Two Roads Diverged in a Wood

I went for a repeat performance of yesterday's ride, but in the car this afternoon with the goal of looking at some trees, seeing what nature had to offer up for the season. This is somewhat of a picture dump with some captions, but you get the idea.

Sometimes you get a better view from a bike and sometimes you are moving by too quickly to catch the details.

With the colors of the season showing off his darker tones, Dempsey decided to pose for his high school yearbook picture.

It really was a cool time of day to get out and try to take some pictures. The afternoon light did some interesting things, highlighting certain shots in unexpected ways. I like the filtered effect of this shot.

Overall, the scenery was spectacular. You really can't go wrong in some areas of Colorado when it comes to taking pictures. There is always some element of visual interest be it color, texture, or simply the view.

Some of the pictures came out really well and I can't take any credit for that . . .

Some were just dumb luck, playing with the camera and tricking it into different types of exposure.

At the end of the day, you end up with . . . well, the end of the day.

With the last rays of sunshine visibly fading, I headed home, looking forward to another day . . .

. . . although the scenery probably won't be nearly as nice from a desk chair.

Change in Seasons

The season when political animals come out to play is upon us. They can be viewed in their native habitats taking part in the activities for which they are best known; slinging mud and feeding off the fears and hopes of the American public. Yes, I watched the debate on Friday. No, I was not terribly impressed by either candidate. McCain looks old, but guess what, he is. Obama is by far the better speaker of the two, but I want to be wowed damnit!

I golfed this weekend and nobody was injured or severely embarrassed in the process. Our foursome actually played pretty respectable, thanks to some great shots by Joe. I did sink a 25' putt for birdie that made my presence "acceptable" and almost useful. I used to think watching golf on TV made for the best napping, now I know a full morning (and part of the afternoon) out in the sun, whacking the golf ball around makes for an even better nap.

Sunday, Joey Brenner and I headed out for one of our usual death marches . . . a nice leisurely ride in the hills to check out the fall colors. We headed out from his house, rode over High Drive to Evergreen Parkway and Squaw Pass. As expected, the masses were out in full force checking out the scenery as well. I'd venture to guess there was close to the same dollar amount represented in photographic equipment as there was in bicycles on the road throughout the state on Sunday.

I caught some pictures with my limited equipment, a whopping 2-megapixel camera on the Blackberry. Unfortunately the best scenery was on the descent from Squaw into Idaho Springs, making it more of a chore to stop, get out the camera, snap a picture and then continue rolling down the hill. I took these pictures and carefully put them together in mosaic fashion, ooooooh, aaaaaaah, artsy.


Here's the ride route. You can see where we bailed on the greater loop including Golden Gate Canyon Road. The weather was threatening at that point and that route would have added a couple hours to the adventure.



We still got in over 94 miles, a lot of climbing, and shared some magical moments. Passing Echo Lake we both noticed how still the lake was, providing a perfect reflection of the mountains that served as the backdrop. While we could not stop to take a picture, we were able to hold hands . . . despite the laughter that ensued, no crashing occurred.

What's in Your Oven?

I hear that cinnamon is to people as catnip is to cats. Without fail, ever time I open the tin of cinnamon, I take a big whiff and there's nothing like a house filled with the smells of cinnamon rich baked goods. As planned, I fired up the oven last night and made a couple loaves of cinnamon raisin buttermilk bread.

Don't bother leaning in and trying to smell your monitor, it doesn't work. The loaves came out nicely with a golden top crust that was hit with an egg wash and sugar before going into the oven. If I change anything for future loaves, it will be raisin content. I think I had a few too many, making it difficult to slice the bread . . . except for the loaf that went straight into the freezer. Again, couldn't tell you why, but frozen slices of cinnamon raisin bread are outstanding!


Here's a closer look and no there aren't slices missing, it's perspective, foreshortening is the culprit, not me! What makes you think I'd be so bold as to take a still warm slice from the middle of the loaf that I was going to slice up and bring to work?


In economic news, another one bites the dust. Washington Mutual was the victim of their own idiocy and a good old fashioned bank run. Their demise was "triggered by a wave of deposit withdrawals" which kind of makes me laugh a little bit. If I weren't keeping all of my money under my mattress, it would be in jars buried in the backyard. I heard all of the banks are going to fail now because your hated political party of choice is delaying the bailout process. My real hope is that my mortgage documents will simply fall through the cracks in the transfer to JP Morgan Chase, but according to the FDIC, no such luck.

Progress Report: "Landscaping"

They have been plugging right along across the street from me on the duplex. I keep thinking that some landscaping would make it look better. I should have put in a more specific request. Trees might have been a good idea . . .


Take a closer look, it has a sort of deserted island feel to it although I do like the giant pavers set in the pea gravel.


I witnessed similar occurrences with the design-build firm I used to work for. The conversation went something like this:

-We need to make up some ground on the budget, what's left to be done?
-Landscaping is still up in the air.
-Call around and see what we can get for $3000.
-Per side right?
-No for the whole property, can't they just keep it simple? And oh yeah, that needs to include the privacy fence too.

Riiiiiiiiight. If you look closely at the bottom of the pictures, you can see a stump of something sticking up through the pea gravel in the tree "lawn". I'm pretty sure whatever it is won't grow or provide shade.

That Stings!

I was happily riding along yesterday afternoon, enjoying the weather on my way out to Golden and Lookout for the day's training when a bug flew in my mouth. This isn't the first time it has happened. I've swallowed plenty of gnats in my day, even a fly. Usually when the offending critter flies in, you just exhale hard, do a little spitting and problem solved. Yesterday's bug was unfortunately a bee. My exhaling and spitting wasn't fast enough apparently and on the way out the bee stung my bottom lip, front and center.

I have never seen any violent allergic reactions to stings myself in person, but I started having visions of trying to talk to somebody on the phone to come save me as my head swelled, lip first, to unfathomable sizes. I was only 10 minutes into my ride at the time and certainly in no mood to turn around given the weather and an acute desire to actually be out riding.

The sting went from a sharp pain to a sharp, throbbing pain as I blindly removed the stinger and continued my ride west. Nothing like throbbing pain that works in time with your heart rate when you are putting in an effort going uphill. Eventually I got used to the feeling and stopped biting my bottom lip every few minutes, wondering if it was swelling and abnormally large. Even with daylight fading, I was able to make it out to Lookout, up the frontage road, back down US40, to Rooney Road and back the way I came before it got too dark.

After cleaning up and staring at my lip some more in the mirror, I jumped on the townie bike and headed up to the Fillmore for the Westword Menu Affair. I am, on occasion, lucky enough to know people who know people and end up with free tickets to cool events. It was slightly dangerous showing up to a concert venue full of food samples and open bars right after a ride, but I like to live on the edge. Some of the food was pretty good, some was marginal, and some we walked right past without considering letting it sully our palates. One of my favorites was the mousse cup from D Bar Desserts. This restaurant is high up on the list of places to go and their sample only solidified their position on the list. Think sushi bar, but dessert . . . mmm dessert.

Fueled up for the ride home, I headed back out into the night. The ride home was another reminder of how much fun it can be riding around town in the dark. It is nice to just cruise, check out how different neighborhoods look in the still of the night as opposed to during the hustle and bustle of the day. I coasted down Capitol Hill and made it home, satisfied that I had made the most of one of the few remaining warm autumn evenings.

Fall Golf Classic Round 1

It was right about this same time last year when I decided I am really not so bad at golf. I got out for the first time since playing in last year's company tournament yesterday, just a few short days before this year's tourney. John, Pinkerton and I hit the Harvard Gulch Golf Course in all of it's first full day of fall splendor.

John is about to unleash his patented, double clubbed, windmill approach shot (not really) in this picture.


The three of us played pretty evenly, but John and I started to pull away from Pinkerton after a couple holes. My short game is exceptional except for putting, chipping, and a couple other things that kept me from shooting par every hole. I carried a lead of a few strokes into the final holes and almost choked royally, but pulled out the win in the first round of the Fall Golf Classic.

We decided to hit the links every Monday, from now until darkness takes over, since Monday is "active recovery" day for me and I don't have to ride anyways. It was a good time and a few laughs were had by all. Golfing was followed by happy hour at Bistro One which was blinding. Great place, but chose your seats carefully or you might find yourself staring into the sunset until you have no retina left. On the plus side they are one of the few joints in town that I have come across that has Hoegaarden on tap and at $3.50 for 1/2L . . . that's curiously like Budweiser pricing, coincidence?

So come Saturday when I hit the real sized golf course for the company tournament I will have had both golfing and imbibing practice. I will be well prepared and the company will be spared unnecessary embarrassment beyond the usual. As usual, the full report will follow.

Containers

Simple minds, simple pleasures . . . my food service storage containers in the 6 quart size showed up on Friday. It really doesn't take much to keep me happy when it all comes down to it. I wanted to get some containers that would be large enough to hold full batches of dough, allow room for rising, but not take up my entire refrigerator due to size/shape. I give you the Cambro "Camsquare" 6 qt., translucent container with lid:

Despite all good intentions, I ran out of time this weekend and didn't get around to mixing up a batch of the Buttermilk Bread. I took the five minutes it required last night so I should be able to bake a couple loaves of cinnamon raisin bread this week. I probably won't make mini loaves this batch, but something tells me that I will in the future, giving me less of an opportunity to shove larger quantities of tasty bread in my chow-hole. Here's the dough in its new home after rising for a couple hours and then settling some. It is in theory bake ready, but I'll wait a day or two to let it percolate.

Sometimes if you turn your back for a second, funny things happen at the office . . . forklift accidents, industrial spills, general dismemberment . . . my little sanctuary of an office was invaded last week and the M&M fairy left her calling card.

It is all fun and games until I weigh 400 lbs. and have no teeth . . .

A Plea for Longer Weekends

Yesterday afternoon, I heard a number of people say that weekends like this one need to be longer and I agree wholeheartedly. This was on of those great weekends from start to finish, Friday after work to the last hours I could squeeze out of Sunday.

Friday evening was my night of culture. I met Melisa at The Corner Office for pre-symphony cocktail hour. Walking to the concert hall which is just across the street, we were shocked at how many people were wearing cowboy boot and hats. With no obvious explanation, there was nothing to do but shrug a shoulder and get inside and find out seats. We were up in Ring 2 which is the nosebleed section of Boettcher Concert Hall, just to the right side of the stage with a good birds eye view of just about the entire place. Watching each musician provided plenty of entertainment and even from a distance, it was obvious that the conductor was very animated. He gave a long introduction to the Mahler piece, highlighting the perfect fourth that was repeated throughout the symphony. I gave it a rating of G in my special system for good. After the concert, we headed up to Duo in the Highlands for dessert before calling it an evening. One of the highlights of the experience was riding down the bike path on my townie bike, passing many a rider in my shirt and tie, tie flying over my shoulder. The ride home was even better because of the simple joys of riding at night.

Early Saturday morning, I got out on the bike to meet the ride that starts from our shop sponsor, Bicycle Pedal'r, down south. I met the group on the dam in Chatfield and then cruised up the canyon a ways before turning back to get home in time to take care of some last minute prep items for Deb's party. I baked some bread, made some pasta salad, did a little shopping as quickly as possible so I could meet the usual suspects downtown for the Oktoberfest celebration on Larimer, before heading back to Deb's house for the party. Having been to the Oktoberfest in Germany I can say that Larimer St. had all of the right components, minus the mayhem and masses of Japanese tourists. I got to Deb's house just in time for the first guests to arrive. The party was a successful one and the house is officially warm now.

I did my best to try and sleep in on Sunday morning and made it all the way to 7:30 before Dempsey started smacking me in the head with his paw. With a little help from the Pinkertons, I found the motivation to get out for a ride in the morning. We headed south at a leisurely pace, through Cherry Hills Village on the Highline Canal Trail, to Highlands Ranch, over Daniels Park, back around and through suburbia before getting home. Dempsey got a much needed bath before we headed up to the cross race in Golden to watch the action and practice ringing the ol' cowbell. I am ready for another weekend now, a little help anyone? Does anybody around here have any clout, any sway with the system?

The weekend Wall Street Journal had an article/book review titled
Man and Sillyman: How the model of American masculinity became a stoner with an Xbox. Interesting concepts on which I could spend pages and pages blogging, but feel free to chime in on your own. I am glad I got in some of that cultural crap this weekend to keep me clear of the above model.

The Fear of Golf

Our upcoming company tournament has instilled the fear of golf in me. I haven't swung a golf club since the tournament last year when I was fortunate to have not tarnished my family name and reputation.

To make matters worse, I found out I got kicked off of my team for this year and nobody even told me! Good news is I am on a different team now, an older, wiser team that values camaraderie, sportsmanship, and hard drinking. I've got the fitness to play a full 18 holes for sure, especially with the assistance of the golf cart. Not having to walk around will allow me to save all my strength for swinging the old sticks. If you remember anything from last year, those sticks are old and do not provide any of the advantages of technological advancements in club design and material selection since 1974.

It is always nice to have a company outing where we all get together away from the work place with our vendors, subcontractors, clients, and others to be social, pretend to not talk shop at all, and keep the flow of business steady for the coming years. My role in this will remain on the fairly anonymous level. I try to stay well hidden my office, sheltered by the hard working folks out in the field. It is nice having interaction with the client at the beginning of the job when the coffers are flush and construction realities haven't yet made a mess of the job site. Eh, whatever . . . tomorrow is the weekend, I can come back to it all on Monday!

In financial news, thank goodness, the market is back to almost exactly where it started Monday morning before disaster struck. This means we're in the clear right? The government doesn't have to do anything beyond drafting a plan of action right?

Allegory?

Regardless, it's all kinds of funny.

The World Economy

I had to chuckle while reading this article. Thank goodness our President is on the job! I want somebody else to confirm for me that it says he's really doing nothing besides canceling trips to areas that nobody would really want to travel to anyways.

Just how many teetering institutions can our government or other international governments prop up anyways? Where does the money come from (beside the obvious)? How do I shift all of my assets into gold and move into my financial crisis bunker . . . why didn't they cover the useful stuff in my college Econ classes?

I also enjoyed the announcement that AIG is going to be replaced by Kraft for the DJIA. That sounds like a good plan. They should just pick higher stocks to replace all of the lower ones and get the economy turned right around!

Culture

In an ongoing effort to keep myself in touch with the population of sophisticated, grownup types, I have decided to go on out and get myself some culture. I sometimes forget that there is another side to Denver, albeit oft overlooked, obscured by the miasma of chain restaurant, suburban banality. There is some culture in Denver damnit! It isn't just a town for sports fans. We have museums, theaters, concerts, lectures . . . some are good, some are bad, some are a comical mix of the two.

One of my jobs that fit squarely in the category of "other" was working for the Colorado Symphony Orchestra as the Guest Artist Liaison. Basically I picked up the guest artists at the airport, got them to their hotel, to practice sessions, and to the concerts, before depositing them back at the airport at the end of their stay. It meant that I had free access to any CSO concert, at anytime, which was a pretty nice benefit. I haven't really been back to the symphony since that season so I figured what the heck and signed up for a seven concert subscription with my friend Melisa. We'll be taking in the Masterworks Series which hits up some of the classic works and then some stuff I have never heard of. Bring on the culture! The subscription is one concert a month with the first coming up this Friday.

September 19 (Fri 7:30)
Jeffrey Kahane, music director
Jonathan Biss, piano
Beethoven - Overture to Fidelio
Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21
Mahler - Symphony No. 1, "Titan"

Keep an eye out for the full review after the weekend. I'm looking forward to having a good excuse to put on the fancy clothes since work doesn't really require it. I expect some really good people watching from our cheap seats up by the ceiling.

Never fear, I will dumb the weekend down a couple notches with a planned stop at Oktoberfest on Larimer Square for some more people watching, prior to Deb's housewarming party on Saturday. There is also talk of hitting the cross races on Sunday in Golden. Now if only I can make it to the weekend faster . . .

Break It Down

The time has come to get to prepping for construction in the backyard which means the ol', trusty storage shed had to go. Upon further inspection, my assumptions were confirmed. The shed, just like most of the other home improvements to my house prior to me owning it, was a giant, half-baked idea motivated, pile of garbage. Oh sorry, that wasn't upon further inspection, that was upon further destruction.


In all reality, the shed was a piece of junk. I thought I would be able to unbolt it and offer it up for sale on Craigslist with the hope that somebody would take it away, even if for free. No such luck . . . I couldn't even take it apart in such a way as to be able to dispose of it easily. When I took out the bolts for parts that looked like they should have disassembled I found they were tack welded together. Screws were painted/rusted in place and the hinges for the doors were welded to the frame which attached to the entire roof "member" preventing me from removing the doors without destroying them.


Looks like I'll be going to plan B which is call my hauling company of choice and have them come give me an estimate to make this pile and a couple others in the yard disappear. I'll take some more tools of destruction to the shed to try and break it down into some smaller parts. I wonder if the hollow metal frame shop at work would let me borrow a cutting torch . . . Just for reference, I left the couch in the position/state in which it started. It didn't move during the demo process, that's where the shed used to stand . . . sniff, sniff.

I am in the process of pulling together lumber quotes from Universal Forest Products, Inc. thanks to some help from one of my Tokyo Joes' Cycling team teammates, Duane. Part of the project is going to be replacing the siding on the back addition to the house. It will match the garage ultimately, but as you can see, whatever non-exterior grade material was previously installed isn't looking so hot these days.


I stepped off the footprint for the garage for fun. My backyard should be much more quaint, cozy, and manageable in the future and I'll still be able to have the landscape features I want. Hopefully it won't be too long before the wasteland is a distant memory.

Buying in Bulk

I was all prepared with bagel/bagel dog pictures for the weekend update, but . . . when I got back to the computer the pictures that I uploaded didn't get autosaved by Blogger. Oh well, I'll just have to put them back in again later. And I've been back . . .

It was a good weekend all in all. Friday night, I met up with Pinkerton, Kendall, and the Saras for some dining and entertainment. Entertainment in the form of watching all the goofballs at the Candlelight Tavern. Ahhh, college kids . . . In any case, the rain had finally cleared up and I was about to make use of the beater bike for the evening's adventures. Nice change of pace and amusingly Kendall passed me on Logan, but I still beat him door to door for the trip to Thai Basil.

Continuing my return to riding regularly, I got out and about with the Pinkertons on Saturday for a ride towards the hills. We headed out to Lookout the scenic way, through Rolling Hills Country Club and then to Golden. They weren't looking for crazy intensity, but I dragged them up the hill at a respectable pace, including my two 53x15 efforts for seven minutes a pop. We kept with the uphill theme to the turn off for Mt. Vernon before cutting through Genesee Park to head back toward Red Rocks, Morrison, Bear Creek Park and home. I met up with the Pinkertons again on Sunday for a much colder, cloudier ride through the flat lands. The sun finally came out yesterday afternoon after I was done riding.

Saturday afternoon I split a Costco membership and shopping trip with my sister. We can now buy all sorts of random stuff in bulk. I opted for the smaller 25 pound bags of flour for my future baking exploits for fear of not being able to use it all before it gets funky. It is pretty amusing wandering around looking at what's what, trying to figure out if you are saving anything by buying in large quantities. There are certainly some good deals, but some things you can get in completely normal amounts at the grocery store for less. Splitting up the larger items once we got back to Deb's house was pretty amusing, totally should have bought the box of 18,000 ziplock bags in the 1-gallon size.

I spent Sunday morning trying out my bagel baking technique. I used the recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day in tandem with the previously posted bagel dog concept. I opted to make an everything bagel with garlic, onion, poppy seed, sesame seed, italian seasoning, and kosher salt. There was something not quite right about the round bagels, but I think an adjustment to boiling time and oven temperature/humidity will take care of that. I ended up with a slightly bready bagel as opposed to the dense, chewy goal I had in mind. The bagel dogs turned out very well though, possibly because of the additional "moisture" in the dogs themselves. I had to sample a couple of the defective ones. The everything bagel went very well with spicy mustard and Hebrew National dog.

The setup . . .

Everybody in the pool.

How to become everything.

Eat me!


I will tinker some with the rest of the dough, get some more dogs wrapped, baked, and into the freezer to be enjoyed later. A bagel dog reheated on the grill at a cross race sounds like a pretty good option to me.

In the Rain

I had a sneaking suspicion yesterday on the way home from work that it was going to be a wet afternoon/evening. Halfway home on my 6 minute commute, it started spitting down rain so I abandoned all thoughts of riding outside and planned on taking Dempsey for a run instead. Dempsey isn't a very good running partner, he's kind of slow and he likes to sniff everything. After the run, it started raining for real and didn't seem to stop until mid-morning. Every time I woke up last night, which for some reason was every hour on the hour, it was raining. I guess we need the moisture, but I hope it clears up come ride time this weekend.

The garage project has taken a few steps forward and half a step back. Numbers are starting to trickle in, but unfortunately my intended framer for the job is leaving town at the end of the month and not coming back. I'll still be moving forward, but I doubt I can have everything ready for David to frame it before heading out. I started looking into the permit process for the job and I should be able to take care of that next week. Time to start taking pictures and tracking progress or something.

I haven't taken down the "pain index" yet despite not really caring where the Euro is compared to the dollar. I made the mistake of clicking on it out of curiosity and it is still a pain index of sorts I suppose . . .

In the Dark

Getting back out on the bike is great and all until you are reminded that it gets dark at about 7:15 now. I was on the way home from a lovely ride up Lookout and thought to myself, "Self, there are a lot of cars with their headlights on already." By the time I was cruising back along my regular route, it was already getting pretty much to the point of twilight. Soon the days of two hours rides after work will be all but a memory. I will look back upon them fondly as I slave away on the trainer in the basement.

I have added a new baking project to the list for this weekend. I remember, back in the day, the Temptee Bagel Bakery in Durham, NC used to have bagel dogs . . . what a great invention, whoever thought of it. Most of the commercial bagel dogs out there suffer from two things, design flaws (open ends of bagel material) and poor raw materials. With the opening of the Costco closer to my end of town, I plan on picking up a membership and using it to buy many things in quantities larger than humanly consumable. Among those things will be the stellar, kosher hot dogs they sell. This will also give me the opportunity to try my hand at home bagel baking, boiling included. I am looking forward to slicing open a freshly baked everything bagel dog, liberally applying some quality mustard, and going to grub town!

Also on the list of projects to get going this weekend is the garage. I have a couple sets of plans out to get some bids for labor and material. I will need to pull permits and get the back yard cleared out. This means taking apart the storage shed that looks to be mostly bolted together. Anybody want a storage shed? If you look hard enough, you can find a picture somewhere of the thing.

Catching Up

I am reminded not only by the piles of work on my desk, but also by the daily calls from people I have not called since my return, that I need to catch up on everything. It might surprise you that not everybody reads my blog with the regularity that you do.

I finally got the bike back together yesterday afternoon and got out for a ride. I noticed upon further inspection that the airlines did a nice job of dinging up the down tube on the Ibis. One of the marks looks like somebody whacked it pretty well, but it doesn't appear that the frame is in any way compromised. The first ten minutes of my ride felt pretty goofy, like I didn't know how to pedal in circles. The normal feeling came back in a hurry though and the body remembered what it is supposed to do. Now it is back to the regular riding routine . . . This month will be pretty laid back from a riding perspective and then I start building up towards next season.

That is if there is a next season . . . CERN's Large Hadron Collider got fired up this morning. Particles went really fast both clockwise and counterclockwise this morning. Smashy, smashy time is later this month which will reignite fears of micro black holes, stranglets, and the end of the universe. I quickly checked out the live feed listed in the Engadget article above and was disappointed by the dull, British narration. I was expecting a bunch of scientists in lab coats rocking out to Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden or at least something equally fitting. What would be on your playlist for a day at the office where you might end all existence?

Baking vs. Biking

Oh what a difference a vowel makes . . . but seriously, I do know where my bike is, I just have to put it together and get out on it. Yesterday was supposed to be a spin in the park kind of day, but since it was 55 and cloudy, I opted for a run with the dog instead. That gave me time to get to the grocery store to buy a much needed commodity called "food" . . . there wasn't much in my house. I also wanted to get some supplies to get back to baking.

Last night I made a batch of the peanut butter cookies from the Smitten Kitchen site, as all reviews spoke highly of them. They were pretty easy to make, nothing surprising in the recipe, but also nothing too terribly surprising in the result. I will hold out until I get together with Mike Bufton in the near future and get his recipes. Mike is/was North Star Bakery, my source for cookies and Sunday evening entertainment a couple years ago. Mike would bake at Cafe Europa in the evenings back when they weren't open after 4:00 and I'd stroll in to make a few pounds of dough in exchange for social time and a few cookies.

I also put together one last experimental batch of the no knead bread before moving on to other recipes in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. In anticipation of doing a lot of baking this winter, I pulled the trigger on some Red Star yeast online since it is slightly expensive at the grocery store.


It is just like the vacuum packets of yeast you buy at the store, made of foil and whatnot and like the 4 oz. jars you can get for $5.00 a pop, except that it is 8x the yeast for only 2x the price. As long as the oven doesn't melt, I should be set for the winter bread season.

Back to biking . . . I had a few more pictures from Tour of Germany on the camera as opposed to the phone. Here they are in no particular order:

Sure this looks like a dead end, but they come out through the building onto some cobbles and into a turn carrying some ridiculous speed.

Just another day at the office for the devil . . .

Doin' his thing, while not being a university professor.

Robbie McEwan soft pedaling the prologue.


It was kind of funny watching guys at the finish. They really had no idea where they were supposed to go and ended up just hanging out. Nobody was there to give them a towel or take their bike or anything. Some riders went back to one of the corners to hang out with friends and watch other riders come through. Tour of Germany or D-Tour as it's known is sort of a 2nd tier event with the Vuelta going on at the same time.

Well That's Weird

As suspected, by simply typing something about my baggage debacle, I doomed my bike bag to the netherworld of the baggage system. I picked it up in Charlotte and went through customs, but when I got to DIA, nothing! They said it happens in Charlotte all the time that bags won't transfer to United flights . . . swell. At least it happened at the right end of the trip. I didn't really need my bikes for anything this weekend. I surely wasn't planning on participating in the Summer's Eve road race being put on in the hinterland of Deer Trail.

By Sunday morning, I had my bikes and they seemed to be in the same general form as when I last had them. It was almost like having a porter to carry my bags around. I didn't have to load it into a car, I didn't have to lug it up to my door, I just opened the door and brought it in off the porch.

Might as well dump some pictures now . . . here's my trip in a quick slide show:

Lovely weather for leaving town.

Lake Geneva . . . in the distance is La Saleve, I rode up and over that one.

Emma hitting the town on her bicycle.

Out for a hike the easy way.

Good scenery.

Some view from a big rocky hill in Switzerland.

Oooooh, scenic . . .

The Alps are pretty spectacular.

There is now a convertible Smart, I thought it was small until . . .

I sas this guy tooling around.

St. Johann is pretty.

Even the view from the train station looks nice.

Bike lane traffic jam in Munich.

This model was from the Deutsches Museum, Dempsey could totally work the bellows.

BMW-Welt from the inside.

And outside with the Olympic tower in the background.

The Olympic tower in all of its glory. I didn't go to the top.

Wow, looks like a futuristic DIA . . . from the past.

The lake was well stocked.

From here on out, if you need me, I'll be chained to my desk at work trying to catch up.