It sounded like fun, so I did something similar for our pumpkins. We always compost them, but I always have to break them up. This year I let the kids throw them out Elliot’s window to smash them.
It was fun and I can imagine the requests to do it again next year.
Once again I signed up for Movember. I don’t have any Halloween pictures, but I did do the trucker stache and mullet wig for a costume again. Perhaps next year I will try to come up with a new costume idea.
In any event November 1 saw me completely clean shaven again.
Yesterday I was getting ready for a dinner party and did the first Movember shave. The all important shave where you define the shape of the Mo.
It should be a good month I think.
The ride I went on yesterday was pretty good. A friend and I headed out and took Heart for a spin. We stuck to the North end of the park with the ultimate destination being Trillium trail. We started off going up Skull, then heading over to the Switchbacks, then along Twister. North Ridge was Next, then Mind Bender. It was at this point that it started to rain a bit. No problem though. I don’t mind when it starts raining while I am riding, but I dislike starting a ride while it is raining.
Trillium was next. It was a good challenging climb, and I look forward to the day I ride it the opposite direction. At the top of Trillium we decided to cut the ride a little short and skip Who’s Your Daddy and headed down to Night Shift. After Night Shift it was back down Skull and out to the truck. So much fun. The new bike is handling very well, and is truly fun to ride. Maybe this is my imagination, but I don’t care. I am thoroughly enjoying it.
I am still thinking about my next dually though. Somehow I have to figure out what I want.
View 03/11/2012 10:24am in a larger map
Name: 03/11/2012 10:24am
Activity type: –
Description: –
Total distance: 10.75 km (6.7 mi)
Total time: 2:10:35
Moving time: 1:39:58
Average speed: 4.94 km/h (3.1 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 6.45 km/h (4.0 mi/h)
Max speed: 55.84 km/h (34.7 mi/h)
Average pace: 12.15 min/km (19.6 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 9.30 min/km (15.0 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 1.07 min/km (1.7 min/mile)
Max elevation: 295 m (967 ft)
Min elevation: 114 m (376 ft)
Elevation gain: 539 m (1769 ft)
Max grade: 15 %
Min grade: -32 %
The stats are a little off unfortunately. I forgot to stop recording before I started driving away.
When Amy came along, this tradition continued. Amy slept in a little more, but her usual time to get up was 6am.
As the years progressed and the kids got older, sue and I started taking weekend mornings to sleep in. Saturday mornings were mine to sleep in on, and I sometimes got up early to go riding. This was especially true when I trained for the Tour de Victoria.
I noticed that once Elliot was in school he slept more. It was harder to wake him on school mornings and we usually let him sleep as long as we can. It’s now common for him to get up past 7. This is only doable because he can now get ready for school and eat breakfast quicker than he used to. When Elliot was young he would do untimely take 45 minutes to eat breakfast. Now he can rip through breakfast in 15 minutes or less.
Amy also sleeps in more now, and on daycare days she wakes around 7. In the mornings she is a much lighter sleeper that Elliot, and this is very much like me. On the weekends, when we remind her that it is a sleepin day, she can go back to sleep and 7:30 or even 8 are possible.
This brings me back to the beginning. Sue and I have our sleeping in, relaxing weekend mornings back. Amy got up at 7:30 this morning and came into our bed to snuggle. I got up at 8 and sue got to sleep some more. I drank my coffee, ate breakfast, read some news, got caught up on twitter all the while thoroughly enjoying it. Elliot got out of his bed around 8:30. The kids are now in bed with Sue and she is reading to them.
Ahead ago I couldn’t imagine a Saturday morning like this. Now it is becoming regular, and I must say that I think I appreciate it more. I used to take it for granted.
Time to get ready for a ride.
Awesome. Bottle opener that looks like the Millennium Falcon. It even “features a magnet on the back letting it dock to any magnetic surface”. Cool.
via Gizmodo
I was pretty bummed when I found the crack in my Bullit. It meant that both my frames had cracks in them. I was lucky enough to see on twitter that Santa Cruz was having a blowout sale, and I picked up a new Chameleon frame. I transferred all my parts from the old green machine to the new sleek, black frame. I also put the disc brakes from the Bullit onto the new hardtail.
Old green machine
New black hotness
The old parts transferred over nicely, and besides new brake pads, the only real parts I had to buy were a new rotor for the rear brakes, and a new seat post.
Then the new bike hung in my basement for a few weeks.
Yesterday I got it out for the first ride. I first took it out onto the streets around the house to bed in the brakes since this was badly needed, then I headed out to the trails for the first real ride. Of course the weather had turned sour on us. Wet, rainy, misty, cool, but no wind. Preactically perfect riding conditions 🙂
The bike rode great. It feels like a huge improvement over the old frame, but I can’t completely figure out why. It climbs better, while descending hasn’t changed. The ground clearance is just fine, it feels lighter while riding, feels more compact (maybe there is a shorter top tube). The bike just felt right. It brought a smile to my face several times.
View First Ride On New Chameleon in a larger map
Total distance: 10.87 km (6.8 mi)
Total time: 1:59:23
Moving time: 1:29:16
Average speed: 5.46 km/h (3.4 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 7.31 km/h (4.5 mi/h)
Max speed: 30.62 km/h (19.0 mi/h)
Average pace: 10.98 min/km (17.7 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 8.21 min/km (13.2 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 1.96 min/km (3.2 min/mile)
Max elevation: 287 m (941 ft)
Min elevation: 107 m (352 ft)
Elevation gain: 521 m (1709 ft)
Max grade: 21 %
Min grade: -33 %
Add in the wet conditions ride, my first in a long time, and it was a fabulous ride. Heart got a run in, and I ended up riding with a couple guys from the triple shot cycling club. They got me to thinking about joinging them on some of their groups rides. Could be a good way to get out more. We’ll see.
The story goes like this: Elliot was eating a hard boiled egg. He bit into it and felt a pain in his mouth. When he said ‘ow!’ he heard a clinking sound on the floor. He quickly realized it was his tooth and then found it on the floor.
Still, in my heart I am a mountain biker. I follow mountain biking news way more than roadie news.
When I saw this video, I began to think, maybe I can truly mix mountain biking with road biking.
The kids were practicing their cross overs which was pretty fun to watch. Lots of pointers to the kids, lots of drills. Most of them seem like their legs are too short to be able to do it 🙂
Right before the scrimmage the last drill the kids did was kind of funny. They had a net race.
He’s starting to look like a pro hockey player with all those gaps.
I have to admit that the tooth is bugging me. So much so that I really, really want to pull it out. I even offered Elliot a toonie to let me try. After a bit of convincing, he actually took me up on the offer. The tooth remains, and he got his $2. Darn.