to the dark side

The UPS package that arrived two weeks ago has been put to good use. Yesterday I entered my first real road race atop my new scandium & carbon fiber road bike. The frame weighs in at 2.9lbs...freaky light although it's possible to break the 2lb barrier if extremely well funded. The sub 2 bikes should only be raced for a season or two which compounds the total cost. Nothing I need to get into, not until I get fast anyway.

I got killed in a Cat4 race. I hung with the peloton until the final climb where the group blew apart. I was in a second chase group in sight of the peloton but unable to bridge the gap. So our group worked together, sort of, in a feeble effort to get back into the mix. Was more interesting than fun. I learned plenty. The most important lesson is to put more miles in on the bike. It is pretty wild to be rolling along at 28mph or so without putting in much effort which is what happens when in a group of 100 riders. Being handlebar to handlebar at such speeds is complete lunacy, especially when some riders are squirrelly. I kept my distance from them and the potential carnage of the sloppy riders.

I like the bike. I'm thinking that the race venues that will interest me the most will have lots of climbing and suffering. First I need to suffer in training so I can make others suffer on the race course. Ahhh... it's all about the suffering.

:^)

Waiting

PORTLAND, OR, US	02/03/2006	11:56 A.M.	ARRIVAL SCAN
HERMISTON, OR, US	02/03/2006	8:00 A.M.	DEPARTURE SCAN
	02/03/2006	7:06 A.M.	ARRIVAL SCAN
COMMERCE CITY, CO, US	02/02/2006	3:46 A.M.	DEPARTURE SCAN
COMMERCE CITY, CO, US	02/01/2006	7:09 P.M.	ORIGIN SCAN
US	02/01/2006	7:15 P.M.	BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

raindrops keep falling ...

Amy says we're in a 25 year record for amount of rain, something like 300% of normal. This is a comforting fact because it's perhaps getting a tiny bit old. BUT... as it turns out, the end is near. The following is an excerpt of the geeky tech explanation of weather patterns from Wunderground.com. I like the story format as it's a real picture versus an icon of a cloud and a percentage chance of precip. The words, "nice respite" are key. Here it is:

In any event...forecast area should remain dry Monday
through Wednesday. Expect coastal...Coast Range and Cascade foothill areas
to see rather warm daytime temperatures due to the offshore flow.
Coast should also be warm due to limited inversions. Coast Range and
Cascade foothills would be within the subsidence inversions. The Pacific
northwest will likely get a nice respite from the incessant rain...
flooding...slides...etc that dominated the latter part of December
and all of January. Blocking pattern likely to persist through much
of next week.

Capiche

a few days ago I went to great lengths to explain to Ben what "Capiche" means. "Ben, when you ask someone to understand and agree with what you are saying, you will sometimes say capiche.... Capiche?" And on and on. Fast forward to last night. Amy brings me into where Ben and Max are playing so Ben can tell me something. When I get brought in, it's because he's done something bad and I need to hear it from him and then tell him why it's bad. So Ben had pulled a pillow from underneith Max, causing his head to hit the floor. Ben got swift punishment earlier but now I'm in the room waiting for Ben to tell me the story. He describes what he did. I then said something like, "Ben, so do you understand that you cannot pull the pillow from Max. You shouldn't take anything away from Max. Having his head fall is very very bad. You need to be his big brother and take care of him." and so on... "Do you understand?
"I want to run around" - Ben
"Ben, I don't think you're listening..." and I describe it again... "Do you understand?"
"Yes." - Ben
"Yes what?" - Dad
"Yes I shouldn't pull the pillow from Max."
I was still in the serious parent mode when Ben then said...

"Capiche?!"

At which point both mommy and daddy busted out laughing. "OK, Ben. We're all done discussing this. I think you understand."

holy water

amen. So we have a sump pump that has been quite busy this rainy season. The saturated earth is only getting hit with more rain. The circuit breaker on this essential piece of equipment flipped so I went to the fuse box to reset the breaker. When I flipped the switch, a drop of water squeezed out from between the breaker modules.

WATER .... IN THE BREAKER BOX!

The basement walls are dry and there's no visible way that the water could get in. Taking off the cover wearing thick rubber shoes I see that there's a 4mm puddle at the bottom of the steel box with submerged wires. I drill a few holes in the metal box so the water can drain and leave the cover off. As it turns out, the water is traveling from *inside* the main cable that enters the house. It's hard to work out how the water has done this but it has. The wire properly goes lower than the entry point on the house like a big J shape to thwart water from traveling along the outside. This tells me that the inside is full, like a straw.

I'm up for most home repair challenges but this cable is all business and I'm not touching it. Time to hire a pro. Given where this is happening, this might be a task for the power company as the water must be starting from the power meter.

Yikes

frothing foes find friend in frenzy

Do you care? No... doubtful

But hell, read anyway. So I hear the sweet BRAAHHHHHHHHP sound of the UPS truck pulling up. Within the cardboard walls of the delivery are some nice big latte cups. While I typically prefer a small cappucino or macchiato I needed to try out the new cups. Dangerously low on milk I tried to get a huge amount of volume by really frothing aggressively. The goal was to stretch, as it is called, the milk with lots of air commingled. Sometimes this works, other times... like this time I created lots of big ugly bubbles versus the beautiful and coveted "microfoam."

I take a sip of this drink and WOW does it taste bad.

The point of this random rant is to point out how much a nice velvety foam has an effect on flavoUr, not just aesthetic. It's night and day. Having the ugly "dishsoap" foam tastes horrible. On the flipside, getting served (or typical for me: making) a nice morning cap with invisible bubbles that somehow come out glossy is heaven.... sweet, creamy, delicious.

For the coffee obsessed, read on, for the rest, you are dismissed.

When you ask for and actually receive a "dry cappucino" there is a thing that happen which may surprise you. Most of the milk is poured down the drain. In the construction of the velvety foam, it takes a certain volume of milk to generate the lighter fluffy foam apart from the milk. So you start with 10-12 ish ounces and add 4-6 ounces of foam to the cup once you're done. If you were to wait for the foam to break back down so the bubbles are gone, you're probably looking at 1-2 ounces of liquid, maybe less. So most of it is along for the ride but never makes it into the cup. Do you feel enlightened? Informed? Well sorry, how exciting is coffee? I mean really... get a life.

Daddy, "Dash with me"

Ben likes to run around our house circuit while singing "Jingle Bells" or "The Twelve Days of Christmas" ... it's really funny as he giggles and sings while running as fast as he can. I love my boy.

Netflix

If you use netflix, email me right now. There's a friends link thing that allows me to see movies you've rated and thus pick good movies to watch. If you have really bad taste then you are excluded from this request. You know who you are.

Happy 06

Please post your 06 resolutions here.

I'll start with mine:
-no more mister nice guy
-teach Max to walk
-teach Ben to catch big air (when Mom's not monitoring)
-ride more *with* my wife
-ride more
-hit at least one big {bicycling} race/epic ride this season
-nail the perfect rosetta at will
-finish all home improvement projects...ha!

fried

So I have this situation where I'm going out to dinner with someone and they've recommended a really crappy restaurant. Without going into details, I'm not in a position to say, "Why would you pick a corporate soulless crappy restaurant next to the freeway in big-box retail hell?"

I'm just thinking that wouldn't go over very well. So here I am in Portland, a city brimming with fantastic local restaurants, all with energy and soul and really good beers and I'll be sitting in deep fried mysery listening to the muffled rush of freeway traffic. And I'll probably be drinking, at best, a Michelob.

And given its proximity, I'll end up driving there.
Grim.

i am *not* insane

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice

I always thought it was really dumb that the winter solstice is the first day of winter. In my view, the shortest day of the year should be precisely the midpoint of winter. all of the shortest days should be grouped together as winter. Instead, the first day of winter is, in essence, the beginning of the march towards more and more daylight.

My way is better. The rest of the world seems to agree.

btw, happy solstice!

up down up down

Ben said he wanted to draw "a up down up down."

He draws them all the time now and will usually cry when he wants to draw one but we don't let him because it's bedtime or dinnertime or whatever.

So, any guesses what he's drawing?

straight lines

{rant} So I'm cutting drywall and a piece is off a bit. I cut another and that one is off as well. I measure several points along the surface but each segment drawn with my level has a slight curve. I'm creating subtle scalloped lines. The level is not slipping and if I flip it over, thus expecting now a convex arc, is still concave with another identical scallop. I work out that the plastic level is flexing as I cut. On the one hand, I'm angry that someone would sell such a hunk of crap. On the other, I'm happy to have found the source of my inability to get it right.

I now own two additional high-end pieces of equipment. A drywall specific aluminum straight-edge and a bomber aluminum level with a rotating bubble. I hate crappy equipment. Of course now, if I'm off for any reason, I have nobody to blame.{/rant}

brakes

one of Benjamin's favorite pastimes is to get his tricycle (ahem cross tricycle) up to full speed, and... head down, blaze straight into a wall. BANG!!! He finds this terribly funny. He will then say, to no one in particular, "A...gain" and repeat, giggling all the while. We insist he wears his helmet.

why

ben "I'm spilling my yogurt"
ben "why am i spilling my yogurt"

and later

"I want THIS KIND of yogurt [cry]" ben
"OK, Ben, here's the yogurt you want." dad
"Why did you get me that yogurt?" ben

Over and over and over again.

Why? I don't know.

bonus

Ben doesn't understand the concept of bonus. Or, maybe the more salient point is daddy can't seem to grasp that Ben's not really ready to appreciate the bonus. Let me explain. The bedtime rule is this: You eat dinner, get a bath, brush teeth, eat a vitamin, and read TWO books.

So this is a nice time for me as I really love it when Ben nestles into me and I read to him. So I read one, then two. I then tell Ben that we're going to do something extra special and read a bonus book. This special treat is really for me but he wants another book so everybody's happy. But he assumes that the bedtime starting point is 2+1 at a beginning negotiating point. It's not, "Thanks daddy for the bonus book, boy am I lucky." Instead it's a screaming rant for, and I quote, "fourbooksfivebookssixbooksseveneightninetenbooks!"

So tonight I was very clear that we're getting two books and we're done with no ambiguity. The result: a peaceful bedtime. So Dad learns something new. I'll try the bonus technique when he's a little older and can appreciate the fact that he's getting something beyond what is due. I'm thinking he will be about 27 before this works as I envision but I'll keep on trying.

snow

Mt Hood has gotten lots of snow this fall... really!

Has Christmas jumped the shark?

A NPR story just talked about how the latest thing is to display your Christmas tree upside-down. So I propose that Christmas has decidedly run out of ideas and, hence, has jumped the shark. If you're not familiar with the term...

http://www.jumptheshark.com/

Actual Time 6:58 AM PST 4:48 PM PST

That would be the sunrise/sunset statistic. And then there's this one.

Length of Day
9h 49m
Tomorrow will be 2m 39s shorter.

Ugh ... it's payback for the endless summer. I biked back from the coffeehouse and it was *brisk*... winter is here. OK, not technically which brings me to my next thing.

It is only recently that I realized how the seasons work. I just assumed that the equinoxes and solstices were midpoints of the seasons. I realize now that I'm off by half a season. It seems odd to me that winter starts at the solstice. It would make more sense to me if the shortest day of the year is exactly mid winter and the longest day is mid summer. What can I tell you, as a kid I thought a florist was the guy who installs your hardwood floors.