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Tree Farm Relay

Published July 26, 2009

Yesterday was the 2009 Tree Farm Relay out at Lakeshore Park in Novi, MI. Our team consisted of Nick, Tak, Bill, and I under the name Snatch and Grab with the excellent team number 23 (Hail Eris). While the results aren’t up yet, I think we came in somewhere around the middle to the latter half of the group.

When we first arrived, there was a steady rain, which soaked everything nicely but (thankfully) stopped just before the start of the sport-class race. The first group encountered the muddiest trails, with the course progressively drying out through the third lap. When I went out for my fourth lap everything should have been nicely dry, but there was a downpour which started just after I entered the more difficult single track. The result of this was that I added a good two pounds of mud to my bike, and finished the race completely soaked and mudspattered. For the most part it was easy to tell who hadn’t ridden yet. Those who were still waiting for their lap were clean, and those who finished were not unlike this photo of Marty. Yes, it was loads of fun.

Up above there is a photo of a tube, blown out the side of a wheel. This is Nick’s bike, right after he ran across the line with his bike on just the back wheel. It turns out that during Nick’s lap he first broke his chain, then fixed it. After that, he slipped on one of the sloppy mud corners, washing his front wheel out. Once he started going, 20′ or so later a floowp floowp flawwp sound was heard from his front wheel, and right as he looked down at it the tire it finished unseating itself from the bead and the tube erupted out the side. The result was deemed unworthy of trail maintenance and the last chunk of trail traversed on foot. This was a good thing, as we all got to look at the wonderfully distended tube. Stuff like this is normally only seen in photos, so this was a nice treat.

This race is basically a party. Loads of people hanging out, talking, eating, and drinking both the beer that they brought or the kegs provided by Liberty Street and Dark Horse. There were even shots being handed out at the crater, a feature which is not unlike riding into (then quickly out of) the collapsed foundation of a house. I’m really glad I was able to go. This was a great way to spend a mid-summer Saturday.

Here’s the handful of photos I took there:

· Walking from my car to the race area in the rain at the 2009 Tree Farm Relay.
· A pouty Mike Moss wearing Erik’s antlers.
· My bike, Bill’s bike, and Nick’s bike all lined up with our team number, 23.
· A very muddy Marty after her starting lap on a rather muddy trail.
· Nick had a slight fall which unseated his tire, causing the tube to pop out one side of the wheel.
· My bike, very muddy, after a fourth lap at the Tree Farm Relay during which it started raining.

Here’s two related videos:

· Detroit Free Press promo video for mountain biking at Novi’s Lakeshore Park and the Tree Farm Relay.
· My video of the Le Mans style start, including a bit of crashing and falling.

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Squeaky Hedgehog!

Published July 24, 2009

Today I’m working from home because my car is at the shop getting the brakes sorted out. Danielle’s dog Roxie is here, and every few minutes she arrives with a different toy, wanting to play. It’s a bit distracting, but I can’t say that I mind.

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Uncle Bud’s Deep Fried Peanuts Are Very Good

Published July 23, 2009

This past weekend while waiting for a pizza at Buscemis, Danielle and I saw a few flavors of Uncle Bud’s Deep Fried Peanuts for sale. After deciding to try them we picked out a bag of the cajun flavor. Tonight, conveniently with the tasty Simpler Times Lager, I decided to give them a try.

Rather unlike last night’s experimental Made In America pickle popsicle food product I really, really like these. The peanuts inside are nicely roasted and the shell has been cooked into a somewhat soft, oily potato chip like texture. The spices on the outside are a bit mild, making me almost want a bit more flavoring, but a light flavoring is definitely better than too much. I think that next time I’ll get a bag of either the hot or garlic flavor to try.

It’s probably a good thing that there isn’t nutritional information printed on the bag. While very good, they are good in the same way that Downey’s Potato Chips are, and thus clearly not good for you.

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Trader Joe’s Simpler Times Lager

Published July 23, 2009

Trader Joe’s Simpler Times Lager is a very good, cheap yellow beer. Advertised as a corn and rice-free 6.2% ABV lager costing $3.99 for a six-pack, I thought I’d give it a try. In short, buy this. It’s basic, but good. There’s no funky or off tastes typically associated with a cheap lager; just basic refreshing yellow beer.

There’s a very good chance I’ll buy this again.

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Google Android (T-Mobile G1) Hanging Sync Problem Resolved

Published July 23, 2009

On Google Android, running on my T-Mobile G1, there is a icon which appears in the notification bar whenever the phone is syncing Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, etc. Typically this icon only appears for a second or two and then goes away. However, a week or so ago I began noticing that my G1’s battery was being completely exhausted at least daily, and quite often I’d pick up the phone to find it very hot with the sync icon stuck on. The warmth seemed to be caused by the radio being constantly in use for extended periods of time as sync tried to occur. While I could deal with the sync not always working right or my having to cancel an in-progress sync, having to charge the phone a few times per day was becoming a big problem.

My short-term workaround was to leave the phone on the charger overnight and allow it to sync then, which seemed to work. However, this was obviously not a solution. Yesterday I finally took time to look into the problem. To start, if I entered Settings → Data Synchronization, the Application sync settings portion would often indicate that sync hadn’t occurred for a day or two. When I manually initiated a sync I noticed that while Gmail and Contacts synced and completed reasonably fast (a few seconds each), the Calendar sync seemed to start and stop repeatedly, never finishing during the time I watched it.

Signing into Google Calendar, which I don’t do very often, showed the error above, stating that …this is not a Calendar user: http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/adsense-calendar@google.com/public/basic. This calendar is a Google AdSense calendar found on this page within the AdSense help documentation, entitled How do I subscribe to the AdSense Calendar. After removing the entry for this seemingly broken calendar from my Other calendars list I initiated another sync from the phone (Settings → Data Synchronization → MENU → Sync now) and it all syncing completed within 30 seconds.

If one visits the page from which the aforementioned AdSense calendar is linked, the link is still active, but attempting to add the calendar results in this error. Since I’d added this calendar without error a while ago, I suspect that once it became unavailable the phone was unable to promptly complete a calendar sync, having to wait for something to time out before it could complete. Unfortunately, until this timeout the radio was active, which ate battery and caused the phone to warm up.

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Fox 32 F100 RLC Fork and Tools

Published July 22, 2009

Not long ago I secured purchase of a new fork for my bike, a slightly-used 2008 Fox Racing Shox 32 F100 RLC air spring fork. This should be quite an upgrade from the RockShox Dart 3 coil spring fork that came on my bike. Since I am going to have the steering bits of the bike apart, I also decided to replace the headset at the same time. After some reserach I went with a Cane Creek S-3, which is just one below their very well regarded extra-sealed S-8. The only difference between the two is the bearings, where the S-3 has steel bearings which are slightly harder than the S-8’s stainless bearings. Also acquired (and shown above) are some Price Point-brand carbon fiber headset spacers, purchased just in case they were needed.

In order to install all these parts some rather specialized tool are needed. I’d been contemplating fashioning them out of PVC pipe, threaded rod, nuts, and washers, but a friend offered to loan me his bike tools, so I took him up on the offer. As a result I’ve got a nice selection of American-made Park Tool-brand bicycle tools here. Specifically, I was loaned a HHP-2 Bearing Cup Press, CRS-1 Crown Race Setting System, CRP-1 Universal Crown Race Puller, and RT-1 Head Cup Remover.

With all of these tools I should have no problem removing the old head cups, popping off the old crown race, seating the new race, and seating the new head cups. I’m just going to wait on doing it until after Saturday’s bike race, as it would be unwise to change such a crucial part of a bike around right before needing to depend on it.

If you’re interested, here’s a few more photos of this bike stuff:

· Cane Creek S3 Headset and Price Point-brand carbon fiber headset spacers. (Note the terribly ugly logos.)
· Slight damage to the left leg of the slightly-used F100RLC fork.
· Slight scuff on the right leg of the new fork.

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Bob’s Pickle Pops: A Tasting / Review

Published July 22, 2009

After hearing about Bob’s Pickle Pops somewhere online I decided that I had to try them and ordered up a 14-pack, half regular and have with jalapeño. Being pouches of frozen pickle (gherkin, in the UK) slurry I would alternate between expecting them to be surprisingly good (ala deep fried pickles), or a terrible bastardization like Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer.

Less than a week after ordering, the tightly-packed Priority Mail box of Pickle Pops this weekend so in the freezer went two sample pieces. Today I felt that I was ready to give them a try; ready to deal with any potential sour stomach that may arise.

Due to the high salt content, these popsicles don’t freeze as solidly as other similarly packaged fruit / sugar products, so much that the first just-out-of-the-freezer bite has the same flaky, icy texture of an almost-melted Fla-Vor-Ice. Having grown up regularly eating these cheap, extra sweet frozen ice treats I was also expecting something a bit sweet, even though I should have known better. Being mostly salty, eating my way through them, I was repeatedly reminded of trying to eat a Vero Mango chili powder coated mango sucker / lollipop brought back to me from Mexico. Try as I might, I just couldn’t find myself enjoying it. The flavor was not bad, and it did not disgust me, but I simply could not enjoy it. It was exactly like eating a large pouch of frozen, lower quality pickle relish.

I want to say something else and perhaps better about the Jalapeño version, but it really wasn’t that much different. Sure, there was a bit of pickled chili flavor, and maybe a few more solids, but that’s really about it. It may have been a bit spicy, but not enough for me to tell. I did also try them with a glass of cheap fizzy yellow beer (Trader Joe’s Simple Times Lager, more on this later) because I figured the two may go well, and while it didn’t hurt, it really didn’t make the pickle pops any better.

All said, if you are the type of person who really, really likes pickles, or maybe the sort who enjoys salty Mexican-type candy, you may want to order some of these and give them a try. Or, if you are handed one by a friend, definitely try it for a new and interesting experience. However, if you are hoping that freezing will somehow transform standard pickles into a magical, surprising, and wonderful snack, you may want to pass these by.

(I must admit, I do feel a bit bad saying that I don’t like these after watching this clip from the Food Network show Unwrapped featuring Bob’s Pickle Pops, but I really don’t think I like these.

Also, it’s pretty obvious why the name was changed from Pickle Sickle. I can see the visual pairing of the -LE at the end of the logo that they were going for, but the name both sounds offputting and is not properly pronouncable in the subtitle of “POPSICKLES”. Pop-Sick-Les?)

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M-59 Construction Information / Excellent MDOT Customer Service

Published July 22, 2009

Earlier this week I noticed that electronic traffic information signs have been placed along M-59 on my route home from work. The signs are a bit vague, indicating that construction is to begin sometime around the end of July, but not saying anything more. I also noticed that some utility poles were being moved outwards from the highway, so that got me thinking that perhaps M-59 is finally being widened.

(For those that aren’t familiar with this area, M-59 narrows from three lanes to two, then widens back to three a few miles later. This bottleneck is essentially leftovers from a much earlier version of the highway, because while both ends expanded, the middle section hadn’t been touched for a while. This obviously leads to an almost-daily backup.)

To find out what was going on I consulted the websites for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and both the the Macomb County and Oakland County Road Commissions. None of these websites had the info, so to the phone I went. A few calls and transfers made yesterday afternoon left me at the voicemail box of Steve Stramsak, a Traffic and Safety Engineer with MDOT, where I left a message asking about the road and leaving my email address.

This morning I received a very nice, detailed response, explaining exactly what is happening with the road:

Continue readingM-59 Construction Information / Excellent MDOT Customer Service
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Tasty, Tasty Breakfast / Brunch

Published July 18, 2009

Since Danielle joined a local CSA we’ve been getting a lot of vegetables and eggs. I wanted to use some up this morning and also have some nice food, so I (mostly) made what’s seen above.

First was small redskin potatoes, onion, garlic scapes, eggs, rosemary, and garlic fried in oil and butter with salt and pepper. Everything but the eggs were fried together until the potatoes were cooked, with occasional scraping of burt bits off the bottom of the pan for extra flavor. The eggs were scrambled, poured over the cooked potatoes and veggies, and allowed to cook. This was then topped with harissa from Zingerman’s 20th Anniversary Tasting.

I also put together some salads using last week’s lettuce and croutons that I’d made a few nights ago, and Danielle sliced some fresh fennel bulb over it. The croutons were cubed stale bread, fried up in a pan with particularly good olive oil, rosemary, oregano, salt, pepper, and crushed garlic. The dressing is Organicville Foods’ Sun Dried Tomato & Garlic Organic Vinaigrette.

As a beverage I had some Meijer-brand with-pulp orange juice mixed 50/50 with carbonated water. I love this as it’s sweet and slightly fizzy, but not as heavy as a full glass of straight juice. The carbonic acid also adds a nice bite. Per usual, Danielle ate her food with a big glass of milk.

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How To Draw a Confusing Diagram

Published July 15, 2009

This document, House-Democrats-Health-Plan.pdf (mirrored from the original link at docs.house.gov), is a shining example of not to make an informational graphic. Or, more specifically, how to intentionally make a confusing graphic to show the “other side” as convoluted and “bureaucratic”.

Note that items are intentionally not grouped requiring long, overlapping arrows to connect them. Lots of shapes and sizes and colors are used, there is no established flow, and all manner of niggling details are included. (Federal Mandates for Website Design, Defense Dept. up top, etc.)

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