not a day for slippers at breakfast

here's what i saw today as i stepped out of my front door to head to breakfast:

i have to walk around the building i'm in to get to the hotel, where they serve breakfast,


and it's a good think i didn't try to head over there in a pair of slippers because it would have gotten a bit cold.

snö i linkoping

here was the view out my front door when i looked toward the central station (where i was headed to catch the bus to work). yep, the weather's been nicer than minnesota, even with a little snow.



this, however, was cool to see. people... lots of 'em still rode their bikes to the station, in the snow. take THAT you hearty minnesotans who go from your house to the attached garage to the car to the parking ramp! :-)

screw the restaurants, i'm cooking

i got my groceries and spent a little time whipping something up in the kitchen. the result? pure awesomeness. i didn't bother to buy any garlic, so i was a bit worried when i started out in the kitchen. as it turns out, though, i compensated with extra cheese. plenty of yum factor.


1 C penne
1 1/2 T. butter (divided)
small fresh mushrooms
6 cherry tomatoes
salt
1 t. dried oregano
blue cheese

start your pasta cooking, the sauce will take about the time required to boil your pasta. as such, plan ahead and get the water boiling while you clean/trim your veg.

1. clean/dry mushrooms
2. dice tomatoes
3. melt butter in frying pan over medium heat
4. add mushrooms, and saute until almost completely cooked through
5. add tomatoes
6. add oregano and salt. toss to mix with butter and coat mushrooms and tomatoes
7. heat tomatoes through and allow them to break down some in the heat
8. rinse pasta, return to pan with 1/2 t. of butter (or olive oil)
9. add cheese to pan, allow to melt and stir to coat mushrooms and tomatoes evenly with melted cheese.
10. put pasta in bowl or on a plate.
11. spoon sauce over pasta

would go great with a red wine... (i wish i would've gotten some, duh!)

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.