Collective Eyes

zipping around all over the place

Tuesday myself, Sue, kaptaink, JJ, and Jim all headed over to Vancouver to go see Collective Soul play at the Commodore. The road trip started when we took the 3pm ferry over to Vancouver, dropped our stuff off in Tsawassen, and had dinner with the kaptains parents who were house sitting.

The doors opened at 8, and we planned to get downtown just after 8. When we got there, we were greeted with a huge lineup that was at least a block and a half long.

Once we finally got in the doors I was pretty impressed with the club. It has a huge dancefloor, lots of seating, and a few different bars to get drinks from.

The opening band was the Waking Eyes. In a word, they were awesome. They blew me away. Opening their set I was prepared for a mediocre band. As they tore into their first song, the lead singer was barely audible. I looked over at their guitar tech who was gutting himself laughing. A few seconds later he ran out and started picking at the mics. Apparently someone from Collective Soul had placed condoms over all the microphones as a prank for the Waking Eyes’ last gig of their tour. The lead singer quipped up that that was the first time he had ever had tasted a condom. He also swore that he would get them back.

Musically the Waking Eyes were excellent. Their songs were great, and their on stage presence was very strong. They were putting out a lot of energy. This was especially evident during Taking the Hard Way. The lead singer was jumping around, and every time he shook his head the sweat created a mist that surrounded him.

At the end of their set, they were greeted by the Collective Soul bassist and drummer who had a tray of shooters for them all. Very nice.

There was the prerequisite break between the bands. I hate waiting around like that.

Collective Soul took the stage and the crowd went nuts. Now I don’t know their song names very well, but I do enjoy their music. Their set was very good, but I couldn’t get over the lead singer. He was rather exuberant on the stage, and it was just weird. A lot of his hand motions, mic stand playing, posing, and jumping seemed very forced and unnatural. As this review stated, it was creepy. Once he got a guitar strapped around him, everything was good though.

They did a mini acoustic set that was pretty awesome too. He played Satellite solo acoustically and it was an excellent rendition. I kept hoping they would play Under Heaven’s Sky acoustically, but it was not to be. After they brought out the electric guitars again, they then payed the song I was waiting for. It was good, but I think it would have been better acoustic.

I was pretty happy, when they started playing Gel, one my favourite Collective Soul songs. That was when the drummer from the Waking Eyes made his appearance. He was clad only in his boxers that had been fashioned into a g string. Nice image. On his chest was the word Gel, and on his butt cheeks were CS. Very nice. The band continued to play, but the drummer went around dancing and strutting around the stage. Soon he began humping the legs of the Collective Soul band members. CS was cracking up, having a great time.

When they left the stage, the crowd erupted. It was pandemonium. The lead singer Ed Roland had promised we would be there a long time, and he was definitely right on that account. When they came back they picked up where they left off. During one song the entire Waking Eyes band came back on stage with another tray of shooters.

After their drinks Ed started noodling around playing a riff from AC/DC. The crowd liked it, so, on a whim, the band started playing Highway to Hell. The Waking Eyes, came out on stage and sang back up. It just seemed like a lot of fun. Everyone up there looked like they were having a great time.

When the show was finally over I picked up the Waking Eyes CD on my way out the door. It was late, and we had a long drive back to Tsawassen. Having been on my feet for over 5 hours was not treating my back right, and it was letting me know.

Good concert, great time.

Arriving Stories

Well, Ultimate yesterday was a bust. I had to drop off a movie (Mara Full of Grace), then head over to Ulti. I had already decided to ride, and since I rode the day before, I knew it would take me a little longer than normal.

Hopping on the bike a few minutes late was not a good idea. I pushed it to get over to Thrifty’s to drop off the flick at the movie store nearby. Then from there I zipped up to Lansdowne.

It seemed that every road either had a head wind, or a very bad cross wind. This made for a difficult ride.

Arriving at the field I was quite surprised at the lack of Frisbee’s. I was the only one there. I had overheard at the last game that there definitely was going to be a pick up game, and I was really looking forward to playing. Big disappointment to not see anyone there.

Later that afternoon Sue and I headed over to the house of some friends of ours to show each other pictures. They wanted to see some wedding pics, and we wanted to see their trip pictures.

After that it was off to Jims BBQ. At 5:30 we realized that it actualy started at 3. Oops. We jumped onto our bikes and joined the party. Another good time. It was fun to catch up with folks we hadn’t seen/talked to in a long time. It was also good to meet some new people, and share stories.

Yesterday was certainly a busy day.

Sinned Spinning

something looks out of place here

Forgive me mountain bikes for I have sinned. And I have sinned good. Today I went for a road ride with Todd and Duncan (and a couple of Duncan’s training partners). It was good, it was fun, and it was a great workout. I have never ridden my road bike that far before.

We had planned to ride the New Balance Half Iron Triathlon road coarse. After looking at the map I wondered what I had signed myself up for. Then I learned that the Half Iron did 3 laps. If I did one lap I would cover around 42 km, 2 laps gets you 67 kms, and the full 3 laps is 92 kms. Woah. More than I was expecting. I decided I would try for 2 laps, and see how I feel after that.

We met up at 8am at Hamsterly Beach near Elk Lake. Hitting the road I was a little nervous. It was a little chilly out, and I wasn’t sure on the entire route we were taking. This ride was supposed to be a relatively slow pace for the group. I just hoped I wouldn’t get droped too quickly.

It turned out I didn’t get dropped at all. I felt pretty good the entire ride despite my legs feeling very tight. They never really loosened up and maybe the weather played a part in that.

At one point I was starting to feel some pressure building, and I knew I would have to pull off the side and relieve myself. The next thing I knew Duncan was doing the same thing. Phew. The other three continued on then Duncan and I played catch-up.

The ride itself wasn’t too strenous. There weren’t any heinous climbs, and even if there were, I wasn’t worried about my climbing, I was more worried about my endurance. I was also worried about how my butt would hold up spending so much time on the saddle.

While coming up on the lap point I took stock of how I felt. I started to debate if I would do a second lap, then someone spoke up and said I was doing a second one. Ok, problem solved. I continued on.

On the second lap I was out front of our group, and I heard a strange noise behind us. I turned to see what it was, but others were in the way. Then I heard rider down. Uh oh. I slowed, looked for traffic, then turned around. Todd had a little spill, and was just picking himself up. His tires had dipped off the side of the road onto the gravel shoulder, and as he tried to get back on the pavement, his tires slipped, and down he went. He wasn’t too scraped up but he had a flat front tire.

I agreed to stay and ride with Todd while the other three continued their ride. After replacing the tube, we hit the road again. After that there was just a lot of spinning.

Once we got to the lap point I bid farewell to Todd (since he was planning on 4 laps), and I headed back to the truck.

According to my bike computer, in all I rode 68 kms, over a span of 2 hours and 47 minutes (average speed of 24.4 km/h). The max speed was 61 km/h (and I remember the hill it happened on too). In many ways riding a road bike is more scary than a mountain bike. Going 60 km/h on pavement, and not really being able to hit the brakes if something goes wrong is very scary.

Fun way to spend the morning, but I have been drinking water and eating the rest of the day!

Yummy Soul

jam packed like my weekend

This weekend is turning out to be a good one, and it just started.

Tonight Sue and I started the weekend by going out for dinner to the Tapas Bar. Very yummy.

Tomorrow morning I am meeting up with a couple friends for a ride. Tomorrow afternoon I recover from the ride.

Sunday is the big day. I am going to go to play drop in Ultimate, then Sue and I have a coffee date with some friends in the afternoon. Sunday evening is Jims BBQ.

Monday Sue and I will go check out the parade a little, then we are off to go mountain biking with some of her co-workers. After that I will need some recovery time.

I have taken Tuesday off, but I will have some running around to do, and that definitely includes picking up the new Audioslave CD. I have been listening to the mp3 version of the disc, and it totally kicks ass! Tuesday afternoon we board a ferry to head to Vancouver to see Collective Soul play at the Commodore.

Wednesday morn we return, but since I took that day off too, I get to go home and relax a bit.

Swinging Game

not sure what this means

I had a great Ultimate game tonight. I stuck to my plan of riding to and from the game in an effort to get a good warm up before playing. It seemed to work pretty well for me. I should have left a few minutes earlier than I did though since I arrived right as the game was starting. I was warmed up, but I hadn’t tossed the disc at all. After a quick stretch out, and a change into my cleats I was ready.

The game went pretty well, and I felt good throughout. I also had a lot of fun, which was more important.

Our team is a pretty good mix of very experienced players, and some newer players as well. Teaching is a big part of the game, and the more experienced folks are doing a good job of it.

Overall I felt I played pretty good. I was a handler for many points, and I don’t think I ever screwed up too bad. On one point we were on the offensive, and the D zoned us. The cup never really got set up too well, so we slowly marched up the field, by swinging the disc from one side to the other. At one point I got the disc, and I could see one guy striking to an open area on the opposite side of the field. I fired off the disc, and it was heading there perfectly until a gust of wind grabbed it, and the disc just hung there in the air. I was really hoping he could pull it down. A defensive player got to the spot, and the jump was on. The D missed it, and my teammate came down with it. Phew!

The score was really close too. It was tied 14 to 14. Game point. The play was really close, and either team had many opportunities to score. In the end we came down with the disc and won the game.

A quick ride home and it was time for dinner.

Milestone Thing

Another milestone for this site. It appears I went live with muddylaces.ca 2 years ago today.

Hurray for me.

It has been a fun side project. I am definitely diggin the This Day In block that I implemented after seeing something similar on coremans site. The biggest thing I want from this site is to make sure I don’t forget stuff. This allows me to quickly and easily see the things I recorded.

Meandering Sweat

3 rides in 3 days. Now that is something I haven’t done in quite a long time. Yoshi, myself, and a co-worker headed out for a spin.

The first real climb up Regional Trail was a little difficult. My legs were feeling a little tired, but they quickly warmed up. We went all the way up Regional to Old Payoff. Then it was up to South Ridge. Following that we next took Fun Trail. We then took a meandering route along the lower trails, then headed back toward the truck.

A couple hours later, and a lot of sweat and the ride was complete.

The ride was great for a number of reasons. We treated it as a training ride, so we rarely stopped, but if we did, it was just long enough to catch our breath, or stretch out the aching muscles. I climbed almost everything I tried, and made all the descents feel super smooth, even on the hardtail. The trail conditions were absolutely stellar, although some of the roots and rock faces were a tich slippery due to the rain earlier today.

I can tell already that I am going to need to get a big ring back on this bike. It won’t be long until I am spinning out my highest. I feel like my training for the 24 Hours of Whistler is going pretty well so far, and there is still lots of time before the race.

On the way home I called home to see what Sue was up to. Turned out dinner was almost ready. Good timing. Mmm, Sweet N Sour Cashew Chicken. That hit the spot. Follow that up with the post ride shower, and I am feeling rather awesome right now.

Regional Descent

another great day in the woods

Went on another wicked ride today with Mike from work. It was a bit of a training ride, so we tried not to take any breaks. We met up at Tim Hortons, and after getting some coffee and food out of the way, we headed up to the dump. Next we had to sort out a few mechanicals but then we were off to the races.

We started off on Shock Treatment which was very, very overgrown. It rained earlier in the day, so I got rather wet from brushing against the grass and bushes. Heading back to the parking lot we turned up Regional Trail.

Climbing Regional I was feeling pretty good. I had dropped down to the granny ring at one point, so while we were waiting for the third person in our group, I zipped down the first hill, geared up to the middle ring, and hammered up the last climb a second time. I love attacking hills like that. Very fun.

We turned up Old Buck, then took the first right onto North Ridge. We followed that then took off onto Sidewinder. So far I was having a great ride. I was climbing everything without a problem, and was still feeling pretty fresh. On Sidewinder there is one really technical siwtchback where you need to swing the back end around to be able to ride through the turn. I made it. Always a good feeling. Specially since I had to swing the back end to the left, which I find more difficult.

After Sidewinder we decided to check out Mind Bender. The sign on the tree said that it was best to ride it top to bottom. We were at the bottom and wanted to check it out anyway, so we headed up. It was pretty difficult riding it, but it was a good challenge. Halfway through I started getting tired, and really, really hungry. My stomach start making some pretty loud grumbly noises. I started walking more sections since I was starting to feeling more and more tired. It was very slippery on the trail due to the wet cedar roots and I really didn’t want to hurt myself so I didn’t feel too bad for walking.

At the top of Mind Bender we took the road back to Who’s Yer Daddy. I know I rode it yesterday, but today I was on a different bike. Different trail on a hardtail. I didn’t take the big rock face like I did yesterday, but I still had lots of fun flowing the trail. Log drops, rock faces, twists and turns. Still fun.

We took the road back down to Skull. At the end of Skull I said goodbye to the guys, the headed back to my truck. Mike and Mark were going to head back up for another climb to kill their legs. Crazy.

I felt hungry but good after the ride. Definitely a great ride. I kicked the climbs, and zipped down the descents.

Extreme Idiots

Woah dude. I had no idea that BC had an extreme government. We kick ass man.

Read on for an explanation.

We received an ad from Carol James of the NDP this weekend and the quote on the front says “Let’s stick together to stop one of the most extreme governments in BC history.” Sorry Carol, but that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Your advertising people are idiots. Exactly what is an extreme government? Wouldn’t young people be in favour of an extreme government? How do you propose to stop the extreme government?