GLOBADOM

Sorry about that.

I know, I know, where did I go? It’s been a busy few days, but I have stories. So quickly, in convenient bullet-point form:

-broke more spokes in my rear wheel and flatted my tire on the way to work Tuesday, forgot my pump at home.

-broke my nice tire lever trying to change the flat

-went to Krispy Kreme: the free hot donut when you go in is a nice touch. The donuts are very good. They don’t make me think Tim Horton’s is suddenly junk, but they are very good. The original donut is a simple glazed item that makes you momentarily think that every other kind of donut is an unnecessary variation on a great food. The Lovely One declared them maybe the best donuts ever, rivalled only by Those Little Donuts of Pacific National Exhibition fame

-Philosophically, Tim’s is a lunch counter with a great donut selection. Krispy Kreme is a temple to donuts. I could watch donuts being made for a good long time.

Sorry, that’s it for now. I’m hoping to do one race on the weekend, on Sunday. We will now return you to a more regular posting schedule.

Lenten Observances

Today’s race was a failure, but a beautiful one. Lots went wrong. The bodge job of forcing spokes in that shouldn’t have been there left me with a rear wheel that was pathetically out of true, and had a hop so bad it vibrated throughout the race. It scared numerous other riders. I was pretty cheesed off too; I’m sure it had at least some effect on my speed.

The Bradner Course was the land of rolling hills, though none were terribly steep. If you were motivated, you could do every climb in a big ring. I sat back for a while, learning the course and making sure my wheel wouldn’t detonate. A two-up breakaway got off the front, and the pack did not press them. Eventually one of the dreaded WWU riders took off and tried to bridge, and I made a rather late decision to do the same.

The result was a glorious, stupid solo getaway attempt by me. Instead of instantly catching the WWU rider, I was out there forever trying to catch up to him. When I finally did, we worked together for a while before he dropped away. By then I was only 20 seconds from the breakaway pair, but then I was caught. Ouch.

The joy of that pure breakaway riding was wonderful. I think I’m going to like time-trialling.

The rest of the race was completely confusing. I got into a group of a couple of motivated EV riders and two unmotivated WWU riders, and after a lap or two, we had simply dropped the rest of the pack, but what I didn’t realize is that a group of four other WWU riders had already taken off to chase the breakaway group. At the end, I thought I was gunning for second place; it was more like sixth or seventh.

So, in conclusion: massive suffering in a solo effort for nothing. Hard work in a group break for nothing. Endured a wretched wheel for nothing. Sprinted like crazy at the line for nothing. It was a great race, though, lots of fun!

Bike racing is like that.

In other news, the foundation for the shed is now in the backyard. This week: digging, foundationing, and then I nail together a floor.

I coulda been a contender!

Well, good and bad bike stuff today. The good was the weather, and a worthwhile stop at my secret spot, which turned up three serviceable mountain bike rear wheels. The other good was a really nice half of a race. More than anything else, I went out and had a lot of fun!

The 68 km C race got off to an interesting start: there were a bunch of riders from Western Washington University, up to see what they could do. And do they did. Before many in the pack had even clipped in, two of their riders went up the road to establish break. Oookaayy…

Surprisingly, they stayed up the road for a long time, though never much more than 30 seconds away. I sat in for a while, trying to drive the pack a little, accidentally snotted a WWU rider because he misinterpreted my move to the side as a breakaway attempt, and at one point getting well and truly hung out to dry on the front by some moderately clever tactics by WWU rider still in the pack. Finally, it was down to one WWU rider up front, and I got bored of the pack’s inability to establish a pace. So I broke off the front in something barely more active than a “triathlete attack” (That’s what happens when triathletes go to the front of the pack: they don’t sprint, so they just sit up there, breaking the wind for everyone at some impressive pace). But when I looked back, I hadn’t dragged the pack with me.

I was so annoyed that after getting halfway to the breakaway rider, I pulled out the T&T cocktail bun I had in my pocket, took a bite, showed it to the pack as I looked back, took a few more bites, then tucked it in and took off.

Hm. That rider up front was going harder than I thought. It took me another half a lap to catch him, and I was aided by being much better at cornering. When I caught up, I told him he had been caught by a guy with a bell (ding, ding), and that I only caught him to tell him his breakaway sucked. Since I had teammates in the pack and didn’t like our chances out in the wind for so long (there was still over half a race to go), I let him do most of the work. He had teammates too, so he didn’t want to do much more work.

We were caught in less than a lap. As soon we got back, attacks started coming out of the pack. I grabbed a passing wheel and stayed with the bunch, and basically nothing established itself usefully, and I just sat in for a while.

Not long after, it all went pear-shaped. A pair of the WWU riders near the front crossed bars, and took each other down. And then took more riders down. I stopped without trouble before hitting the pile, but got rammed from the rear. The resulting mess didn’t even knock me off my bike (I sort of hopped off as it became part of the tangle behind me), but I lost four spokes in the rear wheel.



In retrospect, I might have continued. But I probably did the right thing. One of the WWU riders broke a beautiful Zipp carbon tubular rim worth rather more than my bike, and another suffered numerous scrapes, but there were no serious injuries. Word to the wise: don’t race anything you can’t afford to break.

I watched the race after that. Once the crash split the pack, A group of 6 (including three surviving WWU riders, but no EV people) pulled away. I left just as the race was ending; I think the breakaway stayed away. Good tactics for the WWU team. Well, except maybe for the crashing. As it was, that eliminated around half their team.

Overall, a good day out. I wanted to be there at the end, but the race made me feel good about my fitness and my prospects for the season. It’s time to do some serious interval training anyways, so it probably helped me to work hard in this kind of race, at least while I had the chance. I was working, but I wasn’t overstraining myself. It felt great.

And, The Lovely One won a contest, so drinks are on her! A good day all around. Now, I have a wheel to fix for tomorrow’s race. I’m ready.

Paper or Plastic?

This week has been hectic, but pleasant. Making a few plans for next month, planning to ride a few races this weekend, and I have to get over to Dave’s place to buy a bunch of bike stuff. And the shed project is becoming critical, because I’m going to do the bike kitchen thing when it goes up.

The bike kitchen? Simple: I set up the shed, and set up shop. You bring over your bike that Saturday, and I’ll tune it up. Festivities will conclude with a short ride on the Rocky Point bike path, suitable for all ages and abilities. It will happen very soon, since it’s the season for putting bikes back on the road.

And you’re all invited.

In other news, I figured out something: back when I was a lad, taking the groceries in from the car was an all-family affair involving multiple trips for each person. Nowadays, I do similar loads of groceries in two trips.

The difference is plastic bags with handles.

The paper bags of my youth didn’t have handles, and that meant you could only carry two bags at once. Handles make your strength, not your reach, the limit. And groceries don’t weight that much.

Tomorrow is my treat day, and the co-workers ought to be happy: The Lovely One made 7-layer square and oatmeal-currant cookies. Yummy!

I’m hoping to get out to Krispy Kreme this weekend. We’ll see.

I don’t usually do this sort of thing….

A hockey note here, and mercifully, not the one you’re thinking of.

Colby Cosh has posted a fascinating statistical essay discussing NHL team performance in a fairly inspired way.

He describes the strong relationship between goals and points: 2.8 goals scored or prevented gains a team one point in the standings, more or less, most of the time.

But as he breaks these details down further, he gets to the real discovery: goaltending is almost the only thing that matters in the playoffs. Hockey fans share the idea that you can ride a hot goalie deep into the playoffs, but Cosh has scientific proof of how vital a hot goalie really is.

The whole essay is fascinating if you’re a hockey fan and stats wonk.

As for the other story, the one about Bert: I just don’t want to say anything.

Flex Day

Kind of a quiet day, but I had fun. Started out the morning by taking delivery of the replacement LitterMaid; A UPS package is rare enough around here that it becomes a bit of an event.

Then, I went for a bike ride. It was a good ride: took the mountain bike up Burnaby Mountain, then went down Snake Trail on the north side. I was riding more obstacles and riding them better than ever before. I can really feel my pathetic dirt skills improving.

Since I still had some masochism left in me, I rode off the mountain, up Cariboo Hill, and then to New Westminster to ask a question at work.

No, literally. That’s what I did. It’s a long story, and one I won’t tell here. The important thing is that there was a reception with those big cookies, and there were lots left over afterwards, so I grabbed a bunch.

My eating habits are mad: I ate more than five of those big cookies at the reception, and that’s just sort of how I eat sometimes. But I still look gaunt! No, really:



Ok, maybe that’s only gaunt by my standards. But seriously: a ton of cookies today, a half a donut, orange sherbert, and much more. The only thing that saved me today was not eating very much real food: a couple of pieces of toast, a couple of carrots, a couple of little tiny yogurts, and a small sandwich.

It may be time to work not so much on eating less but on eating healthier.

So, after the cookies, I rode home, taking the long route via my parents’ house, so that meant a little extra hillclimbing, and I rode back via some dirt trails at the bottom of Burnaby Mountain just for fun. A great ride on a beautiful day.

And then the cat. It’s been limping a bit, so The Lovely One and I took it into the vet. nothing a few weeks of rest and some anti-inflammatories won’t cure. The cat should be fine too. (Rimshot!)

Nice relaxing evening, accidentally destroyed a new spark plug while trying to gap it, and now I think I will have a drink and then to bed.

Bailey’s? Yes, I think Bailey’s.

Props to our director of Non-Production for stepping in while Marketing was off not posting!

And, let them see cake:

This gloriously seventies-vintage recipe (it really did have the super-glazed look that shows up in these pictures) was a big hit. I won’t give the recipe, as it was fairly fussy and it’s easy to find some variation online.

I was going to use the Betty Crocker recipe, but that calls for “buttermilk baking mix,” which is Bisquick, but I didn’t know that when I went to the store. You can also make your own mix from a widely-available-online recipe, but it does require buttermilk flakes, another ingredient which we don’t keep in the house.

Eventually I found a recipe in “1000 Classic Recipes” which called for no buttermilk (or shortening) but did require me to whip up a marginal meringue and make my own castor sugar (just a white sugar that’s finer than table sugar but coarser than icing sugar).

The Lovely One whimsically expressed a desire for pineapple upside-down cake early in the weekend, immediately amending it to “maybe for my birthday”. As if! Her birthday is in July, and having had the seed planted in my little head, I didn’t want to wait that long to taste sweet, delicious cake. After threatening to make this thing all weekend over her protests, I finally did it Sunday evening, and she thanked me for it. I’m not sure how she’ll feel when she realizes this recipe used up all the butter and most of the eggs in the house.

The Lovely One has very sentimental feelings for pineapple upside-down cake, though she didn’t say so until after I made it: she first tasted it when she was 12, on vacation in Greece. I think they made it for her as a birthday cake. I don’t think she’s had it since we’ve been going out, though.

Baking’s a bit of fun: I have the luxury of not cooking most days, so on the weekend it becomes fun. The result is typically waffles, pancakes, or popovers for breakfast, and some sort of wacky stunt-baking like upside-down cake if I hit the kitchen in the afternoon or evening. I might repeat muffin recipes every so often, but usually I like to try making something different.

Short post, not much time:

Weekend involved no riding, lots of classical music.

Saw Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio” on Friday. VSO put it on as a “concert opera”, which means an orchestra, choir, and full cast, but no sets, props or costumes, and the orchestra is on stage. Which is fun, because it means you have the singers using the conductor’s stand as stage centre.

Unfortunately, The Lovely One was a little under the weather, and we left at intermission after 2/3 of the concert. She was still feeling ill Saturday night, so she missed a marathon performance by the Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir (part of the Champagne Concert Series I help put on). They’re just great. They did everything from Canadian folksongs to spirituals.

In between the two concerts, I spent a lot of time chipping wood in Mom & Dad’s backyard.

Sunday, a bit of shopping, a bit of cleaning, and then I made a pineapple upside-down cake. The Lovely One pronounced it good.

Technically, given that we didn’t eat after 2:00 except for the cake, I guess the cake was dinner.

Pictures of the cake to follow soon.

It is fairly warm today. It is supposed to go up to fourteen tomorrow, but until the ice and snow is gone, I’m not going to be comfortable biking. I have a phone interview with EA on Monday. i’m not sure what they want, because I told them I wasn’t finished my degree, and wouldn’t be until at least the end of the summer. Maybe they want me back for another internship this summer. I’d be willing to do that. I really liked working at EA.

Got the ‘save space’ functionality mostly tackled today on my thesis. Feel good about that. Going over to my friend Anna’s tonight, for some singing. We are doing the Buffy musical at the end of the month. I am performing Anya’s part in _I’ve got a Theory_ (including the bunnies bit), Tara’s duet with Gyles (_Under Your Spell/Standing_) and the _Parking_ song, so I can use some practice. I want to get some port for Anna first, because I know she likes it, so I will go up to the mall first.

I am finally closing on a positive worth. After putting my RSPs in at the last minute, I am now only worth -$3000. My student loans amount to about $35,000, so I am very proud of this. However, I have no money at all until the end of the month now, so everything is going on VISA. That probably means that this month’s paycheque will be spent paying off my VISA. The next month’s paycheque (this will be the end of May) will be the first month I am tucking away for my PowerBook. Francois said I should wait until after June (some Mac conference or other) to buy it, which will be about right, since if I can save $1500 a month for two months (April and May), I will be able to afford it in June.

Of course, this will be altered immensely if EA wants me for four months in may.

Pay $490 for car repairs. Is it too much to ask that they adjust the accessory belts so they don’t squeal? I think not!!

Ooh. That’s just a major, bush-league error. I think I’ll take it back to the shop. It would take me 10 minutes to fix, but they’re going to make it right on general principles. I don’t mind paying $90/h for competent work, but this?

Okay, I’m done now.

You know what’s potentially depressing about blogging? Reading back your own posts and realizing you’ve spent a week obsessing about car repairs, a bike race, and your weight.

I have a new one to add to that: our intramural hockey team won! We played smart, we played slow (important when your team is so much older than the competition that the team name is The Fossils), and the opposing goalie was described by my teammate thus: “he has the equipment, and he has the size, but he doesn’t have the skills.”

I can’t improve on that. But my own performance was great! I scored a goal (unheard of with my dreadful shot), I blocked a shot, and in one determined shift of checking, I knocked over the largest player on the other team twice.

It was fun.

I’ve been playing a little with a new PowerBook at work. Garage Band looks as cool hands-on as it did in Steve’s demos. Now I just need some talent.

Should I do the super-hilly race on Sunday? I’m still dithering. I’ve gotta do it….