Sometimes you just don't know how much hair you have...

... until you see it in a sink

Missing Cats...

I've noticed an increase in two things recently,

1. The howls of coyotes at night, particularly when police sirens go off, or after the sounds of something dying- which leads us to number 2...

2. Missing cat posters with tear-off phone numbers so that we can call the people and let them know that we saw their cat the other day walking home from campus, but because I didn't have a large box on me in which to place your cat, it is once again missing.

I really have an urge to put this poster up in response to the growing number of missing cat posters:

Sequoia NP

Nicole and I drove up to Sequoia National Park for Memorial Day. We were all set to do our first backcountry camping, in bear country no less. We had all we thought we needed, a bear box, good boots, legit tent, backpacking stove, water filter... you name it. Just didn't expect it to be winter in the park.

We left a little later than hoped, and arrived just in time to claim our backcountry permit.... we had to hurry out to the trail head to start our hike so we could find a campsite by nightfall. The hike was along a really cool trail: High Sierra Trail. It runs all the way across the park (East-West) to Mt. Whitney on the Eastern edge of the park.

Near the Western trail head of the High Sierra Trail

The weather was a bit chilly, and a persistent, albeit light, rain was falling during the whole hike. The views off to the South should have been spectacular, but unfortunately all we saw was water vapor.

The "view" from Eagle Point

We somehow missed all of the designated back country campsites along the trail.... and ended up about 4 miles in, just looking for some flat ground to put a tent. We eventually found a relatively flat spot a few hundred feet below the trail. It was right next to a log, which we found out the next day is a prime source of food (grubs) for bears.....

Campsite the first night

We survived the first night intact, but pretty chilled. The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and decided that with our lack of goretex (except for our boots) we'd better head back to the car and not get hypothermia. We found a car camping spot for the next night, and did some easy hikes that afternoon. We checked out the largest tree in the world (by volume) The General Sherman Tree. It was not the first Sequoia we had seen, but you walk along the path, and when it first comes into sight, it's on a whole other level than other Sequoias. The top is actually dead, so it actually has just been growing OUT, so it's a HUGE tree at the base.

General Sherman Tree. Hard to see the perspective here, but the other trees around are pretty big on their own...

We had a relaxing, dry warm night that night, as we could dry everything out in the car. The next morning, however, we woke up to a bit of a surprise: snow AND blue skys!

Was only an inch or two at our elevation, but... it's almost June!!

We did as much hiking as we could... the first one to a waterfall, and the second one a steady climbing trail that eventually lead to a meadow, but we turned around at a heavy creek crossing about 4 miles in.

Scenery along the Falls hike... if the visibility were better you'd see an entire huge mountain here...

Hiking through some light snow...

Topokah Falls from a distance

Looking back down into the valley from Topokah Falls. The U shape to the valley is indicative of it being formed from glaciers, whereas a V shape would suggest it was formed by water flowing

Topokah Falls
Thankfully the snow was hard enough to walk easily on top of. In spots it was at least 3-4 feet deep! Snowshoes in December anyone??

Despite the poor weather, and us being unprepared for how wet it was, it was a great visit. We definitely need to get back out there, to hike Mt. Whitney, finish exploring Sequoia, and check out Kings Canyon, which is adjoining to the North.

Cross Ride

Went out for a cross ride yesterday for the first time in.... a long while. I had never actually hit up any type of off road riding in the fall... just did the cross clinic at Fairview Park, and raced on the weekends. No surprise that anything technical was to my disadvantage... as I slid out in numerous corners, and generally rode cross like a roadie.

I'll still be riding cross like a roadie this season I'm sure, but if I keep heading out to the single-track out here then I'll be a lot better off come the fall. Plus it was a lot of fun.... but I've definitely learned the lesson that whenever the trail crosses over more than two or three iso-altitude lines (what are those called?) on a topo map, then... it's steep as hell! Did not plan on climbing for the first mile in my smallest gear, just hoping not to fall over.

Once I got up on top of a ride though, I could look out into the Laguna and Crystal Cove "Wilderness". Though if I turned around I'd see the 73 and a bunch of houses. Ehh, it's all good. Mainly rode fire-roads and just checked things out, but did hit up some loose dirt single track, which was fun, and I even bit it once... so even this tame ride was enough to buck off this roadie.

New Apartment...

Just got a kitchen table and some chairs, so the apartment is beginning to look like some place to live again. Also got a few cheap pots to separate the various aloe plants that we got for free when purchasing some cacti near Joshua Tree. Turns out what looked like a few aloe plants were actually all connected in the root structure, but I just pulled them apart.... we'll see if that works. It's got miracle grow potting soil, so if the advertising on the bag is true, I'll have aloe plants that are twice as tall!

Also got a microwave, which smells horribly like Chinese Food. Not takeout chinese food, but like pure cooking oil mixed with MSG mixed with orange glaze, smothered over deep fried fatty chicken, and then cooked in a microwave for three hours. It currently smells like 409, but I'm not even sure if that will do it. It's a pretty nice microwave though... and for a while if I want orange flavored tofu, all I need to do is stick some fresh tofu in there, and voila!

Nicole and I are going to Sequoia NP for Memorial Day, so get ready for massive numbers of pictures.

Might be a little chilly....

Nicole and I are heading out to our next National Park trip in about two weeks time- hitting up some back country camping in Sequoia National Park. Even late May is considered "early season" up there, and maybe this is why:


Might be a little hard to see (if this were google earth it would be crystal clear for sure) but that blue and white wedge in there basically encompasses Sequoia and Kings NP. The blue is around 30F, while the white is closer to 20. Holy balls. Now that is current as of 9AM... so presumably it might even be a bit cooler overnight.... hmmmmmm

Add that to Steven Colbert's number one threat, BEARS, and this three day trip has the possibility of being quite epic.

Hard Drives blow my mind...

I recently got an external harddrive that I have hooked up to my Airport Router, so thereby either of my computers can put stuff on it. I have an iTunes library on the drive which I have used to free up space by moving all the TV shows off of my laptop.

Tonight I happened to be listening to iTunes via this library, and copying over a new video from my laptop to the harddrive, and I thought to myself... how does it do both of these things at once? I think of hard drives as really really really sophisticated vinyl record readers and writers. So if it has one head, how does it do both of these things?? Clearly they can, as you never think about it when its the harddrive IN your computer. HOWEVER right when I was thinking of this, the "write" job to the drive failed. I fooled around for a few minutes, and found that the only way it would write the video files over without errors was if there was nothing else being done with the drive....found this sort of odd. I didn't expect my rudimentary picture of a vinyl record hard drive to really explain much in the real world....

So what's the deal? How do harddrives read/write from one part of the disc, while also read/write from another part of the disc? Maybe mine can't do this very well, but it's much more likely to do with the fact that its going over wireless, then through my router, and then finally into the drive.....

Up on SoCalCycling...

This poll was up on SoCalCycling.com:

Will the high price of gas effect how much racing you can do?
Seriously California?? Yes, gas prices are high, but why would you sacrifice going to races before considering to carpool? I feel like if this poll is taken on the East Coast, the car pool option would have much better representation.

Some other stats I've heard in the last few days, I think on NPR: aggressive driving can lead to a 30% knock in efficiency. Think of how much $$ you spend per mile driving, because really this is more fundamental than $$ per gallon. You can get 30% further if you just don't drive like a jackass, accelerate like you're in a NASCAR race, or average over 70 on the freeway.

Also read in a magazine article that the vehicle in the US that has the lowest cradle to grave energy requirements is the Scion xB. Just imagine if they used a wind tunnel to design it next time!! The cradle to grave analysis takes into account all the design work, material sourcing, manufacturing, use, and disposal/recycling. The Toyata Prius isn't far behind considering you have to sacrifice three and a half lambs and cut down three acres of trees to make the battery.

Mel-ben

I usually get pretty carried away with things at times. When I was looking for grad schools I had a monstrously large excel spreadsheet with all sorts of crap in it, most importantly the average daily temperature, which obviously dominated my decision making process to come to Irvine.

I've recently become really interested in the area of sustainable, or green building. I first heard about this back at PSU I think, and it seemed like a fringe hippy-ish thing that was being done up in Vermont. Enter: energy crisis, and companies wanting to go "green", and sustainable building is quickly becoming mainstream. To be fair, knowing what I know now, it would have become mainstream anyway, because it makes so much sense. If you'd like to nod and smile politely for 20 minutes, ask me about it.

Anyway, the carried away part is that I've gone back to my aspirations of getting a Fulbright, this time to study green construction in where else? Melben. That is Melbourne, Australia. Turns out there is a university there, RMIT, that has the perfect program. How sick would it be to go live in Australia and get experience in some sweet nitch between engineering and the environment. Applications are due in the fall, and if I were to do this program, I'd probably be starting there February 2010.

Royale with cheese

It's the little differences,

example: here in California no one takes off their sunglasses when they talk to you. That might not seem weird, but I've found that sometimes it can be. Maybe it's just natural, but whenever I'm talking to people I usually take my glasses off so you can make eye contact. This point was first brought up to me by Munas one day when we were on the side of the road educating a police officer about the laws of the road. We took our glasses off to talk to him, and I think he was more receptive, in part, because we saw him eye to eye.

Anyway, back to California- everyone has dark sunglasses, and you usually can't see people's eyes, so it's a little weird sometimes I think. I bet there is some cognitive difference that is present and depends upon eye contact for communication. I'm almost certain, however, that I don't care that much, and am far too lazy to even google the subject.

they put mayonnaise all over the shit.

What else... more racing.

Did Barrio Logan on Saturday, and CBR Dominguez "I've raced this course 8 times this year" Hills.

Barrio Logan was an EXPERIENCE. Man, I haven't seen that many crashes in a race for a LONG time. The first few were in straightaways. I swerved and jumped my way over guys who donated their skin to the pavement. Sucks. Was not near enough to the front when two guys, Scott from SDBC, and Albert from T-mobile, ended up rolling away. Definitely would have jumped to go with that, but the trouble is I tried to bridge far too late... and ended up just torching myself before the finish. Oh well.

Next day was the CBR race, where Ernie is still leading the series. He couldn't make it, however, so our strategy going in was to get Ted, our next best placed rider, the victory, and limit the points that Max, from SC Velo, got... who was sitting 2nd.

Well we only had about 30 riders at most, because San Luis Rey was going on the same day. So my thoughts of sitting in and leading Ted out full throttle were probably not going to happen. They were certain not to happen once Ted decided to shred people to death about 3 laps in. Originally it was Ted and a Banning's Rider, so myself and some Bannings guys were slowing what was left of the field down. I basically just sat on Max's wheel the whole race. After only a few laps Ted had dropped the Bannings guy, and was drilling it out there all by himself. I was already thinking of where I would counter once Ted's Andrea-like move came back.... but it didn't, ever. I sat in the wheels of the chasers, who were for the most part not all that organized, and not fully committed to anything. Most people didn't realize I was just marking Max, and some dude started swearing at me to pull- needless to say I did not, just made sure to gap him off the back a few times. I basically sat 4th wheel for half the race while three guys just rotated in front of me. Wonderful!

At one point I had actually let Max slip behind me, and I was still sitting 4th wheel... so I figured, what the hell, I'll let these three go, and that is 3 more spots that Max can't get into... so I just sat up, and so did everyone behind me. So 3 guys went up the road, and I can imagine that with only 3, they worked better, because they stayed away too. One dude actually caught Ted, but Ted still beat him down in the sprint. Going into the final lap, I should have just continued to sit on Max's wheel, but a little lull in the pace invited me to attack with what I thought should be significantly fresher legs than everyone else... but I guess not. I almost got to the last corner, but was rushed by four guys, and then a few more... I think I ended up 15th- bummer. But Ted got the victory, and Max only got 5th, so even though he'll definitely take over the lead, it's still manageable.

Rare Political Sidenote

So I hadn't really made up my mind about who I'd vote for come November, other than the fact that it would not be a white male. That is until the last few days have produced some daylight between the two donkey candidates. I found this excerpt from the NYT (full article) particularly telling:

For all the similarities between the two Democrats, there is also a core thematic difference between them. Mrs. Clinton tends to favor narrowly focused programs, like the gas-tax holiday, that speak to specific voter concerns. By suspending the tax and replacing it with a new tax on oil companies, Mrs. Clinton told a rally in Hendersonville, N.C., on Friday, she was standing with “hard-pressed Americans who are trying to pay their gas bills.”

Mr. Obama, on the other hand, leans toward broader programs meant to help nearly all middle- and low-income families. At a steel factory in Northwest Indiana on Friday, Mr. Obama called the tax holiday a “gimmick” and said he instead favored a cut in the payroll tax, which finances Social Security, of up to $1,000 for middle-class households “to offset the costs not only of gas, but also of food.”

After reading this section I think I've made my choice. Seems that Hill-Rod is full of political tricks, while Barack is actually looking to improve conditions for a large number of people. This even coming from a newspaper that endorsed Clinton- check here for proof of that from the most reputable of news sources.

Anyway, keep filling up those SUV gas tanks America- the gas tax will probably happen, because politicians are ridiculous. Just remember that when the tax comes back, and it pushes gas back over the $7 per gallon mark, Obama didn't want it.

El Dorado

Did my first El Dorado since racing it last August when I had zero fitness. That one was interesting... it was the last race of the series, so everyone was there to nab points, and there I was with three days of riding in the last month and a half. Wasn't fun.

This time was much better. Met up with a group of folks at Bike Religion, located conveniently for me right on UC Irvine campus. After a late start we rode the ~27 miles up to the course at a pretty high pace, with help from an unusual tailwind. Plenty warm for the race, and I settled in allright despite the relatively suicidal pace set from the outset. Tony Cruz came late and somehow they let him enter, what bullshit!!!! (kiddddding). So I happened to be on his wheel when he decided that it was time to give it gas. I figured, what the hell- I'll never get to ride on the limit with a Tour rider again, so let's go. Despite being a very stupid thing for someone who is struggling to really hold his own in this relatively fast field, I jumped with him. The move also brought out Alexi Martinez, who jumped and attacked after Tony had relented. Tony obviously saw this was going nowhere, probably as soon as he saw that they had drawn out a fat cat3 dude to work with. I pulled through once with Alexi, and then we were caught. That is what Tuesday night crit racing is for... putting yourself at 195 10 minutes in and not feeling bad about it.

I sat in and recovered as much as I could, which I did much better than I thought, and managed to get myself to the front for the last two laps. I was sitting 5th or 6th wheel when we got the bell, which as I learned on that course is WAY too far forward.... we were hauling ass, and the guys who got the armchair ride were like 20 back. Guess the total non-technical nature of this crit is why it doesn't matter if you're in the top 10. I still gave it a real good effort to not get swarmed too bad on the last lap, but as soon as people were jerking me around from both sides for the chance at Tuesday night glory I pulled the plug and rolled it in without any drama. I felt good about the effort though.... I think if I stay tucked in man-up for that final sprint instead of being a wuss about it, I can do allright there.

Now recovery time for Barrio Logan and the worst named crit ever "The Pounding Idiots Criterium" where hopefully Liquid Fitness can pound some idiots around and set up the 8 foot tall giant for the V.

More crit-ing

Did some more crit racing this Sunday- drove up to Valencia to do the Chuck Pointus crit, where they had a 3 and a 123, so I signed up for both in order to fully enjoy the 90 degree weather....

First race was just Ted and I, so we didn't have a big team plan going in- just possibly follow any big splits, and then see what the sprint looked like if we were all together. Ted went off in a promising move for a bunch of laps early on, with an enigma that became known as "bearded dude" because he had a massive beard- clever. They came back maybe about midway through the race, and a little while longer there was a solo guy who had taken off for a prime and continued on with his effort.... about 3/4 of a straightaway ahead.... he looked like he was holding a good strong tempo, so I figured, what the hell, and dug in hard for about a lap and a half to catch him. Once up there, we worked real well together... though he always made me pull on the uphill windy section... douchebag. I thought we were golden...15 or so mins left.... and then two more came across, but before they were able to recover and help drive the move, we were swallowed up. Got caught with about 4 laps to go. I figured I didn't have a good leadout in my legs for Ted, so after watching Andy Schleck try to set things up earlier that day in Leige by attacking, I followed suit, and right when we got caught countered... umm.. myself. So I was only out for about half a lap before I died.... but all I wanted was to make a few guys jump and work to get to me... and I think they did. The sprint turned out to be real slow, which made it relatively unsafe, and Ted wasn't able to navigate the traffic furniture of a field to pull down a good result, but was still around top 10ish, while I just rolled in with the back of the field. I think you can see everything from this HR plot:Pretty clear when I was in the break...

The "anomaly" HR spike up to 205 was real I think- I had some real weird heart rhythms for about half a lap...and I was about to pull out and dunk myself in some water. I think it was due to the heat and some dehydration- I used to get them pretty bad when I was younger. Hopefully that is not a recurring theme.

The 123 race was just pure pain. Freeking hard the whole time. I never saw the front. I made it until the lap cards were put out, then slipped off the back and watched as one of our foreign recruit riders (I think a kiwi) attacked the break and soloed the last lap for a sweet looking victory- props.

San Diego Omnium DayIII- Crit

Going into the crit, I was in 10th on G.C., with hopes of moving up. There were two sprint laps with 5,3,2,1 points up for grabs for the first 4 riders, and then the finish where the points went ~15 deep or so, and started at about 25 I think.

I hatched a plan with the guy who won the road race to try and take a flyer after one of the sprint laps to catch people off guard, and hope that no team was around in enough numbers to bring a concerted effort back. It probably would have worked.

The first sprint lap came, and Ted and Jon lead me out well, but maybe a tad early- I tried to jump and get around to the points, and got up there for 3rd, so 2 points in the bag. Jon then stayed off the front for a while, and Ted managed to slow the field down for a few laps while I just tried to stay out of the wind and recover as much as I could.

Second sprint lap comes up, and we get the leadout much better- I ended up 2nd without too much effort, and shortly thereafter Steve takes off for our planned break. A few other guys are with us, which is allright, and we all pull through once. At this point I just sprinted and am now trying to drive a break... fucking DEAD. After pulling through once I barely get back on, and then loose them through the start/finish. I claw my best back to them, but it's not happening. They build up a good lead, blowing guys out the back... finally just Steve and another dude who couldn't help him pull anymore, and it comes back together. I really think had I been able to stay up there and recover in the break for a second, then help drive it, we could stayed away... but oh well.

Finish comes around and I find the trusty wheel of Ted, but we're a bit too far back, and he doesn't quite have it to punch us both out through the wind back to the front of the field. We needed an Ernie. I was pretty tanked as well at this point, and even with a perfect lead out, I would have just been holding on for dear life. So no points in the finish... bummer.

To my surprise this mediocre result in the crit was still good enough to move me up to 8th overall. I mainly have Ted and Jon to thank for that for drilling it going into those prime laps, and for helping to control the race. I'll have to return the favor at some point and see if I can't play lead out man next time...

San Diego Omnium Day II-Boulevard RR

The second day of the race was a road race. ~20 miles per lap... roughly a bowl, so 10 miles descending followed by 10 miles of mostly climbing. It sucks. I did it already once this year in April, when it was cold as shit- got dropped on the first lap of the Collegiate A race.

I was determined to get some points out of this one, though. On Saturday morning, most people figured the races would be canceled, what with 50mph winds making riding a bike, especially in a pack, pretty dangerous. The winds subsided *somewhat* and the races went on... albeit a bit late.

I wanted to be aggressive and not let the race be about the long uphill finishing climb, which is not my specialty. Our race had been cut from 3 laps to 2 laps because of the late start, and some jerkoff at the start line clued me in to what I should do to be aggressive. He yelled out to the field before we started that the first few miles, which are generally downhill, were pretty dangerous because there were high cross winds, and that we should go slow. I immediately thought, "you are an absolute pussy- I should attack from the gun".... and I did. Except there was no gun (thank god, who knows what the disorganized promoters would have shot with it). But about 20 seconds into the race I just took off. Not usually a smart move, especially on a downhill start... but with the weird conditions, the field just let me roll off.

So I rode as hard as I could for the next few miles, then settled into a pace. Once I had a moto-ref up with me, he started giving me time splits- first one was 1:27. Not all that promising I thought... if this was going to work, I want someone to bridge, and 1:27 is a lot to bridge, or I want to get a lot of leash so I can try and stay on my own. I figured, what the hell, and just kept going. Surprisingly after the first few rollers on the uphill section the gap went up to 2:00, then 2:30 when I went through the start/finish.

I kept the pace high on the next lap, just trying to keep it within my limit so I could still climb well to finish the lap. I think I did a relatively good job of this, but the field was starting to come alive a bit... at the bottom of the long uphill section, I had 1:45. That was down to 1:30 a little further up the climb. Turning onto the last section of the climb, with just a few miles (though uphill into the wind!!) I had less than a minute... the field was likely blowing up at this point, with only the strong dudes coming across to me. About halfway up this last climb, 10 guys went barelling past- I tried to tag on at first, but it was clear I had used up most of my energy already....and away they went. Thankfully, though, everyone else behind them pretty much gave up, so all I had to do was ride it in..... and I still got 10th- more points than I got from the TT!!

So going into Sunday's crit, which normally IS my speciality, I have 20 points. Though official results aren't posted online yet, so I have no idea where that puts me. The top 3 guys from the TT didn't start and/or finish the road race, so I think I should be up amongst them now... so certainly still top 10- probably top 5. Hopefully the crit can get me into the podium....

San Diego Omnium Day I- Fiesta Island TT

First day of the San Diego Omnium on Friday was a 2 (long) lap (~8mile) time trial around Fiesta Island. I was feeling pretty confident heading into it, with the new TT bike, comfortable fit, disc wheel, trispoke.... oh yeah. I definitely left it all out on the course... averaged 185-190 HR on the first lap, then just pegged it at ~195 on the second lap. Not much more I could do! I caught my 30 second man just a little bit before the finish, and didn't get caught... so I knew I beat one dude. Ended up 8th place.

Catching the 30 second man...

going into the finishing chute...PAIN

From these pictures, and the picture from my 40K, I think I'll be lowering the handlebars some more.... flat back = fast.

Saturday: Windy Boulevard Road Race.... stay tuned.

Back to racin'

After recovering from some sort of "bug" or just being tired, I decided that I should just jump head first into some racing. Figured 3 races in one day ought to amount to that.

5:15AM- wake up in San Diego and eat copious amounts of oatmeal
6:00AM- sign in at the Fiesta Island TT- start warming up
7:13AM- start my first 40K TT

I forgot my shoecovers, and could only borrow one from Lisa- so I took the suggestion of the guy who was overhearing this perdicament, and put it on the outside foot... it travels furhter... and isn't sheltered by the island like the inside foot is... riiiight, but I had to choose one foot...

The time trial went fairly well, for my first 40K. I did this course a few weeks ago, as a 20K, and basically went out hard, held 190 for a while, slipped to 180s, before rallying back to mid 190s on the final few K's. I figured for a 40K I should ease off that a bit, and was happy to sit between 180-185 for the first few laps. As far as time trials go, this seemed very easy, but I didn't want to blow up. It went much faster than I thought, and the last lap (8K to go) came and I had too much in the tank. I opened it up full throttle, but would have been better served by laying it out a little more evenly. Still a great ride for my first effort- got in under the hour for 59:30. I think I'll try to hold 185-190 at districts, then just ramp it up in the second half. I want to be DEAD after that puppy.

8:15AM cool down
8:40AM driving up to Irvine
10:30AM sign in for Collegiate A race
10:45AM Racin' again

Start of the Men's A crit

My legs felt much better than I thought they would after the 40K, and the first few laps went by very easily. I just sat in the group, followed a few moves just to cover, and also because I don't know any of these guys that well- not sure who can power it off the front. I think I got some prime points... but whatever! Teammate John was a beast attacking a few times, and hanging himself off the front- but no one came across to work. I just hung in for as long as I could- about 45 mins into the hour race it all of a sudden turned into survival racing. Once you cross that line from thinking race tactics, to thinking "shit hold this last wheel", it doesn't take long. I pushed myself for a few laps, then just eased off and cooled down while the race finished.

12:00-3:00PM Hung around the race, ate any food in the vicinity, drank a few sodas.
3:00PM Cat 3 race

By this time I was feeling tired, just being out there all day, and having two races in my legs. Again though the first few laps felt fine, and with such a big group it was that much easier to sit in as opposed to the Collegiate race. I once again followed a few moves at the beginning just to make sure we were in anything serious, but avoided burning any matches for socks or water bottles, or whatever the primes were. The most fun was certainly getting three of us across the front and really slowing it down once we had people off the front. The moves that I was blocking for eventually came back, but just afterwards, the main split occurred. A few laps afterwards, Ted hero-ed himself across the gap in about a lap. Meanwhile I was sitting at the back of the field playing survivor again. The break was big enough that no blocking was needed, but even the relatively slow pace of the field was too much for me- I popped, and hung out for the last few minutes of the race, and watched Ted pull a top 10- not a bad result, though better luck in the last lap would have had him shooting for the podium.

4:00-6:00PM Clean up trash and pack stuff up.

All in all- good day on the bike. Monday I felt destroyed, but that was ok, because I just ate food and stayed off my feet. Went for an easy spin on Tuesday.... and I'm charging the batteries back for another 3 race weekend... but this time it will be spread out: Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Cyclovets Omnium. I'll keep ya posted.

Dispatch...

I became a fan of Dispatch at PennState sometime- easy to do... good band with some jamband type vibe, short catchy songs too- good mix. I recently got into three other bands, which I thought I had found all on my own, with the help of iTunes recommends thing.

1.State Radio
2.Braddigan
3.Pete Francis

Now, I bought the first State Radio album last summer, Braddigan not too long after that, and just started listening to some of Pete Francis' stuff online tonight. All of it sounded really familar, however, and it wasn't until tonight when I actually hauled up wikipedia, that I realized why...they're all from Dispatch. So... there you have it. If you like a band, and they break up, don't be too upset, just buy up all of their solo stuff.... works most Dispatch, works relatively well for Phish...

Earthquake

I am now officially a resident of Southern California... I've driven the freeways, seen chicks in puffy magenta sweatsuits with oversized glasses, spotted upwards of twenty mazarattis and now... finally, experienced an earthquake.

It was only a 3.1, but it was enough to jostle my bookcase for a second.

The earthquake is the blue square near the center.... it was about 2.75 miles away from me..