Constant state of flux

Moving Blog with meatloaf and broccoli

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:12:00 +0000

Not like I update all that much anyway, but
I decided to move my blog.

http://cheffelipe.wordpress.com/

Is where I plan to be updating it from now
on, you know every month or two.

Until then, here is a few 'action' shots from
work over the last couple of days.

And yes that is a giant ass meatloaf.

Winter Biking

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:01:00 +0000

So,

Is all I ever post anymore when I get written up in the media??

Just a small neighborhood newspaper.

Listen to the audio slide-show if you are want to hear me speak.

SW Journal

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 05:46:00 +0000

Take that!

(photo unabashedly stolen)

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:02:00 +0000

Boston

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:02:00 +0000

So got back from a long weekend in Boston...

Interesting town, not really sure yet what I think about that place. What is
certain is that I would have a terrible time living there, the biking looked
absolutely terrible. One of the things most all of my friends takes for granted
living here in Minneapolis. The roads, the trails, the greenway, all of it just
great.

Also, maybe just area that we were in, but there was little to no street art.

Here it is all over the place and frankly fantastic (with the exception of those Sur 13
thugs who tagged my garage twice).

Damn Envelopes.

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 03:15:00 +0000

I am reasonably sure that only my family and a couple of
close friends still read this, chances are good that of those
readers at least a couple of you were lucky enough to be included
on my Christmas card list. I am not one who generally bothers
with sending off cards for the holidays, frankly I have quite the
negative attitude towards most of what goes on towards the end
of December. It isn't as though I am a total Grinch (maybe just a
touch), but rather that I just hate what christmas has become to
be and the commodification of such. Christmas isn't about spending
time with family anymore, rather it is about spending giant wads of
moulah and further ensuring that the sprawling retail empire ends
the fiscal year in the black.

That is what I don't like.

I like spending time with family, I like the concept of sending off
cute x-mas cards, not limited to those featuring cute little puppy
dogs wearing paper reindeer antlers with a back drop of sparkle
glitter. If nothing else it is a way to say "hey... I am still here...
I am still thinking about you... Merry x-mas and shit".

You know I really should have signed every card like that...

Merry x-mas and shit,

Felipe.

Anyway, the point of this little rant of mine, I actually managed to
find the time in my busy schedule to send off cards, which for me
is really quite amazing. Last year I was so broke from school and
not working as much that I didn't get anyone anything. My gift to
the family was to volunteer my services as the family mule, drive the
other two Minneapolis kids across the country, cook the x-mas dinner
and in general be the vibrant upbeat person that everyone loves.

So, the cards went out just fine... Or so I thought..

Less than 24 hours after I dropped off the lot of them in the drop
box over on 27th and Minnehaha, I learn that whatever company
made the envelopes must have gone with a cheap saliva activated
adhesive; my cards were arriving open! So far I have heard from
three recipients, all of which had a card that was opened.

Now this is a little troublesome, some of the cards had gift-cards
inside, others had notes talking all about my year's accomplishments.

OK, really the notes went to nobody but grandparents and extended
family, the rest of you should already know how things have been
going with my life.

So that is about it, I am miffed about the damn glue not being adhesive
enough.

Aside from that, life is good.

Fun Fun Fun with the Nokians!!

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 01:56:00 +0000

Hey all..

Yes I am still around.

Working a ton, but really who isn't?
I still don't know what it is about us
Americans that constantly makes us
feel the need to work work work..

But we do right?

All of my friends, family etc. are
perpetually running feeling overwhelmed
and one step behind. I don't know if
I am just getting older, but although
I am stupid busy all the time, I feel
in total control of everything that comes
my way.

But anyway work is work.. Bleargh..

We got a nice dusting of snow a couple of
days back, enough to gum up things and make
riding that much more difficult. The city
is quite good about keeping the trails
clean, so usually riding the Greenway
has been no problem. Yesterday I broke
out my SS MTB and had no difficulty what
so ever tooling around without getting into
much trouble. The problem however is that
my MTB has some serious crank issues,
there this loud constant creak each rotation
and I will be damned if I can figure out how
to repair it. I took the bike into my LBS
and they weren't able to get the non-drive
side crank arm off, which I am certain is
causing the problem.

So with that bike out of commission, I have
been riding the tried and true Miyata.

While riding fixed is quite nice in the snow,
the skinny tires were getting tossed around
like all hell in the residue left over from the
plow.

SO,

To make a long story shorter, I stopped in
this evening and got myself a front Nokian
studded tire..

Best idea ever!

I would like to get a rear as well, but the 50
dollar a pop price tag has me putting that
off for a couple of weeks.

Bracket Rocket

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 02:47:00 +0000

Sorry to leave you all in suspense there...

Yes I did get back just fine from Spain/France. It

was about as awesome of a trip as one could have

hoped for, but it does feel great to finally be back

at home with my posse both friends and family.

Lets see... News?

Well little sister moved over yonder to the other

side of the country, totally wasn't cool of her to

leave *sniff* but I understand why she did it. It

still doesn't feel like she is gone but I know 'tis

true. She will be just fine, it is all of us the

Minneapolis folks that might not fair as well.

So, I had up until a couple of weeks ago been

working only at the b-wood, you know the

same place where I was the Chef a couple of

years back. I was just pulling early morning

bakery shifts, which really I was enjoying. The

only downside to working in the bakery is that

whole waking up at 3:30 in order to start work

at 4am puts a damper on the previous nights

activities.

Baking however kicks ass... And I am pretty

dang good at it if I do say so myself...

However, now I got myself a new job...

Like the last one it is a small organic cafe, this

one focusing more on bagels. It is cool, instead

of just using regular plastic togo cups and what

not, we have a composting system where the

majority of the 'garbage' goes into a separate bin

where some good natured people process it

into compost and sell it as such. Considering

the alternatives and how freaking huge the

compost bin is compared to our traditional
dumpster it is just dang cool is all.

Oh here is a whale I drew... Most everyone
who would read this has seen it already but
whatever.

I just like tossing little pictures in off of my flickr
every once in a while, just break up the monotony.

But back to my new job..

I am actually not doing the chef thing exactly, but
instead I am the General Manager. That basically
means I am running the place, all the little details
that need to be dealt with I deal with, well myself
and the owner. It is still a new place and I feel like
I have quite a bit to offer, already there has been
an incredibly warm reception from the employees.

(Those are all my sharpies, I did some organizing the other day.)

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 15:34:00 +0000

More pictures!!

Oh and I just spent 200 euro (300ish US) on the best meal of my life. And yes that was just me.

Los Fotos

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 14:41:00 +0000

Finally pictures got uploaded!

Here are a couple of my favorites...

That is about all for now, I could add more but I figure this will slow down the load time enough as is.

Tomorrow San Sebastian!

Barçelona

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 07:38:00 +0000

Barçelona is freaking awesome! Highlight of my trip so far and I have really only had the chance to see a little section of it as of yet. I arrived a little late, there was some trouble with some rocks on the train tracks so we had a little bit of a longer stop and got into BC around 10:30 instead of 9:30. I was lucky enough to find my hostel quickly and got unpacked and cleaned up before hitting the streets at almost midnight. Good thing is that most restaurants are still serving at that time so I had no trouble finding a tapas bar. I didn´t get too much just some patas bravas and albondigas in squid sauce, it did fill the little void of hunger that I had been suffering from a long day of walking around and riding public transportation.

Speaking of walking I was completely off on my assumption of where the bus was going to pick me up from Bonnieux to take me to Avignon. Blakers dropped me off right by the wine cooperative where I figured the stop would be (according to the schedule I had). The cooperative is where the smaller wine growers go to turn in their grapes and avoid the hassle of having to do the wine making themselves. It is also where you can go to buy cheap local wine, they even have it in bulk coming out of these hoses with nozzles that don´t look much different from those that you would use to fill a tank up with diesel. If you go through the hassle of filling your own vessel you are able to get the wine at the bargain price of 1.15 a liter. All the college art students were stoked when we told them about the crazy cheapness.

Anyway after I missed the bus I decided to just walk to where I was certain that there was a stop; Lumieres about 5 miles from where I had been dropped off. Normally a walk like that wouldn´t affect me much, but with the addition of a 50 pound back pack I started to get a little bushed. The worst part about it was that because of some road construction I was forced to walk on the busiest highway in the area for the majority of my trek. But at least I got to the bus stop and figured out how make my way to the train station.

The train ride over to Barçelona was mundane really, I finshed some trashy short detective novel that I had begun the day before and I admired all the graffiti of which there was plenty passing through the train windows. Funny thing about French graffiti (and Spanish to a lesser extent) is that the style of lettering are quite archaic compared to what we have evolved to in the states. Big bubble letter that are clearly readable are the norm in contrast to the wild style in the US. Not to say that it isn´t cool, just it is retro to be sure. Even the hip-hop kids that I have seen are dressed kind of retro, kangol and adidas ala Run DMC.

In the afternoon I walked about 3 miles and randomly I plopped myself down in front of a little cafe for some lunch. Little did I know that it was right accross the street from the OxfordHouse, a school the has a 4 week long intensive TESL certification program. Before I could order this guy Tim from Boston and an older lady Jana from England sat down next to me having both just taken their final exam. In the next 3 hours of eating and drinking I met a bunch of other students who were wandering the streets, I got Tim´s number if I feel like calling him in the next couple of days so I guess that means I made at least one friend.

After the cafe I had to get myself to bed for a little bit to sleep off the afternoon revelry, so I took an little nap back at the hostel. One of the workers was busy passing out blankets, it was supposed to be getting cold that night, read 17c (laughable compared to Minneapolis, I didn´t even use my sheet). I woke up in time to walk down to the beach and drink a beer gazing out accross the sea, I may have had a couple too many or they were too strong because I just got crazy tired quickly. I managed to figure out the metro to bring me back towards the center area and people watched for a bit before heading home. All and all a big busy day, and I didn´t even manage to buy shoes yet!

There is supposed to be some sort of a fountain show tonight that rivals the one at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, I just have to figure out where that goes on and get myself over in that direction.

The little internet cafes don´t allow photo uploading but I have somewhere around 400 new pictures some of which are easily the best I have been lucky to take in my life.

Still Kicking it.

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 13:34:00 +0000

Yup I am still over here in France, nearing somewhere around 3 weeks so far. I have less than a week left which means I should start planning the Spanish portion of my trip. So far I only have a hostel reserved in Barcelona, I should at least figure out which trains are going to take me that direction.

So I think last time I posted about the "hardest ride of my life" or some bullshit like that?

The pinnacle of this bike tour is when everyone rides across the valley to this mountain that is looking in the distance Mont Ventoux. To say that least it is one of the steepest longest climbs that little old felipe has ever had the "pleasure" of doing. We start off early in the morning with a relatively flat jaunt over the valley, usually everyone is riding quite slow at this point trying to conserve energy for the impending slaughter. There is a little ridge that must be crossed in order to even begin the climb up Ventoux, by little I mean a mere 20k climb which is at a grade that is easy enough to conquer. In Tour De France terms it would be a category 2 climb, whatever that means.

After a 6k downhill the climb up begins, the first 10 or so K is quite steep but not insurmountable, the grade being around 5-7% with lots of switch backs weaving through the lower part of the mountain which is all covered with pine trees and signs signaling the existence of wild boar. The mountain provides a little respite for a couple of miles where the grade is easy to the point of being almost flat, 6k from the top this changes entirely. At Chalet Reynard everything changes though and at the same moment the vegetation ends the rode peaks up to a 8-14% grade.

The first time that I took a stab at the mountain was after a scant 3 days of riding up the hilly country so common in this area. I was proud of myself for the first 40 or so miles until 1/2 way up the last 6 k when I just cracked, despite my best efforts I just couldn't handle the climb and got of my bike 3 times and walked for a couple of feet before finally reaching the top (at least I crested pedaling).

Finally just yesterday I once again took on the Moutain, this time I had a good idea what to expect and I was determined not to put a foot down unless it be absolutely necessary. Right before the climb the majority of the group stops up in a little town called Sault for pastries and espresso before hitting the road, however myself I just decided to forgo the stop and pedal right through. Two others who were a little timid of their climbing skills joined me but with my little knowledge of the area I missed the turn off and lead us the wrong way down the road adding an extra 7 or so miles to our ride, luckily it was all flat. Starting the climb I felt pretty good, just focused on my breathing and did my best to conserve energy up until the end.

Turning the corner at the Chalet I took a deep breath and just started pedaling with gusto, not wanting to be beat by the first couple hundred meters. It was about this time that the category 1 racer/guide Blake showed up behind me towing everyone's helmets and jackets (it gets cold up at the top), also around his neck was one of the guest's digital SLR with one of the biggest lenses I have ever seen. He got me to goof around for a spell and ride no handed up the hill which really raised me spirits.

Up the climb I caught up with a rider who was going just slightly slower than myself, instead of passing him I just grabbed his wheel and paced myself behind him. There wasn't too much in the way of drafting going on at 5-8 mph but knowing I wasn't killing myself helped. Right around the Tommy Simpson memorial (TDF rider who died climbing the hill) I heard the crack of fighter planes speeding off right in front of me, I looked up and saw a speeding jet upside down literally less than 100 yards above me. If my heart wasn't pounding fast before it went into over time and with the jolt I sprinted 200 feet in front of the people I was pacing behind. I had to slow myself down a little after, the excitement and all got me a little carried away. Blake took a picture of me passing in front of the Memorial seconds after the jet flew by, I was with it enough to turn and flash a big shit eating grin, the picture is on a different computer or else I would upload it for all of you all.

Long story short I made it up the mountain without stopping or even feeling too distressed. Hell I even made my second ever century out of the day thanks to my brilliant navigational skills, and even as such my legs aren't too tired.

I think the internet will be more plentiful in Spain so I should be able to update more often.

Until then...

Stil Here.

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:24:00 +0000

I am using one of the wacky French keyboards right now in a little library in the town of Lacoste.

I am here and safe, just a couple of days ago did the hardest ride of my life.

Hopefully I will be in a better place to tell you more about it soon.

Till then here is a picture.

Fridge.

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 04:04:00 +0000

A scant 5 days until I ship off.

Am I nervous? Yeah a little.

I had the epiphany that I am not required to ride with the group the entire tour, meaning I can take little solo tours around Marseilles while everyone is pounding up the mountains. Not that I don't enjoy riding bikes, but I can and do ride bikes here in Minneapolis, might as well see more of the actual people right?

Tomorrow I need to buckle down and email restaurants in Spain, I know which ones I want to work at and just have to focus and write the emails.

This...

'

is my fridge right now... Pathetic? Yes.

I think the last time I went grocery shopping was at least a month ago, maybe longer. I made a couple of trips to the farmer's market in that time but even my last one of those was about 2 weeks ago. No cheese, no butter, no veggies to speak of, heck even no eggs. If I wasn't lucky enough to get all my meals at work I would be skin and bones by now.

My house is a total mess right now, all the things that I "might" need for my trip are strew about on my dining room table and I am in the process of packing up all of my clothes to make room for my sub letter.

I think I will kick one or more updates out before I leave, time dependent of course.

Seriously...

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:44:00 +0000

I don't know what the hold up is but I haven't been bloggin' (obvious?) for a while now.

If anything it is that real life has taken precedent over interneting. Not to say I haven't been occupied on the internet, just doing different things? OK that makes no sense whatsoever...

The time is slowly ticking down until I leave for my big Europe voyage; a tad over 2 weeks and Sr. Felipe will be on a plane headed to Marseilles. For the first 3 and a half weeks that is where I am going to stay, biking around enjoying the scenery and teaching some people how to cook. There are two different tours that I am going to be cooking for, the first of which I guess is going to have a cellist playing in the garden area while I am in the kitchen cooking! After my cooking/biking obligations I am planning on bumming around Spain for 2 weeks, not certain yet where I am going to spend the majority of my time, but it is fairly certain that I will have a good time. From Marseilles it seems the most logical next stop would be Barcelona, hopefully I can find a nice restaurant to stage in while I am there, it would be sweet as hell to follow around in a 3 star rated place.

I have to be in Madrid on the 10th for a flight back to the states, that is about all I have planned as of yet. I figure with my knowledge of Spanish (albeit Central/South America) I would fare better in Spain than lets say Italy, Germany, Poland or hell even England.

And yes actually I am super stoked...

Because of the impending 6+ weeks without working I have been pulling double time trying to get myself set up financially to be able to ride out the storm so to speak. My biking has suffered in the meanwhile and at best I have been riding half of the miles I was just a month ago. I hope to bump that number up again here in the weeks leading up to my trip, last thing I want to do is be dropped by a bunch of spandex clad roadies. This area in France I guess is quite hilly... Hills don't like me much, maybe I just don't like them I can never remember.

In other news....

Everyone give a god damn big round of applause to my little sister Kim and Radlerin who managed to get 1st and 3rd respectivly in the All City this past weekend. And to think that Kim was seriously considering not even competing, she was "sure" that she wouldn't have a chance so what was the point? She won herself a kick ass set of wheels and a bag full of different Schwag. Rad actually put more miles in than Kim but didn't hit as many stops, she still walked away with a bunch of t-shirts, socks and a kick ass banjo brother's messenger bag. Ironically enough it was the same exact bag that was stolen with my Macbook during last year's All City. The more time passes the less it bothers me that my place has been broken into twice, after all it is only stuff right?

To end the derailment into my own issues I once again proclaim that it was totally kick ass that Kim and Radlerin took first and third. Also photo credit goes to Raderlin/Dancypants/Awesome girl who kicks total booty.

Hopefully I will be able to find internet access in Europe, shouldn't be a problem but you never know.

Staying on the pedals.

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 03:51:00 +0000

So.

The little sister of mine that lives here in Minneapolis had been bugging me about updating my blog. Not that life hasn't been full enough to find interesting things to blog about mind you, but part of me just figures that the blogging portion of my life should take a little hiatus. I have this bad history of getting myself in trouble and I have no intentions of doing that again.

That said this post is going to be all about biking (surprised?)

I have been working the two jobs, that is true. However I still manage to have lots of time off to do nothing really; no school, no work to take home etc.

Sooo

I have been riding a lot.. More than I ever have really.

Last week alone I somehow put 217 miles on the Merckx, a new record for Felipe. For the month so far (June) I am pushing 600, and it feels excellent. I am really dreading the time when school is going to begin again and my time will no longer be so free. I figure I must be getting at least a little faster, but I can't really tell the difference, at very least my posterior is more and more used to being plopped on the Selle Italia Flite for hours at a time. Also I have been lucky enough to see parts of the cities that normally would have felt too far now that I have sold the big ass truck and the cute little VeeDub.

(Insert edit here)

Well it has taken me a week or so to finally get back to posting, I got distracted half of the way through and have just been too occupied to worry about blogging. To keep with the bike vein I will just keep talking about riding, which still I have been doing a lot of. There was the big bike race in the cities this weekend, which was totally awesome to watch. I managed to watch the women's race downtown Minneapolis and biked the 27+ miles each way to Stillwater to see the race end. It always amazes me how expensive the bikes of professional racers are, mind boggling really. I managed to bike 60 miles both Friday and Sunday with a shorter 35 miler on Saturday, that said I am taking today (Monday) off from cycling and have only commuter miles (8 something).

Talking to some friends I came to the realization that the chronic creaking that I cannot seem to fix from the front of my bike might be the bonds on my Cinelli bars. This evening while watching Pan's Labyrinth (which was awesome btw), I tried to swap out the bar/stem combo for a sweet and sexy cinelli set that was on another bike. The damn cable routing grooves don't allow for my bar-end shifters to enter all the way, meaning I am pretty much fucked. I was planning on a 40-50 mile day tomorrow, but that may be put on hold unless I can find a set of bars that work with both the stem/shifters etc that I have. Considering how much I have been riding that damn bike I should really find a solution post-haste.

Oh and did I mention that I am going to France? Do a google search for my name and you might just be able to learn a bit more... Lets just say I will be biking and cooking, awesome? Yes.

All 'bout le Zito.

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Wed, 30 May 2007 01:08:00 +0000

Memorial weekend...

F'n awesomeness I must say.

Friday and Saturday weren't much, just riding around on le merckx como regular.

Sunday there was the huge ass benefit for Zito at the Nomad; which was crazy fun. To those that don't know Ztox was hit by a driver riding his bike home from work a couple of months ago, he ended up being just fine although he is still wearing the back brace some two months later. That (of course) really gets my goat, it may be understandable if you just don't see the cyclist and happen to ram em, especially in the middle of the night. What is deplorable is not even bothering to stop to see if he was alive, how freaking cowardice is that? Not to mention the two other people that ran over his bike but didn't stop to help.

The event was as mentioned before awesome. Not just regular awesome but hard-core awesome. One of those days where you pretty much know at least 1/2 and manage to win some free stuff in the raffle.

I managed to get myself a new little CO2 pump and a banjo brothers grocery getter bag.

There was a t-shirt tossed at me as well, but I didn't really win that rather I caught it. Hell I didn't even really catch it, I said hey throw it here and Mark just passed it to me.

I helped cut the onions for the beer brauts, but before doing so I cut the bar their lemons and limes, which netted me 2 free beers. Really how can I complain?

The next day Jana, Jer and I rode out to Stillwater, which was hilly and fun. By the time we got back both Jana and I weren't really feeling all the burnt so we added another 20+ miles to the 53 we had already gone by riding out to Hopkins to have a beer with Reverborama (Bob) and Emily (his wife). I must admit after a 76 mile ride it felt awful good to take a shower and lay my head on my pillow. A new personal best but one that I hope to beat here either this weekend or next. Funny how I remember 30 miles being crazy long for a ride last summer, now I am doing twice that and not even thinking too much about it, how freaking awesome is that?

Here is the route we took.

Temp Shift.

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Sun, 20 May 2007 15:00:00 +0000

Considering I don't really have much else to talk about, might as well talk about the weather right?

Crazy wacky temperature shift in the past 12 hours, left work last night 6:00 and it was 83ish. Woke up this morning and it had dropped down to 43, biting wind dropping that down a couple of degrees. I would expect weather like this in Montana where you are all but required to bring a jacket with you even when it is 100 during the day, that high altitude mountain weather just sucks the heat out the moment the sun loops around to the other side of the planet. Must say it is nice to have the windows cracked and be curled up under my grandmother's afghan on my stupid crazy awesome couch.

School is all done, thank f'n god. Not that I have a problem with taking classes of course, but it is just nice to finally be done. I managed to catch a little bout of the flu smack dab in the middle of final's week, so my mental processes were skewed slightly by my fever and horribly upset stomach. I still passed all my classes with grades that I was generally proud of, still waiting for one of them, but so far so good. I even had to call into work for the first time since back when I lived in Montana, I swear I tried to work but I felt so dizzy I just had to lay down. Not a good time to be working with insanely sharp knives I would imagine.

I was hoping to make it a decade without having missed a day of work, but I guess I am going to have to settle for 9 years...

Now that I am done with school I haven't been doing much, reading, riding bikes, drinking with my posse, back working at the b-wood a bit; generally just enjoying the summer.

Finals.

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:12:00 +0000

Now really should I be here writing a short little blog entry when I should be writing one of the 5 papers I have due in the next week? Probably not but that isn't stopping me mind you.

The internet has been off in my apt for the past week or so, which has been a blessing in disguise. Instead of wasting my days away looking for ridiculously cheap bikes on craigslist or catching up on MBL and Flickr, I am actually spending my time doing school work. The wireless is working as of right now, but I am hesitant to get the password until after the bulk of my paper writing is done.

Being out of the 'loop' is surprisingly nice.

But anyone interested should know I am plugging right along with school, today is my last day of actual class. Work is about the same, I cut up dead stuff all day.

The dude who took over my old job at the cafe got canned early this week, so I am probably going to be filling in for a while until they find a replacement, not full time though. It will be nice to get a little extra 'ching' in my pocket, perhaps I can even upgrade the drivetrain on the Merckx. I can just imagine what a full set of lightweight modern components and wheels would do to her sense of self-worth.

Just look at her up there, hanging around practically in tears knowing she is so out dated.

You f'n kidding me?

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 22:06:00 +0000

So my apt got robbed again.

Yes again.

How much do I care? Well it pisses me off in no uncertain terms, but part of me wasn't feeling quite violated as last time. Hell I didn't even notice my place was broken into until this morning, even though I am pretty sure they broke in Thursday or Friday. Sure they took my laptop and ipod, but both of those I hardly ever use.

Who knows, there could be something else missing.

Isn't even enough to bother filing a claim.

Pfft.

Lots of other shit going on, but as my pirated fortune commands...

Spring Break?

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 01:32:00 +0000

Well...

I have just a few precious hours left of spring break, sad? Probably. I didn't have the luxury of going off to any sort of exotic locale, unless you count Hopkins, wait... I didn't even make it all the way there. Now that I think about it, I don't believe I even left the MPLS city limits, came close a couple of times, right on the border of both ST. Louis Park and St. Paul. Really though, keeping close to the hearth is a good thing at times, especially when trying to save $. I hope this summer I will be able to justify some sort of a trip somewhere (how vague can I be?), I haven't been to Europe yet, then again I never have gotten around to actually touring anywhere on a bicycle. Sounds like a good way to spend a month, buy a bunch of light weight gear, built up one of my bikes in a touring capacity, and just ride. I could really see something like that happening this year, and if I think about it, the cost of purchasing all the gear most likely would be less than buying a plane ticket. In the long run it would be cheaper, save on lodging and the reusability of the gear is a selling point. Of course it may just be one of my forever unrealized pipe dreams, time will tell.

So how did I spend my break?

I rode my bike a whole bunch, drank some here and there, cut a bunch of meat...

I tried to really focus and get caught up on school work, I think I was partially successful being that I still have a bunch to get done, but I am not feeling completely like the world is caving in. I hate that feeling, trying to dig out from underneath mountains of responsibilities, social, school, work all the same. Just imagining that for every pile of crap I manage to shovel from the hole, another three are being tossed into my face. The point being that right now I don't really feel like that, I have a good start on two 10 page papers due next week, and I should be able to finish on time. There will undoubtedly be more I have to worry myself about (isn't that always the case?) but that hurdle will be surmounted when the time comes.

In sad news.... One of my coworkers had a little issue with La Migra this weekend, in fact as we speak he is incarcerated somewhere up north of the cities. What gets me is the fact that he is 100% a contributing member of society, he works his ass off, owns a house, pays his taxes etc. In fact he was one of the very first employees where I work, started off as a dishwasher not speaking any English and since has learned not only the language but how to cook well enough to become one of the two Sous Chefs of the restaurant. Now it is more than likely that he will be "voluntarily" required to leave the country, fuck our immigration laws are just a trifle fucked up.

Alright time to get back to cleaning my apartment, the fire inspector is coming bright and early in the morning.

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 05:12:00 +0000

Hope y'all weren't eating... Yes I did crash, it happens.

It looks a lot worse than it really is, I landed in a couple inches of snow runoff which helps the blood trickle down.

New Bike Shoes!

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:42:00 +0000

Finally got around to getting myself a new pair of bike shoes, the ones I had been using were so pathetically old it isn't even funny.

So you know, I am not dead.... Just busy....

Yeah I know.

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 03:32:00 +0000

I know it has been a while...

Things have been a little busy in my life, I can't really justify spending lots of time blogging and passing time on the net when there are books to read and papers to write.

So I am taking a little hiatus from blogging for a while, I will be back... Maybe in a month, maybe a year, just too much to do right now.

Oh I bought a new single speed mountain bike today, freak'n awesome!

Holy Fucking Cold!

noreply@blogger.com (Felipe) — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 16:33:00 +0000

Just a bit chilly here in Minnesota, I woke up and good ol' weather.com and it was a whopping -12, -35 wind chill. Not the coldest I have ever dealt with, but pretty damn cold you have to admit. I feel sorry for all the chumps that have to race in the Stupor Bowl this afternoon (easy for me to say since I will be doing my best to stay warm). I should get on the bike and ride to work soon, get it over and done with already. Yesterday it was -2 when I was riding to school, and surprisingly enough I wasn't that cold, actually borderline too hot!