The riders of the Tour de France may be kissing babies and eating soft cheeses today in France, but I took the promise of only a slight chance for rain and the decision to put off doing laundry until another day to hop on my bike for a commute to work. I even managed to give my new cycling shoes a go, though I think some tweaking of my cleat positioning is in order.
As an added bonus, today’s ride is going to help me complete my July goal of riding no fewer than 150 miles this month.
A Funny Thing Happened At Lunch Yesterday
Yesterday at lunch I dropped into Target to buy some rechargeable batteries and an air filter for the house. While there I ran into my old friend Tom, from whom I used to rent a room many moons ago.
You probably don’t remember me mentioning Tom who, with his wife (and my friend) Danielle, hosted the Super Bowl party I attended this year. Back then it had been about ten years since I’d seen Tom, so the fact that I ran into him again only six months later seems like a good omen for me.
Scratch That
After discovering a minor scratch that I’ve put onto the front glass of my iPhone 4 I’ve succumbed to putting a screen protector on the front glass. I had a screen protector on my iPhone 3G from nearly the day I bought it, but had decided to gamble a bit with the iPhone 4. I lost.
Yesterday I dropped by Best Buy and picked up a three pack of screen protectors for the iPhone 4. Admittedly the brilliance of the screen has dropped slightly, but I’ll feel a little more comfortable shoving the phone in my bicycle seat-pack now.
ITP Flickr Pic
Here are my new cycling kicks
I like them, but as I said above I need to tweak the cleat positioning.
I’m really digging using the iPhone 4 as a macroesque camera which is perfect for small online photos for the blog. And how do you like my office “studio” setup with which I’m using my iPhone’s camera?
RealiTV Update: Hell’s Kitchen — It’s Time To Shut It Down
I’ve been a “fan” of Hell’s Kitchen since it first aired on American airwaves. However, with this season I think that it’s time to shut it down. The group of “chefs” that they brought in for this season is easily the worst group that has ever been on the show, at least according to the way that the show is edited. Thanks to Fox banging out two episodes a week this season is already down to the final four contestants and I can’t see any of them successfully working at Ramsey’s Savoy Grill in London.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay
Current Music – listening to the GardenFork Radio podcast
Website Of The Day – Interested in picking your own fruit/vegetables that are in season? Check out Pick Your Own to see if there are any picking opportunities near you.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – bicycle
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – almost checked, but didn’t
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~12 miles, Wheel Mileage – 131.6 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 3 (16)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 20
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
July Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month (still waiting to accomplish this)
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 150 miles
– Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
– Complete at least one iPhone application
– Completely plan out my August/September Colorado trip
2010 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I’ve sadly gained weight; I’m at 203 pounds]
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
– Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Sharpened Stone.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
– Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
– Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Must be something in the air, I rode to work today too. I think I need a new commuter bike though, it’s a bit too small and the steel frame is just not quite as solid as I would like. Anybody have an old frame laying around you want to get rid of?
Bob – now that you got a new road bike you’ve realized that old bike never fit?
What size frame do you want? (ask Bruce 😉
Did you go ride last night? Allan was worn out, spending the afternoon in the yard hauling & spreading mulch in the heat wore his ass out.
Paulie – nice new shoes…….. makes me want a new pair.
Yeah, I now realize that I probably looked like a circus bear on that bike. I think I need a 56 or 58cm frame and it needs to have the hole it the frame for mounting a rack. Bruce does seem have the hookup on bike frames.
Didn’t ride last night, Laura had to work later than expected so it’s a good thing you couldn’t ride either. But that was the driver for me riding today.
I need to look at new shoes too, my Sidi’s are at least 10 years old.
Perhaps it’s what’s not in the air — rain. Though it wasn’t the lowest humidity in which I’ve ever ridden.
Bob, I’d think you are well-connected with the bike world and probably should be able to swing a new commuter bike. For my own curiosity why are you not riding your road or mountain bikes to work? Panniers?
Thanks Barb, now all I have to do is given the shoes plenty of action. 🙂
You are exactly right, can’t put panniers on the mtn bike and I don’t like leaving my expensive road bike chained to a tree all day. It might make it mean like a dog.
Ah. I’m lucky that I’m able to bring my bike into the office so that I don’t have to lock it up outside (and don’t have to bring a lock).
I bought my previous shoes (Diadora mountain biking shoes) for Spinning. Since I haven’t taken a Spinning class in ten years I’ll guess that those shoes are about thirteen/fourteen years old — and look it.
the few times I rode my bike to work I brought it up into the office & put it in an empty cube. But – I decided 2 miles was just enough to make me stinky & not really get me any real exercise, so I decided that 10-15 minutes was better sleeping time.
I might go ride tonight, I’m thinking about taking Allan’s parents van home & then ride back to the house. I think that is about 10 miles or so – if i get a wild hair, I may ride more along the river too.
Wheelhopper Sunday has a pool ending & can be an all road ride if you want it to be, that is what I’m thinking about doing. Paulie – I was thinking you’ve done 2 (or more) 50k rides from your goals above, and you could easily do 50 miler down there on that Silk Sheets route.
I’ve yet to eclipse a forty-mile ride yet this year. I’m planning on doing Beautiful Backroads on September 18th, and hopefully I figure out another long ride before year’s end.
Hmm, I obviously made that 50K goal when I wasn’t riding, since I’ve routinely done rides longer than 31 miles this year. 😀
Sorry I’m late chiming in today. When I come out to a branch office, I try to make good use of my time and not JUST screw around posting on blogs 🙂
-Nice shoes Paulie.. now if we both wear the MMM jerseys, we can look like an actual team, since we have identical shoes. Clearly your riding to work has added to your fitness level, because every time I turned around last Saturday, you were on my wheel.. very annoying, and very well done!
-Bob, the old Bianchi is sitting around and doesn’t have a job. When I get closer to the office, I have an old beater MTB to commute on, so unless I get braze on bosses for some cantilevers and turn it into a CX bike, I doubt I’ll use it. I believe it’s a 56. I can’t remember for sure if it has fender braze ons.
-FP