I like to dress up

Busy week so far. Monday worked on slides at home, went to work for an aborted experiment, back home to work on slides. Late afternoon I took the train down to the convention center and hit the conference kick-off reception. More fun was going to North 3rd afterwards with friends and finally getting home at midnight.

Five hours of sleep later, I was awake and heading for the train. I chaired a technical session Tuesday afternoon and headed back home early. Took a 4 hour nap, finished my slides about 1am, caught 3 hours of sleep and back on the train Wednesday morning.

Wed morning I chaired another session and presented my own paper in the afternoon. It went well and I felt very comfortable presenting. I think chairing 2 sessions before hand helped a lot.

After the sessions, I took one of our visitors from Israel around Philadelphia to see some sights. Independence Hall, Market Street, Society Hill, South Street, Broad Street and back around to the Marriott. We grabbed a drink at the htoel bar and then went up to the evening reception. It was kind of a bust, so we finished our free drink and headed back to South Street for a steak at Jim's. Need to let visitors know what a real Philly cheesesteak is like :)

Continued down South Street and stopped for a drink at Bridget Foy's. Nice place, cozy, good drinks, good jazz playing. The conversation was great - two science people excited about science and with similar philosophy on life, well lubricated with alcohol. Three drinks later, they were closing the bar and I had missed the last train. No problem, crashed at my friend's hotel and did the 28-hours-in-my-nice-suit train ride home at 9am. Man, am I tired.

Tonight is house cleaning and a movie, Friday night is going to be GYM VISIT!! and relax. Sat morning I get a motorcycle (yippee!), Sat night is a 50's party in Wilmington, Sunday morning is recovery, and Sunday afternoon is a fund-raising at Ludwig's Garten. I'm all about charity, especially when it's drinking for Alzheimer's. (The tips are going for Alzheimer's research, I'm not drinking to get Alzheimer's. I hope.)

A music thing

Molly tagged me to list my 5 current favorite tunes. She knows how I love music :) Hard part is cutting it down to 5!

THE RULES: List five songs that you are currently loving. It doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the songs in your blog, then 'tag' five other bloggers/friends to see what they're listening to."

Molly's List:
1. Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead
2. Stutter - The Blackout
3. Son of Sam - Elliott Smith
4. Changeless - Carbon Leaf
5. Don't Leave Home - Dido

Matt's List (no particular order):
1. Cold Play - Yellow
2. Jess Klein - Sometimes Blues
3. Jess Klein - Nick's Song
4. Modest Mouse - I Came as a Rat
5. Tenacious D - Friendship

Do I know 5 other bloggers? If you don't blog (or even if you do), toss your 5 in my comments box:
1. Jeff - Mr. Keyboards on a Motorbike
2. Ann - time to party in LV
3. Amy in Miami
4. Steve - Ain't got no blog in DSM
5. Sylvia - good excuse to start a blog :)

(for all who really know me, yes, I still have Jethro Tull and Alan Parsons in the rotation, just didn't make the top 5 this week)

Not bad for a fatso

The Run for Rett 5k was this morning and I hadn't trained much for it. Hoping to do a 27 minute or so. The weather was cool and cloudy - great for running. Only about 70 runners, nice course.

While I didn't do a Steve-kicks-ass type run, I surprised myself. 23:18 - might be my best ever for a 5k. Pretty damned happy about that :) Bonus was the small field which got me 13th overall, 8th for men, and 3rd in my age category. I got a medal! Would have been nice to win the Flyer's tickets, too, or even a Yum Yum gift certificate. Oh, well, still a good race and I made some new friends.

wanna go to Vegas!

I've been wanting to go for quite awhile. Who's in?

No real motive except that it's a cool place. I want to stay up all night, walk the strip, play some blackjack and roulette, pull some slots.

Maybe I'm just attracted by the flashing lights :)

****

So, I catch the end of The Wedding Singer. Oh, how romantic :) He sings the "I want to Grow Old with You" song and it makes me happy. Why can't I find a girl who wants that?

Thought I had. I guess I need to keep looking. I need an 8 hour, philosophical drinking discussion. I think I'll be keeping Steve & Scot up late in Des Moines when I'm there.

Friday night's all right for . . .

For my money, red wine is still one of the best buzzes. Don't waste money on PETS Petite Syrah, though. 'Zonly ok.

Picking up a $0.99 brass table in the morning, hopefully watch some motorcycle trackday at Pocono Raceway, birthday party tomorrow night. 5K Run for Rett on Sunday (I feel wimpy compared to Steve, my 1/2 marathon friend) and NEED TO FINISH SLIDES for my presentation next week.

But, enjoy Friday night, eh? Wish I had a hot tub and a cutie.

Need to recover from the weekend

Here's the weekend overview (since I know all of you are so interested):

Friday: Was discombobulated, went to visit John & Denise to borrow their pickup, have some beers and soak in the hot tub. Mostly for conversation to lift my spirits. Watched a DVD of old Looney Tunes and laughed my ass off. What a great evening. I also showed up with Oreos and ice cream which seemed to go over well.

A couple of beers, some hot tub time, some ice cream. On the way home, I called Becky and found her most of the way through a bottle of wine. We talked for an hour and a half and both enjoyed it. Lots of laughter, a few tears, much friendship.

Saturday: Went to look at a motorcycle on Allegheny Ave. Didn't find the guy. WTF?! Oh, well, missed connection somehow. Stopped a couple miles north of that to look at and buy a little drop-front desk. Seems to be some nice wood under the crappy paint job they did to sell it. That's what I borrowed the truck for.

Alf flew up from NC to buy a TL1000S from a guy about 2 miles from me. John, Alf and I went over to do the transaction and we got him on the road heading south about 5pm. Last report was he made it safely, likes the bike, and vowed it's not for long distance.

I called the F3 seller again and it turns out I'd missed him by about 30 mins that morning. "I'll be right there!" I changed, drove back to Allegheny and looked at the bike. Hmm, looks good. Offer less than asking, shake hands, put some money down to hold it and now I'm just waiting for him to get the title. Ohh, baby, another project for this winter :) It needs a chain and some maintenance, but it is generally clean and pretty. Now to buy my 3rd rear stand in 3 years :p I'm not giving this one to Becky - already gave her 2 and a front stand.

Time to celebrate, headed to Ludwig's to see Vanessa and Nial and drink some beers. Order a Hoegaarten, but no Vanessa. Nial rolls his eyes and says "long story". I call V and find out she has the night off and she is meeting friends at Eulogy. My next visiting, beer-loving friends are going there with me. Beer wise it's as good as Monk's and the beer snobs I was with (I was almost the novice amongst them) declared it so.

Let's see, I think I had two La Chouffe's, three Chimay whites and a shot of Stoli. The waitress was very nice and prompt and felt awful when she dumped a full glass of Chimay on me. I didn't mind the beer in my lap, but the pretty glass broke on the floor :( She spotted us for the round of shots and I think we left her a pretty good tip.

About 1am I decided it was time for a slice at Lorenzo's and the walk back to my car to sober up. It was a great night and I look forward to doing it again. They are going to start recognizing me at the Sansom St. parking garage :)

Sunday: Mowed the lawn, visited with Jillian, stripped some paint off the desk, watched MotoGP and went to bed early. So tired.

Now a busy, busy week in front of me, a somewhat busy weekend, next week busy with IMAPS conference (I'm presented a paper and co-chairing a session). I've found I'm happier and time goes by better when I'm busy, so I'm looking forward to it all.

heading into the weekend

Happy Friday, gentle readers. Hope you all have good plans and it's not raining too much where you are.

Bestest birthday wishes to Kelli and Becky who both have a big birthday, Kelli today and Becky tomorrow. I wish I could take both of you out for dinner and drinks, but, alas. Hope you enjoyed the little gifts at least.

Rainy here in the Philly area. Doesn't bode well for camping tomorrow night, but I'll give it a shot. Also looking at a motorcycle tomorrow morning. Hope it looks good. Would make a nice around-town and track day bike. Not as cool as the Telefonica GSXR 600 replica, but considerably cheaper.

Progress 'round the house

Making good progress on oddjobs around the house. Dug up my rosemary and lavender from the garden and put them in pots for the winter. Hope they make it through. Also picked up a philodendron and an ivy to put in the swan holder from L&L's wedding. Nice to play in the dirt now and then.

Even got a fancy new lamp for the bedside. The warm glow is nicer than the fluorescent glare I've had for the last 8 years. One of those things I should have done long ago.

Dumped some stuff on Craig's List. Gave up on selling it and now just giving it away. The freaking blacksmithing anvil and tools were quite popular - probably should have sold those. First responder was someone starting a community education program so I'm happy it's going there.

Some idiots on CL, though. I posted "Free Hamster cage & Motorcycle". Kind of funny as the motorcycle is a little plastic one you put the hamster in so he can roll around. There was a photo of the cage and a photo of the motorcycle, clearly a toy. I had at least two people e-mail and ask what kind of motorcycle it is, one guy is looking for a project bike. Uh, it's plastic! Even more than my VFR!

Cleared the house of the anvil, Becky's desk, the Xmas tree, stained glass tools, and the hamster goodies. Room in the garage for a 2nd bike now :)

good weekend

Fun weekend, lots of sleep, didn't get a whole lot constructive done, but I think I turned a corner.

Friday went to check out a TL1000S with friend John for friend Alf. The owner has kept it in really good shape and I got the test ride. Nice bike, if you like a V-twin sport bike. The Superhawk is the only one I've really liked, but it's been awhile since my only day of Superhawk riding. The TL1000S was like a big SV650. Guess it's like the SV1000, eh?

After scoping out the TL, John and I went to Montgomeryville Cycle for the open house weekend. Sniffed around the bikes, considered a 70mpg Ninja 250 (yet again), spent enough time and headed out the door. Went back in to look at gloves again. Decided to spend $80 on a nice pair of Alpinestar race gloves ($20 off so why not, especially as I am getting more keen on a 2nd bike for track days). Out the door again, and right back in as John realizes it's all 20% off so he should get the nice touring gloves, too.

Then, off to John's for beer and hot tub. I needs me a hot tub at home.

Saturday the Amish delivered my neighbor's shed at 6:30am. So I was up to enjoy the hammering and sawing. Fell asleep on the couch at 9:30 and woke after noon. Yikes, that was strange, but nice. Goofed off a little, got cleaned up and drove to West Chester for dinner with friends Linda and Leroy, and new friend Melinda. Huge corned beef sandwich at the deli and a couple of beers.

Sunday was another sleep-in morning. Finaly got up and started house cleaning. This is the turn-a-corner part. I started seeing how I'm going to rearrange, get rid of more stuff, get new stuff I need/want, etc. Still heavily considering new truck and/or motorcycle. Talking to the loan officer again tomorrow. We'll see. Nothing great for bikes at the dealers, Ebay, or Craig's List. Oh, well, maybe something good will come up cheap this winter.

Headed out at noon to take a pretty girl for a ride to New Hope. Had a little lunch, walked through most of the shops, ate some ice cream. Came home and continued cleaning, rearranging the office. It's little more open and yet more cozy. I like that.

Now, off to bed, but I'll leave you all with these funny tidbits.
Crazy Frog
Wear the Fox Hat
Chill Out!

See ya

over under sideways down

I've got that general disquiet again. The feeling that I need to prune my life back, get rid of some material goods, cut down on expenditures, make changes to the way I live. It's a feeling that comes and goes - no, not a big mood swing or anything dramatic - just a natural flow and ebb of "brain emotion" (as opposed to "heart emotion" - I just made those up).

I think I can also describe it (perhaps better describe it) as a feeling that I need to focus. Focus on career, a healthy lifestyle, one or two hobbies and just let everything else float. I picture everything else as a loose bed of options over a grid of holes. If I lock in three or four important things, the others move about naturally in currents defined by the important items and fall into the gridwork in the best possible arrangement. A better arrangement than if I try to force them into place.

Hot Shots! Part Deux

Quote of the day:

Rufshaad: I can see you're no stranger to pain.
Col. Denton Walters: I've been married.
Rufshaad: Ah.
Col. Denton Walters: *Twice*.
Rufshaad: Oy!

humor

I check out Craig's list now and then, see what's for sale, what's going on, women looking for men, etc.

Fun one under Strictly Platonic "In search of Ent Wives"
(your humor may vary)

There and Back again - Maine 2005

My annual trip to Maine for the SabMag "North of Everywhere" gathering was this past weekend. It was as good as ever and the weather and riding were particularly nice.

Photos are here:
SMENOE8 Photos

The extent of my NOE planning this year was:
1. go to NOE
2. slab there to arrive before dark
3. camp
4. have fun

Simple plans almost always work well.

I left Friday morning at 4am. I love to ride in the cool darkness while everyone else is sleeping. Almost everyone, but the few cars and trucks on the road give me a little feeling of safety and a sense of camaraderie.

My route (if it's of interest at all) was turnpike to NE extension, north to I-78, across to I-87/I-287, east on I-90, north on I-91 and then Hwy 2 all the way to Skowhegan.

Arrived at the ZimRanch after 13hrs, 699.8 miles. Not a bad run. Carl Custer helped me put the tent up and then I strolled the grounds getting reacquainted with my annual friends and (especially nice) getting a hug from ZimLinda. Chris Park was there with a girl (Jenn) which not only dispelled rumours of his sexual preference, but also led to many jokes about the tables being turned and now I'd hit on his girlfriend. No, no, no, that's not like me. Besides, I only have eyes for ZimLinda.

Friday night was turkey dinner, a few beers and early to bed. I had put my tent on a little of a slope, so my sleeping bag slid off the thermarest everytime I rolled over. Eh, could be worse.

Saturday morning there was trip planning. The young, cool crowd invited me to Bar Harbor, but I wasn't in the mood to fight the tourist traffic and didn't really want to hang out with all the cute couples. Instead I did the classic Jackman loop. West on 16, north on 201, back around on 6/15. 16 is a great road, some little sweepers, good elevation changes, beautiful scenery, and wide open for some top-speed fun. I did the part to Jackman in pretty quick time, averaging probably 80mph. I'd never run up to Canada from there, and it's only another 15 miles or so each way, *and* I had brought my passport, so . . . what the heck?

Well, I made it to the border and decided there was no reason to cross through customs/immigration just to turn around. Heck, I'd ridden from Philadelphia to Canada, who cares if I actually cross over? I stopped to put my balaclava on (it was cloudy and getting chilly) and headed back to Jackman.

I stopped for gas and a sandwich. (Interesting note: the old, rotary-number gas pump evidently didn't have a multiplier to go over $2/gal, so it was set to $1.69/gal and there were large signs telling you that the price was going to be twice what you saw).

Also found a little grocery advertising liquor and I wanted a bottle of vodka to share that evening. The prices were higher than I'm used to, but Stoli Razberi (my favorite) was still only $21. Woohoo! A gallon of orange juice and a bottle of Little Penguin Shiraz (cute label, turned out to be quite good) went into the Givi topbox. It'd be safe there, right (foreshadowing).

Route 201 had been pretty good up to Jackman, but 6/15 back around was crappy. Not
awful, but rough and not much fun. I should have turned around and reversed the first half. I stopped at a little store in Monson to look for a birthday gift for my little sister. Ended up getting myself a cool coffee cup souvenir. (Used it for the first time this morning and it fits my lip very well.)

I went into Guilford for batteries at the Rite Aid and stopped to check my luggage. Damn! The OJ fell over and must have been leaking. Wait, the vodka bottle is flat. And in many pieces. :( Luckily, the little store up the street had a plastic bottle of Smirnoff so there were still screwdrivers that night. And I now have a topbox, bungees, and balaclava that smell delightfully of raspberry. Glad I hadn't bought whiskey.

The pond was endurable for a bath and I was clean and changed for the big steak and lobster dinner. Huge gobs of food, much fun with friends, screwdrivers and wine. Again to bed fairly early and sliding off the thermarest.

Sunday morning I had to decide if I was staying until Monday or packing up and heading out early. Either way the tent was coming down - I could sleep in the loft if I stayed over. I moved too slow and didn't get Tess on the VFR before BamBam swept her away for a ride. So, I went by myself on a 50 mile loop, 150 to 154, 151 and back on 16. 150 was nice and open and I was able to to a top-speed-in-4th run. Not quite redline, 130 indicated (120 gps) and I ran out of road. Someday I'll find true top end, not that that should be any goal. But it's fun :)

I also got an ego boost when I overheard Jenn say something about my leather riding pants. "What?" Chris admitted she said I looked hot in my leather pants, navy blue Underarmor shirt combination. She's a liar, but I'll take a compliment any day.

There were lobster rolls and fajitas for lunch, many lobster rolls as 52 lobsters had been purchased and there were quite a few left over. No complaints from the crowd, though. I finally said my goodbyes and hit the road about 3pm. Figured I could do half the trip and stay the night somewhere in VT or MA like last year. Weather was great and I was itching to be on the road.

I stopped for gas in Mexico, ME and had another rider pull it and start talking to me. Finally recognized Greg (?), Allan Smith's brother. We chatted for a couple of minutes and he kept going down the road.

Mostly it was ride, fuel, stretch legs, ride some more. As it got cooler I stopped to put my electric vest and balaclava on. With everything sealed up, the Olympia perf jacket with liner is plenty warm, at least tested into the upper 50s. Milt's "Hear You Go" earphones are also still working wonderfully, though my Sandisk player got cranky now and then and would lock up. Oh, well, the trials and tribulations of LD touring.

When I started drifting off the road repeatedly, I decided to find a motel. Plainville, CT wasn't a bad place and the room was cheap enough. The day was about 475 miles, 3pm to 11:30.

Monday I was packed and on the road by 9am, slab, slab, slab, into PA and then 611 to my house. Got home about 1pm and unpacked. Yuck, never put the sandles with sweat and lake water soaked into them in the E21 in the hot sun. Stinky! Return was about 30 miles shorter due to a slightly more direct route.

Lily was happy to see me and I was happy to be home. Even fixed the lawn mower and beat the grass down a couple of inches. Now I'm thinking an Omaha trip in October sounds good. I really like riding my VFR :)

Total for the weekend was 1570 miles (a few more as the gps was off for awhile), avg rolling speed of 60mph and overall of 53 mph. Almost 30 hours in the saddle and moving for 26 of them.