65 degrees

This looks like the week. 65 degrees and climbing. Time to pull the bike down from the rafters and dust it off for a quick trip to the local bike shope. Only two months to go before the ride and I have yet to seriously train. I can only hope I'm not deluding myself about my readiness for this. On a good note, we have an all-inclusive vacation approaching and I think they have biking available outdoors and certainly a full service fitness center that I can use to get started.

BTW, if you know of a nice small digital camera that fits on a keychain and still takes nice pictures, let me know. I'm thinking I need a digital camera now.

At times I wish I had a camera phone

I had to take a trip to Germany (near Frankfurt specifically) last week. It is times like that I wish had a camera phone or something to take quick pictures with. I love landing at the Frankfurt airport as there is a USAF base there and seeing the planes on the tarmac is a great thing. And usually, you can spot at least one or two US soliders walking through the airport. Snapping a quick picture of our men and women in action would have made for a great image. As it was I could only offer a quick hello and thanks. Still, made me feel good seeing those that are sacrificing so much for us.

All in all it was a good trip. Only managed to break some minor work related things. Got to watch the extended edition of Fellowship of the Ring which was exceptional and much better than the original theatrical release. I only made it through half of The Two Towers so I have some more to watch for sure. I also bought Half Life 2 and found it quite engaging and still playable on my ancient laptop. I have to admit to looking up a hint to get out of one of the puzzles and I'm stuck on another currently. I need to reinstall the game on my desktop and home and see how it works with a little more horsepower.

Also got a chance to bowl with the guys at the office there. Bowling is bowling apparently, even in Europe, so we had alot of fun. I was told they had these great burgers at the alley. Ironically, they were called "Chicago Burgers" despite the lack of such a food item in Chicago that I'm aware of. It ended up being a grilled burger not much different from a McDonalds burger. Had a tasty sauce, but I told my coworker there, who is travelling to the states this week, to stop at a Fudruckers and try a real burger before he heads back.

Seems I have a bit of travelling coming up this year. First vacation to Jamacia, then the Vegas gathering in May, and after that, the AIDSride in California. That reminds me, I need to book my tickets for Vegas...

From iPaq to Axim

My iPaq finally has given up the ghost. This little handheld that I bought as a demo unit on sale at Radio Shack for like $50. It worked well for me as a gadget, wireless chatter, and other things until it settled into its fulltime role of MP3 player in my car. It even survived a rain filled microburst on the Heartland AIDSride (with a little help from Compaq warranty services). But yesterday it refused to hold a charge. Luckily I have acquired a Dell Axim X5 from work (color) which has taken its place. Kudos to Dell, btw, for shipping me a car charger overnight on my 3-5 day shipping choice.

Against the laws of nature

Our house is notorioius for leaving laundry to fester for much longer than it should. Some sits in the dryer to be "wrinkle rid" over and over and over again. Other times, we end up with stuff in the washer which develops a kind of wicked funk that requires rewashing. So when I smelled the funk this weekend it seemed normal to me until we opened the top of the washer and noticed the water never drained and it had created some kind of blue toxic soup that quickly permeated the house.

Needless to say, it was time for a new washer. We inherited ours from the previous owners of the house and knew when they day came that one of them went to that great laudromat in the sky, they both would go. Murder/suicide on the appliance level.

So, in an effort to save money and bit of the environment, we chose the washer you see here. A front loading vortex of liquid doom. I still don't understand how it works having watched it go through a couple loads now. It uses some special detergent, I'm sure created to get me to buy something new, and seems to apply a kind of quantum force to the clothes that removes dirt. I'm tempted to open it while it is running to see what happens but the bright LOCKED light on the front keeps me from doing it

AIDS/LifeCycle

You may have noticed my new picture on the right. Once again I've decided to undertake a grand event. This time, I'm riding from San Francisco to Los Angeles, 585 miles, in 6 days on my bicycle. Two years ago I took on the Heartland AIDSride from Minneapolis to Chicago. Next June, I'll be at it again. To do this, I have the task of fundraising $2500 for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. The link on the picture to the right will take you to a donation page if you are so inclined. Thank you in advance if you do. It certainly will go for a worthy cause.