who knows why i got this but...

Feltslave... Yall better have bioD in the delivery trucks... Oh and for those that thing CNG is a good thing - ya should talk to a few friends who've done cost analysis based on emissions, maintenance, longevity... looks really bad for CNG... not to mention delivery and fueling infrastructure isn't as availible as Diesel (which can support biodiesel with little to no modification in most cases).

I like hearing about stuff like this:

Dear Biodiesel Supporters,

You know that renewable resources and environmentally-friendly fuel options are the way of the future. CaseStack, an integrated logistics company, is now hoping to bring that future to the transportation industry by launching the Green Rebate Program. Beginning July 1, 2006, CaseStack will pay truck drivers who are transporting CaseStack loads 10 cents per gallon up to $50 for filling up with biodiesel.

Many consumers do not realize that they can now make an active choice to buy and support products that use biodiesel when they are delivered to stores. So we would love your help to spread the word about the program and let others know that they can do more. Forward this email to members of your community, your local press, and local environmental organizations. We will soon be publishing a list of companies that prefer to ship with biodiesel. However, this list can grow only if companies realize consumers care about this cause.

By encouraging the use of biodiesel, CaseStacks hopes to take the first step to promote this fuel that drastically reduces pollution, provides sustainability to businesses, and helps to revitalize our farming economy.

Please feel free to direct further questions or inquiries to CaseStack by emailing biodiesel@casestack.

Sincerely,

CaseStack Communications Team



June 23, 2006

CaseStack Kicks Off the Green Rebate Program
Logistics Leader Supports the Environment and Economy by
Launching Biodiesel-fuel Rebate Program

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — CaseStack, Inc. announces today the beginning of a two month Green Rebate Program designed to promote the use of biodiesel fuel. This environmentally-friendly program works by offering a rebate to truck drivers who fill up with biodiesel fuel while carrying a CaseStack load.

The Green Rebate Program, which begins July 1st and ends September 1st 2006, offers a rebate of 10 cents per gallon, up to $50.00 for the truck drivers. Beginning June 23rd, complete detailed information can be obtained through CaseStack’s website (www.casestack.com/biodiesel.asp), by calling toll free 1-866-567-6644 or by texting the word ‘green’ to 30364.

Biodiesel is the fuel of the future, a clean burning alternative fuel, made from mixing vegetable oils and diesel fuel in a simple and inexpensive transformation process. Biodiesel is biodegradable and non-flammable. There is no mechanical conversion needed; the fuel works in any diesel engine and can be used in existing engines as well as in fuel injection equipment.

The positive effects of biodiesel are limitless. Not only does it emit fewer harmful pollutants into our atmosphere as compared to conventional diesel but it also reduces tailpipe emissions and visible smoke. Biodiesel supports the welfare of Americans by being less hazardous to truck drivers and promoting the revival of American farmers through soy consumption.

Companies can also participate by taking part in the Green Consolidation Program where they can contribute seamlessly to the environment without making drastic changes to their operations. CaseStack will identify all participating companies as Green Partners and include them in all recognition marketing such as national and regional targeted advertising campaigns, PR announcements and viral marketing. The Green Consolidation Program is the first of many goodwill programs CaseStack plans on implementing over the years.

“Sustainability is good business” said Dan Sanker, president and CEO of CaseStack. “CaseStack’s work in encouraging the use biodiesel with its many positive benefits including the reduction of air pollution, greenhouse gasses and cancer risk to truckers will help preserve the environment for generations to come.”

CaseStack, Inc., a California-based logistics outsourcing company, provides a unique offering of web-based logistics technology, national warehousing network, and industry leading transportation consolidation programs. CaseStack has a fast-growing, broad client base in the consumer packaged goods industry. Their large industry presence will benefit the implementation of this environmentally friendly program.

The CaseStack Green Consolidation Program and the Green Rebate Program is endorsed by the National Biodiesel Board.

ala gwadzybaby

A brief post...

Ullrich to wed

Jan Ullrich has announced that he will marry his girlfriend, Sara Steinhauser, this fall. "I am so happy, that she accepted my proposal and that we will marry," he told the German BILD magazine. "She is the best woman in the world. I am head over heels in love. I want to bring the rest of my life with her." The bride-to-be, sister of Ullrich's former teammate, Tobias Steinhauser, said, "I enjoy every minute that I can spend with him."

First read makes that sound like Ulrich is marrying a girl so he can "be" with her brother...

Those german's have some strange fetish stuff... and i don't want to go into it cause i KNOW it would generate some google hits i do NOT want to have associated here... if ya know what i mean... if ya been around internet porn (click to get an mp3 of que Davinci's notebook song)

Those guys are freaking hysterical...

and that Washington Post mp3 DL site has some decent stuff...
I'm diging the Deep Dish Remix they've got up... check it

Ahh finally something to make me LOL

http://www.youtube.com/-drunk friend alarm clock

Its only 37 seconds but 37 seconds of hillarity... sure its not funny to laugh at freaked out drunks and stupid sophomoric stunts but damn its funny....

Okay - that shown I had to revisit the whole VW unpimp your ride commercials... I, II and III

II completely wins hands down... between "it sucks in air" and 'vat? What?' i die laughin each time...

and yeah... i'm easily amused... but damn its funny - nothing like a good dose of humor to get one's attitude on track (that and good steady flow of work in the morning)

KL gets DC love once again

That's the headlines... She's got it big time, but we can all still give her a hard time for low content. But ya gotta admit, that content that's there is damn fine stuff...

I'm noticing no update there from SB, i wonder if he managed a go at the local boys (and girls) over in Rohoboth.

I think though i know what i did to myself... i took a long ride in the heat... got wicked worked up about buying a freaking expensive house... had way too many beverages with my bro... and then proceeded to not get a decent night sleep for a few nights cause of the heat (and the first night cause i was so lit up)... that with a lingering bug floating around no wonder my system got nailed...

And the waves of sweat this morning aren't really helping much... chalk it up to anxiety... Ain't this shit just the most fun in the world? that and it sucks knowing that what ever deal i get from who ever i get the loan from, there's probably a better deal somewhere else and THAT is killin me. Just completely killing me. On the other hand its just money right? Just money. And Daycare is more expensive than private school so... well we just need to make it 4 years till the youngest is in school... Sorry - this is nothing to do with bikes... its life... its my pitiful life and i'm just trying to work through this shit in one of the more effective ways i can. Cause the other way to work through it (going for a nice hard ride) ain't exactly physically what i'm up to. That and i know its not caffine induced cause i ain't been drinkin as much as normal... ran out of the bean at home and have been just getting to work and having some there...

what else, what witty and snide remarks can i make? Cox? Kinda funny reading mbutterfly's comments (yeah i know who mbutterfly, but its a damn good opera and i'll use that reference when appropriate) " Fuck no..that course is a deathtrap...the chances of crashing are very high." suck language for a junior... i wonder if the officials should check her gearing at the start of the race... the local boys here LOVE that course... but then everyone here calls that cable company CoxSuckers cause they flat out suck in service sometimes, that and they rape ya for costs... Anyway i'll be setting up some barriers for it on sunday... And how can a race with only 26 riders in it be a crash fest? Ya'd think maybe a certain gal could make a nice sub team with the speedy chicks, drop the squirels in a couple laps and settle into a decent race... pay the announcer some cash for a nice call up and go girls go... awe am i being too cerebral about the race? I'm all cross and cross-country thinking too much... go, go hard, ride at your limit with skills for 45 minutes to an hour... so maybe i am just one of those folks destined for better results in the race of truth... ifn that happens i should get a bike for the race of truth....

peace out

how lame is this

or not lame...

the music sucks and Chris and Bob need a few more rehersals to make the script sound less forced.

judge for yourself: (sign up here) i saw it over at Pez... am listening now... the prologue workout is what they are offering as a teaser, then supposedly a new one on different stages... supposedly its geared towards trainer workouts... for the off seasons... maybe for the rainy season... maybe for those cyclists stuck out on a carrier for the summer.

Ooh the music changed... definately Bob's influence i guess. Some good metal guitar. Why is it that there's nothing like a hard rock guitar lead to get the cadence and HR pumping... like a Metalica or something... damn sunofbitches started talking... ooh the music is coming back in...

Bob's smoother now but still sounds too scripted... and i can imaging him doing the whole hand gesture stuff... its all about cadence... i need a cadence 'puter i guess...

That and i can't fucking wait - i'll have a place to dump the rollers and a massive nice fan to exhaust the room... assuming we get the house... and assuming we don't get a nice hurricane this summer - cause that ain't so good for this low lying state...

ya know, as annoying as these two baffoons (chris and bob) can be - into the workout it seems not so bad... stupid mellow recovery music...

no i'm not gonna do this for the next 25 minutes left on the pod-cast... (or am i)...

woops - got busy - left the audio running... its sokay... i would re-mix with different music though... anyway yall have a better day...

and thanks for the link back Zoo/Dave what ever they all call ya - but for the record there's no hyphen in GeWilli... not that it matters - for a guy with a name spelled like mine at this point in the journey on this earth there isn't anything anyone can do new to screw the name up....

Cannondale vs Klein

(a bit i've been working on - putting it in action now)

Out in the open.

In C-dale's own words they started in 1971 making bike trailers and bike accessories. Not till 1983 did they introduce a bicycle. A touring bike. in '84 they introduced a racing model and a mt bike.

I love this bit: "Cannondale's reputation encouraged both bike dealers and customers to give the bicycles a try, and widespread industry skepticism quickly gave way to a host of imitators."

Um... but they were the ORIGINAL imitators of Gary Klein's work.

If ya pop over to Wiki on C-dale, ya see there isn't much more.

Now flip over to Klein. but before we do that.

There is a huge geographic bias. Gary might have started off at MIT (up the road in Boston for those not in the know or with a deliberate ignorance of Ivy Schools), but established the company in the middle of some of the most amazing roads and trails in the country, smack dab between Seattle and Portland, at the foot of Mt Rainer (West Coast for those geographically challenged). Cannondale is/was/has been (until the synapse crap being build in china) an East Coast institution. CT and PA specifically.

Now you see if you head to the Klein page at Wiki, its empty, sort of, with this one tid-bit:

Inventor Gary Klein can be considered the innovator of the oversized tube aluminum bicycle, which is now a feature of the cycling market. He first developed the concept in 1973 as part of the Independent Activities Period aluminum bicycle project at MIT, where he was an engineering student and bicycle racer, then took the concept commercial after graduation.

Developed the concept in 1973. Two years after Cannondale started making trailers and bags. And a full 10 years before they came out with their first Touring model.

10 years... who's on first? No doubt.

Popping over to the Klein Bikes web site History, it is a timeline.

Now here's the details. Klein's concept was flushed out in 1975 with some prototypes. 1976 batch sizes grew and partners bought out...
By 1980 custom frames were being built.

Mt bikes rolled out in '83

My QPro's roots were here:

1994

* Quantum Pro Criterium introduced, with Gradient 9320 frame tubing, Aeros composite fork. Weighing in at 3.9 pounds.
* Klein also introduced Micro dropouts, Mission Control 2 bar/stem combo, upgraded fork (no longer fitted to frame), and gradient chain stays.

So hows it all shake down?

Well design and construction. Stack the two up (c-dale and klein, based on the catagories listed in the Klein construction page)

Then ride them... stick with road bikes for the moment, cause Mt bikes, once you add suspension and big fat tires the geometry and build is less of an issue, less noticable.

I've ridden both... maybe not the best of C-dales, but at the time i rode the top frames back to back. And wow. talk about a freaking amazingly HUGE difference.

That New C-Dale fork? COME ON... that's MC2. MC2 was 12 years ago. Before MC2, there was Mission Control, with the same funamentals.

Am i a bit too passionate about it all? maybe. do i have a favorite? Absolutely.

But its based on experience.

Is Klein now a division of Trek? Yeah, that big 'evil' monster from Wisconsin bought up the company. And that maybe wasn't the worst thing for the brand. The bikes changed a little. But some of the changes were for the better.

Word on the street was that the Gerolsteiner boys didn't want to give up the Kleins because they bikes rode so much better than anything they had been on. The mechanics bitched up a storm for a few months while trying to figure out the micro-dropouts. But I'm sure Trek decided that its not financially smart to sponsor two road teams with bikes. Which is too bad.

Diggin through the Cyclingnews archives you see this: "world's best" Of course that was in 2002, but things haven't changed that much.

Cannondale certainly had much success with sponsoring a rather charismatic Italian Pro's Team, but the bikes never have had the same ride feel, or sophistication that Klein's stuff has.

Heck back in the CAAD3 days, my 1986 SL/SP paramount was one hell of a lot stiffer sprinting and riding than the C-dale. And yeah no fair. Comparing the Caad3 to a Klein... well, ya gotta have some basis, and unless they start throwing me frames to ride and test as a comparison (they being cannondale) i'm not likely to start changing my tune. So if anyone wants to pettition C-Dale to send me a Cross frame and a Six13 with 61 cm top tubes I would be more than happy to test out and compare head to head (with same parts back to back) and publish it as a freelance bit in one of the mags or just here online....

Klein is better than Cannondale... no question -at least in my opinion, and with my basis for evaluation.

not much better, not much better

Branden came down with a bit of something from gathering bits out of emails, Dave seemed to recently get nailed... and then there was my daughter running a fever and stuff for a few days. Maybe i just was worn down too much to keep fighting it off.

nothing like a mid summer bug to set ya back...

its a busy morning, and i'm not feeling like saying much... more than this...

maybe later when i'm not sweating like a pig and falling asleep and stressing about the training session... scratch that - my throat is feeling like crap, no sense stressin it. might as well get some work done up here let my voice rest. Oh and i forgot - the mad frenchman was on the ride on saturday, just having barely recovered from laryngitis... a whole host of folks going under... I shouldn't dwell on this stuff.

I should mention how much anquish my departure with an empty trailer this morning caused the youngest. She wanted ME to take her to daycare in the trailer. Since the oldest has started camp our whole routine has been thrown off and changed. Totally messed up. Nothing's as it was and i'm reasonably habitual, so maybe this whole change is causing some added stress. Ain't it all just a freaking tone of fun?

Here's some positive BioDiesel news: Seattle's Imperium Renewables plans to rule biodiesel

looking over at kerry's new 'venture' i gotta say 'not another forum' there's DC, Bike Mag, TDIclub, echofans, insight, TSP, and on and on and on and on and on and on and on... although i will say... Forums are damn fine stuff. But they are only as strong or verbose as the member list. TDI club with stats like this:

Threads: 141,601, Posts: 1,356,697, Members: 46,060, Active Members: 13,750

stack those numbers up and they are pretty respectable for a brand specific diesel vehicle discussion forum...

good luck, oh and the Eurohalter and the stretch mini probably aren't exactly my style...

crusin through the reading - Gary Fisher's a strange dude, and i'm not wild about any of his bikes, ever - they were always half assed and build by someone else... take that Bottom bracket of his... Sort of Klein style but totally fucked up in execution. (if you don't know what bottom bracket i'm talking about you are probably under 30-35 or not a techy Mt biker/mechanic or both)

fishing - mmm fishing sounds good right now... the fresh air's gotta be better than the construction odors drifting in...

And damn i'm not a clydesdale anymore - how freaking depressing... i worked like a dog in michigan to get to the magic 200 pound number when i was racing mt bikes... standing at the start line with guys as tall and as heavy(usually heavier) as you is much different than standing with a bunch of 5'8" 130 pound sticks in sport class...

Damn again, SB's got two new posts today... (and not that there is a link by my guts aren't feeling really settled right now... ) And freaking double damn... with me feeling like this even riding out to the course would knock me flat... not to mention the UmassD tech center is like freaking only 15 miuntes away... Clarification - Tiverton is way the fuck away from Riverside - at least as the Rhode Islander's view things.

And the gauntlet has been thrown down on the bikes... i could give it a run -seein as i cancelled my morning session cause i ain't go no voice/energy... Its like there's some big freaking cosmic wise guy saying 'You THOUGHT you were going to ride that Rohoboth TT -- BWAHAHAHAH yeah right.' So far its either been a meeting, weather or damn what was the other excuse... sick this week... maybe next week (not holding my breath at all). I will be at the Cox setting up and marshalling... so look for some tall skinny freak with loads of blonde hair and a red goatee...

will have to think about the bikes - the first one was a Yellow Columbia, Coast to Coast hardware i believe was the source. 20" w/ bananna seat.

the whole Fraz strip this week raggin on riding mowers! Freaking priceless.

Well one of these days sometime in the fall i'm wagering the new crib will be open for party biznez... me hosting big throwdown around Cross Nats... And its alittle less than 10 miles to the race site, 1/2 of which is bike path... that and with two showers and three toilets we should be set for multiple guests eh? not that the hot water would last but hey cold and clean is better than cold and dirty eh?

Damn Feltslave's got some damn freakin stories to tell eh? On one side the dude offed 43 of 44 drug lords... and well that's about the end of the good stuff eh? not that the 43 who were offed won't be replaced... ah well... gimme more expensive Cali berries - MTC

okay - i'm fried/cooked/fading. Gonna try and get back to being productive... but i may just go home and sleep...

peace out

feeling more shitty as the day goes one

first day of summer and my guts ain't plumbed right... feeling a bit hazy/fuzzy... downing water like its going out of style...

maybe it was Tito's on monday night, i'm wagering its gastrointestinal infection based on some rather obvious data. not to mention the totally clear airways...

but the lingering sore throat could be from the influx of concrete dust yesterday morning... who knows, but i'm bitching about it cause i GD feel like it...

that and there was nuttin anywhere to photo, no gwadz type photo montage

man this post sucks... and my brain is hurting from talking to loan officers and friends about this whole thing...

totally freaking blows man... anyone have a crystal ball to tell me what interest rates will be in 7 or 8 years?

Oh and i signed up to help set up the COX course and marshall i the afternoon. No racing for me... but feel free to come hang out at my corner in the afternoon...

Summer is finally here

And i'm starting to think like Kerry. Too much damn global warming. WTF is up with the heat? at least it cooled down last night.

2) Your road bike is equipped with an 11-21 cassette and 42t/55t chainrings (this rule does not apply if your last name is McCormack)

is a 12-25 any different? or is it a 12-23 i never remember...

but lately i've actually felt i needed one there in the middle of the top in the back... prolly means i have a 12-25 and i wanna be in a 55-18 instead of a 55-17 or 19. Which makes sense as the 55-17 is 87.4" and the 55-19 is 78.2" that's a big jump... i suppose i could always get the 13-23 cassette. i dunna need the 11 or 12... i just have to spin faster in the 13 ;-)

I'm feeling the dreaded summer scourge creaping on... glands a bit swollen, tired... although the tiredness could just be the lack of coffee. Running out of coffee at home isn't such a bad thing eh? Can't make/get any till i get to the office and fire up the pot, cruise through the troubleshooting panic help me emails... prep for the transition to the other facility and... what i'm not looking forward to, talkin about the rates and options with the loan agent... just freaking insane... discount points, ARM, 80/20... one thing it re-inforces, we don't have much cash on hand. And looking back at the returns from the last few years... no wonder. They paid me peanuts not to mention is was driving 40,000 miles a year on my own coin. Sure it was me doing the work, and getting 48-50 mpg, but still that's a huge freaking chunck of coin ontop of a house that sucked ever last ounce of equity plus and extra 10-15 grand or so...

sorry - don't mean to get all into that, but i'm wagering part of this crud that is getting hold is from a weakened immue system... stress is a fucking nightmare... turns out i would deal with it as a kid by puking. Anytime i would get super nervous or anxious i'd puke... fun stuff eh? Just found that out from my mother.

well - i hope i can kick this bit and be able to show at the TT on thursday, but something lately has managed to find its way to keep me off that course. First the weather. Then, i forgot what it was last week and then they are also calling for a team meeting on Thursday night.

gonna grab some more coffee - yall be chillin - and oh, Saloirboy's birthday dinner sounds freaking kickass... i wonder if he used a feltslave product or my current favorite. Which i had with some bananas, rasins and grapennuts... on top of a nice big bowl of whole milk Hawthorne Valley Yogurt...

That and reading another yogurt container (it was on sale at the store and flavored so we got some) i noticed there is one heck of a lot of potasium in there.

That's a damn good thing. Yogurt kicks ass. Esp Organic whole mile stuff. I still like the taste and flavor of the Hawthorne Valley stuff, and its a step beyond organic. Its BioDynamic. Give that page a look over.

Yeah yeah cosmic forces. Think about one cosmic force that is visible. Tides. Yeah that's a freakign cosmic force. It ain't all voodoo crap, much of it can't be explained, yet. But results, emperical data is pretty impressive.

Okay - (feltslave has worn off a bit - remind me not to read more than three or four entries from someone's blog in the future) - Organic is great, but Biodynamic is better. The next level.

Oh and now that the impending departure from our building/apartment/3 unit house, is tangible, the folks above and below are getting annoying... how nice will it be to be on the second floor with no one but the stars above, nothing below moving around... the luxury of privacy, and owning your own shit...

practice Peace - but not at the expense of humor :p

palate cleanser

Not really - what able bodied male won't want to talk about sex at great lenght? Ya don't even have to be straight.

So after a constant barage of Feltslave this, Feltslave that... i clicked over, read some stuff and well damn i've got one more addition to the open tabs... may have to dump a few inactive blogs off the list... but this feltslave dude is readable...

although i prefer the HVF yogurt by a rather insanely large margin the 'big boy' yogurt stuff ain't so bad....

so - add one more - and no - i ain't linkin shit in this post... if ya wanna click over there for now go to sb's page and then to fs's stuff...

peace out

-i'm gonna ride over and get my daughter now... yes - another tick in the 'ride the bike' column of the sex vs riding

oh.... damn

I read this earlier but the significance didn't sink in till i was closing down the open tabs browser (FireFox Rox btw).... and well... for absolute plagiarism i have to quote (but it isn't as i'm linking/citing source and saying i didn't write it)... anyway:

Have you had sex as many times as you've ridden your bike?

This is an important question for cyclists to ponder. I'm unsure where the value judgment lies. Wouldn't it be better to have had more sex than bike rides? Or is it the other way round? Either way, I think that no one will like the numbers.

Fuzuck... Esp not lately. Hell i'm riding the bike 2-4 times a day... almost everyday... even with the multiple years off the bike more or less can't make up the numbers...

Thanks Francine.... but then, porn stars do generally have the ugliest, knarliest(sic) looking flabby legs (men and woman collectively)... gimme a relatively low sexed cyclist over an over sexed two wheel noobie... while ya do feel rather pooped after a 3 hour sex fest, a 3 hour bike ride is defiantly more common... even dropping the event to an hour...

m u s t s t o p w i t h c y c l i n g a n d s e x r e l a t e d n e s s

tuesdays come and go

and here i am, listening to meg's podcast intro... i will refrain from my tradditional critique role that i fall more naturally into...

and lemme tell ya - i just about pooped my pants when i realized i had made it till after lunch before posting anything... and by about pooped my pants it was literally - in that i needed to get out of the office for a minute. And while i may work in some ivory towered institution, i do not get lunch servered to me on silver service, and i do not have a private bath in my office.

so many chords to strike, that one sort of leads to KL's comments about the institution. Dare i go into my perspective? I've been fortunate to have direct involvement in four rather (understatement) different Institutions of Higher Learning. Starting with my stint at Conn College (not U Conn), a small 1600 student liberal Arts school with very strong sciences and art (all i cared about). It was selective, and the students were a rather strange mix of Ivy league rejects and those who really wanted that setting (the 600 acre Arbo really sold me). Most all were pretty intelligent and motivation was over the map... no football team, and little focus on major sports. In direct contrast to the next place. Michigan State University. Man what a difference. Going from a tiny school to one of the largest in the country with over 45,000 students enrolled. Small NE to Big 10. Sports ruled. The Faculty were much more interested in publishing and churning out grants and getting more money than teaching. Sure most faculty are always working on grants and funding but there, for the most part with notable exceptions of course, the instructional side of things was massively lacking. I got lucky in my involvement in a few of the good teaching faculty as mentors. From there up to Central. I shouldn't say anything mean about it but the average students were not the brightest in the bunch. It was mid size 24,000 or so enrolled. As i liked to say CMU is where the girls are hot and the guys are stupid, with the quiet aside being (the girls are stupid too but because they are hot we overlook that). Although, i have never been ever able to ever get over not so brightness. wrap up the best looking most physically attractive package, if that brain ain't working - forget it. That or if the brain ain't clicking with me - no matter. One former GF was smokin, by everyone's standards, great in most aspects, but... but i tell ya she drove me bonkers... having high and unobtainable standards is a great way to ensure fidelity... couple that with a shy anti-social persona and well hard core lock down.... Too personal? maybe - but hey - no one reads it anyway right? So where was i? Oh... finally here. at this ancient university (Brown) with Ivy walls. Is it different than MSU? CMU? Conn? Damn straight. Will you get a better education here? Its harder not to, but on the other hand college is what you make it. Like grad school, its about the connection you make with the faculty, and your self motivation. You can sail through anywhere, and like at CMU, there are bright stars and even the dimmer ones can work hard enough to really get something positive out of it. Now, if you want to talk about Collegiate Cycling teams. Hook up with the Ivy. Sunsobitches seem to be doing better than most, with large riderships. Conn in my days was Geo, and a few handful of others. MSU didn't have anything and i helped get the team off on their feet, but Midwest travel on the collegiate circuit makes the ECCC look super tiny. CMU? nuttin. Although GVSU had a great team and it was on par with the CMU level. All about the experience and the students there driving the stuff.

a couple scribble items... inflation linked. I may have covered it but a recent prompt from someone looking for a $100 commuter bike had me thinking - damn $100 won't get ya far in gas money now days... why not step up to the plate and figure how much gas you'd save by riding a few months instead of driving and step to the plate for a decent bike. On the other hand $100 is still $100... Although from my FIL's POV, a $25 steak is only 1/3 of a tank, and a bottle of some fancy scotch is one tank... And someone was suggesting that inflation isn't linked to the price of gasoline...

I keep forgetting to mention the yamika wearing dude. So its hot out, this guy wearing skimpy running trunks, a full coat of fur (he was a bit hairy) and running shoes, and a yamika. The whole no shirt thing had me thinking, what the hell's the point of covering 3-4" diameter of the back of your scalp if you are going to uncover the rest of what he gave ya. Hell all the thoughts are in the front part and the fabric covers the back part. No, i am not jewish, but i'm puzzled baffled at the juxtopisition(sic) of the nearly nekkid dude with a yamika on. That's freaking insane.

not to mention its gonna be fun working out the logistics now to get both girls into to where they need to go and to keep me still on the bike... once/if the move happens.

Oh and can't let the pick of the IF "hot ass" (meg's words not mine) sitting on the Klein go un commented... mmmm Klein goodness....

Gonna see about tryin to make the TT tonight, and maybe if SB heads down, i'll try and hit the Bikeworks TT as well on thursday. Although, here's the wrinkle... my wife hasn't had a chance to get out running in a couple weeks... she's a bit understanding of my bike time, and as if anyone's keeping score, i ain't exactly lighting up the mileage numbers, but it may be a tough juggle to get out for thurs... so... i may toss in the towel on tonights TT and shoot for Thursday. There'll probably be a hoard riding out from Downtown Providence around 5pm or so... like they did last week... its a decent warm up riding out... but i should know by tomorrow.

I've been trying to read the PEZ hydration article today. But it ain't working. Too many distractions (work). Last week i felt like an extra water bottle would have been very helpful... we'll see if i can get it all put together today - or thursday, what ever day i actually make it out.

so congrats on getting this far... and to those inspirational folks out there... thanks...

(BTW - after publishing i finally read the PEZ article - damn boring stuff... that and i realized i didn't link it above... there ya go... so it says to hydrate... um... yeah *thumbs up* got it drink fluid)

damn how similar?

WTF? Is this just not 100% Klein Mission Control? Where does the copy-catting stop?

aH WELL - Klein's been doing that for what... 25 years?

Cannondale’s fork tapers from 1.5 inches to 1.125 inches. Cannondale has done it’s design homework to seamlessly integrate the system’s fork, stem and headset.

Back to power musing

Saturday's ride in the heat had me thinking... mostly cause i went to the front and just rode... rode a bit too fast for the ride 'leader' but on the other hand it was techically the BTH ride and by definition ya go as hard as ya want... cept we deviated through dighton and taunton... That Tremont road TT is wicked fast, and much flatter than the P Velo TT, at least based on the terrain.

But this thinking thing - and the power thing... i'm grasping again, but i'm still fuddling around with bigger gears (mentally) and specifically more teeth front and back... in that sure the force applied at the pedal is going to translate to the wheel and that's pretty much a straight force with the gearing and speed determining the duration of the force. But. When you increase the number of teeth you increase the surface contact with the chain, which should decrease the acting forces at each tooth, and while without question reducing wear (less force = less metal disturbed) the benefits i would think should some how tangible transfer to more efficiency and more of the power headed to the wheel.

Gotta be something to it... that and i do recall coming across certain discussions about it in the past, but my engineering/math sucks too much to try and put values to paper/bits...

Oh and that prompted this recall: ProLink. I gotta try it. Why? Well cause Mr Zinn swears by it. And the method/application is very consistent with my tune... velonews.com/tech pop over to the entry there - worth reading i think...

Biggest problem with people's bikes i notice is lack of chain lube. I'll say it again, and again. If you can hear it... that's bad. Or more importantly if someone riding next to you who is listening for it can hear it... in almost all cases those loud noisy chains look dry. They may look clean, but they are dry and that's baaaaaad... esp bad if ya using compact gearing... but that's me, the mechanic thinkin...

tryin to wrap my head around the financing options is tough... man they don't make it terribly simple do they... i guess its not much of a debate - but switching from one lender who i've been working with to another that i just started talkin to is a bit weird for me... although, $$ wise the new one kicks ass over the other one, which really wasn't that bad... oh and ya know... gettin the house means interent at home... i think i'm almost as excited about that as i am about having all the bikes under one roof!! not to mention the spare parts, workstand and the tool box (for the bikes)...

Its Monday

No Shit? For REAL? Monday?

Hey how is this for a father's day present:
"lets spend a quarter of a million dollars"

DOH!

Well. It looks as if my commuting miles will be bolstered a bit. no more two mile silly crap that i have been making into 4 miles or so... we might be moving on in a block or two away from the East Bay Bike path, with central air (yeah i'm a wuss). Not that the air was the selling point, but the location is key, the house is absolutely livable (in contrast to the rest of the houses in the areas we've been looking at in the same range). So, well... time to sign away my future... time to give up the cross bike cash for the fall... time to start working on making extra coin so i can afford this cycling thing cause it looks like all my pennies will be going towards a house.

It was great reading SB's brief race reports. Cox is coming up and i've got this sneaking suspicion that over the next month i'm gonna be rather, um, busy. Esp since i think 30 days to close starts today... I hate moving, i hate packing... I hate unpacking... BUT... its finally a chance to get all the bikes out, and to put the GeWilli bike shop in order. I think the TDI mechanic shop will stay in the barn (no space to work on the cars, but that's okay - gives me an excuse to head over to the farm (where there seems to always be an extra vehicle to borrow if something goes wrong).

Oh and for the record... i got hammered yesterday... not sure what drove me to it, but i'm pretty sure i did a number on my liver... and it was freaking hot in the apartment. no breeze and man it sucked... that central air thing is sounding awefully freaking awesome. not to mention 2.5 baths... yeah baby yeah, no more one hole houses... and no more walking through bedrooms to get to the shitter in the middle of the night for guests.

That wraps up my 10 minutes of fame for the morning. peace out and ciao!
G

Friday's post - not gonna re-sort it....

So, curiosity has me wondering what’s going on out in weirdo land (internet)…
Thursday night i got out for a nice 30 minutes with my oldest on her bike… I just sort of putzed around and she got some seat time. Still with training wheels, but I don’t wanna push it, when she’s ready she’ll let me know. It was fun though. Funny too, we say probably 20 different passats. Very few other cars were on the roads around the neighbor hood. From old ladies driving blind to post college guys piling out to hang with friends.

The drive up with my sister was mellow, cars were freaking slow… I kept blowing past WRX scoobies…. Man are they doggy up hills… maybe I should expect every car to blast up the hills accelerating to 90 without thinking from 70 in the space of a blink…

Torque kicks ass, and having torque on demand, not relying on a charge or what not is nice… Filled up with B20 on the way out. 3.079, and the gal that runs the show asked if we lived in the Providence/Cranston area, yup I said, well turns out they are starting to distribute 5% biofuel in the fuel oil. Ain’t that sweet. I asked about higher % and also asked if they make it to the east bay side… she said not yet… not yet.

Still pretty cool. Turns out my little sis’s Taurus that got creamed by some cell phone talking Suburban driving distracted wife of the chair of the republican party in Durango CO, was a FFV car. Coool. ‘Cept she looked and well the only E85 pump when she had the car was down in San Diego. How retarded is that? Clean air morons. Hopefully they have more pumps out there now. Dunno…. Driving back was more mellow. Rather than push the limit of speed, I settled in and stuck with the cruise control as much as possible, managing a mellow 70 or so for most of the haul back to 146…. Definitely was more relaxed. We listened to the Seal Maiden story on CD for the billionth time, followed by Peter and the Wolf. Both great stories, but like the nutcracker when my sister was this age, they are wearing thin… I still have a hard time sitting through the nutcracker. She (my sister) danced to it daily for about 2.5 years. And I’m not stretching it in the least, maybe it was even like 3 years.

Gonna see about maybe taking a wild leap and assume the 9am ride is headed out tomorrow. ‘Course this prolly won’t get posted till Monday it looks like, unless I just manage to swing through somewhere with connection and get it up.

Pretty funny how as soon as I got the P velo Blog up, the mad Frenchman gets the Brown one up and running…. Still crackin me up.

I might not have the speed, or the hard ass drive, but I don’t have the time or the freedom that being single affords. It’s a trade off. My life is still not settled from the move out east. The second phase of settling down is beginning and that’s a bit stressful. My wife is great but seen as we share stuff around here one of us being gone throws it all out of balance, so working in solid training, not to mention races is tough. And not that I expect unmarried types to get it, or married but sans-children (dogs cats and pets don’t count)… but I’m saving up for cross season… there’s only so many passes I can get, don’t wanna waste em on some thing other than cross unless it works out well. But then I’m sure ol SB’ll read that as an excuse….
I’m less bothered by the comments today but only by a little… again not sure why. That and its hotter than hell inside here – and outside. Damn I’d be nice to have either a basement or central Air….or even a window box… or a place that doesn’t get so GD hot.

See there I go again… bitching up a storm.

its HOT out there folks

I have an update that was written yesterday, but its not here. It'll be up maybe tomorrow or Monday.

Oh did i mention its hot?

I'm taking my second indulgence today. Sitting here printing out some lender correspondance, in the air conditioned office. Second indulgence in that the first was a nice 58 or so mile ride. Rode with the brown gang, and no they didn't leave at 9, they wanted to sleep in till10.... so i punched out just after the girls went to get the paper and go for a walk, grabbed a small iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts, sucked that down and went out... unfortunatly it was supposed to be a mellow 16-18. Which suited me fine, except i seemed to have a mental break down as to the locations of the Town Lines and wound up having pulled most of the mile leading up and then well... no excuses right? I didn't win a town line. I won the one KOM sprint... I felt very good and wound up leading most of the time (came back to haunt me though at the end). It was hot. And i even put sunscreen on. Topped off the bottles at the bikeworks shop and well... decided to head out for the longer ride... rather than make it an easy 40 i thought hey whats an extra few... Total time on the bike computer was 3:15 or so... at 1pm Radu and i left everyone and put the head down and motored... until i blew... Hint from gewilli - it IS possible to put too much gatorade mix in the bottle... i was getting cooked from the heat, and i don't like how sunscreen blocks up the pores... Anyway.... we made it back. And my legs are sore, no way in hell i'd have been able to survive two hoos laps... although, i spent probably 80% of the day in the front towing everyone alone, then slowing down and waiting for the stragglers, then towing along... then waiting... so the average speed wasn't terribly indicative of the effort.

At anyrate, things are good, on the bike front. I'm chuggin some sugars to push the glycogen, although the high fructose corn syrup in Coke aint' ideal... i did suck down a large bowl of pasta with some sausage in it a bit ago.

I ain't going into much more than a ride report.... its 83 degrees and feels more like 90, and we had a head wind all the way back in from Dighton MA.... how fun was that... and not much shade on the road...

Big thanks to Radu - he was key to gettin me back, he endured my good natured ribbing and my suggestion that the pink C-dale at the shop would go well with his girly sleeveless jersey.

Pop's day tomorrow- to all my mid thirty's friends with Kids - Happy Pop's day! Suds, SailorBoy, Joeseppi (i don't think he reads it), two of my bro's and to my dad's, and my wife's dad... i have two dads cause of divorce, not because i came from a progressive trendsetting family, if ya know what i mean.

Peace out, good luck in the Hoooose to all those riding it!
G

well it's done...

I did have a few minutes after lunch, the wonders of a kid's need to go to the bathroom to speed things up.

not to mention, why is it they seemingly can be as slow as possible in the face of needing to be fast (like when late tryin to get to the bus) but other times, like at lunch, when they "HAVE TO GO" things move in quick time....

So if ya check my profile ya'll find a link to a basic Providence Velo web log hosted like this at Blogger... and by some strange coincidence the mad frenchman must have had the same idea cause within seconds of sending out some invites out came an email with the Brown Team's blog.

Anyway...

i'm gonna "Take the Long Way Home" (supertramp - i think they sang the song that's bouncing in my head)....

not to mention getting put in my place to hear that Adam (helment-less Caster's kid) put in a 14:34... brendan put in a 16:38... Adam was on TT bike with all but his aero helment... brendan did it cannibal. For the record and for SB's peace of mind... i'm a fat slow dude suffering from a bad case of pleonasm...

Maybe its the whole house hunting crap that's bugging me...

oh and while my 339 might be some dead guy's number - its still the only one i've had...

SITE DISCLAIMER

I'm an excuse laden whiney sack of shit working in an ivory tower that affords me brief seconds of 'down time' that are sometimes filled by writing a sentence or a paragraph...

I ponder possibilities too often... and it can be sometimes taken as not following through...

I don't expect anyone to care... and i don't expect anyone to read this crap...

And i find myself searching for a reason i'm so testy and grumpy lately... still looking.

One thing for sure: I'm slow. I'm not likely to do many races this summer. I'd send out an Invite to those headed to the Hoose to get a decent Diamond Hill area ride in on Saturday, but seein as i'm so full of excuses and completely offline until maybe Monday it probably won't happen. if it might work out try me on a telephone number that resembles this: four zero one six three three five four six eight...

Heck - i was actually gonna spring board off on a few ideas about leg speed work andwhat not... specifically raising doubt about the time it takes to get it back (less time in my opinion than more time)...

no i'm not gonna use that song as a title

Wouldn't It Be Loverly? From My Fair Lady... yeah some musical's song was what i was riding with this morning. Seriously... musta been my cadence and something else... But "All I want, is a room some where" and on and on was heading through my brain.

The power/cadence is a bit different with the big kid in the trailer, that and i wanted to take the less busy streets and so i popped down the BLVD like i do when dropping off the youngest at daycare. The Hill up Lloyd was a bit of fun, adding 45 pounds to the trailer with about 10 psi in those tires on it certainly made for an extra power requirement...

I checked with Chris about the distance of the TT course. His mapping software has it at 6.61 miles, but it measures out usually to 6.8. a wopping 23 mph average... that seems so damn slow though. According to the map screen shot it has 3.22 miles of climbing... so definately not flat... And after reading kerry's diary for the day starting with a hill to open a TT sort of isn't exactly ideal... at least for me the second go around i went harder, and a bit too hard to start off the effort... although, its the up hill part... and the incline is supposed to be where ya can gain time... that wind resistance down hill is intense at 38 mph... hell poppin in and out of the Spinachi bars at 35 mph is a bit sketchy...

Got help here today, (duh idiot ya alluded to that already with the extra load in the Trailer). Okay so i started and finished reading the rest of the stuff. My daughter is playing a music 'mix tape' kinda game. over at PBSkidsgo.com in the Arthur games section called crank it up.

rather a bit insane...

but at least its creative and there's some feed back and active participation.

Shoot it wasn't obvious? SB's excuses for being slow at the Tuc wasn't appearant? Maybe my veiled ribbing was a bit to much ribbing and not enough spelling it out so he can understand...

HOLY CRAP... are those license numbers for real? My three little digits on card sure look strange... lined up to the 6 digit cards... insane man... insane

Oh and shoot - i was gonna get a web log set up for the P-velo guys... well add that to the insurmountable list today... maybe we'll have a brief lunch and there'll be some time somewhere to get it started.

Alright - And yeah... i wound up getting roses... and here's how coincidental i got...

My daughter wanted to pick the flowers, and she picked a dozen rainbow roses (12 different colors). Okay cool. She was pretty adamant about those. None of the other flower arrangements were gonna get past her. Well what she didn't realize was that yeah, its been 12 years (one rose per year)... each one different... anyway... i think it was nice. That and we wound up meeting my bro, his wife and their two kids 2.5 and 5 months old, my sister (staying with them now) my family over at Chili's for a freaking insane dinner. my youngest was having NONE of the sitting at a table, and got into a good game of rubber baby... try hanging on to 25 pounds of squirming jello...

And lastly... the hockey game. I desperately wanted the Oilers to win, but i feel alseep twice in the first period... and by the first intermission i was out like a light. Woke up to find it went to OT and that i can watch at least part of one more game. So maybe with luck the Oilers can ride the wave and down grade the Hurricanes for the summer. Winning the next two games in a row will be tough but if they can play like they did in the 1st period for the next six periods (assuming no overtime periods) they should have the cup. I've got respect for ol' brindamore but don't like him dat much... That and it'd be great to have the Cup hang out away from Hurricane Alley for the summer.

and with that... i'm gonna get take a nap (i wish)

Man

Well...

I made it in.

I rode hard, in the TT, popped the big kid in the trailer to get into the office for a few hours, today.

I and with forcasts in the 90s for Sunday - no way in heck... double no way... not to mention even the consideration of going was hard core shot down by the S.O.

Oh and its my 12th year of being legally hooked up... and yup i got squat. Nadda zip zilch. When it comes to getting gifts i get mentally paralyzed. I lock up, i can't think. I have no clue what to get. I'm hoping something pops into my head before i see her tonight... couple that stress (and yeah i feel it as stress) with being tired as hell, with not getting the clue about having dinner at the farm last night (still woulda done the TT anyway), and all that i dunno i'm not in the best of sorts.

Gotta fire off some important communications here get a few balls rolling, maybe take a walk down to Thayer and do some shopping with the help of a 6 year old.... Shoulda asked my sister for suggestions... see i often get good ideas way too late... like tomorrow, i'll remember what i should have gotten her... but i can't remember now.

Ah well, maybe flowers... a colossal waste of money, but since i do it so rarely, maybe it'll be just right...

well if anyone else wants to take issues with me being punchy lemme know... and yeah one of these days i'll race... and one of these days it'll be documented just how much i suck...

And a joke to end this... drivel

One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and
decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife
decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, and
reads her book.

Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the
woman and says, "Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?"

"Reading a book," she replies, (thinking, Isn't that obvious?")

"You're in a Restricted Fishing Area," he informs her.

"I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing, I'm reading."

"Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start
at any moment. "I'll have to take you in and write you up."

"If you do that, I'll have to charge you with sexual assault," says the woman.

"But I haven't even touched you, " says the game warden.

"That's true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you
could start at any moment."

"Have a nice day ma'am," and he left.


MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It's likely she can also think.

Tuesday Part 2 (late night)

Having a late night discussion with my sister doesn’t help me going to sleep. And so to exercise the demons, in hope that they flee and lemme get some rest, I am anointing this digital space with an idea, thought or two….

First, art. What is art? And more appropriately is it right to have multiple vague definitions for it?

My definition, mark it down for the search engines:

Art definition = sensory communication

Dats it.

The ‘art’ of photography. This kinda tipped the whole discussion. Is photography an art? Is the process back in old school days when ya had 10 minutes from imaging to preserving the print and ya had to bring the whole darkroom with you, is that an art? OR is it science? The only communication part is the selection of subject and composition. Nothing else is art, its science. It’s a defined process. Is it skillful science? Yeah sure. But if you understand the reactions its less skillful and more knowledge.

Frustrating is an understatement. I guess it comes down to the current interchangability between Art and Skill. Has it always been that way? I dunno? Maybe. Worth checking on? Absolutely.

As a skillful microscopist, using the microscopes to collect images is critical, but more so, the art component is the sensory communication, or just reductionalistically visual communication.

I’m tired. This is working.

But here’s the other thing. I was asked (tonight) if I remember what I was told when my dad was kicked out of the house. And I have absolutely NO idea. I remember fishing with him quite well… I remember grocery shopping with him. I remember distinctly driving around all over the place in his blue Ford Econoline (1969 iirc) van with the center console hiding the engine, also serving as the table to chop up the beef jerky from Farmer John’s Locker (where we had the chopped up lamb parts kept). But do I remember him leaving? Nope. Not right now, maybe if I keep probing, and ask questions of my mother, maybe I’ll get there… I’m curiously perplexed and incredulous. I couldn’t remember the definition I have for art 20 minutes ago (sensory communication) but I can remember telling the guys who were asking what we were fishing with ‘it’s a secret’ when we limited out on opening day pretty quickly at Horseshoe Lake. I was standing with the boat as my dad went to go get the van….

Maybe that’s a bit too personal for what the scope of stuff has been here lately. But its really the nugget of what the aim was. If I can’t talk this stuff out to myself then it gets bottled up.

Oh and I rode a 17:45 today… knockin 22 seconds off my previous time… and my HR was way up there – a good sign…

And – no way in hell will I be getting out to Housatonic… too GD far for a 9am start… for me… in my position now… however the team is lobbying hard to get the 10 minimum registered to gain access to the VIT Tent (very important team)…. And then if I’m registered I may as well try racing, and then well I’m told all I have to do is stay towards the front for two laps and it’ll all settle down… seems doable… I spent most of that 17 minutes around 180… how long does it take to get mile lap done anyway…

Alright – this laying with a hot laptop on my crotch ain’t exactly my idea of a good time and seein as it aint hooked to the internet, well I can’t check out Big Jonny’s links now can i… not that I have in a very very very long time…. Oh well… maybe that’s my sacrifice – cause I’m in deep shit after today’s TT shenanigans and all that mess… maybe I can write about that when I’m not dead tired.

Tuesday Part 1

Not to steal a page from Solobreakinhalfhezsofullofexcuses, but the lack of post(s) today (Tuesday) is distinctly related to me being somewhere other than bouncing around the office tossing words and stuff like saturation, numerical aperature, wavelength, nyquest sampling interval, stokes shift, accelerating voltage, signal to noise ratio… ya get the idea.

My oldest graduated from Kindergarden today… class of 2018… with her auntie from the class of 2000 and her dad from the class of 1990… to put our relative ages in perspective…. TMI? Awe who cares… not like I haven’t mentioned any of all that somewhere else… and no I’m not going to get into that discussion.

Scary topic first: me, housatonic, race… me? 54 miles? Am I freaking stupid insane? On the plus side it’s the second field to go off and until the second lap I could easily be drifting back through the starting field… second lap could be interesting or nightmarish… but - #1 its NOT a crit… #2 is looks to be one of the very few road races left… and I don’t know for sure but I think its father’s day? Or am I off by a week or two? They’ve started running adds but this dad never got the memo regarding what day it falls on.

Scary topic second: requires some scientific follow through. I went to take a nap while my sister is practicing (pro musician’s actually do practice as much as pro cyclists ride their bikes…. Skills – need to constantly hone em), and well so I went to take a nap, grab that slug bread book off the top of the stack to read through it, distinctly seem to feel that I’ve read it all twice recently, but find this little nugget of goodness:

Scientists in the Netherlands reported in 1999 that the cut ends of freshly mown grass release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that form smog.

I gotta do the google scholar search on that one (First Search sucks comparatively). But those wanna be Prius/civic hybrid drivers with big lawns and all should be ashamed….

Took my sister and my daughter over to Sakura for lunch. Man was it WONDERFUL. Their miso soup kicks ASS. My daughter chowed on the salad and then a big plate of Yaki Soba, and my sis and I both got Maki Plates, a Tuna and Salmon Nigiri, and Tekka rolls, I got salmon and avocado and she got cuc and avocado. Oh it was soooooooo good. Salmon I can only eat raw now. Cooked just tastes like crap. And trust me, I know how to cook it, and can successfully cook salmon on demand, poached, grilled, broiled, baked, pan fried… doesn’t matter how I still MUCH prefer it sushi grade and raw.

Listening to my little sis, MAN she’s freaking GOOD. I guess I makes sense if she was given first chair for a couple concerts at Tanglewood this summer. Looks like we’ll be up there on the 9th for the concert at 10am… if anyone is in the vicinity and wants comp lawn tickets lemme know. I’ve got an inside source on them.

Gonna be driving up there on Friday. So don’t look for much from me this week. Check back next week for regularly scheduled programming (once I recover from the catchup games made possible by missing a couple days this week.)

I hope Il bruce gets a few good riders to turn out this afternoon, but the weather is too conducive to putting in a better time… hot, hot enough (yeah you say the line from Good morning Vietnam)… and the wind, seems mellow enough, unlike Sunday here. Hopefully I can take a bit of time off my previous 18:07… not gonna do it cannibal, got the spinachi’s which are close to cannibal as far as some are concerned… no disk wheels…

But that got me thinking… What about those old school make your own Disk wheel things. Ya know those fabric covers for the spokes… a pain in the ass to install BUT, if its really wind resistance of the spokes that the disk helps with, then it’s a decent idea, or not. I should look into it rather than blindly speculate.

But blind speculation is fun. Blindly speculating…. Nah not gonna get all blah blah about it.

I did stop in at the office long enough to see that KL has nothing new, SB is picking on the inexperienced, and megA has an update. Fraz was funny, and I had a few emails, a couple of which reminded everyone of the TT this afternoon.

So… in prep, I’m gonna close my damn eyes, if only for 20 minutes, relax and then get some creative cookin juices flowing and THEN blast off to the TT.

Till later…. Eh?

3 post day...

Its been a hard days work,
And i'm feeling rather pooped

sing along with me... or just pretend ya didn't

bored? wanna test your US geography? Or wanna brag about beating me silly? I managed a 96%, 6 mile error in 154 seconds.... with better luck i probably could ace it...

that or play another stupid wack em long or short game... I managed a 1232.5m long and a 123.8m short...

No luck on the freaking camcorder battery... my wife's gonna be upset if i don't have a plug/cord to use at the Graduation thing...

although, its only kindergarden... there's no documentation of me graduating kindergarde, much less High school or college (I didn't even walk for the post grad degree). I shot a bunch of still and vid using the digital camera at the Ballet recital on saturday, maybe i'll just do that again... sure is easier just switching back and forth - grabbing snippets of the program rather than the whole thing...

How's that for a rationalization excuse. I'm in trouble eh?

And lemme get on the record saying i don't give a crap about the World Cup... i've never really followed soccer - never really played it (although all my bro's did) and unless its the woman running around i don't wanna watch it.

I will admit the Housatonic hills race looks intrigueing but racing those 54 miles with the 35+ masters would probably not be the best thing to do as a first race, although hell its a damn long drive (I'm getting NewEnglandified) and a lot of money to do a hilly ride... maybe the team needs mechanical support or moral support... or not... i have made note that the most celebrated of Terry team is registered! Maybe its time to say hey in person... with my luck i'll be dragged kicking and screaming to look at more houses...

procrastination stinks

yeah... i was supposed to get a battery for the camcorder... to record the kindergarden celebration tomorrow. now i'm at the mercy of one store, that is supposed to get a shipment in today.

if the battery shows up i'm good... if not i'm in deep doo doo... fingers crossed we'll see what happens.

Looks like Rafa kicks some swiss butt at the french, ah well... dats cool, maybe he can make knickers cool for guys to wear... or not...

a good friend just mentioned he has pancreatic and hepatic cancer...

now that video SB posted... sort of funny, but maybe i don't get it...

THIS is funny (google vid link)... not quite motorcycle/scooter related but... it has a bike in it and some funny stuff...

A couple of my TDI NH friends have started keeping track of the Bike Week Accidents... and then one of the Cali guys posted about the dude passing the tractor trailer down hill and getting creamed by the rear tire...

Now i have little to no empathy/sympathy for that cycling fatality. Why? Cause the guy was a moronic dipshit. Um, yeah, lemme pass this 18 wheeler headed down hill on a two lane road in a no passing zone... Too late for a Darwin award.

Just goes to show not everyone on the bike is smart bright or helping cycling's Public Image.

I'm too lazy to search for a link to the story... not worth it...

maybe more later... maybe not...

digging for something funny is hard. part of me feels like i'm failing or changing in the content and scope... but then its still the same, me, commuting, attempting to go fast, attempting to think about racing before cross season, failing in some regards... feeling the need to be more supportive of my daughter but trying to find the balance between here demands and her needs... its tough... she's got alot of me in her, and that is gonna make it challenging for all of us...

till later, Peace... and carrots.

Lazy Sundays.... once a year it seems

(written yesterday - and no new content viewed this am... yet)

So its Sunday, and I’ve got zero miles in since Friday. Normally I might be grumpy about it…

Right now (assuming I don’t dwell on the invitation from SB) I’m defiantly cool with it.
Why?

Well I was hosed – toasted – fried and wasted yesterday. Not in the anti-AFD way either. Nope in the total lack of sleep way that ya get… one of those days after a few weeks of submarginal sleep… that ya can’t shake, where an extra cup of coffee (or a pot in this case) did jack squat for the disposition. Seein as it was the B-Day party day, that was not good... After a late dinner pushed back from the 2 hour ground delay the in-laws had getting here and a bit of absolute insanity tryin to get the girls picked up in time bed time rolled around late and started off early…

The littlest has been feverish and runny nosish, which hasn’t been a ton of fun… but its manageable, more or less.

I was hoping to get out for a ride this morning before rollin out for the ‘home tour’ but nope I slept… I slept in… and it was blissful… I feel 100% better today. Still a bit tired but I’ve got major brain function back and the rest ya know… Was very conflicted last night when the Oilers were on. I was damn ready to fall asleep before the 3rd period started, but I hung with it… and man what a payoff… damn fine game. Go Oilers… down 2-1 ain’t so bad… Maybe they can get another win at home on Monday and tie it all up. It was great hockey to watch… Grand Ledge is just west of Lansing… surprised those announcers didn’t know that… oh well, not that it matters. I woulda been pissed if I stayed up and they lost… And I wanted to catch the end of the French Open, but nope, had to motor out to the house showing. The showings were somewhat positive, back into a different house and a couple of the same ones… some promising houses, a couple with very motivated sellers… some with a bit of work we could do and all move-in-able right away.

So right now… I’m watching my favorite non-road course *nascar* race… Pocono… last few years I’ve completely missed watching this race… never quite sure why, last year I’d wager it was getting ready to sell the house. Or who knows… This is a luxury, just being able to sit and take a deep breath, its nice having grandparents show up.

Oh yeah – Saturday morning in the rain we went to the Ballet recital… two weeks ago when I was doing the BLVD chill ride some dude on an OCLV with a mustache, shitty riding position and some pissy attitude jumped in for a lap or two. Well, waiting to go in, here’s this guy talking about this cool ride that goes around the BLVD every Tuesday and they average such and such and its awesome and on and on… he’s the dude with the mustache… I think, I’m gonna try and hit the TT on Tuesday, but will hope that maybe the P-velo guys can get a nice tempo ride hooked up… Cause I’m still building up… Cox race will have to wait till next year… I’m gonna stick to my plan… no real races I think till the fall… a training race or TT is one thing… maybe I’ll hit Wells Ave. Who knows….

One of these houses would be a kick ass party central pad… the other, well, it’d be a wicked fun hang out, but not the bitchin Superbowl pad… how to make the choice… and these mortgage options are freakin nuts….80/20 80/10 7/1 arms nutzy stuff….

Oh well – it’ll sort itself out I think… maybe.

Maybe…

So the gang has headed off to the airport… the sicko is sleeping in the stroller, and I’m chillin, 60 to go in the race…

I gotta say, I’ve seen quite a bit of that ‘living’ roof thing going on… and lemme tell ya I like it. Damn freaking cool. Now the question being, is it feasible here. AND if I do it to the house we buy, will it help or hurt resale? www.cultivatinglife.com They were talking about it during a race commercial.
One of the houses has an oil fired hot water heater… only 35 gallons, but a wicked recharge rate. Me thinks, a nice dose of home-made BioFuel would be sweet. Not to mention there is a nice amount of space in the garage for the reactor, or in the barn at the farm…

Yall can talk green, but ifn ya pull Propane, Natural Gas, or Oil or for the most part electricity out here yall ain’t terribly green. Not that everyone is all excited about being green. And this same house need some upstairs expansion, and well, the upstairs would need a roof bump out and that could be a Solar install, for either a hot water or voltaic setup. That should sell the place better than a living roof… Oh and the garage is insulated! Meaning GTG central BABY… Its not the best location for commuting but its in the heart of Riverside and a good school district. On the other hand, it would seriously add some massive meat to my commuting mileage, getting the duration up to the point of paying major dividends. That and if I get the BioReactor (fuel maker) running my wife could drive the Golf guilt free and nearly cost free, okay – maybe a dollar a gallon at most.

Ohh Lydia’s Kitchen is on.

Grumbly… they doing a boring thing… some celery root and stuffed chicken crap.

Oh not chicken but a breast of Veal. And lemme tell ya Veal tastes good. And from all the veal farms I’ve seen in Michigan (lots of em) I don’t have many qualms about eating it. Those animals are treated better than any beef cattle or chicken. Sure they can’t roam around but they have a nice house to hang out in to stay cool and are well fed and cared for…

Granted I’m the kid who walked up to my dad killing the rabbits (after he told my mom to keep us all inside for a while) and said “Hey whatcha doing daddy?” “skinning the rabbits” and I replied with a dis-intersted “Oh, I’m gonna go play.”

Well I should do something less introspective and more inclusive…

We’ll see what Monday brings… I hope everyone has had a fun weekend

Cool as Hell

Description

Oak Grove Park with a bicycle race about to begin, 1890s. A time scoreboard can be seen on the review stand. Oak Grove was a fair ground that once occupied the site of present day Carl Lamb School. Print from a 6" x 8" glass negative.

So, so ends the day... so ends the friday of the week... i won't pull the 5 o'clock song up... no way...

I dunno how teachers do it, i'm cooked after a 3 hour training session. But then, teachers may not have time to check the vids at work, but unless things have changed drastically from when i was in school teachers rarely talked for the full class period anyway... P O O P E D pooped... dats what i am...

feeling the effects of the added caffine killin my good sleep ...

wish i could say something funny...

I popped into The Hub after picking up my car, grabbed a couple tubes and whadda ya know... Jack was VERY receptive about the idea of team sponsorship... Heck... I dunno man it might... MIGHT be a sweet thing to do... Dump our current shop sponsor in favor of a Scooter/coffee shop (Javaspeed) + Different Providence Bike shop...

Hmmmmmm

i'm outa here - gotta get the girls...

Finally Friday

I know i said i wouldn't do the song title thing... but damn Ol' Solobreak is rubbin off...

It's finally Friday,
forget the workin blues and let the good times roll

Yeah baby YEAH...

Quick report from last night:
Team meeting, with a total of three (me included). Not encouraging, but, there’s some serious drive to make this work.

How many hours am I getting in on the bike was a q that Brandon asked…

Well lemme thing:

45 minutes a day or close to it commuting… maybe only 40… but then that’s over 3.5 hours, and toss in a 2-3 hour ride on the weekend and say 1.5 hours during the week either getting to and doing the TT or the BLVD and 7-8 hours a week… that SHOULD be pretty good for maintaining what I have. Assuming I have something.

Tony was super enthusiastic about registering for the Cox race… and registering for both the 3 / 4 race and the masters race. Masters run off at 9:30 and the Cat3-4s run off a bit later… 20 laps… they also said in general is a mad rush of last minute registrations…

A big push was made for a Wells ave showing by me… and I think it’s a good thing… all this pressure to race, and it was definitely agreed that we need MORE woman racing. All three of us said we’d MUCH rather watch woman racing than the Pro men… anyone here feel differently about that?

So anyway – that’s the evening recap of the meeting. And as always the big factor was sponsorship… from the title sponsor… there’s something that few understand what’s going on… how to make it all work?

Maybe hit a deal with an old shop of mine?

I dunno - hopefully the new treasurer can pull it all together... that adn I said i'd hook up the gang with a 'Team Blog' i've encountered a few of them... this may be enough to make it work eh?

I wanted to add this, yesterday i was checking the shop (P Bicycle) web page and saw the Kona, and thought, i wonder if the jake the snake is big enough... and i jotted down this bit:
jake the snake -

kona rocks it for 2006 with a size 62 frame..

prolly due in small part to the fact that Wicks and Treefarm(Trebon) are 6'4" and 6'5"

those sunofbitches are 170 and 174 freaking pounds... FARK... i'm fat

does 2" = 20 pounds? I dunno... maybe....

and the Treefarm is claiming 8 hours on the bike? with a 5 hour easy
day? Lucky sack of shit... (maybe)

how cool would that be... to get up in the morning and just head out
and ride for hours on end...

okay - so this is gettin all random and shit...

but i slept like crap last night and i blame it on that freaking Folgers Crap... OD on Caffine... my brain was running overtime and i was tossing and turning last night... as if i had a cup of coffee after dinner or something... I have my precious low caffinated French Roast Coffee today... mmmm MUCH better...

Hall pass sunday... hmmm, damn freaking TEMPTING... problem: In-Laws are in town... YUP... Daughter's b-day is tomorrow - big ol bash, she's turning 6. I'll float the trial balloon to the Hall Monitor about Sunday... Weather looks actually to be damn fine... And i'd relish the opportunity to get dropped, it hasn't happened much lately, so either #1 i've built a decent fitness base or #2 i'm riding with other slow as shit folks... prolly #2 i'm guessing... As bart says on the rides out here 'wait for me after the hill' I'll prolly add the comment but its a bit less likely than likely for this weekend... oh... shit... forgot... we've scheduled a look see at a house, farkinpoop, 11am... there's NO way the Hall Monitor will approve that pass with those conditions... I guess this tall skinny freak sitting here behind the monitor will have to remain still, anonymous... 'Course you could come down and mix it up with 'sprinters' at the Cox... that's not too far off... or wake up early and meet up at Diamond Hill? It ain't Nashua... but...

well today will not be a day to check out the lastest vids posted with the finish of the cross race... and yeah... I'd wager if KL had a sweet ass 26"/650/559 cross bike... damn she'd fly... Kona does make the 24" one... and as much as i hate to suggest, it'd prolly not be one hell of a lot different ratio wise than me sitting on a 700c bike... would the geometry even be close? or is it too small... A nice can of pink spray paint would give it a bit of anonymity and fit with the 'team' colors... Might not have a lot tire options... BUT... ya could potentially kick some ass with it... On the other hand a nice clean rigid 26" mt bike converted could be better... I've got a small or an extra small Bontrager Race sitting packed up in a box... on the other side i might be hard to convince the 'owner' to loan it, and it might still be too big... but maybe not?

okay- i've cooked the last muffin for this morning...

back to 26 vs 29

ain't that James guy lucky?

and heck at least maybe finally we'll get some meaninful results...

Now... someone should set up a certain KL with identical fitting cross bikes in a 650 and 700 sizes... i wonder if terry has the capacity to do that? cause THAT'd be a damn cool test. Is a diminutive cyclocross gal gonna benefit from one or the other assuming they have the same physical cockpit dimensions (ala the seven in the test)...

Oliers are gonna get cooked... stupid Red Wings... they should be holding the 2 games to none lead against the 'Canes....

and Cyclingnews popin shit up about something in Rhode Island!?
"Cox Charities Cycling Classic to feature champions"

The 5th annual Cox Charities Cycling Classic, featuring 500 cyclists, will take place in Station Park, Providence, Rhode Island, on Sunday, June 25, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and has announced the participation of riders such as Davide Frattini and brothers Mark and Frank McCormack, all members of the Colavita Olive Oil/Sutter Home Pro Cycling Team.

Frattini is the 2001 winner of the "Baby Giro", the U23 Giro d’Italia. Frank McCormack, a former US Pro Champion, is the defending 2005 Cox Charities Cycling Classic winner, while brother Mark, former U.S. professional champion, won the Tour of Connecticut in 2005.

Racers will compete on a one-mile, five-corner criterium course adjacent to the Providence Place Mall and Rhode Island State House. The money raised will benefit Cox Charities of New England which awards grants to non-profit organizations in Cox’s service area that focus on the education and development of youth.

Food vendors and exhibitors, as well as other family-friendly activities will be set up in Station Park adjacent to the race course throughout the day. Most family activities will start at 9 a.m., and the first race is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. The women’s feature race is scheduled for 10:45 a.m., and the men’s feature race for 1:15 p.m.

This year the Cox Charities Cycling Classic will be held as part of the inaugural New England Raceweek. The top races in New England joined together to kick off the summer cycling season and offer a week of cycling competition from June 24-July 2 in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

So anyone planning to come down for that race? I see one BOB guy signed up...
And only one woman signed up... from the looks of it a certain Team Terry rider could come down and place pretty well... probably even in the money!

man this week is draggin

anyone else? Its starting today better though... I'm not sitting here completely and totally soaked...

The cuff on my jeans was still wet from the morning ride in when i got home at 5:30...

megA's back... well the server/page is at least...

Henry sent out an email with some vids to the NEcyclocross email list...

The run-up was short, but extremely steep.

Lap 4 VIDEO (clips 9a-9h), the first 4 riders are also shown in slow
motion [50%]:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2105721418

Henry

Guess who is featured in clip 9g?

compare her to some of the earlier ones... a damn fine form, quick steps... instead of the slogging big oompf oompf ones of a few girls... But man can you say that bike is HUGE... i won't throw back to a recent comment but i think KL may be better with a 650c wheel (no i will NOT call them 26... its a road/cross bike and its a 650 not some arbitrary measure of inches - okay its not arbitrary but anyway).

At least today i got lunch packed - but... left the coffee sitting in the kitchen... meaning no wonderful coffee, and for a second i freaked "I HAVE TO GO OUT?" nope i have a stash of Folgers left over from the previous occupant of my seat. Yes its shitty coffee, and yes i've learned my lesson, over dosing the amount (beyond 3 heaping coffee scoops) just makes the coffee taste worse... not that it tastes good now, but it at least drinkable... drinkable even black.

Which kinda tips into the next thought - (that previous transition would get an 'F' unless there was good justification for switching concepts, and i do, shock)... Shock in that it sets up some freaky stuff in a second. But That freaky stuff is set up by this: The coffee depot's owner (i don't have a link to the place, but its in Warren) has a philosophy. Its about the world economy and the environment.
It goes along the lines of this: if everyone bought sustainable free trade fair wage coffee that would be enough to save the world. My little bro said that's his ideal... and well its somewhat a damn fine good one. Coffee is by far one of the most important commodities in the US, it generates billions of dollars for companies like Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks... you name it... If everyone would only buy the good stuff... the world would be fine... maybe... its a nice thought and potentially an accurate one...

Which sort of ties in with the start of KL's bit up now... But the freakiest tie in... is... the compost...

why?

well last night i was reading Slug Bread and Beheaded Thistles... And lamenting my composting attempt back in michigan...

Compost takes a long time to get mellowed, esp from raw stuff... and lots of myths and conflicting science is out there. Is hot better? Is cold better? Is turning it better or counter productive? How best to deal with it?

I grew up with a massive compost pile, every ounce of anything out of the kitchen went into that pile... no leaves or grassclippings though... that compost was incredible, it still is 20 years later. I have great memories digging through the brittle eggshels and rinds to find dozens and dozens of worms to take down to Long Lake or Horseshoe lake to go fishing with my dad... It was amazing...

My dad had a pile in MD when he moved of grass clippings, he'd stick the kitchen waste in there but that pile was different. Wicked hot... and not really the best... too much grass. It never really decomposed very fast, and it never sustained worms...

Horse/cow and other vegetarian farm animal poop is great, but its pretty much already composted... no need to do much with it other than set it on top of the garden, or plant in it...

That book, i like alot... good stuff in it... easy to just read a part... i typically just open it up at random and start reading...

And this coffee takes HORRIBLE... (but in the true spirit of the three Rs - shit there's another freaky connection... Reduce Reuse Recycle - gonna pop in my Jack Johnson Curious George sound track now thank you very much).... BUT in the spirit of the 3rs i'm gonna drink it... why? cause its made and it'd be more of a waste to toss it. Right?

This whole living in an apartment thing is killin me... no control on the planting aroudn the place... the water in the basement (it was freaking flooded last night)...

oh the water in the basement... the wonderful landlord has the most jurry rigged ass backwards sump thing in there... And when it floods... he SWEEPS the water towards the sump square... The sump pump is the long type... and rather than pumping out through the proper sized 1 1/2 pipe... its choked down to a garden hose... FREAKING BRILLIANT.... And so rather than get a wet dry shop vac and spend 20 minutes sucking the water up in the 80% of the basement that is below the level of the sump 'drain' he sweeps it... with a 8" broom... I DON'T GET IT... *shrug* i am happy to report that the water level didnt result in the Rolf's filling up with water this time... that's nice... although i have to change the rear tube to get the 48mm valve in there so i can actually pump it up... and would have to dissasemble them anyway...

Oh and it ain't so bad with the flat and all - that tube in the rear had been in there so long that even with Conti Tube and Tire powder in there, the tube was stuck to the tire, AND the valve took about 150 psi to just break open, even if the tube was only around 60 psi...

So i get upstairs from seeing the flood... and i'm in a grumpy mood, for a few reasons i best keep to myself i think... and my bro calls... and well my sis is coming out for Tanglewood all summer, and this whole sharing family visits is tough... sure we both get to see who ever comes out but everyone who comes out feels the need to split time... and that causes untold amounts of stress for both me and my bro... well this was a killer last night - i finally told him look, we'll talk about it in the morning cause i'm in NO FREAKING mood. Maybe i'll get the whole reasons out and maybe it'll make me feel better... anyway we chatted this AM and its all worked out... i think...

That and i'm totally wiped out... i really hope it rains this afternoon/evening so that i can bag the TT and head to the team meeting with a clear mind... on the other side - i am so damn tired that it would be stupid to go ride it anyway... other than i need a mental break a bit longer than the ride to daycare gives me...

Oh... fer farks sake i'm babblin on... I left the P-mount in the 50x23 for the whole commute today... and for the 1 mile or so on the BLVD heading down to Lloyd i spun as fast as i could... okay not as fast but i kept it smooth and at a signifiantly higher than normal cadence... 110-120 i'd guess... That and i realized that my Sidi Genius3s and my Answer commuter flats have the cleat placed in different fucking places in the sole... Me... mr. concious of bike fit... has it all messed the hell up... not sure which to change now... move the commuter's forward or the sidi's back or a little of both... i'm kinda thinkin based on a few things the latter... My sidi's i think are a bit too far forward, and based on the longish rides and the foot numbness in the Answers that the cleats are a bit too far back...

anyway... the spinning was good... we'll see if i can focus on that, or maybe just try and hit Wells or 'Grit or maybe even the 'Tuc and see about this leg speed...

I'll finally stop for now... before i keep ramblin

peace yall,
G-out

I REMEMBERED

All it took was a quick stroll through ESPN, then NFL to check on my love hate relationship with that dreaded and most american of past times...

The joke went along the lines of:

Fantasy football is practically like dungeons and dragons for all the meatheads that used to pick on the people who played dungeons and dragons, Terrel Owens has leaping ability...

Okay - i just found the clip on NBC.com (comic's name is Doug Mellard). NOT FUNNY... the editing for TV made the joke and his 3 minutes actually funny...

but i'm geeked i found it... that and i'm finally warmed up...

brrrrr

I'm cold... my jeans are soaked... my shirt has barely dried off and the coffee ain't doing JACK to warm me up... and i'm hungry...

I'm a whiny sumbitch this morning eh?

Fortunately or unfortunately the "demo" was cancelled. The sexy sales lady and the tough sales guy (why do they need a pair? is she not smart enough alone?) couldn't get their little microscope in the building cause of the rain. Seems the cart has an exposed special transformer that goes boom if wet... and the had it in a mini-van and can't get it in the loading dock cause the dock is 4' up (duh its a LOADING DOCK). We don't have an alternate location so sitting outside in the rain, AFTER getting lost, AFTER not calling to tell me they were running late/lost until 9:10 (demo was supposed to start at 9) they asked to reschedule...

Okay - sure - no problem, i'm happy to have yall try it again...

If ya trying to sell something #1, wouldn't ya show up like BEFORE you set the time for the demo? The flyer announced the demo would start at 9am... if it was me i'd have the system fired up tested and ready to go by 8:45 at the latest...

Oh well... i'm still cold, hungry, and tired...

and i thought i had two peices of left over pizza to add to the meatballs my oldest made last night... nope, just one... and nope, no more...

YEah the oldest made meatballs. She wanted meatball subs "like school" so we stocked up on stuff to make em... (translation = went to Wholefoods)...

1 pound ground dark turkey (#1 cause i wanted to try it, #2 it was a dollar less a pound than the ground beef)
0.64 pounds of sweet italian pork sausage
added two eggs, 3/4 cup Progresso bread crumbs, chopped onions, garlic, oregano, basil (both dried), ~1 teaspoon of Whatsthisheresauce,

mix well... fry in extra virgin olive oil...

place in whole wheat split top New England 'hot dog' (lobster roll) bun and cover with sauce:
Sauce,
clarify 1/4 of a vidalia onion in a good amount of Extra virgin olive oil, once the onions are soft and translucent (low heat clarification), crank up the heat and put a good amount of Balsamic vinegar, reduce that down almost completely, add a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes with Basil, put in the garlic, one small bay leaf, some dried oregano, add some dried basil, a few dashes of the W sauce, some sea salt, one finely grated medium sized zucchini, a trace of cinnamon. Kept on low heat while cooking the meatballs...

Damn if it wasn't super tasty...

And the meatballs were very very well shaped... little nuggest of yumminess...

--

Round Chainrings addressed again by Cyclingnews...
Seems like a reasonable article... although... i still gotta say... WTF... maybe for a bike i with a single up front... but..... i dunno gimme round... i never noticed much difference with the two different types of biopace i tried and then moved back to round... "tried" as they were on the first two mt bikes i owned... An '88 Raleigh Chill, the laid back geometry fad with a short top tube and forged upright stem (in a 22"), and the '89 Chill, with the more agressive very LONG top tube with the nearly flat 130mm welded cromo stem with the integrated roller for the front brake. Stiff and heavy... Anyway... biopace IMNSHO was stupid, non-round chainrings ARE stupid. UNLESS you are some sub 50 rpm knee busting lazy type cyclist...

i'm still bugged/bummed that i can't check in on newenglandcross.com... no ping so maybe the box is hosed...

why the hell am i using hosed so much lately? Dunno

--

Bruce was bitching to the email about the lack of brownies on the BLVD ride... maybe cause most of em are like - either taking a break from this place or off for the summer? Or not... maybe they are just tired of the grumpy old farts, or they've bolted for the P-Velo TT on tuesdays? I'd like to head up to the Tuc for a tuesday night circut or two, just to say i've done it this summer... next week ain't gonna work cause my sis is in town and i might be able to squeeze in the BLVD or the TT but not much beyond that...

--listening to the Essential Mix, Paul van Dyk is a damn freaking inspired genius DJ--

can ya tell? The demo being cancelled opened up a rather large block o time...

maybe i'll head down to the bookstore and see if i can spend some money, they are having an inventory sale... who knows what i might not be able to pass up... besides - i need more calories... no time to get any food in my own belly this morning... and no i think i'll spare the full complete details other than i'm STILL wet

News FLASH

Its RAINING...

and um... i'm soaked...

I suppose i could be a bit more saturated if i took a shower... BUT i barely...

1/2 here i thought "I should have put a dry set of clothes in the bag..."

DOH

at least i put a dry pair of socks in...

Dropped L off at Daycare... she was dry...

Me...

Soaking freaking wet... Oh and that Entrant jacket from Sugoi? Its HOSED... as in turn on the faucet and let the water pour through... time to suck it and buy some decent rain gear...

cause if i'm gonna be as pig headed and stupid about my 'principles' i might as well be dry...

(post from last night to come up - its better than the previous late night ramble... at least longer at any rate)...

Coffee... papertowel drying and then a hot sales gal shows up to demo a scope we won't buy...

-Soaking Dog GDub

PS _ and who the hell swallowed megA's website? its gone...

and thanks for the content this morning - the one morning i'm hosed with work, there's new content... gonna have ta remember to ask ol' SB what 'puter he's using... that and send old man b-day wishes... that racing age means my daughter knows how old i am (34) not me (i think i'm 35)