October 2008 Entries

I usually don’t blog about all of my bike rides but I’m pretty proud of getting out for some good rides here in October. The weather in the Seattle area has been spectacular so far this fall so that has helped quite a bit. In addition to the two rides I link to below I also had two rides where my Forerunner 305 battery died or was simply DOA… yeah for some reason my USB connection is not charging my Forerunner. So four good rides in October… I’m feeling pretty good!

Here are the details:

Road Ride

Moving Time (h:m:s)
1:01:34

Distance (mi )
16.57

Moving Speed (mph)
16.1 avg.
23.6 max.

Mountain Biking

Moving Time (h:m:s)
0:56:03

Distance (mi )
7.38

Moving Speed (mph)
7.9 avg.
26.1 max.

In Part One I explained how "For a long time now my birthday has been just another day of the year. Just another year gone by." and how this year was different and that "the difference can be summed up in that my girlfriend, Marti, is the best girlfriend in the world!" This is part two of two - yes Marti did SO much for me that it will take two posts to tell you all about it!

On my birthday Marti took care of me and treated me like a King all evening. When I arrived home Marti was dressed in one of my favorite outfits, there were appetizers ready - cheeses, salami, crackers and my favorite Caprese! Yummy! and there was also a martini waiting for me. Not just any martini but a Steeler Martini!  Made with vodka and Blue Curacao the drink itself is very blue then garnished with a red cherry and a yellow lemon it is the colors of the three hypocycloids in the Steelers logo. The martini was back-dropped by my final birthday presents (no WAY! You do NOT get to know what was in the bag!) in a black bag with gold tissue paper! How sweet and thoughtful. A little side note: Marti HATES the Pittsburgh Steelers, mostly because of SuperBowl XL – so it was extra sweet of her to look past the hatred and make my birthday so special!

The table was set very nicely and while dinner cooked and we watched The Strangers (we both love horror movies). Dinner was linguine with a home made sauce that was to die for! Just the way I like it, chunky… VERY chunky. I hate runny sauces on my pasta! Also a VERY tasty cheesy bread with balsamic vinegar for dipping and we opened a bottle of Couer d’ Alene Opulence that we picked up on our CdA trip back in August. Of course it was a candle light dinner and the best part was that the candles and candle holders (you can see them in the pics) are spiders for Halloween and mine to keep, another part of my birthday!

After dinner Marti cleaned up and would not let me help! Then she started on dessert, chocolate fondue with strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, bananas and angel food cake for dipping. The chocolate was amazing (and thankfully there are left-overs! I’ve been eating them all week!) very dark with some Bailey’s Irish Cream for flavor. I’m bummed that I didn’t take any pictures of the fondue! :(

Finally I was treated to a full body massage with warm massage oil. Wow what a way to end the perfect birthday week!

For a long time now my birthday has been just another day of the year. Just another year gone by. It seems that the older we get the less important birthdays seem to be right. Considering this was my 39th birthday - yeah I wasn't too excited. Now don’t get me wrong I don't mind my age... but yeah birthdays are for kids, right?

Apparently not! This year was very different. The difference can be summed up in that my girlfriend, Marti, is the best girlfriend in the world! This is part one of two - yes Marti did SO much for me that it will take two posts to tell you all about it!

It all started last Thursday, October 16th. The mail carrier delivered a package to my office! I was very surprised and a bit caught off-guard as it was almost a whole week before my birthday! The return address was not one I recognized. I opened The package to find the box to the right... hmmm a mystery.  I opened the inner box and found a dozen cookies, a coffee mug and a t-shirt. The coffee mug is AWESOME it is black with a yellow gold smiley face on it and it says "I take mine black and gold" The shirt is equally as awesome it is black, with a yellow gold smiley face and it says "Pittsburgh Makes Me Smile." The cookies were yellow gold with black nose, eyes and, yes smile! I was seeing a trend but still wasn't exactly sure what the story was a quick Google Search helped solve the mystery... it turns out all of this cool stuff was from Eat 'N Park a Pittsburgh institution that has been around for almost 60 years. The cookies are very famous and ubiquitous in Pittsburgh - kind of like Starbucks in Seattle. What an amazingly cool birthday gift... see I am a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan! What really makes this so cool is a) I was SO surprised and b) the fact that Marti did so much research to get me a gift that was very cool and unique to the Pittsburgh area!

Of course I sent Marti a text to thank her and tell her how excited I was! That is when she mentioned that my second gift would be arriving via UPS at my house Tuesday October 21st! I had no idea what was in store for me! The cookies were VERY good by the way now ranked #1 among my favorite cookies and that is saying a lot because I LOVE cookies!

My son, Derek, plays football for his middle school and has games on Tuesdays so I knew I'd have to rush home between work and football to see what the UPS guy delivered for me! When I got home I was SO surprised to find a Spin Dryer from The Laundry Alternative! All I could think was that Marti had gone WAY overboard! But I was so excited! In case you missed it I posted a while back that I really could use a spin dryer like they have at most gyms (to dry your swim trunks) for all of my cycling clothes. Luckily I had just washed a load of cycling clothes the night before and had not hung them up yet (no traditional dryer for my cycling clothes!). Yes I am a TOTAL GEEK but I was so excited to get home so I could try my new gadget out. After reading the instructions I put my load of cycling clothes (mountain biking shorts which are two layers -- heavy cargo shorts over spandex under shorts with a chamois pad, socks. long sleeve jersey, tyvek jacket and a lightweight windbreaker) into the spin dryer and turned it on. As you can see  in the picture on the right almost three cups of water came out of the laundry and the water still had detergent in it! Everything came out of the spin dryer almost dry enough to put away. After only one day of hang drying to get rid of the remaining dampness everything IS ready to put away! Usually it takes the better part of a week for the chamois in the shorts to dry fully. This is SO awesome! I LOVE this gift. Geeky, practical, fun, a complete surprise and again Marti did the research and bought me a gift that I totally and completely love yet was TOTALLY surprised by!

In part two I’ll talk about my actual birthday and how PERFECT it was!

Photojournalist James Nachtwey is considered by many to be the greatest war photographer of recent decades.

He has covered conflicts and major social issues in more than 30 countries.

He is the winner of the 2007 TED Prize, awarding him $100,000 and one wish to change the world. This was his wish: "I'm working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for you to help me break it in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age."

Do you like the way the spin dryers at the gym dry your swim trunks so quickly? I sure do. I just saw a post titled 'Spin Dryers' over at Cool Tools blog about a home version of the same contraption. Why is this important to me? Cycling Clothes. Two things conspire, first I wash all of my cycling clothes on the gentle cycle which I am convinced does not spin dry the clothes very well (part of being gentle I suppose) and second, I hang dry all of my cycling clothes since most are not dryer friendly.

So there they are looking so lovely in the spare bathroom! They can take days to dry, especially the chamois in the shorts. So I've often thought that it would be nice to have an effective spin dryer at home. Now I know they are available!