April 2007

A little bike porn to tide us all over before my gruppo gets here.

In unrelated news:

Seven Things I’d Rather Do Tomorrow That Aren’t Work

1. Ride my bicycle. Which isn’t built.
2. BBQ with friends.
3. Sit around and work on updating the Tarski theme
4. Buy a headset for my bike. (Which I might do anyway before work.)
5. Clean the guest bedroom and hang some art.
6. Laugh at Japanese people who thought that sheep were poodles.
7. Figure out a way to finance the owning of the entire Criterion Collection.

Seven Things I Really Want Right Now But Can’t Afford

1. Crank Bros. Quattro SL pedals in pink.
2. Denon AVR-1907
3. any R.E.Load custom bag
4. a new 15″ MacBook Pro
5. this girly LeSportSac Tokidoki Bella Bag
6. Converse Chuck Taylors in brown pinstripes
7. a Fat Tire cycling jersey

Seven Songs I’ve Been Singing For No Reason At All

1. “Chasing Cars,” Snow Patrol
2. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” Rolling Stones
3. theme from Sanford and Son
4. “All Along The Watchtower,” the BSG version
5. “Secret Lovers,” Atlantic Starr
6. “Fat Bottomed Girls,” Queen
7. Angel theme song

Other Music’s Digital Music Store has opened. With a bang, I might add. The most important part? “All of the tracks here are sold as premium-quality 320kbps DRM-free mp3s.”

I’ve been a huge fan of them for years, purchasing CDs from them online as well as visiting their physical store twice while in New York. Much like Bleep, I’ll be watching Other Music for new releases and will spend my money there many moons before I spend at the iTunes Music Store.

Most expensive trip to Belmont ever.

I had a flat/near blowout on the rear driver’s side tire today. I was on the highway. Yes, I can change my own tire, but it requires (literally) my entire body weight bouncing on the short-armed bolt-turner. (Yes, that’s the technical name, I assure you.) Seriously, how do normal people turn the bolts? It took all of my weight, and if I didn’t have a rack on top of my car, I wouldn’t have had anything to hold on to while I was jumping up and down on the arm of the wrench.

Anyhow, I got it all changed, drove to Shalon’s house, and then we went on a quest to have my tire repaired. A few things I learned:

• Costco will not fix a tire unless you bought it there.
• The guys at Wheel Works are nice, but sell me expensive yet completely appropriate tyres.
• Chevy’s happy hour starts at 4pm, and they are right down the street from Wheel Works on El Camino.

In other spendy news, my bike is complete, save for a headset.

Our friend Dan, who photographed our wedding, is awesome. And not just in that “what a kick ass friend” kind of way. Though he’s that too. He’s also a fabulous photographer.

Check these out. The last one is my favorite, by far.

So long snowboards, hello bicycles…

My boards are officially zipped up and put away for the summer. It’s sad, really, but that’s the way the weather goes. We’re quite into the spring here, with weather consistently in the low 70s, the cyclists are out in full force. I’ve been peer pressuiring myself into a road bike (or a 10-speed, as Bryan insists on calling it) ever since Sarah stole bought her Serotta and built it with love/borrowed parts, I’ve been wanting a bike of my own. Her Fierte rides like butter, it does.

After looking around a bit, I’ve decided that a steel frame is definitely the way to go. I can’t imagine the day I’d be so into road cycling that I’d really appreciate either a carbon or titanium frame, so I might as well get the vibration-eating joy of a steel frame. Thus, the SOMA Smoothie ES. There are a few purchasing things I need to work out, so it may not be the final final final decision on a frame, but should it not be a SOMA, it’ll probably be a Surly. Now I just need to put parts together for this. I’m hoping to also get a bike that love partially builds, nabbing used parts from NotNeighbor!Dave. It’ll save me a few bucks and allow me to get a better wheelset and/or fork. For the two of you who care: because of my frame size, it’s recommended I get a fork with a 45mm rake, which is more difficult to come by and means I probably can’t get that Ritchey carbon fork we’d been looking at.

Because I’m just that much of a nerd, I’ve begun a spreadsheet for the bike build, tracking how much I’ll be spending, what parts I still need (I’m on my way…I have pedals and a saddle), and sizing everything just to keep track of it.

How much beer will it take to get Sarah and Jon to build it for me? That’s the real cost question here…

Sometimes playing after work turns into “holy crap, how did I get so drunk?” Not that it’s a bad thing, mind you. Kristen, Sarah, and I started with margaritas at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company. We got to sit outside by the firepits, eat good food, and have three margaritas each. Mmmm. Now at least Sarah has a better idea of what good tequila is. I now have a better idea of what a big mouth Kristen has.

Next we went and made a commotion at both Borders and Barnes and Noble. What Sarah wanted was this Moleskine, but it wasn’t around. That didn’t stop Kristen from signing my chest with a random pen from a display, me carrying her around the notebook section piggy-back style (flashbacks to Molly Magees), and much running and yelling in the parking lot. We hit up Ausiello’s as a last stop, where Kristen and I went inside for beer and shuffleboard and Sarah sat in my car writing her paper. Then more beer, wasting Sarah’s expensive notebook paper, and Sarah drove us home in my car. She even then finished her paper before 3am…all was not lost.

Laundry is my nemesis. I’ve got so much of it to do…I haven’t really done any since before we left for Canada. I’m down to the socks and underwear I don’t like and I’m running out of work-appropriate shirts.

I do need to say here that Sarah sucks, and I don’t deserve to be a six, I should be a four.