June

Indexed Shifting

2011-03-22T17:24:00.002-05:00

I'm still on crutches, it's still not fun. My ankle is getting better, sometimes it's stiff and it moves like indexed shifting. I can put weight on the ankle, but I could be on crutches for another week.

I got some work done at the UM LacCore lab for the cores from the wild rice lake. It's fascinating what you can find in a core. There was an exoskeloton case of a midge head, complete with antennae and mandibles. There was also a piece of grass charcoal from a fire that happened about 300 years ago.

Jon and I hit up Fleet Farm yesterday. It seems like we are there almost every week. This time I found a pair of Joka polar gloves, made in Finland. I wish there was more in stock, I would have bought 3 pair. These gloves come in handy when working with frozen lake cores and ice fishingk.

AD Annoyed and Disabled

2011-03-07T10:36:00.001-06:00

I've been on crutches for the last couple of weeks. I have a sprained right ankle. Jon and I were in an accident. I'm tired of telling the story, I should just
wear a sign with my story. I dislike the sympathy attention from crutches. Using crutches is almost like double poling all day. I suppose the good thing about crutches is that my triceps made a comeback.
Ok so here goes, Jon and I were going to his place out in Foley and it was the end of a snowstorm and the roads were pretty bad. There was a car in the oncoming lane so Jon instinctly moves over a bit to give the guy some room when he got tugged into the deep snow on the shoulder, he lost control, we fishtailed, did a 270 when the other guy slammed into my side of the Jeep. It was enough force to crush the front axle, tip us over on my side and the other guy went into the ditch. I got the wind knocked out of me, and I knew my ankle was hurt right away. I managed to unbuckle and crawl into the back of the Jeep so Jon could then unbuckle without falling or crushing me. Jon was fine, he called 911, then called his Mom. We got out of the Jeep much like getting out of the hatch of a tank, through the top, I hopped down despite the ankle and by that time his Mom was there since we were only half a mile from home. Jon had a sore back/neck for a few days, but he's ok. The other guy told us right away he wasn't wearing a seatbelt. He was in the hospital for a week with 5 broken ribs and a busted spleen.
Jon's Jeep has been replaced with a 2006 Subaru Legacy wagon, it's no Jeep, but he is happy with the mileage it gets.

A few days BC (Before Crutches), I went to Glen, MN. My research project is studying how lake levels effect wild rice growth. The lake is used by members of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. They have been harvesting wild rice, manoomin (in Ojibwe), on it for ages.
Using an electric auger to drill through the ice.

This core didn't work out, it splattered all over the ice.

Me taking temperature of the water from the lake bottom.

Hwy 23, St Cloud to I-35

2011-02-16T11:52:00.001-06:00

I went with some friends snowboarding a couple of weeks ago at Spirit Mtn up in Duluth. A bunch of us were carpooling so we straight back to St. Cloud that same night. It's weird being in my hometown and not actually going home. So the drive to Duluth is something I've done a billion times. For me there's certain landmarks on Highway 23, the stretch from St. Cloud to I-35 near Hinkley.
When I first moved to St. Cloud there used to be this little town called Ronneby near Foley, it was too small so they disbanded. I think the Auto Sales is still called 'Auto Sales of Ronneby' though, whatev.
In the town of Bock you will find Fat Jack's the strip joint. Bock is the only town on this stretch of highway where the speed limit doesn't slow down when you drive through the town.
There's a house on the stretch between Mora and Milaca that always has something for sale at the end of their driveway, it can be anything from a snowblower to pallets. There's a guy like that near my Mom's place in Duluth--everyone just calls him 'Walmart'.
Brook Park has the BP that's attached to a Lounge. It's always an interesting stop at the BP. A couple of weeks ago they had sheets for sale in the Lounge.
In Quamba, all the streets begin with "Q". I hate to be the guy who lives on the corner of Quaalude and Quagmire.
Be prepared if you are going to be on the road after 10pm, because most gas stations shut down by then.

Gumby in Quamba, I love Gumby.

Bock village hall

Quamba city hall

Sheets for sale in Brook Park

Jon and I competed in an ice fishing contest on Krueger Lake near St. Joe. We didn't catch anything.

Jon. xoxo.

Derek at Spirit Mtn. Derek's living the dream this summer, he's going on a BMX tour. I think he's going to do at least one crit this spring before he goes on his tour.

Connor skiing in shorts!

Winter

2011-02-03T16:02:00.000-06:00

I love winter. I love all seasons, every season is my favorite when I'm in it. One of the big reasons I love winter is because so many people hate it. It's nice to do stuff outside at parks or trails and you get the whole place to yourself. Other nice things about winter, Irish coffee, down comforter, sweaters, hockey and hotdish.

I went running today, and it's hard to believe that I used to run everyday. I still like it enough, I just don't love it the way I used to. When roads clear up a little I'll get out on the bike. I have a pair of Bar Mitts on the road bike but it has to be really cold for me to use them. I bought them at the Stillwater crit when they were on special. I resurrected my Polar Coach heart rate monitor, I haven't used it in 4+ years. I think I bought it 10 years ago. It is so old! I borrowed Dr. Jeff's copy of Polar Coach on cd to download it on my laptop and it wouldn't work because the program runs on a 16 bit system and mine's a 64. Talk about ancient. I think I can upgrade it though on the Polar website, something I'm not motivated to do yet...motivation. I have different motivations now than I did back when I used to use the HR monitor regularly and a bike computer. However, I am the very proud winner of Sam's old wireless computer! I can't wait to use it. I go through phases, sometimes I use a computer and sometimes I don't. The last time I had one was 2 years ago then it broke and I never bought a new one. So now I have one again! Thank you!

I have been helping Jon lately with his subwoofer box. I didn't help with the construction, just the sanding part. I just like being in the shop working on stuff. Jon fixed my laptop charger cord last week, too. It was all bent out of shape and he cut it open then soldered it back together--what a man.

Feeding the horses out at Jon's family farm.

My nephew Noah about a week before he broke his leg in hockey. He's so fun to hang out with, even watching tv with him is fun, he is hilarious.

XC skiing near my Mom's in Duluth.

Walking one of my Mom's dogs, Cheggy.

Beef Bouillon

2010-12-06T14:28:00.002-06:00

I found beef bouillon cubes in my cabinet this week. I don't remember buying them so I must have inherited it from a roommate at some point. It says on the label directions, "Add one cube to 1 cup boiling water for a hearty beverage at mealtime or anytime". I don't know, my Mom could have bought me the bouillon, too. Sounds like something she would do, since she likes all kinds of things. As a kid, I remember my parents feeding me things like liver, headcheese, evaporated milk, oatmeal with bacon grease, but we never had beef bouillon tea. We still make milkweed soup and fern fiddlehead soup.

Looks like winter is definitely here, it was a really nice autumn. The bike riding was good, not too hot and the trees full of color. Jon grew lots of pickles and 15 pumpkins out at his Mom's farm so that meant lots of pumpkin carving and baking pumpkin seeds. We were on a streak for baking apple pies for awhile, too, our favorite was using the Honeycrisp apple.

I went with Jon's family to go visit his dad in Redwing a couple of weeks ago. It's a nice little town. I have a pair of Redwing workboots that I like very much, steel toe and steel shank--solid.

Jon, xoxoxo.

I have a new niece, Cadel Cameron, she's named after Cadel Evans. Let's just say that my sister Phyllis has become a huge TDF fan in the last couple of years. I'm getting used to the name, since I've never heard it as a girl's name. She's gorgeous, nonetheless, dark hair and already making girls jealous with her natural tan, haha.
Me and Cadel

Cold weather motivates me to stay busy inside, Jon and I made dreamcatchers recently. I made the two on the left. He made the black one.

I tried making a Halloween costume, but it fits like shite. This photo shows as far as I got. I need my Mom the pro sewer to help me with the fit and final tailoring.

I was a witch instead for Halloween. The night before Halloween, me, my brother Ted, and Jon went to a roller derby bout in Minneapolis. It was our first roller derby bout for the three of us. It was hard to get into because we didn't know what was going on. I guess that's what people feel like when they show up to a crit and cheer for someone who they think is the leader and it's not, it's just a bunch of people cruising around a circuit. So we asked some girl who was skating around carrying a sign, 'Ask me about Derby'. Then it was all good. I will go to my next one when my friend Willow makes her comeback in derby since she just had a cute new baby boy. I think I will have more fun watching when I actually know someone. After my first derby experience we met up with Katie and Kristin at a glass blowing party. $15 for a glass you get to keep and all you can drink Primo.
The cool glasses.

I saw Gumby on the street, I love Gumby.

Winter's here and I haven't skiied yet, downhill or xc. My xc skis and snowboard are up in Duluth at my Mom's and I won't be able to go up there for a couple of weeks, sigh. I'm pretty anxious to play in the snow, I can only handle so much of the gym. I'm hoping my classic skis will be enough to plow through the snow out at Jon's Mom's farm. I'm trying to talk Jon into building an igloo with me so we can do some winter camping in the yard. There's already a big pile of snow where the neighbor used his tractor to plow the driveway, haven't convinced Jon yet. Until then I will have to bust out the winter moccasins with a warm sheepskin liner and curl up in bed with a cup of beef bouillon tea.

wash-n-tan

2010-09-07T14:54:00.007-05:00

Why are there so many tanning salons/laundromats in the St.Cloud area? Well, I know of three, but I don't think I've seen this business combination anywhere else.
There's one near the SCSU campus on University Ave and 9th Ave S, then there's this one up in Sartell across the street from Jimmy's Pour House.

This one is in Waite Park near Home Depot.

Jon and I getting ready for our move from Minneapolis back to St. Cloud, so sad. The Menards in St. Paul on University Ave has a long ramp and a glass elevator, pretty classy.

The summer went by so fast! This is from one of the times we went intertubing on Island Lake, outside of Duluth.

Hanging out on the Lakewalk in Duluth, then we went for ice cream at Portland Malt Shop, one of my favorites.

Nice little walk next to Chester Creek in Duluth.

I started missing Minneapolis the moment we pulled out of the driveway. I miss our part of town, Psycho Suzie's, Brasa, Kramarczuk's, all the happy hours at Tuggs. I miss all my lab friends, too, sigh. Jon enjoying a Kwak and a St. Feuillien Triple at
the NE Bulldog.

Rockets of beer at Tugg's, Jeff with his creepy mustache, I hope it improved his batting average.

I'll miss going out for music, too. Katie's band, The Upshot, played at Memory Lanes a few weeks ago. This band that played after Katie was interesting, they had a flute and a trombone.

At least Jon and I can still make an escape to Minneapolis, like going to the State Fair. It's always hard making the adjustment back to St. Cloud, there's not a ton of restauraunts that I like in St. Cloud area so often times we stay in and eat, and I make my own coffee in the french press. However, the bike riding is still better in St. Cloud than Minneapolis except for the urban bar rides then Minneapolis wins.
The State Fair crowds!

Waiting in line for cookies, seriously.

All you can drink milk for a dollar!

fresh

2010-08-06T07:49:00.000-05:00

Recently Jon and I spent some time on Island Lake, north of Duluth, with my brother Ted and some of his friends. My Mom shows up and wanted to go intertubing. Not bad for a 74 year old lady. Her other hobbies are sewing, beading, making jewelry, supporting the family's atheltic endeavors, bingo, and many others. She's the greatest.

Jon getting pulled by Matt.

Jon and I have been eating pretty good lately. He gets fresh veggies from the organic garden at his job. Last couple of days he's been harvesting honey from their many bee apiaries. He's also good at making maple syrup, when he's not driving a tractor around or building stuff. I love his job, but I love mine, too.

I have a few photos from this summer at the lab in Minneapolis:
Our resident baby ducks are getting bigger and they aren't afraid of me and my coworkers, and we have never laid a finger on them either.

One of my coworkers, Chris, giving the camera a thumbs for a nice rock vane.

Me planting some Fox sedges, Bebbs sedges, and Dark Green Bulrushes. Now I realize how my backward my arm looks.

I found this one in our photo archives. We were repairing a bank on our stream and I'm stomping on something, Chris is using his head to hold up a part of the coconut fiber and it looks like Jeff is going to grab Chris' head.

2010-07-24T08:30:00.001-05:00

It's been a good summer. Last weekend Jon and I went to the Bicycle Film Festival, we went to the Friday, 7pm show to see The Birth of Big Air. I wanted to make it to other movies but we had to head out of town for the rest of the weekend. A lot of weekends we have either been up in Foley at the farm or up north in Duluth, and Grand Marais. There's plenty to do out at the farm, planting 200 flowers, feeding cows, weeding, etc, earlier this summer I helped Jon build his pond. Since then, the pond plants really took off and the minnows are doing great.

The pond in it's infancy state, the lily pad flowers haven't come up yet.

Jon on the skid loader.

Then there's the fun stuff at the farm, shooting guns--all kinds, lighting off fireworks, four-wheeling, riding bikes on the county roads.

My work at the lab has been good. The projects are different every year, still loving what I do. Happy hour with some of the coworkers at Tuggs is great, have to get a rocket of beer before 6pm! A new family of baby ducks came through the stream lab, too. It's fun watching them get bigger every week.

The last weekend of June we went up to Gooseberry Falls with Ted, and stopped at Betty's Pies in Two Harbors. Blackberry peach crunch pie is my favorite so far. Jon's geologist side comes out on a regular basis.

Me and Jon spent Fourth of July weekend in St. Cloud and Duluth. Then we went whitewater rafting with my brother Ted in Scanlon, MN. Ted and I grew up with a couple of the river guides, Jay and Luke, so it was really fun having them in other rafts with our group, since normally they are in kayaks. I got to steer my boat and kept everyone in line and in the boat. The river was low, but it was still fun. We are going back when the river is higher so we have bigger waves.

Swimming at the quarries near St. Cloud before heading up to Duluth. Jon waiting his turn to jump off a cliff.

Two weekends ago I went with Jon and his family up to his aunt's cabin near Grand Marais. Over the long weekend we fished everyday and four-wheeled ~200 miles on forest roads and trails. Four-wheeling really isn't my thing but it's still fun and now I know of some trails to mt.bike on when me and Jon go back up there this fall. There were so many wild raspberry bushes everywhere, and blueberries up on the open outcrops. Yummy.

Now it's back up to Duluth today, Big Blondie's getting hitched!

Velociraptors

2010-05-12T20:04:00.005-05:00

How come I have to leave St. Cloud when it starts to get nice? Jon and I were at a picnic at Riverside Park a couple of weeks ago. It's so pretty there.

We were out at Jon's Mom's farm last week. One of the many outside cats had kittens.

Out at the farm this guy is my favorite inside cat, even though I'm allergic and he makes me itchy. Such a cute face.

I'm back in Minneapolis, started at the lab this week and wasted no time getting back to the grind. Shoveling medium, course sand for most of Monday, then the last couple of days doing work that involves waders and muscle.

The first pair of waders I grabbed had some leftovers from the last person who used them. Apparently they needed a spoon, small adjustable wrench, screwdriver, 5 pens/pencils, one earplug, and a pair of scissors.

I'm glad to see that some soil core samples from last year are living on and serving a good purpose. I wouldn't want it any other way.

I'm borrowing this bike from the lab for this week, until I get my commuter bike that's still up in St. Cloud. This Murray is so freakin heavy, it's like a freight train. It has an internal 3 speed hub that is stuck on the hardest gear that I have to stand up on the pedals to get it going to a decent speed and then I have to slow down way ahead of any stops signs/lights. The rear wheel is way out of true that I decided just to remove one of the brake pads instead of fixing the wheel, reducing my braking to front brake only. At least the full fenders are nice this week.

I'm searching for a place for me and Jon to live for the summer in Minneapolis. He's still up in St. Cloud finishing out a job and will join me soon! At least he was able to visit me last night, we aren't apart much. Katie's hosting me at her place in NE till I find the right place.
I came across an ad that boasted to have a velociraptor proof house. It caught my attention because I do get Jurassic Park dreams at times. The fact that earlier this year I read Jurassic Park and The Lost World (by Michael Crichton) didn't help either. I guess I'm not the only one who thinks about the potential velociraptor attack.

Then I was out on Nicolett Island this week and I saw a tipi in someone's back yard. Perfect for me, the full-blooded Indian! I hope they don't mind me moving in. Maybe they will since the whole metro area used to be Dakota territory and I'm not Dakota. I'm Red Lake Anishinabe and Ho-Chunk.

If I lived there then maybe Stephen Hawking would visit me:

“If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

--Stephen Hawking

field trip

2010-04-28T12:43:00.009-05:00

SCSU's River Hydraulics class and Hydrology Club took a field trip to the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock/Dam and to St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, both in Minneapolis. I took River Hydraulics class last year and I don't miss it much. Well, I don't miss calculating stuff like this by hand and Excel. Then I learned a thing or two about hydrologic modeling computer programs. At least this year's class gets to go on a field trip.

Jon and some other guy standing over a very high foot bridge that spans the lock.

Looking down into the lock from the foot bridge.

Me and Jeff start soon at the lab. He's pretty excited for his first summer there.

The guy whose name I can't remember (on the left) and Jon taking a break from all the stairs at the lab.

Ben (in the maroon shirt) is showing Jeff and Jon the Jurassic Tank (JT). I still want the JT tshirt, the one with the dinosaur in the tub.

The lab still amazes me even after all the time I've spent there. The main channel is impressive even without water flowing through it.

Working at Granite City Cycle & Sport has been good, I've been working weekends. Gary ordered a bunch of seats and we were hanging them on the wall when a half hour later I sold the biggest seat on the shop. I love it when I can make someone's day through the world of bicycles. I can only do so much, especially when I'm trying to help someone over the phone who doesn't know the difference between rim, wheel, tire, tube, or a rim strip. I love my job.

happy friday

2010-04-23T14:27:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to finish up my final draft of my research proposal. The title is, "The effect of water level variances on wild rice of Lake Ogechie, in central Minnesota". I am pretty excited about this project. First I'm supposed to write this research proposal and then do research for a senior thesis, but I've already been looking for high resolution satellite photos of the lake of interest. I can't wait to get out to my field site.

I'm going back to the lab in Minneapolis for the summer. I'm not sure what research I will be doing there yet. It's going to be a good summer, especially since my buddy Jeff will be at the lab, too.

I helped out with the 17th Annual All Tribes Council powwow last weekend. Some of my family came down from Duluth, including my 8yr old niece, Riley.

End of the semester means food everywhere. This week I already attended two awards banquets, last week a picnic, then receptions, parties, etc. Me and Jon at a department picnic at Riverside Park:

new job

2010-04-12T14:13:00.001-05:00

I'm Gary's newest employee at Granite City Cycle & Sports. Jon and I went into GCCS on Friday so I could put in a new bottom bracket and by the end of the evening I was hired. I worked my first shift on Saturday. It was super busy, too, changed some flat tires and plenty of customers rotating through. It's always challenging jumping into a new workplace and learn the ropes. The only other bike shop I've ever worked at is Twin Ports Cyclery up in Duluth, where I've known Denis, the owner, for almost 20yrs now. Working in bike shops can be really fun, especially when you have an 8yr old little girl tell you about living in an imaginary forest, and that someone has to rule the imaginary forest.

In all my time at GCCS as a customer I never noticed the stuffed squirrel until Saturday, my first day as an employee.

On Sunday, me, Jon and Amanda went to go watch Jeff play at the MAC, SCSU Huskies vs St. Paul-Concordia. Jeff bats lefty but is right handed.

Cancellara wins Paris-Roubaix, Ian Alexy performed at the WhiteHorse, Jon was 2nd place at poker, the Miyata commuter bike has lights zip-tied to it, and I tailored one of my dresses, not a bad weekend at all.

sugar free Tab

2010-04-06T14:16:00.001-05:00

I finally put new tires (26 x 1 3/8") on the Raleigh Ranger. It's my bike for short fun commutes.

Kyia had her birthday last Friday. Don't mess with her and Anderson, they got GUNS!

The always talented Maxxx.

Jon and me.

Jon and I were out in Foley at the farm for most of the weekend, Easter, four wheeling, exploring, etc. Jon found a large rock with bits of quartz. He's probably going to cut it and do some other things with it. He's wicked smart about geologic stuff. He finds cool rocks and I find old beer cans including a Sugar Free Tab can.

frolf

2010-04-02T10:37:00.005-05:00

So far this week I've played frolf twice.
Jeff (on the left) and Jon were feeling just as blurry as they looked.

Jeff's Sex Machine van easily inspires romance. Jon and me (yes we've heard the song, thank you).

Out on the course last night a couple of tough baby daddies brought their babies frisbee golfing.

P.S. It's Kyia's birthday!

My Lucky Rodeo Shirt with Pearl Snaps

2010-03-30T13:16:00.002-05:00

My conference went well in Fargo last weekend. I didn't get a chance to check out all the flooding like I had hoped since the conference had me pretty tied up with activities. I know it's odd, I get all excited about flooding. I can't help it, I did a bunch of flood simulations at the lab two summers ago.
I won two of the four categories of the bridge building competition. I couldn't turn down this bridge building competition when presented with the challenge. We were only allowed to use uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows. I was supposed to be working with a team but two of them didn't care and didn't want to be part of it, one guy was too afraid of messing up my design and I couldn't convince him to touch it, I tried hard to include him, oh well. I brought my rodeo shirt with me because there was a rodeo in town but no one else wanted to go, there's always next time.

Me and the AISES group from UM-TC.

Things got crazy in the van on our way home from Fargo.

Sunday night I got to wind down from the weekend by grilling at Jon's family farm out in Foley. He cleaned his guns over the weekend and we're going out soon enough to fire them off. I can't wait, it's going to be fun. I miss doing that with my brother up north.
Here's Jon's racks:

It's time to go out for a bike ride, it's a windy week of riding!

ouch

2010-03-25T14:06:00.001-05:00

Last night I gouged out my left thumb knuckle on my chainring while changing out pedals on my commuter bike. I took off the egg beaters and put on my nice plastic pedals with a soft rubber platform. I bled all over and my thumb throbbed painfully for an hour after and then it broke open again later. I did my best to clean it out with abrasive GoJo, H2O2, saline and there's still grease in there--it's staying there, too. Ish.

I took Jon to Granite City Cycle & Sport this week so we could put new rim strips in his wheels after he got a flat tire from failing maneuvering the slalom course of broken glass of my party neighborhood. I see parties 4-6 nights a week in my neighborhood and it's never too cold for them to party either. People are still out when it's -35F outside.
Derek was at the shop, he look like a serial killer coming after me with that bar tape...or maybe I'm watching too much Dexter on XBOX/Netflix with Jon. I'm on season one but he's already seen the whole series.
Derek, stop looking so creepy.

I rode to Rice on Tuesday. Someone lost their beef stick on the side of the road.

Over the weekend Jon took me to a place where he used to live in Waite Park. His roommates still have all the animals (bunnies, goat, and turkey) except for the pig--which they butchered and roasted last fall. They only cooked half of it over the fire spit and it took HOURS. I'm looking forward forward to being part of the next half.

Me and Abby. I don't think they're eating Abby.

I'll be in Fargo this weekend for a conference. Don't ever build on a floodplain...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T14:01:00.001-05:00

No, I'm not Irish. I'm 100% full-blooded American Indian, but I'll be participating in celebrating Jon's Irish heritage--of what there is. I don't know of any other Irish holidays, but I suppose we can theoretically celebrate the 162nd anniversary of the Irish surviving the great potato famine of 1848.

I was home in Duluth last weekend, I got in some bike rides and hung out with Cheggy, the big brown dog, and Haga, the little old Shitzu. It was a weekend of roadkill, too. I saw lots of roadkill out there, with me contributing to the problem. I was driving my sister's car with my brother on I-35 at night and out of nowhere came this white coyote. It was so sad, we went right over the poor creature, but fortunately for the coyote it was a quick death. We were lucky our Mom wasn't in the car. She would have killed it twice. She has a history with finishing off animals. More than once she has finished off deer after hitting it with a vehicle. On two occasions she used a crowbar, and another time she didn't have a crowbar so she twisted its neck with her bare hands. She is an animal lover, so much that she hates to see them suffer.

Last week Jon and I spent some time in Minneapolis/St.Paul since we had some time off. We hung out with Katie at her place in NE Mpls. I showed him around the lab, we went out in NE and Dinkytown, we went to the MN Zoo (where we also saw Alice in Wonderland at the IMAX in 3D), hit up the Mill City Museum, and did some shopping.

View from the observation deck at Mill City Museum, looking over at the lab.

Be safe out there, DON'T DROWN.

Flood Warning

WGUS43 KMPX 161651
FLWMPX
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
1151 AM CDT TUE MAR 16 2010

...FORECAST FLOODING CHANGED FROM MINOR TO MODERATE SEVERITY FOR THE
FOLLOWING RIVERS IN MINNESOTA...
SAUK RIVER AT ST CLOUD AFFECTING STEARNS COUNTY
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILL MONITOR THIS DEVELOPING SITUATION AND ISSUE FOLLOWUP STATEMENTS AS CONDITIONS OR FORECASTS CHANGE.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

DO NOT DRIVE CARS THROUGH FLOODED AREAS. TURN AROUND...DON`T DROWN.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR YOUR LOCAL RADIO OR TV STATION
FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS FLOOD EVENT.

&&

MNC145-172251-
/O.EXT.KMPX.FL.W.0017.100316T1800Z-000000T0000Z/
/STCM5.2.SM.100316T1800Z.100318T1800Z.000000T0000Z.NO/
1151 AM CDT TUE MAR 16 2010

...FORECAST FLOODING INCREASED FROM MINOR TO MODERATE SEVERITY...
THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR
THE SAUK RIVER AT ST CLOUD.
* UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
* AT 11:15 AM TUESDAY THE STAGE WAS 5.9 FEET.
* MODERATE FLOODING IS FORECAST.
* FLOOD STAGE IS 6.0 FEET.
* FORECAST...RISE ABOVE FLOOD STAGE BY THIS AFTERNOON AND CONTINUE TO
RISE TO NEAR 7.0 FEET BY THURSDAY MARCH 18TH EARLY AFTERNOON.
* IMPACT...AT 6.0 FEET...TWO HOMES ALONG THE RIVER MAY EXPERIENCE
FLOODING.
* FLOOD HISTORY...THIS CREST COMPARES TO A PREVIOUS CREST OF 7.2 FEET
ON APR 25 2001.

$$

bad fashion ski party

2010-03-01T13:22:00.009-06:00

I survived my first Bad Fashion Ski Party at Mont du Lac last week. It was my first time on telemark skis in a looong time. The faux fur coat I had on was super warm, so warm that all I needed was my Craft baselayer under the coat and I didn't need the faux fur sweater until the after party. Here's me and my friend Chad at the start of the evening. He had on an old USA coat, and he got more compliments than I did. I wore a helmet and goggles, too, safety first.

The Human Slalom Course of telemark skiers. No way was I going in on that one, I would probably have to skip every other person with my crummy turns. In fact I felt like Zoolander, I can't turn left very well.

Yoda had a surprise for the ladies under his coat.

Me and Tom, who was snowboarding.

I don't know how he tele skiied with that pig mask on.

My buddy Jay was there, too. Jay is a super good telemark skier. He also grew up in the neighborhood less than a mile from where we skiied at Mont du Lac. 'Grew up' is a relative term, everyone from our group still like to play and party hard, I don't know if we will ever grow up...but the only thing now is we don't bomb cars with apples and dough balls, run away from cops, or toilet paper people's houses, throw punches on the basketball court, make forts out in the woods, or play baseball all day long.

Black History Month

2010-02-23T18:42:00.009-06:00

Hope you're enjoying February like me, it's almost over with March on the horizon. I've been getting in more rides lately, too. Today I was out in the cold for 2.5hrs, my ride took longer than expected, I took some extra turns and didn't think it would end up being that long. The roads have been mostly clear. Sometimes there are a few sections of back county roads that have pockets of packed snow/ice, not too bad if you ride smooth over them. Of course I've been hearing about all the nice riding happening up in Pacific NW lately. They're sure having a nice mild winter. I try not to think about that when I'm out in the road and my right foot is frozen and feels like a stump when I get home.
Here's a shot from L'Alpe, I love that climb:

I've incorporated a bunch of running into my winter training regime this year. I haven't been running this regularly in YEARS, seriously. I like it enough but don't love it the way I used to.
XC skiing has been nice, I really like going out near my Mom's house in Duluth:

Charlie Parr came to St. Cloud last weekend. Andrea and I went out to see him perform and have a beer and dessert with him before he went on. I always enjoy his shows, his stories are pretty entertaining, too, he reminds me of my Mom. The weekend before Andrea and I drove to St. Paul to see him at the Turf Club. I wasn't too surprised when I saw Jeremiah there, hi.

Please Spread the Word to End the Word. I really dislike it when people use 'retarded' so casually. It's super offensive and unclassy. I pledged money for a Special Olympics Polar Plunge recently, you can still make a difference just by not using that word or at least see how it could be hurtful. There's enough pain in the world.

It's February and I'm feeling the love. I wanted to share my support to Haiti so I spent part of an evening at a Haiti relief event put on by SCSU's African Student Association. Haiti's still in trouble, no doubt with their clean water supply. I care about people and water that's why I study and research Hydrology, just doing what I can.
Arcade Fire has a song called "Haiti" and someone made a video using the song, the footage comes from a couple of years ago.

Up next, Bad Fashion Ski Party at Mont du Lac with my friend Chad. Chad and I grew up in the same neighborhood. Apparently he already has an outfit...not sure what I'm going to do yet. I know my Mom has in her basement an old school one-piece snowmobile suit, the kind with metal zippers that freeze up in the cold and snow. It might get too hot to telemark ski in. However, I do have a few pieces of faux fur, I might be able to put something together. Wish me luck.

xoxo

Les Feuilles Mortes

2009-11-18T21:21:00.004-06:00

I'm slow on the bike right now and I love it. Bike riding in autumn is the best. Cool weather and knee warmers...while the crisp leaves are so refreshing. I like coming home after a ride with a cold nose, sip on a cup of hot tea, and turn on Bravotv for a little while.

Happy Science Friday

2009-11-06T09:14:00.003-06:00

">
Hilarious! I could hang with those guys. How about missplacing a parentheses in a super long excel equation, so annoying!

Well, I think we had our first ever unofficial SCSU Hydrology Club meeting this week. My Hydrologic Modeling class stayed an hour after our 2hr class had already ended. We got so wrapped up in the project and debating its hydrostratigraphy layers. Yep, us Hydro majors. We're few in numbers at SCSU and are the misfits of the Earth & Atmospheric Science department. We always get the hand-me down stuff from Meteorology. We get their old computers, computer screens, etc. That's ok, we'll take what we can get.

One of the reasons I study Hydrology is the moving story of how a dam traumatized the lives of the people of Fort Berthold Reservation, and it's the reason I want to work with and for my people. There was even a movie,
Waterbusters, that was about the Garrison Dam and its affect on the Three Affiliated Tribes(Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara).
Let's do some science today.

Portland

2009-11-02T21:32:00.001-06:00

My trip to Portland came and went in a flash. I was so busy and productive at the conference it was nuts. I met so many people my head was spinning. My poster presentation session went well, however, my oral presentation didn't go so smooth. I had a really small audience--the 3 judges and that was it. Some of the slides on my my powerpoint presentation somehow got corrupted in the process of me emailing it to the presentation organizers laptop. Some images were too big and one slide's text was super small and unreadable for the judges. What a disaster. Then one of the judges was being badass by asking challenging questions, but her questions about my research didn't make any sense. I felt like she was asking, "Why does ice cream taste like a heavy radio?". Then I would try and answer her question the best I could, where then she would follow with another strange statement like, "If your results expanded onto wax paper, my dog would hula-hoop." I was not happy with the way it went. I didn't place in either of my competitions.

The rest of the time at the conference went really well. I made some great connections with people at NASA, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research(UCAR), US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a handful of engineering firms, a few universities with environmental engineering grad programs, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNL). Then I got an unexpected job interview with Natural Resources Conservation Service. I was chatting with a hydrologic engineer when moments later he was ushering me into a private booth where another man held out his hand to take my resume before I realized what was happening. The impromptu interview was a smash and there's a good chance I could work for them next summer if I'm interested. They have offices everywhere and I am very interested in the type of work they do. It looks like I will have some decision making to do in the near future. I could go back to UM SAFL where I have been the last couple of years. I love my work and all my homies there, and also have a good history with the project I've been a part of for last two years. My current plan is grad school at UM so it would be smart if I go back to SAFL again next summer and continue my rapport there. Hmmm...possible summer in Boulder,CO...Seattle...Maryland...Portland...or some other unknown location?

Well I could definitely see myself in Portland. What a frickin cool bike city. It's a very progressive city and so environmental. I know I would fit in there. I met up Friday night with a fellow University of Idaho alum, David "Dragon" Meredith and his wife Steph. He has a bike company, OneGhostIndustries. We have both been past presidents of the UI Mountain Bike Club. We went to Hopworks, a cool biker bar with tasty organic beers, locally grown ingredients on the food menu, and an eco-friendly sustainable building.

Lots of cool food vendors on the street near my hotel.

April and I went to Chinatown one night for dinner, where you can play Oregon Lottery while you eat. We saw a lot of homeless people, too. It's so humbling when you see the reality that so many have to endure. We were all cush and warm in the Embassy Suites with a classy room and open the window curtains to see the less fortunate milling hungrily around in the streets below. Yeah, sometimes you think you have it hard, you a bad day, you had a shitty race result, your hair went flat in the rain--try being homeless, eh?

April and I ran into Amy Roloff from Little People Big World. She was at the Portland Convention Center at for a women's conference.

April and I tried on a ton of hats at Portland Outdoor Store.

Hopworks decor.

Dragon and Steph at Hopworks.

Katie the Raver and me as Tinkerbell. I flew into Minneapolis Saturday night and had packed my costume along with. I got off the plane and changed in an airport bathroom, Katie picked me up off the lightrail soon after went to Nomad World Pub where her band played their last show before their west coast tour.

One of the many good costumes of the evening, here's Balloon Boy.

Second Ugliest Bike on Campus

2009-10-27T21:20:00.001-05:00

SCSU's Second Ugliest Bike, check out the handlebar. Gross. It's a free bike, go figure, it's supposed to be ugly. One time on campus I saw a guy screaming down the sidewalk because the brakes didn't work on one of the yellow free bikes, Out Of Control!

I got a lot going on this week, from being sick the first part of last week and now going out of town this week, I have a lot to get done in a short amount of time.
I don't know if I had the H1N1 strain but I was completely debilitated for a few days. A couple of weekends ago I was in a smoky Superior bar enjoying The No-No's and The Rock & Roll Whores and I thought that the smoke was what made me sick, but a congested chest accompanied with high fever and chills doesn't quite add up. I finally rolled back into St. Cloud last Tuesday.

The Rock & Roll Whores

So this week I'm making a quick trip to Portland for AISES National Conference. I'll be competing in the undergraduate poster and oral presentations. The title of my abstract is:
Using Tracer Injection of NaBr and KNO3 to detect temporal responses of subsurface flow in a large-scale experimental facility

Wish me luck. If I'm not competing on the bike I better be competing with my head...and I've been spending lots of time in the books. I'm teaching myself more MATLAB and trying to learn Maple, oddly enough I do better at MATLAB. I don't write the most efficent code,though.

Halloween this weekend! My baseball uniform didn't come together so I have my back-up fairy costume, not very exciting but it's better than nothing.
The No-No's are playing at the Nomad on Halloween. I'll be there and it's going to be good! My favorite costume so far this year...robots rock.

Fun with MATLAB:
t = linspace(0, pi);
x = t.*cos(t); y = t.*sin(t);
x = eval(vectorize('t*cos(t)'));
y = eval(vectorize('t*sin(t)'));
h = 4:0.4:6;
y4 = 0*h+3;
i = 4:0.4:6;
y5 = 0.5*i+0;
r = (1.5-cos(6-t*5))+4;
y6 = (1.5-sin(6-t*5))+4;
u = ((5*cos(3*t/4)+4)/3 - (2*cos(11*t/2)+2)/3);
y7 = ((5*sin(3*t/4)+4)/3 - (2*sin(11*t/2)+2)/3);
l = 4:0.4:6;
y8 = ((-l.^2)+6);
p = 4:0.4:6;
y9 = abs(sqrt(p.^2)-5);
o = 4:0.4:6;
y15 = -.67*o+4.9;

Frank Vandenbroucke Memorial Road Ride

2009-10-15T11:15:00.003-05:00

I'm riding today at 3pm from Halenbeck Hall on SCSU campus and I'm calling it the Frank Vandenbroucke Memorial Road Ride. I only told like 6 people about it, and so far no one can make it, but anyone can come. I suck at updating the blog. That's ok, it will be a long moment of silence for VDB. Not only that but it's going to rain!
I tried getting a SCSU Cycling Club meeting this week to get signatures for some liability forms required by the school and it ended being just an informal meeting of 4 of us last night, this time no drinking afterward, geez, we're going to lose our reputation as a party school.

I'm going home to Duluth this weekend! I get to see Mysteries of The Great Lakes at Duluth Omnimax. And Katie's band is playing Friday night at Norm's!

Ugliest Bike on Campus

2009-10-09T09:51:00.005-05:00

U-G-L-Y you aint got no alibi, you UGLY! Poor franken-shite bike is just ugly. I admire the creativity though, and I'm just glad that people ride bikes to school.

The new commute between my place and school is pretty short, I don't even get the chance to warm up before I get to school, and I have to slalom course through broken glass. This week every night on the way home it has been something different. Early part of the week there was fireworks because of the Vikings and Twins games. People can see my lights coming for blocks away and I've been getting drunken cheers, and one car did honk at me. I promptly gave them the middle finger, but it was dark and I don't think they could tell through my gloved-hand anyway. I am starting to think I might try riding without my lights at night, then I won't attract so much attention.

Been doing a bunch of homework, and I love my calculator. It's the HP 50g. This one kicks the snot out of TI-89's geeky ass. I know I'm such a nerd.

Getting in some decent Stearns County bike rides. I was out near Marty on this ride, the big hill! I was glad that the wind wasn't blowing the chicken coup stench in my direction.

St. Cloud Race Weekend

2009-09-30T13:06:00.004-05:00

St. Cloud races last weekend, I decided to volunteer all weekend and not race. On Saturday was Revolution's Singletrack Escape. I was on timing chip duty, I handled all the sweaty, muddy and bloody velco straps that came through the finish chute. Not very glamorous work, but I had plenty of company all day. Gopherwheelmen crew were exceptionally generous with sharing New Glarus beers, imported across state lines from WI. After being so road-orientated last few years, it's funny to notice little differences between the two disciplines. I like the fact that there are so many category breakdowns in mtb races and they go 3 deep with medals.

Sunday was the Porkchop Challenge CX. Good seeing everyone. I drank too much and took too many photos, including some video. We had a lot of beer!
Big thanks for all the St. Cloud people coming out and pulling off another great weekend of racing. Nice job us.

So I moved again this week. I was living with Jeff & Lyssa in Waite Park until I found a place that I liked that was closer to school. I found a small place not too from campus. No more commuting down 2nd street north at 7am through the corridor of cheering and jeering elementary school kids waiting for the bus.
I think this guy is one of my neighbors. I don't think he knew I got a photo of him, I can be sneaky. He was asking me about the grey house across the street. Who knows, maybe we'll exchange blueberry muffin recipes??

The Last Starfighter

2009-09-22T12:02:00.002-05:00

I did something very bad today. I rode my bike without my helmet. I got a ride home from a friend last night and I forgot my helmet at school...what a dumbass. What makes matters worse is I left my spare helmet up in Duluth, go figure, even my auxiliary plan is bust. So I rode to school with no helmet. People do it all the time, and I don't know how. I felt so naked. I had my snowboard helmet, but I really didn't want to look like this guy:

Races up in St.Cloud this weekend, please join us! I'll be around, don't know what I'm racing yet, if at all, I just might volunteer all day and drink beers.
MTB on Saturday, CX on Sunday.

New Commuter Bike

2009-09-17T08:57:00.003-05:00

Last weekend I picked up a Miyata steel frame, 12speed, at a garage sale for super cheap, and it's super fast. I bought it from a woman who was selling it for her daughter. I hope it wasn't stolen at some point before it came to me. After my old commuter bike was stolen this past summer I find myself peering through bikes in bike racks thinking that someday I will find it again and what I would do if I did find it, steal it back? Get angry and render it useless like bashing in the rear wheel? Which would be a stupid thing to do because after it was stolen, it was probably sold off to some dude who got a good deal on a sweet old steel commuter, like me.

I put on some new bartape, and I've already been criticized for the wrap job, so don't worry wrap-snobs I'll re-wrap them later. I want to put on some platform pedals next time I make to the bikeshop. At some point I will put on fenders, too. I love this bike!

Powder Monkey owned me

2009-09-15T16:34:00.001-05:00

Raced last Sunday at Spirit Mtn, COGGS hosted the Powder Monkey mtb race. Big thanks to Kyia for letting me borrow her GaryFisher. She won Chequamegon on it back in the day. I was hoping it still had some fast left in it for me, however, I sure know how to pick races when this is the first time I've even touched a mtb in a year+. Effing Brilliant! It was fun anyway, into my 2nd lap my skills started to come back around somewhat but my chain fell off 3 times during the race. The climbing and any open sections I felt fast, but any time I hit the singletrack I totally sucked. I can't believe I used to only mtb race, it's funny to recall all the differences between mtb racing and road racing. The mtb climbing is slow and the air was all sticky so I just felt like my whole racing kit was soaked, when I finished I was so uncomfortable writhing in a fine film of dust sticking to my skin. Ish. It was great to see everyone, some people going 10yrs back when I first got into COGGS. I rode home back to my Mom's place after the race. It's ~9miles almost all offroad except for a section where I have to cross Becks Rd and then the last half mile into my Mom's neighborhood. The first part leaving Spirit Mtn is and old railroad grade, then the last couple of miles is 7 Bridges trail, that runs parallel to Mission Creek (say 'crick' not 'creek' in our 'hood, fool.).

View from Spirit Mtn.

Ride through old railroad tunnel.

Gorgeous view.

Ride over really high railroad bridge and looking over St.Louis River.

Hitting up some trails on my way home from race.

Last Saturday I worked at Twin Ports Cyclery, one of my customers is getting back into cycling. In the 80s he used to have a similar setup. He used to ride with a regular radio/double cassette player, ham radio, and a cb radio in his rear rack. Rockin' 3 antennas and one time he almost got hit by lightening. At the shop we're getting him all set up again. He already has his stereo on his bars.

I really hoped my nieces Emily (11yrs) and Riley (8yrs) were going to come out and mtb race at the Powder Monkey, but they wanted to do the Duluth Mile instead. They went 3,4 in the Girl's division, and finished together. What I liked best was the fact that Riley (in green shorts) ran the mile in her black/pink DC skate shoes. She is an absolute riot, and I absolutely love those kids.

F U Dandelion

2009-09-01T15:50:00.001-05:00

I was trying to be good and get a good night's sleep before Sunday's race, didn't happen. Terra and I went to a metal show the night before the MN State RR Champs. We were supporting her co-worker's band. We thought he was going to play around 10,10:30pm but they didn't go on till almost 11:30. The lead singer of the band was great at dropping the F-bomb, it wore off on me and I was pumped up when I left the show, had a hard time falling asleep and was still amped when I woke up the next morning, 5:45am and I hopped out of bed. I was so motivated from the previous night's performance I was inspired to dropping my own F-bombs during my race warm-up, apologies for all who had to endure, "all right all you motherfuckers out there, let's do this fucking race, I got my goddam janky-ass bike ready to rock this motherfuckin house, and while I'm getting my fucking warm-up on I'm going to swear at all these fuckin flowers on the side of the goddam road, Fuck you Dandelion!" Geez, so unlady-like!
Well, hearing the crash behind me after the turn at the bottom of the downhill was sobering. My teammate Lisa and Megan L(LGR/BehindBars) and a few others went down and fortunately no broken bones, just lots of nasty roadrash and bruises. At the end of the race it was me, Terra (speedfix) and Tiff (UND) pulling some fast rotations, but in the end Tiff took the W. Nice work everyone!

Last couple of weeks has been a complete blur, trying to see everyone before I leave Minneapolis and made my move back to St. Cloud for another school year. This year's transition has been kind of difficult, I wasn't ready to leave Minneapolis and had so much fun there. Unfortunately at SCSU they have the program I want(Hydrology) and tuition's relatively cheap, makes perfect sense since I'm paying for my own tuition, and I'm working on my 2nd bachelors...for reals.

Had another great summer at the lab, learned how to do tracer injections, and take stream velocity measurements among other things. On two separate occasions I took two visiting researchers out for their first Premos at Tuggs(of course), I even let them order it like an idiot, "Can I get a Grain Belt Premium, please?". I don't know if I'm going back next summer. I could end up in Seattle, or Belgium where I can finally marry Tom Boonen, it's exciting to think about, to do research somewhere completely new. It's a long way off.

Last Saturday I went to the StateFair with my cousin Marcus and a couple of his friends. I rode my bike there and it took me 20min on my 3speed Raleigh Ranger that's a size too small for me. StateFair, always an interesting people-watching place. I know I'm weird, too, the temperature dropped and I had to stuff a newspaper in between my two t-shirts for the chilly ride home. What a cycling weirdo. Wouldn't mind going again since I didn't get to see everything, perhaps if there's time.

Riding down the transitway on my way to the StateFair .

Just before I go down the big slide, I screamed the whole way.

Testing out the toilet, hope I win it!

Check out all the people!

Stearns Cty can't wait for me and visits me at the State Fair. It's not Arctic Cat cladded couple, but Castle X...close enough to scare me.

Under the Bridge Downtown

2009-08-18T07:25:00.005-05:00

Up to no good as usual. I was out late last Friday the night before the BigMarine RR. Katie and I rode our bikes around stopping for a beer here and there. Having the race start at 2pm was nice though. I slept in and took my time getting breakfast and loading up the car for the day.

A guy on rollerblades showing off for me and Katie:

Under 35W bridge, egad:

The Big Marine RR went pretty good. A bunch of girls showed up, the course was interesting, and it didnt' rain! I went to the Square Lake Festival after the race. I camped out with Andrea. It was really cool, about half their tickets they sold cheap for people who chose to ride their bikes out there. Good crowd, good music, and good food. We got rained out later in the evening but it didn't seem to dampen anyone's spirits.

This weekend it's racing in Stearns County for the Albany/Avon RR. Maybe the Hooters Recruiters bus will be in Albany like before. It was sitting in a yard as soon as you turn onto 238. Kyia put a photo of it before on her blog. When Terra and I were in staying in St. Cloud for the ToGC we were getting breakfast one morning, planning on hitting up the food co-op, well, the co-op was closed at 8:22am but the liquor store next door was open--figures. So then we head on over to Caribou then there's this image welcoming me, the full-blooded indian, gee thanks, you know I had my immacuately skinned beaver hides in the car. Living in Stearns Cty for most of the year last few years isn't all that bad, there's really awesome bike people that live there and other people to keep my sanity, plus a great Hydrology program that for some reason keeps me coming back to St. Cloud. It's just that sometimes I have to hold back the dry heaves when I see couples in matching Arctic Cat coats.
At any rate, looking forward to the Avon RR, I love the course! I'm bringing my swimsuit and rinsing off in Middle Spunk Lake after the race. See you there!

MC SpandX

2009-08-13T07:35:00.002-05:00

Get your laugh on, and don't you just love white boy rappers? I do. This is from bikeportland.

Raleigh Ranger

2009-08-06T07:34:00.005-05:00

I obtained a temporary replacement for my commuter bike. It's a Raleigh Ranger, with 3 speed internal hub, made in England. It's a little small for me and my Mom became infatuated with it. It's hers as soon as I find one a little faster and my size.

Went fishing with a couple of my nephews last weekend. Here's Jarrod holding one of the fish we caught. He's a great fisherman. I hope we can get out again on the river this weekend. More about last weekend, it was the last weekend for the Hells Angels being in town. They were stationed at a dance hall/bar, Lost Isle, about 12 miles from my Mom's place. I'm glad they're gone, then I can get back to speeding in my usual stretches of backroads since there was either a state trooper, sheriff, po-po or conservation officer located every 5,10 miles within the vicinity of Lost Isle. Now people can get back to talking about normal Duluth things like fishing, Red Plan, Lakewalk and Portland Malt Shop, and downtown I-35 traffic construction. Every conversation was about Hells Angels, everyone knew the same information about them, and it was regurgitated over and over. These poor guys couldn't get a break, any time there were more than 5 of them cruising around, there was a sheriff or someone with them. At one point I saw 30 of them together and they had no less than 15 police escorts alongside.

I had a poster presentation at the lab yesterday. It was only people from the lab that showed up, with the exception of Katie's parents. I still got lots of work to do before end of the summer. Wish me luck.

No Auto Parts Available

2009-07-27T19:42:00.001-05:00

The Capitol crit officially sucked for me. I felt hot and my legs felt heavy. Luckily Terra and I were able to ride together after sadly (sigh) we both got dropped. I was excited for this race since I like the course a lot, oh well, already looking forward to next year.
I rode my bike to the race and on the way home I had to stop at NAPA to pick up a serpentine belt. I knew there was one at 2400 block of E Hennepin, No Auto Parts Available lives up to its name as NAPA was no longer there and it had turned into a golf store. I stop at another car mechanic place asking for new NAPA directions, turns out NAPA moved over to Kasota Ave/280. It was well worth the ride, the new NAPA is huge and they have my belt. I'm in my kit and one of the guys asked if I was at the Aquatennial ride or something, I took off my race number before the ride home because I didn't want to look as much of a freak, I told him about the race and he mentioned that there might be a race at the Aquatennial next year...hmm. At home I'm trying to get this belt on and after a 45min of trying on my own I call for backup. Terra comes over and we get that bastard on in 5min. Nice job.
Elbow high in grease and utilizing pedal wrench:

It's been a nutty last week. Between my commuter bike getting stolen (walking to work sucks, all 5 blocks of it), almost dying in a thunderstorm and getting up the next day to almost die again, I don't know how I do it sometimes. I really must love outside research, if I make it to 45yrs old I would consider myself lucky, cavemen would have longer lifespans than me. In the middle of the thunderstorm as I'm moving a $20K aluminum velocity instrument thigh high in water I remember screaming, "I'm not dying for someone else's research!"...as dying for my own research would be any better.

Waiting to die for research, surveying with the total station on an aluminum base:

Looks like a couple of weekends off from racing, I'll be at the beach, but first, this week I'll be at an Ojibwe Treaty Rights Symposium, should be good chance to meet people I want to work with in the future. Can't wait!

Tour of Granite Country

2009-07-21T07:50:00.002-05:00

ToGC last weekend, went pretty well, racing is fun, bowling in Albany is fun.
I got 5th overall but I had to endure a TT to finish it. I hate TTs, I only do them when I have to, like in this race. I don't even own a pair of aero bars. Whoever invented the TT is a real genius. It's up there with Michael Buble and Billy Mays (wait, that was mean...oh well) in my list of dislikes. I shouldn't complain so much, it's only ~22min of my life. I'm always a fan of the RR course in Richmond, I like hills even though I didn't have the best climbing legs that day. I got last in the circuit race. I tried to set up Terra for the finish in circuit race, she still got an exciting 4th so I was happy with that.

Me and Terra feeling surly and on our way to hell:

Last weekend in Duluth was the Lincoln Park MTB Race and Challenge. My nieces, Emily the 11 year old, and Riley the 7 year old, went 1-2 in the Kids category.
Emily is already a better bike racer than I am, she wins more money than I do in bike racing, too. $35 payout for winning the Kids category is a great day! She'll probably spend it all on candy. Goofy kid. Nothing could make me prouder! Please Please I hope they don't end up like me, an old cat 4 racer who likes beer and doesn't give a shit about TTs.
Riley spinning the legs:

pvc

2009-07-16T07:56:00.005-05:00

Apparently pvc is bad. I'm around pvc all day and I work with it constantly. What else is new? I went to Home Depot yesterday, and I wasn't even there for work, which felt weird. I go there about every week for work supplies. My bathroom sink has been draining slow so I picked up some stuff my landlord recommended. It's supposed to be safe for pvc pipes. Seemed to have worked its magic, the bottle warning was kind of scary though, it kept mentioning lye eruptions.

One of my project designs calls for pvc welding. I recently tried pvc welding with a hot air welder and black pvc rods on white pvc, since all I had was the black pvc sticks. Either it doesn't work since my weld didn't hold, or I simply suck at pvc welding, since it was my first time--or both. I need to order white pvc welding rods. Must try all possibilities, I love doing research.
The welder:

Trial #1, I just ended up burning the plastic, effing great:

enjoying summer

2009-07-15T07:55:00.001-05:00

I was in Duluth last weekend. I got in a couple of bike rides, went to the beach, and worked at the bike shop. My favorite customer of the day was some 13yr old kid from the neighborhood with an oversized tshirt with grease marks and no shoes who needed his chain shortened. He came back 3 times just to get it right.
Former TPC employee, BIG MIKE, making an appearance.

Saw this movie at Bicycle Film Festival last week with Katie, inspiring!

Northfield Crit

2009-07-08T07:57:00.002-05:00

Northfield crit last weekend. I've always liked the course, like the hill. Thanks to Jake, Ben, and all the wonderful volunteers for putting on a fine race. Rossi showed up, had to take a photo to prove it!

Can I Get My Life Back Now?

2009-07-02T07:28:00.002-05:00

Wow, what a week at work. Friday's a holiday so trying to get stuff done in a 4 day work-week can be hellish. I've had a couple of late nights at the lab, some may laugh, as I wasn't even the last one to leave the lab. A couple of the PhD candidates were still hammering at their desks 10,11pm at night. This week has been my biggest weeks at the lab. A visiting researcher couldn't be around for an experiment he wanted conducted so I was in charge of executing the plan. No pressure, eh? This was just round one, round two comes next week but should be better. Tuesday I had a group presentation on this summer's research and that was nothing compared to worrying about how the Bromide probe would calibrate. I had people helping me out and it still felt like I could have used a couple more extra helpers.

Katie and Jordan collecting samples in the drizzly morning.

Just a portion of the samples collected, time to get processing!

Yay, I get to work with chemicals! Watch out! Almost 9:30pm and I'm still working...

At this point I couldn't even put on a matching pair of boots.

At my desk, Shoes a recurring theme at work.

MN State Crit Champs 09

2009-06-30T07:28:00.001-05:00

Another state crit champs in the books. Our field was smallish, not complaining though, it's always a great time racing with the ladies. It was a windy mother out there. Good job everyone. Thanks Lee, or Megan? for this photo. It's me and Megan bridging up to lead pack.

Pro BMXer Derek borrowed El Jefe's (background) cx bike to do his first road event. He did pretty good for his first time and racing with BMX shoes, BMX pedals, and hairy legs.

Overall nice weekend, I spent some Friday/Saturday at home in Duluth, Saturday working at Twin Ports Cyclery, then waking up early for the drive to St. Cloud for racing Sunday.
Here's me and my protege, Riley. She's one of my sister's daughters. We bear a family resemblance and she's is a riot to hang out with. She does mini-science experiments on her own, too, I am an admirer of her work.

Dodecathlon 09

2009-06-23T08:05:00.001-05:00

Instead of racing last weekend Terra invited me to a weekend of a different kind of pain. We camped on Big Island on Lake Minnetonka, it was some friends of hers that kept score of a bunch of beer-drinking activities, called the Dodecathlon. 12hrs of events. Bike racing would have been easier compared to this. I got so sore from all the running, javelin tossing, soduko, hatchet throwing, paintball marksmanship, crosswords, somersaults, beer swim...

Terra keeping me company while fishing.

Rollo sleeping on my legs.

Leaving Big Island.

Rollo buried under gear and garbage.

HB at NVGP

2009-06-17T07:57:00.001-05:00

NVGP has been crazy this year!
It was fun being part of a whole team's race weekend. Terra and I helped out the Hagens Berman Cycling team from Seattle. Hanging with the boys of HB was a total blast. They're a great bunch of guys that are fun to be around and watch race.

Friday's Uptown crit was pretty nutty. What a party all night. Terra and I rode our bikes all the way from the Stone Arch bridge. She had on her cowboy boots and I rode in wooden heels. Riding in cowboy boots and heels does require some talent, but we did it. We got lucky though and Timmer gave us a ride home from Hwood's.
Terra and I got our pictures taken with Floyd, like everyone else. I'm such a sellout! I hate myself sometimes. I couldn't resist when I saw him alone with his bodyguard. He said I was tall. So I said I was sorry, but I really wasn't sorry.

Madness:

Me selling out:

Saturday Terra and I hopped in the team car with the HB Director Sportif, Joe Holmes, for the Mankato RR. It was worth not racing the amateur crit. We got to see and hear all the action. One of the guys, Nick Clayville, got in the break so we drove back/forth a couple of times between him and the peloton.
Near the end of the race at one point Nick was the virtual overall GC leader, too bad they couldn't stop the race just at that moment!
Good riding everyone! Joe Holmes is very good at his job and very professional, hope I get to help out again next year!

Me, Joe and Terra at the start of the Mankato RR:

On Sunday Terra and I rode part of the way to Stillwater. We drove out to White Bear Lake then cruised 11 miles to the crit. On the way back we tried a different route then got kind of lost in Stillwater. We found this weird trail to nowhere. It was a nice little path that ran paralell to 36 for a short way then it dumped downhill into this forest where it did one loop back out onto the main path. We thought we were doing so cool at navigating, what a frickin joke! As usual the race spectating was crazy. What a good crowd. Looking forward to next year.

Stillwater fans, Jake Cohen, Andy Schlict from Revolution Cycle & Ski, they raced the amateur crit:

Me, Lang, Sam, Chris, Joe, AJ, Terra, Nick:

Terra, Me:

Smelling Brake Dust

2009-06-11T07:45:00.001-05:00

State Fair crit went much smoother this week. I much preferred this course over last week. I managed to stay with the lead pack the whole way, pretty fun Tuesday night racing. 40 minutes still feels like a long time for me.

Met up with Terra last night for Stage 2 St. Paul Crit. I couldn't get out there early enough for the women's race, but at least got to see the last half of the men's. The speed of those guys never ceases to amaze me. Then we met up with some of her Seattle homies, from Hagens Berman Cycling. Funny how that Northwest connection comes back to me. A few of us used to be at the same collegiate races when I used to live in Idaho.
Sam discovered cottage cheese on the menu, something us Minnesotans are used to seeing as a side order.

Man Sale

2009-06-04T07:57:00.004-05:00

Raced on Tues. at State Fair crit. Fortunately I got off work early and rode over there on the bus/bike path. I was excited to race, but things quickly took a turn for the worst when a few laps in my seatpost cradle mechanism slipped and jacked up my seat angle. I knew it was getting worn out, but thought I would get lucky and it wouldn't move. No such luck. I fell behind and couldn't get back on. Oh well, it's just racing.
East Union went alright. I didn't quite have the sprinting legs in the end but had fun putting in some good efforts with the girls. On my way back to St.Cloud after the East Union CR I decided to go west on 212, then north on 15. I came across a 'Man Sale'. Yes, of course I stopped. It was just a bunch of guys drinking beer trying to sell each other their snowblowers, snowmobile tracks, and old tools.

My calendar has been pretty busy last couple of weeks, moved back to Minneapolis for the summer for my job at the lab. Last week I tried to see everyone in St. Cloud before I left and taste tested the beer I helped El Jefe make over the semester(which was fantastic!). Now I'm back at the lab, it's great to be back and reconnect with everyone, and I'm spending most of my time doing my own research which is different from last time I worked here. My research is developing an in-situ technique to measure changes in soil hydraulic conductivity.

They don't like drive-by shoppers!

fishing near richmond

2009-05-28T10:30:00.006-05:00

Went fishing last night with El Jefe. We went out on the Sauk River, Horseshoe Lake near Richmond. Temps were a little chilly yesterday, maybe that's why we didn't catch anything. Maybe it's just that I suck at fishing and I'm bad luck. It's not a good thing to advertise when I'm looking for new fishing buddies.

Trolling on Sauk River.

Trolling with this guy first.

Second attempt.

Sunset on Horseshoe Lake.

Inspired

2009-05-27T12:52:00.001-05:00

Volunteering last weekend at Duluth Classic was pretty fun. I had to work Friday and Saturday at Twin Ports Cyclery so I didn't get to volunteer those days. I show up to work Saturday morning and our front window was all boarded up. Someone broke into the shop via the front window and tried to steal the bikes locked up in the front display window. The po-po came by and foiled the thieves plan before they could actually steal anything. Lucky for us. I suppose that's part of the risk for being a bikeshop in West End, kinda ghetto, but I like it. I'm kind of ghetto, too, so I fit in, not ghetto fabulous, but my bike's ghetto. The pharmacy next door to the shop have been robbed a handful of times in the past.

Saturday volunteering wasn't too bad. I sat on the corner of Roberg/Lester River Rd. I had one jerk in a white suv driving too fast in my intersection, he came by not once, but twice. Seriously. It was a nice day to be outside for the Lakewood stage. Double B came by my corner off the front on the last lap, but unfortunately he was caught at the end. Exciting racing though.
Sunday's Cloquet crit was pretty fun. I was helping Megan direct local traffic to get people living in a culdesac in/out. I made fast friends with a couple of kids who lived in the culdesac. They hung out all day. Isaak the older one was SO EXCITED about the race. He's turning 10 next year and wants to start racing bikes.

Good to see everyone. Thanks to everyone who helped out!

Sammy, Isaak.

Sitting in my chair taking photos and videos.

Future bike racer Isaak taking photos with my phone.

duluth

2009-05-21T10:17:00.004-05:00

I'll be helping out Tone with the Duluth Classic. Me and that race go back a long way. One of my older sisters raced bikes for a couple of years, I must've been 9 years old at the time. When she raced the Classic, one of the stages went in front of my house. That was the moment when I fell in love with bikes and bike racing. The next years after that I would volunteer. It never bothered me sitting on a corner for hours, just to see the peloton go by in a flash. Looking forward to seeing you there.

J-O-B at Twin Ports Cyclery.

Light reading before I start work at the lab in Minneapolis on June 1st.

Solo

2009-05-14T08:19:00.005-05:00

Rode solo for 2+hrs yesterday. Photo kind of sucks because it's on the camera phone. I should have brought the regular camera though, it was so gorgeous yesterday, the wind didn't even bother me. Scenery around St. Joe is so spring-like. I was pretty content.

Girl Meets Bicycle

2009-05-13T08:26:00.000-05:00

Check out this movie about Jacquie Phelan. Rock-n-roll.

Lorien from Boise, Idaho emailed the link to me yesterday. (And it's pronounced BOY-SEE, not Boy-ZEE.) Sometimes I really miss all my homies in Idaho!

Nuthin' But a G Thang

2009-05-12T08:46:00.003-05:00

The class that had no end, River Hydraulics owned me! We had Finals last week and my River Hydraulics class wasn't final for me. I had some leftover homework that my prof wanted me to turn in. So I spent last Friday night and Monday at school working on hydrology homework. Friday night JeffH and I were working on hydro homework for different profs, we were in the hydro computer lab till 9pm! How lame. At least I got out to have some fun, hung out with Andrea, someone I never get to see enough of. Then Monday another day in the hydro computer lab. At least I wasn't the only one there working on left over business for their profs, so I didn't feel like a complete loser. It was very reminiscent of when I wasn't allowed to graduate high school because I missed so much school that year. I missed some to sports, but the other half was just skipping class out of boredom. In order for me to officially graduate I had to make up time in the library shelving books for two days after classes ended. I shelved some books then spent the rest of the time reading in a corner. I shouldn't complain so much, considering I am fortunate to have such a supportive department.
Yay for Andrea!

Saturday on my way out of St Cloud I saw this guy, a block from Kyia's house...maybe he was going to Kyia's house. I didn't ask.

My friends are always looking out for me on the Boonen front, thanks to Andersons then this email from MIKE:
"http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/may09/may09news2

June, the father of your children must have a really congested nose and sinuses.

later, I hope your having fun, cus I'm
MIKE "

Oh, Boonen.

So just chill, till the next episode.

"I Turn my Camera On"

2009-05-05T07:52:00.001-05:00

Marty RR came and went. I was there early to hand off water to Double B and cheer on other Duluthians. Got my first race of the season out of the way. It was windy all up in Marty! Women's 4/40+ field was pretty big, nice to see all the ladies come out. Even a few new girls from Duluth representing. My race went alright, except my chain dropped first lap on top of Stickney and I fought like mad to get back onto the group, by then it took me awhile to recover, burned too many matches, oh well.
In a nutshell rest of the weekend went like this, besides studying at school...:
Watched El Jefe(Expert) and Derek(Pro A) race bmx @ Pineview Park.

SCSU's last game this season, went with Rebekah.

Trailwork @ Plum Creek Monday night. Nice work all around! Derek background, Tracy in front. I can still feel woodticks crawling on me. Crash took some photos, too.

Me and Chuck

2009-05-01T07:46:00.001-05:00

Kyia wrote up a pretty good recap of Will Steger's Wednesday presentation on global climate change. My Mom told me I should wear my Steger Mukluks, and I told her no thanks. I would be just like the girls who wear Uggs in 60F...something I just don't get. Don't their feet get hot? Whatever.
I get to meet Will Steger and my eyes are half-open, doh! And no Shawn, it's not Neil Diamond. =)

Yesterday my department, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, had their spring pizza social. Chuck, my first ever hydrology prof showed up! I credit him for motivating me study hydrology. He's brilliant. This year's pizza social was actually a social.

Semi-retired geology prof, Garry Anderson, the elder Mr. Anderson.

PCR

2009-04-29T08:16:00.001-05:00

Latest favorite science blog, Bayblab, from which I discovered a link to Bio-Rad's song about PCR, "The PCR song". It's probably only funny if you know what PCR is, or it probably just looks like some lame video.

Polymerase Chain Reaction, PCR, the technique used in Jurassic Park(one of my top 5 movies) to bring back dinosaurs. PCR was discovered by Kary Mullis, Nobel laureate of Chemistry in 1993. He has the most intriguing autobiography, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, of any person I've ever read. Read it even if you're not into science, it will knock your socks off!

"Get Behind the Wheel. Stay in Front of the Storm."

2009-04-27T09:36:00.001-05:00

No racing yet. The closest thing I got to racing last weekend was watching Liege on tv. I'll make it out to a race soon.
No fishing last weekend either, I thought about it though, I get distracted in my research literature review; thinking about velocity profiles of streams and how it might help me catch fish.

An Anderson birthday celebration last Friday, Happy Birthday! Thanks to Crash for the photo documentation.

From a recent ride, this hill never ends, photo from crummy camera phone.

1864 baseball

2009-04-23T08:16:00.001-05:00

Summer's on the way, I can feel it, warm weather and baseball. SCSU vs Wayne State College. I had to make it to this game. It could be scsu's last game this season @ the MAC. I've been getting scsu baseball updates from JeffH(1B/OF) in river hydraulics class so I finally made it out to a game. It was fun, but it's surprising that they don't sell beer during college games, nor high school(understandable), however, they do sell beer during Little League...

Seven minutes of your life that you won't ever get back, but might be worth the laugh.

Conan O'Brien 1864 Baseball
by Youpinadi

Johnny Utah

2009-04-20T07:26:00.001-05:00

Good weekend all around. Saturday I had some important family stuffs happening. I was also able to get in a good ride that included a few gravel sections to rally through. Somehow I ended up at RT Quinlan's Saloon and heard a couple of punk bands. They were pretty good. RTs even have an old phone booth in operation, Hello?

Went fly fishing on Sunday with El Jefe. We hit up the Lester River 6am. I suck at fishing, but I still enjoy being out on the water. We took a break for breakfast @ Uncle Loui's (top notch french toast), then we picked up some spawn sacks at Marine General, which didn't help me any, I still didn't catch anything. Guys on either side of me landed some gorgeous fish. Water's still kind of cold for a good run, but there's fish out there. It snowed on and off, too.

Johnny Utah waiting for the perfect wave, "locals rule".

Heel-Pedalers

2009-04-16T07:28:00.001-05:00

I'm not quite used to sharing the trailspace and prime roads with people yet. With all this nice weather people really come out of the woodwork, all sorts of people. I saw a guy two days ago decked out in a camo coat on his mtb, mini radio blasting 'We are the Champions' with a tiny license plate that said, '2 Fast 4 U'. He was 2 Fast 4 Me. What can I say, we got some neat people around St. Cloud. Of course the other people getting out are exercising couples, one running, while the other on a bike, getting in one good pedal stroke every 20 seconds--I don't get it. I hope I never become a part of one of those couples...never say never. People out resurrecting New Year's resolutions, good luck eh? Unpredictable kids swerving their bikes all over the place. People out happily heel-pedaling like no tomorrow. It's great to see all the bike racks filled again on campus. Welcome back.

Yesterday I went to a seminar in the Math dept. A former scsu grad working on his PhD at Univ. Illinois was talking about 2D modeling of diffusion of particles around an obstacle in the unsaturated zone. It's interesting that you can do all this mathematical modeling and calculating p-series, double integrals, etc, without ever getting dirty in the field or taking physical measurements. I suppose a lot of scientific discoveries happen in the math room before they happen in a lab or field. I hope that some day he does 3D modeling.

I like food. Eating up cake at banquet this week, yum:

spring cleaning

2009-04-13T07:56:00.001-05:00

Boonen wins Paris-Roubaix! I am going to have his baby.

My presentations last Friday at the conference went really well. It went so well that now I'm supposed to do more presenting at a couple of bigger conferences later on this year. At least I'm done with conferences for this semester and I can go back to riding my bike and studying.

Spring cleaning at my Mom's house last weekend yielded my first cell phone, back from 1999. It's so clunky and heavy! It's missing the powercord to the charger.

My old phone isn't too far off from this dinosaur:

Ken Griffey Jr.

2009-04-09T08:10:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was a big day, I'm glad to have the symposium behind me. I brought with me Jeff H from river hydraulics class. We went to SAFL before the symposium because I had to meet with my SAFL advisor to discuss my summer research and to show Jeff around since he's trying to get a job there.
My poster was a hit at the research symposium at Bell Museum. It went from 5:30-7:30pm and I talked the whole time, people kept coming by, I didn't get one break in between the steady stream of people. A lot of times it was 3,4 deep. I felt bad for the guy who had to be on the other side of the poster board as me. He had some poster about turkey cellulite, which wasn't generating much interest from people. He kept poking his sad face around at me and my crowd. Poor dude.
Up next, I'm presenting at a small conference @ metrodome Radisson tomorrow--then I think I'm done presenting for awhile.

After the symposium Jeff, his girlfriend Mary, and I went to the Twins game. I had on my Mariner's tshirt, Jeff had his Ken Griffey Jr jersey. We got mooned at, well, us and Ken Griffey Jr. It's tough being a Mariner's fan in Twins territory. After Mariner's leave town I'll go back to Twins...I wasn't disappointed with the Mariner's 5-6 loss. That last inning was amazing! Twins totally rallied on 2 outs. The crowd went crazy. Even outside after the game there was so much excitement in the air, we saw two old guys racing on their electric scooters down the sidewalk.

Yesterday I had to help out with taking down the Dome @ scsu as part of punishment for cycling club missing mandatory meetings. It wasn't bad work since there were a ton of people out there, but I have never been witness to so much testosterone in one place, football team, baseball, wrestlers, girls rugby...There was one football coach who was yelling out all the commands, I guess he's been doing it as along as there has been a Dome. It was a well orchestrated, and well executed process.

At the lab:

It's Monday

2009-04-06T08:30:00.001-05:00

I had a nice weekend. El Jefe and I spent all day Saturday fishing on Lake Superior. His fiancee Lyssa couldn't make it up, but hopefully next time she will, and maybe next time we'll catch a fish. We were out on the Lester River at 6am with fly rods, then early afternoon we switched to spin reel and wax worms still with no luck. By the end of the day we moved up to French River and there we saw one guy catch something, I think he was the only guy all day to catch anything. It was a good day. It was my first time fishing all season so I felt pretty rusty. I was fumbling around with my rod early in the morning, my casting sucked, I don't really care if I don't catch anything as long as I get to be outside all day I'm still having fun.

Sunday I got in a good ride, which included plenty of punishing hills.
Then my sister Sue, and I went to The Full Monty @ The Duluth Playhouse. Jen, Dave's girlfriend, was in the show, she is such a good performer! Lots of talent up in there. It was a good show, I was laughing the whole time and the guys did give us the full monty, with police hats covering up the goods. Thanks to Ben for hooking me up with the tix, he's great. After the show I made it home just in time to see the last 15k of Flanders...Stijn is the man.

I will be at an undergrad resesarch symposium tomorrow @ Bell Museum. I will be at a poster session instead of doing an actual powerpoint presentation as previously thought. I would have preferred to do a presentation because my poster has been a laborious process. After the poster session is a speaker, Eloy Rodriguez, talking about "The Origin and Discovery of Natural Organic Medicines from the Forbidden forests of Africa and the Amazon in Peru."

Here's me, a Looper's worst nightmare:

At the mouth of the Lester River on Lake Superior.

We weren't the only ones out on the Lake at 6am.

Hitting a New Low

2009-03-31T20:20:00.001-05:00

What would Pre do? I decided to go running today while my bike is out of commission and awaiting a derailleur hanger. There was a long time ago when I wanted to devote all my athletic endeavors into running, boy am I glad that didn't happen. I used to love running. Running is so hard. Why would I want to run when I could be pedaling on a bike? Runners always look like they're in pain when they're running--it's because they are. I know I bash runners but it's just because I used to be one. I learned a lot about training, and overtraining, when I was a runner. I loved the athleticism, the work ethic. I'm really glad I went out today. It was a different pace from riding bikes, it was slow and I took in the river views in a more contemplative way.

Today's eating adventure, Ritter Sport chocolate cornflake bar.

Minnesota Ice

2009-03-30T17:46:00.001-05:00

Joost Posthuma. I would go out with him just because he has a rad name.

What a weekend. I got in a good ride on Saturday, riding into Wisconsin and back into MN on Cty Rd 4 then cruised around farmland before finishing ride through Jay Cooke State Park. I went to TPC to do some more work on my bike and I end up working a little bit anyway, sold a few things then dove down into the dark shop basement, a place where you can become albino if you're down there too long while breathing in the fumes wafting slightly from the parts cleaner. Sat. night I went out to Carmody Irish Pub with Double B and Theresa. Nice catching up with them and Brynn also sat down with us for awhile. I got my first bike mechanic lessons from the master Brynn, back when he worked at Twin Ports Cyclery.
Me, BB, and Shawn met up at Chester Bowl Sunday morning, somethings I rarely do, which is 1) ride with BB and Shawn, and 2) ride on the East end of town; mainly because my Mom lives on the other side of town away from everyone else. We were just over an hour into our ride when my rear der. hanger snapped! I was so pissed. We debated whether I should make the POS into a SS so it would be rideable or phone a friend. Shawn decided to turn around and ride back while me and BB waited for his angel of a girlfriend, Theresa to come and give me a ride back into town. We were by the side of the road waiting for 25min and not one person stopped to see if we were ok. We were ok and didn't need anyone stopping for us, but we weren't feeling the Minnesota Nice yesterday. Strange.

Punishment

2009-03-26T21:08:00.001-05:00

From today's cold ride, fun!

Yesterday El Jefe and I built up a couple of bikes for Campus Rec, part of our punishment handed down from Sports Club Coordinator for missing some mandatory meetings. Apparently no one made it to any of the fall semester meetings, I wasn't even around in the fall but now as interim SCSU Cycling prez I have to make sure that we make it to the remaining meetings for this school year, something I take seriously. Building bikes isn't really a 'punishment' as much as it is a pleasure plus these bikes were pretty easy to put together.

River Ice Breakage

2009-03-23T10:16:00.000-05:00

The seminar went well. Almost all the profs in my dept., my chem prof, meteorology and hydrology peers were there. The room was packed so it was a little nerve-wracking, but I've been told I did a good job. From my perspective, I know there's things I want to work on and get better at. I talked for 50min then it went longer, just over an hour with questions.

I got in some rides in Duluth and went to Twin Ports Cyclery and replaced my rear shifter/brake cables and housing. I got to the bike shop late and ran out of time so I will have to finish the other side later. It was another quiet day at the shop, things haven't ramped up yet around there, so I haven't started actually working yet. As long as I got my Hits of the 70s cassette tape and radio in the shop basement I'll be pretty happy. It only sucks when the tape ends and I have to go over to the boombox and flip the tape with my greasy fingers.
St. Louis River:

Nemadji River, someone's doing research on this part of the river, not sure what but I saw an unmistakable data logger box.

Blissful

2009-03-18T21:46:00.002-05:00

I'm enjoying the nice weather. I like all that spring has to offer. I don't mind the rain and I can't wait for the return of green. Even the occasional snowstorm isn't too bad, it melts off pretty quick. I'm short on time this week for rides, but it's been blissful nonetheless.

Friday is coming fast! Where did this week go? I'm still not happy with the powerpoint presentation for my seminar on Friday. I will be doing a similar presentation at UM's Bell Museum of Natural History for a North Star student research symposium in April. Then I have at least one more scheduled presentation at a small conference later in April. Here's my abstract:

St. Cloud State University
Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Seminar

Friday, March 20th, 2009
3:00p.m.
Wick Science Building Room 119

June Sayers
-Hydrology Major
Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
St. Cloud State University
-Outdoor StreamLab Undergraduate Research Assistant
St. Anthony Falls Laboratory
National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics
University of Minnesota

Outdoor StreamLab—From Construction Phase to Research Phase including determination of groundwater flow with in-bank flood simulations.

The construction of Outdoor StreamLab (OSL) makes possible research of large-scale river systems simulated in a smaller, controlled environment. Weekly in-bank flood simulations were performed using different sediments producing a turbid stream channel. The OSL groundwater system flows in a contained area, allowing for monitoring during flood stages and for base flow adjustments to be optimal. This presentation focuses on the OSL groundwater system and our observations on the relations between river and subsurface flows. In addition, a description on the data collection and processing methods, as well as maintenance of the OSL system will be presented. The OSL offers a unique research opportunity for scientists and students: it is a controlled system where we could test hypothesis and obtain measurements on the interactions between the physical and biological components of fluvial landscapes.

Baseball Spring Training

2009-03-16T08:26:00.002-05:00

I'm back in MN. It's great to be back. AZ is beautiful in its own way, but I need the green trees, cool weather and overcast days! Spring is on the way!

My brother Ted and his friend Jeremy's surgeries were a success! The Phoenix Fox tv station did a story about them the day before the surgery. I was in the hospital from last Wed. till Sun. looking out for the guys along with Jeremy's wife, Holli. Luckily Ted got discharged yesterday morning before I had to fly out. Ted is on a fast track to recovery while Jeremy's making progress in his own time. He should be out of the hospital by Wed.

I did manage to make it out to a couple of spring training baseball games. The four of us went to the Angels and Indians game at Tempe Diablo Stadium on Tuesday the day before the surgery. I didn't care who won, I just wanted a good game. All the action was in the last few innings. Angels won 8-4. Then on Friday Ted wanted have some fun outside the hospital so he sent me to the Mariners/Cubs game at Hohokam Park with Holli's Dad. He is a real riot. This time I did care who won. I wanted the Mariners to win but they got stomped 8-1! I was bummed Ichiro wasn't playing. He's my favorite player to watch bat. I've been a lazy Mariners fan since I moved back to MN from Idaho. Don't get me wrong I am a Twins fan, but I have to root for the Mariners when they play Twinkies.

Wounded knee update: It's nasty. It keeps opening up and oozing out. It sucks having to wear jeans because even with bandages it's been seeping out and sticking to everything.

Stars:

Holli, Jeremy, me and Ted @ Diablo Stadium:

Angels/Indians @ Diablo:

Great seats! We were close to 3rd base and left outfielders:

Yuniesky Betancourt @ Hohokam:

I played golf and I didn't die!

2009-03-09T11:19:00.009-05:00

I played golf for the first time in my life yesterday. First we hit up the driving range in the morning, where Holli taught me how to hold the club and swing.
Then we met up with Chuck, Holli and Jeremy's friend. We played 18 holes on an executive course. I did a decent job for my first time, so I'm told, since I have nothing to compare it to. I didn't keep score. Chuck was full of good advice and hot tips. I credit my success to Chuck and Holli for being good teachers. It's possible I'll be playing more golf in my future. I like golf.

Then about the 13th hole I was trying to get out of the way of the ball, Chuck was trying to do the same thing but in a golf cart. He was looking the other way and hit me from behind. My left leg goes under the cart, I almost get up and the cart lurches forward again, knocking me down again. I end up skinning my knee and part of my calf. I bent the plastic grill of the cart and Chuck felt so bad. He's probably going to be losing sleep over this. I didn't know golfing could be so dangerous! What an experience for my first time golfing. Besides being hit with a golf cart, it was really fun. We couldn't stop making jokes about the incident the rest of the day. Well, we didn't make the jokes in front of Chuck since he already felt awful.

Me and Holli:

Orange Blossoms

2009-03-08T11:19:00.004-05:00

My bike made it to Phoenix in one piece, what a relief. Big thanks to Sara J from the lab for taking me to the airport! I have been getting in some rides, it's a nice change to ride in short sleeve jersey and bibs versus neoprene booties and warm tights. I got a map and still made a few wrong turns, it's all good though, it's still fun. People are so nice on the paths, everyone smiles.
Ted and his friend Jeremy are getting ready to undergo the knife soon. Our schedule's been pretty full with social calls and preparing for surgery and post-surgery.
Me and Ted with Holli and Jeremy's baby, Chase. Chase is the cutest kid, ever.

Fragrant Orange Blossoms in Holli and Jeremy's backyard:

Llamas:

Do people ever fall into these canals while riding?

skate skiing

2009-03-03T20:56:00.003-06:00

I got in some good xc skiing in over the weekend. I skate skiied Saturday and Sunday at Spirit Mtn. Trails were top notch, hats off to the groomers! I wished I didn't forget my kickwaxes because the classic track looked stellar. Hopefully there will still be some good snow to be had when I come back.

Before I leave tomorrow for AZ I'm making headway on my presentation for my March 20th seminar:
Outdoor StreamLab—From Construction Phase to Research Phase including determination of groundwater flow with in-bank flood simulations.

I got homework to hammer out, too:

Spring Break

2009-02-26T08:36:00.000-06:00

I'll be in Phoenix March 4-15th. My brother Ted calls me from Phoenix where he's been for the past month and says he wants me to come visit, have a good time and be around for a surgery. Ted's donating part of his liver to his best friend, Jeremy, who lives there. We all grew up in the same neighborhood. I'll be getting in some rides and I want to make it to a Mariners spring training game. I totally don't deserve to go anywhere warm for spring break with the current state of my classes, but I cannot refuse my brother.

Yesterday I made a quick trip to St. Anthony Falls Lab, SAFL, to download some data for an upcoming seminar I'm giving at St. Cloud State. It was so good to see everyone! Then a few of us went to happy hour at Tuggs, a block from the lab. I can't wait to start working there again this summer. The end of the semester can't come soon enough!

Stiletto Heels

2009-02-24T20:59:00.006-06:00

Misspelled 'Giro' fixed. Thanks, now I can sleep at night.

I got in 2.5hrs today with El Jefe and Fred. El Jefe has the best draft. If I get within 5 feet of his radius, I'm getting sucked in. It's not a bad thing though, behind him, the weather's always beautiful. No wind and easy pedaling.

Contrast that with the part of the ride Fred led us down. We cruised on the trail by St. John's and I had to whip out the ice riding skills, then shoulder the bike through snow packed trail. My cleats had 3 inches of snow like a reverse stiletto heel. It's always a fun adventure with these guys.

oh no

2009-02-23T19:26:00.003-06:00

Oh no they didn't, "Armstrong cautiously confident for Grio". Grio?? I was so distracted by the misspelled 'Giro' I couldn't concentrate on reading the rest of the story. What's my problem? Sometimes I wish I didn't care so much. There are real problems in the world to worry about such as, the world water crisis.

This guy stole my idea. I wanted to put newspaper over him to make him more comfortable. This dude has to be the one person who spends more time in the Engineering building than me. It's kind of a blurry picture, it was a drive-by with my camera phone.

slumming it

2009-02-17T19:32:00.004-06:00

El Jefe and I got in a couple of hours today. Had to wind down the ride over a refreshment then we got chilled so we employed the paper in jersey stuffing technique. I was nice and toasty!

Grammar News Flash

2009-02-12T20:50:00.002-06:00

Nice job Lance, way to mess up the English language. "We have the utmost respect for Don and all he is doing in the fight against doping in sport but we faced a myriad of problems relating to administration, coordination and cost."
"MYRIAD OF", it's one of my top detested grammar errors, along with "irregardless", double negative! Although, I am not without fault. I know I'm guilty of a good run-on sentence, or sometimes I like capitalizing nouns(like in German). Somebody's got to give a shit about the rules, don't they?

You Are Entering a World of Pain - A funny movie is a click away

Dry Donut

2009-02-09T12:34:00.002-06:00

Another busy weekend behind me. On Saturday I skate skiied at Spirit Mtn Nordic. By the end of my ski the snow was kind of mushy, but it was still a nice ski. Then I made it out to Twin Ports Cyclery to hang out and use the waxing bench. I love the West End of Duluth, there are so many interesting people that come through from the neighborhood. I even saw a 16 year old tough kid wearing a denim coat with the sleeves cut off so it was made into a vest.
This is from Tom's car, a longtime TPC fan:

I stayed out too late at the Brewhouse Saturday night, so waking up and driving to Bikeswap in Blaine was a little bleary-eyed. Good thing Fred hooked me up with a dry donut. I had to fill my mouth with Coke just so I wouldn't choke on the donut dust. Bikeswap wasn't a financial success for SCSU Cycling...but I did get to make some good coin for Gary. Fred sold the Pink Taco so overall not a bad day.

I put up a Flickr slideshow with some of the pics from last year's scsu team. There's a few more available than just the rotating ones if you click on photo, hope you enjoy the slideshow. I'm looking forward to more collegiate racing. I thought I outgrew it and was somewhat reluctant to race collegiate last year, but I'm glad I decided to do it. It's probably the funnest racing I've done. How can you outgrow fun? Not possible.

peddling

2009-02-05T13:26:00.001-06:00

Got a couple of things to sell as a fundraiser for SCSU Cycling Team at the Bike Swap. The computers were donated from Twin Ports Cyclery and the rest of the stuff is from my personal collection of things that I have too many of, plus a few other things not in photo. I wasn't planning on even going to the swap until a few days ago when Fred said I suggested go. If I planned it better I would have gathered more things to sell. I have other fundraising things in mind for the future. Oh well, live and learn. I hope some of my stuff sells. Two years ago at Memorial Day races some guy wanted to buy the long underwear that I was wearing--yeah that was weird, but I suppose I'll leave at home my trench coat filled with rolex knockoffs. I'll be at a space with Fred and Gary from Granite City Cycle. Fred's bringing the Pink Taco to sell, too.
For sale:

For free:

Treasure Chest

2009-02-02T16:39:00.001-06:00

Got in some solid xc skiing this weekend. Saturday I classic skiied in Jay Cooke on some trails about a mile from my Mom's house. Sunday I skate skiied @ Spirit Mtn Nordic. It was really good despite the previous days' high temps. Some spots were crunchy/icy, but overall real nice. Everything was freshly groomed and I was the first one there to break in the cord. I had lots of fun and skiied all the trails since I haven't been up there in awhile. I have plenty of good memories xc skiing @ Spirit Mtn. It's the place where I learned how to xc ski and the place where I fell in love for the first time.
Found some things in storage at my Mom's house, a real blast from the past. One of the things was this old Tim Weisberg vinyl I picked up somewhere. The other was Ganz Oder Gar Nicht, by Jan Ullrich. It was given to me by a friend when I lived in Idaho. The real kicker is the fact that he is German, and his name is Jan Ulrich Eitel. His middle name is Ulrich. I'm going to try reading it again(which will be a slow process), bring back some of my old German skills.
I'm so corny I had to take pictures of them, too. Way corny.

The King

2009-01-30T12:48:00.000-06:00

Paid a visit to the Veranda this week with Fred, a St.Cloud spectacle, 'The King':

Not this King:

Matlab homework:

I tried solving for the intersection points of the equations shown on the top two graphs, y1=exp(-x/2).*cos(3*x) and its derivative, y2=(exp(-x/2).*(-sin(3*x)*3))+(exp(-x/2)*(-.5).*cos(3*x)), set them equal and you get, y3=((1/3)*atan(1/2))+((k/3)*pi)...but had no luck finding the intersection points and the right k value to shift intersection points over, disappointing day.

Party like it's 1949

2009-01-26T21:26:00.001-06:00

Celebrated two birthdays this weekend, one of them was my Mom's, the other was my niece Hilary. We took up a good chunk of real estate in Old Chicago. My Mom, Beulah, is the most incredible woman I've ever met. English is her second language, her native Ho-Chunk language being first. She used to go fur trapping with her brothers when they were just kids. She's finished off deer with her bare hands, not just once, but a few times--no kidding. And you never want to be caught in the crosshairs of the wrath of Beulah, toughest lady I know.

I finally got my Open Channel Hydraulics book in the mail last week. It was a week late. I ordered it through this one website and I got some tracking number that never worked, needless to say I was worried about being scammed. I thought it was coming from Oregon, but instead it came from Malaysia. wtf. On top of that it was stuffed in 4 layers of envelopes like Russian nesting dolls. Someone else I know got something weird from Malaysia. She ordered all seasons of Sex and the City and it came from some guy in Malaysia...I don't know what business some guy in Malaysia has with watching Sex and the City but it was probably the same dude who had my Hydraulics book.

Picked up a couple of more kickwaxes. I think they've been sitting around the shop for the last 10+ years...that does say Oslo 1992.

Bill's Muffler & Brake Center

2009-01-21T09:41:00.001-06:00

I had to pay a visit to one of my car mechanics in Duluth last weekend. I've been having idling issues, which weren't completely worked out since Bill the mechanic didn't have much time and I had to get back to St. Cloud. However, I did leave with a little gem, a sticky calendar:

A nice welcome back to SCSU, seen in a school parking lot, frozen Keystone:

Other phenomena not caught on camera @ SCSU, couples with matching arctic cat jackets, and the guy who wears shorts on -24F days.
Got a lot going on with school, my Matlab class is my favorite so far. Matlab will be useful for my future hydrology stuffs.
We had our first SCSU cycling team meeting last night. The meeting turned into a late night for a few of us, good thing we don't meet every week!

XC skiing last weekend:

Back in the 320

2009-01-13T09:51:00.005-06:00

Back in Cloudtown. Back in school, seriously, when am I going to be done? It's a necessary evil!
I 'finished' up with my work at SAFL in Minneapolis last Friday. I say 'finished' because I realized your work there is never really done. I worked my tail off the last month trying to finish with all this data compiled from the summer and fall months. I've learned so much there, and I just can't wait to get into grad school there. I'll be back there at the lab in May, I can't wait for that either.
I'm going to miss hanging out with my favorite grad students, happy hour with the tech staff, and all my other homies. It's been good. Of course I'm going to miss seeing Ted @ K-chuck's:

Classic skiing last weekend:

Off Season Training

2009-01-07T08:14:00.001-06:00

2008 in the books, glad to have that one done! Quick and definitely not a comprehensive list, but here goes:
Things that sucked:
-when the hood on my Mom's utility van flew up and cracked the windshield in 20mph winds as I was going 55mph over the Bong Bridge (yeah, hahah). I managed to pull over the shoulder to safety and fasten the hood down with an elastic cord and shoelace.
-The death of Micheal Crichton. Jurassic Park is in my top 10 all time favorite movies. I just finished reading Lost World, enough adventure to knock your socks off!
Things that rocked:
-bike racing road trips with SCSU team. Go Huskies.
-Old Capitol Crit in Iowa
-discovering varenyky at K-chucks. It has potatoes in it, of course I'm going to love it.

Part of my off season training regimen:
Eating poutine at Triple Rock last night with Mary.

Bedazzled

2008-12-30T08:16:00.001-06:00

I'm making my own pair of studded tires for my commuter bike, which has 27" rims. I don't think there are any tire manufacturers that make 27" studded tires. So, this is where it all begins. It's a slow process and I don't even know how effective they will be. I'm screwing in the screw pointy side inside so I have more metal surface area in contact with the ice. Then I'm grinding the pointy side down to a flat edge. I'll use a tire liner, too. Wish me luck.

I got in some good xc skiing last weekend. This is from a 2hr classic ski excursion in Jay Cooke State Park. I didn't run into a single person.

Lycra Helmet Cover

2008-12-23T08:10:00.000-06:00

Some of us from the lab got together last Thursday for Dan's xmas sweater part-tay. My gift for the party host, the Darth Vader stocking, not the beer. I almost kept it for myself. It had two sound effects, the dark heavy creepy breathing, and then a short burst of a couple of lightsabers thrashing at each other.

Dan modeling my sweater. Deer going over a hedge.

I got you covered if you're in need of a lycra helmet cover. Available from TPC in Duluth I give you four options:
-1980s flowing Mom blouse
-tiger stripes
-modern geometric
-classic checker board
I can't guarantee saftey, but I can guarantee style.

Hot Wax

2008-12-17T08:18:00.001-06:00

Suicidal Tendencies came to Station 4 in St. Paul last Thursday. Katie and I were there for the mayhem. It was a good show, but we were both disappointed they didn't play "Institutionalized". At least I don't think they did. We ducked out at the last minute to beat the crowd.
There was this one guy who uncannily looked just like Big Blondie. He knew all the words to all the songs, and required a 3'x5' clear area so he could get all of his moves in.

Duluth got massive snow over the weekend. Over a foot of snow or something ridiculous like that fell on Sunday. Then it was too cold to go outside and enjoy it. I went to TPC on Saturday to wax my snowboard and my xc skis. Somehow I ended up working while I was there...never fails. Not that I'm complaining!

Cowboy Up

2008-12-11T08:19:00.001-06:00

We had our holiday work party this week. I got 3 cowboy boot shaped glasses in the white elephant gift exchange. I am the envy of every Queen of Doublewide Trailers out there. Katie got a clock that I initially thought was a jock strap.

Ted guarding the parking lot at Kramarczuk's in his Girl's Gone Wild Hat:

ShamWow!

2008-12-08T08:18:00.005-06:00

When I saw this in my Inbox, "You'll say "Wow" everytime with ShamWow!", I was prepared for some sort of new chamois technology. I was horribly disappointed to find out it was just junk mail. Although, it could do wonders in a pair of bibs. I could ride 50 miles in the rain without a fender before the entire ShamWow gets soaked, plus there is no hope for an unsightly camel toe!

Got in some snowboarding with my sister Joyce on Saturday. It has been a very humbling learning process. My arse was sore the rest of the weekend. It's been fun though.
St. Louis River freezing up nicely:

tour de lab

2008-12-05T08:08:00.001-06:00

This week my roommate is getting in more miles than I am. She's doing re-hab on her knee on her stationary bike. She could totally blow me out of the water, give me the look-back and drop me like I was standing still.

Yesterday my Mom and my sister Joyce were in town and stopped by the lab where I work. It's an impressive place if you like science-y stuff, or just like creepy old buildings. This is from the turbine level looking up 2 stories:

Mom giving the wind tunnel her tough approval:

Up on the roof:

night ride

2008-12-02T08:23:00.001-06:00

Went on a night ride in jeans with Fred on Monday. We cruised around Calhoun and Harriet. We saw the crescent moon last night, it was in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter. But it was kind of hard to see Venus and Jupiter in the middle of the city. My bike headlight wasn't working either, but it was probably a good thing so I couldn't worry about the ice before riding over it. Luckily we both stayed upright the whole time. At one point I tried to drop him. I did the look-back and went for it, but shit, my 6mile roundtrip commuting training regimen just isn't enough, better up my game.

Me:

Katie:

snocross

2008-12-01T08:26:00.004-06:00

I went to the Snocross National at Spirit Mtn with my brother Ted. I'm not a sledneck like my brother by any means, but I was totally blown away at how fast these guys were. It was really fast, agressive, exciting racing. I'm definitely a fan, even though I have cursed the noise and smell of gas from snowmobiles when I'm out xc skiing.

Digital Bicycle Speedometer

2008-11-24T08:23:00.001-06:00

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

2008-11-21T08:29:00.003-06:00

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

2008-11-18T08:30:00.001-06:00

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

2008-11-11T08:30:00.002-06:00

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

2008-11-06T08:32:00.004-06:00

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

2008-11-05T08:29:00.000-06:00

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

Linus Gerdemann

2008-10-30T17:20:00.001-05:00

I read today's Cyclingnews and the picture of Linus Gerdemann is not so attractive. He looks like a girl! I've seen better pics of him. This one is a much better angle. I know I'm such an a-hole, maybe it's because I'm jealous he has nicer eyebrows than I do. I guess I like a more manly German man.

Last weekend wrap-up, Friday night never ended. Katie and I left work and went straight to the Bulldog in NE and met up with her friend Matt. I had a St. Feuillien Triple which kicked my ass. I could still feel it after 15min ride home. It has to be the best thing I've tasted all week.
Later Katie and I went to theWarren Miller movie, Children of Winter. We ran into more people from the lab at the show. Small world. Afterward we all ended up at The Shout House. I finally pedaled home at 2:30am. The movie was awesome. There was even a shot of Schweitzer Mtn in northern Idaho with Lake Pend Oreille in the background. It's a mountain I'm more familiar with during the summer time as I've done some mtb races there and telemark skiing during the winter. I'm getting ready for winter, too. I bought a season pass for Spirit Mtn, both downhill and xc. Bring on the snow, baby.
I spent the rest of the weekend in Duluth. It's so nice to be at home. Cheggy one of the family dogs, but mostly my dog, is the best thing to come home to. He always gets crazy and sometimes runs figure 8s around me or races really fast back and forth in the yard. His full name is Ne Chej-howay which in my Mom's language means 'walks by the water'.
On Sunday I went with my Mom and one of my sisters to the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra classical concert. They played pieces from Ives, Gershwin, and 'Pictures at an Exhibition' from Mussorgsky and Ravel.

Happy Halloween a-holes, make sure to skank up for the holiday.

Brava!

2008-10-22T08:28:00.001-05:00

I know what you're thinking you freak, when you drive by and see that logo in the back of someone's truck--you lovingly think of Mavic and badass wheels.

If you're going to re-tile your bathroom and you have to choose a thin-set mortar, and you see Mapei--you have to go for it! How can you go wrong?

Sven from Kare11 graced his presence upon our OSL to interview my boss for his Simply Science show. Me and Katie were in the background taking groundwater samples the whole time. We were on our absolute best behavior and we might even be in some of the footage. It should air in a week or so.
Last weekend I was pretty busy. Friday night I met up with the UM chapter of a student group, AISES, American Indians in Science and Engineering Society. We went bowling and got to know each other better. It's a real good group of students.
Saturday night I met up with April--laugh it up a-holes...April and June...haha. =) Everyone makes that joke when we hang out, where's May? We went to the Nomad to watch one of my co-worker's band at their cd release. Katie's the lead singer of The No No's. It was part of the zombie pub crawl. It fun dressing up like a zombie and seeing the other obnoxious and disgusting zombies.
Sunday I took Daniele with me to work on some trails with the St. Cloud crew at Camp Manitou in Monticello. He commented that it should be pronounced 'MontiCHello', since it is Italian. Yeah, what's up with the people in MontiSello? =)
There are some really nice trails up in that betch. It makes me wish I owned a mtb again.
Daniele approves of my seat, to have an Italian approve of my Selle Italia Flite--Brava! The rest of my bike is less than spectacular, but at least I have a nice saddle.

hot pants

2008-10-14T08:46:00.006-05:00

Monday's commute was a real wet one. The tops of my pants were completely soaked by the time I got to work. Like an idiot I left most my raingear at work. My commute is a nice 15min ride, I live a block off the bus/bike path that connects UM campus to the St. Paul campus. So when I did get to work I changed into my rainpants and threw my wet pants into the sediment baking oven. They baked for one hour at 221F, turning every 15min. They came out all crisp and warm, just lovely.

This week's bike project is to help get Daniele a commuter bike. Daniele is from Italy and is a new researcher at the lab. From what I can understand he will be doing research on ice on lakes and the amount of oxygen they contain. Good stuff.

Hey, when did taking water samples become so fun?!

I'm already thinking about winter. Last weekend in Duluth I was nosing around at used sporting goods stores, doing some recon on used touring skis. If I'm lucky I can just get a pair from some neighbors I grew up with then I can just change out the bindings to something new. All I want to do is to be able to ski on the St. Louis River behind my Mom's house, and not to wreck my nice skis in Jay Cooke State Park. There are sections of this one beautiful valley floor that can be pretty bare and worth skiing to, but I hate to ruin my nice skis.
I'm hoping for tons of snow!! There's already snow in parts of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming!

tokyo police club

2008-10-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

I'm back at SAFL. They love me here and I love being there. Unfortunately there's only so much data to process post-summertime. I'll be there until that's done. The good news is I get to come back full time again next summer. Here's a view from the upper deck at work--gorgeous.
We had our Outdoor StreamLab grand opening a few weeks ago. Here's Mary and I, partners in OSL crime. It was a real party...well, at least Mary and I did afterward. We went to a liquor store in Champlin and I found Bitch Creek Ale from Grand Teton Brewing Co. I can't believe I can get it here after I made BIG MIKE go through the hassle of smuggling a 6-pack out of Idaho over state lines, risking life, limb, and reputation. At least now I know where I can find it! I also picked up a 6-pack of Grand Teton's Sweetgrass IPA. Most delicious beers.
Here's people at the grand opening checking out our lab. It doesn't look like much, but there's a lot of science going on.

For much of September I was in Duluth at my Mom's house. I've been up to my usual and unusual Duluth happenings. Anytime I'm home I'm pretty busy with my family. With 7 nieces and nephews in town there is always stuff going on, soccer games, gymnastics, football, cross country meets, hockey, fundraisers, etc. It's great.
Then I volunteered at the Duluth double cx races. Jake does a really good job at putting stuff together, not to mention getting his hands on copious amounts of beer!
I've been working weekends at Twin Ports Cyclery, my other favorite job. The best customers are the kids, the tough West End kids. They always come rolling in needing air in their tires. I just put together some trainers, too, we got in the Rock-n-Roll by Kinetic. If I ever get a trainer again that might be the one since it looks like it wouldn't bore me out of my mind.

Found these guys on Pandora.com, Tokyo Police Club.