Dogfish Head Beer Dinner

About a month before the Dogfish Head beer dinner at Pizzeria Paradiso I called for a reservation and they were sold out. They have a 6:30 and a 9:00 seating and both were full. I heard they sold out in just a couple days. My swillin’ buds were either out of town or are vegetarian (or both) but as a single I was able to get in at the last minute today. Devin the local Dogfish Head rep was presenting along with Greg the beer guy at Pizzeria Paradiso. Greg has got it going on with quite a plethora of fine brews always on hand at my favorite place for zaaa.

It was a fine six course meal…

Bite:

Orange Balsamic Beef Skewer

Palo Santo Marron  (12% abv)

Appetizer:

Rogue River Blue, Roasted Onion & Mushroom Crostini

Olde School Barley Wine  (15% abv)

Salad:

Eggplant & Buffalo Mozzarella Salad

World Wide Stout  (20% abv)

Pizzas: 

Pizza Thai

Pangea  (7% abv)

Sun Dried Tomato Mustard Pesto Pie

120 Minute IPA  (21% abv)

Dessert:

Lemon Fort Trifle

Fort  (18% abv)

They were all special brews. Notice that the average ABV was 15.5%. Five of the six were draft.

The beef bite (it really was just a bite) was marinated in the Palo Santo Marron along with some hot peppers. Greg wanted something to balance out the dark carmel craziness coming from the thickest densest wood ever. It sinks in water. Devin passed around a long block of this stuff and it was heavy, I couldn’t pick up much of a smell though. 

The funky cheese with sautéed onion and mushroom was good. This was paired with the Olde School Barley Wine. I haven’t had this one. I avoid the barley wines usually because of the high alcohol content. If I wanted to taste some liquor I’d drink some liquor. This one was quite smooth. Was it the draft? The onions and mushrooms were sautéed in vintage 2007 Olde School Barley Wine courtesy of Greg from a case he had stashed.

Next was the eggplant and buffalo mozzarella salad. Why do they call it a salad when it is just a slice of mushroom and a piece of cheese? It did have some nice dressing and it was quite tasty but what is the definition of a salad?. The World Wide Stout is the other beer of the night I haven’t tried and for similar reasons. I’m not a huge fan of stouts and don’t seek them out unless they are something unique. This one is unique at 20% ABV. That is a crap load of malt and sugar. Devin claimed it had 660 calories but the website says 372. The 2003 vintage was 23% ABV. Sam Adams has the highest in the world at 25% and its not near a beer like this.

This place is known for its pizzas but those first two courses were excellent. So the next two pizza courses can only build on such a good start. The thai pizza was another unique offering. I think it had a bunch of onion, some ginger with chicken and shredded carrot topped with some green I can’t identify. It went well with the Pangea which has some ginger in it. The Pangea was the light-weight of the group weighing in at 7% ABV. 

We all stuffed ourselves with that pizza and then they brought out the second. This sun dried tomato mustard pesto pie was quite good as well. I was worried not being a mustard fan but it all blended perfectly. The 120 IPA was quite the capper as well. 21% ABV. I’ve had this a time or two and depending on my level of drunkenness the alcohol can be a bit pronounced. We all felt this was quite smooth. Like the Barley Wine was the draft the reason? Some didn’t think it paired well with the pizza but I thought it went well.

To finish the evening we had a delicious lemon fort trifle. It was topped with fresh raspberries. It was yummy. The Fort paired with it in a most excellent manner if I do say so myself. Having “ridiculous amount of pureed raspberries” and at 18% it was quite the finisher. And following a theme the Fort was used in the trifle.

Yum

Apples are good for eating (but that is all)

I got an iPhone for a few days through work. If you know me you know I hate all Apple's iCrap. My MP3 player came out long before the first iPod and it has FM, an equalizer, can record the radio or voice, has a removable battery, and does not require any proprietary software. In other words I am in full control of my music and files. You can't deny the iPhone has the sweetest interface out there, but it lacks a lot of things I'm used to. You can't load your prefered web browser (or any thing else unless its in the Apps Store). You can't hack it like a Windows phone. It doesn't have stereo bluetooth (still).  How can you create a music player and not have stereo bluetooth???

Anyway, today is only the second time I've played with an iPhone and I just had to say again that iTunes sucks the manure off of George Bush's boot.

Stupid American consumers who conform to the trend and don't do their own research or understand technology caused the non-Apple market of MP3 players to dry up due to lack of sales.

TLG, Hackensaw Boys, and Doc Mandy

Many a months ago Tea Leaf Green announced they were playing at the 9:30 Club and it’s been on my calendar ever since. A month or so ago it was announced the Hackensaw Boys would be opening for them. Sounded like a great Saturday night to me. I haven’t seen Tea Leaf Green in awhile and was very curious how the jams were holding up. 

Then out of now where an old high school friend, Mandy, reappears after 10 years and is hanging in Charlottesville. Doc Mandy that is. So she was planning on being in town that weekend and wanted to hang with the local Pburg crew Matt and I. It was up to me to convince them that they both wanted to see this show.  Matt wasn’t difficult to persuade, Doc Mandy hesitated but had to give in. Casy came as well. 

We met at my place and arrived a little later than ideal. It was a nice line for will call. Note to self: if it ain’t going to sell out don’t buy tix cuz the sales line was nonexistent and the will call line was 25 minutes long in the cold. I think we saw the last three Hackensaw Boys songs. They are always high intensity. 

We moved down to the front of the floor between bands as things were pretty lax. TLG threw down a full double set and we hung out up there the whole time. Apparently the keys player was celebrating the same birthday as my brother. My Pburg crew was lagging at the end of the night, Mandy had to bust out her map, but we pretty much made it all the way through. It seems like all my favorite bands TLG seems to have matured to a more lyrically style. They still had some nice jams, I like how they didn’t space out but kept things changing, but seemed to not be as high energy as they were. I didn’t realize it was three years ago that I first started checking them out. I guess they are allowed to change.

The 24 Hours of Daytona started yesterday at 3:30pm, ran through the concert, and ended this afternoon. Holy freakin’ moly was that an awesome race. After 22 hours there were 4 cars racing within seconds of each other for the lead. These guys were running full out 100% for the whole time. The last two hours they ran nose to tail for the prestigious Rolex watch trophy. Imagine racing for 24 hours straight and the interval comes down to seconds between multiple cars! There were all types of drivers mixing it up. Nine of 10 Porsche factory drivers were in attendance (a few years ago there were only four of them total). It was an entertaining race. I hope to see them at VIR.

pics

Kirby the drug mule

I dropped Kirby off at the airport at 5:30am this morning. Right about now she should be walking around the streets of Bogotá. A nice two month trip. I plan to join her soon. I haven’t been out of the country in a bit. I had to get a new passport as mine was 9 years and 9 months old and falling apart.

Sailing in the Caribbean is something I've always wanted to do. The place has definitely got some interesting history. If all goes well we’ll avoid the FARC, not make any news headlines, and not end up starring in Locked Up Abroad. 

Ale to the Chief!

I had one yesterday and another today...

Ale to the Chief! 

A Presidential Pale Ale to celebrate Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009

We the Brewers of Avery Brewing Company, in order to form a more perfect ale, require new leadership that can liberate us from our quagmires in foreign lands; embrace environmentally sound energy alternatives to imported oil; heal our ailing healthcare system; free us from tyrannical debt and resurrect the collapsing dollar. We hereby pledge to provide him with an ample amount of our Presidential Pale Ale to support in the struggle for the aforementioned goals! 

Hail to the New Chief!

Inauguration

The day has come. It seemed as if the whole country was waiting for these last eight years to be over (or at least 95% of the DC population). We are going to wake up tomorrow and everything will be different right? 

The swearing-in ceremony started at 11:30am and the parade was supposed to start at 2:30pm. The MPD said that there were 500,000 people on the mall at 9am. I was still asleep. We rolled out around 10:45 perfected our arrival on the mall at about 11:30. The security zone was huge and started up around K street again. We could bike all the way down to the mall though so that just meant open streets to us. You couldn’t walk across the parade route of Pennsylvania AVE so many thousands were walking west around the White House. We ditched our bikes and easily walked on to the mall at the last minute with thousands of others. 

Reports from 6am said that thousands of people were already on the mall having trouble getting through security check points. Barriers were pushed down and DC cops had no control. The news reported that many VIP ticket holders, who arrived at some early un-Godly hour, never even got through their gate to the Inauguration. Later on the west end of the mall were we were at things were calm. Lots of National Guardsmen were on hand and were friendly. We hung out at the WWII memorial and Lisa shot some video. I never saw the east end of the mall but I assume it was a sea of people. Metro reported a new record of 930,000 people as of 6pm. 

Once the swearing-in ceremony was over I think everyone started walking home. Whole streets were filled with masses of people. We breached security on 19th ST and rode back to Keren to have some ful. I rode home afterwards and there were still thousands of people walking back from the mall of course. Even back in Virginia there were people walking back in to my neighborhood.

The parade started over an hour late due to Kennedy's collapse at their luncheon. Had I known I might have tried to use that time to find a spot on the parade route. Obama got out of the Presidential tank and walked twice. It would have been nice to see that, the crowds along the route didn't look too bad. I'm sure most people had issues getting there. A million people just don't fit on the sidewalks of Penn AVE. Thankfully nothing tragic happened on this day our President was so accessible.

Can't you sense the change today?

pics and videos

UPDATE: Metrorail’s Top Weekday Ridership Days

#      Date           Ridership             Event

1    01-20-09  1,120,000  Obama Inauguration 

2    01-19-09     866,681   Obama inaugural events

3    07-11-08        854,638   Baseball/Women of Faith Conference

4    06-09-04        850,636   Reagan State Funeral

5    06-25-08        846,388   Smithsonian Folklife Festival/Baseball 

Hey, America Feels Kinda' Cool Again concert

One of the hundreds of Inaugural events going on was this Justin Jones, Citizen Cope, Sheryl Crow, and Beastie Boys concert. It was quite an interesting bill. But apparently…

Fresh off their combined efforts on the Get Out and Vote '08 voter awareness tour, Beastie Boys and Sheryl Crow will play full sets at a very special all ages "Hey, America Feels Kinda' Cool Again" Inaugural Gala presented by Rock The Vote.

"full sets" was not at all true although I wasn't expecting it given the time and place.

We of course rolled in around 10:00 after Justin Jones and Citizen Cope. It was perfect timing actually right before Sheryl Crow. The place was full but not as full as I would have guessed. It was a good show, my first time seeing the Beastie Boys. They both played short sets. The B Boys threw down for being in their mid-forties. It ain’t Fight For Your Right To Party time anymore. At the end though they picked up instruments and threw down. Supposedly the guys from Entourage were there and I thought I saw the actor character dude up on the backstage balcony.

pics and videos

The metro mid-day was nuts! People from all over the country were crowding my main mode of transportation. The Columbia Heights metro platform was packed at noon. Everyone had Obama crap on. I had to take a few pics of tourists.

We Are One

The craziness began on Sunday with the We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Thankfully the temperature was freezing and not in the single digits as it had been the previous few days. It was decided for the Inauguration that Virginians were banned and all bridges from the Common Wealth were closed to private vehicle traffic on Sunday and Tuesday. I also heard that earlier in the day the metro was completely packed. No matter, I’m mobile on my bike.

The concert was billed as the “Opening Inaugural Celebration”:

President-elect Barack Obama with the help of an all-star line-up of talent will kick off the inaugural celebration in Washington, D.C., with a free and open event at the Lincoln Memorial, between Constitution Avenue NW and Independence Avenue SW on 23rd Street.

Musical performers scheduled for the event include Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, HeatherHeadley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher Raymond IV,Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, will.i.am, and Stevie Wonder.

Among those reading historical passages will be Jamie Foxx, Martin Luther King III, Queen Latifah and Denzel Washington. The Rt. Reverend V. Gene Robinson will give the invocation. Rob Mathes will be the music director and arranger for the backing band, which will support all of the artists

As I rolled on to Constitution AVE from the half closed Roosevelt Bridge you could see streams of people flooding in from the city neighborhoods and the metro. All roads south of K street were closed (basically all of downtown). Tour buses lined the length of the Constitution AVE. Original estimates for Inauguration Day were as high as 5 million people. That was downgraded to just a couple million and I don’t think anyone had much of a clue how many would show up this Sunday. They had many thousands of port-o-potties and the security perimeter all set up for both this Sunday concert and Tuesday’s events. I’ve never seen so many port-o’s in my life. Verizon said they had 10x the network volumne compared to a normal day, I would have guessed higher. I think I saw at least one COW.

I found a nice open un-secured entry point through the security perimeter onto the mall and locked up my bike. The stage was on the Lincoln Memorial and this open entry point was down near the Washington Monument. I hung out in that area for a bit and took some pics. Some camo FBI agents were standing ground on top of SUV platforms with scopes and sniper rifles. They didn’t appreciate me taking pics of them; at least one yelled at me. Of course in such an estimated crowd of 400,000 I wasn’t the only one taking their picture; I saw a nice close up in the Washington Post online. Their sniper rifles were well concealed.

I never made it up towards the reflecting pool and the Lincoln Memorial. After hanging near the Washington Monument I jumped back on my bike and cruised around to the south side of the mall. Towards the end of the show before Obama spoke I tried to re-enter the security perimeter and some cops wouldn’t let me. What do they care if a few more people walk on to the mall? I had to jump back on my bike and cruise east a bit back towards the Washington Monument to get back in the thick of things. Why have the security perimeter if you aren’t going to check people and their bags anyway? The crowd was enjoying the show and I saw a few thousand people dancing to Stevie Wonder singing “Higher Ground”. 

There were a ton of groups trying to stick together. People came from all over. And everyone had some type of Obama paraphernalia on. They must have made multi-millions on all the shirts, jackets, buttons, flags, and everything else. I only saw one “activist” group protesting to stop homosexuality. That is always entertaining as someone will inevitably challenge them and get in to a never ending argument. 

There are tons of concerts and parties the next couple of days with all the celebrities and bands in town. Let the festivities begin!

pics and videos

Inaugural party time

Every day another 100 inaugural parties get announced.  After passing up a ticket to the Western Inaugural Ball they released the music line-up. Thankfully I didn’t pass up The Dead or The Derek Trucks Band. So many groups and celebs will be in town for the thousands of inaugural parties. 

On Sunday there is a big “We Are One” concert at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall. I plan to ride my bike down to the mall for the concert and the inauguration. It should be the best mode of transportation being that all bridges from VA are closed to private cars and the metro will be more than full. City and federal officials are saying to expect chaos.

The 9:30 Club is hosting a couple big inaugural concerts and I’m going to one on Monday with the Beastie Boys, Sheryl Crow, Citizen Cope and Justin Jones.  

The Negroni Trio and Ray's

On Wednesday Kirby and I went to see the Negroni Trio at Blues Alley. It is part of their week-long Latin Jazz Series. José Negroni is a Puerto Rican pianist and he was excellent. His son played the drums and was quite impressive as well. He was all over his kit with intricate timing and “rim clicks”. I could have watched them all night. The place was less than half full at the 10:00 show.

Last night Kevin, Laundrew, Lewis, Justin, Teri and I went to Ray’s. It was delicious as usual. I think I got three Ray’s virgins hooked which I always love to do. Afterwards we had a few drinks at Rhodeside even though people had to drive to Stafford, somewhere past Leesburg, and Virginia Beach afterwards. Laundrew happened to spill the beans on an interesting tid-bit about a co-worker.

I noticed it was -10 degrees in Pburg yesterday morning with a wind chill of -29. BBQ anyone?

“A meal worth dying for”

If you haven’t heard of this place yet it is gluttony heaven => Heart Attack Grill

They serve single, double, triple, and quadruple bypass burgers on buns brushed with lard (no lettuce available). The fries are fried in lard. The female wait staff are dressed in sexy nurse costumes. No diet soft drinks in house. Anyone over 350 lbs eats for free. And you get a wheelchair ride to your car from a sexy nurse after successfully consuming a triple or quadruple bypass.

CBS Sunday Morning video

Obama comes over for dinner

I mentioned once before that my friend’s uncle is George Will.  At the beginning of the baseball season I was invited to George's season opening party.  Some MLB players, Alan Greenspan, and Cheney himself were all in attendence.  Sarah got back in town late so I didn't end up going.  

Apparently B-rock went over there for dinner last night.  I wasn’t invited for some reason.  I’ll be sure to let Sarah know of my disappointment.  

beer stock

Since keeping track of my beer stock there has been no reason to document my fridge with pictures. Although I should archive off the list every once in awhile to see how things evolve over the years. I went to the store today and the fridge is pretty well stocked. My dedicated beer fridge is well over due. The pics never turn out as well as I hope but oh well. I decided I'm in the mood for brown ales and I have a 6 pack of Bell's Best Brown Ale, Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale, a 550ml of Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale, and a single of Otter Creek Raspberry Brown Winter Ale. Hopefully with friends over tomorrow I can taste all of them at the same time.

The Toledo Lounge

I've been wanting to get a picture of the Toledo Lounge in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC for awhile and I happened to have my camera with me on NYE. The picture above is of a random drunk chick and the one below was stolen from online. It is a nice dive type of bar with Toledo memorabilia inside. Framed articles of the Toledo Blade are on the walls as well as paraphernalia from Tony Packos and other Toledo stuff. Mayor Finkbeiner even incorporated the Toledo Lounge as part of Toledo, although I'm sure DC would dispute that. There is a story behind the place that I can't remember, something about the owner having come from Toledo I'm sure. Not a bad place to sit and have a swill in a crowded area.

cold?

A client who lives in Fairbanks, Alaska had a bit of a cold week.  It was -49 degrees outside yesterday morning and since he is required to go in to work if it is over -50 he had to trek in to the office. The high for the day there was -48.

I miss the snow but that is ridiculous.

Round 1 of the 2009 kart season

Tuesday was the first round of the 2009 PCA Karting League Championship. The league has been going on for years and I have been racing with them since 2005 I believe. The season lasts until May with 21 races over nine rounds. Things went well last night in the first three races of the season.

Twenty-three people showed up including all the regulars fighting for this year’s championship. Last night was a triple grand prix format which means we run a quick five lap qualifying session to set the starting grid and then three races. With 23 people we run three groups of 7 or 8: groups A, B, & C. I didn’t think I qualified too poorly even though Tony passed me quite easily, but as I pulled in to the pits they flagged me to the side and pulled my kart out of the running without even asking me how it was. I was a few tenths slower than everyone else in my qualifying session and started fifth in the B group (12th overall). Not the best start to the season so far.

The first race was 25 laps, the second 30, and the last race was 35 laps. Starting fifth in the B group I was able to work my way to the front and win the race. Passing people is the fun part so I don’t mind starting in the back as long as there is a happy ending. We reposition the starting grid after each race by fastest laps of the night (qualifying or race times) and my fastest lap from race one moved me up to last position in the A group for the second race. I sat seventh on the starting grid for the second 30 lap race and had the six fastest people in front of me. 

In an attempt to even things out we reverse the order of the karts after each race. The theory is the fastest kart wins so it goes to the back to the slowest person for the next race. Being the last person in group A I got the fastest kart. And it was a very fast kart. Normally it takes a few laps to get around someone. You have to judge which turns they are slow and you are fast before setting them up just right to get a run on them. Traffic was my advantage in the second race. Everyone in the A group was close together and trying to pass each other. That meant they weren’t going as fast as they probably could if they were running by themselves as opposed to defending their position. As I came through the pack with my high powered kart I was able to take advantage of everyone else fighting each other. I flew through the field and was in the lead by the half-way point. I finished the race with the fastest lap of the night so far. It’s nice having good equipment. 

Starting on the pole in the A group for the third race I got the slowest kart from the previous run. Before I pulled out I was told the motor wasn’t running so good and I said "Race on! Things are going well." It was a new motor and it hadn’t loosened up yet apparently. A few laps in the race as I was attempting to fend off the whole field behind me my motor sputtered. It did it a second time and I lost all power. I made it to the sin bin (black flag pit box) and they put me in the fast kart again which they removed for the last race because it was too fast. A few laps down I pulled out on track at the back of the pack. I was doing well again but I didn’t have a seat pad so I was moving around in the seat and couldn’t get my rhythm. I passed a few people, had a photo finish with 3rd place, and got fastest lap again, but I never was comfortable in the kart that race and think I could have done better. Driving on the edge takes very subtle hand and foot movements and an intense focus on how the kart is reacting to the track. Moving around in the seat doesn’t allow for a keen sense of feel or small minute inputs to the wheel and pedals.

This puts me in first place in the championship after the first round. Not a bad start. My back is a bit sore today. I got lucky this round with a fast kart and I’ll take those points shamelessly as it usually all evens out in the end. Next time I’ll probably get the kart that won’t turn left on the counter-clockwise track.

Kevin took video from a helmet-cam during the night. He had the camera facing behind him during the second race and I am looking forward to watching me pass my way by. So far he just has his qualifying session posted.

Results after round 1. You might want to look now because I’m not sure how many more times my name will be at the top of the list.

hangin' with the Pres

I had to turn down an offer to attend one of the official Inaugural Balls today. A friend of mine who is in to politics has a brother who is the chief of staff to a new senator. She has Inauguration tickets and she thinks she is getting tickets to the Western Inauguration Ball. It is one of ten official balls that the Obama’s and Biden’s will make an appearance at. Quite the big deal if you are in to that sort of thing. 

Me not so much. I’d have to decide which tux to wear and make sure my date was up to speed on all the new dance moves. She let me off the hook because she was looking forward to both formal and informal fun and since I’m seeing someone that precludes the latter. No worries. I hear the events consist of getting in line to check your coat, getting in line for a drink, standing with thousands of others, then getting in line to get your coat. It is at the convention center with five other official balls. I guess the tux will have to wait for the next formal occasion on my calendar.

UPDATE: Apparently I made a big mistake and am missing out on the event of my life as at least one woman is willing to sell her ovary for a ticket (if you want a 3some her friend is available too).

new old pics

I'm digging up old pics that predate my Picasa album.  Today's edition is Lewis and I back in February 2007 at Big Mountain in Montana.  You might have seen the pics but you haven't seen the videos.

Big Mountain pics and videos

UPDATE: Glacier National Park

UPDATE: Cherry Blossom Festival 2006

UPDATE: OBX hand gliding

UPDATE: x-mas 2005

UPDATE: Parents visit in 2006

Timberline II

I went to Timberline again this last weekend. It was very similar to the last trip. Same Tallyho, same beer, same burrito, and similar group of people. Laundrew and I drove again in his new Jetta. We started to carpool with Dave driving Lisa and Leah and JR in his SUV but that didn’t last long as we all separated. I was having fun driving in the mountains.

Just like last time we stayed at the Tallyho and swilled at the Mountain State Brewery. We woke up hung over on Saturday, missed breakfast, and hit the slopes by 9:00. The weather was perfect without any clouds, just under 40 degrees, and no wind. The conditions were pretty good too surprisingly. Things got icy around 4:00 but until then we found some nice ungroomed trails. Most people in the group were quite comfortable on a snowboard and were flying down the mountain together. Over 20 people from the Meetup group were on the mountain in various small parties. One person in our group took a tumble and hurt her arm or shoulder. I haven’t gotten an update but first reports were that it was fractured. Laundrew and I rode with JR the second half of the day. 

Even though Dave hooked the group up with two day lift tickets cheaper than one day tickets most people from our party took off on Saturday. We ate dinner at Hellbender again and boogied home. I drove at a decent pace through the hills and we got home in 3 hours and 15 minutes. It was a great trip on and off the mountain (hill).

Laundrew and I

stealing back your bike

What would you do?  

Before I bought my road bike I emailed a few people who had their bikes stolen out of curiosity. I was trying to decide if I should spend $300 or $1300 on a road bike and was curious how well they locked it up when it was stolen. Well today one guy decided to give me an update…

You wrote to me in a time of dispair as I had my bike stolen and I thank you for that.  Just thought I would let you in on the most recent developments.

I was working for a client the first week of December and was walk past the bike rack at Union Station and thought wow there are a lot of bikes here and wouldn't be funny if my bike were here and sure enough it was.  The bike still had the chrome front forks, the armadillo tires, the bell, the drop neck handlebars, and the glue from the scrapped off registration sticker which was located on the tube below the seatpost.   

I called the cops and they arrived and basically told me that I had no paper proof that this was my bike and that if I could produce that they would secure the bike and the matter could be worked out if someone attempted to claim the property as their own.  He left and I made a decison that has become an interesting conversation to a few of my friends:  I went to a rental store and got some bolt cutters and returned and reclaimed my bike.  Afraid, uncertain, and running on adrenaline I road off and feel the better for it.

So, I guess the moral of this story is never give up on something lost or stolen and act according to your gut when obstacles are put in your way.

Peace and Blessings in '09

Winslow

Good advice.

New Year's Eve

Kirby and I went to Tyler’s, her old roommate, for NYE. He has a nice apartment with his partner just a few blocks away. Everyone was looking sharp of course. We had lots of champaign and were feeling good by the end of the night. Sometimes it is difficult for us hetero folks to ignore two attractive women kissing. 

pics and video