Dry Trails and Saying Goodbye to the Trail

No great pictures to go along with this post, just a quickie. Katie and I have been actively packing, cleaning, and preparing for the move from the Trail, and the big day is only about 24 hours away. Wooohooo. Should be grand. On a different note, the trails are almost dry again. Jonathan and I put in some miles at Heil today, and although there is a few puddles and mud spots hanging around, the trails should be at their tacky prime in a day or so :) Who's in?

The Blender Has Arrived!

As many of you know, I ordered a new blender several days ago and have been eagerly awaiting its arrival; after all, it is prime smoothie season. My weapon of choice, the Kitchen Aid Poly Carb 56oz, five speed blender. Primo. Upon plugging this baby in and giving her a test run on "liquefy", which is commonly known as a powerful setting among blender enthusiast, I quickly realized my $115 was well spent. For a split second I thought I was at a monster truck rally at the Buck (PA crowd). The horsepower of this blender easily rivals that of my Subaru, and I am convinced with the right juice or milk, it will make smoothies out of rocks...

Todays Run: 11.41

After some minor bumps in the technological road, I have finally synced my Garmin Forerunner 405 to my blog. Not that anyone truly cares what my workouts look like, but if you are curious, I am going to start posting them on my blog. If I figure it out I will create a section on the sidebar of my blog as a more permanent place for them to live. Just click the link below and you can access information such as distance, elevation changes, heart rate, calories burned (?), GPS coordinates, and a full map depiction using Google Maps. Pretty cool huh?

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Lookout, 75th, Jay, Cottonwood Trail, Independence, 57th, Jay, Spine

Trips a Plenty

Trips a plenty! Katie and I spent some time hashing out the summer vacay tonight, 16 days to head to the northeast! On the hit list for the road trip is Vermont, Maine, and some time in Lake Placid, NY. Should be awesome!

Prior to the real vacation though, I will be heading up to Bozeman, MT at the end of May for some work related items. These said work related items will take me through Yellowstone and the Tetons, and probably include some pretty serious mountain biking and downhill riding :) Oh yes, should be good. Does this mean a downhill bike? I think I have a problem.

Additionally, my cousin is getting married outside of Spokane, WA in August. Canada and BC riding??? Better renew the passport!

Mountian Biking Yesterday...Cross Country Skiing Today

MN (mother nature) put the warm weather on hold for the day, and in lieu of rays of sunshine and spring breeze decided to throw almost a foot of wet and wind blown snow our way. Glorious...awesome.

Say goodnight to the bikes and good morning to the cross country skis. Although the snow was wicked heavy and I had to knock Frosty the snowman off my fish scales every 2 minutes (I love how some people will read that sentence and have no idea what the hell I am talking about...) the kicks and sticky glides were fun. Perhaps XC round #2 tonight with the lady? Other events that consumed my not so eventful snow day:

• Donating a bunch of stuff to the thrift store and getting a tax receipt
  
• Making $76.50 by selling some lacrosse sticks and roller blades to Play It Again
• Depositing said $76.50 into the bank
  
• Meeting with a prospective renter prior to our landlord arriving so I could give her all the true details of life on the Trail
• Cleaning and preparing for the big move of 2010
  

Sometimes When You Clean Your House For Your Landlord To Come Over...Your Dog Takes A Runny Poo On The Carpet

Yeah, the title pretty much says it all... Katie and I have been actively cleaning the apartment, anticipating our less-than-two-weeks-away move, trying to recoup the full amount of our security deposit from our oh-so-amazing landlord. As a component of cleaning, we have been vacuuming the floor vigorously and using the Little Green Machine as needed. "As needed" is nice talk for Tada took a big runny poo in the middle of the carpet yesterday afternoon while we were at work. I could not help but think how funny and ironic it was, I just envisioned showing the apartment to future tenants and our landlord, keeping the poo room until last, and saying "yep the place is clean and live able, but I have one more thing for ya..."

Some Day...We'll All Have Saddle Bags

What a day! Boulder was greeted by 60+ degrees and sunshine today...I was greeted by a 6:00AM shift at work...and later greeted by a stellar 3:30PM mountain bike ride after work. Truly amazing and beautiful. For the record and the curious, the trails are almost completely dry along the Boulder front range, and the Ellsworth is riding like the fine stallion she is...

Let's back up a day to another amazing trip to the the glorious Kings Soopers. Katie and I parked our bikes on the bike rack, as usual, and were greeted by a neighboring bike, an old school Fuji Y frame. "Man, they don't make em' like that anymore...for good reasons" I said. We cruised in side for our lima beans and corned beef, and when we returned to our two wheeled machines we were welcomed to the bike rack by the back-pack wearing owner of the Fuji. In traditional life is grand fashion, I greeted the gentleman and struck up a pleasant conversation. After several minutes of dialog surrounding bikes, commuting, and gorgeous weather, we said our goodbyes and Katie and I saddled our bikes and started toward our journey home. I too was wearing a backpack for the groceries, and as we rode into the sunset toward Williams Fork Trail, the man said in a wise yet soft and picturesque voice "someday...we'll all have saddle bags!"

Saddle bags, panniers, it's all the same. This encounter was amazing...only in Boulder.

Playing the Responsibility Card

Over the past couple of months I have been hyping up the Surly Big Dummy and my pending purchase of one; cashing in my REI dividend and spending my hard earned tax return on the smooth rolling steel. I regret to say, I am putting the Dummy on hold. After experiencing a sudden waive of responsibility and adulthood, I realized that that money should go toward my house fund, and I could use my Cross Check for my highly anticipated commute to work rather than a new bike. I know, tragic, but responsible.

As for the REI dividend, real men spend their dividends and don't cash them out, so I will be blowing it on fun gear. What does the dividend purchase look like? Tentatively the following:

• Continental Grand Prix 4000's for the road bike
• Two sets of Ortlieb Back Roller panniers
• Some type of rack for the back of the Cross Check

Move Over Wind and Cold Hands...Captain America's In Town

During our usual jaunt to the g-store the other day, Katie and stumbled across the rig pictured below. My Surly looked like trash next to this piece of American pride; all this Trek 5000 needed was a gun rack on the basket and a system to play Willie Nelson while running Sundays errands. Upon closer inspection, this fine piece of craftsmanship utilized two laundry detergent bottles and some reflective DOT tape. Exquisite. Duly note the precise cut out from which old school Onza bar ends protrude from...

Sundays Product Pick: Pearl Izumi Barrier Shoe Covers

Need temperature regulation? Have a hankerin' for warm feet? Not afraid to ride when it's not 70 and sunny? Pearl Izumi Barrier shoe covers should be on your feet.

3mm of neoprene wrap your feet snugly as the the microfleece lining massages your every pedal. Super durable out soles with a versatile cleat cut out, reflective PI logos to help alert 4-wheeled machines, and tall cuffs with a bombproof velcro closure on the back pack enough strength to make even the fattest cankle look aerodynamic. Coming in at a cool 60 pieces of green, these puppies are worth every penny.

Katie got me a pair of these for Christmas, she has dubbed them my "booty warmers," and although I only have about 12 or so rides on them, I have been thoroughly impressed. Road or mountain, they are warm (yet regulate temperature better than my thermostat,) durable, easy on and off, and pretty darn water resistant. All and all, it has lessened my ability to cop out of crappy or cold weather rides by at least 57%...

Introducing Sundays Product Pick

As I Lance Armstronged it down the pavement on my road bike today, grinding and gritting as I hit the 13 mile mark where I encountered a torturous 60 or so foot elevation gain climb, I was briskly reminded how out of shape my legs were for two wheeled adventures. Never the less, my girlie lungs inhaled the cold air and I pressed on. As I cruised the downhill, I had a marvelous idea, every Sunday I will begin posting a "Product Pick of the Week." Maybe one product, maybe 2, who knows, who cares, I might only think it is a good idea tonight, but nevertheless I will give it a go!

Kwes-chuh n Mahrk

To the copious and overwhelming number of people who follow my blog, I would like to say I am sorry for my several day, now approaching a week, hiatus. I turned on the ol' MacBook the other day and was greeted by the blue screen with a flashing question mark and file folder pictured above.

My tech knowledge is not in its prime, but I know the basic definition of a question mark, as well as a blue screen:

? Question Mark [kwes-chuh n] [mahrk]

-noun

1. Computer jargon. What the hell am I supposed to be doing again? I don't remember anything. I think I will go back to sleep...

Blue Screen [bloo] [skreen]

-noun

1. Computer jargon. Shit just got real. No matter how hard you try to plug different things into me, I'm still not going to bring up that sweet wallpaper of you and your dog.

All and all, my hard drive kicked the bucket, and I have been computer-less for a couple of days. Props to the smart and kind folks at Mac, they doubled the capacity of my hard drive and replaced it free of charge under warranty. For a 4 year old computer...stellar.