pack mule

loaded up and heading to work.

very disappointed dog

little funny creek

eatin' like a lumberjack

just got back from our rainy, drippy 5k and making myself some breakfast. the ladies had granola...

b continued her ~10 min mile pace and we finished in under 31 mins. not bad for an 11 year old. some day i may run one of these for myself, but right now i really enjoy running as our little team. it's really cool to finish with these ladies!

anyway, breakfast awaits!

atop chilkoot hill

the girls and i went to stillwater today to watch the last stage of the nature valley grand prix. there was a crazy huge crowd on chilkoot, but we got to watch the last 1/2 of the race. uh-mazing.

the turnaround

a couple of hard efforts, and i deserve this.

new black cages

oughtta make me REALLY fast tomorrow!

path progression

ugh, here are the bricks that were to become the edging for the rest of our path.

oh, and here's the path layed out.

and, yes, to all the doubters out there, i was able to finish the path before the rain started! here's the path the next morning. yes, when i finished, it was too dark to take a picture.

gee beave

wet enough for the beaver to come out of the water @ the mnzoo.

i'm not really bamboo

but i play one on tv. the world's finest collection of acrylic bamboo surrounding the gibbon exhibit @ the zoo.

cuz daisies make me smile

they do, they make me smile. plus, they don't require a lot of work or water to grow.

gimp-ed out

tonight, i took a few photos of one of my bikes in the garage. the light was low and i was just using the camera on my palm centro, nothing special when it comes to photo quality. i did something different tonight, though, i shot them originally in b&w. then, i pulled them up using the gnu image processor (gimp) and, yes, it seems i'm a one trick pony, but i had some fun messing around with contrast. have a look-see...

here, the original didn't seem that interesting, it's actually a picture that had enough light to see detail and was pretty clear. that, however, didn't appeal to me.

soo... i cranked up the contrast.

original

messing with brightness and contrast thresholds

using the colorcurve to lighten the photo up.

original

colorcurve, again, to just lighten it up without overdriving the contrasts

pushing the limits of contrast vs. brightness

bright sun + sweet bike = shadowy goodness in the morning

the clean frame lines against the gritty urban industrial wasteland curb.

the curb making its own shapes, giving light bends to the frame.
a clean and nekked wheel and chain with no derailleur to sully things. i really like the effect of the whippy looking spokes from the slow capture speed of my digital camera.

is it jus me, or...

is my mint box smiling at me?

a whole weekend's worth

of work... most of our hardscaping is in so this project is really taking shape! thanks to t's vision and drive for moving this project forward. now, to get the rest of the gardens figured out.

on the road again

ok, after getting the road bike dusted, degrimed, and set up with a new pair of tires, i had to get out today when i discovered we weren't getting the forecasted rain. as usual, i noticed the shadows first and decided to snap a few pics. i absolutely needed the recovery time as i had just done two big-ring, seated grinds up ohio street.

here i am playing with shadows, but the sun was still pretty high.

look at that, you can see the guy taking the picture. not such good form.

the snazzy auc kit is coming into view here (along with some furry knees. sorry, just a couple of road rides is no reason to shave the gams. racing, yes, but not "just riding along.")

more of the auc kit

and, blammo. the best view of the cool auc kit through rolling self portraiture. :-)

then it was time to ride home. a really short, but encouraging, ride.

dandelions and lilacs

hmm the dandelions are as big as lilacs in this place!

takeout

why go out to eat when you've got ambience like this?

last year's grime?

hardly. didn't ride the road bike last year. it was grime from 2+ years ago. it's ready to ride, now, though.

shoes