On the Road Again

Mark sent me this picture from his latest road trip to the Mexico that is Nuevo.

All he wrote was "Best.Sign.Ever."


It's hard to disagree. For peak performance, you really gotta keep those things clean and well lubricated.

What I Did On My Christmas Vacation, Part 2

Oak Springs Trail near Hardscrabble Mesa Rd.
Pine, AZ

What I Did On My Christmas Vacation, Part 1

Yes, it does snow in Arizona.

Near the top of the Old Mail Trail
Strawberry, AZ

Everybody Loves Dick's

A crowd of people standing outside the Wallingford Dick's during the first snowstorm of the year.

You Cannot Resist Me

This is Jackson.


This is Jackson and his sister, Barbie. They are busy destroying the sofa.

Dumped

Terminal 2
Sky Harbor International Airport
Phoenix, AZ

Christmas Wreath, Arizona Style

Summit of Strawberry Mountain
Strawberry, AZ

What I Did On My Thanksgiving Vacation

Near the confluence of Hardscrabble Creek and Strawberry Creek
Strawberry, AZ

I Love My Friends, Part 2

So Another Thing You May Not Have Known About Me

I had surgery on Thursday for varicose veins. It's a surprisingly complex procedure (guide wires! sheaths! lasers!!!) with a few unexpected delights ("smelling" and "tasting" your own destroyed blood cells).

I'm feeling much better, thanks. The leg is largely free of the pain (and lumpy bits) that has plagued me for the last year. I'm not ready to run a half marathon yet, but I'm walking a few miles each day, going to the gym to stretch and generally taking an "end of training season" break.

The Remains of the Day

The boys and I decide to celebrate Paul's birthday with a night ride at St. Edward State Park. Traffic is awful and we make a late start.

We quickly realize that the trails at St. Ed's have been replaced by waterways. Water is everywhere. There is standing water on the trails. There is running water on the trails. The rain is relentless as it falls through the canopy.

"Hey, how muddy do you think that big whoop-de-do is gonna be?" Paul asks. Without stopping he plunges into the dark ravine. Not so bad, it turns out. We make it out alive.

Later on, as Mark stops to fix a loose handlebar, Paul strides off to return some of the water he's acquired. He strides back. "Not to get all Cheech and Chong on you, but have you ever turned your headlamp straight up to look at the rain coming down? It's fucking awesome!"

You know what? It is fucking awesome.

On the Way to Top Pot

Summit Ave E near Belmont Ave E

Marcus was jet lagged and wanted some coffee.
This was my very first trip to Top Pot Donuts. I recommend the Chocolate Sandcastle donut: a chocolate cake donut dusted in cinnamon sugar.

I Love My Friends

A Nice Day For a Wisconsin Wedding

I've Seen Bigger

In Case You Hadn't Already Heard

I'm moving to Seattle. Wallingford, to be precise. It's now T minus 11 days and counting.

Don't say you weren't warned.

The Odd Pistachio

Last night my swim coach Laura and I were discussing the relative weirdness of the pistachio. Laura, who is a confirmed fan of the pistachio, thought it wasn't weird at all. But this is from a girl whose fondest memory is being spoonfed morsels of pistachio pudding cake by her boyfriend.

I think there are three main reasons why the pistachio is the oddest of the common nuts (e.g., walnuts, cashews, pecans, almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, brazil nuts and the peanut (which, admittedly, isn't a nut at all but a legume)).

First off, the pistachio nut is green. All of the other common nuts are some shade of brown.

Second, it is often made into pistachio pudding. I can't think of any other nut-based pudding. Can you?

Finally, said pistachio pudding is regularly consumed in pistachio pudding cake, which, so far as I can tell, is neither pudding nor cake.

So what do you, dear readers, think of the pistachio? Discuss.

Napa Valley Dirt Classic

My one moment of glory...standing on the podium at the Napa Valley Dirt Classic.

Proof That Boredom Is Universal

Why else would aliens travel halfway across the galaxy just to mess with soy-based food products?

Losing the Game

Try to remember when you lose the game. It happens at the oddest moments.
the game
via the presurfer

OK Go w/Quit Your Day Job, Great American Music Hall, San Francisco

Taken during slow jam number when audience was invited to wave cellphones instead of lighters, 'cause peeps in San Fran don't smoke and shit.

Men's Bathroom, Edinburgh Castle, Tenderloin, San Francisco

Cars I Love #1

You have to hand it to The General. They've thrown up some sweet rides in their time, and the Chevy Vega Kammback Wagon is a shining example.
So what if it was slow, and so what if early examples tended to catch fire? The point is, you show up to a date in a powder blue Vega, and you're all but guaranteed to get to third base...and beyond.

Other examples of American shooting brakes are less successful. Take, for example, the Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado Wagon. Granted, you could fit the entire nation of Malawi in the back (Madonna's adopted children and all), but you know what? You'd still be driving a lemon custard hearse.

XTERRA Nevada
September 30, 2006
Incline Village, NV

750m swim, 21.5mi MTB, 5k trail run

03:11:55
(0:19:38 - 2:27:34 - 0:24:43)

OA 78/254
AG 27/62

Tara Reid: The Struggle of Our Generation

me : yo peep this when u get a sec. it's hi-frickin'-larious
paul : where can we send donations of conditioner?
me: dustin does charity work, doesn't he?
me: it's for the good of the nation, really
paul : i think the irc needs to mobilize for this one
me: what about the hairstyleurs sans frontieres? surely they can help
paul : they're tied down with angela merkel at the moment. but perhaps they can spare a few good gurlz
me: tied down with angela merkel...? rrrowr!
paul : exactly what bush said
paul : btw, anthony is probably gonna drives us down to redwood city for the party. we should get there by 7, so leave around 6:30
me: otay
paul : to make sure we get there b4 surprise time
me: yes. when mary will be so "surprised"
paul : she's been practicing her crying all week long
me: more like her whole life
me: she gives good cry
paul : true. dustin comes by it naturally
me: it's in his bones
paul : yes - he has moist bones
me: my oh so young, oh so moist paduan bone learner
paul : ah... hayden
me: ah...hayden's gratuitous male nipple shots
paul : hey - i'm at work
paul : let's not take me there
me: u got a cube
me: how's the fancy new lamp?
paul : s'aright
paul : de-institutionalizing my cube a bit
paul : struggling mightily against the dominant overhead fluorescent bulbs
paul : it's the struggle of our generation, really
paul : i'm fighting the fluorescent bulbs here so i don't have to fight them at home
me: making the last best stand and all that
paul : and all that
paul : btw, you joining for eos sunday eve?
me: think so. don't see why not
paul : i tend to get nauseous there and then vomit later. but other than that, i don't see why not
me: that's too bad. i usually only get that way around angela merkel
paul : she'll be joining us too
paul : angela and eos...
me: i only dine at eos when angela's there
me: it wouldn't be the same without her
paul : only thing is, it's hard to identify that way which is making you nauseous
me: it's the struggle of our generation, really
paul : really

1994 is Calling: They Want Whitney Houston Back

I'm listening to Pandora again, this time with mixed results. I'm playing my Yacht Rock channel, which should be playing only '70s white-boy smoothies like Player and the Doobie Brothers. Instead, I get the Clivilles & Cole remix of "I'm Every Woman." I feel like I'm back in law school again, headed out into the frosty evening for a night at the Saloon.

In other news the car hit 40,000 miles last night, right at the intersection of Fulton and Arguello, as I was headed out for a frosty evening of another sort -- a sunset MTB ride in Tennessee Valley.

The new road bike is slowly but surely being sorted out. Last Saturday I took the bike out for a 50 mile ride with the road triathlon crew. Not fifteen miles into the ride I got a flat. First ride, first flat. Not a good omen. The rest of the ride was uneventful, though I suffered mightily on the return. I passed a number of riders coming out of Nicasio, and as I slogged through the final hills I prayed that I wouldn't get overtaken. (I didn't.)

I noticed some shifting problems on the ride, so I took the bike into the shop last night. I thought the problem was a sticky link. The mechanic thought it was a problem with cable tension, so he fiddled around with the rear derailleur tension screw for quite a while. Once he was satisfied everything was working properly he gave it to a second mechanic for a quick QC. The second mechanic quickly realized what the real problem was: a bad cassette.

When I bought the bike I asked for a larger rear cog in the back to replace the standard 12-23 cassette. For those unfamiliar with bicycle drivetrains, "12-23" refers to the number of teeth on the smallest and largest cogs on the cassette. Larger cogs (or smaller chainrings in the front) reduce the effort required to turn the rear wheel. Moving to a larger cog is similar to downshifting in a car. In both cases the new gear combination allows the rider (or driver) to climb hills more easily.

In the rush to get the bike out of the shop, the mechanic had replaced the 12-23 cassette with a 12-25 cassette. Unfortunately, he installed a nine-speed cassette instead of a ten-speed cassette. Since my rear derailleur is designed to move between ten gears and not nine, the bike was never going to shift properly with the nine-speed cassette.

In the end I got a shiny new 12-27 ten-speed cassette. I thanked the mechanic for his help and rushed out the door to go for a quick ride in the fading light.

I bought a used pair of Crank Brothers Eggbeater pedals from my friend Robbie. They're compact and lightweight, and I thought they might work well with the road bike. Now I've never had a problem with pedals falling off the bike. I'm not even sure how that would happen, since if anything the act of pedaling ought to tighten the pedals. But last night off they came. Five times.

By the fifth time I gave up. I threw the recalcitrant pedal in the Camelback and practiced one-legged drills all the way across the Golden Gate Bridge and back to the car.

The Things You Learn on Space.com

I read an article this morning on space.com about the European Space Agency's SMART-1 lunar orbiter. The orbiter's mission is to create a chemical and topographical map of the lunar surface. At the end of its three-year mission the orbiter is scheduled to plunge to a fiery demise in the Lakes of Excellence, "a volcanic plain area surrounded by highlands in the mid-southern latitudes."

I was intrigued by the name, so I looked up the names of other geological features in the area. Turns out that the Lakes of Excellence are near the Mountains of Achievement, the Ridges of Value and the Basins of Commitment to Total Customer Satisfaction.

Who knew?

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060822_science_tuesday.html

Howell Mtn Challenge

Howell Mtn Challenge
Angwin, CA
August 13, 2006
20 mi XC MTB
Results here

35-39 Sport Male
02:10:15
AG 14/17

Good times, a low-key vibe, but a hardcore group of mountain bike racers. I ran a solid, clean race and still got smoked.

XTERRA Scramble Mount Tamalpais

XTERRA Scramble Mount Tamalpais 12K
Santos Meadows
Muir Beach, CA
August 6, 2006

1:08:54
AG (M 30-39) 8/19
OA 20/56

Click here for an elevation profile of the course: 1200+ feet of climbing in the first 3.5 miles.

It's a beautiful course with amazing views of the ocean.