probably the best day of my life...

So I got married on Saturday. The day started with an awesome 17 person group ride. My bro went on his group first ride, which was awesome. I would say he is a strong cat 4. He didnt fall off until the pace got upped hard like 30 miles into it.

Amy has been busy planning our wedding for the past six months or so. When asked about it, I often responded rudely with "its a formality at this point..." due to the fact that we have been together for 10 years. The big day came and is now gone.

Amy has been stockpiling string lights and antique dishes for the past six months. The wedding turned out exactly as she planned. About 200 people showed up to be with us. I wish I could have invited more, but the lodge only held so many.

We rented out a large barn in the county park 10 miles north of the city. It came with nothing. We got the beer from East End brewing, a local microbrewery. We got the wine from a Trader Joes in Ohio (cant get it in PA) and from the state store (where you buy booze in PA).

Our friends and families helped set everything up on Friday. A dozen people or so put in a 12 hour day getting everything ready. A great friend made a photo booth, and we had a room in which to put it. A friend made Amy's dress. So many people did so much for us in the weeks leading into the event that I will probably feel indebted for the rest of my life.

Our friends and families made the food, the cakes and the cookies. We had pierogies, sleek, seitan, grilled veggies, pasta, asian vinegar slaw. Everything was vegetarian, and all but the pasta and the cheese pierogies were vegan.

It has rained like everyday for the past two months. Saturday was the sunniest nicest day that I can remember in so long. We set up a small stage under a tree. We had an isle lined with mason jars filled with flowers. Amy's best friends played the live music walked down the isle to, which was "stand by me." Jenne has a beautiful voice. I started crying as soon as she started singing and didnt stop until the end.

This was kind of awkward because we were doing a self uniting ceremony, which is legal in Pennsylvania. So Amy read her vows first, because we thought she would be crying too hard if I went first. Wrong. She read hers, which just made me cry more. I babbled through my vows, wishing that I had brought a handkerchief the entire time. I regret not looking at Amy more because she looked so beautiful, but every time I would look at her, I would just start crying more.

We did the photo thing and the mingling. I saw people that I had not seen in 10 years. Some people that I have had some of the best memories of my life with were there. Everybody there helped make my new best memory possible. It was so freaking amazing. I never thought that it would be so great, and so emotional.

We ate. We danced. Little Somalia showed up. We had like 30 cakes on a cake table that our friends and families all helped make. I wish I could have eaten some of each of them.

We had to pack up the entire shindig by 1am. So many friends and family helped. I seriously did not think that it was going to happen. I pictured the county police fining me tons of money for going past the permit time. About 30 people stayed until after 1am helping pack our Uhaul with all the wedding stuff, which is now back in our dining room (does anybody need china and wine glasses?) ... That was one of the most amazing things, having so many people work at the end of a long day.

It felt so nice to be so loved.

Other Highlights:

- I was in charge of the introduction when we got on the stage. I said "thank you for coming, this is a self uniting ceremony, we are going to wed ourselves." .. which basically everybody thought I said that "we are going to wet ourselves."

- Dude wearing an Iron Maiden T shirt at my wedding. Amazing.

- One of maybe five days in Pittsburgh where the majority of people are wearing sunglasses. So rare to have that much sun. So awesome.

- Wearing old school vans (gorilla biscuits limited run) shoes at my wedding.



Hippies, Crust Punks, Hipsters, Old people.


Photo booth photo.



A friend owns a screen printing place and made us mugs that say "you are totally awesome" on them. They all had little flags that said guests names on one side and table number on the ohter.


Eddy Krall's flag.




The inside of the lodge all made up. A friend hand sewed all of the doilies to string to hang.

Grand Torino....

I saw this movie a few years ago. It was ok.

Yesterday I was getting out of the car to hang up a "sold" sign outside of a house that my brother and I have listed. The neighbor immediately said hello. He was an older guy, he thought that I was Justin... I introduced myself and shook his hand.
"So its sold?"
"yes"
"What color are they? ... We have a problem with that around here..."

This guy doesn't know me from anybody. Crazy.
I wanted to say "purple."


Its 2011.

Turkey Hill bicycle race.

Turkey Hill cycling classic. 10 times up "the wall" this year.
I drove Ed down. Road Results.com had Eddy taking the win, so the pressure was on for him.

We drove the Fit.


I told ed that since his Hummer only gets 14 mph, he should just pay all the gas, since its the same amount he would have paid if he had driven. Right?

For any cyclists looking for nutrition strategy, our waitress at the Kountry Kitchen in Manheim asked how long the race was, and said that my oatmeal, eggs and toast would probably be enough. Solid.



Some guy fell down in front of me going like 34 mph. I had to skid a bunch. This is what a good tire looks like with a bad spot.



Best thing about Turkey Hill: Cupon for free scream and a free t shirt. Oh yes.

Somolia was raging today.

Little Somalia was out and about today. They have no school due to spring break. For those not in the know, there are like 40 or so people within a block of me that are Somali refugees. They rule.

Anyway. I was playing ball with my little buddies for about a minute before I was like "dude what stinks like fish?"
Ramazani, my little 7 year old buddy was like "fish."
And I am like "yeah fish."
At which point Ramadude was like "fish!" and points to their weird sidelot that is
cement surrounded by chainlink fence.

Sure enough there was fish sitting on the fence. Like a ton of it. At which point Wawu (matriarch of the fam) pops her head out the window and is like "sharkfish... you like... its good."

It was drying on a fence. Ive seen them eat intestine for breakfast. For reals, with bananas

4-17-03 Journal. The longest day of the trip.

This is a long time ago now. This is from when my girlfriend at the time, now futurewife and I
hopped on a plane and rode our bicycles around Europe for 9 weeks. I knew she was the one for me on this trip. Time flies. Live life. Have fun, etc...

4-17-03 Leaving a campground in Rural Luxembourg just over the border from Belgium
30 degrees C and warm and sunny.

We left our little town and campground (town was about 12 buildings on a giant hill in a provincial park) early. We rode down the valleys that we had seen painted on the over sized park maps at the campground. Finishing yesterday with a long climb meant descending at the start today. We planned on riding 10 miles or so and finding a grocery store to eat. We rode and rode. Luxembourg is beautiful. We dropped into a town, looked around, and climbed back out after seeing no signs of food...

At the top of the climb, we split our last breakfast bar. We flew down a two mile descent into the river valley on brand new fast roads. We rode across a spectacular tdam and desscended some more before coming across old castle ruins. We made hte turns towards a signed for "steep hill." We climbed and climbed. There was an old church halfway up the climb that was empty, it must have been hundreds of years old. According to the maps it was 2 miles at 10%. Amy rode at her own pace, and at the top she looked pretty defeated. I felt helpless seeing her trying so hard. We were starving. We descended into the next town looking for food. Nothing. It was some sort of weird new construction Luxembourgian suburban sprawl. Just a bunch of new houses.

We came into another town, after riding for hours and hours. We found a Lotto store. It sold paper and magazines, but no food. Not even coke. Nothing. We sat outside and scraped peanut butter from the jar. Everything is closed in Luxembourg on a Sunday. Also, when cycling on the road less traveled, there is little help. We asked in the lotto store where to find food, and were told that on a Sunday its 25KM out of the way to another town...

We rode on in the direction we were headed. We came across some tourist place. There were castle ruins and a GIFT SHOP! We bought pastries and chocolate and coffees and cokes...

Leaving town I almost got killed by the crosswinds. Two trucks passed each other and coupled with my panniers and the wind, it almost knocked me off my bike. Amy had the same experience. We stopped at small places for croissants and cokes. It seemed to be all we could find available since no stores were open.

We descended down a long hill into Luxembourg (city). We were supposed to see a campground. Nothing. We rode around aimlessly in rush hour looking for it. Nothing. This was the first big city that we were in since Amsterdam, and rush hour was really crazy and dangerous. We said screw it and decided to go into the city center to find the youth hostel.

It turns out that it was not ordinary traffic, and that the city was shut down for some sort of "demonstration." I think it was a union protest or something. The streets were corralled with barb wire fences,there was tons of glass everywhere, bus stations were all smashed. There was tons of new graffiti everywhere, and every plant holder was somehow in the middle of the street and smashed to pieces. I found a bolt the size of my bicycle helmet that appeared to have been thrown through a bus stop window.

We rode along, looking at the riot police, trying to find our way to the hostel. We found it. Of course it was on top of a hill. Of course we had to carry our panniers and bikes up 3 stories to where we got a room. Of course the person working did not know where to get ANY food.

Then we met another bike touring couple. They were also looking for food. We walked for an hour in search of anything. Amy was crumbling. I was exhausted. The dude from the couple spoke several languages and every person that he asked had a different answer. After over an hour of walking, we came to a gas station. We bought SO MUCH FOOD at the gas station, before walking back, eating and passing out.

We had ridden over 8 hours. Walked over an hour, and didnt have much of anything to eat all day. In rural Luxembourg on a Sunday, plan in advance.

yes this is a race report.

2011 race season has began.

This is personal and boring, sorry. Unlike my young teammate's recount of the race, this will include zero power data or training methodology.

Going into the race I was really hesitant. The fire was not burning. I was not stoked on racing. I have a brand new bike, new kit, new shoes. Ready to roll. I was just not stoked. I have worked more in the past four months than in the five years preceding. I had lots of reservations.

Anyway, there was snow on the ground 20 minutes before the start.

Five minutes into the race I was so stoked. The ice cold water puddling on the ground was getting sprayed into my face and chest. At one point I thought about the last time I did a post race ear cleaning where there was so much grime and grit in my ears that I was disgusted.

I was stoked. At this point I was pretty sure that I was getting dropped. I didnt care.

We went up hills and down hills. I did eventually get dropped. I didnt really care.

Afterward my race recap to my teammates was simply "I love racing bikes."

stoked.

But you never did that before...

Time. The value of time. Not having time. These are all new concepts to me.

While riding Friday, my rear derailer fell apart. Sram Red. Apparently it is common for the springs inside of them to just break. I have $20 shimano derailers that have 10k miles on them with working springs.

Anyway I had to get up, I had to put a new derailer on. Put a new cable in. Show houses, and be ready to ride at 11am. It was close, but not having a new precut cable slowed things down.

Anyway, we rode like super hard for 4 hours, home at 320. I had an appointment at 4 to show more houses. Little Somalia was raging, because it is finally close to spring. They surrounded me in a spider web of little kids. One managed to get up on the porch between me and the door, blocking my escape. The following conversation happened:

"ok guys I have to get going, I have to go to work." -me

"but you never worked before" - Ramazani (age 7)

Busted.

Ugh... Cars... Man.. Why???

In case you haven't seen Portlandia yet, this is a skit from it. The show is good satire. I think it might be like Chris Rock's comedy stand-up. Everybody laughs, but if you are not a part of the group at the butt of the joke, that group will probably get sensitive if you repeat it.
Watch:


Anyway, this was on NPR yesterday:
Interview with William Clay Ford Jr. It is worth listening to. He is trying to sell hybrids to their target audience (basically npr listeners). Electric hybrids are becoming the rage, and we need to change infrastructure to accommodate them.
Solution: electric plug ins at home and work and shopping centers. This involves radical infrastructure change and changing the whole grid.

Also the problem with too many cars:
- 800,000,000 cars on the road today. 3-4 BILLION (3 - 4 thousand million) in our lifetime.
Solution: cars talking to eachother to avoid traffic. Cars knowing where to park in advance. He says, "the majority of fuel spent is looking for parking places." (Is this remotely possible? Does reverse take like thirty times as much gas?)

Seriously are people nuts? Electric power is so gnarly. Short of nuclear plants becoming mainstream, this is going to require so much more power. "Yeah man, I just plug it in and the wind turbines on the Turnpike by Somerset charge it." No, wrong dude. There is some kid in some valley somewhere in a crappy house stuck between a coal plant and all the power lines going to the mall so people can charge their cars while they buy a bunch of shit that they dont need. Super crazy nutso idea: Live close enough to shopping and work so you can walk or bicycle there.

Also, to solve the problem of "too many cars" with "smarter cars" is fairly nuts. Ideally, cars are going to communicate to avoid slow downs. They are going to move in a uniform line at a uniform speed in uniform direction. Parking will not be an issue. Wait... This sounds like A FUCKING TRAIN. Yeah, lets spend a cajillion dollars redoing all infrastructure so people can basically be on trains, but having it cost like 10,000 times more than actually just building trains. Great.

Is the unabomber's cabin still on ebay?

Full disclosure: I own a Honda Fit and drive it probably 5/7 days per week.

This will probably be the best thing that you see all day.

This dude eats guys like Danny Mckwhatever for breakfast.

Pittsburgh .

In case anybody missed it, Rick Sebak did a show on the Dirty Dozen. If you dont know who he is, you probably did not grow up in Pittsburgh, or you did and had cable. Anyway, he is like a celebrity, documentary maker, food critic, symbol of the area.

I have spent a few days with him, and they have been fun. He knows crazy trivia about the region.

Anyway, here is a link to the show if you have 28 minutes to watch dudes in spandex ride up hills. There are some hilarious parts.

http://www.wqed.org/tv/watch/series/its-pittsburgh/2011-01-26/

Also, if you did not read the Floyd Landis interview, the only thing to really take away from it is this quote: "and the winters in Pennsylvania are probably the worst place for cycling" - Floyd Landis