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. 

 

 

No Buzz, Babylon

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 177.5#, 8.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 178.5#, 10% BF

 

I'm not sure why the body fat is reading so low; it looks like dehydration but I really  think I'm OK in that respect. Finally managed to break 178#, if only for a day -- that was the first milestone on my admittedly optimistic/aggressive weight-loss plan; as of now I am only 4 weeks, or 8 pounds, behind schedule...

 

Rode Monday night, did a 25 mile loop from work; I still felt a bit sluggish from the weekend but it was a good ride, and once again a perfect day for it. Last night was the gym (all upper body, no legs or cardio), followed by Two Brew Tuesday with the whole crew (Debbie & Donna are now both dating), plus Doug & Lori. It was a really nice evening out, like the first night of the summer season. Tonight I'm hitting Sals, hopefully with some others but we'll see, and then I'll either try and meet up with Anne -- she'll be out at her EAC meeting -- or go home to either the laptop, or a good book.

 

Geekout #1: I've been using GRASS to play with a Sals mapping project, mainly using a bunch of GPS data from various rides. For various reasons I've had to really jump through hoops to get that data into the right format and into my map, converting files, transforming between coordinate systems etc, but yesterday at work I realized that GRASS has a built-in feature that interfaces with GPSBabel, so though it's not really documented, GRASS can handle any data format GPSBabel can handle (such as the one my Garmin uses), and will convert between coordinate systems automatically as well. As soon as I got home last night I tried it, and sure enough it worked! I only wish I'd realized that sooner, it's fairly obvious now that I see it.

 

Geekout #2: In my rush to play with the computer I had to bypass a little UPS package, but just before I went out I opened it -- Happy Birthday To Me from a faithful reader! I got the latest Pynchon novel, plus some sci-fi paperbacks and an endurance training guidebook. Thanks Mom & Dad!

 

Crush Bunny

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 10.5% BF

 

I've been trending downward for a while, but 178# is the number I've been trying break... soon, soon...

 

Awesome weekend. I worked Friday, but brought the Turner, and hit Round Valley after work. I get out early on Fridays: I was at the Cushetunk lot by 4:30, hooked up with Jason and Warren, and we were riding by 5:00. Jason & Warren rode well, but my first Round Valley ride of the season is always a wake-up call -- I got stomped! It was perfect riding weather though, and trail conditions were about as good as they get. It was kind of fun, showing them around too, I sometimes forget how scenic it is over there. We did a loop, and returned via Old Mountain Road; as my fitness returns (and the sun sets later), we can stop cheating and do the out-and-back, but if we tried that Friday we would have been racing the last of the daylight.

 

Friday evening was an Easton evening. I cruised over to Porters and met Anne, and we were joined by Donna and Andrew and had dinner. Caught  caught part of the Trouble City All Stars show (they just keep getting better and better, and now have a horn section -- Donna knew the sax player's mom)  before heading over to Pearly Bakers. The Great White Caps (Nick P's band) was playing there, playing some kind of rockabilly/surfadelic (at one point they played "Teenage Werewolf," which I think they dedicated to all the "bearded old guys in the corner") and putting on a wild fun show. When we left the band was still going strong, ditto Donna & Andrew who were cutting it up on the dance floor, but I was tired...

 

Anne and I got up early (considering the night before), and went up to Jim Thorpe, where we met Pete H and did the Broad Mountain Loop. Again, another perfect day for riding, sunny and warm but not too warm. They still had a lot of standing water up there, especially on the man-made stuff like the jeep roads (the singletrack was fine), the jeep-road gravel was incredibly soft and muddy in places, and the two streams we had to cross were real spring torrents -- they came in handy for getting that mud off though. After the ride we visited in town with Anne's mom, and her brother, visiting from Pittsburgh, and her sister & family, down from Connecticut. I slept on the drive home, and it was an early bedtime for both of us.

 

Sunday was a rest day -- we went for a run. A very short one though, and an extremely mellow pace: down to the towpath for a bit, then up Main Street where we stopped for a cup of coffee and the paper. Home, breakfast, some chores etc, then we went back up to Jim Thorpe for Easter dinner. Good time with Anne's extended family and a whole lot of food, and another beautiful day.

 

RIP Alex Chilton I totally missed this. Anne's nephew-in-law Chris told me he'd passed away about two weeks ago, died of a heart attack not long before Big Star was supposed to play SXSW. I only know him from reputation and the hit "Bangkok," but that was still pretty sad. He was only in his late fifties, which doesn't seem that old anymore.

 

I brought the bike in to work today, and tonight I'm riding the road.

Chamois Time

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 7.5% BF (WTF?)

 

It was tough but I did it: I hit the gym last night, an indoor workout on a beautiful day, very demotivating. Good workout though -- I did the full body one including legs, I felt strong (for a change), and I cruised right through. What I missed: Anne and the gang took those "invisible dog" leashes over to the dog park after work today, and "walked their dogs" for an April Fool's Day goof, and I was sorry to miss those hijinks (and also the MTB ride they did earlier at Jordan), but I caught up with them all later.

 

Best April Fool's Prank 2010: Debbie's boyfriend Kevin has a friend Rob, who's a bit younger then most of us, and unattached. (The girls have made a semi-project out of changing his relationship status.) He has a good female friend at work, and with the help of their boss they had everyone convinced that he'd gotten her pregnant and now they were engaged. Several frantic phone calls over the past few days as the story developed, then cell phone photos of her with her ring, and of the baby/wedding shower at work, etc, had the team totally believing, until... April Fool's!

 

Tonight I'm hitting Round Valley, then grabbing dinner at Porters before catching The Great White Caps at Pearly Bakers -- kinda-sorta like the good old days -- and tomorrow we're riding the Broad Mountain Loop in Jim Thorpe.

 

Spring Has Sprung.

Blueberries Bananas And Millet Oh My

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 8.5% BF

 

Back In The Game: Once upon a time I had what I called "The Rule Of Four:" when I went out, my unconscious target was four drinks, not really enough to become schnoockered, but definitely enough to feel that I'd had my party. After Which Brew closed my resistance slowly decreased, and I was governed first by the Rule of Three, then lately the Rule of Two... Last night I went out and drank three beers, plus a Jameson & ginger ale, and it didn't even slow me down. Not sure what that means, other than as an explanation for the dehydration-induced low body fat.

 

(Dinner was at home, the last of the leftover pot roast, and breakfast this morning was rice-millet flakes with bananas & blueberries.)

 

Hit the gym last night, got in a fairly good workout before I ran out of steam. I'm still disconcerted by how weak my upper body has become --  the skin issues have kept me from exercising in general, with the gym & yoga taking the hardest hits (probably a self-consciousness thing), and so I am now playing serious catch-up. The skin's not totally better, by the way, I just wear long sweatpants to the gym (and still skip yoga), but I do think that the past few days of restrictive diet, plus my switch back to benadryl -- that "non-drowsy" antihistamine still made me drowsy, so I figured if I have to pay that price anyway I'd just use the more effective medication -- has given me a great deal of relief, which now means that things have a chance to calm down and heal.

 

Tonight is supposed to be nice, so I'll probably do a road ride.

 

Hodgepodge

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 10% BF

 

Seeing: We saw "The Vagina Monologues" at the Banana Factory last week, and there's a joke in there somewhere... It wasn't quite as good as the time at Muhlenburg, there was more emphasis on crimes against women -- which makes sense, given that the show was a fundraiser for something along those lines, but that did make it a bit of a downer -- than on the celebratory taboo-busting side of things. Pretty good night out with the crew though: Anne, me, Debbie and Kevin, Donna, and their friend Lisa from knitting.

 

Anne and I went out Saturday night and saw Crazy Heart, which just won Jeff Bridges an Oscar. Really good movie, way better than I expected -- we watched Leaving Las Vegas the other day, which had a somewhat similar plot, and a similarly awesome acting job by Nicholas Cage, and it was cringe-inducing to the point where I left the room, but this one was a solid story, with a satisfyingly un-mawkish ending. Two thumbs up, and as Anne noted, it had great scenery and some really good camera work.

 

Reading: I am almost done with The Girl Who Played With Fire, book two of Stieg Larsson's "Millennium trilogy." I'm now pretty convinced that these are fairly cheesy books, but they are engaging and fun, full of action and suspense. (By the way, a certain faithful reader should know that I've updated my Amazon wishlist, per recent request.)

 

Listening: Not much going on here, just listening to the radio mostly.

 

Biking: We had a pretty good weekend two weeks ago, but this past one was a bit of a cold rainy washout -- Anne and I got in a towpath ride on Friday, but that was about it. My main bike project lately has been what I call Project Debbie: I've been refurbishing my old Super-V over the past month or so, to give to a friend. The frame's in good shape, and I took a very minimalist approach to componentry, mostly spares from the parts bin; the only major purchases were a pair of tires (bought second-hand) and brake/shifter cables and housings. I haven't put any finishing touches on it yet, but last night I got it up to full functionality, after maybe 7 years in mothballs. We should be able to take it out for a shakedown cruise this weekend.

 

Eating: My skin responded rather spectacularly to that steroid blister pack, but as soon as it was over the rashes came back. The doctor had blood work done, and it confirmed that I am in the middle of a serious allergic reaction to something, and also that, since the last time I was tested, I have become allergic to wheat, eggs and dairy products. (Also corn and sesame seeds, though they're not as bad as the others. The doctor joked that could eat all the cod I wanted...) I've been trying to modify my diet, and have been successful so far -- we went on a major shopping spree last night for cereals/snacks that are safe, with mixed but generally OK results. I've been eating a lot of meat and potatoes lately, and quite a bit of rice and fruit too. We'll see.

 

My biggest problem right now though, is apparently dust. That's not much of a surprise, but what was surprising was how severe a sensitivity the test results indicated. Anne has really taken this to heart, and is now thinking of ripping carpets out and changing furniture, curtains etc -- something I'm not sure is really going to be the answer. I've been through this before, dealing with allergies were, for better or worse, the defining backstory of my childhood, and though I'd be the first to say that avoidance (rather than shots or antihistamines) is the best way to deal with allergens, I've always thought that the "scorched earth and spartan interior" approach to dust was overkill. I've never had to go that route before (as an adult), and I don't want to see us change her home and world now (relegating her to a bit part in The Don Show drama), if that's not absolutely necessary.

 

Anyway, tonight is the gym, then Two Brew Tuesday at the Brew Works.

Dreaming Fishes To Young Ram, Watersleep To Firewaking

Great day today, the sun is finally in my house...

Did a really nice piece of trailwork at Sals, putting in a log ride, and followed that with an abbreviated "holy cow I'm tired" ride, then dinner and a movie ("101 Reykjavik") at home. Yesterday was Sals, Friday was Jordan, and Thursday was a road ride; it's supposed to be rainy through to Wednesday, so I'm pretty happy to have seized the past few nice days. The weather will no doubt become seasonal again, but this weekend was a nice foretaste of summer.

Leithian

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 12.5% BF

 

Back home. Got in yesterday afternoon, and went out on a road ride almost immediately after arriving home, 25 miles or so with Anne on a perfect day. Ahhh, home at last! (The trip, by the way, was very fruitful.)

 

Reading: I'm working on The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second (of three) from Steig Larsson. I got that for Christmas; I got the first (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) for Christmas in 208 and hadn't read it, so I was a little under the gun, and just and finished the first one on the last trip before this week -- just in time, because it's about to come out as a movie. Very stiff writing (which is probably an artifact of translation) and the guy really likes to name-drop consumer electronics, but the stories are fascinating: detective/whodunit/suspense stories with a dash of Europolitics. I can't tell if they're actually good, or only good in that "detective novel bought in the airport bookstore" way, but they are hard to put down. (The guy next to me saw me reading TGWTDT on the plane, and said that the second one was just as good, but only after the first 50 pages or so. He was right.) We'll probably see the movie this weekend, and I wonder how it will fit into the  "good book -> bad movie, bad book -> good movie" spectrum.

 

Voyager: I had to do some software updates, but I now have R working from within GRASS, so I can do statistical analysis of my spatial data. I'm not yet sure what that gets me, but at least it works.

 

Went out last night to the Brew Works & saw a bunch of friends, and tonight we'll probably go to that movie, after a ride at Sals. Crocuses are up, and there are already ediles in the garden, and Anne just got her seed order in the mail -- that Green Cusp is just over the horizon...

 

Irish Neon

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 11.5% BF

Went to the doctor today, got a steroid blister pack and some new antihistamines. My skin has erupted the past few weeks, especially on my feet and calves, all bright pink and raw-looking, and she (the doctor) said it's not eczema or whatever, but some kind of hyper-reaction to something in my environment. The first step is to calm the current skin inflammation down, then go with longer term strategy of finding out what -- diet, soap, laundry detergent, or whatever -- is causing this.

Meantime, Anne's back from visiting Emmi, who was herself up in Washington visiting a friend. Tag team: I was out of town last week, she was gone this week, and I am off again next week.

Rain.

The Groove Proves Elusive

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 11.5% BF

 

Two weeks or so since my last post, probably the longest I've ever kept my "mouth" shut... It feels like I haven't stopped moving since Christmas or so: Florida, Russia, moving out of the apartment, and last week I was in Indiana for work... Work has been particularly busy lately, every day is another Crazy Party here, constant whitewater and emergencies leaving no time to breathe, or even do my real work which is now of course behind...

 

However, I was home by Friday night, and that night we we met up  with the usual gang of friends at Brew Works. Saturday we went for a short ride, then an afternoon wedding in Philly, then out to the Funhouse  (a great night: packed, smoky and loud; sort of a punctuation mark, a closed door on the previous week), and Sunday was a Blue Sky breakfast with the gang, followed by a trail-care crew hike at Sals to take inventory. All in all, I think this weekend put a lot of things behind me.

 

Last night I rode the towpath, which was fairly OK (if a bit soft) for most of its length, except the usual super-muddy section near Freemansburg. (I only went to the Chain Dam, maybe 19 miles total, but the extra effort of the soft ground really wore me out -- I guess the month off the bike might also have had something to do with it!) Got up this morning and did a run with Anne, and tonight I hit the gym; I expect that I'll be able to get back to yoga in a week or so.

 

Since I will have to travel again next week, and there's rumors of more of the same kind of work coming, I think I'm going to have to become more protective of my ride/gym/yoga time. That weight's got to come down.

 

Down To The Wire

I am moving out of my apartment this weekend, so of course:

 

1. There is a big snowstorm coming.

2. There was an emergency at work, starting last week, requiring me to work late so I couldn't do as much pre-move moving/cleaning as I'd hoped.

 

I think I'm in good shape though: most of my smaller stuff has been moved into storage, and most of my trash has been thrown out. As long as I can rent a U-Haul for Saturday (and manage to not crash it) I'm golden.

 

Meantime, I got in a decent road ride last weekend, 51 miles on a springlike Saturday. I did another tempo workout last night on the trainer, but other than that there has been no exercise this whole week -- too busy.

 

Not Too Busy: I've been playing with the maps again. I downloaded the latest demo version of TopoFusion and got it to run under Wine on the laptop (there are a few issues with the interface, but overall I think that it works well enough to warrant buying the full version), and I downloaded the latest stable version of GRASS. That also seems pretty good, but the new functionality I want seems to hang up when I use it on my Sals trail database -- I think the problem is with the database itself, though.

When I Was Your Age

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 12% BF

 

Did an after-work chore day yesterday, stopping to get computer supplies at Staples, then finishing the Great Laundry Cull at the apartment (got two more huge bags for Goodwill, plus one of garbage and some old stereo speakers thrown out). Once I got home I started dicking around with the computer, which cut into my ride time but I did manage to get some time on the trainer workout. (Thirty minutes: ten warmup, ten at LT and ten cooldown, all at a 90-95 RPM cadence.) It was a good workout, but not really much of one, and since I hit Taco Hell -- hard -- for dinner, I don't know where the good weigh-in came from. But I'll take it...

 

Funny, a lot of the clothes I've tossed have been shirts from old races, like back when your $25 entry fee also got you a tee shirt and a water bottle -- let's call it The Nineties. I wore a lot of those shirts until they were rags, sort of a tribal identity thing, and kept them for sentimental reasons ever since. Anne got a kick out of my waxing reminiscent over them on Saturday. I started thinking about it though -- there was a lot of racing going on back then, it was a big deal. Just in New Jersey, in a season that went from March through early December, there was:

 

The Lewis Morris Challenge (6-race series),

RVCC at Ringwood (6-race series),

Mahlon Madness (2 races),

Fat Tire trilogy at Mahlon (3 races)

The Round Valley Rumbler,

Allamuchy (several races, plus the 24-hour race),

Montague Day,

and the series championship at Allaire.

 

In eastern Pennsylvania:

 

Big Timber,

Mt Gretna,

Michaux (3 races),

Blue Marsh (5 or 6 races plus a few biathlons),

and God's Country.

 

In nearby Maryland& Delaware:

 

Gambrill Ramble,

Greenbriar Challenge,

The Watershed Washout,

The Iron Hill Challenge,

and The Eastern Shore Challenge.

 

(New York, New England, and VA/WV/NC were just as busy, but to me, except for a few "name" races, they were their own separate world.)

 

That's 40 races right there, easily more than one a weekend for the busier parts of the season (there was always a lull in around July), and they were all packed, hundreds of racers at even the smallest of them. I might not have been a very good racer, but I sure had fun -- I got to know a lot of different places to ride by racing them, and got to hang out with a lot of great people, a community with its own news, and folklore and gossip.

 

I saw someone from racing days a few years back, and mentioned that I missed the old scene -- he said that it never went away, that I was the one who dropped out. But there aren't nearly as many races nowadays, and they aren't nearly as well attended; something might continue in attenuated form, but what I remember is gone.

 

By the way, this post's title? I caught myself using the phrase more than once recently. Aargh!

 

Playing Catch-Up

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 12% BF

Whelp, I am now pretty much caught up with my photos. The last of the Russia pics are posted on Flickr -- I had just under 200 keepers -- as are the Superbowl of Chili photos, plus a few others. (Technically, I guess I'm falling behind again, since I took a few more yesterday, but still.)

 

In other catch-up news, I'm finally making the big push to vacate that apartment. Anne and I stopped by after yoga Saturday, and culled out a big chunk of my Goodwill-bound (and also trash-bound) clothes, five big bags of stuff. I'm going back tonight to finish the job, and also do a few more tasks; I will be doing similar things several days this week, and should be just about done (except for the U-Haul stuff) by the weekend. Friggin finally!

 

This weekend: I tried going skiing on Friday, but I think everyone else must have thought the same thing -- I couldn't even find a parking space at Blue Mountain, just me and maybe 30 other cars constantly prowling for openings in the lot until I wised up -- if the lots are full, how will the slopes be? -- and regrouped by snowshoeing at Sals. Good old Sals! I was definitely not the first one there either, plenty of others had already broken track. We hit the Allentown Farmer's Market (always a trip) later in the day.

 

Anne and I went to yoga on Saturday morning, then hit the Quadrant for brunch before the big clothing drive, then we got home and bottled that Baltic Porter that's been brewing in the basement since like Christmas (we took a few samples, it's already really good), and finally the crew (Anne, me, Debbie and Donna) went to Andy's wine-tasting party. Long day!

 

Sunday was Valentine's day, but we took it low key, except we did have a vodka-and-pickles party, eating Russian foods like borscht and Salade Olivier, and vodka chased with the traditional pickled veggies (pickled garlic, plain old pickles, and sauerkraut). We went for a nice long walk after everyone left, pretty much our only time outside for either of us yesterday.

 

Tonight is more work at the apartment, then I'll be (gack) riding the trainer -- gotta do it, I've fallen way behind in my fitness.

 

Like I Never Left

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 12% BF

 

Surprisingly, not that bad weight, especially considering the Chili Contest yesterday -- and of course all that Russian food -- but we'd been doing a lot of walking on vacation, nothing that worked up a sweat or cranked the heart rate, but I guess we maintained a steady caloric equilibrium.

 

We got back Saturday evening. Up all night, 6:00 AM flight to Munich followed by an 8 hour layover (sleeping like bums on a park bench), and a 9 hour hop across the pond to Newark, where Debbie and Donna picked us up -- it was good to see some familiar faces! We actually went out, had dinner at Brew Works and saw some more familiar faces (Debbie's Kevin caught up with us there, and we also saw Scott & Jen, and Doug & Lori, and of course the crew behind the bar); by this time it was about 4:00 AM St Petersburg time, but we were trying to get back on schedule, so we hung out until about midnight. I was asleep before I hit the pillow.

 

We bounced awake fairly early yesterday morning, like 6:00 AM, still partly on Russian time, and dove back into our much-deferred addictions: Anne made a great breakfast, and did some baking, and generally went wild in the kitchen, while I plopped down with the laptop and a cup of coffee, and caught up with all the blogs and webcomics that I follow. At 8:00 we went down to Sand Island, and joined Doug and Eric for a couple of hours XC skiing, then we all decamped, cleaned up, and regrouped in Easton around 11:30 for the Superbowl of Chili. Me and Anne, Donna, Eric, and Doug & Lori, an hour wait to get in and standing room only inside, 18 contest entries -- a good time was had by all -- and rumor has it that I ended up on TV. Porters after that, bumped into a lot of other peeps, and finally got home again around 7:00. We had to deal with a few pressing issues on the home front, but basically we were zonked and horizontal by 10:00. I woke up this morning and I was back on Eastern Standard.

 

I have about 270 photos from the trip, not all of them keepers of course but it's still a big pile to get through; I've already started posting them and hope to stay on top of it, so stay tuned. In terms of exercise, I'll probably just go for a run tonight.

 

Ballet Bollywood

Hi I'm back, drifting from cafe to cabaret with Ben's borrowed laptop again...

It's much warmer now than when we arrived, hovering right around freezing right now, with flurries coming down, as seen from this coffee shop window. We have a bit of scheduled downtime today, hanging out and doing the internet thing. Tomorrow we'll probably go back to the Hermitage -- it's closed today -- and we might take a trip outside the city one day this week.

We got in some hardcore sightseeing the past few days. Saturday we did several walking tours we found in a local guidebook (as supplemented by our personal guide Ben), visiting the church of the Spilled Blood -- probably the most beautiful building I have ever been in -- and the Cathedral of St Isaac, which has a tower and observation deck at the top. Dinner that night was Mexican (!), followed by a couple of pints of Guinness at "Mollie's Irish Bar" (!!) .

Last night was the ballet. We saw "La Balyetiere" (or something like that), a romantic tragedy set in India. Pretty awesome, especially at the end when we got kicked out while taking pictures (really we got kicked out because they were closing, but I think the pictures were what truly riled the old lady usherette). Russian dinner beforehand, and we followed the show with absinthe and vodka at Ben's apartment.

Flat Isabel: I've been taking pictures everywhere we go, mostly with this little paper cutout in the scene, given us by a grade-school teacher friend. Apparently, kids make these little "Flat Stanley" (or in our case "Flat Isabel") dolls for some geography learning experience, and travelers photograph them in various places around the world for the kids. Isabel has been on all our sightseeing excursions, and she's totally given my picture-taking a narrative structure...

Comes The Revolution: The two buildings we saw saturday had a lot in common: both were monumental, like un-usably large (the Church of the Spilled Blood has never been used as a church), both were built approximately at the end of the nineteenth century, and both seemed to be made to exalt Imperial hubris, at the expense of the blood of the people -- the Church of the Spilled Blood was built in commemoration of / answer to the assassination of a previous emperor, like a slap in the face to those who did it.

St Petersburg

Just a quick post via Ben's borrowed laptop...

The trip over was somewhat long (not too bad), but totally uneventful: we breezed through security and customs everywhere, which was great except that we budgeted a lot of time for all that, and had mucho downtime in Newark. Flew all night Tuesday, connecting flight in Munich, and hit town by about 4:00 local time -- GMT+3? (By the way, Lufthansa's service made all US airlines look like the penny-pinching shitbags that they are.)

We're staying at a pretty nice place, the "5th Corner Mini Hotel," about 2 blocks off Nevsky Prospekt, and within walking distance of the Hermitage (visited it yesterday, just scratched the surface), the Russian Museum (Thursday), and Ben's new apartment, which we visited yesterday. By the looks of things, we seem to be in an up-and-coming section of town, not quite fashionable yet but getting there -- plenty of coffee/tea places, bars, restaurants; our street is overrun with shoe stores, and there's even a yarn shop around the block. Anne is in Heaven.

We hit the night life last night, saw a "Dixieland Jazz Band" at the Jazz Dance Hall up the street. Real nightclub atmosphere, a room full of round tables with little lamps on them just like some old movie, plus a dance floor in the back of the room. The band was awesome, a bunch of Russian men, mostly older, including an ancient banjo player who managed to totally rock out. They all took turns with solos, and also with singing -- mostly imitating Louie Armstrong -- but they also did absolutely wild renditions of "Rock Around The Clock" and "Route 66."

Anyway, that's it for now. We're doing a walking tour of cathedrals and other outside stuff today, while it's a relatively balmy 20 degrees or so. It's been shockingly cold outside, especially at night.

Gone (Ice) Fishing

Well, we leave for Russia in a few hours, bus from Southside to Newark, then to St Petersburg via Munich. This would be a perfect blogging opportunity, but of all my gizmos I'm only bringing my camera, too many hassles, even legal ones for some toys... If I find/borrow a computer I'll post something, but otherwise it'll be pretty light.

If all goes well, we'll be back in the USA in time for the Superbowl.

Social Climbing

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 13% BF

 

A couple of good rides this weekend, which was good because there won't be any more riding for a few weeks...

 

Friday night I went out for a hill ride in Williams Township and other nearby areas. I cut through Freemansburg, to meet up with friend and fellow rider Bill K, who was coming from Forks, and we arrived at our rendezvous spot (the start of Gaffney Hill Rd) almost exactly as planned, almost like military precision or something -- the phones helped. We rode together from there, trying to get as many hills in as possible: Gaffney Hill, Wassergas, Ringhoffer, a few other smaller things, then he took the towpath home from Freemansburg while I went over the last hill to Market Street. Got close to home and saw Anne walking to Brew Works, scrambled into my regular clothes and finally caught up with everyone there. I was whooped -- Bill's  a polite rider, but he's a lot stronger than I am, and I was pushing myself to maintain a decent pace -- and was fairly mellow, had dinner and maybe one beer before I ran out of steam.

 

Saturday was a hard-core social interaction day. Anne baked a cake and we went over to Deb's sister for the memorial service, which was nice even if it was sad: there were lots of people there remembering her mom, and they had photos and other things to commemorate her life. (It's funny, there was such a strong family resemblance between Deb, and her sister & niece, that they looked strangely familiar, and even the photos of her mom had a deja vu quality.)

 

Later in the day Anne's family had their long delayed Christmas get-together, which was a raucous blast. Anne's family is large, and interesting, and just plain fun... Plenty of food and hanging out, a gift exchange; I've got tons of photos, which are already posted on flickr -- go click! I think I do best in smaller crowds, and the sensory overload finally caught up with me; I was toast once again by the end of the day.

 

Sunday I got up early, and drove over to meet a bunch of guys at Sals. VMB group ride: a friend or two, but mostly guys I didn't really know. This turned out to be a great ride, lots of fun, and I have to say I was riding well for a change. I was leading for a while, and it was funny how I panicked -- they're all right on my butt! -- and took off like a bat out of hell; later on I drifted to the back, where I could be my usual Take My Own Sweet Time self, but even then it was more a social grace than a physical necessity: I was riding and conversing rather than feeding the pissing contest, and I always felt like I had a lot more in the tank if I needed it. Conditions were primo, dry/frozen and fast (probably the last time it'll be like that until the temperature drops again), and we ran into a lot of others out there, getting in one last early morning ride before the rain and thaw. We got back to the cars just as the first raindrops fell.

 

I drove directly over to Blue Sky, and met the team (Anne, and Donna with her son & his girlfriend) for breakfast. Except for a haircut (and our Sunday Night Libation at Brew Works), I spent the rest of the day napping.

 

Tonight I'm packing, and we are on our way tomorrow.

 

Kumbaya

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 12% BF

 

Really cool time last night at Porters, hanging with a big chunk of the old Which Brew crowd, as well as the usual people I see on a more regular basis (no names, to protect the guilty). Some nights I might just sit like a bump on a log, and exchange maybe 5 words with my neighbor, but things were way more conversational last night; it was a hard-core interactive evening. Jazz combo, "meet the brewer" schwagfest with Stoudts Brewing (we came home with a tee shirt and two pint glasses), a Reuben, and some Stoudts oatmeal stouts: a winner all around.

 

I hit the gym before that, but I hit it so hard -- I really upped the ante on those lower-body plyometrics -- that I had to quit early. Did a little shopping, looked at smartphones and found out (from the Best Buy counter girl, no offense but not the most reliable source) that the Droid is not the way to go internationally. (I'm still leaning toward the Droid, but I was a little disappointed last night, then even more conflicted/confused when I ran into someone at Porters who has one, and loves it enough to get rid of his Blackberry.) Also hit Mal-Wart for trip related under-necessities. Socks, Spider Man pajamas, you know the drill...

 

The lights are charging, and tonight I am doing a road ride before ending up (most likely) at Brew Works.

 

The Plan, Man: I am going to do the Wilderness 101 once again this year (so sad, something to prove), and also Allamuchy and (most likely) Big Bear. My plan originally was to start that "Time Crunched Cyclist Program" regimen in February, continuing that through early April, regrouping for a month or two, then hitting it again for another 8 weeks before the W101. However, I do not think I'm ready to start real training, and the next two weeks off will not help things... My current, rethought plan is to do base work through April, just miles miles miles in the bank, then start the TCTP in May and run it for about 12 weeks, up to the W101. With the extra base work, I might take on the more aggressive of the training regimens offered.

 

This also gives me a chance to run more. I agreed to run a half-marathon with Anne and some others, and I need to get in some real training for that too.

 

Dammit, I also want to go skiing! Maybe it'll get cold again when we get back. Mud season sucks, I think I have cabin fever.

 

 

Black Bird Speaks

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 179.5#, 13% BF

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 180#, 12% BF

 

Feeling a little better, blues are starting to fade...

 

A Public Service Announcement (for anyone struggling with pairing Garmin devices, and resorting to Teh Google): I got a Garmin accessory for Christmas, a pedal-cadence monitor which communicates wirelessly with my GPS. Before they can do that, however, the two units have to establish a communications link. The process is called "pairing," and it's sort of like the units get introduced to each other: you hold the GPS near the monitor, with no other monitors or GPS units nearby, and they do the rest. (Once the devices are paired, they automatically recognize each other, and will work together even in the presence of other accessories/devices, or other riders with similar GPS units.) There is one "undocumented feature" though: the airwaves have to really be quiet when you do this, and more specifically, the units will not pair if there's wi-fi around. Well, we have wi-fi throughout the house, and so do all our neighbors... I spent about a week fiddling with the cadence monitor, replacing batteries and pressing reset buttons etc, no luck until I came across a forum comment that warned about the wi-fi thing. I found a spot down the street where the airwaves were quiet enough, and two seconds later they were paired. Piece of cake! -- and they have been playing together flawlessly ever since. Each new toy brings disquieting news though, and now I think my cadence is too low...

 

Down to the wire: I was getting nervous about our visas so I checked online yesterday -- they'd been approved and were on the way back to us, and when I got home the package had already arrived. Whew! Except for packing (and one more confirmation with the hotel) we are now ready for Russia. Well, except for the language thing... I'll be bringing a camera but no laptop, so posting may be sparse for a bit -- though I might pick up a new smartphone (the Droid has been catching my eye lately), especially if I can get one I can use internationally. We shall see.

 

Last night was the wake for Deb's stepdad. I carpooled with Lori, and met a few friends (Eric & Kris, Greg, Janna & Eric) from the old Masters Swimming days, but otherwise it was mostly Deb's relatives and neighbors. Deb seemed to be holding up OK. Pretty sad, he had pancreatic cancer and it took him out rather suddenly.

 

Tonight is the gym, then over to Porters. This morning was beautiful, with the predawn frost colors, and the crows all fleeing their epicenter along the river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hive Leptosouls Give Virgins Instant Sex...

...and busy times make for sparse blogging, even if there's more to blog about in busy times.

 

What's up? I am super-busy at work, I just went through a weeklong feeding frenzy -- last weekend was all about the quest for pizza, and then there was comfort food midweek, and Brew Works and Blue Sky and yadda yadda et cetera through this weekend -- and some friends are dealing with the loss of parents  (hence the comfort food), and in between I just don't seem to have time to really sit still and think, and when I do, I have other things to think about than blogging. (There's also this: though I do tend to chronicle my life here, I had a few posts that were getting too diary-like, lists of events, food I ate and so on, that I abandoned and deleted. That wasn't and isn't the direction I want to go with this, even if that's where it seems to trend most of the time.)

 

The weight: I didn't check it for the past few days, but I'll get back into it soon. It's probably not good, but not radically bad either; it had been hovering around 180 for the past week, and I'd guess that's where it is now. (I have to say though, that except for the past few days, I have been keeping track: I found a few sports/fitness/coaching sites that let me record my workouts, weight, etc, which I've been playing with, and these posts here were originally a just a substitute for that kind of thing. I'll probably keep it up here for the sake of completeness, or OCD or whatever...)

 

Reading: Just finished Solaris, which was good but not nearly as earth-shattering as the hype. I'm just at the beginning of The Cyberiad, which already seems better.

 

Viewing: We watched Memento this weekend, which I hadn't seen since it was on the big screen. Still good, still loved it (Anne's verdict: good, but kind of creepy), and I think I took home a little more of what actually happened.

 

Memento Mori: I saw on MTBr that the 10th anniversary of Dalerider's passing was the other day. He was sort of the Brian of that crowd, in the sense of being the friend and benefactor to a whole community, and I met him once when the real Brian, offended by a bad MTBr review of the Jim Thorpe trails, organized a weekend gathering -- Brian threw down the gauntlet in the form of an invite, "to see the real trails," and Chris aka Dalerider1 did the organizing. It was a real blast, and he was a cool and honest person, one of many who were there that weekend. In some ways it seemed like "holy cow it's been ten years already?" but in other ways that gathering -- maybe the summer of 1999? -- seems like it was on another world.

 

Tonight is the gym, then I'm skipping Tacos & Brews night. Tomorrow is a wake.

 

The Reference: "Hive leptosouls give virgins instant sex. Leptosoul experiences can be tiring and trying." It's a quote from The Godwhale (which I read in maybe 7th grade, and in some ways it's the only book I ever read), a mnemonic for a sequence of amino acids. It's funny what stays with you...

So Many New Leaves, Same As The Old Leaves

Morning weigh-in (Thursday):

Morning weigh-in (Friday): 180#, 11.5% BF

 

Back to the gym last night after a month off, and it was a doozy: for the upper body I changed to lower weights and higher reps to focus more on endurance, and for my legs I switched to plyometrics (ie jumping on and off a little elevated platform). A tough workout, and it was made worse by the hiatus -- but I have to say that the time off (which was mostly because I was busy/lazy) did my shoulder a world of good. My thumb, the other autumn injury, is also much better. It's an ill wind that leaves me with no justifications...

 

I am also back to yoga, and hopefully I can make it a regular thing again. I went Wednesday night, and it was a killer workout also -- I'm a bit stiff, and a bit off my stride, but I also seem to be a bit crabbed or hunched over too, hmmm -- but it felt really good to be back in the swing of things. First day of the new scene too, Alicia now doing the Wednesday night class.  Maybe the New Years resolutions were all kicking in, but the class seemed to be unusually full.

 

(Note: Hello new readers!)

 

The weight: Wednesday night was Emmi's last night in town, so I met her, Anne and the crew at The Bookstore for drinks. Very nice, they had that guitar & sax duo playing, and it was sort of a "do-over" for Tuesday evening, where the crowd was too big to just hang out. That was yesterday -- I don't know what this morning's weight is about, since we stayed in last night, with new books and an early bedtime.

 

Reading: I'm still working on that Byzantine book, but last night I started Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, which I picked up (along with the Byzantine book, and also Lem's Cyberiad) in Philly last week.

 

Tight Schedule: I got two emails yesterday, one saying my Russian visa application has been approved, and the other inviting me to the (15th annual) Superbowl of Chili, an event that I have never missed since it started, but which lands on the day we return from Russia. I have a feeling that that one's going to hurt...

 

Tonight is a tempo ride on the towpath, followed by a possible night out in Easton. Skis should be ready this weekend.

 

Low On Ammo

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 11.5% BF

 

Great ride last night. I was a little behind the other guys out (Doug, Eric, Greg) so I was surprised and happy to see their lights come up behind me on the trail, only it turned out to be two friends/neighbors (Matt H, Eric B), and so we pursued the other guys together. More lights coming towards us on the Spanky turned out to be more other riders (not sure who), then finally we caught up to Eric and Doug who were waiting for us. I hooked up with them for a while as my previous partners continued on, then peeled off when they took the trail back to their cars. It was a lot of work -- and I wasn't riding as well as I would have liked -- but conditions were awesome and we all had a lot of fun.

 

I headed home, then met everyone at Brew Works. Doug and Lori, Eric, Anne, and Emmi, and Debbie and Donna with their dates -- we took over one whole end of the bar, but there was too many of us to really make a cohesive whole (and the ladies were busy talking with their dates anyway), so Doug, Eric and I sat back and "solved the world's problems, one beer at a time."

 

Last Night, Part 2 was as good as the ride, but now I'm bushed. Tonight is yoga, then maybe another night out to say goodbye to Emmi who's heading back to school. First I have to get through the afternoon...

 

Locked And Loaded

Morning weigh-in (Monday): 178.5#, 12% BF

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 179#, 12% BF

 

Not too bad, considering what I ate over the holidays, and also considering my huge lunch and dinner yesterday. No workout either -- I skipped yoga last night.

 

I went to Nestors after dinner instead; I brought my DH skis in to get the bindings checked, bottom surfaces waxed and repaired etc: a typical preseason once-over and not a moment too soon. (They should be ready Friday night.) While I was there I grabbed some anti-fog, and toe warmers, and then I drifted over -- just looking, I swear! -- to check out the latest XC ski stuff. Maybe more than just looking, because I think my skis have seen better days, chunks missing from the bottom and so on, and they could really stand to be replaced. I also want a Droid, and I must be in an acquisitive mode because I'm also thinking of an iPod. The only thing I really need right now, though, is to save money, rein in my expenditures...

 

Anyway, the yoga class I was going to take yesterday got preempted by a special event, and I had most of what I needed for a gym visit, except sneakers, so that wasn't going to happen, and there was talk of a night ride, but my lights weren't charged... Today I have my gym clothes, including sneakers (and also a yoga mat just in case), out in the car, and my lights are charging as we speak -- I am ready for anything, but I hope we ride.

 

After that is Two Brews and Tacos at Brew Works.

 

2010 So Far So Good

Didn't bother to weigh myself this morning, but I suspect it's gone up: we had a great little dinner party last night. We threw a pork tenderloin into the crock pot with some sauerkraut and apples (and beer), Debbie and a friend came over (with beer), and Donna and a friend of hers also came over (cookies, brie, and more beer), and we just sat around, eating, and talking, and laughing, nothing too crazy but it was a really fun evening.

Reading: I picked up a book about Byzantium in Philly last week, and it's pretty interesting to juxtapose it against David Byrne's book, as he writes about his experiences playing and cycling in Istanbul.

Listening: "Calibration" by either the Mars Volta or maybe a side project or something. Oops! Now it's Deer Tick, "Stung."

Playing: It's really cold out, maybe 25 and windy, but I think I'll be going over to Sals for a bit, I need to get out. I have to get my skis ready, this would be perfect ski weather.

I go back to work on Monday. Sigh.

Welcome To The New Now

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 12.5% BF (so now I know where I stand)

Happy New Year! And good riddance to the Aughts...

Last night was a little bit mellow, more by accident than anything else. We started the festivities by doing the Bethlehem First Night 5k. Me, Anne, Donna, Doug & Lori, and Greg along with his daughter Julie (a high school runner who crushed the rest of us), it was a lot of fun, especially after we woke up to a snowstorm and wondered if it was even going to happen. But it did, and it really was fun, and I had a pretty good finish time -- I ran with Anne, who pushed our usual "morning run" pace, and we ended with 28:32.

After that we hit Southside. We tried to go to The Bookstore but it was closed, then we stopped in at Clothesline Organics to say hi to Kim, and finally ended up at McGrady's where we only had two beers -- except (and we found this out later) they were 10.5% ABV and, on top of our empty stomachs and running/walking in the cold air put each of us out of the game, one way or another, before midnight. Mellowest New Year's Eve in a while, for me at least, but the morning was a lot easier than some.

Today we're heading over to Judy's to say hi, then having a little pork & sauerkraut -- I'm told it's a local tradition.

Back In The Saddle, Again

Just got back from a ride at Sals. The wind had died down from yesterday and the temperature had gone up, and conditions were awesome: the ground was dry (or more likely frozen), and the trails seemed effortlessly fast, which was good because I was still hurting from all that sinus/chest stuff. A few trees were down though, probably from yesterday's wind. I moved a few of the smaller ones, and most of the rest were rideable and already "in play" -- you could see chainring marks where people had gone over -- but one tree took down a huge tangle of vines and sticker bushes with it, forcing me on a hike-a-bike detour. Still, even that was kind of fun, like exploring or something.

Reading: David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries, a gift from Anne. I got a bunch of books from my Mom & Dad too, by the way.

Mapping: I got a map of all the roads (and major trails, and elevation data, and rivers, and...) in North America from my Uncle Pat, on a chip that goes into my Garmin. I think it'll be more useful on road rides, but I was having fun with it today -- the level of detail is much greater than what the GPS unit comes with "out of the box." I also got, from my sister-in-law, a wireless pedal cadence sensor that works with the Garmin, but even though it's already on the bike, it's on the road bike and I think I'll wait until better weather to play with it. Thanks Pat and Tara!

Listening: "The Doldrums," by Ariel Pink. Shuffle, whatever...

Gift Season Wrap-Up

No idea what my weight is, but I have been doing nothing but eating and lying around since I got back from Florida -- hey I'm sick, leave me alone!

Most of my time has been taken up with that GRASS stuff, and I now have a pretty good database of the trails at Sals, as well as aerial photography and topographic maps, and satellite elevation data, from "the government" aka Penn State's repository for all that kind of stuff. Some serious learning curves as I try to make sense of a lot of disparate data -- and also try to dope out the Official Worst Interface Ever -- but I think I have made a fairly good start. (Accuracy can come later as I refine the database.)

A Recap: Christmas Eve Eve was and awesome night at Brew Works. a great time with friends Debbie and Donna, and Debbie's friend Rosemary, and some guys Debbie knew, and a few more peeps at the bar... Needless to say, Christmas Eve morning was a bit rough, but we went out for breakfast at Blue Sky with Doug & Lori, then visited my parents, plus my brother and his family, down in Jackson.

Christmas morning was quiet, as was the day itself. Anne brought her mom down from Jim Thorpe, and she stayed overnight, and we all spent most of the day just hanging out and reading. The next morning we met Donna and her daughter for another Blue Sky breakfast, but I was feeling kind of crappy: sneezing, stuffy nose, and an ominously sore throat... I took it easy for the rest of the day, only going out to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. (Verdict: Pretty Good.)

Today is another mellow/rest day, and tomorrow I may run and also go for a hike at Sals, and Tuesday we' very likely go for a ride at Jacobsburg. Maybe tomorrow I'll talk loot, but in the meantime, Merry Christmas Some More!

Looking Up, Looking Back And Looking Ahead

We got back from visiting my brother last night, long day of travel, from Cape Coral to Bethlehem via Charlotte NC, but we made it -- Emmi picked us up, and we went directly to Brew Works from the airport, in fact. Awesome visit: I'm still not a big Florida fan, but it was really fun to see my brother and his wife and kids, and it's obvious that they've got roots and are thriving there, despite some tough economic times.

Speaking of which... that area is pretty much Ground Zero for the whole mortgage meltdown scene, foreclosure signs everywhere, many houses empty and even gutted -- my brother showed me the house next door where the people even took the doors and fixtures when they abandoned it.

(Listening: Matthew Sweet's "Divine Intervention")

Anyway, my brother and his wife look good, he's construction and she's real estate, so this is an especially tough hit for them but they are muddling through, and the kids are adorable. I took a ton of pictures, and posted them during our Charlotte layover. You know what to do...

(Reading: Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day)

We are now past the bottom of the year, and moving forward, toward more light every day.

You Down With BDC?

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 12.5% BF

 

Ran yesterday morning and hit the gym after work, but... well... Two Brews and Tacos are a tough combination to beat. Today will be yoga, followed by Porters, we shall see who wins...

 

It's the last day of the work year for me, and close enough to the Solstice for me to start calling it Bottom Dead Center. I just got a good -- a glowing -- year-end review, and my office is packed up for the big move, which is now rescheduled for Monday (but of course I won't be here). Loose ends, some busywork, then I am out of here for the year! On the agenda: a few days in Florida to visit my brother, maybe some skiing when we get back, some last-minute Christmas shopping of course, and (also of course) plenty of cold cold biking.

 

Democracy In Action: I checked in to FB last night just a bit too late to see this go down, but it looks like some city councilman decided to do some grandstanding (at what he must have thought was little expense to himself), and it backfired in a gratifyingly big way. Ha! Smooth move, Councilman -- some really good backpedaling-weasel quotes in the article too.

 

Midweek, Year's End

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 12.5% BF

 

No ride last night: I got home and just felt too tired/drained -- not so much physical as just ....bleh... Spent the evening playing with GRASS, putting a few more trails into my Sals database. I read about some people who use their Garmin's "Saved Rides" feature, without actually following the saved ride, to show trails etc on the map display, so I created a GPX file of the trail system so far, but my Edge doesn't seem to be able to understand multiple-track GPX files. Oh well, that would have been pretty useful... that's on my to-do list though, generate a Garmin-compatible trail map of Sals.

 

Early bedtime last night, reading in bed by 9:30, and probably lights out within a half hour. Slept like a log, which was good because we got up early and ran this morning: 3.2 miles, 35 minutes, nothing special but I'm happy to note that the leg/ankle pain is a thing of the past. We'll be doing the First Night 5k, and, even if I don't break any speed records I know I can at least get that far.

 

The Weekend: Friday night was Porters; I caught up with Anne & Judy and a bunch of others. Haven't been there in a while, pretty nice to be back even if we were at the "cold table" by the door. We hit brew Works on the way home, saw Doug & Lori.

 

Saturday I did a long-ish ride. It was supposed to be 60 miles, but a late start & an early sunset made me cut it down to 45: I went over Blue Mountain at Little Gap, then came back over Smith's Gap, which was a lot harder than my original plan but probably cut off 15 miles, and maybe an hour, from the ride. Steep, icy in the turns, and unpaved on the south side of the mountain, Smiths Gap was actually pretty scary, especially with all the hunter's cars parked along the roadside (and the gunfire in the woods). The scariest part of the ride though, was back in civilization on Grouse Rd, when a few deer ran into the road and almost took me out on a downhill. I was pretty awake after that...

 

Anne and I joined Debbie and Donna for some window shopping and a Christmas Luminaria walk after dark, then we all crossed over to Southside and had dinner at La Lupita -- once again, we couldn't even get in to General Zapata, and once again our second choice was probably better -- and then crossed back over the river for drinks at Brew Works, where we ran into a whole bunch of other people. All of Main Street was a Christmas Madhouse, by the way: tourists, shoppers and other pedestrians, buses and cars and even horse-and-buggy traffic, and every store was a mob scene. (I posted photos of the luminaria walk.)

 

Sunday I was supposed to go help map a new park, but blew it off, which was good because the ride was canceled due to freezing rain. We walked over to Blue Sky for breakfast (met Donna, her son and his girlfriend, plus of course the usual crew). The rest of the day was reading, cooking (Anne), playing with the computer (me) and movies: we watched Bad Santa (OK), The Virgin Suicides (really good but disturbing), and finally You Can't Take It With You, a madcap romantic comedy (with social overtones) from back in the day.

 

Tonight is the gym, followed by Two Brew Taco Night, and tomorrow is the last work day of the year for me.

The Red Queen's Race

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 11.5% BF

 

Checking in, recording the weight, staying on top of my daily spew, etc...

 

I set up some goals at the Garmin website, and I've been under the gun to try to keep up with them: I'm currently on target for my December running goal, but my cycling goals are weekly and, thought they're not overly ambitious (100 miles this week and next, for example), it's a little hard to stay on top of them with the recent weather (and all my other distractions) -- and each week the grind starts over.

 

Meantime, I went to yoga last night -- I am falling behind there too, and I'm getting really tight again. That abandoned missive I was writing touched on this: a lot of things got me where I am right now (ie with Anne), some of which -- like Which Brew or Christian Springs -- are gone, but that's OK because they were like booster stages or something, they fulfilled their tasks. I think I could even lose bicycling (another thing that brought us together) and keep moving forward, and that's saying something... Yoga is different: it helped me be emotionally capable of being in a relationship, and maybe the changes were permanent, but if my body can return to graceless stiffness, maybe my soul can too. This is something I have to stay on top of.

 

Yoga last night, and this morning was another run (3.25 miles, 36 minutes), and tonight is the gym, a place I haven't seen in more than two weeks -- spot a pattern?

 

In other news: My skin has been very dry and itchy lately, which is my excuse to post this.

 

Winter Project: I think it selected itself, I've been playing with GRASS quite a bit lately, mostly with my maps of Walking Purchase Park.

 

Vapor Lock

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 11.5% BF

 

Little bit of suppression weight loss in there -- evening bike and morning run yesterday, dehydration issues etc -- but I'll take the win, especially since last night was tacos and Two Brew Tuesday. Those numbers could have been better, but they also could have been worse. Getting there, sort of...

 

(By the way, one reason for the recent logo-constipation was that I was working on a post, which grew to become an essay, and it kept morphing and growing until it was no longer timely or interesting, and I abandoned it -- suffice to say I have much to be thankful for, and I am.)

 

Garmin tells me I burned 3900 calories on last night's ride, but that seems way excessive, even considering that I was on the Iguana (aka "Old Paint," but also affectionately known as "the 50-Pounder") and I was riding the hilly roads out by Williams Township -- 25 miles, two hours, average heart rate of 125 bpm, no way I had to crank that kind of wattage. Beautiful night for a ride though, chilly enough on the downhills to slow me down, which is just as well: Old Paint has developed a weird, slow precession or oscillation of the front wheel at higher speeds, pulling left then right then left etc, which undermines its claim to better stability on winter roads, and which makes downhills more "interesting" than fun at speed. (At lower speeds it was fine, even on the occasional icy stretches near streams.) You could see the sky getting ready to snow, and passing the power plant, with its cooling towers going full blast, was a total trip. I used to dream quite a bit about power plants, especially some of the bigger ones out in the Tennessee Valley, all sepia colors and strange, skewed perspectives, like my Easton dreams.

 

Anyway, I met Anne at Brew Works afterward, and the ladies seemed pretty jazzed up. Tacos, two brews, and I personally was mellow (read: sleepy), and so we went home around 10:30 or so. I slept like the dead last night, and I think tonight's post-yoga activity will be "quiet evening at home."

 

BTW2: Yesterday was the 29th anniversary of John Lennon's death, but today, the next day, being in school and hearing the announcement over the loudspeaker, was the day I remember. Strange, I know people, adults pushing 30, who were never alive when he was.

 

Knock Knock

Morning weigh-in: 181#, 11.5% BF

 

Hi it's me. I've been here all along, but I have just been too super-busy to write. What's up (besides weight)?

 

Thanksgiving was awesome, and it lasted for the full four days: cooking/eating Thursday (ribs), Friday (the actual Thanksgiving turkey), and Saturday (the turducken); riding Thursday (Lehigh) and Sunday (Allamuchy). Emmi was home, and her college friend visited, and the whole scene was really fun. I posted pictures you-know-where...

 

I managed to hurt my thumb a few weeks back, so I've been avoiding the gym -- you need your hands to do just about anything there -- as well as any really hard riding, so I've been doing a little more running than usual lately. I had a bit of a breakthrough this past Friday, on a morning run with Anne: I wanted to get in four miles, and she suggested the towpath to protect my ankle. (My problems are not wind/fatigue/fitness, but leg pain.) We ran down to the towpath, out approximately to her usual turnaround, and ran back to pavement before dropping to a walk -- 4.79 miles, no pain, and this morning's 3-miler felt fine too.

 

The rest of this past weekendwas also really nice, mostly spent with friends Debbie and Donna, and a cameo appearance by Anne's sister too. We started with Friday afternoon at the library (internet was down at the coffee shop), then bounced around southside for First Friday (saw WB'ers Andrea and Kateryna at Tulum), before hitting Brew Works (Doug, Lori, Greg, and Arnie). Saturday, needless to say, was fairly mellow, though I did manage to dope out some useful things in GRASS while watching the snow fall. Sunday was a breakfast walk to Blue Sky, then home for knitting (Anne and the ladies -- I played on the laptop), and a nice late-afternoon snow ride at Sals, doing a little more GPS exploring.

 

I was going to ride the towpath last night, but the Turner was such a disaster (and so was my laundry pile) that I took the night off to play catch-up, and while I was in maintenance mode, I also got the Iguana cleaned up and functional. Nothing major -- clean/lube, loosen a few stiff links, pump up the tires and it was all good. I'll probably bust it out for a road ride tonight if the rains hold off. Meantime, I tried shifting the Turner with my bad thumb, and we're almost back to normal.

 

See you in a week?

Holidaze

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 12% BF

 

Not Quite Flahute: Rode the towpath last night, pretty nice even with a bit of drizzle coming down. It was supposed to be a group ride, but the majority chickened out: I met Eastoner Mark at Sand Island; he came from home and was at his turnaround. Since he lives over by 25th Street somewhere, we did a bit of the Palmer bike path as part of my turnaround, a part I probably haven't been on since they built the Route 33 bridge. Total for the night was probably 17 miles. I wracked up my hand at Sals on Friday night, some stupid crash early in the ride and I sprained my thumb; right now I have trouble shifting in front, so last night was ideal -- just put it in the big ring and toodle along.

 

(We visited my folks on Saturday, and got in a ride at Allaire. Ibuprofen and middle-ring toodling, easy trails, just a bit of exploration -- I was there probably twice in the last two years, and hadn't been there at all in the previous decade; the place has returned to Terra Incognita.)

 

Stumbling Towards Bethlehem: Anne and I got up early and ran this morning, 3.2 miles in about 35 minutes: no great but not too too bad. Unfortunately that was about a mile longer than my ankle really wanted to go, and it got cranky towards the end. Anne must have noticed:

 

ANNE: You OK? How's your leg?

ME: Not so great.

ANNE: You want to cut the pace?

ME: No, I have... other issues...

 

Yep, there was more of my body awake and functioning besides lungs and legs, and I was happy to get home to a bathroom. (This made for a great TMI Facebook post, and now I know the perfect FB troll.) I'm trying to get ready for the New Year's Eve "First Friday" run in Bethlehem, and we'll also be doing the Turkey Trot together this Friday morning. Much holiday running through the Christmas City...

 

Tonight I get my broken tooth fixed, then if I feel up for it I may join the post-knitting ladies at Brew Works. Taco Night, you know.

 

 

Every Move We Make Is The New Tradition

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 12.5% BF

 

So it looks like weekly blogging, or at least very very sporadic "daily" blogging, and blogtime spent playing catch-up, has become the norm around here...

 

Pretty good weekend: saw my folks Sunday afternoon when they came to visit -- we walked around Monocacy Park, and went to Allentown Brew Works for dinner. Sunday morning was a beautiful road ride with Anne Julie: out via River and Buttermilk Roads, back via Raubsville and Applebutter roads, maybe 20 miles in all. Saturday morning is a blur, so I'm guessing I spent most of it in front of the computer while Anne volunteered to help Donna's running group... Hmmm, what else? Well there's food:

 

Friday: the new (to us) General Zapata in South Bethlehem. (Very good, a lot like the old Zapata's).

Saturday: Brunch at Blue Sky, burger at Ripper's (reminded me of why we usually don't go there -- got smoke?), music and Founders Breakfast Stout at Starfish.

 

Sunday you already know.

 

Meantime, Anne and I went out for ride last night, but first stopped at Cutters to catch their Monday Night Movie showing, "Days of Dirt" or such like. Total bike porn, ramps and jumps and downhilling, and an adrenaline-fueled soundtrack... really fun actually, and neat to see it with Anne. We got amped up, then hit the towpath to continue at a more sedate pace -- I have to say, the towpath was nasty last night, maybe the canal, maybe the sewage plant but it really stank in some places -- and finally we stopped in to see some friends at Brew Works. Tonight is the gym, and probably tacos at Brew Works.

 

Hooked: Judy recommended some Netflix picks for Anne, so she's been watching the first season of Hamish Macbeth. She watches occasionally while knitting, and I'm sitting there at the laptop, catching the action now and then, and all of a sudden I too have become totally engrossed. Good show actually, even if I can't always understand what they're saying.

 

 

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 180#, 12% BF

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 180.5#, 13% BF

Morning weigh-in: (Friday): 179.5#, 13% BF

Welcome to Friday! It's been a pretty exciting week: Anne's birthday was Wednesday, and Anne's niece Lori had her baby yesterday. (A boy, Jonah Gray [last name redacted]. I can probably get the baby-stats, but don't remember them now -- maybe 7 pounds 2 oz?)Mother and son are said to be doing fine, though husband Chris must keep his distance until his flu passes.

 

Meantime, Emmi took her "comps" on Wednesday, and passed with flying colors (natch). I'm not totally sure where this fits in her PhD program, but my understanding is that it was an oral exam, and that it's a serious milestone, a make-or-break test of the candidate's fitness to continue in the program. In other words, this was a big deal, and she owned it. Congrats Emmi!

 

Ran with Anne Tuesday morning before work, then hit the gym between work and Taco Night. Wednesday we went to the pub at The Farmhouse -- never been there, verdict: meh -- for Anne's birthday, then met Deb & Donna at The Bookstore. Saw some other peeps there as well, in fact I'd say that I had at least a passing acquaintance with almost everyone in the place... It's a bit pricey (and a bit lacking in pub fare) to be a substitute for Porters or Which Brew, but seeing all those people there was a neat experience. Strangely enough, we knew a few people in the Farmhouse pub too, and both places are basement bars. All my friends have gone underground...

 

Yesterday was a bit rough, so after the gym I just went home and we both crashed early. Not sure what's happening tonight, but if the weather holds -- it's not expected to -- I'll be hitting the towpath.

 

 

 

Monday Morning

Morning weigh-in: 180.5#, 14% BF (uh-oh)

 

Reading: I picked up Anne's copy of James Howard Kunstler's The Geography of Nowhere the other day, and I'm now about a third of the way through. Pretty good so far, but -- already knowing Kunstler's views, and sharing at least some of them -- I haven't found too many surprises, or information I didn't already know. The best part so far was the introduction, where he gives a bit of his own history as background for where his views came from. His experiences growing up with city, suburb and small town resonated with me, and probably do so with many people of a certain age, whose lives and living spaces followed similar paths, but there was also a mysterious and Pynchonesque element, a childhood playing in the abandoned estates at the edge of suburbia... I wonder if he ever read "The Secret Integration?"

 

Moving: Hit the gym Thursday night, major leg workout. Ran Friday morning with Anne on the towpath, maybe 2.6 miles: I only ran part way out, then walked a bit while she went to her turnaround point, and joined her for the return leg -- the ankle still gets cranky after about 2 miles of running. Saturday night was the Cutters ride at Sals, and Sunday we took a road ride to the Emmaus Bakery, got donuts and ate them at South Mountain Cycles. My legs are whooped today. Tonight is "active rest" with yoga.

 

Drinking: There's a new bar in Bethlehem called "The Bookstore." It's sort of a theme bar, set up as a speakeasy: it's in a basement, with a side alley entrance that opens into a book store; a "secret door" leads into the bar itself. It's been the buzz place since it opened a few weeks ago, and we couldn't even get in on Friday night. Anne and I tried again on Saturday, and the place was awesome: 1920's decor and atmosphere, live period music, interesting mixed drinks and a huge selection of Belgian beers. Recommendo...

 

Viewing: After our Sunday ride we hooked up with Larry & Kelly-Jo, plus a few others from the old Which Brew crowd, and saw The Men Who Stare at Goats. Enjoyable afternoon, very funny movie.

 

Computing: I joined/downloaded Skype on Saturday, but have no one else to call except Anne in the other room. I'm at loose ends: now that the MTO thing is finished I need a new "toy project." Maybe I'll look at R again, or maybe some more map/GIS stuff.

 

Corvus Redux

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 13% BF

Listening: Thelonius Monk, "Locomotive"

I think it was something I ate yesterday, like nut-contaminated food or something, but I really started hurting yesterday afternoon, like all tired & feverish. I felt OK enough to hit the gym, then got dinner at Brew Works as planned, but I felt totally wiped when we got home... I woke up this morning feeling like I never got any rest, still feverish and headachey so I stayed home.

Spent most of the day lounging about, did some laundry after I finally got up, finalized the error checking on the MTO program, and, late in the afternoon, I was finally feeling better so I went down to Eskandalo for a haircut.

I stopped in at Tulum on the way back, got a burrito & talked with old friends Andrea and Kateryna, who apparently keep up with the Which Brew crowd a little better than I do -- I got an earful of gossip, nothing too juicy but a lot of who's where and doing what. Kind of nice, then it was time to move along and now I'm home.

Anne's out at a meeting, and she sometimes goes out to BW for a social hour afterward; I may try to catch up but I can feel I'm fading again.

Now Playing: Pere Ubu, "Wheelhouse"

An Experiment: I just wanted to see what this might look like, you'll have to bear with me...

Taking a look at a sample input file:

don@dell-desktop:~/programs/MTO/examples$ cat 4300-fe.in
p1 470 415
p2 1598 457
p3 94 390
p4 94 398
p5 94 398
p6 94 471
p7 94 462
p8 94 432
p9 94 440
p10 94 440
p11 94 55
p12 94 45

Running the MTO program, in a fairly simple way, on the sample data:

don@dell-desktop:~/programs/MTO/examples$ mto -osc fe.matl 4300-fe.in
T-1 188 5 39 5 0 2.250 0.180 SA-210-A1
T-2 1786 18 38 6 0 2.250 0.180 SA-210-A1
T-3 282 5 36 9 0 2.250 0.180 SA-210-A1
T-4 282 5 34 9 0 2.250 0.180 SA-210-A1
T-5 282 5 33 3 0 2.250 0.180 SA-210-A1
TUBE: T-1 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 39'-3" (FOR MK-p6)
TUBE: T-1 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 34'-7" (FOR MK-p1), 1 @ 4'-7" (FOR MK-p11)
TUBE: T-2 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 38'-6" (FOR MK-p7)
TUBE: T-2 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 34'-7" (FOR MK-p1), 1 @ 3'-9" (FOR MK-p12)
TUBE: T-2 (1598 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 38'-1" (FOR MK-p2)
TUBE: T-3 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 36'-8" (FOR MK-p9)
TUBE: T-3 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 36'-8" (FOR MK-p10)
TUBE: T-3 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 36'-0" (FOR MK-p8)
TUBE: T-4 ( 282 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 34'-7" (FOR MK-p1)
TUBE: T-5 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 33'-2" (FOR MK-p4)
TUBE: T-5 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 33'-2" (FOR MK-p5)
TUBE: T-5 ( 94 REQD) CUT AS: 1 @ 32'-6" (FOR MK-p3)

What the program tells you if you ask for help:

don@dell-desktop:~/programs/MTO/examples$ mto -h
MTO 1.0

This program reads cut tube lengths, returns tube order required.

Usage: MTO [OPTIONS]... [FILES]...

-h, --help Print help and exit
-V, --version Print version and exit
-v, --verbose Prints a bunch of extra stuff to standard output.
-o, --order Tube order will be sent to standard output
-s, --sequence Tube cutting sequence will be sent to standard output
-f, --outfile=STRING if an output file is specified, tube order and
sequence will be writen there
-t, --tubelength=FLOAT maximum shipping length for tubes (default=`473')
-n, --startnum=INT starting number for tube mark numbers (default=`1')
-d, --od=FLOAT tube outer diameter (default=`2.5')
-w, --minwall=FLOAT tube min wall thickness (default=`0.200')
-m, --matl=STRING tube material spec (default=`SA-210-A1')
-c, --config=STRING optional config file, it overrides defaults but
command line trumps


It's a start...

Anyway, the crow thing: I noticed it already starting the other day, but walking home tonight across the Hill-to-Hill Bridge, I saw that the crows were back again with a vengeance, thousands of them all along the river, in the trees on either bank. Pretty cool.

Cowboy Sky

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 15% BF

 

Went out last night for a towpath ride, but first I went over to Southside, and stopped in at Cutters Bike Shop for their Monday night movie: they just got New World Disorder 10 in the shop, and they had a special after-hours showing. BYOB, and they had pizza and some other goodies (owner Lisa whipped up some baked goods & coffee) and there was a good crowd in the place enjoying the show. The movie itself was classic NWD: cool riding in awesome locales, and the jumps/stunts were neat though they did get repetitive after an hour of watching...  I didn't stay to the end, but skipped out and went back across the river to continue my ride.

 

(I've been meaning to check out the new Greenway Project over in Southside, and last night I used it to get over to Cutters from New Street, basically getting on the trail in front of the Wildflower Cafe. It's just an old RR right-of-way that they plan to "improve" with pavement, park benches etc -- this improvement has already happened in front of the new casino --  but I rode the unimproved portion last night, and for mountain bikes at least it's a fully functional bike path.)

 

Meanwhile, back on the towpath... another beautiful night. The sky cleared up by the time I reached my turnaround point (the old Glendon Bridge), but earlier it was a dramatic mix of broken clouds and moonlight, almost like the night backdrop as the cowpokes drink coffee around the fire in some old movie... Plenty of deer out again last night, and another blue heron, and a bunch of glowing eyes skulking in the woods that I took to be feral cats hanging near the old garbage dump. I got home around 9:30, and was in bed within an hour...

 

We got up extra early this morning and went for a run, 2.36 miles in maybe 25 minutes, not too bad but nothing crazy, and then I went inside to start the coffee and start my day, and Anne went on to finish her run. Tonight is the gym (for me) then I'm meeting Anne and "the gals" at Brew Works.

 

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Whew, that was quite the weekend! I think Halloween is an even bigger deal for me than Christmas -- and then, when it does land on a weekend...

 

Our Halloween party -- and Bethlehem's "Trick Or Treat" night -- was Friday night, and Saturday night was the CAT Halloween Costume Bike Ride, which ended at the Wildflower Cafe for a benefit concert (and which was in turn followed by a visit to Brew Works) -- both nights were total blow-outs: Saturday/Sunday mornings were not early-to-rise events. I took lots of pictures, and managed to get all of them posted; I am now fully up-to-date on my photos so go click and enjoy!

 

Yesterday afternoon we visited my friend Vito, my first visit since his wife passed away last March. Needless to say he's still devastated, but he was looking hale and healthy at least, and he said he's been keeping busy which is good (and which is what I expected to hear). He made a pizza and we did some catching up, work-related gossip and such, and we took off about 6:00.

 

When we got home we did a moonlight ride down the towpath, down to the Chain Dam and back. A bit chilly but very pleasant and, with the full moon reflecting on the water, we even rode for a bit with our lights out. (Lotsa critters out too: deer, and some small predators, and a blue heron flying low across the water -- we turned our lights back on so we wouldn't bump into any other trail users.) It was still fairly early when we got home, but we totally crashed, and slept like the dead.

 

Driftdown

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 12.5% BF

 

No yoga last night, and no going out either: we spent most of the evening cleaning (not so bad really, mostly just organizing), and had leftover pot roast, with potatoes and biscuits, for dinner.

 

Idiot vs Simple Task #1: The Turner's brake pads have needed changing for about a month, but I just haven't been able to find the time or inclination to do it. Until... Last night, toward the end of the evening, I decided to put some laundry on, and while that was cooking I tackled the rear brakes -- what a battle! The old ones -- and they were basically down to the bare metal -- came out easily enough, but before the new ones went in I had to bleed the hydraulic lines a little (I guess brake fluid expands over time), and that meant I had to clean out the bleeder valve, which is essentially a hollow screw, that had become filled with dirt. So with the job about 95% complete, I went off on a wild goose chase, spending about an hour poring over this one tiny screw like a jeweler, picking out grit with my smallest Allen wrench and some brush bristles until it finally came clean. Ten minutes later the job was done -- and it wasn't even midnight yet!

 

Idiot vs Simple Task #2: I thought that my toy program was done, except maybe for some minor tweaking, and last night I asked Anne if she would be my test subject and try it out, to see if it made sense. I was about to surrender my laptop over to her when I tried "just one more" test case... It (the recent error-checking stuff I added) didn't work, the program just swallowed the bad data I put in, and kept right on going -- D'oh! I Googled [my error-checking method] and found a bunch of things saying "never ever do this! instead do [some other, more complicated thing]." Oh well, that gives me something to do, next rainy weekend.

 

I heard a train whistle in the distance last night as I was drifting off to sleep, and it got me thinking about Coca Cola Mountain, that time Joe G and I walked up and onto the RR bridge. (It was a winter night maybe 12 years ago, and we were out on foot in a snowstorm, probably on our way to see some band downtown.) We walked out about halfway across the bridge and took in the scene: peaceful and beautiful, almost Victorian with the snowy hills and rivers, and the towns looking like Yuletide model RR sets, and the haunting train whistle blowing across the valley...

 

Well, train. It was nowhere in sight, probably miles away but we could hear the whistle, so we went back across, climbed up onto the mountain, and were out of the way just in time to throw snowballs at the passing train.

 

Idiot vs Simple Task #3: We use homemade laundry soap, and we ran out while Anne was out of town last weekend, so I tried making a new batch myself. Looking at the ingredients (lye soap, borax, etc), I kept getting the phrase "sturdy pioneer stock" stuck in my head, but the stuff was actually very easy to make. I put the new batch down in the laundry area of the basement, and forgot about it. I just got a "My Hero!" email from Anne after she went to do laundry and found it -- I win!

 

Tonight is the gym, then more cleaning-type program activities.

Bachelor Weekend

Morning Weigh-in: 177.5#, 14% BF

 

OCD Alert: I have to figure out a new morning routine. Normally I get up and make coffee, then I weigh myself just before showering, but lately I've been eating breakfast while the water boils and the coffee brews, so there's no chance for an "official" (ie pre-breakfast) morning weigh-in on the bathroom scale, unless I hit the scale before heading downstairs. I guess that'll work, it worked this morning anyway.

 

On My Own: Anne was out of town at the knitting convention, so I was basically on my own for a rainy weekend. Ran a few errands, did a few chores, hung at Wired, and generally managed to occupy myself while avoiding injury, illness or burning the house down... Some highlights: the Haunted Walking Tour of Easton on Friday, Mike & Tracy's going-away party (plus a few events in South Bethlehem) on Saturday, and trailwork at Trexler Game Preserve on Sunday. I have pictures for all of these, so stay tuned.

 

Fiat Lux: I picked up my bike lights on Saturday, and gave them a try last night on the towpath. Just a milk run, maybe six miles out & then back -- I was running late after doing some other bike repairs, plus laundry and yadda yadda, supposed to meet Anne at 9:00 or so -- whoops! Better to cut it short, especially since the batteries might need a few charge-discharge cycles before they're back up to spec. In terms of performance, they worked beautifully; it was a real pleasure riding with that kind of candlepower again.

 

Tonight is the gym, then most likely "Two Brews And Tacos Night" at Brew Works. Anne was in Connecticut at the convention, and Debbie was vacationing in Puerto Rico, and two bartenders got engaged over the weekend --  the team has a lot of catching up to do. (I made a pot roast on Sunday, but we've been eating it for two days now with no end in sight; it's time for a short break.)