Snow Day!

Seattle got it's first snow today(actually, some fell yesterday but it didn't stick at the house so it doesn't count). Also, Michele starts back to work today, but not until this afternoon, so I got a quick ride in while I could. I just started out from the house and headed to Lower Woodland, just like I did when the El M decided to go tits up. TBFKaU held together just fine but was just as brutal to ride as I expected in to be. Sadly, I must admit that I am currently not a singlespeeder, but it's something for me to work towards and I hope to get there soon.

Bike Ninja!

Same spot, different ride.

Some days it's good to be unemployed, some days it's downright awesome. Still miles from downtown and no signs of movement. That's a tough beat for sure.

The Devil Came to Town...

...and fucked up my diet. First, Michele insisted on Salumi on Thursday, then Pat shows up yesterday and wasn't leaving town until we made a visit to Lunchbox Lab.

Today it was Paseo. If I continue to further fuck up my diet by going to Baguette Box tomorrow I'll have completed the Seattle lunchtime superfecta.

Fuck.

Tried to get out for a ride today, just a little one from the house. Got as far as the skate park before things started to go south. First, I whip out the camera to take a couple shots of the empty park and find the screen is completely shattered. The camera still takes pics but there's no way of knowing what the settings are or previewing the shot. I guess nearly four years is a pretty good run for a small camera anymore, but it's still disappointing. At least it gives me an opportunity to learn from past mistakes, the next camera will not use proprietary cables or memory cards, that shit just sucks.

The second shitty thing, just as I was leaving the skatepark and heading up into lower Woodland I heard a big pang and felt my chain jump hard. Upon initial inspection I thought I just didn't have my skewer tight because the wheel had jumped from the dropouts. After popping the wheel back on it was instantly obvious that more was wrong. The wheel was pushed up hard against the drive side chainstay and refused to turn. I walked back to the skatepark to start checking for broken spokes when lo and behold, I found a broken rim. The thing is a good 3/4" out of true and now I'm pissed. A great way for El M and I to celebrate our three year anniversary. So, now I'm in the market for a new rim...

Begging Forgiveness

Once I had Michele and Porter past breakfast I loaded up El M and headed south to South SeaTac for my first ride in a long time. I felt bad for the bike, having neglected it for so long. I've got no excuses, lucky for me the bike was good to me has no hard feelings. It wasn't a long ride by any means, only about 45 minutes or so on the trail but it was really good to get my legs moving. Even though it was a little tough in places where it shouldn't have been and my legs hurt after ten minutes I was surprised by how much it stays with me. I was railing slippery corners at a pretty high rate of speed and clearing obstacles like I never stopped riding. Of course, this is SST we're talking about here and there's not much in the way of difficult terrain, but still, I felt good.

I'm going to attempt to get out a minimum of a couple times a week through the winter, even if that means that I'm occasionally riding (GASP) pavement now and again. Seems like a bit of a feat considering that Michele goes back to work on Monday but I think I can do it. As a matter of fact I think I have to do it. I came home from my ride feeling better than I have since before Porter was born. Like I have a new sense of myself. Reading that last bit back to myself, it sounds really corny and not very "Sean like", I'm not erasing it though. It feels true.

New Leaf

Holy fuck, I'm a father!

On to the next thing. So for the last couple months, when I'm not sleep deprived and delirious, I've been thinking a lot about how I've gotten fat(ter) and slow(er) over the last year and a half or so. It's time to get serious. I'm a week on the diet and it's going well. I expect to hold steady until Thanksgiving(nothing would stop me from throwing away a diet for Thanksgiving dinner, I've been waiting all year after all) and pick up where I left off the next day. I also need to start getting out on the bike more, and not just the Tank. El M and TBFKaU haven't left the basement since we moved except for John and Eithne to borrow. Also, I should get back to blogging a little more, the slow death of TYOTB is unacceptable and I refuse to let it happen.

Okay. Diet, bikes, blog more, I can do this. Really...

SSCXWC

The Single Speed Cyclocross World Championship took place yesterday here in the Puget Sound. Somehow I found the time to get away from Michele and the baby for a few hours to get to the venue.

Oh, sexy beer bikes. How I love you all.

Awesome mass start.

Lots of costumes mid pack.

Requisite beer station after the barriers.

And of course, this guy.

Unfortunately due to a late race start I wasn't able to stay for the finish but needless to say I did enjoy my time amongst the bikes.

Porter!

Nearly 2 weeks late but Porter finally showed up last night at 10:59. He weighed in at 7 lbs 12 oz and measured 19 inches. I've taken on a lot of projects in my life and there's not one I value more than this. Welcome to the world little one.