Monday, March 09, 2009

Maya's dress

Maya was born on January 14 2008. Susan's birthday has been on January 2 every year since the early seventy's . On January 2 2008 I was killing time between work and dinner with Susan and her parents to celebrated Susan's birthday.

I went to a good store for wife and mother in law gifts called Anthropologie and bought Susan, her mother and my soon to be born daughter gifts. I loved this little dress so much I had to buy it but it was strange to buy a dress for my little girl I had not yet met.

What I didn't know at the time was what a little tom boy Maya would be. Or the fact that her head would move too fast for any camera to capture a clear pic of.

It was kind of funny and cute to see Maya (now almost 14 months old) in this dress that is a little too big, with her big belly and cute tom boy attitude. And it isn't just me saying she is kind of tom boy like.
Ella keeps saying Maya is a boy.

Pugsleys first real ride

On Sunday 3-8-09 I took my new baby out for the kind of ride only she could take me on and it was great. I don't remember the town but it was in the south west metro along the Minnesota river and on Gifford lake.


The weather was perfect. Cold enough for everything to be frozen, no wind, and warm enough to wear regular clothes on the hour and a half ride....I mean ride stop ride experience.
Road bike tire pressure is about 100psi, mountain bike about 45psi, Pugsley under my big boy weight about 12psi front and 15 rear. On the choppy, icy, snowy trail the wheels rolled great. With this low psi in the tires on dry pavement however they felt like I was riding a drunk elephant down hill.


I was a little disappointed to see that I would not have needed to buy a Pugsley after finding this Pugsley tree. I wonder how many other QBP products could be found out here. The fat tires roll great over rough and packed snow. This bike will take me anywhere snowmobiles or cross country skiers have been. This equals marshy areas, lakes, rivers, creeks, and other areas not available to other bikes in the summer. Plus there was almost no one else in the area I was riding. I used to think this was a nitch bike with limited useability but now am starting to believe reviews I read before buying that said the Pugsley not only works well on most regular trails but will open up many areas previously thought to be unridable.

Pug's and Tree.

Maya's hobby

Maya has a hobby.
Every time I open the refrigerator she comes toddling over to get to work.
"Must.... organize..... the Asian condiments. Fish sauce, sesame oil, sriracha, rice wine vinegar."

Condiments are her first passion.....I mean after being an astronaut.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Pugsley was born on 3-6-09






Heath was present for the birth of my new bike, the Surly Pugsley from Jay "Hollywood" Henderson's bike shop last Friday night. Susan has had a busy MBA school schedual since Thursday so I had limited time to buy and ride until today. Here are some Saturday sneek a ride in within Maya's nap monitor range ride pics. Included are the obligatory Pugsley pics of how it looks next to my regular MTB bike and a pic of the odd geared front wheel and curvy fork pic. The last pic is along bluff creek which flows behind my house.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

A little late


Well it is a little late but I finally found an internet tool to make these posters.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Sad news on the Iditarod trail



At the first check point of the 350 mile Alaskan Iditarod Trail Invitational both Jill Homer on a Pugsley and her boyfriend Geoff on foot have scratched from the race. Geoff had knee troubles and Jill stepped into some overflow and has frostbite on her toes. I don't know if my vicarious ride along plan from my couch had any part in their decision to quit or not. In post scratch interviews both Jill and Geoff were quoted as saying their on trail issues usually wouldn't have made them stop so soon but that they each felt like they had a 265lb potato on their back. Odd.
Both pics taken from their sites without permission for the pics or the ride along.