Quick News Tidbits

Morning weigh-in (Friday) 169#, 11# BF

More photos are now posted, my Saturday shots from the BASH. Enjoy! Stay tuned for more, some BASH Sunday photos plus a bunch of trailwork shots I took last weekend.

Meantime, the rain (here and in Vermont) has caused those of us going to race to cancel our trip to the Vermont 50.

Tonight I'll probably see Brujos at Pearly Baker's, and tomorrow will probably be a Lehigh ride.

That is all.

"M" Is For "Methane"

 This can't be good.

 

"You think the end of the world's comin'?"

 

"Preacher man says it's the end of time; he says America's rivers are running dry. The interest is up, the stock market's down... You boys better be careful hanging around here this late at night, this -- no ma'am, I'm sorry we don't -- this is the perfect place to get jumped!"

 

"But do you think the end of the world's comin'?"

 

"Naw... So says the preacher man, but I don't go by what he says."

 

-- Godspeed You Black Emperor

 

Klondike Barbie Watch: Yup, witchcraft-free since 2005! Too bad the long-running affair with her husband's business partner just came to light...

Personal Best!

Morning weigh-in: 170.5#, 10.5% BF

 

Oh well, not quite.

 

Back when I lived on Southside, my best time ever for a towpath ride out to Sand Island and back (distance: 25.4 miles), was 1:28, which gives an average speed of 17.13 mph. Riding that out-and-back from where I live now cuts that distance down to 22 miles, so an equivalent "best time" would be 1:16 at that same average speed. I rode the towpath last night, and was on target for beating that number so I really made the effort -- going fast didn't seem that hard -- and got home at 1:14:48. Woo Hoo! Then I noticed that my distance was only 20 miles, so somehow my cycle computer didn't record two miles of my ride  (nor, presumably, the time spent riding those two miles) and it wasn't a "personal best" after all, though at the very least it was likely my unofficial best time this year. Which means I am right on target to choke Sunday...

 

After that was more laundry and a trip to get it dried, and dinner was at Porter's with Anne, a good time which really flew like it had wings -- saw a few peeps, earned my 4th mug, and next thing you know it's after midnight. Morning came a little too early... (By the way, my new Tevas came yesterday, and I wore them last night, though it suddenly seems late in the season for that.) Tonight is yoga, then dinner with Anne again; she's cooking up some Ethiopian food, after a restaurant visit on that DC trip piqued her interest.

 

What Are They Doing At The Horlacher House?

Morning weigh-in: 170#, 11.5% BF

 

I never drank Horlacher Beer, but as a kid I collected beer cans, along with my brothers, and those old Horlacher cans were among the prizes in our collections. We'd usually find them (and all kinds of very old, collectible beer cans) in or near the ruins of old houses, like in their personal garbage dumps or inside the walls -- part of the house's life cycle, the construction workers threw them in there, and we'd tear the lath or drywall off looking for them. Old rotting houses in the late-autumn woods after school, very Blair Witch. One house we ripped apart was such a gold mine we dubbed it the "Horlacher House," and returned to it several times. It's no wonder witches hate little kids: after what we did to that place, gingerbread-chompin' Hansel & Gretel had nothing on us...

 

Anyway, I've been on a tea tree oil kick lately, putting it on various skin problems and my one "ugly old-man TMI toenail," since it supposedly has good antiseptic/antifungal properties. The stuff is aromatic and rather pleasant, with a strong turpentine-like smell, but with overtones of rotting wood. The other day I realized why I kept thinking about the Horlacher House, the tea tree oil smell just like the insides of those rotting houses.

 

Anyway, last night was yoga, followed by the last of that leftover chili while I did laundry & uploaded a bunch of "Bash" pictures -- you know what to do -- and tonight is a towpath ride, followed by dinner at Porters while the laundry dries.

Goodbye To Selfish Day

Morning weigh-in: 167.5#, 12% BF (surprisingly enough, I'm happy with those numbers)

 

Friday night was the semi-usual towpath ride, and a trip out to Christian's Spring Hotel but I left relatively early, because early Saturday morning I'd be digging in the dirt at Allamuchy. Trailwork day, we put in a new singletrack bypass to one of the ancient and eroded roads that cut through the park. Record attendance by the way, about 20 people were there. We worked for maybe three hours and then did a ride.

 

I bailed early on the ride though, and borrowed some shower-and-rooming time at nearby Joe & Dawn's: my next stop was to Parsippany to visit my old friend Vito and his wife -- they were the ones who had the big 70th birthday surprise party that I missed because of Moab. The visit was pretty nice, I haven't seen him in a few years and we did quite a bit of catching up. (He had a knee replaced recently, took about a year for the pain to subside but he's getting there. His wife just got through a bout with lung cancer, which metastasized into her brain. They're hoping she's out of the woods now, but you never know with that kind of thing.) His daughter stopped by, and also a friend from the neighborhood, and they made homemade pizza for dinner. There was also a calzone, and cannoli's and beer and coffee...

 

I got a phone call on the way home, Pocono Joe asking me to stop by Allamuchy Joe's house to pick up the bike wheel he left at the ride, with prisoner exchange up near Saylorsburg on the ride home. I got a call from Anne too, home from Washington but I was too tired to go out. 

 

Meanwhile, What They Said: Yeah, and yeah, and oh yes definitely that too. Just sayin'...

 

Yesterday was more trailwork, this time at Sals: again about 20 people, we spent about four hours and came close to finishing John's old trail. Lotsa rock and dirt moving, followed by the obligatory group ride. Met Anne for lunch afterward, and used her computer to buy new shoes...

What Are They Doing At The Hyacinth House?

Dinner last night at the Hawthorne House, a place in Bethlehem I'd heard about but never visited -- Anne knew it because she used to go there occasionally. Pretty decent: bar food and $2.50/bottle microbrews. Smaller inside than the building looked from the outside. Leechboy was playing, the games were on the TV's, and we were just BS'ing over burgers & beer...

 

Anne's out of town this weekend, down in Washington DC at least until late Saturday night. It's a "girl's weekend," and she's checking out the monuments & museums with Judy, Erica and Emmy. I'll be doing trail maintenance at Allamuchy tomorrow, followed (most likely) by a ride, then a visit to my old friend and retired co-worker Vito in Parsippany. Sunday will be more trailwork & riding, this time at Sals.

 

Meantime, I'll be riding the towpath tonight with Larry, then going to Christian's Spring Hotel, where I should run into a bunch of Virtual Pubbers, looks like some kind of smart mob scene a-building. (We were supposed to go there last night, but there was a problem with the water in Nazareth & Easton yesterday, and CSH had no food service -- I sure hope one day makes enough of a difference in the food situation because I'll probably be starving.)

Under The Water Carry The Water

Morning weigh-in: 169#, 11.5% BF

 

Saw David Byrne play Tuesday night at Zoellner, first show of his new tour and it was awesome. Me & Anne, Doug & Lori; our seats were amazing, like third row center -- he was standing literally less than 10 feet away from us, front and center on stage with his guitar, and with the rest of the band a little bit in the background. He and the whole band (drummer, bassist, bongo player, three backup singers, and three dancers) were all in white, a strange look but it actually worked well.

 

The show itself was great, very high energy, and he did a bunch of 80's hits as well as newer or more obscure stuff. He got several standing ovations too, especially on the older songs, and people were standing/dancing by the end. (Just a by-the-way: David Byrne is a very good singer, which we all knew, but he is also a very good guitarist.) Lotsa older people there, and watching them dance reminded me of 80's fratboys-become-yuppies jamming to Springsteen's "Born in the USA," and that whole Subversive Artists vs Their Fans Who Don't Get It thing... That got me thinking about my own mondegreens and misunderstandings from that era; lots of resonances in those songs.

 

Speaking of dance: the dancers were a nice touch. Two girls and a guy, doing very modern-looking (to me) stuff, made me wish I had a bit more of a dance vocabulary.  It reminded me at times of African dance, or of hoedowns, or cheerleader moves a la "Hey Mickey;" then there were other parts that were more like Meredith Monk, and even times I picked up a porn-stars-from-Naked-Lunch vibe, when the dancers seemed somewhat older and tireder than at first glance...

 

Anyway, before that I got a post-work haircut at Eskandalo, where Alison said she'd be DJ'ing at Christian's Spring Hotel that night -- oh well, you can't be everywhere -- followed by a pre-show dinner at Tulum. Last night was the Chain Gang meeting at Bob & Karen's. Tonight is the gym, followed by dinner out.

My, What An Eventful Weekend!

Morning weigh-in: 169.5#, 10% BF

 

Jeez, you go away for a few days...

 

RIP David Foster Wallace: Dead by his own hand at the age of 46. So sad. Infinite Jest was one of my favorite books, a postmodern classic and the funniest book about depression I ever read.

 

Swirling the Bowl: So Big Shitpile strikes again --  Lehman is going bankrupt, and Merrill Lynch got bought, and AIG is teetering on the edge -- if they go down, does that mean I am no longer an insured driver? I guess I'll have to revise my "America Descends Into Civil War and Cannibalism" countdown, move things up by a few years.

 

Wasn't That A Mighty Storm? Hurricane Ike was bad enough, but most people heeded warnings and it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Our Houston office is closed though.

 

Meantime:

 

On Thursday I visited my friend Gary in the hospital after work. We used to ride and race together: me, Joe G, Gary and his girlfriend Gina, their friend Gerry, and a few others, the old Round valley crowd. Now they (Gary & Gina) have two kids and don't get out as much, but recently he's been getting back into road racing and triathlon. He was out training with a few friends on Monday, and a woman failed to yield at a nasty intersection (I know it well, I drive through it every day, and there have been a lot of bicycle and motorcycle fatalities there over the years) -- he hit her grille, smashed her windshield with his shoulder, then flew over and landed behind her SUV, breaking his femur, ankle, and wrist (and dislocating his shoulder) at various points in the process. Helicopter ride, femur surgery, aches and bruises and a couple of casts, but no head or organ damage -- and strangely enough, no road rash either. He seemed in good spirits, all things considered, and was scheduled to go home Friday.

 

I met Joe at the hospital. We were supposed to ride Sals after the visit, but he drove into the parking garage and managed to wreck his bike (which was on his roof rack) on the low ceiling. Broken fork, broken seatpost, damage to the rack and his car's roof, he was not happy...

 

Thursday night was dinner with Anne at Brew Works.

 

The rest of the weekend was the Rattling Creek Single Trackers "Bash;" I drove down Friday afternoon and arrived in the worst of the rain. More on all this as the week progresses -- and stay tuned for over 100 photos -- but suffice to say that it was an awesome time despite the early bad weather: the Friday night "Disco Party" was a huge success, making Saturday morning less successful, and the Saturday night dinner/concert was fun but a bit more subdued, and in between it all we rode and rode.

 

Last night was chores and laundry; tonight is errands, and dinner with Anne.

Nine Eleven

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 170.5#, 10.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 169.5#, 7% BF

 

It's strange, I actually feel a lot stronger with the extra weight (even if it's obviously settling in my gut instead of say going to build muscles), though that might be a little rationalization, some whistling in the dark. But...

 

I rode the towpath last night, and early on I got a "fuck you" pass from some guy on a Jamis: he whipped past me as I went under the 25th St Bridge, having (unbeknownst to me) dropped down the paved hill from the orphanage -- I thought he'd been riding the sewer line right-of-way singletrack like I was, and blew past me on sheer strength. Either way, Game On!

 

I dropped in behind and drafted (unbeknownst to him) as he hammered away at 20+ mph. He slowed down after a mile or so, and was very surprised to see me pull up next to him... Fun little game, and we both got a chuckle out of it; we rode together until we got to the old boat launch, where he peeled off to go up Hope Road.

 

I was sort of racing daylight and already in fast mode -- funny how my legs actually feel stronger the day after a gym workout -- so I did a little hammering of my own out to Sand Island, really fast pace, at least until the path started to get crowded. Cruised though the turnaround, and who should I see but my new friend, who decided to give chase but never caught up, heh heh. We rode back together, total "cruise and schmooze" mode until we split up again at the old boat launch. I got home just as darkness fell.

 

Meantime, I got an email that my old friend and riding/racing buddy Gary was hit by a car while riding Tuesday night; he's in St Luke's Hospital with a broken ankle, a broken femur (yikes!) and a dislocated shoulder. Tonight I'm riding Sals (aka "behind St Luke's") with Joe, then we're going to pay him a visit. Tomorrow morning I'm off to the Bash.

Betty Lou Still Ain't Got No New Shoes

Morning weigh-in: 168.5#, 11% BF

 

Don't know what's up with that high body fat percentage, though I did eat a handful of Pringles (strictly so I could toss the empty can in the garbage), and a glass of water -- hydration, plus some salt to hold it there until morning...

 

Ran last night around 10:00, my standard 2 mile route. I was going to ride either the road or the towpath, but I left my riding glasses at Anne's after the recumbent ride -- since the 2000 crash I've been pretty paranoid about riding with regular glasses -- so instead I did some chores, errands, etc. Laundry, drycleaning, and I also made a trip out to the nearby Dick's Sporting Goods, a new pair of Teva Hurricane III's for to get, but alas they had none. I love my Tevas, but they are starting to fall apart -- they're like 11 years old -- and the situation has now become urgent. Stay tuned...

 

Tonight is Christian's Spring Hotel after the gym, tomorrow is yoga or possibly biking. The Bash is this weekend, so I have to get ready for that too.

The Daily Grind

Morning weigh-in: 169.5#, 9.5% BF

 

Well that's not so bad, considering I ate a bowl of chili at midnight... tonight will be more chili by the way, and I'll probably make even more, my BASH chili contest entry, on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

 

Hmmm, what else is going on in the world... prions are jumping species barriers -- oh noes! I think I'll skip the venison chili.

Payback

Donny Recumbent!
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Today was a much nicer day than yesterday, so Anne convinced me to do a recumbent ride with her -- I joked that this was "payback" for dragging her into the woods last weekend, but really it was a lot of fun.

Anne has two recumbents: one's a standard "short wheelbase" design, and the other is a sort of trike, very low to the ground. (The trike is what I rode today. I tried the other one afterward and it's pretty squirrely, something I'll have to master I guess.) She had been exchanging emails with some guy who'd been in the paper for riding a recumbent, and they put together an impromptu group ride, just a jaunt out to Emmaus and back. Lotsa fun, and though I don't think I'll be getting one any time soon, I could probably be persuaded to go out again...

Anyway, dinner was at the Brew Works. Tomorrow is probably a road ride, one more good day before the weather goes south again.

Happy 60th Birthday, Pappy Spanky!

The Birthday Boy Himself
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Hurricane Hanna's aftermath put a damper on Saturday's festivities, but the show had to go on:

I blew off the Saturday morning "birthday ride" to avoid the deluge (which actually came a bit later in the day), instead helping Anne brew beer, something I never did. (Pretty cool, and it actually seemed easy, but there was a lot of waiting for various liquids to boil or cool down.) We caught up with the crew later at Rich's, where the party was in full swing under some tents he put up in the backyard. Stoves, grills, plenty of food including alligato & rattlesnake -- his brother was in town from Florida -- and of course plenty of beer. Good times...

Memento: Chili Tonight, Hot Tamale

Morning weigh in (Tuesday): 169.5#, 8.5% BF

Morning weigh in (Wednesday): 170#, 8% BF

Morning weigh in (Thursday): 167.5#, 11.5% BF

 

Yeah so the numbers really are trending up, I think I'll be trying to avoid eating out too much for a while... I made chili yesterday, a slightly different recipe (different beer base,  which came out rather nice I must say. Anne came over after her meeting, and we had some with bread and a salad. (She also brought more tomatoes -- oh no! -- and some hot peppers from her garden. I might make more chili later in the week, to bring to the BASH chili contest.) Before dinner I hit yoga.

 

Tuesday was a rest day: I prepped the chili, ran some errands and did chores; dinner was a salad and some leftover moussaka.

 

Continuing to work my way backwards...

 

Labor Day Monday: Anne and I went up to Jim Thorpe (which is actually her hometown) to do some riding. She rented a mountain bike downtown and we did the Broad Mountain Loop, maybe 12 miles of mostly jeep roads (about 2 miles were on the Deer Path singletrack, and some was a hike down to Glen Onoko Falls). We also hung out for a while at the two overlooks, so we were out for quite a while. She doesn't have much offroad experience, but she's got some pretty solid skills from years of commuting, touring etc, and rode rather well -- we actually made good time, on what was once considered (by peeps with more experience than she has now) a major adventure. I'm thinking she liked it. (We had dinner later at Porter's, with Judy again.)

 

Sunday: I rode with Rudy at R.B. Winter State Park, the "Cowbell Hollow Trail" as described in Griz's PA MTB guidebook. This was a posted VMB ride (one I posted like a month ago), and it was a beautiful day, but we were the only ones on the ride. As above, so below: the park seemed kind of remote and the trails underutilized, kind of sad for such a nice place though I'm glad it wasn't crowded. We rode about 28 miles, but rather than following the guidebook's route we bailed at mile 20 to take the road (rather than the singletrack) back to the cars. Despite a late night and an early morning, I felt really good.

 

Saturday started as a typical (but yoga-free) "selfish day," but the evening started with a birthday party for Judy at Sette Luna. Me, Anne, Judy, Erica & Toby (Judy's daughter & future son-in-law) and Adam, dining al fresco on pizza and appetizers, really nice. After that we went to Spanky's for the big VMB party: Greg did some major work on his yard (pond, fire pit) and this was it's baptism. also very nice, but just a bit wilder than Sette Luna...

 

Friday I had off. I got my oil changed plus a bunch of other car stuff done, blah blah various errands. The evening turned drizzly but Brian, Larry and I did our Friday ride anyway. (We actually tried some of the almost-completed Delaware towpath. We got in about 10 miles, but the thing still needs work.)

 

Anyway, back to the future: tonight I'm hitting the gym, and Judy has decided to throw an impromptu party, since Christian's Spring Hotel is closed this week and the "Thursday night supper club" has nowhere to go.

Ob La Di Ob La Da

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 9.5% BF

 

So I go to yoga last night, only to find the place closed for renovations, with a carpenter cutting new floorboards out in the street -- that's when I remembered them making the announcement last week. Doh!

 

Oh well, that meant I was early to Christian's Spring Hotel. Dinner with the usual crew: Anne, Judy, Lee, and Joe & Sally, just back from Florida and South Carolina and there with their son Ben, who's leaving for college this weekend. Anne brought her dog to give to Judy, because Judy would be watching him for a few days while Anne takes her Ben to college, and she also brought another bag of heirloom tomatoes (plus basil) for me. Meanwhile, there was a stewing rabbit waiting for her in the kitchen fridge, a gift from the bar owner's uncle. It was a strange day for handoffs at the CSH...

 

Tonight is the gym right after work, then probably turkey sandwiches with tomatoes. I'll probably hit Porters later for the open-mic night, but I have a ton of things I want to get done tomorrow (Friday off, but I still have to deal with that oil change, and also a few bike projects, shopping blah blah), a little clearing of the decks, so it'll be an early night but still, four day weekend here I come!

 

By the way, I've been putting my Allamuchy photos up on flickr, piece by piece but I'm almost done.

Frappe Le Sac

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 8% BF

Not sure what was going on with Blogger, looks like my Friday post might not have appeared until today, but anyway...

I'm back from Allamuchy. Twenty-four hours, eight laps, 10-20 bowls of cereal and one trashed rear hub, it was a great weekend. The weather was perfect the entire time, the course was classic "old school Allamuchy," fast and fun, and I basically followed my plan (two laps and rest, two laps and eat, two night laps, sleep until daylight and race until noon), which would have given me nine laps, but I scratched the last one because of the hub problems. It wasn't worth trying to fix on the trail, and in fact I think I need a new bearing, which isn't really a quick-trailside-fix kind of problem.

I was lallygagging anyway: eating at the cafeteria, napping when I felt like it... Some of my friends, Joe G and Kevin M in particular, went at it pretty seriously, and they did rather well, each with 13 laps and a place on the podium. There were others at my campsite -- actually I was staying at their campsite, we're talking course designers Bob & Karen and their JORBA crew -- and they were there for the laughs and camping, and the occasional adventure of a lap around the course. I think I was a happy medium between the two (ie going hard and going easy), but I'm pretty sure we all had a good time.

I'll probably have more to say on this as the week progresses, but I also went out last night, to Porters for a "victory dinner" with Anne and Brian, so tonight is a second try at an early bedtime. (Also, stay tuned for pictures because I took about 40 shots during the race, but that'll have to wait. By the way, all my shots taken with the new camera up until the race are now posted on flickr.) Good night!

A Quick Post

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 7.5% BF

 

Allamuchy Here I Come! I prepped the bike last night, and also loaded my camping & bike repair gear in the car; tonight is food shopping and clothes packing, with a trip to the Velodrome in between -- last race of the season, I'm meeting Anne & some friends to check out the action.

Anyway, that's my story until Monday. See ya...

Septemberers!

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 166.5#, 8.5% BF (little bit o' suppression)

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 167#, 10.5% BF (I worked out, ate right & this is the thanks I get)

 

The ride in to work Tuesday was a bit slow and congested, not too bad but you could tell there were a lot of idiots on the road. On the way home it was worse -- I kept thinking "Hmmm, full moon? Nope. Weather? Not that either..." as I dealt with all sorts of slowpokes in the left lane, aggressive yahoos in heavy traffic etc, but it all calmed down after crossing the river. Until...

 

I got through Cemetery Curve no problem, but then traffic came to a dead stop about 200 yards from my exit: there was an accident in the left lane, multiple cars right at the exit, and everyone had to get over. I got through eventually, took back roads to the supermarket, and as I passed US22 again I saw that it was closed, this time in the Westbound direction. I though "wow, crazy day" but thought no more about it.

 

This is what that accident was all about, and in a way I suppose it was probably the cause of the accident at the 13th Street Exit as well. Two people dead, one in the hospital, all for a vacuum cleaner... (I'm guessing I came through that area about 5 minutes after he did, a few different choices and it could have been me that met him head on.) Classic psychopath, some people are questioning how the appropriateness of the police response, but it doesn't really sound like an irresponsible (on the part of the police) high speed chase: this guy fled the cop who pulled him over, hopped on the highway going the wrong way, and ruined a whole bunch of lives, all in a matter of moments.

 

Anyway, did a quick towpath lap, then went out to Sette Luna for dinner with Anne. We're meeting again tonight for dinner at Christian's Spring Hotel, but she brought me some string beans and tomatoes from her garden Tuesday, and I had them with a baked ham last night (I have leftover ham). No lie, probably the best tomatoes, and best string beans, I ever ate.

 

Summer's in deceleration, there's only a month left. The weather has been very nice the past few days, very 911 you might say, hope it stays that way through the weekend since I'll be camping/racing at Allamuchy.

New Camera: First Photo!

New Camera: First Photo!
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Surprisingly enough, this is a Linux post: cameras put extra data into the photo file, things like what type of camera took the picture, when (and, if your camera has GPS, where) the photo was taken, etc. Exif metadata is an example of this kind of thing.

My original photos are big files, with a lot more detail than is necessary for web viewing -- and the new camera produces even larger, more detailed photos -- so what I do is shrink them down before trying to upload them over my slow dialup connection. I would do this with a small program I wrote, that used standard file conversion utilities to decompress the JPEG-format file, re-scale the decompressed version and then re-compress it. Voila, a smaller file, but this method basically throws out any metadata; none of it ends up in the new file.

I really didn't worry about the metadata before, but now I want to keep the "photo taken on this date" information (as well as camera info) with the photo, since I will no longer be putting a visible date stamp on my photos. (Flickr shows this info to the right of the photo on the individual photo's display page.)

My solution is to do pretty much what flickr does when it process a photo: I used a small utility program called mogrify, part of the ImageMagick suite, which can do all these conversions while preserving the metadata. I tried it with this shot, and you can click on the photo to follow the link back flickr and see the metadata off to the right. Mission accomplished! My next task is to automate the process with a script and install it in Nautilus.

I Got A New Toy

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 9.5% BF (not great, but less scary than yesterday)

 

OK, so I'm back on the "better eat better" kick, since I've been on a downward nutritional spiral lately. Clean up my act, cook/eat at home, etc. Luckily, Porters is closed for renovations... Nothing scary, they're not pulling a Which Brew or anything, just a little downtime -- and they'll be smoke-free when they reopen Friday. Bonus!

 

Eating: Dinner last night was beans; breakfast was scrambled eggs plus two small apples.

 

Listening: I was jamming to Neko Case this morning, "Deep Red Bells" to be specific, though "jamming" may not be the right term to use here. Forget haunting, that song is just plain spooky.

 

Gadget Watch: I was listening to music on the computer this morning, since I still don't have an iPod or portable mp3 player. But, I do have a new camera now: I picked up an Olympus Stylus 850 SW last night at Dan's Camera City. Waterproof down to 10 feet, shock resistant (within reason), better and faster and more megapixels than my old camera, thought the one feature I really wanted -- instant image processing, so the picture you get is what you see the instant you press the shutter -- is only available with the DSLR cameras. Meantime, DSLR is only available on those cameras with the separate detachable lenses, like professional cameras and such, and that's definitely not what I wanted. Oh well, my new one does have a "burst mode," which is a good second choice, and I can now make underwater videos if uh, I ever want to...

 

If the weather holds I'll probably do a ride tonight, then some shopping and bike prep. Tomorrow will be yoga.