Cubs game

Here are some cool shots of the cubs game in B&W and of the short ride I went on yesterday.

PMac

Active adventures

Bag toss
Tacos
Elks outside
Abe Lincoln

Elks inside

Viv & Paul's day off

Pine section at Kettle

Are men flushing themselves down the toilet?

Bat Mobile

Swordfish

Sunset

Garbage truck monster

Bags

Arturo, explain this?

Food & Girl

Wow, this past weekend was great. I really crammed a lot in the 3 days I had off. The pictures we'll speak for themseleves. Here was the run down:

Friday evening - got in a quick climbing/power workout

Friday night - went down to the deep south Chicago for a Mexican BBQ & bag playing

Saturday morning - amazing weather, feeling great, hopped on a bus to MI

Saturday afternoon - went to Spencer to see Fred and lifeguards

Saturday evening - ate swordfish with mom

Sunday morning - started the drive back to Chi at 6:30

Sunday afternoon - drove up to WI to ride at Kettle Morrainne

Sunday evening - Missed out on a picnic at Millenium park but watched "Yes Man" with Viv & friends

Monday morning - Viv & I toured the Elks headquarters and picked up food for a party later

Monday afternoon - Went to my friend Nate's house for steak tacos

Monday evening - played bags and drank beer

More fun in Chicago

Crochet pitch!

Keeping it real with some bitter 64cal water

I got some pics of rides I've been on. I found a crochet pitch near UofC down south. I've never seen one of those before. I guess a gentleman's game needs gentleman's grass. Here are also some pics from Viv's graduation. Man, graduating from law school is pretty awesome. Everyone there kinda took it in stride. It felt like a college graduation but I reminded myself of how much work Vivian had to do to get there. As a kid mostly b/c of my family I would always hold lawyers in high regard. I don't think that has changed.

I'm going home this weekend to pick up a car. It will be nice to hang out on Saturday afternoon, look at the lake and eat Mom's swordfish. I have a ride planned on Sunday in WI with a shop guy from Indiana. Monday I think I'm going to a typical Memorial Day celebration. Tonight I may head to a BBQ on the south side. It should all be fun.

Anyone on twitter?

I am now using Twitter. It seems to be the same as the facebook newsreel with less maintenance. I like it b/c I can search bike industry key words and then start following those people. I am just more connected. My persona is DSTech if anyone would like to follow. As far as other things, the documentary short I starred permiered at the Music Box Theatre last night. I didn't make it to the show but there are few more screenings. I finished a rode a new bike. It's the Turner RFX, 6" travel completely overbuilt bike equipped with Hammerschmidt (http://www.magicmechanics.com/). Installing this crank was one of the easier front shifting mechanisms ever. I have one pic of the bike so far. I will get more up soon. This thing is awesome. I am having a custom decal made for my rear shock and the decals on the fork are glow in the dark. Also, here's a pic of an Asian couple who's car hood flew up unexpectedly. No accident or injuries but another car 'incident' I witnessed. I really need to stop thinking about these things.

Enjoy

Pmac

More accidents...

I think I may be atracting these things. Here is a picture of a car that hit a light post and slid about 50 yards off of lake shore drive into a grassy hill. It is pretty banged up. I also saw three more minor accidents between cabs and a chinese couple whose hood flew up. Vivian's graduation was great. A bunch of her Mom's friends came and we all had a good time. I got a good ride in on Saturday morning. I focused on pedal stroke and race starts. By this I mean I would start about 100 yards off the base of the hill in a normal starting gear on my Niner (34x24). I would roll from zero to redline until the top of the hill, turn around and do it again. I am just trying to get used to the feel of a hard race start. I also did some race track repeats, working on cornering form. I would time sprints in an oval around parking lot fixtures five times around. I did five sprints twice for each side (turning left and turning right). This was a good exercise and showed I was fairly balanced. The 2 sets to the left came in at 1:08 & 1:06. The two to the right came in at 1:08 & 1:07. It just means I am even turning left or right, which is good. Now I just have to bring down all times. I also worked on balance. How I do that is riding on a raised curbed taht is about 6 inches wide. This is easier said than done. My tires are 2.1 inches wide so this only leaves 1.95 inches of leeway on either said. How I stay in a straight is done by looking about 15-20 feet in fron of me and holding my weight just in front of the nose of the saddle. I can do this fairly easily now. The real test/skill is to do this while holding a wheelie, so riding the whole thing on just your back wheel. I need to get better at those to pull it off. All this is a cool way to train for MTB races without easy access to trails. I have city parks but no singltrack.

I also got some great shots of the city from Viv's roof top. A funny one of a computer monitor at the bottom of a pond is mixed in there too.

Sticking to two....

WHEELS! I saw this car parked off of LSD. I am glad I am not regularly driving up and down that road. I've seen three accidents in the past two months. There are too many cars and most are traveling over the speed limit. You'll notice a man running with his shirt off in the background. It must have been 55 degrees that day. I think people feel if they act like it's summer it'll feel like summer. Yes, I am riding in a dress shirt.

On a lighter note. Vivian is graduating on Sunday. Hooray! Her Mom, Dad & sister will be in town this weekend. I am looking forward to it. The pressure is off since I already know them. Plus her sister is just awesome. She is the oldest girl and easy to talk to. Reminds me of Mary Kate in a lot of ways. Always laughing and smiling. I hopefully will get a long ride in too. My next race is coming up. I have to train for the hills of Brown County, IN. It's on May 31st.

Active animals...

I had a busy week in the warranty repair center. I learned a few things about what it means to bleed air out of a damper. I got a couple good rides in the rain. I won the Cat2 Open division at Winona Lake in IN. I am going to try to race most of the DINO series. I think I have the right bikes for it in my SS and Niner. Got some cool pics in the city on my bike. Colors are everywhere! Enjoy Yourself!

Pmac