On the Plus Side

In an effort to try and focus on the good things, I'll list a few of the highlights from the week. On Wednesday, I got to ride with my teammate Zak for the first time in a while. After that, I went to Park Burger for a snack of fries and a kid-sized shake, a snack I highly recommend to anybody in need of a pick me up. For a whopping $4.05, you get just the right amount of everything you need. To make the evening better, I followed up my snack with sushi dinner. Thursday, I went to Meridian and rode well. Brenner and I rolled away and did a two man team time trial for 60 minutes. This morning's walk with Dempsey was a good one and the neighborhood is looking very nice with all of the flowers in full bloom. To top it all off, the week is over and I don't have to go to work again until Monday, unless I decide to celebrate the start of Atlantic Hurricane Season . . .

In Case I Disappear Mysteriously

Let this serve as public record and notice just in case I happen to disappear suddenly and inexplicably . . . "environmental" testing has been done at the office and the initial findings were not good. The inspector commented on general filth above the ceiling tiles before even getting into the nests of rags and mouse poo. Samples have been taking and we should know soon what we are dealing with, but it isn't good when symptoms got worse for those of us in the primary testing area. Additionally, co-workers in adjacent office space started registering similar complaints when activity encouraged the potential irritants in their direction. I will be very curious to see the full report after samples are tested. I will be very suspicious if those results are kept secret.

At least within an hour or so of getting home, my head starts to clear and I can get out and ride without any negative impact . . .

Everything That Glitters . . .

. . . isn't always bling? There is a trend even more alarming that economists need to be keeping an eye on. In these tough and trying times, rappers are starting to wear fake and/or bling according to the WSJ. Record sales are down, internet piracy is up, and nobody has the kind of cash (or credit) they had back in the good old days.

"People think these big pieces are blindin' but they be like D-quality diamonds, and when you try and sell them you learn they ain't worth a thing," says Slim Williams. "You can't be doing it like we did it no more."

Even more alarming is the news that the "grillz" market is crumbling with reported sales falling as much as 60% during the economic slowdown. In these desperate times, there are outlets that will help poor, starving artists out by buying their grillz. Tragic, simply tragic . . .

In other surprising news, there was a building permit in my neighbor's window yesterday afternoon. I'm not sure how a permit was obtained for a structure within the average front setback without any sort of notice for a variance, but I'll keep doing some digging. The neighbors further up the street relayed a story to me that the neighbor in question was telling people the structure was a sno-cone sales hut. Other neighbors have been told it is to be a "gate house" and that there will be mailboxes inside. Swell . . . as if there weren't enough downward pressure on housing prices, regardless what the Denver Assessor's office says.

Even Long Weekends Must End

I almost forgot that I had a job when I woke up this morning since I have been away from the comforts of the godforsaken hellhole of an office we moved to. Over the weekend, there was some activity at the office:


That is the three days later shot of the mold testing kit from Home Depot that we set up Friday afternoon. At least we are now being taken somewhat seriously in our complaints and a couple environmental services are being brought in for further testing and remediation planning. It makes me really glad that somebody though about the people who would be working in this environment when they decided to rush the move to the new facility. I do enjoy the stressed look that the owner gets on his face when I start loosely tossing around the word "lawsuit" . . .

I ended the week with a little testing at the ESP labs. My fitness is at a level where I am going to start lobbying the ACA to create a separate category for me. Mike suggested that I find an activity that suits me better, like gardening or electric motor repair. Results were pretty much as expected and I am looking forward to a big block of training prior to State TT in a couple weeks. The racing weekend was cut short by cancellations due to weather with the Sloppenberg course turning to much the consistency of peanut butter, extra chunky. We did get to race on Saturday at the Louisville Crit which is one of the more amusing courses as it is essentially a donut with maybe half a corner in it.

Chuck, Zac, and I lined up for another well attended local race with talent a plenty. It was nice having extra teammates in Scott and Randy. I got things started early with an attack approximately half a lap into the race. I spent a couple laps dangling, waiting to be caught by the field, but hoping that riders would come across in smaller numbers. The break sort of formed a few laps in, but didn't solidify for a few laps more. At some point, the gap to our group of five or so came down to about five seconds and a couple more riders jumped across including Tom Zirbel and Zac. I didn't suck it up and go harder like I should have when the break surged and I slipped out the back, joining the second group, but Zac did a good job of hanging in as the group proceeded to lap the field. Once the break had caught the field, the Natty Grocer squad got to the front to control the pace. At that point, I had a nice conversation with Mike at the back, but made the mistake of not moving up before NG got off the front and the swarming occurred. Chuck and Zac did their thing at the end and Zac got the win over a very impressive group in the break.

Since Sunday was an open day on the calendar thanks to the weather, a few of us got out for a longer ride in the hills. We headed up Squaw Pass only to be greeted by some nasty looking clouds towards the top. As the first few rain drops fell, I thought turning around would be a good idea. The weather back towards town wasn't much better, but we dodged the storms pretty well, only having to pause under a bridge on the Cherry Creek trail for a few minutes. About five minutes after I got home, the hail started coming down and then all hell broke loose. That was about the time we would have been mid race out on the Koppenberg course. Route map and profile below . . .


The program said 5 hours easy on Monday so I went out towards the hills early, hoping to avoid the weather. I hit Golden Gate and took it easy, just spinning in lighter gears which is a change of pace from the usual big ring efforts. My legs felt pretty crunchy from the days prior. I thought about turning back at the first summit, but talked myself into the next one. I paused for a Poptart at the "top" and somehow talked myself into going on to Peak to Peak. The smart thing to do would have been to turn around at that point since it would have left me with only the two smaller climbs to get back to Golden, but I took a left on Peak to Peak and headed to Blackhawk, rode up to the casino parkway, down to the I-70 path, up Floyd Hill, over whatever hill that is on US40, down Lookout, over Dinosaur Ridge and home. The clouds looked very threatening in town and I bet on the southern route home for staying dry-ish. I guessed right and didn't get rained on until about five minutes from home, but the roads were already wet. Route below . . .


Yeah, that was an "easy" day . . . much harder than planned but I think I will have some more weather induced recovery days this week than planned. I wanted to get some work done in the backyard, but with the rain, I really didn't feel like it so I did my best to hold down the couch with Dempsey. The weather didn't stop the neighbor from going to town on his project.


It is still firmly in the category of WTF?!? Now it has "windows" that are trimmed out, but not glazed. I'm assuming that if it is a shed, it will have some sort of frosted something or other so there is light inside, unless he is running electrical to it from the house. I did some more poking around the Denver Zoning Code and I believe there is a 20' setback requirement from the front of the property . . . nope, doesn't seem to have that. There is also an 8' height restriction for sheds. I wonder how far he will get before the City makes him take it down . . .

Animals!

Like I mentioned yesterday, I've been tagged. I figured I'd get the photo evidence before making use of whatever brand of graffiti remover I bought. I knew of Goof-Off, but honestly I was a bit afraid that it would take off everything, including the finish on the garage door. I'll put on the industrial rubber gloves this afternoon and see if I can get the door back to the "fresh from factory" look.


I was hoping for some cool graffiti when it happened eventually, but all these punk kids lack creativity with their tags. Good work, 303 Homiez . . . stay in school or something.

Last night was the last "effort" in the KHMTT series. The thunderstorms held off for the most part, but the wind conditions were as variable as ever. I gauged my effort pretty well, setting out in relatively calm conditions, but the wind picked up on the return trip making things a little tougher. I tried to keep reeling in the riders who were in front of me and tried to keep increasing my cadence while in the big gear. All was going well until I hit a pretty big bump by the bull-chute finish and my seatpost clamp failed, snapping in two, allowing my seat to drop about 4". Fortunately this happened only about 200m from the finish so I didn't have to spend a significant period of time out of the saddle. I lost a little time I am sure, but I did well enough to wrap up the series overall for a second year.

This year was a little bit frustrating, but only because I didn't meet my goal time. There were some blazing fast times out there, like Andrew Barker's 21:18, Nico Toutenhoofd's 21:16, and Greg Krause's 21:15. I wanted to beat my time from last year with an outside goal of riding sub-21 minute, but you can't always get what you want.

My bag of animal crackers advertises 13 types of animals in delicious cracker form, see if you can identify them all, I sure couldn't.


If things at work get any more unbearable, I might start making animal cracker movies as my form of protest. I'll take any title suggestions . . .

Shoddy Construction by Proximity?

I really should be taking Brian's advice on anything to do with the back room and construction prior to my time in the house. He recommended putting a note in the wall saying that I wasn't responsible for any of the framing and general halfassery. I now have to work with the halfassery when it comes to getting the remainder of the drywall on the walls and around the window. Just to bring everybody back up to speed, the windows are simply fixed sashes that slide into the wall . . . smoooooth. I opted to use a J-channel which will serve as stop for the window and it will provide a metal surface for the window to slide against as opposed to drywall.


I had to put in a piece of 1" material on the vertical leg of the window opening because, uh there was nothing to attach the J-channel to. With my framing work done, I was able to put the channel in place and hopefully with a little luck, the windows won't look like complete and total dog ass (sorry Dempsey and other dogs) when they are wrapped with drywall and the wood sill is attached.

Great news! They fixed the air conditioner on the office. Bad news . . . it broke again after providing 53 minutes of relief. It is back up to 78 degrees in the office. More good news! I bought some graffiti remover . . . but the bad news is that some punk kids finally got around to tagging my garage. At least it is on the door which is powder coated and should clean easily. Pictures to follow . . .

There Goes the N-hood

If I were actively using labels on this blog, I'm pretty sure the labels for this post would be WTF and AYFKM (not sure if this is as well known as WTF, but you can guess what it stands for. I was innocently cleaning off the bike on the front porch the other morning, as is my pre-race ritual, when the neighbor started setting posts in the front yard. Proximity to the front yard suggested some sort of arbor/pergola or entry thing at the gate . . . lovely, but the posts were too close together and they were all set to one side of the gate. After the concrete for the posts set, the framing began, at which point I exclaimed, "WTF?!?" Then he broke out the OSB sheeting and I asked rhetorically, "AYFKM?!?!"

There are a variety of theories as to what is being built, but I'll let you make the call. Here's the view from my yard, fortunately the neighbor didn't thin out the jungle of shrubs too much, but there's still time for him to make more of a mess.


From across the street, the uh, structure looks a little more imposing. I'm wondering if it is a sniper tower given the clerestory windows. The general construction is pretty shoddy, but hopefully that will all be a moot point . . .


The approach from the north is less than attractive. I can't wait to see what the neighbor is going to do to finish this off . . . before a City Inspector happens upon it and makes him take it all down since it is a non-conforming structure, built without a permit, too close to the right of way.


Every time I walk past, I can't help but think of the scene below from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Again, I say, "WTF?!?" . . . I am really not sure what made the neighbor think any of this was a good idea. Although this is the same guy who put what looked like a futon frame up in front of his gas meter at the front of the house. I later found out that it was some "custom" wood work . . . 2x4s nailed together in an "intricate" pattern.



With the amount of new construction going on in the neighborhood, I can only hope it won't be too long before Neighborhood Inspection Services comes across this gem and hopefully has it taken down. Until then, I will be saying, "WTF?!? . . . AYFKM?!?" on at least a daily basis.

Getting "Girled"

This weekend had a lot of tough racing. I forgot how difficult the Sunshine Canyon climb is, especially at 8:00 when the body is still trying to wake up. I actually went a minute faster this year than last, but placed significantly worse thanks to a deeper field this year. I attribute the improvement in time to racing with an 11-23 instead of having the bailout gears on an 11-26. The highlights of the race were teammate Zac Davies putting in a solid ride and finishing 15th, not too far off the pace, and teammate Chuck Coyle riding a wheelie the entire climb. I have picture proof to post . . . I swear. One of the more impressive rides of the day and I'm not ashamed to admit that I got "girled", was Mara Abbot's 47:31. We commented on the way down the hill on how far ahead she was of everybody else in her field.


In other racing, a bunch of boy horses got beat by a girl horse. I watched the coverage of the Preakness just because I happened to be lying motionless on the couch at that time. Amazing how much controversy there was surrounding the entry into this race by the new owner of Rachel Alexandra, Jess Jackson of Kendall Jackson wine fame. The "old" owner of the horse (up through the Kentucky Oaks) felt that horses should race with their own gender, gasp, the sexism! After some wheeling and dealing and $100,000 later, they bought the horse a spot in the race. Incidentally, sale price of the horse was reported to be in the $3-4 million range. I'd like to see the math behind all of that. I'm curious if that is a winning proposition for Mr. Jackson.

Back to bike racing on Sunday, we headed out to North Boulder Park for a crit that had a ridiculously stacked field. It is bad when they start doing call ups at a local race and you hear some of the names being called out. I'm comfortable calling it a who's who of North American cycling, but we had Baldwin, Zajicek, Wherry, Moninger, Frischkorn, Garcia, Coyle, and then all of the local guys who go fast. I lasted longer than I thought I would, but killed myself staying at the back too long and having to accelerate coming out of every corner towards the end of my "visit" with the race. Chuck and Zac both had a good race, finishing the day in 8th and 9th. My crit riding skills are still lacking but improving. There's always next weekend except Louisville doesn't really have a single corner.

Weekend Preview

Between kvetching and griping and moaning about the new office, I have still been riding bikes. Wednesday's TT was amusing with some of the worst wind of the series to date for 2009 out at Cherry Creek Reservoir. I tried my best to ignore it and just plow through. I did a good job of keeping my cadence up on the way out and into the wind, but allowed myself to load up in a few spots on the way back. Still it was a decent ride all in all and enough for 1st in the P/1/2 group, keeping me in 1st place overall in the series.

The racing this weekend will be something between hard and ridiculous. Below is the profile for Sunshine Canyon. I am not looking forward to the kicker just after the slight downhill at mile 4.5 as that is usually where I come unglued after chasing back on to the bunch.


Sunday's race is the North Boulder Park Crit, the short course. I much prefer the long course from the Estes Park Stage Race a few years back but I'll get out there and try to do as much for my teammates as possible. I think everybody who gets paid to race bikes is back in town and will probably be out this weekend so my prediction is pain.


This picture has nothing to do with anything really except that . . . well no nothing to do with anything, but it looks pretty. If you want to read the rest of the article, go here.

Day 3, I Might Crack

I think our office has fleas. I have some sort of bites on my ankles and people have started scratching at random. There are some theories floating around about general office health. One is that we are all feeling congested and headachey because the roof used to leak and the carpet and ceiling tiles are all mold infested. The replacing of the stained ceiling tiles exposed another lovely tidbit or lots of little ones. Piles of mouse poo came down with the old ceiling tiles because whatever they used to stop the drips from the roof was perfect nesting material for the mice. I think the mice brought in the fleas which are biting our ankles. I think the mouse poo (hmmm, maybe the roof didn't leak but the ceiling tiles are stained by mouse pee) will be the end of us all when we get the hanta virus and waste away, lungs filling with fluid.

We still don't have any climate control and it gets stuff when it is only 75 degrees outside. I shudder to think what will happen when summer hits for real. I'd like to take advantage of the liberal dress code, but I am going to have to start tucking my pants into my socks and rubber banding them so the fleas don't drain all of my blood. I am going to start taking "smoke breaks" and head out to the railroad tracks. I think trains come by frequently enough that I can end it that way. Hopefully Union Pacific will ship my remains home if half of my body travels a fair distance east or west down the track . . .

Thanks, "The Man" . . .

Day 2, stranded in the wasteland between Stapleton and Northfield . . . drinking water is scarce, there is a fountain, but the water taste like heavy metals and industrial solvents. My trashcan chair has been replaced with a real life office chair, but still no climate control or operable windows. I guess it is just another one of the benefits of working for "the man" . . . health care, dental, paid time off, and festering, hell hole of an office in a bombed out industrial area, surrounded by Superfund sites.


It isn't that bad, really . . . I think I will be able to maintain my sanity by riding my bike to work and stuff. It is an 11 mile commute, through some of the lovely neighborhoods of Denver (until I get to Smith Rd. and it gets less than scenic) and shouldn't take much more than 35 minutes. I suppose that isn't too bad compared to the 20 minute drive. There are also new territories to explore when it comes to the lunch hour distraction of eating food.

Last night, I made good use of the truck. I found out that 4'x8' sheets of drywall fit in the back of the pickup perfectly and that a 30-pack of PBR also fits perfectly.


I picked up an apprentice in young Jose Pinkerton and taught him everything I know about hanging drywall. After that 2 second speech, followed by 5 minutes of laughter, we got to work. The first beer went down smoothly because it was cold. The second beer took a little longer to drink because we kept picking up sheets of drywall for some reason. That's not the proper way to tackle a 30 pack of PBR if you ask me. As you can see in the pictures above and below, we got some drywall in place. Ultimately it will look good . . .


What you can't see is how much of a joke the windows are. The previous owner just placed a couple of fixed window sashes in the openings with some 1" material as a stop/guide. I am going to have to play junior framer to clean up the openings and provide the right amount of material to keep the windows from falling out, yet still allow for the full range of motion intended. My plan to try and keep further halfassery to a minimum is to do a drywall wrap on the two legs and head of each window, using a J-channel as the window guide so the drywall doesn't quickly fall apart. The sill will be wood and provide enough depth to take advantage of the western exposure and place young, growing plants there.

It will all be done eventually, but I found on this one, the best way to get started with the project was to just start. Anybody want to finish it and get started on the landscape? Anyone?

Halfassery

I'm excited to be in a new office space for work. The office was ready and waiting for us when we arrived in a condition that I would describe as "in shambles" or something less generous. Yesterday when I moved my computer over, I got tired of waiting for my desk to arrive, so I went back to the old office to look at the empty space. This morning I had a desk, so I got the computer set up and ready to go, but the chairs hadn't been moved yet.


Making the most of the situation, I spent half the day sitting on the trash can. The chairs arrived eventually along with some other good news. Turns out that the climate control isn't operational in my particular office. Good thing it is only 85 today and not in the 90s like the rest of the summer will be. Fortunately it isn't working in the company president's office either so there is a slight chance that they might take care of it.

Other than that, the new office is great. My commute is only 5x longer than before and the vintage 1970s feel/look makes every work day like a blast from the past. I think the mold is from a roof leak in 1983, but they are going to paint over those to make it all better. We have a fancy new VOIP phone system that allows me to monitor the office activity from the comforts of my desk. I know who is calling whom from their work phone and how long the call has been going on. If there is one thing that is going right, it is the cookie dough.


I have dough in the fridge, ready for the baking this evening. What you see is a batch of oatmeal craisin white chocolate. If the day doesn't improve by the time I get out of here, I am going to go home and eat all of the dough. It is delicious as cookie dough should be and with any luck, the raw cookie dough would give me enough of a salmonella kick to keep me out of work for the rest of the week.

Your Mama

Another lovely weekend in the books, too bad it had to come to an end. The parental units were in town this weekend for a visit and so we could celebrate Mother's Day. Deb kept the parents busy/entertained in her yard, taking care of some landscaping, an activity for which my dad has shown a high level of aptitude. It has gotten to the point where I could show him the pictures I have taken wandering around the neighborhood and he could identify most of the plants.

I want to plant some of this with the flowers and the leaves and stuff.


. . . and some of the stuff that looks like grass, but more . . .


Yeah, and some of the green stuff with the little purple flowers.


He did tell me what just about all of it was, but I forgot already . . . . any help? I'd like to continue wandering around the neighborhood with the camera, taking pictures of the things that I like and that might work well in the backyard come planting time. I did make some progress and some use of the truck on Friday, loading up and disposing of all of the things that are just in the way.


With a little assistance, I got much of the backyard cleared up. Now I just have to mow down all the weeds before they go to seed and move a bunch of dirt and figure out what I am doing. If anybody wants to make a detailed landscape plan that say "just plant this here" . . . the yard is yours!

Friday night, we headed out for some grub with the intention of trying a new place, but ended up at a different new place than intended. After finding Lala's Wine Bar and Pizzeria all sorts of packed and loud, we wandered down the street to Bones which was packed in its own right, but we were willing to grab a drink at Luca D'Italia and wait. It was well worth the wait. Everything we had was excellent from the shoshito peppers to the various noodle bowls. I'm a sucker for a simple dish executed well with flavors married and mixed to the point that you find yourself trying to get the last drops out of the bottom of the bowl.

Saturday was race day and the racing went very well for the team. Brian, Chuck, Zac and I covered or instigated many of the early moves and even found ourselves in some that had some potential, but with the wind not being much of a factor, it would have taken the perfect move to stick. Brian and I covered a late move that could have been dangerous and Chuck and Zac worked well to get Chuck across the line first. Always nice when you put in efforts and your teammates make it all worthwhile. Next weekend's races will be a bit more of a test with a nasty hill climb on Saturday and one of the toughest crits on Sunday.

We finished the weekend off in style, taking my mom out for a delightful Mother's Day brunch at Olivea before shuttling them back to the airport. It had been a while since I had seen the parents and they hadn't seen any of the goofy projects and silliness that constitutes my life so it was nice to show off the progress. My mom will be back in town again in the fall before I scoot off to Austria for Masters' Worlds . . . I'll have to see if I can get anything done between now and then.

Change of Plan

I had some lovely pictures from the neighborhood that I was going to wrap into an afternoon blog post. They can wait. Instead, I give you the quote of the day, thanks to Mr. Brian J. Hutchison III, Sr.

I wish his blog was something that we could burn down . . . that would also cause him pain while it was happening.

You sir, are my hero and I salute you.

We are racing tomorrow, down at the new Wheels of Thundaaaah course. Not sure what the legs are going to feel like. Yesterday they felt slow, but to quote Howlin' Wolf:

Some folk built like this, some folk built like that
But the way I'm built, you shouldn't call me fat
Because I'm built for comfort, I ain't built for speed

See you Monday . . .

From the Papers

Word on the street is that Lance Armstrong wants to get involved in bicycle racing in Colorado now that he has a home in Aspen. According to the article in the Aspen Daily News, Armstrong wants to bring bicycle racing back to Colorado . . . I am not sure what I have been doing the last few years . . . in reality, the Colorado racing scene, though strong, could use some help. There are some really good races that are put on and then there are some mediocre space fillers on the calendar.

I know it is a thankless job being a promoter, blah, blah, blah, but charging $35-40 for a race in the middle of nowhere, making courses shorter and shorter, cutting prize lists to the point where the bottom step of the podium isn't even getting their race registration covered is pretty weak. I suspect if budgets were revealed, we'd find out that the "cool" races are the least profitable. That's where the organization that supports all of this comes in since they should be serving an advocacy role, helping promoters secure permits and do some coalition building between stakeholders . . . or something like that . . . or they could ensure that everybody gets a medal.

I briefly alluded to the homicide in my neighborhood the other day, but for those of you not in the know, the clerk at the 7-Eleven on Pearl and Louisiana was shot and killed the other night/morning. Sounds like the suspect has been through the doors of the Colorado justice system and in this case, the door was simply revolving.

According to the Denver Post, Dr. Diamond, State Psychiatrist deemed the suspect both "so thoroughly mentally incompetent that he could not stand trial" and "well enough to send home from a halfway house, so he could live without state supervision". Talk about a dangerous and ultimately deadly non sequitur. In the words of my sister, that's about as smart as deeming someone too thoroughly stupid to stay in school, but giving them a diploma as a consolation prize. How about, you are the worst driver in the history of moving vehicles . . . go on, get out of here, just drive yourself home.

"Dr. Diamond assured the parties and the Court that Mr. Baylis 'no longer requires residence at the Princeton House but could proceed to community placement. In a community placement, Mr. Baylis should be of low risk to be of harm to himself, to others or to the community.' The emphasis in this sentence was provided by Dr. Diamond," Chambers said in the release.

This was from the DA's statement in a 2003 case in which said suspect stabbed his neighbor. Nice going Dr. Diamond, as a reward, you should have to fill the slain 7-Eleven clerk's position and all wages go to his family.

As Long As I Am Dreaming . . .

I always forget about the design websites floating around out there that give you an idea of what you can do with seemingly limitless amounts of money. One of my favorites, because it covers appliances, design, interiors, exteriors, and other, is Trendir. The home design pages have some properties that are ridiculous in so many ways, it is hard not to be envious. If you have some spare time to kill and a billions to spend, support the economy, go do some shopping.

Last night's edition of the KHMTT was an interesting one. The conditions were pretty good, minus the traffic in the park (bikes and cars) and the wind that randomly picked up for an hour or so. The perfect start time last night would have been around 7:05 because there was a tailwind to start and then it was dead still by about 7:15 (all times are approximate and I could have been hallucinating). My effort went pretty well, I tried to focus on maintaining a higher cadence in the areas where I have traditionally loaded up in the past and turning over the big gear for the rest of it. I turned a 21:28 (average speed of 29.77 mph) which is getting closer to where I want to be. I have two more weeks to shoot for my goal time of sub 21:00. Hopefully a couple more weekend races will help with that.

In other news, Dempsey doesn't smell anymore, film at eleven . . .

And That's That

I wasn't selected because I was pretty far down the list. Oh well, it
was only 2nd degree assault...

Time to Judge

I hope I can rap the gavel at least once.

That Was Fast

I'll be on my way to courtroom 16 shortly. If nothing else, I got two
free lightrail passes...

Missing Info

They covered everything from "general" to selection. What verdict do
we have to bring back to result in flaying or a stoning?

Informational Video

This video rules, I'm doing my civic duty. I'll be bringing down the
hammer of justice!

Doody

And now the waiting game... The jury assembly room is getting pretty
full. If I am lucky, they will let me go early. If I am unlucky,
I'll be on Grand Jury for the next 12 months...

Room 431

Yup, pretty much the same as last time ...

Live Blog from Jury Duty

I figured why not . . . I'll be sitting in a room of my "peers" for quite a while with little else to do . . .

Food on the Brain

I got out for this morning's walk/run with Dempsey and thought I'd stop by the future home of Park Burger to see if there was anything new going on. Oh it was on . . . sort of. There was a menu in the window and I found out the website is now live. I am pretty excited about this place opening and the menu justified that excitement. It is simple, clean, no-frills, and a good start for everything a neighborhood burger joint should be; burgers, fries, shakes, done.


The beverage list looks pretty solid, but pricing is wonky for sure. Why would you pay $3.50 for a Coors Light when you can get a PBR for $2.00 or a Corona for $4.00 when you could pay the same for the New Belgium beers or a Stella?


Why get excited over something as simple as this? Well, for one, it is on the quiet (but homicide free) end of Pearl St. It is also a venture with partners of/and Frank Bonanno and if it stays in keeping with their track record, it's got to be good.

Amazing how quickly time flies and how some businesses do well despite the timing. Pajama Baking Company has been open for a year now, providing the opportunity for me to walk past every morning with Dempsey to take in the smells of an active bakery. There always seems to be a decent amount of activity any time of day and the business suits my palate much better than the doll shop that was there prior. PBC is celebrating the occasion with free ice cream today, so if you are in the neighborhood, go grab a cone (choices limited to vanilla, strawberry or cookies and cream for the freebie). I considered getting ice cream for all three meals, but decided that might not be the best idea with cycling season in full swing.

There was a blurb in the Westword and then one in the Wash Park Profile pertaining to the space that Nosh used to occupy. This will be another jewel in the crown of the Gaia/PBC folk. The plan is for wood fired pizzas, salads, pastas, and other, with garden seating and delivery since the "cottage" doesn't have any room for tables. As long as they don't use the Proto's $2.2 million dollar a pizza plan, it should be a great addition to the list of regular spots. I'm not going to sugar coat, but Pasquini's has gone from spotty and best to hideously inconsistent over the last few years. Having an option for good pizza that doesn't require the use of my oven will be a welcome addition to the 'hood.

From the Weekend Files

I really had no plans of racing the Lookout Mountain Hill Climb on Saturday morning. It wasn't because I'm "not a climber" or that I was saving myself for the ITT/TTT the next day. It was because the weather was supposed to be cold and wet, not a good combination for an 8 AM start time. I woke up and it wasn't raining and it wasn't really all that cold, despite the fact that Lookout was completely socked in.

I raced, I cracked the top 20 which is qute an accomplishment when there are only 26 guys at the line to start. It wasn't my fastest trip up Lookout, but I also didn't really warm up at all and I didn't really have any expectations. I kept rolling at the top and did a loop with some of the guys from Horizon Dairy before calling it a day and heading to Lucille's for brunch with Pinkerton and Randy/Heather.


Matt and I got in some late Derby celebrations, redneck style, out in the garage, sitting on buckets and kicking the truck tires. I was amazed by the selection of beer sizes there are these days in canned, domestic beers. The smallest option was 6 oz, but there was also an 8 oz and then on up to the plus sizes. We solved a few mechanical problems on the truck but mostly sat around.

Given the weather, I decided to do a little more baking this weekend. The loaf of the day on Sunday was a cheddar bread. I still have a little tinkering to do with the recipe since I'd like a bit more cheddar flavor to come through. On the second loaves, I put some cheese on top before throwing them in the oven and that helped a little bit.

Sunday morning, the weather held out respectable for the Rabbit Mountain TT. I always have a hard time with my warmup on this one. My usual routine gets thrown off by the longer drive to get there so I warmed up on the roads of Hygiene, CO. I didn't feel like I got a great warm up in and didn't feel spectacular during the ITT, but it was good enough for a solid 2nd place behind Kevin. Chuck joined Brian and I for the TTT which pitted us again the Vitamin Cottage squad of four. I'll keep it short . . . we were smooth, we smoked them. Sure it was only four seconds, but they had one more guy.

The weather was clear for a little while once I got home which gave me a chance to finish up arts and crafts hour and do some planting. I finished the last two window boxes and repotted the geraniums. I hope I don't kill them too quickly.

They look pretty good for now and I think they dress up that side of the garage nicely. With any luck, they will fill out and provide some color for most of the summer before the end of their plant days.

I still have to paint the windo box itself, but I'm making progress slowly but surely. You can hardly tell the rest of the backyard is still a trainwreck.

It Slices . . . It Dices . . .

It does everything you could possibly want a kitchen appliance to do . . . and for only $1,400, the Thermomix TM31 can be yours! I stumbled across this one flipping through the pages of the WSJ this morning and had to read on. I'm not going to lie, I still don't understand the device. I think it does your taxes if you are an EU citizen, but it also qualifies for energy efficient tax credits in the US. I checked online, the owners' manual is 53 pages . . . for just the english version, not the multi-language booklet.

I also came across an article about culinary use of sea urchin and was dismayed to find out that the "roe" I have eaten has a nutty flavor for a reason. It isn't roe at all! The little critter fetches quite a price if you care to go find it. Apparently fishermen in Maine used to burn them by the 60-gallon drum full!

I'm putting the racing for tomorrow at doubtful at best. It looks like it will be cold and wet, especially at 8:00 in the morning on Lookout Mountain. I guess that gives me more time to make the perfect mint julep . . . run horses, run!