TG eve and beyond

Twas the night before Thanksgiving, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Since work emptied out a little early that night, I did the random rally to the Beerhive, supertrendy diet coke establishment here in the 801. I walked in and saw some of my favorite people in the world, totally unplanned:









Ok that was really the first time meeting James, but he gets favorite people status by association with the other kids.




Shane "waxing" poetic about a certain subject...I freaking love this guy.




It was a super fun night. The hubs rallied to get out of work at a decent hour and so did Rodney, super awesome Laura's beyonce. I was totally overwhelmed by the awesome-ness.

A couple heads from work also joined which was great (it was actually their idea to go). Since I'm all about consuming local--Shane introduced me to the High West (was it whiskey or bourbon?). Wow it was awesome. Maybe a little too awesome.



What things looked like in my world, upon leaving the Beerhive. HUBS, WAIT UP FOR ME!




After drinking dinner, Rodney (the athlete of the group), suggested we go obtain some sustenance of the solid variety. Superawesome Laura, Rodney, the hubs and I headed over to the Naked Fish for some sushi. And sake. It was really fun and the fish was delish.





Its a Thanksgiving miracle! (We made it back to our car)




It was the night of the random rally.

Thanksgiving morn, the hubs and I met up with a work buddy for a muddy mountain bike ride (though said work buddy suggested going early, so the trail would be frozen, the hubs and I were shockingly late). It was pretty comical but not very long. The parts that were snowy were fine--it was just the sunny wet parts that were slightly issue-matic. Lots of screaming (and laughing) and then the hubs and I headed back home. In a spurt of hubs awesomeness, the hubs actually took our mountain bikes to the carwash to be cleaned. Don't worry, he made sure to aim the powersprayer directly at the headset and bottom bracket. Gotta clean those bearings.

On account'a I'm starting to train again, I hopped on my road bike for some extra minutes of ride time. The 801 was pretty empty which was great. Ran into NOB and some friends out riding around filming a documentary on their favorite coffee establishments and fixie fashions :)))

Made it back just in time to rush over the Woodies (and we were still 30 minutes late). We have spent the past 3 TG's with the Woodies. Every year is a little different: different people, different dishes, different pre-dins activities...But every year is ALWAYS awesome!!!

One notable absence was the DBs who were off to the northwest. We missed them but still managed to have some fun. This year's roster included Harris/Fraser/Neah; a couple from J9's work; and a late showing of Scharves and family. The company was fabulissimo, the food amazing(even the brussel sprouts!!). It was super great seeing a one-year-older Neah (a 7th grader). The hubs and I both agreed that all kids should be like her. Totally friendly, cute, engaging and fun to talk to. As ususal, Fraser (Neah's mom) did not disappoint. This woman is a superbadass of hilarity and trendiness.

This year Fraser and I really thought we were bringing our "A" games with the dessert. Woody entrusted me with a recipe for gingerbread with mascarpone honey topping and Fraser and Neah made a fruit gallette. The newcomers to Thanksgiving really showed both of us up with a roasted sweet potato cheesecake with whipped cream and some RIDICULOUS brownies. It was really just a race for 2nd place after that damn cheesecake. I'm going to say the gallette definitely edged out the gingerbread and-come to think of it- the brownies probably did too. What can I say, one spot off the podium is nothing new for me.

Fraser was definitely in love with the cheesecake--but not so psyched about losing (we all have things in which we are competitive). At one point she whispered loudly "I'M REALLY NOT SURE I LIKE THIS NEW COUPLE."

In other TG competitions- there was a Pictionary world championships of boys vs girls. It was INCREDIBLY close and both sides played brilliantly. Cheek to cheek! J9 (and Wendy) proved to be the mind-melters when it came to guessing correctly. However, Todd of the NEW COUPLE was a pretty studly draw-er and drawing guess-er. So it was a fierce battle to the bitter end. The boys actually came from behind to make it to the finish first, but the girls did an uber bike toss on the all-play thanks to Wendy's masterful rendering of a leaf. Much celebrating all around.

I hope everyone's TG was as tryptophantastic as mine and that you are all hopefully getting some time for some fun activities. Viva le long weekend. And let's hope for some snow.

Put the hater-ade down

I must've drankened the hater-ade because I was a total hater this week. Feeling yucky, out of shape, eating like crap, work poopiness. Thank god for St. Hubs. Friday things turned around a bit, though I had to work in the morning, I got out on a nice ride. Well it was sort of a stupid ride (riding stupid places like the mountain dell golf course to get a few more miles) but really gorgeous out and not too cold. Best of all, the air quality was decent too. I saw Alisha and Dave W getting in their winter miles too. I was hoping we'd be heading down Emigration at the same time for a litte rotation action but because they are hard core they weren't ready to head back over when I was. I had to fight the head wind on my own. It wasn't too bad though.

Friday night the hubs and I saw Where the Wild Things Are. The movie was good--even better was the discovery that BREWVIES NOW SELLS WINE AND LIQUOR!!!!! For those of you don't live here, Brewvies is a place where you can drink beer and watch a movie. With the wall beginning to come down (and the changing liquor laws), Brewvies is now serving vino and liquor (which--unlike beer--I can drink).

The hubs and I also discovered Boston Legal on Netflix in addition to Netflix on demand. We have been boning up on some major The Office action. I don't think I could ever go back to normal TV after watching TV on Netflix. Good thing we don't have TV.

Saturday I went and did a little workout with Lizzie at 24 hour fatness. It was the fastest 45 minute workout I've ever done. Then the hubs and I rode out to the Air of Saltyness. It was a full on gnarlissimo headwind on the way out. I was SO SO waiting to get whisked back to SLC on the way home but it sort of seemed like the wind died down. Though that was a let-down, I was super psyched that I "cleaned" the airport bike path in both directions because I have serious skillz. (And I didn't hurt myself either out there, which I ususally do). It was a breakthrough and I opened all 5 gates BOTH WAYS without unclipping and I even swung the gates wide enough so the HUBS could get through without unclipping.

Ah the things we do to make stupid rides more fun.





Fun on the maximum security bike path (its next to the airport)




It was still a fun ride and great to get some hubs time--even though it was too windy to talk most of the time.




Where did this pic come from? Don't we live in a desert? Yes I'm being very tricky. This is the marina out at Saltair (Great Salt Lake).







Hubs on the maximum security bike path. Delta flight comin in hot.




I was planning to do the cyclocross race today. However, I woke up really NOT wanting to do it. JEM called and we met up to ride out there. While waiting for her, I tried to adjust my seat and stripped the seat bolt. Hey, a sign is a sign. I traded in the cx bike for the road bike (ahhh much better) and rode out to the race with JEM and then kept heading south to get in some more kilos. Sandy is THE PLACE to ride on a Sunday. Who knew? I headed east on 9600 South and got some great qt with some sweet vistas of the Wasatch. I headed back down Little Cottonwood/Wasatch under darkening skies and increasing winds. Was happy to be back home.

Trying to resist the desire to drink the hater-ade. Have to travel for work :( but soon it will be Thanksgiving at the Woodies. Just need to make it 3 days this week.



Remember, we live in a pretty sweet place.

Thanks 801

Yesterday was a brisk but sunny day in the 801. To back up, however, the hubs and I joined the DBs, Woodies and Mini G at Naked Fish for birthday sushi on Saturday night. It was dern good. Even though Jem says its lame to eat the tuna on account'a they can regulate their body temperature and are wicked smart, I was enjoying those scholarly chickens of the sea ENORMOUSLY. Seared, Nigiri'ed Pokie'ed. Everything. Afterward we went to the my fave the Red Door where some dirty girl scouts showed us who was boss. (the drink, not the real thing--though I have been craving Samoas lately in case anyone knows any clean girl scouts--the real thing).
We had a super fun night and somehow didn't regain conciousness until frat boy wake up time on Sunday. After many cups of java, I moto'ed for an afternoon ride. It was super gorgeous though very cold.

I would like to commend the Wasatch on getting a decent start to the winter. They've still got a long way till I will announce the Verdicts (my skis)--but I was filled with optimism as I gazed out at the rocky loveliness.




2 hours on Friday and 2.5 hours on Sunday. I better be careful about overtraining.

I ran into Alisha on Wasatch changing a flat. We rode and chatted until I turned and burned at 6200 South and she kept keepin on b/c she be burley like that.

Since I had a bunch of work to do the hubs and I busted over to the Patagucci outlet for the last day of their sale. Oh my awesome-ness. I was having so much fun but the hubs had drankened some of the hater-ade and was not loving it up in the dressing room with me. Anyway, even though the hubs *almost* rained on my parade, I got tons of stuff (nothing I was looking for) including the jacket I've been fantasizing about (a long puffy--but not too puffy). Thanks Caterina for giving us the beta on that!

Afterwards, instead of doing the work I need to do, I made some soup with my frusen tomatoes. It turned out pretty well, esp accompanied by some Naan BREAD (E- that's for you). Finally focused on getting some of my shizz done. But then it was late and I was tired so I woke up at oh-five-hund-o to ride to work. That was ouch-y. And then I got to ride home in total darkness too. However, I would like to congratulate myself on successful apparel selection. Two words: wind pants. If you hear something swishing behind you--you'll know who it is...

Some people are smart, others not so much

The roads dried up this morning and the sun came out (temporarily at least). The hubs and I made a plan to ride with Rick down here in the 801. I headed over to the Yohnson-Gammons to assist with trainer installation (on account'a mama J-G needs a little exercise whilst getting QT with la nocciolina). On my way over, I rode into a blizzard. It was a wall of white. What happened to the blue skies? Things changed quick. I helped them with the trainer and then headed back out. I met up with Rick and Steve to just do a little wintry spin. About 30 seconds after heading out, Steve flatted. Very surprising.
As Rick was getting the tire off, Steve's CO2 prematurely evacuated (you know what I mean). You can see the puff of white in the picture. Good thing those are freezing cold.






They got the tire with one of Rick's CO2 cartridges and we headed off with the plan to ride for an hour through the neighborhoods (in a snowstorm). Until 10 seconds after we started riding and Steve's tire went flat again. We used another CO2 (Rick we owe you several cartridges now) but nothing stayed in. Steve started hooking it back to the Yohnson-Gammons (about 5 blocks away) and Rick and I just headed straight for home to get the car.

We totally froze our asses off on the way home. And every light seemed like it was red. The brakes were not performing flawlessly either. An hour ride in the snow would've *maybe* been ok. A 30 minute ride in the snow with 30 minutes of stopping and standing around was pure stupidity.




We made it back to our house soaked and freezing. Lucky for us, Dr. J-G decided to just give the hubs a ride home (after the hubs did what he described as the longest walk of his bike). Best part of the day was getting to do some hangtime with Lizzie when she came over to collect her frozen boyfriend. My garmin read 10 miles and 2 hours (didn't shut'er off while dealing with the trainer at the J-G's). Rick remarked I probably could've pushed a wheelbarrow and generated similar stats. Anyway, I still enjoyed some recovery chocolate--as was my right. Now its time to do some work before Caterina's birthday.

Sometimes stupidity is fun.

Snow dustings

I moto'ed to get my butt up Emigration yesterday. Does anyone happen to know if they've recently lengthened and steepened it? It felt like it. Who's a paragon of fitness right now? It was FREEEEZING cold and there were some snow dustings up there. It was definitely under 40 degrees in certain parts of the canyon. There weren't many people out but I did see a guy WITH BARE KNEES riding up. OMG. This pic doesn't really capture it (and maybe I was shaking with the cold) but the trees were definitely snow dusted up there.

It was a nuking headwind on the way down. Thanks to the dude in the red who blew by me on the downhill but didn't object that I was glued in his draft on the way down. There was no way I was going to pass up a ride.

I had to work again on a friday off. Kind of a bummer. However, I've determined that being in cars makes me grumpy so I carried my backpack on my ride and went straight to work. Since I'm not motivated to train right now, I'm going to motivate to drive AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. I find I'm happier that way.

Last night we got to pay a visit to the Yohnson-Gammons to visit Miss Hazel (aka La Nocciolina) on her one month birthday. She is a real cutey. The hubs demonstrated an amazing ability to calm La Nocciolina down (at least temporarily). The Yohnson-Gammons called the hubs the baby whisperer. That was funny.

On the baby scene, Sleaze, Melanie and Presley welcomed Mason into the world a few days ago. I've only seen pictures but he's another cutey too.




Subie snow dusting this morning--YIPPEE.





Its looking quasi-wintry out there! Very exciting. We have Caterina's sushi berfday tonight with the DBs, Woodies and MINI-G. I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Looking for a little moto

Woke up this morning to some great ideas for the garden and a stomach ache from all the chocolate (see previous post). Was met with another quality post from the hubs. I hope the random surprise hubs post gives people a reason to check the blog--to see if the hubs will grace us with his quirky (though SO belated) worldview.

In other belated news, have been meaning to tout the #3 in the nation Albany Sirens rugby team after nationals last weekend (of which my studly little sister is a member). After winning their first 2 games. The sirens lost to Pittsburgh in the semi-finals. However, they won the consolation:

"After playing 3 matches in 24 hours it was an understatement to say our players were battered and tired and few would of blamed them for not giving 100%... but our women dug deep within and played every minute of the consolation final on pure guts, determination and a lot of Albany pride...When the final whistle blew it was 7-5 Albany, and we were #3 in the nation."

Mary Pezzulo, former captain of the Syracuse women's rugby squad also reported:"The Syracuse rugby guys that live [in Houston] came to watch and screamed at the ref like overprotective dads on the sidelines."

We had a little Albany rugby rally this morning to celebrate:




The hubs chugs his coffee instead of a boot





In other upstate NY family rockstar news, Papa esq had a huge victory in the courtroom. Its been all over the papers and TV. I will refrain from posting those links in the interest of demonstrating that said attorney has absolutely NO TIES to the social or political views that have at times been espoused in this forum.

In any event, he successfully took the city to task for mismanaging funds intended for firefighters. While the dollar figure was pretty amazing, I'm personally inspired by the fact that said attorney's father (an Italian immigrant) was himself a firefighter. While he is very unfortunately no longer with us--I'm pretty sure there were some celestial anisette and wandies broken out in heavenly celebration of the "Chief's" son's victory.

I on the other hand will provide a nice foil for the accolades of my amazing relations.

Hey motivation: are you in there?

Hostile takeover of Tiff's blog

Right, so I’ve (the Hubs) been placed on the lifetime ban list. I feel like what Jerry and Kramer must have felt after getting banned from Joe’s fruit shop. So I orchestrated a hostile takeover. I hypnotized her with gardening magazines and chocolate in order to get the password and well... Terribly sorry about the delay, but for those who were curious about rest of the details from the 25 hour frog hollow thing, here it is.

Jem being sent off with the the team slogan "Nice Ass!"

When we left off, Jem had just spanked the course and was placing the team into the capable hands of Clem, who was the 2 in the 1-2 punch combo. Unfortunately for Clem, 10 minutes into his lap, his bike’s top tube discovered the seat tube cheating with the down tube, which explosively resulted in irreconcilable differences. Apparently, in the middle of a sizable dip, he mistook a huge “Bang!” for a bottomed out suspension (which was now dramatically squishier). At some point, I’m sure he looked down and had the “ohhh #$^&#@” realization, but it didn’t faze him a bit. He decided to ride the rest of the lap out of the saddle, running the more techy spots (to help prevent his bike from completely exploding). Even with his bike being held together with a shoe string and a prayer, he was able to punch through with a time just over 1:10… absolutely amazing, for the bike and him.

Clem handed the ass off to Tiff and while she was crushing it, asked me if he could borrow my bike for his next lap. I think I saw my bike shudder a wee bit, but I was confident it would work out (he’s only 3 or so inches taller than me, so raising the seat would be the only adjustment). Plus with the new tube and spoke, the bike should be riding like it had just been taken from the showroom floor. Of course that is if I could figure out why the shifting was grumbling more and more. On that note, I quickly went to work tuning the sram grip-shifting when I noticed that the derailleur was at a slight angle to the cogs. At the time I thought this was a bit odd, the engineer in me told me to refer to a working bike (yeah, the derailleur was perfectly parallel to the cogs). A slight yank (ok, maybe a bit more than slight), and the thing was shifting a tad better even though it was far from parallel. I comforted myself by chalking the difference to a sram vs shimano thing. In the back of my mind, I knew that I could always just stay in the biggest cog (that should be safe as a two-speed after all). As for Clem using it after me, I was sure I’d get the shifting figured out during my next lap.

Fueled with soft ginger cookies and some string cheese, I was charged up and ready to make up for my last lap. The going was great for most of the lap. 40 minutes in and I only had to adjust the shifting cable tension 4-5 times, but as this can be done on the fly, I didn’t even lose any time. Up comes this techy section that I had practiced about 8 times to find the perfect line. On one side, the train had a step up, on the other side of the step up was a tight fit between another huge rock. I chose the line straight over the step up. Just as I got my front tire over, bang, I nail the center of the step-up with what I thought was my big chain ring. No prob, at worst I crushed a chain ring tooth… there’s like 40 more where that one came from, so I should be good. The next pedal stroke however was not to be. It was the same feeling as when you swap out your chain but forget to put new cogs on (chain skip). When I looked down though, to my horror I saw that my derailleur had now found a home around one of my spokes. The current predicament brought some fond biking memories flooding back. A riding buddy from grad school, Chris, had powered through this situation and had ended up with a trail of derailleur parts sprinkled along the road like a trail of tears. Well, at least that didn’t happen. I sighed in relief and looked back down at my sad rig, but noticed that the derailleur hanger had broken clean off, bummer, so now it was more than simply getting the thing unstuck from the spoke.

The broken hanger reminded me of the same poor Chris who had also been afflicted with this problem 85 miles into our ride around the White Rim in 92-106 degree weather and 40-50 mph gusts of wind (but that’s a whole other story). The moral of that story was, aside from the obvious, never put your bike upside down to fix it. A flat, a gust, and in an instant, his hanger was no more. It’s not as if it was a unique experience, but it did clue me into the idea that I could turn my bike into a single speed (which is what he had to ride for the remainder, not exactly a gimme). Without further ado, I got to work trying to decide what gearing to choose and a short 17 minutes, some hard lessons in chain tool usage, and 6-8 “got everything”s later and I was back in the game. As I was finishing the lap, my only thought was ‘sorry Clem, I guess your gonna have to ride a single’. My other thought was ‘I wonder how much time I lost’. Turns out a lot, I was also the proud recipient of our team’s slowest lap at 1:24.

With the exception of a “I heart my bike” bell that deserted Tiff in a moment of need, the next few laps were run without incident. Clem wisely decided to use Jems bike instead of mine. While resting before the next night lap (how the hell did I end up with three of these) I thought it better to fret about which single speed to use rather than to recharge my lights. I seemed to remember that one could get at least 3 hours out of a single charge and a combination of recharging them after the first night lap and doing the math I figured I had a good hour of charge left. If I just used one light at a time, I should have plenty of charge left for the whole lap. About 5 minutes into the lap and that logic wasn’t looking too hot when my head lamp winked out. Now it was a race against time on a more lethargic single-speed and significantly more lethargic (and crampy) legs. Although the moon had been full and shining brightly for my last lap, it was setting for this one. So I guess I don’t have that going for me. I spent the next 50 or so minutes trying to re-calculate how long I had used the lights on the other two laps and wondering how fast I’d be able to go in complete darkness. Luckily, I made it to the final section of single track before my last light gave up. At least I wasn’t surrounded by snakes. One doesn’t realize how bright these bike lights are until they go out in the middle of a ride. You really can’t see a damn thing. I had some vague notion of the trail, but I can’t be certain I stayed on the single track. All I can say is that some heroic sage brush sacrificed itself for my cause.

The next few hours were a blur, but along with Clem getting his best time on his fifth lap, some smack was being thrown around about batteries being unplugged prematurely and clothing being donated to the Frog Hollow organizers. All in all, it was the best mountain bike race and 25 hour event I’ve ever been a part of (also the first of each). I’d do it again in a heartbeat, but I might take the Dawg into the Wild Rose for some rehab first. Since Clem won’t be needing that frame, perhaps I could steal his derailleur hanger.