Hang-Ups

Gotta few I've been working on this week.

All in preparation for the trim and moulding project.

Wanna get nailed?

Decided not to ride tonight. Body was saying uh-uh on the ride home. Some quick math in my head told me I'd get ten hours easy this week without tonights night ride. Fine by me. I got plenty stuff to do.

-b

"You're Better Than the Mailman"

There's a jogger I pass on my ride into work. I don't see her every day (my schedule fluctuates), but a few times a week. I guess being the third time I've see her on a cold snowy day, she decided to compliment my commuter discipline. To pay it forward as it were, I'd like to compliment this guy and his dedication to cycling.

-b

Clash of the Titans

Stopped into Low Riders tonight for a quick fork fix and this is what I saw.

Mark and Kevin on a quest for 800 watts. They've been doing this "training" thing down at Low Riders for a couple of weeks. It's kind of like spin class, but without the hip-hop dance music and the tight-chick instructor. The dude on the right tells them to go fast and for how long. With veins bulging they listen and drip puddles of sweat on the shop floor.

I should try and get down there. Half-way looks like fun.

-b

Bike For Sale

Large Gary Fisher Rig with Bontrager seatpost and Reba suspension fork. Frame is freshly bathed. The fork was recently rebuilt (new seals) and has not been ridden.

$350

More pictures and details upon request.

Speaking of bikes. Got to ride mine a little this weekend. Spent a whole sixteen minutes on the Spot yesterday in the snow at French Creek. I have to admit. It was a damn fun sixteen minutes - even if I didn't have the new Panaracer Rampage 2.35 knob monsters. Today I took Craig on a three our journey down and back on the Schuylkill trail. My first time fixed. It hurt, but that probably had more to do with the intervals we were pushing to get back. Dumb hammerheads.

-b

Dance Marathon

All week it's been dance, dance, dance. Today finally was the end. We attended something they called Medal Ball. At first we thought it was just an excuse to dress up and dance on a Sunday afternoon. As we got closer to the date, we learned the dancing was to be judged or at least evaluated. Not everybody participated and we weren't competing against each other, but there was still a lot of pressure. Somewhere along the way Jen and I got suckered into doing a Lindy Hop routine.


It went ok. We got lots of claps until we ran out of stuff to do and started repeating things. Oh well. We did it and it's done. We also got this fancy certificate for finishing our starter program, though that was back in October.


-b

Flying Pigs

In the past, the biggest problem we ever had with bird feeders was squirrels. Throw up some baffles and the squirrels are taken care of. Now we have a new problem. Meet the Starling


These not-so little bastards travel in flocks and completely overrun your feeders. They devour everything you have in a day leaving white spattered poop everywhere. They chase away other birds, squirrels and I think the cats. The Wild Bird Center says to try safflower seed, so we bought a bunch and filled up the feeders. Tomorrow we'll see.

-b

Karma Boost

The other day before work, a bird flies into our sliding glass doors and stuns itself. This happens more frequently than I'd like, so it wasn't too much of a surprise. The surprise was the hawk that flew down, picked it up and flew off. I'd seen the neighbor's cats run over and grab a stunned bird, but hadn't seen or expected the hawk.

A few hours later (I was working from home that day), I hear thump thump and run into the kitchen to see two more birds had hit the glass. As I'm watching their throes, the hawk flies in again. This time he misjudges and hits the glass himself. His hit wasn't so bad and flew back to the tree.

Ok, now I have to do something. I realize this is nature, birds are hitting our windows all the time and they're not much more then mice with wings, but I can't sit around while it's happening. I ran out and grabbed one of the deck chairs to place over top of the birds. The chair would be plenty protection from the hawk. The next problem was the neighbor's cats. Just then CJ came in to see all the commotion. "Look toys!" CJ thought as he started whining. The birds and their recovery was enough to keep him interested for at least an hour. With him at the door, no cats were stopping by. It was about three hours total that the birds rested and recovered on the deck. The first flew off on it's own. The second I had to give a little encouragement.

Now if the little bastards would stop pooping everywhere, we'd all be happy.

-b

We Won...

Free tickets to the Dancing with the Stars show at the Wachovia center, Feb. 6. We went to the tryout but there were a lot of really good dancers there. Needless to say, we weren't one of them.

I think this will sum it up for you: At the end of the evening, the judge asked me, "so are you guys new?" Why, does it show?

Not to sound all negative, we did have fun and learned a lot of cool new moves and got free tickets to the show. I can't wait to see it and it will be a lot more enjoyable from the audience.

-Jen

Biker Up

Finally after a week of hell, I got cabin trip pictures up and...

Building of my Spot!

Dance, Dance, Dance

I don't think we're going to make the tryouts tomorrow night. We've been dancing our asses off all week. We're exhausted and just not that good.

Most of the time they're trying to teach us "Competition Styling", while Jen and I are struggling with the basic moves.

With all the work, we sweat. Everyone else just seems to perspire.

They also have a lot of scarves. I don't get the scarf thing. Do I need a scarf?

I can't believe I have a brand new bike downstairs and have ridden it only once this week.

This dance thing has gotten out of hand. We're in too deep for this week.

Snow?

Got a dusting overnight, so I threw on the studs for the morning commute. What a pain in the ass that was. When I got the tires, I was all excited because I found studded tires for $25. WooHoo! Not quite. The rubber is more like plastic. I broke a tire lever getting them on and I was scared to death I'd flat the tube with all that prying. On the road, they'er squirmy. Not sure if that's the nature of them or what. Deeper snow or more ice may help sort that out. With the way they're going so far, the screws are probably soft and will wear out in a week anyway.

They're not like the tires we made in college. We ran our own sheet metal screws through old tires then lined the insides with layers of ductape. I remember riding those things up and down Laural Run Road on Tussey Mt. It was nuts. We'd climb up the ice road, then bomb back down. Somehow I don't get the same confidence in these tires. Or maybe I'm just a little more cautious and wouldn't do that sort of thing anyay.

Tracks in the snow can tell all kinds of stories.

I wish they'd told me to stay home. The stupid tires were only the beginning.

Weekend Update

Little recap for the weekend for ya:

Friday night about 9:30 we get a call from the owner of our dance studio. Apparently the Dancing With the Stars show is going on the road this year. In conjunction with Arthur Murray, they're traveling around showcasing the previous winners and holding contests for local Arthur Murray students. The owner of our studio was nominating us to try out. Practice started Saturday and was being held everyday till Thursday - the tryouts. If you make the tryouts, you get on the show when it's filmed in your area. There you compete some more till the last few couples actually get air time in competition. What the hell? Sounds like fun. We'll do it!

Saturday morning, as I mentioned before, I did a little cold weather road ride with Marcus. Jen went off to learn competition styling in the first of many many practice sessions. Saturday afternoon I installed Jen's speed bag. She steps up - buh bump, buh bump, buh bump, buh bump - she's a pro. I try it. Buh, whack, smack ow! I'm not so good. Oh well.

Coincidentally we pick up Marcus and his brother to head downtown for some boxing. Craig's son
has been training for a few months now. This was his first (ever) super heavy-weight fight at the Front Street Gym in Philly. In the spirit of the evening, I'm going to let Marcus's words describe the night:
We made it down to the city just in time to catch the fight. Bob will probably have a report with photos, but I will give you my synopsis. Tough fights tougher. Climb up the stairs, pay the fees, which I am not sure that all the locals pay. Anyways junior is in the corner ready to go. He's matched up against this shorter big-belly but bigger arms guy. Ding ding. There was definitely no lack of action. Fists flying right away, due to the massive adreneline. He had the reach, but got caught up inside and hit with some blows. This guy had some heavy hands and experience. Junior threw a lot of punches and landed a few, but was open to a couple of hard combos. Anyways had a good time. We went back to the after party for a couple of beers and a few shots. I was tuned out. Thanks for driving bob and Jen.
Thanks Marcus. I couldn't have said it better myself. It's true we partied like rock stars or at least boxer groupies.



Late night equals late morning before we got rolling for Jersey. The plan was to head up Jen's mother's way and clean out some rental storage she's had for a while. She had extra space at her apartment complex and decided it was better to have all her stuff in one place then pay for it in two. A few years back we did the same. Now it was time to finish the job.

The task at hand

Took three truck/car fulls like this to get things moved

Had to haul everything down the "Corridor of Horrors" It wasn't really that bad, but my
imagination was going wild with Hostel type images. It was a long basement hallway
type thing with dark stall like cavities along the right side. All the way in the back
through a few doors, was where we put everything.

Ta-Da!

A final load, home and in bed by 11pm. I know, I know. I go to a boxing match in an "interesting" part of philly and all I have are these moving photos? Honestly my boxing pictures sucked. I wasn't sure how close I could get to the ring or how obnoxious I was being for the people behind me, so I didn't get good pictures. Some dude at the after-party filmed it (with a camera like mine), so I felt even worse about the crap photos I took. Next time I'll try harder.

Momma Said Knock You Out

Feels like 13

That's what weather.com said this morning when I left the house for a 3 - 4 hour road ride with Marcus. The actual temperature I think was somewhere in the mid twenties. Wind chill put it down in the lower teens. So what does one wear to "survive" such temperatures? Here's a list:

Lake MXZ301 Winter Boots
Wool Socks
Pearl Izumi Knee Warmers
Pearl Izumi Arm Warmers
Performance Thermal Tights
Bib Shorts
A Second Pair of Shorts (for warmth not padding, though it didn't hurt)
Coolmax Sleeveless Baselayer
Spot Brand Merino Wool Shortsleeve Jersey
Performance Century Longsleeve Jersey
EMS 100 Weight Fleece Shirt
Verge Jacket (Entropa or Aquatec, not sure)
Windstopper Balaclava
Toko Lobster Gloves (I have an older version)

In addition to all that, I had hand warmers in my gloves and toe warmers in my shoes. Both were really nice for about an hour or so, then the toe warmers went cold and my feet froze - no worse then a Klondike Derby at Camp Rodney when I was 10.

It took us nearly two hours to get to Delaware. When we turned around to come home, we quickly realized the wind had been to our backs the whole time down. It took us another two hours to get home. Between the wind and just wanting to get home, we (or at least I) pushed a little harder then we (I) should have. Now my knee is all tweaked and that's not good. I need more time in the single speed saddle, before I do this kind of thing again. Good thing I got a new Spot.

Raise Your Hand

If you ever got a bloody nose blowing a snot rocket while commuting home on a fixie in the cold dark of night in January.

If you're sittn' there with your hand in the air, then you know how annoying it can be. My condolences. The things we'll do for a teammate.

Always the Amateur

So like I ride in this morning in the freezing cold. My beard is all icy and my cheeks sting with the beginnings of frostbite (i guess that's what that is). As I squint against the cold breeze, I power up and over the hills like some imagined viking conquerer.

I get to work. Thaw out and read this.

I'm so lame.

Cold Front

Riding off into the red sky night, I knew it was time to grab the bull by the horns.

Reborn

Out of the dirt and onto the road.
Old ride gets new beginnings.

Cabin Weekend

Good weekend at the cabin doing nothing in the rain. Pictures and write-up soon to follow.

Check out my friend's kid.

Super special secret stuff coming soon. Don't forget I'm a whore.

Whoever the dude was riding rt. 44 in the rain in Pine Creek with the Trophy Bikes jersey, thanks for making me feel like a slug. Hats off to ya!

Houston, We Have a Problem

So I've been doing all this work around the house to seal and reinsulate - make it more efficient, etc. It's worked pretty well so far in regards to maintaining heat, but it's retaining something else that's not good.

The windows are collecting little pools of moisture and starting to mold. Jen is constantly sneezing. We're looking into getting a whole house dehumidifier, since our little one room deal died. Usually it's dryness and a whole house humidifiers people are working with. We're the opposite. We're always the opposite.

What a Pain

I was going to do a post, but blogger is really pissing me off right now. It keeps rotating my image when I don't want it rotated.

Morning Commute

Real kicker of a day at the office. Spent most of my time leaving lousy comments on Fatmarc's blog and documenting my commute. See it here.

As Promised

Pictures from this weekend

Tournament of Champions Dinner Party
More Insulation Fun
Playing with Electricity

Creepy

You'd have a hard time getting me to go near these.

Father Knows Best

So I've got a car that won't pass emissions. The stuff coming out the pipe is fine, but the computer check fails. My mechanic tried all he could, then suggested I take it to the dealer for their expertise. Off to the dealer it goes (it's been there a week now). The dealer, after much analysis, admits he's not real sure either, but thinks maybe a new Mass Airflow Sensor will do the trick. Ok fine. He sounds like a decent guy, let's try a new MAS.

When relating the story to my Dad, he gets all gruff and says "Get a used computer and replace it." I'd like to agree with my Dad, but the dealer should know what he's doing right? A new (new to me) computer seems too obvious.

The dealer calls today. The MAS didn't fix it. He's located a used computer, should have it Wednesday.

Now I'm suspicious and annoyed. If computer was second on the list, why didn't he do it first? It is the computer that's failing. I've got a new part in my car that didn't need replacing. What happens to the old part? It's probably just trashed. We've wasted $$ on parts and labor we didn't need. Meanwhile I have another car that does need labor and parts that now I can't pay for. Cars suck.

All because I was a stubborn ass and should have listened to my father in the first place.

Holy Crap!

Sorry nother list, but I'm outta time. Hoping to get more done/written tomorrow.

Weekend busy = new Weekend {Sushi,
Art Museum pain train with some Beaners,
Dancing dinner cruise on the Delaware,
First day on the new job with Spot/Twin Six,
Wiring,
More GD insulation};

At least I got some miles in this weekend.

Ah what the hell. Did a ride on the Schuykill trail with some Beaners on Saturday down to the Art Museum and back. Was supposed to be a nice and easy base mile kind of ride, but things went bad. Total we had six (or more?) flats. The majority were from some new guy. We got annoyed, missed the deadlines for our "honeydo" lists, and hammered home. Wasn't exactly base pace and I didn't exactly get done Saturday what I wanted.

Saturday night Jen and went on the Spirit of Philadelphia dinner cruise ship with some people from the dance studio. Though we weren't winners in the TOC (Tournament of Champions), some of the winners invited us as their guests. It was pretty cool. Food was tasty and dancing was hot. I'll have pictures posted from that one soon.

This morning I headed down to Fair Hill to ride with Fatmarc (new boss) and a group he put together. It was a good ride. Nice rolling hills with some slip to make it interesting. After that it was home for more chores. I'll have pictures up for that too.

Speaking of pictures, I did update the homepage.

One Night at Dance Class

As the day progressed Jen gave me hints as to what was going on. The closer we got to the event, the more I realized that she too wasn't well informed. I was told that after our dance lesson some "pros" were coming in to the studio and needed some backup latin dancers. No big deal. I figure a little Cha-Cha, maybe some Salsa everthing would be smooth sailing. At the lesson a little more began to leak out about what was going to happen. The "pros" were none other than 12 time world champions Bob Powers and his wife Julia Gorchakova (their website sucks). Still didn't mean much to me, but what they were doing tonight was really a rehersal for what was supposed to happen Friday night.

Rehersal? Friday night?

Jen failed to tell me about the Friday night part. More details come out. Julia has a ballroom dance/workout tape she's promoting -- the picture is getting a little less cloudy now -- She's in town to do a spot on QVC for said tape and needs some backup dancers. Tonight at the studio would be a quick rehersal.

Ok. I'm still cool with it. Jen and I will do some moves in the background. No big deal.

Fresh off a flight from California, Julia, Bob, Jaana and James come strolling in. Holy Shit! They look like they're from California. Julia is five feet tall with four feet of the flattest hardest abs you've ever seen. She's a bundle of bouncing flashy energy in her furry designer boots, skin tight ripped jeans that she can't get low enough on her hips, sweater halter top, leather tan skin, ear to ear smile and piercing eyes. The two men, if I hadn't known were married to the two hottest women in ten city blocks, I would swear were gay. A quick greeting and Julia's at the front of the studio lining us up in an aerobics class formation.

Huh?

She starts counting and stepping us through a Cuban Walk motion. Ok. Cool I can handle this. Now she's talking about emphasizing our hip motions to the left and right while stretching our rib cages up and in the opposite direction.

"Feel the stretch, five, six seven eight!"

Uh this doesn't really feel like background dancing. This doesn't feel like dancing at all.

"Repeat, march your feet and hold your arms chest level in font of you."

This feels like exercise. What the hell?

"Now thrust your hips forward and backwards like this!" she begins humping the air like she and the air just got over a fight. "Thrust your hips to the side and now in a circle!" Her hips are grinding in circles through the air.

Ok. I'm done. This is bad. I'm not doing this anymore. I slowly backpedal and make my way to a chair on the side. The grinding and air humping continues with more emphasis and energy. I'm sweating just watching them. Her husband Bob is busy combing the phone book for a place to eat while his wife visually sexually assualts the studio. Jaana, a very tall, skinny and freakish looking girl, steps up with pointers for the girls to look more sexy.

"Smile ladies. Show your teeth. As long as they see your teeth it doesn't matter what the rest of you is doing."

Are you kidding? Who's going to pay attention to background dancers teeth with Julia's hips in full swing? I can't believe I came within twenty four hours of doing this on national television. I'm humiliated just thinking about the possibility. What the hell happened?

When it was over and Jen and I were leaving her eyes were bulging.

"I had no idea. I really had no idea."

"I could tell." We went home - back to our normal suburban lives, let the dog out and went to bed.

Here's the website for what we were doing.

Never Enough

In the last twenty four hours I:

• Took this picture

• Led a group of twelve guys through a slog at Marsh Creek in the dark
• Got really drunk
• Killed some mold
• Met Bob Powers and Julia Gorchakova (more on that later)
• Worked from home
• Got estimates on replacement windows
• Spent way too much money trying to get my car to pass emissions
• Filled bird feeders
• Harassed a telemarketer
• Took a dance lesson
• Washed dishes
• Wished I could somehow get a few more hours ride time out of this week

I even made the bed.

I realize no one really wants to see a list of the nitty gritty, but when I feel like I've wasted another day of opportunity, I have to remind myself.

As If

I didn't have enough to do already. Yesterday as I'm checking out Sam's blog, I see she's using this cool little thing called FitDay. It's a tool to record the food you eat and the activities you do every day. With that data, you can run all kinds of reports telling you how fat and lazy you are. Not really, but being the data geek that I am, I spent the whole evening recording everything I did and ate yesterday. I got so into it I ordered and downloaded the desktop version.

I don't have any plans to use this really or change anything drastically, but I like recording useless data and poring over the analysis. It's silly, but maybe a little more productive then sitting in front of a TV.

Happy New Year?

Because of it's graphic nature, I'm only going to point you in the direction of what I did today. This gives you at least two, maybe three, chances not to continue. Basically I finally cleaned up the Receptacle of Death. To check it out, go to our Home Projects directory (here) and click on "'Rewire receptacles and switches in gear room 'Receptacle of Death'"

Jen on the otherhand, finished painting the office by painting the closet. Now that room is ready for trim and doors. Woohoo!

All work and no play

Spent the holiday weekend working on stuff. Started Friday afternoon with some maintenance and a night ride at French Creek, then it was home for the rest of the weekend and the work. Got some things done, but mostly just got things ready for more work.

Painting
Ductwork
Insulate Overhang