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Brussels; Not The Vegetable

Published May 3, 2010

After taking a 2.5 week trip to various bits of Europe and returning a week ago I’ve begun uploading and captioning photos. Hitting the low-hanging fruit I decided to caption the Brussels photos first, so here they are: Brussels.

We (my friend Dominic and I) traveled to Brussels on the way back from Düsseldorf, planning to spend eight (or so) hours there before catching a Eurostar train back to the UK. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not researching Brussels at all, presuming that we could just wander away from the train station (Bruxelles Midi-Brussel Zuid) and find interesting things to do. We found interesting things, but nothing great. The city around the train station had much more in common with the populated parts of Detroit than any other European city I’d been in thus far.

After ruling the train station out as a good place to wander from we hopped on the Metro and went over to Atomium, which was originally built for the 1958 World’s Fair. Wandering up inside of this was quite nifty, even though we weren’t able to reach the top node/sphere, which would have offered a panoramic video of the city. Still, there was quite a bit to see with both the internal exhibits detailing modern design and the World’s Fair and the windows offering a nice, high-up view of the surrounding area.

Once we were done looking around Atomium we wandered in the local park for a bit, then headed back to the train station and eating at a very tasty cafe next door. I had mushrooms in a cream sauce over toast with a salad and a nice glass of Westmalle Triple while Dominic had the same beer and eggs and salmon over toast. After this wonderful lunch we headed back to the train station and passed a couple hours in Sam’s Cafe using appropriated internet access (via the Philip’s WiFi AP, I believe) while I sipped a Rodenbach and then a Leffe Brun, both of which I managed to order myself using what was probably a terrible bastardization of French.

Anyway, if you’d like to see photos from the time spent in Brussles, take a look here: Europe (April 2010) – Brussels. Or, here’s some of the more-notable photos:

· Looking out of Atomium over Brussels, #4.
· Self-photo of standing under Atomium, taken with fill flash.
· Me standing in front of Atomium, taken by Dominic.
· My lunch in the foreground, with Dominic’s in the background. He had salmon and eggs on toast with salad.
· Empty Westmalle glass.

If you’re interested in some of the things we could have done, take a look at this article at Wikitravel about Brussels. I really should have read this before heading there. Oh well, next time I’ll know better.

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Sleepy, Wet, Dirty Roxie

Published May 2, 2010

Today I took Roxie out to some parks and now she’s tired, wet, and with some rather dirty fur from playing in the mud along the banks of rivers.

Here is a photo of her standing on one of the ramps on the dock into Lake Sixteen (yes, that’s really the name) at Orion Oaks Dog Park (Bark Park). Since I’m watching her while Danielle is in Europe I need to take her out for regular play and exercise, so I figured that some playtime outside with other dogs would be a good idea, and this is a particularly nice park. Amusingly, after she feels that she’s done at the park she will actually walk back to the main gate, stopping only to look back for me, waiting to get in the car.

On the way back home I decided that we should stop for another walk, so I took her to Holland Ponds and we walked through the park and out along the Clinton River, through Yates Cider Mill to Yates Park and back. With today being a rather warm and humid day (73°F, 78%) she kept wanting to stop and lay down in the river to cool off. I let her do this a few times, and she’d usually go wallow around in the water for a few minutes, lay there for a while, then stand up and shake off.

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Last Night’s Dinner

Published May 2, 2010

Here’s a photo of last night’s dinner; chili sin carne, Trader Joe’s cornbread (from a boxed mix) and New Holland’s The Poet stout.

The chili contains the following:

· One can each dark red kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, great northern beans.
· One bag frozen chopped onion (it’s cheaper than buying a whole onion!).
· One bag frozen corn.
· One can each crushed tomato and tomato sauce.
· One bottle of super-malty beer (four year old Rochefort 10 Clone).
· ~4 tbsp chili powder (premixed stuff for making chili).
· ~1 tbdp cocoa powder.
· ~1 steeped and chopped chipolte.
· ~8 cloves garlic, sliced thin.
· Olive oil and butter (for sauteing the onion).
· ~1 tbsp chili powder (spicy indian stuff).
· ~1 tbsp cumin powder.
· One bag Morningstar Farms veggie crumble things.

I think that’s about it. I just realized that I left out the mushrooms, though. Now I need to find a use for half a pound of portabello mushrooms. Hrm.

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Extreme Cheese Explosion!

Published April 29, 2010

Tonight’s dinner is the rather odd Extreme Cheese Explosion version of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. It’s not bad, but quite salty. Since I’m working back up to middle America-style food it’s probably a good idea to eat this. I’m not sure I’ll eat it in the future, but I may if I’m wanting a mouth full of hot, creamy, salty sauce.

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LOHS; Lots Of Hard Singletrack

Published April 27, 2010

Lake Orion High School (LOHS), site of the Dragon GAP Winter Race that I participated earlier in the year, was the site of today’s bike ride. I met up with someone from the MMBA Forum named Mike in the parking lot, then Mr. Steve Kinley, builder of all the great (and difficult†) trails at LOHS. While I’d ridden the trails before, it was only during races so I only got to see bits and pieces of the single track. As he led today’s ride Steve clearly illustrated the route through all the single track, and a nice outer loop around the trails at Bald Mountain South Unit. I’d imagine that I won’t have a problem finding my way through the trails next time I’m out there.

Amusingly, while riding through Bald Mountain we came upon a group of ten or fifteen hikers / walkers, most with children, who were congretating at a particularly hidden intersection. As we slowed to make our way past / through where they were standing, most of the adults were commenting to the kids about us wearing helmets and using us as some sort of example. One kid piped up, rather amusingly “can we eat them?”. In retrospect it’s possible he was talking about some found berries or whatnot, but the timing was perfect.

† Mr. Kinley is a very good rider, and I feel that he builds trails which are challenging to him. Therefore they are particularly challenging to normal people like me. In this case it’s just a solid overall workout, leaving both my legs and lungs feeling a bit worn out.

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Busy, busy, busy!

Published April 26, 2010

I haven’t posted anything in roughly 20 days, mostly because I’ve been busy traveling Europe and generally being busy with stuff. I arrived home today, and I’ll post more about that later after I’ve sorted through the photos. Instead I’ll just mention the brief things that my day held:

· Waking at 4:30am UK time to catch a flight. Thus I’ve been up almost 23 hours straight and traveled by a car (on the left and right side of the road), train, bus, and airplane.
· Replacing a hard drive in banstyle.nuxx.net on the way home, as my mom waited in the car. I was very thankful for this, as it kept me from having to drive back to Southfield during rush hour.
· Got a replacement SIM card to put in my replacement Nexus One. My other one was lost / stolen (I’m really not sure which) in the airport on the way to the UK.
· Finished setting up a rigid fork on my Specialized 26″ hard tail, getting it ready to be used as a commuter / light trail bike complete with rack and new rear blinky light.
· Went for a 20-ish mile test ride mixing single track, two track, and pavement. The fork works well and I like it, so I stopped for frozen custard at Custard Spot. I don’t know the distance because the bike doesn’t have a computer on it.
· Washed sheets and showered to remove mud from me, and started other laundry.
· Downloaded all the queued work email so I can begin reading it tomorrow morning.

Now I think it’s time for bed. It was a really excellent trip filled with good friends and lots of nice people, but I must admit that I’m a bit glad to be home.

Sleep will be needed, because I suspect work is going to get quite busy as soon as I return tomorrow morning.

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Purchasing Psedoephedrine Is Hard

Published April 6, 2010

To deal with my current cold I purchased some NyQuil D a super-hardcore night time cold medicine. Because it contains alcohol (10%) and pseudoephedrine I had to show ID and sign something informing me of the penalties (jailtime and fine) if I sell it to minors. I also purchased some straight 120mg time-release capsules for daytime use.

After taking the NyQuil I ate some Hungry Howie’s Cajun Bread along with a beer. I’m now quite, quite tired and ready for bed. The beer may not have been the best idea as the medication already contained alcohol (which, oddly, is not listed as an active ingredient), but I don’t think that just one will do anything more than contribute to the feelings of sleepyness.

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Stupid Thorns

Published March 31, 2010

This morning when I went to leave for work, my bike (which was on the back of the car) had a flat tire. I opened it up, ran my hand carefully around the inside of the tire to check for anything poking through, and found nothing. The old tube still seemed to hold pressure, and after a new was fitted things were fine. Tonight’s ~22 mile ride had no problems, but after eating at Rochester Mills I found my front tire low again.

It turns out that the thorn seen above was hiding under some mud, relatively dull, and slowly poking at the tube. Oh well, at least I can patch them and be ready for riding on Friday, and it’s not something weird like rim tape shifting, bad seams in the tube, or a defective valve.

(Yes, I know that’s a terrible photo… It was a very long exposure and I think the tire deflated some while it was sitting there, moving the subject.)

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New Crabon Fibre Breaks

Published March 27, 2010

After coming across a rather good deal for a barely used (installed, but removed before the bike was built up) set of 2009 Avid Elixir CR disc brakes with black carbon fiber levers (blades) I got them installed last night. While they felt soft at first, the brief ride that Danielle and I took around Stony Creek’s Trolley Trails got them about 50% bedded in. Even using a smaller rotor in the front than I’d previously had (160mm vs. 185mm) they seem to be quite sufficient stopping my heavy person on big 29er wheels.

Since I had to disassemble things a bit to fit the new rotors and such, I ended up swapping out the 2.2″ Kenda Nevegals that came with the bike for some 2″ Specialized The Captain Control tires that I’d picked up in the MMBA annual meeting fundraiser auction for $40. These are simply a larger version of the tire I’ve had on my 26″ bike since July 2008, and a tire that I rather like.

I also swapped out the NiteRider Rebel 1.0 computer for my old Cateye Strada Wireless, which despite having a large and somewhat fiddly speed sensor is much more readable and usable. The NiteRider Rebel 1.0 had two problems that I couldn’t get over. The first is the angle of the display coupled with my stem mounting and the stem angle, leading to the LCD being hard to read when leaning right over it or standing over the bike. The second is a lot of latency between button pushes (up to 1.5 seconds while moving) making it hard to switch modes and check things while en route. It would be hard to tell if a button press was not registering or simply being slow†. Both of these were irritating enough to make me simply go back to the old computer.

With all of this working out it looks like I might have a pair of BB7s and a NiteRider Rebel 1.0 computer for sale soon. I might even consider selling off the Nevegals, although having some 2.2″ tires hanging around could be nice come winter, or if I’m heading anywhere sandy.

†I suspect the device uses an interrupt on change for the wheel sensor then just polls the button, and has a few opportunities for user input to be slowly read. Perhaps their higher end computers are better.

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Early Spring 2010 Moblog Photos

Published March 23, 2010

Here, have some new photos posted to my moblog:

· I rolled up the rim and did not win.
· My Specialized is now lacking a fork, as the Fox is being sold and the new rigid fork has not yet arrived.
· UPS RMA label for sending back the damaged Belleville 700 boots received from Botach Tactical.
· Six bottles of Blenheim Ginger Ale in the fridge.
· Garlic and sesame bagel, part of my breakfast before going to work on the trails at Addison Oaks.
· The urinal at Pei Wei in Rochester, MI is rather close to the ground. It would be good for urinal pooping.
· Sending my census form in. This makes me feel like an adult.
· Ice and snow around a drain pipe on the Paint Creek behind Rochester library. Seen while wandering around before an MMBA marketing meeting.
· Forlorn bag of salt in the parking lot at work, with a bit more context.
· A cut open bag of salt left leaning against a curb at work. I imagine it was caught in a plowed pile of snow.

I should set up a more automated method of posting these than simple manual uploads.

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