new home for the rest of my stay

my apartment was ready just after breakfast this morning, so i moved in. here's the view of my room from the front door



my little bathroom, at least i don't have to share it with anyone. a shower enclosure, that's high living!


something other than the bed to sit on.



my view of the street. it's not as quiet as being on the back side of the building, but it's not a very busy street either.


and my kitchen...

ugh... which reminds me i need to walk over to the store to pick up some groceries.

green up your cycling club

i read about this in an article on ecopreneurist

it appears that you can get your bike jerseys from a company who cares: sublimationx

how cool is that? plus it's creating a buyer for the all those plastic bottles we recycle, but the recyclers can't seem to get rid of.

wandered around today

i was trying to stay awake and decided that if i kept moving, i'd have a better chance of staying awake. i think it worked! i can't say, for sure, but i don't remember falling asleep (do you ever?), nor do i remember waking up, which is how i usually can tell i was sleeping. anyway, the topic of this is my walk, remember!

walking around my hotel, i use the cathedral as my landmark. i know how to get back to the hotel from it, so i know i can figure out how to get home if i keep it in sight.


my other easy landmark is the canal. it's perfect because i don't need to leave breadcrumbs to find my way home with this either. i know to just turn around and keep walking until i get back to where i started!


not that breadcrumbs would work around here because of the critters who hang out in the canal would likely eat them

small place to call home

for the next day or two, this'll be my home until an apartment becomes available.


ok, it may not be the ritz carlton (sadly, i don't even know the proper spelling for that) , but it's got this super cool feature in the bathroom.it looks like a standard towel rack, but notice, it's plugged in! yes, it's a heated towel rack. plus, that adds a little heat to the bathroom, which doesn't have its own radiator.

breakfast in amsterdam

breakfast in amsterdam. too bad it had to be starbucks!


starbucks notwithstanding, the espresso was great and the carrot cake hit the spot.

bike repair sucks

this stopped beingfun about a half of an hour ago.

i love anti-seize

just about everything else was corroded together, but i was still able to get my18 tooth cog off the dead wheel because i gooped it up with anti-seize before i installed it. ya can do things like that when ya use a lock ring!

trashed winter wheelset

i hate bike maintennce, i really do. here's a case in which there's not much choice. the front hub is done, so it'll be a full replacement. more like i'll sacrifice one of my summer wheels until i find a suitably junky replacement. it was a little scary because i noticed this a couple of blocks into the start of my ride. i thought it was just a broken spoke until i noticed that the spoke that was sticking out still had its head!

oh, and as a bonus, the bearings in my rear hub are shot too. gotta sacrifice both wheels from my summer commuting rig :-(

if your bike is hard to pedal

and your chain looks like this, it's your own damn fault.

b in a hat and glasses

sometimes the kids are just too cute to keep the camera in the pocket. b and i were on our way to the co-op today when she "borrowed" mom's sunglasses, which completed her ensemble.

getting ready

just dug out all the stuff i'm gonna need for the next trip.

now, THAT'S napping!

the dog is laying in a sunbeam with his head propped up against a table leg and he's snoring.

THIS doesn't happen when it's warm out

nice to see sunsets again

yep, it's staying light longer. i was able to catch the sunset on my way home.

winter weekend

the girls and i tromped out on the lake this morning during a bit of a snowburst. here are a couple of shots of the sun trying to fight its way through the clouds and flakes.





what a great weekend. even though there were times the temps were below 0, it was a great weekend. i needed a weekend like that to remind me that i can still function (outdoors no less) even when it's cold.

apocalypse on the busride

i took the bus today because the family is picking me up right from work to go on a weekend trip. this gave me a different view of downtown than i normally get while riding my bike. i noticed the steam from the powerplant was catching the light from the sunrise. that looked cool and scary at the same time.



too bad my camera doesn't capture it exactly as i see it. this one is a little better. ironically, it looks both beautiful and it looks like the end of the world.

-20 and tite...

a stalactite that is... or would it just be a bike wart? my bike ride in was a tough slog. i was fighting something all the way. was it the added weight of this stalactite hanging from my bottom bracket and downtube or was it the fact that the bearings in my bb and my hubs hate cold weather? probably a combination of the two. whatever it was, i was kept warm by the fact that i was cranking hard the whole way. now, for a deeeeeep breath (of warm, indoor air), phew.

home in just under an hour

three, or so, inches of snow fell during the day today. i still rode home for the heck of it. it was a tough ride. i actually had to get off and walk on one unplowed (but cartracked) hill. it's definitely easier to ride through the powder than the snow that's been tracked up by cars.

new boots

the new soccer shoes are in place for tonight's game.

first coat

shot the first coat of primer on bel's bike.

nice one 10gallonhat

mmm... down to the last homeboybrew from mr 10gallonhat's personal stash. nice work, marc.

snot funny

the other day it was 6 or 8 degrees and my nose was runnin' fast, faster than i was movin' that's fer sure... anyway, i leaned over and did a farmer blow, but without much wind, the snot trajectory was straight down. i looked down expecting to see it on my pants. nope. i didn't find its final resting place until i went to lock my bike tobthe rack at work.

ready for paint

the bike painting project is in full swing. this is bel's bike frame after she and i sanded, wirebrushed, and masked it. next, we're off to the hardware store for some paint.

seedy soap

t got some awesome rosemary soap at the co-op.

chuck norris skates!

on actual inline skates! i fully expected to see him on rollerskates. ah, but he still carries a ninja-beater comb so he can tend to hid feathered mullet. any kungfoo master who'll skate around holding hands with his girlfriend is all right by me.

dog-in-boots

bel got some awesome boots for Christmas and fred wanted to try them on. how do you not snap a photo of that?

-11

well, at least this weekend's big snow was reason enough for st. paul to plow curb-to-curb. the ride in wasn't too bad. i had just the right layers on.

peugeot and pugsley

peugeot and pugsley locked at the rack, waitin for their owners to come back.
first comes love, then comes marriage
then come the training wheels and a burley carriage.

choirs of angels

b's duet @ the mall. we risked our lives driving on icy roads to get to this performance, but it was good to get there to see 'em perform. the kids did well, with lot's of folks looking on.

more photos of the dog's wild party

here, fred, this gift's for YOU!



hmm... what's in here?


a new BLANKIE!


since dogs LOVE to look at Christmas lights and it was his birthday, we took him with us to see the lights in Phalen park.



here he is snuggled in his new gift at bed time.

happy b-day fred

today's fred's 9th birthday

caught mu breath... on film

er... on pixels.

this new mi-newt light is awesome. on my way home tonight, i had a slight tailwind and i could see the condensation from my breath clinging to the beam of my light. it looked pretty cool, but i knew that the road conditions weren't going to allow me to take it as a rolling picture, so these two were staged in the garage when i got home.

snotsicles anyone?

-3 fahrenheit but the ride must go on. was a little worried when i got dressed to ride to work today when my mitten liners were a little damp from yesterday, but i must've cooked all of that moisture out right away as the fingers never got cold. the toes, however, were chilly even in my wool socks and shoecovers. well, they were chilly but never got sore, so this configuration could go a few degrees colder.

bike wart?

nice.

first big snowy commute

didn't have the guts to pull the camera out before i got into the driveway. i'm looking forward to trying to capture pics of snowflakes in the headlight this year.

the commute took about 50 mins in the snow. it was worth it,though, to beat the gridlock in downtown st. paul

the lasagne

mmm... mmm... good. well there are a couple of tweaks i will make to the recipe when i make it again.

those jerks at my lbs

so i went into the shop looking for a simple light and the guys in the shop showed me through all of the low-end lights and told me all of their bad qualities. they kept pointing me towards the night rider minewt, but i just couldn't pull the trigger at the $99 price. then... then, they pulled out the big guns and calc-ed the price with my team discount. ugh, i couldn't resist. i'm the proud new owner of a minewt. i'll write some reviews in the near future. and, actually, those guys aren't so bad... in fact, they're pretty cool. thanks matt and tim!