Homecoming

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 176#, 11% BF (uh oh)

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 173#, 11.5% BF

 

Happy Birthday, Dad!

 

Gym Monday night, then I came home and downloaded a few new albums & ripped a few old CD's. Dinner at home: bacon-potato-spinach fritatas and some ginger beer, while playing with the computer and the other gizmos, and hanging with Anne.

 

Media Time: One CD I ripped was my old favorite, Fu Manchu's King of the Road. I got it in 2000 or thereabouts -- I remember listening to it at the 2000 24 Hours of Snowshoe --  so it must have come out some time before that, like back in the stone age, before DVD's/videos and MP3's -- or at least that's I always assumed. I knew that there were a few "bonus" MP3 tracks, which magically appeared when I first played the CD in my new car, but last night was the first time I ever put the disk into a computer, and I found a bunch of videos to go along with the music. How cool is that?

 

So I'm checking out the one particular music video, and it reminded me of one of my favorite teen movies, Over the Edge (which isn't too surprising: there's a song "Over the Edge" on the album), and the video, which was actually for a different song, looked like a 3-minute homage to the movie, plus concert footage. That gets me thinking: a little googling, and I find out that the movie was based on actual events that happened in 1974, to the kids at this middle school, in Foster City, CA (which reminds me quite a bit of Fangoso Lagoons). I'm not surprised that it's reality-based, I liked the movie for its realistic take on early teen life in the still-developing suburbs.

 

A bunch of us were talking the other day about "Blue Velvet," probably because of Dennis Hopper, and I was the only one who said I didn't really like the movie all that much. I guess I'm belatedly defending my position here, but what really bothered me was that whole "our hero discovers the seamy underside of his wholesome apple-pie town" thing -- there were plenty of creepy psychos like Frank back in my own "Over the Edge" years, they were the ones who sold drugs (wholesale, ie in bulk) to schoolkids; the only difference between Frank, and David the ex-football player in "Dazed and Confused," my other favorite teen movie, is about 5 years, and the least believable character in the movie was Jeffrey, back from college, or maybe from living under a rock.

 

Reading: Speaking of Pynchon, I just started on Inherent Vice, the next on my to-do list of Christmas/birthday books; it seems to be in the Crying of Lot 49 or Vineland mold, maybe even a cross between the two, a 60's-era California detective story. Pretty good so far.

 

Last night was "steady effort power intervals" at Sals, followed by Two Brew Tuesday. The ride was OK, but as I expected, actual trails are much less suitable to heart rate-based interval training than, say, the controlled environment of the towpath. But, I was heartened to see I that rode better and faster there than previous efforts: typically the "warmup" ride from home to the bottom lot on Constitution takes 31 minutes, and even though I dialed it back a few times, I did it yesterday in 28. I've suspected for a while that most of my recent problems in the technical stuff were actually fitness rather than skill issues, but even so, I was more than a bit worried that since so much of my training was on either the road or the towpath, I was afraid I might have been busting my ass only to be going backward. (I also went up the short climb on Public Rd at 9.5 mph rather than 7.5 mph, with the same level of perceived effort, so I can see that things are starting to work. But that's road.) Things took a wrong turn when I got a flat tire, knocking me off my schedule (running late already, since I started late), and I ended up racing the last of the sunlight to get out of the woods.

 

Home, shower... I caught up with the crew (Anne with Emmi, Donna with Erin & Rick, Rob, Larry, Debbie & Kevin, and Mike) over at Brew Works. Good times, but it was a later night than I planned.

 

 And Ben's coming home today -- I got the dates wrong. Anne and I swapped cars for the day; she's going to pick him up at JFK. He's been gone a year, hard to believe.

 

 

Swan Singer Blues: Should I Wear My Trousers Rolled?

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 11% BF

 

Good weekend, third three-day weekend in a row...

 

Friday was beautiful, if warm, and I got in a decent training ride on the towpath before at-home chores and road-trip errands overtook us (we hit the dry cleaner, and Dan's Camera City, and Bike Line, and the Allentown Farmer's Market, all in one fell swoop); later in the evening we went over to Greg & Judy's for a nice BBQ. Us, Eric & Kris, Mike K, and Eric & Janna, a crowd I sort of lost touch with this summer so it was really nice to see them all. Early night though.

 

Saturday was Bobby's fourth annual, and final, McSorley's bus trip, though since it was a much smaller crowd we were in a big rented van instead of a bus. (Bob's about to give up beer, and in fact all carbonated beverages, for medical reasons; this trip was his swan song and last hurrah.) Me and Anne, plus the usual gang: Bob, Ryan & Janelle, Lee, Perry, Lou, Bob's son Brian and a friend of his, and Luke who I met for the first time on the trip, and another of Bob's friends as the designated driver. We got into the city around noon, hit McSorley's for a few hours, then escaped to the Hop Devil Grille for a while. Dinner was at a sort of Scottish pub (the St Andrew?), and we stopped at a place in Little Italy (Ferarra's?) for espresso and cannolis on the way home. Technically, I guess that this was an early night too, we were home before midnight, but we'd been going strong since morning... Awesome time. (Photos posted, knock yourselves out!)

 

Sunday was a mellow day, but it had its moments. We went to Meeting in the morning, something I'd never done before, though I had been to a Christmas pageant once. (Quaker meetings are pretty unique: mostly, everyone just sits in silent meditation, though people are occasionally inspired to say something.) Pretty cool, and though I don't think I'll be calling myself a Quaker anytime soon, if Anne wants to go again I'd be up for it. Blue Sky breakfast with Donna, then we hung out at home, watching the rain come pouring down -- it got really nice after that, so I snuck in a decent 2-hour road ride before sunset. Got home, found out that Emmi was on her way home, and "about an hour from Bethlehem." Well! That was a really nice surprise, she was able to get away a little early. Dinner with her, then she went over to her dad's and we hit Brew Works with Donna.

 

(By the way, Ben comes home tomorrow.)

 

I have to call the optician, I have two pairs of glasses on order and I expected to hear something this weekend. Bifocals. I grow old.

 

Not Seen Nothing Like The Mighty

Morning weigh-in: 172.5#, 11% BF

Friday off, sunny day -- I'll be hitting the trails as soon as breakfast is settled in (and some chores get done). I have a few errands for later in the day, but I want to take advantage of the nice weather.

Queenie: Lotta stuff about Sally Quinn out there lately, but this one's my favorite.

Monster: Looks like Selene is kicking butt in the Trans-Sylvania Epic MTB stage race. I knew she would...

Off to do my thing.

Sweat Loaf Die Die Die

Morning weigh-in: 173#, 10.5% BF

 

Did an "over/under" interval ride last night, again on the towpath. These were more difficult than last week's routines, requiring greater effort but also a greater amount of fine-tuning, tighter control of that effort. Still, it was a fast and fun night on the bike. Good soundtrack too, some uptempo Jonathan Richman and Avett Brothers on the way out, and I caught some real barn-burners on the way back -- until I was flying along, jamming to some WT lizard-brain anthem from the Butthole Surfers, and almost almost rode into some family types riding along. After that I just felt dirty...

 

Burnt Chrome: Speaking of music, on the way in this morning I saw a bumper sticker for The Slamhounds, a band I'd never heard of but they sure had a cool name -- or would have, maybe 20 years ago when Count Zero was still fairly fresh. Now, even if it's cooler than, say, Straylight Run, the name does smell just a little bookwormy. (Of course, the term does have another meaning -- and now I feel dirty all over again...) I hear that Neuromancer may finally be made into a movie, and the producers promise "no Keanu," but it may already be too late. Life goes on.

 

By the way, I posted some more photos on Flickr the other day, stuff on my phone from my parents' visit. I am almost caught up with my droid photos; the last ones (from Dirt Fest) will go up sometime this weekend, hopefully. I am also almost -- almost! -- reconciled now to the fact that I lost my camera, and will probably replace it tomorrow. Tonight is the gym.

 

That Summer Feeling

Morning weigh-in: 172.5#, 10.5% BF

 

Week two of the training, and I am feeling like fiery death -- at least, I've been really, really tired and sore when I get up, but that's how I usually (used to) feel on summer weekends... It's actually going well though, I seem to be transitioning well enough into training mode, and though it's too soon to see results, I have seen some payoff from my focus on higher pedal cadence, especially on hills. My biggest problem so far has been scheduling: other commitments, even other rides have come along and forced changes to the routine, which luckily is meant to be at least somewhat flexible. The intensity is ramping up this week, we'll see how it all shakes out.

 

Great weekend, the summer season really started off with a bang. We hit the Bookstore Friday night after a towpath ride (and dinner at home -- they have no food for me there), with Donna, and Erin, and also Doug & Lori. Lots of fun but it was a late night -- Saturday was supposed to be morning yoga, but instead we slept in... A Blue Sky breakfast (with the previous evening's partners in crime), then a BBQ outside Tamaqua later in the day, and we finished the evening at Brew Works, where we said our goodbyes to bartender Amy, who is getting married. Big crew: Donna & both her kids, Liz, Debbie, plus Spanky & his daughter later on.

 

Sunday was a charity ride in Jim Thorpe, organized by my friend (and former neighbor, cancer survivor) Mike B. Beautiful day, awesome scenery -- we were on Broad Mountain, and the mountain laurel is now finally starting to bloom. We stopped in at Anne's mom's house for another BBQ, then went home and napped. Yesterday we watched Anne's nephew race at the Tour of Somerville, then did a road ride of our own, out near Hellertown with our friend Paul, followed by one last BBQ at Paul & Ann's. No nap, but we were in bed by 9:30.

 

By the way, I ripped a bunch of old Jonathan Richman CD's and put them on my droid this weekend, probably saved the songs just days before the CD's self-destructed.

 

So Far So Good

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 10% BF

 

Rolling Just To Keep On Rolling: I started that "Time Crunched Cyclist" training program this week. Monday was an hour of "endurance miles" on the towpath, and last night was the first interval night, three 10-minute sessions just below my anaerobic threshold in a 90-minute ride. (That was also on the towpath, where, since the surface and grade are fairly constant, I find it easier to control my level of effort; eventually I will have to step up to workouts on "real" rides, but not yet.) If anything, the endurance miles workout was the harder one, on my legs if not my cardio, as I tried to maintain the high cadence (high for me) recommended by this program. Today is a scheduled rest day, so I'm taking a much-neglected yoga class tonight, and tomorrow's workout is getting rescheduled to Friday so I can hit the gym.

 

This American Death: This story is so sad, the poor guy was lost in his own crazy and swirling the bowl, until he finally took out two traffic cops, his son, and himself. I have to agree with Josh Marshall though, this whole story is very Americana -- the final shootout in a Wal-Mart parking lot was a nice touch too.

 

Speaking Of Pennsyltucky Gothic: The weekend at Raystown was pretty nice. I'd post pictures, but I think I may have lost my camera somewhere... Anne and I stayed in a "cabin," which was really a big shed with bunk beds and a kitchenette, with Doug & Lori, Eric, and Donna. (The connecting cabin housed Rich, Heckler Mike, Jay, and Warren; Chris and his family were in a neighboring cabin; Bill & Courtney had their daughter, new dog and an RV nearby; ditto Kris and his family and also Bob & Karen -- we had a pretty big contingent at our campground, especially when you added in the crowd of little kids.) I got in a couple of rides, with Anne and with Donna, who both found the Allegrippis trails very suited to their taste. Things were not so tasteful when the bachelor tent became a hotbed of booze-arrested development, and the rain was a bit of a bummer, but all in all, the first Dirt Fest was a success.

 

(Click here for a more harrowing account of the weekend.)

 

Reading: I am working my way through my Christmas/birthday gifts. I just finished William Gibson's All Tomorrow's Parties, and have been digging into those training and nutrition books I got; next up is the latest Pynchon -- or maybe not, I got a package in the mail yesterday: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, the final novel in that Swedish thriller/mystery series. Thanks Mom & Dad! Those books are pure cheese, like a Tom Clancy novel you'd buy at the airport, and they are just as impossible to put down.

 

This Just In: Catholics celebrate 50 years of The Pill.

 

And now I am all caught up! Back to sleep...

 

Pure Enjoyment

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 175.5#, 9% BF

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 173.5#, 10% BF

 

I had a great ride Monday night, riding at Sals with Anne and Liz; we went in at Reeb (made the difficult initial climb, in front of a bunch of other riders -- sweet!) and cruised the St Luke's trail down to the middle lot, returning on the Quarry. We were out for only about an hour, but we beat the rain and we saw some really beautiful evening light in the woods, and then Anne and I went out for dinner at Brew Works (we got a bit wet on the way home).

 

Last night was the primary election -- buh-bye, Arlen! -- and I had a few chores to do so there was no exercise; ditto tonight (except a short bike ride), we have to get our act together for the weekend, pack, go food shopping, etc.

 

Two more days, then Raystown here we come!

 

The Best Of All Disinfectants

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 10.5% BF

 

Beautiful weekend, which started with a quiet Friday night at home, continued with a long, gruelling, and very fun "adventure ride" in Jim Thorpe, followed by a fun night on the town, and ended yesterday with a very pleasant visit by from parents. I posted the ride photos on Flickr, as well as saved photos from my old cell phone, and I'll be working on yesterday's photos tonight, so enjoy what I put up, and stay tuned for more!

 

Strangely enough, one of my cell phone pics -- a lo-fi shot of some Iron Pigs home game -- is now a runaway hit, with 41 views since I posted it late last night.

 

Skin Situation: Almost normal. I think the sunlight does it more good than any other therapy except a steroid pack. My legs cleared up dramatically (not counting scratches from brambles and other mishaps) after Saturday's "Seven Hours In The Sun" ride, and the feet, after spending yesterday in sandals, have improved as well.

 

Get Back In The Boat! I had to do some MTO stuff for work last week, so I decided to dust off that MTO program I wrote last year, and compare how its results stacked up against the official take-off. Unfotunately, it turned out that I'd lost interest in the program last year, after deciding to modify it. I'd changed a bunch of things partway, rendering it unusable, but never finished the change; the program basically spouted gibberish. I was able to fix it, or at least undo the unfinished upgrade. My results: pretty much in line with expected results, and I saved the latest working in case I ever need it again.

 

Tonight if it's nice enough, I'll be doing a towpath ride with Anne; otherwise it's yoga: tomorrow will be a rainy day, perfect for the gym.

 

Stability Quest

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 9% BF

 

No exercise last night: I had a meeting with a financial planner from my bank after work. Nice enough guy, but I'm not sure I really agreed with his advice, especially regarding the chunk of money he wants me to play with -- TIPS, hedging against inflation with the stock market, blah blah -- I couldn't help but note that this block of cash, parked in the bank and doing nothing, easily "outperformed" many of my other investments over the past few years. I don't know what I'll do yet, maybe I will park some of it in CD's or something, and some in those TIPS, we'll see. I don't need to go through this guy though, and I'm not sure how I feel about helping my bank feed its gambling addiction with my money. God I feel so bourgeois.

 

Wash Them With Your Tears, Dry Them With Your... Looks like they're collecting local haircut clippings to send to the Gulf, to help sop up oil. I've heard it said that the dimensions of this disaster won't really sink in until the oil hits land, but my heart is already sick, it's obvious that this is the end of a lot of things.

 

Anyway, I met Anne at Wired where she was hanging with the knitting crowd. We left there with Donna and her daughter, and had dinner at Brew Works. Tonight is the towpath with Anne.

 

 

 

Big Breezy Weekend

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 175.5#, 10% BF

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 175.5#, 9% BF

 

Nice ride last night, me and Anne at Sals. I tried to use the old doubletrack by the RR tracks, but there was too much deadfall & overgrowth, and so we hiked up the power line to the lower red (St Luke's) trail. Kinda spooky, we had to pass the old hobo camp, which seemed deserted but there was definitely the feeling of a presence, raise the hairs on the back of your neck kind of thing going on.

 

I think I'll be going along the old doubletrack in the next week or so with loppers, and making sure it's open -- we backtracked, and were able to ride from Constitution to the YCC shelter without a problem; it's probably just one 50-yard section that's blocked. That would make a nice intermediate trail. It's an eye-opener sometimes, riding there with Anne, who may be an offroad neophyte but she's a pretty strong and experienced rider otherwise -- obstacles that give her pause, that I would discount (after 20 years of MTB) when rating a trail's difficulty, remind me that we might be a bit too parochial in our approach to the trail system there. Groupthink and all that, and if we don't provide opportunities for beginner-friendly riding there, eventually some outside authority will provide them by dumbing down the trails we have built.

 

Not much riding otherwise lately: it was an extremely windy weekend, with a lot of tree pollen in the air, and I/we blew off just about all heavy-duty outdoor activity. (We were supposed to go riding with my uncle on Saturday, but the morning thunderstorms dissuaded him from the drive out. Good call, since the wind made riding inadvisable even if it looked like a nice and sunny day.) Anne got beer kegging equipment, and we spent Saturday night (and Sunday morning) learning how to use it, and Sunday afternoon we did our only riding -- out to Coca Cola Park, maybe 3-4 miles away. Me and Anne, Donna & her family, Debbie & Kevin, we sat on the grass and watched the game. I napped in the sun, then went home and napped until bedtime.

 

New Toy Alert: The new fridge is coming today, not sure if that counts as a "new toy" (black finish and I would have said yes, but it's stainless steel), but we did also get the keg stuff, including a CO2 tank with pressure regulator, on Saturday, and I also got new computer speakers that I can use with the Droid in the basement. I seem to be in spend mode with the bike too: I got a new rear derailleur for the Turner, and a new rear tire for the singlespeed, and I'll be picking up some new bike shorts tonight, not a moment too soon...

 

 

Slacker 2: Electric Boogaloo

Wow, one week later and here I am, back in Wired with the laptop... No official weigh-in right now, but my weight's been all over the map this past week, from a low of 172# on Sunday afternoon to a high of 179# on Tuesday; last I checked was Thursday when it was 174#.

Michaux was a lot of fun, but I was totally exhausted at the start: I almost bagged the race after a short warm-up, and it wasn't until the second half -- after mile 10, and also the part that was on the old familiar trails -- when really felt alive. My final time was around 3:20 or so, and my ride time was more like 3:07. (My race data can be found here, and the official race results are here.) They don't show DNF's, and I think there were a lot of them, but I was 19th out of 21 finishers (among the old men). Not bad, considering, and at least now I know where I stand.

I went to a dietitian this week, she looked over my situation and gave me some food advice (mostly about going out, eating at home is working fine for now), and she also told me I might be anemic... I'm not sure about that, but I think she gave me a good case of hypochondria.

Slacker

Morning weigh-in: 173#, 12% BF (wow)

I'm at Wired Cafe. I'd made a bowl of quinua flakes for breakfast but I was out of coffee at home, so I cleaned up and headed downtown, where I saw Joe G and his dogs outside the cafe, hung with him for a bit. (The summer scene on Main Street is definitely rebuilding itself, Army Jay just walked in.) It's a beautiful day, sunny and hot, and the walk up was really nice with the warm sun on my feet -- busted out the Tevas; now I'm sitting inside like a mushroom, but I'll be done here soon: got a morning mug or three, and bought half a pound of beans for home. (By the way, it looks like they're almost ready to open that Kenyan restaurant in the back, and the menu looks awesome. I can't wait!)

Rode last night at Sals, but it was a terrible night: I rode like shit, hooked up with some friends (Eric & Jaime) but I was way off the back, and I was truly hurting on anything in the least bit difficult. I don't mind being behind, I am usually nowhere near the front in the first 10 miles anyway, but last night, if there were more than 10 miles to ride I don't think I would have even made it to mile eleven...

Possible causes? Well, my lungs were full of butter from all the springtime plant activity, and that radical drop in weight might indicate nutritional issues, but I think the real problem is that I have been doing too much lately, with too many workout days in a row even if it's not all biking. So, today I am taking off completely, no yoga or trailwork or anything like that. With any luck I'll be at least somewhat recovered before tomorrow's race at Michaux -- I only hope yesterday was not some foreshadowing for tomorrow's wake-up call.

Anyway, we hit Tulum for dinner, then Doug & I went later to the Bookstore where we saw a neat old-timey kind of band (Midnight Society?) playing a sort of ragtime-like "hot jazz." We seemed to have bumped into a new subculture there too, lots of folks were wearing vintage clothes: suits with bow ties, and dresses from the thirties and forties. The band was dressed that way, but most bands there go heavy on speakeasy-era clothes/music; maybe these people were fans, or maybe it's the new thing over there, I don't know. Maybe we'll see tonight when we go back -- Doug's leading a VMB ride at Fell Mountain today, then there's a movie at Cutters Bike Shop tonight, and I think people are heading over to the Bookstore afterward. Sweet! I just have to make sure it's an early night.

Whelp, I'm almost out of here. My next task is laundry, then I am off to buy a birdbath before starting to prep for tomorrow.

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 177.5#, 9% BF

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 177#, 12% BF

Morning weigh-in (Friday): 175#, 10% BF

 

Anne's out of town, visiting Emmi in Knoxville, heading down with her buddies Lois & Ann in true road-trip style. In the meantime, I am on my own: I hit the gym last night, came home and ate random crap from the fridge, spent the evening in the ol' basement bike shop, and then plopped myself in front of the computer and stayed up too late.

 

Tonight I'll be riding Sals, then probably grabbing dinner on Southside before coming back across the river for some Brew Works / Starfish nightlife, or maybe Rippers (or Joe's or whatever). Many of the other ladies are away this weekend, and I was hoping to instigate some "Boys' Night Out" kind of pub crawl, but I think The Boys all came down with lumbago or something.

 

Tomorrow I may hit an early morning yoga class, then come back to help out at the Sals tree planting. Riverfusion is tomorrow too, and somewhere in there I also want to buy a birdbath -- it'll be a busy day, a "selfish day," because Sunday is Michaux. Maybe I should take it easy tonight too. Nah...

 

Bigger Than Life

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 9% BF

 

RIP Floyd Dominy, 1909-2010. I only know him from from Cadillac Desert, but he sure loomed large there. It's funny, if I had been born maybe 20 years earlier, with only slightly differing sets of circumstances he could have been my nemesis, or my employer.

 

Meantime, Boobquake. Seriously, Boobquake? How the $#%& did I miss this? (Especially ironic since Sunday night I heard a tirade about the inconvenient bounciness of overlarge boobs, from their owner -- she's not much more than an acquaintance either. I was sitting with the ladies, and sometimes I think the ladies forget I'm not really one of them...) Anyway, results: Taiwan, 6.9, not bad.

 

Hit the gym last night, and tonight will be yoga, once again a class/teacher I've never taken before, followed by Two Brew & Tacos Tuesday. Tomorrow should be nice, so I'll probably be riding from work. I am now about on schedule for my revised weight loss plan.

 

 

How Sweet It Is

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 9% BF

 

Good weather makes for great weekends... I had off Friday, and we slept in (sometimes that's the best luxury I know), then ran some errands: Allentown Farmer's Market, Cutters bike store, laundry, etc, and then I went up to Camelback and rode with Rich and Joe and the crew. (What an awesome set of trails!) We rode literally until it was too dark to see, then I raced back to the valley, and Anne & I caught a couple of good bands in Easton.

 

Saturday was more outdoor fun, sort of: we did the CAT ride from their office over to Southside for the festival and chili contest -- it was a costume ride, and the ladies made their theme "Heels on Wheels," finding the biggest heels, and hottest skirts (!) they could for the ride -- then parked the bikes at the Wildflower and hit all the local chili being served in the street, as well as the cold beers inside the pubs, $2 dollar margaritas, burritos at Tulum... When things started winding down, a bunch of us crossed the river and did a towpath ride, finishing just in time to beat the rain. Anne and I went home and took a quick nap before the evening's festivities, from which we did not awake until Sunday, so we missed a good party at the Funhouse but I was pretty happy. Yesterday we visited Anne's mom for her birthday and went out to dinner, but otherwise it was just a lazy, rainy Sunday.

 

It's raining, so tonight I'm hitting the gym.

 

 

Tonic In D Minus

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 12% BF

 

Well, that was definitely what the doctor ordered! I hit that yoga class last night and it felt great, though I was surprised at how strenuous it seemed, especially for what I thought was a beginner-oriented class. I didn't remember that part, I think I must be way out of shape... New teacher, new to me at least, since she's actually been there quite a while, I just never happened to take any of her classes, and it was fun to see a new (to me!) perspective on things.

 

Speaking of "what the doctor ordered:" I talked to my doctor's office the other day, and got the final and long-awaited blood test results: my Vitamin D3 levels are low (normal test value is 60-80 in whatever units, and I'm at 28), so I need to take vitamin drops for a while. I picked some up at the health food store, took a few drops, and -- I felt 100% better within hours! I wonder if that was the mystery missing nutrient I was thinking about the other day.

 

Happy Earth Day! I am not doing much about it today, but there is a Bethlehem cleanup on Saturday, followed by a CAT group ride, followed by the Southside Chili Contest (with musical guests Trouble City All-Stars), followed by the Great White Caps at the Funhouse -- I better walk the bike home...

 

Tonight is the gym, and we were tentatively planning an evening at Porters but I think that's been pushed back until tomorrow night, when we can also catch the Trouble City All-Stars at Pearly Bakers.

 

 

But If You Try Sometimes, You Might Find...

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 10.5% BF

 

Great ride last night, beautiful weather, and I think I discovered my new "standard route," at least the one I ride after work. As I watch the passing thunderstorms outside my window right now, I'm thinking that getting out yesterday was definitely the right move. Tomorrow is the gym, so I'll be going to yoga tonight, first time in a while and we'll find out how stiff I've become...

 

Didn't Realize I Was So Cutting Edge! Looks like the Droid just got a ringing endorsement: Steve Jobs said that the iPhone store will not sell porn apps, and if you want porn, or if you want your kids to get porn, you should get an Android phone. (I saw this on Slashdot, where the general consensus seems to be that that porn is easily available on the iPhone, including some things specifically marketed for it, it's just that the the Apple store itself won't sell adult-oriented applications -- unless you count the Playboy app -- and meantime, you can't get actually get "porn apps" from Google's Android Market either, although, unlike in the Apple/iPhone universe, Google is not the only source for Android applications.) Well, clutch my pearls and think of the children! For some reason that reminded me of this...

Beano, Comes The Hunger

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 177#, 11% BF

Morning weigh-in (Friday): 178#, 10.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 178.5#, 10.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 178#, 10% BF

 

A little slip, a little slide... Actually, that wasn't so bad, considering that last week was a bit of a washout: cold, sometimes rainy, and I just blew off riding for the weekend. We hit The Bookstore on Thursday night (but the only food there I could/would eat was a $2.00 pickle) hanging with Donna & Andrew and also Lori P, and Friday was a mini-pubcrawl through Southside, but dinner was Indian food at home. Saturday was a visit to Porters (with pot roast at home first), where we saw an old friend who'd moved to Florida (and also an awesome band), Sunday morning was oatmeal & bacon, and I forget what dinner was...

 

Last night was chili, and today is chili for lunch. Never thought I'd say it, but I'm staring to get sick of chili. Oatmeal too. I am building up a craving for something salty-crunchy-gloppy-cheesy -- I would kill for a cheese steak right about now -- and I suspect that the craving has less to do with "forbidden food nostalgia" than with some actual nutritional lack in my diet. I am going to see a dietitian pretty soon; I have a name and number, and a referral. Meantime, I am becoming a big fan of potato chips, the only thing I can eat in the office snack machine.

 

More Droid: What I did with my non-bike time this weekend was park myself in front of the laptop. I went through my contact lists, merged duplicate entries (phone and email lists are no longer separate things), weeded out incorrect or unused numbers/addresses, and so on; I'm now down to about 180 actual contacts from the 400 or so I had when I started.

 

I also put a lot of my CD's into RhythmBox on the laptop -- a bit of a hassle since there seems to be an ongoing RhythmBox vs CD player issue: plenty of questions/complaints found on The Google, but no answers -- and then dumped them onto the phone. I don't have as much music as some, but now I can hold my head high because at least my play time can now be measured in days. Ear phones and I listen while riding, aux jack and I have my tunes in the car.

 

Last night was the towpath, and tonight is a road ride from work. It's beautiful outside today, and the next few days might not be as nice so I thought I'd front-load this week's miles a bit.

 

 

Some Days You Can't BUY A Break

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 10% BF

 

I've been slowly shifting back the time I leave for work in the morning, and now I find myself habitually on the edge of being late, so yesterday I set my new phone's alarm clock to ring at 6:00 AM (absolute, final, no-more-snooze-button wake up time) and at 7:00, when I have to leave the house. The wake-up call comes in as planned, sounding like the crack of doom, and I get up. Doop de doo, do what I have to, which includes grabbing bike & gear for a ride after work, and I am out the door just as the second alarm sounds. So far so good, and once I cross the bridge I take a right instead of a left -- onto a smaller road, less traveled and fewer lights, I figure it'll cut a few minutes off my time except I come around the bend and... ROAD CLOSED. Gaaaa!! A quick right and left, and I am back on my original route, only a few cars behind my old place.

 

So we're all driving along, working our way through the traffic lights on Southside, and the parade gets caught at one of the last ones; when the car in the cross street gets the green it peels out and tears around in a big circle, smashing into the side of a car several lengths ahead of me -- a total POW! CRUNCH! kind of hit, crumpling both cars at the impact point, though luckily no one got hurt. I and everyone else call 911, and the cops are there in about a minute, and it's really only a few minutes more before things start moving again... my "shortcut" put me far enough back in the parade that I wasn't the one who got hit, but once again (and after the usual slowpoke shenanegans on 78) I was just a minute late to work.

 

Phone Update: I love my Droid. I've been getting all sorts of apps for it, including a bar code scanner, music recognition, a sky map, etc, all of it old hat to Blackberry/iPhone users I'm sure, but I'm having a blast with all my new-to-me gizmos. Music has been especially satisfying, since it turned out to be ridiculously easy to sync my laptop music with the phone.

 

Beautiful day today, and I'll be doing a road ride from work. The gym lands on rainy days this week (yesterday and tomorrow), and hopefully Friday will be nice enough to do a Round Valley ride after work.

 

Tuesday Morning After

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 177.5#, 10% BF

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 177.5#, 10.5% BF

 

Things are trending downward, but I did a lot of eating this weekend as well as a lot of riding, so when I stepped on the scale I was worried about which one was winning the race... Awesome weekend, best birthday weekend ever.

 

We stayed in Thursday night, even though I had Friday off -- I had a lot of new books to read, but I fell asleep within the first few pages of All Tomorrow's Parties, which only meant that we could get a good start to Friday morning's errands. (OK, we slept in, but still.) Ran around for a good part of Friday: banking, shopping, then Anne took me over to the Verizon store and got me a Droid -- sweet!

 

Later in the afternoon -- strange how the day just flew -- we got in a towpath ride with Debbie on her new bike. This was my old Super-V, which had sat in a shed for years (unused, disassembled and partly cannibalized), until I had to deal with it as part of the move; what I did was refurbish it and give it to Deb, and Friday was the maiden voyage. It's funny: I used to love that bike, but I hadn't even thought about it in years, and now giving it to Deb and seeing her enjoy it was as good as getting a present of my own.

 

I had to go over to the tax place (Broad street, a short walk) in the evening, and on the way home I stopped in at Brew Works;  Anne met me there and we then went to the Starfish -- which we closed -- and then the Apollo -- which we also closed. Granted, they both close before midnight, but I was impressed. A great day!

 

Saturday was another late start, and another shopping trip, this time to the Farmer's Market, then home, got some things cooking, and then it was time for a road ride: Anne and I went down to Reigelsville and did a loop on the river roads, maybe 33 miles total and a beautiful if somewhat chilly day. Home again, some more cooking and cleaning and then we had a few peeps over for dinner. Ribs & beans, and salads of various sorts, and plenty of beers -- we had some already but I bought more, and everyone else brought some as well, plus vodka -- we are now swimming in booze -- and some really cool friends.

 

Sunday was another slow morning (I had no complaints), but it was another beautiful day outside. Anne went on a road ride with Deb and Kevin, and Donna and Andrew, and I started with them but I pulled off after a bit and went over to Sals, maiden voyage with my music on the Droid, where I ran into Doug and Eric and rode with them for a while. I felt sluggish and slow again; probably fatigue, and eventually bagged Sals in favor of some long slow towpath distance. Needless to say, that did nothing for my energy levels...

 

Yesterday was a rest day (also leftovers), tonight is the gym followed by Two Brew Tuesday, and tomorrow I'm probably bringing the road bike to work, likely followed by more leftovers.