Smarterer

I make Seattle Smarterer

Nothing but trouble…

1) Bagels with larger than normal holes in the middle
2) Magnet-based speed sensors
3) Red lights
4) Crosswalks
5) Share The Road signs
6) Those lane divider/turtle-shell things that are ALL OVER Seattle
7) Females who own cowboy hats
8) Grease stains on a white carpet
9) “Space Saver” washer/dryer combos
10) The Cat
11) Your school getting cancelled due to Hurricane Ernesto
12) No Nutella
13) Burnt pizza
14) The Burke-Gilman Trail
15) TV + Rabbit Ears

Random photo updates

A couple of weeks ago, The Fam™ swung into town. It was a good trip with plenty of site seeing. It took a bigger toll on my body than a 4H bike ride! But, we ventured up to Port Townsend, WA to check out a wooden kayak convention to satisfy my father’s thrist for all things woodworking. Maybe someday my dad will get around to finishing the 1/2 done kayak in our basement!

And leave it to my sister to influence me in yet another way. You see, she’s the definition of hip and cool. She got a nice motorcycle (something I’ve wanted for a LONG time) and has basically convinced me to take a Learn To Ride class offered by one of the local universities. Who knows, maybe someday soon I’ll pick up a new hog like my sisters.

Like father, like son…

TTT Pics

Thanks to Martha for capturing our “special” moments…

Our two teams started back to back…

It’s weird, Garage is one of the smaller teams in Seattle yet we had two of a total four 1/2 teams show up.

Note: We started with four…finished with three…stupid gravel…

New Demo!

New Demos!!! from The Smoking Popes!! I won’t look at you with disgust by going to myspace…but only this once…

Night Riding

It’s getting to that time of the season where I am starting to gear up for my nightly excursions…that means digging out the rain bike

checking the fenders…verifying that my bike lights, do in fact, still work. Last year I would go out on some 3H rides and my Light & Motion Arc would die out miles from home. Lets just say that my last few miles were a little sketchy. Well this year I’m coming in with some bigger guns. I present to you, my new purchase: Light & Motion Vega

Holy crap…that’s all I have to say….this sucker rules! For a light AND battery to be completely encased in one small pocket-able package is amazing. Not to mention the fact that I nearly blinded myself last night looking into the light.

Guilty

Wow, I almost feel guilty posting to my own blog. I mean, it has been a number of weeks since my last post…with the season winding down and what-not there really isn’t that much to say. Just chillin’, watching some tele, constantly cleaning my apartment (I swear it disorganizes itself while I’m out for the day), The DQ and buying breadmakers with friends…ya know, the usual.

In the past few weeks there have been some ups and downs. The team has been awesome. We got 2nd in the State Team Time Trial after loosing one of our guys to a flat (the course went across about 300 yards of course, loose gravel). However the 1st place team didn’t have all of their members part of the WSBA so we at least got the 1st place points which puts me into 3rd place overall for the WA State Best All-Around Rider competition. This weekend is the last race of the season in the WSBA series, and uphill TT, if the sun/moon align right, I could move up into 2nd!

Last week, I headed down to PR for a weekly Tuesday night race series. There, my teammates constantly kept attacking which set me up perfectly for grabbing both the primes and then 2nd in the sprint (1st place took off with 2 laps to go…I guess that’s why he’s pro).

Then this past weekend was a hellacious trip down to Woodland, WA where the winds decimated the field from 40-50 riders down to about 15 in the first 20 miles. 50+ miles of pancake flat course followed by a 1.5 mile climb covering about 700ft. On the flats, I drooled all over my top tube, coaxing the wheel/cassette in front of me to not get to far away as I hung on for dear life on the flats. The climb, only rivaled by the finishing climb at GMSR, was an interesting way to finish off the race. I did whatever I could to keep my rpms above 50 as the last 1k kicked me into paperboying it up the hill (zig-zagging in an effort to minimize the gradient).

30 Days…

Man, what a great show 30 days is. I mean, seriously, where else can you get someone who on Day 5 is shouting and pounding the table spouting crazy ideologies and by Day 30 is basically eating his words and almost ashamed of what his beliefs are.

If you don’t know, 30 days was created by the same guy who starred in Super Size Me and worked on creating a show that put people in conflicting situations for 30 days. For instance, putting a border patrolling minute man in with an illegal immigrant family of 5.

Absolutely brilliant.