Constant state of flux

Moving Blog with meatloaf and broccoli

2008-02-25T18:12:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-12T08:01:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-30T21:46:00.000-08:00

Take that!

(photo unabashedly stolen)

2008-01-09T23:02:00.000-08:00

Boston

2008-01-09T08:02:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-12-20T19:15:00.000-08:00

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!!

2007-12-03T17:56:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

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.)

2007-10-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-29T00:38:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-22T06:34:00.001-07:00

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.

2007-09-13T05:24:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-08-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-08-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-06-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-04-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-03-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-03-12T22:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-03-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-02-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-02-03T08:33:00.000-08:00

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!

Schoo full tilt.

2007-01-31T06:36:00.000-08:00

First off sorry to any of you that I have been ignoring as of late, my time has been all school in the past couple of weeks. That said this is going to be quick.

I added up all the reading from all my classes for this week, totaled just a touch over 600 pages! Part of me wants to go talk to the respective professors and point out where in the course guide the weekly reading to be expected was far under what we get now. I should be at about 350 pages max that I am responsible to have read a week, which still isn't something I would consider easy (at least for me). Just as an example, in one of my Anthro classes, the expected reading was said to be 50 pages a week, this week we are sitting right around 150! Hopefully as the semester chugs along the reading will lessen, though I have the feeling it will just be more.

Popine is not dead, I thought she could have been, just from other people's experience, but she is just fine, perky as ever. Maybe I didn't quite teach people the best way to use her, another popine class in the works? Perhaps. I would have taken pictures but alas my camera is still dead (mostly).

Oh, and my birthday doppelganger doesn't like the idea of bicycle jousting or those blow up bouncing castles or mud wrestling. She wants to rent a bus, take everyone to a deserted rural area where unknown to them the party members will act out scenes from Lord of the Rings. She already has the sound track CD, so I guess that means we are one step closer and at least being the birthday people we get to pick the roles we want to play. I call tall beardless gimli!

The only thing we can both agree on is the call for fire eaters, which so happens I know a couple!

Enough blogging, off to school.

2007-01-23T21:27:00.000-08:00

Pictures of food is what I post when I really have nothing important to say...

The first couple were tonight's dinner, basically French Lentils with sweet potatoes, caramelized onions, arugula (love that shit), shit-tons of garlic and coriander-fennel-black peppercorn all smashed in my mortar and pestle, I probably tossed in a little curry powder and chili flakes but really who cares? It was good and that is all I really was worried about, I had two heaping bowls for dinner.

The other is just saffron cauliflower risotto with pecorino and spinach. Using of course the Cadillac of risotto rices, none other than Carnaroli of course.

SHIT! I just remembered I was going planning on tossing mushrooms into the lentils tonight, that was the entire reason I was cooking them in the first place, just to get rid of the souring shroomage! I guess they are going into tomorrow's salad and or breakfast eggs.

I also am going to be taking a little break from bread baking... Well at least for myself, I still may bake a loaf or two for a random (post cleansing?) gift.

Raw Eggs.

2007-01-22T14:25:00.000-08:00

Normally I wouldn't be the kind of person to post something this time of day, but I have a little over an hour and a half to kill before my night class. I realized that perhaps freshman comp wouldn't provide me with more than busy work, not the fine tuning of my academic writing which I was hoping for. Any class the begins with the instructor saying "Now I know many of you have written research papers in high school" just isn't for me. I should be able to test out of the requirement, study up on my grammar and that should be enough. Dropping that class left me just one credit shy of a full time load, meaning I needed something to fill the void. The only class that fit into my schedule (and that hadn't started yet) was an art history class focusing specifically on the films of Alfred Hitchcock. I know little about the guy except his name, so the class should teach me something. So now my Mondays consist of school/work/school, longer days than I would like, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do right?

Work was really quick and easy, I think I was there for just over two and a half hours. I bummed around a little bit after finishing up, killing time until family meal. Today's FM was a little different than normal, it was a soup, but not like any soup I have tried before, namely because there was a whole raw egg on top of a crostini IN the broth. I think the idea was that the boiling hot broth cook the egg a touch, which didn't quite happen, instead there were large noticeable slimy egg shards throughout the soup. I still ate the entire bowl, but it wasn't the most pleasant of dining experiences. At least the salad was totally kick ass, I wont say much except state that bacon was a key component.

Finally (before I go walk around or something) I found out today that one of the cooks at the restaurant shares the same birthday with me, although she is quite a few years younger. It got the wheels turning in my head that I should start planning for another joint party soon, last year it was with J.Pond, this year at least we wont have to worry about getting kicked out by the upstairs neighbor. I still need to convince her that we should just have a kegger at my place, especially considering that she still isn't going to be of age.

OK I am really going now.

Sup Dean?

2007-01-18T18:14:00.000-08:00

I am fairly certain that the majority of my small readership gets bored after the first sentence or two, so I had better break out the good news first, just so you know. I don't know if it matters that much, but I somehow managed to get on the Dean's List for last semester, how that happened I couldn't tell you. I don't remember ever being on a Dean's List, so, like I said I have no clue what if anything it means.

I have some more bread porn picks.

The first one is a wheat sourdough, but I have to admit that I threw in a touch of yeast just to get the ball rolling, namely because I didn't feel like waiting 24+ hours to let the bread finish. The popine bread wasn't quite as good as I would have hoped, but that was my own damn fault, I didn't let the loaf rise enough, something that I constantly have a problem with. I just get impatient waiting around and want the butter-melting, saliva inducing fresh bread right away, my impatience just leaves me a little broken hearted as the finished product of my labor is sub-par. If I don't learn my lesson soon I may just have to give up making bread altogether!

The second loaf was much better, I was playing around with rye bread again, just trying to get the perfect mixture of rye to white flour. This recipe is using conventional yeast, anyone can throw in their 2 cents. if they have any suggestions.

1 pkg yeast
1 cup water (lukewarm)
1 cup buttermilk
1 T Maple Syrup (real shit yo!)
1.5c Rye Flour
About 3 cups bread flour unbleached and unbromated.
1/2 C Oats
1/4 C Toasted Millet
1 T salt (I don't ever measure this so I might be off)
2-3T of caraway seeds (again I didn't measure exactly)
1/4 C golden flax seed

If you know how to make bread you can probably figure out what I did. I held off on all the bread flour until the dough ball was mostly formed, the bread is dense enough as is! I put the flax seed in, just thinking that it would be nice to get some of those Omega 3 whatever into my diet. Turns out that (according to a co-worker) the body doesn't process flax unless it is partially ground first, which sucks but at least I know for next time to use my mortar and pestle a bit... This loaf rose just splendidly and the flavor was off the hook, made up for the crappy ass first loaf (ok it wasn't "that" bad, just not as good as I would have liked).

And finally since I am fairly certain nobody is going to be reading at this point, I may have mono.. Can you believe that shit? I have had this sore throat for the last month or so, but didn't get it checked out until I got health insurance through the U, most anything could wait a month. After getting checked out today, the doctor told me there was a good chance that I had some sort of viral infection, probably mono. I still have to go back in for a blood test to be certain, but either way she told me there isn't much that I can do but wait... If so it makes sense as to why I have been getting so tired riding my bike lately (my way of justifying not being in shape!).

MORE BREAD

2007-01-13T17:22:00.000-08:00

This is getting a little sick, I have been making bread like nobody's business.

I am guessing that is what happens to me when I have nothing else to do right? I mean my house is clean (clean enough at least), and I can't really afford to go out to eat all the time. Part of me wishes I would have stolen one of the 25# bags of flour from my pops back in Montana, so far this month I have used 10#s!

Anything else going on? Well not really, it is cold outside, anyone in the area can tell you that. My bike commutes have been OK though, one thing I have learned over the years is how to gear myself for the elements. I could use some better gloves, not that mine are bad, but they could be better, I just wish I could find the little thin wool gloves I used to have to go as a base layer.

Oh and tonight I am planing on hitting up my first SNR in over a month, wish me luck!

Clean'n

2007-01-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

First off, I didn't wake up today until 1:45, no joke! The buzz I carried over after spending time with friends at the rock-rock-rock might have aided my slumber, but I believe it more to do with the lack of anything important to get done today. Less than 10 minutes after I pulled my lazy butt off of the couch, I was greeted by a knock at my back door, L. my neighbor was inviting me to a movie at the Riverview, how possibly could I turn that down? The movie was Mary Antoinette, and I must admit it was better than I had expected, especially the costumes and food, visually stunning.

Starving (I opted not for the popcorn, first time ever?) I threw the wok on the stove and started going to town, cooking some of the left over rice from breakfast up with sausage, scallions, jalapeños and egg. The fried rice hit the spot like nobodies business, I now am blessed with a full belly.

What did I do? Well I cracked open a bottle of cheap red wine and went to work organizing my cupboards, boring but satisfying.

Somehow some cans of food have migrated with me from old place to new place, I guess I was just too busy to actually look at the sell by date.

Bikes

2007-01-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

The little sis and I spent a good chunk of yesterday trying to get her new SS bike in full working order, a task that we didn't quite finish. I tried my best to allow Pinkzilla to do all the work herself, and she did a good job. Whipping off lock-rings and cogs like nobodies business! I mostly provided guidance and a little technical expertise (if you want to call it that) when things went awry. Right now all we have left to do is install the brake cables and housing, fill up the tires and make minor adjustments. The bike isn't exactly what I would call pretty, and is heavy as hell. Heavy as it may be, it will roll through the winter, and hopefully lessen the amount of damage the pink machine would receive from the wet salty conditions Minnesota roads offer. We were planning at first to build up a fixed gear bike, but I am always hesitant to do so using the ghetto BB lockring method, I think if you wanna ride fixed, buy a hub made for it, or else you are just asking for trouble.

I also taught K how to make bread, or at least how to make the dough. The bread wasn't awesome, but that is my fault for baking it before it was properly leavened. As sub-par as it may have been, there was still a hungry group of girls that devoured it at 1 am post crane folding party (don't ask, I don't know). Right now I am sitting on little chunks of 3 different batches of bread, all different, two good and one just OK. Part of me wants to make another batch of bread this morning, but really? What in the hell for?

On that note I am going to make some sour dough toast...

Tire Change and Langoustines

2007-01-06T17:59:00.000-08:00

I hit up my local LBS today (local bike shop to those not in the know) and used the gift certificate graciously given me by my brother for the holiday a couple of weeks back. One reason he chose this particular LBS you ask? Although it may be one of the biggest around, there honestly has not been a time in the past year that I have had to pay full price for anything, sometime I get the employee discount, today I got the "with a new bike" discount for "being awesome" (not my words I swear). It wasn't even anyone I knew ringing me up this afternoon either, I just was lucky enough to have one of my friends right there to tell the new guy about my "awesomeness".

I got some parts for K's bike that we hopefully will have built up in the next couple of days, as well as a couple of tubes and a new bontrager racelite tire for myself. Just in case anyone randomly does a google blog search and stumbles upon this blog, I would like to express my personal opinion about the aforementioned tires. While I know that the Racelites are not the lightest tires around, the slight added weight is made up for in sheer hard-core-ness, Racelites are the tires I have had the least amount of flats with, by a big margin. I don't know if it is the "triple puncture protection hardcase" or what, I just know that I usually don't have to worry about flats. Riding through all conditions, I have had a total of two flats over the years, this is riding through all conditions year round, sometimes off-road (damn SNR!). The tire body is so stiff that on one occasion, I didn't even notice I had a flat until I got home, though I think the sub-zero temps that day might have added a little stiffness to the tire body. It is not just I that is in love with the RLs either, everyone I know that has owned them supports them with equal ferocity. One girl I used to work with has only had one flat for the life of her bike (a flat which I actually changed for her), this is again year round riding for a couple of years, not just in Minny but also in San Fran and Seattle, the tires have treated her well. Finally, they tend to be really quick to change, the new tire (new tire-stiffer bead) took me 10 minutes to put on, that was not even really trying that hard. In my newly created rating system, I give them a 10/10, best damn tires I have EVER had.

Most of the time at work we get this Caledonian blue prawns, pretty much a staple on the menu; changes to the menu that occur with 6 week regularity always have included the prawns in same capacity. The blue prawns are the sweetest and firmest shrimp that I can remember eating, and they come head-on meaning that we can make equally delicious stock from the heads and shells. That being said, I was surprised today when the Coastal order did not include the blue prawns, like I would normally expect. Instead of the prawns, I found boxes of previously frozen Langoustines (no not "crustiness's" MR. firefox spell check), a creature of the ocean that I knew about and have eaten, but never had to deal with myself. Think mini-lobsters, or better yet salt water crayfish, that would aptly describe the langoustine. The only reason I bring this up (aside from the argument I got into with a co-worker that ended when she said "If you had a super power for an hour you would make yourself a langoustine so you could make out with one!") is that the yield was TERRIBLE. Five 2.5# boxes and we ended up with just one quart worth of cleaned usable meat! Contrast that to over 2 gallons of bodies and shells, doesn't really seem worth it. The meat was really hard to get out of the shell anyway, stuck to the sides, required cutting both sides of the shell, etc. Supposedly the bodies make better stock than lobster bodies, but lobster bodies are cheap, langoustines aren't. The girl I was arguing with was calling them poser-lobsters, walking around pretending to be all bad ass while really being just one step up from a shrimp, she incidentally wants to make out with a king crab... I SWEAR!

Oh and I know I need to shave, I am just trying my bi-yearly not shaving thing...

Useless.

2007-01-04T15:12:00.000-08:00

Honestly, I have been feeling a little useless since we got back from Montana. Without school I find myself with far more free time than I am accustomed to, considering I am working the 20 or so hours a week I was before. I may even end up working less than 20, just due to a new menu change from duck to pheasant, the former taking 3 times the amount of time per bird. Ducks require saving every little scrap of far for rendering and more trimming of the breast and legs. Not to mention that duck tends to be more popular than pheasant, even though both are pretty dang awesome if you ask me.

The roads have been craptacular enough to where I have not wanted to really go for a ride anywhere, so I have been just going on walks around the awesome neighborhood I live in. In one day I managed to see both the sunrise and sunset along side the Mississippi, as well as make a trek down to the grocery store.

I must say I am getting a little antsy waiting for school to start, a sense of anticipation that is bound to wane when I am bogged down with piles of reading and papers to turn in. This next semester I am signed up for 17 credits, just to ensure my graduation in just 2 more semesters. I think it should be manageable, 14 was no problem whatsoever, aside from personal drama I didn't feel overwhelmed one bit.

To those who don't know, we are all going bowling tonight, by us all I mean anyone who is anyone. If you don't meet up with us you are generally considered to be a bad person, FYI. ;)

Msg me if I haven't already spoken to you in person.

I also made some cornbread last night, I made two of these loaves, and right now I have just 1/2 of one left. I tried my best to encourage friends to come over and eat the black bean sweet potato chili I made in tandem with the bread, but the only takers were the people who live in my building that had to deal with the assault of aromas walking through the door. I still have more... Hint Hint Hint.

2007-01-01T15:31:00.000-08:00

If anyone had any doubts, yes myself and my glorious siblings have returned from the land to the west. The trip was aces all around, we were able to do just about everything I had hoped for, with the exception of tracking down my old zoo town friends.

The pop's house was awesome, great to be able to get away from everything and chill out with the mini-squirrels and trees for a while. Who would have known that there are actually more than one species of squirrel? Crazy.

Driving wasn't what I would call fun, being stuck behind the wheel for 16-18 hours at a time and trying to stay awake sometimes may be difficult. Not to mention subsisting entirely on spicy beef jerky and red bull isn't the best way to feel like a healthy human being. The weather wasn't being the most cooperative either, at least 500 miles of the return trip was traversed on snow packed and or icy conditions. It wasn't until we got closer to Minny that the ice was replaced with fog, better? I ended up being the sole driver for the long drives, more due to my fear of retribution from the rental car company than a lack of confidence in my fellow travel companions.

Now I am back, with little to do until the semester starts up in a couple of weeks. There are some things I should probably be doing, like organizing my crap and looking into grad schools, after all if things go OK I only have 2 semesters left ACK!

Last night was NYE, I think I might have rang in the new year kissing a boy.. But really did he have to slip me the tongue?

Done?

2006-12-20T19:02:00.000-08:00

Well I realized that now that school is no longer a looming factor controlling every aspect of my life that I might as well update ye-ole-blog.

That being said, is there anything worthwhile to blog about?

Well I took my last final, that has to be worth something right? At very least worth a couple of lines here. I am not quite certain how I fared in all my classes, my fingers are crossed as I eagerly wait for the grades to be posted. I know at least 2 of my grades already, two grades that I am quite happy with. It is the final two classes that I am worried about, not that I assume I failed by any means, I know at very least I am going to pass... It is those high standards that I pretend to hold myself to that keep fucking with me. What is that phrase? Water either over the dam or under the bridge? The papers are turned in and the tests have been taken, so it doesn't matter anymore.

The crew is heading out to MT in a couple of days, excitement doesn't begin to describe the range of emotions circling around me as we anticipate the trip. There is the chance that we will get a little of the white fluffy stuff clogging up the roads, I just hope it doesn't hit us with the ferocity that is pelting CO right now. I have never had a problem riding (err driving, Freudian slip) in the snow, it just means you have to be more cautious and roll along a little slower.

Oh, and if any of my family members are eagerly awaiting the kick ass present that Felipe is going to give, keep waiting. The trip is going to cost me enough as is, so at best you all are getting gift cards (that is what we call a Phil cop-out, lazy bum).

Somehow while planning x-mas and getting finished with school, I managed to get myself sick. The last few days I have gotten perpetually more stuffed up and achy every morning, no clue what my problem is. Being at 50% capacity has really made finishing up my last few papers difficult, the focus has been lacking. Best case scenario is that I am all better by the time that we hop into the economy class vehicle and let those trusty four little cylinders take us a thousand miles across the upper regions of this fair country.

Finally, Mr. Netflix is my friend (at least he is this week, last week he was nothing but a low down dirty fucker-nugget)..

Worst part about it.

2006-12-17T10:46:00.001-08:00

I had to check my own blog before I remembered that I posted those pictures last night, someone stage an intervention.

Fuk'n Ice.

2006-12-17T00:34:00.000-08:00

OK, How stupid are we?

So it has not been near cold enough, but still we are out there running on the ice... I had my fingers on my cell ready to dial the 9 1 1 the moment the first drunk SOB fell into the ice. I was sure it would happen when people carried 50# rock onto the ice and threw them as hard as possible onto the ice, just like bocce ball, except stupid...

How about...

2006-12-13T16:47:00.000-08:00

If you want to just skip having to read my rambling, just click on the photo, I have little tags that state basically what I am about to say here.

That big piece of paper with pigs on it? I got that this morning buying breakfast (gyoza) from United Noodle. It is HUGE, at least poster size and the pigs are outlined with sparkles. Everyone loves sparkles!

The scrabble game up in the corner I was supposed to donate to toys 4 tots, too bad I was stuck at work too late and missed the party. Not I am stuck with an unopened game and no free mini x-mas tree. (On a totally unrelated note, Kim if you get a scrabble game for the holidays, it was from santa.)

The picture of a cat is from the ex, she thinks I should adopt another cat, I think I covered that last post...

The lights are from Boyton, they have this kick ass deal where you can get a set of lights for 13 dollars front and back. Good thing considering twice in the past 2 weeks I have managed to ruin a front light and generally I hate the idea of riding without being seen. Though my lights didn't really help me much 2 days ago when a pedestrian stepped off the curb directly into the path of my bicycle. I couldn't stop fast enough and the both of us went down, honestly I think she took the bulk of the impact.

There was a set of free World Book Science Annual volumes at Zipp's today. Normally I would just pass the books up, but I am a sucker for books from the year of my birth.

Now for my reason for heading to zipps, I finally finished my big paper on graffiti! 14 pages and I was barely scratching the surface of what I wanted to talk about, somewhere in there I am feeling a senior thesis. I turned in a different 8 page paper yesterday and I have one 8-10 page paper yet to write. The semester is almost done!

And why the hell are the "labels" for the new blogger beta combined into one. Fuckers.

Oh, that is just the closest stop sign to my apartment.

Bye-Bye.

2006-12-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

Well that is that, Thor is currently driving away in a wicker box towards uptown Minneapolis. Am I sad about it? Perhaps a little, though he is just a cat so any potential feelings of nostalgia are certain not to be long lasting. I suppose should I ever get the desire I can just find myself another cat, it is not as though there is a national domesticated feline shortage or anything. In fact Em did bring over a picture of a cat she is trying to get me to adopt, nice looking kitty but strictly an indoor creature, meaning litter box. The idea of my apartment constantly smelling of cat excrement is not incredibly appealing to me.

The picture above is the first picture I took after the batteries were charged on my new camera, not surprising that it was in fact of the little fur ball, considering he was the most interesting subject at the time.

So I guess I all have to say is Goodbye Thor, have a good life, and please stick to targeting only invasive bird species, there are plenty of starlings to spare. Oh, and Thor, don't chase any more raccoons around, they are big disgusting creatures who would make mincemeat out of 8 # kitties.

No difference.

2006-12-08T16:11:00.000-08:00

I cannot tell the difference between the new "beta" blogger and the old one, same shit.

Normally...

2006-12-05T18:03:00.000-08:00

Normally I don't post stuff like this but...

This is totally awesome....

Gotta luv paper work.

2006-12-05T05:28:00.000-08:00

I just got the adjustment from the people down at the Fin.Aid office at ye ole U.

Instead of meager and insufficient unsubsidized loans (didn't even cover tuition 100%) I had my aid adjusted and actually got a couple of grants this semester.. Not only that but they reversed a large chunk of the unsubsidized loans and replaced them with nice shiny subsidized loans.

I guess all my work getting signed and dated statements from my current and ex-employers, as well as hauling that enormous stack of tax and divorce statements to campus (twice) paid off.

Paper work is awesome, at least it is when you get enough money to be able to finance a trip to Montana in a couple of weeks.

I swear.

2006-12-03T21:28:00.000-08:00

I had told myself I was to do nothing this weekend but stay indoors, and by that I meant no socializing, being a good little student. Finals week is quickly approaching, and while that isn't a bad thing, it just means I should really pay attention to the papers that are due, less about riding my bike and drinking in all corners of the city. Friday night I got done home from work to find an envelope from Hennepin county leaning against my front door, meaning someone in the building must have placed it there. Meaning what will probably be the most significant legal notification I have received in the past few years was delivered to the wrong apartment, GO USPS! Upon reading the letter (and subsequent internet chatting with la Ex) I found out that I was officially a single man as of Tuesday the 28th... That didn't take too long, just a year and a half from the time we separated..

On account of that I felt it to be a good idea to go and get myself good and tipsy, which was convenient considering that summerinside was having his 30th birthday party downtown grumpy's. I don't think I got myself too drunk, but I was for sure on my way, though I didn't feel too bad about it because I wrote 4 pages on the biggest paper due before I left the house.

On the way home I was cutting through a park right by where Minx lives, which required me to hop over a curb. Silly me I figured it would be no problem being as "out of it" as I was to just pick the front wheel up a bit and let the rest of the bike follow suit, that is how it usually works right? Instead I slammed directly into the curb, flipping over the frame and skidding on my elbows for a couple of feet. It didn't hurt, I had enough liquid anesthesia in my veins at that point to numb even the most severe of pains. What was annoying about the situation is that the moment I landed I heard laughter, someone was actually out in that dark park at just before 3 am, really don't they have lives?

The next day after work I had told myself I was to spend all day writing, again my attempts were thwarted. At 9ish, after spending a couple of hours writing and studying, I got a call from a friend of mine who I had not talked to for at least a couple of months. He had an extra ticket to the big doomtree blowout at 1st ave, really how could I pass that up? The show was awesome, as good or better than I would have expected. The guy I bought the painting from a couple of months back was working the merch table, where I bought a CD where the liner was made by another artist I know. Not too often I have purchased a CD where the liner art was numbered and signed...

The rest of the night consisted of hazy events down at the new bulldog, which I recommend all of you to visit. The entire @lma crew was down drinking like fishes; I don't even remember how many shots were passed in front of me without my requesting... Honestly I am a little surprised we didn't get kicked out, my guess is it had to do something with the chef sitting at the table with us...

And today I drank green tea...

Um, yeah.

Hoy.

2006-11-28T17:07:00.000-08:00

After school today I had the pleasure of coming home to an interesting smell. Tracing the source proved to be more difficult than one would expect, but I knew that cute little Thor had left me a "present" somewhere around the house.

He even looks like he knew what he did.

Anyway I spend the next 4 hours painting, yes pictures or paintings whatever. I don't consider myself much of an artist these days, and my efforts today were more practical in nature. Someone noted to me a couple of days ago that my bedroom walls are all too white, and I need some paintings or something to counteract the starkness. I am not really in a position right now to be able to buy any more paintings, my quota for the year has been reached. Instead I took out the old paints I had tucked deep into the dark parts of my closet and applied them to a random bit of plywood left over from remodeling either the kitchen or bathroom of the old house. The results were not anything to be proud of (hence no picture here or flickr) but the picture should fill the blandness of my bedroom nicely. It was sad though, I had to google what I should use to thin down acrylic paint; it has been that long since I picked up a brush.

It has me thinking that I should spend more of my free time fucking around on the random chunks of wood I have lying around. Better than going out to the bar and getting myself obliterated.

Look I can make bread.

2006-11-27T19:24:00.000-08:00

Exploding Head.

2006-11-27T17:02:00.000-08:00

Ugh, if I have to read another highly technical anthropological paper tonight I am going to puke, really. Not to say of course that the subject matter isn't interesting, but there is only so much a man can take before going a little crazy.

That all said, things are going well I guess, same old shit really.

I noticed that people stopped ready my blog a couple of days ago, which I was cool with made me feel less guilty about infrequent updates. It did seem odd that at least my dad wouldn't have checked up on me, so I entered the URL and something was all f-d up. I just went back to one of the blogger templates, saving the HTML code in a word document if I ever feel like going back and repairing it (probably wont).

The SNR this week was ok, not as crazy as the past 6 weeks. Just a little riding and eventually hitting up a party of the old b-wood crew NE. It was fun just hanging out with that whole posse, I don't get the chance to see them enough now that we don't work together. Honestly I don't think I have been back to the b-wood more than twice in the 3 + months since I quit, the last time I was there was picking E2 up from her shift 2 months ago. Three blocks away and I never go, figures.

After the NE party was dying down a little, I rode back home pulling in somewhere around 2-3am (the details are fuzzy). Jamin was just getting home and we hung out for a while drinking a couple beverages and shooting the shit. Jamin knew about a party down southside, so at 3:30 we left for another party (sparks is amazing, energizer bunny shit). I felt a little out of place at the 2nd party, everyone there was in the age range of 19 to 23, so at 28 I couldn't help but feel like the lecherous old timer leering at the young women. It wasn't that bad though, there were a couple of people I knew through Jamin, so I didn't have to don the uniform of wall flower.

Off subject if another celebrity couple splits up I am just going to fucking lose it, first britney and k-fed now Pam and Kid Rock, what are our children supposed to think about the sanctity of marriage looking at those role models?

Givin Thanks.

2006-11-22T18:24:00.000-08:00

Ok this is going to be super short, I just wanted you all to see a picture from last night from all of us trouble causing Werst kids (Minneapolis of course).

Yeah we totally kick ass, What?

2006-11-14T17:43:00.000-08:00

I think I am pretty much caught up with school for now, so I have a little moment to not study.

So I ended up hitting 3 keggers on Saturday night, lots of riding around and causing trouble. The last party I went to was at the food distributor, more fun than I had expected. There were gobs and gobs of people that I have met somehow throughout my years in the industry, some which I had not thought about for quite a few years. I closed the place down at around 3ish, at which time I helped with the clean up a little. I wasn't looking forward to the prospect of riding my bike alone back from the northside, and it was kinda cold. After we were all cleaned up and leaving, the owner handed me a little care package for my help.

I don't know the cheese, but it was nice and stinky and went quite well with the loaf of sour wheat bread. The walnuts are supposedly caramelized by some 60 year old women in Spain. The bag of cacao is supposedly awesome hot chocolate, though I have yet to try it. I could have taken more stuff home, but I was limited to the confines of my backpack.

I found out yesterday that Thor (black cat) is in fact going to be living with me for the next couple of months, perhaps longer. So now it is the two of us boys, causing trouble and leaving the toilet seat up.

Tomorrow I get to petition the financial aid office for some better financial aid. With working part time and getting divorced, my income has dropped about 50k a year.... Hopefully those bastards will give me something aside from unsubsidized loans.

Not dead yet.

2006-11-10T17:46:00.000-08:00

Honestly I have just not been posting because I have been so distraught over the whole Fed-Ex Brit fiasco. I mean seriously, what possible future does that poor boy have, breaks my heart.

Seriously I have just been so f'n crazy bzy with school that the idea of updating ye ole blog just doesn't seem to make much sense. I have had an average of 2 papers due a week, so when I am sitting in front of the computer, I cannot justify not writing papers.

Crap, I just remembered I have just a couple of days until I need to figure out my classes for next semester...

As well I am a little bummed that the cat that has been staying with me for the past couple of months is going to have a new home come Sunday, I am going to miss that crazy bastard.

This weekend is going to be crazy, 4 kegs at 1x1 and 2 kegs over at a specialty food distributor, so many choices, so little time. I think my plan is going to be to hit 1x1 for a while, ride over to the SNR meeting spot, pick up stragglers, back to 1x1 for a while, ride up North Minneapolis and hang out with a bunch of chefs... After the chef dealio finishes, probably back to 1x1 or just call the SNR kids and see where they are all hanging out.

First though I have to make sure I am caught up enough on my school work to justify going out, shouldn't be too hard considering I wrote 2 papers last night and I hope to finish another tonight. I do have a big test in BioGeography Monday morning that I have yet to study for, but I am not really worried about that class. The grades are all posted online and out of 30 students el Felipe has the highest grade out of the lot, serious. I almost forgot how good I was at bonehead science classes, this is the first one I have taken if probably 6 years, and I am fairly certain the majority of the kids in the class don't really give a rat's ass.

Ok well I should really get some school work done, work hard play hard right?

Bikes Fire And More School

2006-10-30T15:22:00.000-08:00

First off I would like to encourage any of you that are stuck inside here in Minneapolis to get out there ASAP, although the sun is setting the temp is awesome. Tomorrow however is supposed to be bien frio again, so what the hell.

The Saturday Night Ride this week was a good time, lots of craziness abounding as it was the last before the upcoming holiday. Anyone else notice how Halloween has just exploded in popularity in the past decade, it was always big, but now it is huge. As I turned off of Riverside to take a little short cut through the campus, I saw 3 college aged kids rolling around in the dirt, I hope it was for a costume, or else I am quite disconnected from the rest of my school mates.

There was a pretty good posse at McD's per usual (much better than the 4.5 of us last week), I think there was about a dozen of us, average I would say. We headed into St. Paul, taking University the entire way, and luckily enough with the wind at our backs. After hitting A's house from a little beer/sparks stop, we continued riding down towards the capital. There was a party that we had all been invited to, though I didn't know any of the people throwing it. In good form, all of us cyclists were sans costume, we tried to convince people that we were the Tour de France, but I don't think it went over that well. Turns out one of the people throwing the party was this girl and she ended up kicking us off the porch as some of the riders were preparing for the trek back into Minneapolis. I opted to stay for a while at the party, weighing my options vs being outside and hanging out with lots of people in silly costumes. The most memorable was probably the girl dressed as Sharon Tate, complete with pregnant belly and the correct number of stab wounds (she did he research apparently). There was also two women dressed as Frida Kahlo from the famous picture where they are connected, that was clever. Once again I was just Minneapolis bicycling boy, but that was fine by me. Afterwards I headed down to meet up with the group, they were at White Sands starting a little fire. It was nice that although I was riding against the wind, the majority of the ride back was downhill, awesome.

Rest of the weekend was really spent just schooling and working, pretty uneventful.

I got a flat coming home from work today, so I opted to just walk the bike back and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. Instead of simply fixing the flat (I hate the tire it was on, I have to buy another), I decided instead to swap cogs out on the FG bike. I had been rocking a 46/15 but that will prove to be too high a gear come winter. I had an extra 18 lying around in my parts bin, so I made that little switch-a-roo. Of course in the process I managed to almost rip off part of my fingernail, to the point where it started bleeding from under the nail, good times. The bike is much more fun to ride now, quick and zippy just like I like it.

(Oh and I just went outside to let the cat out, I totally change my view that you should all go outside and enjoy the weather. It is warm but windy as hell, I guess that high pressure front is getting pushed out a little earlier than I had anticipated.)

Mas Frio

2006-10-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

It is getting a little colder here in Minnesnowda. The SNR left me with chilly numb little toes, that might have been in part due to the 1 mile walk along the railroad (we were lost). I turned the heat on for the first time last night, and the termal underwear is on my body for the first time this season. I have yet to break out the hard-core layers, it isn't that cold, but in general it is getting colder. I recommend underarmor base layer for anyone thinking about riding in the winter, the shit is like magic.

I am all out of coffee right now, so I am finishing up my second cup of Kenyan Masala tea brought back as a gift from my old boss. It isn't giving me the same kick I like, the caffeine is still there, just a little different. Once upon a time I stopped drinking coffee at all for about 9 months, during which I drank copious amounts of tea instead. What the hell was I thinking, coffee kicks ass.

In other "What the hell was I thinking" news, I was an idiot when changing the chainrings on the black falcon. To make sure that I was able to get the correct chainline, I moved the chainring inside shelf of the crank. Due to the little indents in the chainring, I installed the chainring bolts backwards, the only way that I could get them tight enough. Some of you probably can guess what happened a couple of days later, but I will tell anyway. One by one the bolts worked their way loose, eventually falling out, all of this unknown to me. Friday after work, I was riding home right near the U, as the stoplight turned green, I cranked down on the pedals, and I heard a big snap crackle and pop (I swear). Onto the sidewalk, I survey the damage and realize that there was only one bolt left, and the chainring was tacoed.

Not only was the chainring damaged, but the area on the crank where the last bolt was in place was bent all to shit. Good thing I live just a few minutes walk from where this happened, so it wasn't a big deal to walk home and fix things up. Seriously, how fucking stupid is that, I should know better. Now the all black falcon is sans the black chainring and cranks, though it is still a pretty swell looking piece of transportation.

Gonna hev ta be cwik

2006-10-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

Alright well I am pretty tired right now, due to having staying up until the wee hours of the night reading and putting the final touches on a couple of papers. I didn't have the liberty to sleep in, instead I woke up bright and early to photocopy some articles from the library, from school straight to work and finally back at home.

So what is new?

Nothing really I guess, just keeping occupied the best I can, trying not to freak out and get overwhelmed by the shear load of reading expected of me each week. For just one of my classes we are supposed to read almost 300 pages this week, crazy. Somehow I am keeping up with the important readings, you know the ones where it isn't just as easy to skim the night before an exam.

I worked the line for the first time at the new place, went well. Busy for a Tuesday night, high standards for the food and plating, one reason most everyone leaves impressed and satisfied even after dropping a big chunk of change.

Before I post random photo fill, I have one gripe about Apple. The little spunk monkeys some how have lost the rebate I sent in over two months ago. So now not only do I not have my nifty black ipod (stolen remember) or my super sweet macbook (stolen as well), I don't get the 190$ rebate. Convienent of them to have lost it I would say.

Ok here are a couple of pictures from the SNR a couple weeks back.

Oh I almost forgot, Black Beauty rides again, pictures will be up when I am damn well ready (read when there isn't a layer of rain induced sludge coating the bike).

Snow

2006-10-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

Oh boy oh boy, winter is upon us again. It is nice and cold outside here in Minneapolis, which is funny considering that just Sunday is was near 80. Not to mention just the sheer tempurature, which is compounded by the blistering wind, but there was also snow flying. There wasn't really that much snow, just enough to make things interesting. The majority of which fell from the moment I left school until I was just 2 blocks from home. I forgot how much I missed fresh snow falling, especially when I don't have to worry about shoveling. Not that the snow was in such of an amount where anyone would have to worry about, the snow melted just as fast as it fell.

My busy crazy week of school is winding down to an end, and mostly thing have gone well. Things went well, all my papers were written, hopefully good enough. I had a test this morning, which crazy enough has already been graded and posted online. The TA has been utilizing google spreadsheets for showing the grades, which works out pretty slick. I like being able to see right away what I scored, those folks at google are pretty dang bright.

In my Material Culture today we studied material culture of death, good times.

I downloaded a copy of the new m!cr0s0ft 0ff!cE 2oo7, not in release yet. God knows I am not the biggest M$ fan out there, but the new version is pretty slick.

Outside that I guess there isn't much of import to talk about, same old shit.

Poor Thor.

2006-10-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

(No you aren't a happy cat are you?)

Thor (the crazy raccoon chasing cat) came home a little beat up yesterday. As of yet I am not sure if he did in fact get into a fight, or if something else happened. I know that he came home after being gone longer than normal with bloody ears, not wanting to do anything but crawl under the bed. Usually Thor is agressive in not only his hunting, but his desire for affection. After he gets home and fills his belly with what seems to be delicious kitty food, the next thing he always does is attack one of us looking for some love. Last night however he was just not the same cat, something happened. His ears looked bad, blood coming from the inside and scrapes all over the left one. As well his face was a little puffy on the left side (still is). We were assuming a fight, and to ensure there wasn't any lasting damage we took a drive down to the 24hr animal emergency room.
The drive to the shelter was interesting, Thor the entire time was making the most unusual meows from the confines of his wicker basket. You would have thought someone was killing him, or that he has been in there much longer than the 15 minute drive it took to get to Golden Valley. The vet illuminated somewhat of his idea of what had happened to poor black kitty, at least one scenario. The way that both of his ears were bleeding from the inside, looked to him like maybe he had gotten his head stuck in something, and was struggling to get it out. The cartilidge attaching the ear to the bone had been ruptured a little, causing the bleeding. He was saying that when Thor was struggling to get out, his ears may have been pulled and scraped, consistent with the injuries. After a little clean up of the ears and a stern warning to keep Thor inside for a couple of days, we headed back home. Thor is still not himself, but he is regaining some of the spunkyness we all know him for. Eventhough he has spent the majority of the day asleep on a pillow, hasn't been outside once. Up until about 15 minutes ago he had not even tried to venture outdoors, another unThor like behavior. It seems like he will be ok, even if his face is a little swollen.

On a lighter note, I realized that from Tuesday until Thursday of next week I have the following to turn into or do for my various classes.
1)Lab assignment for biogeography
2)Writing assignment for biogeography, just a couple of pages about an article we had to read.
3)Exam in biogeography (fun fun fun)
4)Language journal for one of my classes, just a few pages, I am writting about speech communities and google chat.
5)Weekly hip-hop reaction paper.
6)Hip-hop pioneer paper (see last blog post).
7)Transcription work group report, which involves meeting with some of the members of my class and spending a couple of hours talking about or transcribed conversations.

Not to mention the normal reading that needs to be done, which is hundreds of pages a week.

Oh and work.

Oh and the cat that needs lots of attention and love right now.

No wonder I don't have much of a social life right now.

P.S. The asked me to work another day a week at the restaurant, in a greater capacity than mere butcher. I get to be a bonafide line cook again.

Yeah I threw random pictures in there to shake things up a little. This last one is of me picking my nose at Maria's Cafe, right before I stuffed myself with corn pancakes. I didn't notice until I posted it but Maria herself is in the background, now wonder she glared when she entered her restaurant.

Fried Brain.

2006-10-04T21:35:00.000-07:00

I am done for tonight, totally done.

I don't think any more information will successfully be entering or leaving my head for the rest of the evening. First with school all day, then coming home and spending the majority of the night just reading and working on the big paper due next week. This one is going to be interesting, but I am having a little of a hard time finding sources that are pertinent to my subject matter.

I am writing about this guy and how he transitioned from being a gang member in the early 70's deep in the Bronx, to graffiti writer, to DJ (one of the first), to MC, to finally starting the Zulu Nation. Just looking at his website makes me think that he has somehow elevated himself to the role of religious leader, turning hip-hop into a religion. I think tomorrow after work might just be spent scouring the few books and reserve article on the subject. Hopefully I can find something that fits, or else I might have to change my thesis a little.

P.S. I guess my entire night wasn't spent just on school work. The ex-in-laws came over for a little while, which was totally fine and what I had expected. I always got along with them anyway, so whatever. The house was empty, not so much as a cat, just myself and my many plants.

Cheap stuff.

2006-10-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

I took advantage of the bargain prices offered by the benevolent folks down at Boyton this afternoon, getting myself a nice shiny (fugly) helmet and surprisingly powerful light set. They have a good deal going on, just show your U id card and you get the whole set for just 20 dollars, quite nice. My current helmet is starting to show it's age, the shell is fine, but all the straps and adjusters are fraying a bit. I think I will just brave on through the next few months until it gets cold enough, using my current helmet until I switch over to my kick ass snowboarding helment. The snowboarding (or winter beast) helmet is great for the winter season, adjustable ventilation, goggle grooves, insulated structure, everything one could hope for to keep their ears from freezing. The only problem I have is that I need a really thin skull cap if the weather is cold enough to warrant it. To big or thick and the helmet feels like it is trying to squeeze my brains out of my eye sockets. This is going to be the 3rd of 4th winter using this particular helmet, so I should be able to manage.

The ex-sister-in-law is coming over tomorrow to pick up the rest of my ex's stuff, hopefully I have everything set aside. There is the possibility that something is lurking in a box somewhere, waiting to be discovered the next time I move. Should be interesting when she heads on over, turns out her parents (my ex-in-laws) are in town as well, she informed me that she would probably be bringing them along. Compound that with the good chance that I am going to have a big dog in my apartment, a black cat with attacking tendencies, and
perhaps both my current girlfriend and her sister. Crap I just realized my own sister might just be over as well to get her hair cut.

I better buy some beer, dog bones and gold finches. You know keep the masses happy.

Star Trek.

2006-10-01T20:36:00.000-07:00

So I have more important things I should be doing right now, I have two papers due on Tuesday one of which is about this episode of STNG. Seems a little silly to me having to write a paper about a star trek episode, but I guess that is undergrad for you. The premise of the episode is how the crew of the enterprise meet up with an alien race which they are unable to communicate with. The Tamarians speak only with cultural specific metaphors; the universal translator does no good in helping the process. So the last couple of days have been spent (at least while I was doing school work) trying to tie in readings (Reddy, Basso etc) with what went on in the episode, fun stuff.

Last night Jer and I hooked up and rode up north to L and P's house for some keg action, I bought myself a couple of R.Bulls before hand, still on the wagon. Although admittedly I did drink a couple of beers right after I found out my house had been broken into, I don't know if those count though. There weren't that many people at the party, my neighbor showed up, along with some people I knew from way back when. I don't know if more people eventually populated the party, Jer and I left a little early.

Jer went down to the Lucero show, while I tried my best to not to puke outside of the bar that esquire mag seems to think is one of the best in the country. Not sure I agree wholeheartedly with that finding, but it is sometimes a fun place to go. My friends had rented the back room for a birthday party, which required walking through the meat market to gain entrance. That is a scene I never really got into, people getting drunk just for the sake of hooking up with each other, I usually have better things to do.

Em and I got back to the apartment and parked the bikes just in time to notice another huge raccoon across the street. Raccoons aren't really anything new in Minneapolis, hang outside during the night and you are bound to see one every once in a while. Watching the coon for a second and we see another equally large beast lumber over to near the first, followed by another. So three of the biggest raccoons I have ever seen (saying something too) were all playing on the other side of the street, rolling around and wrestling. If it wasn't for their high probability of disease and chance of getting attacked, I would almost venture to say that they were cute. I still wouldn't come near them though, nasty creatures.

(Just another picture of some bikes for good measure.)

Knive again.

2006-09-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

So I don't really have much to say, just keeping busy working and studying my ass off.

I have a little picture of me though.

Yes I did finally get my new chef knife though, the size I wanted was on back order.

Quick.

2006-09-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

First off I have been busy, so blogging is really the last thing I have time for.

I sold the truck, about f'n time. The guy who bought it used to work in bike shops and race back in the day. He even showed me a water bottle cage the Lemond gave him back in his heyday. I tried to work my way into one of the vintage campy equiped Raleighs he had in the basement, but no luck.

School is fine, my first test scored me a 97%.

Work is great, the food is awesome and I really like being able to just sit back and relax focusing on butchering and nothing more. Almost a meditative experience, relaxing and great for clearing out my mind. I can work at my own pace and don't have to deal the with stress of line cooking.

The cat chased a raccoon up a tree a couple days ago. He was just pacing around, while the raccoon was scared up in the tree glaring at me. I see the raccoon all the time, (s)he has to be somewhere around 40# plus, big sucker. How a little black cat all of 7 pounds was able to scare the raccoon is beyond me. Two days later the cat is up even further in the tree, chased up by a territorial rival. The black and orange cats were attacking each other while climbing higher up in the tree.

Silly cats.

Mellow.

2006-09-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

Well I am still pissed, really pissed for that matter.

But I am looking a little more optimistically about things tonight than I was at about the same time yesterday. I woke up still in a daze, E2 was too scared to sleep at all, constantly waking up to check the locks or peer out the windows to investigate some random sound. Brewed up some coffee and headed to the t-rock to bitch about my plight to those that are forced to lend an ear, family of course. It felt nice to get my aggressions and frustrations off of my chest. With a belly full of Mother(biker), the vegan version of the Mothertrucker, spicy and delicious.

I had to buy a new computer, which was so aggravating. I bought the lowest model iMac, cheaper than another macbook, and I still get the discount since it is a desktop instead of a laptop. With the educational discount you are allowed one desktop and one laptop a year, and I just bought a laptop a tad over a month ago. Sure the new computer is nice, but it is a purchase I really didn't want/need to buy in a perfect world. The screen is much brighter than my old iMac, amazingly so.

After setting up the new computer, I started to work repeating all the school work I had lost. It took me a while, but I finished almost everything and then some, taking some of the pressure off of this upcoming week.

My neighbor came home mid-afternoon, after bitching to her about things for 10 minutes, I asked if she still had the bag she won at this year's stuperbowl. I had remembered her bitching that the chrome bag she won was too huge to be any use.

So I was able to buy this bag (sultan) off of her cheap, real cheap.

Bigger than anything I have, bigger than the banjo brothers bag that was stolen along with the rest of my crap. Thanks to my super nice neighbor for being so damn cool and so crazy fast on a bicycle.

(I thought that for some reason the robbers had stolen a small little jade from right inside the window, weird I know. Turns out they just threw the plant and pot down to the ground where it was sitting on it's side with dirt spilling out. I think the plant is going to be ok, but still.)

Fucking Robbed!

2006-09-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

So tonight was shaping out to be one hell of a night. I worked at the new place and kicked some ass cutting lots of fish, rabbit, calamari, lamb etc. From there I rushed down to 1x1 to pick up directions to the Surly brewery, where I had voluntered to pick up a couple of kegs for the all city championship. The owner wasn't going to be ready until around 5, so I headed home, picked up E2 and took a quick little shower. Picking up of the kegs went really well, I got to tour the brewery, and chat it up with the owner, fun times.

I dropped the two kegs off at 1x1, headed back Seward side and got some coffee. From there I met up with Jeff at Zipp's where we loaded my truck once again with more booze and another keg, everything was shaping up to be a good night. E2 and I just spent the next 4 hours mingling and chilling with all the racers as they rolled in, lots of fun, lots of people I knew. Once the party was broken up (something about one of the bikers kicking a car as it was being towed), E2 and I just headed home.

Here is when the night fell apart.

First coming into the apartment, I noticed that the door was unlocked, I thought maybe I had forgotten, these things happen. Upon entry I notice things don't quite look right. Then it hits me, my computer is missing! My big ass 20" imac is GONE!!! Oh shit, it is all starting to sink in that I was robbed, and going through my house I notice all the juicy shit isn't there. Even the new macbook computer I have had for a little over a month isn't there, along with the my new banjo brothers bag. They just poured out the rest of the contents on the kitchen floor and took the bag with the computer and new 30gig Ipod. Fuckers.

Also missing was my PS2, my gameboy (which I haven't turned on in ages), a purple maglight, and my heavy change jar full of about 250 dollars worth of quarters, dimes, nickles, silver dollars, two dollar bills and half dollars.

The fuckers took lots of shit the little bastards.

Worst yet, all of my school work, which I was ahead on was on that damn computer. Now I need to start from fucking scratch.

Alright I have to get off of this damn computer (my old PC which I had loaned to JaMin) and take a shower, I feel dirty and violated.

Went well.

2006-09-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

Well my first day went well, I only had to work for a little over 3 hours. I think I am going to like the place, the standards that we have to hold to are higher than almost every place I have ever worked. It is a take back to a place I worked at a couple of years ago, half assed just isn't acceptable.

The largest chunk of my time was spent cutting lamb.

Which was time consuming but not terribly difficult. I had to take a big back piece and turn it into tenderloins, saddles and loins. The hardest and most time consuming part of the process was taking the silver skin off, but even that wasn't insurmountable. Over all I was happy with the job I did on the lamb, and no one offered any suggestions (including the chef) as to how I could have done it better.

The only other thing I did in my 3 hour shift was pin-bone, skin, portion and cure copper river coho filets.

Coho of all the salmon available has to be close to my least favorite (among wild salmon), not that it is horrible or anything, I just do not favor it. Give me sockeye, king or even some farm raised Atlantic salmon anyday. If nothing else in terms of ease of butchering, the Coho is just one of the hardest (for me anyway). At the new place when we take the skin off, we have to get most of the brown and silver off of the flesh, which requires a sharper knife and much more attention to detail. If you don't get it perfect the first time, you have to try your best to get all the imperfections off and end up with a clean filet. It ended up being ok, but it took me much longer than I would have liked. I always have a hard time when I don't do something perfect right away.

I am in class right now, and the teacher is talking I really should be paying attention, that given I am not going to spellcheck.

2006-09-14T10:43:00.000-07:00

So I am sitting just a few momnets from starting my new (and hopefully long term) employment. I am dang stoked about the whole idea, so I am hoping that I will not be let down after I actually start. I was so stoked that I ordered myself two new knives in celebration of the event. Now did I really need two new knives? Probably not, but I can assure you I will be using the shit out of them. When I visited NY at the begining of the year, I stopped by Korin and picked up what has become my favorite knife, a 5.5" petty made from layered steel. For the longest time I was a proponent of the carbon steel knives, due to the softer steel which in turn makes it easier to hone a sharper edge. These knives are stain resistant, but the edge keeps for much longer than I had expected.

The first knife I bought was a 10.5" sujihiki, a style which has been a desire of mine for many years. Basically the sujihiki is a long slicer, thin and great for such tasks as removing skin, filleting fish etc. I have a slicer that B bought me years ago, which is a wonderful knife, this one is just a little longer and of higher quality. Given that I am going to be working so much with fish and meat, this knife is going to come in handy.

The second knife is as well 10.5" and is a gyotou, or a western style chef knife. What most people typically envision when they think of a chef knife, but again with the layered steel and a nicer handle. I have a couple of chef knives, and I really didn't probably need this one, but with how much I have loved my petty, I couldn't resist.

I also ordered some knife oil, which should be applied to blades that are rarely used, and a cleaning cloth. I don't really know what the cloth is for, or better put how it differs from a common rag. A three dollars I didn't really see any reason not to buy it, especially considering how much I use my knives.

Alright time to start... Or at least in 5 minutes or so.

Employed again.

2006-09-12T13:02:00.000-07:00

So my long stint at being unemployed is coming to an end in a couple of days. I got hired at what I consider to be one of the best restaurants in the cities. The owner/chef seems really cool and with a good head on his shoulders, something I can respect. He is willing to work around my school schedule, which is awesome. There really wasn't a position open, but he hired me anyway. The situation is pretty much ideal, blocks away from the campus and I am just going to be there to pick up the slack. I don't think I could have planned a more ideal job.

Anyway I am off to the library, lots of studying to do.

2006-09-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

Question.

How is it that now when the weather is turning for the worse I am having such difficulty finding my damn hoodies.

Like where is my black hoodie?

Where is my other black hoodie?

Where is my light blue hoodie?

Where is my dark blue hoodie?

Where is my white (t-shirt) hoodie?

Perfect hooded sweatshirt weather and I cannot find a single one, WTF?

Try to stay ahead.

2006-09-07T19:45:00.000-07:00

In an effort not to get behind this semester, I just finished writing two little papers and have most of the reading done for next week. The papers were quick and painless, always a good thing. I am still thinking I am going to have to drop one of my classes, especially since I don't know how long my extended period of unemployment is going to be sustainable. Don't get me wrong, having the time and ability to focus on school and only school is nice, cash is one of the evils of our society. Necessary evil that it may be, I am going to have to start searching with more diligence here shortly.

On a lighter note, I decided what one large purchase I am going to do with all the money from selling my house. In my mind it is more of an investment than purely a frivolous expenditure. An investment that should add to my general state of mind, as well as one that will probably not lose it's value, in fact it may increase. I am going to buy a painting from this guy a friend of a friend who I see all over the place. I fell in love with his paintings a while back when he had a show at the BLB, but back then it wasn't something I could justify spending lots of cash on. Back when I had to worry about rent and mortgage both, I couldn't justify the expense. Now things are a little different, I know I will find a job, just a matter of time and my bills are so cheap, why not. I would have liked to have purchased some from the show, but 19/20 sold on opening night.

Sweet I just found a picture of the painting....

In case you are all wondering, he is the guy who painted that big mural on the new Dun(n) Bro's accross from the BLB...

Gunna ned tu lern ho ta red

2006-09-06T18:17:00.000-07:00

Today was my second full fledged day as a student, and boy oh boy am I going to be a busy little boy this semester. I had 3 classes today, which aren't incredibly difficult on their own, but combined with the others my leisure time is going to be full. Altogether for my classes I am going to need to buy a total of 20 books, plus 3 thick photo copied packets. On average I have to look forward to reading somewhere in the area of 200-400 pages a week, maybe more. Plus all of the classes require quite a bit of writing, two of the classes are writing intensive. It is going to be a fun school year I can already see. I am thinking about dropping one of the classes, just to make sure I can do well at all of them, shake the rust off this semester.

I heard back from one of the places I applied to yesterday. Little cafe in NE, not far from the river. Their business has been picking up quite a bit lately, so although they were not looking for someone they might just take me on. What they have in mind for me doesn't seem all that bad, basically a butcher, clean fish, ducks, rabbits, etc. The cool thing about this gig would be that I would be done nice and early in the day, and I wouldn't have to deal with the dinner rush like the rest of the cooks do. Plus this restaurant has been one of my favorites in the cities for a number of years. Who knows though, things often fall through.

In other news, I am still on the wagon... Just two days and already I have lost 3# no kidding. Give me two months and I am certain I will be down another 20 or so.

First day of School.

2006-09-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

Well it is official now, I am once again a full fledged student. Even as I knew it was approaching, it still didn't seem real until I was sitting in my classes, listening to lectures and once again turning a section of my brain on that has long laid dormant. Already with just the two classes I had today, the writing and reading responsibilities are going to be enormous, and I still have 3 more classes tomorrow, egads. This just reiterates the fact that there is no was I would have been able to maintain this level of a course load and still work a full-time job, not possible. As is I have a feeling I am going to be busting my butt every week just to keep on top of things, add to that the stress of work like I was doing before, I would be a wreck.

Out of nowhere I decided to have a little BBQ yesterday, end of the summer send off, labor day whatever. It was hastily planned at best, but still about 25 people (A few of whom I didn't even invite) showed up and we quickly ran out of food. I thawed out the last Kobe Beef round from my freezer and once again marinated it with miso, ginger, soy and plenty of garlic. The 2 cases of PBR I figured would be enough, but the well ran dry early in the night. It was probably for the best though, I had to wake up early enough for school, best that I not be hungover for it.

But still no job, though I did send my resume off to 4 places today. I don't know how fruitful any of the places will end up being, considering I have no idea if any of them are even hiring. I just picked 4 places that I know I would like to work at and started from there. Worse comes to worse I don't have a job and have to mooch off of loans and house money for a little longer, I can imagine worse situations.

Closed and Finished.

2006-09-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

Sitting around and waiting.

Right now I (we) are just sitting in the room where we just signed all the paper work to legally pass ownership to the lucky fellow who is going to be inhabiting my old house. Why are we still here you may be asking? We are just sitting waiting for the wire transfer to be complete so that we can hit up the bank and finally be done with the entire house ordeal. They money was already transfered once, but there was one number that wasn't correct, meaning it had to be remitted and sent once again. Hopefully for the sake of all of us, it won't be that much longer, with the big black leather chairs and bland off colored walls, I might just go insane soon. Added to the aggrevation is the fact that the people who are responcible for checking if the wire has gone through are all at lunch, the same that we just came back from. I guess I have waited for this long, no problem waiting a little longer. After all what is a couple of hours extra, it has been months upon months that this day has been coming.

Interesting thing about the new owner, he is young, like really young. He is just 25 years old, but somehow makes enough money to support a mortgage payment much higher than the one that my ex and I sometimes struggled to pay. He got the money for the down payment from an old job he worked at a couple of years ago. I guess he was working for some internet startup company, that sold for a couple of million. The old owners were nice enough to pass on a decent chunk of change to all the employees, so even though he was new he still got somewhere around 20k. Talk about nice owners.

I did warn him that I may drunkenly wander into his yard, sit myself on the porch with a bottle of whiskey in my hand and a half lit cigar. I told him it may be best to invest in a cattle prod, just to get me to leave. I drank a beer on the deck last night, got the few little things left and just sighed a little, knowing I no longer was going to have the liberty to do so. Sure I am getting a little sappy, fuck off.

I sent my resume to the U, they were hiring for some food service job, nothing spectacular but 100% free school. Not five minutes after I sent the resume, I got a phone call from the nice lady who handles all the hiring. I had a interview setup for nice and early this morning, which was interesting. Right when I get there they pass me a piece of paper with 4 little doodles on it. They task was to identify the pictures and describe what situations you would use said item. The pictures were of a knife, gloves, fire extinguisher, and goggles. Really who in the hell wouldn't know what to use that stuff for, silly. The lady was really nice and wanted to find something that they could utilize my skills and abilities. I liked her right away, the danskos and MT sweatshirt was enough to win me over. It really wasn't meant to be though, they need someone to work full time, far more hours than I would be able to commit to. That and the fact that they only had positions open during the morning hours.

But it looks like the check is here, I should probably get going and concentrate on what is going on around me.

just a little update, all went well and now the check is in the bank and the house is the responcibility of some other poor sucka.

Alvin, Simon, Theodore?

2006-08-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to get around to posting this for a while, but until yesterday it had been slipping my mind. So a little over a week ago I was stopping over at the house to check on things, pack up some remaining glasswear, just basically doing my duty as a homeowner. Right after I pull into the driveway, hop out of the cab and start to walk up the sidewalk I notice something. There just quivering on the siderwalk is a little chipmunk, tiny little guy not doing anything but sitting there. It isn't that common to see a chipmunk in the city, usually they run so fast that I can only recall a handful of times where I have actually seen one around. The other peculiar thing about this particular stationary (but living) chipmunk, was the wet circle all around the poor little guy. Walking right next to him I could see that his was scared, although for some reason he lacked the energy or drive to run away from me. I spent a couple of hours packing things up, mostly decorative wine glasses which I had been leaving just to spruce the place up a little, encourage buyers that sort of crap. Leaving the house I see the animal still there, still scared, fresh urine stain. I left and didn't think much of it.

Fast forward to yesterday, as I was finishing up the remaining duties that the house is going to require of me, I was back at the house. It took me a while to notice it, at first it looked like a little pile of leaves. There, not 3 feet from where I saw the chipmunk last was a dried out skeleton covered with maggots, flies and fur. Poor little guy, must have gotten into some poison or something, that would explain how fast the body dried out. Imagine spending your final hour on a bleak section of sidewalk in south Minneapolis, baking in the hot sun and unable to move from your own defication. Crappy way to die if you ask me.

Final.

2006-08-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

For some reason the wifi in my apartment building isn't working right now, I cannot really check it considering that it is over in my neighbor's apartment. So given that I am sitting at the ch@tterbox back over in my old hood. It has been a while since the last time I was here, the beer isn't cheap enough, and the location just doesn't entice me enough to head this direction. The only thing (aside from hunger panes) that is attracting me here right now is the wifi. It never really changes here, the same servers (different hair color though) and the normal lunch crowd.

So I am still unemployed, though I am set to start a job sometime next week. Over at up$ being a package thrower, which I am beginning to realize might not be the easiest or funnest job I have ever had. Now that I am hired and slated to start, I am having a few reservations. The pay is low enough that I am barely going to be scraping by, actually I am going to have to dip into the cash from selling the house each month just to pay my bills. The tuition and insurance are the only things that make the job worth having, but I am starting to wonder if that is enough. Really right now I have enough cash to tide me over for a couple of months, being employed or not. So I might just start applying to some other places, hopefully something other than kitchen work will present itself. The sad thing is that I know I would be able to get the highest wage doing just that, cooking again.

The last couple of days have been spent doing nothing but reading, I have started and finished 3 books in the past 5 days. I don't know how much they really count though, all are books that I have read at least once before. I just wanted to get my mind into the habit of reading again, taking 17 credits for sure is going to require lots of reading on my part. I have rediscovered my love of Vonnegut, somehow I forgot how fun his books are to read.

This morning was spent mostly finishing up cleaning of the house. The final mowing and clearing out the basement of the empty paint cans and aerosol products that we had been collecting over the years. Right now there is hardly anything left, except some old window blinds and the paint cans full or half full corresponding to the colors still throughout the house. The closing is in just a couple of days, so I want to make sure that I have everything out of there before that happens. It is a little difficult to imagine not having the house anymore, 5 and a half years now it has been ours, crazy to think it gone.

So tip my hat and drink (even though it be just water) to the old casita, you will be missed
and we had some good times.

A little side note, anyone wanting to buy old Felipe a drink had better in the next week or so. Once school starts I am planning to be riding the sober train. I don't need to be wasting 5k a semester just to have my mind fuzzy.

Weather.

2006-08-24T16:47:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to give all you readers accross the country a little glimse into the fun weather we are all sitting through right now in the twin cities. That really dark red part is as I type passing over my apartment. Fun shit. Lets just hope that the power doesn't get kicked off before I finish typing this.

Well there really hasn't been much going on, I have not been working for almost a week and a half and really I am starting to get the hang of relaxing. There aren't really that many projects left to do around the apartment, so most of my leisure time is being spent either reading, watching movies or cooking.

Meals cooked in the last 24 hours.

Last night, pasta with a saffron eggplant sauce and lots of fresh chevre and EVOO.
This morning, steel cut oatmeal with vanilla soymilk, organic french vanilla yogurt (tastes like freakin ice cream)
Lunch, lots of sausage, salami, olives, pita and chevre bought from a mid afternoon run to Bill's Imported foods.
Dinner tonight shrimp spring rolls, fresh variety no the greasy ass fried ones. Lots of cilantro, somen noodles, shredded carrots, garlic and ginger. Did a little run by United Noodle on my way back from Bills.

I have to try my best to conserve my cash, no job will do that to a guy. At least my rent is dirt cheap, and I should be (fingers crossed knocking on wood here) closing on the house September 1st.

Speaking of Jobs I had another interview at Up$ this afternoon. The lady who I talked too seemed super eager to get me to work there. She kept on talking about these other things I could do, like be a saturday truck driver, supervise the rest of the package handlers etc. It might not be a bad gig delivering for that company, the full time drivers earn about 60-70k a year.

Serious about school

2006-08-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

So I did a little digging into the UMN class schedule and got myself signed up for what just might be one heck of a return back to the education process. Currently I am enrolled for 17 credits, which I tell myself I should be able to handle. Sure I have been out of school at least full time status since 2001, but I tend to have (too much?) confidence in most everything I do. It just seems silly paying 5k a semester to not take as many classes as possible. They have thing thing now at the U where anything over 13 credits is a flat fee. So basically it is like I am getting a class for free, big bonus. I have 45 credits right now, and if I stay on about this track I will only have to pay for three semesters worth of schooling, at least for my undergrad. This semester will finally tie up all the loose ends for the CLA requirements, leaving just my major requirements and testing out of freshman comp. Had I known it was this easy I would have went back to school years ago.

Oh and I wrote a big ass post about my breakfast full of pictures of juicy corn pancakes that blogger seems to have misplaced... Bitch.

One hell of a day.

2006-08-20T13:35:00.000-07:00

So lets just start with the bad... That is my knee all dirty with plenty of dried blood. Yes I did have a little crash last night on my bike, yes beer/sparks may have been involved just a little bit. I admit my riding skills may have been a little impaired, but I would like to place blame upon this guy.

He (Roger?) and I were riding back to the soap factory from Grumpy's NE and we took a "short cut" through a parking lot. Turning left off of that cobble stone road down by St. Anthony Main, there was a bunch of loose dirty/gravel which I couldn't see. Roger just plowed right over it, I on the other hand had the wheels of the Merckx slip out from under me and landed hard on my left knee. No major damage, just some road rash, nothing I haven't done before. Luckily as I am sure you are all waiting with tense anticipation, the Merckx is just fine.

Lets rewind to the begining...

After getting the free breakfast at the t-rock, I headed home for a little while, did some laundry and got myself nice and hydrated. Like I said yesterday, the bike is nice and shiny, quite the beauty. I headed back to the t-rock to meet and ride with Bryan, Pink Pigtails, and Lando (i.e. Frodo). I got there just in time as they were all standing and about to leave when I rolled up. We took it nice and slow to CRC, they had all just had a couple of drinks and some food. Anyone who frequents the place can attest that being in such condition after the t-rock just isn't that condusive to fast bike riding. Pink was riding the pugsley as well, 3.7" tires while they can roll over just about anything, aren't the best for speed. I didn't care, I was just enjoying being on the bike.

We pulled up to CRC and there was the starting of a crowd showing up. At this point there was maybe 25-30 people, nothing to scoff at, but no where near the numbers that would eventually arrive. The free beer didn't start showing for about 15 minutes, so I bummed one off of my bro and took some swills off of Bryan's sparks. The people starting showing up, something fierce. Next thing we know there is well over 100 of us, probably closer to 200 just hanging out attacking the free premium when I was opened.

This pic doesn't really show the full magnitude, but you get the idea.

We all started up Bryant, headed the direction of the greenway.

There got to be a little bottle neck going down the entrance to the greenway, especially with the tight turn at the bottom nobody really was pushing it, probably for the best.

I noticed I had a severe lack of beer, so myself and 3 other bikers who I sort of know all busted ass to the front. We were not able to pull in front of the pace bike, or else risk a fate of being a victim of some serious derby casualty. The only person who I saw that got attacked was Lando, but that was a little more down the road. We stopped at MGM just off the trail and filled our bags up with a case of PBR and about a half dozen sparks. I didn't mean to, but I think I actually got all that beer for free. I used the card and people just started shoving cash into my hands, I tried to give some back but no one was accepting it. At very most I spent 4 dollars on a bag full of beer. Now we were a little ways behind, so I put the hammer down and rushed down the trail towards downtown. It took a good 3 miles at a +20 mph pace to catch up, the lead was just that great. At this point we took the curly ped bridge.

On the other side we all pulled off into the hobo camp.

I caught these two making out, I have the feeling that there might be a jealous crosscheck somewhere.

I used to see this guy down at Coastal all the time, he was spinning at the Montana later in the day. Everyone just had a good time and enjoyed sitting in the city forest for a while.

We all rode downtown to 1x1 where there was a keg promised as well as a DJ and the slight possibility of some derby action. The keg fried pretty quick, I was too impatient to wait in line so although I had a cup I just drank the beer in my bag. I convinced Amy C to get her wares from her space in the building behind 1x1, though it was kind of like pulling teeth to motivate her. Not sure what the problem was, 200 bikers and her undies and t-shirts with bicycle stuff all over, talk about knowing your market.

We went to the Montana at that point, where there wasn't as much derby action but skid comps, more beer and general trouble causing.

From the Montana we started riding towards Behind Bars. I got a flat on my rear wheel (damn cheap ass continental tire), the siblings all stopped and provided moral support (and CO2) while I wrestled with the tight bead of a new tire. At Behind Bars, I borrowed a floor pump and drained out all the CO2. I think I might have been close to out of beer at this point, more a deal of giving them away than drinking myself. Josh was kind enough to let me use his bathroom, just 2 doors down. He also gave me a couple of beers which was very kind. As we were walking out of the parking lot, we see everyone yelling about this kid who was stealing someone's bike. The poor kid didn't make if far away from such a big group of bikers, and zito(sp?) just held him and told him that we were calling the cops. There was no intention of actually doing so, but just that ten minutes had to be enough to scare him into thinking twice about stealing another bike. Funny thing, the bike the kid took was Josh's, and probably (his words) the cheapest piece of shit of the hundred or so bikes there.

We left BB and headed to the soap factory, at this time it was a little dark. Roger was leading, but I was right behind keeping up on the dirt trails on the road bike. That is twice this week I have done minor off-roading on a bike not at all suited for it. We were all thinking that the Soap Factory was going to be the same deal, free beer and general party atmosphere. Turns out there was a 15 dollar cover, though I didn't know this and I just burst past the guards and set my bike on side and walked in. There were some of my ex-b-wood employees that started laughing and I swear I heard them say "That's Phil for you", what the fuck does that mean? Well it took me just a couple of minutes before I noticed that no one else was coming inside, so I left. We all just hung out in the street and did some dark very drunken derbying, of which I was drunk enough to think was a good idea. Lucky I don't think anyone got in any serious accidents, but I wasn't paying close enough attention. We all started shouting (by all I mean myself and some girl) about how lame it was to have to pay 15 dollars, so someone came up and gave us a talking to. Bad bikers, bad.

So after that I just rode to Grumpy's with some people, at which point I realized it was a terrible idea to drink anything else. I even turned down a free pbr tall boy and opted for riding home instead. I had my little accident on the way, and saw evil chuck and my friend Sam at the Soap Factory. Sam was leaving and she lives in my 'hood so we road together blood spilling down my leg and everything. Sam was nice enough to feed me some cold Luce, which at that point was quite needed.

All and all it was one hell of a night, probably ranks in the top ten, at least in recent memory.

This morning even I woke up not feeling that wasted or hung over, lucky I cut myself off when I did. I was in good enough shape to ride downtown and buy some produce from the farmer's market before riding back home. I stopped by Freewh eel to buy a new rear tire, I just hate theat continental on there, they gave me the employee discount which after tax was like 23 dollars for a 30 dollar tire and 2 five dollar tubes. Awesome. Bought myself a little KimChi and the fixins for some spring rolls, so Felipe is gonna be eating good tonight.

P.S. you can see all the pictures here http://flickr.com/photos/cheffelipe/

Bike Cleaning/Free Breakfast.

2006-08-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

So I just spent the last hour or so cleaning up ye ole merckx. The gears were feeling a little gritty, probably something to do with being stuck out in the rain a couple of times. Now the bike sparkles nice and clean just waiting for the big bike ride tonight. I did use the hose to get the grit and dirt out from the cassette, I just didn't really have any other way aside from removing the wheel and dissasempling the whole damn thing. I wasn't using enough pressure to hurt the sealed cartridge bearings, and now after everything is nice and dry the whole drivetrain feels and sounds much better. It had just been too long since I had done it and I don't have much else to occupy my time right now.

Jer/Kim and I all met up for b-fast at the t-rock this morning. Being the poor broke jobless SOB that I am I didn't actually order anything, just ate off of the left overs from my siblings. Even after all of us had our fill, there was some food that hit the garbage. Pink Pigtails was kind enough to give me coffee on the house, so I didn't end up spending a cent, which is good because the only cash I had was of the plastic variety.

After breakfast I hit up three different bike shops looking for a cell phone holder for my new banjo brothers bike bag. If anyone knows where I would be able to locate on please fill me in.

Anyone else, see you on the CRC ride in about an hour and a half.

Day Three.

2006-08-18T18:54:00.000-07:00

Things are looking grim.

Three days with no work and I am running out of ways to occupy my time. Ok well that isn't entirely true, there is always drinking and riding bikes, that seems to be a recurring theme in my life as of late. Still no job, I keep looking though.

They did call me in for orientation at the big downtown restaurant that is opening up in a couple of weeks. That could be an incredible place to work, but I have a feeling that they are so over staffed that they aren't even really going to need me much. Also I am not sure how I feel about having a job with such a high stress level why I am trying to go to school. I have an interview at UPS monday night, just simple baggage handler position, nothing to write home about. The pay really isn't all that good, but the fact that you get benefits with just 20 hours a week looks mighty attractive. They also have a program where you can get like 3000 a year in tuition reimbursement, that helps.

Given that my rent is so dirt cheap, I should have no problem supporting myself with less income. The really should be focusing hard on school right now, just get the shit done and over with.

Aside from that there really isn't much going on in my life, I am unemployed and starting to feel a bit bored.

Heh.

2006-08-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, like I was saying I got an offer this last weekend on the house. It wasn't the best offer, but really I was getting to a point of desperation and desire to just be done with the house/marriage/old life. There are things that I want to do that are being put on hold until the house is in the past. So that said I was happy to get an offer in the first place. Everything was on track for my (ex)sister-in-law to sign with power of attorney at 10:30 this morning. I get a call at 10:40 from our real estate agent, someone heard that there was an offer on the house and stepped up to the plate and entered another offer. For the next two hours I was working the line and in a constant state of (flux?) anticipation wondering how the new offer would stack up to the previous one. I finally get the call and hear the good new, it is close but better enough that we would be stupid not to accept. Just 30 minutes later I sit at a table and am signing once again the paper work. Both of the buyers are single males, which means if nothing else a further gentrification of the neighborhood. You have to be making a good sum of cash to be able to afford a place by yourself in this market, far more than jobless felipe is going to be making anytime soon. The newest buyer is really excited about the place, which makes me think he will take better care of it. The last buyer seemed pretty aloof as to if we would even accept the offer or not, he may have just been playing hardball but still. Another good point is that this new buyer is ready to close anytime after september 1st, so in just over 2 weeks I may be able to think back upon the house as little more than a fond memory.

So I was going to try and find a picture to post here today from my iphoto library...

This is the best I could come up with...

Houses, Spinach and Bikes.

2006-08-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

OK I read somewhere that putting pictures throughout text really makes the reader far more interested in what is being written. I guess there is some validity to that, I like looking at photos as much as the next guy. That being said I am going to be putting a few little pictures here and there, starting right now.

That right there is from a couple of SNR's ago, a giant branch fell and I went to inspect things while everyone else headed to a party. This little branch decided it wanted to live between my chain and cassette, nice branch.

Ok first off the house. I was planning on going out for the race yesterday, not that I was going to do very well mind you, but just race for the fun of it. Right after I had put on my spandex salsa shorts and skin tight shirt complete with wicking action I get a call. The real estate agent was on the phone, seems we had an offer (finally) on the house. So instead of making a fool of myself husting just to keep up, I rode downtown and worked a little business. The offer wasn't great, but in this market anything is better than most get. We countered of course, but that didn't yield any results, the buyer knew that things are in his favor as I am sure I would do in the same situation. Funny how when we bought the house 6 years ago, there were at least 3 offers with the house being on the market for just 1 day. Fast forward to now, the house has been on the market almost 2 months and this is the first market. We had to bid 15k over the asking price, just to assure ourselves victory, this guy did near opposite. So the good part is that the house is going to be sold, just one month longer of paying rent and mortgage and then I am done.

That picture above is all of us drinking on the lowry bridge, right before Jammin and I headed to 112 for the best dang burger I have ever eaten.

Spinach, Green beans, Banana (organic even), Yellow Tomatoes, Shallots, and Purple bell peppers were all part of the bounty scored by yours truely down at the farmers market this morning. Huge amounts of everything, and at a total expenditure of 8 dollars, fuk'n crazy.

After we hit the T-Rock up for the mother trucker, enough to be shared by two and for both to leave extra full.

Yeah um, my bike going down the greenway a couple of days ago, who doesn't have one of these pictures somewhere on their blog. Sheesh.

As for bikes I don't remember what I was going to type about, so how about this, bikes are uber cool that should be good enough.

I swear half of the biking community have seen that sign, if not more probably more.

That right there is my new friend Tom fixing a flat. I wouldn't have known him if it wasn't for Bike Love . We hooked up after I was at the library, he posted something about wanting to go for an afternoon ride and I was just sitting at the library so out we went. There was a some flatting of tires, but that can be expected. His first patched tube failed right after install, luckily we were both running 700/23 so I just passed a tube his way. After riding we hit Luce for some 2 dollar PBR and then T-Rock for some burgers and more beers. Getting home I was so bloated and full of beer and grease that I just passed out at around 6pm, not really being of much value the rest of the night. It was fun though, thanks again Tom, we for sure will be riding again soon.

Down at the library again.

2006-08-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

Must say, I quite dig the public library. Not that I have not said this before, but the more I visit the more I enjoy the place. Granted the color scheme of the carpets leaves a little to be desired, but the general aesthetic is pleasing and homey. Right now I am sitting on the second floor typing on my laptop. Gazing out the corner over looking 3rd st and hennepin, the windows have to be 14' tall. The city of Minneapolis has been sinking some cashola into some fine projects over the last couple of years. Light rail, library, sears building remodel, lake street revamp, greenway, etc. Minneapolis is becoming a more enjoyable place to live, especially now that we are finally getting more decent restaurants.

I took the normal greenway/kenilworth trail out here, fast and easy if even just a few miles. I am toying with the idea of putting some more miles on tonight, depends all upon how I feel later. I have just 3 days left at the b-wood, and after that I am going to be sans dinero for a little while.

(insert Amy C just rode by, I don't remember that blue bike LHT? /insert)

I did work a little last night at the club on campus, easy very slow work. I think I would be interested if the caliber of the food was a bit higher. Funny how when I was running the kitchen at the country club in the suburbs I constantly was depressed that I couldn't do better food, and compared to what we were doing there, our food was awesome. Now wonder they didn't want me to quit when I did. Something about buying pre-scooped butter balls for banquets just turns me off, as well as having the tomatoes stored in the cooler. So although that would be the highest paying job, I just don't think I could take it, the chef too expressed his concerns that I would get bored.

I smashed my pinky quite nicely yesterday, tossing a heavy box of cups onto the top of a 7' metro shelving unit. Somehow my finger got caught underneath the box and on top of the corner. Not only did I get a big bruise, but a 1/2 dime sized chunk got ripped, leaving a bloody flapping mess. I never realized how much I used my left pinky while typing, but I am sure slower right now.

They have me line cooking my next to last day at the cafe, in the morning. I think it is a big plot to demasculate el jefe, but la duena claims that not to be so.

Hmm should I waste the 2 bucks it is going to cost to see the da vinci code tonight at the riverview? Hmmmm, probably not. Or I guess I could always go see the romantic drama with keanu and sandra, my heart strings could use a little tugging.

Lastly seems the days of the metrosexual are over, all of us ball scratching beer swilling perverts can rejoice, sissy boys everywhere beware.

2006-08-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

work sucks but really we have to get it done.

Ok well just yesterday I turned in a couple of applications in my seemingly never ending pursuit towards being gainfully employed. First being a little restaurant just about a mile from my house, the next being the big hotel opening up in a bit downtown. Both I have fairly high hopes for the both of them, small vs. large, local vs. connections all over the US. I have had a pretty dang high level of respect for both places as well, even though the later still has yet to be opened. I am not really sure which I would prefer, and really it might dictate how the rest of my life both professionaly and in all other aspects.

Think about it, if I take the job in the big new hot restaurant, I would more than likely develop ties and little sticky fingers all over the country. If I wanted a job in Las Vegas, I would almost be assured that it would be mine before I even found an apartment. Not to mention the sheer amount of culinary knowledge that I would learn, just being in the place. There is an enormous amount of pressure on the place to deliver and step up to the plate being up among the best that our quaint twin cities have to offer.

The next place is run by an avid bike geek, big props in my book there.

The food is good, but nothing I haven't done before, just "making the donuts".

After my the two submissions of my applications, I had to head to work and do the whole closing night shift ordeal. The worst part about the passing on of my duties onto the rest of the staff, is that I am no longer in total control. I guess I am a little of an anal control freak, who would have thunk it. But I just have precious few days left and then I don't have to worry about the cafe anymore, que bueno.

So I closed, E2 made some whiskey sours for myself and June, July, August and I fell fast asleep. Couple of hours later I wake up and open the cafe, 6:15 am. It was one of those typically busy days, a little crazy but nothing we weren't able to handle. The dairy boys slipped a little getting the hand cart over a bump and two gallons of milk went tumbling down the stairs to the basement, each step letting out a little bit of their payload. We were left with a basement full of milk and stairs that needed a good bleach moping.

Half way through my shift I hear the tell tale sign of a voicemail, signaling that one of the two places was giving me a call. Not bad, less than 24 hours and a call. Worked a bit longer, made pretty tasty pureed summer fruit soup chock full of melons, pineapple, mango and big chunks of kiwi (just for color).

Again the phone rings.

The big place is giving me a call, they want an interview today... Um ok.

So I was able to leave a little early, I am still after all the boss people still have to listen to me when I put down the mandates (little do they know). Rushed home, got myself all beautified and jumped on the merckx for my quick little jaunt downtown. The interview went well, actually real well being as how he offered me a job. I accepted, but am not going to close the doors on any of the other little things I have working right now, knowing that sometimes things just fall through. Again insert anal bastard here, I like to have all of my bases covered, little gets left to chance.

So that is what I have to mull over for the next couple of days, compounded by the fact that I still have not turned off the posibility of the other jobs calling me and offering me a position. Really I know I should have a job by now but I feel like I am holding out for that "perfect" position.

Keep you posted.

Dinero.

2006-08-05T17:47:00.000-07:00

I am finding myself just a tad bit worried about the near future, still no secure full time position and just a scant 10 days left of gainfull employment. Egads! Compound that with the fact that my house hasn't sold yet and I might just find myself in a tough situation here soon. Though I do have 10 full days to pimp my resume around, I should be able to find at least a line cooking job in that time.

Crazy busy again at work today, right at the turn from b-fast to lunch is when the line started backing up near to the door. Something about having to cook the two just makes our job that much more difficult. Everyone worked like a champ and we ended the day unscathed.

After work a couple of us were going to help our my new across the street neighbor lift her bed up onto a raised landing. The steep angle of the stairs in this particular house just don't let you bring up even a full size box spring. Thadeo was going to drive the two of us over to the new place, even if it is just 4 blocks. Sadly Thadeo's buick just didn't feel like turning over. Closer inspection and a call to El Padre helped nail down the issue. Some relay in the fuse box was firing even with the ignition switch off therefore draining the battery to nothing. Being the good boss I am, I got my truck and after some effort and scraping of terminals and correctly applying the jumper cables started the car. At this point I recommended he not help us lift the mattress, instead just get him self someplace ASAP. Last thing I wanted to do was have to start the car again, and as long as it was running there was enough power being generated that even a faulty relay wouldn't be able to drain.

The lifting of the mattress went ok, I was able to do most of the lifting myself, but I am good at that heavy lifting manual labor shit.

I still don't know how I feel about another group of b-wood employees moving in accross the street. In a 3 block radius there are at least 10 former or current b-wood employees. Just the night before last I was sitting inoccently in my living room listening to The Shins on my record player when I hear this faint nasal "Phil!". At first I thought I may have been imagining things, but then it came again "Phil!" same nasally women's voice. Not knowing who was shouting at me I meekly waved, this resulted in what was certainly alchohol induced laughter. So my new neighbors can see into my apartment, great, no more walking around nude.

Last but not least in this semi-long winded entry...

I got my wallet back finally. Remember how I dropped it in a parking lot up north a bit over a month ago? Well playing phone tag with the man who found it, I eventually got to talk to him in person and he sent me the lost billfold. All of the cards had been canceled withing 1 hour of losing the wallet, naturally so there was no need to be excited about that. I did get my video shop membership back, as well as my U card and all of the cash I had. There was 82 dollars still in the wallet when I got it back, which is about what I figured I had. I wasn't certain about how much cash I had to start with, or how much I had spent on the road up north. Silly honest north country lutherans, I would have taken those cards and gotten myself a hooker in vegas, seriously folks.

Well I have tofu roasting in the oven I should take a look at as well as a sparks just sitting on the coffee table waiting for me to partake.

Nap Time.

2006-08-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

None of you are probably going to care that much, but I think it might just be nap time. I am still feeling a little sore from riding yesterday, very apparent when I rode the 10 miles to NE and back for another J.O.B. possibility. I was going slow, very slow. I think at best I was averaging 16 mph, which isn't that great. Honestly I don't know if I did much better yesterday, but whatever.

I think I have gotten a little too much sun, my face is cherry and there is a nice defined line gracing my arm where my bike jersey hits. I still have bunches and bunches to do, but everything is going to have to wait a while.

sleepy

soo sleepy

*yawn*

crash.

More biking.

2006-08-03T08:49:00.000-07:00

So I did head up NE for trivia.

There wasn't that many of us cyclists, which was sad considering the first category was "bicycles" just for Pink Pigtails and Bryan. I showed up around the tail end of the contest, so I was only able to contribute for one category Aaron Spelling Bee.

Afterwards we decided to partake of the one sparks and OE 24oz Malt Beverage up on the Lowry bridge. The view was spectacular, and it was quite the ideal place to drink a beer on a decidedly cooler summer evening.

At that point we split off, Jammin and I towards the direction of downtown and everyone else on home. I was a little hungry, all that bike riding had burned through the 2 pc of pizza and turkey sandwich I had eaten. We stopped by 112 Eatery where I had what had to be one of the best burgers ever. Fried in butter and topped with brie, it was just awesome, crispy where it should be and juicy where it should be. I really cannot think of a place anywhere in the cities where you can get food of that quality up until 1:00 am. We weren't even the only table in the place, which for that late is saying something.

From there I just rode back home, faster than I should have. There must have been a tail wind or something pushing me home, because those last 2 miles were zippy.

Adding up the rest of yesterdays bicycling I put in just over 47 miles, and my legs are feeling it.

Bikin

2006-08-02T18:51:00.000-07:00

Hey.

here is what I rode today

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=338219

At least so far. I still have to get up to Grumpy NE for Trivia and some more drinking. Though I don't know how well I will fare at either. I got enough miles in today that I don't really feel like I need to push it anymore. Honestly, after I get back from NE, I am guessing I will have put the most miles on in a day this year, which is really sad when I think about it.

I stopped at 4 bike shops today, count em, 4.

The first was Hiawatha, just because I finally bit the bullet and got myself a new messenger bag. Supporting local business I chose the Banjo Brothers bag, mostly because it sported the laptop sleeve. The bag is nice, far nicer than the timbuk2 I have been rocking for the last 3+ years since hereNT passed it onto me.

Along Minnehaha Ave I noticed a little bump each tire rotation, which isn't a good thing. Closer inspection revealed that I had a big bulge in my tire. I took a quick little detour north and hit up Nokomis for a cheap tire, which in my book is better than a expensive tire with a big bulge in it like I was rocking. All they had were cheap ass continentals, but that was better than nothing. Being a new tire it took me longer than normal to seat on the rim, but eventually I was on my way.

I met up with Jamin down at Caffettos, he had the day off and was down for some riding. Double shot of espresso and Izzy's clementine later we are on the trail heading towards hopkins. The ride was pretty uneventful, just enjoying the respite from the summer heat and racing the few people who caught up to us. There was one guy time trialing (his words) on some carbon trek that both Jamin and I took turns passing. He seemed like a nice guy and without a doubt was able to maintain a higher rate of speed for a longer time than us, but we raced the bitch anyway.

Insert Luce for some happy hour beer and slices here.

We hit 1x1 to adjust Jamin's brakes, they just told us the cantilevers needed a little lube. C. was working the espresso machine, so I got myself another double. Lubing up the brakes didn't yield much in terms of results, back on the bikes we went.

Hit up Freewheel for a little help from PW and J. They were both working, but J was teaching some sort of class. PW did a number on Jamin's brakes, about a bazillion (favorite word) times better. Turns out J's girlfriend has been trying to get ahold of me for some BBQ'n over here at my little casita. Soon I think I am going to have to have more people over. I still have a chunk of Kobe beef in my freezer just waiting to be devoured.

Coming home I see Summer, Laura, Liz, and Chris all just hanging out enjoying the weather. This neighborhood is getting really inbred, I swear I know half of the people on the block.

Well now I should hop in the shower and get myself cleaned up and ready to go out again. Damn I love summer.

2006-07-31T20:05:00.000-07:00

Ok that is the route I took from the co-op to the Riverview this evening. Nothing special right? Considering it was 101 when I left the house, and the entire route took me 18 minutes, I don't feel that bad about it. Average of 23.3 MPH isn't great, but for me it is ok, I am not exactly the fastest person on the planet.

Seems like I have been riding lots in this oppressive heat.

The satuday night ride was hot, and fun. We ended up pushing ourselves far further than we probably should have, something about L wining the NE race just got him all riled up. Even half drunk/stoned (not I) we were keeping pace faster than I would have normally expected. There were new people, old people and lots of fun. At one point I was able to squeeze a steady stream of liquid from the nylon strap which keeps the helmet secured to my noggin. It was just that hot. I was keeping it low on the whole drinking end of things, I am at least smart enough to know that it is dangerous to drink heavily while physically active in temps over 95.

At one point we were all stopped so bjorn could fix a flat, right by minnehaha creek and chicago. There resounded this thunderous crash about 25 yards away, like a tree getting chopped down. Inspection revealed that one of the cotton wood trees that thrive on the wet conditions on the bank of the creek had lost one of it's larger branches. Not just a little branch, this one came from about 30 feet off of the ground, far up high. This heat, the lack of rain and low rivers I am sure contributed somewhat to the falling of the branch. Something screwy is going on with the climate, don't really know what to make of it.

My mattress has been moved into my living room, under the chill of a 8000+ btu AC unit. The little guy I had in my bedroom has something wrong with it, the water from the condenser is just dripping onto the window ledge, which has be afraid of causing some long term damage. The rest of my apartment is nice and frosty.

I still don't have a job, just 2 weeks left and still nothing solidified.

I really have to start pimping my resume around a bit more, considering I have basically turned down 2 jobs which I don't think will be exactly "right". One of them I might just take on a part time basis, almost like consulting. Heh, Felipe the consultant, funny shit.

Oh yeah I know there are lots of misspallings and I don't care.

Nuevo

2006-07-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

Well by now it is old news, but my bro started up a little MPLS specific bike forum yesterday. So far the response is awesome, better than anyone could have expected.

Check it out if you haven't already.

I tried to bike around to find a new messenger bag, something that will hold a laptop as well as a slew of school books. It hasn't quite hit me yet that I am going to be a full time student again in little over a month, probably will not until I sit down to take finals next December. Anyway I was having a hell of a time finding a bag, something I liked that wasn't horribly expensive. I went to both hubs, freewheel and behind bars, not that there was a bad selection, just nothing I would be willing to drop that much cash on. From freewheel I biked over to the menards on university, I needed a new garden hose, even though I have 2 that won't be getting much use if that damn house ever sells.

After cleaning a bit and doing some laundry I biked over to my dentist appointment, fucking dentist, oh how I hate you. It was just a cleaning, but I still was having a hard time sitting and listening to that vibrating water spraying device spray up into my gums. Then the scraping, poking, prodding, flossing, enough to piss a guy off.

I got another 25+ miles in today, don't know how much this week, but enough. Too bad I don't have the diligence to record every mile I ride, but really I just like riding my bike.

Power and Molasses.

2006-07-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

K.

The power has kicked a couple of times today in my little apartment, no real reason why as far as I can see. That isn't entirely true, the second time I am fairly certain was more of a neighborhood phenomenon as the ATM wasn't working a mile away. We just had some nice rain pass through the cities, giving some relief to the sweltering humidity we all have been suffering through all day. I was lucky enough to escape the rain on my way to one of the job interviews, so I wasn't soaked sitting in front of a trio of potential employers. This place (coffee bike delivery) is quite corporate and structured in terms of the hiring process, this was just the first of 3 interviews, that is if I progress to the next level. I am thinking I might not have the greatest chance with this one, just on account of my schooling taking up too much of my time. They are looking for someone who is available until the later hours of the evening, just in case a customer has an espresso emergency.

I left the interview felt a little anxious and caffeinated so I took the merckx out for a little sprint around the wet pavement. I was hoping my careless and reckless cycling and tight cornering would have slammed my ass down into the pavement, that just didn't happen. I took lake up over marshall to about cleveland and then over to summit. I didn't really have anywhere to go, I just felt like going uphill a bit. Right where summit summits, I turned right and followed some random streets south for a couple of blocks. Right about here, where I was planning on turning around anyway, the rain started falling again. Downhill most of the way to the river road I got myself plenty wet, even more so on the way to Franklin. I think I actually may have avoided the worst of it, right now it is windy and pouring, while I am nice and warm in my apartment drying off.

I borrowed T's Audi A6 like I do often on saturday to run some errands, pick up "groceries", mop buckets etc. One thing the bakers needed for the whole grain bread was molasses, somehow it didn't get ordered like it should have. Some bouillon cups, aforementioned mop bucket, clam juice and molasses stuffed in the back of the car I then went to Coastal to pick up the pescado. No problems here, I put the fish in the back and drive the 1/2-3/4 miles back to the cafe. Park, open the trunk and start cursing. Somehow one of the gallon jugs of molasses has breached, spilling 90% of it's contents in the back of the trunk. Think about it, a gallon of sticky, nasty, black goo all over. Luckily it was all on the removable piece that covers the spare tire, so I was able to take and spray that piece off. The rest of the molasses was collected in the spare tire basin, which took some time but wasn't horrible to clean.

F'k'n Mo-Lasis

Did the saturday night ride for the first time in over a year, it was fun I think I might be back soon. I didn't stay for the entire duration, but from the sounds of it I didn't miss much more than some drinking and Josh fixing a flat. I think that might not be a bad idea, convincing a bike mechanic to go on a ride everywhere I go, I wouldn't even have to bring my own tools. Like my own drunken support team.

One more interview tomorrow, and the dreaded Dentist. I am already formulating my excuse as to why I don't floss enough, this time I think I am going to blame gremlins.

Sparks Tape And Jobs.

2006-07-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

I rode the orange bike down to the place I was trying out this morning, no flats 1 point bike -1 point truck. I was a little later than I said I was going to be, arriving 10 minutes or so after 11 am. I would have been on time, but I got caught up when I went to the cafe to pick up my paycheck and tell my sous some ordering stuff. I was talking to some of the hub people about the tour when I noticed how Landis was just going crazy, big time. I don't have a clue where all that energy was coming from but he was far outperforming everyone in the field. Not only was he going faster than everyone, but he was doing it without the support of any team members. He turned a 8+ minute deficit into a scant 30 seconds, well within striking distance.

Anyway the place I worked was nice and slow, nothing crazy and I can see lots of room for improvement. Already I was making changes just in the 3 hours I was "watching". I don't know for sure if I wan't to work there, even within just the capacity of a consultant which is what they want me for. The kitchen is small and there isn't enough business to keep myself occupied as of yet, it could all change especially with one good write up. The neighborhood would be able to support a cafe like that one, but I have my doubts as to if it would ever be as busy as the place I am at right now, probably not.

I got a call while I was there from another place I turned my resume into. So that is 4/4 for resumes turned in and interviews scheduled. So here are my options, run another kitchen, even a slow one. Make ice cream, anyone who knows me knows that for a while I defined myself in terms of my ice cream making prowess. Work on campus as a banquet cook, easy, probably highest paying, most likely insurance. Deliver coffee on bike, which would be by far the funnest job I could get. Imagine how strong my legs would get hauling around a trailer full of hundreds of pounds of coffee through the snow. After a winter of hauling, imagine how fast I would be on my road bike, I would be able to kick the highest gear with ease going uphill into the wind. Hell give me a couple of years of that and I will take that punk Landis on.....

Oh and finally I just bought some new brake cables and bar tape from freewheel this time for the orange bike. They are having a big sale on lots of stuff, I almost bought myself some new Racelite tires, at 19.99 a pop it would be hard to resist. PW talked me out of it saying next time I need some just give him a call, the cost is quite a bit under the sale price. I also got myself two sparks, so this afternoon is going to be spent outside with the bike stand enjoying the weather and relaxing while doing some minor bike repairs.

Um I think that is it.

Flat.

2006-07-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

I was supposed to work today at that new place, you all remember I think I was just talking about it yesterday. I woke up to pouring rain and a bit of a headache, enough to convince me that driving my truck would be the best decision for the 6-7 mile commute. I don't have any problem riding my bike in the rain, don't get me wrong, I just prefer to stay nice and dry while interviewing for a job. About a mile and a half from the new place someone behind me starts honking and asking my to roll down my window, my rear tire is flat not just low but dead flat. I have no idea how long I was riding on the rim, but it couldn't have been too long. I pulled right over to the side of the road and parked the car and stepped out into the rain.

For the next 1/2 hour I slowly walked through the rain getting wetter than I would have it I would have just ridden my bike. They were cool with rescheduling so I called a tow truck and waited for the call. Long story short 100 dollars....

Organic Bread Flour Woes.

2006-07-18T16:04:00.000-07:00

Tell me world where in the hell is a guy supposed to find a high gluten, high protein organic flour suited for bread? I have been looking and calling all over the place and as of yet nothing. The flour we were using for our bread isn't being carried any longer, so I have to search around for it's replacement. Even calling the w3dge didn't yield anything in the way of results, turns out the bread for their house baked stuff isn't organic. So far I think I have called somewhere around 10 companies and I may just be forced to take the "organic" label off of the baguette sign.

Why should I even care though, I am going to be gone in a month anyway.

Bik-In.

2006-07-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

Just got back from doing this.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=303087

Best part about the whole deal was that I didn't feel tired in the least, I just rode and didn't really care who passed me or about much. HereNT caught up with me for a section of the ride but he decided to pull off back at Nicollet in search of some dinner. We were planning on doing the whole Hopkins loop, but the trail was closed right as it turned up 169. The yellow tape and fresh asphalt aroma convinced me I was better off not breaking the rules and riding on the trail anyway.

Got more comments on my bike, people just seem to dig the Merckx as much as I do. If you have the chance don't put it off or try to rationalize it, just buy the bike and I am sure you will be happy.

Training in my replacment.

2006-07-17T14:06:00.000-07:00

They are still looking hard as hell for someone to phil (err fill) my shoes come the middle of next month when I move on to perhaps greener pastures. Usually it is a good idea for people to work for a while figuring out if they would be happy in a situation before they go ahead and accept a job. After you get to a certain point, you cannot just get a job without doing a little trial run, cook some stuff, generally get a feel for the place. Even when it wasn't required I volunteered to jump in and work a day for free, mostly for myself more than for them.

Anyway, today I spent with someone following me around, asking questions and what not. I personally don't care, I gladly accept the help, it made it so I didn't have to make soup this morning, bonus. Though I don't really like it when I have to then give feedback about how I thought that person would work out, but what can you do.

Enough work.

My plants are again double in size, or at very least much bigger. The soil is getting dry with this intolerable heat, so daily watering is essential just to keep them alive. Emily has started the onslaught of plants into my apartment, by current count a bit over 3/4 of the plants inhabiting my apartment came from her. There are more waiting as well, some big some small, all healthy and energetic. I just hope I don't have to find a place for her rubber tree.

Ok bike ride time.

Fire, CSA, and Heat.

2006-07-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

I have to head to work soon so this is going to have to be quick. It is a bit overly hot right now, like sweaty nasty sticky horrible hot. Everything I hate about Minnesota in the summer, too hot to even want to ride my bike. Last year about this time I remember the major ice company actually ran out of ice, interesting. I have AC in my bedroom, but I am just too cheap to keep it turned on, with the ceiling fan and big floor fan I can usually stay nice and cool.

We at the cafe are a drop off point for an organic CSA farm. This means that every Thursday people come pick up boxes of fresh organic produce from out in front of the cafe, or at least they are supposed to. Often they just ignore or forget to pick up the boxes and the rest is left for us employees to sort through. Add to that the school kids selling produce on Fridays, of which I play "clean up" at the end of the day and buy whatever leftovers ats bargain prices. So for little to no money I have been filling up my fridge with awesome zucchini and yellow squash, lots of onions, broccoli, new potatoes (just last week harvested), snow peas, green beans and grape tomatoes (the tomatoes stay outside the cooler though). Next week we should be able to get some eggplant, that I am looking forwards to.

I got a call last night about 12:30, my friend Molly who lives right on the other side of the river was calling for some reason. I was trying to sleep by that point so I didn't answer. Follow that up with a text message that said just "the railroad bridge is up flames!" This got me up from my slumber and I stumbled the three blocks to the river to take a look. Sure enough just like she said the bridge was blazing, flames spewing and gigantic embers falling off into the Mississippi. They must have been big pieces of railroad ties or something, from my vantage of Franklin I could easily see the flames and falling pieces 1/2 mile up river. This morning you cannot really even notice though, the frame of the bridge is steel and that is still intact. This might change the scheduled greenway expansion though, which sucks obviously.

Been a While.

2006-07-13T14:37:00.000-07:00

Not much going on, or at least anything worthy of writing about.

Ok well I did go to the new library this morning, the first time since it opened a couple of months ago. I was on a mission to find a bunch of cookbook, you know inspiration for next weeks menu and what not. I got a little side tracked, the DVD section on the first floor was more than impressive. The actually had Dave Chappelle season one uncensored, the library had that. My whole plan was to spend a couple of hours in the library, avoiding the scorching heat wave that is starting to blanket Minnesota this week. I found a couple of movies and was blown away by the cookbook selection, impressive to say the least. I read somewhere that the new library actually is like the 3rd largest collection of public books in the US, damn well should be considering how much they paid for the place. I was impressed, much nicer than the old one, but I don't see how that was in dispute.

With my bag full of books and movies I headed over to 1x1 for a little Java and to wait for my buddy working next door to take his lunch break. The cafe got a little packed so I let someone else have my table and started waiting outside $exworld. Interesting seeing the range of people that pack into that place during the noon hour, everyone from strippers, to sleazy greasy haired men to older gentlemen in nice suits hopping out of lexuses. I even busted one of my ex-co-workers from the downtown club I used to work at, he said he was looking for a "bachelor party". Look there is nothing wrong about wanting to bust a nut in a smut house during your lunch break, at least have some pride in your own personal sleaze. Or maybe he was actually looking for a gift, I just for some reason have a tough time buying it.

Lunch was good, just a slice and a salad from a pza place. I don't get the chance to eat romaine that often anymore, the lettuce we usually get at the cafe tends to be more arugula/mizuna/bibb than your typical restaurant lettuces.

I couldn't stay downtown that long, I had gotten a call from a potential employer in NE while I was at 1x1 and had setup a preliminary interview for later in the day. The ride up marshall from downtown was fun, then again I cannot imagine anytime riding on that sexy merckx being anything less than orgasmic. The interview went well, I just am not sure if it would be the best thing for me right now, basically it is another job running a kitchen, albeit on a much smaller scale than the one I am running now. I haven't ruled it out yet, but like everything I am stepping with a bit of trepidation.

I ended up just about a mile from Emily's house so I called her up and helped her with potting some of her plants before she had to leave for work. I think I am going to get somewhere around 1/2 of her plants when she moves at the end of the month, which will make my apartment resemble something of a jungle. One of the first things she ever said to me was "my house is puking plants!" she wasn't lying, there are probably about 50+ potted plants throughout. The three plants she gave me for my b-day are doing awesome, over doubled in size in less than 2 months.

The bike ride home was fun, I took the longer hillier route, so I got a nice workout. Since I built up the merckx I think I have been averaging 15-30 miles a day, up substancially from the 0-3 that I was riding for those couple of months I was smoking. It gets easier everyday, even under that sticky hot and humid Minnesota summer air.

We are having some sort of a keg party at the cafe tonight, replaying the tour from this morning. Two kegs of oberon, biker girls and AC, I think I know where I am going to rest my bones tonight. Shit I almost forgot D@nce Band is playing tonight at the nomad, I can't really miss that considering I am on a first name basis with all but one of the members of the band.

No spell check, deal.

Gummi Bears

2006-07-05T08:48:00.000-07:00

I as we speak am finishing off a bag of German gummi bears that someone was foolish enough to leave at my house. I don't really have too much to say about the chewy little bears, but they are good isn't that enough?

The weekend was your typical 4th full of far too much to possibly get done. I hate having to pick and choose one party over another, just makes life frustrating. I probably ate too much bbq, drank far too much beer/wine/jameson/jose not all in the same outing mind you.

I got a bit of riding in on the Merckx, nothing major just a couple of hours here, couple of hours there. The more I ride that bike the more I like it, it feels like a little rocket between my legs (pull mind out of gutter here people). I should probably buy new tires, but I am biding my time until I have more case on hand. There is the possiblity that I may someday upgrade the entire drive train, wheels, deraillers, shifters, brakes etc. That is a bit of an undertaking and would be upwards of 1000 dollars so I am going to be forced to wait a little.

Em and I did some hiking yesterday, down deep into the wildlife preserve that sits just a 1/2 mile from the MOA. That place is a like a hidden little jewel in the middle of the cities, no one is ever there and it goes for miles upon miles where you see nothing but eagles, deer, and planes desending onto the runway. I think all together we made it about 6 miles, which was just about right, anymore and I would have turned into jello. After the plan was to hit dairy queen up for some delic frozen goodness, which of course was closed for the holiday. No peanut butter cup/espresso blizzard for sr. felipe, I had to settle for a frozen snickers from the gas station.

*insert nap here*

I woke up too late realizing I had missed 1 friends BBQ as well as a bunch of calls.

Jer and K were downtown ST. Paul waiting to watch the fireworks, so I jumped on the bike and booked it down university at a frenzied pace. After the initial upward grade of the road it sloped down with the wind at my back. I didn't time myself exactly, but I think it took me about 20 minutes from my apartment until I was locking up the bike. The traffic on Kellogg was terrible, I was glad I was riding my geared bike instead of the fixie. Once I had to coast all the way to the right to the point were my foot was hovering above the curb, just so I could make it passed a nice shiny white escalade that didn't leave me much in the way of room.

After that the night was fun, the fireworks were awesome.

The ride home was interesting, Jer already talked a little about it, so I see no need to elaborate.

Back from the Dead.

2006-07-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

I really don't have anything that important going on in my life which I feel compelled to spill here online, I guess I have learned my lesson (sorry I am a little slow).

Let's talk about bikes.

I finally got the Merckx up and running, it had spent the last few months on the stand in my basement. The STI levers (mismatched as well) didn't exactly operate properly, so shifting would not be possible unless I did something to rectify the situation. I also needed all new cables, chain, housing, etc. I wasn't about to be buying new STI levers, the cheapest I would be able to find them would be well over 100 dollars, more than I was willing to spend, at least right now. I in turn took PW's advice and used an older set of dura-ace bar end shifter levers and some new (to me) rx100 brake levers. The good thing about bar end shifters, especially compared to STI is that there literally is no chance of them crapping out on you, it just doesn't happen. STI levers on the other hand don't last for shit, too many small moving parts. All told the bike is bright and shiny with nearly everything new and in perfect working order, the favorite of my fleet right now. The weather was conducive to setting my stand up outside where I could bask in the sun and enjoy wrenching outside the confines of the dingy basement. I did get PW to help me out a little with my chain length and adjusting the limits a tad, but mostly it was good.

I have been riding more than usual, I think I am starting to slowly get my "legs" back, or better put my lungs. Just a couple of months of smoking and my energy level was diminished more than I probably would like to admit. I know I am not quite in the riding shape I was when I had a 6-7 mile commute each way, but I am getting there. My arms, neck and face all have dark tan lines which are in stark contrast with the pale flesh the rest of my body sports. I think I am beginning to realize that I actually do "tan" I just haven't been outside enough to do so, that is changing this year big time. Hell just yesterday I spent a couple of hours chilling on the beach, drinking Molson and playing bones. I am now about to go for a ride, don't really know where to, but just out.

Oh, I am still looking for a job come middle August if anyone hears anything.

Beware.

2006-06-25T19:01:00.000-07:00

There might just surface lots of pictures of my getting "made up" with full on make up by a 5 year old girl who was surprisingly adept in the aforementioned application. I was the only male "man" enough to pay the girl a dollar to get myself all prettied up. It was worth it, my cheek bones never looked so good, and the blue eyeliner, to die for. I arrived at the tale end of the wedding party, though I did get to meet E2's father (groom) and all of the family, fun stuff. One of E2's aunts for some reason was offering to pay me 20 bucks just to join the party, dunno if that was the booze talking or what, but to offer someone cash usually works, as it did in this case. I was having a fine evening nursing a 6'er and reading, but might as well go out right? I took a cab, too far to bike (at least in the rain) and no way I was going to drive knowing that I was about to get far too intoxicated to responsibly operate a vehicle. Hell even after 2 beers I regale myself to either public transit or my trusty miyata.

The ride over was cool, the twice divorced driver and I had lots to gab about, near the same perspective on marriage, though I lack the baggage of 3 babies mammas (thank dios).

After that the rest of the night isn't that interesting, though at one point the entire patronage of the L!ffey was staring at us, as well as making not so subtle comments. I can't really in all good judgment disclose here exactly why, but let's just say that my face was a little more towards the red area of the color wheel than it normally would be.

FYI, still no cigarettes, worked the new Guthrie opening for !zzy's this morning, heard after I left (had to work real job) they had a line 30+ ppl deep, good thing all I had to do was setup and take money. I would have probably been scooping the IC, considering my hands/arms are stronger than some of the others, but this damn left handedness isn't really conducive to using your "normal" IC scoop, I had to be the FOH boy. Honestly I think there is a BIG part of me that feels more natural and comfortable dealing with customers than being behind the scenes.

Go-in To Montucky.

2006-06-24T17:16:00.000-07:00

As most of you probably know my little sis is going to be off on her way to be living (most likely at least) in the great state of Montana, where we were all raised. That will seriously diminish the Minneapolis Werst presence, but we should be able to hold our own without her, as missed as she is going to be.

The plan was that my Mother was going to drive out here with a trailer and haul K-Dog and all her stuff the 1k miles along 94 to 90 through ND, MN and eastern MT. I got to thinking, I have been trying to get some sort of a MT trip planned for the last couple of months, time and work just haven't really allowed it. Why not just load up the back of my Pick-Up (meaning I will have to wait an extra month of two to sell it) and seize the opportunity to do some serious visiting before school starts to kick my ass. Not to mention I have not even so much as gazed upon my new baby niece.

So sometime end of July or beginning of August you all might be seeing my mug around, causing trouble, drinking too much and hitting on all the gorgeous Missoula girls I was able to the last time I was there.

A little cherry to top it off, some of my friends are planning a "Return to Missoula" party for all of us that have scattered throughout the nation. Probably what a high school reunion would have been like if I had managed to finish, shit that would have been this year, must be getting old.

Alright I have a wedding to crash, going dressed in my wife beater, wranglers and black leather cowboy boots in true Montana boy fashion, I should pick up a bottle of beam and a 6'er of shmidt ice on the way.

Clean!

2006-06-22T19:37:00.000-07:00

Finally my apartment is starting to take shape.

All of my time has been focused on either work or getting the house emptied and ready to sell, I must say that I have been a bit neglectful of this little (not so much) place I have been living. The dining room and kitchen were stacked to the brim with boxes stuffed with completely random shit from the house, think 6 different kinds of ant pesticide. I just wouldn't feel right tossing stuff like that into the garbage, so instead I condensed it all into less and less boxes and stuffed it down into my basement here at the apartment, just until I can make a run to the transfer station. I am going to no drive for a little while here, just until I get my license again, I have my passport and yellow carbon copy, but I might as well not risk it. Everything I will possibly need is within blocks of my house, really I could get along without so much as a bike.

Back to my apartment, it is spotless and gleaming, the floors are sparkling brighter than a MR Clean commercial. The hardest part was the filing of the misc paper work, I had to try and split "my" files from "her" files, and as many of you know, the lines become blurred after several years of marriage. Luckily she isn't going to be back for over a year, so chances are good that I will be able to take a little time in sorting through all of the documents. I swear I am going to go broke at kinkos making copies of all this shit I may or (probably) may not need.

Long story short, my house is awesome right now, all I have to do is fold the 2 loads of laundry I just washed and put new sheets on the bed, much easier for me not having to live in squalor.