photo credits go to fixeapolis.

"At least he tried?"

2005-11-30T10:56:00.000-06:00

I'm one of the many who still use hotmail as my primary personal email account (I know, I know, I have a gmail account too, but haven't yet switched over to it.)

Every day, hotmail has links to a handful of feature articles in the upper-left-hand corner. To my surprise, one of today's featured articles was "Bicycle diaries: Living in America without a car".

Cool, I thought. The millions and millions of people using hotmail every day will have an opportunity to get exposed to the idea of the bicycle as transportation, rather than just thinking of the bike as a toy or as exercise equipment.

I had high hopes. I was disappointed.

Because the author lives in a suburban area, his experiences are undoubtedly a little different (probably more challenging) than my urban experience. And, in the interest of full disclosure, I too have a car and do use it occasionally for bigger errands or when the weather is rough.

To his credit, he does mention many of the advantages of riding - good exercise, hot dates, etc. But all too often he then negates those advantages with a chilling underlying message. If I were your everyday American cager, considering my options to reduce my automobile dependence, this article would likely steer me right back into my car.

He enjoyed commuting into his previous office job, until his publisher (who hates bike messengers) saw him with his bike, and his job with that company ended shortly thereafter.

Message: Biking will get you fired.
Succeeded in hauling a 15lb bag of dogfood on his road bike, but only after almost getting blown into the guardrail.

Message: Biking will get you killed.
Enjoyed a beautiful, moonlit ride through the wooded trail on an unseasonably warm night, and crawled into bed with a mild head cold.

Message: Biking makes you sick.
Found the bike to be quite viable for many errands and local trips, however, store clerks, soccer moms, and general passersby treated him as if he were somehow not right in the head.

Message: Ride your bike, and people will treat you like a leper.

The overarching theme of the article? "At least he tried." Personally, I'd rather the article feature someone who tried, succeeded, and enjoyed it.

What annoys me is not that he mentions some of the problems encountered when using a bike for transportation, but that he doesn't explain any of the options available to make those problems managable.

OK, he mentions wearing normal shorts over his bike shorts so people are less likely to realize that he's a biker. But that's about it. No mention that he could have used panniers or a backpack to safely transport the dogfood. No mention that most employers wouldn't fire you for riding a bike, in fact many employers go out of their way to encourage fitness (often including bike commuting). No mention that excellent clothing options are available to keep you warm while biking in cold weather.

And should you really care if a store clerk or soccer mom avoids eye contact with you? In my experience, people find you more of a curiousity than anything else, and I've had no problem with that.

Busy-ness

2005-11-29T23:56:00.000-06:00

Sorry about the lack of posts coming from my direction lately ... a result of me being both fairly busy, as well as a little distracted. My bro commented a while back that I was the suckiest blogger in the family, and lately he's right.

The busy-ness comes from the fact that I'm seriously considering selling my condo very early in 2006, and I've been chipping away at my list of repairs and sprucing up that needs to be completed before I can list the unit.

So before the snow fell and the ground froze, I had some landscaping to complete, and our flower garden in back of the building needed a new thick layer of wood chips too. Thankfully I got all that taken care of just in time. I still have a long list of interior projects to take care of - the woodwork around several of my windows needs repainting, some walls and ceilings need some touching up, I need to install a light fixture in my living room, reverse the polarity of my bathroom outlet, pack up a bunch of stuff to donate to Goodwill (or some other charity), clean out my storage room in the basement (not to mention cleaning my office too!) etc.

The distraction comes from a crazy (as in crazy good) situation in my dating life that I'll detail in a subsequent post, provided the whole thing doesn't implode (how's that for a teaser?!)

Adventure reading

2005-11-15T22:46:00.000-06:00

Lately I've been enjoying reading the adventures of Filtersweep, and the trials and tribulations of transplanting himself from MN to Norway.

My good friend, backpacking buddy, and snowboard fiend pwef has been blogging about his recent move from MN to Denver. After many scouting missions to various cities in the US over the past 2 years or so, he and his girlfriend G gave their 2 weeks notice, quit their jobs, packed up their belongings, and headed West. Currently unemployed, they've living the dream.

Good stuff - check 'em out.

Sis' visit

2005-11-15T21:54:00.000-06:00

So Jojo arrived late Friday night for the weekend bearing gifts of homebrew beer and hard cider for my birthday - yeah! I'm told that the cider needs to sit for a couple more weeks to allow the yeast to create more carbonation - this will be tough 'cause I'm a *huge* fan of hard cider!

Didn't get up as early as we probably should have, then rode over to Midwest Mountaineering for their annual expo. I didn't realize this was going to turn into a shopping expedition, but with her Europe trip coming up in December, she was hell bent to find some travel pants upstairs at Thrifty Outfitters.

Had an interesting conversation there with a guy promoting sports involving a human being towed by a canine. Sports like skijoring, dog-scootering (if that's what you call it) and simply running with a dog tethered to your waist by a thick bungee leash. The common thread in all these sports is that the dog tows the human. Sweet. Made me wish I had a dog myself. This feeling was driven home even further when I saw a super cute dog that looked just like an ex-girlfriend's dog that I helped raise for over a year - a Chocolate Lab/Doberman mix.

Missed dodgeball (it was raining outside anyway) so we climbed around in the bouldering cave in the basement of Midwest for a while, since it was free during the expo. Jojo's hand was still bothering her from her cabbie incident. I attempted to climb around but quickly found it more difficult than it looked. Thankfully, I didn't injure my shoulder like I did the first (and last) time I tried rockclimbing - it took me the better part of three years to feel fully recovered from that.

Later that night a bunch of us met up on the Greenway and raced the thunderstorm into downtown, destination Psycho Suzies. Somewhere around Park and 5th we realized we had forgotten to wait for LadyVelo and her bf, earning Sascha the title of "Worst Friend Ever". Ok, LadyVelo didn't give her that title, I did. We missed the worst of the storm while waiting under shelter until LadyVelo could catch up, and Sascha bought the first round, so it all worked out fine.

Suzies was already over capacity and they couldn't let us in, but thankfully a big crowd left shortly thereafter so all was well. Beers, birthday cake snagged from a nearby group, and deep dish pizza (that took more than *forever* to arrive) were the order of the night.
On to Runyons downtown, where we hung out until bartime.

Checked the radar and captured this screenshot when I arrived home - we got pretty lucky with the weather on the ride home - the wicked weather parted right around us:

Mpls Bikey Blogosphere Bar Outing - more

2005-11-12T23:46:00.000-06:00

It's shaping up to be a fun night, and plans are coming together, as they always do. We'll get the party started 'round 8pm Saturday night. We know where we'll start - who knows where we'll end up.

You can ride around all night looking for us, or just send an email to
email removed for security purposes for location details. I'd post the location here, but gotta at least make an effort to keep the crazies at arms length.

Mpls Bikey Blogosphere Bar Outing

2005-11-12T23:45:00.000-06:00

I just got an email from a friend saying "So, uh, are you privvy to this weekend's plans? Sounds like there's a little function that needs crashing..."

So the word is out, and apparently it's traveling like wildfire. My sis from Chicago is visiting Mpls this weekend, and she thought it would be cool to meet some of the bikey folks out here.

So, consider yourselves invited :-)

Mark your calendars, this Saturday night, Nov 12th, at a bar near you. Location currently TBD ... feel free to recommend your fave watering hole, and check back for details.

2005-11-11T22:10:00.000-06:00

What a gorgeous night. Any night in November when you can ride without mittens wearing just a long-sleeved Tshirt is a night to cherish. It's been weeks and weeks since I last rode the Cervelo, and since it's the one bike I know I won't need this weekend, I rode it over to Gilby's and exchanged it for her Bianchi fixie so Jojo could ride it this weekend.

A couple things I learned while riding Spencer from Nordeast to Uptown:

I really should explore Northest more - the area has real character.
I didn't bother to adjust her seat to the correct height, and it's really tough to apply backward force to the pedals with the seat set several inches too low. Really tough.
Gilby's Brooks saddle (which I'm sure is incredibly comfortable to her since it's been molded to her specific ass shape) is quite uncomfortable for my specific ass shape. Then again, if it were comfortable for me, I might be worried that I had a woman's ass.

With that, I'm off the Amtrak station to pick up Jojo. Really looking forward to the weekend.

Birthday pedaling

2005-11-06T20:21:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time since I've pedaled around town, recreationally, with no specific aim in mind. My rides usually fall into one of three varieties: Training, commuting, or errand running.

So today was a treat. My friend Joe suggested that we go for a recreational ride out St Paul way, before autumn lapses into winter, so I took him up on the offer. Joe and I have never really hung out together (outside of the occasional guys monthly happy hour outing) so I was looking forward to it.

I had no idea how many miles we'd ride, so I opted to ride the bus out to downtown St Paul Sunday morning, then ride the remainder of the way up to Joe's place at Lake Phalen. Joe had given me directions on how to get to his place by car, so I followed the same route on my bike. I didn't think anything of the traffic, but Joe was more than a little surprised that I'd ride "those streets" on my bike. I'm sure the fact that it was 10am on Sunday made traffic a little more reasonable.

Joe's girlfriend joined us, and we rode a big loop - Lake Phalen to downtown, past the cathedral, Summit to the river, south along the river and back up to downtown. There wasn't anything super eventful about the ride, it was just ... fun. And relaxing. I'm embarassed by how I really don't know my way around St Paul very well at all. Stopped at some of the scenic overlooks along the river, and passed by a lot of the same spots as the Dead Brewery Tour passed by earlier this summer - it was nice to be able to get my bearings and recognize some landmarks along the way.

Chowed down on steak and eggs when we got back to his place - when's the last time I had steak? I usually stick to just chicken and fish. An incredibly simple, but satisfying post-ride meal.

The sun came out later in the afternoon, and I rode back to uptown instead of taking the bus - probably took about the same amount of time ... the 21 bus route takes a good hour, and I think it takes me about that long by bike.

Two messages on my answering machine when I got home, wishing me happy birthday - I had totally forgotten it was birthday until then.

Chaos ensues as we all Fall Back

2005-11-03T17:24:00.000-06:00

Falling back from daylight savings time to standard time is always interesting, and this year has been no exception.

I've never before seen so many people doing so much yardwork after dark. Mowing lawns, sawing felled tree branches, raking leaves - it's all going on after dark nowadays.

During daylight savings time, it would still be light outside when I get home from work, even if I stop by the library or grocery store on the way. But not so Monday night. Walking home from the library, I almost got hit by an SUV making a right-hand turn while I was crossing in the crosswalk. Which is weird, since while I was waiting to get the "WALK" signal, he was right alongside and a little behind me waiting for the green light.

He should have seen me. And I'm sure he would had, if it weren't for the time change. Normally it's not dark at 6pm. The fact that he was talking on the cell phone didn't help, and thru gestures I let him know he should get off the F'in phone.

So yes, I think things get a little weird when the time changes - people's internal clocks are thrown off a bit, and a mild sort of chaos ensues. Kind of like the whole world suffering from very mild jetlag. That's my theory, at least.

I haven't felt much affect on my personal clock, however, it has made me subtly adjust my commuting schedule. I'm riding the fixie to work 2-3x per week (taking the bus the rest of the time) and now that we're no longer on daylight savings time, I've adjusted my schedule to ride both to and from work in the daylight. This means I leave home a little earlier than before, around 7am (arriving at work at 7:30) and leave work no later than 4:45 or 5pm.

Adjusting my schedule means I'm mixing it up with a different crop of vehicles on my commute. Take this morning for instance. I'm about a mile from work, flying south on York Avenue in Edina. Out of nowhere I get buzzed by a giant Edina yellow school bus - and by buzzed I mean close enough that my heart leap into my throat and I damn near had a heart attack.

Takes a lot to freak me out, but I was scared absolutely shitless. Flipped him the bird, but wasn't very satisfying since I was wearing mittens - even if he saw it, the message probably didn't get through.

About a block ahead of me, I saw the bus turn right, then into a parking lot. I was running on adrenaline, and sprinted off after him to see if I could have a word.

As the driver slid open his window, and I explained that he was really too close for comfort when he passed me, that he damn near gave me a coronary, and could he *please* give bikers a little more space?

He seemed genuinely apologetic as I rode off. He passed me again a few blocks up, and this time he gave me ample space (he took the left lane, despite the fact that he turned right another few blocks up.) A few blocks from work, he passed me going in the other direction. I never saw him before, and now 3x in one commute.

I'm sure I'll encounter this behemoth many more times in the future - but I suspect it'll be better, at least for a while. (crossing fingers)

Partybike!

2005-10-26T21:23:00.000-05:00

OK, here's a bike (or bike-like thing?) I'd never seen until my trip to NY, where I saw one in action. Cruised on by somewhere near Times Square.

The 7-person Partybike looks like what you'd get if you crossbred 7 bikes with, um ... a tractor or something? Pretty rad, and seems like it'd be a ton of fun. One person steers, all seven people pedal. I wonder what the top speed is?

NY, NY

2005-10-17T21:15:00.000-05:00

Wednesday afternoon, October 12th. Torrential rain combined with gusty winds at LaGuardia Airport in NY delayed my MN-->NY flight, and my friend's flight out of Milwaukee delayed as well. But we were delayed by different amounts - I arrived in NY, while their plane hadn't even taken off yet. So I settled in for a few hours wait at the airport, just me and a Sodoku puzzle (and a totally quintessential mother-son couple from Jersey sitting across from me - if only they knew how much entertainment I was getting out of their incessant bitching with their accent!)

Friends (BS, JK, and MC) touched down around 9, and together we grabbed a cab to our midtown hotel (the Midtown Super 8 - not too expensive by NY standards, centrally located - the rooms are small, but that's the standard in the city - I'd recommend it.) MC inquired from cabby where he could score some bud and some hookers - I'm not sure the cabby knew what to make of us. He answered the questions, but none of us put his info to the test (although BS and MC got to tried out some Vicodin ... but I'm getting ahead of myself here...)

Thursday, rain coming down in sheets all day. Rainfall records for the region were broken today, meanwhile we're out sightseeing all day. Thankfully I had the presence of mind to pack a decent umbrella, raincoat and rainpants. JK and MC purchased the cheapest possible umbrellas available - the kind that turn inside out at the slightest breeze - one of them self-destructed a few minutes after purchase, and we had to walk to back to exchange it.

The previous night we had walked around Times Square, grabbed some pizza (while being
panhandled like 4 times inside the pizza shop) and downed a few pints at a bar a few blocks away. Today, we headed in the opposite direction towards Rochefeller Plaza. The ice rink was up, but the rain kept any would-be skaters away.

Walked up 5th Ave, and stumbled on to St Paul's Cathedral. Beautiful inside, but they're real sticklers about making all visitors remove their hats inside that place. Walked east to Grand Central station for our first subway experience, which was surprisingly simple (once we got past the inevitable argument over whether to buy a debit pass or a 7 day unlimited ride pass - this is what happens when a bunch of guys, all budget travelers, take a trip together.)

Grand Central Station

Rode up towards Central Park and the Gugenheim. The Gugenheim was closed, so we couldn't get in :-( I thought museums were closed on Mondays, not Thursdays - WTF? And the outside was in a state of disrepair, half-covered w/scaffolding, so we couldn't even get a good look at it's snail-like bun-shaped structure. Disappointing.

Took a stroll across Central Park in the rain to get to the Museum of Natural History. Got lost in the Ramble (Bramble?) area of the park, so we were forced to take the scenic route. But we happened upon the "Strawberry Fields" near the end, and MC is a HUGE Beetles fan so I think he got some fulfillment out of that.

Museum of Natural History was closing in 1.5 hours, and BS asked if we could get discount admission since they were almost closed. We were caught off guard when told that we could "pay whatever we wanted for admission." We offered $1 per person, and we were in! What can I say, we are indeed thrifty travelers. They had some great exhibits showing how the various evolutionary lines of dinosaurs evolved and diverged over the eons, with tons of fossil examples ... we were forced to rush through them, so they were a little overwhelming, but if we'd had time to really digest them it would have been really interesting.

Exiting the museum, we noticed some trees all lit up with Christmas lights in Central Park, and they turned out to be in back of Tavern in the Green. So we indulged in drinks at the bar upstairs, while taking in the surreal scene of an overweight older man and the young, extremely attractive asian woman he was with. Tavern in the Green was actually a good time.

Took the subway back to Times Square and found a little Japanese restaurant on a side-street, with great fried rice and miso soup.

Friday, more rain. Blech. Some clothing/shoes had yet to dry out from the previous day.

Plan was to get up early and check out the fish market (where you can see big frozen fish being hauled around, cut up into slabs with meat saws for restaurants, cool stuff like that.) But JK took so long getting ready that we had to shit-can that idea. I was a little miffed.

Instead, we looked into taking a Ferry out to the Statue of Liberty, but you can only
climb up into the pedestal of the statue (not into the statue itself) so we decided to just take the Staten Island ferry instead, which is free, and passes fairly close to the statue and Ellis Island.

Sphere sculpture damaged at Ground Zero on 9-11, now on display in Battery Park

MC and JK on Staten Island Ferry

When the ferry returned us to Manhattan, we wandered up into Downtown and the Wall Street area. Found the New York Stock Exchange, then set off towards the big bronze wall street bull statue. BS tried to climb up onto the bull, slipped off and fell into a heap on the brick cobblestone sidewalk - the Japanese tourist onlookers thought this was pretty hilarious - so did we, until we realized that BS had really messed up his ankle.

We limped to 9-11 ground zero, but didn't spend long there because we were on a mission to find a cane or walking stick for BS. After scouring a few stores (and even checking out a golf store, thinking a cheap putter might make a good cane) we got directions to the nearest hospital, spending the next 2 hours in the ER. BS came out of that w/an ankle brace, cane, and prescription for Vicodin.

I was hoping to convince the group to take in an off-broadway show, so we hit the discount ticket booth, only to find that we couldn't decide on a show. I thought if all else fails, I could talk them into seeing Stomp, which I've seen twice, enjoyed, and was willing to see again. But no one else was interested. So we're in New York, and not seeing a show, despite the fact that one of my expressed goals for the trip was for all of us to check out a show, and everyone had agreed. Admittedly, most of the others had agreed begrudgingly but this makes it no less disappointing in my eyes.

Wandered north towards the Brooklyn Bridge - we had planned to walk across to the Brooklyn side and back (the skyline is supposed to look really cool from the Brooklyn side) but it was raining so hard we walked up towards Chinatown instead in search of some hot food.

Brooklyn Bridge viewed from Manhattan side

Chinatown was a trip - I'd been to chinatown in Chicago, but it pales in comparision.
Wandered around chinatown like a bunch of drowned rats for quite a while - the place is huge. The best were the sidewalk seafood markets with live fish flopping around in buckets. Just touched on the Little Italy neighborhood before taking the subway back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel, BS hit the Vicodin, along w/a bottle of wine. I helped out w/the wine, while MC decided that self-medicating w/the Vicodin was his idea of a good time. JK pretty much crashed out for the rest of the night.

Saturday was finally a nicer day. No rain, and the sun shone for much of day - it was really an incredible feeling after so much rain!

Got into line at the United Nations for a guided tour - a kid behind us in line was an intern at the UN, and he told us exactly where to stand so we'd get into the first tour - way cool. Weren't able to see the UN Security Council chamber (it was under repair) but saw the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council chambers. In the hallways, they have various works of art that have been donated as gifts from the member countries - if you go, don't miss the sculpture in ivory donated by china - the detail is incredible.

Next up, the Empire State building. There was a backlog of tourists in line, and the wait was supposed to be over 90 minutes. But luckily BS (and his cane!) got us into the express line for those with disabilities so we made it to the top in record time. It's an open-air observation deck on the 86th floor, w/stunning views in all directions.

"Virgin Mother" by Damien Hirst, outside Lever Restaurant in Midtown

Walked south from there because I wanted to see the Flatiron building, then took the subway back to Grand Central Station. Stopped at FAO Schwartz toystore, then on a whim ducked into the New York Public Library (at 5th Ave and 42nd St) and wow, was I glad we did. The building is awesome, in the true sense of the word. The classical external architecture with the columns and lions is impressive, but the interior is even more so. The interior is mostly marble, with tall, ornate wooden ceilings. Most impressive are the reading rooms on the third floor - immense warehouse-sized reading rooms like you might see in the movies. Dark woodwork and ornate fixtures - not to be missed.

Had a few drinks at a happy hour down the block from our hotel, then headed back to lower Manhattan to a seafood restaurant we noticed yesterday. Unfortunately, the seafood was sub-par, but it was a beautiful night to be out, so it wasn't a total loss. Rode the Staten Island Ferry again to take in the skyline at night (and without all the fog and mist we had experienced yesterday.) Didn't realize that the ferry runs less frequently at night, so we were trapped at the ferry station for a full hour waiting for a return ferry. Oops.

Back at the hotel, BS took off his shoe to discover that not only was his ankle swollen and black and blue (like yesterday) but his entire forefoot was now a bruised reddish-purple color as well. It was a real mess.

All in all, I found the trip fun at times, but more than a little frustrating on many occasions. The UN, the Library, Empire State Building, Chinatown, all that stuff was very cool. But several things that I really wanted to do (fish market, off-broadway show) didn't happen for various reasons, while at the same time I was relied upon heavily to read the maps, navigate, figure out the subway system, etc. BS and MC did some work, for which I'm thankful, while JK often seemed to just be along for the ride, with us leading him around. I guess it's a classic case of different people with different travel goals and travel styles, and the almost inevitable friction that can result.

Alumni Band Weekend

2005-10-06T20:47:00.000-05:00

So Madison was a fun trip. Ducked out of work early enough to make Critical Mass, which consisted of 25-or-so riders, mostly early-mid twenties. Apparently many of them live in the Williamson St area, as we lost quite a few riders when we passed through that neighborhood. It was a small group, and it seemed like most of them knew one another - making it a little bit strange to show up as an out-of-towner. But everyone was super friendly and fun. Rode mostly streets w/heavy traffic, and I would say we had just enough mass to pull it off comfortably. Highlight for me was riding under the convention center on John Nolen drive - never thought I'd experience that stretch of road on a bicycle.

Madison Critical Mass ride report

Met some cool people on the ride - one guy lives in a co-op on Langdon St, and invited me and a few others back to his place for dinner. Fun.

Crashed at my friend Kristina's house in Monona. They have two kids that really did NOT want to be put to sleep that night. Much kicking, screaming, and crying. I really don't need any reinforcement to support my childfree attitude, but if I did, that bedtime episode would do it FOR SURE.

Hooked up w/brother Frick at Alumni Band practice the following morning. Under general circumstances, the level of organization at alumni band can best be categorized as a clusterfuck - a very fun clusterfuck - but today was the worst organized I've ever seen it. None of the field assistants had a chart for run-on, so they were unable to get us lined up correctly in the tunnel. They tried some half-assed line up, that we immediately realized wouldn't work. In the end the front couple of rows (including Frick and I) self-organized so at least our rows would get it right - I have no idea what happened to the rows behind us because I couldn't see them.

I usually leave Alumni Band after halftime, and spend the rest of the afternoon on State St or hanging out by the Lake Mendota, but I was having more fun than usual so I stuck around 'til the end. Even went out onto the field for 5th quarter, which it seems it MUCH shorter than it was when I was in school. They played probably 5 songs, then left. It was 2x as long back when I was in school, at least. I wonder if they're trying to clear the stadium faster for security reasons or something?

Memorial Union Terrace is undoubtedly the placed I miss most about Madison. Summer nights with live music, good friends, and beer, with Lake Mendota as a backdrop - it really cannot be beat. So we headed to the terrace after the game, meeting up with Bill's and Leslie's families for a few pitchers. Jojo and her boyfriend Paul had a fun weekend planned which included hanging out w/Frick and I, and we eventually joined up with them at the hotel.

Got cleaned up at the hotel, had big pillow fight, then met up with Bill and his parents for dinner.

Jojo and Paul had never explored Madison, so we ventured up State Street towards Capitol Square looking for a bar that wouldn't be overrun by drunk college kids. On the way, a game of Lava Rock Rock Revolution broke out on a street seating sculpture installment (much to the confusion/amusement of passersby). Kids, don't try this without health insurance. This is one thing I love about hanging out with my brother and sister - we're grown adults, but we still have fun playing like schoolkids.

Despite spending many a summer night there in college, I had totally forgotten about the great basement outdoor patio at the Great Dane brewpub. We ordered up a sampler platter of 9 different beers, enabling us to sample almost all of their house brews. The perfect place to chill and avoid the drunken college masses.

Rode out to Willy St Sunday morning looking for some brunch - found a great little cafe (wish I could remember the name), stopped at the Willy Co-op, then we decided we'd get a few fast miles in before we all had to depart. I thought I could plot a route a little further eastward, before heading back towards campus and the cars. But we somehow ended up way out by the airport, requiring some riding amongst fast traffic near the Oscar Meyer plant in order to get back into town. Oops. It was a fast invigorating ride though, just what Paul wanted :-)

Prepping for Alumni Band weekend

2005-09-30T22:18:00.000-05:00

Plan for the weekend called for meeting my brother Frick in Madison (he'd be flying in from Sacramento) for the annual UW Alumni Marching Band weekend, the one weekend that old band members get together to drink, catch up, and perform half-assed pregame and half-time routines during the Badger game.

My sis and her boyfriend were coincidently planning to be in the Madison area too, since they wanted to hike around at Devil's Lake State Park. So we planned to rendevous in Madison on Saturday, and we'd show them around Madison by foot and bike.

So I need to get bikes to Madison for Frick and I. Most straightforward option would be to throw them on my hitch-mounted rack. But bikes tend to wobble around (and bump into each other) on that rack at highway speeds. Kind of annoying, and I suspect it hurts my gas mileage as well, although I've never measured it. So anyway, I wanted to find another way to get the bikes to Madison.

Took both wheels off my mtn bike, and found that the frame just *barely* fit in the trunk. Sweet. One bike taken care of.

Took the front wheel off the fixie, tried to fit it in the front seat. No go. And my car (Honda Del Sol - fun, great gas mileage) has no back seat. Now what? Don't want to remove the rear wheel, because getting the chain tension right can be a bit of a pain, and I won't have time to deal with that when I get to Madison (I want to ride Madison Critical Mass, and I'll be cutting it *very* close as it is.)

Flash of insight. Front seat is attached simply w/four bolts, removing front seat from car took about 2 minutes. Bike fits in space normally occupied by front seat almost perfectly. Looks like the front seat will be staying in my living room while I head to Madison!

Seat has to go when there's a bike to be hauled:

Also finally took the time to investigate why my mtn bike bottom bracket was making noise. Borrowed a crank puller, and removed the cranks and bottom bracket. I think the bottom bracket was a little loose in the frame - at least I hope that's what the creaking was. Also noticed that there was a bunch of paint that was never faced off the bottom bracket shell when the bike was originally built up, so I took a few minutes removing the paint w/a razor blade so the BB will have a nice metal surface to snug up against. Hopefully that'll do it.

The BB is a tapered-square shimano sealed unit. It's eight years old, and I now realize that most if not all of the grease is gone from the inside. Sounds like bearings rolling on metal.

No toolbox is complete without one of these:

I know these things are to be treated as disposable. Wonder if there's any way to service sealed bottom brackets? I'm sure someone has tried to tear one down at one point, but I'd have no idea how to do it. If anyone has a method, I'd love to hear it. Or maybe a way to inject more grease into it?

Anyway, I just cleaned up the outside of the BB and reinstalled it. Didn't have time to clean the drivetrain - it really needs it (hasn't been cleaned in several years) but no time tonight.

It's like blood doping, but in reverse ...

2005-09-22T22:49:00.000-05:00

The bloodmobile came to work today, as it does every few months. I've never donated before (although I sold quite a bit of plasma during my poor college days.) Anyway, I figured it was time for me to donate some blood, since I'm done racing for the season. Seemed like a good thing to do.

Kind of forgot that I had plans to ride with Doug after work today. With the limited daylight nowadays, we did a truncated version of the Medicine Lake loop, for about 30 miles door-to-door. It didn't take long for me to realize that having fewer red cells was affecting my performance - the few small hills between my place and Wirth Parkway were leaving me a wee bit winded - not normal.

Once I was fully warmed up, things improved a bit, but after about 15 miles I really started draagggiiiinnnnngggggg. I was off my game, and serious efforts, like hammering downhill to hit 40.8mph, left me feeling totally spent.

The ride was still fun, and we finished just before dark, but a little more blood would have been nice.

Wind Rivers Backpacking Trip, Sept 2-9, Days 5-8

2005-09-22T22:32:00.000-05:00

Sun rose and warmed out camp by 9am, so we were able to get an earlier start today. Day started w/a long descent (giving up lots of altitude that we'd immediately have to make up) followed by a long ascent along creeks to the Highland trail.

Nice view of random peaks in the background

Before we started the ascent to the Highline, we encountered the only humans of the day, 2 sheep hunters on horseback. Very friendly gents, and very curious whether we had seen any sheep in the direction they were heading. As Paul noted, these two guys were straight out of central casting. Both Hispanic, on horseback, thick accents. Cowboy hats. Rifles in slings alongside their saddles. The upper teeth of the older guy seemed too large for his lower teeth - almost certainly dentures. The older guy also had a dog with him - a small terrier of some sort, riding in a canvas bag slung alongside his saddle. Super cute! The dog didn't seem to mind, although I'm curious why they had him along - being small, and a terrier, I doubt he was very useful when the sheep hunt is on.

Had a fierce headwind for the entire climb and along the flats of the Highline Trail, making it even more arduous. I usually only think about the wind being a challenge while biking, and sometime running, but it sure makes climbing with a heavy pack more difficult too!!!

Along the Highline Trail, with Summit Lake on the right

After stopping at Summit Lake (a high, desolate lake along the Highline Trail) we turned to the southwest, where we spotted a moose cow about 75yds away. We proceeded cautiously, having no idea whether the cow had a calf nearby. Moose are pretty dumb animals, but they're big and will be quick to put the hurt on if they feel you're a threat to their young. So we kept moving, keeping her in sight as best we could. Lots of spur trails in this section - pretty confusing. Shortly thereafter spotted 3 mule deer, all does, maybe one younger one.

Moose (you'll have to click on image for large version)

Descended down to a lake whose name I can't remember (starts with a B though) and found a campsite with quite possibly the most stunning campsite view ever - across the lake, in the distance 2 dome peaks, lit with the late day sun. We had some daylight to spare, so took advantage of the time to find a nice rock where I could dive into the frigid lake and rinse off 3 days of trail dirt/stench - I like to imagine the force of the water blasting dirt out of every crevice in my body. Refreshing!

Gorgeous lake, gorgeous backdrop, good food, cleansing swim, great day. Pretty simple needs out here.

Hoped we might not see anyone the next day, but saw several people today before we had even fully broken down camp. A husband/wife couple passed by, headed a few lakes up in search of trout. They were followed by 3 hunters on horseback, with 3 additional pack mules.

Paul and I discussed how the horses and mules must do much more damage than humans. My back-of-the-napkin calculation: Stock have 2x as many legs as humans, and each leg supports 2x the weight of a human (probably more, but I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt). So each stock animal is generating 4x the trail damage as a human (and I think that's even being generous.) Factor in the fact that stock really don't care where they're walking, and they can't even see where they're planting their rear legs, and I suspect it's actually worse. So for this party of 3 humans, with a total of 6 stock animals, is generating the equivilent trail damage as a party of 24 backpackers would. This would go a long ways toward expaining the terrible trail erosion we'd come across later this day.

Hiked so much today, with so much elevation gained/lost that I could hardly remember all of it at the end of the day. Thought we lost the trail in a meadow by Heart Lake, early in the day, and it took us a while to realize that what looked like a washout was actually the trail leading up from the meadow. Climbed, climbed, and climbed some more. Our target for the day was Parker Lake, but we got off course when we ended up on an *extremely* eroded stock trail along the way. It was all uphill, and pretty brutal, with few switchbacks. Tough on the feet, mostly rocks underfoot due to the dirt being washed away by erosion. In some places the trail was in it's 3rd or 4th iteration, as each previous iteration had become a washed-out trench.

Trail erosion - this was bad, but there were areas that were much worse

Paul near the top of the pass - you can see those same twin dome peaks in the far distance - we've already come a long way today

View to the east, from the top of the pass - the Wind River mountain range

View to the south, from the top of the pass - Wyoming flatlands

Made our way up over the pass, picked some landmarks and tried to get our bearings. We suspected we were on our way to Rainbow Lake, not Parker Lake. Pumped water at a small alpine lake, swore a little, and kept going. Came upon a trail marker that verified we were in fact on our way to Rainbow Lake. By this time we're feeling pretty beat up - sore feet feeling like they're bruised from the rocky climb, realizing we still had another hour of hiking ahead of us. We would have been to Parker Lake by this point! Thankfully the remainder of the hike was rolling hills, then a long descent to Rainbow Lake.

Finally see water - the lake is close. Picked the first available flat spot at the lake to pitch our tent - too tired to seek out a better spot. After resting for a bit, we relocated the tent to a more secluded spot up and away from the water. Totally beat. Early dinner. We weren't alone at the lake, as there was a family across the lake. At one point, I heard them across the lake - one woman saying to another - "why did you pack fingernail polish?" Funny.

Rainbow lake

After sundown, I sat in clearing by the lake reading, when I heard a very soft "whoosh whoosh" somewhere above my head. Turned out my headlamp, there was still enough light reflected off the rock face along the lake to make out the silouettes of several owls hunting in the clearing. The "whoosh"ing was the sound of their wings as they flew from pine tree to pine tree, including one pine tree just behind and above my head. They seemed to have 4 trees that they flew to/from over and over. I got the impression that they probably came here to hunt pretty frequently. Don't know if they didn't know I was there, of whether they knew but simply didn't care. Paul was already up in the tent, and I thought about calling him down to see, but was afraid the owls might get scared off. Cool.

Meadow at Rainbow Lake - the owls would show up here after sundown

Final day. Hit the trail thinking we'd have a fairly easy 6 mile day, back to the trailhead. Should be mostly downhill, since we had quite some altitude we had to lose to between here and the trailhead. The family across the lake broke camp and took off shortly before we did, and we ran into them not too far down the trail. In one of those "small world" moments, it turns out that the younger couple in the party were from Mpls, and they had also driven out for their trip. Mike, I think the guy's name was, works at REI. Small world indeed!

I was wholely unprepared for the downhill switchbacks today. I was anticipating an easy downhill day - boy was I wrong. Switchback after steep, rocky downhill switchback was the agenda for the day. And since we were heading away from the alpine meadows and down into the woodlands, the scenery wasn't much to look at either - couldn't see very far into the trees, no overlooks or anything like that. Then, outside the wilderness area, about 2 miles from the trailhead, a stream crossing with no rocks or logs to cross on, and brown murky water - probably colored brown from all the cowpies the pasturing cattle had left behind in the area. Nice. Poo water in my boots - just what we needed on the last day :-)

Poo crossing

Finally arrived back at the trailhead, and took the boots off content in the knowledge that I could spend the rest of the trip in comfy sandles.

View looking up the valley we hike up into on the first day, this photo was taken as we hiked out.

Drove into Pinedale and rented showers at some shitty "campground" in town. Really just a small lot where people could park their RVs or trailers if anyone actually wanted to stay at that shithole. Wanted to get out customary post-backpacking-return-to-civilization pizza pie, but it seemed almost all the restautants in town we closed until like 4 or 5pm - weird. Found a mexican restaurant that looked promising - at least it was open! Had high hopes that were quickly dashed. My food was far from good, Paul later described his burrito as simply horrible. Kind of a downer.

But we were back on the road, headed for home, so we had that going for us! Saw a cool storm, with lightning, in the distance to the south which made for interesting viewing. Had hoped to soak in the hot springs in Thermopolis on the way home through Wyoming, but it was already dark when we passed through. Smelled the sulfur driving though the town, though.

Storm clouds

The mule deer were so think along the highway through the Bighorns that it was a *seriously* stressful time. We were both on full-adrenaline deer alert the whole time, traveling about 40mph most of the way though. Don't know how many deer we saw - dozens, for sure. Oh, and pronghorns here and there throughout the day, too.

Stayed over in Buffalo,WY got a good nights sleep (yeah, sleeping in a bed again!) and hit the road Friday with the goal to be back in Mpls that night. It was a super hot day, with both Paul and I choosing to sweat rather than turn on the air conditioning. Overloaded on New Orleans coverage on NPR. Super windy today, blowing from south to north. I mean Seriously Windy - on numerous occasions we saw birds (seagulls and hawks) trying to fly against the wind, failing, and giving up. Crazy stuff.

Pulled off the highway in Mitchell to look from some dinner. Drove by the Corn Palace - what a piece of junk that thing is. I was imagining a building make entirely from corn. No such luck - it has a brick first floor, with upper floors having what looks to be an outer facade made of corn. Disappointment. Ate dinner at some semi-depressing diner, complete with waitstaff with that deer-in-the-headlights look that belies mental numbness and understimulation. Diner was sort of quintessential, however, in that it had these two guys (regulars, I'm sure) drinking coffee and chatting/bitching nonstop - I bet that diner is a second home for those guys.

It was very interesting to observe the transition as the prairies of Wyoming and western South Dakota gave way to the first row crops (corn) as we progressed eastward across South Dakota, and finally reach the comparatively lush farmland in Minnesota. Maybe it was just the opressive heat while driving all day, but being back in MN surrounded by green fields as opposed to brown or gold prairie was truly refreshing.

Some general observations about the west:

Having never driven out west, I didn't know what to expect. Whenever I travel somewhere new, I really Really REALLY want to like the new place. I want to love it, and add it to my list of places I could imagine relocating to someday. But very few of the places we passed through on this trip made me feel that way. Actually, Jackson was the only place that came close, and Jackson is too small. The rest of the west really didn't appeal. The west seems like a land of extraction (mining and oil drilling) populated with all the heavy equipment that goes with it. Everywhere you went, tractor-trailers, big rigs, heavy equipment, heavy-duty pickup trucks.

The West

However, I also have to note that the PEOPLE in the west seemed much more open and friendly than midwestern folk. I've always described Minnesota "Nice" sort of like Minnesota "Mind Your Own Business" or maybe better as Minnesota "I'll Be Nice, But Keep You At A Distance". I didn't feel any of that in the west - everyone seemed genuinely nice, helpful, and well, just plain NICE. It was refreshing and appreciated.

Wind Rivers Backpacking Trip, Sept 2-9, Days 1-4

2005-09-18T16:16:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer - there's probably more detail in this post than anyone wants, but it's for my benefit.

Took the northern route on the drive out, as we wanted to check out Yellowstone before we entered the wilderness (we were afraid we'd be too tired and too intent on getting home if we tried to drive through Yellowstone at the end of the trip.)

So we left mid-afternoon Friday, driving out on I-94 through North Dakota. Pretty uneventful, with one exception - somewhere west of Bismarck the Northern Lights really fired up. Believe it or not, this was the first time I ever saw them (despite numerous other backpacking trips out west and to northern MN). They danced around for about 5 minutes before gradually fading out, leaving us with nothing but the Dakota flatlands and the open road.

Made it as far as Dickinson, and after calling several hotels (none of which had an available room w/two beds) we ended up at the Oasis Inn, just a short ways off the freeway. Nothing special, but decent for the price. Cinderblock building, clean bathroom.

Woke up midmorning, and hit the road. Passed through some very scenic landscape in western North Dakota/eastern Montana - which I'm told is similar to the terrain in the Badlands in South Dakota, except in North Dakota the spires are a little more eroded, more rounded. Didn't take any photos, but it's an otherworldly landscape of peaks, ridges, valleys, all cut through layers of multi-colored rock, so all around you see the striations of the different layers of white, tan, brown, red colored rock. Pretty cool.

But before too long, this landscape again gives way to the fairly monotonous flatlands. Drove onward, stopping only for gas (we were eating out of a cooler of food we packed). Finally hit Billings, turned southwest onto 212. The drive along 212 into Yellowstone is supposed to be one of the most scenic drives in America, however a portion of it is closed due to mudslides earlier this year. Bummer. So we had to detour, missing out on the most scenic stretch.

But even with the detour, the drive into and through Yellowstone was still good, especially after some of the monotonous stretches we'd passed through. We entered through the eastern entrance. Saw this huge tabletop mesa-type geologic formation in the distance, something I'd never seen before. Stopped to check out a herd of elk (at a distance) and later traffic was brought to a standstill by a large herd of buffalo crossing the road one at a time. Weird animals, buffalo - to me, their smaller hindquarters look undeveloped, as if they all contracted polio when young, and their hind legs never fully developed. Wait about a 1/2 hr to see Old Faithful erupt, which quite frankly wasn't all that exciting. But it is one of those quintessential american experiences, so I suppose it's good to take it in.

Elk (or caribou?)

Buffalo

Old Faithful

Driving though the park took much longer than expected, it was nearly dark by the time we left old faithful, and we wanted to make it down to a campground at Coulter Bay, south of the park. We finally found the campground, after a fair amount of messing around. We got the last available "tent cabin", a little 4 bunk cabin with 2 sides made of logs, and the other 2 sides made of canvas cloth and a canvas roof. Slept well, and the patio outside the cabin made for a nice flat area to do our final sorting and packing of gear for the backpacking we'd start later in the day.

Tent cabin

We didn't realize it, but we still had a lot of driving to do. The drive to (and past) Jackson had some incredible scenery, with a mountain stream paralleling the road for much of the way, and the Tetons in the distance to the west. In Jackson we searched for a store to buy tent stakes, since they apparently didn't make the trip. Having taken care of that, we headed southeast on 191, encountering unexpected road construction.

Tried to call the ranger station in Pinedale to ask about and trail/wilderness conditions we should be aware of, but they're closed on Sundays so we just headed to the New Fork Lakes trailhead. The last I-don't-know-how-many miles were on a washboard gravel road - slow going, not too much fun.

It was 2pm by the time we actually hit the trail. First few miles were very dry, on a trail paralleling the shoreline above New Forks Lake. We were in the National forest, but not yet in the wilderness area. Lots of cattle grazing in there, lots of trampled vegetation and cowpies. From what we read, grazing is also allowed in wilderness areas in places where grazing was allowed before the area was designated as wilderness. Paul was bothered by the cattle's presence more than I was, but I have to agree that it's weird to have cattle grazing in a wilderness area. Thankfully we left the cattle behind after the first few miles, so they were no longer a distraction.

After leaving the lakeshore, we followed the trail up up up as it followed a stream up into the valley. Spent about 5 hours on trail - it got to be 7pm and we needed time to find a camp and set up before dark. So we found a flat spot near a game trail and a dry creek bed, with a steep talus slope on one side, and rugged rock face on the other. It was a new experience camping in a meadow so boxed in on both side - it got dark early and fast, but it was a nice spot.

Talus slope, east side of campsite

Rock face, west side of campsite

I slept outside, under the stars like I usually do when backpacking or camping, but was forced into the tent when it started drizzling rain around 2am. Woke in the morning to the sound of a large hooved animal walking on the rocks making it's way up the dry creek bed. Stuck my head outside the tent, but couldn't see it - either it was farther away than it sounded, or it was behind a large stand of trees near our tent. Later in the trip, we ran into some backpackers who saw several moose in that meadow, so I'll assume that's what it was.

Outside, it was a cool morning - not near freezing, but definitely cold enough to see your breath. The rock face side of the canyon was bathed in sunlight, but it would take a long time for the sun to reach our campsite down in the meadow. I crossed the stream (which contained small, extremely wary trout) and found a patch of sun where I could read a bit of Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" (highly recommended reading when spending some quite time in the woods, IMHO). Paul was sleeping in, but that was fine as he got up shortly after the sun warmed our tent.

Creek crossing

Altitude is the currency of the backcountry. Absolutely stunning views views today, and we paid dearly for each and every one with altitude gained by climbing switchback after switchback.

View from the switchbacks today

Near the top of the many switchbacks today

View from near the top of the switchback - you can see the valley meadow (that we camped in last night) in the distance. The talus slope is on the left side of the valley.

Alpine meadow somewhere past the switchbacks. Terrain makes it tough to tell where treeline really is.

We slowly climbed out the valley, reaching a handful of alpine lakes (Lozier Lake, etc). Looking back on those lakes was beautiful, but the view looking down upon Clark Lake (our final destination for the day) was enough to take your breath away, magestic peaks with snow in the background. With our late start, we needed every available minute to reach camp. We saw very few human tracks today and had Clark Lake all to ourselves.

Series of alpine ponds and lakes

Lozier Lake - pumped water and snacked here before continuing to Clark Lake. Nice peaks in the distance.

Paul, with Clark Lake way down below in the distance. Long descent down to the lake, giving up a lot of hard-fought altitude.

Down at Clark Lake.

Slept outside again, fitfully. Woke up frequently, each time noting the constellations had rotated and shifted only slightly from the last time I awoke. Being able to sleep outside, under the stars, is one of the things I most enjoy about the backcountry. Watching the constellations march across the heavens, and marvel at the overwhelming number and depth of the stars up there. Especially the depth - it's as if you could reach up and into the sky, like plunging your hand into the inky depths of the sea.

During one of the many times I woke up that night, I was lying on my side and in the darkness and started asking myself "what if I heard an animal behind me, sniffing my head it's hot breath on my neck - what would I do? Play dead? Roll away down the hill? Bolt?" Not very good sleepy time thoughts!

Purgatory Creek 10k Race and Family Fun Walk - Sat Sept 17th

2005-09-15T15:01:00.000-05:00

OK, this is a bit of a shameless plug, but here goes.

A friend of mine works for the Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District, and she's worked her heart out organizing a 10k run/walk this Saturday morning to benefit the watershed.

It's been a long time since I've done a shorter running race like this, but I'll be participating to show my support.

First, a little background on the watershed district (lifted either in part, or verbatim, from their website) ...

"The Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District encompasses 50 square miles in surface area surrounding Riley, Purgatory and Bluff Creeks. The District is located in portions of two Minnesota counties, Hennepin and Carver. There are seven suburban Minneapolis cities that fall partially within the district. They are: Bloomington, Chaska, Chanhassen, Deephaven, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, and Shorewood."

"The watershed district has many roles, including working with other government bodies to regulate stormwater runoff, improve water quality, and provide recreation. They also work with developers on any project that proposes to alter floodplains, wetlands or streams. The watershed district requires permits for such projects to ensure that land use changes do not negatively impact water quality and flood protection, and to provide and opportunity for citizen input on water related issues."

"The district has worked with municipalities to construct water quality and flood control projects such as the Chain of Lakes and the Purgatory Recreation Area Staring Lake Outlet."

So this event is a fundraiser to support a good cause, and I'm posting it here in hopes of spreading the word. I know many people are training for running races this fall, and this event might coincide nicely with training schedules (or be a good opportunity to baseline your performance, or whatever.)

Saturday, Sept 17th

Race day registration starts at 7:45AM - 9AM
10k race starts at 9AM.
2.5 mile family fun walk starts at 9:30AM.

Online registration is $15, race day registration is $20, including an "I've been to Purgatory and Back" t-shirt. Gotta like that.

They'll also have kite flying demos for the kiddies.

Online Registration and Info

Trip Teaser - the Wind Rivers

2005-09-09T23:41:00.000-05:00

The Impossible Thrill has just returned from backpacking in the Wind Rivers wilderness area in WY. Was out of town from Sep 2nd-9th, so if I didn't return your call/email during that time, now you know why :-)

It'll certainly take a several days to collect my thoughts and photos and get 'em posted here. But for now, I'll just offer a few teaser comments ...

Wyoming's Wind Rivers wilderness area delivered beyond my expectations. It's incredibly beautiful, remote (we saw very few other humans, which of course is the point), and rugged (the terrain totally kicked our asses on at least 2 of the 5 days!) The mountain range itself is rugged, however at least some of the ass-kicking came from severe trail erosion/washouts in some areas, due (I think) to sheep hunting parties traveling the area on horseback with pack mules, of which we encountered several.

As far as travel to/from the region, after driving through North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota, I have a better understanding of the states, Minnesota's geographical place in the landscape, and the transition from Midwest to West. Which leads directly to a profound (and newfound) appreciation for Minnesota, the Twin Cities, and Minneapolis. It's good to be home.

Now, for a hot shower and some sleep!

Dodgeball - Lake of the Isles

2005-08-21T19:32:00.000-05:00

Dodgeball, weekly, at Lake of the Isles. Mondays, 6pm. Saturday afternoons too, I think. I'm going to check it out this week, Monday Aug 22nd. Join me!

Community Water Balloon Fight

2005-08-21T18:55:00.000-05:00

Saw a posting down by Lake Calhoun earlier this week, advertising a big water balloon fight going down at 2pm, so when I took off for my ride today, I planned it to coincide with that event.

I think the event was originally supposed to happen in the park, right next to the Stone Arch in St Anthony Main, but I suspect the prospect of cleaning up the aftermath of several thousand water balloons in the grass prompted a change of venue to a concrete pad immediately adjacent to the Soap Factory gallery/art space.

When I showed up around 2, there were maybe 20-25 people milling about. But by the time they started dividing the group into "Orange" team and "Blue" team, the numbers had swelled to probably 100 people or so. Large cardboard boxes were stood on end to provide cover, and a chicken wire baracade was set up in the center of the field (balloons exploded on contact w/the chicken wire, resulting in a burst of spray to soak anyone behind the screen (and there usually were people behing the screen, cause that's where half the balloons were sitting.

I don't remember a whistle being blown to start the fight, I think someone on my team (Orange) launched a cheap shot into Blue territory, Blue retaliated, and the fight was on! And was it ever on! I can't put into words how insanely fun this was - the one time I slowed down, I realized I was soaked to the bone and laughing maniacally.

The whole thing happened so fast, I bet it lasted maybe only 5 minutes - the organizers supplied several thousand balloons, and several of the players brought there own (in 5 gallon buckets or laundry baskets) as well.

The pictures I snapped were right near the end, as the action was really dying down. So they don't accurately convey the scene (there were several people photographing, so if I come across better pictures, I'll post 'em here later.)

Probably the coolest thing was the fact that nearly everyone stuck around to clean up the mess we made - there were rubber fragments strewn about everywhere, and they all needed to be picked up off the ground, and out of the giant puddle that had collected in the middle of the field.

Way fun!

Last tri of the season for me

2005-08-15T21:30:00.000-05:00

Got up at the ass-crack of dawn to head out to Turtleman Tri in Shoreview. This is the big competition between my friend Brian and I, as I upstaged him at last years race, passing him about a mile into the run and finishing about 5 minutes ahead of him. In the interest of full disclosure, last year was Brian's first year doing multisport, so I really should be performing better than him. Lifetime Tri was a bigger race, but we cared about this one more - you know, pride points on the line, and all that.

It's a 1 mile swim, 24 mile bike, 5.2 mile run. Pretty standard stuff.

Got out to the race site at around 6, shortly after the transition area opened. So we were able to snag decent spots right on the end of the racks. Sweet. I've never been this early to a race - usually I end up fighting for an often crappy spot. But not today.

Showing up early also gave me like 1/2 hour to lie down before the race. Sweet. Probably not recommended, I mean, most people warm up w/a short run, and put on their wetsuit and get in the water for a little swimming warm-up ... but not me. I'll opt for the quick nap every time :-) Although I did take the bike out around the block, just to make sure the drivetrain was in order after transporting it out there.

The swim is pretty much an out-and-back, but the cool thing is there's a shallow spot about half way out - shallow enough that you can stand up and run - probably about 2.5 feet deep or so. So you get to run for maybe 50-75 yds on the way out, and later on the way back you get to do it again. The strong swimmers don't bother to run, they just keep swimming. But the shallows are great for blokes like me who would rather run!

I was out of the water about a minute ahead of last year's time - I don't know if I was actually faster, I didn't feel faster. Maybe the course was a little inaccurate, and shorter this year - you never know. Although they said they had some surveyor mark it off w/GPS, so it should have been accurate. Whatever, I'll take the extra minute.

Had a decent T1, and was off on the bike. Started off on a really great note - sometimes it takes me a bit to get up to speed after the swim, but today I was off like a shot. Spent a few miles stuck behind some guy on a Cervelo P3 who couldn't hold a very constant speed. He'd get out ahead of me, then after not long I'd be right behind him again. (For those who don't know, the P3 is pretty much one of the most aero, and therefore fastest bikes out there - when provided with the proper human engine.) I could have passed him on numerous occasions, mostly on the hills, but I new I wouldn't have the steam to charge far enough ahead of him to keep him from repassing on the flats, so I just tried to stay the regulation 3 bike lengths behind him. After a few miles, he broke away anyway, and then I was in the clear. I got passed by very few people on the bike, but I suspect this was because it was a self-seeded race, and the faster riders undoubtedly seeded themselves in the first wave or two. Brian, CB, and I seeded ourselves in the fourth wave.

Last year I averaged 22.4mph on the bike, and I really wanted to improve on that this year - 22.5-22.8 would have been enough for me, 23mph would have been freakin' awesome. Instead I finished only 28 seconds faster than last year, for an average again of 22.4mph. Drat. But still an improvement, so I'll happily take it.

I didn't see Brian on the bike, but he was exiting the transition starting his run just as I was riding in at the end of my bike. I yelled "I've got your number, Buddy!" so he knew I'd be hot on his tail.

Flew out of T2 after sucking down another GU and started the chase. I could just barely see Brian up ahead in his yellow shirt, so at least I knew where my target was. Thankfully it didn't take long for me to get my legs coming off the bike (unlike at Lifetime Tri, when my running legs didn't feel strong until about mile 3 or so.) Weird thing was that it took me much longer to catch him Brian year ... I think I finally caught him at mile 2.5, whereas last year I had him around the first mile. Strange. Brian was looking pretty strong, I told him so, wished him luck, and kept going. I looked back around mile 4 and could still see him, so I knew he wasn't too far behind me. By the looks of it, Brian was having a great race.

Picked up the pace a little in the last mile, but I couldn't remember how far away the finish line was from the last corner, so I was afraid of pushing it too hard. I thought I'd have at least 1/4, maybe 1/2 mile after the last corner - this was a mistake. I overestimated, and before I realized it the finish was coming up, and I kicked it in way too late. Last year I left everything on the course - this year I still had a teenzy bit left in the tank. Sprinted the last 50 yds or so, to finish with a 2:13:48, compared to last year's 2:13:34.

Brian came in with a 2:16, an improvement of several minutes compared to last year (good job Brian!) CB came in just under his goal of 2:30, so he also had a great race (way to go CB!)

I trained more religiously last year, doing at least a brick a week, usually 2. And this shows in my run split. I ran 7 minute miles this race, compared to 6:40s last year - kind of disappointing. This year my training schedule got a little screwed up, being out of town for so many weekends in late June/early July, and all the 90+ degree heat had me riding/running a little less these past few weeks as well. Oh well. My slightly faster swim pace, along with *slightly* faster transitions saved me.

Had a spectacular crash Monday night ...

2005-08-09T18:07:00.000-05:00

File under (a) dumbass move, or (b) lesson learned.

Went out w/Doug and Jess - they were on their road bikes (both Orbeas) while I opted for the fixie just to see how it would treat me on a faster ride. (I'll post more on the fixie in the near future.)

We headed west to ride the Medicine Lake loop, and I was leading. Had a good amount of speed build up after a decent downhill, and took a turn a little too fast, leaning to the side further than I should have been. My right pedal connected w/the pavement, and I went down hard. Doug was behind me, his bike connected w/mine and before he knew it he was in on the action. My bike and I went down in a furious jumble - I went down sort of on my left side, banged my hip and momentum rolled me on to my back, just in time to witness Doug flying over me like a pro wrestler coming off the top rope.

As he sailed overhead, I somehow thrust my hand upward and kind of levered him away from me in midair (don't know if I was subconsciously trying to slow his fall, or if it was an act of self preservation on my part - it happened way too fast) and thankfully he didn't land ON me. And thankfully he came out of it in even better shape than I was, or I would have felt like even more of a tool.

I sat there for a moment seeing stars (which was cool - I checked my helmet and I don't think my head hit anything, but stars were cool nonetheless.) We both seemed pretty OK (my hip and one wrist are a little sore today, but nothing major). How I got a small patch of road rash on my hip *underneath* my spandex, while the spandex remained unscathed and in place is a mystery to me.

No major damage to either bike, although my front rim is doing a little shimmy-shimmy-shake-shake now, but nothing that can't be trued out.

What I learned:

when riding fixed, don't lean into the corners as much if avoidable
maybe opting for the 170mm cranks (to be interchangable with my road bike's components) wasn't the best idea - 165s might be a better option
lower profile pedals (I'm riding wide "campus style" platform/spd pedals) might be a good idea too

About time I get back on the Sat night ride

2005-08-07T22:27:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been months and months since I rode the Sat night ride, but with the beautifully cooler weather, seemed like a great time. I was also heartened by the number of riders that were out for last week's ride, so I thought I'd check it out again.

Not nearly as many riders this week though ... Eric, Eric, Mister Moose, Trevor, Dave, some women who's name I forget, and some tall guy who's name I don't think I ever caught. No one really had a route in mind, so we settled on riding back through downtown, and eventually heading out west Hopkin's way to start.

From downtown, someone had the bright-ass idea to start heading north, with no idea where they were leading us to. I'm sorry, but if you're in the front of the group, running reds and pushing the pace, you *are* in fact leading, no matter how vehemently you protest and claim you're not.

So we were around Broadway, and I proposed that since we were already a ways north, we cross to the east side of the river, ride Marshall north a ways, cross back to the west side of the river, ride Memorial Parkway west, then down into Theodore Wirth for a beer stop, down Wirth Parkway to cedar lake, then pick up the greenway and head out to Hopkins. But no one wanted to hear it. So instead we ended up doing this big loop-d-loop almost back into downtown via Bryant and some other side streets. Not a huge deal, but whatever.

Picked up Hennepin, and rode into uptown. In the Art Fair area, the outermost lanes were occupied by art tents, leaving only the two inner lanes open for traffic, which was backed up for several blocks. Now this was *great* fun - our little group split in two, flying down Hennepin and flanking the standstill traffic on both sides - one group on the car's right side, the other riding the yellow centerline. Total blast!

Picked up the greenway, rode to Hopkins for beers under some overpass out past the coffeeshop.

The return trip proved more interesting. Dave caught the edge of the pavement where the greenway zigs across the railroad tracks, and went down hard. Eric was following pretty tight, got caught up in it and went down with him. Dave picked up a bloody elbow dripping down to his fingers, while Eric became the proud owner of a messed up pinky after it connected with his chainring.

Further up the greenway, encountered two fellas on bikes hanging out at one of the blue safety phones. They stashed their beers behind the phone as we pulled up - apparently thinking we were the authorities or something. Turns out they were stopped because one of their bikes had lost it's crank on the non-drive side. Trevor pulled out his toolkit and went to work (good samaritan that he was) while the rest of us cracked beers. Somewhere during this episode, and drunk middle-aged guy on a bike (sans headlight) almost t-boned our woman rider, and started talking smack. Spewing gems like "whad're ya trying to block the trail?", "you couldn't even ride ten miles ... you're not even *old enough* to ride ten miles", blah blah blah. What a riot, all we could do was laugh.

The rest of the crew headed to Minnehaha falls, but I headed home, being only a few blocks from my pad.

July Mass Highlights - It's a small world after all ...

2005-08-01T22:23:00.000-05:00

A few high points from July critical mass...

The route was more meandering than usual, which was a welcome change. Started out through downtown as usual, but then headed south down Hennepin into uptown, east down Lake St, north via Nicollet, I think? From there on I don't remember the exact route, as I was busy chatting w/random people. But it was a route I haven't done on mass before.

There were several occasions when people tried to lead the mass in a direction opposite the "normal" direction (like turning right at a certain intersection where the mass traditionally turns left) and in nearly every case the mass revolted and instead opted for the "standard" direction. Kind of disappointing - mass is a perfect opportunity to take the road less traveled, but so often the mass behaves like a rat that, having learned the "correct" path thru the maze, refuses to deviate.

The notable exception was riding one block on Hiawatha - pretty ballsy and a welcome addition to the ride. Next ride, 2 blocks??? You never know.

Near the end of the ride (with a much diminished mass of about 12-20 people) headed north from downtown into north Mpls. I don't know what route we took, but we were up there, and people were saying this was the first time the mass headed north. I don't know if that's the case, but again it was a welcome change.

I recognized surprisingly few people on the ride (Bjorn, Landon), so I spent more time chatting with randoms. Spent some time chatting with a guy on a green bike w/inverted cruiser handlebars. Later, we exchanged names, he says his name is Zoey. It was at this point that I recognized him ... I was like "dude, you're Zoey M. right?" I recognized him from High School, oh, 14 years ago! Pretty small freaking world, when you consider that graduating class size in our school was about 100 students and it's a good 5 hours away.

I didn't tell him my name at first, and he didn't recognize me (OK, not surprising since I had a huge mullet back then ... ya, ya, you can laugh now, I'm laughing at myself too.) But when I told him my name, it came back to him, and then the reminiscing started ... Frau Billman's german class (and how you could easily distract her simply by asking her about her kids ... good way to waste at least 15 minutes of class), the year we were on swim team together, updates on what other classmates were up to nowadays, etc. Really cool stuff. Even stranger, he says he now lives in the same building as EvilChuck. Small world indeed.

Hangin' with the Sis in Chicago - Part 3 - Saturday June 25th, Sunday June 26th

2005-07-31T22:37:00.000-05:00

Jojo had planned a Cycling Sisters century ride, geared toward riders who had (hopefully) done some longer rides, but perhaps hadn't yet tackled a century. She opened up the ride to men as well as women, specifically so I could join her.

But in the end, I bailed. Why? Jojo would tell you it's because I'm weaker than I'd like to think. And that may be the case. But for me, it came down to the fact that I was on vacation after all, and why should I do a century ride in the crazy heat and humidity when I could instead do other fun stuff, like explore the city and see the sights? I also had a certain sense that Jojo hadn't planned the ride out as well as I would have liked, evidenced by the fact that she was still pulling together the ride route in the hour or two before the ride was to begin.

So while she took off on her century adventure (which you can read all about here), I choose instead to sleep in until the sun streaming in through the living room windows was heating the apartment to the point where it was easier to just leave the premises. First stop: Star of Siam restaurant, where I had easily the Best Pad Thai Ever. Probably didn't hurt that I was a little ahead of the lunch crowd, so I was the only patron in the restaurant, as I'm sure my dish received the full attention of the cook.

From there, I meandered down to the Lakeshore to the Field Museum. There was an exhibit on design innovations in prefabricated housing, which if you're at all curious, you can read about here and here.

Afterwards, I headed to the Shedd aquarium, only to find out that they were closing several hours earlier than usual for a fundraising event. They had failed to post this info, however, and were turning people away at the door, pissing most of them off in the process. Thankfully, I was still able to get in by using jojo's annual membership, so I saw as much of the aquarium as I could in the hour or so before they closed their doors.

Since they closed their doors so early, this gave me time to take a nice long nap down by the lakeshore. I'm reading Jared Diamond's book Collapse (which is a followup to his best-selling Guns, Germs, and Steel) so I spent several hours reading, then finally dozed off. Despite the recent 95+ degree heat, the breeze off the lake was a little cooler than refreshing, so I covered up w/my long-sleeve shirt and dozed off for a few hours. What a refreshing and relaxing way to spend an afternoon and early evening.

Met back up with Jojo at the Handlebar around 9PM, and heard all the stories about the near-century-ride, and was super pleased that I'd decided to bail on that ride. I don't think I could have dealt with the slow pace and general pokiness that ensued.

Can't remember what we did Sunday morning. On the way to the Gay Pride Parade, we made a stop at Home Depot to pick up a length of pipe to support the CBF banner. We weren't the only ones there - Home Depot was seeing a run on all manner of 1/2"-3/4" pipe that morning. Right next to our spot at the parade staging area was a parking ramp, with a small, empty bike rack inside - we carried the rack outside into our area, so we could rack our bikes while the "decoration" process was carried out - streamers of crepe paper were added to wheels, handlebars and frames. What a stunning collection of bikes.

I thought the parade was a ton of fun. Jojo thought that last years bike group did a better job of interacting with the crowd, and getting the spectators excited - I don't know if it's true, but I had a fun time either way.

And then, before long, my trip to Chicago came to an end, and it was time for me to get back on the train to the airport.

To my eyes, Chicago's bike community seems both broader, and deeper than that in Minneapolis. Jojo says that CBF is the biggest bike advocacy group in the nation, and I believe it, based on the number of Jojo's friends that I met who are (or were) associated with CBF. I think we have a good thing going in Mpls, but would be well served by taking a look at what's going on in other cities, like Chicago.

Hangin' with the Sis in Chicago - Part 2 - Friday June 24th

2005-07-20T22:08:00.000-05:00

[Click on the photo to see a few other June 2005 Chicago Critical Mass photos.]

Where's Jojo? See if you can find her in the above photo!

So on Friday I was out and about on jojo's Bianchi road bike. When I first hopped on the Bianchi in the morning, my instinct was to try to brake by applying backpressure - and this was after only about 10 miles on her fixie the previous night!

Rode downtown to see Jojo's office and got to briefly meet a few of her coworkers Friday morning. She set me up w/a copy of her Shedd Aquarium membership, in hopes that I'd be able to get in for free. Rode around down by the Lakefront for a while.=, but decided to wait on the aquarium until Saturday.) Wired Magazine was hosting a technology show at Navy Pier, so I checked that out. I don't know what it is w/me and technology - I used to love technology, craved video games, read Popular Science religiously, etc. Nowadays, I couldn't give a shit about 99% of tech, especially all the gadgets companies being hawking ... palm pilots, Blackberrys, MP3 players, cell phones w/the latest "must have" features, headsets and accessories, robots for the home, nanotechnology, AI, etc. I mean, I had to buy a wristwatch so I could pace myself at Grandma's marathon because I didn't have one. Anyway, I really couldn't give a damn about most technology - in fact I think most of it is at best unnecessary, at worst a really bad idea. But the expo was free so I checked it out and I suppose it was an OK way to blow a few hours.

Rejoined w/sis at Daley plaza for Critial Mass (after heading back to her place for a pair of socks - riding the Bianchi's SPD pedals wearing only Adidas soccer sandals was taking it's toll on the soles of my feet so I was looking for a little cushioning.)

Chicago Mass is totally off the hook! I knew the ride attracts tons of riders, but I was a little unprepared for the mass of the mass - unofficial tally put the head count at 1450, plus or minus a hundred people!!! Compare this Mpls Crit Mass where anything over 100 is a great ride, and you get the idea.

2, maybe 3 antique penny farthing tall bikes
1 Rat Patrol penny farthing, fashioned from a circular clothing rack
1 fixed gear tall bike
2 bike trailer sound systems
At least one tandem
Crazy amounts of riders stretching for blocks and blocks
Few altercations with cars or police
Multiple uncorked fire hydrants gushing water into the street along the way

Ride started at the Daley plaza, with riders making multiple loops around the
block before starting the ride. AFter looping around, there's no way to know whether you'll be at the front or the rear when the Mass actually departs. It's definitely a party atmosphere. The cry of the day seems to be "Happy Friday" - probably a good way to keep it
fun and come of as non-adversarial.

Besides the number of riders, Chicago Mass is a little different than Mpls in other ways too. Mpls Mass usually ends near where it begins at Loring Park (or at a bar in uptown or downtown.) Chicago Mass is a point-to-point ride, and various people/groups prepare route proposals in advance. Proposed routes are presented at the plaza and voted upon by the Mass - which ever route recieves the loudest applause/cheering is the chosen one. So you never know where the ride is going to end, and it's your responsibility to be able to find your way home afterward.

On this ride case, we rode roughly south and a little east, through a bunch of neighborhoods, through Chinatown, and eventually to some beach about 13 miles south of home. So we had a long ride back along the lakeshore. It was a beautiful night, and jojo was busy chatting up this boy Paul. She told me later that I was a "good wingman" - giving her enough room to work the conversation, but not to much that it was obvious she was chatting this boy up. That's what I'm all about - helping my sister hook up :-)

At dinner that night, I was introduced to the concept of a "BYOB" restaurant. Apparently liquor licenses are tough to come by, so many restaurants allow you to bring your own beer/wine. Interesting concept, and cost effective. Wish it were that way here!

Lifetime Fitness Triathlon 2005

2005-07-17T10:47:00.000-05:00

In the end, Lifetime Tri went fine, although the heat and humidity were brutal. We registered for the "Friends and Family" division, since Brian and CB are 29, while I'm 31. So Friends and Family allowed us to race together, starting within 6 seconds of each other. So we had our own micro competition, while the both of our respective age groups started well ahead of us.

This made the race a little different, in that all of our age-group competition was well ahead of us. This makes it tough to gauge how you're doing relative to your age group. Given a chance to do it again, I might opt to skip the Friends and Family and just register as age groupers. Actually, now that I think about it, the three of us will all be in the 30-34 age bracket next year anyway, so it's a moot point.

With no wetsuit, my swim suffered and was a few minutes slower. The swim itself was OK, although there was a point about 5 minutes in where I started to feel tired and started to freak out. But I got through that. I tend to do A LOT of breaststroke, alternating between breaststroke and freestyle when one group of muscles gets tired. There was another guy doing the same thing, and we were neck-and-neck for most of the swim.

One weird thing I experience whenever I open water swim - after I've been in the water I while, I feel this urgent need to burp, but I usually can't. I gets worse and worse, and usually I'm not able to get burps out until after I exit the water (usually a few miles into the bike course) after which I feel immediately better. Well today, I was thankfully able to get the burps outduring the swim, which helped immensely.

The bike was good. With the heat, it felt good to be cruising, and it's great fun to ride Minnehaha Parkway without having to stop for any of the (numerous) stop signs and traffic lights. Rode 21mph average (at least that's what my computer says - their "official" results say 20.5mph but I believe my computer since it's proven itself accurate in the past.) Had beads of sweat on my shoulders the whole ride, so I know I was working hard. Almost went down in the roundabout - I was passing another rider on the left, but started getting forced inside, and my wheel went squirrelly when it hit the ridge between the pavement and the concrete gutter.

I was hoping to catch Brian on the bike, but it was not to be. He was up ahead of me somewhere, and I had no idea how far. My only hope was to catch him on the run, and it took me 3+ miles just to do that. I caught CB on the bike at around mile 22 - CB had a great ride considering he just started biking last year.

The heat on the run was brutal, and it took almost 3 miles for me to get my legs. But even then I just couldn't muster any speed - averaged 8:34 minutes/mile on the run - I should be running sub-7 minute miles for a race like this.

My overall time put me around the top 25% of my age group, which is good enough.

So all in all it was fine - and I'm glad it's over. I'm starting to think putting together a relay would be the way to go ... CB could swim, Brian could bike, I could run. Although I'd like to bike, this would allow me to skip the swim, probably a good compromise. And I think our relay could actually kick some butt.

I am so dead

2005-07-15T22:03:00.000-05:00

Lifetime Tri is tomorrow, bright and early. Just found out at packet pickup tonight that due to high water temps, wetsuits are not being allowed. For anyone.

I'm really pretty fucking irate about not being able to wear my wetsuit. Yeah, my wetsuit is a crutch, I'll admit it. With it on, at least I know that if I get into trouble on the water, it's impossible for me to sink. Without it, I'm just not comfortable. Given a choice between potentially overheating or drowning, I'll take the risk of overheating - since I don't believe that it's a risk in the first place.

They expect water temp to be 84 degrees, and USAT rules say that wetsuits are not allowed for 84 degrees or above. Never mind the fact that the water temp in Cozumel was 86 degrees, and after 20 minutes of snorkeling (without a wetsuit) I was chilled. I really don't think I'll overheat. Low body fat can be a real curse - you chill very easily in the water, and you sink like a brick.

I'm not a strong swimmer, in part because I'm bricklike, and it's not helped by the fact that I don't really like swimming, so I don't train much. I have enough to keep me busy w/biking and running. Case in point, I've been in the pool only twice in, oh, the past several months. Both times were within the past 5 days. Swam about 800 yards both times, with ample rest between 100's. The .9 miles tomorrow will be a challenge that I've never faced.

I can't even remember the last time I've been this annoyed/stressed/pissed/irate. This is so NOT me. But seriously, I've done warm-water open-water swim training in my wetsuit with no problems. I can handle it. Haven't I already signed enough disclaimers that their collective ass would be covered anyway?

I didn't pay $125 to enter this race, only to find that I can't race it as planned and spend the night worrying about this. I'm not even racing as an age-grouper - we entered the lame-ass "Friends and Family" division so we could race together despite being different ages, which automatically means we're not elegible for any awards, prizes, etc. So why should they give fuck if I wear a wetsuit?

This was supposed to be a fun event to do with my friends, and now I'll spend all night in a foul mood worrying about this. Sucks. I consider myself an endurance athlete, so I suppose I should suck it up and just demonstrate a little endurance.

Rant mode off.

Hangin' with the Sis in Chicago - Part 1 - Thursday June 23rd

2005-07-12T17:41:00.000-05:00

Here's my first attempt to start catching up on recent weeks events. Flew down to Chicago to visit my little sister jojo. She had a weekend of bikey events lined up, most notable being the June Chicago Critical Mass, and the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation's entry in the Gay Pride Parade.

Arrived late afternoon on Thursday after ducking out of work early. The ride from O'Hare to jojo's hood was pretty painfree ... a 45 minute ride on the Blue Line train, followed by a 10 minute walk got me to the Handlebar (bikey bar restaurant of which jojo is quite excitedly a part-owner.)

Jojo met me there for dinner, and we chatted for a while w/some of her CBF friends. I couldn't stick around forever though, as I planned to head downtown to see folksinger/storyteller Utah Phillips that night. Jojo set me up with one of her bikes to ride ... her Mint Julep fixie. This was to be my first time riding a fixie, and I was already running a little late so I hoped the learning curve wouldn't be too steep. Thankfully it wasn't. I wist I could say the same of Julep's gearing ... 53x16 makes for a tall ratio - just under 90 gear inches. Pretty sick. Not a problem on the flats, but even moderate hills are a challenge, especially when starting out from a standstill. Julep has a front brake, so stopping isn't an issue, although I practiced using the brake as little as possible, and found that it sometimes took as much as a half-block to get'er stopped if you're moving at a good clip. Jojo commented that she really needs to learn how to bust skids - I think she's more likely to bust her knees - it would take a ton of torque to skid with that gearing, and she'd need superhuman knees.

It was about 5 miles to the Utah show at the HotHouse, and unfortunately the show wasn't that great. There was singing, and storytelling, some of it very good, but the truth of the matter is that it was more of a labor rally, as the show was in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Industrial Workers of the World union (IWW or otherwise known as the Wobblies). I didn't realize it would be a union rally ... all I knew was that the Ani Difranco/Utah Phillips album "The Past Didn't Go Anywhere" is really, Really good, and I wanted to go see him. Oh well.

Ran into Jojo on the street a few blocks from the Hbar (they were closing up, and she was walking home). Met her roommates John and Mia back at her place, who seem really cool, and were super gracious to let me crash on their couch and monopolize their living room all weekend. Not that I was there much, but still, Thanks!

This boy's going to Mexico

2005-07-02T00:38:00.000-05:00

Still haven't gotten around to blogging my Chicago trip, and it looks like I won't get to it for a while. I'm off to Cozumel for a week of scuba diving in, oh, about 4 hours. Should be a blast, and hopefully I'll have some decent underwater photos as well as stories to tell. Until then, Happy 4th O' July to all!

Bikram Night

2005-06-30T22:55:00.000-05:00

My friend Jen suggested I tag along to a bikram yoga class with her - this is the yoga where they heat the room to 105 degrees so you sweat through the whole class. She thought this might allow me to sweat out whatever toxins (lactic acid, etc) had built up in my muscles from the marathon. I said "Sure, what the hell, I've always wanted to try yoga but had never gotten off my ass to do it, so why not?" Plus, Jen mentioned the class demographic and opportunities to meet some cute women - being a single 30-something, and never one to pass up an opportunity like that, I was in.

I thought I had some idea what I was in for - I was unprepared.

The heat felt good. Really good. The sweat is nearly instantaneous, it bursts forth from the skin and once it starts it just flows. It's most excellent. And you actually get used to sweating profusely very quickly. Just drink a lot.

I wasn't able to do all the poses, but I did alright with at least some of them. One particular pose where you're supposed to twist one leg in front and around the other, locking the foot behing the other calf - I couldn't even come close on that one, but I did alright w/most.

But I didn't know how long the class was supposed to last. 30 mins? 60? Longer? There wasn't a clock in the room, but I'm usually a pretty judge of time. My marching band director in college once said "You can handle anything when you know when it'll end." Lot's of truth to that. But I didn't know when it would end. And I felt this strange subtle nauseous feeling starting. And building. Eventually I lay down to see if just resting would make the feeling subside, but it was still slowly building. Finally, I HAD to get up, leave the room and cool off for a bit. That helped a ton, and after about 10 minutes I went back in just in time for the final pose.

Turns out the class is a full 90 minutes. Seems pretty crazy but true. Even crazier was when we left class and sat outside behind the building (there's a patio that overlooks the Midtown Greenway) I was freezing my ass off - and it was like 80+ degrees and humid outside! I guess even tempurature becomes relative after dealing w/extreme heat for over an hour!

So was it fun? Yep. And I didn't smell sweaty or anything afterwards - I think any sweat stink had long since dripped off of me by that point. Took a shower but didn't use soap since that just seemed unnecessary at that point.

Rounded out the evening with some awesome pizza from Galactic Pizza (pizza company with a conscience, and delivered by superheroes - what could be better?!)

I don't see myself going to bikram super often, esp in the summer, but I'll definitely be going back - it'll be interesting to see if my poses progress, and if my body eventually learns to tolerate the heat!

Grandma's Marathon 2005 (long)

2005-06-29T22:25:00.000-05:00

So the longer version of Grandma's Marathon weekend '05. Originally planned to race and share a hotel room w/friends Steve, Andy and Lyle. But then Steve got sent to Thailand for work, Andy failed to train and bailed out of the race, so our group sort of fell apart.

So I shifted to plan B, and made arrangements to stay with my friend Heidi, whom I haven't seen for, oh, three years or so. Heidi worked at the fitness center at my workplace, and we'd sometimes play racquetball on the weekends. I was really looking forward to seeing her again.

Heidi lives outside of Two Harbors in a little cabin just off scenic 61, but we stayed at her friend Tracy's place in Duluth since that made it easier for me to catch a shuttle to the race start. Friday night consisted of a great pre-race dinner of salad and pasta that Heidi and Tracy whipped up, then Heidi and I drove the DECC to pick up my race packet. I intended to go to sleep early, but the 3 of us started surfing match.com, so I didn't get as much sleep as I planned, and I slept fitfully at best.

The weather was heating up by the time the race started and it was noticeably warmer than when I ran it in 2001. I lined up at the 3:45 pace marker, thinking that would be a reasonable finish, since I hadn't trained as hard as I had planned (three 20 mile runs count for something, but without doing much other mileage in addition to the long runs, I didn't know what to expect. Also, I only ran about 15 miles total in three weeks before the race ... you want to taper down, not stop running entirely!)

About 4 miles into the race, I realized I was running about 7:50 minute miles, slightly better than the 8 min/mile pace I'd need to run to achieve a personal best of a sub-3:30 marathon. So I tried to keep that pace up. By mile 12 or so, I had built up a 3 minute buffer, and felt really strong. I was taking sports drink at every water station, my pace was holding steady, I ate a GU every 4 miles as planned, and everything seemed solid.

Some of the water stations were playing pumping techno music, which really pumped me up - actually I wish they hadn't been playing it, as it pumped me up a little too much, and I started having to reign myself in. Kind of messed up my groove.

Then somewhere around mile 20 or so, things started to come apart at the seams. My quads started feeling heavy, and some small muscles in the hip region (flexors?) started complaining. A tried to charge on and hold pace, but it was starting to be a struggle.

Lemondrop hill around mile 21 really did me in, I walked up the hill, and jogged down the backside. Tons of people who I had previously passed started passing me. Demoralizing. Shifted into a walk/run pattern, walking a minute or two, then running as long as a could (a few minutes) before walking again. My 3 minute buffer quickly vanished, and the 3:30 goal (which I never thought I would acheive today in the first place) became a distant memory.

The race course does a little loop around in the last mile or so - this had thrown me for a loop in '01, but this time I was ready for it. Apparently my calves weren't, however, as they started sending me little twinges, hinting that they might cramp at any moment.

Really tried to smooth out my stride for that last 1/2 mile in hopes that the calves wouldn't cramp. Thankfully they didn't, and I held that smooth stride straight to the finish chute - I didn't give an extra kick at the end because I was afraid of cramping.

Finishing Time: 3:35:49

Better than the 3:45 I expected, but not as good as I hoped considering I was on pace for a personal best 3:30 for the first 20 miles. But I'm satisfied.

The post-race snacking and stuff was standard fare, although the ice cream was an unexpected bonus.

The post-race scenery however, was exception, as usual. As much as I like biker lady legs in spandex, the scenery at a running race like this is even better - lithe, sweaty, muscular-yet-feminine legs in shorty running shorts just can't be beat! I'm like a kid in a candy store at times like this.

Later that night, the 3 of us ate dinner at some new Mexican restaurant down by the waterfront. We had a window table looking over the lake, which was a treat. I had quite possibly the best fajitas I've ever had - shredded pork infused with citrus - yummy.

Stayed at Heidi's cabin Saturday night, it's a really cozy little place, nicer than I expected. She seems incredibly happy up there, 1000% happier than she was living in the Twin Cities - very cool to see that she's learned what lifestyle makes her truly happy.

Sorry 'bout the lack of posts lately ...

2005-06-27T15:40:00.000-05:00

I'm way behind in my posts, and have been too busy to keep up. I still want to write about my Grandma's marathon experience, as well as my first bikram yoga adventure. I promise to get to those soon. I also just got back from a fun weekend in Chicago visiting my sis, where I experienced critical mass Chicago style, and also road with the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation in Chicago's gay pride parade.

Like I said, I'm way behind, but don't change that dial - I'll be doing my best to catch up in the next few days.

Grandma's Marathon 2005 (short)

2005-06-19T23:40:00.000-05:00

Finishing Time: 3:35:49

Better than expected, not as good as I hoped. But I'm satisfied. Thanks to this race I'm now the proud owner of this sucka:
Sometime during the race I picked up this giant bloodblister. It engulfs that entire toenail and front of the toe, so it's only a matter of time until I lose the nail.

More details to come later.

Dead Brewery Recap

2005-06-14T22:59:00.000-05:00

Check out this post from Jojo about Chicago's version of the World's Naked Bike Ride this past weekend.

But Minneapolis had it's own recreational rides going on this weekend, including Saturday's "Dead Brewery Tour".

HereNT has some photos.

Advertised as an easy 20 mile swerve through Minneapolis and St Paul, I figured this would be a perfect ride for the kickbike. I ride the kickbike in Critical Mass fairly regularly, which often ends up being around 13 miles door-to-door, so I figured 20 miles was totally doable.

Met up w/Doug, Jay, Pete, and a few others at Molly Quinn's - Doug saw the kickbike parked outside and didn't believe it was mine until I started unlocking it. Funny. Paul had emailed and said he'd join, and I was getting ready call and give 'im hell for not showing just as he pulled up. In the 5 or more years that I've known Paul, this is the first time that we've actually ridden together!

Paul rides a purple 1992(?) Bridgestone XO-1, a total cult bike. As Paul informed me, the bike's designer Grant Petersen later went on to found Rivendell bikes, with the Atlantis being the direct descendent of the XO-1. Interestingly, there was another purple XO-1 on this ride ... pretty crazy considering there were only 1000 of them made.

As for the ride itself, it got off to a questionable start when someone flatted only a few blocks from the start, and then the all-too-predictable rain started in at the same time. Thankfully, the rain subsided soon enough, and we all dried off pretty quickly once we were on the move again.

The beer stops were frequent, free, and um, frequent. The first was somewhere in the woods across the river from Fort Snelling, where we hung out long enough to toss one back and bullshit a little, but not long enough for the bugs to get too unbearable. From there, it was off to the first actual brewery stop, somewhere in St. Paul ... honestly, I forgot the most of the breweries we stopped at, but oh well.

A fellow who hadn't been on a bike for 12 years won a prize for something (most improved rider?) while I won an award for "best legs" for riding the kickbike. This was a dubious honor since the prize was a can of spray on nylons - a product that I didn't even know existed. This product doesn't seem to be intended for those with leg hair (although I'll have that shaved off for the triathlon in July) and it needs to be applied generously to cover up trail dirt. The can claims that "Rain, perspiration, pool water, surf ... even bed sheets won't take away your instant Spray On Nylons." Hmmm. Do people really use this junk?

HereNT later commented that my calves make it look like I have Popeye legs. While I don't take offense at this (actually he's not the first to make this comment, and at least he didn't use the word "freakish" like others have) I do wish it weren't so - my upper legs are by no means small, but when wearing shorts the calves are what shows. Guess I'll have to ride harder and build those quads and hammies up even more!

At some point Doug got initiated into derby when he got sucked into some sort of ride around in circles derby-type game, and got totally and unexpectedly derbied - he became the proud owner of a nice saucer-sized bruise on his arm.

Oh, and I got to play the part of the dumbass inexperienced cyclist who doesn't have the gear to support his own ride. My rear tire (a 12" recumbant tire which I had previously considered to be bombproof) flatted, and I didn't have tire levers, patch kit, or pump. I always carry this stuff on bike rides longer than a few miles, but for whatever reason I didn't have them today. Dumb. Many thanks to those who helped me (Paul, Jay, Swervy?) get going again.

The last brewery stop was at the old Grain Belt brewery-turned-library on Marshall in Northeast. I think this was also the longest beer stop, with Dustin(?) supplying some mighty tasty homebrew sweet stout. Yum.

By the time the rided concluded w/drinks and dinner at Town Hall in seven corners, it was nearly 8:30pm and we'd logged some 36 miles over the course of about 8 hrs. HereNT's GPS said we'd spent some 3+ hours covering those 36 miles, and another 5+ at the myriad stops.

But I'd paid the price - my legs were totally blown out - by the time I got home my bike computer read 40 miles, way further than I'd ever gone on the kickbike. It's now Tuesday, and my legs are finally feeling normal again, the stiffness in my ass, hips and legs is mostly gone!

It's here

2005-06-08T22:47:00.000-05:00

It arrived on Saturday - the frame I'll be building up as a fixie.

1992 Schwinn Prologue:
Tange Prestige steel tubeset (crazy light, yet hopefully also durable).
Lugs (as if there's any other way to go!)
Sweet metallic silver-to-black fade paint job (which unfortunately doesn't come across well in my photos).

This thing looks like it's hardly been ridden at all. In fact several people at the shop were really curious how old it was since it has so little wear. Personally, I could do without the "Schwinn" and "Prologue" decals, but maybe I'll be able to remove them - although they seem to be under a really thin layer of clearcoat?

I originally planned to scrounge around at the Sibley Depot or One-on-One and see if I could find a suitable frame in something close to my size, but then this beaut showed up on Ebay, with dimensions (50cm seatpost, 52cm toptube) almost exactly the same as my road frame, so I snatched it up. I should fit perfectly. The threads on the deraileur hanger are slightly cross-threaded, but no matter, I won't be hanging a deraileur on this baby anyway.

Now the tough part - sourcing the components. I'll be making a trip to the Hub soon to see what used stuff I can scrounge up. Once I have all these, the assembly itself should be cake (since adjusting the derailleurs is always the most challenging part for me!)

The (hopefully) comprehensive list:

1" threaded headset
1" quill stem
handlebars - I have a Syntace bullhorn bar lying around at home (from a previous tri bike) that should work, provided I can find a 1" quill stem that works with them
brake - scrounge one from somewhere
brake lever - I have a DiaCompe bar-end lever that should do
bottom bracket - I have a spare Ultegra cartridge BB that'll be perfect
cranks - I want these to be interchangable with the cranks on my road bike, so I'll need to get either Shimano Ultegra or DuraAce cranks off Ebay
wheelset - BIG question here - I want a fixed/fixed hub, I think w/sealed bearings since I'll hopefully ride this rig year round?
chain - 1/8"
cogs/chainring - need to figure out what ratio I want to start out with before getting these, have to check my mtn bike and see what ratio I ride in the most
seatpost
seat - I have a spare Terry Fly saddle lying around - I don't think it's super comfortable, but it'll do for now
misc stuff - brake cable, chainring bolts, lockring, bar tape

Oh, and I absolutely have to remember to treat the frame w/framesaver before I build it up! I want this baby to last!

I'm especially looking for headset and hub recommendations. A Chris King headset is out of my price league, by the way :-) Patrick at Freewheel was recommending a $55 FSA headset as a good alternative to the Chris King, but even that seems a little steep to me, unless it's also bombproof.

4th Annual Lower Northeast Drunken Bar Bike Tour

2005-06-07T13:29:00.000-05:00

HereNT provided this info as a comment to my previous post (thanks!) so I'm posting it front and center here for all ...

================================================
4TH ANNUAL LOWER NORTHEAST DRUNKEN BAR BIKE TOUR

Sunday, June 12
Pre-tour BBQ : 4PM
Tour Starts at 6PM

RULES:

Bring your own bike lock
Must be 21+
NO motorized vehicles

SUGGESTIONS:

Wear a helmet, use bike lights and other safety gear
Eat Something Beforehand (It's eight hours of drinking - you gotta have something in your tummy)

[snip]
Ads, sponsors, etc. I'm not involved with this and don't know which would want to be posted online.
[/snip]

6:00 | 1) Whitey's ~ 400 E Hennepin
6:00 | 2) Boom ~ 401 E Hennepin
7:00 | 3) Times ~ 201 E Hennepin
7:00 | 4) Nye's ~ 112 E Hennepin
7:45 | 5) Mac's Industrial ~ 312 Central SE
8:45 | 6) Legends ~ 825 E Hennepin
10:15 | 7) Arone's ~ 500 Central SE
10:15 | 8) U Otter Stop Inn ~ 617 Central SE
11:15 | 9) Margarita Bella ~ 1032 3rd Ave NE
11:15 | 10) Vegas Lounge ~ 956 Central NE
12:15 | 11) Spring St. Grill ~ 355 NE Monroe
12:15 | 12) Moose on Monroe ~ 356 NE Monroe
1:15 | 13) Grumpy's Northeast ~ 2200 NE 4th St

Should be a blast!
================================================

Dead Brewery Tour 2005 - Sat June 11th

2005-06-05T10:57:00.000-05:00

From the Surly Blog:

===============================================
If you're in the Minneapolis area, put this on your calendar:

Dead Brewery Tour 2005

Saturday, June 11th. Slow 20-ish mile group swerve through Mpls/St.Paul past the old breweries that once pumped out alot of beer and made Minnesota a pre-prohibition brewing powerhouse. Cruisers/hoopties/one-speeds/whatever are encouraged. Racers and heart rate monitors need not apply.

Show up at Molly Quinn's public house on Lake St. and 33rd Ave South Mpls at 11am for pre-noon beers and breakfast. The ride is leaving at 12 noon for St.Paul and will end late afternoon at the undead Town Hall brewpub in Mpls for beer and food.

Of course, pit stops will be frequent and random. Wear your drinking shoes. For more information, don't e-mail us, just show up and ride. Seize you there.

===============================================

A brush with (someone else's) near death

2005-06-04T10:52:00.000-05:00

Ok, maybe the title of this post is a little dramatic...

So I'm out on a date Friday night, eating dinner at the Indian place next to Calhoun Square. We're both enjoying our meal and conversation, when my date says "I think that guy over there is choking." I turn around and look behind me, and sure enough, a few tables over, there's a guy doubled over his plate gagging.

Another guy is moving behind him and starts trying the Heimlich maneuver. He gives a few good thrusts, then says "does anyone else know how to do this - I don't know if I'm doing it right." By this point the guy had started coughing, so thankfully he was getting at least a little air, but the food was still lodged down there somewhere.

I got up and went over, thinking I remembered the Heimlich maneuver from, ahem, high school first aid class, like um 15 years ago?! I remembered to find the bottom of the sternum, and the belly button, and put my fist between the two, and thrust sharply upward. So I gave him a few good tugs, not entirely certain I was doing it correctly, but I couldn't do any better. He was still coughing, so he wasn't going to die (at least immediately) but he was getting *really* red in the face.

By this time 911 had been called, and someone had also grabbed a couple of cops off the street (I think there was some sort of block party going on in the parking lot next door, so there were cops very nearby.) The cops noted that he was getting a little air, and didn't do anything except continue to reassure him that since he was getting air, he should just keep trying to cough and try to stay calm. A minute later, the ambulance showed up, and they walked him out. A few minutes later, he came out of the ambulance, apparently all right, his date gave him a big hug on the sidewalk, then he came back in to pay his bill. If I were him, I don't know that I would have remembered to pay the bill - and the restaurant didn't want to take his money, but he insisted.

I wonder if Ms. "Maddog" Madigan, my high school lesbian health/first aid/gym class teacher would be proud?

Volunteer night at the Depot

2005-06-02T18:33:00.000-05:00

After taking the wheelbuilding class at the Sibley Bike Depot a few weeks back, I thought I'd show up on volunteer night (every Wed, 6-8:30pm) and see what was going on, and what I might be able to contribute.

On this particular night, it was "scrap cleanup night", meaning that they were loading up scrap steel (junk frames, rims, spokes, components) to be sold as scrap. So myself and maybe 3 other guys dislodged junk frames from the giant heap outside the building, and loaded them into two new heaps in a pickup truck and a trailer. Must have loaded up, I don't know, at least fifty? seventy? hundred? junk frames total (lots of huffys and crap like that) and I don't know how many rims and 5-gallon buckets of junk metal. Apparently we didn't get the load balanced on the trailer quite right, because it rocked backwards like a seesaw, and we had to redistribute the weight forward so it was better balanced.

Afterwards, I got talking to another guy who had also taken the wheelbuilding class. It seems Tom, who's 20 years old, did a 9000 mile bike trek on his mountain bike in late '03-early '04. Pretty freakin hard core. He rode south out of Minnesota (trying to beat the cold weather), down to Florida, through Louisiana, Texas, Nevada, up to Oregon, then across Montana and back to Minnesota. He planned his route to coincide with as much public land as possible (National Forests and whatnot) where he could camp for free. Says the whole thing cost him a little over $1000 - he traveled cheaply, camped almost all the time, ate out very little (subsisting mainly on oatmeal and other staples) and did whatever he could to keep his cost down. He was riding a Schwinn Mtn bike (with knobbies!) which he fitted with drop bars. Interesting stuff, and again, freakin hard core.

Apparently my rim is jacked up too

2005-05-30T22:41:00.000-05:00

Recently noticed that when applying the rear brake on the Cervelo, there's a tiny jerk every revolution. It apparently wasn't very noticable at first, but now I notice it constantly (it hasn't gotten any worse, I just notice it more now - funny how you can't help but notice something once you know it's there!) I took a closer look today, and there's a tiny bulge in the brake surface on one side. This must have happened when I hit that pothole a few weeks ago. It look like it bent the lip just *slightly* on one side, causing the brake surface to bulge out just enough to cause the jerkiness. Sucks - I got a good deal on this wheelset (Mavic Krysium Elite) on Ebay last year, but I still paid no small sum. I'll have to take it in to a shop and see if it's possible to somehow "convince" the bulge to move back where it belongs. Or at least make it less noticable. Hopefully.

Getting food instead of watching the Crit just made good sense

2005-05-28T12:03:00.000-05:00

Not quite the turnout I expected for critical mass - I'm pretty sure we had more people last month. I mean, we still had many dozens of people, including one tall bike, and Dean Zimmerman was out pressing the flesh for his reelection campaign. I suspect the weather was a factor - the weather ended up being fine, but it was overcast and I suspect some people were thinking it might rain and stayed home.

The Mass didn't spend much time downtown, instead heading down Nicollet all the way to 28th St, then over to (I think) Bloomington north, before heading to the U via Washington.

I planned to ride for the first half of Mass, then leave the group and bike over to the Fairgrounds to watch a crit that was going on there. I figured I'd ride the Cervelo, since this would be too long of a trip for the snake scooter, and I've noticed some noise coming from the bottom bracket on my mtn bike recently. The Powercranks on the Cervelo always attract attention, which can be a curse and a blessing. A curse because I don't necessarily like the attention, but also a blessing because it does spark conversations with people I might not otherwise get to talk with. So it was tonight.

For some reason the Mass did a big U-turn on campus, at which point headed off, riding the dedicated "bus transitway" from the U to the fairgrounds which worked out pretty well. Only encountered one bus along the way - no problem. Got to the Fairgrounds and (I think) the Women's Cat 3 race was in progress. Watched a few laps before realizing that I was *starving*, then also realized I had to get up early for my last 20 mile run. Not eating the night before a 20 miler seemed like a really bad idea, so I didn't stick around long - headed back to Mpls to fuel up on a burrito, and turned in relatively early.

Shuttin' down Chuck E Cheese

2005-05-27T22:36:00.000-05:00

My friend Jon (who's joined me on critical mass a few times) had a birthday on Thursday. His girlfriend arranged a surprise party at Chuck E Cheese, so about 10 of us showed up in advance. When the surprise was sprung, the look on Jon's face was not so much one of excitement, but rather confusion. Priceless.

I didn't get Jon a gift - I figured that the simple act of showing up at a party in a place that is crawling with small children (and therefore official qualifies as Hell in my book) was gift enough.

The video games at Chucky Cheese pretty much suck. They really suck. I was hoping for at least a vintage game or two (like Dig Dug, or Ms Pacman or Centipede) but no such luck. They did have skeeball though, which made up for it a bit I suppose.

On the second floor, there's a jungle gym/maze suspended from the ceiling, constructed of plastic modules bolted together that little kids can crawl through. Rupa wanted to check it out, so she and I decided to explore it. We made it up through a few of the modules before Rupa decided she was feeling claustrophobic and needed to get down. We had taken our shoes off before entering, and my shoes didn't even fit in the little shoe rack they had - this should have been a sign that we might have problems - this thing was clearly not built for adults, even relative small adults like Rupa and I.

Matt and Wipa brought their baby - it's in the 95% percentile for both height and weight - chubby little sucka. I didn't have to feign too much interest in the child since they're were enough other people there fawning over it.

Despite the lack of quality video games (and pizza that really wasn't that great) we ended up shutting down the joint - they were vacuuming and putting chairs up by the time we finally left.

Flaming Feet

2005-05-23T23:25:00.000-05:00

Woke up to rain Saturday morning, which pretty much blew my plans for getting my long run out of the way in the morning. It stopped raining by mid-morning, but by that time I had started in on some other projects around the house. Did a whole slew of errands around my neighborhood. I love living in Uptown because I did all this stuff in one trip, on foot:

mailed application to get my passport renewed
shipped a package by UPS
made some copies at Kinkos
stopped at used CD store (didn't buy anything, although I need to pick up the new M. Doughty release one of these days ...)
stopped at Library - checked out the Ani Difranco/Utah Phillips disc "the past didn't go anywhere". This disc is almost 10 yrs old, but somehow I'd never heard it until now.
sold two books to Magers and Quinn used bookstore
stopped at Lunds grocery for root beer

So by the time I finished all this, it was 3PM. Decided I'd better go for that run, if I planned on getting a long one in this weekend. Ended up running the ~20 mile Wirth loop that I normally bike. The last few miles were a death march - literally run a few blocks, walk a block. Probably didn't help that I only had 2 gu packs and 16oz of gatorade for fuel. Oh well.

Got home, showered, got a huge case of the chills/shakes when I got out of the shower. Unusual. Threw on nice warms sweatpants/sweatshirt, felt a little better. Ate dinner, started to feel like crap. Stomach felt all wrong. The last time I felt like this was after running Twin Cities marathon back in 2001. My stomach felt all wrong after that race, and even the post-race pizza didn't help.

Decided I was just going to stay in for the night, but didn't know what to do w/myself. Decided to work on a little art project that I'd thought of a few days earlier. I wanted to paint flames on the side of my roadie shoes. I had the paint from a previous project. Pulled up some photos of street rods online to get an idea of how to draw flames. Cut down some raised lettering from the side of the shoes w/my utility knife. Drew up some flames, and made a quick stencil. And a few coats of paint later, the obvious was made true to me ... I need something better to do with my time!

Sibley Depot Wheelbuilding Class

2005-05-17T22:56:00.000-05:00

Signed up for the wheelbuilding class at Sibley Bike Depot at the last minute. The class started at 6PM, and I signed up at about 4:15. This wasn't entirely my fault - I called the day before, but the guy who answered the phone was busy (he had his hands full with a room full of gradeschool-age kids - I don't know what sort of bike stuff he was teaching them, but I could hear a bunch of 'em in the background.) Then I tried calling multiple times today, and couldn't get through until 4:15. So there. Admittedly, I need to be more on the ball - I don't think I would have got into the class if someone else hadn't cancelled out. I also had to verify that the Depot membership that my sis gave me for my birthday last year was actually in effect (which it was) since I never got anything in the mail.

So anyway. About half the class had actual truing stands to use, the rest used the rear triangle of bikes in workstands. I don't think either way was much better than the other - I think either would work equally well, at least when you're at my novice level.

We were given a hub, a rim, and the correct number of the correct length of spokes. The geometry of calculating the correct spoke length requires, well, geometry (trigonometry to be precise) because you have to take the hub flange diameter, rim diameter, and lacing pattern (3 cross, 4-cross, radial, etc) into consideration. They didn't teach us the formulas - they just set us up with the correct length spokes. Most of us, at least. About 1/2 hour into the class, they discovered that some people had longer spokes - those people had to remove their spokes and start over - thankfully we weren't very far along. Bummer for them. Actually, it wasn't a huge deal because we weren't very far along at that point.

We had 36 hole rims, so each side of the wheel has 18 spokes. Lacing the first 9 spokes (every other hole on that side of the hub to the rim) were easy. Then you put the 10th spoke in the same side in the opposite direction - it'll be the first spoke that crosses the others. That one is also not too complicated. The complicated part is figuring out the correct location for the first spoke on the other side of the rim. If you don't get that one right, you'll be screwed and end up taking out that spoke (and all the others on that side) later and trying again.

Anyway, I won't go into any more detail since the process is tough to explain, and if you ever want to try, you'll buy a book or have someone teach you anyway. The truing process required more patience than anything, since you're trying to make sure that all points of the rim are equidistant from the hub, *and* make sure that the wheel has minimal wobble, *and* make sure that it's dished properly (evenly on both sides). It's a lot of trial and error, but it's not too bad if you periodically take a look at all three things (hop, wobble, and dish) and focus on the thing that needs the most work first. Then things seem to fall into place. Eventually I got to the point where my wheel still wasn't perfect, but it was pretty OK, and whatever I did seemed to make one thing or the other worse instead of better. That's when I said "good enough for now" and called it a night.

I can understand why wheelbuilding is considered both an art and a science. Coming out of the class, I'm pretty sure that if I had a book with instructions, and some practice, I'd have enough skill to make a wheel that would at least be rideable. Pretty cool stuff.

Gear West 20 Miler

2005-05-16T20:50:00.000-05:00

While my friend Brian and I both do triathlon, the training that we do together is generally limited to biking - he's a much stronger swimmer than I am, while I'm a stronger runner. Our running paces are different - he's trains at a 9-10 min/mile pace for long runs, while I prefer to be in 8 min/mile territory. The one thing we have in common is that we're both way behind in training for our upcoming events ... he's signed up for Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June, while I'm gearing up for Grandma's marathon.

Gear West was hosting a 20 mile training run Sat morning, complete with stops every few miles with gatorade, so I called Brian on Thursday and convinced him to run with me. This was going to be a stretch for both of us, as both my and his longest runs this year have been in the 15 mile range, and we figured we could both use the company. We agreed that we'd try to run most of it together, as long as we were OK with running at the same pace, and do our own thing as needed.

It's a good thing Brian agreed to the run - the weather was threatening rain when I woke up at 6:30am, and if it had been up to just me, I would have stayed warm in bed. But as it was, I dragged my ass outta bed, debated what clothes would be best suited for a cold, rainy morning, and headed out.

So how was the run? Not bad. It sprinkled lightly at random times throughout, but not enough to really worry about. I'm still not happy about having to wear a stocking cap in the middle of May, but what are you gonna do? The run was mostly an out-and-back along the Luce Line Trail, so it was pretty flat. Ran the first half at probably a 10 min/mile pace (including breaks for gatorade). On the way back, we met up with another group of 3 runners at a gatorade break, and we all ran together for a mile or two and picked up the pace a bit. Around mile 15, I found my body trying to get into it's natural groove and leading away from the group - I told Brian I was going to pick up the pace, but I'd wait for him at the next water stop.

As I was breaking away from the group, I heard a LOUD woodpecker on a telephone pole just up ahead. Now this was interesting, because earlier in the run I was telling Brian about the recent discovery of the (believed to be extinct) Ivory Billed woodpecker a few weeks ago. I slowed down as I approached the pole, and I was amazed when a Pileated woodpecker flew from the pole and disappeared into the woods! This is both crazy cool and crazy coincidental. The Pileated is a close relative of the Ivory and I have vivid memories looking through my birding field guide as a kid wondering if I'd every see one, since the Pileated was on the endangered species list back then. It's no longer on the endangered list, but still pretty rare!

OK, back to the run. I waited for Brian at the water stop, then kicked it up a notch for the last 3 miles. I think I ran the last 3 at a sub-8 min/mile pace, which is what I need to do if I want to have any chance of breaking 3:30 at Grandma's. I'm actually still not certain that I'll do the race - I need to get at least one more 20 miler in, hopefully at race pace, before I decide to do the race for sure.

Saturday afternoon consisted of a big lunch and a much deserved nap.

Ants tickle

2005-05-11T22:07:00.000-05:00

The ants that invaded my kitchen a few weeks ago seem to have moved on to greener pastures. Their departure coincides with the implementation of "Operation Stop Leaving Food Out on the Counter", which itself coincided with "Operation Stop Leaving Half-Empty Cans of Raspberry Soda on the Counter". A word of advice - if you leave a half-empty can of soda sitting out for any length of time, even indoors, you may want to peek into the can before drinking out of it. Ants tickle.

For those of you wondering why I say "soda" instead of "pop", head on over to this site. I originally hail from eastern WI - an island of soda in a sea of pop. According to the poll, 62 of 66 respondants in my parent's county say "soda" instead of "pop" or whatever. So there.

My tube is toast.

2005-05-10T21:01:00.000-05:00

My tube is toast. This is a bummer because I've ridden this tube nonstop since 2001. It's been patched thrice. I loved it because the valve stem is smooth, instead of having threads up and down it - it was a pleasure to pump up, since the smooth surface made it easy to get a pump head on and off.

Hit a man-made hole in the road at the north end of Wirth Parkway. It had those nice sharp edges that only a man-made hole can have. It was raining, and I was cruising downhill at a good clip - didn't even see the hole until my wheel was bouncing out of it. Flatted instantly. Kind of freaky flatting at speed. Nice big pinch flat - two 1/2" slits on either side of the tube :(

Stopping to install a new tube in the rain wasn't a big deal since we were well soaked already - shoes had filled with water about 10 miles earlier. When the shoes fill with water, that's when I generally stop caring that it's raining and just enjoy riding. 'Cause once the shoes fill with water, it's a pretty good bet that, come what may, it's impossible to get any wetter.

Only problem was that after stopping to install the tube, I was freezing my ass off. Wasn't bad until we got rolling again, but once the wind hit the wet skin, I started shaking with cold. So I sprinted up Wirth Parkway in an attempt to warm up a bit, and after that I was fine for the last few miles. But the hot shower still felt damn good!

Rant / weekend synopsis

2005-05-08T18:16:00.000-05:00

15 mile long run today. I'll talk more about that in a second. But first I need to rant about something I saw while running on the path along Minnehaha Creek. There's a pedestrian bridge (just west of Lyndale Ave, I believe) and below it alongside the path were a smashed TV, and a smashed microwave oven. Not just smashed, I mean destroyed, as in "dropped 30 feet from the pedestrian bridge" destroyed. This shit really pisses me off. Whoever did this should themselves be dropped from the bridge. That would teach 'em.

As for the run itself, it kind of sucked. Isles, Calhoun, Harriet, plus out and back along the Minnehaha creek trail (ran as far as the big Rabbit, then turned around) makes for 15 miles or so, by my math. I did it run-walk style, running about 2 miles, then walking for 1-3 minutes before starting to run again. I didn't eat very well yesterday (or at least last night) and didn't eat as much during the run as I should have, which didn't help. If my 20 miler next weekend feels like this, it'll be a looonnnng run indeed.

It also probably didn't help that I trashed my legs riding w/Doug and Brian yesterday. Road about 40, attacking all the hills hardcore and then regrouping at the top. There was a moderate breeze, and one of my pulls was a roughly 2 mile stretch into wind where I managed to still average 19mph or so - but I didn't realize I had dropped the others until near the end - not very nice of me :-( On the last big hill, approaching downtown from the South on West River Road, I powered all the way up at 20mph+ at which point my legs were total toast. Good ride. It was raining a bit at the start, but ended up being nice weather for a ride by the end. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm starting to feel pretty good about where my riding is at this year. Good enough that I'll start to consider checking out a fast group ride w/one of the local clubs sometime soon. I've been thinking about this lately, but haven't mentally worked my way up to it yet.

Doug talked me into seeing El Vez at First Ave last night w/his posse. Say "El Vez" three times real fast, and you might figure out what kind of music it was. He bills himself as the Mexican Elvis, and puts on a show complete with multiple costume changes (when's the last time you saw a guy wearing a tiger-print jumpsuit w/giant Elvis-style collar), 2 female backup singers/dancers (hot) and does mostly covers of american pop/rock standards. But the lyrics are changed to have a Latin bent, with about half of them actually being somewhat educational. Pretty campy stuff.

I am very particular about ceiling fans

2005-05-01T22:42:00.000-05:00

Wow, as far as bloggers go, I pretty much suck. How long has it been since I last posted? I honestly can't even remember. I suppose I could go and look, but since I'm composing this offline, that would be too much work.

Critical Mass on Friday was a blast. I had missed last months ride, which means my last ride was end of February. It was great to see the Mass swelling to near-summer proportions. I didn't take a head count, but it was definitely 50+, probably 80 or so?

I exchanged emails earlier in the day w/Gilby, and she (jokingly, I think) invited me to join "Team Plaid". Not having a plaid skirt, I didn't intend to take her up on the offer. But then DC called, wondering if we could ride together to Loring Park, and she offered to bring a plaid skirt for me. So she set me up with this bluish/torquoise-ish number, which I must say looked quite stunning with my cargo pants and red mittens. Quite the outfit, indeed.

Ended up at the Red Dragon afterwards with a crew of probably 20 or so of the massers, which was cool, since I'm always a little bummed on those occasions when the ride just kind of ends with everyone going their separate ways.

Saturday my friend Doug and I pulled together a roadie ride, which I think is going to become a regular weekend thing. Brian was out of town, but at my urging CB came out. I wondered whether CB would be able to hang with the group since he hasn't been riding much, but I knew the group would be kind enough to let him catch up if he got dropped. He wants to get faster, and the only way that's going to happen is if he starts riding with people faster than him. We had a group of 6 total, not too bad for a random group on a colder-than-usual day. We pushed the pace pretty hard down west river road and Minnehaha parkway. I was enjoying the brisk pace, but not the fact that we weren't really able to hold any conversation, and I wanted to get to know the three people in the group who I had never met. CB started struggling after a few miles, and ended up dropping off when we passed his house around mile 15 or so. Hopefully a few more rides at this faster speed (along with some riding on his own on weeknights) and he should be able to hang soon enough.

Once we got through Wirth Park we were able to ride side streets 2 or 3 abreast and finally chat as a group. Turns out one of the woman is doing her residency in orthopedic medicine, and the other woman is a former investment banker. Nice people.

Saturday night, met a few friends for beers at Famous Daves. Funny, I've lived in uptown for over 5 years now, and this was my first time there. The act for the night was blues vocalist Nora Jean Bruso. I had never heard of her, but the woman knows how to make a entrance - you can't help but stand up and take notice. She has one of those deep, powerful, throaty voices - when she's growling about the last man that done her wrong, and how she's not going to take it anymore, well, you believe her. Good stuff.

Sunday, spent half the day biking around town looking at ceiling fans. Here's a statement I never thought I'd hear myself say: "I am very particular about ceiling fans." But apparently, I am. I don't have ceiling fans right now, and once the summer heat and humidity hits, my home life becomes an exercise in shuttling box fans from room to room, since I refuse to use AC (it's expensive, and I'm too much of a spendthrift conservationist to do use it.)

I've had bare wires hanging from my living room ceiling for over a year now. I never seem to get around to purchasing a light fixture, so I started thinking about putting a ceiling fan w/light up there. And while I'm at it, why not put a ceiling fan in my dining room too - my living room and dining room are actually one big room, and I don't think it would look *too* odd having two ceiling fans in there, provided that some simple requirements are satisfied: (a) must be low profile and mountable close to the ceiling, (b) lights must be subtle - no 5 bulbs with flowery shades or any such junk like that (c) units should be very simple in style, neither too ornate nor too high-tech, and (d) not too expensive. Not surprisingly, I haven't found anything that fits the bill yet.

A game, a ride, and a plug for my local burrito joint

2005-04-19T20:29:00.000-05:00

Well, aren't I just the laziest blogger ever. More than a week goes by with nary a post from yours truly. And now that I get around to posting, I'm going to ride the coattails of another blogger friend. Lazy, indeed.

Anyway, my weekend was good. Friday night, my friend CB invited me to go see a Swarm LaCrosse game in St Paul. Now those who know me might wonder why I'd go to a LaCrosse game, since generally I'd rather gouge both my eyes out with a rusty spoon than watch spectator sports. But since I really knew very little about LaCrosse, I thought it might be a fun learning experience. And it was, to a degree.

The game is super energetic, fast paced, and the players demonstrate a crazy amount of skill. The goal (or net or whatever) is very small, relative to other "goal" games like hockey, soccer, water polo, etc. So the players really need to have good aim to thread a shot past the goalie (under his legs, over his shoulder, etc.) The goalie's body blocks a large portion of the goal while simply standing still. It's also a fairly physical game, with a tons of contact as players jockey for position. Moves like behind-the-back shots and passes add to the excitement. Like I say, those players have skills.

The atmosphere in the Xcel Center was kind of annoying though. I've never been to a game where they play (heavy metal) music during almost the entire game. And I don't mean just during timeouts or after goals are scored - I mean they pump the music the *entire* game, whether the ball is in play or not. It's almost as if they're trying to create a colliseum-type atmosphere ... I kept waiting for trapdoors to open and chained lions to jump out of the floor. Way too much stimulation in that environment - I was on sensory overload. (Then again, I'm the guy who got annoyed in college when the roommates would have the TV and stereo on at the same time - it was just too much sensory stimulation for me. Anyway...) But at the same time, by the end of the game I was bored despite the overload. Oh well - I've come to accept that spectator sports aren't my gig - that's why I'm so active myself.

Saturday, had plans to ride with DC in the morning, but the rain had us pinned down, watching (the radar) and hoping it would clear up for most of the day. Finally, it was 3pm, and with no end to the rain in sight, we postponed the ride until Sunday. But this gave me a chance to do some work around the house, including putting new rubber on my old Cervelo road bike and get it ready to sell (I'll be posting photos and description up here soon, don't you worry!)

Sunday, the weather was great and DC and I were on the road by mid-morning. For a ride description, I'll refer you to DC's post since she's posted way ahead of me. But I'll add that while I outclimbed her on some of the hills, she was hauling ass on the flats and gave me a run for my money. And by the end of the ride, I was pretty much spent, while she was still energized - go figure!

I remembered to bring money so I could stop at Burrito Loco on the way home, and they were kind enough to let me park my bike inside while I ate, since I didn't have my Ulock on me. I don't think they'd let me do that at Chipotle, and at Loco you get chips and salsa for free with your burrito. Plus, it's a regular occurance at Loco to have your burrito burst open when they're trying to wrap it - they don't skip on the fillings, that's for sure. So if you're in the mood for a burrito, forget about Chipotle and head immediately to Loco instead - you won't regret it!

Sunday evening was spent with a date hanging out at the outdoor bars at St Anthony Main. And what a gorgeous night! The decks weren't too crowded, and the view over the river was great. I haven't spent much time hanging at St Anthony Main, but it's now on my short list of great summer hang-out spots.

"Free energy", "Free transportation"

2005-04-08T18:57:00.000-05:00

The girlfriend of my friend PW has bookclub night once a month, and when she does, PW gets out of the apartment and rounds up the boys for beer night. Past beer nights have been in Uptown, Dinkytown, or downtown Mpls, putting them within easy biking distance. Tonights, however, was over in St Paul, just past Dale St. Walking distance for PW, who lives over there, but about 10 miles from my condo. I pondered taking the bus, then decided it was such a beautiful night that it would be wrong not to bike there.

Not wanting to crash the Cervelo in some drunken incident, I rode the Great Equalizer, but only after removing the knobbies and putting the slicks back on. I don't know that it is with these slicks, but they are a royal pain in the arse to install. That last few inches of bead just never wants to go over the rim. I think I figured out a better way to do it, but only after giving myself a nice blood blister on my thumb.

The ride over was nice - took 31st St as far as the Midtown YWCA, then hopped over to Lake, crossed Hiawatha. Parked in front of the Poodle club, I saw a fat middle aged guy sitting on a Harley, wearing a red and white elvis costume complete with big ole gold framed glasses, butterfly collar, the whole 9 yards. There was a woman on the bike who was dressed normally (well, normal for a middle-aged woman on a Harley, if you know what I mean.) Don't know what their story was.

Continued on Lake St over the Lake St bridge, down Cleveland to Summit, Summit to Dale.

At happy hour, Joe and I had a brief conversation about alternative energy, and I came up with the idea that when we talk about solar power, wind power, etc, we really need to start using the term "free energy" instead of "alternative energy", "renewable energy", "clean energy", etc. The term "clean" has been co-opted ("clean coal" being a good example) and "renewable" and isn't very catchy. Alternative almost makes it sound like there's something wrong with it.

The cost of petroleum is sky high, and society has been brainwashed into thinking with a very pro-market mentality, so the term "free energy" should really resonate with people, while also being entirely true. Solar and wind are in fact free (they cost pretty much nothing after the capital costs have been recovered) and are also free from all the foreign policy problems inherent in our petroleum based economy/society.

The same goes for transportation when it comes to walking, biking, etc. If someone asks us if we biked in to work, we could respond "Yep, I took free transportation today. How about you?" It could subconsciously yet effectively drive the point home.

The ride home was similarily gorgeous, I was riding in a tshirt and rolled up jeans, and was quite comfortable even at 11pm. Not a cloud in the sky, and oodles of stars overhead. Wonderful.

Spring has sprung

2005-04-07T17:29:00.000-05:00

Well, Spring (by my personal definition) is finally here, as evidenced by the ice finally being out on Lake Calhoun. I think the last of it disappeared sometime last night, because on the way home from work, I think there was still ice out there, but this morning, riding the bus into work, the ice was completely gone, and there were a few seagulls out on the water. It seemed everyone on the bus was helpless against view of the open water ... you'd see people look for a few seconds, then look away, only to be drawn back to it again and again. Hard to believe that not even 2 weeks ago, I saw people out walking around on the ice in the middle of Medicine Lake up in Plymouth. Then again, I think they were fools to be out there that late in the season. I didn't see any news about 3 people falling through and drowning, so I presume they made it off the lake all right. But they're still fools.

The coming of spring is also evidenced by enormous clouds of dust being kicked up by the army of leafblowers just unleashed upon Edina. Look to the horizon - you can probably see it. They're practically blotting out the goddamn sun, I swear. There are few things that I hate, but leafblowers are are near the top of that short list. They're noisy, smelly, kick up all that dust, and belch blue smoke. Seroiusly, the amount of fossil fuels used to maintain lawns (both residential and corporate) simply boggles the mind. This includes fuel for mowers, weedwhackers, leafblowers, not to mention that most fertilizers are also petroleum.

In case anyone's interested, there's a book called "The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession" by Virginia Scott Jenkins, which goes into detail about how (early in the 20th century) the concept of the lawn was sold to the American public by a combination of the US Dept of Agriculture, the US Golf Association, and the American Garden Club. (A bit of an aside - it seems Virginia Scott Jenkins also has a book about the history of the banana in America - I haven't read it, but it actually sounds quite interesting.)

Personally, I love the yards in Minneapolis that aren't lawns at all - they're landscaped with stones, bark, flowers, gardens, etc. I'm sure they're not maintenance free, in fact, I'm sure they require a fair amount of work to keep them looking nice, but at least it's human labor - quiet, clean, and petroleum free.

If only my friggen knees would cooperate

2005-04-04T22:19:00.000-05:00

I'm bailing out of Wildflower Triathlon :-( The race is the end of this month, and I thought I'd be ready. In fact, I'm sure I would have been ready, if only my friggen knees would have cooperated.

This is the first winter that I rode any substantial miles through the season, and this was specifically in preparation for Wildflower. (Oh, and of course because along the way I discovered that winter riding is fun!) I figured if I'd ride through the winter, I'd have a leg up when the weather got nice. What I didn't plan on is that my knees would start giving me a hard time recently. I'm not sure what the knee problems stem from. But any ride I've done longer than 40 miles lately has left me feeling like something's not quite right. I've done more snowboarding this season than I have in the past, and maybe that has something to do with it (the full weight of the board hangs from one leg - and therefore from one knee - when riding the chairlift, so maybe that's part of it?)

Not that my knees are royally fucked up or anything I'd need to be seriously ramping up my training for the next 3 weeks in preparation for Wildflower. But my knees are politely asking me to take it a little easy for a week or two. Thankfully, they're still just asking politely. Not screaming, just suggesting that pulling back a little might be wise.

So I've decided to take their advice.

There are other, less important factors playing into the decision as well...

Originally, it was going to be myself and two coworkers (Mike and Markus) flying out and racing. Markus bailed out a few weeks ago due to nagging back problems - the result of dueling with an overhead garage door. (I would have bailed if I were him too.) Markus and I have done Wildflower together twice in the past, and I haven't spent much time with him lately so I was really looking forward to this trip as a way to reconnect. But with Markus out, that incentive is gone. I get along well with the other coworker, Mike, but it just wouldn't be the same without Markus.

For a long weekend, it can be pretty expensive. By the time I would have paid for airfare, fees to fly the bike to/from the race (typically about $80 each way), plus my share of lodging, rental car, and food, that long weekend would have run nearly $1000. To go out there and have a killer race would make it totally worth it. But to go out there and have just a lackluster race, well, that's a different story.

Plus, I have a handful of other races planned for the summer, which I've already paid for, and that I really want to do well in (not well as in "I'm going to take First Place" but well as in "I really want to put forth a solid effort and improve upon my previous times".

I know I'm making the right decision, but it still kind of sucks.

If there is a Silver lining though, it's this ... I'll be able to participate in April Critical Mass. Yeah!

Thirst for "knowledge"???

2005-04-01T17:56:00.000-06:00

Strolled into my coworkers cube today for a quick discussion, and couldn't help but notice that on his computer screen in the background, he had just done a Google search for "knowledge". Nothing else, no other search terms. Just 185,000,000 search results for "knowledge".

I wonder what exactly he was looking for ... and whether he found it?

Hard Times Cafe - April Fools Day Variety Show???

2005-03-29T19:28:00.000-06:00

While surfing around for cool things to do this coming Friday night, I came across this on the CityPages calendar:

Hard Times Cafe
April Fools Day Variety Show
Fri Apr 1

With the Tin Star Sisters; Crush Collision Trio; dance; film; spoken word; magic; prizes. Free. 7:00 pm. - Dance & Performance

So, I ask any and all readers in the blogosphere ... has anyone out there seen a variety show at Hard Times? How was it? Is this worth checking out?

Extended weekend

2005-03-27T20:34:00.000-06:00

Took half of Thursday and all of Friday off so I could rendevous with JK at BS's place in WI and do a little snowboarding at Granite Peak in Wausau. Granite Peak has a 2-for-1 lift ticket deal on Thursday nights, so I think it cost each of us a measly $12 or so. Peanuts. We had to snag another single riders in the parking lot to get the 2-for-1 price for the three of us, but it worked out fine.

Snow was great considering the temps were in the 40's. They have one of these newer very fast lifts - it seats 6 people and pretty much rockets you up the hill. I call it the rocket lift. It's pretty key when you're only going to be able to get 3 hours of boarding in - I bet it increases the number of runs you can get in by 30%. The runs are considerably longer than those at Afton, and steeper as well. They have a few runs labeled as double-black, and I damn near crapped my drawers at least once on one of those. I was going faster than ever, fast enough that if I were to catch an edge, I'd be in a serious world of hurt.

But the other cool part was the runs way off to the side - each run there is separated by a strip of woods, and there aren't any shrubs or small bushes - just trees. These stretches of woods are blanketed with snowboard tracks weaving between all the trees, which is loads of fun. Long stretches where the grade is shallow enough so you can get going again if you stop (for instance, if you have to bail because you just can't avoid a tree) but not so steep that you feel in danger or out of control. Tons and tons of fun, rocking and rolling amongst the trees.

Other highlights of the weekend:

You've heard the phrase "Feed a cold, starve a fever"? Well, BS would argue against all that, instead saying "Party away all that sickness". He shared his recipe:

When you feel like you're starting to get sick ...

Drink several glasses of green tea during the day

Eat mexican food for dinner, with tons of hot sauce

Follow this with a stiff whiskey nightcap

Now, I'm not advocating this, just sharing because I found it humorous.

Parked a lawn chair in the snow in the yard and did a little naked tanning. BS and I did this - not sure where JK was at the time. Which is strange, since JK used to be the naked tanning king back in the college days. Crazy that it was warm enough to do this this weekend, while still having so much snow on the ground. OK, I was only exposed for about 15 minutes, but even this was good since it's been like 6 months since most of that skin had seen the sun. One of the few advantages of BS living in the middle of freaking nowhere, I suppose.

Spent time putzing around with BS's new computer, getting him set up to burn CDs and DVDs. Had mixed luck trying to copy some DVDs - it seems some have effective copy protection, while others have none.

We all had a little target practice shooting BS's 9mm Glock handgun. This was the first time I had shot a gun since probably middle school - I remember one of the cousins taking us out to the shooting range and firing .22 target practice. Can't remember if I was able to hit anything then. But with the Glock I did alright. It has a ported barrel, with surprisingly little kick. If I really focused, I could hit within a few inches of my aim, at least on the first few shots. But this was also only at about 10 yds or so, so probably not very impressive. What's interesting was that the more shots I fired, taking careful aim between each one, my aim became increasingly unsteady. Just nerves, I guess.

By the way, I think I'm one of the few progressives out there who really doesn't give a shit about the issue of concealed carry, gun control, etc. With the current path our government seems to be on, eventually we may all need to take up arms to protect ourselves. So I'm all for my own right to bear arms. That being said, I don't own a gun, nor do I intend to get one anytime soon (hopefully never). But I still want the right if I choose.

Came back on Saturday. Didn't celebrate easter at all on Sunday, but got in a 50 mile ride on my road bike (first time I had the road bike out since February) followed by a 5 mile run. I think I'm going to bed early tonight - I feel way more beat than I should.

Just enough snow to make driving dicey

2005-03-21T23:08:00.000-06:00

Well, the giant blizzard turned out to be just a giant disappointment, at least in Mpls. I was down in Bloomington playing poker Friday night, and it had pretty much stopped snowing after about 6 inches. Plenty enough snow to make driving dicey, but not close to the as many as 12 inches predicted. By the way, I lost my ass at poker. This despite the fact that half the guys were distracted by the basketball tourney on TV in the background. I found that more than a little annoying, and you'd think I could have capitalized on their distraction and scored some hands, but it wasn't to be.

Back in Mpls, it seems like only a few inches, maybe 2 inches, fell. Like I said, disappointment. Enough snow to make a big mess, but not enough to really have any fun with. And it's all pretty much melted by now anyway.

Since they seemed to have gotten more snow down south, PW, GH, Doug and I headed down to Welch Village for some snowboarding on Saturday. Welch also seemed to have less snow than Bloomington - kind of surprising. The snow was fresh, but not powdery - more like sticky snow that tended to clump together, making for some bumpier-than-usual runs. But this is good, since it forces a person to flex the knees and let the board float over the bumps - something I need to work on and think about. There was a roped-off area under one of the lifts where you could duck under the rope and bomb down amidst the tubular steel lift supports. For me, this was the most fun part of the day by far. GH liked the run, but had some trouble making it down without spilling. PW didn't like that run at all, for some reason. Something about his board not feeling responsive in the deeper sticky snow. But PW and I both made very unimpressive and borderline humiliating runs down the halfpipe, punctuated by falls and spills. Nothing like putting on a show for the youngsters. Something to work on next season, I suppose!

There were two notable signs of spring in the air that day: 1) birds singing in the trees, chickadees I think. Usually don't hear that on the slopes. 2) at one point, a mosquito-sized insect flew around me and landed on my glove while I was riding the chairlift. Kind of surreal - snow everywhere - fresh snow, even! And here's this little bug flying around. Crazy. Spring has to be just around the corner. I'm ready whenever it shows up.

Sunday, didn't get any riding in, but went for a long, long tiring run up Wirth Parkway. I usually just run the lakes, but I'm taking Wirth as my new running course since it adds some hills into the mix.

Helluva blizzard brewing

2005-03-17T23:01:00.000-06:00

Well, it looks like mother nature's hell bent on throwing a massive wrench into my training plans for the weekend. You know there must be a helluva blizzard brewing when Northwest Airlines proactively offers vouchers in anticipation of the storm:

Updated 3/17/05 - 12:00 p.m. CST

Due to a snow storm expected in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, Northwest has issued a weather waiver for passengers ticketed for travel Thursday, March 17 through Saturday, March 19, 2005 to, from or through Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN.

From what I've gathered, somewhere between 6 and 12 inches are expected over the next 36 hours or so. Pretty crazy. I noticed that some of the bulbs in front of my house have started sprouting - I wonder how they're going to feel buried in that much snow?

Anyway, so much for taking the Cervelo out this weekend :-( I'll still try to get a long run in sometime this weekend, and probably take the Equalizer out on Sunday, but that's just not the same. I really want to start getting some miles on my road steed, but I haven't had her out since the infamous Cinderblock Stonehenge ride in Feb.

Second brick of the year

2005-03-14T23:17:00.001-06:00

I originally planned on a more relaxed weekend than last weekend, and I only partially succeeded. PW emailed Friday, asking if I was interested in snowboarding on Saturday, and of course I was. Funny thing was, until PW emailed, I hadn't even considered snowboarding this weekend. I think with the unseasonably warm weather last weekend, the thought that snowboarding season is over lodged in my brain, despite the wintry weather we've experienced since then.

Anyway, so we snowboarded at Afton again and it was great. Notables: while eating lunch, the groomer laid down some perfect corderoy on one of the hills, so we enjoyed a few runs with nearly perfect snow (ok, well, it was still more like finely chopped ice, but it was still great in it's freshly-groomed condition!) Around the same time, we noticed a group of teenage guys boarding shirtless. They thought they were pretty cool, but they had to be freezing their 'nads off. Their red chests certainly gave away the fact that they were cold and windburned. And since the chairs on the lift are metal, I bet they got a little shivery surprise if they made the mistake of leaning back on the chairlift - too funny.

Sunday, I planned some serious training, since (big surprise) I still have a lot of catching up to do before Wildflower tri. (For you regular readers, best get accustomed to lots of triathlon training talk on this blog - it's going to be a recurring theme for the coming months!) I was riding solo, but decided to ride the Great Equalizer (GE) anyway, for several reasons.

1) mid 30 degrees outside, and my feet freeze off in my roadie shoes (I haven't invested in any neoprene booties.) GE has flip-flop pedals - platforms on one side, SPD on the other. So I can ride wearing my hiking boots, which keep the toes much warmer.

2) I wasn't sure how much snow/ice/salt was still on the road, and I didn't feel like having to clean the Cervelo off after the ride. I'm lazy that way. The mtn bike rarely gets cleaned, but the Cervelo gets babied. Better to not get it dirty in the first place.

I'm extremely glad I road GE, 'cause I took quite the spill on the greenway. I was daydreaming a bit, I'll admit, and I didn't see the patch of ice as soon as I should have. But it looked like it was textured, with snow frozen into it's surface, so I thought I could easily glide right over it. Well, that worked for like 0.00001 second. Then the wheels slid to the left, my body headed right, and both went careening down the path at like 20mph. I was cruising when I hit the patch, and went down hard. Luckily, with the winter clothing I was wearing, I wasn't much worse for the wear, except for the meaty part of my right palm, which took the brunt of my fall. Still a little tender today, but I'll live.

After that, the ride was pretty decent. Around west side of Cedar Lake, up Wirth Parkway, Memorial Parkway north, then east to the river, cross the river on 42nd/37th Ave N bridge. Snapped these photos on the bridge. The ice chunks are a lot smaller and thinner than they were earlier in the season.

Headed south down Marshall on the east side of the river - I cut across a vacant lot a few blocks later to get a better look at some giant scrap heaps on the west side of the river. The pier has seen better days (probably best to pull the pier out next year, fellas, rather than leave it at the mercy of the Mighty Mississippi.)

South to St Anthony Main, cross the Stone Arch, then south down West River Road. Road down to the river under the Lake St bridge, because I knew that one can see some pretty spectacular ice formations down there as the snow melts, runs down through the sandstone, then freezes again when it exists. I wasn't disappointed, although it's tough to tell the scale in the photos. There's an "ice waterfall" down there, big enough that me and several of my friends could crawl back behind it. Well, provided we could get to it, that is - the approach to the waterfall is a sheet of glare ice under a dusting of snow, and I wasn't going to risk it. If I had crampons, it'd be a piece of cake. Anyway, it's really pretty cool. And the ice had a bluish tint that didn't come through well in the photos either.

From there, south to Minnehaha park, then meandered through south Mpls back to uptown. By this time I was hungry, tired, and the outside of my left knee was feeling pretty tweaked out.

Gave Brian a call when I got back home (after wolfing down a powerbar) and we agreed to run a couple lakes. I'm SO glad Brian was available to run - not just for the company, but also for the motivation. If I hadn't had a partner, I would have run one lake and called it quits for the day. But we decided to shoot for two lakes, took an easy 9+ minute/mile pace, and in the end tacked on the third lake for good measure for roughly 10 miles. Not too shabby.

Three stinking coasters

2005-03-08T21:27:00.000-06:00

So I've been taking this pottery class through Minneapolis Community Ed. It's held at Southwest High School. The class started out seeming like it would be pretty cool, but it quickly devolved to the point that tonight's class (the last session) was an f'ing joke.

First off, it appears at times that our instructor doesn't really know what she's doing. There have been more than a few occasions when someone will ask her a question, and get one answer. Then, realizing she doesn't know for sure, the instructor asks the advice of the High School art teacher (who's been hanging around all night because he's a super territorial weirdo who's extremely protective of his classroom) who gives a different answer. So we never know if she's giving good suggestions or not.

Then, these last 2 class periods, the level of disorganization reached it's absolute peak. Before we can glaze our pieces, they need to be bisque fired. Then we can glaze them, and then they get fired again. Well, we were told that the last 2 class periods would be devoted to glazing only, meaning that all of our pieces needed to be bisque fired before then. Well, only about half of them got fired. Some of us (myself included) didn't have any of our pieces fired for last weeks class, so we had nothing to do last class. So it was a wasted class period, and I left early.

This week, their were still pieces that weren't bisque fired. But thankfully mine had been fired over the weekend, and I had picked them up after work yesterday so I could work on them at home. So I gave them a coat of underglaze at home last night, which should have meant that in today's class all I needed to do was apply a coat of clear glaze and I would be able to leave early again.

Ah, what a great plan. If only it had worked out. I asked the instructor if I could put a coat of clear glaze over my underglaze, and she said "Sure" and recommended that I apply it with a brush rather than dipping them. I applied a few brush strokes of clear glaze to one piece, and the underglaze began to run. Fuck. In retrospect, this shouldn't have been a big surprise, both the underglaze and clear glaze are water-based, but I made the stupid mistake of assuming she was giving me good advice. So I had to wash all the glaze and underglaze off that piece, and apply the underglaze all over again. Which is time consuming, involving multiple coats, etc. Since we only have one firing left, this means they just won't get a clear coat, which totally sucks. The clear coat would make them bright and shiny - without it they will be dull.

Oh, and did I mention that the instructor rarely had decent tools available for us to use? Today was (as I mentioned) one of the two days dedicated to glazing, and as class begins another student asks the instructor if she has brushes for us to use. The response ... "I don't know." What do you mean, you don't know? This is your stinking class!?! So she runs around for 5, 10 minutes scrambling to see where in the school she can get some brushes for us to use, since super-territorial-weirdo high school teacher won't let us use his. Unacceptable, even for a low-budget community ed class, in my humble opinion.

Oh, and while I'm ranting, I might as well bitch about myself and how I accomplished almost nothing in these classes relative to most of the other students. I was slow to decide what I wanted to do for projects, so I spent one class making a crappy bowl using the "coil" method. I just wanted to practice technique, so that's what I did. I had no intention of keeping the bowl, and I didn't. Then, I missed a class when I went up north snowboarding at Lutsen. Then, the instructor failed to tell us that the last 2 entire classes were for glazing only, so I (and several others) were scrambling to complete a project before the glazing sessions started. I decided I wanted to make a set of 4 coasters in the shape of sunflowers. So I did that, but it took longer than expected and I only got 3 done. I started on the 4th, and took it home to finish it. But when I brought it back to class, it fell out my bag onto the floor and got trashed, leaving me with only 3. So in the end, all I'll have to show for this class are 3 stinking sunflower coasters that will look dull and lifeless since they have underglaze but no clear coat. That's assuming our instructor gets her shit together and actually gets all of our stuff fired. Grrr. In the end they'll probably look like crap, and I'll just get pissed and rifle them out my window like some kind of stoneware throwing stars.

But I should say that I've really enjoyed spending time in that art room. There's a chaotic energy brewing amongst the organized clutter in that room. The super territorial weirdo high School art teacher is also a track and field coach, so the room is a mish-mash of creative, half-completed high school art projects and track and field articles, photos, etc. It's an interesting and stimulating blend.

Also, just to make this post a little more even-handed, I should add that not all Community Ed classes suck. The Intro Spanish course I took through Comm Ed a year ago was actually pretty good (even though I really didn't retain anything I learned...) The instructor was very organized, and covered pretty much all that he could in the 8 or so class periods he had to work with.

First brick of the year

2005-03-06T20:00:00.000-06:00

I have a strange relationship with weekends at times. Lazy weekends leave me feeling rested, rejuvenated, and generally recharged and ready to start the week. Busy weekends (like this one) leave me wishing that I had another day to just rest. But lazy weekends are boring, busy weekends are active and fun. Can't have it both ways. Thus, the strange relationship.

This weekend was indeed busy, and a little different - it's a bizarre when the weather allows for snowboarding one day, and a long (warm!) bike ride the next. But that's exactly what I did this weekend.

Headed out to Afton on Sat morning with PW and GH. Hit the slopes around 10:30, knowing that we'd be best served getting some boarding in before it really warmed up in the afternoon. Conditions were actually pretty good for late season - didn't have to contend with any patches of ice, and the snow seemed relatively fast - much faster than 2 weeks ago when we got about 6 inches of fresh snow and conditions were so slow that I went home after only 3 hours. Later in the afternoon, the clouds cleared, shadows appeared and it really started to warm up - then my board started to feel a little slow but still pretty decent. PW commented how the hills at Afton have started to feel shorter now that our abilities have improved since last year, and he's totally right. Last year the hills in the Highland area seemed long, and perfectly suited to our abilities. This year, they're still lots of fun but they start to feel a little less challenging. Come next year, I envision more trips up to Spirit Mountain for variety - the main run there is longer so you can build up more speed (for better carving) and they have a great run that meanders through the woods with a little terrain which kicks ass.

Today, I had planned on getting the road bike out and doing a long ride. I just getting ready to get ready to ride when Darkling Child called asking if I wanted to ride out St Paul direction, and I said "sure". Had planned on riding alone, but Darkling was mentioned the hills out past the High Bridge, so I thought it sounded like a good plan - I need hill work in a major way if I'm going to put in personal best at Wildflower this year. The last time we rode together, she rode her Trek road bike, while I road my mtn bike with slicks as an "equalizer". My mtn bike is currently set up with knobby tires (which I put on a few ago to race in the "Snowball's Chance in Hell Formula Ice Race and Snowy Dash For Cold Hard Cash". Hadn't bothered to take the knobbies off, so I figured I just leave 'em on for even more of an equilizer effect. It worked. They equilized the crap out of me today.

Rode east on 42nd St, up West River Rd, across the Franklin St bridge, Darkling almost hit another pedestrian turning onto East River Rd, down to Summit Ave, Summit into St Paul (down the switchback hill), across the High Bridge, and out another maybe five(?) miles on Hwy 13, rested at some big scenic overlook for some snacks, then headed back. For me I think this was 47-48 miles round trip, a little less for Darkling since I had to ride to her place to start the ride. This was my first time riding on the far side of the Mississippi out by St Paul, and there are some decent hills out that way. The High Bridge alone kicked my ass - but maybe because it was the first real hill of the ride, and my legs didn't know what I planned on throwing at them - who knows. Anyway, it was a fun ride. A little messy though - the melt is on big-time and I have a fender but Darkling's bike was kicking up a monster rooster tail of spray on the downhills.

People came out of the woodwork to bask in the warm weather today (according to my thermometer at home, it hit 60 degrees!) I swear everyone with a kid or a dog was out walking around at some point. Saw the first shirtless (unfortunately male) joggers of the year out today - there were a whole pack of 'em running in the bike lane on Summit. Lots of roadies out too.

Got back to my place and threw on my running shoes for a quick jog around Calhoun - Calhoun was an absolute madhouse - the jogging path is still iced up in places, meaning walkers, runners, baby strollers, bikes and rollerbladers are all crowded onto one path, making for a lot of dodging and weaving. Still a good run though. So that's my first brick (combined bike/run workout, for you non-triathletes) of the season. More than enough to justify a giant dinner. And a big root beer float.

Sleep deprivation has no place in sports

2005-03-03T22:24:00.000-06:00

Went to an adventure racing seminar today at REI. Beginner level adventure racing is an idea I've been kicking around ever since Frick told me stories about a few races he did out in AZ last year. And as I've been looking over my triathlon/running race schedule for the summer, I've realized I'll only be signing up for 4 events, which leaves room for something else.

Seminar was pretty OK, sort of an overview of the sport, from beginner level up through more advanced, multi-day races. The shorter races are apparently in the 4-6 hour range, and involve orienteering (navigating w/a compass), hiking, paddling (canoe or kayak), and biking. The longer races include more sports, like rock climbing/rope work, portaging canoes/kayaks, even crazy stuff like parachuting, horseback riding, and have the added element of sleep deprivation. I'm not into sleep deprivation, or blisters, so I went into the seminar already pretty certain that I'm more interested in the shorter races and probably not much beyond that. Then again, I said the same thing when I started triathlon and ended up doing an ironman, so who knows? But anyway, the longer races make for more exciting stories, so there was a lot of focus on that, with a slideshow and stuff like that. Despite this, it did still whet my appetite, and if anyone's curious about adventure races in MN, you can check out the MN Adventure Race Series and Wild Adventure Race sites for more info.

Other random thing from REI tonight ... as you enter the store, you walk over a small bridge, crossing a small pond. Today, there was a sign next to the pond explaining that it was drained and would be renovated because it had been invaded by the invasive, exotic Eurasian milfoil. Now, I can't help but wonder how in the world this stuff got into REI's teeny tiny totally isolated little pond?

Oh, and for what it's worth, if I decide to give adventure racing a shot, I'll be looking for teammates!

Bikey Care Package

2005-02-27T22:29:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, as I was getting ready to bike down to 50th/France to get my ice skates sharpened, a long cylindrical package showed up on my doorstep. I was like, hmmm, what the heck is this? No return address either. Then I remembered that my sis had mentioned something about sending care packages to frick and I figured this must be it.

Contents of the package:

Tons of Chicago Critical Mass stickers and stuff
Stack of bike-themed stationary and envelopes (I know people rarely write letters nowadays, but I'll be busting out my old manual typewriter with this stationary, just for effect.)
Several postcards and larger prints with a "bicycles as ants" theme. My favorite one shows several overturned automobiles being carried away by an army of teeny-tiny bikes - just like ants carrying away a picnic basket in a cartoon. Very cool. Wish I had a scanner so I could post a picture here.
A menu from The Handlebar bikey bar & grill in Chicago, which my sis has been invited to become part owner. You can tell it's a bikey bar by their happy hour specials ... $1.50 PBR pints, $1 Schlitz cans? Sounds like a bikey bar to me!
And the coolest thing, a Chicago Bicycle Federation tshirt in stunning brown w/light blue trim. Way cool.

Thanks sis!!!

On a side-note, I'm making it a goal to visit Chicago on a Critical Mass weekend, sometime before next winter. From what I've heard, Chicago Mass is totally off-the-hook ... hundreds of riders in winter, riders in the many hundreds or thousands in summer, really need to check it out!

He is obviously not an expert

2005-02-26T21:27:00.000-06:00

So just how desperate must the Bush administration be to resort to this stunt to push their social security privatization scheme?

"The battle over Social Security has been joined by an unusual lobbyist, a 9-year-old from Texas who has agreed to travel supporting President Bush's proposal."

(Apologies in advance if you need a New York Times online account to access this article ... I'm not sure whether you do or not.)

Feb Mass Ride

2005-02-26T09:45:00.000-06:00

I showed up 'round 5:20 or so, I think, and there were about 7 of us at that point, with Darkling Child being the only person I recognized. Wasn't looking super promising. But as I began to wonder just how big (or small) the mass would be, more riders started to trickle in (including Fritz, Gilby, Evil Chuck and Jennifer) until we had around 19 or so. Chuck showed up riding a red, white, and blue mtn bike I hadn't seen before, pulling a trailer containing the world's most laid-back puppy dog I've ever met. That dog has the bomb gig, to be sure - he get's the breeze in his face without so much as having to hang his head out the window - sweet. Although it's probably not totally without cost - probably gets a face full of slush once in a while, too!

I was hoping to meet Peter at the ride, as we've only met through the blogosphere so far, and he has a Stupor Bowl tshirt that he was going to send my way, but I didn't see him. Checking my email later, I discovered that he's still ailing and he's staying home instead of riding. Good idea.

Pace of the ride was a little more brisk than usual, and for a small Mass, we did a pretty good job of occupying all lanes in our direction, keeping left as necessary to keep autos from racing past. However, let the record show that I do not agree with the few massers who choose to occupy opposing lanes (riding against traffic) to prevent cars from crossing the center line and passing us when there is no opposing traffic. If one of goals of Mass is to promote the idea that bikes ARE traffic too, then we shouldn't prevent autos from crossing the center line and passing us when the opportunity presents itself. To not do so just makes us into huge pains-in-the-asses ... erm, I mean, even bigger pains-in-the-asses than we generally are. And apparently we generally are pretty big pains-in-the-asses, since one pedestrian gentleman on University informed us "If I had a shotgun I'd kill every last one of you sons-a-bitches." Interesting. And why a shotgun? Why not a 9mm or something? Must just be his weapon of choice, what he usually packs.

Anyway, I'm gettin' off the soapbox now. Of course, any masser can do whatever they want, but you won't see me riding in the opposing lane ever.

Afterwards, the remaining 6 or 7 of us swung by One-on-one, tried to hit Luce but the wait was too long, so ended up at Urban Wildlife for beers. Afterwards, the rest headed back to One-on-One, while Jennifer and I were starving and headed back to Uptown to grab some Thai foodies. All in all a good night.

Loppet Snow Madness

2005-02-22T21:50:00.000-06:00

Warning - catch up post. Feb 5th timeframe.

I know some readers are just dying for some new posts, and they're right - I haven't been throwing up many new posts of late. So for all those afflicted with blog-reading-OCD (you know who you are) here you go :-)

The Loppet xcountry ski race was to be held several weeks ago (same weekend as the Stupor Bowl race, actually.) The City had set up snow-making-machines in the little park on the west side of Lake Calhoun, and had been blowing snow all week. They were building up a snow stockpile to be used to build up the race course, which meant they needed veritable assloads of snow.

Problem was, a major heat wave was rolling through (OK, "major heat wave" is maybe a little overdramatic, but 50F in February qualifies.) So that Friday night, the night before the race, the City dispatched several large front-end loaders to push all the man-made snow into a giant pile. I don't know if they did this to prevent it from melting, or just to make it easier to load up the next day ... I'm not sure. But their reasons don't matter - what matters is that the City had created a nice artificial sledding hill that few people knew about (although CB mentioned that there was a news crew filming out there before I arrived.) I worked a little later than usual, until CB gave me call to clue me in. So I headed home, grabbed my 2 plastic sleds (duct-taped them together so I could carry them under my arm on my mtn bike) and rode over to CBs place. (By the way, sometimes I love my life - 31 yrs old, no kids, riding to a friends place on a Friday night to go sledding. Gotta love it. So yeah, my life rocks!)

The hill was better than expected, a big 2 story-high wedge-shaped hill with a nice slope on the front (perfect for sledding), and a steep dropoff on the back (perfect for pitching yourself off, on a sled, while hoping not to die.) CB was in self-preservation mode (not wanting to get injured before his trip down-under) so he didn't tackle the back dropoff - his loss.

The next day, they hauled the snow out onto the lake, and into the streets in preparations for the race ... which they then cancelled anyway. At least some of us got to enjoy it!

Cinderblock Stonehenge

2005-02-12T20:32:00.000-06:00

After being up at Lutsen snowboarding for the past few days, I was hardly prepared for the heat wave experienced in Minneapolis on Friday and Saturday. Temps hit at least 52 degrees on Saturday, so needless to say a long ride was the order of the day. After putting in a quick call to Brian, a plan formed, and sometime around 1pm, we were off and riding. Plan was to head west out through Wayzata, and keep heading west in search of a "cinderblock stonehenge" said to exist somewhere out past Watertown.

Lotsa roadies out today - great to see! And each and every one of them seemed just tickled to be out in the warm weather. Even ran into Darkling Child near the western terminus of Cedar Lake Road. There was a slight breeze out of the west, just enough to be noticeable. As seems to be my habit (especially early in the season) I came out of the blocks a little too fast today. By the time we were through Wayzata, I was realizing my error, wondering how the ride home would be, and looking forward to that slight breeze turning into a tailwind on the return leg.

Made it out to Watertown, and Brian knew that our target lie a handful of miles beyond Watertown, but didn't know exactly how many. In the end, it was a little farther than we thought, but we found it no problem:

Now the question is: Does anyone know what this is and why in God's name was it built? Regardless the answer, it makes for good photos. Are they keeping Santa up there as punishment???

BTW, I don't recommend walking through fields of mud in Look road cleats - they cake up with gunk pretty quickly, and it makes for a real mess. Keep the Looks on the road, if you can!

As luck would have it, the breeze shifted, so we got to ride against it on the return trip as well. Sucked bigtime. I hadn't been on the Powercranks since sometime in December, and my hip flexors were screaming. This wasn't helped by the fact that I did spin class Friday night, so my legs were already a bit shot. Listen to me - whine, whine, whine. I'll stop now. Made it home around 6pm or so. Round trip, 76 miles. Not too shabby for a winter ride!

Oh yes, I also offer this other example of cinderblock artistry as a companion piece to the photos above. It's tough to tell the scale from this photo, but if memory serves, this "cinderblock nude" is about 2 stories tall. She lives in the Gold Well Open Air Museum in Rhyolite, Nevada (which, by the way, is pretty much a ghost town.) Myself and several friends passed through the museum on the way to Las Vegas, at the end of the "Adventure '04" guys backpacking trip in the California Sierra Nevada range last July.

For the curious among you, additional photos from the Gold Well Open Air Museum can be found here.

Stupor Links - additions

2005-02-06T22:49:00.000-06:00

Ok, I'm compiling a list of various Stupor rider's race descriptions. For those who care, here ya go:

peterchurch photos!
uglybike text.
jeremysboringworld text.
jeremysboringworld photos!
red's photos!
losifer photos!
Cat 6 Racing Squad photos!

I'm sure there are more out there ... I'll add them as I come across them. Or if any readers come across more, feel free to send 'em, and I'll add 'em.

Also, anyone know if there's any way we could get our manifests back? I'd be happy to pick mine up, and even sort through the pile to find it if necessary.

Stuporific

2005-02-05T22:58:00.000-06:00

I'll preface this post by saying "I'm drunk." Or at least "I have a buzz on." This has been the case ever since about 3:30 when I had that shot w/beer chaser at Palmers in Cedar-Riverside midway through the race. Toss in several more beers at the after-party downtown, and the fact that I'm such a lightweight and well, you get the picture. And just for the record, a shot at Palmers isn't really a shot - it's more like 6 oz of liquor in a juice glass. Should have just ordered rail, since I just slammed it anyway.

So, the Stupor Bowl pretty much kicked ass. Rumor has it there were 170 riders (compare that with counts of 50-80 in past years - apparently the addition of The Onion as a sponsor helped goose participation up this year.) Nicollet Mall was abuzz with energy during pre-race registration, with bikes chained up everywhere and people riding, trackstanding, and generally milling about. Overheard a non-biker couple comment "Wow, lot's of kids out here ..." referring to all the bikey people, most of whom are of course adults. Another manifestation of the general attitude that once old enough to drive, most people consider bikes to be toys? The scene outside Grumpy's after the race was the same ... bikes everywhere, chained up, chained to each other, chained everywhere. So many beautiful bikes!

I was very pleased with my race performance, given the fact that I put in very little time plotting a route, and was on a mtn bike. I hit all but 4 of the 27 stops (stops missed were OneOnOne Bike Studio, Grumpy's Bar Northeast, Pizza Luce Downtown and Behind Bars Bicycle Shop.) Didn't ride the light rail out to the Minneapolis stops (could have, since there was a train pulling up while I was in Cedar-Riverside, but somehow I felt like that wouldn't be in the spirit of the whole affair, so I was compelled to pedal despite the fact that riding the train would have saved some time.)

I hit all of the furthest-out stops, including the Dubliner (on University in St Paul), Sunrise Inn (at 34th Ave and 46th St in SE Mpls) and the ice-fishing stop on Lake Calhoun. I feel really bad for the minnow that spent the last hour of the ride dying in my breast pocket, but I really needed the bonus points alloted for anyone who turned in bait from the Lake Calhoun checkpoint. They also offered bonus points for many other things, including downing a cup of coffee at Birchwood Cafe, but the coffee was so freaking hot that I had to toss a handfull of snow into it to cool it down, then I slammed it and took off :-)

Had a great time talking with the volunteers stamping manifests at the various stops as well. Super friendly and fun. So here's a shout out to all the volunteers - you rock!

So I think I did an OK job of representing the triathlete-turned-urban-rider crowd. In the end, I missed 2 stops in downtown, and 2 stops in Northeast. Not too shabby.

I can honestly say that it's been a long time since I've been mentally and physically "in the zone" for 3 solid hours. I mean, I was cruising hardcore and really pushing myself, and the 3 hours totally flew. And I don't think I've ever ridden as aggressively in traffic as I did today. Any car that threatened to turn in front of me without signaling, or to not let me into their lane got a verbal warning. Accidently clipped the passenger-side mirror of a moving car on Hennepin while threading my way between it and the parked cars on the side of the street. (Not proud of that one, but I don't think there was any damage?) Chided pedestrians who jaywalked in front of me without looking. And I loved every minute of it. I mean, I almost feel bad about just how much I loved it. For those 3 hours, I felt just slightly above the law. And (right or wrong) it was exhilirating as all hell.

Riding around town these past few months paid off, since I knew many of the stops (despite the fact that I'd never set foot in most of them) and I didn't need to consult any of the Mapquest maps I printed out (I did occasionally consult the map provided in the Onion, however.) Which also isn't to say I didn't make mistakes ... my connection between the Sportsman Pub (on Como) and the Dubliner (in St. Paul) left much to be desired as I hadn't planned it in advance, but I made it there without consulting my map. I ended up taking Kasota, which seemed far from direct. But it did the job.

My general plan was to hit the campus stops first, then out to the Dubliner for the big points, back through Cedar Riverside, SE Minneapolis, round to Uptown, while saving downtown and NE for last, since they'd be nearest to the finish anyway. This worked fine, except that I ran out of time while up in NE. I left NE with 15 minutes remaining, and had to fight the wind to make it to the finish at Grumpy's downtown before the 5PM cutoff. The wind was out of the NE earlier in the day - but apparently it switched direction? In the end, I made it with less than 1 minute remaining ... and my legs were total jello at that point. While waiting in line to turn in my manifest, I realized just how empty my stomach was. Downed 3 energy bars in line. Felt a little better.

That's about it. I'm beat but proud. My bike computer died many weeks ago, so I don't know how many miles I rode in those 3 hours, or what my pace was. But in the end, it doesn't matter. I feel really, really good.

Stupor Bowl prep

2005-02-05T13:10:00.000-06:00

Well, it's 2 hours 'til kickoff. Of the Stupor Bowl that is. I've never done a race like this, and I'm a little apprehensive. Just a little. I'm heading downtown in a few minutes to register, which is where I'll find out start and finish locations. The checkpoints were published earlier in the week, so I've spent just a little time looking at maps. Supposedly, the race is 3 hours to hit as many checkpoints as possible and make it to the finish, via any route (and disobeying any traffic laws) you choose. Checkpoints have different point values based on distance and I assume difficulty in getting there. Yea, a little apprehensive is right. I wish I knew the town a little better. Wind is from the Northeast ... I'll have to somehow factor that into my routes as well.

The good news is I spent the morning tuning up the bike and swapping out the knobbies and installing my slick tires. Took it out for a spin, and it's amazing how much faster I feel with the slicks. Of course, most of the other riders will be riding single speed or fixie road bikes, so I'm still at a disadvantage. Plus, 3 hours will be pushing the limits of my winter endurance. I have no illusions of winning, but I'd like to not finish in the back either.

So, wish me luck.

In other news, my neighborhood is a total clusterfuck right now - dumptrucks are hauling snow onto the streets to get set up for the Loopet cross-country ski race tomorrow. If you're smart, you may want to avoid the Hennepin/Lake area for a few days.

Feeling less sluglike now

2005-02-01T22:50:00.000-06:00

I feel much better now. Previously, I was feeling the way I feel when I haven't exercised for several weeks. Which is actually pretty strange, since I did get out for a roughly 26 mile ride with Darkling Child on Sunday, which was much needed and fun. But I had planned on going to spin class last night (got held up at work - goddamn Oracle database) and planned on running over lunch today (didn't - lazy?) So when I went to pottery class tonight, I packed my running clothes and told myself that I wasn't allowed to go home until I got a run under my belt. So I headed to the YWCA after class and spent 1/2 hour on the treadmill running an interval workout. I thought that treadmills maxed out at 6 minute/mile pace, but mine went faster. Not that I ran more than a 1/4 mile at a faster pace than that, mind you. But that fast last 1/4 mile allowed me to just complete 4 uphill miles in 30 minutes (including my warmup). Not too shabby for not having run for more than a week.

Pottery class is really cool, by the way. I think I've found an art form that meshes nicely with my technical nature. Unlike some other forms of artistry (like painting, drawing, etc) it's tactile, three dimensional, and includes elements of construction and design. I'm liking it a lot, working with my hands. Of course, so far I've just made (OK, I'm 3/4 of the way done with) a sort of crappy bowl using the coil method. But I tried to be methodical and focus on technique, rather than just trying to rush into a cool project. Other techniques like slab and draping seem even more interesting and cool, and I'll work on them next time, hopefully.

Babelogue Linkage

2005-01-29T23:59:00.000-06:00

Thanks to the Twin Cities Babelogue for featuring "The Impossible Thrill" in their Minnesota blog of the day spot.

So if you're looking for the futon, turned-guillotine, turned-bike rack entry, you can find it here (you'll need to scroll down to the entry titled "Nice Rack".)

By the way, any new postings will appear below this post until next week. So scroll down to read new postings, and feel free to check back frequently for updates on my random projects, winter biking exploits, and misc musings and rants.

Salvation from the street corner

2005-01-27T19:29:00.000-06:00

From a pamphlet recieved from a nice gentleman on the corner by the Walker Library. Usually I would bluntly turn down any literature tossed my way, but it was cold, and the guy seemed nice, so I just took it, said thank you, and kept walking.

Title: "This could be your last 5 Minutes alive!"

Inside, they describe what it would be like to go to the hospital, be declared dead, be sent to a funeral home, mourned, and buried. The message there - live every minute like it's your last. Not practical advice, really, but good food for thought. Fair enough.

Too bad they didn't stop there. On the next page, I'm confronted with the question "Where are you going when you die?" The options:

TO GO TO HELL...
Do nothing! You've already done enough!

TO GO TO HEAVEN ...
1) Believe you are a sinner. [Sweet, I'm thinking, I'm 25% of the way to salvation, baby! This is easy!]

2) Believe you deserve to go to hell. [Crap. Still at 25%. I'm a good person, I don't understand. What's going on here?]

3) Believe Jesus died to pay for your sins. [Fark. This isn't looking good.]

4) Trust Jesus as your savior. [Bloody hell! What does this one even mean?]

Now what. Surely this game is rigged. They give better odds on the Price Is Right. Don't I get a door prize or something? Thanks a lot, old man. Good thing I take NO ORGANIZED RELIGION seriously. And neither should you. I mean, believe whatever you want. I just recommend questioning everything and finding your own path.

Ecological Footprint Quiz

2005-01-26T15:19:00.000-06:00

Since my humble little blog is getting a little traffic from the Babelogue link, it's high time I post something useful. Something that might open a few people's eyes and get them thinking. Here goes.

Ever wondered how many Earths would be required if everyone on the planet lived your lifestyle?

This Ecological Footprint Quiz estimates how much productive land and water you need to support what you use and what you discard. After answering 15 easy questions you'll be able to compare your Ecological Footprint to what other people use and to what is available on this planet.

My results? Pretty shocking, actually. I live a pretty frugal lifestyle, don't eat much meat, ride public transit or bike almost everywhere, live in a small condo, minimize the amount of waste I generate, buy much less useless junk than the average person, and still, under best assumptions, this quiz says 4.4 Earths would be required to support a humanity living as I do.

Care to downsize your life, anyone?

Kudos/Demerits (non-inclusive)

2005-01-23T16:42:00.000-06:00

Kudos:

1) Path Plowers
Those responsible for clearing snow from the Midtown Greenway, as well as from all the paths around Lake Calhoun, Isles, etc. You guys rock!

Demerits:

1) Hot water abusers
People who take abnormally long showers in the morning, using up all the hot water at exactly the same time everyone else is getting up wanting to take a relaxing hot shower.

2) Non-shovelers
(a) People who don't shovel their sidewalks and/or (b) people with homes on street corners, who don't understand that it's their responsibility to shovel the sidewalk on both sides of their house, and that at the street corner proper, they're supposed to shovel all the way out to the curb on both sides.

and, saving the worst for last ...

3) Liars
People who post profiles on online dating sites, portraying themselves as single, only to disclose later (after you've wasted a ton of time getting to know them) that they're actually unhappily MARRIED.

Search engine hits #2

2005-01-21T19:58:00.000-06:00

Within the last 24 hrs, three people have stumbled upon my humble little blog while doing internet searches for the following ...

Search #1: impossible + sit + up
I wonder if this is the site they were actually looking for?

Search #2: faux + woodgrain + tools
Yikes. My mom gets into some crazy home "improvement" projects sometimes, and I could imagine her accidently stumbling onto my blog with a search like this!

Search #3: photos + golf + holes + impossible + funny
I'm not sure exactly what this person was looking for, but I bet this blog wasn't it.

Things you don't normally see in the city

2005-01-20T19:41:00.000-06:00

I saw something tonight (while waiting for the bus to take me home from work) that I never expected to see in Edina. An American Red Fox. I worked later than usual, so I had to walk to a different bus stop than I normally would. I was waiting there around 5 minutes when I saw an animal running across a driveway on the other side of 76th St, maybe 20 yards away. My first reaction was to assume it was just a cat. But it was too lanky, it's tail too long and bushy. A car caught it in it's headlights, and it was clear then what it was ... rusty coat, long bushy tail with the characteristic lighter tip. Pretty crazy - in all my years growing up in rural WI, I think I saw one, maybe two fox. An unexpected surprise in an otherwise uneventful day.

Nice Rack

2005-01-17T19:39:00.000-06:00

Another project where I could have just paid the $100-$120 bucks and purchased a solution. But why spend that money when you can use found materials, a little elbow grease, and about 8 hours of your own time, with the end result being something that is not only sturdier, but also has a higher level of satisfaction associated with it.

Thanks to Brian for talking me into using bolts to attach the support arms - the screws I planned to use never would have worked!

The starting point: a section of futon frame.

Broken down into piles of oak.

At this point, the project almost took off in a totally different direction.

The finished product - all racked up.

Todays winter lakes adventure

2005-01-16T23:45:00.000-06:00

I love the frozen lakes - there's something about them that brings people together. What I mean is, there usually aren't many people out on the lakes. So you have something in common with whoever else is out there ... namely, that you're all crazy people who enjoy being out on the ice. There are a handful of bikes tracks out there, so I'm not the only one. But I was the only biker I saw out there today. Did see a roadie out on Calhoun Parkway though.

Today, I rode the 1/2 mile over to Bryant Hardware, then decided to take the long way over to Whole Foods via Lakes Harriet and Calhoun. On Harriet, talked briefly with a few people ... one couple who was giving some cross-country ski pointers to a novice skier ... the couple didn't have skis themselves, so it was funny watching them try to demonstrate the right way to do it. Talked to another guy who was out on the ice rink with his daughter ... he bike commutes until the temps drop below freezing, then puts the bike away until spring. I told him about the Oil is for Sissies blog and how it inspired me to bike more this winter, and he sounded intrigued.

These photos are all from Lake Calhoun this afternoon.

Spotted three golf balls, in very close proximity. I suspect they were hit from shore, and whoever hit them was pretty consistent - in real life, they all would have been on the green.

Don't know who you two lovebirds are, but your message is immortalized here. And I'm really sorry I rode my bike through it.

This is the pressure ridge on the east side of the lake that CB and I tried to take photos of last week when my digital camera wouldn't cooperate. It doesn't show up well in this photo, since it's now blown in with snow, and I think some of the ice has sublimated. This ridge spontaneously appeared one afternoon - my theory: The lake froze over when we had the first REALLY REALLY cold spell back in December. Then, when the temps warmed up a week later (back into the ~30 degree range) the ice expanded and was thrust up since it was trapped between the shorelines and had nowhere else to go.

Injuries abound

2005-01-13T13:37:00.000-06:00

Looks like the injuries are piling up on the broomball team. I started it off last week by bruising a rib (or pulling a rib muscle, or something) last Friday. My rib kept me off the ice for Tuesday nights double header, but our team suffered even more devastating injuries that night ... our fearless leader dislocated (then relocated) his shoulder, another guy torqued a knee, and another guy bruised a rib (yep - another rib injury). At this rate, one of us will surely die by season's end. That's assuming we have enough players to finish the season.

So anyway, my rib hurt a little on Saturday, and probably wasn't helped much when I carried that futon frame 6 blocks from the old apartment. The antics Sunday night had me laughing WAY too hard, and I think that aggravated it too. By mid week I was starting to feel OK ... then I went to spinning class, and I could feel it getting aggravated again, but we were in the middle of a 45 minute hill, and damned if I wasn't going to stick it out for the whole class. So I wrapped my chest in an ace bandage at home afterwards, in hopes of cradling it a little, but I don't know that it helped. Today, it's bothering me quite a bit. I think I set myself back a few days by doing that spin class. Stupid stupid stupid.

Observant people at work would notice that something's wrong with me - rather than opening doors by hand, I'm using the handicapped button to open them, something I NEVER do. There are only a few people at my workplace with physical disabilities requiring them to use the button - but TONS of other able-bodied people use the buttons anyway - just out of laziness, best as I can tell. Just how lazy does a person have to get before opening a door - for yourself - becomes too immense a task?!? I mean, when does that button begin to look enticing? And just how incredibly lazy have we as a species become?!? Why don't more people scoff at those button?

So, I'm a bit of a hypocrite today, but I really want to minimize stress on this rib in any way possible. Also trying to minimize laughing, sneezing, or coughing. Ugh.

The bus rocks my world

2005-01-11T17:28:00.000-06:00

I'm a bit of an alternative transportation nut, as evidenced by many of my posts here - I own a little Honda, but I'd much rather walk, ride my bike (or kickbike for shorter trips around my neighborhood, < 2 miles or so), or ride the bus - I ride the bus to work almost every day, and various other places as well (downtown, campus, etc.)

Why do I love the bus, you ask???

1) It's super convenient - I literally have door-to-door service from home to work and back again.

2) It's much less stressful than driving - I often read or even catch some zzz's on the bus, and I'm usually pretty good at waking up before my stop (not always though - sometimes I sleep through my stop and wake up somewhere further down the line and end up either walking home or waiting for another bus running back in the opposite direction.)

3) When I'm on the bus, there's one less single passenger vehicle polluting and clogging up the roadways

4) you get to overhear (occasionally interesting) conversations. My favorites are cell phone conversations when the person is using codewords in hopes that others won't ascertain the real topic of their conversation. Like the guy who was bitching to a friend about his ex-girlfriend and the STD she gave him. Note to that guy: simply referring to an STD as "the gift" is NOT sufficient to keep people from knowing that your genitals are polluted. Get a clue, dude.

5) you get to see some pretty funny stuff. Story: Since the routes through south/southwest Minneapolis were restructured in December, the frequency of buses that could get me to work has decreased, and the remaining ones can be pretty packed. By the time the bus reaches my place, it's pretty full, and I often end up sitting up front near the driver. So one day, I'm sitting up front, and across from me sits a hispanic woman, with two seats open next to her on her right. The bus stops, and two middle aged, overweight women (OWW1 and OWW2) board. The less overweight of the two (OWW1) takes the open seat furthest from the hispanic woman, leaving about *half* an open seat between the two of them. OWW2 looks around for an open seat, then I hear her mutter, "I'll just squeeze in here" and starts moving to squeeze between OWW1 and the hispanic woman. In that split second, the hispanic woman realizes what's about to happen, and she bolts - I mean rockets - out of her seat to the back of the bus. You should have seen the look of fear on her face. FEAR. I had all I could do to stifle my laughter.

This, my friends, is why riding the bus rocks my world.