Thursday May 08, 2008
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.
Wednesday Mar 05, 2008
Yesterday I voted in the Texas primary at my polling place,
Round Rock High School, in the morning. The Democratic side
seemed busier than the Republican side (that's a switch!), but
didn't have lines at that time, around 9:30 a.m.
In the evening, I attended the caucus, or precinct convention,
at the same location. The caucus was supposed to start at 7:15
p.m. or shortly after the last voter voted, but we weren't let
in the building until 7:55. We all had to sign in and give our
presidential preference, and apparently had to have our
credentials verified, but I don't know if everyone got the
message on that. We had about 130 people show up, which is
impressive in what's been a heavily Republican district. I
recognized at least 4 of my neighbors there, and that was nice
to see. Sometime we Democrats feel a bit lost amongst our
conservative neighbors.
The Clinton campaign complained that at some precinct the Obama
supporters controlled the caucus packets, which are apparently
just the instructions and paperwork. In our case, the temporary
chair was a Clinton supporter. The first order of business
after calling the meeting to order and signing in was to elect a
permanent precinct convention chair and secretary. Two
candidates ran for chair, one an 18-year-old high school senior
supporting Obama, and another a 30-something Clinton supporter.
It was close, but the 18-year-old won 17-15. Someone then
nominated the Clinton supporter for vice chair, and we approved
that by acclamation.
After this, the chair announced the vote count. Obama won
around 59% to 41% or something close to that. We had 16
delegates to send to the county convention in Georgetown on
March 29, so Obama got 10 and Clinton got 6. I was in the Obama
camp and we had 10 volunteers to be delegates, and 4 of us,
including me, volunteered to be alternates.
I think the rules for all this are a bit weird. You can vote in
just the primary and the caucus, but not just in the caucus. I
suppose the idea is that the people who care about the party get
a second shot at voting. But I think Clinton has a point about
the caucuses excluding those who have to work that night or have
other duties. We have 12 hours to vote but we have to be at the
caucus at a specified time.
I enjoyed the experience, and kind of regret that I didn't raise
my hand to be a delegate to the county convention. Maybe
they'll call me as an alternate.
Monday Oct 22, 2007
That's me in the Sun Microsystems jersey in the foreground on the left,
and Nick on the right.
On Saturday 20 October 2007 my son Nick and I set out on the 25
mile course of the 20th annual
Outlaw Trail 100. Things started out well, but after a
while we were out in the country and things got windy and we
encountered hills. We made it to the first water stop at 10
miles without any problems. A ways after that, maybe around
mile 12, Nick started saying his leg hurt and wondering if he
could take the SAG wagon back. We had hit some hills and wind
by this time, and I think it wasn't much fun for Nick at that
point.
At around mile 16 or so we hit a point where the 25 mile route
went north, west and then south. But one of the longer routes
skipped that part, so we decided to do so also. While it looked
to me this would cut off at least 3 miles, we ended the ride at
22.98 miles, according to my Garmin Forerunner 305. So I think
the 25 mile route was actually a bit longer than that.
The longest Nick had ridden in the past was 14 miles, so this
was a lot longer. It took us nearly two and a half hours, and I
think part of the problem was Nick just wasn't used to sitting
on a bike for that length of time. Also, I think Nick may need
a larger bike, as his seat post is out pretty far already, and
it really ought to be higher for better performance.
I'm proud of Nick for hanging in there for 23 miles. For a 9
year old on a mountain bike (with fairly slick tires), that's
pretty darn good!
Wednesday Jan 10, 2007
I had another hill workout near La Frontera, so I was
again tempted to try Wingstop. I was waffling
about whether to get wings or soemthing else. I walked into
Wingstop, and there was a line ahead of me to order, so I walked
out and walked a couple of doors down to Chipotle. I'd never tried
Chipotle, but had been told it was along the lines of Freebirds World Burrito
so I thought I'd check it out.
I was impressed in that the menu was fairly simple and the
service was fast. I probably spent all of about 60 seconds in
line while they built my fajita burrito and took my money.
Also, the charge was $6.06 with tax, not bad for what looked to
be a big burrito. Unfortunately, that's where the positives
ended.
I took my burrito home and started to eat. First off, the only
tortillas Chipotle appeared to use were flour tortillas.
Freebirds offers flour, wheat, spinach, and cayenne. Size wise
I think that the Chipotle fajita burrito was a bit larger than a
Freebirds regular, but not as big as a Freebirds monster. The
other problem I had with the Chipotle fajita burrito was the
feeling I was eating a spring roll rather than a burrito. I
think it had to do with the white rice, which Chipotle calls
"cilantro-lime rice" on their menu, and the tortilla had a kind
of sticky feel to it. Oh, and according to the menu I should
have been offered pinto beans or black beans, but I don't recall
anyone asking.
So, while my experience started out well, I'm not very tempted
to go back. The burrito just didn't do that much for me,
especially when I can get something so much better at Freebirds.
Wednesday Jan 03, 2007
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.
