So this is your blog . . .

Return to Normalcy or Something

2010-02-16T15:10:00.003-07:00

I am getting very, very close to the point of putting the shop in the hands of my capable employees. They know what's what and how to keep the place running which means I can get out and ride my bike, do things normal people do besides spend all their waking hours on a "project".

Sarah and I headed out for a ride this afternoon since I skipped out of Rise & Shine at about 12:30. Unfortunately a big chunk of glass ended our outdoor riding in a hurry. We patched up the tire to make it somewhat passable and limped back home to finish up on the trainer bikes. Very soon, I will be out and about on daily basis, searching for that fitness that has been sapped by working too much, sleeping too little, and missing out on rides of substance.

The shop is coming along quite nicely. If you don't already know about it, read up!

Night Terror

2009-12-30T20:26:00.003-07:00

It wasn't really night terror, but last night, I woke up in the middle of the night, a few hours after going to bed with thoughts of what wouldn't work at Rise & Shine. The list was relatively short, just the loose ends that I don't have complete answers to yet. Nothing major, nothing that will keep me from opening the doors on Friday, but enough to make me lose sleep.

The shop is really coming together nicely. I know what I am doing, I have put out some good food and coffee drinks, although I need to work on my cappuccino skills still.

Sarah and her mom were in the shop today helping put the final touches on the place. The window seat looks complete with a cushion and some throw pillows.

Deb is really good at picking out colors and fabrics.

The curtains at the back counter will do a really good job of keeping things dressed up and hiding overstock of cups and such.

There are a couple panels left to be hemmed and hung, but putting the fabric up on the walls behind the counter will make a world of difference.

I'd love to pretend that serious life changes don't happen until I am open for business Friday and then every day after that . . . every . . . single . . . day . . . but the changes happened the day I committed to opening the shop. Let the adventure continue!

In Your Spare Time

2009-12-17T23:00:00.004-07:00

I'd recommend not taking on this activity . . . switching a Rancilio MD50-AT to manual function. My shop grinder (purchased for a whopping $100 on Craigslist) had an automatic feature where there was a main power switch, a start button and micro switches that started the motor upon four pulls of the doser lever and shut off when the entire hopper was full, two pounds of beans later. It no longer functions that way. Now there is an on/off switch, end of story. Why would I do such a thing? It is a pain when you don't want a hopper full of grounds, which you really never do. It was also a pain when the motor would unexpectedly kick on, at 450 watts, it is a torquey bastard and pivots the entire grinder.

So how do you make the top wiring diagram look like the bottom one?

The answer is patiently follow wires around and start dissecting.

That's what the wiring looked like to start with. I had to pull the switches out of the grinder body and label everything so I'd know how to put it back to the original function if necessary.

This relay does stuff that I don't really understand, but I followed wires around and figured out what wasn't needed.

Half the wires in the grinder are no longer connected to anything. I wish there was something useful to do with them, but I am not that smart.

The jumbled mass of wire got stuffed back in and the bottom cover screwed back in place. The other rearranging I did was to put the on/off switch on the right hand side so you can use the same hand you use to pull the doser lever to switch the grinder on and off. It only made sense that you'd hold the portafilter in your left hand and not juggle it around. I think that counted as work, I shouldn't spend so much time working . . .

Sleep . . .

2009-12-17T08:08:00.003-07:00

. . . it is a beautiful thing. I went to bed last night at 8:35, pushing aside all work related things that could possibly be done to try and get caught up on good, old fashioned sleep. In all the running around to get things ready lately, I feel like I have been burning the candle at both ends. I slept in until 7:00, laugh as you might, soon, I will be back on the wake up at 5:00 AM program which is going to hurt for a while.

Preparations are coming along at Rise & Shine. I have some more kitchen utensils that were needed since everything there was pizza specific. I have signage on order and on the way so in the near future, passing by, people will be able to tell that the shop is there. Over the past week, I have played the roll of painter, junior trim carpenter, hack plumber, cash register programming specialist. I am really looking forward to the day when the majority of my activity is devoted to running the cafe/biscuit kitchen as opposed to everything involved in setting it up.

I have some much needed incentive to stay on top of training. Above is the Blue AC1SL, the team ride for next year. We have a whole bunch of new sponsors lined up for this coming year and some new additions to the team. I hope I can hold up my end of the "being fast" bargain!

Variable Conditions

2009-12-14T08:40:00.002-07:00

They got snow last night and one by one the lifts and trails are opening.

Snowing in the hills, but our fearless captain is keeping it full speed ahead.

Sent via BlackBerry by ~~AT&T~~ Seth Rubin

Where Does the Time Go?

2009-12-09T21:44:00.003-07:00

It seems like days go by between my blog postings. I haven't had such long periods of time away from the computer for a while. I have more distractions on the way since I will have other blog responsibilities in the near future. More to come on that.

Today, I made it down to Mike's house for testing to set what will hopefully be the low bar for the winter fitness. I was just about where I expected I'd be with the exception being my weight. For anybody looking to lose weight, I recommend starting your own company and taking on most of the tasks on your own. One of this week's activities, besides running down pricing, putting the finishing touches on the shop, and all of the other items to be taken care of, was to get the chalkboards ready for menus.

Why yes, that is my kitchen . . . The weather has been so cold that I really couldn't paint anywhere else, but inside the house proper. The garage was way too cold and the basement wasn't too much better. I opted for the brush/roll on chalkboard paint this time which made painting inside an option. The two boards will be mounted horizontally and somebody else is doing the writing since even my typing is barely legible.

Let's go back to the "how cold was it?" question . . . it was so cold that the supply and drain lines to my espresso machine inside the house (in the unheated back room) froze overnight. Fortunately I heard the pump struggling first thing this morning and took the heat gun to the tubing. It was -9 according to the internet this morning. I took Dempsey out for a walk and ended up running to stay warm. I'm over this whole winter thing.

Brrr

2009-12-06T08:47:00.002-07:00

With all the action over at Rise & Shine it has been a bit of a struggle to keep up with riding bikes and training. Add to that an arctic blast and a layer of snow and motivation is once again challenged. I am still in pretty decent shape, but I can tell when it comes to the intervals on the trainer that I am a level below where I have been in the past, even for this time of year. I am determined to try to find that motivation and get back to how the workouts should feel. Good thing I had the hardest indoor workout on the menu today. I got it going and just ignored as much of everything else possible, taking advantage of the steady action of Premier League Football. The workout is done and I will feel it for sure tomorrow.

Now that I have that part of the day out of the way, I'm going to head over to the shop and get in my barista workout and practice making some biscuits. Pictures to follow probably on the . . . ehem, cough, sputter, choke . . . Facebook page . . .

Licensed

2009-12-03T23:22:00.004-07:00

It is official, I have a legal "Retail Food Standup" establishment, licensed and everything. I'm surprised the license doesn't give me special powers given how many hoops there are to jump through. The question that struck me as I was leaving the Wally E. Webb Building was why the city cares if I have a lease agreement for getting the license. They don't check for it come renewal time, they just take my money. I was very, very tempted to take a picture of the people waiting for service and the counter devoid of any city staff. I am not sure where they go, but they don't seem to have any sense of urgency for getting the job done. They are all easily replaced by a little thing called the internet . . . hop to!

I spent some quality time at Rise & Shine with Craig and Jason from Pablo's getting some more Barista 101 and making sure my Fetco brewer actually worked. Good news it that it works and it is now calibrated to the brew profiles that they have found best suit their coffees. It was a very sad moment when I had to empty the 1.5 gallons of coffee into the sink since even I can't drink that much on my own.

The shop is really starting to come together nicely. I did a little more touch up work on the paint job. There will be spots that I find later on down the road that will never get fixed, but I'm doing my best to make it look perfect.

The comfy corner should be a popular spot for those choosing to enjoy their beverage in house. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback on the colors selected and the general layout. I am curious to see what it will look like with people passing through.

This space feels somewhat empty right now, but I have to keep reminding myself that once you put a person in the window seat and traffic by the espresso machine for drink pickup, it will be pretty full.

Speaking of espresso, here's the Rancilio in its new home. It got the seal of approval from Jason who verified that despite its lack of bells and whistles, it can hold its own. I have to do some grinder modification because the automatic function on the MD-50AT is a bit of a pain. I looked up the wiring diagrams and figured out what all can be bypassed to make it function like the manual version. I'd prefer to grind what I need and turn off the grinder as opposed to having it run until the doser's hopper is full and then turning on again every four pulls of the dosing lever.

I need to do some clean up and debadge the Fetco thermal pots. I will not be serving decaf drip coffee. If somebody wants it, I'll be perfectly happy to make a decaf espresso drink, but I'm not even going to make provision for that until later. It would require dedicating a grinder to the stuff. I get to play junior plumber and add a sink next to the hand wash sink since you can't wash things in a hand wash sink without making the health inspector really mad. There will also be a grinder next to the brewer to grind the 8 oz. of coffee required for a full batch.

I went to "shop" the competition a little bit to get an idea of what people are willing to pay. Pulling in $4.25 for a coffee and milk drink with some flavors seems crazy. My menu won't be anywhere near as extensive, I will just offer the normal and sane coffee drinks. If people demand fluff, I will cave, but the demands must be significant. I have some sort of standards . . .

You Win Some . . .

2009-11-30T21:14:00.002-07:00

Today was the first round of inspections for my "Retail Food Standup" license over at the shop. I passed the health inspection since there was very little to see other than an existing, licensed commercial kitchen. I failed the fire department inspection for small issues that will be remedied within the week so I should be able to reinspect on that one and get the public safety inspection before the end of the week. With any luck, I will have my license by the end of the week as well. That will take one of a million tasks off the list prior to opening. Amazing how many people have their hand out when it comes to getting a business started. The city gets their cut numerous times as does the state . . . when am I gonna get whats mine's!?

Thanksgiving is done and gone, but the leftovers are still aplenty. If you take a look at the tweet from Rise & Shine, you'll find the first go at the Thanksgiving leftover biscuit. It was good for the few seconds it lasted. Steve was kind enough to pass on a recipe for turkey soup which fit exactly what I was looking for with ingredient #1 being "1 picked over turkey carcass" and boy did I ever have one of those. The dumplings weren't exactly what I was expecting and if I were to make the soup again, I'd probably revert to the tried and true dumpling recipe I have used in the past. I would still add the parsley since it complemented the soup nicely.

I was able to extract the wishbone from the turkey carcass before putting bones to water for soup. What is the ruling on this wishbone pull, who wins?

I will use a few more of the leftovers for some turkey fried rice and the perennial favorite "stuffing and cranberries on a spoon" but after that, I'm really never eating again.

I got home from working today to find a couple escape artists had gotten free so I hauled the solid dog jail out of the basement. Ellie has been breaking through the soft sided crate that Dempsey chewed up long ago.

Pretty cute for a bunch of hooligans. Dempsey has to take a short break from his usual running and frolicking since he has a boo-boo on his foot from playing too vigorously this morning. He really, truly has a rough life.

No, Seriously . . . I Mean It!

2009-11-28T11:44:00.006-07:00

I have a great list of valid excuses for not keeping up with blog posting. I give you the first one . . .

I hit my head a little while back, leave me alone, my brain needs to heal. Not really, as you can see my helmet did its job and protected what little functioning brain I actually have. In all seriousness, I have been meaning to get a few more pictures up. Going back in time, I was in NZ and have photo evidence.

This was yet another look from the team car in the caravan. At this point in the race, Mike Olheiser was up the road with the rest of the leaders and on his way to taking the stage win on Stage 8. Mike has had a pretty spectacular season, what a great way to cap it off.

And of course, when you win stages, you have other duties like signing autographs. It was really cool to see how the Tour of Southland impacted the communities it passed through. Everybody was out on the road to watch the race go past. In most towns any school we passed had a gaggle of children out front, cheering the riders on.

I did make it to the beach in California while hanging out with Pinkerton. It was a slightly overcast day so there was no swimming in the ocean. Laguna Beach is a cool little beach town with all sorts of shops, restaurants, and whatnot with great people watching. It also has the steepest one block hill on the planet.

I tried to track down some topographic info for this one, but had no luck getting good numbers. I am going to go out on a limb and say this was at least 25% grade for the one block. Meanwhile, back at home . . .

Here's a shot that shows the painting at Rise and Shine in progress. The palate is distinctly different from what Basil Doc's was. I told Mike that there was no additional charge for selecting a very basil-like set of colors. We did all the paining, including the light fixtures that were forest green and hanging down a little far from the ceiling. Before:

After . . . well, one of the fixtures was in place for this shot. I picked up some 12" downrods as opposed to the 24" that were there originally and rattle-canned everything a nice aluminum tone. I don't have the best skills when it comes to spray painting things, but I got the job done and the lights are much less obtrusive now.

All of the time spent at the shop has cut into getting things done at home. I did get the panels back on the Astoria which will remain the "home" espresso machine for now. I am going to list it for sale in the hopes of picking up a single group machine that I could use as a backup for the shop. It might be more useful if I had a machine that I could actually pick up and bring to the shop if needed. Any takers?

The powder coating worked very nicely for both machines. The Rancilio Z11 can be seen at Rise and Shine, starting January 1, 2010. I am in the process of getting the final details taken care of, the little things like restaurant license inspections, sales tax licenses, and whatever else comes up. It will be nice to open for business and get to a point where my schedule becomes somewhat regular. It has been quite the adventure so far and thanks to Melissa at Studio Harris, there is now a look to this whole thing . . .

I spent part of the day wandering the Crestmoor and Hilltop neighborhoods by the shop. There are plenty of potential customers within walking distance, it will be my job to capture that potental otherwise Dempsey might have more meals like this:

With the 70 degree temperatures yesterday afternoon, he decided a snocone, minus cone, plus grass sounded like a good treat. The dog continues to amuse me with his antics. Hopefully he will put up with the new schedule which will mean walks at 5:00 AM. Hopefully I will too!

Slacking . . .

2009-11-18T06:03:00.002-07:00

. . . but not really, just on the blog front. I had a few days in NZ post race and made the most of my relaxing time which was a good thing since life seems to be non-stop now. Mike and I hung out on Monday after the race at Sue and John's house out in the country. Everybody we met through the race was great, it was a pleasure getting to know some people who put a good chunk of time, money and effort into bike racing. It is nice to have some people to stay in touch with in case they come here or I go back there.

After a long flight of trying to sleep and half watching movies, I landed in LA where I was met by Pinkerton, now a resident of the OC. I got in a few more days of relaxation with some work mixed in. I hadn't seen Pinkerton since he moved and it was good to catch up. I got the tour of the area which looks to be strip mall hell for miles, but there also looks to be some good riding. We hit the beach for part of a day and I have pictures, but have to find my camera/cord so I can get everything posted.

When I got home, it was straight to work at the shop, getting things ready for opening day. Deb, Sarah and I did some quality work last weekend getting started on painting. I have some good before and after shots to put up, but when it comes to picking paint colors, it is almost like Deb missed her calling . . . my sister is talented. We got very positive feedback from everybody who saw the work in progress. I still have to finish some touch up and paint the ceiling, but it is all coming together nicely. The space should be nice and cozy once it is furnished and decorated. It is very exciting and a little daunting to have complete control of a business. In the past, my work experience has involved a lot of looking at the clock, wondering why it is still only 9:05 and starting the countdown to quittin' time. Now there is plenty to be done and I find myself wishing there were more hours in the day. We'll see what I think a few weeks into actual operation, having some 5:30 AM - 2:00 PM and then some, 7 days a week under my belt.

I'll try and get back to the regular updates . . . so much to tell, so little time to use my words . . .

Stage 9 - Invercargill

2009-11-07T12:56:00.003-07:00

Everybody made it to the end of the race, safely and without major incident. The winds picked up the closer we got to Invercargill and the race shattered as soon as we turned into the crosswind. Mike made the front group as usual and stayed out of trouble towards the end. Some guys ahead of Mike on the GC missed the split so he moved up a few more places to finish 11th overall. Aside from the downside of not being able to race, it was cool to watch the team as the guys quickly adapted to the riding style and wind down here. We often had everybody in the mix in the front groups where the racing was going on as opposed to the back of the race where everybody was in survival mode.

There was a big awards ceremony at the rec center attached to the velodrome, all facilities paid for by the Invercargill Licensing Trust which essentially taxes all alcohol, restaurants, etc. and dumps money back into the community. My biggest question was how many drinks did it take to build the velodrome . . . anyone?

Stage 8 - Lumsden

2009-11-07T12:54:00.002-07:00

Slacking on the photo updates, but Mike won the stage after putting himself in the right place at the right time. He made it into an unlikely to succeed break containing mostly top 10 GC guys. Both he and Stefan were in the split and had to do their fair share of work to establish the gap and stay away. Great result for Mike and really icing on the cake for an incredible season.

Stage 7 - Te Anau

2009-11-06T12:00:00.002-07:00

Riders keep melting away in the climbs and crosswinds. All four of our guys stayed in the first chase group in the stage, finishing 20, 21, 22, 23 on the day. One of the race favorites blogged about not doing well because of lactic acid build up . . . well, that's what happens. He went backwards on the climb and fell down to forty-something overall.

Te Anau is a lovely little backpacker outpost. I took a run along the shore of the lake after the stage was done to stretch the legs out. I seem to be healing up quickly, but my shoulders are still really sore post crash.

Tomorrow is the last day of racing with two stages taking us back to Invercargill for the finish. More to follow . . .

Real Quick

2009-11-05T11:11:00.002-07:00

I put a few more pictures up on the album for the trip, check it out here. The last few look somewhat repetitive . . . seam them together if you want the 360 degree view from the top.

Stage 6 - Crown Range

2009-11-05T01:24:00.003-07:00

Today was some what more relaxed in the caravan with a distinct lack of crosswinds. The stage was generally uphill with a good number of rollers and little climbs on the way to the final climbs of the day. We tried to get a couple guys up the road, but nothing doing. There was a strong break up the road all day that stayed away to the finish, but the guys did a great job staying out of trouble and getting up the hill better than those whose strength is riding in the gutter, in the wind, on the flats.

A few quick pictures before bed . . . getting to the top.

The view from the top . . .

The weather took a turn for the worse as soon as we got close to Invercargill.

The good news is that Mike has moved himself up into 15th on GC after his 7th place finish today.

Stages 4/5

2009-11-03T22:08:00.002-07:00

Today was windy, no two ways about it. The first of the two stages started out in town and had the requisite sprints within the first 5k. As soon as the race got out of town, the wind started splitting the field. Over the course of the stage, things came back together a number of times. The view from the van was interesting at times, but at other times we were so far back in the caravan that we couldn't see much of what was going on. Most of the main field came back together to finish just off the back of a group of four, by 32 seconds. Post stage, it was time for quick recovery since there was about a two hour turn around time.

The second stage of the day had some hideous winds with crosswinds that really split the field quickly. A group of the main GC contenders got off the front in the first windy section and built a lead quickly. The second group on the road never made up much time on the leaders and really lost time in the last 20k when they stopped working. That enabled the third group (including Greg and celebrity rider, Floyd Landis) to catch back on. There was definitely a shake up in the GC, check it out online.

I have some pictures, but I'll wait until later to dump them . . .

Stage 3 - Gore

2009-11-02T20:54:00.003-07:00

Today was actually a perfect day for racing bikes. The sun was shining and the breeze wasn't anywhere near what it was yesterday. I got a shot of Kevin's wheels from yesterday and he was lucky to have escaped with the minimal scrapes he had.

But everybody got off to a good start from the velodrome this morning. There is a trust that taxes all liquor sales in Invercargill and the proceeds have to go back into the community which results in projects like the velodrome, the olympic sized pool, and some other great facilities that you would not expect in a small town at the bottom of the world.

There was another hectic spin through town with some early sprints that got things going. We only say one guy fly off the bike on his own without taking anybody else out. It seems silly to go that nuts when you have 165 km to race. The view from the van was somewhat limited but on occasion you could see more of the race than the van in front of you.

I did get the opportunity to take some other pictures of scenery and whatnot. You can check out the photo dump here. It really was pretty riding through the country side on the way to/past/back to Gore.

The hills really remind me of what we saw in Austria, minus the Alps in the background. There are some mountains we will head towards in a couple days that are more rugged than rolling. Obviously there are sheep all over the place, but there are a lot of cattle, horses, and other. The most impressive sight is the massive hedges that are planted along property lines and other spots for a wind break. There are the usual Lombardy Poplars that you see at home and there are evergreen trees that get cut so aggressively that they form a dense hedge that would block even the stiffest wind.

On the racing front, everybody got in on the action today. Mike went for the early move about 24 km in, but unfortunately nobody wanted to play. There was a break of four that stayed away for a good portion of the race, but in the last 20 km, they were brought back. Kevin and Stefan gave it a go in the last part of the race, but again, nobody really wanted to let things get away. In the end, a group of 5 did slip off the front with 4 of they staying away until the end. Mike moved up a spot overall (assuming they correct the results) into 20th.

A random parting shot . . . that was the turbo egg beater we made the final hop on, the one that didn't have enough room for all of the bikes that were supposed to come with us. Tomorrow is another double stage, reports to follow.

Stage 2 - Bluff Hill

2009-11-02T01:15:00.004-07:00

It was windy as a mofo this afternoon, even more so than this morning. We headed through town on a ceremonial, parade tour past all of the cheering school children. After a quick pause at the end of the neutral section, we got going full bore as guys went after the early sprint points. There was an early crash that I worked my way around and then a few kilometers where guys were trying to shake it loose in the crosswind. The first few efforts didn't really feel so good, but I stayed tucked away as best as possible, switching to the second echelon when necessary to get back in to the group.

Robert was doing his best imitation of onboard navigation, telling us how far out turns were and what to expect. A group of three got off the front fairly early on and were followed by a group of four. I got to the front of the race to stay out of trouble and decided to put in an effort to bridge to the group of four. I spent some time in no man's land before deciding that braving it in the wind alone so early on wasn't the best idea. We made it through one of the many, short crosswind sections and made the turn to a stretch with the wind at our back. I was sitting pretty much smack in the middle of the group when somebody up front stacked it up. Apparently he hit a bump on a bridge and lost control. Everybody else around locked it up, some guys blew tires, and lots of guys fell down in front of me. I thought I was going to be able to stop, but there were enough guys falling just in front of me that I hit the stack, went over the bars, hit pavement pretty much face first.

Given the circumstance, it could have been far worse. I knew as I hit that my nose was not going to be in good shape. I felt the snap and knew the blood was flowing. I was surprised that I hadn't scraped my face on the cheese grater, chip seal surface. I hit the ground and did my best turtle impression as guys and bikes piled on top of me. I got up, spit out some blood and radioed the team car. I got back to the car, switched to the spare bike and rode to the ambulance to see if the race doctor wanted to say anything.

The race was neutralized because of the sheer numbers of guys involved in the crash. Almost half the field was up the road, with half stuck at the crash scene. We rode back up to the rest of the race. The combination of my crash and the increasing wind speed (up to 85kph/52mph gusts) really didn't inspire any semblance of confidence. If you can't hold a wheel and ride in the gutter at sub race pace, you are going to have issues at speed. Under conditions with lesser winds, I probably would have been fine riding. I would have lost time for sure, but I would have been able to race another day. Unfortunately my race was done.

My teammates did well staying out of trouble for the most part. Mike and Stefan hit the climb with the main chase group, Greg got caught out in the wind on one of the more aggressive sections that split the remaining field. Kevin had bike issues after the crash and couldn't get into his biggest gears to keep up speed in the tailwind sections. Mike was our top finisher at 20th place, but with plenty of racing to go, everybody is still in it. Tomorrow is one of the long stages, I'll be in the team car helping out.

Stage 1 - TTT

2009-11-01T14:34:00.002-07:00

After a beautiful morning with sunshine and all, the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in just in time for the start of the team time trial. Not a bad effort for a bunch of guys who have never ridden together. We had a couple surges and mishaps. I made a mess of one of the corners and spit myself out the back and just pedaled in. After 15 teams, we are sitting in 7th place. The weather keeps changing and winds shifting so who know how the final results will shape up.

Cord

2009-10-31T18:09:00.003-06:00

I pulled the cord out of the bag to put some pictures to the words. Yes, it did snow in Denver, a lot.

It wasn't snowing in LA at all, shocker. Greg and I took advantage of our free time at the airport and stood in a sunny parking lot before heading to our terminal to wait some more.

We have some luxury accommodations in Invercargill and it turns out that one of the sponsors has a restaurant that is providing food on a daily basis. It really isn't too rough.

Everybody was on a bike today and we rode to Bluff to check out the hill at the end of stage two. The profile online really doesn't do the climb justice. I forgot that I had an 11-23 on the wheels I was riding which made the hill more of a crusher. I'm looking forward to doing it with the correct gearing instead. I will be losing time, I can guarantee that, but my teammates should be in good shape if we can get them to the bottom of the hill safely after the 2,000 intermediate sprints.

This morning was not very windy at all as we headed out of town and south towards the town of Bluff. Apparently the southernmost McDonalds in the world is in Bluff, we didn't go check it out though.

This is the view from the top of the hill in Bluff. We start at pretty much dead sea level and head up to a bunch of feet above sea level (I think it is approx. 970'). We rode back to Invercargill and did a quick lap of the TTT course before getting back to the hotel for lunch. I'll have a full report when we get to racing tomorrow.

Bike Location

2009-10-30T20:53:00.002-06:00

The latest word is that our bikes got put on a plane to Dunedin. From there they are being trucked to Invercargill. Unfortunately the airport is closing for the day and the truck is dropping them there. Apparently the owner of our motel knows truck drivers and is trying to intercept . . .

In the meantime, we are trying on the new clothing. There is one clothing manufacturer in New Zealand, Ultimo. It seems to fit decently and the kit looks pretty sharp. There are tour sponsored shorts that we are supposed to wear unless they don't fit and we get a medical exemption. I'll start taking pictures at some point, but for right now, I am too lazy to get the cord for the phone to download them.

Whoa

2009-10-30T20:34:00.002-06:00

News flash . . . it is Saturday in NZ. I'd wear my Halloween costume, but it is in my bike bag.

Another Country

2009-10-30T18:55:00.002-06:00

I added a new stamp to the passport and I'm pretty sure the toilets flush backwards, but I haven't checked.

Everybody is in Invercargill but we don't have bikes because a) Stefan's bike didn't make the connection from Austin to LAX b) the plane from Christchurch was too small to fit all the bikes that were supposed to come along. Supposedly they will show up later this afternoon. We have today and tomorrow to get adjusted and stuff. Tonight, we are going out with the kind folks from Jackson Plumbing for some welcome to town drinks.

With one internet connection between six of us, I'll be able to get on every once in a while for updates if I have the energy. Now where is that bike . . .

Step 2

2009-10-29T17:50:00.000-06:00

We actually made it out of Denver after an hour and change of sitting, de-icing, etc. LA is much warmer and sunnier. We are waiting on the rest of the teammates, but we aren't sure if Kevin made out or not. Once we get on the next flight, we are trapped for the next 13 hours. Thank goodness for exit row seating, hope for good in flight entertainment.

Step 1

2009-10-29T17:40:00.001-06:00

We made away from the house and to the airport with minimal hassle despite the snow. The bikes were checked and we got gouged by United as expected, but there will be some protest on that one since their code share partner Air New Zealand doesn't charge. The ticket agent told us we couldn't walk the bags to the TSA, but the sky cap walked us down and the bag inspectors were quite friendly and scanned the bags without opening them ... bonanza! That's half the battle I reckon we'll see what the bags look like after a full day of travel.

Stupid Snow

2009-10-29T07:34:00.001-06:00

The delays have started at DIA and the flight we were originally on just got canceled. Fortunately we moved to an earlier flight to give ourselves more options for getting out. Unfortunately we didn't go for the 8:00 option, giving us more outs.

Yup . . .

2009-10-28T23:34:00.002-06:00

I'm pretty sure I am all packed and ready to go on the New Zealand adventure. Hopefully changing to an earlier flight will help us avoid any issues getting to LA and connecting to our Air New Zealand itinerary. With any luck, my over stuffed bike case won't be destroyed in the process of getting most of the way around the world, but it is airline service we are talking about. For sure, the weather at the bottom of the world is better than it is in Denver right now. I'm off, I might be able to blog from the airport and maybe even from NZ. If not, just remember I will be watching toilets flush backwards. Think about it . . .

Shiny

2009-10-27T21:27:00.003-06:00

The coffee equipment is all starting to come together nicely. Nothing like a giant stack of pizza boxes to dwarf some sizable equipment. I can't wait to get back to town after racing and start getting things all set up, but having the ability to brew 22 1.5 gallon batches of coffee an hour is astounding.

I got the panels back from the powder coater yesterday as well and got a chance to finish cleaning the Rancilio before putting it all back together.

This picture really doesn't do any justice, but the red came out very nice and the machine looks sharp and ready for work. There are a couple parts and pieces I will need to track down eventually and it will be important to have a parts kit ready just in case once I am open for business.

I have gotten used to the electronic dosing controls on the machine and I have to say it makes it easier to dial in the grind when changing beans or adjusting for weather conditions (it has to be done, I swear). I am heading over to the shop tomorrow to meet with the roaster I selected for my coffee. They have plenty of experience setting up and operating coffee shops so I want to get their input on equipment placement before getting an electrician in to wire everything. That just about puts a wrap on the business side of things for now. I get to focus on racing for the next week and change, followed by some time on the beach doing nothing. Then it is back to work for real.

Delivered

2009-10-26T21:29:00.002-06:00

I got a call this morning from Midwest Motor Express at about 8:00 saying my freight would be delivered between 10:00 and 11:30 so I headed over to the location. I spent a little while taking more measurements and figuring out what fittings I would need for the water filtration system. When the clock turned 10:01, I heard a truck out front. I was shocked that the freight company hit the first part of the delivery window as opposed to the last five minutes.

The used coffee brewer seems to have arrived without damage. There are some signs of wear and tear from it's previous life, but nothing too terrible. There are plenty of ways to cover up some of the superficial stuff and brand the machine with the Rise & Shine logo when it is done. I put in a call to a graphic designer I worked with ages and careers ago to see if she would be interested in helping me out. Melissa at Studio Harris does great work and I have no problem giving her bits of guidance and thoughts before stepping back and letting her do her thing. I have a few other business related items I want to take care of before getting out of town, but for the next few days, I will be putting things on hold to focus on the next task at hand.

I stopped by Mike's house for a fitness test prior to heading to Tour of Southland. It will be interesting to see where my fitness is when I get done racing for six days in a row (followed by a few days sitting on the beach). I will likely be much more fit than any Novembers past. I am definitely ready to race now and I will likely be adjusting and racing into form over the first couple stages. Maybe I should start packing or something.

Estimated Schmestimated

2009-10-25T20:17:00.005-06:00

I was diligently watching the delivery schedule on my freight shipment coming from Milwaukee. The website said the estimated delivery was Friday, October 23 and I knew my window was 7:00 - 11:00, but what I did not know was that estimated delivery doesn't mean squat in the freight world unless you pay for a guarantee on it. My waiting on Friday morning was for naught, although Mike and I did manage to move things around the shop and create some more space/openness in the cafe.

Friday was also supposed to be the delivery date on the powder coated panels, but there was an issue with one of the trim pieces so they wanted to strip and re-coat it. I suppose that's better than delivering a crappy product. I can't wait to get it back and get some pictures taken. I will likely list the Astoria for sale to see if I get any nibbles.

The time to get ready to leave town has snuck up on me somewhat. I leave for New Zealand in less than a week now and I still have to pack and pull together some last items. I think I figured how to get all of the bike stuff into a case, including two wheelsets . . . we'll see if that works out tomorrow.

Yesterday, Deb and I had the low country boil party at her house. The totals for food were relatively astounding. We had 16 lbs of shrimp, 15 lbs of potato, 18 ears of corn, and 7 lbs of sausage. It would not have been a problem if we had a few more pounds of sausage or some more corn since those disappeared pretty damn quickly. The weather held out for the party and it wasn't too windy to make use of the fire pit out back at Deb's house. In the wake of the carnage, we were only left with a couple pounds of shrimp and a good quantity of beer and good beer at that. I made use of the leftover shrimp tonight, making a shrimp and grits concoction. The grits were pretty standard cheddar grits, but the shrimp had red onion, green chili, garlic, wilted spinach and a white wine sauce. When I stop riding after Tour of Southland, it will be trouble.

I forgot to wander around with the camera during the party, but here's the shrimp waiting for their bath.

Potatoes a' plenty . . .

Seven pounds of sausage, minus a couple pieces that Dempsey safety tested for me . . .

Corn season is pretty much over, but we managed to scrounge up a few good ears . . .

I made two kinds of cornbread, cheddar and cheddar/green chili. We had to do some safety testing on those too.

What's a party without rice krispie type cereal treats?

Today the snow was back so I was relegated to other activities like couch surfing and some gutter cleaning for Melisa. I hope it is warmer in NZ, but there is a good chance it won't be.

Still Busy

2009-10-21T17:24:00.003-06:00

I haven't slowed down much at all lately to have enough time to put together a good post. On Friday, I mastered interstate Craigslist commerce, taking it to a new level. I think I have a problem . . .

I knew I needed equipment for brewed coffee and kicked a variety of ideas back and forth, weighing the pros and cons, debating capacity and demand, glitz and frugality. There are a number of schools of thought on coffee brewing equipment. One school says Bunn makes fine airpot brewers, they aren't pretty, but they get the job done. One school says that Fetco is the way to go. Their brewers are more high tech, more adjustable, better to look at, and more expensive. The third school says, don't get Bloomfield unless you want your cafe to burn down in the middle of the night, even if the equipment is unplugged. I decided to go the Fetco route and got to shopping. My discovery of CraigLook and CrazedList was a bad, bad thing. Both allow you to search the entire craigslist network with ease.

I found a Fetco GR-2.2 grinder in North Chicago for a song and a dance. They retail for about $1600 new and are supposed to grind quickly and efficiently for coffee brewing with two separate hoppers with two dose settings each, small batch and full batch. My interstate transaction is being completed by Melisa who moved to Evanston a little while back. How convenient . . . otherwise, I'd have to come up with a way to do the money transfer/shipping that would work for both buyer and seller, not an easy task. In exchange for her services (which may net her a new hairstylist), I will be cleaning the gutters at her rental house in Denver.

I also tracked down a Fetco CBS-2052 which includes two Luxus LD-15 thermal dispensers, in Milwaukee, WI. Fortunately the seller was an office furniture dealership that no only takes credit card, but was also willing to ship to me, with me covering the freight charges obviously. I now have a freight account if I ever need it for business purposes of course.

This pallet is on a truck and on the way to Denver. It was another bargain and there is no way I would have been able to purchase the equipment new to get the business started. Give the price I paid, I anticipate there will be some work to clean the brewer, dispensers, and grinder before I can put them to use in the shop.

I have been meeting with my team of high powered consultants on a regular basis. On Tuesday, I met with friends with both design and restaurant experience over at the new space and got their input which was very helpful. I had no real concepts yet of how throughput would work and how the kitchen and coffee area would flow. I also had no idea of some of the requirements and process for getting food from raw state to cooked. One of the items that got added to the list was an ice maker to keep the in-counter refrigerator well extra cold and presentable and to keep "dangerous" foods like raw egg at the proper temperature until they hit the pan. Craigslist netted this one:

It isn't the fanciest or the best rated, but for $60 for an under counter unit that has never been used, as long as it works, I win. I found a great way to finance all of this without having to take out major loans. While visiting Joey at Stevinson Imports today, I was treated to a ride in a Bentley Flying Spur (or Sperm if you are Izzie). Question of the day is, how much change is there in the average Bentley's ash tray?

Joey's guess of $7 was pretty good based on his sideways glance from the driver seat, it was $7.06. Through all of this, I have still found time to get my rides in. I made the mistake of going out West on Sunday to check out the cross race.

The picture doesn't accurately capture the white caps on the pond along the Ralston Creek path. Our best guess at wind speed was approximately 43 MPH sustained. Riding west was bad, sailing east was easy.

Busy Day

2009-10-15T19:49:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was a lovely day to get out on the bike and let Kevin throttle me. We did the standard ride from his house out to Boulder and up Flagstaff, he doing his intervals, me doing mine. Despite the early hour of departure, it was surprisingly warm thanks to the 90 degree/90 MPH wind coming from the north. As usual, there is no question about Kevin's state of fitness and preparedness for Southland. I am looking forward to being teammates with him again for the six days of racing.

After leaving Kevin's, it was off to Boulder for a variety of errands and social visits. I kidnapped Brian from work for a little while and then dumped him on a street corner to find his way back. Brian was kine enough to fix one of my front wheels that blew a spoke a while back. Too bad I forgot to remind him to remind me about the bar tape I had for him in my bag. I'm never going up to Boulder again, so tough luck for Brian. I visited with the Coyle family and talked racing and such with Chuck. I picked up one of his sealant kits to take with me to NZ since I plan on riding tubies. Hopefully we don't get raided by WADA, I don't want to have to explain that I'm not shooting sealant into my veins, just my tires. I got the needle option on the kit since I have the crappy valve extenders that leave the valve core inaccessible which is a general pain in the arse. I also broke into the Davies flop pad to pick up his blown out wheels from a few months back so we can see if Shimano will warranty them. A nipple pulled through the carbon rim leading to the self destruction of the wheel.

I also paid a visit to the former site of Buzz Cafe in Louisville to pick up the remaining parts of the Rancilio Z11, portafilters, legs, drip trays, etc. They came with a bonus:

An Astoria Argenta AEP-2 in Winchester Gray . . . probably all scaled to hell and short a few parts, but it is a parts goldmine for the soon to be International Red Argenta AEP-2 I have at home.

If you put together a few parts costs, for example anything salvaged from the exchanger/group head pays for the cost of the machine which was $0.00.

The machine is pretty beat down, but if I were to get very bored, I could strip it, clean all the lines, boiler, valves, etc. and have a great set of spare parts. I could even go so far as to have the frame powder coated and switch parts from the working machine over. I have problems . . .

Scale

2009-10-14T20:41:00.003-06:00

Given that the new espresso machine was bought on the cheap, I expected to have to put a little work into it. I planned on flushing the boiler and taking a look see to find out why the hot water spout was putting out funk.

That might have had something to do with it. What you see in the shot above is scale build up within the boiler. Fortunately it wasn't large chunks which I have seen pictures of, so bad that it looked like somebody mixed cement in the boiler. I mixed up a big batch of citric acid solution at 2 Tbsp/L and let the pump draw the solution into the boiler. From that point, I ran water through every path possible and then get things up to temperature to help the citric acid do its thing.

That has to be some sort of tasty, mineral rich, koolade, but I didn't get a chance to taste any. The citric acid solution was clear when it went in the machine.

There was quite a bit of mineral sludge from the first drain of the boiler, post soak. It took about three more times, filling and flushing to get the water to the clear and free of any sign of citric acid. I did a quick back flush on both groups and will pull my morning shots on the new machine to test it out. I have a little more bench testing and trouble shooting to do, but as soon as the panels come back from the powder coater, it will be ready to go to the shop.

The Good and The Bad

2009-10-13T20:19:00.002-06:00

Sometimes Mike gives me workouts that seem cruel and unusual. This afternoon was one of those workouts that I was thankful to have somebody to ride with, otherwise I would have turned around and gone home before finishing the interval . . . the hour long interval . . . at a cadence of 40 RPM, going up High Grade Road in the big ring . . . 53x14 to be exact (until I cracked and dropped to the 17). I followed Greg up the hill, churning away, following the instructions which included riding out of the saddle the entire time. As soon as I hit the hour mark, I turned around and froze my butt off going back down the hill and had to call in the rescue. Fortunately Sarah was kind enough to pick me up so I cut my ride short at 2:24 instead of making it an even 3:00 to ride back home in the dark, that's a bad thing.

I wanted to get out earlier but had some business to take care of for the new venture. I met with a few local roasters to find out what they were all about and see whose coffee I might want to have in my shop. I was very impressed with Novo Coffee and everything they have been doing with their own business as well as the coffee shops and restaurants they support. I took a tour of their roasting facility with one of the owners and then headed to their retail outlet at the Denver Art Museum followed by a shop they work with in the Uptown neighborhood. It is very clear that they value personal relationships with those they work with from the farmers they buy beans from to the people they know in the local coffee community. I have some decisions to make given that there are so many choices in town for quality coffee suppliers, but that's a good thing.

Running Into Things

2009-10-12T22:26:00.003-06:00

Ever have one of those days where paths cross unexpectedly? I seem to have had a few of those occurrences which indicate the world is either getting too small or off chance encounters aren't all that off chance.

A few of us braved the cold Sunday to get in a nice four and a half hour ride down south. Given that there was a football game at 2:00, the roads were nice and quiet, especially a little further off the beaten path. We hit a few out and back stretches on dirt roads including Waterton Canyon where we came across these guys. It has been a while since I had seen the bighorn sheep and I've never been this close.

They didn't seem too bothered by us or they were distracted as they are just entering the rut season where males try to show dominance and establish their position in the hierarchy before mating begins. We waited and watched before moving on when the road was clear.

In the random encounters with people, I heard from a friend today that there was a long, lost friend spotting . . . in Japan. While innocently walking down the street, Jonathan heard, "Hey! Jonathan!" The greeter was none other than Peter Kurtz who we hung out with for most of high school and the first few years of college. I didn't check the calendar, but it must have been random, unofficial high school reunion day because I got an email from another friend who was passing through town with her boyfriend and staying at another classmate's house in Denver. We all met up for drinks and caught up on the last 17 years or so. It was fun finding out who was where and adding an old classmate to the group of Denver friends. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Signs of Trouble

2009-10-11T10:00:00.002-06:00

You might have a small caffeine problem when you have more equipment than many a small coffee shop in the back room of your house.

This is the new machine, at least a bad photo of it, purchased off of craigslist for $450. Given that they retailed for $7400 when new, I'd say I got a pretty good deal, especially since it does function.

On initial inspection and fire up, I'd say it is in better shape overall than the Astoria when I picked it up back at the first of the year. This being a semi-automatic machine, dosing is controlled electronically, meaning it has a ton of electronics and parts to break (brain box, flow meter, control panel, etc.). After a quick search online, I found the manual and figured out how to program the buttons. Good news is that it works . . .

The Astoria has none of this stuff and the only reason it is exposed on the Rancilio is because the side panels are going to the powdercoater this week. Any color suggestions will be taken into consideration.

I will be doing a thorough flush of the boiler and the lines. Right now the brew heads run clean, but the hot water line (the one on the right works, the one on the left does not) is a little cloudy and funky. Given that I bought the machine on the cheap, I expected there would be some work needed. Hopefully it remains the case that it is less than I expected. Gotta go drink more coffee now . . .

Double Days

2009-10-09T11:01:00.004-06:00

Today was one of my first "two-a-day" workouts in a while, but since I get to do that a couple times for Southland I need to get the body used to such efforts. My schedule was looking pretty chopped up for the afternoon and it was too cold to get out for an effective workout in the morning, so it was trainer time for me. Amazing how busy you can make yourself as an unemployed person when you start plotting and scheming.

I have been fulfilling my job search requirement for unemployment and have discovered that I am merely looking for a job/paycheck. None of the potential opportunities really got me excited and the though of working for somebody else, doing something I may or may not (98% probability of "not") enjoy/care about wasn't making me feel any better about it all. I have kicked around the idea of making a dramatic change of direction in my career path, but I have never been willing to take the risk or make the sacrifice to head another direction. This week, I got a good but unexpected nudge in the right direction. Having talked about a possible biscuit joint in the past, I wanted to get advice from people who have experience in the food service industry. I ran into Mike, the owner of Basil Docs, on my way west for a training ride and mentioned to him that I was looking to have him talk some sense into me and talk me out of such a venture. The conversation went the opposite direction in a hurry since Mike has space over in the Crestmoor location in which he has been considering a morning coffee operation for a while now. To make a very long story short, I am working on becoming said operation.

I started setting up meetings with some of the local coffee roasters/wholesalers to find out what support is available for independent shops as well as what my costs will look like for the beans and sundries side of the business. From the first meeting, I have a variety of samples to test and a million more questions to ask. Yesterday afternoon, I followed up on an ad in craigslist for an espresso machine since I really don't want to take down the home setup. I now have the highest espresso production capability per square foot in the neighborhood for sure. I bought the second grinder a while back with the intent of getting to to Steve, but now it will be going to the shop. I put new burrs in and will break it in over the next few weeks.

The Rancilio MD-50 grinder will match my brand new, used Rancilio Z11 Omicron, 2-group espresso machine very nicely. The stock photo looks like this:

The machine has some wear, but I plan on taking off the side panels and taking them to the powder coater prior to getting the shop open.

Given the stripped state of the Astoria at home, the Rancilio will be much better presentation wise for a business. You can see how the grinders compare, the Mazzer Super Jolly on the left and the Rancilio on the right. They are both beasts, the MD-50 can grind 20 lbs/hour.

So along with getting ready to race in NZ, I have added many elements of excitement to my life. I am happy with the notion of taking the career bull by the horns and having a great deal of control of my own destiny. There is always truth in the fact that work will always be . . . well, work. In this instance I look forward to the challenges, knowing that it is work that I will enjoy and feel satisfied with my investments of time and emotion. Plenty more to come . . .

October 8th Snowfall

2009-10-08T06:41:00.000-06:00

We didn't get a lot of the white stuff, but it was coming down at a slow rate throughout the morning and afternoon hours, making it cold, wet and ugly out. I had grand plans to get out on the bike, but also had no desire to get the chill that deep in the bones for the sake of "practice" alone. I ended up on the trainer for a wonderful, magical hour and fifteen minutes, revisiting the joy that is "Indoor Workout #3". Good thing I fueled up prior.

The freezer is pretty well stocked with breakfast burritos right now which isn't a bad thing at all. This batch came out really well and smothered with a little extra chili and cheese said burrito hit the spot.

I burned off some extra energy thanks to United Airlines, I have to remember to avoid booking flights on United in the future when I have to travel with my bicycle. They now charge $175 per leg as the excess baggage fee for a bicycle. That's skyway robbery! [note: a quick google search confirmed that I did not come up with an original term on that one.] Fortunately on the return trip, I will have time to UPS the bike back to Denver between trips to the beach and hanging out with Pinkerton in his new environment of SoCal.

Despite the current weather woes, training continues and I have a pretty big block of it leading up to my departure for Tour of Southland. With any luck, the weather will improve slightly for a long ride this weekend. Though I am intrigued by tomorrow's forecast for "ice pellets" I am not sure I want to spend 4.5 hours riding through it. Sunday, I am planning on riding with some of my teammates for the NZ trip, Greg Krause and Kevin Nicol. That which does not kill you, blah, blah, blah . . .

Fat Burning

2009-10-07T17:20:00.003-06:00

I had a three hour "fat burner" on the schedule today so I opted for some new scenery, talking a trip down the scenic and challenging Highline Canal. It was nice having the trail all to myself and the non-paved surface combined with the wind made it easy to get the heart rate up a bit. Good thing I was able to turn my brain off, I forgot how boring the fat burning pace can be since you really don't have to focus on putting effort in to it.

In order to fulfill my unemployment obligation, I have to make three job contacts a week. I clicked the "apply" button for a job with some company in Denver that manufactures and sells steel building ranging in size from utility shed to multi-million dollar, custom jobber. I didn't think they would actually get back to me, but I guess they need sales people. I went in for the interview for good practice and to see what the scoop was. It wasn't a hardcore sales job since it was working with their existing dealers, assisting in the sales process, but it was sales nonetheless. I am pretty sure I can count this as all three job contacts for the week though, the application (1), the call to set up the interview (2), and the interview itself (3) . . . not bad for a week's work. I should pace myself and make sure I don't get worn out too quickly.

I had fun this morning tormenting Brian while he was sitting at work and I was sitting at home . . . eating biscuits. What's better than a big, fluffy, buttery biscuit?

. . . uh, one with egg and cheese of course. What could be better than that?

Add some turkey bacon, some coffee, and a cinnamon roll made from the extra biscuit dough. Maybe this fat burning ride wasn't such a bad idea after all.

The Rest of It

2009-10-06T09:46:00.008-06:00

I have been up to plenty but have failed to keep track of it all. In the time since I got back from Europe, I have left town a couple times, once to NC to visit friends and family. I spent some time in the backyard getting ready to do something with it. Moving dirt around is amusing for a little while but hopefully I will get to the more exciting phase of putting stuff in the yard soon. I have done some baking, a lot of eating, and surprisingly a lot of riding. This is usually the time of year when I start riding for the fun of it, just trying to control the gradual loss of fitness heading into the winter. I went and rode with Chuck and Brian because I had time in the middle of the day to get to Boulder and Chuck asked what I was up to for the first part of November.

November 2nd - November 7th now looks like this:
I'll be headed to New Zealand with Kevin Nicol, Mike Olheiser, Greg Krause, and Stefan Rothe to ride for Bicycles of Ojai/Jackson Plumbing in the Tour of Southland. From the sounds of it, there will be wind, there will be rain, there might be sun, we'll have summer, we'll have winter and everything in between. I've never raced this late in the season, with the exception being that one cross race last year, but that doesn't really count. I have been getting out and training exactly like I was leading up to the trip to Austria. The competition will be pretty stout in NZ and it will be my first time racing in a full on stage race with a caravan, race radios, support staff, etc. On top of it all, I am officially "elite" now according to the UCI . . .

I mentioned bread before and now I hear the oven beeping. Here's a before and after photo study, before:

And after:

The loaf exploded from the middle out, probably because I did a lot of kneading to get the chili and cheese in there and didn't let the loaf rest enough after. The crust is nice and crisp and the inside is surprisingly light despite the chunks of chili pepper and cheese. It has a nice zip to it since I didn't bother taking the seeds out of the peppers, I just mixed it all in. I see a turkey sandwich on this bread in my future.

Over the past few weeks, I have seen and read things that were truly blog worthy, but have been too lazy to update anything. The cover of this morning's WSJ gave me the nudge I needed to get back to it. A picture is worth a thousand words, but with this one, you could make up as many things as you wanted to.

Our farmers would never protest in such a creative way, shooting milk at riot police, launching hay with tractors, jamming traffic circles with said tractors . . . good stuff. You can read the article here if you want, but at the very least, take a look at the picture gallery.

Welcome to October

2009-10-06T09:17:00.004-06:00

I came across this really great blog the other day, there were really well written, interesting posts with some great photos and stories. Then I realized it was my blog, my life and I hadn't updated it since September, what the hell?!?

So the end of the Steamboat trip in photos is as follows:

This was the view from the saddle when we went to the ranch for a horsey ride.

The hike up in the hills wherever it was in the land of the scenic and the falling leaves.

Dempsey is really good at jumping over stuff, but he's very hard to catch in the act.

Grommit went foraging for food somewhere after mile seven of the hike. Little dogs can move, but it takes a lot of energy.

We were a hair early for the leaves to be in their full glory but we were able to catch some colors as well as the first snowflakes. After the hike we headed back to the house to get ready for dusk at the hotsprings.

Strawberry Hot Springs are tucked away on the hillside outside of town and it is a pretty cool set up. The spring is up the hill and "natural" pools were built into the creek and depending on how far downstream you go, the water is either hot or not so hot. After a few hours of soaking we were nice and pruney and it was time to head back to town. We went for a mountain bike ride on Friday before heading back to Denver. Howelson Hill on the other side of Highway 40 has some pretty incredible singletrack. It had been forever since I had been on a mountain bike with the exception being a single cross race last year.

This was one of the more technical sections with lots of rock and junk to ride over. For the most part it was smooth singletrack with the occasional root or stump.

We hit the playgound at the end of the ride . . . shenanigans!

I did mountain bike though, I swear! Once back in Denver, on temporary permanent vacation, the fun and games continued. Sarah and I bought a bushel of roasted Hatch chilies for kicks. We were motivated by the fact that they were there and we had made a batch of chicken green chili once using peppers from Whole Foods. At $20 a bushel, this batch was much cheaper and I still have six pounds of peppers stashed away in the freezer. The chili was followed up by chili-cheddar cornbread, chili stuffed burgers, egg/cheese/potato/turkey bacon/chili breakfast burritos . . . and I have a loaf of chili-cheddar bread going into the oven in moments. So yeah, welcome to October and the blur that is unemployed life.

Riding

2009-09-22T17:26:00.002-06:00

Of all the times not to have the camera handy . . . We are in Steamboat now, enjoying some early wintery weather. Coming over Rabbit Ears Pass, there was a nice 1/2" layer of slush on the road with the threat of more snow in the forecast. Fortunately it sounds like Denver is supposed to be hit harder than Steamboat, but anyways.

We headed up to Saddleback Ranch this morning to go for a ride over some hills, through some woods, down some hills, hunting all the while for some elk who may or may not be bugling at the time. We only saw one, but had a good time checking out the scenery and getting a feel for our horses Johnny and Chelsea. They were about as tame as couches, but sitting on a thousand pounds of animal always makes me wonder. I got a few pictures through Johnny's ears of Sarah riding, but I will have to wait until I have the cord handy to upload them. Not having had enough, we came back to our rental place to get in a mountain bike ride before the weather gets worse. I haven't ridden a mountain bike for a few years now, with the lone exception being the cross race last year. We forgot the camera which is too bad because the scenery was pretty cool even just riding on the ski hill. We were treated to some snow near the top of the hill. It was cool to ride through, especially since it was warm enough that I had to shed my arm warmers.

Vacationing is tough, I am not sure what to do this afternoon. Do we enjoy and extended cocktail hour, looking out the window at the clouds rolling in or do we head over to the hot springs for a dip as the sun sets and the snow falls? Decisions, decisions . . .

Going Home

2009-09-22T17:16:00.002-06:00

Traveling with Deb has some serious advantages. On our whirlwind trip home for Rosh Hashanah, she was able to swing first class tickets on Delta using her 2.2 billion frequent flier miles . . . much better than cattle car for sure. Unfortunately our flight from Denver was at 6:15 which meant leaving my house at 4:15 to pick her up and get to the airport.

We had a very delicious but nontraditional dinner on the first night of the holiday, opting for fried chicken and mashed potatoes since Catherine was around and willing to fry up some chicken for us. It has been years since I've had Catherine's fried chicken which used to be a fairly regular staple growing up. Catherine has been in our family longer than I have and it was nice to see her after so many years. Nothing too much has changed on the home front except for the scenery in Chapel Hill. The independent paper had an article about the current state of Franklin Street, lamenting the changes over the years. I am surprised it has taken so long for them to make mention of it since what was once the local, hip, unique hub of downtown Chapel Hill has become a relatively bland dump, muddied by chain banality. There are various institutions whose disappearance will mark my point of no returning to Chapel Hill.

I was able to catch up with a few friends before ditching town Sunday morning. It was nice to catch up with Jonathan and Sally who I hadn't seen in a year or so. Jonathan is trying to talk me into joining the boat trip to the BVIs, but I'm hoping to be going to New Zealand in November for Tour of Southland instead. As soon as I got home, it was time to pack again, this time to head up to Steamboat Springs for a vacation from my oh so hard, unemployed lifestyle.

Catching Up

2009-09-06T09:19:00.002-06:00

I typed this one up on the train on the way back to Germany, but never got around to posting:

So that's the season. Today's race unfolded a bit differently than expected, the break went on the first lap and with 26 Italians in the field and a couple of them up the road, there was not a whole lot of activity in the group when it came to bringing the break back. Mike made an effort to get across, but got chased. As the pace surged and slowed heading towards Schwendt the second time, I attacked and got
clear with a couple guys and Mike bridged up at the top of the hill. Unfortunately we had an Italian in the group who stopped working pretty quickly so I let a gap open and Mike rolled up the road. The Italian and I were caught after a little bit and a few more guys bridged to Mike. At that point I sat on thinking there were only two groups up the road, the group that went clear on the first lap and
Mike's group. Evidently not per the results. On the last lap I did little to nothing, letting everybody else cover the attacks. Going into the closing 10km, I stayed patient and waited until there was a lull just before the 2km to go sign. I jumped from the back of the group and made it up the right side before the opening disappeared and didn't look back. Great move, I finally raced decently from my group, unfortunately, there were a total of 27 riders already across the line. Mike's group made it within 30 seconds of the leaders before the Italians stopped working, much like my experience last year. I stuck around for results but headed out when I found out I was well outside the prizes. I am scribbling this standing in the vestibule of the train heading to Munich. As usual it is full and there is no
where for the bike box except for close to the door. I thought about heading to Garmisch tomorrow, but I am not sure I am up for the travel, just to see another pretty mountain town. I am pretty tired at this point, nothing like the let down feeling you get at the end of a long season, with so much build up to a set of races. It has been agood season personally and for the team. We have had some good racesand some strong results. What next?

In Munich, I did a lot of wandering around, venturing from the Marienplatz to the far side of the lake in the Englisher Garten for a beer at the beer garden before wandering back through the park. I hadn't been to the top of the Frauenkirche in a bunch of years and it was clear out so I broke out the old student ID and got my discounted entry. It also worked the next day when I met Mike, Nancy, and Samantha at the zoo. Mike Olheiser and his brother were in Munich for the day prior to the flight out, so we met for some beers and fine German cuisine and one last hurrah before heading to the airport for another long day of travel.

Unfortunately I got sick on the way home and the combination of jet lag and a head cold didn't make for a comfortable homecoming. Fortunately I don't have a job anymore, so I had plenty of time to kick back and recover, spending as much time on the couch as needed. The last couple of weeks since getting back have been pretty productive with the job searching, the hanging out, the working on the backyard. I'll quit being a slacker and get back to the regular blog posting . . .

The Waiting Game

2009-08-29T02:32:00.002-06:00

And then there was more waiting . . . I headed out for a ride with Mike Carter yesterday while the sun was shining. The forecast for Saturday was looking grim, so might as well get while the getting was good. As predicted, today is cold and wet, motivation to get out for a ride is pretty low, but we'll get out eventually just to spin the legs out a bit.

St. Johann is full right now, but after the race on Sunday, town will be absolutely dead when everybody splits. Mike and Dave are staying until Tuesday, they will have the run of the town! I just started planning my "vacation" in Munich. I am going to try to head down to Garmisch on Monday and then hit the zoo in Munich on Tuesday since I have seen a good chunk of the city already on my vast walking tours of last year. It will be a nice change of pace to see some new things.

As the trip (and the entire season for that matter) winds down, I am starting to plot and scheme for what comes next. When I get home, I will have to start on thinking about actually finishing some projects started prior to the season. I am looking forward to a couple of days where I don't even look at my bike, pretty easy to do when it is boxed up and out of sight . . .

Day After

2009-08-28T06:29:00.001-06:00

Last night's awards ceremony took forever! We watched Mike Carter get his award for winning the Weltpokal race and then got dinner. When we got back a couple hours later, we still had a few groups in front of us. We took turns running to the main square for to go beers and finally at 10:15, we got out trophies and went back to the hotel.

Today we decided to go on a cruiser of a ride, heading north to Kossen and then down to Kufstein to take a look at the fortress overlooking the river. We also rode past the Riedel factory before riding back to town om shme busy roads. We got in about 4 hours on the day and had a lovely coffee stop on one of the lakes. I took a few moments to pack up the TT bike, it had a nice vacation. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, doing laundry and hanging out in general. We all got together for cocktail hour followed by a traditional meal at the Hotel Post. The Kasespatzle was very good and everybody else enjoyed their Wienerschnitzel. One more day of laying low before the last race day of the season.

Worlds TT

2009-08-28T06:28:00.000-06:00

The question of "special circumstances" has come from a couple after my brief post just after the TT. I could dig up the link for the UCI rules as to what a bicycle is, but it is as clear as mud and ever changing. The long and short of it in my case (pun intended) is that there is a legal limit for the length of the extensions on aero bars. The limit is 75 cm from the center of the bottom bracket to the end of the extensions, with a morphological exemption allowing up to 80 cm. Mine were 85 cm and I made the decision after getting passed without question last year not to cut them down. They were being strict about it this year. . .

I went through the normal routine for warming up out here with a morning effort to open up, heading up towards Hochfilsen. After that, I had hours of sitting and waiting until my start time at 3:56.30. At 2:30 I headed out to the venue with Mike Carter to roll to the start area for official measurement and getting the nod that although my bars were long they didn't really care. Yeah, this year they cared and weren't letting people start for a variety of violations. I went back and forth with the French UCI official, he asked me to get on the bike and although my position wasn't to any extreme, I wouldn't be able to ride my bike unless the bars were shortened. Unfortunately, my bars are not adjustable and have to be cut (cables included) to shorten them.

I went back to the car and put on my skinsuit while pondering the options for plan B. I rolled back to where Mike was waiting and told him they weren't going to let me ride my bike. Paul Humiston is about my size and he was still hanging out after finishing 6th in his age group. Without much delay, we switched pedals and adjusted his saddle to the correct height and off I went to warm up on a 56 cm Cervelo P3 instead of my 58 cm Felt. The position was ok, but a bit cramped up top. If I brought my hands back at all, I could hit my elbows on my knees. Paul also had a 56T chainring whereas I was used to a 55T. I completed my warm up and went back to the start house. They measured Paul's bike and almost made an issue of the seat post violating the 3:1 rule, but sent me on my way.

I did what I do in TTs, tried to maintain focus, keep passing people what started in front of me, and ramp the effort to max, leaving nothing on the road. I did a little gear hunting because of the 56T but tried to stay comfortable. I went slower than last year and finished 7th. It could have been worse by far. I am not one to freak out simply because something isn't going as planned and expected. I knew there was a chance that something like this might happen because of my decision not to cut my bars. At least I got to ride something and put in a decent effort. Mike Olheiser continued his winning ways, beating last year's winner by .93s. Now we have some time to kick back, relax and get ready to race again in a few days.

Real Quick

2009-08-26T09:57:00.003-06:00

They enforced rules, thank you to Paul Humiston for the bike and Andy Grabowski for the quick pedal change and adjustments. I rode Paul's bike to a 25:11, a little slower than last year and probably top 10. My only regret is that it wasn't a real test of my best effort, rather my best effort given the circumstances. It happens . . . more to follow.

TT Prep

2009-08-26T09:56:00.000-06:00

Getting ready for the time trial takes a life of its own in a way which seems odd for an event that really doesn't last more than a small fraction of the time here. Hours of thought go into a 23 minute effort. It is kind of cool sharing a place with Mike Olheiser because we both have expectations of strong performances in TT and seeing somebody else's approach is always interesting.

We headed out for the course recon, knowing exactly what we'd see. The course hasn't changed at all except for maybe a few additional bumps in the road. Much will depend on the conditions of the moment for the race. Winds were swirling and conditions at the top of the course were different from the middle which were different from the start area. My approach remains the same as it has been all year and as they say, the hay is in the barn.

There was much discussion and conjecture about which rules and with what degree of strictness the UCI officials would enforce this year. Technically, my bike isn't legal in a few regards. The extensions on the aero bars are too long, beyond what is allowed even with the morphological exception. The UCI also added a much debated rule which puts a 3:1 width/depth to thickness ratio limit on components meaning that wing shaped bars, airfoil shaped seatposts, sculpted tubing on the frame all has to fall within that envelope. Mike went as far as selling his handlebar setup to something that complies. My response to any objections will be, "Uhn I have long arms" and "I don't have enough money to buy new gear with every arbitrary rule change(s) the UCI comes out with each year." If they want to keep me from racing, so be it.

We spent the rest of the day just kicking back and essentially killing time. Mike Carter raced his actual category and tricked them all proper, soloing in for the win, about 15 seconds off the front of what was the lead group. It was a hard earned win and unfortunately the sky opened during the awards ceremony, two groups before his awards. They postponed the rest of the awards until the next day as everybody scurried for shelter from the downpour and 1/4" hail.

Ridin Around

2009-08-26T09:54:00.000-06:00

Nothing like waking up in the middle of the night multiple times. I managed a few hours of decent sleep and woke up shortly after 9:00 in time to make some coffee and get ready for the day. There really wasn't much on the agenda but to get out for a ride and eat at some point.

Mike, Dave and I decided to ride towards Kitzbuhel and beyond as we saw fit. We headed straight for Pass Thurn to get in some climbing and after a moments pondering, decided to go over the other side of the pass to see what was there. Mostly, we found that we'd have a pretty steady climb back up to get back to St. Johann. Mike and I had enough for the day and continued towards home while Dave mistakenly headed up to the top of the Kitzbuheler Horn.

Once everybody was safely back at the apartment, we did some grocery shopping and ended up with a free case of beer some how. I had some leftovers still and happily did nothing in the kitchen while Mike cooked. Post dinner, we wandered around a little, I had my gelato portion for the day and got ready to do it all again, only the next day involved a little more serious approach/prep for the TT on Wednesday.

Rad Weltpokal

2009-08-25T05:55:00.001-06:00

Day one of racing has come and gone. I went throught the routine of getting my number and making sure all was ready to go before kicking back until race time. About an hour and change before start time, there was a knocking at my door, Mike Olheiser and his brother Dave had arrived.

Mike didn't think he was racing, but I told him he was registered and so he might as well. In under an hour, we got everything up to the room, slammed Mike's bike together, sweet talked the race official into giving us his number even though "Nummerausgabe" was already closed, pinned his numbers on and got to the line with a few minutes to spare.

The race was pretty aggressive from the start as usual and a group of three rolled away on the first lap. As all three were Italians as we'd later find out, the chase never got all that organized. I rolled off with a couple small groups, but nothing worked well enough to stick, even the group of 14 or so that got clear. With conditions being fairly windy, the field shattered completely and a lot of riders dropped out. I started cramping on the third time up the climb and knew I would be doing much of anything after that but riding it in at what ever pace I could manage. I lost contact with the 2nd chase group (Mike was in the first) and noodled in alone.

I didn't think the second group was as big as the results showed, but in any case, I exploded after sticking my nose in the wind early and often. There were only 50 some odd finisher and we started with 100 or so. The purpose of the first race has always been to have some fun, shake off the cobwebs from the day of travel, and open up the legs a bit before the time trial on Wednesday . . . done, done, and done.

After the race we got cleaned up and headed out for some food. It being Sunday and all, none of the grocery stores were open so it was a good opportunity to hit one of the local spots for some traditional Austrian grub. I had a lovely Wienerschnitzel plate and a mixed salad. A beer of two also sounded like a good idea to help flush the legs or something. We wandered around until it was time for awards, Mike collected his trophy for 6th, and the day was done.

In St. Johann

2009-08-23T02:49:00.000-06:00

The first night of sleep with jet lag is always interesting, you never know how many times you are going to wake up. I managed to sleep from about 8:00 PM until about 3:00 when I tossed and turned for an hour or so, but then slept until 8:00 AM.

I looked out the window knowing it was going to be chilly and grey out with a good chance that it would be raining, yup, grey, but no rain yet. I am glad that I packed every piece of cycling clothing I own. While it was warm and windy for the ride yesterday, today was damp and cold. It did not take very long to hook up with Mike Carter, I ran into him on the first night and planned on riding with him today to open up for tomorrow's race. We rode the first part of the course before turning off towards Kirchdorf to avoid the rain higher up. We turned around again just past St. Jakob as the rain again starting to fall. There really wasn't much to do for the rest of the day with the rain coming down all day. I wandered around town a bit, but didn't get too far. At least the forecast for the rest of the week is decent.

Travel Day Continued . . .

2009-08-23T02:48:00.001-06:00

I was not able to get bumped off the Munich flight for another ticket, but getting to where you are going is also worth something. The flight was packed and I had a good seat for the purpose of legroom, but I never really got all that comfortable and only slept a little. There was some excitement towards the end of the flight when the flight attendant got on the PA and asked if there was a medical professional on the plane. I never found out what was going on. We landed in Munich on time despite slight delay in DC and my bags showed up before too long.

As I was heading to the DB ticket counter, a guy wearing an official's shirt asked if I was going to St. Johann. I said yes and he asked if I was part of Tracy's group to which I responded , "no" but he only had two others to take, so I got a free ride, direct to St. Johann with no transfers.

I was dead tired when I got to town, but I checked into the hotel and got the bikes put together and headed out for a ride before giving into the jetlag. The hotel put me straight into the apartment instead of the single room I had for the first few days which is fine by me as long as they don't charge me for it. I headed out for a ride to clear the cobwebs from a full day of travel and was greeted by wind like I have not seen in years past in St. Johann. I did a lap of the course and headed back to the room to clean up before venturing out to buy food. Shortly after getting back from the store the wind picked up more and then the sky opened. I managed to stay up long enough to make some dinner, but now it is starting to get dark, I'm going to bed!

Departures

2009-08-20T09:12:00.002-06:00

Let the mobile blogging begin. I made through check in and security
without too much issue. Apparently they have change the baggage rules
so many times that nobody really knows what's what. I got charged the
outrageous fee for a bicycle, $200, but it could have been way worse
since they could have tacked on an additional $150 for the bag being
over weight. I am not sure how I pulled that one, might have been my
diversionary tactic of asking if the limit for business class was
still 70 pounds or simply my charming good looks. In any case, the
bike bag never touched the scale.

I walked with the baggage handler and my bike down to the TSA peeps to
make sure they didn't destroy things in the repacking process. They
were very gentle and my bag moved on to the real threat, the DIA
luggage system. Security was very curious about my shoes and pedals
and x-rayed them about four times to make sure they were ok to carry
on the plane. As soon as I got to my gate, the agent announced that
they were looking for five volunteers to get bumped. Given that I was
looking at a five hour layover in Dulles, I figured I could torch a
few hours and sit in Denver for the sake of a free ticket. Too bad
Sarah was well on her way, otherwise we could have enjoyed a leisurely
breakfast in the vicinity of the airport.

So here I sit, the checked bags are on their way to Dulles. The
airport is going through its ebb and flow cycles as planes come and
go. The maintenance crew is bringing people carrier golf
carts...through the window, on the second story. I have pictures, but
can't post from here. Other than that, so far this trip feels like
any other. I hate the waiting game!

Pictures

2009-08-18T13:37:00.004-06:00

Today is supposed to be my last attempt at motor pacing before getting out of town for Masters Worlds. I'll be riding behind Brian on his "scooter" for about 40 minutes or so. He will have to sit up as much as possible, even with me riding in position on the time trial bike. All good intentions might be cast aside yet again, thanks to the weather.

This was about 1:15 in Denver today. If anything remotely close to this blows back in this afternoon, I'll be riding the TT bike in the basement on the trainer, again. If we are lucky we'll be able to get out during the brief window between early afternoon thunderstorms and late-mid afternoon thunderstorms. It's all about timing, speaking of timing, Steve's timing was just a hair off for him to be able to go home with his brand new, used espresso grinder.

I picked up this Rancilio grinder after spotting in during some casual craigslist browsing. Steve had just started getting used to the fact that after a month of having a commercial set up at his disposal, going back to drinking drip coffee wasn't going to cut it. The price was right on the grinder, at about 1/10th of its original cost.

I started into the tear down/clean up process, hoping that disassembly would be pretty straight forward with the aid of parts diagrams. No such luck . . . I do know it needs a good cleaning and might as well throw a new set of burrs in there for $40. If you are going to be grinding beans for pulling shots in a busy coffee shop, this is the machine for you. It is an automatic grinder, meaning you hit start and it runs until it trips the switches in the doser saying it is full. If you are just grinding for a couple shots, you have to pay attention that you don't go through the beans at the advertised pace of 20 lbs/hr.

The hopper and doser have a nice tint to them so they don't show the build up of coffee oils very quickly. I was a bit surprised to see that the burrs were worn as much as they were since as you can see from the label, this grinder was used for decaf. espresso, whatever that might be.

End of the Local Season

2009-08-17T13:22:00.002-06:00

This weekend marked the end of the local racing season for me. I headed up to the CSP course for the Raisin Hope Foundation Classic for lack of anything better to do. I wasn't sure how the legs would feel and also didn't really know how strong a showing there would be at this race with Niwot being State Crit Championships the next day. Brian and I were representing for the team and a medium sized field with some decent talent. Brian covered the first move, following Dan Porter up the road. They stayed in sight, but you can almost see the entire course from one spot anyways. Eventually they came back so I took it upon myself to put in a little dig to see what a counter would do . . . evidently not much.

Just beyond the halfway mark, things started to get exciting. A couple riders got up to road with and I tried to bridge the gap. I got halfway there and found I wasn't going to make it across alone. I sat up and got back in the group and recovered for a lap. When Sean Sullivan decided he was going to go across, I was in the right position to get on his wheel and take the mostly free ride. We ended up with about 15 of us in the front group, not really working all that well together, but the gap was big enough that we didn't get caught, but a few more were able to bridge. I tried to follow some moves, hoping to get in the one that resulted in our group splitting, but that didn't happen. In trying to follow Dan Porter towards the end of the race, I realized that my legs still felt a bit crispy. I didn't do a very good job of sticking with the wheels I needed to at the end and ended up 14th, but I was happy with the fact that I got in some good leg speed work and found my way to the business end of the race.

Sunday, I headed up to the hills to help Joey take down some trees on his property since it was the last slash collection day of the season. We took down a sizable pine at the front of his property which was amusing because we had to drop it towards the street, not knowing exactly how far it might go into the traffic lane. I manned the rope, he had the chainsaw, and Sarah ran traffic control. We pulled off a textbook operation for felling medium sized trees with a desired direction/landing spot. There wasn't too much to get out of the street, but a few cyclists shot us dirty looks as they had to avoid the pine needles in the road. Once the tree was chopped up and loaded, it was off to the slash collection. The volunteer at the lot got a kick out of the truck's musical horn, further reinforcing that it was a $60 well spent.

Tired

2009-08-14T07:46:00.002-06:00

After days of procrastination, there has been some actual work completed, not the kind I do in the office during the day, but the real stuff at home. Steve and I managed to wrestle a couple pieces of drywall into place the other night and the ceiling for the espresso room is mostly covered. I still need to move the door out of the corner by a stud's width and rehang it so it actually swings and latches properly. Until I do that, I really can't finish up the drywall so well.

I also put some new tires on the TT wheels last night. I forgot what a pain in the ass it is to glue up a disc, but it's done and I shouldn't need new shoes on those wheels for another couple years. Hopefully the combination of the 19mm tire up front and the 22mm on the disc will be the right one for going fast. I have a few more efforts on the TT bike before it gets packed away in the travel case. Thanks to Brian and Cheryl, I have a hard case for travel this year. We'll see how it compares to the BikePro case I have used in the past. The airlines always managed to do something to the bikes, no matter how much padding I tried to put in place in years past. Good thing they will be charging me at least $200 each way to travel with bikes . . . if I am unlucky, they could whack me for as much as $550 each way.

Today is Steve's last day of working at the UCHSC Dental School and I don't think he'll be sad about it. Sounds like the program here kind of honked a bit and he spent a fair amount of time on his rotation doing absolutely nothing. To celebrate, he's taking a half day and heading out to Golden to hit the last couple brewery tours before taking off tomorrow morning. The plan is to meet at the Golden City Brewery, the second largest brewer in Golden, post work/post ride for a couple pints. I'd love to say my weekend will be quiet, but between racing tomorrow and packing, I don't think I will have too much time to kick back.

I Like Tacos

2009-08-12T14:39:00.002-06:00

I made the return to training after a much needed day of recovery on Monday. I hit Meridian last night with the notion that I'd get some leg speed work in, but I didn't plan on spending much of the hour off the front alone . . . it just happened. Maybe my legs were feeling a little better after the ride to Vail than I thought. We'll see how tonight's effort goes, uphill and in TT position. Post Meridian, we headed to Lime to take advantage of $1 taco Tuesday . . . I like tacos, they are good for recovery. Even though the place was packed, we found a seat at the bar and got to eating and drinking. Our food bill was only $9 . . . which was quite respectable for three of us . . . had there not been a beverage bill to go along with it.

Given that it was a warm summer evening, we had nothing better to do than to pick up some ice cream and hit the park. It is shocking how many foxes there are in Alamo Placita Park in the early evening hours. Even more shocking was the number of people passing through the park. Some seemed to be hiding from their families to smoke a cigarette, some were migrating off of the bike path to find a place to sleep for the night. The end of summer is rapidly approaching as the nights are coming quicker and it is dark in morning when I get up for Dempsey's morning walk. Even though I am in the seasonal time warp of the working world, no longer defining freedom by summer vacation, I feel like I need to try and stuff as much fun in as possible before the summer ends and fall takes over. Having Steve in town for the last month has been good for getting out and about and exploring some of the places I have had on the list or revisiting some old haunts. The last month has flown by and I will soon again be roommate-less . . .

Tonight, we're finally getting around to putting up a couple sheets of drywall on the ceiling of the espresso room. I have to take advantage of having some labor in the house before Steve skips town this weekend. There is a small chance that I will finish up projects in the near future, but I'm not making any promises.

Riding to Vail

2009-08-10T15:03:00.002-06:00

You can read the summary from last time. Subtract the rain, substitute a constant headwind, and that was just about that. I don't remember it being so dark at 5:45 last year when I got ready to leave. I delayed my start a few minutes to let it get a little lighter out and to eat a biscuit that just came out of the oven. Pretty much as soon as I got across Santa Fe and onto Florida, the wind was in my face. It stayed there up the I-70 frontage road past lookout, took a brief break on parts of Squaw Pass, but didn't let up all the way to the Vail Plaza Hotel. The adventure was again about eight hours of ride time and the scenery was lovely as ever.

I headed out Sunday morning for a quick spin up Battle Mountain, just to shake up the legs a little more before getting a massage and jumping in the car to come home. My legs were trashed! I have no doubt that the effort was harder than last year, hopefully the extra effort pays off in a couple weeks time. One of the coolest sights as you climb from Minturn towards Leadville, is the abandoned town of Gilman, CO. It was a mining town until the late 1970s when the mine was shut down and soon after that it was all (mine, town, pile of tailings, etc.) declared a Superfund site by the EPA. I didn't do any exploring of my own, but the linked pictures are pretty cool. The weekend was pretty quiet other than that . . .

Denied by the Weather

2009-08-07T13:56:00.002-06:00

It was dumping yesterday afternoon, right around the time I started to begin to think about heading down to Chatfield for some motor pacing. I got to ride the trainer instead . . . weeeeeeeee. It was alright I guess, I got to sweat and making adjustments to the TT bike post new seat post install was easier than if I were out riding in the world. I can only hope that the weather is a little better going over the passes tomorrow. After a year or so of having the same music on the music playin' device, I finally put together a new, 9-hour mix to bring tomorrow.

I forgot about the fact that I ran into a mass of runners last year on the ride to Vail and it will happen again since tomorrow is also the Georgetown-Idaho Springs half marathon. Fortunately it is only 1/10th of the trip for tomorrow and I won't be fighting the flow of runners, nor will I be climbing or descending in that section. Just for kicks, I took a quick look for alternate routes . . . there really aren't any unless I want to ride US285 to Guanella Pass to Georgetown, but that gets a bit crazy. I wouldn't mind riding the old Red Zinger/Saturn Classic route sometime, but I'll save that for another day.

It is hard to believe that I am less than two weeks away from my departure for Austria. So far as I know, I am ready and I think I know where my passport is. Vacation and not having to think at all, except to remember some German will be a welcome change, I just hope I remember to come back when the trip is over.

Fresh Paint

2009-08-05T08:28:00.002-06:00

The after picture of the house doesn't really show dramatic change after the fresh coat of paint. Crazy, when you go from one white to another, the difference isn't all that noticeable until you get close up and see that the cracks are no longer exposed to the weather. The house should be good to go for another 10 years or so before it need a new coat of paint.

On Monday evening, Matt, Steve and I got in some cross training, hitting a bunch of golf balls at the new and improved, now city owned, Aquagolf. Nothing like whacking a bunch of floaty range balls into a pond to help forget about the beginning of the work week woes. I got out to ride Tuesday evening, a quick jaunt out to Lookout and up. I have gotten to the point where no matter which direction I go, my house to the top is approx. 1:15 ride time. Mid-way up the hill, I was wondering why my hip and shoulder were so sore and it finally dawned on me that hitting 100 golf balls might not be the best idea when it comes to recovery since the awkward motion that is my swing, isn't something my body is accustomed to.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow evening's ride which will involve a motorpacing session with Mike. The hay is in the barn as they say, but there is still some ramping up to be done prior to Worlds. The annual ride to Vail is coming up this weekend and it looks like I might be flying solo again this year. As long as the phone/mp3 player/gps/camera keeps a charge for all 9 hours, I should be a-ok.

Oh Salida

2009-08-03T15:27:00.002-06:00

Getting out of town always seems much harder than it should be on a Friday afternoon. I was lucky to have a 5:25ish (plus or minus 8-10 minutes depending on who you ask) start time for the TT down in Salida, but it still felt like we were pushing it to get down there. After driving through some rain and lots of recreational vehicle traffic, we got to sunny Salida with enough time to register and head over to Sarah's team's rental house which was about a mile from the TT start. She made it out the door and got enough of a warm up in to win her category, not a bad start to the weekend.

I got ready and got myself freaked out about the fact that the base tape was separating on my front tire and I could push the tire around to the point that I started questioning if I would be riding on it. Our start times were delayed ten minutes, then we were back on time, then we had an eight minute delay, then they started sending guys off. Fortunately, I was standing around to see what was what, knowing my effort would suffer less from "ill timed warm up" than it would from missing my start time. I tried to pace myself and keep my cadence up going out to the turn around and then hit it as hard as I could on the way back. I should have saved a little more on the way out because I started loading up just before the finish and probably lost some time in and area where I should have been able to keep motoring. I finished third and took about 35 seconds off my time from last year which I'll take as a good sign going in to my prep for Worlds.

It never hurt to have access to a kitchen while out of town racing. We avoided the downtown restaurant crunch and cooked the usual pasta dinner over at the house (I really should have taken pictures of this unique faux-deco gem) and dined with the bulk of the Pro Design/Porsche team. We had our last laughs about the impending doom of the road race. Leonard and I were the only ones who had done it in the past and knew what to expect.

I heard a rumor from theprosstuff.com that Jon Tarkington was looking to get into an early move for the road race, but I didn't expect him to initiate one mile into our 84 mile race, but I also didn't hesitate to follow. Any advantage I can get going into a climb is welcome and if I can tack myself onto a smaller group after the race has broken up, my chance at getting a good result increases significantly. Jon and I were joined, but abandoned early by Brett Kirby so we went it alone for five glorious laps, building up a gap as large as 3:30. Unfortunately I got caught in the steeper section of the climb and had no real chance of latching on to the group as it passed. There were more than 20 in the group so i called it a day at that point and watched the race unfold from the sidelines.

There was a crit yesterday. It was not a stellar outing for me and I hope to never speak of it again. The drive back was quiet to start, with two grumpy cyclists in the car, but we made it back to Denver with enough time to pick up Dempsey and hit Cherry Creek for some people watching and ice cream. The local racing season is pretty much done for me, crazy to think how quickly it has gone by. Only three races for the 2009 season to go . . . I hope to make them good ones.

Slackin'

2009-07-31T11:27:00.003-06:00

I hate it when people ask me to work during the day, it really gets in the way of my bloggin' time, lunch time, personal meditation time, and even napping time. I've been bouncing between commercial and residential jobs at work, at least I get to learn new things and stay out of trouble for now.

Since the weather has changed from summer to autumn in the Pacific Northwest, I feel like I haven't been for a ride outside in ages, although I did ride to work for sanity sake on Tuesday without getting rained on much. It has been somewhat of a rest week in any case with Salida coming up this weekend. The TT there should be good for prep for Worlds, even though it is only 8 miles. The competition is usually pretty stout and the course requires a moment's though about gauging the effort. I'll be flying solo since Zac is racing in Chicago, Zak has family in town, Chuck has or is adding to his family any day now, and Brian is going to Niagara Falls to attempt going over the falls in a barrel.

In one of the brief sunshiny moments this week, I took a picture of the house for the before half of the before and after. I'm finally getting the exterior painted after thinking about it for the last five years. The color should be a drastic change, from white to . . . . wait for it . . . off-white. If I never do a bit of exterior painting again in my life, I can die a happy man. It is a time consuming, hideous task, especially if there is significant prep involved. Marty with Trim Master Painting does good work and he's one of the few honest contractors out there in a shady, shady industry.

I started to set the floor in the espresso room. It is one of the easiest installs I have come across when it comes to flooring material, just a hair more complicated than throwing down an area rug.

When I get back to town after this weekend, I'll start pondering finishing off the room . . . as always, one piece at a time between working, riding, and whatever else it is that I do with my time.

A Day Late Race Report

2009-07-28T12:59:00.002-06:00

Better late than never I suppose, but I did in fact race this past weekend, hitting up both the Fed Center and Bannock. Both days, the fields were pretty much as expected, mostly local, but hard hitting. I really wasn't too sure what to expect from my legs since last week was the return to some intensity after a couple weeks of just noodling between weekend racing.

For the Fed Center race, we had a full team . . . minus Zac who was tearing it up at Super Week, but plus one freshly married Randy Aardema. On lap one, Greg Krause and a couple others got up the road and built up a pretty respectable gap, but with the wind and the horsepower in the field, it didn't look likely that they'd be able to stay away. Brian got to the front and helped out with some of the pace making and after a few laps we were all back together. I put in a couple attacks and thought a couple times we might have the right mix, but it was not to be. After the race, we had the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" discussion as to what happens if you have Scott Moninger in a move with you and he's not working. If you drill it and do all the work because he's not committed to the move, he'll kill you and solo in for the win, making the only smart option sitting up and reshuffling. Such is life and that's cycling, but a little frustrating when you are sitting in a group with Moninger, Baker, Donald, etc. With everything together, I was comfortably moving around the pack at one lap to go, planning one last escape effort, when things went "wham! psssssssssss . . ." I drilled a pothole, flatted a tubie and even worse, cracked a carbon rim. I really had no choice at that point but to turn around and take the shortest route to the parking lot. I found Brian there, having suffered a puncture of his own as well. Chuck did a great job on his own though and took third on the day.

Sunday, with some nasty clouds hanging low, Chuck and I rolled up to the line with a slightly stronger field chasing the larger chunk of prize money for the Bannock Crit. Given our numbers for the day, we planned on playing it a little more conservatively, but when presented with the opportunity to jump early, I took it and was quickly joined by Moninger again and a lap or so later, Frank Pipp. With 60 minutes of racing left, it was not to be and we were brought back by the pack in a few laps. I spent some time floating and following moves before getting caught behind a crash in corner three. The trip to the pit was apparently too quick and we were reinserted after a free half-lap and had to chase just as much as if we hadn't gone to the pit! After that point, I never really got myself back in the race and didn't maintain position like I should have. While still not a very good crit racer at all, I am slowly getting better and more confident. Sitting at the back with some of the riff-raff was nothing short of horrifying at times . . . getting out of the saddle to go through corners . . . who does that?!? In any case, I finished with all my skin, but never threatened to crack the top 20 come the end of the race.

Completed Successes

2009-07-27T11:32:00.004-06:00

My partial successes from the other day have been shifted over to the smashingly successful column. I had to pat myself on the back for a job well done on troubleshooting and installing the timer for the espresso machine. I ended up buying another timer at Home Depot since the old one wasn't function properly. The new one did exactly what it was supposed to do so for fun, I took the old one apart to see what was inside. The innards weren't too shocking, just a motor for the clock and some contacts that were supposed to connect and disconnect when actuated by the posts on the dial. The contacts were stuck together though which would explain why the timer wasn't turning off manually or when the "off" posts passed. After doing some cleaning, I cycled the clock manually to make sure everything was working properly and then installed the timer in its new home. The new timer went back to Home Depot and the $50 back in my pocket.

The whole thing is starting to come together nicely and I am being so green, minus the whole 220v, 12L boiler commercial machine for limited home use bit. I didn't have to think about remembering to turn the machine on before bed or worry about waiting 45 minutes for the boiler to come to temperature. It turned on at 4:30ish as expected and all I had to do was pull some shots before taking Dempsey out for his morning constitutional.

Right now, I only have one set of on/off posts installed. I can't really think of a good reason to have an afternoon schedule set during the summer, but come wintertime when I need extra motivation to get on the trainer, I might want to come home to an espresso machine all fired up and ready to go. While standing near the espresso machine, I did some head scratching on the whole counter top issue. I might consider gluing the blocks in place as opposed to making the top and then installing it. The stainless steel option is starting to look more appealing, but I will forge ahead, boldly and blindly, hoping all the while for the best . . .

Saturday afternoon, Steve and I went out to the truck to kick the tires a couple times and get the horn installed all proper like. All it took was some wiring, some soldering, some fishing aforementioned wiring through the firewall, and selecting placement for the auxiliary button. The good news is that the horn now toots Dixie. The even better news is that the horn can be used for everyday attention-getting purposes, as long as you don't hold the button down. With a short press, you get a random (choice of one out of five) trumpet blast that is sure to stop any offending traffic in its tracks.

What better way to celebrate than to break out the fryer and dine on some fried scrimps? It had been a while since I dunked food into hot oil and fried shrimp sounded like a good idea. With the sky and the contents of the pantry being the limit, we cranked the oil to 350 and started making a variety of different flavors of tempura batter. The discovery of the evening which should have come as no surprise, is that Old Bay mixed into the tempura batter makes one hell of a tasty fried shrimp. There will come a day that I try to fry anything and everything I can get my hands on, but Saturday was not that day.

Yuk Yuk and Yuck

2009-07-23T14:20:00.002-06:00

I've never been a milk drinker. I don't sit down and down a glass of milk (with the exception being Promised Land Chocolate Milk) just because it sounds good and I don't regularly buy the stuff by the gallon. When I came across an article in the WSJ about a woman in North Carolina who was starting a camel farm for milking purpose, I had to keep reading and say, "eww, yuck!" The concept is pretty grim and it keeps getting worse, the more you read. I don't necessarily see the marketing charm of either a brand name of "Camelicious" or saffron or date flavored milk. On the yuk yuk side of things, the puns have gotten out of hand with the writers at the WSJ. I'm just saying, but I don't want to be one to stow thrones in grass houses.

There was another article about beverages (also with bad word play in the title) this morning about the failure of the new "G" branding campaign to spur growth in sales of Gatorade. As a sports drink, very little has changed in the technology of the beverage, except to substitute cheaper products like corn syrup for sugar. Somebody pointed out long ago that Gatorade never compared their product to anything except water and it really isn't hard to improve on the basics. I'm not sure if CEO Indra Nooyi knew what exactly she was saying when talking about the market share Gatorade was holding on to:

Clearly some of those [former] users switched to cheaper alternatives. They didn't have a right to exist in the Gatorade world.

Uh, so has Gatorade/G been some sort of elite product and I never knew it? Or is Gatorade for "real" athletes who spend "real" money on their hydration options? Promised Land says on their website that many athletes consider chocolate milk to be an energy drink and it is great for recovery because of the vitamins and protein, but do I have a right to exist in the milk world, especially if I will snub non-bovine sources?

Fine Dining and Wine Shopping

2009-07-22T15:13:00.002-06:00

Not like there really needs to be an excuse to go get a Hebrew National hot dog and a soda for $1.50 at Costco, but uh, I had to get gas in the car and stuff, so I was going to be there anyways . . . Steve and I rolled over and picked up a few other items. On the way out, we did some browsing in the Costco liquor store, but didn't find anything compelling, besides the sheer number of items in the 1.75L size. I threw out the suggesting that we head over to Divino to do some browsing there especially since I needed to restock the wine "cellar" and their selection is much better.

The cellar is now pretty well stocked, with a variety of varieties and not a bottle over $10. I'm going to have to make a little scorecard so I can keep track of what was what and what I like. Steve picked up a bottle of bourbon for the house, for medicinal purposes of course. From the sounds of it, the dental program he is taking part in at UCHSC will likely lead to drinking heavily.

The next round of sorbet hit the freezer last night as well. I had a watermelon that was screaming to be made into something frozen. I didn't want to just do a plain, sweet sorbet, so we did some thinking and some sampling to see what savory/spicy flavor would go well with watermelon . . . cayenne pepper won. I proceeded with the sorbet formula as usual, but added in a tablespoon of pepper to give it a little zip. The taste test in both liquid and slush forms indicated that the sorbet will have a sweet beginning with gradually growing heat as you eat which will be confusing but compelling with a frozen treat, results to follow.

Partial Successes

2009-07-21T15:16:00.002-06:00

I was somewhat motivated last night after work and my workout. I started the remainder of the evening by hanging some more pieces of drywall, the low hanging fruit if you will. I filled in a few spots with the small, random shaped pieces that I could reach without too much trouble. I hope to get enough pieces in place to put the floor down soon.

By the time I got sick of drywalling, Matt called and asked if there was any beer drinking in the works. Beer drinking can always be arranged, plus we had a horn to install in the truck since all the bits and parts showed up. Unpacking the horn took a little more effort than you would think and there was a significant amount of planning as to what would go where in the ample space provided by the F150's engine compartment. Short story is that the horn works. The long story is that we need to track down some more wire and connectors to make the ghetto-rigging factor below nine on a scale of one to ten. Success . . . sort of.

Meanwhile, back in the house . . . I decided before Matt arrived that last night would be the night that I finally got the timer hooked up on the espresso machine. So I cut the power and then cut the cord only to be reminded that I had 4-wire 220v power and the wiring diagram for the timer refers to a 3-wire system. So the real question was, what wire goes where? I did some research, polled Matt and Steve, did some more research, and we came up with a firm "possibly" on the two hot wires going to the terminals in the timer and the common running straight through. The good news is that the proper voltage shows up and the machine operates. The bad news is that the timer doesn't seem to turn off as it should, maybe. I need to tinker some more tonight and see if it trips itself off when the mechanical dial clicks through the cycle and moves the contacts. The other bad news, sort of, is that the pump came disconnected at one wire and in poking, I shorted something and fried the switch for the left brew group. The good news is that I wanted to replace the switches anyways because they don't light up anymore. Even better, I rarely use the left brew group, thank goodness for a two group commercial machine. Without it, I couldn't get into any of this trouble!

Weekend Rides

2009-07-20T15:02:00.002-06:00

I really had no desire to do the Mt. Evans Hill Climb this past weekend and a quick look at the results confirmed that I made the correct decision. The top 31 in the P/1/2 category finished in under 2:00 which is faster than my fastest time. Sure, I might have set a new personal best, but I might have also sapped my will to live. So instead I headed out on my own terms and got in a good ride with Brian, Randy, Mike, and Leonard. We all rode together at times, with Mike and Leonard continuing on Golden Gate where we foolishly turned left on Robinson Hill Road.

Fortunately Randy's Mavic R-Sys wheels didn't explode on the dirt descent on Smith Hill, but he did return home after the little side trip. Brian and I continued up Golden Gate to Peak to Peak where we caught up with the others again and headed for Coal Creek Canyon. I ended up with just over 100 miles on the day (the map doesn't show me backtracking up Smith Hill to find Randy changing a flat . . . twice) and around 7000' of climbing. It was all done at a pretty easy past, but that is still a long time in the saddle.

Sunday, I headed out to Golden Gate again with the Pinkertons. I decided to head home after the first summit with the plan of getting back in the car and heading to the blackberry patch on the side of the road on 32nd out past Lakewood. When I rolled past on the way home, some people were stopped and picking . . . damnit, that was my spot! I decided the couch looked like a better idea by the time I got home, so I took a nap instead.

Steve is in town for the next month for a dental rotation at the University of Colorado Heath Sciences Center. It will be amusing having a roommate for the next few weeks. Steve was out here 10 years ago passing through so the house and the neighborhood have both changed significantly since he was last here. His visit got started off right with a trip to Sushi Den and some plotting and scheming to eat everything that counts as a "location of culinary significance" in Denver. It should be a good month.

Changes

2009-07-17T13:58:00.003-06:00

There has been all sorts of action in the neighborhood as of late and the word on the street is good for the most part. I noticed the other day that the Asian Imports store on Pearl across from Sushi Den was having a going out of business sale. That didn't take long at all. The good news is that the owners of Sushi Den bought the building and plan on opening a Japanese Deli/Fish Market. I've always thought they should have a fish market since they have access to the best seafood in town.

Mulberries, the cake shop on Pearl St. is moving on . . . not a biggie since I tend not to buy fancy cakes and their regular stuff, cookies and the like were not very good. I am partial to Gateaux anyways. They have always been extremely friendly and their pastries are ridiculous.

Further down the street, they are actually fixing the street! Iowa is designated as one of the Denver bicycle routes, but the road damage has gotten beyond shameful. Hopefully they will fix everything from pearl to Santa Fe. I see a lot of riders bouncing along, riding in the middle of the lane, trying to avoid the craters and/or string together the few patches of decent pavement left.

In other bicycle news stupidity, the county commissioners of Jefferson County, home to some of the best riding and training routes, are seeking legislative power to prohibit bicycle use on certain county roads. That's some good, forward thinking right there. There are laws in place statewide concerning bicycle/vehicle safety. In short they read something like, "Bikes, you stay to the right. Cars, don't hit them and pass with care." I understand that it is hard to hit the gas pedal after you have slowed down to pass a bicycle. As a cyclist, I'll be the first to admit that there are a significant number of asstards in our midst who certainly don't help the cause, but the residents complaining about bicycle use on their routes home should put the same effort into banning the cars that also get in their way on the road. Just the other day, there were like, 800 cars in the way on I-25 on the way home.

It is getting harder to mention stupidity of any form without thinking immediately about the guard shack next door which is coming closer to completion. The "trellis" feature has been added in the form of heavy beams, at about head height, over the sidewalk.

Just like the other "architectural features" the beams are out of scale and everything about the thing looks heavy handed and awkward. Even at the original height, it would look goofy, especially with the gate that looks like an after thought. I'll be curious to see the completed project, but I'm guessing it won't look much different than the above shot.

Boulder TT

2009-07-16T14:31:00.003-06:00

I ended up heading to Boulder last night to do the Wednesday TT for a change of pace. After my Tuesday workout on the TT bike in the hills, I had no idea how my legs would feel at full speed. They felt ok I suppose. I forgot how nasty the first few steps are of the climb back towards town, but I did a pretty good job of keeping my cadence nice and high to keep the legs from loading up. Somewhere after the halfway point, I let my focus drift from the effort to the clown drafting off of me. Nice work on the individual time trial effort there chooch. I have no idea what my times have been in the past, but given the high level of variability when it comes to wind conditions, it is probably irrelevant. It was good to get the effort in and even better jumping in the pool at Chuck's house after. I might just have to do it again next week.

I took advantage of my recent discovery in the work neighborhood finally. At lunch time, I rolled over to the bakery outlet over on 39th and Dahlia. It turns out to be two bakeries under one roof. One focuses on artisan breads, baked the old fashioned way and sold for a lot of money at places like Whole Foods and the like, for $5 a loaf. The other bakery supplies bars, restaurants, and other food establishment type places with hoagie rolls, sourdough bread bowls, and the like. Turns out they sell their day olds for $1 a loaf and with the artisan type breads, a quick turn in the oven at 350 make them spring back to life. At that price, I figured why not give it a shot, so I have a Ciabatta to try as well as a loaf of German Rye and a Cinnamon Raisin, although I'm pretty sure mine is better, it never hurts to have a loaf in the freezer for snackin. It also doesn't hurt to let somebody else heat up their place, rather than get my oven cranking during the middle of the summer, in my mostly non air-conditioned house.

Local News

2009-07-14T15:29:00.005-06:00

The Denver Post is a terrible paper. The newspaper delivery person mixed things up today and I got the DP instead of the WSJ. I have gotten used to reading articles that are 1000 words as opposed to 68 and I have to say, I like the detail. I can choose to read it or I can skim, but with an anemic article barely covering the simplest of facts, there's not much to work with.

Also, in the local news, zoning/building codes hit a neighborhood project. I've been watching the "thing" next door go up, wondering how long it would take before the City put the beat down on it. It has been beaten down . . .

When I got home this past week from racing, I noticed the guard shack next door had been altered dramatically to conform to code. It was moved back from the sidewalk a good few feet and the top and bottom had been chopped rather severely. It still looks dumb, but now it is well off the sidewalk. I'm waiting for the neighbor to confront me. I'll probably tell him to take it up with the inept architect/builder who told him to do it in the first place . . . zing!

The doors and windows are now completely out of proportion and way too low for normal standards, but since when has a trellis had doors and windows anyways? I feel slightly bad that time and effort went into something that had to be taken down, but you have to build what you say you are going to build when you get a permit and you have to know the applicable codes.

Meanwhile, back in the espresso room, drywall isn't exactly flying onto the walls, but I am making progress slowly. In short order, I should be able to get going on the top. I did things kinda goofy with my desire to spread some of the load to the walls instead of having the espresso machine and top sitting directly on the cabinets. Long story short, it will be done before I die. Things are shaping up with some corner bead in place, there is hope yet.

Dogs!

2009-07-13T14:51:00.002-06:00

It is nice to see worthwhile programs getting some media coverage, especially in the day and age of relatively worthless social causes. Having taken a dog through formal training with limited success, I am always impressed with the behaviors taught to service dogs, be they seeing eye dogs, assistance dogs, etc. I didn't realize though just how specific the training can be or what dogs (and their trainers) are capable of. In this weekend's WSJ, there was an article about psychiatric-service dogs and a training program that places dogs with prison inmates for the training.

Puppies Behind Bars is the non-profit responsible for placing dogs in prisons for training. They have achieved a number of successes not only with the dogs, but with their handlers as well. I remember reading an article in Smithsonian Magazine a few years back about the organization. It is a great way to defray some of the costs of expensive training for assistance animals, using the resource of unlimited free time that those incarcerated possess. I hope other creative thinkers find similar win/win situations like this one.

I only got to race once this past weekend, since I really didn't feel like trekking down to Colorado Springs to do a 16 minute, uphill time trial. The Longmont Crit was plenty of race for the weekend though, with a deep, deep field of 100+ riders in the P/1/2 race. The good news is that I am slowly getting better at riding crits, the bad news is that I still haven't managed to do anything in one yet. I still put in efforts too early and don't maintain my position at the end of the race when it is most important. It was interesting to get out there after riding easily all week. I was almost afraid that my legs wouldn't know what to do when things got going. I felt pretty comfortable in the first 20 minutes which hasn't been the norm for me in the past. Next weekend will be an off weekend for racing since I don't feel any great need to do the Mt. Evans hill climb. Strange to think that I only have a few weeks left of local racing. Then there will be one more big block of training and then off to Austria.

Survey Says . . .

2009-07-10T07:26:00.005-06:00

Quick poll . . . is the population getting dumber, smarter, or simply more aware of seemingly complex subject matter? There is no shortage of stories about general stupidity exhibited on a daily basis. The category of criminal stupidity is one of my favorites, especially the stories where the "victim" declines to press charges for reasons like "nah . . . that was the best laugh I've ever had and the dude got his punishment" (story about somebody trying to siphon gas off a motor home but tapped into the sewage tank).

I went to lunch the other day and tried a place in my new work neighborhood. I might as well take the opportunity to explore while I can. We headed to Phoenician Kabob for some Middle Eastern grub and I give it a so-so rating. The gyros were good, but the rest of it was questionable. The baklava had so much rose water poured over it that it tasted like eating perfumed soap. The highlight of the meal had to be the bill though.

The price was right on the "sandwitch" which was pretty well stuffed with grilled meaty goodness. The misspelling would have been forgivable had there been a more ethnic staff, but the front of house guy was full on, white-bread, probably couldn't find the Mediterranean on the map, kid out of high school.

Speaking of kids and high school, this kid hasn't even made it out of high school yet, but his career path is pretty well guaranteed. There is no question that this youngster is smart as a whip, hopefully he doesn't end up in jail for hacking that helps himself rather than others. Access to this type of technology and intuitive understanding is becoming more common as kids are exposed to it at younger ages. I remember the good old days of working on the Apple IIe in the weekly computer lab classes at Durham Academy . . . wow, will you look at the stats of that high powered machine!?!

I'm still debating the merits of this article which was in the WSJ this morning. As with some other articles in the past, the tongue in cheek writing is outstanding, but the subject matter makes me afraid for the future of society. Creating a festival out of mooning the Amtrak trains as they pass seems right in line with the glimpse of society provided by Idiocracy.

The fact that the festival gets out of control should come as no surprise . . . there are a lot of asses involved.

The past couple weeks of training between races have been relatively easy. I feel slow during the week, but fast on the weekend. Case in point, I participated in a midweek race last night.

I got smoked, but at least the kid bought me some ice cream after. Hopefully I will be fast again on Sunday for the crit in Longmont which isn't the State Championship this year, but it will still be fast.

We're Not in Kansas Anymore

2009-07-07T07:40:00.005-06:00

I'd call the trip to Lawrence remotely successful. Everybody had a good time, there was lots of relaxing in our free time, and the racing was decent. When we finally got around to racing, the crit was a fairly standard, eight corner crit but the wind was picking up making the backside a little tougher. The midwestern style of racing is a bit peculiar, the pace was much easier than the majority of our local crits, but the amount of negative racing was unreal. There was actually a guy in one of the little moves I was in, "blocking" for his teammate who was only five meters off the front of our group of six. Had he stayed out of the way, since we were going to catch his teammate anyways, we might have actually made some ground on the field.

I put in some good efforts, got in the mix, spent a couple laps off the front solo, hoping that guys would come across in small numbers instead of dragging the entire field with them, but no luck. Eventually two guys got off the front and nobody wanted to chase in any sort of organized fashion. The two stayed clear, Zac got 10th, but got hosed when it turned out that the finish camera didn't have enough light and the finish photo was too blurry for them to handle any protests anyways.

Having pre-ridden the circuit for Sunday's race, we knew it was going to be a tough one. The course took full advantage of the topography offered up by the KU campus. There were two climbs on the profile and the one prior to the finish was steep and twisty enough to take away all momentum. My goal was to hang on as long as possible and keep an eye out for Zac who is riding really well right now. In the first few laps some moves got up the road, but came back. A couple times, I got to the front to keep the pace up and to close things down. Eventually, as expected, everything came apart leaving multiple groups on the road, dangling behind the leaders. On lap whatever it was, I'd lost count by then, I was feeling decent and others didn't look so happy, so I collected Zac and drilled it. I pulled him as far as I could and told him to go if he could. By the time I recovered a little and reattached myself to the back of that group, Zac was long gone, off and hammering his way into the lead group. That was about it for me in the circuit race. I yo-yo-ed off the back of that group a couple times and then called it quits. The last time I went up the climb to the feed zone, I was creeping. Zac finished 6th out of the group of 9 off the front. I think he'll do just fine at the Super Week races in the coming days.

We got the van packed back up and ready to go for the long drive home. Zak and Melissa were ready for some prime movie watching on the DVD system in the Grand Caravan, Chuck was ready for the comforts of the Pinkerton mobile, and Zac had his shirt off, ready for the drive through the land of humidity sans A/C. Given what we saw on the way home, I wouldn't want to drive with the windows down in this part of the country. Not only did we have a plethora of smashed bugs on the windshield, side windows, side of the van, but we also came across this guy at a gas station.

I am 99% sure that is the image of Jesus on the back of the moth. I should have collected him in a jar for later analysis, but frankly I was scared. Chuck offered up $20 if I ate the moth, but as you can see in the next shot, he was a big one.

The squeegee was the only thing we could find that would give it decent reference without having to get too close. The only other excitement on the drive was . . . well, there was none, it was Kansas and eastern Colorado at night.

Road Trip

2009-07-04T10:12:00.004-06:00

Yesterday morning, I woke up at the same time as usual, but instead of heading to work, I kept driving past the exit for Quebec and kept heading east into nothingness. We had four people, four bikes, ten wheels, a bunch of bags and some cookies packed into a swank 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan, courtesy of Vista Auto Group. By way of drives, it was a pretty easy one. We made it to Lawrence in just over 7:15 without incident and surprisingly without seeing anything incredibly blog worth, other than the sign that read "Abortion Stops a Beating" with a tiny logo filling in for "heart" that really doesn't stand out. Apparently Kansas doesn't have the meth problems that Colorado and Wyoming have.

The set up for the race is pretty sweet. We are shacked up in the Eldridge which is right in the middle of the downtown part of Lawrence. We had plenty of time after the drive to tool around town a little bit and get settled in. Knowing that a college town would have a barbershop, I headed down the main drag to get my mane chopped. Back in the luxury suite . . .

The street sprints were just outside our front door which was convenient for heading back up to the room after the one "sprint" effort. I'm not even sure why, what, how, but I had very little expectation of doing anything in the event, but it was a little bit of a cluster. I'm not sure if any of us left the room mentally for the sprints, although Zak's girlfriend Melissa took 4th in her event, without even knowing what was going on.

Back in the comforts of the room . . . usually, we try to find the most economical lodging setup possible, but since the race organization was covering the costs for staying at the Eldridge, it was a no brainer. Comfortable is good since we don't race tonight until 7:30.

We've got bikes galore. It could have been a bit tighter in the room, but Zak and Melissa very wisely decided to get a room at a little B&B down the street. We still have bikes for four guys and two of Zac's extra bikes since he is heading on to SuperWeek after this race. He and Chuck carpooled out here, but Zac didn't drop the "I don't have A/C in the car" until it was too late for poor Chuck.

We are almost out of cookies which is disastrous. I can't race without cookies . . . I did the prerequisite, pre-race baking Thursday night and made a double batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies for the trip and it might not be enough. Well, only nine more hours to kill before the race . . .

Confusion

2009-07-02T15:17:00.003-06:00

Hats off to the City of Lakewood for making sure they restripe the bike lanes every once in a while. The bike lane symbol is now as clear as mud.

Either somebody isn't smart, or somebody is very, very smart and has a sense of humor. My guess is the stencil got put in backwards and nobody cared or noticed. I am trying to figure out what the new symbol is telling me. Is this the area for bikes to crash head on? Has bike traffic been stuffed into one lane and this denotes a passing area? Should I be making out with fellow cyclists while in Lakewood?

The lackadaisical nature of yesterday's ride was well represented in the amount of time Pinkerton and I spent trying to get a clear picture of the above, while still riding. Of course we aren't going to stop for something like this, but it also wasn't to be missed. With tomorrow's early departure for Kansas, I'll likely go on blogging vacation as well unless there is something phenomenal to post . . . until later . . .

Too Hot

2009-07-01T15:24:00.002-06:00

It wasn't very long ago that I was complaining about lingering winter weather and looking forward to the heat of summer. I'll take the cooler weather again any day now. I got out for a couple hours yesterday and thought as I was leaving the house that it wasn't so bad, but the heat wore on me pretty quickly and I found myself constantly thirsty, go figure.

Riding around in the heat and relatively humid condition, for Colorado at least, will be good practice for the trip to Kansas. I looked at the forecast there and it reminded me of what I grew up with as I saw percentages much higher than I have seen in a long time when it comes to humidity. It's a good thing our races start late in the day. I will need most of the day to sit around doing nothing but consuming liquids.

Today's ride is going to be a noodling ride through the southern suburbs of Denver. I think Joey and I are going to hit Englewood, Cherry Hills Village, and Littleton on the way down towards Chatfield. We may or may not go over Deer Creek at a slow pace before turning towards home. Today is the last of the super easy days before opening it back up before the Tour of Lawrence weekend. I'll make the most of it, it isn't often that I'm told to go ride slowly.

Park Life

2009-06-30T14:18:00.002-06:00

After this weekend's racing, a recovery ride at the park seemed like a mighty fine idea. Summer is officially here and Wash Park is getting pretty crowded on a daily basis after 5:00. It is amazing to me how oblivious people are about their fellow park users . . . we had to avoid a few people who pulled a squirrel turn when we said "on your left!" My legs were definitely ready for a nice mellow pace, with no real agenda, except the occasional super high cadence burst. Not only are they funny to watch, but they also make beaten down legs feel a little better.

A few of us headed over to Park Burger for dinner after the ride. It was nice to see that it was full on a Monday evening. Instead of waiting around for a table to clear up outside, we placed our order to go and hit Platt Park for the al fresco dining experience. I realized that besides using the park as Dempsey's early morning poopin' grounds, I really haven't taken advantage of it for picnicking of any sort. Over the course of the hour or so we were hanging out, we saw all shapes and varieties of dogs (and owners), kids playing catch with parents, and pretty much everything else you'd expect to see in a neighborhood park.

The park this morning was a much quieter place although Dempsey still found plenty of distractions making our game of fetch pretty lackluster. It seems like I go through cycles of discovering new things in the neighborhood. I'll have to remember the camera tomorrow morning to catch the unique topiary work in the side yard of one of the houses just off the park.

Another Dead Dog Notch on the Ol' Belt

2009-06-29T13:25:00.002-06:00

The Dead Dog Classic has come and gone. This year's edition was a success with some very large field sizes in a number of different categories. The P/1/2 race had 60+ starters this year which was sort of nice to see, except for the fact that it also seemed like there was a larger number of guys who just ride bikes unlike us workaday schleps.

The trip up to Laramie was relatively uneventful, we all made it out on time . . . on time to get pounded by the storm of the day, as it passed through the northern half of the state. There were a couple stops on the way to the border, Longmont to drop off some dogs, Loveland to pick up some forms for registration to help out some friends who weren't coming up until the next day. Timing ended up being perfect. We got to Laramie with enough time to hit the store for some grocery shopping before packet pickup. By the time we got to Albany, the clouds had cleared and we were able to get out for the quick, pre-dinner ride. We avoided the debacle that was last year's arrival and that was a good thing. I had forgotten how much cozier the Gregory Cabin is than the Rose ~~House~~ Doublewide. The night and following morning, pre-race were just delightful.

The road race was another story . . . we watched out the window as the wind started to pick up a little earlier than usual. On the plus side, it kept the mosquitoes at bay, but it also meant the last eleven miles would be just as bad, if not worse than in years past. Over our sumptuous pasta dinner, we had discussed the loose race plan for the day. The plan was to float, play it by ear, keep an eye on Zac, sit in for the climbs, conserve, etc., etc. I had sworn off all early move antics. There were a couple early "attacks" and the Ciclismo bunch were kind enough to get to the front to keep things in check. With all seven of them on the front, it was relatively easy for one of their guys to roll off with a rider from the RM Elite bunch. When Stefano Barberi jumped, I was on his wheel and took the free ride across the gap. That would be the only work he'd do in our group for the day, but with our lead growing as we turned onto the highway, the rest of us kept it steady approaching the first round of climbing for the day.

Stefano had no teammates and no real reason to work, I had no desire to sit up and rejoin the main group where I'd likely get popped on the steeper part of the climb through Centennial. We dumped the RM Elite guy on the first pitch which left me, Dan Workman, Phil Mann, and our passenger. Knowing exactly what to expect having gone the early break route the past two years, I kept my tempo steady and focused on keeping my cadence a little higher than normal, just to keep the legs from loading up on the first trip over the summit at 10,800'. Shortly after making it over the summit, we were joined by Dan Porter who was looking as strong as ever. I tried to recover as much as possible on the descent, but with the wind, the only consolation I could take was that we'd have a tailwind for the climb.

At the turn around, we still had a respectable gap, but our group dynamic quickly became every man for himself. I stuck with Porter and Stefano for a bit after the other two popped off, but there was no way I was going to be able to maintain the pace that either was setting. Pretty soon, the gaps between the three of us grew and I was in no man's land just like last year. I focused on maintaining cadence, but put it in a higher gear whenever possible, hoping that I would make it over the top before getting caught. I got caught and passed by the first chase which included all the heavy hitters at pretty much the same place as last year. I didn't really have too many expectations of staying with that group, especially getting caught in one of the steeper parts of the climb. I latched onto the next group which contained places 12-19 and cruised back towards Centennial, aided by wind and gravity.

As expected the wind on the highway and the section leading back to Albany was bad. The last eleven miles of the race always feel like torture, especially with the 1k uphill finish. I made it very clear that I wasn't pulling through and even stayed well out of the way for guys to rotate through, but when guys started opening gaps, I had no choice but to jump across and resume sitting on. On the approach to the finish, our group was whittled down from eight to four. I did my best to hold on as we noodled in endlessly towards the finish, hoping to hold myself together enough to keep it close, knowing that with a good TT effort the next day, I could pick up a few places in the overall. I finished six seconds behind my "tow truck" and four seconds up on the guys who were still chasing.

After a thrilling evening and a few rounds of the waiting game in the morning, it was finally time for us to go in circles for 50 minutes. With the crit being as short as it was, there was very little doubt that guys would hit it pretty hard and keep it consistently fast. Brian said the average speed was still in the 28 mph range, which isn't bad for a short, 6-corner crit in the middle of a stage race. A break got away midway through the race, unfortunately with two of the guys I was hoping to keep close in the mix. In the end, they stayed away with a gap of eight seconds. In the brief discussion between the crit and the TT, it became clear that we still have to work on our team communication/ESP. Zac was watching out for me, but probably could have made it across in the last two lap and definitely would have taken anybody in that group for the sprint. I'll keep the TT write up short, it was hard. We had a tailwind for the downhill leg out and a miserable grind on the way back. I tried my best to stay focused and go hard. It hurt, I finished 8th, beating some guys who I needed to put time into, but getting beaten by some guys who I should be faster than.

In the end, I finished 13th overall which is my best result by far in the P/1/2 category for this race. Hopefully with a few days of recovery, I'll be flying for the Tour of Lawrence this coming weekend. There are no pictures of the cookies as promised, they disappeared quickly and efficiently, but were enjoyed by all.

Bringing It All Together

2009-06-26T12:28:00.004-06:00

Seems like the fun in my neighborhood never stops. From goofy construction and more goofy construction to new restaurant openings, there is always a source of excitement. I don't think I ever posted anything about the houses that became conjoined twins, but I stumbled upon it/them again the other day, surfing the web.

When I first saw the "improvement" from the street side, I thought to myself, "Wow! What a bunch of halfassery!" Then I found out who was responsible for the design and it all started making sense. The city got back to me regarding the project next door and it sounds like although the footprint matches the permit, the permit tech has stated what is being built is not what he approved. It should be interesting to find out the outcome of this one, especially since the first coat for stucco has been applied.

In all the drama surrounding the snow cone booth/guard tower/Dr. Who Tardis the real positive is that I have gotten to know some of the neighbors better. Two doors up, the neighbors are always on the front porch in the evening for cocktail hour. After nine years of walking past with only very brief exchanges, I made it up to the porch for a drink. It was amusing finding out their thoughts on the neighborhood, their first impressions of me when I moved in, perspectives on Herman's Hideaway concert goers, etc. It is nice to maintain the neighborly relations in an age when the trend is to enter your house through the garage, shutter the windows, and keep to yourself.

Road trip preparations are complete and I am just about ready to leave town. As long as it doesn't dump on us this weekend, it looks like it should be lovely in Wyoming. We won't have the same excitement of being in a double-wide like last year, but Brian is going to try to convince Zac to jump off the roof for entertainment purposes. I am also hoping that we don't have to do a car switch like last year when my A/C died just before the highway. I'd prefer not to spend another $1400 to have it fixed.

I also started preparations for the road trip to Lawrence next weekend. I am now fortunate to have a copy of every studio album put out by Kansas. I'm sure somebody will crack 45 miles into the state when they hear Carry On Wayward Son for the 9th time in a row, before we move onto other classics like Dust in the Wind and uh, uh . . . a little help . . . anyone?

The Real Bike to Work Day

2009-06-25T15:06:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was officially Bike to Work Day in Denver. I didn't ride my bike to work, but a bunch of other people did in the metro area. I was trying to find some compelling stories, some interesting coverage of the event, but came away from the search pages with absolutely nothing. It cracks me up how many people can only manage to ride into work one day out of the year. Bicycle commuting neophytes usually have a very positive reaction to the experience, expressing how much fun they had, how it wasn't nearly as bad as they thought it would be . . . so why not do it more often?

Preparations for the trip to Wyoming for the Dead Dog Classic continue. The field is the largest we've ever had for the P/1/2 race and like just about every other race this season, there is no shortage of talent. I've had the joy of covering the early move the past couple years in the road race. While there is some sense of accomplishment to be had from going over the summit first/alone, I'd like to be in a better position coming over it the second time which is what really matters in the end. This afternoon, I have a pre-race fitness test at the ESP labs to see how things are progressing as the season wears on. After that, I get to finish packing for the trip and more importantly finish up the road trip cookies for the weekend. What's a trip without cookies and how can you even expect to pop out a decent TT effort without the proper fuel? This weekend the featured selection is the Jumbo Chocolate Snapper, pictures to follow . . .

Damn Kids

2009-06-24T14:06:00.005-06:00

It took me long enough to get around to it, but I finally cleaned the graffiti off the garage door. In all honesty, I don't see it very often since there is no view of it except from the car as I am driving away.

I've seen far worse cover up jobs, but I'd give this a "P" for passable, on my special rating scale. I picked up some graffiti remover a few weeks back, after staring at the row of products, I selected what I thought would be best . . . Motsenbocker's Lift Off. Turns out they have a wide variety of products. Home Depot had #4 (graffiti remover), I wonder if I should have sought out #3 (ink remover). It smudged the ink a little bit and with more scrubbing, I could get the smudge off, but not all of the ink. The harder I scrubbed, the more paint started coming off, whoops. Fortunately I had some rattle can primer and got to practice my spraying technique. Unfortunately it wasn't an exact match, but see comments above regarding me caring.

Sometimes I don't get around to reading all of the articles in the paper for the day, I just skim. I didn't read the article that accompanied the picture below, because frankly I didn't care about family tensions rising when grandparents babysit.

Sameer Rafla sometimes helps out when his wife cares for their grandchildren, such as 3-year-old Quinn.

You really don't have to take it too far out of context to make the picture/caption combo highly amusing. It did remind me of the days of hanging out with my grandparents in Florida, spending all day at the pool in their complex and playing shuffleboard with anyone willing to put up with me. I'm sure there were plenty of grandpas who were very tempted to toss me back in the pool.

The Storm's A Brewin'

2009-06-23T15:23:00.003-06:00

I think I might have picked the wrong day to bike to work. First of all, Bike to Work Day isn't until tomorrow for the metro Denver area and it looks like it is really stormy in the general homeward direction.

I'd love to stick around and blog some more, but my window of opportunity is getting smaller and smaller. If you don't see me tomorrow, try checking somewhere towards the CO/KS border . . .

Riddle Me This . . .

2009-06-22T13:33:00.003-06:00

I know there have been some hard times in the real estate world, but can creative marketing still sell a "house"? I have passed this one a number of times and haven't seen much progress or intent to get crackin' but the sign, as fancy as it is, contains a few concerning issues.

It is a lovely sign, well constructed and I give it high marks for glossiness. The description of the home is pretty typical for new construction in the neighborhood. Who doesn't want his and hers wardrobes in this day and age?

The glossy factor makes a little hard to read the not so fine print at the top, but it says "available immediately" which I am finding a bit of a stretch.

And the curb appeal of which the realtor speaks just doesn't do it for me either.

I have seen some fast construction in my day. Model homes in new developments are often slammed together in a matter of weeks rather than months, but for something mid to high end and quasi custom, "available immediately" is not a very likely possibility. The phone number for the builder is on the sign if anybody would like to call and pretend to be an out of town buyer who would like to close in cash and move in next month. I'll post the full transcript of the call if you do.

Don't Eat the Cookie Dough

2009-06-19T15:20:00.005-06:00

On the way to work this morning, I heard a report on the radio about cases of E. coli being linked to Toll House cookie dough. I would have thought this would be an obvious one to most people, but do you really want to eat cookie dough that was made in a factory, spent a certain amount of time in shipping, sat in the store . . . ?

I know exactly where this bread came from. It came out of the oven nice and early this morning. I was highly motivated apparently, enough so to set the alarm for 5:05 so I could turn the oven on, get back up at 5:20 to put the loaves in, and head out the door for Dempsey's morning walk.

I'm very proud of my near perfect swirl of cinnamon and raisin this batch. I also did some tinkering with the recipe and timing. The loaves have been coming out fairly dense so I decided to let them rest overnight, covered to keep the tops from drying out.

It tastes even better than it looks. I'm sure it would make pretty incredible french toast, but I won't get to find out until Sunday at the earliest since tomorrow's race is at the ass crack of dawn in Boulder.

Things continue to grow well in the backyard, both intended and unintended. You can see the weeds are making good progress, but the geraniums are also sending out the next round of flowers. This weekend seems as good a time as any to give them their next feeding. If I survive the race and the self-inflicted suffer fest that will follow.

Horgan

2009-06-18T13:26:00.004-06:00

In preparation for Saturday's race, the Mike Horgan Hill Climb, I have been looking at pictures of big mountains and visualizing going up them quickly. As a backup plan, I have also been getting out to ride in the hills after work in the hopes that climbing skills will magically appear. As of yesterday, I was still not a climber.

My goals for the race will be simple ones, first and foremost, I will try to not urinate on myself or others. This isn't a new goal for me, but it is easily achieved, usually, and it lets me celebrate the most basic of accomplishments. Secondly, I would like to crack the top 20 in this race. I have come close in the past, but it will depend on who shows up to race on Saturday. Goal number three is to simply use the experience for building form and prepping for Dead Dog. I plan on getting to the top, taking off my number and continuing on in the hills for another few hours.

As you can see from the profile, Magnolia Road is no joke. There is no where to hide and those who can't climb will be going backwards relative to the race leaders. I am going to raise my hand right now and say, "I am not a climber" but since I race for fun anyways, why not go enjoy the scenery?

In my random internet meanderings, I came across a photo project that is an interesting juxtaposition (I really just wanted to use that word) of the fairytale world and the cold, cruel realities of everyday life. "The '...happily ever after' is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues" in Fallen Princesses. It is interesting if you read the comments to see how some people miss the point completely and take offense to the artist's commentary. I thought it was amusing . . . and another way to kill a few minutes.

Occasionally Amazed

2009-06-17T14:23:00.003-06:00

Every once in a while, my faith in humanity is restored, at least a little bit. I'll be the first to admit that I am not perfect and on occasion, I screw things up in a manner that has consequences, usually the kind that hit my wallet. My most recent failure was in renewing my vehicle registration online. Some how, I botched the account type for my ACH payment resulting in the bank rejecting the request from the State of Colorado. The DMV finance group sent me a notice that my payment failed and to release my renewal, I would need to pay in person and include a $50 "short check" fee. I went through the normal reaction cycle starting with confusion, followed by rage, then anxiety, back to rage, then a profound feeling of hopelessness. Knowing that I was dealing with bureaucracy, the feelings of rage were natural, but useless and that's where the lack of hope came in. I figured I could place a few calls to try and explain my mistake and see if I could get what amounts to a 30% penalty on my renewal waived, but also figured that finding anybody even remotely sympathetic was unlikely. Shockingly I was wrong. I called the numbers listed, talked to a real person who was willing to see what could be done . . . problem solved.

Sometimes businesses say they want your feedback and sometimes . . . they actually listen to what you have to say. I was at Moe's a few weeks back getting a bagel and some coffee on the way to work. As I was driving down the road, I took the first sip of coffee and found it to be so gross that I knew I wouldn't be drinking any more of that coffee. It tasted like my thermal mug had years of rancid coffee oil in it, but I was drinking from their paper cup. In a moment of boredom at work, I hit the "feedback" button on the Moe's site and let them know their bagels were good as usual but their coffee was beyond undrinkable. Much to my surprise I got an email back from the manager saying to introduce myself next time I stopped in so she could pick up my breakfast. I was in Moe's this week and the manager was behind the counter, I introduced myself, we talked coffee, and my bagel and coffee were on the house. The offending thermal carafes had been replaced, but the manager very frankly told me she was not yet satisfied with their new beans and wanted to know what I thought. Yup, still bad coffee, but at least it doesn't taste like rancid foulness from the bottom of an old oil barrel.

I had a very compelling conversation today about workplace activities, animal hygiene, and education. How does this all fit together? Let me tell you.

-Alright I gotta go see a cat with poop stuck to its butt cause its too fat to groom himself!
*Ewww . . .
-Well that was a thriller. I went to 7 years of school so I could shave a dingleberry off a cat's butt.

When the topic was later revisited, I came across this list of crazy looking animals. It's a good little time killer. If you still need to kill some time, I highly recommend perusing the farm/garden classifieds on craigslist . . .

For the Files

2009-06-16T15:12:00.003-06:00

There has been plenty of newsworthy fodder for the papers to pick up on as of late, be it the "unusual" ~~weather~~ economic trends or the ~~Sarah Palin v. David Letterman scuffle~~ political situation in Iran. The Denver Post must have been on some sort of editorial vacation a couple weeks back because they made one of the subjects that would have been in the strikethrough category front page news. Extra, extra, read all about it! Colorado has cougars!

I have long had a certain distaste for most forms of local news media be it the now defunct American Furniture Warehouse/Rocky Mountain News or any of the TV outlets that often turn the banal into the sensational come 10:00 PM news time. On a positive note, the Westword has a worthwhile feature pretty often and the restaurant pages are always amusing to read. The neighborhood papers are good for happenings in the hood and a great source for finding local services. In other local news, the blog-o-counter passed the 20,000 mark yesterday, thank for reading my almost daily drivel . . .

Glenwood Springs

2009-06-15T15:06:00.004-06:00

Rumors were true . . . We got to Carbondale for the time trial in time to find out that Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer would be jumping into the P/1/2 group to test out new equipment and stuff. They went fast, faster than I did, but it was still cool to see them out there, even passing going opposite directions at high speed. I went fast enough for 3rd place among the real people, 5th overall if you include the "guest" racers.

The road race was OK, but kind of a cluster with mass confusion about who crossed the nonexistent center line on the dirt road. I was the last guy to get popped going into the turn around and couldn't close the gap to the lead group in the wind. When I sat up to join the next group back, they weren't doing anything at all so the lead group was as good as gone. Little did we know, we were actually racing for 12th place.

I wouldn't call my participation in the crit "racing" but I'd say I was there for ceremonial purposes, just representin'. Brian said the average speed for the crit was 27 mph which is pretty high on a course that has corners that you should be slowing down for. I don't know if any of the sponsors were out there, but the vehicles were magneted up and the flags were flying.

We made our presence known and had a good time in general watching the races prior to our own.

The weather caught us on the way home, but the rainbows around Dotsero were very impressive.

We had to laugh at the ladies in the convertible plowing straight towards the pots of gold at the ends of the rainbow only to find out that rain usually accompanies rainbows instead of gold . . . they stopped to put the top up, when they were smack in the middle of the rainy area. Me, I just turned the windshield wipers on.

Summer Camp Redux

2009-06-12T11:10:00.003-06:00

Gone are the days of the 9-5 shift at the UNC Faculty Staff Recreation Association pool, AKA the farm. Gone are the days of day camp, sleep over camp, month long bike tours and summers jam packed with nothing by recreation and leisure. I went to some pretty dorky camps, but they were still a good time . . . I wouldn't be able to speak a lick of German had I relied solely on high school classes.

I decided to recreate the summer camp experience by creating a set of activity sessions not considered part of the core curriculum of my normal work day. This morning, I wandered over to Aspen Baking Company for a bakery tour. I wanted to see what a commercial bakery looked like so I walked in, introduced myself to the receptionist, explained that I work across the street, and moments later, I was donning a hairnet and walking through the facility with the sales manager. It is pretty cool to see production at that scale. Their proofing room was about as big as my living room and they had a refrigerated workroom for making the more delicate goodies, like croissants.

Next week's major activity will be welding class with Sonny in the hollow metal shop at work. His one requirement was that I promise not to go back up to the office crying the first time I burn myself. I see it as a highly worthwhile activity since I'll be picking up another useful skill, albeit one that I'll rarely have a chance to use, but a skill nonetheless.

I took a correspondence course last night by telephone on garage door opener diagnostics and repair. I had a terrible time yesterday trying to get the garage door to close when leaving the house. It would go down part way, stop and go back up with the lights a-flashing. Given that it was after normal business hours for Raynor Door, I got the on call repair person who gave me the quick rundown on how to figure out the problem and fix it. Not only did he want to avoid charging me $150 for a service call, but he also didn't want to cut his dinner short I suspect, given the clinking of dishware in the background. Turns out that the electronic eyes weren't staring at each other intently enough. The instruction to align them and then smack the track to "simulate the vibration of the moving door" was priceless and highly functional. Garage door opener . . . fixed!

This weekend will be the overnight trip to Glenwood Springs for the bike racing session for camp. If certain rumors are true, it will be a hard weekend of racing. Timing on the time trial is going to be tricky with a three hour drive and a 6:00 PM start time. Over on the other side of town, Joey and Shawnee have been taking the lumber jacking workshop and making fine use of Rose Bud Weiser . . .

I put in a request for some supplies from the country store, hopefully they can get that thing rolling full on Jed Clampett style, rocking chair and all. See you next week, they are playing capture the flag in the warehouse, gotta run.

Twister . . .

2009-06-11T15:16:00.002-06:00

I know the eastern plains of Colorado are adjacent to "Tornado Alley" but the daily tornado warnings are starting to get old. Every day this week I have left work only to be greeted by threatening weather, severe thunderstorms with hail and high tornado potential. Today appears to be no different, although it looks like it might be clearing out west of town . . . clearing enough to lure me out of the safety of the basement, only to get rained on.

One of my new favorite activities of late is looking up different words on the Merriam-Webster site just to hear the pronunciation. I find it very cathartic to have a nice voice available at the click of a button to curse for me. Give it a try . . .

This weekend is the Western Slope Omnium out in Glenwood Springs. We have the split squad thing going right now with Chuck and Zac in Minnesota for the Nature Valley Grand Prix, but Brian, Zak and I will be representing locally. I'm sure I'll have the full report to follow, as long as the tornadoes don't head west of the divide and get us. There is also the risk of being overwhelmed by the Ride the Rockies riders who start their "epic" adventure in Glenwood Springs this weekend as well.

Signs of the Times

2009-06-10T15:02:00.004-06:00

One of my favorite lunch time activities is going to the grocery store and grazing. The store closest to the new office is the King Soopers in Stapleton which has an incredible mix of suburban housewives/husbands and "other" which makes for outstanding people watching. I've seen some questionable signage in grocery stores before, like the religious candles with a "satisfaction guaranteed" next to the price label . . .

This one is as good as the "adult cereal" sign at the Safeway on 6th and Downing that is just asking to be stolen. Seriously though, I have no idea what constitutes adult nutrition, I walked up and down the aisle and still couldn't come up with a good answer.

Apparently not only do I have to be concerned about homicide in my neighborhood, but now it seems there's a threat of piracy.

Unfortunately there aren't really any pirates, just a wacky neighbor. This sign got tacked up on what we thought might have been a guard shack, but turns out it is a pirate hangout.

I didn't really think about it prior, but the openings at the top might be for the cannons. I haven't checked the zoning code in detail, but it's gotta fall into the same category as "trellis over front gate" . . . None of us have any concept of what the neighbor is doing yet. Rumor has it the inspector was at the house for a good long while the other day. From a construction standpoint, the windows aren't straight, the "sash" is shimmed instead of the jamb, and the structure isn't square to the street/sidewalk. I can't wait to see the stucco job . . . in my construction experience I have never seen an American do stucco . . .

Tooling around this morning, I saw the above stencil work. It is pretty similar to Banksy and visually much more interesting than the usual tags. Yeah, 303 Homiez, I'm talking to you . . .

Weekend Photos

2009-06-09T14:31:00.004-06:00

Might as well start it out with the unofficial team vehicle of the Vista Auto Group-Subaru Cycling Team. The team car/truck happens to be the one that the vehicle magnets get slapped onto for the day. Sometimes it is a VW, sometimes a Ford, sometimes it is even a Subaru. I brought out the truck because it was easy to load up in the morning.

Here's a shot of the swanky accommodations we had on site. The tent came in very, very handy later in the day. You can see Cimbura is enjoying the Sunday Times after his racing was done for the day. With the course being a full two miles, we experienced gaps in the action for about 5 minutes at a time.

Mike and Alex discuss tactics between Alex's multiple races of the day.

Coached under the principle of "to finish first, you must first finish", Alex prepares for his second race of the day.

Armed with a mimosa, Leonard prepared to finish his second biscuit of the day, while Cimbura looks on sternly.

We have track jackets, shhhhhhh! Martel gets ready for the main event, the 35+ race.

Chuck outlines the strategy which was something along the lines of "to finish first, you must first finish" . . . to which Martel responded by simply rolling up his sleeves and getting to work.

Mid-race, Martel stopped in for a beer and a biscuit, before getting back out there to help Chuck to a 2nd place finish. He didn't want to get mustard on his skinsuit . . .

From sunshine and good times to . . . ~~hell~~ hail.

Being the good sport that he is, Chip was still all smiles, despite having spent the past few laps getting pelted by marble sized, frozen projectiles.

Thanks to everybody who came out to watch, help, eat, hang out, and help some more. Chris Kopp gets an extra thumbs up for helping me load everything back into the team truck at the end of the day. He spent the better part of the day out cheering on teammates and representing well all the way around. This was one of the last "free" weekends for me until August when I'll be in full prep mode for Masters Worlds . . . it was enjoyable though.

Bike to Work Day

2009-06-08T10:39:00.004-06:00

Bike to Work Day in the Denver metro area isn't until June 24th, but I think this year, I will be able to bike to work safely without fear of life and limb since my new commute includes absolutely zero time on the bike paths. Having done a test run a few weeks back, I finally rode in for real today, on the townie bike, and found it downright pleasant. According to the cell phone GPS, the 35 minute ride was 11.05 miles, with 135' of climbing and 138' of descending. It's going to be a tough ride home with that extra 3' of climbing.

For the purpose of sheer exaggeration, I stretched/skewed the elevation profile. You can see the ascent to Capitol Hill and then the murderous climb to the high point of the day, Park Hill. The route really wasn't bad at all traffic wise, especially before 7:00. Compared to the 13.6 miles by car (in blue) and approximately 22 minutes, but up to 35 minutes in traffic, the ride is quite OK in decent weather. If the downpour/hail/tornado pattern of yesterday is ever repeated, it will make for an ugly ride home.

I was fortunate enough to get out to City Park yesterday to watch the races. Since there was no Pro/1 race, I decided I might as well make a day out of it and did some baking and prepping the night before. We had the tent and flags set up in time to catch the majority of the first race, the 35+ Cat 3. The Vista Auto Group-Subaru tent was the place to be. We had mimosas, rosemary buttermilk biscuits with roastbeef and horseradish cheddar, pecan molasses bundt cake with a bourbon glaze, fixings for shandies . . . much better way to spend the day instead of wasting it going in circles!

In the 35+ race, a race that probably contained a very high proportion of the fast guys who race locally (again, no Pro/1 race yesterday) a few early breaks got clear, but couldn't stay away. It came down to a sprint and it looked like Chuck was sitting pretty coming out of the final corner, but he couldn't quite get around Dan Schmatz going to the line. Still an impressive showing again for the team as a whole since Chuck, Randy, Chris, Scott, Duane, and Alex all got to race together. The real bummer of the day was the Cat 2/Cat 3 race which came to an anticlimactic, neutralized finish after the final five laps were in the rain/hail/thunder/lightening. Officials are put in a tough spot having to make calls that most people will find fault with, but given the fact that people made it around the corners for the previous four laps or so, it would have been nice to see a finish. Instead, no placings were given, no prizes distributed . . . just another event in a screwy Colorado road racing season.

Saturday a lovely day for the John Stenner Memorial Colorado Time Trial Championships out by DIA. As usual, the winds were variable and seemed to come from everywhere. I found myself overwhelmed by apathy going into the event and didn't feel fast prior to my 2:08 start time. Knowing that the uphill sections of the course would be into a headwind, I went out easy and wonder if I went out too easy. The most entertaining part of the race was watching another rider throw a temper tantrum (and his bike) after suffering a tire puncture 2/3 of the way through. I maintained focus and plowed on through to the finish, taking 1:15 off my time from last year to finish the 38km in 48:46. Unfortunately, that was only good enough for 5th this year.

This picture doesn't fit in anywhere for any reason, but Dempsey makes me laugh. I let him run around the backyard yesterday morning while I was loading up to go to City Park . . .

He didn't go very far, he knows his food is inside, next to the refrigerator . . .

Back to the Roots

2009-06-05T08:12:00.005-06:00

Everyday, the real news sections of the WSJ seem to get more discouraging. I mean, go economic recovery, wooo! I'm still trying to understand the shell game going on with the government, GM, and the Delphi deal, but my feeble brain can't comprehend such complexity when it comes to smoke and mirror shenanigans. Leave it to the weekend section to provide articles of interest and inspiration.

Front and center, there was an article about the increased interest from both diners and restaurateurs alike in the new spin on the good old fashioned ~~roach coach~~ lunch truck. Having done my turn on more than one construction site, I am familiar with the varying degrees of culinary excellence available via mobile dining. I have seen trucks that are merely convenience stores on wheels and I have had some of the best tacos I have ever eaten. Hats off to those putting the finer dining options on the street and finding creative ways to keep their dreams alive, hopefully "the man" doesn't start regulating this niche out of existence, after all, eating food from a cart is as old as the cart itself.

Having put the cart before the horse, a few pages deeper into the weekend section on the WSJ sports page (first color photography in the WSJ, now sports . . . thanks Rupert Murdoch, can't wait for the Fox News Section . . .) there was an article about "bush tracks" in Louisiana as the training ground for what is now a dying breed, the American jockey. I swear, everything that comes out of Calvin Borel's mouth is gold. He got on a horse at the age of 2 and his older brother, a trainer, decided he was ready to race at the age of 8. Borel on dropping out of school in the 8th grade, "It was pretty clear I wasn’t going to be no doctor or no lawyer" and on the disappearance of bush tracks, "It’s going to be real hard for them boys to come out of there without the bushes anymore."

Just for quick comparison, here's Borel back in the day on a straight bush track:

And on the track at Churchill Downs:

In all honesty, not much has changed besides jockey attire and the backdrop. Well I guess the horse is probably a couple million dollars more expensive, the entry fee is more than the $2 charged at Cajun Downs, the stakes are higher, and there are actual turns on the track. The roots of the sport and the history of the training grounds for men like Calvin Borel are fascinating. Thanks to "the man" and regulatin', you have to be 16 before you can race horses legally and the bush tracks are disappearing, meaning "the Cajun pipeline is running dry without those Sunday morning match races that followed the Saturday night cockfights."

Music maestro (for what it is worth, S.C.O.T.S. will be playing at the Gothic in Denver next Friday) . . .

Just yesterday, while catching up on posts on the Endangered Durham Blog, I came across a post with subject matter outside of Durham, NC just a little ways down Highway 70, in Hillsborough. In all likelihood, I would have never known there was another race track in Orange County besides the Orange County Motor Speedway. I have heard stories about back in the day when it was a dirt track with no fencing, but it turns out one of the original tracks used for NASCAR was back in the woods in Hillsborough.

As you can see from the satellite image, over the years, nature has reclaimed the space for its own. The outline of the track is still visible, but these days it is part of a walking path.

The grandstand and some other features are still there, slowly decaying while the urban fabric surrounding what was once Occoneechee Farm continues to develop.

Stock car racing is now far, far removed from its roots hearkening back to the days of running moonshine. Today's super speedways, like all modern sporting facilities have more amenities, more seating, more everything except character.

I highly doubt anybody will be writing a paper like this one about racing these days . . . I did a quick search but couldn't find a scientific/psychological term for nostalgia for a time in which one did not live, but I find myself experiencing a sense of fondness for some of these times gone by. "Back in the day" had its ups and downs for sure, but I miss some of the manners and mannerism that are long lost and a time when things were simply slower.

Let It Grow

2009-06-04T13:43:00.004-06:00

With all the moisture we have had lately, everything is turning lush and green. It seemed like a good time to give an update on my agricultural projects. I don't have a picture, but after a good feeding of a 10-10-10 fertilizer, the geraniums in the window boxes on the garage are getting ready for the next bunch of blooms. It has been a pleasant distraction on the way to the car in the morning, keeping up with my deadheading and making sure the plants are getting enough moisture. Not like I really want to get to work in a hurry anyways.

The great grapefruit seed experiment of 2009 continues to progress brilliantly. In the next few weeks, I will have to re-pot this little guy and do some trimming to encourage fuller, bushier growth. For whatever reason, it amuses me that the seed from my grapefruit sprouted and started to grow. I know this isn't really a stretch for nature, but . . .

The time has come for the indoor herb garden starter to move to the out of doors. Everything but the lavender sprouted and looks to be doing well. For the sake or organizing my plants, I will put the basil and cilantro in their own pots since they are annuals. Everything else will go into the window planter off the back of the house, next to the lemon thyme, sage, and rosemary. Hopefully by the end of the season, I'll be creating my culinary masterpieces with herbs freshly clipped from the comforts of the coffee room.

Wait . . . "Why do you not want to go to work?" you ask . . . Rumor has it that the mold sampling is complete and the full report from the environmental specialist is ready to go. Refer back to the "all the moisture lately" part and consider what you know about mold.

The home testing kit is showing the mold thriving under current conditions. I wonder what flavor it is . . .

Let's Get Ready to Ruuuuuumble!!!

2009-06-03T13:08:00.003-06:00

There's all sorts of hubbub about Microsoft's new web search tool, Bing. Besides a stupid name, it has a prettier picture on the home page compared to Google's plain white screen, but that isn't really an important feature. I played around a little bit and it seems like classic Microsoft, full of features that rapidly become nuisance when it starts doing things for you on its own that you don't necessarily notice.

I thought I'd do a little more side by side comparing and depending on the search, the two engines come out with different or vastly different results.

I have to give Google the edge right now for a couple of reasons. One, it resizes as needed so everything fits in the window, whereas Bing does not. Two, it seems to have more logical order of listing of results on the first page than Bing, plus it includes images and video without having to go to the tabs at the top. Google/Bing your name and see what happens . . . who knows more about you in that oh so frightening way? I look forward to Google and others getting into the operating system side of the game where Microsoft has been relatively dominant. It would be nice to have options for more streamlined systems that don't bog down and that might actually be more useful.

The Colorado State Time Trial Championships are right around the corner and preparation is coming along swimmingly. I had high hopes that last year would be the final year on the course out by DIA, but no such luck. Part of my prep work has been subjecting myself to long intervals on the bike that simulate the conditions of the 38k effort. Last night, I put in a trainer ride to stay dry and to try to approximate the boredom I would experience for the 50 minute effort. Tonight, I will be riding up the I-70 frontage road on the TT bike, in position to . . . uh, simulate riding the TT bike while on a road made from asphalt. The truth of the matter is, I have done enough time trials now, I know what to expect and I know what to do in the days leading to the race. In the end, I will do as well as I can do, but there isn't much mystery or magic to it anymore. Thanks to advances in science, hopefully, by next year if they don't have a change in venue, somebody will be able to keep my brain alive outside my body while the rest of me races.

It All Falls Apart

2009-06-02T08:01:00.003-06:00

It comes as no surprise to me that the world is a relatively stupid place where resources, physical and intellectual, are wasted on a daily basis. I still found bits of the WSJ's "The Latest Buzz on . . . Phone Culture" piece more than disturbing. Let me set the stage by saying that I watched the movie Idiocracy last night. In this film, Mike Judge gives a view of the future of the country as a dystopian society dominated by total and utter dumbassery thanks to the trend of the moron stock breeding like rabbits while the intelligent population fails to reproduce.

Narrator: As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits. Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as time went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. A dumbing down. How did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species.

Are we really headed in a direction that could result in humanity resorting to soundbites and advertising slogans for language? Let's start with the latest craze in Japan, more virtual experiences . . . you can now have virtual boy/girlfriends that "live" on your electronic device of choice and pop up at intervals to tell you how great you are. Even better, you can "run" a virtual version of the Tokyo Marathon . . . so the things you "can't do in the real world, you can do vicariously through avatars," except that with a few exceptions here or there, everybody could run in the real world. Along the same line of thought, Woodway is coming out with the EcoMill treadmill, which thanks to superior technology allows people to workout "using zero electricity". I haven't done the math yet, but compare the carbon footprint of manufacturing such a machine and shipping it to the end user with the carbon footprint of stepping outside and running on a revolutionary new surface called "the ground" . . . I'm just saying . . .

I am not an opponent of technological innovation, but it seems like resources could be used a little bit more intelligently. I understand where you see seemingly stupid decisions being made there is often a reason behind it and that reason is most often money. Maybe we are destined to have the great scientific minds of the future focus on the critical issues like hair loss and erectile dysfunction although if we can reduce the human experience to an infinite set of virtual experiences does it really matter? I have been pondering a new career and the idea just came to me, I could focus on liability issues of virtual experience because you know people are still going to sue people or should that be "people" . . .