Digital Bicycle Speedometer

This week's random find at Twin Ports Cyclery, Digital Bicycle Speedometer. I found it in the basement, hidden in the archives.


So Katie and I went snowboarding at Spirit Mtn on Saturday. It was crazy busy as expected. I still suck, I'm still learning and it's a good challenge. I woke up Sunday morning and I felt like someone kicked the shit out of me, it's a good soreness.


Post-coffee and dinner at Hacienda del Sol, the best mexican eating in Duluth.


It wouldn't be a good weekend without getting crazy with my brother Ted, either. I was following him through Jay Cooke State Park, and we hit 80mph on a straight section. Sometimes we can't resist driving fast through there since we grew up a block from the park and know the road.

Wind Tunnel

Everyone's in a wind tunnel these days perfecting their TT position...Contador, Armstrong. Fools, all! Can their wind tunnel simulate wind blowing through a city or forest or soil erosion? Mine can! How do you like them apples? Ok, I know, it's nerdy and I'm nerdy.

On Weds night Katie and I went to see a ski/snowbard film, Under the Influence at the UM Coffman Memorial Onion theater. We rode our bikes there and rode around the rest of the evening. We're getting all geared up for winter. We're snowboarding opening day on Saturday at Spirit Mtn. It's going to be crazy and crowded, but we're going to be part of the chaos!

state cx

Saturday I picked up Mary, a case of Harp and we checked out the State CX race. I liked last year's course better for stumbling purposes. Last year you didn't have to stumble too far from place to place for a good viewing spot. The burrs in the wood section stuck to me like a magnet. I was picking them out of my coat and shoelaces for the next day and a half after the race. Duluth had a good showing!
BIG MIKE

Mark

Mike Hall

Ross Fraboni


Saturday night two of my nieces were in town, Emily the 10yr old gymnast, and Riley, the 7yr old who is too smart for her pants. I took them to the cheap theater in Hopkins. We saw Wall-E...the best animated film I've seen in awhile. It was really fun. I rarely get one on one time with those two. The next day Emily had a gymnastics comp in Maple Plain. My family took up an entire section of bleachers. Pretty typical for my family to be rolling 10 deep where ever we go.

Bring your A game

Bring your A game on Saturday. I'm going to state cx to spectate. Any other normal weekend I'd pack the car and head for my sanctuary of Duluth. However, my family will be visiting me in Mpls and we got some family stuff going on. Should be fun.

Last Thursday me, Katie, and Lucy went to a small punk show in St. Paul at Eclipse Records. I liked the first band, but the other group I saw was just loud and noisy. Whatever, I still enjoyed it.
Then last night, the three of us went to SR Harris fabric outlet. It's a dangerous place to go if you've got sewing projects on the mind. I looked around, but couldn't find the right material for an apron. I'll have to do some more looking...

At work we're preparing for winter and as the water was lowered of the intake pool, we discovered that a ton of minnows had came in from the river and got stuck in the pool, along with a bullhead that grew to 10 inches, and 3 crayfish, each about 6 inches long. We collected what we could and returned them back to the river.

Hundreds of catfish minnows.

Crayfish hanging on by a toe.

Vareniky

Last week Linus Gerdemann looked like a not hot girl and winning the Deutschland Tour didn't make him manly enough for me, this week, Sabine Spitz has some serious man-pipes. Why would you want to publicize the fact that you were offered EPO and other doping shite, but never took it? She looks like she's sweating testosterone. I'm worried. Ach, die Deutschen!
At least they're not busted for cocaine like Boonen. I'm still going to have his baby. I can wait till he gets out of jail, you just watch!


I'm in love with vareniky from Kramarczuk's. I ate 3 of them yesterday along with a sausage for yesterday's lunch. I got a side ache from carrying water samples up 3 sets of stairs, but it was worth it. Yummy, vareniky is my new favorite food!

Benotto bar tape

Halloween 08 in the books. I dressed up as a non-slutty Tinkerbell. Although at the end of the night I reeked of cigarette smoke from the punkrock house party that I evolved into Stinkerbell. First, Katie and I rode our bikes to the Nomad and met up with her friend Ben. We had a couple beers and some girl bought us a couple of shots. Then me, Katie, and Ben went to this house party in St. Paul. I should never venture into St. Paul in the first place. I always get lost there and I brought that bad luck with us when we tried to find the house. We eventually found it and Katie sung a few songs with her band, then Johnny Hardcore took over along with this girl drummer decked out with only a few strips of strategically placed electrical tape on her upper body. She rocked. Best costumes of the night were a Beetlejuice and his Bride from the movie. Worst assumption received was being mistaken for Victoria's secret model as I was riding through Dinkytown, I had wings, but I wasn't going for that effect. Seriously. It was a good Halloween though.
I went home to Duluth first thing in the morning after Halloween. I had to make it to Twin Ports Cyclery to catch up on gossip and get a few essentials. Then my nephew Noah was celebrating his 10th birthday. I got him a Peet shoedryer for his goalie skates.
On Sunday I spent the whole day with my brother Ted. We went up the shore, stopping at the Split Rock Lighthouse, and checked out some of his past hunting grounds around Finland. Out in the middle of nowhere we saw this dude riding his bike with a bundle of 8ft long swamp grass loaded on his bikerack. He was about 30yrs old, wore an army coat and had really terrible white person dreadlocks. Further up the road there was a few abandoned cars off the side of the road and maybe a shack?? We figured that was his destination. I swear people who ride bikes are so weird...=) On our way back to Duluth we stopped at Betty's Pies for a chicken pastie and raspberry rhubarb crunch pie. Yummy.

I voted Tuesday. I was there 10min before 7am and there was already a line outside the door. Later that eve, Katie, Ben, Matt, and I went to the Nomad for a free Schells for voting yesterday.

I started a new project at work. Basically I'm pouring water through filters all afternoon, baking filters, weighing filters, and some water collecting during tests. I will be nailing down the SSC (Suspended Sediment Collection) process down like a pro. I'm still loving my at the lab even though we done with all the outside science sample collecting.

We got some random things at Twin Ports Cyclery:
Old school Benotto bar tape

Really small pink toeclips