JBlog

Playing in the snow

Still playing in the snow

90s Daughter!

Tags: 90s Daughter, Crazy Grandpa, home, snow

Some time in February, I was in the process of buying a set of Cubs tickets at Wrigley Field that we could donate to the silent auction at Westview Grade School.  I was a little late in buying the tickets and couldn’t find any decent seats for weekend games, so Cindy decided that she would look for some.  It took her two minutes to locate a game with good seats and purchase the tickets, which was great, except that the home team for that game was the Washington Nationals.  They actually play their home games in Washington D.C., not at Wrigley Field in Chicago, so we had a set of 4 tickets to a stadium located a thousand miles away.

Fortunately, Cindy’s boss is located in the DC area, so we decided to make a business trip / vacation out of the mistake, which worked out nicely because her boss had a set of tickets for the same series two days later.

We were scheduled to leave for DC on Wednesday, July 15, but on Tuesday night, Cindy decided she needed to go and get herself a stomach flu.  Awesome.  The poor woman didn’t sleep a wink Tuesday night and had unimaginably painful stomach cramps, dry heaves and general sleeplessness.  I came home from work early Wednesday morning to begin packing for the trip, but Cindy had decided she would not be able to make the trip.  Though she encouraged me to go without her, I wasn’t about to do that alone.  Fortunately, her condition improved slightly and gradually and about an hour after I got back home, she was up doing little things here and there to test her ability to be mobile without feeling nauseous, so the plan to leave resumed and we both finished packing and were on the road by about 3:00.

The ride was uneventful.  She slept here and there on our way to the airport and once we were there she ate part of  some turkey wrap sandwich because she was starving.  After keeping that sandwich down, we were both feeling a lot better about our decision to make the trip.

For what it’s worth, the new Indianapolis airport is beautiful.  Very well organized and modern, brightly lit and easy to find your way around.  I recommend using it if you’re flying from anywhere within a couple hour drive of it.

Our approach to DC took us across the west end of the National Mall.  What an awe-inspiring site.  The approach goes directly over the Lincoln Memorial, putting the Washington Monument and the US Capitol Building right in line.  It kind of looks like this:

After landing, gathering luggage and getting a cab, we found our way to our hotel, the DoubleTree on Rhode Island.  Nice place, though I thought the woman checking us in was unnecessarily snooty.  Maybe they’re trained to treat their Priceline customers that way.  Who knows?

Cindy was in no mood to do anything but sleep, and understandably so, but I was feeling like checking out some local attractions, so I left her in bed and went downstairs to ask the concierge how to get to the Brickskeller Inn, which is a place that had been recommended to me by some friends.  English was not his first langauge, and his language was totally foreign to me, so there was some pretty bad miscommunication that had me walking in a big, two mile circle further from the place I wanted to go than I had been when I left the hotel.  That part of DC is pretty tourist-friendly, so I felt safe.  I also realized that my phone has a nifty GPS function complete with turn by turn directions.  After punching in the name of the place, my phone figured out where I was and how I should get to where I wanted to be and about 30 minutes later, I arrived here:

I had two very enjoyable beers there and a barleywine, which I didn’t care for so much, and then returned to the hotel.

Oh … I also passed by this place called the Urbana bar on the way to the Brickskeller. Made me feel right at home:

Didn’t sleep too well on Wednesday night. Neither of us slept well, actually, which really sucked for Cindy because she hadn’t slept at all the night before due to all of her cookie-tossin’. I chalk our sleeplessness up to the queen-sized bed and to the fact that I was stoked about having a nice road bike dropped off the following day. Sega, from bikestoborrow.com was going to swing by with a 62 cm steel frame road bike. That’s all I knew about it. I got out of bed at around 7:00 Thursday morning and went down to the hotel restaurant and had a cup of coffee. I really should have eaten breakfast, but I didn’t want to be late to meet Sega, even though I had 90 minutes to spare. So I sat in front of a TV in the restaurant, read a USA Today and drank a decent cup of coffee. He was supposed to stop by at around 8:30. At around 8:00 I went back upstairs and woke Cindy and tooled around on the Internet for a bit before heading downstairs at 8:30.

I was kind of expecting him to roll by in a car or truck with a bike rack, but this dude was ghost-riding the bike he was going to rent to me in DC’s rush hour traffic. I mean … that’s got to take some stones. More on riding in the DC traffic in a bit. Sega pulled in to the half-circle drive in front of the hotel with the bike, a Gunnar, and I’ll be honest … I was stunned at the beauty of this bicycle. It looked like a bowling ball finish or something. It was all red and black and swirly and was just awesome.

So at around 9:30 or 10:00, and after reassurances to Sega that I would be good to his bike, I was off to explore DC and the surrounding area. First I’ll say that I was pretty nervous about riding in metropolitan traffic, but I quickly discovered that I could keep pace with it as it’s rare for heavy traffic to get moving more than 20 mph in the city. So it really wasn’t all that bad. One big hauling truck buzzed me pretty close on my way down to the National Mall, but every other driver seemed very aware and conscientious.

My first stop was the Washington Monument. There was a lady walking by who noticed me taking pictures of my bike and figured she’d ask if I wanted to pose for a picture.

I made my way down the mall and almost passed on going to the WWII monument, but it was under the construction the last time I went so I decided to see it after all. I’m glad I did. The monument inspired awe and an appreciation for the sacrifices made by a few for the many.

I made my way west on the mall and rode past the Lincoln Memorial, eventually finding my way to the Mount Vernon trail, which was the trail I wanted to take to, of all places, Mount Vernon. It was a very nice ride that took me past the airport (and directly under the approach to one of the runways), through Old Alexandria and along Mount Vernon Parkway through the woods. It was a shared trail, so there were runners, walkers and other bikers, so caution was a must, but it was a good ride. I wouldn’t call it a fitness ride at all. It was a mostly slow pedal that was very enjoyable. Kind of hilly in places, but not too bad. I stopped along the way for a picture and now wish I would have taken a few more.

I had plenty of water with me, which was good, but I was really starting to get hungry about 5 miles out from Mount Vernon. I asked another cyclist if he knew of any good places to eat and he assured me there was a place with outdoor seating up the trail a bit and that I could find food at Mount Vernon. I passed the place with outdoor seating about three miles outside of Mount Vernon but the seating was all in direct sunlight, so I figured I would just ride on to Mount Vernon, whereupon I discovered that all of the eating occurred inside, which was not good because I had no locks with me. I decided I would go back to the place three miles back, but even though I thought I was keeping a careful eye out for it, I missed it somehow.

I was pretty hungry upon rolling back in to Alexandria and set out to find a place to eat. I found that place on the North side of Old Town in the Torpedo Art Center. Or something. Anyway, it was called the Chart House Restaurant and it was a very good lunch with a great view of the Potomac, nestled in a small marina.

I had some cream of crab soup, a spinach salad with warm bacon dressing and a lobster grilled cheese sandwich. Good eats all in all. I took a few pics of the bike’s paint finish while I was there. I was able to eat outside at this place and kept my bike at the table.

I was off again about an hour after I arrived and had an uneventful ride back into the city. I was passed by a roadie once and kept up with him for about a mile but backed off after a bit. Also biked next to a recumbent rider with a lot of tattoos, which was odd. You usually see old men and neo-hippies on those things.

I rode around the mall once again and up 17th street, down Pennsylvania, where a couple of nice ladies offered to take a pic of me in front of the White House.

I’m really digging this Garmin Connect stuff. Here‘s a log of my cycling activities from the trip.

After the visit to the White House I rode back to the hotel and waited for Cindy to get back from work. We planned to meet friends at the Cubs game, which started at 7:05. We took the Metro to Nationals Field and met Jeremy and Sarah shortly before the game began. I had an eight dollar chili dog, a $5 cup of way-too-sweet sweet tea and some fries while we watched the Cubs sneak by the Nats in game 1 of a 4 game series.

There were also some nice views from the stadium. How many other ballparks give you a view of two of the most recognizable buildings in the world?

After the game, we decided to head to this place called Marvin at 14th and U, and after viewing the mass of hot, sweaty people crowding around the entrance to the subway, we all decided we’d try to cram our hot, sweaty selves into a DC taxi cab. After about 20 minutes, we finally found a cabbie who would pull over to pick us up, and so began our trip to our next destination. We were loud and obnoxious and the cab driver was apparently not in the mood for loud and obnoxious, but we all made it to Marvin, where we entered another hot, sweaty mass of people, one of which was enthusiastically dancing and causing various people to spill overpriced drinks. After one round, and noticing that the hour was getting late, we all decided to head back to our respective domiciles, so Cindy and I headed back to the Doubletree and everyone else went wherever it was that they went.

After another night of tossing and turning in the dinky bed, I was up at 7:30 or so and ready to have some breakfast. So I went downstairs and instead of sitting in front of the TV with coffee, I opted for the breakfast buffet, which was pretty good. Had some oatmeal, bacon, scrambled eggs, grits and coffee and went back upstairs to get the bike ready to go. It was due back at Revolution Cycles at 11:00, which is where Sega ran his rental business out of. Before heading back to the shop, I wanted to get a little riding in, so I hit the Mall again and have a couple more photo ops with the Gunnar in front of some very recognizable buildings.

I left the Mall and trekked up Rock Creek Trail, a very nice, hilly and windy trail that goes through the National Zoo and beyond. Unfortunately it was starting to get pretty late by the time I got to the zoo, so I had to turn around and head to Georgetown, which is where the bike shop was located. After turning the bike in, I visited the Bicycle Pro Shop and then went back to Revolution Cycles again to shop around and bought a cool pair of biking socks.

So my biking was done. I decided to walk back to the hotel and on the way happened across another bike shop, Cycle Life USA. This shop was unlike any other I have visited. Very new, very clean and had a broad selection of bikes to choose from including Felt and Look, two brands I’d never seen in a shop. They’re mechanic area was big and brightly lit and there was a corner of the shop dedicated to bike fittings. There was also a smoothie cafe in the shop. It was a very cool place and I spent 30 minutes there wasting time.

After leaving the shop, I continued down K Street, crossed Rock Creek back into downtown DC and was about 6 blocks from the hotel when Cindy called, saying she was done with work. She wanted me to come and meet her at the office she was working at and it was only 3 or 4 blocks away, so I diverted my course slightly and started walking toward the Verizon Building. I met a few of the people she worked with on occasion and then we were on our way back to the hotel after her occasional coworkers recommended a lunch spot for us.

We were in the hotel for long enough to have a change of clothes, then out the door to Oyamel after stopping by the front desk to beg them for a room with a bigger bed. I guess the guy at pity on us because he found a room with a king bed in it and put us there. Me, being the paranoid IT guy that I am, wanted to make sure our laptops made it to the new room, so I accompanied the bell hop with all of our luggage so I could make sure they were safely stored. I felt like an untrusting jerk, but I’ve seen laptops get “misplaced” in room transitions, so I wanted to be careful.

We were soon on our way to Oyamel. This was, quite simply, one of the best meals I’ve ever had. Oyamel is a tapas bar, so none of the dishes are very big, but the ones we had were all very good. Cindy and I split their house margarita, the Oyamel, which had on it some type of salt froth as opposed to a salt rim. It was an outstanding drink. The salsa was good, but certainly not as good as the salsa at Fiesta Cafe (in my humble opinion.) Our waitress, Ivana, prepared fresh guacamole for us tableside and it was extraordinary. Then Cindy and I split an order of Ceviche de atun Pacifico, which was OK. We also ordered Arrachera con salsa molcajeta y nopales escabeche, a skirt steak that was very good, and Cayo de hacha con pipián de chile pasilla, a seared scallop dish. I had a beef tongue taco and we washed all of it down with a pitcher of margaritas.

With that meal down, we were off to see more of DC. The International Spy Museum was close by, so we stopped by their gift shop. Cindy was kind enough to pose with a T-Shirt.

I snapped a few more pictures of Cindy, which I think ended up get her annoyed, as can be seen in this pictures:

We walked by one of my all time favorite restaurants, Fogo de Chao. I felt compelled to pose next to the sign for a picture.

We also walked past a bunch of really cool looking bikes and I was kind of shutter buggy, so I snapped a lot of pictures of bikes. Here are some of the cooler ones I saw:

The practice of photographing bicycles was also highly annoying to Cindy. Just for reference, I’ll post another picture of her highly annoyed pose:

We were back in the new and improved and severely upgraded king size hotel room by 4 or 5 o’clock and then just kind of lounged around for a few hours. I’m sure there was something on TV, but I don’t really remember what it was. I think Ocean’s 13 was on at some point. We left for dinner at 8ish, but Cindy thinks the ceviche upset her stomach and we decided to leave shortly after our pizza showed up.

Saturday morning we woke up and I walked to a Starbucks a few blocks away for some coffee and scones. More time was spent lounging, then we took a cab to Good Stuff Eatery to meet Brandon, Pete and Janine for lunch. Good Stuff is a place owned by some dude that goes by “Spike” and was on Top Chef recently from what I understand. It was OK, but a little bit of a letdown, although the shakes were very, very good. Pete was kind enough to give us a ride back to the hotel, where we lounged again for a couple of hours. We finally left again to head to Gordon and Biersch, a chain brew pub. The beer was, again, OK, but nothing spectacular. Pete and Janine met us there and then we were off to the game. This time we walked around the side of the stadium along the 3rd base line and came across valet parking for bicycles. Hadn’t seen that at a stadium before. It was sponsored by that trendy bike shop I had seen Friday morning, Cycle Life USA.

There were some cool looking bikes in the valet, including this fixie:

Finally, at the game, we found someone willing to take our group picture.

Cubs won both games, Cindy had a good presentation with some clients, I had a great bike ride and we all had a very nice time. Washington DC is one of my favorite places to visit. I’m looking forward to my next trip!

Ben gets up on his first try in July 2009

And … Ben wipes out after a couple of passes around the lake

Tags: Ben, Skiing, Wisconsin

Seems tragic.  I suppose it is, too.  Death is rarely accompanied by feel good stories.  There are things about each of these people I enjoyed.  Ed always seemed like a jolly old drunk fat guy.  I doubt he had many enemies outside of the IRS.  Farah Fawcett: hot.  And seemed nice.  And Michael Jackson … umm … well he wrote some outstanding music.

Celebrity.  None of us would care about any of these people were it not for their fame.  As sad as their passing is, I do wonder how many lives will be permanently and substantially altered because they have passed on.  My guess is none.

I hope that doesn’t sound crass.  Or uncaring.  Because it’s not meant to be.  I bring this up only because another life ended on Tuesday night that no one really knows about outside of a relatively small group of people.  Tami Spilmon, mother of three, passed away suddenly while at home alone.  Apparently, she collapsed where she was standing and was found shortly afterward by her fiance.  Laying next to her was their week old baby who will never know her mother.  The other two children are Marissa and Haley, who just lost their father two years ago.  For as much as we’re hearing about the passing of Jackson, Fawcett and McMahon, none of those events will have the impact on a single life the way that Tami’s passing will have, especially on those two girls who are now without parents.  That’s true tragedy and is something I haven’t been able to get out of my head since I first heard about it Tuesday night.

I didn’t know Tami well at all, but she, Ron, Marissa and their new baby Danika visited our home on Fathers Day along with other friends and family.   She was here last Sunday and then gone with no warning two days later.  Events like these really put things into perspective.  You never know when your time is up, or the time of a loved one.  Nothing good can come of something so tragic, but maybe it can still help us to love a little more and appreciate the gift God has given us a little more fully.

My heart goes out to Ron, Marissa and Haley today.  God Bless you all and cover you with His love in this time of mourning.

Very, very, very hot and humid.

Let’s see … I swam 1500 yards today.  The pool was refreshing for the first 7 seconds and then it felt hot, too.  I may swim inside tomorrow.  We’ll see.

Ryan and I rode with Ben to swim practice and then we went to Strawberry Fields to pick up some raisins and nuts for trail mix.  I’ve been eating that stuff in the morning for breakfast and I think it’s working out pretty well.  It consists of organic raisins, raw cashew pieces, raw pumpkin seeds and sliced almonds.  I don’t keep track of how much I eat, but I probably should.  I think some days I probably graze on it for longer than I need to.  Also bought some natural peanut butter and wildflower honey to mix up for pre-ride snacks.

After hitting the hippie store, Ryan and I rode back to the “Y” to get Ben and we went to Za’s for some grub.  Ben thought sitting on the couches there would be cool, so we did that.  We visited Cozy’s afterwards and then biked home.

Poor Wrigley is going nuts without Cindy here.  He was so excited when we got back home and he kept looking at the door expecting her to walk in.  We all can’t wait for her to get back tomorrow.

Didn’t run today and will wait until tomorrow night when Cindy’s back to run again.

Pretty uneventful day, really.

Oh … I picked up the Lemond from Champaign Cycle today.  The bike mechanic said he couldn’t find anything wrong with the bottom bracket and a quick spin around the parking lot didn’t reveal any odd noises or vibrations, so hopefully everything is OK.  I received the Garmin Edge 305 cycling computer from UPS and will install that soon.  I may take it on its maiden voyage Saturday morning.  Haven’t decided whether I’m going to St. Louis with Cindy and the boys yet.  I just found out I have to play drums at church Sunday morning, so I’m leaning toward staying in town so I can ride Saturday morning and drum Sunday morning.  We’ll see.

Yep.  There I was.  We pulled in to the Marathon gas station to fill up my wife’s family wagon, a white ’98 Dodge Grand Caravan and we pulled up past this enormous motorcycle.  I thought I recognized the brand and assumed it belonged to a guy we used to live next to.

It was a Boss Hoss – the king of all motorcycles as far as I’m concerned. Even though I’m not really into the motorized two wheel vehicle, I can appreciate a work of art when I see one, and the Boss Hoss is all art and muscle and beauty.

So anyway, I got out of the white ’98 Dodge Grand Caravan, did my business at the pump and took a few steps toward the Boss Hoss. The owner of the bike was just about to start it up, so I asked him what kind of a bike it was. The guy, it turns out, was not an ex-neighbor, but he did confirm that it was a Boss Hoss. Not even sure why I asked him. I knew what it was. Maybe part of me thought he’d offer to let me take it for a spin. Who knows.

Anyway, when I walked back up to the driver’s side window of my wife’s white ’98 Dodge Grand Caravan, she looked at me and quipped, “you got the dinette set.”

We chuckled about that for a few minutes.

I found out last week some time that my wife had volunteered to host lunch this week.  Every week her grandmother fixes up a Sunday lunch that can’t be beat, but sometimes we get a little goofy and decide to have lunch at her mother’s or her brother’s or her aunt’s or at our house.  Today it was at our house.

We had over 30 people and Cindy cooked a meal that couldn’t be beat.  We had a marinated flank steak, some pulled pork, tilapia with two different marinades, some veggie thing on focaccia bread, corn on the cob, asparagus, fresh green beans, mashed potatoes and three or four desserts that were all really good.

I “worked” the grill for a short time and had a couple of beers.  I felt obligated to do this as it seemed like something I should do on Father’s Day.  So beer was had and veggies and fish were grilled by me and the beer was good and so were the veggies.  Cindy came out and threw her flank steak on there for 10 minutes and also plopped the focaccia veggie contraption on there, too.  I wish I’d had a chance to try the flank steak, but I’m sure it was good.  The focaccia veggie was outstanding, though.

Let’s see: Guest list – JJ, LaDonna, Brianna, William, their new baby whose name I can’t remember, Jim, Keira, Josh, Gahvriel, Christain, Joe, Margret, my dad, Karen, Angela, Colin, Bob, Darlene, Ron, his wife, her daughter, their daughter, Jason, Damien, Jim’s Friend, Jim’s friend’s wife, their boy, their new baby, Gramma, me, Cindy, Ben and Ryan.  There may have been more.   That’s 33 people and I’m pretty sure is a record for the number of peeps we’ve entertained.

It was a good day and there’s still a few hours left to make it even better – not that it needs to be better or anything, but … what a good day.

I realize it’s been about 6 months since my last entry, but no one (read: no one) reads this, so where’s the harm?

After having put nearly 4,000 miles on my Trek 7.5 FX, which I use for commuting to work, I finally decided it was time to break down and start looking for a true road bike, so I began and ended the process of investigation and obsession at Champaign Cycle. I rode a couple of Treks and a very nice Trek Madone, but none of them seemed to fit quite the way I wanted them to. Of course, a lot of that had to do with the fact that the Trek, being a hybrid bicycle, has a riding position that puts you up much higher than a road bike does, so none of the bikes I tried really seemed like a good fit.

And then I decided to park myself on the last Lemond Champaign Cycle would ever offer up for sale. Due to Greg Lemond being outspoken against the doping problem in cycling and his persistent implications that Trek’s golden boy Lance was involved in said doping problem, Trek decided they would no longer make bikes with Lemond’s name. So they ceased production of them. But Champaign Cycle had one left. And it just fit. Apparently Lemond is known for making a more relaxed frame, which has made the transition from hybrid to road bike much easier for me. It’s a 59 cm carbon monocoque frame with Ultegra shifters and rear derailleur, 105 front derailleur and brakes and Bontrager components to finish it off. Simply put, I love this bicycle. Love, love, love this thing. It accelerates like a rice rocket and maintains speed without much effort.

My wife, who I love with the intensity of a million white hot suns, has slowly accepted the fact that I am obsessed with bicycles and has endured it and even recently relented and bought a bike for herself, the women’s version of my commuter, the Trek 7.3 WSD. After going on several rides with her, I’m convinced that she will be a very strong rider if she decides to stick with it. She has a smooth pedal stroke and can keep a high cadence going for several miles. With a half dozen or so fitness rides, she’ll be in a good position to do some spirited rides with a level 3 Prairie Cycle Club group.

With the purchase of my older son’s Raleigh Detour 4.5 last fall and my younger son’s Trek tagalong, the Barhams are now set to embark on bike commutes anywhere in Champaign-Urbana and even slightly beyond. 2009 will either be known as the summer of cycling or the year we all started our lifelong passion for biking. My hope is that the latter holds true.