Slackenblog

This is starting to become that forgotten blog that someone starts and never updates. My apologies. A couple updates.

My cousin got married. I went out to Pittsburgh for his wedding. They did a small close family only affair. When i was younger I used to go and spend a week each summer down at my cousin's house in PA. Chris, Andrew, and Kevin-- oldest to youngest. So I count as close family and those guys are like brothers to me. Pictures forthcoming.

That day turned out to be quite a food frenzy for me and I think I gained a pound or two. It started with a freshly baked raspberry muffin before the ride with a nice tall cup of coffee. I rode Mtn. bikes with my buddy Matt K, Andrew (from DirtRag) and his Wife Margy. Then I went to lunch for Thai food with Matt K. They had the best spring rolls ever. Over to the wedding--nice cermony--and then awesome appetizers. Cap those with a strip steak and some wedding cake. Fast forward, It's 9:00 at night, Matt k and I are out at Brillobox. We have some tasty brews in honner of St Patricks day and walk back down the hill, we order a pizza and eat almost all of it.

Update 2:

My knee hurts. I started riding a lot up to the wedding and in the week following and developed some IT band stress (I'm no doctor, but I sell road bikes part time). I made an appointment with an orthopedic doctor tomorrow. I really hope he is a cyclist too. I also really hope that he can just give me some stretches and I'll be able to get on the bike pain free. I'll update soon.

BS

Move your clocks!

Finally got some warm weather this weekend. I actually got a jersey tan on Saturday. No picture of it yet but I'll take one when it starts getting really bad. Time to start using sunscreen again. A jersey tan is like a farmer's tan but worse because most jersey's have little arm gripper material at the cuff of each sleeve to keep it in place. This results in a perfect start and stop line, like glass half full of chocolate milk.

Cyclists can be identified while in regular street clothes during the summer by looking at there hands. Many cyclists will have a great tan down their arms (below the sleeves, of course) and then you'll notice the Micky Mouse glove on when you look at their hands. Cyclists who wear a short finger glove, have the Hobo Mickey Mouse glove tan, white hands till half way up the digits and tan finger tips. Or if you gloves have any particular cut out designed for airflow, you may end up with something like this.

I can't wait for summer.

BS

This weekend

I snuck in an extra post in below in order to catch up. The rest of the week, since Tuesday, has been equally as busy. We had our shop party courtesy of Todd and Anne at Shenandoah Brewing on Thursday which was very cool and they did a good job guiding us though the brewing process.

Check out some pics:

Some ingredients..the finished product is in the pint glasses

Scud adding some Hops to our Mt. Beast Ale

Todd crushing Juniper berries for flavoring in the Celebration Ales.

Loren, Skee, Derrick, and Tony Standning around waiting for their boil while Adam check out the directions for the next step.
Thanks to Todd and Anne for being so generous to us employees! we had a ton of fun!

BS

Last weekend

Wow, I've really let myself go...a long time without posting. It's been a busy past few weeks at work. I think i worked 120 hours this pay period not including travel time to Georgia. Here's what i wrote on the plane on Tuesday:

Well I thought I’d write this now since I’m stuck in an airport for the next hour. The last 48 hours have been pretty wild.

Hold on. I made the shop ride on Saturday morning before getting ready to head down to GA. It was fast. I spent most of the ride in zone 4 but rode at that level for an hour and a half. I only got dropped once but managed to catch back on. Top Speed, 33.5 miles per hour. There you have it, the only cycling content in this entry.

The rest of Saturday was spent preparing for the work trip down to GA. Here’s the timeline of the weekend.

Saturday:

1200 Receive a lift back to my house from Tony.. no I wasn’t to lazy to ride, but I was getting short for time.

1230 finish up a shower and head to the office.

1430 finished at the office…do I have everything I need? Yep.

1515 all packed up time to head out… Do I have everything? Nope

1518 turned around and got my cell phone charger.

1700 board flight

2100 boots on the ground in GA, a colleague meets me in the parking lot

2130 arrive at hotel and head to Fridays (on foot) for a much delayed dinner

2134 Fridays is packed

2139 Arrive at chili’s

2230 Back to the hotel…smoking room is nice but smelly, the south baby. Check e-mail and head to bed.

Sunday:

0530 WAKE UPPPPP CALLLL

0600 On station

1000 Complete the majority of the reason for my trip down there. Spend the rest of the day following colleagues learning about what they do

1230 Scored some sweet maps of foreign countries!

1830 arrive back at hotel

1700 arrive at supermarket on foot for some food and to try and sample a local microbrew.

1710… I’m told by the cashier that Georgia does not allow alcohol sales on Sunday. This explains why the lights were off in that section of the cooler.

1711 Buy a vitamin water

1714 stopped at a sweet pizza place while walking back to the hotel dejected (until now), and have the best calzone since as far back as I can remember. Seriously if you’re ever in the south check out www.johnnyspizza.com.

1800 I order a slice to go. Hey I gotta have something for breakfast. Something tells me that being on station by 0530 won’t allow for a stop tomorrow morning.

2200 Catchin Z’s


Monday:

0430 Up at O-Dark-Thirty

0455 Cold pizza and Vitamin Water

0530 fighting the urge to fall asleep despite a cup of Dunkin Doughnuts Coffee

0700 the sun is up now, I’m not as sleepy

0900 back by the compound, I check e-mail and call a the home office

1230 lunch at the chow hall- Breaded veal, mashed potatoes and gravy, and some noodles (also with gravy).. pretty good actually. The DFAC (pronounced Dee-Fack) reminds me of the old dining hall in college.

1300 some down time. I wait for some sosi guys to arrive back at the compound. We’ll head to the range to fire some weapons before I head back to VA.

1500 arrive at the range, fire the Glock 9mm pistol. I fired approximately 8 clips…Sweet!


1530 This M-4, was equipped with optics, and a combat grip and also very sweet, and way louder than the Glock.

1545 I’m handed an AK47 and told “Just point that thing down range and pull the trigger as fast as possible. It’s impossible to aim that F’n thing”

1600 Gotta hop to the airport

1638 I hear “Sir please step aside for a search” Oh no.. I must smell like a firing range… needless to say I received a very intimate pat down, but managed to keep out of the private room, than goodness.

1710 flight one, wheels up

1800 wheels down, time to scrounge some food

1925 While writing this in an airport restaurant, Outkast’s Roza Parks comes on the radio, Atlanta ain’t so bad… keepin it oldschool.

1927 What kind of restaurant plays regular radio?

2055 cruising at 30,000.00 ft over North Carolina listening to Into Thin Air audio book on IPOD.

2058 I’m exhausted, going to take the liberty of rolling into the office tomorrow around 11am. I think I might grab breakfast first. A job well done and some fun as well.

BS