Sweat Loaf Die Die Die

Morning weigh-in: 173#, 10.5% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

That Summer Feeling

Morning weigh-in: 172.5#, 10.5% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

So Far So Good

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 10% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Pure Enjoyment

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

Two more days, then Raystown here we come!

 

The Best Of All Disinfectants

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 10.5% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Stability Quest

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 9% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

 

Big Breezy Weekend

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

Slacker 2: Electric Boogaloo

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

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

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

Slacker

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

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

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

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

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

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

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Bigger Than Life

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 9% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

How Sweet It Is

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 9% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

Tonic In D Minus

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 12% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

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

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 10.5% BF

 

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

 

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

Beano, Comes The Hunger

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

Some Days You Can't BUY A Break

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 10% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Tuesday Morning After

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

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.