Plumper bike porn

Apparently Heath is into this kind of plumper bike porn because he sent me this link. The bikes above are some of my favorite pics from the site (The fist one is Heath's). Makes me want to go bike camping.

High milage car?

According to this site this VW gets 235 miles per gallon and will be out in some form in 2010. Sure it is basically a 4 wheeled bike with really expensive parts (ceramic bearings) but lets say they beef it up a bit, make it bigger to allow for more people and use cheaper parts and get 135 miles per gallon less. It is still a 100mpg car. What I like about this is that it isn't made by some physics instructors class for extra credit. This is a real car company using some of there serious dough and abilities. It seems like the first time a super high millage car is being taken seriously by an automaker. If they build it people will buy it.

Spicy milk

I don't known why I am thinking of this today other than Ella just go over a day and a half of worshiping the porcelain god named Ralph. I am super proud that she is now able to hug the toilet when puking rather than just screaming in her bed or in front of our bed while puking. Any way her sickness reminded me of food poisoning and a funny story of when Ella was just old enough to say full sentences. She was maybe 2 years old when we had at the house Daddy milk=rice milk, Mommy milk=1% and Ella milk=whole milk. Ella looks up at me while drinking a glass of milk and says with innocent curiosity, "What kind of milk is this dad da? It's spicy!"
It was rotten milk is what it was.

Vicarious restaurant review

So John Q. sends me an email with this in it: "This is where our neighbor Bill is the chef - looks pretty swanky, Jared you run with this crowd, what have you heard?"

http://www.labellevie.us/

My response is as follows.
I think you have me confused with some one else. After looking at the menu I immediately noticed that it is ala carte. I rarely eat at establishments that don't care enough for my business and decision making skills to put things into "combo meals." Combo meals that I still retain the power to super size if I so wish. Although I am sure this restaurant is as good as those reviews say I also happen to be reading BSNY and must comment accordingly. They certainly have the fancy restaurant menu formula down. You may want to open this link of the menu in a new window to follow along. http://www.labellevie.us/LaBelleViealaCarte.pdf

In a restaurant of this caliber the "first course" (also known as an appetizer at apple bees) has got to scare you a bit. Note the scare ingredient from the description each first course.
Roe=fish eggs.
Fava beans=really big beans you are supposed to like but don't in great part because of the Hannibal Lecter association.
Foie Gras= Force fed duck so the liver gets huge. Totally unethical unless someone else is paying for the meal at a fancy restaurant and you may not get to try it again. Tastes a little like liverwurst.
Ramps=unknown product fear. Is this contagious?
Rabbit loin=always sounds kind of dirty as compared to "loin of rabbit"

The second thing every fancy restaurant must have on the menu are words/food items the customer likely won't know in each item description on the menu. This menu has done a great job of inserting these words. Too many of them and the customers eyes glaze over, not enough of them and the customer may think that they could put that same thing together for about $4. In order of item description on the menu the words/food items are: Char, Carpaccio, Gewurztraminer, Ramps, Coppa-Crusted, Tapenade, Sabayon, Roquefort, Daurade, Forme d’Ambert, Brandade, Haricot Verts and Raab.

I am sure this is a lovely restaurant with good food that I would like. Kind of like how I would like to ride a $5000 carbon colnago road racing bike. Today however I am really craving a Steel Salsa commuter/touring type bike. And can you super size that for me?

I found my hands

Maya update
Maya discovered her hands today and has been admiring them with the same awe inspired look Liberace used to give to his ring bling filled hands before each time he played.

The bike choice

I want a new bike. I want a do everything road bike. I want it to competently commute long distances, ride fast with a lively feel, I want it to be touring competent, I want it to be made of steel, I want it to be able to have fat tires and fenders and I want to find it attractive and something I can connect with. Trek and Lemond make such a bike but I no longer connect with them or want to be associated with there customers anymore than I want to be connected with buyers of PT cruisers. Surly makes some great options but are not quite boutique enough for me. (yes I admit it) A custom Bruce Gordon, Bob Brown or Curt Goodrich would be great but some how seem counter to my desire for an authentic steel utilitarian road bike. Spending $2000 for a frame like this seems counter to my steel is real/ buck the high buck cycling hype kind of goal. I would be just pretending to be of that mind set yet really just trying to wow my peers. I want to wow my friends with the purchase of a kick ass ride for a fair or cheap price. So these are my options as I see them. The Salsa Casserole and the Salsa La Cruz. The Casserole (top bike) is better because it has fenders, a triple crank and is set up to be the bike I crave. It also has the geometry rack mounts and tires I need. It is not right because it has lower quality parts and frame material. It also can only handle 32mm tires with fenders when I really want it to handle 35mm tires. The La Cruz is better because of the tubing, parts group, disc brakes and general toughness. I am kind of big and fat and like to ride things hard. What it lacks is fenders, road tires and a triple crank. I am siding with the La Cruz because I can add fenders and tires for much less then I could upgrade the other parts and also because of the robustness of the frame and wheel set. I am however very open to feedback on my choice and other options. My current road bikes are great but can't handle the fat tires and fenders. Also a parts upgrade to what is on the La Cruz would be almost as much as the whole La Cruz bike.

Resturant Review

137 E Franklin Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55404
I don't know if they need to call it "Mediterranean" to get customers but this is definitely an African/Middle eastern/Muslim restaurant. No bacon on the menu and the owner and customers appear to be African and Muslim. I have been to maybe 4 different restaurants of this style and this is by far the best. Unfortunately if you are familiar with this location it for some reason is a cursed restaurant spot and I have seen many come and go before it. I think getting the goat is a must in these kind of restaurants. Although this view would be frowned upon by Muslim peoples I have come to see goat as the pork of the middle east. It is usually chopped with the bones into about 2 inch square pieces, seasoned and roasted until it is falling off the bone. This is served with salad, spaghetti or rice and a banana. Always a banana. Kulan steps this up a notch on the lunch goat meal. It also comes with soup and the additional choice of Jibuti (flat bread). Friendly staff, good outdoor seating, great flavors.

Urban hiker

My work regularly brings me to down town Minneapolis, Lake street and Franklin Ave . After writing those locations I see someone could get the wrong idea about what I do for a living. Fortunately my looks make me unlikely to cash in on prostitution and my intense aversion to sales type jobs takes me out of the drug dealer market. I appreciate the stores, people and urban landscape but you just cant fully experience it from your car. So I have invented an outdoor activity that 1. didn't need to be invented 2. has likely already been invented 3. that sounds kind of simple and dumb at first and maybe is but I bet I would really enjoy it.
It is urban hiking. Planned hiking in urban or even suburban environments. For example I think it would be very fun to walk the length of lake street with a lunch stop at some great little restaurant in the middle of the adventure. I am sure there are walking tour maps of lots of cities which would be fun too but may be not as fun as finding the longest alley way in Minneapolis and walking the whole length. In a larger city one could walk until you got to your hotel as a form of urban camping. I would find it as rewarding and interesting to hike for 4 hours in Minneapolis seeing endless diversity of people, stores and concrete terrain as it would be to hike on a trail with endless trees that all look the same and don't try to sell you something illegal.

Roomba 4.80

Some may have a fancy Roomba robotic vacuum system


We of course use the Roomba 4.8 (years)

Give a Hoot

Woodsy the owl is a cyclist.

Base jump wing suit

I have posted this video here before but it was taken down from the original site. I think I have uploaded it to blogger so that won't happen again. Check out how close these guys get to the rocks and road. Yikes.

Maya and the Mower

I was going to tell the story about how Maya got to this point but I am sure you all can imagine a better story about Maya, the lawn mower and her sister Ella.

Women crash as well as men.

In addition to being lazy and poor and sucking this is the biggest reason why I didn't road race more often when I actually rode my bikes. I don't remember a single race where I didn't see or hear this sort of thing. Cat 5 racing is not a safe place.

Ella and Maya

Ella update: She recently did her Kindergarten pre screen test and scored very well so she may start kindergarten in the fall. She will however likely need the giant Oak tree removed from her head before she can start. Ella continues to be a great Maya nick name generator and I find myself using some of these. In the generally order Ella has used them they include: Anna, Mark, Kitty, Pembin, Steve, Pippin and Mintzy.

Maya update: She is now 3months 11 days old. She is generally a super happy and content baby but does enjoy a good flip out some time between 8 and 10 pm. In the last couple of days she has started to more purposefully and consciously grab at objects. Related to this I think she is starting to figure out that the rest of her body is actually part of herself. Last night she rolled over from her back to her tummy on her own (with one arm trapped below her). She has been doing a lot of cooing and baby babble but last night she did a real laugh for the first time. So of course I attempted to eat her hand over and over again to get that initial baby giggle high back.

This chair is so cool it almost make me wish.....

This isn't as silly as it seems at first

This is from a company called Extrawheel. Here is a link to a review of the trailer. And here is a link to a bike trailer online store where I discovered it. The advantage over a Bob is that the weight is supported primarily by the wheel and not between the trailer and bike wheel. This along with the larger wheel and shorter wheel base were valued by the reviewer. I don't have need for this but it is an interesting idea and it is great to see more and more companies and web sites focusing on utilitarian cycling.

1957 Simplex Cycloïde Crossframe

For more of this sort of Dutchy thing check out this Flickr link from where they came. Click

Yea I can move that for you.

This pic of hauling beauty courtesy of Workcycles.

ANT 3 Speed

Link to close ups of its naughty bits

Must be something on Mrs Obamas back