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Bike to Work 2008: Tree to Trees: The Parmer Commutes
May is Bike Month, and here in the Austin area Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 16. I've only ridden my bike to work once so far this spring, and intend to ride on May 16, possibly another time before then too.
One of the activities this year is Tree to Tree: The Parmer Commutes. This ride starts in Cedar Park and heads down Parmer Lane and beyond to the Arboretum area in northwest Austin. It just so happens that I commute on part of this route, so I intend to join this group at Lakeline and Parmer at 7:10 and ride down to Music City Cycles and then beyond to Sun. The ride map shows the group going along Riata Park Circle, right next to Apple and a short distance from Sun.
If you live up north in Cedar Park or Round Rock somewhere near Parmer and work somewhere towards northwest Austin, consider joining the ride.
Posted at 11:20AM May 08, 2008 by Dave Marquardt in Bicycling | Comments[0]
Texas vs. Colorado, Jan. 19
My son Sam's Tiger Cub Scout den decided to take advantage of a deal offered by UT (University of Texas) to get basketball tickets for $6 per seat for the UT vs. Colorado men's basketball game on Saturday 2007-01-19. We arrived a little bit late due to slow restaurant service, and UT was already a ways behind and it wasn't looking too good. At the half, UT was behind around ten points, and we weren't too hopeful that they would win.
Coach Barnes must have lit a fire under his players during half time, as they came out blazing in the second half and fairly quickly caught up. The Horns were up close to ten points for a while, but towards the end of the game they started to slip a bit and Colorado was catching up. The Longhorns hung on to win by two points. Quite an exciting game, particularly the second half.
I'd never seen a basketball game in an arena, and I figured we'd have nosebleed seats and wouldn't be able to see well. But I realized when we got there that no one really had a bad seat, and the view was pretty good.
We'll probably go again, particularly if we get a good deal on tickets like this time. There's another opportunity coming up for Cub Scouts to see the women's basketball team vs. Texas A & M for $5 per seat next month.
Posted at 03:39PM Jan 22, 2008 by Dave Marquardt in Life |
New bike pedals
I took off from work a couple of hours early on Friday, as I'd had it for the week. In my wanderings around north Austin, I came upon Performance Bike and remembered I'd been meaning to visit, so I stopped in. I looked around the whole store and then came back to the pedal section.
I've been riding with some pedals I bought for my old mountain bike years ago, with toe clips. This has been good, but I've been wanting to try the so-called "clipless" pedals. Really this means pedals with space for cleats, along with cleats on your cycling shoes. Problem is, the bike I ride is pretty much the only bike I ride, both for longer rides for training and transportation, and for riding to school with my kids. I really didn't want to add cleated pedals to my bike and be forced to ride with cycling shoes. I found what I think is a good solution for me: The Forte Campus pedal. It has the space for a cleat on one side of the pedal and nothing on the other side. This allows the best of both worlds.
To install the pedals I had to go buy a pedal wrench to get the old pedals off, and some grease for installation, as called for by the brief manual that came with the pedals. After installing, I added cleats to my cycling shoes. Then I tried it out on my block, worked pretty well once I got used to getting my feet in and out. Sam and I took a short ride in the neighborhood, and I was feeling pretty comfortable. On Sunday, I went for my third ACA ride, Pfinally Pflugerville, riding the 24 mile option. The pedals worked great, and seemed to help with leg fatigue, as I really felt good after riding 24 miles.
So far I'm pleased with my new pedals, and it was nice to find something really useful on my first stop at a new bike shop. I'm not so thrilled that Performance Bike is a national chain, as I'd rather spend my money at local bike shops, so I'm not sure how often I'll go back there. But so far I'm a satisfied customer.
Posted at 02:30PM Jul 02, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Bicycling |
First ACA ride
On Sunday I rode my first Austin Cycling Association group ride, the Cedar Park Fever. The newsletter said there was a choice of a 15 mile ride, but when I got there I was told it was only 13. Additionally, I drove the route on Saturday afternoon, based on a ride map from the ACA web site, and it certainly felt like less than 15, though I didn't time it.
Before the ride, the ride leader/organizer talked about all the places on the routes that might be an issue. The route I was going to take had a low water crossing with 6 to 8 inches of water over it, so the folks leading my route decided to skip that. So I actually cut off and turned about, and it turned out to be only 12.5 miles. On one of the longer routes, there was talk about water at about 24 inches over a low water crossing, so an alternate route was offered.
Only bad thing about the experience was I was the only person doing the 13 mile ride, so I rode back to the start point alone. Not a big problem, but not as fun either.
I've been looking at the ACA rides page for future rides I might like. I think the Tour de Austin on the 17th looks good (according to the map, it's 21 miles) but I'm not thrilled by the 1 p.m. start time. There's also the Inside Austin ride on the 24th at 8 a.m., which looks similar but has a different starting and ending point. And finally, Pfinally Pflugerville on July 1.
Posted at 01:02PM Jun 04, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Bicycling | Comments[2]
Bike to Work Day 2007
This is Bike to Work Week and Friday 18 May is Bike to Work Day here in the Austin area. As an added incentive, there will be breakfast available for bicycle commuters at various locations around town from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. I'm planning to bike to work on Friday and stop at Buck's Bikes on Jollyville just north of Oak Knoll.
I hope to continue to bike to work at least once a week for the next several weeks, but I may have to bag it if the weather is too hot in the late afternoon when I'd be commuting home. We typically have temperatures around 95° F. in the afternoon in Austin in the summer, so that makes the risk of heat stroke a bit high. In the past when I've ridden home from work on hot days, I've been okay until about one or two miles from home, at which point I felt quite ill. So, I've got to watch that. It's one thing to stay healthy by riding my bike to work, but getting heat stroke when riding home from work negates the benefits, I think.
Posted at 10:46AM May 17, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Bicycling |
Sun Austin pond visitors
Sun's Austin campus has a small pond at one end, and it's a nice break to walk over there and observe the fish, birds and other wildlife (fellow Sun employee Chris tells me he's seen some monster frogs there as well). The fish have voracious appetites and are fun to watch when you throw food into the water.
A few minutes ago I walked over to the pond and back. In addition to the fish and the usual infestation of grackles that are common to the Austin area, I heard a bird song familiar to me but not familiar to the area. It was the song of red winged blackbirds, which I used to see and hear a lot when I lived in Minnesota and upstate New York. I'm sure they're unusual here because we don't have a lot of water features like they do in Minnesota (the land of 10,000 lakes) and upstate New York. It sure was nice to hear their songs again.
I wonder if the local mockingbirds, of which we have plenty, copy the songs of the red winged blackbirds. It wouldn't surprise me at all.
Posted at 04:52PM Mar 09, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life |
Alborz Persian Cuisine
My wife Karen and I had lunch yesterday at Alborz Persian Cuisine. I've been dining at Alborz for a few years now, and I really enjoy it. Persian cuisine is interesting, a bit like Middle Eastern/Mediterranean and a bit like Indian food. Alborz has a buffet for lunch and the buffet usually has several types of rice, tabouli, salads, and lots of stew-type dishes.
At any rate, good as usual. There are other interesting restaurants, food places and an interesting drum shop in the area:
Posted at 11:15AM Jan 11, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life |
Austin happenings
Here in the Austin area, in addition to birds falling out of the sky downtown, we are having the intrigue of a race of speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. The current speaker, Republican Tom Craddick, has been speaker for four years, and many in the opposition, and some in the majority, do not like his leadership style. A couple of other Republicans and a Democrat entered the race to unseat him, and it has now narrowed down to a race of Craddick and Jim Pitts, with each claiming victory. The legislature opens tomorrow, and it may be interesting to see what happens in this contest. There are no rules for electing the speaker, and current debate in the paper is whether the newly sworn in representatives will elect to have a secret ballot or an open one. The problem with an open ballot is retribution if you vote for the loser. The problem with a secret ballot is that the public doesn't know for whom their representatives voted.
Posted at 02:38PM Jan 08, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Politics | Comments[1]
Still running
I haven't blogged about running for a while, maybe because it's just taken up a routine part of my life, not an all consuming passion like it is when I'm doing marathon training. I'm just training for a half marathon this winter, and I have to say I like running fewer miles and not devoting so much time, particularly on weekends, to running.
Since I decided not to do a marathon this winter, that knocked me out of even starting the Austin Distance Challenge right away. So I've only felt compelled to run one race, the IBM Uptown Classic 10K back in early October. I contemplated others, but due to conflicts or just not being interested, I haven't done any.
I was originally training for the AT&T Austin Half Marathon on February 18, 2007, but due to yet another Cub Scout conflict, I'm going to run the 3M Half Marathon on January 28. I wanted to run both, but I made a vow not to let my running get in the way of Cub Scouts or family activities this winter, and have done well with it.
Finally, I was happy to see fellow runner and Sun blogger Scott has taken up running again. Keep it up Scott!
Posted at 12:57PM Jan 03, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Running |
Wingstop
Yesterday evening I had a hill workout in the La Frontera area, so after that I paid a visit to Wingstop in La Frontera (okay, I know, after a workout I should eat healthy :)). I tried 5 atomic hot wings and 5 original hot wings. I started with one of the atomic wings, and that was certainly a shock! If I do this again I'll work my way up by starting with an original hot. Anyway, after a while my senses got used to the heat and I was able to finish. I also had veggie sticks with bleu cheese dressing and fries. Wingstop's fries are a bit unusual, in that they have sugar on them! All in all, pretty good, once I got beyond the shock of the first atomic wing.
One of these days I'll even remember to order some bourbon baked beans, which certainly smell good, but I always forget to order them.
Posted at 12:39PM Jan 03, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life |
Zilker Trail of Lights
On Thursday 21 December 2006 we visited the annual Zilker Trail of Lights in Austin. We've gone at least 3 years in a row now, maybe more. This year we brought along Nick's friend Jack. Jack's sister Caroline broke her leg in a trampoline accident so it was difficult for Jack's family to attend, so we offered to take Jack with us. All went well, but adding one boy to our two boys seemed to increase the volume by 100%! I'm sure you parents and teachers can understand that!
We got to the trail about 6:10, which was a little worrying since it wasn't supposed to open until 7. We were able to park very close to the yule log and tree of lights, which was really nice. Parking cost $8, but parking at the state parking ramps near the Capitol and taking the shuttle bus would have cost $11. We checked out the big yule log near the tree of lights and then went under the tree of lights and spun around, an Austin tradition if there ever was one. Karen bought a funnel cake, and between the five of us it disappeared in about 60 seconds :). We headed towards the entrance of the trail of lights across Barton Springs Road, and waited in a long line. Fortunately, the powers that be opened the trail at 6:30 rather than 7, but while we were waiting we contemplated why they had set the start time to 7, and decided it had to do with getting all the volunteers in place.
We oohed and ahed at the cool light displays. One of the most impressive to Karen and me was the large live oak tree done up by RunTex, with lights all the way out the limbs and to the top. Well done.
We picked up another funnel cake and continued on. At the entertainment area we checked out another big yule log and bought tickets to ride the Zilker Zephyr, then waited for the train. We often ride the train when we visit Zilker Park, but it usually starts by Barton Springs Pool and goes out to the turnaround not far from the Mopac bridge. In this case, we were riding from the turnaround spot back to the pool and back again. It was nice that we were able to go through the tunnel near the pool, as it had been closed for repairs for quite some time. The tunnel was decorated with Christmas lights, and you could see the murals on the walls of the tunnel quite well.
After the train ride, we continued on through the rest of the trail and headed back to the car. Getting out of the area was a bit difficult, and also showed us that it was good to get to the trail early! Traffic heading south on Mopac and to the 2243 exit was backed up for at least a mile, and traffic headed north from Barton Skyway was backed up also. We had wanted to go to EZs on 2243, but discovered it was closed or gone. We had to head south on Mopac and ended up down on 360 to turn around and head back north. We did go to EZ's on Lamar across from Central Market. It was good as usual, but I think the kids were getting a bit too tired to eat. We headed home, and all the kids slept in their sleeping bags at home. All in all, an enjoyable evening.
Posted at 12:48PM Dec 24, 2006 by Dave Marquardt in Life |
Curry in Hurry
One of the Indian grocery stores here in Austin opened a restaurant Curry in Hurry several weeks ago, and I've been going there most every week since. You get one of the three curries of the day, dal, bread and rice for $4.99 plus tax. Every is made before the restaurant opens at 11, so if you really are in a hurry, it's pretty quick.
Today I arrived around 1 p.m. and there were a couple of guys ahead of me getting a large order to go, and then a large group of about 8 guys came in behind me. I thought 1 p.m. would be quiet, but perhaps it being near the holidays is causing people to change their schedules, as kids are out of school and that ripples into the lives of parents.
From today's menu I chose paneer kadhai, chana dal and roti. Very good, expect the dal was really quite hot and I burned my tongue.
So if you're somewhere near Parmer and Mopac, in the mood for curry and in a hurry, check it out.
Posted at 04:05PM Dec 21, 2006 by Dave Marquardt in Life | Comments[2]
