Was informed earlier this afternoon that they need me to work this Friday. This results in my shortest Thanksgiving visit to Houston yet. Oh well, happy turkey (or tofurkey) day to you all.
Speaking of Black Friday, have you seen these? Crazy, huh? Not sure why I'm on the email distro for these (well, you can probably guess). However, the idea of a Schrader valve stem in a carbon rim makes my smile. I'm pretty sure that bent spoke won't hold much weight, so you best leave your winter coat draped over a chair.
For the more pedestrian types out there, aluminum versions are also available.
Learned a new phrase from my Latin teacher sister tonight. "Asian fail" - it's what her magnet student kids call any grade below a 95.
Btw, here's a better pic from last night's Lyle Lovett show, courtesy of austin360.com. Yes, it's the obligatory LA guest appearance. When in Austin...
A friend had an extra ticket to see Lyle Lovett tonight at the Bass concert hall, so she invited me along. He had his large band with him and just put on an awesome show . The acoustics in the Bass hall are amazing. And I think it's the first time I've seen him perform indoors. I remember his shows at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell in the Woodlands, at the pier in Seattle, and at the Backyard in Austin. So yeah, first time to see him indoors. Joining Lyle on stage were a couple of guest performers - Lance Armstrong and Kat Edmonson. Lance should stick to cycling, but Kat has a pretty unique voice.
Apologies for the fuzzy pic. It was taken with the Motorola Droid phone I upgraded to recently. Jury's still out on the phone, but I'm starting to get used to it.
My sister sent me this picture recently. Zappa backstage with Zappa who was in town to play Zappa. I understand it was a pretty good show.
I've been divesting a few bikes lately. Sold this week were my IF Ti Crown Jewel, Calfee Bamboo Road, and Specialized Boston Langster. I haven't ridden the CJ ever since my replacement Speedvagen arrived. The Calfee and Langster were meant to be sold. It's freed up some room in the house, but I still have quite a few more to go.
It doesn't help that my DeSalvo will be arriving soon. I bought it so long ago that I had forgotten about it until Mike emailed me last week to say I was next in the build queue. I asked for a fast touring, Randonneur-esque bike. Something I could put fenders, racks and 32c tires on. After a few email exchanges, this is the design he came up with (ah, BikeCad Pro, the big hammer in every framebuilder's toolbox):
Hmmm... Paris-Brest-Paris (or PBP for those in the know) would be fun. Closer to home, if you're interested in randonneuring, there's a Hill Country chapter you should check out. Their ride schedule also links to Bikely maps.
Happy birthday mom!
My high school buddy Ron came up for a visit this weekend. I talked him into doing the Wurst Ride with Pete and me. Ron hadn't been on a bike since May, but he still managed to kick our collective asses. It really didn't matter, as it was a great day for a ride. Didn't start out that way, though. We rode from Hyde Park to the start in East Austin in a humid fog (duh - all fog is humid). It should have been an easy 7 miles, but somehow the group we rode with stretched it out to 10. And in a really roundabout way also - with a mile of that on some dirt path. With all the twists and turns, I was completely lost - but that's not surprising.
After the ride we celebrated with brats and beer (naturally). Alison was nice enough to come pick us up in New Braunfels for the return home. Dustin even made a guest appearance. I'm not sure I'm a Wurstfest kind of guy. An hour and a half was all I really needed to check the place out. The polka dancers in the main dance hall were my favorite takeaways.
Oh, hey - and speaking of East Austin, we tried out a new restaurant there recently - Justine's Brasserie. It reminded me of a French bistro. Very nice atmosphere, and the food wasn't bad either. It's a bit in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by industrial warehouses, but the place was packed on a Wednesday night. That's always a good sign.
