Holidaze

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 12% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

ANNE: You OK? How's your leg?

ME: Not so great.

ANNE: You want to cut the pace?

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

Every Move We Make Is The New Tradition

Morning weigh-in: 178.5#, 12.5% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

Sunday you already know.

 

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

 

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

 

 

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

 

Monday Morning

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Corvus Redux

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 13% BF

Listening: Thelonius Monk, "Locomotive"

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

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

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

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

Now Playing: Pere Ubu, "Wheelhouse"

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

Taking a look at a sample input file:

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

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

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

What the program tells you if you ask for help:

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

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

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

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


It's a start...

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

Cowboy Sky

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 15% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Driftdown

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 12.5% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Bachelor Weekend

Morning Weigh-in: 177.5#, 14% BF

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Update

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 12.5% BF

 

One week later and I'm still messing with that program... I added those command-line options, and have been tweaking/adding functionality ever since. Two more additions (an optional output file in addition to standard output, and an optional configuration file), and I think it'll be a finished product. No biggie, just gotta find the time...

 

As it happens, Anne will be out of town this weekend, so I'll be sort of at loose ends anyway. I do have a few things on the agenda -- chores/errands, rides, and one going-away party for some friends moving to Vermont -- but the weather might be a bit unfriendly, and my plans for a parental visit are on hold, and so there might be no better way to spend at least one rainy day than with my feet propped up (or my butt planted at some coffee shop), messing with the laptop.

 

Speaking of coffee shops... I was in downtown Easton last Saturday morning; my plan was to hit the Coffee Exchange for breakfast and laptoppery, between an early-morning yoga class and the gym. After an awesome yoga class (so awesome I decided to blow off the gym) I walked over, in the rain, to the Coffee Exchange, only to find the place out of business. D'oh! I guess you really can't go home again, so instead I went around the block to the Quadrant. Nice brunch sitting by the open fireplace, and I bumped into Judy there as well, and chatted rather than browsed through lunch.

 

Anyway, Tuesday night was a short ride on the towpath with Deb and Donna, maybe 12 miles and finishing just after dark, then we met up with Anne, and Doug & Lori, for dinner afterwards at Brew Works; last night was a slightly longer towpath ride, followed by chili at home. Tonight is the gym, then Porters.

Blessed Are The Lazy

Well that was a lot easier than I would have thought -- I used gengetopt to do all the real work, and now I have options added to the MTO program. I should have realized, programmers pretty much hate tedious grunt work (like, say, MTO's), so whenever there's a tedious programming task, you can be sure there's some tool to automate or simplify it...

 

That was early in the evening, and also later in the evening; in between was dinner with Anne's friend Mike and his new GF. We were going to eat at Mama Nina's on Main Street, but it was so crowded we decided to go around the block to the Apollo instead -- a very wise decision. Dinner was awesome (me: sashimi appetizer, brisket sandwich, and a martini), and Mike's friend was really nice. She had a lot in common with Anne, and even knew some of her old friends.

 

Home by 10:00 or so, a little more computer fiddling, and an early bedtime. Tonight is the gym, to be followed by an evening at Porter's. It's been a while.

 

Whatever Happened To The Armored Changeling?

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 13% BF

 

Où sont les enfants de fée blindés d'antan? No ride last night. I was going to meet a friend before the VMB meeting and get in a quick Sals ride, but he couldn't make it and I just blew it off. Once upon a time I would have gone riding and blown off the meeting, or maybe rode to the meeting (I walked), and I would have rode Monday night and not been tired, and not cared about rain or cold...

 

Oh well, good meeting, over at Cutters, the new bike shop in south Bethlehem. Lotsa good stuff starting to happen, in terms of trails and access, lots of events -- rides, parties, trailwork days -- coming up too. I picked up Anne's new brakes from Bob afterward, then met Anne and the Naughty Knitting team for tacos at Brew Works. Tonight we're going out to dinner -- I'm not sure where, but I can guess -- with Mike and his new GF.

 

Linux Voyager, A C Change: I decided to straighten up and fly right, at least with respect to that MTO program I wrote... My program as written is basically a filter, gobbling up the standard keyboard input (which had better be in the correct format, since there's absolutely no error checking), doing its thing, and then spitting out the results (in their own, different, arcane format) onto the standard output. No options, no error checking, something meant to be used by me and no one else. I took care of a lot of that stuff with shell wrappers, plus redirection, xclip and spreadsheets for my I/O.

 

What I think I'll do is rewrite the input to at least be able to handle bad data more gracefully (and also accept input files on the command line), then add command-line options to make some of the (currently) more hard-wired parameters more flexible, and finally figure out what the useful output should look like. With any luck, by the time I get around to finishing this I'll think of some more stuff to add, and I'll never finish...

 

Three Days

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 12.5% BF

 

One of the nicest weekends (not counting those vacations) in quite a while:

 

On Friday we did some reorganizing and consolidated bookcases -- a big deal in a bookish house like ours -- then we went out for a ride at Jordan: Anne and me, with Donna (first time on real trails), and Greg & his daughter Julie.

 

Anne and I went out for dinner later, and met up with Donna and Greg again, as well as E-Rock's roving birthday party (Doug & Lori, Eric, and Mike & Pam) -- which was good, because before that it was just the two of us, alone at a giant table in a very busy restaurant. Debby and Joe came in a little later from some concert, and had to sit at a nearby "overflow table;" we moved over there when the birthday party absconded to the Steelgaarden, but that's about the time I ran out of steam and we called it a night.

 

Saturday I woke up on time to do the things I wanted (basically, early morning yoga followed by a visit to the gym), but I felt so worn out that when I found I'd washed all my gym shorts at the same time, and they were all still wet, I heaved a sigh of relief and went back to bed... It was a fairly nice day, but after breakfast I spent most of it parked in front of the computer, doing pretty much nothing unless you count Facebook and coffee. (Anne spent the afternoon making hot sauce from her bumper crop of habaneros.) We went for a really nice walk along the canal later in the afternoon. the colors were just starting to change down there, and the afternoon light was beautiful. Dinner was at home: ribeye steaks, spelt with caramelized onions, and carrots cooked with honey and ginger.

 

We decided to break from our usual Saturday night routine, so we walked down to the Old Brewery Tavern (where, strangely enough, we both got proofed) to check out the scene there: cigarette smoke, and lots of TVs playing college football  -- I can't even be in a room with a TV or I'll end up staring at it -- but the music was nice and they had a few decent beers. We hung out for a while then went to the Starfish (packed), and met up with Doug & Lori and a whole bunch of other VMB members. No smoke, even better beers and (live) music, and only one TV (showing Goldmember) that I eventually just faced away from. An awesome night and another late one, but I felt a lot better than the evening before. (On the way home some angry-looking woman passed us walking the opposite direction, then later seemed to be following us. We were able to laugh about it in the morning, but at the time it was kind of creepy: we took evasive action once we noticed, and took a less direct route home.)

 

Sunday was beautiful, so after another awesome breakfast we did a road ride north of town. Two of them: Anne had volunteered to lead a road ride later in the day, as part of the CAT Open House, and so we did that too, and were joined by a bunch of other people, including Donna and Debby. Both rides were about 25 miles long; the group ride was at a mellower pace and took longer, but our total "outdoor time" was about five hours. After that we met Debby and Donna for dinner at Brew Works.

 

Tonight and tomorrow are MTB nights: towpath tonight, Sals tomorrow before the VMB meeting.

 

 

Threepeat

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 12.5% BF

 

Not much to say, same old same old, I just dropped in to post the weigh-in. I have a few new pictures up though, so you can go check them out if you want. Yoga last night, gym tonight, rain tomorrow.

 

 

Blessed Are The Tiresome, Etc

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 13.5% BF

 

Well, I guess the good news is that I'm back to blogging on a fairly regular basis, it's just too bad I've already run out of things to say...

 

Hit the gym last night, then went to the apartment and removed the last of the books and bookcases (the ones in the spare room, my nemesis); dinner was at Brew Works: three tacos for $3 and two brews for Tuesday. Tonight I'm stopping by the apartment before yoga, just to spend a few minutes organizing. My next task is the kitchen, so I'll probably just throw out old food, and maybe toss a few "big-ticket" items, like the crock pot or the microwave, into the car -- the main goal tonight will be just to keep moving, maybe it's busy work but I need to spend time in that space while the plan for the rest of my stuff gestates.

 

Linux Voyager Needs A Destination: I'm starting to wind down my MTO project, which was fun and interesting, and even useful in a way... but now I am on the lookout for my next project, maybe more GRASS, or matrix population models again, maybe just another simple program ( a toy one this time), or learning R and statistics, or any one of a dozen things I never got around to... Winter's coming, but I'm not sure how much "indoor time" I'll have, since I also plan to get in quite a bit of skiiing: this winter is expected to be a snowy one, and I hardly went at all last year.

 

Moving In The Right Direction

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 14% BF

 

More careful eating, a little yoga, the weight moves on its way...

 

I've been moving my books and bookcases over to Anne's the past few days; tonight I should get the last of the ones in the bookcases (as well as the last bookcases themselves) done, at which point I have to start on the kitchen. I have a lot of kitchen things that are pretty nice but they're duplicates of what Anne already has, so we're going to have to consolidate. My dishes are especially a tough choice: I have a full set, like "dinner for twenty," and they used to belong to my Great Aunt so I'm loathe to just sell or give them away... but maybe some young family member could use a set of dishes and silverware -- not fancy, daily use type stuff.

 

Anyway, tonight I do a few errands, then hit the gym before going to the apartment. Dinner will probably be tacos with the post-knitting ladies at Brew Works -- we're back in the hometown groove, and it is Two Brew Tuesday.

 

Tomorrow is more yoga and more apartment, Thursday is gym/apartment, and I have off Friday. The flow: it goes, and I go with it.

 

Some Loose Ends

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 12% BF

 

I guess that figure tells more about our vacation than any photo or 1000 words could... But, I took a bunch of pictures, from both of our rides at Tsali, the drive through Great Smoky Mountains National Park (and also Pigeon Forge), and of our "urban exploration day" in Knoxville, which included coffee shops, a lunchtime concert, and a visit to the University of Tennessee to see Emmi's research. I'll post them Stay tuned!

 

I took no photos, but we (Anne and I, Scott, Joe & Sally, and Donna) took Debby out to the Aladdin for her birthday. Lotsa great Middle Eastern food, plus a belly dancer, who was a big hit with the birthday party of 10-year-old girls -- watching them watch her was at least as entertaining as the dancer herself. She took out veils and got the kids to try dancing, and eventually Debby -- who actually knows how to belly dance -- and Scott joined the fun, and finally two drunk guys with napkins and bread baskets on their heads. (Actual Middle Eastern customers looked less than fully amused at these last two. If looks could kill...)

 

Yesterday -- after the traditional Sunday Blue Sky Cafe Breakfast --  was the Brian Hahl Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day over at Jordan, and I think it was a smashing success: there were probably 40 kids, ranging in age from 5 through their early teens, taking the skills test (a kind of obstacle course), participating in various goofy contests, and of course hitting the trails for group rides. Anne and I rode with my friend Ken and his 8 y.o. son Jake; we rode for about an hour ride, going maybe four miles or so -- it was so cool to watch him gain confidence and have fun as the ride progressed.

 

We stopped in at Lois and Cliff's later, but their dog was giving me some allergy problems so we took off a bit early. Home, bed, wake up, and now I am back at work. Sigh...

 

 

Knoxville Gothic

Boy, this place is weird... We are staying at the Maplehurst Inn, which is probably the roughest place I've ever stayed without actually using a tent. They look like they might have been struggling, then recently changed hands and are now in the middle of renovations -- our room is great, but we peeked into other rooms that look completely derelict, and there seem to be several handyman types hanging about, mostly smoking and BS'ing out back. The girl who acted as receptionist (there's no lobby, natch, just a sort of hallway where she was sitting in a chair), was young and pretty, and dressed in an upscale young-and-pretty-girl way, but when she asked us what we wanted for breakfast, you could tell she did not know what "rye toast" was.

The main front door was unlocked, and we were waiting for Emmi to stop by so it was no surprise when we heard a knock on our room's door, but it was a street person, attempting to impersonate a college student, giving a spiel and asking questions from some sort of script, like a cross between a panhandler and a telemarketer. Mind you, this is in the hallway of the B&B...

Emmi came by just then and rescued us, and we hit a place called Tomato Head for dinner, very nice. Some brews and hanging out, then we went back to our base camp, where there were all sorts of weird noises, music etc like there may have been a party on the roof or something (I even heard a puppy barking), but eventually the noise died down and we fell asleep -- to be awakened this morning by the most disgusting, hacking smoker's cough, probably the cook making breakfast.

By the way, we are not alone in our views of this place, check out these reviews -- and the strangest part is that the Maplehurst is rated second best B&B in Knoxville! In terms of location, the place can't be beat, and it looks like the renovations (which seem to have started this year) are creating a really nice space -- and their wi-fi is the fastest connection, and the only encrypted one, we've seen in our travels; the infrastructure is beautiful if currently decrepit, it's just that the place really needs a lot of work.

"The infrastructure is beautiful if currently decrepit." That seems to sum up the crunchier parts of town, which is what we've explored so far. (We only got as far as the first coffee shop -- Old City Java -- but still.) Lots of ancient space reconfigured but not fully renovated, ancient brickwork in need of re-pointing, facades in need of repainting, woodwork on the verge of decay, iron railing on balconies over the street...

The Southern Tour So Far

Whelp, here we are at the Folkstone Inn, just outside Bryson City NC. In a few minutes we're goin in for breakfast, and then we're off to ride the Tsali trail system.

The ride here was long spectacularly beautiful -- we were thinking of taking the uber-scenic Blue Ridge Parkway from Afton, our first stop, but that would have been too long, and the views from I-81 (and I-40) were good enough... Once we got off the interstates, things got way more interesting: windy roads, tacky roadside attractions -- we were on the southern side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and it looked like the road was a poor man's Gaitlinburg, with a Cherokee Reservation casino smack in the middle of it all. Finally, following the Google Maps directions, we ended up some tiny dirt road -- literally no room for two cars to pass, and cliffs on the side -- through the park and out the back of Bryson City. Our B&B is about a half mile, on good roads, from the center of town, but well, Google Maps... Bit we're here.

Upt until yesterday's travel day, we were literally in Waltons country, maybe 20 miles from where the real writer (the fictional John-Boy Walton grew up). The most amazing scenery, beautiful farmland, and our place (the Afton Mountain Bed and Breakfast) was amazing.

We got there late in the afternoon/evening, in the fog, and all we had time for was dinner (at one of the two brewpubs within a few miles of the place); Sunday we did our road ride, Afton Mountain Road past the Cookie Lady's house -- not home? hiding from us? -- and then down the Blue Ridge Parkway and back on regular roads. We were going to add some more to the ride, but the roads I wanted, when we got far enough away from the main roads, turned to dirt so we turned around. Still, we got in a good 40 miles. Dinner that night was at the other brewpub. (Wine people would have even more luck: there are maybe four vinyards within two miles of the Afton Mtn B&B.)

Anyway, next order of business is to find my camera. It's in the car but I have taken no pictures yet, but today's the day...

Ladies' Night

I hit the gym last night (which I positively breezed through), then I went home and worked on the computer for a while, more of that MTO stuff. Since I'd lost my phone -- it was in the laundry, right uh, where I left it -- I had no idea of the timing or finer details, but the overall plan was to hit Brew Works to meet the gang after knitting.

 

So... I head over to Brew Works, and walk in to find Anne, Emmi, Deb, Donna and Lori all sitting together at a table -- talk about being the onion in the petunia patch! They'd only arrived a few minutes before, and were there long enough to get a drink order but they still hadn't ordered food, so I guess I wasn't too late. Lotsa BS and catching up, and much merriment and gossip, a really fun night. (I'm not even going to attempt to repeat any of the conversation, but it was shoot-beer-out-your-nose-laughing funny.) Dinner was tacos...

 

Tonight is yoga, and it'll probably be a night in for me after that; tomorrow is the gym again, and we're thinking of maybe visiting Porter's afterward.