There is a little known fact about Jane and I. We take care of tigers, bears, and cats. Perhaps representative of their parents, they are all pretty lazy.

Last nights ride produced a single bunny on the bike trail. If it were 5 or 6 months earlier, we would have seen a dozen or more. We got to into a discussion about what the bunnies are up to this time of the year. The best guess is that they are probably snuggled up together, asleep. Lucky.

Usually I don’t take much stock weather forecasting for the Seattle metro, but you can feel snow in the air today. It is coming soon.

Sometimes I really appreciate how good I have it. NPR had a special this morning discussing one woman’s taste testing job. This isn’t just any taste test though, this is a job for Folgers coffee. I imagine that going to work would amount to a special sort of hell if I were in her shoes. She is required to slurp the coffee like you would a spaghetti noodle, swish the coffee around in her mouth, and spit it back into a cup. All of this to make sure that Folgers coffee is consistently horrid tasting.

Update: Someone recommended that my work switch to Folger’s “french roast” today. I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit.

Thanksgiving turned out a bit better than I was thinking it would. The 1,500 miles driven (round trip) were free of both traffic and snow. I got a chance to see some of the beautiful Oregon countryside again, and ended up with a pretty solid meal to boot. Somewhere along the way I lost my favorite belt though.

I’m always amused by truck stops. On the surface, a place will seem clean and well kept. There is a seedy underbelly to these places though. Between the hookers and speed pills, truckers live a life that few can really handle. Somewhere between here and there, I walked into a restroom with a gay smut magazine opened and lying on the floor. I am unsure if it was some sort of code, but I handled my usual business and got the hell out.

We got home from Sacramento Saturday evening and spent the night playing Rock Band. I never realized just how tone deaf I was until I tried to sing a song or two. In a word, painful. I am really loving the drums, but it took me awhile to get used to coordinating my hands and feet.

Last week Peter McKay dropped off some fliers regarding the shootings that have been going down in our neighborhoods. I finally got around to putting them up last night. I got a lot of questions from neighbors, so I am hoping it turns up something. The reward is substantial enough that I can imagine it would turn someone into a “rat”. It is a shame that people are so weary of interacting with local police. I was confronted by a guy at a bus stop while stapling them up. He informed me that though he had never been shot at while on a bike, people have “tried to gang rape” him before. I’m not sure if that involved a bicycle though. He was sure that “those Mexican kids” were involved, but offered no evidence. Regardless, I hope something turns up.

I am going to get a new Slingshot for Christmas, and I am looking forward to it. It is used for a bicycle mileage logbook and I have so much stuff coming up next year. SIR is starting training in January, and the official brevets start in March. I am getting a bit nervous and a little excited to start the randoneuring. I have ridden a couple of hundred miles over a weekend (Seattle to Portland), but I have yet to put this kind of strain on my body. I came out of my lymphoma experience feeling strong though. There is no doubt in my mind that I will succeed.

I went out for a shorter than expect bike ride with Chris this weekend. The original plan was for an all day event on Vashon Island that would have probably murdered my calves. It got whittled down to some hill training in West Seattle. We left about 9, and it started off just beautiful. The sun wasn’t out (it is November after all… in Seattle), but the temperature was comfortable and the clouds weren’t too opposing. My legs felt good on the climbs, and we were getting some coffee at the top in no time. The plan was to grab some coffee and head back out to some local streets that we know are painful. I still have plenty of chocolate to work off.

The clouds decided to open up on us. Typically when it rains here, it is just a soggy, warm constant drizzle. Saturday morning though, it rained hard.

Chris’ bike decided it had enough, and started to blow out inner tubes. “Forget about fixing me,” it said to us. “I will ruin you on the wet descents.” We heeded its warning and decided to go get the car. I got home, squeegeed myself off, and went back to pick Chris up. It was then and there that I decided to lay on my ass for the rest of the weekend. And lay on it I did.

Friday night, Jane and I picked up a couple of games and spent some more time on the Rock Band demo. We picked up Assassin’s Creed and Super Mario Galaxy. They are both so amazing that I’ve had trouble splitting time between the two. Going to work this morning was the toughest thing I’ve had to do all month. Jane broke from her usual gaming ranks and tried her hand at Creed. In no time she was pouncing unsuspecting victims and scaling rooftops. She is a real special girl, let me tell you.
So special in fact, she woke up with me this morning and took an hour’s worth of buses to get out to Best Buy in Bellevue. She is sitting in line, as I type this, for Rock Band. It is cold and raining right now, so I feel for her. I am sure this is off the charts on some sort of nerd scale somewhere. Hey, at least it isn’t to see a George Lucas movie. Don’t get me started on that guy.

Wednesday night we are going to drive down to Portland, hook up with my mother, and start our descent to Sacramento. My cousin invited us last year around this time. It sounded like a great idea at the time, but I am kind of regretting what I am sure will be a traffic filled nightmare of a commute. I love her to death, but this is going to be a really long weekend. I wonder if we can’t fit the Rock Band drum kit in the trunk… nevermind.

I’ve been thinking a lot about all the junk I want to buy. I don’t really need any of it (although I can argue a good bit), but boy do I want me some goods.

Rapha

If I were to get the hots for sporting apparel, I’d have a rager for Rapha. They are a British cycling company making ridiculously overpriced but beautiful gear. My god, take a look at this jersey. No bright colors and no gaudy corporate logos. The best thing about it? They make their jerseys with wonderful, time tested wool. Just don’t look at the price, it won’t do any good to think about it too hard.

Softshell Jacket? Amazing
Grand Tour Gloves? Dear god, stop me please.

Video Games

I’m not sure when I picked back up the video game bug, but it is in full swing right now. I go through spurts, where I play non stop for months and then don’t touch the machine for the rest of the year. It seems like there is an endless stream of amazing gaming right now though. I know the holidays are always like this, but it just feels especially potent this year. There are no fewer than 4 games that I want to purchase right now. Not only do I not really have the money, but I wouldn’t have the time to invest in all of that action anyways.

Super Mario Galaxy is getting reviews that I can’t ignore.
Assassins Creed came out this week, and Veronica Mars is doing a voice over. That automatically pushes the game into the “must buy” pile as far as Jane is concerned.
Call of Duty 4 came out a few weeks ago, and I’ve seen nothing but amazing things about it.
Mass Effect comes out next week on top of all of that.
This is, of course, nothing to say regarding all of the games I already have and have been on a short sighted achievement hunt with. I’m not sure when I started to care about 360’s achievement system, but it hit Jane and I hard.

So apparently this morning, just a few days after the Peter McKay incident, a 72 year old man was shot with a pellet gun in his leg.

Read the full article from the PI.

The wife called me to give me the low down and to make sure that I “hide behind something” if I see the newish red Escort that is suspected. I tend to zone out on my bicycle, but I’m imagining myself dismounting into bushes every time a red car comes in from behind.

If there is any good news to all this nonsense, it is seeing the support that the bicycling community here in Seattle has put behind McKay to catch the punks involved. Horns and cigarette butts are enough of a distraction, thanks.

To completely derail this train, let me just establish the fact that I am going to be purchasing Rock Band soon. Life will be good. Jane and I played a bit of it last night on an in store demo and it pretty much lived up to my already high expectations. The drum set is rock solid and is prepared to take a vicious beating from my wicked pythons.Now I just need to work on my rhythm…

The sun has pretty much retired for the winter. It pops up during the day while I pound away at a keyboard. When I step outside to feel it, I realize that it is only out for show. It provides no actual warmth. My rides into work are definitely warmer when it is raining outside. Thanks, rain.

I started this site because it has been a long time since I had something of my own on the internet. It isn’t exactly how I want it yet, but after 5 overhauls, you just need to settle sometimes. I have been pretty busy plugging away at a few different websites for people and hope to have them finished soon. They are basically just waiting on content to round out the design. I am going to do my best to keep this thing up to date.

The sun has pretty much retired for the winter. It pops up during the day while I pound away at a keyboard. When I step outside to feel it, I realize that it is only out for show. It provides no actual warmth. My rides into work are definitely warmer when it is raining outside. Thanks, rain.

I started this site because it has been a long time since I had something of my own on the internet. It isn’t exactly how I want it yet, but after 5 overhauls, you just need to settle sometimes. I have been pretty busy plugging away at a few different websites for people and hope to have them finished soon. They are basically just waiting on content to round out the design. I am going to do my best to keep this thing up to date.

The sun has pretty much retired for the winter. It pops up during the day while I pound away at a keyboard. When I step outside to feel it, I realize that it is only out for show. It provides no actual warmth. My rides into work are definitely warmer when it is raining outside. Thanks, rain.

I started this site because it has been a long time since I had something of my own on the internet. It isn’t exactly how I want it yet, but after 5 overhauls, you just need to settle sometimes. I have been pretty busy plugging away at a few different websites for people and hope to have them finished soon. They are basically just waiting on content to round out the design. I am going to do my best to keep this thing up to date.