Bloggin'......

Spring Happenings

Why, oh why, am I never content. You know its springtime when I pull out my mountain bike. When I built up my red bike last fall, I gave it my 2001 Manitou Mars Elite 80mm suspension fork and put a new 2003 Manitou Black Super 100/120mm on my "real" bike. However, after riding with the Black fork for the past couple of months, I realized I didn't like the new setup as much as I had hoped. It change the head angle too much, that the steering didn't feel neutral, and actually made it feel like the bike would cause the steering to lead, or "walk", to one side. I'm sure the extra travel would be the perfect freeride setup, but I wanted to maintain a cross country setup. Add to the fact I think the oil seals are shot, I had to change out the fork.

Luckily, I had a new "spare" 2004 Manitou Skareb Super 80mm air fork. =) I spent a few hours Friday night to make a few other upgrades I had been planning, as well. I busted the headset the last time I took the fork off, so I got a new Cane Creek S2 headset, I changed the wheelset a while back and also got a new Shimano XT cogset, so I also got a new Shimano XTR chain this time. So, I had a pretty busy friday night. That was all because I had a bigger test in the morning.

Yesterday, I broke it all in, in what turned out to be my ride of death up Mt. Hamilton in San Jose. Thirty six miles, two major valleys, almost 2500ft in elevation gain, and one flat tire. It's definitely spring time.

Happy Birthday Mike!

We went to Buca di Beppo's in Campbell, last night, to celebrate Mike's birthday.

Oddly enough, I notice something in the restuarant I hadn't noticed before. I've been there many times, but this Buca di Beppo's is a bit unusual because the hostess will usually lead guests through the kitchen to their tables. This time was the first time I noticed the employee bullitin board. It was just a pleasant reminder to always have a good sense of humor, especially at our age.

Happy Birthday Mike!

Project Bike II

Anybody remember this bike? Well, I started working on it again, and this time, I built up a new lighter weight wheelset and upgraded other parts with new aluminum parts. I installed a longer, extended stem, with a flat handlebar, and a longer aluminim seat post. This should give the bike more of a cross country racing position. I still need to readjust the brakes and I'll probably also have to retune the shifting system for the new wheels. Unfortunately, I busted the seat collar, so I'll have to make another trip to the bike shop. Too bad there just is not enough hours in a day to finish everything. I guess that's why there is always tomorrow night! =)

Saturday Randoms

Yesterday, I volunteered my time at a Moot Court competition that a friend had organized. I was around so many lawyers and wanna-be-lawyers, I'm sure there was probably enough "hot air" in those rooms to make the building float! But in all sincerity, it was a competition between law schools in the western region sponsored by American Intellectual Property Law Association and held at the University of San Franscisco. They competed in a mock case in which they were to make an argument on an appeal in the case, and they were judged on how compelling their arguments were. I played Baliff in the court. I still would have rather gotten to wear a "rent-a-cop" uniform, but they said no since I was only there to time the competitions. bummer.

Afterwards, we were to go out to dinner at The House in North Beach, but I had some time beforehand so I decided to walk around the neighborhood around USF and take some pictures. I started across the street where a wedding had just let out, just started walking down the street. I thought of a photo project I wanted to do, but nothing caught my eye.

Dinner was great though. I hadn't been to The House in North Beach in a very long time, but I think the food was even better than I remembered! I had a pan seared shortrib that was so utterly soft and tender. It could be cut by a butter knife and still retain it's shape! Next time, I'm going to have to try the rib eye steak as well. I used to rate a restuarant on the quality of their rib eye, so I'll definitely have to go back soon!

Also another sign of the times, this was probably the most I had ever paid for gasoline at one time.

Portola Redwods State Park

It seems it's the start of spring when a few friends and I got together this weekend to hike Portola Redwods State Park. It was a bit overcast but the day turned out to be really good hiking weather. We met up at the Marina Foods shopping center in Cupertino before making the drive on up to the State Park. We took Highway 9 through Saratoga, to Highway 35/Skyline Boulevard, and then up Alpine Road to the park entrance for what was describe as “three torturous and winding miles” of road. Luckily, no one got sick on the way up and we did not fly off the mountain edge. Cool.

Though we were ready for the warm weather, nature was not so ready for us. We started our hike a little after noon, when we immediately came upon our first challenge, a flowing stream about forty feet across. Apparently, the park ranger service removes all the pedestrian walking bridges during the cold winter months and if we wanted to continue, we’d have to cross through the frigid cold water. It’s still partly winter, you know? Not everyone was dressed for the water, so we turned back and tried to find another way around.

We went around, took another trail, and went to the high ground. About six miles in total I believe. What surprised us again, as we were getting back to the ranger station, we came right back to the same stream we had turned around from, except on the other side. How about that for luck? Save for completely turning around, we sucked it up and rolled up our pants, and jumped in the water. OK, it was only about knee deep, but it was COLD!

Utah Trip - Greg's Pics

I know I'm a little behind, but here's a link to Greg and Cheryl's pictures from our Utah ski trip on ofoto.com.

Doh...

A real bummer as there've been some server problems which services my log here. The server just came back, but the comments section lost the little security code tag and the thumbnail creator is busted. Doh!

Late afternoon bike ride

I was out shopping when Diana called me in the afternoon to see if I wanted to go out for an afternoon bike ride. Diana, bike?! What the...?

Well, Diana had been talking about wanting to take up biking for a while and the weather had been getting better and better, lately. Add to the fact that the days have been getting longer, and we had the making of a pretty nice day out and about. We called Warren, too, and met at my house to bike the Coyote Creek Trail. It's close and convenient to my house, and plus I had all the bikes! Hope everyone else had a good weekend!

Surprise!

I played in a local badminton tournament this weekend and got killed in less than twenty minutes in each match. I did hit some pretty shots, but man, I have not played since I was in college! A colleague of mine got me to play because his daughter had organized it as a tsunami relief fund raiser for her high school and he thought it would be fun for us to play. Neither one of us have played in a long time, but it was for a good cause we said.

We got whipped 15-3, 15-3 and 15-2, 15-1.