some memories of jonny's visit to dallas

we went to austin for last weekend for some bike racin (which always involves changing clothes in public)

we stayed with phil and daniele, who are le awesome.

some cruiser ridin some bike racers (brooke miller, i adore you, but what are you wearing?????) some beer

good times!

bonus: phil chowing cookies next to a can of cheese sauce (yes, cheese sauce) that daniele won as a prime. true story.

this is why floyd missed all those training rides. damnit trebek

this is surreal. ken jennings looks just like the floyder.
i wonder if that's where he got all that wisdom about testosterone patches on your nads before a 52-bottle stage win?

The test worked...

I've determined that nobody reads my blog. Or those who do have been chased away by my previous post in which my co-worker diagnosed me as psychotic.

In case anybody still reads...I will post more tomorrow. But until then, I'll leave you with a nutrition label to peruse.

Sodium....for breakfast?

a riddle

a few days ago i posted a riddle that a co-worker told me:
a woman goes to her mother's funeral. at the funeral, she meets a man. they share a wonderful evening together and he leaves the next day. she does not know his name or how to find him. the next day she kills her sister. why?
---
so, apparently the answer to that riddle reveals whether or not someone is a psychopath.
people postulate some relationship between the girl's mother and the mystery man. or some circumstance about magic. some even try to pretend they know something about regional or tribal customs and extrapolate some phantom meaning from that. blah blah.
i guessed that she killed her sister so the man would show up again.
and apparently i'm a psychopath.
you read it here first.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

my mommy is having a birthday today. i am lucky because both of my parents were born on patriotic occasions, which make them easy to remember. dad on july 4th (as well as his dad), and mom on the 14th. which, for most americans not-in-the-know, is flag day. it's the day betsy ross finished the flag. or, rather, the day she said "screw this. 13 stars is all you get. i'm going on summer vacation." history is unclear on these details but my guess is that she heard the call of the sun and sand and packed her bloomers for rehoboth beach, md. either that or june 14, 1777 is the day that the second continental congress adopted the flag of the united states.
i'm voting for ms. betsy's beachy bloomer bonanza.
in honor of this occasion i found a picture of my mom. one of the only digi pics i have of the woman. she is wearing a black tank top and looking slightly unnerved after the last stage of the 2005 cascade classic. i, on the other hand, look like a 100% amateur fred.
in other news, i saw a great quote on the wall at starbucks:
"the meaning of life is planting a tree in whose shade you will never sit."
true.

Week 2 and I already cried at work

Only it's not what you think.

I wasn't the only one shedding some tears when a video about Matthew Shepard and another hate crime victim, James Byrd; was shown.

Today Judy Shepard came to Frito Lay.. Her speech was heartfelt, moving, and 100% genuine. Her quiet compassion and strength is awe-inspiring. She understands that returning hate with hate does nobody any good. She spoke calmly about her son's killers. She did not wish ill upon them. She was direct and honest. The foundation's activities work to Erase Hate and I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to see Judy (or Dennis, Matthew's dad) speak. You will not regret it.

Every day we make progress to erase hate. A little at a time. It's a long journey and it will not succeed without everyone's engagement. Corporations have been getting involved for years, and now the momentum is increasing. Through diversity forums, Safe Space training, HR policies and the like; diversity is treated with something more substantive than lip service. It is integrated into the corporate culture and systems and processes and it makes a difference. A little at a time. Nothing is perfect yet. But progress is being made.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

Add Matthew Shepard Foundation to your page

Tom Boonen can do no wrong...?

Adorable World Champ Tom Boonen tested positive (out-of-competition) for cocaine.

Oops.

However, I think he can do no wrong in the eyes of most cycling fans.

From my limited knowledge (velonews.com coverage) it seems the result of a hard night of partying and not related to any attempt to improve his athletic performance.

Yet I wonder if I feel that because I think he is awesome? If some athlete I disliked got busted out-of-competition for a coke binge...I can't promise I'd give him a fair trial in my mind.

Which sucks.

Is justice blind?

Well, I'm not.

Meow.

Some memories of New Orleans

The view coming into Louisiana from Mississippi.
Some church in downtown NOLAThe city hall needs a little attention.

I think it's for sale.Someone's lovely lilac abode falls into the cement.

Park your Vespa in your (?) tiled shower/garage in the French Quarter.

New Orleans does business casual right.

Well put.

great weekend #2

i'm sitting on the couch, watching the sun set over dallas through my ridiculously large and lovely windows in my ridiculously nice apartment...not bad.
this weekend was a lot of fun, coupled with a bit of fact-finding (?) about the dallas bike scene.
after flailing around on the bike routes near my apartment (wtf, dallas?), i made my way to the richardson bike mart on saturday morning. darden buddy brice wu was staying with me for a few days, so he slept in while i rode. after a frantic t.t. trying to find the bike shop (thank god the dallas metroplex is a giant grid), i arrived to a drill sargeant sending the rides off one by one. it was the most organized group ride gathering i'd ever seen. each ride that left got a "departed" sign hung next to it on the giant sandwich board outside the shop. i ended up on the "brisk" ride. it was pretty fun; especially when the hammerheads threw down the gauntlet near the end and looked back to see a selection of 7 including some girl in a kittykat kit. hee hee.
i fought the south wind on the way home and arrived at the apartment, mumbling something to brice about needing a shower. i think i was a little bonked. i only ate a bar. i keep forgetting how to feed myself on long rides since i don't do many.
brice took me to lunch at la madeline and i had a famous caesar. yummy!
i collapsed on the couch when i got back, and brice hit the road for california. i told him to call if he got bored and he said he'd be bored when he left the parking garage.
i am sooo exciting.
this morning i decided to try another bike shop ride. after a lovely jaunt to the bike shop on quiet city streets, i met up with the ride. in contrast to the previous day's ride, there were strange dynamics and the all-too-prevalent random dude who rides 20 feet off the front the whole ride.
hey asshole: if you wanted to ride by yourself, why didn't you just do that?
i find that so irritating. this is one of the 4957 reasons i am not fond of group rides.
apparently the "fast guy" ride left at 7:30 (who gets up that early on sunday?), so this ride was the moderate pace. there were beginning riders on it, but thankfully none of them were too sketchy. i rode near the front and chatted with the ride leader, jennifer (hope i got that right). she was really nice and tried to look out for the newer folks at the back.
of course, the inevitable manhood-measuring trumped her efforts to keep the ride together and the few overgrown children masquerading as unshaven-legged dudes on cervelos decided it was the world championships. i joined the fun for a while, being an annoying wheel-sucker just to prove i could. but i lost my nerve when the group blew through a no-way-in-hell-we-had-the-right-of-way t-stop. i slowed up to avoid dying and then the wall of wind hit me. suddenly i was no longer within sight of the testosterone-ridden pack (with jenny in their midst doubtlessly trying to control their urges) and resigned myself to finding someone who knew where the hell we were.
i arrived at my apartment after 4 hours on the road and remembered i hadn't eaten anything.
duh.
conclusion: i need to find a select group to ride with so i don't end up hating riding again. i'm thinking some guys with jobs who don't take it as life and death and are secure in their manhood. we'll see if i can dig any of those guys up in my travels. i'm sure i'll find them: every time i stop at a junction and pull out my bike map, some good samaritan finds me and gives me an attempt at helpful directions. they are so kind to do so. i noticed this a lot in nyc, as well. only it's when standing on a street corner for more than 2 seconds. i guess i look both lost and foreign.
on another note, i watched the belmont stakes. that was pretty cool. it brought back memories of the last time the triple crown was on the line (smarty jones) and i was in philly on the eve of my first uci bike race. exciting stuff.
having grown up on a horse, i really understand how the feelings of horse and rider are transmitted through the reins. i am not surprised at all at big brown's jockey's intuition to pull him up.
yet, every year that goes by i'm more conflicted about the ethics of the sport itself.
enough seriousnenss. here is a riddle:
a woman goes to her mother's funeral. at the funeral, she meets a man. they share a wonderful evening together and he leaves the next day. she does not know his name or how to find him. the next day she kills her sister.
why?
answer coming soon...

Week 1...pretty awesome

i'm thoroughly enjoying my time at frito lay! such a great place and everybody is very passionate about the pepsico mantra "performance with purpose". i won't bore you with too many details, but suffice to say it's head and shoulders above a lot of corporate cultures i've heard about and/or experienced!

i tried commuting by bike today. it was harrowing to say the least and the route needs some tweaking, as well as my equipment setup.

1. commuting 28 miles one way with a backpack built for a 20 minute walk is a poor idea.

2. the wind is insane in dallas. just insane. i was nearly blown off the road many times. it took me 2.75 hours to get home today on account of the 40+ mph winds. that, and i was flailing around trying to find the right bike route markers.

3. i need to get my bottle situation dialed. freeze the night before and fill with ice from the cafeteria before leaving. today was only 94 and though i didn't feel hot; my body was thirsty when i arrived home.

4. i refuse to let this deter me. it's easy to give up and succumb to 21 miles of tollways ($4/day!) and traffic jams. i have few excuses not to commute by bike. it's not like i have a house/husband/kids/pets waiting anxiously at home. just the pigeons on my balcony.

5. i need to figure out a way to communicate about it better at work. people are naturally concerned for me when they hear where i live i relation to frito. i had no fewer than 10 people ask me about my commute today. 10! because cycling as i know it isn't a part of the culture, they aren't always aware that a cyclist doesn't just hop on a 75mph freeway. conversely, they aren't sure how i stack up in relation to the recumbant-pedalers and slow-moving bikers they see around white rock lake.

not that riding slow is bad. not at all. but i don't really operate the same way. i try to explain that i'm used to whipping around 90-degree turns at 30mph with 1 inch separating my front wheel from the wheel ahead of me. i have a different radar system for safety. i know better than to travel main roads. i search out schools and parks because people naturally drive more cautiously there. i commuted 17 miles each way when working at burt's, so this is old hat.

now how do i tell someone all of that without making them feel sleighted? it's tough.

i also don't want to be known as "the biker". i have many other things that i'm equally as passionate about (including business and business school) and i need to be careful that my personalilty and lifestyle don't overshadow my contribution at frito.

so much to ponder.

so little time.

oh wait: i've got plenty of time! nearly 5 hours of commuting per day!

wow...

long drives, gorgeous frontmen, and the light rail

I am writing this from the most pimpin loft in the lower 48. Highway 75 hums below, the study nook in my sleeping loft inspires creativity, and the lights of Dallas are visible from my bank of 25-foot windows. It’s just like Sex and The City only I have zero pairs of Manolos and have already found Mr. Right. Quite nice, really!
My adventure began after packing my car at 11 p.m. on Monday night after driving from the Tour of Somerville. Which is really fun to WATCH, btw. Car packed to the brim, I headed to Blacksburg to sleep in Cora’s spare bedroom.I rousted myself at 7 and hit the road for Diamondhead, MS. 4 state signs later I was in Mississippi! It’s a lovely place. I pulled over at a state park South of Hattiesburg for a little bikeybike. I passed few cars, a chick on a horse, and did an accidental time trial due to a highway shoulder decreasing from 7 feet to 7 inches. I was literally riding for my life and hoping someone didn’t want to taxidermy a cyclist.
Bill Wesley is Megan’s dad. Meg and I have been friends since our family moved from the Silicon Valley to Oregon in 1985. We spent countless hours playing in the woods at the ranch, experimenting with makeup and trying to hide it from our mothers, and generally being inseparable. So much so that a family friend coined us “The M&M Girls”. I fondly remember experiencing Gold n’ Soft Margarine and white bread at her house. Oh, and Saturday morning cartoons!
Bill and his wife Syble live in Diamondhead on the Gulf Coast and I begged a night’s stay off of them in lieu of some anonymous hotel with plasticky bedspreads. They welcomed me graciously and I spent a delightful evening and morning getting to know them again. Megan’s nephew, Andrew, was also visiting. He is the only child I have/will babysit. He is 19 now and I was ill-equipped to chaperone when he was born. He maintains that I dropped him once but I think that’s urban legend. Allegations off poor babysitting skills aside, it was good to see ‘Drew. He will be serving our country come Fall in some branch of the military. I am forgetting which but it’s the one that gives you short haircuts. I headed to New Orleans for an afternoon of exploring The Big Easy. Wrong. I found it to be sketchy, contrived, and not that cool. I definitely need to visit with a local. Next time…After driving through Houston and confirming my hunch that it is the shittiest town in America; I arrived in Austin. Daniele and Phil welcomed me into their awesome new house and we had two days of fun and biking and partying. Only in Texas does one win a bucket of cheese sauce in a bike race.
I arrived in Dallas on Friday morning and spent an hour prying my clothes/shoes/bike wheels from the nooks and crannies of my car. Aside from the JRL Ranch being the most beautiful place on earth; my apartment at Mockingbird Station is the nicest abode I’ve ever had. It beats my faux-Jeffersonian condo in Cville any day. But I’d hate to pay the mortgage on this place.
I explored the area by bicycle this weekend and found an astounding number of cyclists. Hundreds upon hundreds swarm the bike paths and bike routes; and none very menacing. I was surprised at how courteous and steady they were. My commute to work looks to be about 1.5 hours; we’ll see how that works out.
Last night Lizzie took me to see The Old 97s. What a rock show! I normally dislike concerts because they interrupt me as I talk to my friends and make me deaf. But this one was amazing! House of Blues. We took the light rail. No smoking. Rather squeaky-clean crowd. High energy band. PS: I thought I knew the world’s hottest lead singer. But Rhett Miller may give William Walter a run for his confederate wampum. You decide. (PPS: The Old 97s' other guitarist looks like Peter Hymas)