Video of a 9month old

Here is a link to a video timelapse of 4 hours of a 9 month old babies activities. I don't know why it is funny but I love it. link

War pics then and now

This is from a Russian guy's website who has taken pics from Russia in WWII and merged them with pics of the present. It is profound to me how close war and death can be. I found out about this guys great project on BoingBoing. Here is the link to his site and all the pics.

Don't tell me you can't go car free

If you are committed to going car free and have little kids you have one less excuse. Me and my SUV are well beyond excuses but still value this sort of thing a lot. These are from a site worth checking out called Totcycle.

DIY Snow tires

I found this on the 1-19-09 post of the lazy randonneur site. He has some fancy settings so I can't send you more directly to his site or the original flikr site. His site is worth a look anyhow.
As long as I am harvesting his blog here is a pic of a pugsly/big dummy kind of love child.
From 6-1-08. Once again I want to do direct links to his posts but can't seem to figure it out. Anything you go to from his site still has his web address.

OK update. The last pic is from some guys who rode bikes from the northern tip of north America to the Southern tip of South America along the continental divide. Wow. Here is a link to the gear they used. The gallery on the site has great pics of these bikes doing what they should be doing.

Hollow cheeks

Some of you may know my prediction method for who will win the Tour de France. Basically I look at each of the 10 or so real contenders and see which one has hollow cheeks. By hollow cheeks I mean that their face is skinny in a unique way. It is like if a slightly fat/muscular person suddenly dropped a bunch of weight kind of look. Emaciated in the healthiest sort of way. Bjarne Riis simply looked emaciated when he won the tour way back when he should have let Jan Ulrich win since Jan was stronger that year and had no idea hollow cheek extrodinare Mellow Johny whould continue to win until his racing time was done. Well I wish I would have made this post before the Arizona Cardnals won their last game because Kurt Warner the QB for Arizona has gone from his normal 37 year old slightly puffy self to a hollow cheeked champion. I saw it last week and it did not register tben today before their win against Philedelphia in warm ups I put it together. He has the hollow cheeks. I basically knew they would win at that point and will likely win the super bowl too. I know this prediction is harder than the tour version since it is a team sport and easier since Kurt can throw to Larry Ferguson but still he has the cheeks.

More holiday pics

Maya and Dad
Maya and Grandpa John
Maya and Ella. She is getting a lot of play time because she is cute and it is her birthday today (1-14-09). "Yea I'm one!"
My three loves.
Random family sunset beach pic. No Shelly, Vic, Lucia, Ruth or me.
Ella's new cousin Lucia
Ella looking like a body builder?

Ella drives a boat like a 5 year old.
Ella holding a fish. Her real job on the boat was to put her hand into a murky bait well and pull live shrimp out. There is no way I would have done it. Ella perfected a technique of grabbing the shrimp by a whisker like part with great precision.
Me and my beautiful wife.

Training Log

I know it is going to sound a little silly for me, a person who doesn't actually work out to be talking about an online training log but here goes anyway. This is the program Jill Homer's super ultra marathon boyfriend Geoff uses. In minutes I got my self set up and really like it. Most online workout logs I have seen seem generally useless, want money for their lame program or annoy you by trying to sell you lots of crap. This one is easy to use, quick to note on and gives good reports on what is going on with your training. The beginning of the year is also a great time to start recording so you can do year end totals next year. So my wish is that you all would use it to so we could look at what each of us is doing as a way to inspire more time on the bike, ski's and feet. The program is called Attackpoint. I am pretty sure you can check out my relative lack of working out by going here
If you want to look at Geoff's training log to see what an ultra marathoner does go here.
The pic is unrelated but one of the best of young "Barry Obama" I have seen.

Toy Tour

Another tilt shift

I made this with a pic I found on the net.

Ella's 4th birthday pic from August of 2007

A few Sanibel Island ride pics

The riding on Sanibel has always been pretty good but has gotten better over the years as more and more of the island is turned into nature preserve. My only ride wish would be some hills. The bike is a very old Ross three speed. I had my Gitane single speed road bike down there for a few years but missed it and mailed it back home so I could be close to it. The fatter tires of the Ross were appreciated.


The island now has a decent amount of mountain biking available with occasional sandy spots being the only real obstacle.