Trick or Treat - part 2

I was at Sean and Amy's 10th annual pumpkin carving party Sunday. I created yet another masterpiece.

Day 1: The actual carving. Me, Emily Sue and Diego on the soccer ball behind me. (photo swiped from Dustin and Emily Sue)

Sadly, in years past my pumpkin never survived till Halloween day proper. The damn thing always molded before then, so I had to throw it out. Hopefully, the cold weather and bleach wash will help this year.

Day 2: Looks like some birds or other varmits have started eating my pumpkin. At this rate, it won't have time to get moldy.

Day 3: I sprayed the shit out of it with Tilex. This should ward off potential diners and inhibit mold growth.

Sunday, November 2nd, update (I didn't feel like creating a new post to add these pictures. And besides, the sequence would have been off.)

Day 4: Critters have started to eat the right side of the mouth.

Day 5: More of the mouth is gone.

Day 7: Unfortunately, I don't have a pic from Halloween night proper. This is the day after. I caught a squirrel feasting on what was left of the pumpkin's nose bridge. I have to say, I have some of the fattest squirrels on the block. Sadly, I had to toss Mr. Pumpkin after this photo was taken.

Trick or Treat

Spent the weekend in Houston celebrating my Mom's upcoming birthday. Peking duck Saturday night and dim sum for Sunday brunch. Excellent! The hostess at the dim sum place doesn't speak Taiwanese or English, and I don't speak Mandarin, but she still managed to carry on a 5 minute conversation with me. I admire people who can do that. I believe she was trying to tell me that she couldn't seat us until our compete party was there. I think...

Speaking of party - also on the agenda for Saturday night was a stop by the Volcano for a Halloween party hosted by some of my former co-workers from Kellogg. Ron's chica was working that night, so he tagged along. Volcano = frozen screwdrivers = very refreshing (ahem). Anyway, I decided to attend the party at the last minute, so I didn't have much time to prepare a costume. I ended up going as Clark Kent, Superman's mild mannered alter ego. Ron went as the world's tallest caveman. His costume is always a hit with the ladies.

It was really good to see my old friend Jess and his wife Sandra (the hunchback and bride of Frankenstein). I met Jess when he and I were working in Bintulu, East Malaysia about 15 years ago. He likes to remind me of the time we took a trip to Sibu on the Northern coast of Borneo where we were run out of 10 bars in one night and ended up at a gay cowboy karaoke bar. We didn't know it was a gay bar, but in hindsight the satin cowboy shirts should have been a clue. Jess was newly divorced, so he was trying to strike up conversations with these women in the bars we went to, but they wanted nothing to do with Americans. Unfortunately, I wasn't much of a wingman. I looked a little more like a local than Jess, but as soon as I opened my mouth, it was pretty clear I was an American also. So we would drink our beers, never get offerred a second one, and leave. Repeat that 10 times, and that was our evening. Well, except for that last bar. Jess also swears I ate rat on a stick that night, but I'm pretty sure it was chicken. Besides, it was dark, and I really couldn't understand the street vender. Whatever, it tasted like chicken.

The Final Countdown

Your two candidates speak. The videos are long, but worth it. And they're much more compelling than the last debate.





And concerning the economy, here's a brilliant summary of how the bike industry is handling the situation as blogged by Bike Snob NYC.

And finally, yes - the book is done. Belinda was kind enough to send me the following pic she took of me at Jeff and Ann's wedding reception this past Sunday.

Suit up

Back from California.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner in Cupertino. Funny, it was a place I ate at a few times with Yanlin when I was doing TOI sessions with the original Gauntlet team at Borland. My hotel was in the same center as the old Borland headquarters. Cool hotel - shitty water situation.

Spent Saturday on a walking tour of SF. B and I walked the city East to West, stopping at bike shops and cafes along the way. Not a bad way to see the city. Check out Mojo and American Cyclery if you're ever in the area. Nice. Thanks B for playing tour guide and tolerating me burying my head in my laptop every chance I could get - Caltrain, BART, the wedding reception the next day...

Jeff, I really didn't know you had it in ya. Congrats! Sunday was Jeff and Ann's wedding at the Fogarty Winery in Woodside. Btw, it's a great place to ride. And yes, they had lion dancers. East meets West, as they say. Or yellow fever, as I say.




Sunday night I got a chance to hang out with Brandon for a little while. He's an old friend from the Kellogg days, and he's currently CTO at Quiet Solution. They're doing some cool stuff. Check them out if you get a chance. GreenTech is the new BioTech.

Monday - back home in Austin. I can't believe I was in a suit for 12 hours the day before.

Are we there yet?

Recap of last night's debate:



Bike stuff update:

These went fast. In case you missed them, just sold the Titus Motolite, Campy Super Record cranks and brakes. Still can't decide whether to sell the Crown Jewel as a complete bike or just a frameset.

Ancient Chinese Secret

I suffer from mold allergies. They've been bad lately, so my office-mate suggested I try a Chinese herbal remedy her son used to amazing success. He hadn't been able to breathe through his nose for 7 years, but just 3 days of this concoction and he was sucking in more air than a TDI. Now, that's a compelling story.

It's made from astragalus root, wolfberry and red dates. She told me to go with organic ingredients. But all I could find at the local herb shop were dried imports from China. The astragalus root looks suspiciously like old tongue depressors. The wolfberry were like dried cranberries. Anyway:

• Use 6 sticks of the root, a cup of the wolfberry, and 16 dates.
• Bring a gallon of water to boil
• Lower the water temp and simmer the ingredients for 30 minutes
• Makes a refreshing brew/tea/soup
• Drink a cup a day until symptoms disappear
  

I made a batch a week ago and drank the last of it today. I wasn't sure if it was really working, so I made another gallon of the stuff tonight. Oh, how does it taste? Well, kinda like a Popsicle stick - woody, with a hint of sweetness. Go figure.

Bang and Blame

So I wussed out at the last minute this morning and skipped the 65 miler Eric and Dustin did from Hyde Park to Elgin (and beyond). Sorry, but I just didn't have 3-4 hours available for a ride today.

Since I was up at 7:00 anyway, I went ahead and ran the MoPac to I-35 loop at Town Lake. I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a very social runner. I run to clear my mind, not to chat. So I run with my headphones and Shuffle. Tried something new this weekend. I usually find a song that matches my stride on the trail and end up replaying it all through my run. This weekend, I decided to just load one song in my Shuffle. This way, I don't need to hit repeat all the time. Nothing like hearing the same song 15-20 times in a row to put me in a trance. Granted, I have to anticipate my tempo in advance, but that's not too hard to do. Soundtrack for yesterday: Concrete Blonde: Still in Hollywood. For this morning: REM: Bang and Blame. I'm guessing I was a little faster yesterday.

Spinal Tap Moment

Those of you who have known me for a while know I'm a real cheapskate when it comes to the parts I ride. Reaching as far back as the Colnago Master I rode in undergrad, most of my bikes have been put together with parts from used bikes I've purchased and flipped over the years. I've been known to buy a complete bike just for the headset or brake calipers. Which explains the Chris King Ti and Zero Gravities on my current ride. Sure, it may take 10 or more buy/sell cycles (no pun intended) before I can complete a project, but for me that's half the fun. Granted, it also makes my house look the Yellow Bike Project Annex, but I'm OK with that too.

Anyway, that's all about to change. Dating woes and an unexpected windfall led to a little retail therapy recently... It's a new Campagnolo 11-speed Super Record gruppo. Yeah, I know, it was a very Fred thing to do. Again, I'm OK with that. Buying the parts is one thing; let's see if I really end up using them. You should probably know I purchased Campy Record and Chorus 10 gruppos on clearance earlier in the year, but couldn't bring myself to actually install and sully them. I ended up selling most of it on eBay.

As it stands, I'll still probably sell the Super Record brakes and crankset, as I like the Zero G's better and prefer a compact crank for the hills (see wussification rant in the last post). So if you need the finest Vicenza can offer, give me a shout. The ceramic bearings used for the cranks are suppose to be like buttah. See Competitive Cyclist for a nice review of the new 11 parts.

• Book update: finished the preface and Chapter 1, Rev 2. Chapter 4 is next.


• Debate update: After a lot of slicing with Occam's razor, the net result is nothing, zippo, a draw. Biden seemed more accessible, Palin seemed more together (despite her winks and folksy delivery that I loathe). A bazillion web sites out there are doing their postmortem, so I won't bother adding anything more.

Supersize me

I got more Obama schwag in the mail recently - this time from MoveOn.org. It's a T-shirt; nothing real exciting. But what has me pissed is that the shirt is huge. Out of the wrapper, the thing fits like a mu mu. No worries, a couple of hot wash and tumble dry cycles should fix the problem.

Or so I thought. The thing is still huge. Digging deeper, what I'm really upset about is the fact that the T-shirt was made my American Apparel. It's a fairly nascent company. They make fitted tees. Think pro cut versus club jerseys. Since their inception, I've always worn an XL in their shirts. Anyway, it seems like American Apparel too have fallen victim to upsizing - recalibrating their sizing chart to fit the ever expanding American public.

Old Navy, Nike, Hanes. Dios mio! Who's next - Trojans? What, with all the natural supplements for natural male enhancement being pushed on the public, it won't be long before weather balloon companies start making condoms. It was bad enough when they recalibrated the SAT scoring in 1995 to keep pace with the ever dumbing public. It's all part of the wussification of America - trying to make people feel better about themselves instead of actually fixing the problem.

Be sure to watch the veep debate tonight. Should be entertaining and frightening at the same time. "Frightainment" - you saw it coined here first, folks.

Long time listener, first time caller

I've been pretty bad about keeping in touch lately. Thankfully, Web 2.0 is here to help. This is a work in progress, so focus on the content and not the crappy layout template. That will come in due time, along with the t-shirts and other merch.

First, some level setting, so we're all operating from the same basis:

• Finally finished editing Chapter 5 of the book my Dad and I are writing. The Preface and Chapter 1, Rev 2 are next. 2 weeks to go until the final draft is due to the publisher - woohoo!


• Work is the same. We're moving this weekend to our new office. See exclamation from above bullet.


• Just sold my Colnago CT1 on eBay. The IF ti Crown Jewel and Titus ti Motolite are next.


• Thinking about entering the Bandera 25k and Gruene team time trial.


• House is the same.


• Ditto the landscaping.


• Despite my best efforts, the fennel keeps coming back.


• Some squirrel stole the avocado plant I've been growing for 2 years. Damn - just 8 years shy of bearing fruit.


• Lilly the parrot lives. Sadly, Bob the beagle and Brando the basset died.


• Alison Krauss and Robert Plant were the highlight of my ACL this year.


• Riding to work a couple of times a week.


• Chipotle and Whataburger continue to feed me.


• The mold count is finally going down.


• I can't wait for cooler weather.

Surely, from the above data, one could divine n variables to apply to n equations. Solving these equations simultaneously, it's pretty easy to see how I'm doing. You could argue that this is an NP-complete problem. I would argue to the contrary. The proof is left as an exercise for the reader. Remember to filter out extraneous external variables. Empirical data may be helpful in deriving coefficients. Answer at the back of the blog.