Looks like the cover has been finalized by ASME Press for Pipe Stress Engineering. The book should be published in a few weeks. The world tour starts soon after that.
Linda just returned from the state Latin competition in Dallas. Of the 86 or so schools that entered, her kids took home the seventh place trophy - Congrats, Sis!
Something I never thought I'd see, Kate in Manolos. Nice. The big question - to cuff or not to cuff?
Taking next week off as vacation.
This about sums it up...
I made fancy mac and cheese last night. 'Creamy Deluxe' it said. Sounded like a bad porn name to me.
The cute rabbit packaging belied the actual contents of the box - a cello pack of shells and a foil pack of cheese. I'm always fearful of mystery food in foil packages (unless it's Hostess Cupcakes).
Luckily, I was granted a reprieve and had dinner at First Chinese BBQ instead - seafood crispy noodles and beef flat noodles - yum.
The fancy mac survives to serve another day.
Wanted to show off the new baby smooth skin on my face. As you can see, my face is scab free now. Still have my shiner, but the overall look is a big improvement. My neck still hurts, but my doctor warned me about that when he prescribed more pain meds.
If you're wondering what this is a pic of, well, it's the last scab to fall off my face. If you look closely, you'll see the suture that was caught in it.
Unfortunately, the rest of the scabbing on my arms and legs are not healing quite as fast - although they are much better.
Here are a couple of pics of my bike. The top tube and down tube of my frame were crushed by my legs on impact and when I landed on them. The builder told me the frame was repairable, but may cost upwards of $2000 to do so. He recommended a new frame.
And let's not forget the helmet. It's hard to tell, but I apparently hit the front of my head and skidded a bit. The pics are kinda deceiving. If you look at the helmet closely, you'll see that almost every member was cracked, and the only things holding the helmet together are the internal skeleton and poly shell.
In case anyone is interested in helping me out with a new bike, one of the Vanillas I was lusting after at NAHBS has been listed for sale. The asking price is $7500, but I'm sure that includes shipping. Then again, maybe not.
Had my first match date today. Went to Maru for lunch. Had never been there before, but it turned out to be a nice place. My only requirement for lunch was that it be close to my house (since I have that neck brace thing). June picked me up in the morning to visit what I hoped to be my last lawyer to interview - a personal friend of hers from her briefing attorney days at the TX Supreme Court. He turned out to be a good guy, so I signed him up.
Afterward, June dropped me off at lunch to meet my date. I was a bit hesitant about the whole thing, since this person thinks my emails are hilarious. Nothing like setting expectations high. Also nothing like having your ex-wife drive you to your date to make for some interesting conversation. I guess lunch went well, since she agreed to drive me home (it was a nice day, so I wouldn't have minded walking). And to my surprise, she thought I was even funnier in person - go figure - it must have been the neck brace. Anyway, first meeting. We'll see how it goes.
Happy birthday, Kate
Rode down to 360 and Lakewood this morning. Actually, I started out doing the Spicewoods Springs loop, but the wind abbreviated that idea. Took Steck home and was surprised to find the city added a bike lane on Steck where it crosses under MoPac. Kinda handy.
Made it back home. Chicago to Austin, 1105 miles, 16.5 hours. Stopping every 3 or 4 hours to pee or get gas.
Drove through the Ozarks. It's nice. The blanket of snow may have helped. Snow is the great equalizer - even makes a double wide look like a Thomas Kinkade (the Painter of Light) painting.
Funny, when I started on my trip last Thursday, it was 87 degrees out, and I was driving in shorts and a t-shirt. On my way back today it was 10 degrees in central Illinois, and I had on a wool base layer, flannel shirt, my Ibis hoodie, and a GoreTex shell.
Still in Chicago. Well, actually in the burbs of Chicago. Woke up to some snow - shocking, I know.
Decided to take the train into downtown and wander a bit. I was walking to the Art Institute of Chicago, but it was damn cold, so I ducked into Exchequer, a rib joint, for some lunch. The place opened in 1969 and certainly looks its age. I liked it. And the ribs were good too. And no beans and coleslaw to ruin it - just seasoned potatoes.
Spent a bit of time at the Art Institute. They have a large collection of European and early American antiquities - but most of that didn't interest me. I was more into the industrial design, architecture and photography exhibits. I did check out their extensive Asian collection, which includes a number of Buddhas. Apparently, it's common in some American societies to display Buddha with his/her head decapitated. However, this practice is usually frowned upon by most Eastern cultures.
Need to get to bed early tonight. Have an 18 hour drive back to Austin tomorrow.
Damn, it's cold. Currently, I'm in Chicago where it's 15 degrees F and snowing. That's 3 degrees F with the wind chill factor. I definitely did not pack right for this trip.
Woke up in Indy this morning and made a final pass at the bike show. It was much less crowded this morning, so I actually had a chance to speak to some of the exhibitors that were swamped yesterday. I was surprised to find four builders from Austin made it up for the show. They were all very down to earth and as friendly as could be. I was really impressed with James Flatman from Alchemy (and not just because he gifted me a shirt as I was leaving his booth). He's from Australia and recently relocated to Austin. He used to weld for several bike builders, including all the ti frames for Dean in Colorado for a number of years. He's worked in ti, carbon, aluminum and steel - a real jack of all trades. I also enjoyed talking to Mike DeSalvo. He's got to be the most unpretentious builder to come out of Oregon - ever.
So I spent of a couple of hours at the show, then drove to Chicago to meet Belinda, who was flying in from San Jose for business. The drive started out nice - cold and windy, but sunny. That changed about an hour outside of Indy. It started to snow. And continued to snow for the next couple of hours - all the way to Chicago. If you've never driven in snow, it's not a relaxing experience. Here's what it looked like when it first started snowing. It got worse. Loop this for a couple of hours, and you can be my virtual co-pilot:
Made it to Chicago. Found a nice Italian place for dinner, and I ordered a prosciutto, artichoke heart, olive and egg pizza. The over-easy egg in the middle was a new experience for me. Not bad - but it made the pizza a little soggy.
Here are a couple of shots I took this morning on my walk over to the Convention Center. As you can see, I have a thing for industrial looking bridges:
And more bikes that I thought were interesting (the first 3 are from Austin builders, the last is from Dario Pegoretti):
