A Quick Post

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 7.5% BF

 

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

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

Septemberers!

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

New Camera: First Photo!

New Camera: First Photo!
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

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

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

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

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

I Got A New Toy

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Sun Down, Moon Down, Earth Down Too

Morning weigh-in: 170.5#, 11.5% BF (oh noes!)

 

No real significance to the post's title, I was just reminded somehow of some Transcendentalist phrase from somewhere, and it came out like that. Let's see:

 

Friday, my first Friday off under the new schedule, was a chore day, though I did manage to meet Anne for lunch downtown -- she was in Easton for a brunch date with a friend. It poured in the afternoon, so I bailed on the towpath ride; dinner was a cheesesteak at Porters.

 

Saturday was my first true "selfish day" since before the Wilderness 101: I went to early morning yoga, then did an errand or two and got breakfast at the Coffee Exchange, and hit the gym for the first workout with Dawn in like a month. Home, housework, laundry and drycleaning, and then I went to Bethlehem for a haircut. (It was so nice I via via the towpath.)

 

Saturday night was a party at Michele's place -- she's one of the old Which Brew crew and lives a few blocks from me, just past the halfway point between my place and Porters. Really cool space, and a nice pleasant evening with the crew: me, Kirk, Michele, her friend Cathy & her boyfriend (don't know his name but he sings for the Plucking Grassholes), Fred & Lara, Jim & Alison, Ed, Pete, Art, Scott, the usual suspects... I stopped at Porters to buy some beer -- my contribution to the party since I wouldn't be cooking anything -- and got myself enmeshed in several conversations before I could even get to the party, but I finally arrived about an hour late. Like I said, very pleasant evening of food, drink & conversation but I had to leave early, I had big plans for Sunday.

 

I got up early yesterday, met Anne in Bethlehem around 8:30 and we carpooled up to Jim Thorpe to go whitewater rafting. What a trip! I'd never done anything like it (maybe some canoeing but that's very different), and it was a total blast. Me, Anne, her friend Bridget and another friend Allison (a different Allison) in one raft, and her friends Meredith and Dave, brother-and-sister owners (with Bridget) of a Bethlehem cafe/bookstore, and their significant others in another, plus maybe 20 other rafts full of people. The whitewater parts were crazy fun if scary -- Bridget got knocked out of the raft once, Anne twice, and we rescued one girl and put her back in the proper boat -- and in between, in the calm water we had splash fights with our baling buckets. Total fun, I'm doing that again, soon. By the way, I slept like a log last night.

Anyway, today I'm blowing off everything to go buy a camera. Tomorrow will probably be the gym, Wednesday a ride, Thursday packing and Friday (or Saturday morning) I'll be off to Allamuchy.

"Your sun's riding low, your moon's riding too,
Good night. little Arlo, good night."

Megan Gets Married

Megan
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

Congratulations!

This is a photo from 2005, before she moved out to Seattle and became "West Coast Megan;" in fact it's from her going away party. I saw Judy at Christian's spring Hotel last night, Judy whose daughter Erica was Megan's best friend growing up: Erica just got back from Seattle, where she was maid of honor -- practically the whole bridal party, apparently it was a small, nontraditional wedding -- and we got the story of how it all went down.

Moving to Pennsylvania was one of the best things I ever did, and so many other "best things I ever did" were really just consequences of that original move; I think Megan's really thrived out there from all reports, and this is one more consequence of a really good move. Go Megan!

Last Day Of The Week

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 166.5#, 10% BF
Morning weigh-in (Friday): 165.5#, 11.5% BF

UPDATE: This was a post from yesterday that I forgot to submit. The future parts of it came true pretty much the way I said.

Nothing much to say. Went out to Sette Luna with Anne last night, split a pizza (pepperoni and some exotic sausage) and an appetizer (figs stuffed with goat cheese, amazing taste/texture juxtapositions). Nice place, we sat in the main room. Tonight I'm hitting the gym, then meeting Anne and a few others at Christian's Spring.

By the way, I'm back on the population dynamics kick; I picked up that Matrix Methods book again.

Porky's XXXIV

Morning weigh-in: 167.5#, 11% BF

Rode at Jordan Park last night. I got there at around 5:45 and the place was a mob scene: the VMB ride (maybe 20 people) had just left, and what I think was the Blue Mountain Ski Club's weekly mountain bike ride was getting ready to go out (there was also a pretty big contingent of Dirt Devils in the lot and on the trails, though I'm not sure if that was a group ride or not). I got literally the last space in the parking lot. Needless to say, the woods were pretty busy too. I rode with Rudy and Dave, and we were constantly ruinning into other riders, as well as hikers and a few frisbee golfers. Trails are twisty there, and turn back on themselves a lot, so you could be far from someone via the trail, but see them only a few dozen yards away as the crow flies -- we were joking about the "Blair Witch" parody on Saturday Night Live, where the kids were running around in circles, "lost" and panicking about 10 feet from their car...

Long meeting afterward, but productive as always, and that was followed by a trip to Grumpy's BBQ for dinner. Pretty awesome, never been there. You could smell the pork and beef smoking from down the road -- they do it themselves out back -- and it tasted as good as it smelled. Decent beer selection too.

Tonight I'm skipping yoga, and going to Sette Luna for someupscale pizza with Anne.

Get-R-Done

Morning weigh-in: 168#, 4.5% BF

 

Think I'm all caught up on my sleep, it's been "good sleeping weather" as the saying goes, and the past few nights I've been doing just that, like a log. Of course the Sunday party, and the Monday night laundry/Porters thang, might have something to do with that, as well as those morning numbers... Laundry's done though, and so are a few other chores/errands that I had hanging over me; all I have left now is some shopping and housework, and I should finally be caught up to my weekend agenda.

 

Tonight is a trip out to Jordan for the VMB meeting, heading there straight from work, and I brought the bike for the pre-meeting ride. I'll be later than the regularly scheduled ride but I should be able to hook up with the others, it's not a big place.

Monday Morning Quarterback

Morning weigh-in: 166.5#, 10% BF

 

Seems like such a long time...

 

Time Flies: Wednesday I went to Christian Springs after yoga, to hang with Anne and also Kelly-Jo. We were having such a nice conversation that time started to slip by... I realized it was sort of late, thinking "oh it must be 11:00 already" and checked the time -- it was 1:00 AM. Ouch! Needless to say, Thursday morning was a tough sell.

 

Too Old To Rock & Roll? I saw Jethro Tull at Musikfest on Thursday night. I was there with my friend Bob McF (from the Which Brew crowd) who'd basically bought tickets to all the shows, and arranged for different people to join him on different nights. Pretty decent plan actually, he saw a bunch of good shows and managed to hang with the old crowd too... Unfortunately, while the show was good and we had a blast, Ian Anderson's vocals were not up to snuff -- his voice seemed unable to hit the higher notes, and while his flute playing was as forceful as ever his breathing, while singing, was like he was trying to talk and jog at the same, all breathless and wheezy/panting. Something was up, and you could tell they knew it: though they played many of their hits, the majority of the songs were instrumentals from earlier in their career, or obscure things from like the late eighties. Still, it was a decent enough show, they did rock, and like I said they played most of their hits -- except not "Aqualung," which ticked Bob off no end, since I think that was his favorite, and the reason he was there...

 

Return Of The Son Of The Fun Ride! Friday night was a Sals ride, actually starting with dinner at Tulum (a burrito place in Southside Bethlehem) and riding over to the St Luke's Hospital trailhead behind the dialysis center. Our plan was to ride through the woods and listen to the Stone Temple Pilots concert -- the acoustics for the pay shows are actually very good in some parts of the woods, since Sals is just across the river -- but there were three flats, a broken chain, snafus with lighting systems etc, and we were out a lot longer than we expected; when we got back within earshot of the concert, all we heard was talking, but they played "Plush" just as we got back to the dialysis center. Oh well, I guess we missed it... After that I hit the Tally Ho, but it was crowded and I didn't know anyone there. Burger, beer, and gone. (Got a report from someone who saw the show: they showed up like an hour late, seemed drunk and spent a lot of time yakking, and their voices were off. At least we had fun biking!)

 

Reading: Saturday I skipped morning yoga but did the coffee shop thing (saw Judy there) and then hit the gym, and that night I went to Christian's Spring Hotel to hang with Anne and her sisters . It was a beautiful day, so of course I spent a good portion of the afternoon, between the gym and dinner out, at home reading -- I finished Gods Behaving Badly, and am now back on Blindness, both loaners from Anne.

 

My Little Chickadee: I heard some birds chirping rather loudly while I was hanging at home Saturday, didn't think anything of it but when I went to the bathroom I passed the kitchen and saw two little finches or something, sparrows, in the kitchen, on the windowsill, cheeping at about a dozen of the same kind of bird right outside. I opened the window as my new friends flew around the room, then eventually got one of them to fly out -- the other one hit the window and fell to the ground, stunned, and scooted under the fridge when I tried to grab it. It hid itself up in the works, behind motor/compressor etc, I could barely see it with a flashlight and couldn't get it out (I tried a broomstick), so I opened the window and left the room, figuring he'd calm down and eventually find the window on his own.

 

I went in about an hour later and he seemed gone, so I shut the window and went back to reading, but just as I was about to hop int the shower (passing the kitchen again on the way to the bathroom) I heard loud cheeping and found my friend back on the windowsill -- apparently he took longer to calm down than I thought. This time he managed to find the window when I opened it, and so I was only a little late to dinner.

 

Yesterday I went on a breakfast ride, rolling down to the Quadrant for brunch (where I saw Kirk and also Michele) before doing the towpath. My plan was to hit Sals, but I only got to Freemansburg when the sky started looking ominous, so I turned around. Home, shower during the storm, and out to Emmaus for Heath's surprise party -- he's relocating to Utah, and his brother Hans threw a going-away party for him. Only a few peeps there I knew but it was nice. I was whooped when I got back, so I hit the sack early last night. So now I'm essentially caught up here...

 

Tonight is drycleaning, yoga, laundry, and shopping.

The Roar Of A Predator So Absolute

Morning weigh-in: 166#, 8.5% BF

 

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration! A-and also the anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima, so here is your Obligatory Pynchon Quote:

 

"At the instant it happened, the pale Virgin was rising in the east, head, shoulders, breasts, 17 degrees minutes down to her maidenhead at the horizon. A few doomed Japanese knew of her as some Western deity. She loomed in the eastern sky gazing down at the city about to be sacrificed. The sun was in Leo. The fireburst came in roaring and sovereign..." -- from Gravity's Rainbow

 

Anyway, rode the benchmark with Anne last night after work, then had a little more of that roast pork loin. Tonight is yoga, then probably Christian's Spring Hotel for dinner.

 

So if you see my birds flying on the way past people crying, just reach over into my pocket, take the paper and written on it's what to do, it's up to you... Ah, Transfiguration...

Godzilla, Come To Trample Spoorless Your White-Market of Solace

Morning weigh-in: 168.5#, 7.5% BF (wow)

 

Goodbye Norma Jean: On this date in 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her home.

 

Favorites, Old And New: When Anne's daughter was young, she had a little friend who used to live next door to Judy -- and now he's the author of one of my new favorite webcomics, xkcd. I was just looking at the forums on his site, and found this thread -- though it's a skewed sample, and I can't claim "small world." But those kids are all right...

 

Pictures of Lilly (ba da-da da, da da)

Lilly, O Lilly! (ba da-da da, da da)

 

Salsa Surfadelic, Baby!

Morning weigh-in: 162.5#, 8.5% BF

 

Saturday was a bit of a wash, as the Fell Mountain ride got canceled/postponed due to weather, and I used the time for laundry & cleaning (also morning yoga), but yesterday was beautiful so I spent it outdoors: downtown to The Quadrant for breakfast, then the towpath to Sals for a lap, where I hooked up with "Spanky," a bunch of dudes from Philly, and Keith and John P; from there I rode over to Musikfest (it was on the way home). I caught a bunch of surf bands -- though once again I missed the Coffin Daggers -- and eventually found myself sitting with Lee and Judy. I made, or rather finalized, plans to return later, and took the towpath home around 5:00.

 

I was showered and back at Plaza Tropicale by 7:00. I hooked up with Anne, and Lee & Judy again, and eventually Peter R and Kelly-Jo, as well as Judy's future son-in-law and his family: we were all there to see Judy's daughter Erica, salsa dancer ("salsita?") extraordinaire and part of a local dance troupe, perform in between "heats" at an amateur salsa competition. The competition was fun (but a bit long, and the emcee's repetitive repartee didn't help), and the salsa demos by the younger kids was cute, but I was just totally blown away by Erica's group -- I mean, I knew she was good, I've seen videos, but this was a quantum leap above what I expected. Anyway, a fun evening and I was glad I went.

 

Meantime, it was a bit of a rough morning, we are now officially on our new "gas-saving" schedule, and I had to be here a half hour earlier than usual -- staying late a half hour too so it'll be a long day every day until I get used to this. The Fridays off will be nice though...

 

Tonight is yoga, and I have a pork loin cooking in the crock pot for tonight.

One Seventeen

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 164.5%, 7.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 166.5#, 9.5% BF

Morning weigh-in (Friday): 165.5#, 9.5% BF

 

So, uh...

 

Rode the benchmark ride last night, did it in 1:17 for an 18.7 mph average -- that included city traffic and a long stretch of major road construction on Bushkill drive. I didn't feel particularly good, but going fast felt easy... Why the fuck couldn't I have been riding like that last Saturday? (One reason: last Saturday my strategy was to attack the hills, figuring that a slight speed gain at low speeds would chip away the most time -- I still think this is true, at least in terms of math and theory, but in practice I think I might have worn myself down too early in the race, leaving me vulnerable in the later, also-time-eating singletrack sections. The big test on "the benchmark" is Upper Mud Run Road, and I went up that no faster than usual.)

 

Other than that, lets see: rode Tuesday, a nice easy road ride, maybe 20 miles or so. I stopped in at Brian's house, found him watching TV on a perfectly nice day -- turns out he'd had another heart operation and was required to take it easy for a while. Hopefully this one -- sort of like cauterizing aberrant cells to get his heart beating normally again -- will be the procedure that works.

 

Wednesday was yoga with Carmen, and I totally felt my recent lack of practice. That's bad, because the "old Carmen" is back, and her classes are starting to get tough again.

 

Last night after the ride (and after a little cleaning/laundry) I went down to Porters, which was this week's Christian's Spring Hotel: me, Anne, Joe & Sally, Judy, Lee, Mike, and Larry & K-Jo, we had a big table in the back room. That Sally had some hilarious stories... Most everyone else left early, but Anne and I stuck around to catch some of the open mic show.

 

Maria was singing, and I pointed out how she sometimes would get this very serious, daggers-shooting-from-her-eyes look; this morphed into a story about seeing Laurie Anderson a few years ago, where she told a story about her dog, which in turn morphed into a story about 9-11, and she didn't say it, but her eyes were daggers by the end, as if to say "this happened to me and my friends, fuck you for trying to co-opt it into your little games."

 

Tonight is the towpath, maybe the Delaware one if it's been fixed enough to ride, followed by sushi downtown.

Thermidor Number Nine

Morning weigh-in: 166.5#, 9.5% BF

So OK, the anniversary of the collapse of The Terror and the death of Robespierre were over the weekend. I've been saving that blog post title for a while and damn if I wasn't going to use it...

Did the beginner yoga class last night, it was about all I could handle but my body feels a lot better today. Dinner was cereal (sigh), left over from the camping trip. Tonight I'll probably have a pork loin as long as 1) it thaws out in time, and 2) I don't go to ride Sals. My plan is to do a road ride though, so I should be good.

Meantime, I have to come up with a new chili recipe for the Bash. I think I'll lean more towards pork, potatoes and black beans, do a little experimenting over the next few weeks.

101: Done, And Done!

Morning weigh-in: 169#, 7% BF

 

Wilderness 101: Well it's done, and though it was not as well-done as I'd like, I did see some improvement: my "aim for the stars" goal was to break 10 hours, and my "aim for the stars and maybe hit the moon" goal was, say, breaking 11 hours. My actual time was 11:59:54, so I (barely!) broke 12 hours, but that was a half hour faster than in 2004, the last time I did this. Aim for the stars, miss the moon, but I at least landed in the top of the tree...

 

Drove down Friday night and hooked up with Greg & Judy, and Eric B, at the campsite Greg reserved for us. (Joe & Sue were at the same campground, but they were in their pop-up camper while we were out in the boondocks at a primitive tent site. We saw them in the morning.) I won't get into the blow-by-blow, mile-by-mile or anything, but the race itself was really nice. It started around 7:00 AM Saturday, with a very similar course to the one they ran last time I was there: the first 40 miles or so were mostly (dirt/gravel) Forest Service roads, there were a few really big hills between miles 40 and 60, and then just over half of the remaining course was singletrack. The weather was primo, terrain was in great shape, you couldn't have asked for better conditions -- I joked with Joe afterward that, except for my time, I had a great race.

 

(I did crash once though: I came across a guy walking one rocky downhill, had to dismount to get past him, and hooked my bike shorts on the nose of my seat when I got back on. Bouncing through the rocks, trying to unhook my shorts without mooning anyone, I eventually went over the bars. I continued down the hill sans bike for a ways, but at least I still had my shorts on.)

 

The guys I went down with all had great days: Greg broke 11 hours with a time of maybe 10:50, Eric had 10:15 (wow!) or so, and Joe got 9:45. (Congratulations, you lurkers! I'm not giving up the Camelback, but I may have to take up sailing.) They were waiting for me at the finish when I arrived; I got & filled my commemorative pint glass -- I love mountain bike races -- showered, changed, grabbed some dinner and joined them to watch the festivities. We stayed until the last rider came through and the kegs were emptied -- something I don't remember from last time, three half barrels should have been plenty for a bunch of exhausted racers, but there were some West Virgina boys doing "keg stands" and they made short work of the beer. Anyway, party over, back to the campsite where I slept like I was dead. Yesterday I drove home & took care of the camping gear, then spent most of the day eating (Quadrant, Porters, Taco Bell) and sleeping.

 

Tonight is yoga (I am still kind of sore), then tomorrow I may do an easy road ride.

Off Again

Off from work, and off on my next big adventure: I'm leaving for the Wilderness 101 in a few hours, just as soon as I get all my weekend errands/chores done, pack for a weekend of camping etc, and go for my final pre-race prep ride. No morning weigh-in, sorry I forgot but yesterday's was like 166.5# or something.

A Brain Teaser: I'm getting my next mug at Porters.There are 60 you have to do to earn it, in no particular order but I decided to do all the squares in order -- when I go over 60 I'll just loop over again, and if any number is a duplicate I'll skip it. Thus: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 21, etc... My question is, will this get me all the beers on the list, or are there numbers in there that will never be picked? (Hint: I tried this using an octave script, letting the numbers go up to about 1000, and only got 12 unique hits. I also tried it for different list sizes; none of them were filled completely. I suspect it's not possible to fill the list, but can't prove it.) Let me know what you think when I get back, and don't forget to show your work!

Yo later. Wish me luck.

You're Late, Where Ya Been?

No morning weigh-in! I forgot my belt and work badge too, so I'm shambling around with a "Visitor" badge as my pants droop, fit in well with the rest of the absent-minded engineers walking around here...

 

By the way, we are about to go to a 4-day work week (every other week) here, on a trial basis to save commuting costs. Starting in August we do four 9-hour days, one 8-hour Friday, four more 9-hour days the next week with Friday off, then we repeat the two week cycle. Our Houston office has been doing this for years; we'll see how it works out here.

 

Willy From The Auction: I was in Porter's the other day, the only seat was next to Donny so there I sat. He was voluble as always, and repetitive, and he monopolized my time and attention but I didn't really mind. One thing that caught my ear though, was him telling me that he never got back that CD he lent me -- I couldn't find him so I left it at Which Brew, knowing he would stop in. The girls assured me (at the time, months ago) that they gave it back to him, but now I hear that that might not be the case. Hmmmm...

 

I Know a Place: Speaking of Porter's, check out their new website. Nice!

 

Last night was dinner with Anne at CSH, and we also saw Judy, and Mike, and CSH regulars Don & Nancy as well as Rich and Greg with Greg's kids -- those guys were coming back from riding Jacobsburg. (We were going to do a road ride, but it was pouring, everywhere except the 'burg apparently.) Tonight is yoga.

 

So, Where Were We...

Morning weigh-in: 164.5#, 10% BF

 

Oh yes, weekend report:

 

Friday night I rode with Larry. Not bad, I took out the singlespeed and just hamster-legged my way down the towpath and back. Porters for dinner, saw KEF and knocked some more beers off my punch list; I am now about a third of the way towards my 4th mug there.

 

Saturday was early morning yoga, then breakfast at the coffee shop, and then I was off to Bethlehem for the rest of the day. Picked up my bike (they just replaced the chainstay, not the whole swingarm), got my haircut, and hit Sals where the conditions were great but it was stinking hot. Home, laundry, then I met Anne for a light dinner -- she just got back from Tennessee (by car), wasn't exhausted or anything but we blew off that party anyway, show wasn't supposed to even start before 11:00 PM...

 

Sunday I hung with Anne, checked out "her" coffee shop (actually it was just Wired in Bethlehem; she has another one she goes to on Southside, her more regular place), did the "dog exchange" and went up to Jacobsburg, spent the afternoon walking and exploring Bushkill Creek. Fish in the water, bugs and crayfish under the rocks, many giant tadpoles, a perfect way to spend a hot summer day. Dinner was a burger at Bethlehem Brew Works.

 

Tonight I'm doing yoga, then getting my act together for next weekend, at least in terms of food shopping.

Here Comes Another Weekend

Morning weigh-in: 167#, 9.5% BF

 

My ride got skunked last night, when an end-of-the-world thunderstorm came pouring down just as I got home from work. I  guess I was lucky in the timing, but the sky (and the radar) was so ominous I probably would have skipped the ride anyway. I played on the computer for a while instead, but then that got knocked out, so I did a few chores before going to gain weight over at Christian's Spring Hotel, hanging with Judy, and also Joe & Sally. Interesting, Sally talked about Joe having a journal when they first met: he let her read it and she dove in, expecting to find all sorts of juicy details, but it was mostly where he went each day, what he did, what he had to eat etc. I could only laugh, it sounded so familiar.

 

I did the Porter's "open mic night" thing after that, stopped in for a bit to punch my ticket. I was sitting next to some guy, familiar dude, pretty regular there & a mug club member, and we got to talking. He asked me about how I was choosing my beers and I told him "well last time I picked Fibonacci numbers modulo 60, but this time I'm just doing the squares in sequence, modulo 60 of course."

 

Score! Turns out he was a math major in college, and in fact used to work as a cryptographer for the NSA years ago. Much geeky conversation followed...

 

Doing the towpath tonight on the singlespeed, then hitting Porters again to see KEF. The Turner is ready, so I'll be picking that up tomorrow after yoga, then while I'm in Bethlehem I'll get a haircut and go ride Sals... I saw my barber last night at CSH; she's throwing a party tomorrow night and I got the invite, but I'll be hanging with Anne tomorrow... I expect she'll be a little tired from driving across the country, so we'll see.